“What do I mean by material culture? If culture is the full range of thoughts, feelings, objects, words, and practices that human beings use to construct and maintain the life-worlds in which they exist, material culture is any aspect of that world-making activity that happens in material form. That means things, but it also includes the feelings, values, fears, and obsessions that inform one’s understanding and use of things. But that’s not all. As I understand it, the study of material culture gives special attention to the scrutiny of practices, that is,what people do with things. As a field of inquiry, material culture assumes that meaning does not inhere in things, but is activated by them.” – David Morgan
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Life-worlds
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The Enemy Is Us
British electronic artist Max Rael presents his debut solo album ‘The Enemy Is Us’, released via London imprint Liquid Len Recording Company, offering up a dark bouquet of minimalist synth, darkwave and spoken-word electronic pop. The album introduces Rael’s compelling ‘futuretroist’ sound: an alternative sonic universe built on a unique sound design that feels at once familiar and alien.
Available everywhere!
Links here: https://album.link/the-enemy-is-us
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Max Rael Hits 500
Congratulations to Max Rael for passing the 500 monthly unique listeners milestone on Spotify! This is a rolling figure of the number of different people who have listened to an artist in the past 28 days. With the album set to drop a week today we wish him every success for what is shaping up to be our strongest release to date!
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New Joiner
Please join me in a warm welcome to the newest member of our team, Chris Clarkson. Chris will be taking over our continuing I.T. transformation from static assets of the past to metamodernist cross-flow blended media story telling platforms. This work is essential for the Drug Castle book launch we’re planning… and because he’s a glutton for punishment / a keen valued member of the team, he’s also going to be looking at the existing concepts and narratives we have and seeing what could work with game design / mechanics / narratives he’s been slyly working on his shed for the past few years.
It is normal that the most recent member of staff pays for the Christmas party right? Chris has six months to grow the company to the point where we can employ someone else to avoid having to provide an amazing party for us all.We call it incentive. (Though if that doesn’t work, an ironic party celebrating failure, could maybe work?)
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Slightly Less Than Human
The second single to be released by Max Rael will be available Wednesday 21st May.
“I was always one of those kids who didn’t fit in desperately waiting for the spaceship to come and take me back to my people. Partly inspired by Osamu Dazai’s, ‘No Longer Human’, it’s a song about not feeling like a proper human and all the effort that goes in to masking and trying to pass for one.’ – Max Rael
Photography is again by the super-talented Filiz Gultekin.
© 2025 FilizPhotographyUK. All rights reserved.
‘Slightly Less Than Human’ is taken from Max Rael’s forthcoming debut album, ‘The Enemy Is Us’ which will be released on the summer solstice, Friday June 20th.
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Brighter Future
The debut solo single from Max Rael will be titled, ‘Brighter Future’ and will be available from Spotify, Bandcamp and all the usual music places…
A song questioning avoidant coping strategies, and how can things get any better if we’ve already accepted that the current horror of the world is only going to get worse leading to an inevitable dystopian future.
First look at the artwork, featuring the first in a stunning series of photography by Filiz Gultekin here:
© 2025 FilizPhotographyUK. All rights reserved.
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The Start of Books
Excited to announce we’re working with a few authors to bring together stories inspired by the semi-mythical UK experimental psychiatric facility nicknamed, ‘Drug Castle’ explored in the History Of Guns song of the same name, and the accompanying short film directed by Howard Gardner.
It’s early days, and we don’t have a release date set in stone yet, but the project has a lot of potential, and a perfect first project to launch The Liquid Len Publishing Company.
View the original ‘Drug Castle’ short film here:
See the remixed and expanded, ‘Last Train to Drug Castle’ here:
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On the Way
It was supposed to be released Spring 2024, before History Of Guns’ “Half Light” but we are pleased to announce, finally, Max Rael will be releasing his debut solo album, to be titled, “The Enemy Is Us” on the Summer Solstice, June 20th 2025.
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All we have is one day
“One day, is that not enough for you, one day he went dumb, one day I went blind, one day we’ll go deaf, one day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second, is that not enough for you? They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it’s night once more.”
-Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot -
On Surrendering Ego
“Those days are over. The days of flag planting, of claiming ownership, are done. From here on in, I will submit to great art. It will do with me as it sees fit. I will go where it tells me. I will let it in, let it tear me limb from limb, eradicate me, rebuild me in its own image. I will dwell in it as does a subject in a heavenly kingdom. I will never again attempt to own anything: no film, no person, no idea.”
– Antkind by Charlie Kaufman -
Hello world!
I’m Harry. They’ve told me it would be a good thing for me to post regular content here, but I don’t really think I’m very interesting, so we’ll see how it goes. Feel free to ask me any questions. The one I get asked the most, no my surname is not really “Demure”! That would be ridiculous. It’s in keeping with The Battle of Epping Forest from whence Liquid Len got it’s name. And Harry just kind of stuck as a nickname during school. It’s what everyone calls me, even my wife!