Mountain 7

Recommended reading (and listening) at the Mountain 7 blog, where the cultured man of mystery known there only as 'the poacher' has generously added this blog to their links column - under the 'Theory, Culture & Politics' heading, in the flattering company of Craig Murray, Frank Furedi, John Pilger and Strange Attractor.

Mountain 7 contains an intriguing mix of literature, philosophy, architecture and music (with its own mini radio feed too), often with a Ballardian tinge. A recent post titled Dancing to architecture gives a good flavour -
I seem to be uncovering sites exploring the abandoned and the disused more everyday. I wonder what this might mean. Two things spring to mind: the obvious being, that of course they've always been there and I'm just becoming aware of them (though discovery is always contingent, and not altogether chanceless); the other is a feeling that a more nebulous, but nevertheless perpetual, Romantic fascination with the gothic is coming to the surface, patches appearing beneath the skin. It's as if there is a dual movement away from the present: one towards a garish empty future, a celebrity-led obsession with restoration; the other that seeks refuge in the catacombs of the past (both figurative, and literal) as if that space, in all its crumbling derelict grandeur, is somehow more knowable, or more worthy. I'm not sure I buy my own ramblings here, but there is something in the ghosted secrecy of these places that appeals, and promises a kind of discovery and mystery that the bright gleam of the future denies us...
A consideration of music suitable for such environments follows, including a mention of the superb Canadian improvisational post-rock supergroup Set Fire to Flames.