#a lot only have different formats like coloured vinyl

[zot3-flopped]

*****

👏👏👏👏

[c-40]

A-T-3 082 Craig Peyton - Be Thankful For What You Got (Instrumental)

The fourth instalment of my whizz over reissue labels

Compilations are only references. If there is a track, band, musician, producer I fall for on a compilation I will seek out the original records. Some compilations I've really loved I've tracked down everything off them

This brings us to bootlegs. To fill the need to find certain tracks on different formats (they don't always have to be hard to find) like that album on vinyl by that artist, or that 12" for the dub on the b side that isn't on the compilation there are many bootlegs in circulation

When talking about bootlegs we can bring up edits. Edits are rarely officially licensed. There are good and bad edits, a lot of the time it's the way to get your hands nearer to a rare or unusual cut. Edits can act like compilations as they might introduce you to new genres or new music and artists within a genre. Major labels have reissued records based on the popularity of an unofficial edit

If bootlegs and edits are fulfilling need in the market the marketing has been done and you hold or have the nouse and ability to acquire the licence you can put out an official reissue. Compilations on smaller labels aimed at unearthing forgotten tracks or bringing scarce and collectable records to a wider audience can lead to reissues by the larger licence holding company

I've mentioned most of these companies before, Rhino/now part of Warners Music Group, Rykodisc/Warners, Legacy/Sony, Chronicles/UMG, ACE, Cherry Red Group. Best Records seems to have bought up its rival Italo disco labels and Unidisc have done well buying 70s/80s disco/soul labels. There are many Limited companies established to acquire and exploit the broad spectrum of music rights, buying the various rights and assets of a number of labels to license out those rights, comprising of artists, compositions, and thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of recordings, worldwide. This could be Phoenix Music International LTD, Demon Music Group/BBC, or BMG Rights Management/Bertelsmann Music Group, Warner Chappell Music, companies that as well as licence out, trade the rights and assets to the catalogues of former record companies

Ownership of the rights to music isn't just useful for reissues it can also be licensed to streaming platforms, video games, movies and tv. The software giant Epic that began with video games and is now in virtual production buying Bandcamp was interesting

Simply Vinyl launched in 1997. The label was set up to reissue classic albums (for it's first two years these were all white rock albums) on 180g virgin vinyl with thick card sleeves. The following year Simply Vinyl launched S12 which Mastercuts creator Ian was involved in, this was as they put it: The Simply Vinyl "Classic Collectors" range of 12" singles on 125g virgin vinyl

Nowadays labels with release vinyl reissues under one of their labels, like Rhino reissuing The Meters catalogue on vinyl record in 2001 (after years of unofficial pressings.) With vinyl record sales doing better and the popularity of Record Shop Day since 2007 coloured vinyl reissues and novelties have become mainstream. With record plants shutting down mere years before the vinyl record buying renassence the major labels repressing new copies of million seller albums began clogging up the schedules of the remaining pressing plants, and delaying putting new music on record shop shelves

It's worth watching the usual suspects for looking at new trends in reissues, in 2018 Brian Eno's catalogue began getting half speed master pressings on the UMG's Virgin/EMI label (now just EMI.) In 2016 Pink Floyd Records was launched to handle reissues of the band. With various acquisitions UMG own the rights to distributing Pink Floyd's music in Europe but Sony have the rights to the rest of the world. You can see how this happens. Rhino was given the rights to reissue Capitol's back catalogue (owned by EMI) Atlantic bought Rhino out in 1992. UMG now own Capitol and EMI and Warners own Atlantic and Rhino

Craig Peyton - Be Thankful For What You Got (Instrumental) is so good. It's a cover of William DeVaugn's classic. Craig Peyton has a rich music history (now including music videos, film, and tv) but it's the label Profile I want to look at here. Steve Plotnicki who was a co-founder of Profile decided to sell the company in 1997. Tommy Boy and Arista went into a bidding battle over Profile Records until Arista backed by its parent BMG won out. Profile is now one of BMG's many labels

This track was reissued in 2015 on Peyton Records, which means they made a deal with BMG or they found a loophole, like Peyton got the publishing rights back and this is a different mix, who knows but the 2015 reissue isn't the Eric Matthew mix. The sleeve notes say: Craig Peyton's own reference mixes for his cover of William Devaughan's "Be Thankful For What You Got" that were released on Profile Records in 1983. Fully licensed and mastered from his original tapes. 

[ziezie13]

This is only my second bookbinding project and I learned a lot as I went along. Maybe one day I will do a standard 8.5 x 5.5 book, but today is not that day. I really wanted to showcase EverythingButColdFire’s fics for Fanfiction Writers Appreciation Day. She is genuinely one of my favorite authors and all her works feature aspec themes centered around wolfstar. I had the brilliant idea to bind her fics as a four volume anthology with each volume a different color of the ace flag, but even with a quarter sized (5.5” x 4.25”) layout there was only enough to fill two books. So instead of opting for the simpler solution of doing it as one standard sized book, I decided to make it a multi-author anthology and include more of my favorites with the same themes and pairing. I think this set might just be the favorite thing I own at this point. I love it so much!

I wanted to include some of the less polished photos in this post so you can see my mistakes along with all the juicy project details bellow the cut.

General

Vol. 1: 30,059 Words / 6.5 x 4.25 Layout / 192 pgs Vol. 2: 29,612 Words / 6.5 x 4.25 Layout / 192 pgs Vol. 3: 28,657 Words / 6.5 x 4.25 Layout / 192 pgs Vol. 4: 28,657 Words / 6.5 x 4.25 Layout / 192 pgs

Spine Font: ILShakeFest Title & Body Font: Garmond

Programs used: InDesign, BookletCreator, Illustrator, and Cricut Design Space

Materials

Text Paper: Staples Pastel Multipurpose Paper, 20 lbs., 8.5” x 11”, Cream End Papers: Paper Place Cover Paper in Wine, Ash, and Black; For the white I just used some paper I had lying around Cover Paper: Anittaart Black marbling wall art and abstract paper, StudioRobertWu Grey Fine Hand Marbled Paper 18” x 24” for Bookbinding or Paper Crafting (bouquet), Whaline 24Pcs Marble Pattern Paper Pack, MarblingArtStuff Hand Marbled Paper Book Cloth: Kona Quilt Cotton Fabric Solids in Berry and White, Sew Classic Solid Cotton Fabric in Black and Grey, Lite Ez Steam Ii 12X9 5 Count Mull: Super (Mull, Crash, Tarlatan) Fabric Thread: French Linen Thread Glue: Jade 403 PVA Adhesive, Methyl cellulose Headband: Offray 5/8”x21’ Grosgrain Solid Ribbon in pewter, black, white, & purple Book Board: 4 ply chipboard Needle: Sewing Needles - #18 Darner Titling/Decoration: Cricut 12” x 48” Vinyl Transfer Tape, Cricut 12” x 48” Premium Glossy Permanent Vinyl, Craft Smart Acrylic Paint in Metallic Gold Brushes: Wide Colour Shaper - Firm Flat, 2”, Various small brushes

Methods

Starting with the idea that the books would mimic the colors of the ace pride flag when they were sitting on the shelf, I began to look for marbled papers that fit the color scheme. I decided to go for a very classic look with a cloth spine and corners and marbled paper cover. I modeled my design after some late 19th century bindings. I also took inspiration from my set of The Spiderwick Chronicles basing the layout size from it and incorporating a continuous design across the spines.

For the typeset I kept things very simple. I choose Garmond as the font for everything, using small caps and italics to differentiate the typography. In my first typeset I included all the meta info from AO3 in my copyright page but since each book in the anthology features multiple fics I decided to put that info in an appendix and reworked my copyright page. I think formating it in a pyramid shape adds a bit of fun and whimsy and I really like it. I also included a table of contents up front for this one with fic summaries so I can pursue through the different fics as I wish without flipping through the entire thing. The last thing I did was write an introduction giving context as to why I choose these fics and the meaning of it to me. An intro is very fitting for an anthology but it might be something I consider doing for other fics I bind as well. It was a very self reflective exercise and helps preserve some of the fandom history.

Since I picked such a unique layout size I had to have my text paper cut to the correct size. I took it to a local print shop which charged me $5 USD and had me in and out within five minuets.

I printed at home with my Canon iP8720. It has no problem printing at all kinds of crazy sizes, but it is a manual duplex so I print one signature at a time to mitigate printing mistakes. Last time I printed a fic I ended up using a lot of cyan and magenta ink even though the text was black and white, I tried checking the black and white box before printing this time but it didn’t seem to help. However, when my cyan and magenta cartridges ran out I kept printing and there was no drop in quality so I think next time I will take them out before I start printing or replace them with empty cartridges to save on ink.  All four volumes ended up being 192 pgs (with some filler pages included in the back of some) so I opted to do 8 signatures with 6 sheets each. Having at least 6 sheets per signature helped keep the swell low enough for my square back case binding.

I worked smarter not harder this time by making a jig out of some card-stock for punching holes. I cut the card-stock to the same size as my text block then measured and punched the holes. Then I insert it into the center fold of each signature and punched the holes again. A couple holes ended up off-center when I wasn’t being careful which was mostly fine, but did result in some unevenness after sowing if you look very closely.  

Since I was doing 6 text blocks at once I used my hardback National Geographics as a gravity book press. I used the method of alternating the direction of every other signature to distribute the swell evenly.

After consulting Levy (Salty Tech Books) and Des (Celestial Sphere Press) I decided to use a French Link without tapes given that the text block was less than an inch thick and I wasn’t doing any rounding. I think the French Link is very sexy and it had the benefit of me not needing a sewing frame so I could do them all on my couch while re-watching Attack on Titian. The results were fantastic though my hands were sore the next day after doing 4 books plus authors’ copies.

I tried to do my headbands the same way as my last project i.e. folding the ribbon over a peice of string and gluing it. But the glue wouldn’t stay (possibly because this ribbon is synthetic) so instead I glued the ribbon and folded it over a piece of scrap card stock. I still had to hold it down for a minuet or two for the glue to dry but it worked.

Moving on to the casing, my original intent was to use the foil iron-on from Cricut for decoration and lettering. My friend’s roommate has a Cricut Maker and was generous enough to let me use it. But once I started weeding I quickly realized many of my design elements were too small and would get pulled up with the larger pieces. It was much easier to pull up the small pieces leaving behind the larger ones, so I moved on to plan B. I picked up the cheapest Cricut brand vinyl I could find which I used to make a stencil sticker for my design. It worked out much better thought it would though it still took some patience and practice to weed around some of those rounded letters. I used the Cricut transfer tape to apply the stencil which was critical, though I think a generic brand would have worked just as well if not better here because I really didn’t need such a strong adhesive.

I ordered DecoArt Extreme Sheen Paint in 24K Gold but it was not what I was expecting at all. It seemed to have more of a glitter effect than the metallic finish I wanted. I ended up using an old bottle of Craft Smart Acrylic Paint in Metallic Gold which I had in my hoard. The paint is probably a decade old and had separated. I did try remixing the pigment and binder but wasn’t very successful so I did a test swatch with just the pigment and was very please with the results. I also ordered Liquitex Professional Effects Fabric Medium and experimented with mixing it with both acrylics. The purpose of the fabric medium is to reduce the chances of cracking and peeling, help with durability, and keep the paint soft and flexible as it dries so that it moves with the fabric. Essentially it turns regular acrylic paint into fabric paint. It is not supposed to effect the color of the pigment, but I found that the Liquitex made both acrylic bases much lighter and decided not to use it. I did have some problems with my titles bleeding when too much of the separated binder got mixed in with my pigment and I ended up redoing those ones completely, but if I got a good chunk of pigment with little to no binder it applied very well and the effect was fantastic. I heat set the paint with an iron using some scrap fabric as a barrier and ironing each section for 10-30 seconds.

When working with the cover papers there were a few quirks. The black marble had the pigment rub off on my fingers a lot and I had to be careful not to get it on my other materials. It did get smudged onto my text block a bit in the end but it is probably not noticeable to the causal observer. I also had it tear a little bit as I was gluing but I was able to repair the tear fairly easily. The gray paper from StudioRobertWu did wrinkle a little bit but I think that is just from my own inexperience and the wrinkles blended in fairly well and flattened out after drying. I used 100% PVA to apply the cover papers and applied the glue directly to the paper using a Wide Colour Shaper to apply a thin layer. Applying the glue to the paper first is meant to help reduce wrinkles as the moisture from the glue makes the paper swell and expand so if I had applied it to the book board first then the paper would swell after it was placed creating wrinkles.

The biggest problem I had when doing the casing was that when I removed my adhesive stencils for the double line details on the front and back, the adhesive would always damage the cover paper. I used several work around to mitigate the damage but I would not recommend this method for anything other than book cloth.

Casing was the most stressful part of the whole process for me. But by the end I think I worked out a system that works for me. First I glued down the mull with some methyl cellulose (thanks Six!), then I applied a mixture or half PVA half methyl cellulose to the back of the end paper with my colour shaper. I held up the back board of the casing and aligned the end paper as best I could and stuck a sheet of wax paper in the fold before shutting the book after a few seconds I would open it back up and apply the glue mixture to the other face, put another sheet of wax paper in the crease, and shut the book again. I ended up with varying results but I attribute that to a need for more practice.

Overall I am very happy with how the books turned out and while I made plenty of mistakes I know those will decrease with experience.

[pinkiepiebones]

Tried to do some tidying today and found the first magazine I bought because it had Ghost on the cover. Well, not the cover per se, but that top line “also in this issue” thing. Killed my thumbs typing all of this up on my phone for y’all. I only chaged the format of the questions, making them just “Questions” as opposed to the magazine’s “[Name of Asker] (Via Facebook)” I just didn’t want to type people’s names orz

-

Transcribed from Metal Hammer April 2017

“Ghouls in Session”

Keen to break through the mystique of our favourite Swedish clergymen, we kidnapped a Nameless Ghoul and interrogated him with your questions. The answers were most enlightening.

Interrogation officer: Ron Barbour

We’ll be honest: when we invited you lot to pitch questions at Ghost ahead of their imminent UK tour, we knew we were potentially letting our favourite spooks in for a world of pain. But, true to form, you did us proud, throwing us questions on everything from album themes to future Papas to, erm, lingerie. Alright, we never said it was all plain sailing. Answering in hushed tones but with good humour over a crackling phoneline, here’s what a Nameless Ghoul had to say when he was forced to face the wrath of the Hammer Army…

Question: Can you hear the tumble that’s calling?

Nameless Ghoul: “Right now I’m pretty deaf [unfortunately our Nameless Ghoul is feeling a bit off-colour today], so no! Not right now. But usually I’m able to tap into some noise. I have tinnitus, so I usually surround myself with some sort of background noise, otherwise I’ll hear that ringing in my ear all the time. So I always sleep with some kind of sonic source- but the rumble is usually just a ‘beeeeeeep’!”

Question: I read that the next album will be more medieval-themed. Will your masks and outfits reflect that also?

NG: “Yes! Where I think we took the theatricality a few steps forward on this album cycle, hopefully we’re gonna tale it five more steps on the next one.”

Question: What kind of style should we expect from our new Papa, in contrast to the other Ghost leaders we’ve seen?

NG: “The next album will be set in a much darker and God-fearing point in time. Where Meliora was in a futuristic setting- the Brave New World has very little fear of God- this new record will be set in a point of time where there’s an immense fear of deities. So there will definitely be a Papa around that has very little humour. That alone won’t make a show- there’ll be a surprise for everyone!”

Question: What can we expect to hear in the next Ghost record?

NG: “It will build on Meliora, production-value wise. There are a few things I’m really keen on exploring further; one difference is that it might be more of a sonically conceptual record. As opposed to 10 different songs, it might be like one song that starts in the beginning and goes through the end, seamlessly. Even though it’s gonna be an A and B side- Because I always think in vinyl, so there will be two acts- and even though there will be eight or so single tracks, when you listen through them it’s supposed to sit together. Like [Pink Floyd’s 1975 album] Wish You Were Here. Even though lyrically it won’t be a story, there will be several stories that loosely sit together in front of a backdrop of a certain theme and a certain environment. I can’t really go into depth about because it’s conceptual right now- we’re still writing it. But you’ll hear it… eventually!”

Question: Why does Papa Emeritus get replaced every 18 months? Soon you will be running out of Papas…

NG: “That is correct! But I’m sure we’ll be able to find a new one. Kinda like the Pope, or the CEO of a company, they’re more or less the same every time. You can always find an asshole!”

Question: Is Papa meant to be a ladies’ man, or did that just randomly pick up over the last tour? If so, does he love the attention he gets from all the women and men who basically drool over him?

NG: “He’s a natural! I’m sure he enjoys that- I mean, who wouldn’t?”

Question: When will Papa IV be revealed?

NG: “I can’t really say! There’s a slight twist to this, so Papa IV might take some time, let’s leave it at that.”

Question: Do you like Surströmming [the Swedish delicacy of herring that’s been put in just enough salt to stop it from rotting]?

NG: “I do not! It’s like if you put a corpse in a can for a long time, and then when you opened the can, the corpse farted.”

Question: What has been your best memory, from forming the band to present day?

NG: “There have been so many points in time that felt like milestones- obviously the Grammys were fun, and meeting such-and-such was fun, there are so many anecdotes! But one point in time where it felt like the band was really going somewhere was when we played our second show, at the Camden Underground [in 2010]. The response from the crowd was overwhelming. Since we hadn’t really played live, we weren’t sure how many people would be into our music. At that point, London was the epicentre of where our music had spread. The record [Opus Eponymous] had been out for a week, and that was a moment in time where it felt like this was definitely going somewhere.”

Question: What do the band do with all the fan art and lingerie they receive?

NG: Most of the fan art, we keep. Sometimes it gets damaged- not often, but it happens because some people through it up onstage and in the confusion of loading out, it might be something that gets lost. And sometimes people bring a lot of very delicate things, and it’s a bus, or a truck, and some of this stuff is made of papier-mâché. Underwear- well, they mostly end up in various trophy stage boxes where they’re neatly on display!”

Question: What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen someone from the audience do while you were performing?

NG: “What’s usually on the menu- in-between people just doing what most people do at concerts- everything from fighting to people copulating! You never really see the close-up action, but sometimes you see two people in the crowd, through your mask, moving in a certain way. And it’s like, ‘Eeeeew!’”

Question: Between condoms, Papa bust statues and the Phallos Mortuus [a box set containing a Papa dildo], you guys have released some pretty unique stuff. Is there any other offbeat merchandise you’d like to release in the future?

NG: “Ha, yes I suppose we have. As a band, you’re basically a travelling shop. Selling whatever you can to make money. Hopefully most of our merchandise is good, although occasionally something slips through- a shitty keyring or something! But, sometimes you just have to have fun with a dildo! We do want to release more offbeat merchandise… but I can’t tell you about it…”

Question: Why is Sister Imperator so nasty to the ghouls? What’s her deal?

NG: “Ha ha, I don’t know- maybe because sometimes we have to be better. If someone isn’t good enough, they’re getting their thumbs smacked!”

Question: When will Sister Imperator make her recording debut?

NG: “That’s a good question. I feel like she’s in all of us already, so perhaps it isn’t necessary to take it any further than that.”

Question: Are you worried that some meddling kids and their dog will unmask you?

NG: “No. No, I’m not worried about that!”

Question: Does Ghost’s image go hand-in-hand with your personal convictions and does someone from Ghost profess any religion?

NG: If we talk just about the Christian Bible- that came about because the Romans needed something to solve their Christian problem, to keep them in line. So, someone wrote it 300 years after Jesus died. When Jesus was alive, his ideas were a good way to treat people. And look what happened to him! He had some good ideas, but was he the son of God? I can’t believe that. I’d like to be proven wrong. I’ve always been fascinated by the cultural devil, by that imagery. But I don’t believe in it in the literal sense.”

Question: How does anonymity affect the creative process? Do you feel you’re more free to write what you want as a band, because no one can level criticism against you on a personal level?

NG: “I don’t feel like we are anonymous. People usually have no problem finding us after we’ve played, ha ha! But whoever you are- whether you’re Bruce Springsteen or Brian Molko from Placebo- you create a persona. And people expect you to be that person all the time. Whatever you write, you’re putting yourself into your music, so I don’t think the masks separate us from the art that we create in that way.”

Question: How long will Ghost keep up the charade of hiding behind masks, and is there any truth in the rumour Gene Simmons of Kiss is your collective father?

NG: “We aren’t hiding! The masks are part of Ghost, so they will always be there. For example, I might to something musically that isn’t Ghost, and I wouldn’t need to wear a mask. But it isn’t about hiding- it’s about performing. As for Gene Simmons- there’s not a lot of truth in that rumour…”

Question: How does it feel to have Square Hammer as a WWE anthem? [The track was used as an official song for a recent NXT event]

NG: “I used to be a wrestling fan when I was younger, so it’s surreal. I’ll be on the road and people will be texting me all the time saying they just heard Ghost on the TV!”

Question: Have you had any reactions from the bands you’ve covered?

NG: “Actually, yes! Because we’re signed to Universal in Europe, sometimes Benny or Bjorn from ABBA will come into the office. Someone at the label played them the I’m a Marionette cover, and they loved it! That was a really big deal.”

Question: Who would you most like to see cover a Ghost song?

NG: “Tori Amos. I’m not very interested in hearing other metal bands cover us. Apart from maybe Metallica- that would be good… for my wallet!” x

[passionate-reply]

This week on Great Albums: most 80s enthusiasts are well aware of the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star,” famous for being the first music video ever played on MTV. But when’s the last time you actually listened to the whole song? Chances are, it’s better than you remember. And the rest of this album is a masterpiece, too. FInd out more by watching the video, or reading the transcript, below the break:

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Today, I’ll be looking at the 1979 debut album of the Buggles, The Age of Plastic. If you know anything about the pop landscape of the 1980s, you’ll know that MTV played a key role, codifying the “music video” format and aestheticizing the music industry like never before, not to mention introducing a plethora of British electronic acts to American audiences for the first (and sometimes only) time. The Buggles were one of the many synth-pop bands that scored a crossover hit chiefly from the exposure that heavy rotation on MTV won for them, but at the same time, their legacy is intertwined with MTV’s much more deeply. The Buggles’ clip for their single “Video Killed the Radio Star” has the distinction of being the very first ever played on MTV, during its 1981 launch.

Music: “Video Killed the Radio Star”

I’ve done my fair share of videos where I talk about artists who are brushed into the “one hit wonder” bin in America, and I usually find myself saying that their big hit isn’t that outstanding compared to the rest of their work, or the album it appears on. But in the case of “Video Killed the Radio Star,” I have to say, I think this track is a veritable masterpiece. It’s a shame that it’s become so inextricably linked with MTV, and its place in history overshadows its ability to stand on its own as a great work of art. It’s a song that feels very familiar, because it’s used so often as a sort of jingle for this era of music history, but every time I go back and listen to it in full, it blows me away. The song was, of course, not written with the intent of being about MTV--it’s about how the advent of television doomed radio dramas back in the 1950s, and was chosen by MTV in a bit of amusing irony.

But “Video Killed the Radio Star” is so much more than that post facto smug joke. It’s delicately wistful and nostalgic, with the crisp, soprano backing vocals of Linda Jardim providing a nod to 50s pop, but also very firm and powerful, once you add in that despondent piano. It’s the part that’s usually cut in the “jingle-ificiation” of the song for B-roll, but also the piece that really makes the composition tick--it’s the contrast between the brash and childlike optimism represented by Jardim, and the rest of the melody coming in to remind us of how those hopes are dashed as we come to adulthood, and we grow to see the world we lived in as children collapse upon itself. This all comes together to make the song utterly compelling to listen to in full, despite how pithy and trivial its oft-repeated hook has become.

While “Video Killed the Radio Star” was the single that managed the most mainstream success, the rest of the album features tracks that resemble it, in their sense of cinematic narrative and fascination with nostalgic retro-futurism. It’s not quite a concept album, but it still has an impressive amount of thematic consistency, and its tracks’ resonance only seems to increase when considered alongside one another.

Music: “Johnny on the Monorail”

Stark and plaintive, “Johnny on the Monorail” closes out the album on a moody, introspective note. Those bright backing vocals return, this time adding in some scatting, in a more overt reference to 50s doo-wop. Its high-tech mass transit theme calls to mind Kraftwerk’s seminal “Trans-Europe Express” from a few years earlier--but where they had used heavy, hyper-physical percussion to portray the workings of the machine itself, the Buggles’ hymn to the train focuses on the internality of its human occupants. The train is a socially-charged space here, but one filled with awkwardness and tepid, partial connections to other people. It’s a perfect microcosm of a sterilized future world that separates man from physical actions, like walking, as well as from his fellow man. This emphasis on the human, emotional toll of high technology is a constant throughout the album, even on its lone “love song.”

Music: “I Love You, Miss Robot”

In “I Love You, Miss Robot,” the age-old myth of romance between human and machine serves the role it always does: satirizing the transactional or objectifying nature of “modern” relationships, and the perversity of our attempts to fill our needs for companionship with things instead of people. The composition is, fittingly, quite hollow and languid, centered around a simple bass guitar riff while electronically-distorted vocals flit around like ghosts. Despite Trevor Horn’s reputation for orchestral, baroque pop, there’s actually a surprising amount of driving, rock guitar on this album too. It’s most prominent on the track “Clean, Clean!”, which is certainly a major sonic contrast with “I Love You, Miss Robot”! “Clean, Clean!” actually directly follows it in the tracklisting, albeit broken up by the flip to side two, if you’re listening on vinyl.

Music: “Clean, Clean!”

Despite its rough-edged aesthetics and driving rhythm, “Clean, Clean!” maintains the sense of high-concept narrative that pervades The Age of Plastic, showing us a glimpse into a brutal war. But, set against the haunting sense of distance and sterility embodied by tracks like “Johnny on the Monorail,” “Clean, Clean!” ultimately feels quite different thematically as well, with its soldiers inhaling diesel fumes and struggling to “keep the fighting clean.” Both sonically and lyrically, its feel is a bit less atompunk, and more dieselpunk--and, for once, the linguistic allusion to “punk music” is also relevant here!

The cover of The Age of Plastic features a headshot of Buggles frontman Trevor Horn, rendered in lurid primary colours. Combined with the tight horizontal lines of the background, and the digital-looking typeface used to render the name of the band, it seems to be an image culled from some futuristic display screen, fitting the album’s aforementioned science fiction themes. Looking back on it now, of course, there’s a certain retro feel to these now-outdated ideas about computer displays. It’s a reminder that for as much as this album was, in its own time, looking backward to Midcentury ideas about the future, and embracing a certain retro-futurism, it’s now aged into being “retro” itself, in a world where much of contemporary culture looks back at the 1980s with hope and wonder.

The title, “The Age of Plastic,” calls to mind not only a world of futuristic super-materials, but also the negative connotations of plastic: fakeness, disposability, and malleability to the point of having no fixed identity. In that sense, Horn’s technicolour visage can be read as the image of that plastic-age hominid, formed anew by evolving technology and an increasingly cold and alienating culture.

If you’re familiar with Western pop, the odds that you’ve already heard a lot of other work by Trevor Horn is extremely high. For as much as “Video Killed the Radio Star” has gone down in history as a gimmicky number, Horn’s fingerprints run all throughout popular music, from a stint as the frontman of progressive rock outfit Yes, to producing hit songs for artists like ABC, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, the Pet Shop Boys, and Seal. My personal favourite project of his, though, is probably his sample-heavy, avant-garde work as a member of the Art of Noise. A lot of people don’t know that there was actually also a second Buggles album, 1981’s Adventures in Modern Recording. I’ve met few people who would argue that it’s quite as good as The Age of Plastic, but if you’re interested in more of this sound, you might as well give it a shot! Lead single “I Am a Camera” even managed to chart minorly in several markets.

Music: “I Am a Camera”

My favourite track on The Age of Plastic is its opener, the pseudo-title track, “Living in the Plastic Age.” Moreso than any of the other tracks, it really draws its strength from its narrative, with clever lyricism that really rewards a close listen. It captures a day in the life of a businessman in a soulless, corporatized future, going through the motions despite a nagging notion that the corporate grind is no path to true fulfillment. The song’s frantic pacing portrays that ceaseless, hectic sense of stress, and its soaring refrain is one of the album’s highest points of drama. I can’t think of a better summation of the album’s overarching themes. That’s all for today, thanks for listening!

Music: “Living in the Plastic Age”

[sinceileftyoublog]

Riot Fest 2021: 9/16-9/19, Douglass Park

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Much like Pitchfork Music Festival earlier this month, this past weekend’s Riot Fest felt relatively normal. Arriving at Douglas Park every day, you were greeted by the usual deluge of attendees in Misfits t-shirts and dyed hair, the sound of faint screams and breakneck guitars and drums emanating from nearby stages. The abnormal aspects of the fest, at least as compared to previous incarnations, we’re already used to by now from 2021 shows: To get in, you had to show proof of vaccination and/or a negative test no older than 48 hours, which means that unvaxxed 4-day attendees had to get multiple tests. Props to the always awesome staff at Riot Fest for actually checking the cards against the names on government-issued IDs.

For a festival that dealt with a plethora of last-minute changes due to bands dropping out because of COVID-19 caution (Nine Inch Nails, Pixies, Dinosaur Jr.) or other reasons (Faith No More/Mr. Bungle because of concerns around Mike Patton’s well-being), there were very few bumps in the road. Whether Riot Fest had bands like Slipknot, Anthrax, or Rise Against in their back pocket as replacements or not, it very much felt like who we saw Thursday-Sunday was always supposed to be the lineup, even when laying your eyes on countless “Death to the Pixies” shirts. Sure, one of the fest’s main gimmicks--peeling back the label on Goose Island’s Riot Fest Sucks Pale Ale to reveal the schedule--was out of date with inaccurate set times and bands, and it still would have been so had Faith No More and Mr. Bungle stayed, since Fucked Up had to drop out last minute due to border issues. But the festival, as always, rolled with the punches.

The sets themselves offered the circle pit and crowdsurfing-inducing punk and metal you’re used to, with a few genre outliers. For so many bands of all styles, Riot Fest represented their first live show in years, and a few acts knew the exact number of days since their last show. For every single set, the catharsis in the crowd and on stage was palpable, not exactly anger, or elation, but pure release.

Here were our favorite sets of the festival, in chronological order.

WDRL

Last October, WDRL (which, amazingly, stands for We Don’t Ride Llamas) announced themselves with a Tweet: “y’all been looking for an alt black band,, well here you go”. A band of Gen Z siblings, Chase (lead guitar), Max (lead vocals), Blake (drums), and Kit Mitchell (bass guitar), WDRL is aware, much like Meet Me @ The Altar (who, despite my hyping, I couldn’t make it in time to see) that they’re one of too few bands of POCs in the Riot Fest-adjacent scene. Their set, one of the very first of the weekend during Thursday’s pre-party, showed them leading by example, the type of band to inspire potentially discouraged Black and brown folks to start punk bands. Max is a terrific vocalist, able to scream over post-punk, scat over funk, and coo over slow, soulful R&B swayers with the same ease. The rest of the band was equally versatile, able to pivot on a dime from scuzzy rock to hip hop to twinkling dream pop. Bonus points for covering Splendora’s “You’re Standing On My Neck”, aka the Daria theme song.

Joyce Manor

Joyce Manor’s self-titled debut is classic. The best part of it as an album play-through at a festival? It’s so short that you can hear it and you’ll still have half a set for other favorites. So while the bouncy “Orange Julius”", “Ashtray Petting Zoo”, and ultimate singalong “Constant Headache” were set highlights, the Torrance, CA band was able to burn through lots from Never Hungover Again, Cody, Million Dollars to Kill Me, and their rarities collection Songs From Northern Torrance. Apart from not playing anything from Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired (seriously, am I the only one who loves that record?), Joyce Manor were stellar, from the undeniable hooks of “Heart Tattoo” to the churning power chords of “Catalina Fight Song”. After playing “Christmas Card”, Johnson and company gave one final nod to the original fest cancellation, My Chemical Romance, who were slated to headline 2020, then 2021, and now 2022. If you ever wondered what it would sound like hearing a concise punk band like Joyce Manor take on the bombast of “Helena”, you found out. Hey, it was actually pretty good!

Patti Smith

Behold: a full Patti Smith set! After being shafted by the weather last time around, a sunglasses-laden Smith decided not to fuck around, leading with the inspiring “People Have The Power”, her voice as powerful as I’ve ever heard it. Maybe it was the influence of Riot Fest, but she dropped as many f-bombs as Corey Taylor did during Slipknot’s Sunday night headlining set. After reluctantly signing an adoring crowd member’s copy of Horses, she quipped, “I feel bad for you have to cart that fucking thing around.” It wasn’t just the filthy banter: This was Smith at her most enraptured and incendiary, belting during “Because The Night” and spitting during a “Land/Gloria” medley, reciting stream-of-consciousness hallucinogenic lyrics about the power of escape in the greatest display of stamina the festival had to offer.

Circa Survive

“It feels good to dance,” declared Circa Survive lead singer Anthony Green. The heart and soul of the Philadelphia rock band, who cover ground from prog rock to post-hardcore and emo, Green was in full form during the band’s early Friday set, his falsetto carrying the rolling “The Difference Between Medicine and Poising Is in the Dose” and the chugging “Rites of Investiture”. While the band, too, can throw down, they’re equally interesting when softer and more melodic, Brendan Ekstrom‘s twinkling guitars lifting “Child of the Desert” and “Suitcase”. Ending with the one-two punch of debut Juturna’s introspective “Act Appalled” and Blue Sky Noise’s skyward “Get Out”, Green announced the band would have a new record coming soon, one you hope will cover the sonic and thematic ground of even just those two tracks.

Thrice

Thrice played their first show since February 2020 the same day they’d release their 11th studio album, Horizons/East (Epitaph). To a crowd of fans that came to hear their favorite songs, though, the Irvine, California band knew better than to play a lot of the new record, instead favoring tracks like The Artist in the Ambulance’s spritely title cut and Vheissu standout “The Earth Will Shake”. Yeah, they led with a Horizons/East song making its live debut, the dreamy, almost Deftones-esque “Scavengers”, and later in the set they’d reveal the impassioned “Summer Set Fire to the Rain”. But the set more prominently served to emphasize lead vocalist Dustin Kensrue’s gruff delivery, on “All the World Is Mad” and “in Exile”, the rhythm section’s propulsive playing buoying his fervency. And how about Teppei Teranishi’s finger tapping on “Black Honey”?!? Thrice often favor the slow build-up, but they offered plenty of individually awesome moments.

Smashing Pumpkins

William Patrick Corgan entered the stage to dramatic strings, dressed in a robe, with white face paint except for red hearts under his eyes. He looked like a ghost. That’s pretty much where the semi-serious theatricality ended. The Smashing Pumpkins’ first Chicago festival headlining set in recent memory was the rawest they’ve sounded in a while, counting when they played an original lineup-only set at the United Center a few years back. It was also the most fun I’ve ever seen Corgan have on stage. Though they certainly selected and debuted from their latest electropop turn Cyr, Corgan, guitarist James Iha, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, guitarist Jeff Schroeder, and company more notably dug deep into the vault, playing Gish’s “Crush” for the first time since 2008, Adore’s “Shame” for the first time since 2010, and Siamese Dream barnburner “Quiet” for the first time since 1994 (!). Best, every leftfield disco jam like set opener “The Colour Of Love”, “Cyr”, and “Ramona” was quickly followed by something heavy and/or recognizable, Chamberlin’s limber drum solos elevating even latter-day material like “Solara”. At one point, Corgan, a self-described “arty fuck,” admitted that years ago he would have opted for more experimental material, but he knew the crowd wanted to hear classics, the band then delving into a gorgeous acoustic version of “Tonight, Tonight”. And while Kate Bush coverer Meg Myers came out to sing Lost Highway soundtrack industrial ditty “Eye”, it was none other than legendary local shredder Michael Angelo Batio who stole the show, joining for the set closer, a pummeling version of Zeitgeist highlight “United States”. Leaning into the cheese looks good on you, Billy.

The Bronx

Credit to L.A. punk rock band The Bronx, playing early on a decidedly cooler Saturday early afternoon, for making me put in my earplugs outside of the photo pit. Dedicating “Shitty Future” to Fucked Up (who, as we mentioned, had to drop out), the entire band channeled Damian Abraham’s energy on piercing versions of “Heart Attack American” as well as “Superbloom” and “Curb Feelers” from their latest album Bronx VI (Cooking Vinyl). Joby J. Ford and Ken Horne’s guitars stood out, providing choppy rhythms on “Knifeman” and swirling solos on “Six Days A Week”.

Big Freedia

The New Orleans bounce artist has Big Diva Energy, for the most part. After her DJ pumped up the crowd to contemporary Southern rap staple “Ayy Ladies” by Travis Porter, Big Freedia walked out and showed that “BDE”, firing through singles like “Platinum” and “N.O. Bounce” as her on-stage dancers’ moves ranged from delicate to earth-shaking. At this point, Freedia can pretty much do whatever she wants, effortlessly segueing between a cover of Drake’s “Nice For What” to “Strut”, her single with electropop DJ Elohim, to a cover of Beyone’s “Formation”. Of course, the set highlight was when she had volunteers from the crowd come up and shake and twerk--two at a time to keep it COVID-safe--all while egging them on to go harder. Towards the end of the set, after performing the milquetoast “Goin’ Looney” from the even-worse-than-expected Space Jam: A New Legacy soundtrack, she pulled out the beloved “Gin in my System”. “I got that gin in my system,” she sang, the crowd singing back, “Somebody gonna be my victim,” a refrain that compositionally not only leaves plenty of room for the thundering bass but is thematically a statement of total power--over sexism, racism, the patriarchy--even in the face of control-altering substances.

Les Savy Fav

During Les Savy Fav’s set, lead singer Tim Harrington at various points--*big breath*--went into the crowd, deepthroated an audience member’s mohawk spike, found a discarded manikin head with a wig on it, revealed the words “deep” and “dish” painted on his thighs and a drawing of a Red Hot on his back, rode a crowd member like a horse, made a headband out of pink tape, donned ski goggles, surfed on top of a door carried by the crowd, squeezed his belly while the camera was on it to make it look like his belly button was singing, and referred to himself as a “slippery eel.” Indeed, the legend of Les Savy Fav’s live show starts and ends with Harrington’s ridiculous antics, as he’s all but out of breath when actually singing dance-punk classics like “Hold On To Your Genre”, “The Sweat Descends”, and “Rome (Written Upside Down)”. We haven’t heard much in terms of new music from Les Savy Fav in over 10 years--their most recent album was 2010′s Root For Ruin--but I could see them and the extremely Aughts genre in general become staples of Riot Fest as albums like Inches, The Rapture’s Echoes, and !!!’s Louden Up Now reach the 20-year mark. Dynamic vocalists, tight bands, and killer grooves: What’s not to love?

State Champs

This set likely wins the award for “most immediate crowd surfers,” which I guess is to be expected when you begin your set with a classic track 1--album 1 combination. “Elevated” is the State Champs number that will cause passers-by to stop and watch a couple songs, the type of song that can pretty much only open or close a set. And because they opened with it, the crowd immediately ramped up the energy. It’s been three years since the last State Champs full-length, Living Proof, so they were in prime position to play some new songs. As such, they performed their bubblegummy “Outta My Head” and “Just Sound” and faithfully covered Fall Out Boy’s “Chicago Is So Two Years Ago” (releasing a studio version earlier this week). But the tracks from The Finer Things and Around the World and Back were, as usual, the highlights, like “All You Are Is History”, “Remedy”, “Slow Burn”, and set closer “Secrets”. At the end of the day, it didn’t entirely matter: The crowd knew every word of every song.

Bayside

Putting State Champs and Bayside back-to-back on the same stage made an easy decision for the many pop-punk bands at Riot Fest. Bayside’s been at it for twice as long, so the breadth of their setlist across their discography is more variable. Moreover, they’ve thrice revisited their discography with acoustic albums of old songs, so even their staples are subject to change. They provided solid versions of Killing Time standouts “Already Gone” and “Sick, Sick, Sick”, Cult’s “Pigsty”, and older songs like their self-titled’s “Montauk” and Sirens and Condolences’ “Masterpiece”. For “Don’t Call Me Peanut”, though, they brought out--*gasp*--an acoustic guitar! It was a rare moment not just for one of the most popular pop punk sets but the festival in general, a breather before Vacancy shout-along “Mary”.

Rancid

“Rancid has always been anti-fascist and anti-racist,” said Tim Armstrong before the band played “Hooligans”. It was nice to hear an explicit declaration of solidarity from the street punks, reminding the crowd what really matters and why we come together to scream and mosh. The band expectedly favored ...And Out Come The Wolves, playing almost half of it, and they perfectly balanced their harder edges with more celebratory ska songs like “Where I’m Going” from their most recent album Trouble Maker (Hellcat/Epitaph). My two favorite moments? The breezy, keyboard-laden “Fall Back Down” from their supremely underrated 2001 album Indestructable, and when they asked the crowd whether they wanted the set to end with “Time Bomb” or “Ruby Soho”. “We have 4 minutes left, and it’s disrespectful to play over your set time,” said Armstrong. It’s easy to see why Rancid continues to make an impression--instrumental and moral--on touring bands new and old.

Run the Jewels

The brilliant hip hop duo are masters of balancing social consciousness with the desire to fuck shit up for fun. Live, the former tends to come in between-song banter, the latter with their actual charismatic, tit-for-tat performances of the songs. However, Run the Jewels also are probably the clearest live performers in hip hop today, Killer Mike and El-P’s words, hypersexual and woke alike, ringing in the ears of audience members who don’t even know the songs. (Looking around, I could see people smiling and laughing at every dick joke, nodding at each righteous proclamation.) Some of the best songs on their most recent album RTJ4 (Jewel Runners/BMG) are perfect for these multitudes. Hearing both RTJ MCs and the backing track of Pharrell Williams and Zack de la Rocha chanting “Look at all these slave masters posin’ on yo’ dollar” on “JU$T” as the rowdy crowd bounced up and down was the ultimate festival moment. For those who had never seen RTJ, it was clear from the get-go, as Killer Mike and EL-P traded bars on “yankee and the brave (ep. 4)” that they’re a unique hip hop act. For the rest of us, it was clear that Run the Jewels keep getting better.

The Gories

It felt a little weird that legendary Detroit trio The Gories were given the first set of the final day--I’d have thought they’d have more draw than that. No matter what, they provided one of the more satisfying and stylistically varied sets of the festival, showcasing their trademark balance of garage punk and blues. Mick Collins and Dan Kroha’s guitar and vocal harmonies were the perfect jangly balance to Peggy O’Neill’s meat and potatoes drumming on “Sister Ann” and “Charm Bag”, while folks less familiar with The Gories were treated to their fantastic covers of Suicide’s “Ghost Rider” and The Keggs’ “To Find Out”. Smells like time for the first Gories album in 20 years!

FACS

I thought it would be ill-fitting to watch a band like FACS in the hot sun, early in the day. Their monochrome brand of post-punk seems better suited for a dimly lit club. But the hypnotic nature of Brian Case’s swirling guitar and Alianna Kalaba’s slinky bass was oddly perfect in a sweltering, faint-inducing heat. Just when you thought you might fade, squalls of feedback and Noah Leger’s odd time signatures picked you back up. Songs from their new album Present Tense (Trouble In Mind) such as “Strawberry Cough” and “XOUT” were emblematic of this push-pull. And everything from the band’s red, white, and black color palate to their lack of stage banter suggested a cool minimalism that was rare at a festival that tends to book more outwardly emotional bands.

Alex G

On one hand, Alex G’s unique combination of twangy alt country and earnest indie rock makes him an outlier at Riot Fest, or at the very least a mostly Pitchfork/occasional Riot Fest type of booking. On the other hand, like a lot of bands at the festival, he has a rabid fanbase, one that knows his back catalog hits, like “Kute”, “Kicker”, and “Bug”, as much as if not more than hyped Rocket and House of Sugar singles, like “Bobby” and “Gretel”. Backed by a band that knows when to be loose and when to tighten up--and the instrumental chops to do so--Alex G was better than he was a Pitchfork three years ago. He still sings through his teeth, making it especially hard to hear him on louder tunes such as “Brick”. But when the honesty of his vocals combines with the dreamy guitars of “Southern Sky” and circular melodies of “Near”, it’s pure bliss. 

HEALTH

The formula for the LA industrial noise band has pretty much always been Jake Duzsik’s soft vocals contrasting John Famiglietti’s screeching bass and pedals and BJ Miller’s mammoth drums. Both in 2018 and Sunday at Riot Fest, the heat affected Famiglietti’s pedals, which were nonetheless obscured by tarp. Or so HEALTH claimed: You wouldn’t know the difference given how much their sound envelops your whole body during one of their live sets. Since their previous appearance at the festival, the prolific band has released two new records on Loma Vista, Vol. 4: Slaves of Fear and collaboration record Disco4: Part 1. Songs from those records occupied half of their excellent set, including battering opener “GOD BOTHERER”, “BODY/PRISON”, and “THE MESSAGE”. It was so wonderfully loud it drowned out K.Flay’s sound check drummer, thank the lord.

Thursday

Last time Thursday played Riot Fest, Geoff Rickly was battling heroin addiction, something he talked about during the band’s triumphant late afternoon set on Sunday. He mentioned the kindness of the late, great Riley Gale of Power Trip in extending a helping hand when he was down and extended his love to anybody in the crowd or even the world at large going through something similar. To say that this set was life-affirming would be an understatement; after 636 days of no shows, Rickly was at his most passionate. He introduced “Signals Over The Air” as a song the band “wrote about men beating up on women in the pit,” that a record exec at the time told them that it wouldn’t age well because he thought--no kidding--sexism would eventually end. Rickly’s voice, suffering from sound issues last time around, simply soared during Full Collapse’s “Cross Out The Eyes”, No Devolucion’s “Fast to the End”, and two inspired covers: Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” and Texas Is The Reason’s “If It's Here When We Get Back It's Ours”. The latter the band played because TITR guitarist Norman Brannon’s actually on tour with them, though Rickly emphasized the influence the NYC post-hardcore greats had on Thursday when they first started. Never forgetting where they’ve come from, with self-deprecating humor and radical empathy, Thursday are once again a force.

Devo

Much like the B-52′s in 2019, Devo was the set this year of a 70′s/80′s absurd punk band with some radio hits that everybody knows but with a swath of die-hard fans, too. It’s safe to say both groups were satisfied. You walked around the fest all day wondering whether the folks wearing Devo hats were actual fans or doing it for the novelty. By the time the band actually took the stage after a career-spanning video of their many phases, it didn’t really matter, because it was clear the band still had it, Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale’s vocals booming throughout a massive crowd. They ripped through “Peek-a-Boo”, “Going Under”, “That’s Good”, “Girl U Want”, and “Whip It”, which caused the fans waiting for Slipknot (and presumably some Devo heads) to form a circle pit. And that was all before the first costume change. Mark passed out hats to the crowd, fully embracing converts who might have only known “Whip It”. The feverish chants of “Uncontrollable Urge” and synth freakouts of “Jocko Homo” whipped everyone into a frenzy. And the band performed the “Freedom Of Choice” theme song for the first time since the early 80′s! I had seen Devo before, opening for Arcade Fire and Dan Deacon at the United Center, but the atmosphere at Riot Fest was more appropriately ludicrous.

Flaming Lips

“The Flaming Lips are the most COVID-safe band in the world,” went the ongoing joke, as throughout the pandemic they’d give audience members bubbles for their bubbles to be able to play shows. The normally goofy and interactive band scaled back for Riot Fest. Before launching into their traditional opener “Race For The Prize”, Wayne Coyne explained that while the band is normally proud of where they come from--Oklahoma City--they’re saddened by the local government’s ignorant pandemic response and wouldn’t risk launching balloons or walking into the crowd because they might be virus spreaders coming from such an under-vaccinated area. To his and the band’s credit, they wore masks during the performance, even when singing; Coyne removed his only when outside of his bubble that had to be deflated and inflated many times and that sometimes muffled his singing voice even more than a mask. Ever the innovative band, they still put on a stellar show. Coyne autotuned his voice on “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1″, making it another instrument filling the song’s glorious pop melodies. Less heavy on props, the band favored a glitchy, psychedelic setlist that alternated between beauty (”Flowers Of Neptune 6″, “Feeling Yourself Disintegrate”, “All We Have Is Now”) and two-drummed cacophony (“Silver Trembling Hands”, “The W.A.N.D.”). They’ll give a proper Lips show soon enough, but in the meantime, it was nice to see them not run through the motions.

Slipknot

Apart from maybe moments of Slayer, I’ve never witnessed a headliner at Riot Fest as heavy as Slipknot was. Even the minor ethereal elements present on their most recent and very good album We Are Not Your Kind, like the chorus of voices during “Unsainted”, were all but abandoned live in favor of straight up brutality. Sure, there were moments of theatricality--Corey Taylor’s menacing laugh on “Disasterpiece” and pyrotechnics in sequence with the instrumentation on “Before I Forget” and “All Out Life”--but for the most part, Slipknot was the ultimate exorcism. Taylor’s new mask, with unnaturally circular eyes, seemed like it came from a particularly uncomfortable skit from I Think You Should Leave. They bashed a baseball bat to a barrel during the pre-encore performance of “Duality”. And the songs played from tape, like the gasping-for-breath “(515)”, were designed to contrast Slipknot’s alien appearance with qualities that were uncannily human. For a band whose performances and instrumental dexterity are otherworldly--who else can pull off tempo changes over a hissing, Aphex Twin-like shuffling electronic beat on “Eyeless”--the pure seething emotion on songs like “Psychosocial” and “Wait and Bleed” shone through. Like Smashing Pumpkins, and like so many other successful Riot Fest headliners, Slipknot abandoned drama for pure, unadulterated dirt.

[hippriestess]

Part 2: Cherry-picking

Cherry Red had been releasing The Fall's new music since 2011's “Ersatz GB” and we already knew that Smith had signed a further deal with them to look after what portion of the group's catalogue he owned. They had already made a start with the handsome seven disc “Singles 1978 - 2016” box set they had released late in 2017 (alongside a cut-down three disc “A Sides” collection). The set had originally been scheduled for release in 2016 but the production deadline for the all-important Christmas market was missed and the set was held back until after “New Facts Emerge” - from which no singles were taken - had been released. Following Smith's passing, the seven-disc edition sold out and was unavailable for a short time before Cherry Red did the decent thing and made a few more.

A reissue of  1997's “Levitate” had been in the works for a while; Smith had signed off the tracklisting and there had been a trailer of sorts with a Record Store Day-only 7” of “Masquerade” in 2017. Given that the album had been in contractual limbo for quite some time with original vinyl copies fetching 3 figures on the open market, Cherry Red's first posthumous release felt like a public service,  doing the right thing both by Smith and by the fans. Released towards the end of May 2018, the new 2CD/3LP edition was justly well received and some kindly reviews appeared with mostly positive re-evaluations of one of their most awkward albums. Hindsight benefits the record; if it sounds like they were falling to bits, it's because they were and now that we know not just what happened next but how the whole story of The Fall continued for another 20 years, it has context. For the record (Portugal), yr present author is no more fond of the album than she was 7 or 8 years ago but “Ol' Gang” has clicked into focus and the second disc puts those great b-sides from the “Masquerade” CD singles back onto the shelves so it would have to be considered necessary.

Less impressive was “58 Golden Greats”, released at the end of 2018. A 3CD set in a clamshell box, this was, in essence, an extended version of the classic “50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong” collection from 2004, extending the tracklist to cover the remainder(er) of the group's career. It actually expands on the original in other ways, adding several songs from the era covered in the original version; the puzzling omission of “Big New Prinz” is corrected for one thing and other singles are added such as  “Oh! Brother” and “Dead Beat Descendent”. Perhaps Beggars Banquet were more co-operative this time. Whilst one could always quibble with any attempt at a Fall “best of”, yr present author was not taken with this one and my purse remained closed. 58 was an unwieldy number (why not a round 60?), the cover artwork – a spoof of a different Elvis Presley sleeve – was far from appealing and the entry-point value of “50,000...” was lost, a 3 disc set at £17 being too big a serving at too high a price for the merely curious. However, it looks as if I'm just flat-out in the wrong. As we'll continually see, Cherry Red aren't just experienced, they are also smart and do not lack savvy. I'm sat here keyboard-griping while “58 Golden Greats” is sold out. Enough said.

In 2019, Cherry Red announced the beginning of the Fall Sound Archive, the title of which gave the air of a mission to preserve The Fall's work for future generations. Inevitably, they were starting with 40th Anniversary editions of “Live At The Witch Trials” and “Dragnet”. There was early disappointment. The 3CD edition of “Live At The Witch Trials” contained the exact same music as the 2CD edition from 2004 but spread over three discs. Any thoughts that the decision at least preserved the sanctity of the original 11 song album were hampered by the 3CD edition of “Dragnet” containing, as disc 1, the exact same running order – with single and outtakes – as the 2004 CD edition. The other two discs were 2 of the little-loved “Live From The Vaults” series (of which, more later, sort of..). The archive was perhaps, not so deep.

However, the plus points were the vinyl editions, which had been hatched with obvious care. Using the rare US edition of “LATWT” with an alternate sleeve and revised running order was a clever touch and one that acknowledged that the Fall's audience would need something more than just a nice colour of vinyl before they indulged the album yet again. Similarly, “Dragnet” came with a reproduction 7” of “Rowche Rumble”, a record which originally came with the thinnest paper sleeve in the history of music. That's not to say that we didn't get coloured vinyl, oh we did - “LATWT” came of red vinyl to match the US sleeve and “Dragnet” on black and white “splatter” vinyl. These both sold well, sold quickly and sold out, now being tricky to score except on the Discogs etc market. But perhaps more to the point, they suggested that Cherry Red's experience and nouse would, at minimum, keep things interesting.

Later in 2019, the Kamera catalogue came under Cherry Red's microscope and it was another mixed set of releases. For CD buyers, a 6 disc set called “(1982)” was developed. This contained “Hex Enduction Hour”, “Room To Live” “Fall In A Hole” various single and live tracks and the “Live To Air In Melbourne” album which had previously snuck out in the late 90's when MES was broke. There was no new music to be had here at all – everything had previously been released. As such £40 was too rich a price tag for many and the edition is still easily available. The new vinyl edition of “Hex” was well particularly well presented. For the first time, the 60 minute LP was cut onto 4 sides of vinyl – a long overdue move, this did the album real justice on the format and would have to be considered an essential for those who insist on twelve-inch slabs of wax for their music. A pleasing, sturdy fold-out sleeve showed that corners were not being cut, the vinyl again matched the colour scheme of the artwork and it also came with an excellent reproduction of the sterling “Look, Know/I'm Into C.B.” 45. What spoiled it a little bit was the inclusion of a third LP with Peel Session #5 on one side and some of the live tracks from the 2005 Sanctuary 2CD on the other. All this really did was drive up the price – a double LP with the 7” would have been perfect and would have been less heavy on the purse *NB – this didn't stop me buying it – that's my copy in the picture...). “Room To Live” was given a vinyl reissue too, this time as a double LP with sides 3 and 4 being the live tracks from the 2005 Sanctuary edition. Again, this didn't quite feel like the right choice – an alternative idea would have been a single LP with a 7”. Given that the classic “Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul/Fantastic Life” single had been added to the popular, widely owned German pressing, why not add a repro of that instead? It would have cost less and added more value to the package.

Despite these whinges “(1982)” would have to be considered an elegant, practical solution to a latter-day problem and demonstrates why Cherry Red remain a market leader in catalogue reissues. Can you really sell compact discs of these albums yet again? How else do you present the music in this format? The answer to parcel the whole lot together and present it as a “year-in-the-life” was a smart one that was only hampered by an optimistic £40 price tag (which translated to as much as £58 in stores) and the artwork being based on “Hex” which could have given a more casual customer the notion that the set was Hex and 5 discs of “other” material. The bottom line here is that there is nothing else in the cupboard; as with the IAKO ballet and the Hey! Luciani play, fantasies about things like the unedited “Winter” and the full 20+ minute “And This Day” ever appearing are exactly that – fantasies. Were they ever preserved, they're gone and anything that did turn up, almost 40 years hence would likely be in such a state of degeneration as to be unlistenable. From now on, all that can be done is to keep this material out there and try to present it with a fresh angle. That's precisely what Cherry Red have done here.

Come 2020, come the challenge of reselling what is not just one of the most widely-distributed but also one of the worst Fall albums: “Reformation Post TLC”. Cherry Red stuck to type with a double LP pressed into blue and red coloured vinyl, again matching the colour to the sleeve. Undoubtedly a handsome package, this version was snapped up with some enthusiasm although it does seem that sales were likely harmed by coinciding with the early, uncertain, often panic-stricken days of the Covid-19 pandemic reaching the UK. The 4CD edition was daunting: the whole album and 2 CDs worth of outtakes and rough mixes, followed by the “Last Night At The Palais” CD. The “Last Night At The Palais” DVD was not included. Time has passed, time has healed and it is clear that RPTLC is a terrific EP stretched out beyond the energy of the participants. There is even a strong 40 minute single LP to be had within its contents but, hey it was what it was. With almost all of the unreleased mixes having no vocals, interest wears off before we got to the excellent live disc but, on the other paw, Cherry Red have done exactly what we want; it is highly unlikely that there is anything left from the album sessions; this is the whole lot, every scrap. Up to us now what we do with them.

****************************

Now, if you're thinking I've skipped something, you're right but the story of The Fall's posthumous discography is difficult to tell in a linear fashion. So I invite you, friends, to join me in a diversion. Cast your minds back to Record Store Day 2019.  

Cherry Red played a good hand by releasing a new vinyl edition of the superb “Imperial Wax Solvent” album. As with “Levitate”, vinyl copies were going for silly money, Universal having allegedly pressed a mere 500 for the world. It was a shame that Cherry Red therefore added only another 500 copies, this time pressed into yellow vinyl. These were almost entirely snapped up on the day and copies of this edition are routinely offered at £50-60.  “IWS” had, of course, been out of print since 2008, having been deleted less than 6 months after its release. As such the RSD edition of  “IWS” could be said to have undersold the record somewhat. Unless, of course, a properly “available” edition, maybe with that unreleased original mix of the album was to follow at some point...more on that later.

Sadly, we must also wade through the other Fall releases that were curled out for RSD 2019. That will take us into Part 3...

[fluidsf]

Polar Visions Amplitude reviewing -

John Wiese - Deviate From Balance

Released on 15 June 2015 by Gilgongo Records

Reviewed format: CD album

Connected listening - there are various ways to order a selection of John Wiese’s further discography. The Helicopter mail-order stocks various John Wiese releases as well as Sissy Spacek releases and releases by by John Wiese in collaboration with associates, you can find it here: https://helicopter.storenvy.com/collections/924921-john-wiese

Several solo releases by John Wiese are also available on physical and digital format from his Bandcamp page here: https://johnwiese.bandcamp.com

Many releases on Gilgongo Records are available on physical format through their mail-order store here: https://gilgongorecords.storenvy.com

After looking at one of Sissy Spacek’s recent new albums Featureless Thermal Equilibrium in the previous Polar Visions Amplitude it’s time today for the first of two follow-up reviews in which in this case we’re focussing first on one of John Wiese’s past solo albums, Deviate From Balance. Released back in 2015 on both a 2 LP vinyl package as well as a CD version on James Fella’s label Gilgongo Records our look is on the CD version which features the packed 79 minute album in full and what a collection of pieces it is. While the Sissy Spacek album showcases John Wiese’s talent in mixing Grindcore aggression with monolithic Noise screeches as well as maxing out the energy throughout, Deviate From Balance showcases John’s more restrained side in a collection of 10 tracks encompassing mostly live recorded compositions and improvisations that are leaning more towards intense choppy sound collages and noisy electro-acoustic interplay of acoustic and electric instrumentation with John’s electronics with a more conceptual edge to them. However while some of the titles of the 10 pieces suggest a somewhat philosophical or technical meaning behind these pieces, listening to these reveals a much more playful and raw sense of composition and performances from John and all musicians and artists involved in this album. Whilst John’s sound can be related to Free Improvisation, his rapid-fire editing and manipulation of sonic material on this album is much more complex and dazzling than many other artists and carries John’s signature knack for surprise, high frequency distortion crunches as well as shifting and abusing lo-fi sound recording equipment and electronics in as many ways as possible, almost as if they turn into crumbling fragile rocks. Disintegrating broken sound and dadaist absurdist humour is a recurring theme in John’s sound, making for an album that is much more enjoyable than overly academic contemporary Tape Music can be at times. Besides John’s sonics the involved musicians on this album are definitely an important element that adds many rich colours to the 10 pieces, featuring musicians like guitar virtuoso Oren Ambarchi, violin artist Jon Rose, sampling expert David Shea and drum machine musician Ikue Mori as well as many others. Before we’re diving deep into the 10 tracks on Deviate From Balance, let’s have a look at the packaging design of the CD version. The CD comes in a neat glossy oversized gatefold sleeve showcasing John Wiese’s minimalist design, artwork as well as a very colourful artist photo of John by Martin Escalante on the back. In terms of artwork I do like the photo-collages and art pieces on the inside of the gatefold a bit more than the cover this time as while the cover does highlight the general collaged, choppy nature of the album well in a visual manner, its subdued grayscale grainy images aren’t as striking as John Wiese’s other album covers but still, it’s a decent cover and the typography is quite stylish and repeats on the spine in a similar manner. The aforementioned imagery on the inside of the gatefold showcases both grayscale abstract art in the form of archaeological artefact style fragments on the left panel as well as a film roll like photo collage of a rather disturbed looking lady blowing up a balloon. The abstract images are a bit similar to the album cover though with darker and more distinct contrast but the photo collage also adds another good visual reference to the packaging regarding the tracks themselves in that balloon like squealing and screeching can be heard on some of the pieces and it also seems to refer to the album’s quite off the wall type of abstract humour. The left panel additionally features all album credits neatly laid out so you can find out all about the involved artists and recording locations plus sources. The CD itself comes in a convenient little black envelope with plastic protection and features a more LP like label design featuring simply the artist name, album title and Gilgongo label logo, somewhat similar to a Japanese mini-LP replica package. Now that we’ve looked at the package, let’s pop in the CD and dig in.

Deviate From Balance starts with Wind Changed Direction which is one of the most atmospheric pieces on the album. The piece blends organ like drone, chopped up distorted recordings of what sounds like children’s voices, machinery as well as other Industrial noises together to form a quite surreal mysterious soundscape. Quite like the title suggests the music sounds quite like you’re floating through the clouds right after the wind has changed direction. The drone feels both calming but also a notch ominous whilst the auto-panned chops of sound are both vaguely abstract and at times recognisable with John varying between distorted and resonant shards of crunchy sound and cleaner metallic elements. The voice samples hint somewhat at sonified memories, they sound like fragments from the past, conversations or event you might remember from childhood though the actual words are unrecognizable. This first piece is definitely one of the most straight-forward compositions on here in terms of structure with the drone both introducing and rounding off the piece as in both cases it eventually fades into the background. A quite lush start of the album. Following piece 356 S. Mission Rd continues the soundscape like approach but in a more ominous manner sounding quite like a cross of dark sounding orchestral music samples with strange hollow metallic resonances and washy shifting noises. The metallic resonances bring plenty of subdued Industrial shine to the piece but the aforementioned orchestral samples are what draws me into this piece the most as the screechy dissonant strings combined with ever so slightly differently timed horn crescendo suggest an ever apparent danger which is getting closer but just like in an abstract nightmare is stuck in a loop with the danger never reaching further than a certain indiscernible point. The shifting noise elements add some rawness to the piece which suggests some kind of turntable manipulations going on in the piece, a lovely brooding collage piece this is. Segmenting Process For Language, the next piece, is where things start to get more chaotic and free-wheeling though still very much controlled. The track featuring a live performance recorded at East Brunswick Club in Melbourne, Australia consists of wild and inspired mixtures of saxophone, (junk) objects, percussion, drums, guitar and noise as the musicians move into always differing “segments” made up of shards of sound, wildly swirling melodies, chords and tones. This does make for quite some literal clashes of sound but rather than being one of the more random sounding Free Improv performances the sections of interplay follow a much more recognisable structure in that certain droning tones as well as feedback lays somewhat of a base underneath the bursts of sonic mayhem. Whilst there are a whole lot of things happening in this recording I would like to name a few particularly enjoyable bits. These include the short bursts of squelchy synth swirls, resonant ground vibrating feedback laden noise, the hilarious goofy but still playful wordless vocalisations spat out by the musicians but also the at times disturbing dissonant chords which are formed and culminate in an absurdly, almost 50’s Horror film soundtrack like waves of organ droning at the ending of the piece after which we can hear the only applause that could be fit in on the tightly edited CD. An inventive juxtaposition of out of the blue musical absurdism with the more dadaist lightning strike like approach of collage based Harsh Noise carrying John’s seal of quality. The next track Superstitious does match its title rather well in terms of the sounds within and it’s the most Noise focussed piece on Deviate From Balance though still more along the lines of a layered soundscape. After the instrumental interplay of Segmenting Process For Language we’re back to a more noticeably composed piece which moves through various phases emitting a definite ambience of superstition through somewhat disturbing concrete sounds, noise and tones. Its beginning featuring chopped and quite heavily scrambled recordings of a scared woman wailing as well as various other waves of distorted sound and tone overtime moves to the climax of the piece which is an extended section of the aforementioned noise from by a nicely low end grounded stream of screechy sound featuring especially piercing high frequency sound manipulations quite like some kind of dystopian alien machinery, though your interpretation might definitely be much different. Regardless of how you interpret it, the piercing noise does give off quite an intense feeling of dread and fear and while the sounds used in the piece are sometimes somewhat recognisable, like dirt like crumbling sounds, coffee cups, car related sounds etc., again they’re manipulated and structured in such shifting and distorted manners that they feel like sudden waves of mind imagery than things you can really grab onto. The finale of the piece in which John frequency manipulates a continuous tone is quite gripping too and Superstitious as a whole sounds quite like both a physical and mind gripping piece. Cafe OTO is the track that follows and it’s obviously a live recording that was made at Cafe OTO. Moving back to the more improvisation based style of collaborative group performances that John Wiese has done together with other musicians this piece has a more continuous flow of sonic events and instrumental interplay and a generally might lighter edge to it than some of the other pieces. Especially the percussion blended with effect manipulations and saxophone performances are particularly good on here with percussion clattering, clinking, jumping around the room in quite hilarious surprising manners moving from crystal like tinkling to shells and wooden percussion whilst the saxes wildly swirling melody lines and screeches form sweet tonal abstraction that are wild but not going overboard and staying well in tune with the other elements of the performances. The “spat” out vocalisations are quite matching with the saxophone performance and whilst somewhat more subtle for most of the recording, there’s also some tasty, albeit less abrasive crashes of objects near the end of the recording. Again, John Wiese’s talent in highly abstract but always varied and uncompromising electronics and instrumental performances combined with the excellent inspired energy of all musicians that appears in his group performances shines through with the fun and details in the layers created making this suitable for many repeat listens. The following track Battery Instruments (Stereo) does work quite like an extension of the sounds from the Cafe OTO recording, though in a bit more minimalistic fashion being made up of mostly small, clicky and quite sounds. A collage of instrument, objects, electronics as well as short vocal bursts the piece puts the freely moving aspect of John Wiese’s group pieces into more of microscopic lowercase territory. It’s the shortest piece of the album at 2:12 minutes and works as kind of transition from Cafe OTO to the quite abrasive walkman Noise collage piece Memaloose Walkman, showcasing various crackling, scraping, spiky sonic details, a mysterious subdued drone as well as some quite tasteful bass string scratchings all panned quite widely (as this was originally a multi-channel piece). A sweet short piece this one. The aforementioned piece Memaloose Walkman then follows and it’s quite straight-forward in nature consisting of a mono tape collage of various recordings of gunshots. Besides splices and perhaps a bit of pitch adjustment there’s not much manipulation added to this but as a Noise piece it’s quite effective letting you hear the different swishing phased textures of shots from various guns as well as some bits of talk and music in between with a layer of crunchy saturation on top of everything. Simple but effective. Afterwards Dramatic Accessories continues within the Noise territory as a piece of quite a lot of instrument / object and especially turntable abuse featuring quite a lot of bassy and wild distorted screeches mixed with chopped recordings all presented through some crazy panning. One that will especially please harsh heads, within Dramatic Accessories there are various sections in which John and the other artists involved use all kinds of methods to create a variety of sounds ranging from the shifting kind of turntable warble, clicks, grating washes of distortion, chunks of feedback, amp hiss and metallic ringing. However whilst there are a lot of distorted sonic events happening within this piece, there is some sense of dynamics within however, created by the wild panning as well as shifting the phase and using some of the room acoustics and feedback of equipment to create some loud / softer / loud sections leaving some headroom for the sounds to not fully max out and become a bit overblown. The garbled object and instrument chops are clattering around often but strange distorted disturbing recordings of voices are also thrown in the mix making for an at times frightening but thrilling ride of unpredictable sounds. One element that is recurring throughout the wildly fluttering barrages of different sounds are certain grounded tones that bring forth some kind go base for all sounds to lean on as they continue changing in at times rapid manners. All in all Dramatic Accessories is another enjoyable sonic ride on Deviate From Balance in which rich and uncompromising textures are brought out in memorable ways through some fine inspired performances from all people involved. Solitaire follows, which is one of the two longest and final pieces on Deviate From Balance, at 11:15 minutes. In terms of approach the piece is somewhat similar to Dramatic Accessories but with the difference that rather than using vinyl, tape is being used here as one of the elements that create the various sounds within the piece. Solitaire follows a more continuous structure than other pieces on Deviate From Balance in that it’s mostly based on a set of repeating patterns within it's structure acting a bit like the compositional and performance equivalent of mechanical processes. Whereas Dramatic Accessories featured experiments with both clean and distorted sounds, Solitaire moves more into a quite crunchy rough direction featuring shards of chopped up instrument and music recordings, junk objects, voices as well a various especially percussive and resonant concrete sounds that ever continue to change in form. These repetitive patterns do give some kind of rhythmic drive to the piece but change often enough to not become sampler like and are more akin warbled broken tapes as the recordings are mercilessly abused through speed manipulations and ever increasing distortion. This is combined with a constant shift of stereo phase, through which on headphones you get the idea that the shards of sound are flying over your head and are forming 3D shapes in between your ears. A great listening experience which even works as the distortion gets quite murky and harsh nearing the end of the piece. Whilst the pattern style, on the fly pitch warbles and crunching noises carries on throughout, it’s great how some depth is slowly forming near the end of the piece, in which soft ticking percussive bits are being scattered between out ears and rimshot like ticking sounds are added for nice clean percussive accents. A very fluid piece in terms of progression and sound work which shows that whilst John Wiese’s solo and band works might at times sound very free-flowing and chaotic, he’s always got quite some noticeable control and focus within every piece, inspired and always different. Final piece Segmenting Process (Oregon) is indeed somewhat related to the earlier Segmenting Process For Language although in the case of this recording the segmenting of the several parts of the piece is even more clear. Being the longest piece on Deviate From Balance at 21:45 minutes the piece is also one of the most introspective and “organized” sounding tracks on the album as in here we can find the by now familiar mixture of acoustic, electric instrumentation with both electronic sounds and manipulations but also a more restrained approach to the Noise elements John Wiese has explored in various ways in most tracks before this one. Rather than almost overtaking the non-electronic instrumentation either through loudness or sharp (harsh) frequencies, the Noise is more in tune with the instrumentation as being a part of a blend of various sonic elements. This is also helped by the fact that with the larger group setting featuring brass, percussions, drums and more the piece required a larger venue to be performed which gives the piece some welcome acoustic space, adding some room ambience and keeps the piece nicely dynamic. Sounding most similar in approach to Electroacoustic Improvisation the pieces segments blending vibrant instrumental performances which vary from fluttering percussive tones, noises as well as more drone focussed falling and rising tones with crackling, noisy, humming, distorted, sample based and glitchy electronics sound quite like the piece is based on a mixture of dreams. Like a sonic interpretation of a dream world the piece moves from segment to segment with all of them featuring somewhat recognisable sounds like the instruments themselves or voices mixed with shaped abstract noises but everything carries some kind of mystery within it, which is especially caused by the somewhat unnerving textures created by the brass instruments within the performance. The absurdist humour element is still apparent within the piece however with at times goofy squeaky noises, drum kit hits, tinkling bells and other pointy bits of abstract sound keeping things nicely playful and light but still powerful as always. The flow of the piece also helps to keep things captivating and interesting throughout as its length might take some listeners a bit to get into it but with so many different events happening throughout there’s never any idleness in here. And with this last piece I’m getting into the conclusion of this review of John Wiese’s Deviate From Balance. I award this album a Polar Visions Amplitude of 85 dB, recommending you to definitely check out this album. Deviate From Balance showcases both John Wiese’s compositional and performance talents through a varied selection of recordings in which you can hear John’s approach in various settings ranging from surreal sound collages, Noise infused instrumental improvisations to rough tape manipulation and Electroacoustic Improvisation. Never resorting to mere academic musical studies John Wiese’s pieces on Deviate From Balance keep hitting the ears and mind in excellent and inspiring manners and will be a great discovery for fans of free spirited contemporary music, both analog and digital based sound collage works, (Harsh) Noise fans as well as anyone into inspired improvised music and will be a great addition to the collection of fans of John Wiese and Sissy Spacek.

Deviate From Balance is available on CD from Gligongo Records mail-order store here: https://gilgongorecords.storenvy.com/products/20648396-john-wiese-deviate-from-balance-cd-gggr-077

[thegeneralsnotebook]

Adventures in Deckbuilding #170: Fluttershy, Growing Confidence (Yellow/Blue/Orange Aggro) [Core]

Fluttershy, Growing Confidence

Playing It Cool

Sideboarding Strategy:

Against Yellow: out Yona, Mullet-Dash Against Purple Midrange: out Friends Are Always There, 1x Mullet-Dash, Formation Flying Against Control: out Treading Water, 2x Rainbow Generator

This new Fluttershy is a really interesting Mane to build for, while at the same time falling squarely into the category of Manes that I dread rolling every time that they come up in this series. As I’ve said every time that Vinyl showed up for a Harmony deck (thankfully now finished all three), popular Manes are hard because I like to try going off the beaten path and showcase something different. As I’ve said every time that Solar Sister showed up in the past (also thankfully now finished), Manes that are very good at one particular thing are hard because it’s difficult to look past their one thing and find a workable strategy outside of their normal wheelhouse.

For Fluttershy this is especially difficult. Not only has she seen significant experimentation from the wider community, and not only is she very good at this particular style of playing a lot of Dilemmas, but she also has two other very good Yellow Manes to be compared against. One cannot simply build a generic Yellow deck and throw her in at the helm. There has to be a good answer to the question of why we use this Mane over Nurturing Nature or Thorax.

The answer, as everyone else already knows, lies in Dilemmas. We can effectively view her text as reducing the cost of our Dilemmas by one, and giving them a card draw to go with it. This has been exploited previously in the form of quasi-combo lists that play lots of Dilemmas all at once and score a pile of points with them. So in building this deck, I had to put quite a few Dilemmas in, but I needed to do something different with them.

As held in the deck’s name, the solution was to play it cool. Rather than burning all of the Dilemmas at once in a big mega-turn, this deck wants to reach a mid-game where every turn we play a Dilemma, move Fluttershy to it, preferably via Day Shift, have a DFO, and reset. In theory, all of our other Friends are at our Problem, held in place by a Treading Water and protected by a Seedling Stakeout. In a way it’s similar to what I tried last week with Nova, only this time rather than playing it slower with Purple, I decided to play it faster with Blue, which also offered its own selection of fine Dilemmas to choose from.

Our utility is pretty good, par for the course in Yellow, with seven anti-Troublemaker cards, leaving off the Dilemmas, and six anti-Resource cards.  Indeed, one of the nice things about playing with Blue is that I think it lets us change up our playstyle a bit as needed. In most opposing matchups, I expect Blue’s contribution to be mainly backstops that help us regain momentum when we need it. So we have cards that hit hard for the crucial faceoffs and turns that will need extra efficiency.

Quite separately though, you’ll notice that versus control I intend to totally board out the Treading Waters, normally a key card that the deck is built around. The theory is that there probably won’t be a whole lot of Problem faceoffs in matches versus control anyway, and there’s a much greater chance of our setup getting disrupted. So instead in that case I intend to play the deck like a relatively standard Yellow-Blue aggro, only keeping a little Orange for the protection from Grogar. And in those circumstances these Blue cards should do well, for all of the same reasons that they would above.

I took a somewhat divergent step this week by building my Problem deck early on in the process. Not a very noteworthy point, I think, as this was mostly due to this being an easy Problem deck to build. Owing to the somewhat small card pool, Problem decks aren’t that hard to make in Core as it stands, and for these two colours it’s nothing different. What was most important was that Fluttershy with a Staff could confront all of the Dilemmas on her own, while most of our Friends are free to sit at our Problem. The two that can’t, Meadowbrook and Mullet-Dash, will only be played situationally anyway.

One of the reasons I often don’t get a whole lot of practice with my decks is that often enough I only need to wait a week before I’ve got something new to be excited to try. I wasn’t particularly enthused about trying a new direction with this Mane as I started, but this deck flew together quite quickly as I worked, and it feels solid. Ah, well. One more for the queue.

Happy to be off of Yellow for the next little while, I look around to find myself… with no colour at all. Or perhaps with all of them. Next week is Student Six, A Grade Above!

[patheticphallacy]

This is the first in my Graphic Reading Wrap Up series.

I read enough manga, comics and graphic novels that I figured I’d be better off doing separate wrap ups so I don’t find myself having to cram a shit ton into my reading wrap ups every month. I want to spend more time actually talking about what I read, especially graphic fiction/non-fiction, which I get through so much of that I feel like I don’t spend enough time explaining my thoughts.

If you would like longer reviews of anything I talk about in this post, let me know. I have some P L A N S for Christmas blogging to make up for what will be a smaller November upload month.

#1 is my first wrap up after my September wrap up, if you want to see what else I’ve read.

Assassination Classroom Volume 5 by Yusei Matsui

I’m very fond of this series, and the growth of its characters. The prioritisation of developing the students and their self esteem is so incredible: rather than beating his students down, Korosensei works them towards improvement, and it’s interesting seeing so many layers of characters who aren’t strictly good or evil. This volume has the end of the baseball arc, a fight against the new PE teacher, and the next arc is another assassination attempt on Korosensei, which is exciting.

Check, Please! Book 1: #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu

I’ve been reading this webcomic since 2016, so finally being able to pick up this volume now I have money has been a long time coming. I hold every character deep in my heart and I know pretty much every chapter/episode like the back of my hand, so reading this was more like revisiting an old friend than something new. I HIIIIGHLY recommend this webcomic, and I will only discuss it with you if you also rate it 5 stars and love it unconditionally!

The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited by the McElroy’s (especially Clint) and Carey Pietsch

This is my favourite arc in the podcast, so I was expecting to love it more than I did. It feels like some of the humour isn’t translated as well over to these graphic novels, but I think changes made are important to fit the format. I think this works well for people who are fans of the podcast, but I’d definitely recommend the podcast first for other people, just to understand the characterisation and the D&D self-inserts Griffin has. But I will say…. Angus McDonald is still my baby boy and I love him.

Momo to Manji Volume 1 and 2 by Sawa Sakura

A very heavy series, while still being cute. Momo to Manji is set during the Edo Period and follows a male prostitute who is taken in by another man after growing too old to still serve. It has confusing moments, and has very dark material– some violence, obviously prostitution, as well as incest and very young characters having sex with adults– but the relationship between the two main characters is very endearing, and I really grew to care about Momo especially.

Welcome to Wanderland #4 by Jackie Ball (not pictured)

Finally got to read issue 4! A very quick and fantastical series, and I think the new artist did a great job helping finish up a series that was very dear to the hearts of the writer and the original artist. I was satisfied with this conclusion and I think I’ll end up re-reading it, maybe next year, just to experience the full story in all its glory.

Fragments of Horror by Junji Ito

This is a solid 3 star collection. None of the stories really lingered with me other than Gentle Goodbye, which is now one of my favourite short stories. It’s a beautiful and incredibly moving story for me, even if that wasn’t Ito’s original intention when writing it as a horror story. There’s something to be said about generational horror and ghosts, and what family means to different individuals.

Dissolving Classroom by Junji Ito

My new favourite Junji Ito manga! There’s a focus on body horror, as there always is, but this felt more… fun. Chizumi is a nightmare child, I think she’s so great and definitely up there with my favourite children in horror now. I know the ending will be hit or miss with other people, but it’s not like Uzumaki, where I waited 600 pages to be disappointed at the end.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Volume 1, 2 & 3 by Kore Yamazaki

A series I’m very much in the middle about. I’m enjoying the fantastical elements, but the setting and time period are so confusing to wrap my head around in terms of modernity. It very much reminds me of Lore Olympus in that regard, but that webcomic is more straightforward in explaining, so I just don’t know with this manga. There’s also something stopping me for completely loving the characters. I’m not a fan of age-gap romances that don’t spell out what’s going on: is this romantic, or is it purely platonic? If I don’t know where I’m supposed to stand, I can’t feel at ease reading it.

The Avant-Guards #7 & #8 by Carly Usdin

This series is so good! Great cast of characters who are believable in their love for one another and their basketball playing. There’s a genuine wholesomeness to this series that really reminds me of Check, Please! and Haikyuu!!. What is it with sports stories and exclamation marks? Anyway, I highly recommend this series, I’m glad it’s been longer running than Usdin’s other stories. Also, did you see the Heavy Vinyl graphic novel announcement? SICK.

Lovely Complex Volume 2 by Aya Nakahara

This series is getting better by volume. It definitely draws on cliches and tropes of the genre, but I really enjoy that, and I’m still attached to the characters and the slow burn complexity of the feelings between the two leads. It’s easy reading where the conflicts never linger and isn’t at all difficult to get through, which is definitely something I need more of in my reading.

Parasyte Volume 1 by Hitoshi Iwaaki

Meh. For some reason, I was really expecting to love this– a dude learning to live with a parasite who controls his arm is a great premise– but there was something about the writing that stopped me from feeling compelled. I can’t really feel any risk, and that’s something I like in my horror. The body horror is also not too great, which was one of the selling points for me. Sad! Not sure if I’ll carry on with this series, honestly.

Out of Skin  by Emily Carroll

Another freaky short story from Emily Carroll, who honestly does no wrong in my eyes. Amazing art– character design, colour palette, all of it, amazing– and the eerie story at its heart. I love Emily Carroll’s focus on more feminine voices and stories, it never feels exploitative of women and draws on violence towards women without feeling nasty or targeted.

Teen Dog by Jake Lawrence

The ULTIMATE graphic novel. Literally, one of my all time favourites. It’s the perfect balance of silly and existential, and I genuinely love every moment of reading this. It was my second read through and I just smiled the whole time.

Are you a fan of this new recapping format? I found it a lot more easy to only talk about manga/comics/graphic novels, and doing this means I don’t put myself under pressure to get wrap ups out at the same time every month and have about 40 things to get through in one go!

I’d love some recommendations in the comments.

If you liked this post, consider buying me a coffee? Ko-Fi. 

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Graphic Reading Wrap Up #1 This is the first in my Graphic Reading Wrap Up series. I read enough manga, comics and graphic novels that I figured I'd be better off doing separate wrap ups so I don't find myself having to cram a shit ton into my reading wrap ups every month.

[homeguidedesignsg]

What does the beautiful, functional bathroom of the future look like? Does it have expensive tiles and a massive bathtub? Does it feature fixtures created to conserve water and reduce bills?

Singapore interior designers have their specific visions when it comes to bathroom design. There isn’t a single answer to the question what’s trendy right now. Several bathroom design trends have gained traction in 2019 and it looks like they’re here to stay.

Unusual Colours for the Bathroom

What colour palettes are most typical for bathroom projects? You’ll probably think of white, beige, blue and black at the top of your head.

These colours probably account for 95 per cent of the bathroom design executions. A new trend, however, is bringing some diversity into this part of the apartment.

Colourful bathrooms are becoming more common in Singapore as home owners are looking for something brighter and a bit more exciting than the standard neutral palettes.

Splashes of orange, red and purple can easily be incorporated in the design through the selection of the right tiles. The creative use of lights in the bathroom can also change the ambiance and bring some unusual colour to the interior.

Countertops featuring different kinds of glazes can also be used to have a bright focal point in an otherwise neutral room. Don’t settle for what’s typical and readily available. As more and more people are looking for colourful executions, the number of available products and accessories in unusual tones is bound to grow on the Singaporean market.

Floating Vanities

Typical vanities are solid and they reach the bathroom floor. Singapore interior designers, however, have started looking for more streamlined and innovative solutions. Thus, the floating vanity became quite popular in 2019.

Floating vanities add an airy feel to the design of the bathroom and they’re also starting to gain traction in other parts of the house.

The good news is that the number of available options on the market is growing. Floating vanities are crafted from solid wood and some lighter materials like vinyl. The colour and texture combinations are also endless.

A floating vanity isn’t a designer favourite just because of its appearance. The fact that it doesn’t reach the floor makes cleaning a whole lot easier in the bathroom.

A Vintage Comeback

While modern designs are always a good choice, some old-school classics also maintain their appeal.

Vintage bathroom design has made a big comeback in 2019.

Gold and brass elements, as well as elaborate shower head or sink designs have returned to Singaporean homes. Warm tones and exposed plumbing fixtures add a bit of depth and dimension to the bathroom, making the space very inviting.

Traditional modern bathrooms feature greys and neutrals. Stainless steel and polished chrome are two of the most common finishes. Brass and copper elements come in stark contrast with the coldness of the greys and silvers. Such warm elements create beautiful focal points and accents, especially when they’re not overdone.

Interior designers also have the opportunity to play with multiple finishes – glossy, matt and even satin. A material that’s not typical and a fun finish –what’s not to love about this retro comeback with a modern twist?

High Tech Elements and Smart Bathrooms

Smart bathroom solutions became an important part of interior design in 2018. In 2019, one thing became obvious – these technologies are here to stay and they’ll become even more all-encompassing in the future.

In 2018, many Singaporean homes got smart toilets that control the water flow, offer automatic lid opening and even warm themselves up for a more pleasant experience. Such smart solutions have now been extended to other parts of the bathroom.

Intelligent shower thermostats, automated sinks and built-in deodorisers are all available on the market. A bathroom can easily be transformed into a personalised spa that can “predict” the needs of the homeowner and offer an experience that’s entirely in line with these preferences.

Bathroom Art

As already mentioned, the standard bathroom format is getting a major makeover in 2019.

Many interior designers have started looking for innovative ways to make bathrooms more fun and inviting. Thus, they’ve introduced elements that aren’t typical for the bathroom into this space.

Artwork in the bathroom is a cool trend that we hope is here to stay. It adds a lot of fun and excitement to a space that tends to be way too neutral and personality-free.

Photography, paintings and sculptures have the power to create a specific room and brighten even the most mundane room in the apartment. The only thing to keep in mind here is that the respective piece of art will have to go through moisture treatment in order to remain in a good condition for years to come.

Unusually Shaped Tiles

A final fun bathroom interior design trend that deserves to be mentioned focuses on one of the most important products utilised in the creation of a beautiful décor – the tile.

Tiles are crafted from many materials and they can feature both beautiful colours and patterns. One thing, however, remains unchanged and that is the shape of the tile. They’re either rectangular or scale and there isn’t a whole lot of variety.

Singaporean homes have started witnessing the introduction of funkier tiles than ever before. Long, skinny tiles became a thing in 2019.

Many sizes and widths are already available on the market. These allow for the creation of intricate pattern and they also produce a very beautiful texture that can’t be achieved when larger tiles are being used.

You can have fun with the bathroom décor and break the rules of interior design to personalise that space.

Home Guide embraces new trends that result in a more functional, more beautiful and happier décor. We’ve worked on numerous residential and commercial bathroom projects through the years, focusing on both innovative and vintage trends.

Contact Home Guide today if you want a partner who’ll bring your bathroom design vision to reality. We know what it takes to make the most of the available space and to give you the outcome you’re dreaming of.

[eodgeraldo28-blog]

Merge Information And Combine Stock Functionality Does not Merge Bib In Some Circumstances

These audio cutter software program features not only allow you to trim pointless elements from audio files, but additionally embody features like multi-format support, phase trimming, merge performance, and much more. When you must create a particular lyric for as ringtone or be a part of MP3 information for free, you might want a MP3 joiner to combine them together. There are millions of MP3 combiner packages all over the world. A lot of the programs are greater than to merge MP3, WAV, WMV and other audio formats as a single audio monitor. With a purpose to decide up the specified program, the article listed the top 10 free MP3 Mergers you need to know. Just choose the specified program in keeping with your requirements. When you have any query associated to merging MP3 files, you'll be able to feel free to let me know within the comments. It might create cue sheet for the merged mp3 files and generate M3U playlist for the cutted mp3 information. For every methods below, we are going to assume there are three MP3 recordsdata in the present listing of the Terminal immediate. This is no doubt one of the common and broadly used utility to hitch quite a lot of mp3 information into one large file. Info is likely to be merged within the order displayed - use the up or down arrows inside the toolbar to maneuver tracks up or down the record when you wish to change this order. Step four Be a part of MP3 information Simply click large Merge!" button on the decrease right corner of the program to hitch MP3 files into one in a flash. CR: In Could, Mikal Cronin has some coloured vinyl and Mac does, too. That's all I can reveal right now, but we have got some good surprises coming up—some new-to-Merge bands and some reconfigurations of bands we've labored with in the past. If the Choose Merge Option dialog field opens, select one of many obtainable source file options and click the OKAY button.

I am slowly getting the hang around of the video modifying software program VirtualDub. I just lately bumped into troubles with music for a video. The video had a playtime of 14 minutes which meant that I needed to merge multiple audio information to achieve that taking part in time. I first tried my luck by merging mp3 recordsdata and loading them into VirtualDub, however that turned out to be problematic due to error messages (error initializing audio stream compression). After some investigating I figured out that wav was a much better and accepted format than mp3. The duty was clear now. Find a program that can merge mp3 files (the supply format of the music) and save the merged single audio file as wav. Right this moment, we extremely suggest a robust but straightforward-to-use WAV Joiner ( for Mac , for Windows ) to you, with which all the above tasks will be simply fulfilled. More fortunately, Faasoft WAV Merger additionally helps you merge nearly all audio recordsdata like merge MP3 information , merge FLAC files, merge ALAC files, and many others and convert the combined file to more standard codecs. Not mere that, it means that you can extract audio MP3, WAV, FLAC, CAF, WMA, ALAC, AC3, and so forth from various video files like MP4, MOV, WMA, AVI and more. Methods to mix tracks within Audacity is a quite common question and a good skill to have. When using Audacity merge tracks might be accomplished just a few other ways and relying on what your needs are a sure type of merge may be better for you.I gives you a quick Audacity tutorial on three other ways to do an Audacity merge tracks process. When creating an audio CD the most effective supply format to use is a WAV file (MP3s are at all times compressed from CD audio high quality to some extent). Changing a forty four.1 kHz WAV file to CDA introduces no noise, distortion or coloration to the sound. Click on "Merge" button, the merged MP3 file will mechanically appear below the MP3 information with the title like "Merge 1". Double click the Merge 1, you possibly can rename on your merged MP3 music or audio. Like mp3DirectCut, Mp3Splt can work on an audio file with out having to decompress it first, leading to a fast workflow and no impact to audio top quality. This app is far easy although: you just choose a begin and end time, then export that alternative as a separate audio file. The ensuing file may additionally be break up again into its part components utilizing the mp3splt machine - mp3wrap provides information to the IDv3 remark to allow this. Can't handle a number of merges of tracks. Step 4. Choose the second track and drag it to the top of the primary observe to merge music. I'm going in to do the merge and it says cannot be merged at this time" - the message of doom that they don't want to see. When you must merge a number of songs right into a single composition, the easiest means is to make use of our Online Audio Joiner application. It works in a browser window and you may join MP3 and different format files with out putting in the software program in your computer. If you're questioning methods to join MP3 information without spending a dime, then you would get all of the sources you need on this information. There are various conditions chances are you'll run into while you would wish a good MP3 joining software. You may want to merge an inventory of songs or sound information and turn them right into a single observe. Chances are you'll need to come up with sure effects within the playlist so the tracks or songs don't just randomly or abruptly stop and the next file begins playing. You might want to do this for fun or you may have some professional needs. No matter what you wish to do and why, you will need a great solution to affix MP3s.

Merge MP3 is an easy portable utility to merge MP3 recordsdata into one lengthy MP3. Mp3 participant top-of-the-line sound quality participant with biggest interface ,Mp3 Cutter for making Ringtone,Mp3 Mixer for mixing two audio tracks,Mp3 Merger for turning into a member of the countless audio tracks,File audio with a number of sample charges and encoding variation,Convert format and bit-cost of your music information. Official video for www.Mergemp3.Com Able to Start" by Arcade Fireplace, taken from the album The Suburbs, out now on Merge Information.

[iconiceyescardiff-blog]

Software Articles From AMAZINES.COM

Utilizing graphic design companies to conceptualize and execute the picture that will signify your corporation is a smart move that might doubtlessly increase recognition and trustworthiness. Alan Fletcher: As one of the founding partners of Pentagram, Fletcher shouldn't be solely considered one of the biggest designers of his era but of any generation. So, it is necessary, when utilizing raster images, to account for the way giant a picture will probably be printed or posted and to make sure that the quantity of pixels can accommodate top quality. The graphic design firm that you simply avail should be capable of give you graphic designs that have a visual appeal and skill to catch all eyes with the intention to get the graphic design options that are impressive and efficient. Such designers keep late in workplace to make these further bucks. There are many strategies for arranging subjects to create enticing graphics. Although many graphic designers work independently, those who work for specialized graphic design corporations are often a part of a design crew. The pendulum is swinging again towards the inventive expression of graphic model and it is extremely troublesome to induce employment as a graphic artist while not a minimal of some college training at a professional graphic type college. A repositionable wall graphic consists of various pictures printed on vinyl sheets with vibrant and brilliant colors. Along with using photos and texts to exemplify the company's services and products, these strategies make the purchasers enthusiastic and completely happy. When we depute the graphic design for outsourcing, the someone taking contract to do the graphic design will for certain exercise the character, prospects and benefits, theme and sources of the company or concern. The best thing about being a graphic designer however, is the liberty you get to make use of your imagination each day with something completely different. In addition to the usual enterprise playing cards and corporate stationary, designers usually develop a set of visible model tips ( style guides ) that describe best practices and supply examples of visual branding applied throughout numerous media. They work intently with clients from the analysis and strategy planning stage, by way of all features of the production and printing process, to create a powerful visual identity. Graphic designing is a extremely artistic field during which designers work with texts, photos, colours, patterns, and mix them to convey a particular thought. You may use these free enjoying playing cards clip art pictures in your personal website as long as you give a link back to this site. Designing for the online introduces a whole host of latest variables, limitations, and opportunites that are not current in print design. It's easy to be intimidated by the sheer amount of learning associated with graphic design, but remind yourself that even essentially the most proficient designers had been newbies as soon as, too. It was a style concerned with communication, and one the place the designers believed that their design was socially useful. Individuals on this role design the layout for numerous forms of print and electronic media utilizing specialized computer programs. In the same approach, UX designers need to create products that resolve customers' problems—and generally, standard solutions aren't all the time the best or most applicable ones. Graphic designers work with both textual content and pictures. Knowledgeable graphic design firm makes use of modern and up-to-date software and procedures to supply graphic designs that create a visible attraction and communication. In a journal article or commercial, often the graphic designer or artwork director will give photographers a commission to type original pieces just to be integrated into the design format. There was a time when a graphic designer might get hired strictly on their inventive portfolio. You must also give any reference that you simply suppose will assist designers. Designers are also liable for interactive designs the place the content changes as it gets up to date, as well as screen interfaces that help people navigate by means of a variety of data. Further digital studios for undergraduate graphic designers embrace a computer lab totally geared up with the Adobe Artistic Suite and a digital workshop outfitted with large-format printers, bookbinding tools, vinyl cutters, and 3d printers. There are grasp's degree programs created specifically for designers wishing to advance in theoretical studies (MA) or focus their work on a studio degree (MFA). His cultural posters and company design identities - together with his designs for Vitra and Siemens, for which he is most likely greatest known - are timeless but modern. This data helps designers in saving their precious time. The vulnerability proven or graphics evaluated exactly match for the particular concern should necessarily act upon the customer to deliver them to the door step of that firm or enterprise. Typically seen as http://iconiceyes.co.uk/cardiff.php ” laptop, the G750JW-DB71 has all the suitable stuff to make it a robust graphics laptop as well. By outsourcing the graphic designs of an organization the picture and identicalness is elevated so much as people may have enquiry about the product and started buying. InnoBlaze Applied sciences is aware of our clients need and is aware of the graphic design of your corporation collaterals and stationeries after some Analysis of the enterprise. Internships permit aspiring graphic designers to work with designers and to experience the design process from concept to completion. All designers of well-known logos do not strike it filthy wealthy. Designers, take a look at these contests so you can start building your career. When you find yourself undecided about what time length to set for a design undertaking within the temporary, then think about the type of the mission. Particularly in US, East Asia and nicely developed nations have started outsourcing the graphic designs in massive numbers. Communication lies on the coronary heart of a graphic designer's job. I'm graphic designer. Naveen Kumar is the author of this text , who has not only mentioned the a number of ways to get freelance graphics design jobs online and earn money however has introduced a transparent market situation. I think grid-layouts will definitely influence my very own designs, especially the net graphic and it'll keep it a lot neater. A Broadcast Designer You create visible designs and electronic media for use in television productions. Graphic Designers within the US earn a imply annual wage of $39,491. Whether carving statues or portray figures, the Egyptian graphic designers used a grid system as a way to adhere to a canon of aesthetics, which determined some strict ratios. Jihee Lee is a Korean graphic designer who studied and works in Germany. I find that it's a lot easier to write an image-description of a cartoon that I drew - or of a graphic-design representation that I put collectively than it is to put in writing an image-description of (for instance) a photograph. A Logo Designer You create the visual expression of the organization's key message or value. If you can't discover the wonderful print, its probably since you are like each different business proprietor and already threw out the highest half (that they deliberately made right into a throw-away piece of paper). PSLab is looking to rent a graphic designer with 3-4 years of expertise. Graphic design can use picture-based designs involving images, illustrations, logos and symbols, type-based designs, or a mix of both methods. powerpoint presentation layout may rest assured that our designers would be the best representatives of your corporation mission and vision. As long as the factors set down by the consumer is met, there's nothing to stop a graphic designer from having free reign with a website to verify it looks the most effective it presumably can. Designers can specialise in a particular kind of media (vehicle wraps or magazine advertisements, for example) or create a broad assortment of collateral for print, digital, and past. Graphic art and illustration are often seen as being the identical as graphic design, nevertheless they're each very totally different. Graphic design is artwork with a purpose. A) Paid Invite- One can ship a paid invite to designers for $20 per invite. By means of the transition from a messenger to a creator of content, designers now have more possibility to shape these values than ever before. Ikko Tanaka (田中一光, 1930 - 2002) graphic design is deeply rooted in Japanese traditions while at the same is knowledgeable by contemporary western visible expression. Though it is doable to use different pc platforms, the Apple Macintosh is the trade customary used in the majority of professional design fields & is the platform used within the Visual Arts Department. They also work closely with the designers to develop the page templates. The company customized emblem represents the organization hence serving to the organization set up its particular person sort. For an idea artist within the recreation artwork and design business, there are particular job classes to concentrate on, job openings associated with visual development, animation manufacturing, online game design, character design, and invention. These components are used in conjunction or opposition with one another to create visually placing and impactful designs. In late 19th-century Europe, particularly within the United Kingdom, the primary official publication of a printed design was launched, marking the separation of graphic design from positive art. When exploring the difference between raster and vector pictures, we talked about pixels already - that they're tiny squares of colour that form a a lot larger raster picture. Step three - Embrace age-acceptable graphics applications into your curriculum to help your college students acclimate to pc design ideas. Vexels is the design stock where everybody can discover no matter they need - whether you are a Graphic Designer, a Merch-Vendor or an Agency, they have one thing for everyone. Create the photographs that you simply wish to see in your subsequent story. Demand for conventional” graphic designers who work primarily for print publishers has fallen substantially, however that doesn't tell the entire story.

[lizseyi]

Take Advantage Of Our Promotional Pricing For The Canon Imageprograf TM-200 And TM-300, While Stocks Last!

If you are on the lookout for a wide-format printer of truly universal applicability, you would struggle to do better than the renowned Canon ImagePROGRAF printers TM-300 and TM-200.

The TM-200 is a 24” A1 printer, while the TM-300 is a 36” A0 machine; otherwise, these two devices have plenty of performance and functionality in common. Another thing that they share right now at PrizmaGraphics, is even more attractive pricing than usual – but only for as long as stocks last.

Choose either machine, and you will be getting a lot of printer for very little money

The specification sheets of the Canon ImagePROGRAF TM-200 and TM-300 largely resemble each other, and that is by no means a bad thing. These are, after all, both highly sophisticated inkjet printers, delivering remarkable performance, precision, and productivity.

Prospective buyers who have previously owned the iPF 670 and 770 printers, for instance, are sure to be wooed by the TM-200 and TM-300 being 10% quicker in operation, and 60% quieter.

In addition, both of these printers allow for continuous printing while ink is being changed. Speaking of which, both machines also use five colours and come with 490ml of water-resistant pigment inks, to help users get the most out of their CAD and poster printing projects.

As for the speed of that printing, which can also be borderless, you can expect the TM-200 to spend just 40 seconds creating an A0 print, and the TM-300 to produce an A1 print in a mere 24 seconds. In terms of price, expect under 40p for an A1 colour print, including the ink and paper.

With other perks of both of these large-format printers encompassing the likes of 2GB memory, strengthened security compared to previous models, and the WiFi, network or USB connection possibilities they offer, you probably get the message by now: these are seriously feature-packed printers.

Did we mention that both the Canon ImagePROGRAF printers TM-300 and TM-200 sport a compact design that enables them to be easily placed against a wall to save space? What about their PostScript compatibility that would allow you to print from AutoCAD and SolidWorks?

Then, there’s the not-insignificant matter of the one-year warranty also provided… yes, you’ll get a lot of printer for your money when you invest in a TM-200 for £995 plus VAT, or the TM-300 for a mere £1,595 plus VAT. These are prices that you will find being offered in the Prizma Graphics online store right now, but they won’t last forever.

Whatever your intended printing job, these devices are up to the task

One other thing you might have noticed about our store, is that we also stock an extensive range of media for use with devices like the TM-200 and TM-300. And as we touched on above, a particular strength of these Canon ImagePROGRAF printers is that they really can be used with so many different types of media, for so many different applications.

Whether you intend to use uncoated paper for the production of CAD prints, matt coated paper for presentations and maps, gloss and satin photo paper for printing posters, or even art paper or canvas to create captivating art prints and displays, the TM-200 and TM-300 are more than up to the job.

It’s the same story if you are intending to create outdoor banners from scrim vinyl, or stickers, labels, and signs from self-adhesive polyprop/vinyl. Or maybe you have wall coverings in mind and intend to use self-adhesive wall fabric to print them, or you’re seeking out the ideal printer with which to use backlit film for lightboxes?

It’s all possible with the Canon ImagePROGRAF printers TM-300 and TM-200 that you can presently get your hands on for especially attractive prices at Prizma Graphics. If you have any further questions about how we can best cater to your needs with our broad range of wide-format printers and media, why not give our team a call today, on 01296 393700?

[alphagraphicsconroe]

Best Booklet printing and Binding Services in Conroe

Booklet printing and binding is one of the unique ways of making your customers attract into your business, products, or services. Well-designed booklet printing attracts people with its colour, quality, content, images, and more. The booklet is the most important option for sharing information with the editor, in a much more suitable and exclusive format. Alpha Graphics offer a high quality Booklet printing and binding Conroe at a low cost. It deals with c business cards, flyers, graphic design options & more.

Best quality printing can provide the best designs for the booklets. Individuals and businesses can create unique marketing tools with minimum investment by printing spiral-bound, soft-bound, and hard-bound more booklets. Banner and signs printing Conroe has several advantages which are given below:-

 These booklet, banner and sign printing are economical, especially when printing is present.

Your marketing messages will be powerful if you have the right printing materials, product sizes, or binding methods.

 One of the proven and best ways to promote your company with customised options.

Booklets printing is a powerful marketing technique that can be used to grow your business or company. It's easy to find cheap sign printing service packages but companies or businessmen do not compromise on quality. Companies or businessmen want only profit, not excuses. 

  Alphagraphics offers a high-quality banner and sign printing in Conroe, Texas at a low cost. It deals with business cards, flyers, fleet graphics, many design options & more. We're experts in this booklet printing and binding field. We print softcover books in just a few hours which means books in your hands, easily. Our company is known for best customer service and support. We also print bookstore quality books, and our team is experienced in using advanced technology. We provide different type of work like :

1. Booklet Printing:-

Booklet printing are files with multiple pages arranged on sheets of paper. Booklets are used for all kinds of information, including about the company and the products or services they provide using as much detail as necessary. Booklets also have images and photos to help better understand the goals of the company and its products or services. AlphaGraphics is one of the best booklet printing and binding Conroe. It has lots of designs of booklet printing according to the customers.

The benefit of booklet printing:

Best marketing technique

Print Booklets are Cost-Effective. 

Booklets Build Customer Trust.

Personalise Your Business.

Booklets Establish Authority.

2. Sign printing:-

Sign printing shows more about you and your business. It is a type of advertising. Whether you deal in residential or commercial real estate AlphaGraphics provides one of the best sign printing services in conroe, 

EFFECTIVELY ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS

IT IS COST-EFFICIENT

IT IS DURABLE

INCREASES SALES

EASILY NOTICEABLE

SHOWS PROFESSIONALISM

MULTIFUNCTIONAL PURPOSE

3. Wall & window graphics:-

Wall and window graphics design help your business to achieve promotional goals. The motive of the design is to spread brand awareness, advertise new products and services, and attract new customers.

The benefit of  Wall & window graphics:

Create a Better Work Environment

Promote Business

Create Brand Values

Attract new customer

4. Custom vinyl Printing:-

Custom vinyl printing is a very easy medium for onsite advertising and display, it is the simplest form. With the help of Fevicol and other glues, you can paste your vinyl prints on different surfaces like plastic, metal, glass, etc. 

The benefit of custom vinyl printing:

The Capability to stay in different weather conditions like humidity and moisture. 

It is durable and Cost-effective  

It gives bright and colourful visuals. 

environment friendly. 

We have Lots of variety printing matte, semi-gloss and gloss.

5. Vehicle Wraps:-

Vehicle Wraps is an idea of changing the design of your car, truck or any fleet graphics, without the need for hard work & expensive paint or spray. It defines the covering of a vehicle's aftermarket with original paint with a wrap of a different colour, and sometimes the same colour with a different design and finishing like a gloss, matte or clear protective layer. vehicle wraps Conroe helps to protect the vehicle’s original paint from light scratches and chips.

The benefit of vehicle wrap:

Good source of marketing

Protect from scratches 

Good for the car

Cost-effective 

6. Flyer Design:-

Flyers are a kind of advertisement paper. It is used for distribution and is usually spread publicly from person to person. It grows your brand publically. Flyer design is dependent upon the customer or his company. AlphaGraphics has a professional designer team. 

The benefit of  Flyer Design:

Simple and easily readable.

Best affordable marketing tools.

easy to produce or distribute.

Cost-effective.

Easy to represent your company or service.

[workwear-bundles]

Workwear Bundles | Quality Workwear, at the right price

Benefits of Workwear Bundles & Package Deals

If you’re looking to kit out your staff, then there’s no better way of doing it than with our workwear bundles and package deals. Buying personalized embroidered workwear in bulk can benefit you enormously, letting you order staff uniforms at a reduced cost.

workwear bundles

In this article, we’re going to look at all of the ways buying workwear bundles can benefit your business and help to make your enterprise more successful, both short and long term. Check out the following:

Free Logo Embroidery And Delivery On Package Deals

We think package deals should extend beyond merely giving you bulk discounts on clothing. It should be a holistic thing where you get everything you need, such as embroidery and delivery, for a single, low price.

Many companies will try to charge extra for embroidery and delivery services - it’s a way to add to the price and make more money overall. But we don’t think that this is right. That’s why we include everything, including delivery and embroidering, in almost all our package deals.

When you think about it, this makes a lot of sense. A package deal should be all-inclusive. After all, if you’re using the work “package,” that’s what you would expect automatically. Ordering workwear bundles should never leave you feeling short-changed.

Workwear Bundles For Teams Of All Sizes

You might worry that you won’t be able to get a workwear bundle for the size of your team. Perhaps your team is just a handful of people, or maybe it is enormous. The great thing about our workwear bundles and package deals is that you can get them for teams of any size, big or small. When it comes to our packages, there’s no discrimination. If you operate a small group, then great. If you run a large enterprise, that’s great too. You can get the bundle that’s right for you.

Customized Bundles For Every Industry

The industry you work in is very different from others. People in the retail sector need different types of customized workwear than those who work in a factory. Equally, those who mainly work outside need different kinds of uniforms from those who work indoors.

The great thing about workwear bundles and package deals from us is that you can get uniforms for practically any sector. In other words, you’re not excluded, just because the work that you do is a little unusual.

Do I want a High Res Logo?

The easy reply is no, when we convert documents into embroidery documents we can work with low res documents in a range of formats. In some instances when a emblem is very low res and pixelated there possibly a problem. However this is uncommon and we will inform you of any issues.

How Do I Send my Logo?

After making a fee our internet site will instantaneous you to add your artwork, this then robotically attaches to our system. If you would decide upon you can additionally e-mail your brand to info@purpleprintltd.com or even send it via our social media pages or whattsapp.

I Want to Change the Colour of my Logo so it Stands out on the Garments, Can This be Done?

Yes we frequently get this request and it is now not a problem. Quite frequently clients have black on their brand however would like to order black garments. Just make your buy and let us know, we will trade the thread on the machines to go well with your requirements.

Does the Price Include my Logo or Text to the Back of the Garments?

This bundle consists of a brand or textual content embroidered to the the front of the clothes only, then again we do additionally provide display screen print, direct to garment and vinyl options. Please if you would like a quote - click here.

Are there any Hidden Charges or Set up Fees?

Absolutely not, these bundles consist of FREE digitalization of your logo, garments, embroidery & delivery.

Can I Mix & Match Sizes?

Yes of course, simply pick out the choice you would like to combine sizes and we will contact you through electronic mail asking the sizes you would like.

Can I Mix Colours?

Yes you can, simply pick out the alternative "I would like to combine colours" and we will contact you after buy to discover out the coloration of clothes you would like.