ID Music: Equanimity in Armagideon
North America's Gnarliest Goth Reggae Mix for Anxious Meditation
I made these three “Equanimity in Armagideon” episodes of Inter-Dimensional Music in March 2022 as a soundtrack for relaxing, while also remaining aware of anger, sadness, exhaustion, and other compassionate responses to the endless stream of bad news that flows into my head from online. There are few musics that better serve as a celebratory and mindfully hedonistic engagement with the suffering of the world than reggae and its diaspora, and so those are the sounds around which these three hours coalesce. Our session starts off with a jolly ‘70s Channel One production about the status of diplomatic relations between Jamaica and the Republic of Cuba and their impact on fears regarding nuclear conflict.
In keeping with the singular and sometimes perhaps off-putting nature of our experimental community radio meditation broadcast, the series progresses from the slow and sunshiney King Tubby-centric vibes of Part I through a matrix of lysergic New Age jazz from Carlos Niño & Co.; electronic abstractions hybridized with mutant strains of dub via Batu and Kevin Richard Martin; and eventually through to the distressed pastoralism of Common Eider, King Eider, and their collaborators from “antifascist black metal/black ambient witch coven” Night Beheaded. We end up with a double-twofer of Live Dead and Live Miles paired with meditative post-hardcore from Lungfish and Neurosis. There’s also decaying analogue dungeon synth from Yearner and Til Det Bergen Skyggene that could pass as Boards of Canada demos at the proper elevation.
I was delighted with how well these goth soothers blended with Mary Lattimore’s tribute to Deetjen’s, the beloved inn on the Central California coast at Big Sur.
I included language throughout these sessions from Zen Master Dōgen and Ezra Bayda, two names that will be well familiar to regular visitors to our ephemeral dharma shack.
"Even if unwholesome action fills worlds upon worlds, and swallows up all things, refrain from is emancipation,” is a foundational concept from Dōgen’s 13th Century classic Shobogenzo. It’s a line translated by the author Brad Warner as “don’t be a jerk,” as discussed in his book of the same name. [March 22, 2023 update: Brad Warner seems to actually be a reactionary transphobic jerk, but the concept is still relevant regardless. More details on Warner and his BuddhaBro cohort in The Journal of Global Buddhism: The #BuddhistCultureWars: BuddhaBros, Alt-Right Dharma, and Snowflake Sanghas] This idea is at the heart of my sloppy Zen practice. It’s something that guides my thinking on pretty much any topic, but it was especially helpful while watching the ambient bloodlust that accompanied the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I offer the obligatory and sincere disclaimer that I hate the war, and believe unequivocally that Putin is an authoritarian ghoul. This point should not be compromised by also acknowledging that the United States rarely has fully humanitarian motivation behind its interventions, to put it mildly.
I’m not a veteran, but I learned what it looks like when people die violently and unexpectedly during my years on the ambulance. And so I found no comfort in watching the sudden enthusiasm among pockets of my cohort for the sort of escalation favored by weapons manufacturers and the various Bush, Clinton, and Obama-aligned warmongers who have now been fully rehabilitated by think tanks and columns in The Atlantic.
As a relatively powerless individual, my opinions1 on no-fly zones, itinerant American mercenaries, intergovernmental military alliances, and the enrichment of the US defense industry, are almost entirely inconsequential2. I feel confident that all of the wars will run their course with or without my support. I have the privilege of making such broadly naive statements as “I’m anti-war and in favor of aiding the victims of war and opening US borders and citizenship to all refugees.” This has zero effect on US foreign policy, but it might suggest to someone in the small group of people that I actually connect with that there are other responses to conflict beyond the binary of good guys and bad guys. There are fewer people suggesting that demanding the impossible3 is a valid response to suffering. As Warner channels Dōgen, “Even if the whole universe is nothing but a bunch of jerks doing all kinds of jerk-type things, there is still liberation in simply not being a jerk.”
I return to the Ezra Bayda language we hear on Parts II and III on a daily basis. It was a core tenet of my moderately uncomfortable slow-and-low yin yoga classes, and I use it as part of ID Music several times each year. Bayda’s writing is a reminder that sometimes questions do not have answers, and sometimes problems have no solutions. It is a relinquishing of control, letting go of the idea that I can fix things, or that I’ve somehow failed when life is neither pleasing nor comfortable. It’s also something to keep in mind when I’m considering cutting certain awkward poses from my morning yoga practice.
As he writes in Beyond Happiness:
We see our discomfort as the problem: yet it’s the belief that we can’t be happy if we’re uncomfortable that is much more of a problem than the discomfort itself. One of the most freeing discoveries of an awareness practice is when we realize firsthand that we can, in fact, experience equanimity even in the midst of discomfort.
This three part “Equanimity in Armagideon” series is a soundtrack for considering these concepts. Music that moves from intensity to mellowness and back again, from naive celebrations of light to knowing acceptance of darkness. It’s an opportunity to practice sitting with anxiety over what comes next. Or as rendered in Bandcamp-friendly keywords, it’s three hours of goth-compatible reggae, dub-informed electronics, blackened New Age ambience, and lo-fi DIY ASMR-ish spoken word.
Thank you all for listening on the radio, streaming from the archive, opening the email, visiting the website, subscribing for free, subscribing for money, sharing this with your buds, and/or for remaining open to the possibility of experiencing a few moments of happiness while continuing to breathe the scorched air of discomfort that hangs over these dark days.
These connections are why I do what I do, and I am deeply grateful for your support.
Blessing up and blessing down,
DC
20220311 PROGRAM NOTES
Jordan Christoff - Osbourne Ruddock (edit)
Badoo - Diplomatic Link
Calvin Stuart - Babylon a Turn Dem Back
I Roy - War and Friction
Willie Williams - Armagideon Time
The Pioneers - Bad to Worse
Sons of Negus - Dub Aggressor
The Original Quartet - Peace Warriors
Speaker Music - Ex-American Blues
Shackleton - Your Message Is Peace
James Holden & Maalem Houssam Guinia - Pass Through The Fire / Bouri Bouri Mana
Nilotika Cultural Ensemble - Okufa Kufuuka
Peter Tosh - Oh Bumbo Klaat
King Tubby - Big Youth Fights Against Capitalism
Jordan Christoff - Osbourne Ruddock (edit)
Dharma: Zen Master Dogen
Cover image via:
20220318 PROGRAM NOTES
artist - work
Carlos Niño & Kofi Flexxx - In The Moment, Part 3 (excerpt)
bad LSD trips - Lavadora Levitando
The Rootsman - Saiyidi Dub
Night Beheaded - III
Common Eider, King Eider - Entrance to the Sky, Entrance to the Land
Al Wootton - Callers Spring
Azu Tiwaline & Al Wootton - Blue Dub
Cynocephalic Saints - Wing of Bone (edit)
Bitchin' Bajas - QUAKENBRÜCK [dub]
Til Det Bergen Skyggene - Skog, Natt Og Stjerner
Mary Lattimore - Moon Over Deetjen's
Carlos Niño & Kofi Flexxx - In The Moment, Part 3 (excerpt)
Dharma: Ezra Bayda - "Equanimity in Discomfort"
Cover image: Cosmic Chambo - untitled (Blanton Forest nurse log)
20220325 PROGRAM NOTES
artist - work
A Name For Both of Us - Growth of Night Plants I
M//R - Anxious Meditation
Photay with Carlos Niño - O R B I T
Yearner - Nachtwanderung
Miles Davis - Funk (19740528 São Paulo) via The Heat Warps
Grateful Dead - Althea (19820807 East Troy, WI)
Batu - Deep Breath
Kevin Richard Martin - Back to where i belong
Barnabus - Ear Say Dub
Neurosis - No River To Take Me Home
Lungfish - Nothing is Easy
A Name For Both of Us - Growth of Night Plants II
Dharma: Ezra Bayda - "Equanimity in Discomfort"
Cover image: Cosmic Chambo – untitled (John Craddock Wetland Nature Preserve)
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For more consequential opinions on international history, one need only look to my brother’s book, The Cold War’s Killing Fields. American Prestige says nice things about his book in this episode:
Likewise, as a resident of the Indianapolis Zen Center I vowed every Saturday morning to save all of the numberless sentient beings, cut through all of the endless delusions, learn an infinite number of teachings, and attain the inconceivable Buddha Way. You miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take, gotta catch ‘em all, etc.