#(to what degree depends on fan attitudes and general atmosphere)

[amplexadversary]

You should not be sorry for puns. Puns kick ass :P

Okay so my opinion on the new ones, in order:

-I love Master and Puppet. It sums up the situation so well. (Bonus points for being a song but I don't know how well-regarded Metallica is these days)

-Trick of the Heart or Throwing Cards both work better for the pairing. But as a trivia fan and an edgelord I personally really really like Suicide Joke.

(I'm aware there *is* a boring explanation for the KoH "Suicide King" rabbithole but I don't let that stop me from being an edgelord. Although it loops back around to being edgy when you point out the whole thing is because the king lost his (axe) head. Neither of those brands of edgy particularly suit Domon or Argo though, so the other options win out to an unbiased perspective.)

-Both options work, but King Pinned already thematically works so well with the situations Domon finds himself in on a regular basis. It's really good.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't recall if I've commented on the first set before, but here are my opinions.

-I am biased in a very particular way in regards to the Rain/Domon/Allenby triangle, so I'm going to hold my comment other than to say I like the names Hearts and 2 of a Kind.

-Going by actual poker definitions Royal Flush and Full House would be more appropriate if they swapped pairings, but I *did* have to look that up. And just going by the names alone and what sounds right, Full House sounds much more like a poly ship name. Unless I'm drastically underestimating how common-knowledge Poker terminology actually is, they're probably better as they are.

-I had to look up Pinochle but that's extremely on the nose. That is an explicit association between the Queen of Spades and Jack of Diamonds. A+.

-As much as I love Marie Louise, she is the vanilla option for George. Excellent pun 10/10

-I don't understand if this term technically refers to a single ace or a pair of them in Poker (presumably if "Ace High" refers to the "single" category then "Aces High" refers to the "one pair" category?). Either way, fits with the playing card theme, also the name of a classic rock song. I'd give it a B+.

-Jokers Wild fits with the card theme better but I really, REALLY like Bomb and Bondage. That sweet sweet alliteration.

-I'd probably need Blind Destiny explained to me tbh. It works on a vibes level because Graham is very much blinded to the truth for most of his arc. I'd have probably gone with a tongue-in-cheek "Blind Justice," (with the irony of "blind" meaning something other than what it usually does as part of that phrase, i.e. "unobserving" rather than "unbiased") but I can be persuaded.

-Rainfall is both taken right out of the dialogue of the show, and it sounds like Windfall, which is appropriate because Saette was really damn lucky he ran into THE only person available equipped to deal with what he was afflicted with. Perfect ship name 11/10.

-Operating Circuits works because they have tech expertise in common, but it doesn't really have the "oomph" of some of the other ship names (not that I have anything better to offer for this one, as much as I like the pairing). I'd give it a solid "C" in comparison to your other ones.

-I like Nobel Doctor because it instantly establishes who the pairing consists of, and most people would associate the words with each other. 8/10. Rising Arrow seems a lot more centered on Rain than Allenby but it does get points for being the move Rain used to rescue her. 7/10.

-Both the Wong/Master ships work because each character is associated with one of the games. I do prefer "Checkmate" slightly because of more positive word association, but that is entirely personal preference (an argument could be made that Master Asia's change in alliance from the Shufflie Alliance to Wong makes the association with Wong's preferred game the better choice but I don't see that as a particularly strong argument. Also counterargument to my argument, Wong uses his Gundam battle board more like an RP thing than a chessboard, making associating with Master's card game theme more appropriate.)

-Wong and Ulube are both Fashionable and Evil. Solid A.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I would like to propose one of my own, which is a bit of a crackship but it's also centered around a pun:

-Ulube x Rain --> Fantoma of the Opera (because it's fucked up like the musical, teases Ulube's fashion choices and machine, and you can play off whomever else you ship with Rain (Domon, Saette, Kyoji, Chibodee, George, etc.) as Raoul.)

So once upon a time @cyanide-latte and I came up with a non-exhaustive list of ship names for G Gundam. It's a hurricane of puns. I should be more sorry.

Domon x Rain --> Hearts

Domon x Allenby --> Two Of A Kind

Domon x Chibodee --> Royal Flush

Chibodee x George --> Pinochle (or, Politically Offensive, if you prefer)

George x Marie-Louise --> French Vanilla

Sai x Cecile --> Aces High

Argo x Nastasha --> Jokers Wild (or Bomb And Bondage, if you prefer)

Argo x Andrew --> Blind Destiny

Rain x Saette --> Rainfall

Rain x Kyoji/Schwarz --> Operating Circuits

Rain x Allenby --> Nobel Doctor [for a romantic ship] ; Rising Arrow [for their platonic brOTP ship name]

Prime Minister Wong x Master Asia --> Trump Card [or] Checkmate

Prime Minister Wong x Major Ulube Ishikawa --> Fashionably Evil

Shuffle Alliance polyship --> Full House

[adrianalvas]

Podcast 188: Figure Section [aufnahme + wiedergabe] [ +Interview]

Figure Section arose from the meeting of Austrian-French musician and actress Olivia Carrère - aka Olive - and Belgian artist and producer Yannick Franck (RAUM, Orphan Swords, Mt Gemini), who first crossed paths on a theatre stage in Brussels.

Although founded on an acknowledgement of these styles, their execution is experimental, idiosyncratic and entirely modern in spirit, guided by an intent to revise their influences and an approach shaped by romanticism and a surreal, Dadaistic sense of humour. The recurrent themes of the project address friendship, love, loss, existential angst, survival, irony, degeneration, queer culture, non-conformity and ‘the expiation of tensions through modern day rituals’.

The duo’s first single ‘Teutonic Knights’ was hailed by The Brvtalist as an illustration of ”infectious wave [music] with an eerie atmosphere and frigid vocals”, a track that subsequently generated widespread acclaim. In October their debut EP was released on the cult Berlin based label run by Phillip Strobel, aufnahme + wiedergabe.

TF: What motivates you to create Figure Section?

O: My collaboration with Yannick is an intersection between a strong friendship and similar interests and tastes in music. What’s more, the collaboration between us is really complementary in the creative process and allows us to explore new musical playgrounds which neither of us would probably reach if we were working separately.

Y: There are certain musical realms I wanted to explore for a long time whilst doing very different projects (Orphan Swords, RAUM, Y.E.R.M.O.), and since we met and started to experiment together, we dreamed of having a proper duo. It took time but here we are, I am very glad the project exists and I couldn’t dream of a better companion to do it with.

TF: Tell us something about you. What’s your background? Where did you studied and who influenced you to explore musical processes?

O: My background is rather diverse, and it took me a long time to discover how intimate I was with music as a listener, but also as a composer. I come from a theatrical background. I trained as an actress, though I started my studies with a degree in communication – specifically in socio-cultural animation - knowing that I would change path after obtaining it. It’s quite funny to see how tortuous life can be before finding your way through and beyond all these experiences. When I started as an actress ten years ago, something was missing in my professional contribution. I was desperately looking for some creative language that I could develop on my own. I was already familiar with singing since my childhood, so I started learning the basics of music theory online, and quickly I realized that I wanted to compose songs, and to find the easiest way of recording them without any external help. I got my hands on a keyboard and software and started composing, singing and producing at home. It was more a secret process for a few years, until I created a solo piece in the National Theatre of Belgium, which involved performing some of my compositions. This was a fundamental step where I learned that, with the music, I could be really free in the writing and performing process.

Y: I studied painting, but it quickly became clear that music was a territory worth exploring and one that I had to invest my time and energy into. Since I was pretty disgusted by the blatant materialism and the general mindset of the art world; the galleries, and a lot of the attitudes adopted by other artists (competitiveness, individualism, tendency to follow an art world, scale version of the Star System), I found there would be more freedom making music. People attend a concert to have an experience. Anyhow I love art, all sorts of art and my friends are usually creative people. Also, there have never been any boundaries for me, you can build sonic sculptures or paint rhythms, you can conceive a concert as a performance, you can do whatever you want. I recently moderated a panel at BOZAR about the underground art scene in New York in the 80’s, in East Village in particular. I had the pleasure of interviewing Dany Johnson (she was a resident DJ at Club 57 and later at Paradise Garage), Leonard Abrams (he ran the fabulous magazine The East Village Eye) and Gil Vasquez (DJ and president of the Keith Haring Foundation) and what struck me was the fact that at that particular moment in that scene you had zero boundaries between visual art, music, dance, performance… Klaus Nomi shared the bill with Ann Magnuson and John Sex and Haring curated shows and painted almost 24/7 while listening to music. It was all about energy. It’s academicism and speculation (art as a luxury product) that kills such energies (and eventually did in that case) Two different problems, both normative and alien to any creative essence. I stumbled upon a Serge Daney quote lately: ‘Academicism is the aesthetics of nihilism.’ And I agree with that, once you “do things because that’s the way they’re done”, reproduce them in blind fidelity and separate, classify, and annihilate boundary breaking forces, you start producing numb, meaningless objects. In this case a painting has to go from a gallery to a living room or a collection where it belongs. Is it a nice base material for speculation or a good way to seem educated and exhibit your taste as a buyer, to impress others? Hell no…a painting is rather an expression of life itself, a celebration, an exhibition of the worlds revolting features, its horrors, its injustice, its sadness, qualities and themes such as these…in every case it is an essential, vital gesture. Otherwise why even take a look at it? Music should be just the same.

TF: Do you spend all your time for your musical activity or do you have another job?

O: Yes, I do now. The musical activity has taken the vast majority of my time even though I’m still performing as a theatre actress, but that part of my professional activity is becoming more and more scarce. I’ve been recently offered to create music for theatre. So, my work today is divided between Figure Section, and other emerging projects for which I compose and produce for other artists, and my work as a music composer for the theatre. Maybe one day I will come back to the stage with a performance in which I’ll be the actress as well as the musician. I do keep an eye on that prospect even though it’s not the priority for the moment.

Y: I teach sound in cinema. We analyze movies and their soundtracks most of the time. It is a very interesting way to make a living next to music making.

TF: How is your live set up going to be? Any particular equipment? What’s your favourite track to play live and why?

O: We are working on the simplest and most efficient way of touring. So, our set is based on live keyboard playing, voice mixing, and equalizing the tracks live. So, there’s no particular equipment at the moment.

Spectral Dance, is one of my favourites to play live. It’s a more nostalgic synthpop song that offers a vast sense of space for the vocals and the keyboard parts. I just love its simplicity, almost naïveté, contrasted by lyrics about pernicious ghosts from the past that try to keep us from moving forward.

Y: There is a lot of different processes and ideas colliding and merging in Figure Section. It is always quite challenging for us to write a new song and perform it on stage. I think my favourite live song is currently Disfigured Section. We both sing on that one and I love that. Lyrics and vibe wise it’s sort of a Neo Dada track, maybe a tad surrealistic too, from apparent nonsense a lot of sense can emerge from the lyrics. Also, it is nervous, rough, noisy, kind of pissed off. At the same time desperate and full of energy. A union of opposites.

TF: What new hardwares did you apply to make 'Spectre' LP? Do you have a particular method while working in the studio?

O: There’s no new hardware utilized, but we have a more precise choice of instruments these days as well as a particular approach in the production process. Yannick and I work just as well separately as together in the studio. It just helps us to be more efficient because of our very different schedules. We both share online a musical file filled with musical ideas, loops, drums and lyrics. We are both the composers and mixers of the songs, but Yannick is more the writer and the producer and I’m more the arranger and singer. I think that we have now reached the perfect balance in the creative process, which is almost symbiotic.

Y: Yes, it is super interesting because I never know where Olive is going to take a song to when she starts working on it with her great skills and sensibility. What I know is that great stuff will eventually happen, leading to things that will stimulate us and give us even more ideas.

TF: How do you compose this tracks? Do you treat them like musical narratives or more like sound sculptures or images?

O: It really depends on the material. Sometimes Yannick comes with a very complete composition and I add the keyboard and voice arrangements, sometimes I come with a proposition and he completes it. Our strongest asset as a duo is that we started music completely differently, Yannick as an electronic experimentalist and performer, and I as a pop songwriter and singer. So, what we do is bring these assets together in our songs. I think the first track of the Spectre release is the perfect example of that symbiosis. This is what we aim for.

Y: Yes, it is a creative adventure, we have no such thing as a clearly established routine, it’s more laboratory like. It is not “experimental music” but the way it is done is not conventional either.

TF: Any movie, documentary, album (not electronic music) that you would like to share with our readers?

O: We are big fans of horror, thrillers and sci-fi. The last movie that left me fascinated as well as horrified is Midsommar by Ari Aster. I loved that movie because its director knows how to subtly inject weird elements of comedy that make you feel uncomfortable, as well as conveying an ice-cold intrigue about ancient pagan practices and rituals. Loved it.

Y: +1 for Midsommar. I loved that the movie never seems to bring any judgment about the neo-pagan community it depicts, it is just utterly different from what we know but it seems to make sense no matter how shocking it can be. It gives us a break from the ethnocentric attitude of many North Americans and from the extreme arrogance of modern western civilizations, which seem to be absolutely convinced of their superiority to any previous or different civilizations. Also, the visual effects are amazing. Der Goldener Handschuh (The Golden Glove) was quite a great movie too. Being utterly disgusted by this ugly, messy, desperate serial killer’s gruesome murders without being able to restrain myself from laughing was for sure a wild experience. And it really triggers thoughts afterwards. Moral thoughts especially. I found it pretty strong. A non-electronic album: Lux perpetua by Ensemble Organum, which is a very particular version of the Requiem by Anthonius de Divitis. It is such a beautiful requiem and such an incredible interpretation; it even features throat singing which is very unusual in the context of European polyphonic reinterpretations. 15th century art tends to focus a lot on death and mortality. And as Regis Debray said in his 1992 book The Life and Death of Images: “Where there is death there’s hope, aesthetically speaking.”

TF: What are the forthcoming projects?

O: Wrapping up our debut LP.

Y: We are also planning tours, confirmed dates are in Israel and the US so far but more will be announced later on. It would be fabulous to come play in Mexico too!

source https://www.tforgotten.org/single-post/Podcast-188-Figure-Section-aufnahme-wiedergabe-Interview