#Earthless | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

dustedmagazine · 2 years ago

Text

Ian Mathers’ 2022: Are you with me even now?

For the third year in a row, Low are part of my reflection on the year that just happened. But this time I don’t want them to be. They didn’t put out a record, I didn’t see them play live (virtually or not) even once. I don’t really want to spend a ton of time going over Mimi Parker’s death and the reactions to it (including my own); I can say this is the one time ever in my life that mourning an artist whose work I love felt anything at all like mourning someone I actually knew. For at least a month I thought about it all the time, read about it constantly, watched and listened to everything I could get my hands on, talked about it often. It felt ridiculous and necessary. I don’t know what happens with my favorite band now; I mainly just hope her family and other loved ones are doing as ok as possible. One wonderful and horrible thing about the reactions is that they were both more numerous and more heartfelt than I would have guessed; up until a few years ago running into other fans of their work felt a lot more rare. 30 years into what I personally think stacks up as one of the greatest creative runs in all of popular music (I’ve been ringing the bell about Low doing better, more vital and interesting work than other bands [x] years into their career since… 2007’s The Great Destroyer at least), I’m glad that people were noticing what they did. The bittersweetness of that, that at least by the end Low were a lot more widely and deeply loved than I would have guessed... I hope she knew that too. How many artists have passed before they made their Double Negative and HEY WHAT? We can never really know the extent of what the world misses out on when someone dies.

Other than that horrible pall weighing down the end of the year, though, at least on the small scale 2022 was pretty good to me. The world in general continues to feel more and more fraught (here in Canada too!) and we’re still not properly dealing with a pandemic. With us being an immunocompromised household… when you see people talking about leaving behind the chronically ill, it absolutely includes those of us who, pre-COVID, nobody could tell weren’t “normal” or “healthy.” I did get to a very few shows this year, masked. But mostly this was a third year in a row of just… never going out or doing most of the things we used to do. Both my wife and I switched jobs to positions that are both much more satisfying and important to us and, not incidentally, quite a bit better paying. By the end of 2022 we’ve hit the first time in our adult lives where (despite how little it would take to knock us back down) we’re not experiencing constant financial stress.

I could have guessed this would change my relationship with music, but honestly, would have underestimated the degree to which that would be true. I’m happier with my writing this year, both frequency and end result, although there’s always more work to do on those fronts. And without feeling like I was trying very hard to do so, I somehow listened to 170 new LPs and EPs over the course of the year. And I found a lot to like, too: my 2022 playlist in Swinsian (which I tried out and then switched to when the Apple Music program started having weird glitches and hours of tech support couldn’t help at all) currently has a little over 1000 tracks in it, equaling over 3 days of music. There’s still a near-infinite amount of stuff out there I’ve never touched or even heard of. But more than ever, it feels like I covered my particularly bailiwick(s) as thoroughly as could be expected of someone who still has a day job and relatively normal life.

This increased volume of input doesn’t necessarily make me think 2022 was a better (or worse!) year for music than any other, but it does lead to a list of records that I feel more strongly about. There are plenty of good records I am keeping in full that just didn’t make it onto my list(s), especially since I’m sticking with a top 40 like I did in 2021. In years where I’ve ‘only’ managed to check out 80-90 records, even a top 20 often covers just about everything I’ve solidly enjoyed from the year. In 2022, 40 records isn’t even half of that group. It has made me reflect a bit on just how sustainable this all is — do I just keep accumulating dozens of records I love every year I’m here? How often am I going to go back to any of them? And sure enough, one thing all this new listening has done has drastically slowed progress on my now years-long effort to corral and organize my existing collection. But I do feel strongly enough about what I loved this year, both from existing favorites and acts totally new to me, that I’m probably just going to kick those cans a little further down the road. I’m also mulling over how, if at all, I want to change my listening in the new year, not least because one of the major ways I discover new things ended in 2022 (RIP, The Singles Jukebox).

As I’ve mentioned before in these roundups, I don’t necessarily feel like every year these days I have an “album of the year” (and am generally loathe to try and rank things). This year I can’t decide if I have one or two; Cloakroom’s Dissolution Wave was one of my most anticipated and ever since I first got the promo back in January, I’ve been listening to it very regularly. One of the things I like about music writing (at least the way I do it) is that it forces me to listen to records a lot more than I would even if I otherwise adore them, and at this point I have an almost Pavlovian joy reaction to the beginning of “Lost Meaning.” For a long time, it seemed like it stood alone for me, and I think it still does, but I need to give at least an honorable mention to Let’s Eat Grandma’s Two Ribbons. It didn’t have the immediate impact on me the Cloakroom did, even though that first half, especially, is immediately ingratiating. But over months I found myself going back to it more and more and in another year, I could easily see it having the unquestioned top spot. I’ve seen neither in most year-end stuff, which makes me a bit sad.

So here are the lists; my 40 favorite LPs, followed by 5 EPs, 5 reissues and/or compilations, 5 releases from Aidan Baker (which makes up not even half of the releases from his various projects!), and 20 ‘loose’ songs either from records I liked but who don’t make it into the main list, or where this song was really the only one I liked, or just ones that came out on their own. If all the little extra lists seem like cheating, well, they kind of are. But this was as narrowed down as I could get it. All of the lists are in alphabetical order, and for all but the songs list any links are to where I’ve written about them here at Dusted. For the songs, partly because so many of them do have music videos (and I love music videos), I’ve actually just provided a link to the song on YouTube should you be so moved. Last year I ended by saying I hoped we’d all continue to get better at taking care of ourselves and each other in 2022. On a micro level, I can say that did happen for us, and many of our loved ones. I hope as much as possible it did for you too, and we can all find the strength to keep at it in 2023.

40 LPs

Aarktica — We Will Find the Light

Alvvays — Blue Rev

Aoife O'Donovan — Age of Apathy

Beyoncé — RENAISSANCE

Billow Observatory — Stareside

Black Ox Orkestar — Everything Returns

The Body & OAA — Enemy of Love

Bruno Bavota & Chantal Acda — A Closer Distance

Carly Rae Jepsen — The Loneliest Time

Charli XCX — Crash

Chelsea Jade — Soft Spot

Cloakroom — Dissolution Wave

Earthless — Night Parade of One Hundred Demons

Eric Cheneaux — Say Laura

Esmerine — Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More

Ethel Cain — Preacher’s Daughter

Fujiya & Miyagi — Slight Variations

Hagop Tchaparian — Bolts

Hatchie — Giving the World Away

High Vis — Blending

Horsegirl — Versions of Modern Performance

Hot Chip — Freakout/Release

Jessica Moss — Galaxy Heart

Kali Malone — Living Torch

Let’s Eat Grandma — Two Ribbons

Locrian — New Catastrophism

Loop — Sonancy

loscil — The Sails p.1/p.2

Michael Beharie — Promise

Oneida — Success

Party Dozen — The Real Work

SASAMI — Squeeze

Spiritualized — Everything Was Beautiful

Szun Waves — Earth Patterns

Use Knife — The Shedding of Skin

Vince Staples — RAMONA PARK BROKE MY HEART

Water Damage — Repeater

Wet Leg — Wet Leg

Winged Wheel — No Island

Winter — What Kind of Blue Are You?

5 EPs

Gillian Stone — Spirit Photographs

Greet Death — New Low

Picastro — I’ve Never Met a Stranger

Sun’s Signature — Sun’s Signature

Trauma Ray — Transmissions

5 Reissues/Compilations

Broadcast — Maida Vale Sessions

Laddio Bolocko — '97-'99

Les Rallizes Dénudés —’77 LIVE

Prolapse — John Peel session 20.08.94/John Peel session 08.04.97

Wire — Not About to Die

5 Releases From Aidan Baker

Aidan Baker — The Evelyn Tables

Aidan Baker — Tenebrist

Baker Ja Lehtisalo — Crocodile Tears

Nadja — Labyrinthine

Nadja — Nalepa

20 More Songs

Animal Collective — “Prester John”

Boy Harsher ft Lucy - Cooper B. Handy — “Autonomy”

Caroline Polachek — “Billions”

Chappell Roan — “Casual”

Death Cab for Cutie — “I Won’t Give Up on You”

Diatom Deli — “False Alarm”

Duke Deuce ft GloRilla — “Just Say That”

Flume ft Caroline Polachek — “Sirens”

HAAi ft. Jon Hopkins — “Baby, We’re Ascending”

Ibibio Sound Machine — “Protection From Evil”

Miči & Sun-EL Musician — “Respond”

MUNA — “Anything But Me”

Porridge Radio — “Back to the Radio”

Spoon — “Wild”

Steve Lacy — “Bad Habit”

Storefront Church ft Phoebe Bridgers — “Words”

Stromae — “L’enfer”

Sudan Archives — “Selfish Soul”

Yeah Yeah Yeahs ft Perfume Genius — “Spitting Off the Edge of the World”

yeule — “Bites on My Neck”

Ian Mathers

16 notes · View notes

casuallyyoa · 1 year ago

Text

STEAM NEXT FEST OCTOBER 2023 ROGUE EDITION

It’s another edition of Steam Next Fest, with a whole deluge of demos for people to try on the platform. As a rogue-genre self-proclaimed connoisseur, October 2023 sees me diving into the literal hundreds of Coming Soon titles to pick out at random something that vaguely interests me. As such, this selection is entirely subjective to my own taste and I’ll clarify what each vague category means.

I tried to spend at least 30 minutes per title to see if their demo slice is able to ‘hook’ as it were.

Let’s go!

FEATURED GAMES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

Below the Stone: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1170230/Below_the_Stone/

Break the Loop: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1331340/Break_the_Loop/

CD 2: Trap Master: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2330870/CD_2_Trap_Master/

Chrysalis: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1594210/Chrysalis/

Corlero: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1991350/Corlero/

Cursorblade: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2449040/Cursorblade/

Destroy the Monoliths: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2352000/Destroy_The_Monoliths/

Dethroned: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2326050/Dethroned/

Earthless: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2058960/Earthless/

Ending Tau: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2087880/Ending_Tau

Froguelike: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2315020/Froguelike/

Go Mecha Ball: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2008510/Go_Mecha_Ball/

Heroes of Eternal Quest: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2234200/Heroes_of_Eternal_Quest/

Lucky Hero: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2404510/Lucky_Hero/

Magicraft: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2103140/Magicraft/

Phantom Rose 2 Sapphire: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1964200/Phantom_Rose_2_Sapphire/

Sandwalkers: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1639080/Sandwalkers/

Scarlet Record: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2365920/Scarlet_Record/

Shambles: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2289630/Shambles/

SpellRogue: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1990110/SpellRogue/

Voice of Belldona: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2223420/Voice_of_Belldona/

NEEDS MORE TO STAND OUT

While simple isn’t necessarily bad, I consider these games either being too derivative or not having some ‘spark’ to draw in people who may have already played similar games.

Cursorblade

Cursorblade is a really cute game where you play the titular cursor which acts like a blade. Genius. You get the upgrades for your cursor and move your mouse around the screen wildly to slash at the creatures. It’s not quite as ‘free’ as that though, as the monsters will retaliate with bullets or on contact. You’ll see them flashing before you get hit so watch out. If cute and simple ticks your boxes, then by all means, get this.

Froguelike

A frog roguelite? Sign me up! That said, besides the various upgrades that are certainly froggy-themed, Froguelike is one of the closest Vampire Survivors clones you can get out there. Of course, Vampire Survivors is hardly the first of its kind, but as the one probably freshest in most minds, the demo doesn’t convince me people would get this over the other.

INTERESTING CONCEPTUALLY

These are titles that have things that draw me or I can acknowledge seem quite fun, but it’s not quite for me.

Break the Loop

It’s got style, it’s got a way to reduce the RNG a little bit by letting you set events in an order you want to encounter them and is similar to games I like. That’s why I’m incredibly perplexed as to why I bounced off Break the Loop’s demo so hard. I’ve currently chalked it down to balance issues as it feels like I’m meant to play aggressively to get the permanent unlock currency but because skills seem to cost so much I can’t hit the, well, balance. Don’t let my skill issues discourage you from checking out this game yourself.

CD 2: Trap Master

I’m a tower defense enjoyer so this should have been a dead ringer for me. In practice, the demo for CD 2: Trap Master felt clunky, not helped by the tooltips not entirely implemented for this initial build. I screwed myself over by an English Second Language moment not understanding my ‘energy’ to summon the traps would be ‘capped’ as in ‘its upper limit reduced’, so my shiny new card could never be played. It’s a little unfortunate, but the basic mechanics should all be in place and just needs more polish.

Corlero

Do you want even more randomness in your games of auto team battlers? Corlero has got you, with a story of random presumably divine entities also potentially ruining your life. There ARE some mechanics to try reduce the RNG - like if you did mess up with positioning - by allowing you to reroll the result of a battle, at gradually increasing cost. Still, there’s still the fact you need 3 copies of a unit to upgrade it, and more than once I’ve encountered enemy formations with more upgraded units than I have, and rerolling doesn’t get me any closer to a tiered up unit. I feel like they need more ways to ‘tighten’ the mechanics as it were before the randomness becomes more frustrating than fun.

Destroy the Monoliths

Destroy the Monoliths feels ripe for early game hell. Getting the materials feels slow without any upgrades while enemies come knocking on your door whether you look for them or not. You want the structures to destroy the enemy monoliths while fending them off but getting the resources you need before they end your miserable little ball’s life might need to be streamlined a bit more. The terrain also affects your movement which would make for some challenge; it just wasn’t all that nice to get that as a start before I’ve really gotten to know the game’s workings.

Lucky Hero

The slot machine in Lucky Hero is kind of novel as you spin to hopefully win. The slots will be really empty to start of course, until you get more energy to make worthwhile actions. Depending on the positioning of items, you could buff your actions, have empty vials be filled with gunk monsters put into your slots, or just have things get locked up by enemies and you get really unhappy. I feel it’s less clunky than a similar slot machine mechanic in Lucky Island in that there’s less to micromanage, at least, even if it’s not hitting it for me.

Phantom Rose 2 Sapphire

I had the feeling I’d already seen this game before, and yes, that would be Phantom Rose Scarlet. Phantom Rose 2 Sapphire has the same distinctive artstyle and mechanics of its predecessor, to its detriment I feel. The demo didn’t seem to have anything that made it stand out from Scarlet in my mind apart from the protagonist, so maybe I need to be more invested in the story before I consider Sapphire.

Magicraft

Someone’s static is gonna have to look for a new BLM I think. Magicraft’s opening riffs on fantasy tropes and certain player expectations which would make for fun character interactions. You have your wand and your MP, with the wand not only having their own stats, but also slots in which you can modify your attacks. While I understand the MP cost is a necessary evil to balance some of the fancy effects, I guess it does also cramp the style when you’re not allowed to have as much fun with some insane combos if you don’t get the wand slots you want. It be like that in roguelites.

Voice of Belldona

On its own, Voice of Belldona isn’t anything too special.

There is a certain focus on story and mechanically, you have both your character’s own deck of skills and also can summon uncontrollable units to aid you in battle. There’s a lot of positioning you can play around with regards to your skill effects which should make for some fun. Also, just look at those placeholder assets. If nothing else, having them as an alternative skin for the full release can elevate this game to a grand ol’ shitpost.

TO LOOK OUT FOR

Games that I don’t always click with but there’s more things that interest me here.

Below the Stone

Where Destroy the Monoliths didn’t hit it for me, Below the Stone does. You make your little dwarf to embark on an adventure to dig real deep and perhaps revitalize your dwarven kingdom. You need to upgrade your tools as you go along of course, to work at those veins that sparkle at you from the darkness. There’s some flexibility where you can select low risk missions to take on on your expedition as you need to complete at least one before you can leave the current level. The resources to allow you to keep exploring feel generous enough, so you could just take on riskier, more rewarding missions as you fill up your bags.

I’m not the biggest fan of pseudo (or otherwise) resource management as I love to just fire away mindlessly, but I think this can be really appealing.

Chrysalis

With your posse of animal friends, rid the world of corruption in Chrysalis. Well, I suppose they aren’t all animals. Go around possessing creatures to use their skills to aid you against the monsters, and hope to find some seeds for the home defense. Since you can always teleport back almost instantaneously to your base, you could absolutely risk exploring till the other edge of the map in hope for resources or better creature companions to be worthwhile investing into. You do get refunded some of the resources spent on completing a level, so you don’t start from zero as you continue.

Dethroned

Traipse around the map with your little squaddie and activate the altars and save the world and stuff! I’m not very good at it, but Dethroned intrigued me. Your hero character isn’t part of the actual squad, but they have skills to support your creatures over time. If you position it right, you can just avoid combat with hostiles in your way by simply slipping by. It does mean you probably won’t have the resources to beef up your army, as the threat level gradually increases to buff all other enemies across the map. Once all your monsters die it’s game over, so the risk reward learning curve is gonna be something.

Heroes of Eternal Quest

Round and round we go. Heroes of Eternal Quest involves placing buildings on the map and you occasionally using active skills to help your hero should the going get tougher. I do like influencing the course by being more strategic with my placements, less on getting some god drops for a god build and more to a relatively consistent power grind. Resources obtained from your merry-go-round will be used to unlock more buildings and gradually open up your options to mow down the unfortunates that stand in your way, further adding to that feeling of incremental growth that I enjoy.

Shambles

It’s like a mix of your typical deckbuilder roguelike with a dash of roleplaying and D&D-esque elements. Shambles places you in a post-apocalyptic world where you become the trailblazer from your bunker home into the new old world now that the radiation is back to safe levels. There are stat checks every now and again for story choices that can grant you a variety of cards, changing based on your decisions. You move along a skill tree to get yourself more equipment to provide different stat bonuses which you don’t need to equip immediately. However, you can only swap it out at certain points, like end of chapter moments. I feel like there’s potential here since story isn’t necessarily the focal point for a majority of roguelikes, so keep an eye out.

SpellRogue

There’s so much dice in SpellRogue! Depending on the die faces, you can cast certain spells a certain amount of times. You can see the value range these spells require to cast, so if you just so happen to have a 4 value die and your only remaining spell wants 1 to 3, then it’s unusable. Getting more die and ability to reroll is no doubt going to be key to success. It’s pretty easy to grasp and I managed to get to the end of the demo on my first go despite almost bungling a battle when I didn’t watch my HP, so I’d be interested to see where it goes.

PERSONAL PICKS

The ones I’d prioritize to purchase.

Earthless

I’m a sucker for sci-fi, I admit. Earthless sees you captain a ship through the cosmos, managing your engine’s heat as you navigate through asteroids, juggling cards to destroy obstacles or hostile aliens wanting a bite out of your crew, and making calls that could affect your crew’s morale and the rewards from certain events. I just really like how all these pretty simple mechanics play together, like a version of FTL that is more to my pace.

Ending Tau

With Dead Cells and Children of Morta in mind, if you liked those games, I think you’d like Ending Tau. Your Hunter has four main ‘curses’ to bear to affect your mobility and abilities, which then get upgraded further by aspects, thematically minor curses, I suppose. It’s faster paced than the stuff I usually like for sure, but it’s mechanically quite satisfying. My gripe from the demo is that the indicator around the character wigs me out slightly. I understand it’s to help indicate your range but it felt more awkward than helpful for me, personally.

Go Mecha Ball

Speaking of fast paced, Go Mecha Ball can be one dizzying bounce all over the field as you crash into enemies. You do have guns to supplement your wrecking ball self but if you don’t bounce off enough enemies, you will run out of ammo pretty quickly. There’s two abilities you can get too, at least. Still, the crashing is the name of the game: you can interrupt flashing enemies when you slam into them besides destroying them outright which can only be good. I’m going to need more practice…

Sandwalkers

Here’s one I’m not good at once again! That won’t stop me from admiring and enjoying what there is of Sandwalkers though. With your merry band, you need to manage your resources as you travel across the world to trailblaze for those who will follow in your footsteps. Different ‘factions’, as it were, will find certain items more worthwhile to trade for so that they’d agree to barter for that thing you really want. I’m sure this will also partly play into them trusting you so that you can have additional options when you find more of their encampments.

You don’t lose outright when you don’t have supplies to continue your travels, but your units do lose HP the further you go. This can make battles dicey despite your starting shields since you probably don’t have a good way to recover your health. At least when you break enemy shields, they can get momentarily stunned so you can slam ‘em when they’re down.

CONCLUSION

Once again, these are all my personal opinions, and there were so, so many demos as usual to try out. With that, that’s it for my run in Steam Next Fest October 2023. A number of these games are planning for early access, or even launching very soon, so do wishlist all the things you’re looking forward to.

Until next time. Thanks for watching.

0 notes