As you point out Ana Curra in the prologue of this fantasy called Witch season. The Book of Gothic Rock of Cathi Unsworth (Against), in Spain we were not gothic, we were sinister. Many cities in our country hosted mythical rooms to which many of us went on pilgrimage and in rigorous black, to share passions for many of the artists who appear in these almost 600 pages. The dark music had stuck here at the same time Alaska and the Pegamoids, Permanent Paralysis, Caligari Cabinet, Tenth Victim, The Monagillosh, Surveyor K and so on, and ended up becoming popular thanks to that prodigy called The Golden Age directed by Paloma Chamorro between 1983 and 1985 where many of their totems passed.
The gothic subculture emerged in the late 70s and early 80s in Great Britain, as a twisted branch that sprang from post-punk and whose sound took a decidedly gloomier turn, which in turn ended up having a good number of variants. Gothic was more of a state of mind that, like other disruptive phenomena such as punk, isolated young people from the moment in which they had lived and the prevailing pessimism. The political and social unrest of the moment, the precariousness that came along with the ultra-liberalism of Thatcherthe strikes, the gruesome stories of the Yorkshire Ripper, until it all came together and a series of bands emerged with a disturbing theatricality and dramatic power in their music that moved the staff artistically and visually.
Added to this was an aesthetic inspired by sources such as 19th century Gothic literature and the most classic horror films. like one’s own Unsworth states in the book “Being goth was a form of resistance,” a way to distinguish yourself from the boring majority and to socialize and empathize with others who felt like you, something that can be extrapolated to any of the urban tribes, you know, although in this case with a better look.
The book, brilliantly documented and written, is an exciting journey that compacts all of this and stops not only for all those bands that gave birth and formed a movement that is still giving birth, but also has an interesting counterpoint in several “godfathers and godmothers.” Gothic” that the author cites as previous references. Of Edgar Allan Poe either Mary Shelleyto Jim Morrison, Aleister Crowley, Nico, Tura Satana, Vampira, Link Wray, Johnny Cash either Billy Holiday.
They do not miss the appointment Joy Division, Magazine, Siouxsie & The Banshees, neither The Cure (Robert Smith has always renounced this label, although the group’s co-founder Lol Tolhurst just announced his second book named Goth-A History and traces – we think – similar to this one). As neither, The Sisters Of Mercy, The Cult, Echo & The Bunnymen either New Model Army. And although most of the musicians referenced are English, the Scots are not forgotten. Cocktail Twins, the different adventures of the Australian Nick Cave, the dark psychobilly of the Americans The Cramps, the spell of Diamanda Galas or the swampy blues of The Gun Clubamong others.
An agile tone that combines biographies with past and present events gives shape to a story that will remain on our shelves as a reference manuscript to which we return again and again.
You can buy Witch season. The Book of Gothic Rock by Cathi Unsworth (Contra) on your publisher’s website.
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