#Knower Forever

[foldmorepaper]

[soop-musical-fool]

It's not about the clown mask on your face, it's about the clown mask on your heart.

[delicate-snarling]

do barnacles get bored? do hot girls like chords?

[daiguit91]

Reseña: KNOWER - KNOWER FOREVER

KNOWER – KNOWER FOREVER Knower Forever es el quinto álbum del dúo de Synth Funk y Jazz Funk Californiano Knower lanzado el 2 de Junio del 2023, este dúo el cual está conformado por Louis Cole (Batería) y Genevieve Artadi (Vocales) es un grupo que yo la verdad no conocía, pero que gracias a este disco se convirtieron en uno de mis grupos más escuchados y favoritos del 2023. Louis Cole (Izq) y…

[lovejustforaday]

2023 Year End List - Introduction and Honourable Mentions

Here we go again! 🤘😤🤘

Continuing the tradition of making this harder and more drawn out for myself every consecutive year, I've decided to do a top 20 records + some honourable mentions for my 2023 year end list.

But in all seriousness, this has been the most exciting year in the new decade so far by quite a wide margin, and I have so many projects that I've been really wanting to gush about on this blog. Suffice to say, this year's round up is gonna be a little bit lengthier.

And I hope you really enjoy going all in as much as I do, because the reviews are also probably gonna be longer as well. I have at least one definite 10/10 record at the #1 spot which I am incredibly hyped to write about, and I will try my best to limit myself to twenty paragraphs max, but I'm not gonna make any hard promises.

But first off, I wanted to honour 3 LPs that almost made the list + an EP that doesn't qualify for the list proper (LPs only). Just gonna be dishing out a few quick thoughts on each of these projects.

So let's get down to it!!

Knower Forever - Knower

Main Genres: Jazz-Funk, Synth Funk

A decent sampling of: Jazz Fusion, Jazzstep, Art Pop, Nu-Jazz

My dad actually introduced me to Louis Cole's work properly last year, but my first exposure to him was that "Bank Account" meme song he did back in 2017 (simpler times...). My old man sang the praises of his "Weird Part of The Night" and I definitely have to agree - some very solid funky stuff.

So this year, I familiarized myself with his band, Knower, and their latest LP.

Knower Forever is a very clever, silly, sometimes vulgar jazz-funk record with some kickass virtuoso musicianship, and I totally love its vibe. It doesn't take itself to seriously; the technical skills of the performers really speaks for itself.

Lots of snarkiness on "I'm The President" with iconic lyrics such as "Mount Rushymore has some tits" and a frigging brilliant piano solo breakdown. "Nightmare" sounds like funky Mario Kart DS music for some reason. "It's All Nothing Until It's Everything" is screeching nu-jazz insanity which turns into an ethereal cacophony of intense pleasure.

Definitely front-loaded and could've been slightly edited down. Some of the second half feels redundant. I almost considered putting this at #20, but the other record was just slightly better for me + the other half of this duo, Genevieve Artadi, was very busy this year with making her own jazzy solo record which will actually be making an appearance later on this list. Still, don't skip this one if you like music with a hell of a lot of personality.

8/10

Highlights: "I'm The President", "Nightmare", "It's Al Nothing Until It's Everything", "Real Nice Moment"

Norm - Andy Shauf

Main Genres: Chamber Pop

A decent sampling of: Lounge, Twee Pop, Soft Rock, Folk Pop

Norm is one fucked up little record. If you know anything about cuddlecore band Heavenly's 1993 EP Atta Girl (an all-time fav of mine and possibly the best concept EP ever), then you'll recognize this LP as having a very similar concept. Additionally, this is similarly also probably best enjoyed as a going-in-blindfolded experience, so I'll put a spoiler warning riiiiiiiiiiiiight.........HERE.

SPOILER WARNING

DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU WANT TO RECEIVE THE FULL SHOCK FACTOR OF THIS RECORD.

Yeah, so this record is about a seriously disturbed stalker with a crush (from the stalker's perspective), but you wouldn't know that if you were just vibing to the breezy, laidback folksy chamber pop tunes that Andy Shauf writes.

Incidentally, this is perfect for a lazy autumn afternoon on a warm, partly-cloudy day. Andy's voice is such saccharine softboi material, that it makes the darker underbelly of this record all the more sickening. "Wasted On You" feels like a crooked smile once you understand the context, with that little uncanny plucked riff.

Admittedly, it's a bit too one-note at times for its concept and (again) could've been edited down. Definitely will lose some less patient listeners with its lackadaisical flow, and I would totally understand why. But the narrative is really well-written. Andy does a great job somehow both humanizing his character while incredibly disturbing us, the listener, with his unreliable narrator. Very Nabokov.

8/10

Highlights: "Wasted On You", "Halloween Store", "Paradise Cinema", "Catch Your Eye"

Pollen - Tennis

Main Genres: Soft Rock, Psychedelic Pop, Indie Pop

A decent sampling of: Sophisto-Pop, Twee Pop, Pop Soul

I had to include this somewhere, even if it didn't make the full cut.

The adorkable, young 'old married couple' turned retro-loving soft rock duo Tennis were responsible for my #1 favourite 2020 record with the glorious shimmer of their anniversary album Swimmer, a record that channeled and ultimately rivaled the greatness of 70s feel-good pop mega-acts like ABBA, The Carpenters, and Fleetwood Mac.

A difficult act to follow, for sure. So what did the band do? Took the gauzy, psychedelic tones of a few of the tracks from the previous record and turned it into a full-length album sound. Pollen is Tennis on some very nice, light edibles.

"Let's Make A Mistake Tonight" sees Tennis embracing a very detuned, sequin disco soul sound, like the music your parents/grandparents (idk how old you are) probably listened to while cruising down the country side streets with their old camper on the way to their honeymoon destination. "Pollen Song" is like laying in a field of flowers and feeling the soil underneath you giving you a nice warm back massage.

This was a very solid effort to follow up a very stellar record in their discography. It doesn't come all too close; The best tracks here feel like Swimmer B-sides. Nevertheless, Tennis very much retains the talent to write a golden melody that feels like it was a smash radio hit from 50 years ago. Still plenty to love here.

8/10

Highlights: "Let's Make A Mistake Tonight", "One Night with The Valet", "Pollen Song", "Never Been Wrong"

going…going…GONE! - Hemlocke Springs

Main Genres: Synth Pop, Indie Pop

A decent sampling of: Indietronica, New Wave, Zolo, Art Pop, Dance Punk

This is the EP that I wanted to shout out. I'm sure many of you TikTok savvy zoomer indie kids have already heard of Hemlocke Springs after "Girlfriend" exploded last year on the platform.

Tiktok as a music sharing platform seems to do be doing one of three things every time a song gets popular: a) it's boosting some talentless influencer hack making music designed to be memeable and forgotten a month later b) it's boosting already fairly popular indie songs from a few years ago to mega-popular status (look what it did to "Space Song"), or c) every now and then a fresh face with a lot of genuine talent is blessed by the algorithm and skyrockets them to early critical success.

Hemlocke Springs falls into the latter category. She deserves every bit of hype and the catapult to indie fame that she has received in the last year. Her music sounds like it's carrying the torch of Talking Heads, Jun Togawa, Marina And The Diamonds, Helen Love, and Javiera Mena all at once. She is one of the quirkiest, most colourful fun-loving pop artists to have emerged in a long time and I am HERE FOR IT.

After releasing a string of singles across the last two years, she finally dropped her debut EP going…going…GONE! in September earlier this year. It includes several of those singles plus some new cuts.

The aforementioned "Gilrfriend" is a stroke of genius, with zolo vocal weirdness over sugary girlish synthesizers, a killer fucking chorus, an energy that builds and builds across the entire track, and a ridiculously manic bridge that even trumps the chorus. I get giddy even just thinking about this track. It's no wonder it blew up; a pop song this good being part of an artist's debut rollout is almost unheard of.

"Heavun" is like a new wave glitter dream of flying through Akihabara with butterfly wings. "Enknee1" is an anthemic, longing plea for love set to baby-pink-tinged indietronica synths. "pos" is a goofy cut with bubbly mutant disco influences that makes me feel very light-headed.

I WISH she included "Sever The Blight" on this EP since it's arguably every bit as good as "Girlfriend". But for now, I'll just say that THIS is how you make your debut as an artist.

Hemlocke Springs is the hyper-imaginative, nerdy underdog hero that we all need right now. She really feels like she could be the next big thing that everyone in the music world could agree on. Keep this one on your radar - she's still only just cooking. Even greater things to come I'd bet.

9/10

Highlights: "Girlfriend", "Heavun", "pos", "Eknee1"

[bisasterbuckley]

911 as text posts 57/?

[revivisection]

been thinking about the alternate versions of you on epitaph. i think the fork in cosmas' life has to be pretty early for him to be dogmatic, while the heretic and iconoclast timelines are a lot closer. i scratched down navy officer cos rq just to see it. he gets a shotgun because he's a two-handed gun type of guy to me and i wanted to switch it up a little

[crocutacanidae]

what the fuck is the problem with knower

[duhsty1]

Grrrr WHAT THE FUCK WHY DIDNT IT WORK

IM SORRY IT HAS TAKEN YEARS BUT GUYS LOOK!!!! AT THE SILLIES!!! ATTACKS YOU

[andromerot]

movie likers and knowers might rightfully have me killed for this but i think the thing about "id like to watch more movies but i have poor concentration" is its literally okay to get distracted during movies. its literally fine. now i do understand why this might not be enjoyable for some people but it can be if you want it to be. missing scenes, or not understanding certain plot points, or "misinterpreting" some things about the visual language, or other things that might derive from not being laser focused on the film – these are all things that are part of your experience with the text, which is i think highly individual and contextual, and people who can pay more attention than you or are more engaged simply have a different experience. and while im someone who really intellectualizes and rationalizes what im watching i also think the way i most enjoy a movie and the way its information most easily enters me is sensorial, almost as a texture of something i can touch. i love beautiful images and words and light and movement and i love them when theyre ugly, too. hearing a voice that pierces the heart or an image that will stay forever in the back of my head, thats what makes movies special and different from other ways of thought transmission.

and really while this applies to people who dont want to watch 2 hour movies because of attention issues i really think its important to remember this when watching slow cinema. because no one can pay full attention to anything for four hours (or eleven) (even if you take breaks) and when you see eight minutes of a man walking through a field in silence your mind Will wander. and the places it goes to (other movies you remember have similar scenes, poems, where you think the movies going, but also: what youll make for lunch, a woman you love, your tasks for the week you least want to do, the phone you might pull out and look at while keeping a side-eye on the man on the field), they're a part of the way you experience that guy walking around, and the way you'll fill it with meaning and remember it later. and its literally fine. do whatever you want forever. i need to try out1 again

[the-valiant-valkyrie]

thinking abt this again now....

considering that the robots don’t seem to have a great understanding about the difference between robot mortality and human mortality (as expressed by Melvin questioning wether phoenix has their own factory in not a drill), do you think that prism has… sat them down and talked to them about mortality?

specifically her mortality? when she talks about putting the robots above herself during kboom, it doesn’t sound like a thought she had for the first time at that exact moment.

do the robots know that she can’t come back? are they at peace with this fact? or does it… scare them. that the creator they care so much about can be gone in the blink of an instant. permanent death the likes of which they’ve never known

[pastelstrawberriess]

((HI ITS @THEFINALWITNESS)) UR TAGS FILLED ME WITH SUCH UNEXPECTED JOY I AM CHEWING AND GNAWING AT THEM. Y'SHTOLA RHUL IS SO SELF-DESTRUCTIVELY BENEVOLENT AND LOVING AND I AM GOING CRAZY FEELING LIKE SO FEW PPL SEE THAT!!! SHE LOVES THE WOL!!! IT DOESN'T MATTER IF WE INTERPRET IT PLATONICALLY OR ROMANTICALLY OR ANYTHING ELSE SHE *LOVES* THE WARRIOR OF LIGHT SO MUCH.

the way her dialogue with the player changes after reuniting in rak'tika will live rent free in my brain forever. i could not BELIEVE the shift but it struck out to me immediately how obvious it was she was lowkey reeling from a combination of "what is fucking happening to you" and "i can't believe i almost killed you" and "i'm so fucking happy to see™ you" and "i wish i could see™ YOU and not whatever is HAPPENING to you" AND IT'S SO!!!! HOW DOES THIS NOT REND PEOPLE TO SHREDS ON THE SPOT. HOW CAN ANYONE CALL HER BORING OR JUST THE COOL KNOWER OF THINGS. TAKE HER TO VANASPATI AND TELL ME SHE'S BORING OR ONE-DIMENSIONAL. I'M THROWING ROCKS (NOT AT YOU I'M OVERJOYED BY YOUR TAGS THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR RESTORING MY FAITH IN Y'SHTOLA NATION)

YEAH!! YEAH !!!!!

and regardless of platonic vs romantic interpretation, even her famously memeable moments are indicative of a genuine care for the wol. like, pre-shadowbringers y'shtola would not have made a casual sexual joke toward you, let alone several. that can be read as flirting or as the kind of dumb shit that two best friends say to each other, but it doesn't matter!! she's opened up to wol enough to banter on that level!! on urianger ass slap level!! but everyone just uses it as milf fuel! STAY AWAY FROM HER !!!!

the "I wish I had the echo so I could see into your heart without the need for words" moment! again, regardless of whether or not you read that as platonic or romantic, it's indicative of great care! she's saying "I want to understand you. actually, I do understand you because even without knowing what happened, I know that this was immensely painful and I don't want to inflict it upon you again." and then she prefaces asking the wol to recount the events with "when you're ready" .... I also vaguely recall a time (don't remember the expac so if someone knows pls say so) when everyone was ragging on alphinaud and y'shtola was the one to be like "okay hey, this is a bit too much. let's cut it out."

her calling out thancred during shadowbringers and holding him accountable for his behavior toward minfilia/ryne? love. always asking the wol to accompany her and help her observe ruins/artifacts/etc. and asking for their opinions (which is also keeping the wol in her constant sight™ in the event of the slightest change)? love. her being the one to voice that ryne should have her own name because she doesn't deserve to live in someone else's shadow? love. she's a lover. she's brutally honest and she's a reliable friend and everything that she does is rooted in love because she wouldn't ever put in so much effort or hold such high standards for something she didn't care about. one of the most layered and interesting characters in this entire game, not just waifu bait. god.

[notaeldritchmoth]

goober alert

pfff me? Obsessed with a fictional religious man? Pff neeverrrr. That’s not my brand at all. Anyway I started this forever ago hated where it went it doesn’t look coherent but I’m gaslighting myself that that’s the vibe. ( I was gonna draw teeth around the little halo thingie but I broke my elbow and that’s to much effort rn) Uhhh I forgot I had a tumblr, I came back bc no where else has 8:11 knowers except for twitter and I think that place is contaminated. Game- 8:11

Character- Vittorino

[daiguit91]

Top 50 discos favoritos del 2023: 10 - 1

Por fin, los 10 discos que a mi consideración, fueron los mejores y que mas disfrute durante todo el año.

Espero les haya gustado la lista y de ser posible, que hayan descubierto cosas nuevas.

Felices fiestas a todos y por un 2024 mejor que el 2023.

10.- Kelela - Raven 

Alternative R&B, Electronic Breakbeat, UK Bass, Ambient, Ambient Pop, Downtempo

9.- Armand Hammer - We Buy Diabetic Test Strips

Experimental Hip Hop, Abstract Hip Hop, East Coast Hip Hop Drumless, Industrial Hip Hop, Conscious Hip Hop, Cloud Rap, Political Hip Hop, Jazz Rap

8.- Liturgy - 93696 

Avant-Garde Metal, Black Metal Totalism, Glitch, Chamber Music, Progressive Metal, Choral

7.- The National - Laugh Track 

Indie Rock, Chamber Pop Post-Punk Revival, Indietronica

6.- Sprain - The Lamb as Effigy

Experimental Rock, Post-Rock, Noise Rock Drone, Post-Hardcore, No Wave, Noise, Totalism, Neoclassical Darkwave, Experimental

5.- Ok Goodnight - The Fox and the Bird

Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock Djent, Art Rock, Alternative Metal

4.- KNOWER - Knower Forever 

Synth Funk, Jazz-Funk Nu Jazz, Art Pop, Jazzstep, Jazz Fusion

3.- Sufjan Stevens - Javelin

Indie Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Chamber Folk Folktronica

Shit Talk es la soty.

2.- Lankum - False Lankum

Irish Folk Music, Avant-Folk Drone, Neofolk

1.- Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want to Turn Into You

Art Pop, Alt-Pop, Electronic Downtempo, UK Garage

[lovejustforaday]

2023 Year End List - #14

Forever Forever - Genevieve Artadi

Main genres: Progressive Pop, Art Pop, Jazz Fusion

A decent sampling of: Psychedelic Pop, Nu-Jazz, Digital Fusion

So yeah, I decided on the final contenders for 2023's year end list and promptly realized that the list was almost entirely full of albums by solo artists. Strange coincidence, I know. I swear it's not intentional - sometimes that's just the way the cookie crumbles.

Knower were one of the only bands to even make the cut for the honourable mentions list this year, let alone a proper spot on the actual list. Knower Forever got snubbed in part because, as much as I liked that record, Genevieve Artadi's own solo endeavour from this year was just a little more enticing to my ears.

As I mentioned in the aforementioned honourable mention.....what the fuck was that sentence?

Ahem...LIKE I SAID EARLIER, I discovered Genevieve Artadi through being one part of the LA-based jazz-funk band with Louis Cole, whom in turn I discovered through 2017 memes, and then rediscovered through my dad. Some crazy pipeline, eh? Also, turns out she's not a newcomer in the slightest and has in fact been making records in various groups since as early as the late 90s.

So who is Genevieve Artadi anyway? Well, as a solo artist, she's one of the more esoteric figures active in her artistic medium. As a vocalist, she opts to sing in a dainty, glassy mezzo-soprano that conveys sweetness with a touch of snark. She doesn't generally sing plain old regular melodies, instead playing with discordance, near-octave jumps, and occasionally letting her voice fall frail. She has a lot of that real jazz spirit that allows her to let loose and get creative, decorating her musical compositions with a lot of pizazz.

I've also noted a subtle, uncanny element to her delivery. Artadi's lyrics are mostly stream-of-consciousness, and the words often fall out of her mouth like she's an advanced robot, learning to recreate the more awkward parts of human behaviour through song. All around, her artistic persona and execution are both deeply fascinating.

And it seems that I chose a great point of introduction to her solo work. Forever, Forever is cool shades of pastel art pop elegance with fanciful psychedelic jazz embellishments. Genevieve Artadi has invented her own musical garden just like Minnie Riperton, except she's inviting the listener to sit down and eat spice cake made with crushed diamonds, and down it all with some very oddly perfumed tea that just might turn the whole world around you giant if you should drink it.

I'm just gonna say this now - fans of Melody's Echo Chamber and Sheena Ringo will both probably get a lot out of this record. There's a commonly shared love of this kind of ambitious, cartoonish but classy prog-pop approach which I could always use more in my life, especially to remove the drabness of my daily commute. Can't have enough of this kind of stuff, honestly.

So how bout those tracks?

"Visionary" is emergent psychedelic pop that unravels like folds of a fan into a sea of warm, fuzzy pads and acoustic guitars. It very much immerses you in the imagery of a world that is idyllic, but with ceremonies stranger and grander than you could fathom, like going through a portal gate to witness a festival of millions of butterflies. An aesthetic parallel to the fantastical anime film spectacles of Hayao Miyazaki and Satoshi Kon.

The best way I could describe "Nice" is that it's elevator jazz music that's taking you towards a destination of self-actualization. Artadi's high speed enunciation over the shaky 2/4 rhythm makes me feel all dizzy and out of breath just hearing it. Endless ascension.

"Black Shirts" is a shifty checkerboard ballroom romp with several track progressions, from flowery flute melodies to jazzy breakdowns with steppy piano solos, all before devolving into flimsy bossa nova pastiche. Genevieve Artadi tells a very frank tale of co-dependence, with silly metaphors aboutthings like Nissans that rings both funny and terribly sad. This song bleeds creativity, like sonic violets and indigos spilling over into a monochromatic landscape shaped like the one in M.C. Escher's Relativity.

"Plate" has some god-tier tight, groovy drum work which I'm guessing was laid down by her regular bandmate Louis Cole. The stream-of-consciousness lyrics travel about as fast as the speed that my own thoughts regularly fly in and out of my head, so it feels like a very familiar sensation; like being lost in maze of contemplation until my head is as big as a balloon. Very cool track.

I'll admit I'm not as keen on the majority of the slower cuts. I really think Genevieve is at her best when she's conveying a very composed, jazzy musical hysteria, especially because her more soft-pedal voice lends itself to more exuberant, flashy melodies. The sunny closer "Watch For The View" would be my one exception, though even that's more mid-tempo song than anything.

But beyond my silly preferences, I think this is a really fun record. Forever, Forever is everything you should want in your art pop - quirky, eclectic, evocative, and seriously addictive. This is a true music nerd's record, and it's clear that a lot of love and ambition went into this project.

I'm hoping Genevieve Artadi reaches a bigger audience with whatever she does next, because she's one of the most creative artists in her medium, and she needs to be experienced at least once by everyone.

8/10

Highlights: "Visionary", "Black Shirts", "Plate", "Nice", "Watch For The View"