#Matt Dahan the genius you are

[not-so-plus-ultra]

Its more Pulp art time because I have listened to to the new ep and I ! Have feelings ! :") Spoilers ahead if you haven't listened to The Searcher in the Shadows already (which you should do. Now. I am threatening you with buttons), continue at you own risk !

Thank Gravity for Episode 4 introducing my new favorite character Dakkar, he's a little creature to me and I adore him endlessly. Jesse did an AMAZING performance for him !!

I have never GASPED harder than I did while listening to this episode !! The whole Mags fam reveal was crazy, nobody hit me up until Ep 5 drops, maybe my jaw will have closed by then. Probably not

Anyway I have never seen two ugly siblings in pulp musicals fr 👇🏼

[missholloween]

The only characters that sing (and in a way, twist) the Great Astronomical Discoveries motif during TGMH apart from the Stratfords are Benjamin and John. And let me tell you, I love what they do with it.

Benjamin's take comes first, during Benjamin's Appartment/The Radiance. After days of listening to the Stratfords talk about their hoax, of seeing how they meticulously crafted their stories and the world clamor them, Benjamin has finally given up and is ready to betray the Stratfords. So, he invites Margaret to his appartment to reveal their hoax. Benjamin uses the same language he's learned from the Stratfords, and so, the great astronomical discoveries motif starts playing.

For the first time in the album, it's not a victorious melody: it doesn't sound grandious anymore, it doesn't have any build up, it's just Benjamin and a piano. Curt Mega's performance is really sober, as he's trying to cover up his own emotions. He only fails to do so in "to advance their own career", where he bitterly laughs, losing the beat for a second. Although a bass and another string section join for the climax they quickly go away, as Margaret also joins the sad melody. Even if Great Astronomical Discoveries brought the Stratfords fame and renown, it has also deceived and hurt many. It is satisfying to hear two of its victims sing it then.

That's also why, in John's Choice, it's Herschel's time to speak, we are expecting something similar to happen. The music stops, all the characters await, and Herschel starts to talk... And the melody is More Than This. It's subtle, and one may not notice it on their first listening or if they're not that familiar with the soundtrack. But then there's a crescendo, and John starts singing Great Astronomical Discoveries.

The passion, the energy, the love that comes from John's voice (in another amazing performance by Curt) blows away both the audience and the characters that were there. He has the same accompaniment as Rose and Samuel did, but there's a key difference: there's no harmonies. And it doesn't matter, because really, what a chilling performance. There's also something very poetic about John taking the Stratford's position and being in control of his story after all the hoax.

TL;DR I love the Great Astronomical Discoveries and everything Matt does with it in part 3 of TGMH. Curt totally kills it every time he sings it in any way <3

[fallinginaforrest]

I physically haven't been able to draw for like two weeks. My motivation has dipped so much??? Which means one thing, My last resort, the thing i know will pull me out of this artblock hell.

Pulp Musicals save me. Save me Pulp Musicals.

[ftm-radio]

I know some folks have a harder time crying when they go on T and I wonder if that's hitting me now that I've gone up to 3 pumps and I'm getting more man sauce into my system... 🤔

[doug-meat]

more people need to talk about matt dahan and his genius underscoring in nightmare time. like to name off a few of my favourite moments (these might not all be 100% correct bc i have a bad memory but i appreciate matt dahan nonetheless)

in almost every episode there’s musical references to the opening/credit song - ex. we hear the hatchetfield ape man motif before we even hear the song the hatchetfield ape man. same with one thousand eyes and the web i spin for you i believe

similarly there are lots of character motifs - show stopping number often plays when hidgens is onscreen, and when he discusses working boys that motif plays

keywords are often met with motifs too - i can remember a couple ultimatums that were accompanied by the join us and die instrumental

in watcher world there are lots of not your seed references, and during really tender alice and bill moments matt tends to play the “why does it hurt to love you” bit

adore me plays a lot for linda during honey queen

one of my personal favourites - when we first meet roman in honey queen the nibbly ditty plays as underscoring. like come on that’s genius.

in abstinence camp when boy jerry is hiding mary and noah’s bodies matt plays a slowed down version of virginity rocks

in yellow jacket when hannah’s driving her go kart around the new apartment matt plays janes a car

if i remember correctly hannah gets what if tomorrow comes motif a lot in yellow jacket

same with lex she gets the black friday motif a lot

also in yellow jacket when otho’s about to take hannah over matt plays let it out

yellow jacket just generally gets a lot of tgwdlm underscoring references whenever otho’s on screen

there’s almost definitely more so if you can think of any SAY IT but. matt dahan is a musical genius with what he does with jeff blim’s motifs for underscoring and to think that at least during the first nmt episode he like totally improvised the backing music… ugh he’s so amazing

[alexorsomn]

I'm going insane over here; in Troll The Tide when we switch to John's perspective, after the line "And he couldn’t help but think of" we get a melody often used with paper stars? Oh my gosh?? They are adorable I'm dying please help me aaa Matt Dahan you genius I am exploding. explodes. will resume art posting shortly after I finish exploding

[emisirrelevant]

guys guys guys, y'all, I just had my pulp musicals discovery of the day and I don't know what else to do with this information so those of you who are also pulp musicals fans, here you go.

I just listened to Once You Get A Look and close to the end, if you listen to the instrumental closely, you can hear the motif of Behind Me????

Matt Dahan you genius. Also I am devastated because it's technically calling back to Ep 1 but also foreshadowing with Rose I'm pretty sure, or at least how I interpret it now that I hear the motif.

And that's my brainrot for the day.

[sorryiwasasleep]

Oh my GOD Matt Dahan you are such a fucking genius because the eerie silence at the end of ‘Gunpowder and Rum, Part 1’ after Rose’s “Samuel? Who are you talking to?” where it’s just the silence of the waves and the ship? And then the eerie music tone???? I can SEE IN MY BRAIN the absolute panic that would go onto Samuel’s face as he turns back to Kal with furrowed brows at first, confused by Rose’s question, only for Kal to not be there and then Samuel to just… scramble, looking around the deck, his head violently swinging from side to side as Rose grows more concerned and the sea raged in its silent but never silent way around them before it launches into the start of ‘The Conversation’. Like MY GOD it’s just so magnificent. Like he could’ve just… launched into the next song. But he lets Samuel and Rose and US THE AUDIENCE linger in that moment, that panic and realization of “Oh fuck.” And it’s just so so chef’s kiss. Each episode of Pulp Musicals is truly an experience and I am so far thoroughly enjoying my first listen of The Ghosts of Antikythera.

[atty-goldstein]

Just discovered today that “John and the Earth” from Brick Satellite was most likely inspired by this quote from Carl Sagan: “Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.” And what else is interesting is that this quote also inspired “I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing),” a song which was sung on the International Space Station.

[kinetic-empathy]

everybody drop what you’re doing and go listen to the first part of Pulp Musicals because OH MY GOD

[donteatthefishtacos]

You know, after having multiple sources of brain rot for different media over the last couple of weeks I have a thought on Pulp Musicals: The Brick Satellite (if you haven’t heard it please go listen Matt Dahan is a GENIUS) and I have the brain power to write it out suddenly so here we go.

The fact that it is entirely an audio medium is perfection for my mind which loves to create the scenarios while I read or listen and I cannot get the image of the celebration from the song ‘The Brick Satellite, Part 2’ out of my head. Like… at the top of the song you hear them talk to Charles but then the other characters all start singing and celebrating and in my mind, Charles leaves. But then Rose goes ‘Take it away, Charles,’ and you realize he’s STILL THERE. Just… brooding.

So in my mind that whole scene looks like this: