Iowa State Singers: Even When He Is Silent

A to Z Blogging Challenge 2015: W is for songs of Worship

Religion can be a loaded subject. 

We are not promoting any one religion over another.

We are featuring songs which may have spiritual significance to people with certain beliefs.

No belittling or bigoted commentary regarding anyone's beliefs (or lack thereof) will be tolerated.

~The KHEL 666 Krew~

Songs which have spiritual significance can move people emotionally, and perhaps get them in touch with the realms that exist beyond the physical.

For a Buddhist, chanting and instrumentals which invoke feelings of peace and relaxation are essential.

For Christians, a song of this nature can remind them of the peaceful messages taught by Jesus, and of his great sacrifice.

Jewish songs invoke feelings of celebration and reverence, keeping traditions alive and celebrating those who have gone before.

Muslim chants are often very powerful and moving, invoking strong feelings of spiritual reverence.

Pagan beliefs practices are extremely varied. Wiccan and Pagan songs celebrate various gods and goddesses, or the beauty of nature. Unitarian songs of worship tend to focus on peace, tolerance, and togetherness rather than religious beliefs. 

 I hope you have enjoyed my choices demonstrating songs of worship from various belief systems. I am not an expert on religion, and the thoughts expressed are simply brief explanations of my understanding of the music utilized by a few of the world's religions.

Peace,

DJ Illsa

Cross-Posted to:

KHEL 666

One Love

A to Z Blogging Challenge 2015: World Music: K is for K-Pop

K-Pop simply stands for "popular music from Korea," particularly South Korea. Above is a playlist of of well-loved "K-Pop" tunes.

First gaining popularity in East Asia in the late 1990s, K-pop entered the Japanese music market towards the turn of the 21st century. In the late 2000s, it grew from a musical genre into a subculture among teenagers and young adults of East and Southeast Asia. Currently, the spread of K-pop to other regions of the world, via the Korean wave, is seen in parts of Latin America, Northeast India, North Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and immigrant enclaves of the Western world.

(source: Wikipedia)

By learning about one another through our music, we begin to see that we really all have very much the same basic needs and concerns.

~DJ Illin' Illsa~

Fun Stuff: Pete Holmes and Arne Duncan

Bryan Adams: I'll Always Be Right There

I don't know these folks, but what a beautiful video for this song. Seriously, I'd rather see stuff like this any day than the overproduced, oversexed videos that we end up being overexposed to.

I also wanted to thank everyone who so kindly commented on my personal introduction. You all rock!

~DJ Illsa~

Social Blogger Post #1: Meet DJ Illin' Illsa

The Social Blogger blog hop is hosted by Anna of Herding Cats and Burning Soup. Click here to check out her most recent post. I'm going to follow her format for a first Social Blogger post.

I'm DJ Illin' Illsa. Here are five items of interest about me. There will be a quiz later! ;-)

• Like the other members of Team KHEL 666/Team Netherworld, I live with mental illness. I have type 2 bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, and PTSD. I also have OCD. As I commented at Anna's blog: I don't have food issues and I'm not a germophobe. I have trouble throwing things out because of an overwhelming anxiety that I might need it later. I have boxes and bags of crap that I sometimes force myself to go through. It makes me very anxious. Also, I'm a picture straightener, and I can't stand to see mismatched pushpins (two different colors.) It drives me crazy! So yes, I have a touch of OCD! In addition, although I'm not afraid of any numbers, there are certain numbers that I like particularly. If I have to make a choice between ten items, for instance, I'll choose the fifth or the seventh.
• My father died in a motorcycle crash when I was fifteen. He was just 38 years old. (Would have been 38 in 2 weeks. He died on July 16. His birthday would have been August 2.) It's strange to me that I am now older than he ever got to be. His death was devastating to our family. I acted out a lot after his death. My older brother tried hard to be the "man of the family," but he was only seventeen himself. I was hurting a lot, and I was out of control. I have since thanked my brother for everything he did during that difficult time. (P.S. I love you, Hank.)
• My real surname is Göring. Yeah, like the Nazi leader. You can imagine the shit I got for that growing up. I chose Gorrey as a pen surname because I love the quirky and creepy cartoons by Edward Gorey. 
• I love to write horror and sci-fi. I write the dreaded fan fiction along with the other members of Team Netherworld, but our fan fiction is unlike any other. It's quirky and unique, just like the people writing it. We take characters from movies and television programs we love, or we take the characters out of movies we hated but we liked the characters in spite of how terrible the movie was. Some of them are visitors to our realm, The Netherworld. Such visitors include Harry Potter and Dr. Who, often at the same time. Some of them are fugitives, refugees from their own crappy time and bad dimension (Alien 3, Alien Resurrection.) Some are characters whose time came to an end in the material world. (Tony Soprano, J.R. Ewing.) We also have an ever-growing roster of original characters. Our "for public consumption" blog is The Netherworld. Our deep cuts blog is Undead in the Netherworld.
• For the longest time I had a big crush on Michael Biehn (The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss) but I was dismayed to find out that he's kind of an idiot in person. So it goes. To any rate, he's played some of Team Netherworld's favorite characters, and I have to respect his acting chops.

Here are five items of interest about KHEL 666:

• While we rather obviously love the heavy metal genre in all its varied forms, we also love other kinds of music. This is a very eclectic blog, and all tastes in music are respected.
• Satanists are not what most people think, but in spite of the name of the blog, none of us are Satanists. KHEL 666 was the call letters chosen for The Netherworld's most popular radio station. The "HEL" part of the call letters refers to the Norse Goddess of the Underworld, Hel. The "666" refers to the theatrical and often tongue in cheek or hyperbolic usage of the number 666 by heavy metal bands.
• We don't allow bots to spider our site. This might limit the number of potential visitors, but we have also found that it limits the number of potential trolls. We would rather have a small, friendly following than have lots of hits but also lots more crap from trolls.
• KHEL 666 was founded in 2006. It was first referenced at our now archived blog, Rattling Bones Undead Musician Magazine. The blog you see before you was founded in 2012.
• The main DJ's for KHEL 666 Radio Netherworld are Bill S. Preston and Ted "Theodore" Logan for the KHEL 666 Morning Crunch (6 AM to 10 AM), Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar for the KHEL 666 Lunch Hour (10 AM to 2 PM), Beavis and Butthead for KHEL 666 Rush Hour (2 PM to 6 PM), DJ Eddie Head for Evenings with Eddie (6 PM to midnight) and DJ Badass Brittney of the famed Naked Gymnastics for Jesus with Brittney's Bitchin' Witching Hour (midnight to 6 AM.) The weekend DJ's are varied, but include Evil Ed and Chachi Arcola. 

Thanks to Anna for hosting this fun platform to allow our visitors to know us a little better. Now, we'll have to see how many of them stick around and how many of them run off and hide, quavering in fear!

~DJ Illin' Illsa~

Sending you off with a classic tune from DJ Eddie's band, Iron Maiden.

Soundtrack Madness: May It Be

The beautiful theme song from Lord of the Rings.

~DJ Illsa~

Oingo Boingo: Skin

This week's Theme Thursday prompt is "Skin."
You're welcome!

~DJ Illsa~

R is for Rave

DJ Illsa likes electronic music, so this sound appeals to her.

DJ Illsa has never actually been to a rave, and the idea of going to one really does not appeal.

The history of Rave music is interesting, and, I confess, what follows is ripped right from Wikipedia.

Rave music may either refer to the late 1980s/early 1990s genres of house and techno, the first genres of music in the world to be played at raves, or any genre of electronic dance music that may be played at a rave, such as house, trance, techno, jungle, drum & bass, breakbeat, happy hardcore, psychedelic trance, breakbeat hardcore and gabber. Very rarely, the term is used to refer to less electronic related genres such as glam rock, power pop, psychedelic rock and dub parties.

The genre "rave", also known as 1980s hardcore by ravers, first appeared amongst the acid house movement in Scotland during the late 1980s as a reaction to New Beat. While New Beat usually borrowed an aggressive industrial sound, rave tended to borrow New Beat's elements that were harder than acid house, while retaining the neutral mooded sound of acid house. Rave tended to be a happy genre that favoured synthesized melodies over the duller sound of the TB-303 in order to attract a wider audience. The genre was later re-established as oldskool hardcore, which lead onto newer forms of rave music such as drum and bass and jazzstep, as well as other hardcore techno genres, such as gabber, hardstyle and happy hardcore.

In the late 80s, rave culture began to filter through from English ex-pats and DJs who would visit Europe. However, rave culture's major expansion in North America is often credited to Frankie Bones, who after spinning a party in an aircraft hangar in England helped organize some of the earliest known American raves in the 1990s in New York City called "Storm Raves" which maintained a consistent core audience. Coinciding at the same time, were the "NASA" parties in NYC by DJ Scotto which was featured in the 1995 movie Kids and forthcoming was concert producer p.a.w.n. Lasers in Pennsylvania who later became the most well known laser company at raves in East Coast by cross-promoting these rave events State to State as far south as Florida and Louisiana. After this, hundreds of smaller promotional groups sprung up across the east coast such as Ultraworld (MD,DC), Park Rave Madness (NYC), G.O. Guaranteed Overdose (NYC), Local 13 (NJ), Caffeine (NYC), Liquid Grooove aka Liquified (GA), Columns of Knowledge (CT), Special K aka Circle Management (PA), Zen Festivals (FL), Disco Donnie (LA), Ultra Music Festival (FL), and later the west coast, causing a true "scene" to develop.

~DJ Illsa~

If He Did It Before

If the church I went to in my youth had music like this, I might have been more inclined to keep going!

Happy Sunday, whatever your faith may be.

Peace,

DJ Illsa

E is for Electronic

There are a wide range of subgenres in the electronic music category, which you can find on this page. The above is a sample.

I don't like radio stations where they talk too much. I know this is a virtual radio station, but I prefer to just shut up and play the music!

~DJ Illin' Illsa~

Looks like you folks get a twofer today! Both DJ Blooming Psycho and DJ Illin' Illsa took on this letter!

D is for Doom Metal

Doom is one of my favorite metal sub-genres. It has a slow, heavy, melodic sound and favors dark and mystical subject matter. The roots of doom metal can be traced to the early 1970's. The genre is heavily influenced by the works of Black Sabbath.

Featured above is an iconic video from one of my favorite bands, Candlemass; the Swedish kings of Doom Metal.

If you're like me and can't get enough Candlemass, I've got another video for you at the end of this post!

~DJ Illin' Illsa~

00:00 Mirror mirror
06:14 A cry from the crypt
13:40 Darkness in Paradise
20:27 Incarnation of evil
27:46 Bearer of pain
35:09 Ancient dreams
42:14 The bells of Acheron
47:34 Epistle No. 81
52:12 Black sabbath medley

Edison Glass: In Such A State

Lyrics:
In disclosed we speak the truth, discovering dependency.
Let's turn this ship around, I'm starting over.
We fight our hearts for the control, wrestling our tendencies.
Let's turn this ship around, I'm starting over.

In desperation, a celebration, of time well spent alone with you.

I'm in such a state, I need you here, I need you near me.

As the sun will rise and set, so I will keep you close.
As the stars illuminate, so I will hold you near

Burn the exits, theres no escaping from love eternal, limitless.

I'm in such a state, I need you here, I need you near me.
I'm in such a state, honestly, transparently speaking

Cheating: It Doesn't End Well

Cheaters think they’re going to get away slick like the guy in this video.



Or that maybe they'll spice up their bland relationship, like the guy in this song.



But what’s really gonna happen is probably a little bit something like this.



Or worse yet, something like this.



If you can’t be true, be gone.

Yours Truly,
DJ Illsa

Meanwhile, In Toronto

Flipsyde: When It Was Good

Four Tops: Standing in the Shadows of Love

Pink Floyd: Echoes

Theme: Blinded You with Science: Breathe