I have a few friends, mostly female (yes, I have female friends, can we stay on topic here), who have taken up yoga recently and have had nothing but wonderful things to say about it. These are cynical people normally, so I was kind of taken aback by it. Yoga is not a new trend by any means, but heavy metal yoga? That's now a thing!
The Village Voice posted a piece earlier this week about BLACK YO)))GA, based out of Pittsburg. Black YO)))GA, obviously taking a cue from Urban Outfitters-favorites SunnO)) describes itself as "yoga set to drone, noise, stoner metal, ambient, industrial, trip-hop and other traditional meditation music."
Writer Nick Keppler attended one of these sessions and described it as such:
The room is lit only by two tin can-shaped-and-sized lights sitting in corners they offer about as much illumination as a pair of Yankee jar candles. Kimee Massie, the heavily tattooed instructor, comes over to help me put a foam block under my ass. It gives me some leverage and I feel a greater stretch in my inner thighs, but I still look over again to see how far the woman on the neighboring mat has gotten. I squint and make out the words on her t-shirt: "Fuck This. I'm Going Skateboarding."
Meanwhile, there is a dark, droning sound coming out of the stereo. Imagine the hiss that is omnipresent in David Lynch's Eraserhead overlapped by the slow diddling of an autistic noise-rock guitarist. It's oddly comforting in its non-invasiveness and consistency and I remember to inhale deeply.
As for how the music selection is picked out for the sessions:
The songs must share a few traits with the warm mood music and sitar jam sessions more common in yoga studio stereos: They have to be atmospheric and non-intrusive. Kimee doesn't want anything rhythmic or loud enough to distract students from their poses.
Makes sense. Overall, I've been a bit hesitant to try yoga, but if there was some SunnO)) blasting, it would certainly make the transition easier.
