#Cerberus Shoal

[gamtozu]

...and farewell to hightide (1996)

[dustedmagazine]

Big Blood — First Aid Kit (Ba Da Bing/Feeding Tube Records)

First Aid Kit by Big Blood

Big Blood is a family band, born of necessity. Multi-instrumentalists Colleen Kinsella and Caleb Mulkerin started it in 2006 because they couldn’t keep up with the intensive writing-rehearsal schedule of their old band, Cerberus Shoal, as they prepared for the birth of their daughter Quinnisa, but they didn’t want to quit making original music. While they weren’t up for rehearsing and writing prog epics on Cerberus Shoal’s scale, their own pace turns out to have been plenty brisk. They’ve made 25 recordings on their own, not including collaborative ventures with Micah Blue Smaldone, Elliott Schwartz, and Swans. Many of them were self-released CD-Rs of rough-hewn, rustic psychedelia; in recent years, Feeding Tube Records has committed several titles from their back catalog to vinyl.

While Colleen originally handled most of the singing, Quinnisa started turning up on Big Blood’s recordings by the time she was four years old. On their latest album, First Aid Kit, which was recorded when she was 13, she splits the leads half and half with Colleen. Her presence is not a matter of either habit or nepotism, since even though mother and daughter have similar singing styles, each has unique and complementary strengths. If the song requires emotional vulnerability, then you want Colleen at the mic. But if it needs bluster, Quinnisa has the edge. It makes sense; when you need attitude, call a teenager. 

Either way, their voices have what it takes to cut through the music’s ambient haze and put the tunes across. This is a more rocking album than others in Big Blood’s discography, albeit in a home-made fashion that used to get called lo-fi in a time when that term was a consequence of the gear people had rather than the filtering choices they made while recording and mixing with a computer. Everyone in the house plays guitars and drums. Colleen also plays various keyboards, and Caleb adds electronics and tape loops, including traces of some songs’ earlier takes. Recording is done on an eight-track tape machine, which contributes to the music’s aforementioned haziness. Their production has a steam-pressed quality, as though the background instrumental sounds had all been ironed onto the tape. Voices and drums, however, jump out of the mix, which suits the songs’ sturdy hooks. 

The music is stylistically diverse. While the Quinnisa-sung opener, “In My Head,” has a stomping rockabilly feel, Colleen’s “Haunted” and Quinnisa’s “1,000 Times,” with their massed backing vocals and anthemic choruses, sound like 1980s power ballads heard through a wall. And on the closer, “Weird Road Pt. 1,” drifting synths and crooning voices sounds like something Kate Bush might have done if she hunkered down in a drafty cabin in Maine instead of a spendy mansion in England. The mixture of direct, catchy tunes and idiosyncratically filtered production makes First Aid Kit into an incurable case of the ear worms.

Bill Meyer

[spilladabalia]

Cerberus Shoal - Sweetie

[haveyouheardthisband]

[gerogerigaogaigar]

Ok so I did my selection of albums and that post blew up as much as any of my posts do so now everyone I live with wants me to review their favorite albums. Since I'm a benevolent overlord I have acquiesced and so here are ten albums that my husband Felix wants you all to listen to as reviewed by me.

Fire On Fire - The Orchard

I was polite with my choices, but my dear husband decided to open his list with a one off side project by members of Cerberus Shoal. If you don't know the sorta post rock-y sorta folk band Cerberus Shoal then understand that this album is obscure even by the standards of that band's fans. Gone are the post rock tendencies of the parent band and instead the focus is solely on new weird Americana. New weird america is a musical movement that takes American primitivist and psychedelic folk music and mashes it up into something that is inevitably either pretentious garbage or revelatory beauty. This album is the latter. The music plods along with the grace of a broken machine. The music sounds like it is rusting as it moves and the nasally vocals grind along with the hulking monstrosities that are the songs of The Orchard. The music I'm describing may not sound pleasant, but the cacophony comes together in a harmonic cohesion that does for folk music what Charles Ives did for the symphony. There are many more artists that have a similar sound to Fire On Fire, but this album has a uniquely lumbering quality that is not recreated nearly as well by most other artists in the scene.

Sweet Trip - You Will Never Know Why

You Will Never Know Why is a major departure from Sweet Trips usual sound. The glitch elements have been dialed back, although electronic sounds still populate the album, and it is basically a straightforward shoegaze album. It pulls ahead of competitors partly for the incorporation of electronic music but also for excellent vocals that capture a sterile whispiness. Plus the bass which is so bubbly and tends to rise to the top of mixes to add counterpoint melody on top of the dual vocals. As usual for the genre layering is the key to the beautiful sound. The songs will lily along as bright shimmering sounds plink into the mix and fade out only to be replaced by some other noise.

Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog

While I'm still a fan of the first two Iron & Wine albums Shepherds Dog is clearly where he comes into his own as a performer. The instrumentation is punched up a bit with the occasional touch of horn or honky tonk piano to give the album a more dynamic feel. And the style has incorporated a little bit more rock edge as well. Songs like White Tooth Man help balance the album so that slower number like Resurrection Fern can really shine. Lyrically I can't tell you exactly what is going on in any given song. Sam Beam writes in little snapshots of ideas and paint an impression of a feeling rather than tell a story. I get the idea that he is rather scared of Americana though. And there is something about dog metaphors that really makes this man's brain go brrrrr. Overall I think The Shepherd's Dog is the most balanced of all the Iron & Wine albums I've heard. Successfully towing the line between folk rock and art rock.

Sufjan Stevens - Illinois

A legend among pretentious sadboys but always skirting the mainstream is Sufjan Stevens. Although he started out making indie folk his style quickly evolved and on Illinois (or Sufjan Stevens Invites You To: Come On Feel The Illinoise as the album cover says) he hit the first major stride of his career. Illinois features insanely elaborate arrangements that show a wide range of influences from minimalist composers to 70s singer songriters to show tunes. The songs all seem to be exercises in elaborate time signature and rhyme scheme or clever wordplay and in depth metaphor.

Now to address the obvious. This album is ostensibly about the state of Illinois. This is true in the same way that I said Beat The Champ was about wrestling. Some songs reflect heavily on things about the state. John Wayne Gacy Jr. Is a biography of the Illinois born serial killer, They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh! is about the abundance of ghost town in the state. Other songs make reference to the state but are a little more vague. Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!, Casimir Pulaski Day, and The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us! are really just personal stories that Sufjan Stevens has decided to set in Illinois. And the stories vary from very grand high concept things to very intimate and personal. Sometimes so personal that I am dubious of how much he stretches the truth to make these songs. But whether I buy it or not the arrangements are equally grand and intimate so the mood is always well designed.

Röyksopp - Melody A.M.

Some downtempo music is meant to get you up and dancing, some downtempo is trying to evoke complex feeling in the listener. Melody A.M. is aiming for something in between. It lays down tight grooves with bubbly bass lines and drops a variety of melodic sounds overtop with elements of downtempo, trip-hop, house, disco, and ambient music all present. It hits all the points for being a driving at night all contemplative style album, but it pulls back on the moodyness and leaves you with a gentle friendly sound instead. Lullabye melodies floating over house beats. The result is just an immensely pleasant listen. Melody A.M. is effective because it does more than just play on the current trends from when it was released, it pulls bit of electronic music from decades past from Tangerine Dream to Giorgio Moroder to Vangelis there is a lot of the past buried in this record. And the resulting love of slightly corny music makes the album feel so sincere without having to be deeply intellectual.

The Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas

During the recording of The Coroner's Gambit John Darnielle's trusty Panasonic RX-FT500 boombox shit the bed and he started working with newer technology. All Hail West Texas is the album he recorded after that busted Panasonic miraculously came back to life one day.

To listeners who got into The Mountain Goats through Tallahassee and later the lo fi production might be a little hard to take, but you will learn to love the tape hiss that is a staple of early Mountain Goats recordings. Truly it becomes it's own instrument being the only sound on the album outside of Darnielle's voice and guitar.

But this is Mountain Goats you are here for lyricism. John Darnielle has said that he writes songs of love and redemption for people that would never listen to his music. All Hail West Texas starts right off with one of the best examples of this. The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out Of Denton is so simple and so beautiful, and maybe the most emotionally affecting songs to feature the refrain of "hail Satan!" The album is about outcasts, toxic couples, traumatized kids. According to the cover it is "fourteen songs about seven people, two houses, a motorcycle, and a locked treatment facility for adolescent boys." The cryptic interconnectedness will drive you insane if you try to hard to figure it out so I'm sorry Felix I will not be analyzing the characters and storylines that are supposedly here. That's your job.

DJ Yoda - How To Cut And Paste Country Western Edition

You press play this album. The first thing you hear is backing beat from Fix Up, Look Sharp and then Thank God I'm A Country Boy by John Denver starts playing and then Dolly Parton's Nine To Five and then it transitions into a country version of Rapper's Delight. You are in the unhinged world of DJ Yoda who is trying to prove a point here. The point is that you can make a DJ mix out of anything if you are creative enough.

DJ Yoda is known for his use of humor and this mix is one of the more obvious instances considering that the whole concept is a bit of a joke. He puts a beat over I'll Fly Away and that is funny. He uses a sample of Johnny Cash on sesame Street. He uses a country cover of Gin And Juice. It's weird, but because Yoda is a master DJ he manages to never lose the flow, often transitioning songs by losing the beat and just playing the country music straight before dropping a beat in. He also frequently transitions between different versions of a song like Johnny Cash's Ring Of Fire seamlessly turning into a reggae cover by This Kid Named Miles.

The beauty of DJ mixes is already the way they can recontextualize songs in a way that is interesting. I think it goes without saying that you will have a lot of songs recontextualized for you if you listen to this mix.

Mariya Takeuchi - Variety

There was a time when the internet became really obsessed with the song Plastic Love. This was based partially in the fact that the song is a banger but also that people were sharing the picture sleeve for her Sweetest Music single as a lesbian thirst trap. So the Tumblr City Pop era was short lived but I never forgot.

The first thing you might notice about Variety is that it's very retro. The production is a mix of Phil Spector and Motown Styles. And musically it often follows suit. But the old school rock ballad style is also met with bits of 70s adult contemporary and disco. The result is songs that sound like Ronettes tracks with a Donna Summer bass line as the backbone. Songs that sound like James Taylor started using synths. Takeuchi has a voice that perfectly melds these styles into something cohesive so that the dance music style of Plastic Love can flow into the 60s girl group sound of Honki De Only You (Let's Get Married) without missing a beat.

City Pop may have been a niche phase for westerners with an internet addiction but it was one of the most dominant musical styles of the 70s and 80 in Japan. I had strongly considered this album as a 'should have been on the list' pick. If you listen to this album because of my review and like it do seek out more city pop, the genre is a goldmine that the West has barely scraped the surface of. Hell if you like this album DM me and I will rec you more Japanese pop from the 70s and 80s.

Murder By Death - Who Will Survive, And What Will Be Left Of Them?

With a name like Who Will Survive And What Will Be Left Of Them? by Murder By Death you would probably expect this to be death metal, but nope it's a gothic country rock album. Who Will Survive tells the story of a small Mexican border town that is cursed by the devil. The meat of the album is made up of songs that describe the ways that the townsfolk respond to the curse and their inevitable demise. The theme that runs through the album is mainly how people respond to mortality. Some people try to escape the town like in Pillar Of Salt which tells a sorta Orpheus and Eurydice adjacent tale. Some people think their tough like the narrator of The Desert Is One Fire who scoffs at the people sleeping in the shelters. Others give in to despair like the suicidal narrator of Three Men Hanging.

Along with the individual stories the narrative trickles out details about the nature of the curse. We quickly learn that the dead are rising from their graves as zombies, crops start to fail, the earth becomes unworkable, at least one person either physically or mentally decays as they approach the town border. The horror themed lyricism is backed by country rock music that creates the ominous atmosphere needed with the help of an ever present cello that takes a lot of melodic duty. It's a solidly spooky album that demands multiple listens just to parse out more of the story.

Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi - Rome

Danger Mouse is an interesting figure. Producer and musician interchangeably he can be found both as a featured performer, solo artist or as a producer credit nearly anywhere you look and he runs the gamut from extremely mainstream projects to the highly personal and artsy. Rome is most certainly the latter. On it Danger Mouse works with Italian composer Daniele Luppi to create a pop album inspired by the soundtracks to spaghetti westerns. In addition to Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi additional vocals and songwriting are added by Jack White and Norah Jones. White and Jones are natural fits for the slightly polished slightly lo fi sound of the album which is accomplished by recording on vintage equipment and working with musicians who had actually recorded on spaghetti westerns, notably The Good, The Bad And The Ugly.

While it has a lot of musicians and equipment used to record these classic soundtrack the music itself is a little more in the vein of traditional pop veering in the direction of spaghetti western on the instrumental tracks. This keeps the album from feeling strictly like an imitation and let's it be it's own thing.

[valentinsylve]

This is the person who got internet famous as a child for making up a song about a cheetah. She is also the child and bandmate of Colleen Kinsella and Caleb Mulkerin (Cerberus Shoals, Big Blood). She is excellent.

[zhanteimi]

Cerberus Shoal - The Land We All Believe In

USA, 2005, avant-folk / progressive folk / freak folk

[snackpointcharlie]

We here at Snackpoint Charlie are heartsick over what’s happening in the mideast, and faced with the prospect of making radio, we make no claims about the music we play holding greater answers than anything else. All we can promise is that we’ll do our best to navigate a peaceful path through this landscape of chaos, turmoil and pain. The full document of this week’s meltdown-a-thon has been fully ingested by WGXC’s patented Podcast-O-Matic™ technology and available for download at the link below:

Snackpoint Charlie - Transmission 125 - 2023.10.18 https://wavefarm.org/wf/archive/5jbc6p [ ^ click for download ^ ]

PLAYLIST

1) Andrzej Załęski - “Białowieża Forest: The Daytime 2” from DEER RUT TIME https://saamleng.bandcamp.com/album/deer-rut-time-2

2) Brian Dewan, Liverpool Cathedral Bell Ringers - “Split Staircase” from RINGING AT THE SPEED OF PRAYER https://briandewan.bandcamp.com/album/ringing-at-the-speed-of-prayer

3) TENGGER - “Twilight” from TENGGER https://tenggertengger.bandcamp.com/album/tengger

4) Billy Gomberg - “9:43” from A CHANGED MEANING https://billygomberg.bandcamp.com/album/a-changed-meaning

5) Blood Neon - “Mosaic X” from THE UNCANNY TIMES https://hivemindrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-uncanny-times

6) TENGGER - “Tosa” from SHIKOKU https://tengger.bandcamp.com/album/shikoku

(underbed:) Pinchas Gurevich - “Fsckingmajor”

7) Bitchin Bajas and Bonnie Prince Billy - “You Will Soon Discover How Truly Fortunate You Really Are.” from EPIC JAMMERS AND FORTUNATE LITTLE DITTIES https://bitchinbajas.bandcamp.com/album/epic-jammers-and-fortunate-little-ditties

8) Alice Coltrane - “Keshava Murahara” from THE ECSTATIC MUSIC OF ALICE COLTRANE - TURIYASANGITANANDA https://alicecoltrane.bandcamp.com/album/world-sprituality-classics-1-the-ecstatic-music-of-alice-coltrane-turiyasangitananda

9) Cerberus Shoal - “Yes Sir, No Sir” from CRASH MY MOON YACHT – DELUXE EXPANDED EDITION https://cerberusshoal.bandcamp.com/album/crash-my-moon-yacht-deluxe-expanded-edition

10) Chikh Ayyad Ou Haddou - “Aili ya Mali” from MUSIC OF MOROCCO: RECORDED BY PAUL BOWLES, 1959 https://dusttodigital.bandcamp.com/album/music-of-morocco-recorded-by-paul-bowles-1959

11) Aine O'Dwyer - “The Feast of Fools” from MUSIC FOR CHURCH CLEANERS VOL I & II https://mie.limitedrun.com/products/537633-aine-odwyer-music-for-church-cleaners-vol-i-and-ii-2lp

12) Pierre Henry - “Peaceful Deities” from LE VOYAGE - THE FANTASTIC JOURNEY FROM DEATH TO LIFE : AN ELECTRONIC SCORE BASED ON THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD https://www.discogs.com/master/45397-Pierre-Henry-Le-Voyage-DApr%C3%A8s-Le-Livre-Des-Morts-Tib%C3%A9tain

13) Delia Derbyshire & Barry Bermange - “Colour” from INVENTIONS FOR RADIO: THE DREAMS https://ubu.com/sound/derbyshire.html https://www.discogs.com/Delia-Derbyshire-Barry-Bermange-Inventions-For-Radio-The-Dreams/master/1051598

14) Sir Richard Bishop - “Graviton Polarity Generator” from GRAVITON POLARITY GENERATOR https://www.discogs.com/release/2598857-Sir-Richard-Bishop-Graviton-Polarity-Generator

15) Loftus - “Bell and Hammer” from LOFTUS https://califonemusic.bandcamp.com/album/loftus

16) Songs: Ohia - “Sweet Release” from BURLAP PALACE: A TRIBUTE TO THE MUSCLE SHOALS SOUND https://www.discogs.com/release/1785427-Various-Burlap-Palace-A-Tribute-To-The-Muscle-Shoals-Sound

17) Ben Seretan - “Rain and Cicadas” from CICADA WAVES https://benseretan.bandcamp.com/album/cicada-waves

18) Allen Ravenstine - “5@28” from ELECTRON MUSIC https://allen-ravenstine.bandcamp.com/album/electron-music

19) David Lynch - “The High Night Walk” from EXPERIMENTS https://www.discogs.com/release/3687313-David-Lynch-The-High-Night-Walk

20) Sunn O))) & Boris - “Fried Eagle Mind” from ALTAR https://sunn.bandcamp.com/album/altar-3

21) Yann Tiersen - “Tribulations” from LAGNIAPPE SESSION https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2020/02/28/the-lagniappe-sessions-yann-tiersen/

22) Hy Maya - “Dance of the Electromagnetic (A Space Event In Time)” from THE MYSTICISM OF SOUND & COSMIC LANGUAGE https://www.discogs.com/master/1273743-Hy-Maya-The-Mysticism-Of-Sound-Cosmic-Language

23) Hanna Tuulikki - “Live on Canna (on the cliffs)” from AWAY WITH THE BIRDS https://hannatuulikki.bandcamp.com/album/away-with-the-birds

24) Pacific Sounds - “Among the Ironwoods, Kuliʻouʻou, O‘ahu” from ALOHA ‘AINA, VOLUME 7: FIELD RECORDINGS OF HAWAII https://pacificsounds.bandcamp.com/album/aloha-aina-volume-7-field-recordings-of-hawaii

25) 4 Mars - “Hobalayeey Nabadu! (Hello Peace!)” from SUPER SOMALI SOUNDS FROM THE GULF OF TADJOURA (DJIBOUTI ARCHIVES VOL. 1) https://ostinatorecords.bandcamp.com/album/djibouti-archives-vol-1-super-somali-sounds-from-the-gulf-of-tadjoura

[some-velvet-morning]

Crash My Moon Yacht

[bandvans]

[gamtozu]

crash my moon yacht by cerberus shoal (2000)

[orangeflavoryawp]

First Line Game

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line. Then tag 10 of your favorite authors!

Okay this sounds pretty fun, but I want to include other fandoms, so I’m not doing my last 20 exactly, since those are all Jonsa.  Reaching back just a bit here.  Also excluding drabble series.

Tagged by @swaps55.  Thanks so much!  Loving this!  Tagging @foofyschmoofer, @thedandiestoflions, @theoriginalsuki, @barbex, @missfaber, @amymel86, @riptidemonzarc, @joufancyhuh, @szajnie, @fedonciadale, @ladyalice101, @goddesstiera and anyone else who thinks this is fun.

From Instep to Heel:  Sansa Stark is brought to the capital by her father and brothers, a train of Stark banners flying behind them, and it's the first glimpse of the North Jon has ever truly seen.

Red Curtain:  "No, no, but you see, gravity doesn't matter here," Theon argues. "You're up in space. It's like a fucking swimming pool up there, just, you know, minus having your trunks hauled halfway down your ass every time you surface."

Soiled: "How did you know?"

His question stills her hand at his temple, the words gruff and choked off, voice cracking from disuse.

A Violence Done Most Kindly:  It would be a lie to say that Sansa understands Cersei now – here at the end.

Bruises: They reach for each other like practiced pain – like pressing on a bruise.

An affirmation of survival.

Hallowed: "Even a simpleton could see the way he looks at you."

The smooth, dry voice of Baelish stops Jon just before he rounds the bend to the corridor hosting Sansa's chambers. His spine locks, jaw clenching with unease.

What Grows in Winter:  He weds her in winter, as Starks have done for generations. And he is now – he well and truly is – a Stark.

Ghosts in Our Bed:  Castle Black is bleak and cold-stoned and strangely hollow. This is not the North she remembers.

Wool and Tallow:  Sansa finds that sewing flesh is not so very different from sewing cloth, perhaps, except, for the shrieks and groans that accompany her new needlework.

Rocks and Shoals:  "I've got an important assignment for you, Krios." Commander Bailey leaned back in the chair of his office, one hand tapping out a rhythm on his desk.

Smokescreen:  "I'm telling you, they're together together," Ino urges from her spot beside him along the bridge, her legs dangling over the ledge, her arms wrapped around the guardrail as she leans forward, watching Kurenai and Asuma walking down the far street.

Love Goes (Like This): It isn't love at first sight.

Instead, it goes like this:

Her white kimono is pristine, the length of her sleeves just right, the arch of her collar a graceful, delicate thing. She is all this, and yet, he does not have eyes for her.

But this she expects.

Cenozoic: "How many more do you have?" Kakashi asks, peeking across the table at her.

Kurenai rifles through her reports for a moment, then looks up at him. "Only two more." She grabs another takoyaki from the plate between them and pops the doughy ball into her mouth.

The Scent of Snow:  Hinata doesn't close her windows in winter.

"You can smell the snow, you know," she says, fingers curling around her tea cup, nose red and runny. She sniffles, staring down into her cup. She swirls the tea slowly, grazing the cup's edge with every rock of her wrists, but never really going over.

"You can't smell snow, Hinata." He frowns at her across the table.

Carrion:  Ino comes home quietly, unobtrusively, and with the smell of blood that is not her own faintly trailing her.

Silent, (Blaring): From root to sprout to stalk to trunk to branch to leaf to sky. There is an order to these sorts of things.

"Plant each seed with meaning," her mother had told her once, calloused hands covering her own tiny, inexperienced ones.

Rust:  Through the filter of her visor's read-out, the clinic is dimly lit and red-hazed. Static to the eye, but Shepard has only one focus.

Mordin Solus says many things and nothing all at once. His hands are anything but stagnant, his eyes blinking rapidly as he paces through his single-minded monologue. He passes under a cone of light, his skin like rust, pock-marked, leather-lined.

Ghost Forest:  "They call it a ghost forest," she says, standing with her back to the trees, just at the edge of the brush, her gaze raking over the coast before her.

Elegy at Draxis Major:  In the end, the Cosmic Imperative has proven its truth. It was apparent in his cycle, and it is apparent in this one, as well. The universe rewards strength. And the weak are rightfully shunned.

Stain: She doesn't have time to wash her hands.

As soon as the Council is safe and the Cerberus assassin deemed lost, Shepard sprints for the hospital. Still in her armor. Still with a chamber-hot pistol. Still with bloody palms.

Thane is dying.

And she doesn't have time to wash her hands.

* * *

I feel like there’s definitely a pattern to my openers but I can’t accurately define it.  I know I tend to rest on dialogue for my opening lines a lot.  That much I’m aware of, at least.  I don’t know.  I think maybe my pattern is that I often bring the theme up in the first immediate lines of a story, either figuratively or literally.  What do you guys think?

This was actually pretty fun.  Love doing these kinds of writing memes.  :D

[rubyredsundae]

Mass Effect Trilogy Tag!

I was not tagged by anyone, I just really wanted to join in. If you see this and want to as well, please do! I've been loving reading through everyone's :)

I am a fan since… 2011ish? Definitely at least a year before ME3 came out. I remember watching my brother play ME2 and thinking it was so cool. While he was away it was a huge comfort for me to play it in his room, kind of like a bonding or cathartic experience for someone who wasn't there at the time.

When ME3 came out, me and him went to the midnight release at a gamestop like 40 minutes away or something, wearing clothes we threw together to kind of fit the N7 color scheme. Even though we don't talk anymore, those memories are still really precious to me. Also, the nostalgia of playing ME1 after-school or on the weekend, running to get my easy mac from the microwave during a cutscene, stuffing too hot mouthfuls while speeding the Mako towards the conduit on Ilos.

Favorite game of the series: It's a tough call between ME1 and ME2, but I'd say ME2. It's the game I get the urge to replay the most.

MaleShep or FemShep? Femshep all the way. I only play MShep when I want to do his exclusive romances. No offense to BroShep, but ME was the first game I ever played that let me not just be a girl, but customizable. Not just to be the already generated token girl character in a pack of boys. And not only can you play Femshep, but every game you are surrounded by smart, funny, tough women as squadmates. It was such a huge deal to me, and still is. Femshep represents so much. As Jennifer Hale put it, FemShep was a military grade boot to the video game industry glass ceiling.

Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer? I personally tend to lean spacer in-game, but I tend to use Earthborn when I'm writing fics.

Paragon or Renegade? Usually Paragon, but Renegade playthroughs can be really interesting, especially if I have a detailed background about why Shep is the way they are. My first Renegade, Krystle, is pretty bigoted and anti-alien until she meets Liara. Krystle is naturally guarded and quick to anger, so meeting someone who seemed to accept her and listen to her without judgment really opens her mind.

By the 2nd game, she wakes up in the cerberus lab with new biotic powers, having previously been a regular foot soldier. This makes her seeth, having someone completely take her agency, agreeing with the illusive man on the surface but plotting against him the entire time. She starts to lean more Paragon, if only to piss him off. She has the biggest smirk on her face when she blows up the collector base.

Biotics or Tech? Oooh, this is hard. Maybe biotics just the tiniest smidge because of Jack/Samara biotic bubble throw during the suicide mission. I don't know if we'll ever get a screen adaptation but THAT is a moment I would pay to see done with a big SFX budget behind it.

Favorite class: Sentinel! I don't know how much this reflects on my class preference in gaming in general, but I love the 'jack of all trades'ness of it. By the time I get an assault rifle, I don't really feel the need for anyone else to make up for something I lack. Also, tech armor in ME2? Where your shields regenerate automatically when it breaks, and the cool down is when you initially active it, instead of when you detonate it? Chef's kiss. I understand why it was nerfed in 3 but I'm still mad.

Favorite companion: Ho boy. This is obviously very difficult to choose but I'm gonna say Miranda. I've always loved and identified with her character, I love the accent, and she's always useful on missions. I was so happy when I learned she could be a squadmate in the armax arena.

Honorable mention to Ashley in ME1. Her character is rarely used to exposition lore, so she just gets to have her personality fleshed out. I don't always agree with her but she does seem genuinely willing to listen. ME3 tosses her out the airlock though; partially because her content was bugged and never restored, leaving her inclusion feel half-baked, and partly because Ash and Kaidan have to be able to serve the same plot function as each other and it negatively affects her character more than his. This could also be intentional on bioware's part, to try to flesh out kaidan's personality and tone down Ashley's as a response to criticisms of them from ME1.

Least favorite companion: Also difficult, because I don't really hate anyone as much as I am just less interested in some. I didn't like Zaeed for a long time, but I think he's much better and really funny in ME3. James was pushed on me too much at the beginning and it made me really dislike him, but I think he's greatly improved and also pretty funny in Citadel DLC. I'm also pretty indifferent to Jacob; I don't think he's a bad character, just disappointing because there was a lot of potential.

Not that every character has to go on and do some grand quest to be interesting, but I don't feel like Jacob every really got a big hero moment like everyone else. He is a very calm and introverted person (imo) who doesn't really share his feelings, so it's always been hard for to to connect with him on anything.

My squad selection: Depends on the game, but it usually involves Garrus lol. Typically it's Liara/Garrus in ME1, Miranda/Garrus for ME2, and Liara/Garrus again in ME3. I am very boring and predictable! If you have any suggestions for me to try out and mix things up, let me know!

Favorite in-game romance: Also depends on the game. ME1 it's Liara, hands down. It was the first game, really the first piece of media, where I was told two women could fall in love and be happy and that was okay. The amount of enlightenment and comfort in figuring out that I was bi these games brought me is kind of wild to look back on.

ME2 is a toss-up between Garrus and Thane. They are both wonderful but in completely different ways. I tend to now romance Thane on characters I don't plan on importing to ME3, or if I do, to just have a really depressed fucking Shepard lol. I hate how much Thane was brushed off, especially if you romanced him.

Other pairings I like: l love Miranda so much, but I'm a gay girl so I ship her and Femshep. Same goes for Tali, Jack, Ashley... damn I'm just really gay for straight girls huh :/

I don't really have any other ships for non-Shep related pairings.

Favorite NPC: Shiala is really cool to me, I wish we got to see her in 3. Emily Wong is also cool, also wish we saw her in 3. There's probably a lot more that when I come across them next I'll be like, "you! I love you! You're my favorite."

Oh also Joker! And EDI! But not together. Idk I feel like ME3 threw a curveball at me with "do you support organic/non-organic relationships?" Like m'am please don't ask me, I accidentally drank turian liquor last year, I'm not qualified to be an expert on this.

Favorite antagonist: Tbh I really dig Saren. I think his reasoning is super fascinating, both to set up how someone who's indoctrinated can rationalize to themselves that they are still in control; and as a foil to Shepard, to show what can happen when you become too isolated and the ends justify the means. I think his VA does a great job of walking the line between desperate survivor and madman. He's also the only antagonist in the trilogy that we ever fight 1 on 1 (ignoring squadmates) and it feels more personal. I think he's such a fantastic foe for the first entry in a trilogy and I don't think he gets enough credit.

Favorite mission: Is it cliche to say the suicide mission? It's honestly close to perfect. The stakes, the sequencing, the cinematics, the score. Everything works so well.

Favorite loyalty mission: Kasumi's and Tali's are really cool, as we all know. Samara's is also cool because it is entirely non-combat based. Shepard has to prove they can accomplish what seems impossible without a gun or biotics.

The confrontation at the end with Morinth always haunts me a little, because they are both right in their own way. Morinth's final line, "and they say I'm the monster", as you let Samara kill her, watch her scrambling backwards in fear... I know that she's a remorseless killer, but it gets me every time.

Favorite DLC: It's Citadel, obviously. Turns out what I really wanted was quality time and a party with all my friends. I love mass effect for many reasons, but simulating friends and affection when I had none has always made me bond to this series like other games don't. Is it sad? Sure! But I don't think love and affection for fictional characters should ever be shameful until it makes you hurt other people.

Control, Synthesis or Destroy? I'd say destroy. If the other options were presented earlier and we had time to stew with it, maybe I'd be more split. But all of this in 5 minutes? It's not like the collector base where the implications are obvious and the choice is just down to what Shepard believes. The 3 choices all seem like space magic out of nowhere, and none of them seem to really offer any insight on what Shepard should believe. So I say destroy, just because it's what Shep has intended and is most consistent with their character and their admiration of Anderson.

Favorite weapon: The spectre level assault rifle in ME1. Never have I felt more powerful.

Favorite place: Idk why but I just thought of the creepy lab with all the scientists during the leviathan DLC. I really love when Mass Effect leans into the Lovecraftian horror aspect of things. Talking to Sovereign and Vigil in ME1 gave me goosebumps my first few playthroughs.

A quote I like: I have hundreds, but the one off the top of my head is, "After time adrift among open stars, along tides of light and through shoals of dust, I will return to where I began." I have a poster of it up on my wall right now!

[zhanteimi]

Alvarius B / Cerberus Shoal – The Vim & Vigour of Alvarius B and Cerberus Shoal

Alvarius B / Cerberus Shoal – The Vim & Vigour of Alvarius B and Cerberus Shoal

USA, 2002, avant-folk Alan Bishop of Sun City Girls fame opens this split in his typical weird way, with eerie, oversaturated, half-spoken vocals accompanied by droning fiddles that sound broken. The second track, a Bishop composition, is a disturbing little acoustic track about chopped up babies, and it’s so short it could be the song of some ne’er-do-well lurking in the alleyway you just…

[underratedmusic]

Alvarius B / Cerberus Shoal - The Vim & Vigour of Alvarius B and Cerberus Shoal

Obscure

Genres: Avant-Folk, Progressive Folk, Contemporary Folk

Lanuage: English

This album is 6 songs long, yet it only features 3 ‘different’ songs. Both artists recorded the same 3 songs, yet both sound so drastically different, that you wouldn’t even know that it’s only 3 different songs. 

What REALLY stands out though, is the last track. Spanning over 18 minutes, ‘The Real Ding’ by Cerberus Shoal might be one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever recorded. It’s worth to give it a shot, just for this song alone!

Example (The Real Ding):