#(whenever i like a song from an artist i tend to add like 99% of their discography to my playlist which is why i did that LMAO)

[youredreamingofroo]

shuffle your favorite playlist and post the first five songs that come up. then copy/paste this ask to your favorite mutuals >:)

AGSH THANK YOU GUYS 😭😭😭 ( @alientown and @bouncytrait ) ILYYY THIS IS SO SWEET

anyways here's some songs from my fav 500+ song playlist LMFAOOO

1, Real Fellas by Frizk 2, ROCK THAT SHIT! by asteria 3, Drifting by Good Kid 4, Delicate by eli. 5, Veldt by Brakence

(here's two extras cuz two extra ppl asked me <;))

6, Fajita! by Roe Kapara 7, bigassbearman by ericdoa

[celticrune]

and for u the uneven numbers of the oc questions thing!!

…boiUnder a cut for length

1. Your first OC ever?From the OCs on my ask page, that’d be Morana. I created her for my first DnD campaign, when I needed an npc to beef up the party. She’s grown a lot since then, especially since I started playing her as a PC, but yea she’s fun.

My first OC ever is more difficult. I think the technical first would be a fan oc I made for an rp, Arya. Wait no that’s wrong she’s the second. The forums were taken down so I can’t check, but I’m pretty sure the first rp I joined there was a dinosaur rp, where I played like a velociraptor also called Arya (I was very creative). I might’ve written some stuff before that but I don’t remember, so I’ll count this.

3. Have you ever adopted a character or gotten a character from someone else?nope

5. If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be? oh jeez. don’t make me choose between my children

7. Are your OCs part of any story or stories?Well, do DnD campaigns count as stories? I’ve also written oneshots for various characters, and I’ve got a giant college au with @spitaverse-burr and @kima-ladyofvord​ that features all our character which could count as a story.

So yeah basically all of them.

9. Would you ever be willing to give any of your OCs to someone else?why?? that’s the main question I have for adoptable OCs just why. not in a judgey way, i just genuinely do not understand

11. Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a “sunshine”? Tanwen. She’s the only pure character I have, all the rest are assholes. Tanwen is an actual ray of sunshine she’s great

13. Do you have any troublemaker OCs? Keiji, 100%. Whisper as well, if it’s something "cool” or if she was dared to. Though, Whisper is still pretty nervous about actually breaking the law, so it depends a bit on what it is.

Raya is not an active troublemaker so much as she has a casual disregard for these odd rules of civilization. She lives in forests like 99% of the time give her a break.

15. Do you like to talk about your OCs with other people?yes

17. Any OC OTPs? oh boy do i ever. Morana and Lux’ Rorik, Temperance and Lux’ Chal, Val and Tori’s Lytte, Keiji/therapy (maybe also Keiji and Lux’ Wyatt), Raya/trees, Tanwen and Lux’ Ghilli (they’d be so cute..)

19. Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why)All of them, honestly. They’re all a part of me and they’re all very lovely assholes

21. Your most artistic OCNone of them really have a defined artist thing in their canon, but Keiji likes carving little wood birds to keep his hands busy during long watches and the like. Tanwen loves reading sappy romance novels, and in the college au she’s definitely written some terrible friendfiction (it’s like her one big secret, apart from the sister thing). 

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?this is difficult damn. I think maybe Keiji? The first concept I had for him was “a monk who’s had to leave their order, and is v bitter and angry about it”. His backstory hasn’t changed, but his way of dealing with it has. I ended up dumping a bunch of my issues on him, and now he’s far more betrayed than angry, and he hides it all behind humour and snark. 

Beside him, Morana has also changed. I introduced her as a quiet, pragmatic npc character. Since I started playing her she’s gotten a lot more emotional and she’s found a temper (and a tragic backstory)

25. The OC that resembles you the most (same hobby, height, shared like/dislike for something etc?)As mentioned above, Keiji has a lot of my issues, mainly the selfdestructive habits and never talking about your feelings or being honest about them ever. 

Raya has my love for nature and natural magics. Morana has my curiousity, the love for knowledge and the need to know (even if it comes at the cost of summoning a devil). Whisper has my protectiveness, and subsequent troubles with communicating it. 

Honestly, they all have parts of me, cause well that’s just what happens when you create characters. and i love them all they’re good

27. Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song? nope

29. Which one of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at night without telling anyone they’re going?Keiji. Whisper would only do it on a dare so there’d be other people involved. Morana definitely would, because she’s dumb and reckless and in search of cryptids. 

31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really)ohohohoho. I recently found the conversation where Lux, Tori, and I talked about this for the college au.

Morana has a blog devoted to cryptids, but she also reblogs all history posts she can find. (she corrects them and adds sources if necessary). Surina isn’t technically in this au, but I could see her running like a fitness blog. Raya has a gardening blog, with tips and logs about her own plants. Val would have a lot of selfies w Lytte (and more pictures of just her), a lot of backstage pics from theatre, actual journal posts on recommendation of their therapist, and a truly worrying amount of posts about how to hide various weapons on your person.

Tanwen would run one of those cutesy study blogs, with prettily coloured to do lists, pictures of an organised workspace, and lots of self care tips for exam week. Keiji has various sideblogs. He has a fitness blog which is also about his martial arts studies, a shitpost meme blog (his main), an edgy aesthetic blog (bruised knuckles, people smoking on top of buildings, that kinda thing), and probably more.

Whisper would run like a proper blog blog, with logs from her many scouting trips and like mountain climbing adventures. Also a lot of pictures from those. Temperance isn’t really interested in going through the hassle (cause y’know blind), and Mokir is a cat. There is a tumblr and a linked twitter account dedicated to every sighting, and pictures and applause whenever he’s attacked someone.

33. Your shyest OC?Either Tanwen or Whisper probably, though neither of them are that bad. Tanwen can speak up and is stubborn enough to defend her opinion when it counts (which is often), and Whisper overcompensates with bluster and rambling.

35. Any sibling characters? Nope. I mean, some of them have siblings, but i don’t have two characters who are siblings

37. Introduce an OC who is not quite human Morana and Temperance are tiefling. They’re a race which used to be human, until they were corrupted by demons, and now they look various levels of demonic. Surina is a dragonborn, so definitely not human. Val is a half-elf, though they’ve passed as both elven and human. Raya is a woodelf. Mokir is a rakashan, so basically an anthro cat. He’s based off like norwegian forest cats, so he’s an already burly and tall man who’s then like 50% fur it’s hilarious. 

39. Introduce any character you want Well in that case let me introduce the characters from The Roles We Play, since they’re not on my blog. Astra is a highelf wizard and she’s adorable. She’s quite shy, but she loves talking about the stars and magic, and someone else always needs to be on watch with her because she will without fail be distracted by watching the stars.

Nira is a human paladin of the Raven Queen. Her family didn’t quite agree with her choice to go study, but she found a second family with the order. She loves adventure, and she’s always the one most eager to explore ancient ruins and dangerous-looking caves.

Rémi is a half-elf bard. He’s the mom friend of the team, armed with exasperation and fond amusement, always ready to talk his friends out of jail. He also carries at least four instruments on his person at any given time.

Vengeance is a tiefling ranger with an owl companion called Hope. They go by Ven, most of the time, and they tend to be a voice of reason. They favour dry humour and snark, and they often spend long watches carving wooden figurines. 

41. Has anyone drawn fanart of your OCs? If yes, maybe show a picture or two here (remember sources & permissions!)Yes! Lux is a gift to god’s good earth and they have a lot of amazing art here, including some of my characters~

43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confessWell, one thing I noticed recently-ish is that almost none of my characters tend to be honest with their feelings. Keiji’s the most obvious, but Tanwen, Morana, Surina,  Whisper, Val, Temperance, they all have an element of acting, of being various levels of two-faced, of pretending you’re fine always. They all do it in different ways, but yeah.

Another thing is that I tend to make low charisma characters? like so many of them have cha as their dump stat. I also find it difficult to play low-int characters, so they all tend to have a higher intelligence.

45. A character you no longer use?Not from the characters on my oc page, but there are a shitton of characters from my rp days who I’ve abandoned.

47. Has anyone ever (friendly) claimed any of your OCs as their child?..probably. Can’t recall any specific examples rn, but I think Val’s been adopted more than once, same with Whisper. Val and Lux’ Chal also have a fun au where Chal adopts Val and runs away with her, and they become a family and travel together and it’s all fun and good until Temperance’s assassins manage to chase them down. 

49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memes Keiji. 100%

[dustedmagazine]

Dust, Volume 3, No. 8

Photo of the Como Mamas by Zach Smith

This week’s collection of short reviews spans the sacred and the profane, from gospel to sleazeball r ‘n r.  It includes two Armenian singers (one current, one historic), a wild marimba, a batch of Haggard covers and a collection of 15 compositions for solo bass.  This week’s contributors include Justin Cober-Lake, Ben Donnelly, Jennifer Kelly, Bill Meyer, Derek Taylor, Mason Jones and Jason Bivins.

The Como Mamas — Move Upstairs (Daptone)

The Como Mamas — the trio of Ester Mae Wilbourn, Della Daniels, and Angelia Taylor — come from a deep gospel tradition. Their career might be marked by their appearance on Daptone's Como Now compilation from a decade ago, but they've been singing together since forever, and their harmonies and locked-in vocals show it. For Move Upstairs, they're backed by a group a Daptone musicians called (for this gospel disc) the Glorifiers Band. Tight as always, the musicians stay out of the way, letting the powerful singers drive the record, but they add a necessary element. The Como Mamas might have stretch back to pure gospel, but while you'll catch a few songs connected to Dorothy Love Coates and the like, Move Upstairs is more a funk/soul album. Sonically, the group has more to do with, say, Sharon Jones than the Soul Stirrers. It works, sounding fresh and traditional at the same time. With an impeccable track list led by “99 and a Half Won't Do” and “I Can't Thank Him Enough” and a potent, updated sound, the Como Mamas sound like church energized, funk redeemed, or the meeting place of both.

Justin Cober-Lake

 Banana – Live (Leaving Records)

LIVE by BANANA

Marimba and vibraphone are unruly things to arrange, so bright and chiming, they can make a tune turn queasy, like strobe lights left on too long. In rock, from Zappa to Cate Le Bon, they're a signifier for things are getting odd.  Composer and producer Josiah Steinbrick keeps vibes under control, both literally and figuratively, with these four creations performed by LA art rock regulars, including members of Warpaint and Le Bon herself. Vibraphones are the lead, but reeds and woodwinds also accompany guitar, bass and keys.  Locked in 4/4 time, these instrumentals cycle like Glass, but the woodwinds provide a resistance to the percussion that remind me of the sweetly unnerving quality Henry Cow's Lindsay Cooper brought to the world. The second track, "B," winds an oboe through gamelan chiming, an exercise in hypnosis until the key changes unexpectedly and a George Harrison slide guitar starts to weep. The last one has piano chords stepping out into the ocean, deeper and deeper while the reeds swell like breeze, more minimal than the minimalism that came before it. Yet there's momentum throughout this, with the tracks detaching from time, rolling and shifting until you can't see the shoreline and are lost in the waves.

Ben Donnelly

 Abdou El Omari—Nuits De Printemps LP (Radio Martiko)

Abdou El Omari, we hardly knew you, and more’s the pity. The Moroccan keyboardist recorded one album and five singles in the mid-1970s, then disappeared from the world of recorded music until a recent reissue campaign yielded three similarly packaged LPs. The third, Nuits De Printemps, suggests that El Omari was on a roll when he ran out of studio access. Where the first LP focused on psychedelic Farfisa forays and the second his talents as an arranger and accompanist, this one is about instrumental experimentation. El Omari plays most of the lead lines on a synthesizer, which amplifies his music’s otherworldliness. One suspects that he was relatively new to the instrument, since he switches off to Farfisa whenever he needs to get nimble. The settings for his keyboard melodies are a mélange of au courant funk licks and more traditional hand percussion patterns. There’s no evidence that he was running out of gas, and one wonders what he might have done had he kept recording.

Bill Meyer 

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy — Best Troubadour (Drag City)

Best Troubador by Bonnie "Prince" Billy

Will Oldham has long admired Merle Haggard, not so much the ubiquitous 1960s stuff, but the later, more lived in material from the 1980s on. He had convened a band for an all-Haggard show in 2015 and was already considering a tribute album when Haggard died in 2016. This album, like What the Brothers Sang, 2013 Everly covers album with Dawn McCarthy, eschews hits (“Muskogee”) for more obscure territory, breathing warm, unassuming life into modestly arranged originals. Oldham’s voice is a good deal more cracked and weathered than commercial country ever allowed Haggard to be, and the settings tend towards the naturalistic (the album was recorded live to two track in Oldham’s home), so the covers sound a good bit less polished than the originals. But there’s a lovely, light filled lilt in cuts like “If I Could Only Fly” where Drew Miller’s sax weaves around artfully plucked banjo or in the slow, swampy interplay between Nuala Kennedy’s flute, wheezing accordion and that same banjo in “Pray.”  “Haggard (Like I’ve Never Been Before)��� swaggers and slinks bluesily, although in a homespun, acoustic kind of way, while the story song “Leonard” (about troubled hit maker Tommy Collins) frolics light-heartedly – that flute again – around a narrative of heartbreak. Even diehard Haggard fans may have forgotten about some of these songs, resurrected lovingly but not worshipfully by a crack band of indie folk players.

Jennifer Kelly

 Michael Pisaro — Resting in a Fold of the Fog (Potlatch)

Composer Pisaro is often associated with pieces that play with duration, instrumental aggregation or paring down and the exploration of tone. Those preoccupations are certainly audible on these two pieces, performed by Pisaro (here on laptop), guitarist Didier Anschour, and percussionist Stéphane Garin. “Grounded Cloud” sounds as impossible as its title, not just an evocative image but maybe also a statement of compositional intent. For quite a spell, various elements emerge almost imperceptibly, and seemingly spread apart: a high tone, a low thrum, then a minor detonation. But steadily, they come to sound as if they’re circling a common object. Lapping waves, big resonances and gusts of wind move through these recurrent events, which grower denser and more tense until they coalesce and the cloud opens for rainfall. Even better is the latest in Pisaro’s “Hearing Metal” series. “Hearing Metal 4 (Birds in Space)” opens with an extended meditation on a brilliantine single tone. Patiently over nearly 25 minutes, they conjure an absolutely riveting oscillation and overtone fantasy (and kudos to Garin for his tonal and timbral versatility in joining the singing tones). As notes pull in different directions, things get occasionally ragged and almost overdriven, and there’s even what’s basically a more staccato phase. But the music is drawn to convergence once more, ultimately returning to a thick hive buzzing and powerful single notes. Another enchanting document from Pisarao.

Jason Bivins

 Don Messina — Dedicated To… (Cadence Jazz Records)

An erstwhile sideman to Tristano-influenced pianist Sal Mosca, Don Messina seems amicably resigned to the reality that he will never achieve anything resembling household recognition as a master of the bull fiddle. That relative obscurity translates to a probable reason why his instrument is listed in parentheticals after his name both on cover and spine of Dedicated To… a disc of 15 pieces for solo bass. Some of the honorees are obvious. Oscar Pettiford, Sonny Dallas and Red Mitchell each receive richly-textured remembrances that reference the respective idiosyncrasies of their playing styles. Others like “Uncle Vinnie” and “Michael: The Odyssey” are harder to pin down (Burke and Scoppettuolo, respectively) by name, but prove equally effective at elucidating individual technical traits inherent to their subjects. Messina also serves as recording engineer, a role that’s a bit erratic in the program’s opening minutes, but smoother sailing as the disc progresses. Reliable throughout is the bassist’s supply of talent as he puts his strings through a rigorous set of paces and covers a gamut of stylistic bases.

Derek Taylor  

 Low Cut Connie — Dirty Pictures (Part 1) (Contender)

If you want to be reductive enough, you can just about trace a history of rock 'n' roll through Low Cut Connie's albums, digging up some Sun Records on Call Me Sylvia and touching on some classic R&B for Hi Honey, all built on Adam Weiner's boogie piano. New release Dirty Pictures (Part 1) gets swampier in its rock, and the Rolling Stones make their first appearance. For all of Weiner and company's thrill in old-time r'n'r, they're still inimitable, throwing in theatrical touches along with their general sense of abandon.  

Weiner's always sounded at home among the marginalized — the outcasts, the transgressives, the drunks. There's an edge now. “Death and Destruction” captures the current state of the world, and resists it by turning it into two and a half minutes of rock. The darkness still creeps in, maybe influenced by the political climate as well as the death of some musical icons. The band's live version of “Suffragette City” stuns, but it's Prince's “Controversy” that appears on the album, a fitting revelation of that artist's influence on Weiner's music (and not just his attitude). Tracks like “Angela” and “Montreal” show Weiner as a wry outsider, aware of the consequences of this entropic life. “Forever” is a farewell from a spotlight on a stage. But Low Cut Connie hasn't become maudlin or heavy. “Revolution Rock 'n' Roll” and “Dirty Water” provide rally cries from nowhere. The best way to fight the darkness is by standing on a piano bench, and Weiner doesn't sound ready to sit down any time soon.  

Justin Cober-Lake

 Luis Lopes/Fred Lonberg-Holm — The Pineapple Circumstance (Creative Sources Recordings)

 The pineapple is a symbol of hospitality, so perhaps this record is the product of some act of welcoming? Whatever the circumstance, Portuguese guitarist Luis Lopes and American cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm sound free of inhibition on this set of scrappy duets. Scrappy as in pugilistic — both players go at it from the get-go, slinging looped raygun blasts, shortwave static blasts and the occasional bent note or blasted chord that lets slip for a second that stringed instruments are involved. And scrappy as in repurposed metal — this stuff sounds like it is being hammered into shape, contorted into some new shape. But that welcoming fruit contradicts the impression that this music was born of conflict. No, this is a collegial comparison of coarse textures. Handle with care.  

Bill Meyer

 Zabelle Panosian — I Am Servant of Your Voice (Canary Records) 

I Am Servant of Your Voice: April-May, 1917 by Zabelle Panosian

Panosian came to America as a child, before tragedy was fully unleashed upon Armenians a hundred years ago, but as the notes to this release suggest, it's hard not to hear the violence weighing upon her as she recorded for the Armenian community in Boston. The music of the Caucasus works from a baseline of lament, but there's an extra creak of sadness to these six songs, even with the whispers-from-beyond feel that characterizes digitized 78s. Some of her melodic lines end with a Near East quaver, while other swoop like the light opera of the Anglophone world at the time. But these recordings feel caught between many worlds — sweatshop vaudeville and the folk of a vanished village, concert hall formality and memorial service elegy. There are two recordings of two of the songs, a testament to her popularity within a close-knit American subculture. The second take of "Groung", a song that truly claws at the heart, is dotted with the chirp of birds. "Groung" is Armenian for crane, but these chirps are more like sparrows on a windowsill. They do not lift the mood, rather they emphasize the inconsolable cry of Zabelle. Even under the blanket of pocked shellac and a century's passing her voice couldn't be more clear.

Ben Donnelly

 Pact Infernal — Infernality (Horo)

Following a pair of darkly rhythmic EPs, Pact Infernal release their first full-length, and with titles like "Initiation,” "Meditations,” "Talismans" and "Transmutation" it's fair to say they're perhaps giving away the plot ahead of time. While the concept may be overly obvious — yes, it's dark and murky and ritualistic and rhythmic — the album does deliver the goods. If you picture a marriage of Muslimgauze and Akkord, you'll arrive pretty close to Pact Infernal's sound here: a blend of intricate percussion, pulsing low end and horror movie cellar aesthetics. At times, it's almost too reminiscent of the late Muslimgauze, but the cavernous reverb and decidedly more shadowy hisses and bass tremors push it into a somewhat different realm. There's a lot of this style making its way around these days, but Pact Infernal have a good handle on it and Infernality is a solid offering on the doomy sacrificial altar.

Mason Jones

 Clara de Asís/Bruno Duplant—L’inertie (Marginal Frequency)

The cassette format begets humility, and there’s nothing bigheaded in the way that Clara de Asís and Bruno Duplant present their music. They might even be pulling our legs a bit; the album’s title L’inertie translates as Inertia, and its side-long pieces are named “La Paresse” (“Laziness”) and “La Lenteur” (“Slowness”).  But there’s nothing tossed-off about the patience and close listening that went into making this music. It is, essentially, a pair of drones built from de Asís’ continuous guitar sounds and Duplant’s organ chords. But within each apparently monolithic sound is a world of change; it’s just enacted, in the tradition of Eliane Radigue and Phill Niblock, in slow motion. Listen close and the drone splits into hums, whistles, and a subsonic presence that’ll make you think that someone has hidden a black hole in your boombox. Splendid stuff.  

Bill Meyer  

 Shamir — Hope (self-released)

Shamir's debut tracks were shiny electro r'n'b, edging close to indie with their lack of guile but backed with a sharp voice and persona that felt ready for the wide success, the kind occasionally visited upon eccentrics with a unique delivery and good pop instincts. For whatever reason, Ratchet didn't take off like it could have. The follow-up suggests there was a lot of strain behind the glow of "In For the Kill" and "Call it Off." Heck, those titles seem more tense in retrospect. Hope dispenses with r'n'b entirely. This is a hastily created collection of lo-fi guitar with bedroom overdubs. Arguably, r'n'b isn't quite entirely gone. "Like A Bird" retains the structure of Shamir’s previous work with beatbox loop, synth pads and careful belting. The result is stark, but wildly different than most low fi starkness, 'cause his voice has so much panache. "One More Time Won't Kill You" bunches up fuzzed notes-from-the-underground guitar and clumsy drum throb into a cruel and glorious mess of emotions. Shamir heard his vocal delivery compared to Juliana Hatfield and pieced together a Blake Babies cover, demonstrating the sort of crash-course in history that music streaming makes possible. This record brims with freedom, and consequently loses shape at moments when it's poised to really transcend. But who cares? It's pretty clear this guy is going to transcend soon enough. Hope melts down prior expectations and molds them into shapes that make Shamir even more of a standout. 

Ben Donnelly

 Bedouine — Bedouine (Spacebomb)

Azniv Korkejian sings effortlessly, in a soft, unaffected tone embellished with only the most modest jazzy flourishes. She sounds — no shade intended — a good bit like Karen Carpenter, although, perhaps a Karen Carpenter unobserved and free to sing as she pleased. And indeed, though, Korkejian’s background reads like a game of Risk (Armenian by ethnicity, raised in Syria, Saudi Arabia and the American south), it is her current sojourn in California that shows most in this debut. Give her a time machine, and she’d slip very comfortably into a sunny, sophisticated Laurel Canyon circa the early 1970s. Accompanied mostly by acoustic guitar, occasionally with swaths of string or brass, she manages to keep her songs pure and unfiltered, as if she were performing them in the chair across the room. And yet, though there’s a laid-back air, Korkejian never slouches. Even her spoke-sung intervals sound resonant and melodic; in a trill or jazzy slide, she turns casually arresting. You have to be confident to be this unassuming — and indeed it takes a certain amount of reverse chutzpah to name the lead-off track of your debut “Nice and Quiet” — but there’s something strong and self-assured in Korkejian’s reserve. Don’t expect to be grabbed but rather gradually subdued by charm.

Jennifer Kelly