Maurice De Jong
Gnaw Their Tongues
Our next guest to unveil 3 of their favourite books, movies and albums is Maurice 'Mories' De Jong
‘Mories’ is not only a super talented multi-instrumentalist, but also one of the most prolific artists in the underground scene, having been around since the late ’80s and having released literally hundreds of mesmerizing records ranging from ambient, black metal, drone, electronic music and avant-garde.
With Brucia we had the pleasure to release The Sombre and Cloak of Altering, but some of his other projects include Gnaw Their Tongues, Golden Ashes, Grand Celestial Nightmare, Hagetisse, The Night Specter and The Magia Veterum just to mention a few.
Books
- Juan Carlos Onetti - Dejemos hablar al viento
This is a book I randomly picked up in a bookstore and It became one of my favourite books ever. I just got two of his other works. This is not considered his masterpiece (which is El Castillero). But I like this book more. The style is almost abstract. It’s mostly memories, random conversations and scenes. All the characters are absolutely miserable, stuck in their lives, living in the past. Stuck in drinking, drugs and sex. It’s great!
- James Ellroy - L.A. Confidential
The style is so unique. This is a real page turner. The film is great too but the story in the book is bigger and deeper. It’s about crooked cops in the 50’s. Very ‘Neo Noir’.
- Jack Kerouac - On the Road
A while ago I decided I should just start reading all the classics so I ordered this. It did not disappoint. This book probably inspired thousands of kids on a road trip. Traveling is great. You don’t have to worry about ‘doing the dishes’ and every day brings something new and exciting. If you can afford it: go travel. This whole ‘Beat writer’ thing has a strange attraction to me. Rebellious and experimental. I should probably catch up on William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg.
Movies
- Blue Velvet
I like David Lynch, but not all of his works. I must admit that some of his things look like he just recorded some sceness and cut them up and re-arranged them in a weird way to make them seem ‘dark and foreboding’ (I’m sure this is somewhat true). Blue Velvet is such an atmospheric film. Some really iconic scenes. You know, Dennis Hopper..man he has done some really shitty b-movies but he’s great in this.
- Indiana Jones - Trilogy
These films are all an eighties kid like me wanted to see: there’s adventure, comedy, action, traveling, strange things and worlds, scary things and he was so cool in my eyes. I watched all three films a few years back and they still hold up in my opinion. I just could have easily mentioned the first three Star Wars movies here too by the way.
- Snowtown
Now this film, based on true events, is truly bleak and brutal (that’s coming from someone who has seen fucked up shit). Poverty, abuse, murder..not a fun watch but it made a lasting impression. It almost looks like I enjoy stuff that makes me miserable .
Albums
- Sigh - Infidel Art
Now this band is special. Every album sounds different. I don’t like all albums but the first two are really special to me. The first album (with all its notorious associations, look it up if you don’t know) is so good. What immediately stood out to me is the songwriting and the keyboards/piano. Man, I like keyboards. Mirai is an incredible key player and composer. So when ‘Infidel Art’ came out it blew me away. Damn, the production is great, the album art is really great, the music is just brilliant. Orchestrated, catchy, evil, doomy, romantic, great vocals, great synths! oh boy..my linguistic abilities in English are not sufficient to describe how great this album is. And one of the most important things: it sounds like SIGH and not like any other band out there and they sound really good being themselves..a rare trade.
- Dodheimsgard - 666 International
Another truly unique album (and band for that matter). During the second half of the nineties I became really tired of the BM scene. It all sounded the same, it became a trend, bands sounded silly. I had already lost interest in ‘normal’ metal. I was getting into industrial, electronic music, indy, classical etc. I already knew DHG from the debut, which I thought was nothing really special. The second album was ok: thrashy, great vocals, raw sound. But then this came out: WOW!!!! From the atypical sleeve, the atypical band photos and then this sound. Something totally different than what was around at the time. And still..there is no other album that matches this album’s greatness in my opinion. Unique black metal mixed with electronics. Just what I was into. These vocals and lyrics..wow (it’s one of the albums I know almost the lyrics from the top of my head). This weird mix of industrial and electronic music with really atypical for black metal. I really felt that this was the future of bm when this came out. It transcends black metal and is just something completely different. What makes this album stand out is the great songwriting and the weird catchiness. It has hooks!
- Scorpions - World Wild Live
The Scorpions were one of the first ‘hard rock’ things I was into as a kid. I clearly remember hearing ‘Rock me like a Hurricane’ on the radio and being truly enthralled by the energy and gusto. Mesmerized by the sound of the guitars and the ‘fuck yeah’ feeling good rock music can give you. I had a bootleg tape of this double live album. It has all the ‘hits’ from that eighties era. I recently got the vinyl version – an old pressing and damn this thing sounds so good on vinyl. The whole process of making these records was done on (probably) top shelf analogue equipment and boy does it sound good! Of course I know every word and note on this album.