Notebook
A possibly novel theory of why music gets stuck in our heads.
After seeing the Francis Bacon: Man and Beast exhibition at the Royal Academy I’ve been thinking about the way that Bacon repeated himself frequently in his paintings.
Giving unnecessarily detailed responses to pseudoscientific crank claims.
Some years ago, I set myself the rule that I would only read one book at a time. This turned out to be a terrible idea.
Part of Ultraworking’s work cycles process involves defining a plan at the start of a work session and then making regular pace checks to see whether there’s anything you need to adjust in order to hit your goal. One of the adjustments that often comes up is asking whether it would make sense to “re-scope”. This just means adjusting the scope of your goal for the session.
Music
Hands of Ruin
Hands of Ruin is my cinematic dark ambient and martial industrial music project. In the words of Merchants of Air:
Here is something that proves that dark ambient, neoclassical and martial industrial are far from dead. ‘Schism’ is an impressive and outstanding piece of work, one that definitely earns a place in between all your favorite Cold Meat Industry heroes.
C.Z. Robertson
Electronic music that doesn’t fit the aesthetics of my Hands of Ruin project, released under my own name.
Essays
The Far Left in Britain During the Cold War
A long essay examining the history of the British far left during the Cold War. This was written as something of a cathartic exercise, trying to understand and evaluate the culture I grew up in.