Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus

Where to start? The name? The reference to a terrorist group in the Spanish-French film Ese Oscuro Objeto del Deseo (That Obscure Object of Desire)? That they've existed since 1985 and only popped out 5 albums (3 of which were in the last 6 years)? That half their songs are in French/Italian/Latin/Portuguese but the band is just a bunch of Liverpudlians called Jon, Paul (note: they are not a Beatles side project), Dave, Sue and Les. That they perform live once in a blue moon and when they do its laden with scenes from Tarkovsky films?

RAIJ are quite simply one of the most distinctive music groups (let alone Christian music groups) I have ever come across.

Think Dead Can Dance meets Orthodox Priests meets those ridiculous recordings you made in your bedroom when you were 14 and only your mum ever heard. And I mean that as a compliment. One minute you're listening to gothic folk excursion interspersed with Italian excerpts about the sanctity of life, next minute you're on a 12 minute journey of ethereal and haunting beauty, juxtapose with industrial noises more at home on a Nine Inch Nails record. What better place to start this blog but with a celebration of such music.

RAIJ are a refreshing and beautiful escape from the homogeneity of modern life and the religious institution of Christianity. They are an invigorating and effervescent soul cry; a melancholic and sombre dance of divinely inspired art; a celebration of the mysterious and unsearchable nature of the Divine that Paul writes about in Romans 11. 

Alongside all of this, what I love about RAIJ is that they really are the definition of underground music. Interviews and videos of the group are few and far between - potentially because they started back when the internet was but a meagre fledgling - but also because the group appears to live and breathe the enigmatic nature that they present in their art. The group has been resistant to ‘explaining' what they're about - their own Bandcamp says that they “have confounded musical classification and studiously declined every invitation to explain their unique form of musical and artistic experimentation."

This may beg the question for some as to what they actually do believe. This article on the Church Times gives you a good feel for what the group are all about:

“Christianity is a shared position for the RAIJ, and beyond that there are different forms and shades of personal commitment. The shared position is that Christian ideas and experience are a vocabulary for the pursuit and rediscovery of the sacred.

“In particular, we have been influenced by the Orthodox tradition and its understanding of restoration. For the Orthodox, the icon is not a representation of something sacred: it is a sacred object; it’s a fragment of glorified nature, a moment of eternity framed in a finite space.

“The Eastern Churches have always stressed God’s immanence and the active agency of the Holy Spirit. This is an idea that has appealed to us. There is a beautiful quote from the Orthodox writer Kallistos Ware — ‘Man’s purpose is not to dominate and exploit nature, but to hallow and transfigure it.’ This is the perfect imperative for the artist. Our creative methodology, how we go about identifying and collecting the sources and fragments that are part of our compositions — to us this is not about deconstruction: it feels like restoration. We are trying to reassemble and reconnect things in a way that reveals a deeper truth and a more elusive beauty."

I grew up in an evangelical protestant context where the words ‘Orthodox' and ‘Icon' would send shivers down the spine of even those who were actually allowed to read Harry Potter and Rupert the Bear (I swear I wasn't allowed to read the latter due to the elves. My mum adamantly denies this). So, naturally, my probably post-evangelical self was drawn immediately to the RAIJ.

I think the form of Christianity I had been overly saturated in had certainly blinkered my outlook on spirituality and what God is/isn't. My discovery of RAIJ came at a time when I really needed to discover a different side of the Divine - one that was far from the paralysing perfectionism that pervades Western culture (and thus, the Western church). The music from RAIJ may not fit some people's high production value standards but it certainly meets a level of creativity and sacred searching far greater than most.

I've placed a few of my favourite songs throughout this blog post but you can listen to their first 4 albums on Bandcamp and download the entire catalogue for just £22.40. Bargain. Their social media presence is minimal and they are not to be found on Spotify (which makes them all the more exciting).

Their first 3 albums (The Gift of Tears, Mirror, beauty will save the world) are their best work imo but their latest album, Songs of Yearning, is still very good, just not quite as experimental as the first...so naturally everyone else will enjoy a lot more than me. You can check out a video of a single they released a couple of years ago at the bottom of this page.

I'll leave you with this quote from an interview they did with Bandcamp:

“I think we think of ourselves as confused individuals, stumbling around in the dark, trying to find some recognizable landmarks. Trying to find our way home."

What is Pool of Siloam?

“After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 'Go,' he told him, 'wash in the Pool of Siloam' (this word means 'Sent'). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing." (John 9: 6-7)

Pool of Siloam is a music blog for the alternative and experimental side of Jesus-themed music. Born out of both a love for the weird and wonderful, and a frustration at the lack of Jesus-themed music with an experimental, angsty, intense, and playful twist.

The purpose of Pool of Siloam is to showcase and celebrate some of the lesser known, more underground, and more thought provoking music which explores Christian themes. The music I share on this blog is not restricted to those identifying as Christian and some of the music may surprise/challenge/offend you. Many have had a far greater understanding of the wisdom and nature of God than those proclaiming to be Christians. From Roman Centurions crucifying Christ to the prophets of our day like Johnny Cash and Kanye West.

“Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’"

The Pool of Siloam was the location for the story of Jesus healing a blind man. In the story Jesus rubs mud in blind man's eyes and tells him to wash in the Pool of Siloam (a pool built back in the 7th Century BCE by Hezekiah and although it has undergone several developments by the Romans and Byzantines, it still exists today in modern day Israel. I was lucky enough to go there a few years ago and see the site for myself). It's a less than conventional way of healing and probably not advised by most medical professionals.

I've named this blog after this story for two main reasons. 

Firstly, because God does not work by human wisdom of how things should be done. I have always struggled to connect spiritually with God through the more conventional ways of worship and prayer, and have often opted to find God in the weird and wonderful, particularly through more experimental music which is not always theologically watertight and perfectly produced. But my experience of God and the God we see throughout the Bible, is that he/she/it/they are mysterious and cannot be tamed by human thinking.

Secondly, I want this blog, like the story of the blind man, to be a story of healing for myself and those reading/listening. I have often been frustrated by the church and by other Christians for neglecting - or even discounting - the angsty, melancholic, and sorrowful side of Christianity. I have found myself tied up in knots trying to explain why I struggle with much of Christianity, the religion. And I have particularly found CCM (Christian Contemporary Music) lacking and severely disappointing in its scope and depth of the musical spectrum. I do not however want this to be a CCM bashing blog - there is nothing inherently wrong with the CCM sound. However, as CS Lewis puts it in The Problem of Pain, to be a follower of Christ, we must embrace the diversity and difference in our world:

“Surely each of the redeemed shall forever know and praise some one aspect of the Divine beauty better than any other creature can. Why else were individuals created, but that God, loving all infinitely, should love each differently? This difference, so far from impairing, floods with meaning the love of all blessed creatures for one another. If all experienced God in the same way and returned [to God] an identical worship, the song of the Church triumphant would have no symphony...the blessed remain eternally different: a society, because each has something to tell all the others - fresh and ever fresh news of the 'My God' whom each finds in [God] whom all praise as 'Our God'"

This blog is my way of celebrating the music I love and saying no to any condemnation that may have come my way for connecting with God in less conventional ways. I do not want to blame others or be angry towards the 'church' or 'Christians' for this will not be fruitful - I will recognise the hurt and anger but I also want to heal from it to allow myself and others to flourish in all of our weird, wacky, and wonderful beauty.

Thanks for getting this far - now let's go listen to some awesome music!!