#and a new god ascending would mean they’d have to track the new guy down and convince them to get their hands tied with no immediate upside

[t4t4tclethian]

Are you planning on writing fic for the vessel of the moon au? <- *kicking my feet and twirling my hair*

In the meantime though, i love that soup group are here, and I'm wondering if you have plans for any other hermits and what roles they might play in the story? And I'd love to hear more about the worldbuilding you've done, especially the religion/deities, I always find that stuff really neat. Are there other gods or goddesses besides the moon and magma gods? And do you have any thoughts on how people worship the different gods?

i’m not sure if i’ll turn this into a fic- i do want to, and i’ve outlined it as if i’m going to, but motivation’s been running a little thin lately and i’m a little worried i wouldn’t have enough to write the whole thing. that’s the hope, though, and talking about it on tumblr is a way i hope to flesh out some of the bits between points a and b!

i’m hoping to include all of the hermits if i can- i don’t have everyone’s voice down, so i don’t know how well that’ll work. so far, i have specific ideas for impulse, skizz, tango, zed, and doc, some ideas for iskall, stress, mumbo, ren, and hypno (they hunt monsters!), and i’m thinking grian has Some sort of obsessive love/hate situtionship with the sea deity.

(i want to draw a lot of what the hermits are doing from season 9, and then translate that to this au. if that means grian’s started a murder fishing cult, then oh well that’s kind of funny and a good plot hook)

the gods work a little abstractly, partially because i think abstractly and partially because when you’re at that magnitude there isn’t much else to be. the gods are highly powerful beings, whose power is given an extra oomph because they are also a Concept and a Domain. these gods power and run nature, and abide by certain rules in their dealings with mortals and each other.

beyond the moon and magma gods, the ones i currently have written out are the sea deity, wind gods, land spirits, and the storm god. there is no known sun deity.

the land spirits are also different from an earth god. each land spirit is essentially a tiny god that rules This Chunk Of Land In Particular. there is no one earth god, nor will there ever be (mostly for balancing reasons).

every town or settlement has at least one shrine, for people to burn offerings and pray to the gods for aid or protection or whatnot.

different groups of people are also more likely to follow certain gods. for instance, Drifters like gem usually burn offerings to the sea and wind gods as thanks for their protection (after their homeland was destroyed, the ocean and wind offered the dragonish peoples sanctuary at sea), and gem in particular would likely also burn offerings to the moon goddess and any other gods she might meet along the way (because i haven’t figured out the entire pantheon yet)

there’s also the matter of demigods. while it’s possible for a mortal to ascend to godhood, it’s also rare- the gods tend to offer demigodhood to people who look like they might get too close, which is a lot less powerful, but still semi-immortal and deeply cool. none of the hermits are gods, but several are demigods of some sort.

the gods of this world don’t really need worship or belief to function, so they don’t actively encourage it as much

[desdemonafictional]

A little tidbit from the same Primus AU as Dress Your Idol

---

The litter stops at the base of the forum, in the grand courtyard with its glittering ultramarine mosaic, and the curtained box sways as the posts are set down on the pavement. No one is allowed to carry Primus in their alt, and Primus himself has a stationary alt, so the Litter is the usual way of getting the body of God to and from a ceremony outside of the high temple. A pair of flumen grab the curtains and part them—a ray of Haydeen’s weak light pierces into the box, and diamond bright reflections spill out, dazzling the eyes of the attendants.

Rodimus, with his accoutrement mostly in order, leans forward and offers his hand through the curtains. A delicate copper hand takes his. Gently, the Prime pulls Primus up and out of the litter, onto the runner board, and then sweeps him up into his arms like a sparkling.

The crowd, several hundred feet back and down below the raised edge of the courtyard, cheer wildly. This is the only time most of them will ever see Primus in person. No one tries to climb the edge. Jazz lets out a little sigh of relief. Nothing worse than crowd control in an open space. It’s super bad mojo to fire a weapon in the presence of Primus, so if anybody comes over the edge there, it’s gonna be a nightmare getting them down and pinned and cuffed before the crowd turns into a total riot. If it was up to Jazz they’d close the whole forum down to get this done, but the Pontifex is real clear that spectacle is the whole point, so what does he know. He’s just the guy in charge of keeping God alive for another year.

“Ya got it there, Roddy?” he says, in an undertone, as Rodimus sweeps down the pavement and towards him. He falls into step just behind.

“No problem,” the Prime says, cheerfully. “I’ve got hydraulics for days. Rung might as well be a bag of leaf springs.”

“Normally there is a carpet,” Primus commented, in a voice not far from a whisper. Jazz raised an eyebrow at it—he rarely heard Primus speak. The last time he’d heard it, aside from the odd quiet Pardon me, officer, had probably been Nyon after they recaptured their wayward ward.

That had been a nightmare. Jazz loved a good party, especially a Nyon party, but that headache had put him off for a good long while. An hour of shaking down an entire drunken populace looking for one petite mech in a cloud of confetti, sparklers, and screaming sparklings. And when they finally tracked him down, all he’d said was, “Gentlemechs. I don’t suppose you could simply fail to report this to your supervisor a moment more?”

Can’t do it, Jazz had said, Sorry, your Worship. Pontifex’s about to blow a gasket.

“Carpet shmarpet,” Rodimus said, taking the steps up to the forum easily. “I wanna hold my conjunx, I’m gonna hold my conjunx. You look so pretty, I dunno if I’m gonna put you down ever.”

Primus let out a little laugh, flushed but pleased, and Jazz fell back another step behind them in sheer wonderment. He hadn’t even known Primus could laugh.

That day in Nyon, after Jazz’d told him no, all the little guy had said was, “Yes. I see.” And Jazz might be a professional, but he wasn’t sparkless. He’d taken a good long look at his god, clutching a string of cheap parade beads to his chest like a priceless rosary, and he’d said, Alright, look, let’s take the long way back around. You seen the big dance stage they got a block over? I was meaning to get a look at the show myself.

And then they’d stood, at the back of the crowd, in the alcove of a doorway, watching the dancers interlock and spin and transform into a phantasm of glittering shapes until the pinging of the Pontifex grew too persistent to ignore. Primus, wrapped in his sheer white scarf, clutching his beads still; Jazz, a protective arm around his shoulder,  well aware that getting caught like this by any of the priests would end with having his t-cog stripped out of his frame and burned.

His own little blasphemy. Hell, if god cared, he woulda said something then. And if god didn’t care, then why should Jazz?

He watched the two of them ascend the stairs, just a step or two behind. Something was different lately, make no mistake, and it wasn’t just the young new Prime.

[dailyaudiobible]

05/22/2020 DAB Transcript

2 Samuel 1:1-2:11, John 12:20-50, Psalms 118:19-29, Proverbs 15:27-28

Today is the 22nd day of May, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today and it's wonderful to be with you any day. I'm glad that we can have this time together any of the days because we…because this is an everyday thing. So, it’s good to be here with you today. It's a little bit of a special day, we’re going to begin a new book today, which like if you’ve been kind of tracking along with the books in the Old Testament you can be like, “wait a minute. All this drama that's going on. How could that be the end of first Samuel?”

Introduction to second Samuel:

Well, we have reached the beginning of second Samuel, which, as we talked about when we began first Samuel. Like first Samuel, second Samuel, first Kings, second Kings, these were all grouped together as one writing. They’d been broken apart over time. Like there was a time that there was first Kings second Kings third Kings and forth Kings and that gets a little bit tedious and confusing because first and second Samuel were at one point first and second Kings. But that's all shifted, and we have the common understanding now - first and second Samuel, first and second Kings. And this is the territory that we’re heading into. So, today, we’re heading into second Samuel, and that's why…I mean…we’re just picking up where we left off. There's just a delineation that has been made over time and that delineation that is made between first and second Samuel is that first Samuel deals primarily with King Saul. Even though David is much a part of that story in yesterday's reading King Saul died in battle with the Philistines. Now we’re starting second Samuel. This is everything that happens after that, which now begins to focus on David's life and how it is that this shepherd boy from the wrong tribe from the wrong place could ascend to the throne of Israel. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Second Samuel chapter 1 verse 1 through 2 verse 11.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we kinda recapped the…the fact that we are going into second Samuel and how kinda first and second Samuel, first and second Kings, how these are woven together and how second Samuel kind of begins to put David centerstage because Saul died in battle in the last chapter of first Samuel. So, in today's reading as we begin second Samuel, David…David finds out…like he finds out that Saul and his beloved friend Jonathan, they’re dead and we see the way that he reacts and it's really actually important that we see the way that he reacts now because we need to watch David's posture going forward. So, David found out that the king of Israel, the very man who on numerous occasions tried to assassinate him and had hunted him down was dead and instead of jumping up and down rejoicing and throwing…you know…slaying the fattened calf and having this big celebration, David goes into mourning, tears his clothes and goes into morning and so do all of his men. They follow suit. They follow their leader. They follow David into mourning. And we remember that David had a number of opportunities actually to take his vengeance upon Saul. So, like even as Saul's trying to kill David Saul fell into David's hands on a couple of occasions and he could've killed him, he could've killed Saul. He wouldn't touch God's anointed. And so when an Amalekite shows up at Ziklag having come down from the battle and claims to be the one to put Saul out of his misery, as it were, that just does not sit well with David. And, so, this person, and as it was reported in first Samuel the story happened differently. So, all we can deduces that this Amalekite that came down to David with the crown and all that didn't actually kill Saul, but confessed that he did and was bringing David, you know, the jewels and the crown and stuff, that Matt didn't survive because he had the audacity to touch God's anointed, something David wouldn't do even though that very person was trying to kill him. So, what we see here is maybe a different kind of reaction then we would suspect. We would think this would be a great relief. And probably it was for David, at least in terms of being on the run, but his reverence for God's anointed, the king, like his reverence for this office, for this position, and the way that this is supposed to work is intact. People are seeing this, right? Like, so if David and his men, they had thrown a great celebration, that would've spread, that news would've spread, but instead David goes into mourning and that's what begins to get around. And pretty unfortunate for the guy to be an Amalekite that brings the crown, right? Because it was the Amalekites who raided Ziklag that they had to chase down. So, yeah, all around a bad day for that guy. So, David mourns and then he asks of God, “what do I do?” God sends him to Hebron where David is then anointed the king over the tribe of Judah. So, he is not the king of Israel, he's been installed as the king over one of the tribes. Abner the commander of the Army takes Ishbosheth, which is Saul's nearest remaining son, heir to the throne and installs him as the king of the rest of Israel. And as we learn from second Samuel today that went on for a couple of years. So, David didn't just find out Saul was dead, you know, like, ride into town and go I’m the king. That's not how it happened. This takes time. And actually, the ways that it begins to move in David's favor has a lot to do with David's posture, which we began to see today, and let's keep watching that in the days ahead.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. And we think for this story, this story of the Kings coming to Israel after this long drought of Judges. Meeting Samuel, meeting Saul, meeting David, there's so much about our own lives embedded into the stories that we can see. And, so, we ask Holy Spirit that You help us see ourselves in these stories, just figure out who we would be in these stories because we get to see the…where the roads lead. And that is so helpful because You are giving us advance knowledge of where a pathway in life will lead us and we’re thankful for that. So, come Holy Spirit and plant the words that we read into our hearts and into our lives and may we be fertile soil for a bountiful harvest of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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The Daily Audio Bible Shop is there full of resources for the journey that we are on together. So, be familiar. Stay connected in any way that you can and in any way that you desire.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. The words fail to express the gratitude and just the awe of the whole thing, that after all these years, day by day step-by-step we’re still stepping forward every week, every month. Thank you for your partnership. So, there's a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if that is your preference, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

My name is Mike from Redding California been a DAB listener for a couple years now first-time prayer request. My son Ben, he’s 14, ran away a few days ago. His mother and I have filed a police report and we’re just worried about our boy. We want him to come home safe. So, if you could please lift him up in prayer, we sure would appreciate it. Thank you.

Good morning this message is for Walta. Walta, I absolutely love hearing you call in and yesterday as I was working and listening to the Daily Audio Bible, I heard your call on the community prayer requests asking for prayer for your son who is experiencing some of these coronavirus symptoms. And I was praying along with you for that and was just…I just was so heartbroken when you mentioned that you were concerned about having to have someone go and make a well check because of the fact that he is a black young man and it breaks my heart. And, so, I just wanted to call…call today and just read this Scripture from Revelation. After this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the Lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, “salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.” And I just want to say that I don’t know how we got to be in such a crazy broken place, but I look forward to the day when we will all stand together at the throne of God. I love you sister and am so sorry that you have to live with this. I have three boys and I just…I just can’t comprehend, but I just want you to know that I have…I hear you and…

Hello DAB family this is Byron out in Florida I wanted to pray for Reed in California’s son. I’m sorry, Ken in California’s son, Reed. Heavenly Father, we come before you for this father and for his son for this young man. I don’t really know what to say, but I know the heart of a father. He sees the pain inside of a young man but cannot reach it. He sees the struggle and is there to help to serve and to lift up and is being pushed away. So, Lord You know that feeling because You get it from us all the time, but You also know us and Reed better than anyone else in existence. You know how to reach his heart. Heal the heart of this aching father and reach into Reed’s heart and soften it and open up the door so that all that’s love that’s around read can rush in and overpower the bitterness, the anger. We come against any demonic forces. We come against any human being Lord that’s oppressing read. We break those things in the name of Jesus. We claim his heart. We give You all praise, all honor and all glory because You’ll never with the children of the righteous be forsaken and we are righteous by Your grace in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Daily Audio Bible family it’s amazing to…to hear your prayers every day. And I was just this morning in awe about how you can care so much for people around the world. And this is Andrea from Momsburry just outside of Cape Town in South Africa. And my heart goes out to in the states, thank you Brian for everything that you do at Daily Audio Bible. You really bring the word of God to life for us and it so special in this time and we…we’re pretty much at the start of this pandemic on our side and we are still…we are feeling it on our side but our hearts go out to you guys in the states and all across the world where it’s touching your families and loved ones very closely. Know that we are praying for you and we just spend…send love to you. All right. Bye.

Hi, my name is Betty and I wanted to call and give a long overdue praise report. I called back in the fall in October for my son Nathan who, at the time, was going through some sort of a break…breakdown and through the next time period he had three hospitalizations and…and that the last hospitalization was a 98 day stay in the hospital, but praise God. Nate did come home at the end of March into our new COVID world and thankfully he is continuing to improve, and God is showing his faithfulness to us and our family. He’s restoring his life to him day by day and it’s just been a beautiful thing to watch. So, thank you so much to my Daily Audio Bible family and praise be to God for answered prayer. Be encouraged people, God does answer our prayers.

Good morning my sweet family it’s Susan from Canada calling. I just listened to our friend from Oklahoma who prays for our children every day and is Just so wonderful. She quoted one of my favorite verses Isaiah 33:2 about how God is always with us whether we’re walking through raging waters or fiery flames. And I want to encourage you people. It is so true. I have hit bottom so many times in my life. My friends are calling me Job and my sister even said, “who knew rock-bottom had a basement,” which we kind of chuckle over now. Right now, I’m struggling with my son with stage IV cancer, which is sort of my current rock-bottom. But I want you all to know that there is God with you always. He will never leave nor forsake you. He walks you through, He sees your pain. He is with you always and every time you need a…a…a…a hand He’s there for you to carry you through, be your strength, be your wisdom. Reach out to Him and He will bless you in Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume 5, Number 9

Tropical Fuck Storm

Just like that, summer’s over and we face a growing pile of late 2019 records. But before that, before we drag ourselves like kids to school into the second half, a moment to appreciate what’s accumulated.  This month’s Dust touches on groovy jazz tuba, punishing hardcore, a bracing industrial reissue, altered percussion and an OG Tuareg guitarist.  Contributors this time around include Isaac Olson, Ian Mathers, Jennifer Kelly, Jonathan Shaw, Bill Meyer and Andrew Forell.  

Joseph Allred — O Meadowlark (Feeding Tube) 

O, Meadowlark by Joseph Allred

 Plenty of people get the tag American Primitive Guitarist stuck on their rump these days. It’s not always appropriate and it’s not always welcome, but it adheres to Joseph Allred with the fastness of the truth.  Allred, a Tennessean who currently pursues higher learning at Boston College, understands that whether you use mountain music or raga-derived form as your framework (and he uses a bit of both, alternating between skeletal banjo figures and rushing guitar fantasias), the music has to project something beyond the notes. O Meadowlark not only evokes a cascade of emotions, some explicit and others allowed and bent until they’re beyond name, but he exerts an opposite pull. Like Robbie Basho or Steffen Basho Junghans, he draws the listener through the sound hole and into the tones and overtones that carom about the insides of his guitar.  Climb inside; like a Tardis, it has room for all.

Bill Meyer 

Caterina Barbieri — Ecstatic Computation (Editions Mego)

Ecstatic Computation by Caterina Barbieri

The title of Caterina Barbieri’s third LP suggests a congress of emotional states and cognitive processes; total neural action, you might say. The sound of the thing suggests another, maybe more personal integration. She favors massive, echo-haloed electronic sounds, the sort that would set off all manner of madness in the disco if only she’d subordinate them to a sufficiently clubby beat. But instead she juxtaposes them with wordless female vocals (not her own) and switched-on harpsichord sounds which lock together with a structural logic that probably comes natural to a person who grew up studying classical guitar. And while the sounds promise abandon, the way they lock together requires submission to a Bach-like allegiance to order. Promise delivered.

Bill Meyer

Theon Cross — Fyah (Gearbox Records)

Fyah by Theon Cross

Tuba player Theon Cross was the secret weapon of last year’s excellent Your Queen is a Reptile, by The Sons of Kemet. Fyah is Cross’s debut as a band leader, and  if the melodies occasionally sag, Cross and company generate more than enough energy to keep you, if not intently listening, grooving. Like many in the London jazz scene, Cross has no qualms about pulling in sounds from everywhere, and while not every experiment works (the synths and trap beats on “Panda Village” don’t add much), it keeps Fyah feeling fleet and admirably populist. Cross’s commitment to bring the tuba back to our attention and good graces is admirable, and he’s certainly the right guy for the job, but for better or for worse, he suffers the fate of all lower register players: disappearing when played back at anything less than high volume. As such, the real MVP on Fyah is tenor saxophonist and fellow London hotshot, Nubya Garcia. Fyah is a good record. It gets better the louder you play it.

Isaac Olson

 Drugs of Faith — Decay (Selfmadegod Records)

Drugs of Faith have been making records like Decay, their new EP, for quite a while now. The record is full of crossover hardcore that pushes on the pressure points of crust and sludge. It’s grimy, gritty, sweaty stuff and it’s really good. The focused truculence of a song like “Anonymity” sharpens rather than overwhelms the tune’s tendencies toward melody, and what a frigging breakdown. The whole 7” — all ten minutes of it — is terrifically punishing. Or maybe it’s punishingly terrific. Whatever it is, it goes by quick. But that’s cool, you’ll just flip it and play it again. And like a live hardcore set, music this intense is best enjoyed in small, gut-thumping doses. Toward the end of the excellent track “Nihilists,” singer Richard Johnson (who also plays guitar) growls, “If I go down, I’m taking you all with me.” Sure sounds like he means it.

Jonathan Shaw

Help — Help (Self Released)

Help by Help

One advantage to keeping songs short and lyrics anthemic is that you can throw a whole lot of sludge into the works and still end up with tunes that folks will remember the next day. Portland noise-punk band does this six times on their quite good debut EP, Help. No surprises here, just grimy, coruscating punk that sounds amazing when you’re reading the latest update on our slide into oligarchy/kleptocracy/kakistocracy/planet death/what have you. Best of all is their theme song, which softens up a traditionally macho genre with some very welcome, very 2019 vulnerability (Complete lyrics: “Help!/I fucking need it!/You know I’ve battled but it’s all I can take!”) and the closer, “Class War Now” which is about… well, you know.

Isaac Olson

 HTRK – Nostalgia (Fire Records)

Nostalgia is the self-released 2004 debut EP by Australian experimental trio HTRK (Hate Rock Trio). Nigel Yang (guitar, programming, electronics), Jonnine Standish (voice, percussion, samples) and Sean Stewart (bass, programming, samples) produce seven tracks of heavy, noise intensive electronica with echoes of Throbbing Gristle, Pan Sonic and Suicide. Physically and psychically crushing, the tracks move at a funereal pace with waves of static and feedback crashing against bottom end bass, percussion and drum machines as Standish’s voice intones from a cave, a cross between Lydia Lunch and Alan Vega. Instrumental opener “Hate Rock Trio” begins quietly with the ticking of a clock, a time bomb with crashes of distorted percussion. Thereafter the song titles tell the story of the EP. Run together they form both a record of, and a demand to acknowledge, damage inflicted: “Look What’s Been Done/Look Down the Line/Look At That Girl/Look At Her/You Injured Me/I’m All Broke Up.” The intensity builds with each track as feedback and samples scratch atop thickening layers of black sludge. Re-released by Fire Records, Nostalgia is a bracing experience with a palpable sense of menace.

Andrew Forell

 Max Jaffe — Giant Beat (Ramp Local)

Giant Beat by Max Jaffe

If a curious listener was told Max Jaffe only used one instrument to make Giant Beat, they’d be forgiven for guessing something like a modular synth. Instead, it’s drums, but in a way that makes the question maybe a little bit of a cheat; Jaffe, drummer for JOBS, Elder Ones and others, was also a beta tester for something called Sensory Percussion that allows percussionists to use their instruments to trigger sounds and samples in a way that feels analogous to the chromatic, sometimes abrasive playing Ian Crause and Disco Inferno did with sampling. Of course, with a drum kit and that kind of setup, Jaffe can generate a whole album just by himself in a different way than you might get with, say, a singer and an acoustic guitar. Giant Beat dips its toes into various experimental waters, jazz here, electronics there, noise and musique concrete there, but always with the steady pulse of Jaffe’s one-take percussive playing behind it. The result feels like anything but a product demo; if anything, it feels like a new type of voice articulating itself.  

Ian Mathers  

Ocean Fanfare — First Nature (Barefoot)

First Nature by Ocean Fanfare

Whether you take the words First Nature as a prescription of priorities or a stern reminder of who is best equipped to play the long game in the battle between humankind and its environment, this is a record with a message. But since that message is being relayed via horns, bass, and drums, which play melodies that wind and ascend, one must exercise one’s emotional antennae to decode the vibe. Both trumpeter Tomsz Dabrowski and alto saxophonist Sven Dam Meinild are equally facile with post-bop tunes and extended technique explorations, and the shuttles between these poles gives the music a questing quality. They’re methodically seeking, not giving up hope, and the inventive ways they maintain balance on the fly suggests that they’re conscious of what tools will come in handy if people are going to survive.

Bill Meyer

 Abdallah Ag Oumbadougou — Anou Malane (Sahel Sounds)

Anou Malane by Abdallah Ag Oumbadougou

One of the original Tuareg guitar heroes, Abdallah Oumbadougou recorded these dreaming, droning, melancholic-with-a-swagger tunes in Benin in 1995 with the West African producer Nel Oliver. It was a step up for Oumbadougou, who had previously recorded mostly on boom boxes in encampments during breaks in the Tuareg rebellion, but the songs, even embellished with electronics and studio effects, have a raw, lonely power to them.  “Thingalene” drifts towards funky pop in its syncopated drum machines and squealing synths, but Oumbadougou’s voice carries over time and distance with a bracing authenticity. Other tracks, like “Tenere” splice the echoing snap of gate-reverbed drums to a beat that sways like camel caravans; the guitar work here is particularly fine. On its original release, Anou Malane introduced the world to the Tuareg’s keening, ambling desert blues; now it reminds us that artists like Tinariwen and Terekaft and Mdou Moctar are interpreting and extending — not inventing — a vibrant art form.

Jennifer Kelly

Savage Republic  —Gods  & Guns (Mobilization)

Savage Republic doesn’t pack the band schedule very tightly nowadays. The band, currently a quartet (Thom Fuhrmann, Ethan Port, Alan Waddington, Kerry Dowling), took the whole of the 1990s off and has made just two albums in this century. But when they do make a record, it hits hard. In days gone by they sounded like Rhys Chatham fronting the Ventures on an album of Aegean surfer themes, but now they sound just a bit like Michael Gira fronting Echo & the Bunnymen in some Bladerunner-like hell of a dark hole. “God & Guns,” sung in dire and reverb-swaddled tones by Fuhrmann, articulates understandable dismay at the twin lumps of stinky meat that are being held in front of the vast heard of fascism-embracing Americans. The instrumental on the flip is named “Tranquilo,” but you won’t rest while they’re charging you, driven by chain-gang shouts, oil drum lashes, and epically massive bass. Heavy shit for heavy times.

Bill Meyer

Sleeping Ancient — There Is No Truth But Death (Viridian Flame)

There Is No Truth But Death by Sleeping Ancient

In any number of ways, black metal and the horror fiction of H.P. Lovecraft are a good match. The overweening interest in darkness and unnamably horrific, indecipherably complex forms; the highly abstruse mysticism; the tinge of troubling racism and anti-Semitism — it’s sort of uncanny. Sleeping Ancient aren’t the first black metal band to express a deep appreciation for Lovecraft’s weird fictions. Heck, they probably aren’t even the tenth or the fiftieth. But if they’re not breaking any new ground, thematically or musically, at least they’re making good songs. Check out the grand dirge of “Akeru,” or the slow but assured drift, from frigidly delicate melody to batshit intensity, that forms “Taphephobic Hallucinations” (taphephobia, by the way, is crippling fear of the grave—not death so much as the gravesite itself). The songs are typical of Sleeping Ancient’s mannered but powerful playing, which the band sustains across the whole of There Is No Truth But Death. It’s a good record to play as we wait for Cthulu. Judging by current conditions, we won’t have long to wait.

Jonathan Shaw

 Sore Points — Not Alright (Slovenly)

SORE POINTS "Not Alright" EP by Sore Points

If you miss the Marked Men, how ‘bout some hard, fast punk rock from Vancouver? This four-song 7 inch, following a 2018 self-titled on Deranged, snarls and stomps with feverish fury, making the most of its double drummed, guitar stabbed, bass whomped basics. You’d infer a few battered Ramones records in the rec room, but also punks both harder core and more melodic—Black Flag on one end and the Buzzcocks on the other. “Not Alright” rampages at blur speed. The drummer, whoever he is (Sore Points are not big on self-promotion), gets a monster workout here, but really everybody is pushing about as hard as it goes. “Not Coming Back,” is likewise accelerated, but in an anthemic, memorable way. As a non-professional, you’d kill yourself trying to keep up playing these songs, but you can sing along, no problem, after just one or two spins.

Jennifer Kelly

 Tropical Fuck Storm — Braindrops (Joyful Noise)

Braindrops by Tropical Fuck Storm

“Braindrops,” the title track from this second Tropical Fuck Storm album, slinks and rattles and backpedals, its rhythm complicated and syncopated, its stream-of-consciousness lyrics about dreams and waking (“But you gotta get up because time is nagging like a dog humping your leg”) as tangled as the polyrhythmic beat. There’s a slant of ska in the bass, a dissolute hint of post-punk in the cracked vocals and a baroque inclination to stuff things to the gills in the overload of just about everything. Tropical Fuck Storm tilts recognizable forms so far over that they always seem to be careening into chaos. A hip friendly bump of bass and drums is just a landing pad for guitar noises that crash, still burning, to the ground. Even the ballads (“Paradise” both “Marias”) teem with noise and dissonance. Braindrops is never an easy listen. It verges, fairly often, on the unpleasant. But in a world where everything spins down to a grey Spotified entropy, it’s a prickly, fascinating, mess of bright colored wires; go ahead cut one and see if it explodes.

Jennifer Kelly

 Various Artists — Greys (Anachronisme)

Greys by Field Guides

In this day and age, if one even wanted to put together a new “We Are the World,” where would one start? Leverage Models’ return to music last year with the phenomenal Whites was partly so that previously-shelved record could raise money for the Southern Poverty Law Center, and here the band and Anachronisme Records are at it again. Raising money for the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees this time, instead of trying to rope everyone they know into one big aesthetically-dubious singalong, they’ve put together with any number of friends a smorgasbord of 21 tracks all somehow ‘in conversation’ with the music on Whites. There are plenty of intriguing covers, remixes, and other deconstructions, from Field Guides’ glowing, pastoral version of “If I Let You Stay” to the menacing buzz of DOV’s remix of “Dark Pools,” to Concierge Records and The Working Elite’s “transatlantic meditation” on the feeling of the first song on Whites with “Day Two,” as well as two unreleased tracks from Leverage Models. Then there are the contributions that just engage with the emotions and stories of the original album, like Courtship Ritual’s haunting “Uncle Incision” and William Tyler’s gorgeous “She Swims in Hidden Water.” There’s a lot here to absorb, but even if you’re not familiar with the source material it all stands on its own, even as it’s still one of the most intriguing expansions of an album in recent memory. Not to mention hopefully a more effective way to help a good cause.

Ian Mathers

 avery r. young—Tubman (FPE)

tubman. by avery r. young

avery r. young brings the sizzle in this paean to African-American musical traditions from skanky funk to body-moving R&B to soul-on-fire gospel, complete with a full choir. The multi-talented Chicagoan took inspiration from his own book—Neckbone: Visual Verses—from Nina Simone and from the singer Jamila Woods, whose superlative pipes provide the uplift of many of these cuts. “Maasai” slouches so far into a smouldery blacksploitation groove as to be nearly horizontal, all evil wah-wah’d twitch and rumbling bass and slashing lightning bolts of disco strings, while “go'head mary & weep” takes things to the church with a massive harmonized swell. young himself has a fine, fluttery, emotionally nimble tenor, shades of the Reverend Al Green in his supple phrasing, but his songs take flight when they’re sung by a crowd, as on the spiritually stirring “lead in da wattah” and especially, the monster highlight “get to know a nina simone song” which rolls on like a doo-wopping, gospel-quarteting freight train right on to Mississippi. God damn, indeed.  

[wizardmafianinjapirate]

the sea in the darkness calls

Summary: and the tide rises, the tide falls

In which Viktor is a lost prince and doesn’t know it, Yuuri is a syren who wants to see his Queen happy and Yura is a noble stowaway who wants to be free. 

(And also in which there is no universe where they do not find their way to each other and no universe in which their love does not change the world)

(Title quote from ‘the tide rises, the tide falls’ by H.W.Longfellow)

A/N: Birthday fic for @adreamingsongbird, I’m pretty sure that this will be your last present today and I hope you like it!! You’re an absolutely wonderful person Rimi and I really, really love you!! I hope you have a wonderful year and that you get only the best of what life has to offer because you deserve nothing less!

Chapter 1

It started like this. Falling, hard and fast. Something that must have been an uncontrollable descent into madness. 

It started like this. A wish made under the light of a thousand stars, to hold on and never let go. Though neither of them would remember it later, it started, with a kiss. ------------ Viktor has only ever known the sea. Well no. Not exactly. He's known seagulls and his crew and Makkachin! The light of his life, the star of his heart, his best friend. And he loves the sea. He's had the best moments of his life on it, he's met people he'd be willing to die for on it, hell, there's very few memories he has off of it. It's just that sometimes it gets a little... lonely, is all. Make no mistake, he loves the life he leads adventuring on the seas, and he loves the crew that he's gathered. But none of them understand what it's like to give you life to the sea and have her take and take and take. Sometimes it feels like she's left nothing behind. He thinks the stowaway they found when they left the Royal Port, Duke Nikolai's grandson, Yuri, might come the closest to understanding, but for all his faults, Viktor wouldn't wish the life he's had to lead on him. Giving your heart to the sea, leaves a gaping hole that can never be completely filled. (It has been two decades since he last saw his mother.

She'd warned him. She'd told him, again and again and again to not go too close to the shore, that it would take him away, away from her, from their people, his family- He'd forgotten, too captivated by the water, the waves, that voice. And he's had to live with that since he was seven. It was his fault, all his fault if he'd just listened- He's had to live with that and he thinks that has been punishment enough) Viktor believed that one day, one day, he would find something that made the year's he'd given to the sea (and all the mistakes he's made-) worthwhile. He had to believe. He wanted to believe.

(He needed to believe.)

But belief, did not mean that he would stop searching. All he had left of his mother (their home, their people-) was the seashell crest that he had found on his clothes when he had first washed up at the Royal Port. It was his only physical link to his past and he'd do anything to keep it safe. Unfortunately for him, no sailor or landsman seemed to recognise it. (Which, honestly? Made no sense. The only people who had crests were nobility and it was unreasonable that no one he'd met on all his travels would recognise it.) But Viktor held onto hope that one day he'd find something that would guide him home. And then maybe, he wouldn't be.... sad. Yes, sad, anymore. "Viktor! Yura just threw a bucket of fish at Georgi, get down here and make sure that he doesn't kill the kid!" Well, sad or not, he doesn't have the time to spend (waste) thinking about himself, he has a ship to run. 

---------- Yuuri can feel the magic swirling around him like a tangible thing. The magic he was born with - Shifter Magic - while hard to accurately control, is something that has always answered his call when he's needed it. It used to be small things - changing the colour of his eyes, the shape of his tail - and then larger things as Minako took over his training - but today, with the added knowledge he has gained at Court, today, he can feel all the magic in the water bending to him. It sings, and Yuuri can feel the syren in him trill a reply. Yuuri feels like he could do anything, be anyone and that's what Minako's been trying to teach him, isn't it? The power to give himself the freedom to be anything. He thinks that this is what being invincible feels like. "Well done Yuuri." He starts. He had been so engrossed that he hadn't noticed the queen, the Queen, come up to him. "Th-Thank you, Your Majesty." He says. "Is there anything I can do for you?" "You could resume that lovely show. Has anyone told you how mesmerizing it is to watch you work? If I hadn't studied the subject extensively, I would assume that it was Syren charm - but I have studied the subject and I know enough to know that this? This is all you. And that’s a wondrous thing, Yuuri" Yuuri has died. That's the only reasonable explanation. He's died and ascended to a higher level of existence. Because there is no way that the most powerful shifter ever recognised by the Currents is telling him that his magic is mesmerising. No. Way. "I'll admit - when Minako approached me asking to allow you to study at Court, I had my misgivings. But you've proven them all wrong, Yuuri. And gracefully at that." She laughs, "In fact - I'm sure that if you wanted to, you could ask the Court to help you stage a revolt and they'd create an army to follow you!" Yuuri stiffens, because he loves his queen and he would die for her should she ask, and he says quietly, "I-I'm sorry Your Majesty, but I think you underestimate h-how much the Court loves you." Because everyone knows what she's given up to keep them safe. (Yuuri remembers the stories his mother told him - of how the kingdom rejoiced when the Crown Prince was born. She was one of the first to be appointed to the Queen's Guard and thus has pictures - pictures she's shown him of Queen Vasilisa with the newborn Prince. It is the happiest Yuuri has ever seen her. He also remembers the day his mother came home pale-faced and harried. He remembers her clutching him and his sister to her chest and telling their father in broken tones that the Prince was gone. That he'd been snatched away by the Currents. That the Queen was powerless to stop them. (If she did try, the kingdom would fall - the Currents did not take lightly to being crossed.) She'd said that the Queen could keep track of the Prince's life force but that she couldn't go to him. A law she'd said. Once an untrained Royal left Court, they had to come back themselves and no help could be given or arranged for by a Royal. This meant that not only could the Queen not go - she couldn't send anyone in her place. Which meant that the Crown Prince - all of seven years old - was alone.  "Vasi, gods Toshiya, Vasi says that she can't leave and I've never seen her so devastated and I could never do what she's done, gods.”

He remembers those words. His mother was crying. Yet no one's seen the Queen shed a tear.) The Queen is smiling at him, "You never cease to surprise, do you Yuuri?" He swims forward and offers her his hand, "I-I'm not very sure about surprises Your Majesty, but would you care to join me for some tea? Aunt Minako disagrees but I've always found tea relaxing after practice." She takes his hand and says, "How could I ever turn down tea with you, Yuuri? You always have your mother's blends and those are better than any others in all the realms I've visited. Besides, I still need to talk to you." He frowns, "Is there something wrong Your Majesty?" "Minako submitted your request to visit the Human world with an entourage of your choosing, now that you've mastered giving yourself legs. And I am inclined to approve it, but I would also like to hear you explain why you want to visit the human world and to see whether you can convince me to let you go, hmm? I'll meet you at the pavilion in a few minutes." She let's go of his hand and swims forward to join her Guard and he can see Minako smirking at him - and when did she even get here? He loves his Queen - but she and her Guard terrify him, and he's grown up with a very healthy respect for all of them as a result of it. But, she'd said that she was considering letting him and his entourage go to the human world, and if that was true, if their request might really be granted, then he needs to ensure that they don't fail her final test. Only the best are allowed to venture into that world after all, and she has considered many hopefuls before but none of them have ever made it past tea. However, he thinks that he will make it. He believes in the power they hold together. (And Yuuri can't wait. To see the music and the dancing and the singing he's only ever heard about from his teacher and his mother. To feel the magic of an entirely new world. To go on an adventure.)

(And also to fulfil a promise, no matter that he's forgotten he made it.) (The Currents are churning again.)

(It is time for the Lost Prince to come home)

(Art by the ever-wonderful @riki-cartblog who is an absolute gem and who I am so incredibly lucky to know! It was an absolute honour to work with you Riki, thank you so much!) 

(Edit: Because I’m a moron and an idiot I forgot to mention what a huge thank you I owe to both @adreamingsongbird and @riki-cartblog for being my first friends in the trfl fandom (and what fucking luck is that??? that one of my first friends was the writer herself???) and for just being all round amazing friends in general, I love you guys!!)

You can find the fic on FFN here