Norway - now a civilized country

Now that Norway feels the threat of Islamic terrorism, Lord Bassington-Bassington, who counts a notable convert to Islam amongst his forebears, feels it is proper to keep one's focus on the important things that immigration from Muslim countries have brought to Norway. For most of the challenges that come with such immigration are easily cancelled out by the fact that Norway now has a decent cricket team. Something that Lord Bassington-Bassington dares say would not have happened if it were not for the fact that some Pakistani (and other Asian) chaps decided to bring some sporting civilization to Norway.

So in the spirit of Mr. B's world cup song, The Chronicles bring you a picture of Mr. Mehtab Afsar, captain of the Norwegian cricket team. This picture will surely help steel our readers through the vuvuzela music festival currently happening in South Africa and on TV screens everywhere (Lord Bassington-Bassington has rarely been happier that Bassington Manor does not have a television set).



And what better way to celebrate the heartwarming phenomenon that is Norwegian cricket than listening to The Duckworth Lewis Method's ode to the Pakistani cricket legend Mohammad Javed Miandad Khan?





(Picture stolen from the Facebook page of the Norwegian Cricket Union. Support this splendid initiative!)

Now, all Norway needs is an elephant polo team, and we can start calling ourselves a proper country.

Mr. Wakeford's bad luck bird

Tony Wakeford might, through his work with Death in June and Sol Invictus, be a founding father of neofolk. He has also been a musician for three decades, and keeps developing in new and interesting ways. From the M.R. James-inspired The Triple Tree through Orchestra Noir to main project Sol Invictus, and a myriad of other constellations and collaborations, keeping up with Mr. Wakeford's creativity is a real delight.

Lord Bassington-Bassington is particularily infatuated with Mr. Wakeford's new single. "The bad luck bird" is a stab of dark folk-pop which belongs in any neofolk lover's vinyl collection.



The video below is a live performance from this year's instalment of the Wave Gothic Treffen in Leipzig.

Playlist, Café Grössenwahn II

Once more, we here at the Chronicles have helped out by playing some records at Norway's neofolk club, Café Grössenwahn. Here is the playlist.

Ostara: ”Victory Surrender”
Der Blutharsch: ”Untitled” (#5 from When did Wonderland end?)
Solblot: ”En dag”
Death in June: ”Flieger”
Giddle & Boyd: ”Contact”
Klammheim: ”Nix wies wor”
Sturmpercht: ”Wildschütz Jennerwein”
Blood Axis: "The dream"
Perrecy: ”Panik”
Dernière Volonté: ”Si”
TriORE: ”Let us meet in the trenches”
Forresta di Ferro: ”Sogni di Piombo”
Ianva: ”La ballata dell’ardito”
Sol Invictus: ”The bad luck bird”
Rome: ”Secret sons of Europe”
Current 93: ”With flowers in the garden of fires”
Fire & Ice: ”Gilded by the Sun”

A small Summerisle memento

This is the sort of memento one can end up with when looking after an Italian band with a penchant for the film The Wicker Man and a certain Superfritz reserves a table at one of Oslo's most pleasant eateries.

Sometimes, life truly feels a little magical.



And we couldn't resist sharing this little picture of two esotericists enjoying the ultimate earthly pleasure, namely a flaming volcano drink at Oslo's rather decent Tiki bar.

Café Grössenwahn - Summer on Summerisle

Well, there's been another Café Grössenwahn. This time with an intriguing performance by Italian band The Green Man.

Despite a somewhat excessive intake of Weissbier and absinthe, we, the Chronicles' reporters on the spot, managed to stay on our feet. And we thought we'd share the following snapshots with you.

The next Café will feature a performance by one of the founding fathers of neofolk, Mr. Tony Wakeford, Esq. We can hardly wait.

Tape trading: An evolutionary perspective

There's been a small cassette reival going on here at Bassington Manor, and playing old cassettes really brings back fond memories of Lord Bassington-Bassington's younger days. So His Lorship was happy when Mr. "JR" Bruun, the man who introduced him to so many pleasurable tapes, tipped him off about this little article about tape trading.

For not only did His Lordship sniff around the outskirts of the tape trading scene, but as a Caninist he is naturally interested in evolutionary biology.

The highlight of the article is, without a doubt, this passage:

If you've ever seen one of those TV nature programs on PBS, you see that the male of a species will often use sound and color to attract attention to himself. He does this to attract fertile females, or to duke it out with other males-- usually for the chance to mate with the females. You will also see that there is an alpha male, and other males who challenge him to be the alpha male. Then you will see, off on the fringes of the group, a male who has ingested some rotting fruit, is staring off into space, and playing with himself.

But His Lordship recommends that you read the whole thing – and then go listen to some old (or new) cassettes.

In praise of the OnePiece

To anyone with any interest whatsoever in clothes and style, the OnePiece has been rather controversial. So it might perhaps come as a surprise that Lord Bassington-Bassington, who normally refuses to wear anything introduced after 1967, wholeheartedly supports the wearing of OnePieces.

Yes, His Lordship informs us, he is aware that it makes people look like prison inmates, sanatorium patients or - perhaps even worse - furries.

But His Lordship's logic is this: The OnePiece represents the absolute low point in the long history of Western dress. It is absolutely impossible to look more slovenly or moronic than one does while wearing a OnePiece (even the world's most vulgar suit is no match for a OnePiece).

Because the history of fashion is not only a history of decline, but also of reactions and counter-reactions, any new fashion coming after the OnePiece has to be an improvement. So when the OnePiece fad fades out, the world will be a better place.

So His Lordship braces himself and crosses his paws in hope that the OnePiece will make a few people want to try a three-piece (like this one by Sir Paul Smith, one of our favourite designers here at Bassington Manor).



In the spirit of trying to usher in a counter-reaction, Lord Bassington-Bassington suggests that your OnePiece should be matched with a pair of Ugg boots, thus creating the least appealing outfit available to man. Uggs are, if anything, even more brilliant than the OnePiece, as Uggs are the only thing one can wear whose name is an accurate rendition of the sound His Lordship makes when seeing them.