Do you sleep with a nightlight on, afraid a dark wave of shadowy dreams that may come along to overcome you? Fear Not.This new year is a fertile time to face your fears with all the Goth rock romance your heart can hold, and all the free-form darkness your soul can brave.This new year is one to tap into your inner warrior and sanctum of your spirit; conquer what holds you back by going deep into the dark shadowy side of your soul’s song, going beyond your barricaded inner fortresses, where the deeper you go the darker the music plays, yet never forever stays.
Dare to brave the darkness and unlock your inner sanctum
Black Rose awaits you at the threshold of a looming castle of spellbound sounds, where she devotedly stirs her show, The Black Cauldron, every Sunday eve (Saturday night) from 10 pm to Midnight PST. Black Rose blooms in the magic of the moonlight, collecting the darkest of dewy ditties to mix into her brew of sublimely wicked tunes.
The BlackRose Collecting MoonMist
Much of the music she concocts in The Cauldron creates a potent potion that serves to stir the soul, shape-shifting the senses into motion until they sink in utter surrender, just as a “Lady of the Lake” slips into the depths of her watery unknown. Rather bemused, you come to “face the music” of your most seductive nightmare when you tune in to The Black Cauldron.
The music played on this show can lure you, making you feel like you are walking through a haunted hallway of shattered mirrors, while shards of raw roaring recollections pierce through the amour of your heart. Envision a labyrinth filled with the intense longing and reflective echoes of lost loved ones, a dense forest where the aching of human frailty and transparency screeches and howls for release, and a sea of ceaseless yearnings to join the eternal feast of immortality becomes insatiably irresistible forevermore. This is the tempting fantasy place of the vampires.
Darkling Love
This show’s music is often encased in a lacey gothic romantic cloak that bears the pulse of a thousand lifetimes of bygone lovers returning to enshroud listeners ears in mesmeric remembrance. Black Rose stirs her pot until sounds go swirling and whirling into the night sky like lost angels in flight; where melodies melt like candles into the twilight hours, and you become infused into the world of velvety vampires, and the sumptuous sounds they drink and breathe.
For those who are tuned in, Black Rose will bid you a respectful “come hither” and a polite farewell. She tends to her sound garden of free-form darkness, playing a mix of genres which include darkwave, ethereal wave, medieval, EBM, Goth, Industrial, & steam punk. She has been methodically stoking the fires of The Black Cauldron since the early ages of RadioFlag, and has summoned more listeners to her lair than most DJ’s to date.
Her early day fans recall the original “Duo of Free-Form Darkness”, a special moment in time when Black Rose shared the mic with “The Doctor”, both hosting the show together. During their courtship, they weaved up some fantastical playlists which have included music from bands such as Covenant, Dead Can Dance, Sapphire Solace, Rotersand, Combichrist, Ataraxia, Emilie Autumn, Voltaire, Diary of Dreams, Suicide Commando, KMFDM, and VNV Nation, just to name a few.
DJ Black Rose braving the Sunlight
- The Doctor, the prodigal Time Lord DJ of The Black Cauldron
During this adjoining time together, long time listeners recall an extra memorable show when Sapphire Solace performed live in studio back on 6/11/2011. Reviewing flags from that summer edition made me want to go back in time, as the Cauldron seemed to be bubbling over in a hue of bright blue, cascading over castle walls attaining final solace once it adorned the lockets that encircled the hearts of their endeared “darkling listeners”.
Sapphire Solace, a band who had a Live studio session at the "Darkling Headquarters" of The Black Cauldron Show
So I come to my last inquiry; is anyone still fixated to resist their darker side, denying it space for healthy expression? Can you say you worship the sun but loathe the moon; love the sunrises but detest the sunsets; love the rainbows but are vexed by a starry night? Well, indeed I tend to think The Doctor would have also agreed that we all have another side to us, and many sides to be sure that need to be granted some banishment from the dungeons and the towers alike, freed to sift and play through the mirth and mire of the musical self.
The 'Musical Darkling" Self at Play
As The Doctor came once upon a time, he came to entertain and court the “scarewaves” with ghoulish gestures and playful tomfooleries. During these days when The Doctor meandered these awry airwaves, he tended to his listeners as a shepherd caring for a flock of black sheep. He often concocted his own curative remedies, full of macabre mixtures of whimsical wit and quirky humor, serving to ease the intense weightiness
The Black Cauldron can induce. He was known to bid his listeners a Germanic “willkommen”, as it was not unusual for him breakout in the traditional tongue of the Goths (das German of course). Many have recalled these days with The Doctor as being sometimes more “dorkiness than darkness”, yet a time that is sentimentally seared into their loyal listeners’ hearts forever and ever more. I get a sense this union was likened to the betrothal of a court jester juggler technical mastermind magician entwined with a voluptuous vampiress of the Black Rose lineage.
Like a jovial jester and a dark queen, The Doctor and Black Rose are a radio match made in goth heaven--if there exists one.
The Doctor’s official sign-off from the “darkwaves” of KUCI came during the Summer of 2011. Since then he has reappeared once in the Autumn season for one last radio romp saying:
“My Gods, this is therapeutic.”
His last farewell left listeners anticipating another eventual encore as his very last flag announced:
“I couldn’t stay away forever …and I will be back at some point too. Good night and good luck.”
The Doctor's RadioFlag Avatar
Since then, Black Rose has created her own luck, and ceaselessly carries on the bequest of The Black Cauldron. Although she is a shy flower that blooms in the solemn rays of moombeams, she speaks forcefully through the power of the music to those who have ears to hear. She is the sole creator of some amazing playlists, and one that I especially enjoyed hearing was her special holiday conception.
As time marches on, Black Cauldron listeners may be found seen gazing into the night skies as if expecting a rare astronomical encounter, likened to a lunar eclipse. That is exactly what it would be like to catch a glimpse of a rare reunion of the original “Duo of Free-Form Darkness”. Until then, Black Rose is sure to keep those who tune in emblazoned on a path of petals, enthralling listeners one dark note at a time, nearer to “the everything”.
Trail of Petals
Tune in to The Black Cauldron on KUCI every Saturday night at 10 p.m. to midnight PST.
Tune in to @BlackRose and @TheDoctor on RadioFlag!
Check out this funny Goth video, flagged by a DJ, whose show follows the Black Cauldron; One I plan to take a closer look at. This is a prime example of what listeners may have been referring to when they mentioned ‘Darkiness meets Dorkiness’.
By: Air Ambrosia
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Email: AirAmbrosia@gmail.com
RadioFlag: @AirAmbrosia