#arpeggios from hell

[pidgefudge]

SO. i have listened to @gooboogy 's wonderful green album. and i wrote down my thoughts on each song. and now i am putting them here!!

"thoughts" being actually somewhat coherent comments that devolve into What Would This Be In A Video Game because this is me we're working with after all

and you reading this. yes you. go listen to it

verdant: oooough blorpy,,,, very cool i like. good beat it's quite foot tappable. also the name itself might be a new vocal stim. verdant. vvvverrrrrdant.

halls: much noises!! the instrumence in this scratch my brain in a good way. feels a bit like im 7 years old watchinf my brother play 2d mario stages and reimagining the music

agua: oooohh arpeggio action and a SICK beat. once again the Noises are lovely. big fan of all 3 so far but this one in particular methinks. however i have many more songs to go (!!)

doot doot: very fun i also like this one a lot :3 and coming to you from my one-track autistic mind: this album would be a fantastic game soundtrack

side note i know im writing less for some of these but thats bc im experiencing them in shapes and colors more than expressable words. trust me they're stirring the brain stew

going for a walk: i know the title is about a walk but im envisioning this as the soundtrack to a sort of road trip montage animation thing. specifically my road trip with family from san francisco to la. oh yes this ending is us finally getting to the hotel and me flopping onto the bed

forward: im liking the melody here a lot <33 this album is making me want to boot up lmms again and try my hand at original music,,, ive only ever attempted remixes (i tried to do aquarium park from sonic colors a few years ago and gave up but now i kinda wanna go back to it,,, i wonder if i was cooking) ok yes back to the actual song whoops this one is soo cool one of my faves so far

snag: i like these opening chords!! i dont know what you actually call them but the like. buildup parts?? you know?? those bits??? big fan OOH and a uh. build down (lol) bit too! also liking the sparkly chimey instrumence

blazen: OHHH YESSS this would be the theme for my favorite antagonist in the hypothetical game that i am apparently going to be referencing multiple times (dimentio and mr L came to mind immediately) absolutely jamming

beep boop: fuck yeah man it sure does OH SPOOKY NOTES OH OH COOL BEAT ASWELL i am in for a fun time this is. also the theme of my favorite antagonist. but the battle theme i think. oh hell yeah the orchestra hits. yes yes definitely battle theme. sorry for putting all these in a vgm context shfjdkfkssghf i just listen to a lot of it so thats how my brain parses instrumentals

hunt: strimgs :3 wohhh this is so cool. buzzy in a good way. golden brown triangles and other spiky shapes. that's kinda meaningless to anyone but me but. oh nice more Noises always love the Noises

overwhelm: theme for when i have a project due the next day and am swamped with other homework shdjdksfjdh

VERDANT!: once more with gusto!! loving the faster tempo. constellationy crystally instrument is particularly pleasing. oooughh so gooddddd

creepin': spacey!! im watching a crew set out in their little shuttle, oblivious to the horrors awaiting them on their station

envy: this is a boss fight that's emotionally heavy for the protagonists. perhaps fighting a former friend or mentor or team member

whomp whomp: quite a tricksy track!! some sort of haunted place,,,, maybe the place where the previous battle takes place. maybe it's actually a ghost (especially if the protagonist had some role in their death and feels crushing guilt) (bonus points if the ghost openly expresses resentment for the protag)

gromulous: the word ever. final boss' lair for sureee. yeah this song sure is gromulous. idk how else to describe it you hit the nail on the head

largemouth: oooh a bit silly but also cool guy. im thinking some sort of underground secret society/lab thing they have to infiltrate that's hiding a Sinister Secret (the big plot twist of the game) doesn't even have to physically be underground it could be a moon base situation. maybe i should just make this whole thing into a scifi space rpg

a way out: i can see this as the final boss music and as you get further in the fight it ramps up. i know i already assigned songs to the main antagonist but shhhhh. (or i can always pull a super paper mario in terms of antagonists)

under over: oh!! i love this one!! hometown theme. chill and familiar but still upbeat rather than sleepy. and it has a very strong nostalgia factor,,,,, in love with this song it might be my favorite. but there are still 3 more so!

float: this beginning is very cool im loving the vibe. dire dire docks but make it just after sunset and watch the ocean come alive with bioluminescent lights and fish raves. i guess it isnt a space game anymore. or maybe dream sequence beach episode?? WOAHHH OCEAN MAGICANT i might be cooking with this one Hold On. yesyesyes ok some sort of trip/dream where theyre shrunk down marinauts (whatever ocean prefix) as opposed to astronauts and exploring a cool coral reef/ocean floor area and talking to the sea life and woahhhhhh this would look gorgeous in pixel art. tbh this one could be in its own game considering how vivid the imagery is

outside: post-final-boss world returning to normal/person being rescued or uncorrupted/whatever magical thing happening. very fond of the bird chirps too <33 OH MUSIC BOX SOUNDS i also adore this one. i think the ending of this game is kinda bittersweet. we saved the world/person/whatever but At A Cost. this is sooooo pretty. would also transition well into credits

Green: and roll credits!! this would be the kind of credits theme i sway in my seat and contemplate the game to. the entire album is fantastic and these last few especially have been so lovely

[bri1234]

What song(s) do you relate to a Choices book survey results!

Hello! So it's been about a week and there are a few responses from the Google form I sent out! The form is attached at the bottom of all this so if you want to take it, you still can!

I will continue to update this if there are any more responses.

Also if you see your song on here but not the additional comment (if you left one) and would like it on here, just let me know and I'll add it!

So without further ado, let's jump right in!

Songs that relate to a Choices book (chosen by you guys!):

Across the Void

Remember Me as A Time of Day by Explosions in the Sky

Blades of Light & Shadow

Two by Sleeping at Last

Comment was "MC's deeply unhealthy desire to put everyone else's wellbeing first (book 2)."

Degenerates by I the Mighty

In My Head by Jacob Ryan Smith, Daniel Mertzlufft, Andrew Barth Feldman, & Joe Serafini

Comment was "Aerin and MC on Deadwood lake date (book 1)."

Falling by Write Out Loud, Ciara Renee, and Kat Sicilian

Die With A Smile by Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga

A Courtesan of Rome

I Survived a War by Mariami

Crimes of Passion

In My Blood Song by Joel Smallbone and The Cast Of Journey To Bethlehem

Comment was "I relate this song the Trystan Thorne, specifically Book 2 of CoP, wanting to be the son his parents and country are proud of while being himself."

Arpeggio by Alexandro

Perfect World by Twice

The Cursed Heart

Dream A Little Dream of Me by The Mamas & The Papas

Comment was "It reminds me of how Kieran and MC often would visit each others dreams at night (book 1)."

Power Over Me by Dermot Kennedy

Without You by Ursine Vulpine

Find You by Ruelle

Die For You by Postmodern Jukebox and Tatum Langley

Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Rey

Comment was “MC thinking about their mortality and how someday they won’t be young and beautiful.”

Los Ageless by St. Vincent

Comment was “Lustre’s theme song 😈”

Dirty Little Secrets

"Slut!" by Taylor Swift

Suburban Legends by Taylor Swift

The Elementalists

Hedwig's Theme by John Williams

Guinevere

Queen of Heart by Twice

Only Girl by Stephen Sanchez

Hot Couture

Choose Your Fighter by Ava Max

Immortal Desires

Boys Will Be Bugs by Cavetown

End (The Other Side) by Fit For A King

Scars & Lifelines by I Prevail

Death Is All Around by The Amity Affliction

The Death We Seek by Currents

Kindred

Still Don't Know My Name by Labrinth

In Hell I'll Be Good Company by The Dead South

Murder at Homecoming

no body, no crime by Taylor Swift

Nightbound

Songs from the Shadowhunter series: Dynasty , Hurricane, Making a Monster out of Me (Katherine McNamara) , This is the Hunt (Ruelle), Storm (Ruelle) , Bad Dream , Love to Hate You, I am Ember from Katherine McNamara , Hold On (from Chord Oversee) , Glass Slipper (Katherine McNamara) , Paralyzed (NF), Angel with a Shotgun (instead shotgun imagine crossbow) , Brother (Kodaline), Shadowhunter series Finale Song by Ruelle

Open Heart

Symphony of Skin by I The Mighty

Comment was "Romancing Bryce vibes"

Platinum

3 Minutes by Alexi Blue

Red Carpet Diaries

Why Should I? by Alexi Blue

Roommates With Benefits

You Give Love a Bad Name by Bon Jovi

The Royal Romance

Not Your Barbie Girl by Ava Max

Barbie Girl by Aqua

Loves Me Not by Kate Grahn & Will Jay

i wanna be your girlfriend by girl in red

Rules of Engagement

Hair by Little Mix

Surrender

Bad Habits by Ed Sheeran

Here's the Google form if anyone wants to take it! Thank you so much to those of you who have taken the time to do this!!!

[fuck-you-upmusicbracket]

No One Is Alone (Into the Woods)

Hard to see the light now/Just don't let it go/Things will come out right now/We can make it so/Someone is on your side/No one is alone

People make mistakes/Holding to their own/Thinking they're alone/Honor their mistakes/Fight for their mistakes/Everybody makes/One another's terrible mistakes

"The idea that life is incredibly confusing, that it's hard to figure out who you can trust, to decide what's important to you and how to make those things real, but you don't have to do it by yourself. You're going to lose people, and sometimes you might even lose yourself, and sometimes your actions will have unintended consequences, but even in the midst of all that, no one is so hopeless that it's impossible for them to ever make a true human connection. Everything feels terrible and insurmountable, and it feels like nobody cares, but somebody does-somebody always will. No matter what happens, you have support. Somebody will be rooting for you and will be there to help you figure everything out and to love you. Genuinely every single time I try to sing this song I start crying, hell, I'm crying right now as I'm typing this."

"I listen to this song when I feel hopeless and alienated. And it has made me cry more than once."

The Mind Electric (ミラクルミュージカル Miracle Musical)

See how the serfs work the ground (See how they fall)/And they give it all they've got/And they give it all they've got/And you give it all you've got 'til your down/See how the brain plays around/And you fall inside a hole you couldn't see/And you fall inside a hole inside a-/Someone help me

Understand what’s going on inside my mind/Doctor, I can’t tell if I’m not me

Nuns commence incanting as the lightning strikes mine temples thus/Electrifying mine chambers wholly, scorching out thine sovereignty so/Spiralling down thy majesty, I beg of thee have mercy on me/I was just a boy, you see! I plead of thee, have sympathy for me!

"The lyrics just hit hard with all of the imagery and shit, being used alongside the song glitching and a 3 minute long sequence (an un-glitched version of the song) that plays backwards in full before the song begins, conjure up a very interesting view/idea/image of losing your sanity. Plus, the song has a really interesting history in terms of its creation."

"first listen: "damn its weird that this has itself backwards haha" second listen: ⚡️⚡️🧠SEE HOW THE BRAIN PLAYS AROUND🌩😈AND YOU FALL INSIDE A HOLE YOU COULDNT SEE☁️⚡️AND YOU FALL INSIDE A HOLE INSIDE A🤴🗣SOMEONE HELP ME⛈️🪐UNDERSTAND WHATS GOING ON INSIDE MY MIND🗣⚡️DOCTOR I CANT TELL IF IM NOT ME!!!🌩🌩☄️ anyway, there are actually 2 versions of this song !! since the first half of the song is the second half backwards, but one of the halves has a series of artistic glitches and repeats and skips! the "distorted version", which is what youll find on spotify, has the glitchy half played forwards, and the "nondistorted version", which is what the official channel posted on youtube, is reversed so the unglitched half plays forwards! its a remaster of a previous song Joe Hawley worked on as a member of Tally Hall called "Inside the Mind of Simon", and it has TONS of little easter eggs and details scattered throughout. distorted speech from old movies, clips from old songs, theres this part where chanting voices sing "axon, dendrite" and "help me" over and over which (imo) you really only hear if you know to look for them, theres an intricate synth arpeggio throughout the entire climax of the song that im in love with— its the source of the synth tune in the next song on the album, Labyrinth (the funny "i am the mouse" song)! i have yet to find a blorbo i cant picture to it but considering that my main oc's theme is madness, its her perfect chance to star. in conclusion, your honor, I love the mind electric."

"it's a story of a man getting sentenced to an asylum for a murder he didn't commit, and there he is subjected to electroshock therapy. the synth alone fucked me up the first time I heard it. not to mention the awesome lyrics and various styles throughout the song. oh also the first 3ish minutes of the song are in reverse. so there's that."

"Somehow I feel like it's the story of my life. Also, the first half of the song is the second half of the song played in reverse."

The Mind Electric submitted by @lesleyn +@omegasmileyface +@that-bi-fan + others

[quicksilversnails]

I only got to join about halfway through the clown princess drawing stream yesterday, so I was listening back to the beginning of the VOD, and um? They played a new track from the Pristine Cut? Can we talk about this??

(Discussion on the track begins at 20:08, track starts at 21:06)

It's got a great orchestral sound with lots of woodwinds, which reminds me a lot of the Damsel's themes. There's also a sense of warmth to it that makes me think of A Kiss from a Thorn, and even of The Unknown Together. It's a really pretty track.

What really fascinates me about it though is how it inverts the main Princess motif in a pretty unique way. Instead of the usual rising arpeggios in the piano, there's falling arpeggios, which are heard throughout the track. The four-note tune in the flute is a variant of the main Princess motif played in reverse.

It took me a while to figure out what the melody played on the cello(?) is based on, but it's actually the second half of the Princess theme, reversed and played in equal measure. When combined with the flute, they play the nearly the full Princess theme in reverse, which is so incredibly cool!

This concept of inversion makes me think of another preview where the "stairs down to the basement" instead appears to be an ascending staircase:

This seems fairly likely to be a Damsel Chapter 3 considering the instrumentation and design of the cabin, but this comes with another layer of thematic implications... In a Chapter 2 about archetypal ideas of the hero and damsel, what does it mean to have a Chapter 3 where the game's own musical and structural archetypes are subverted?

I really adore how Slay the Princess' OST supports the ideas and themes of the game through musical devices. The whole game has 3 leitmotifs (The Princess, The World-Ender, The Shifting Mound), but even just within their respective tracks, there's so many connections. For example, the bass arpeggios in the Princess become the melody of the World-Ender, and both motifs appear in the piano of the Shifting Mound. (This post by @tvlandofficiall goes into more detail)

With the way these themes meld into each other, are they even separate themes, or the same theme, just seen through another perspective?

Meanwhile, every other track in the game is built off of just these initial themes. Besides being a musical feat, it's also significant that no matter how far the story strays and the environment changes, it is always represented by the same themes, all of which represent the Princess in some form. Everything, apart from the silence of The Long Quiet and the fading murmurs of the Echo, is Her.

All this is to say that the music in this game absolutely says something about the characters and its story, and I think that this new track is no exception (and also that Brandon Boone does brilliant work and I respect the hell out of this entire dev team).

[hawkinsmafia]

day 15 : photographs

featuring Dmitri Antonov x oc Lilibet Grey & oc Georgette Grey

summary: Georgette is struggling with being back in Hawkins, and Dmitri finds out exactly why his stepdaughter hates it here so much

rating: general

wc: 927

cw: mentions of past manipulation and revenge porn of a minor, unfavorable depiction of Tommy H.

an: written for the 200 Words Challenge. I’m having fun exploring this man. :) I think I hc him as a pretty decent cook, and definitely has high dexterity. also I’m in love with the idea that he gets himself a motorcycle in Hawkins. more biker representation pls!

Returning to Hawkins had had an effect on Georgette, Lilibet could see it the very same day they arrived. Her daughter was reverting back to the version of herself that hadn’t yet been to California, hadn’t made friends at Lenora High or had sleepovers at her house on Lonzo Way. The Georgette who didn’t fit in and didn’t have much to say. Even securing an early summer job at Main Street Vinyl hadn’t lifted her mood. Some of it, perhaps, could have been attributed to shyness around their new roommate, but Dmitri couldn’t be the source of all her malaise. Lilibet had seen with her own eyes that the two of them got along well enough; even Georgette’s aloof tuxedo cat, Count Ulfric Arpeggio, seemed to grudgingly accept Dmitri’s presence.

So while Dmitri was busy in the kitchen, prepping vegetables for dinner—he had insisted on taking care of meals for the family, wanting to pull his fair share of the weight even while he hadn’t yet found employment in Hawkins—Lilibet approached Georgette. Plopping down next to her on their new sofa, Lilibet cut right to the chase.

“Alright, so are you ready to tell me what’s going on yet?”

Georgette looked at her mother, brow furrowing. “I… don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Why you’re retreating into your shell again,” Lilibet supplied. “As soon as we crossed the Hawkins town line, you started wilting. What’s happening?”

“Oh.” Georgette looked away, swallowing awkwardly. “You remember what happened.” She paused before adding, quietly, “With Tommy?”

An idle fury clawed Lilibet’s insides at the mention of the boy’s name, but she kept her face impassive. “Yes.”

“Yeah. Bet you’re not the only one.”

“Oh, sweetheart…” Lilibet reached out and touched her daughter’s knee, rubbing it soothingly.

“It was just really nice being two thousand miles away from anyone who’d ever even heard of Tommy Hagan and had ever seen my boobs.”

The way her daughter’s head hung in shame made Lilibet’s heart hurt, and she wrapped her arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug. “It’s been two years, baby. I’m sure most people have forgotten it entirely, and the rest… well, fuck them. They don’t have photographic memories, and if all they have to do with their spare time is try to recall the details of those photos, that says a hell of a lot more about their pathetic selves than it does about you.”

“But we never got all the copies back,” Georgette said, her voice cracking as she spoke into her mother’s shoulder, “and they have to be out there somewhere. What if being back in Hawkins makes someone remember they have one in their desk drawer and it starts getting passed around again?”

That fury was still coiling in Lilibet’s chest, and she spoke in a tone that was carefully measured but still licked of flame. “If it resurfaces, then we’ll prosecute. You were sixteen years old, which makes it a felony to even have a copy in the first place. And this time we won’t have to trade that charge away as a bargaining chip to keep Jonathan out of jail.” She pulled away from Georgette, her hands holding Georgette’s shoulders, and met her daughter’s eyes head-on. “If anyone is still holding on to that photo, if they have one shred of intelligence in their skull, they’ll keep it to themselves.”

From behind them came the sound of a throat being cleared, and they looked over the back of the sofa to find Dmitri standing in the doorway, his chef knife in hand, bright orange flecks of carrot clinging to the blade.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” he said, speaking very politely, “but I seem to have forgotten the onions.” His gaze settled on Georgette with a gentle smile. “Would you maybe have a few minutes to run out and purchase a bag for me?”

“Can I take your motorcycle?” she asked hopefully, but her mother cut in before Dmitri could respond.

“Absolutely not, but you can take my car.”

Georgette groaned, but pulled herself up off the couch and headed for the front door.

“And please don’t change the radio station presets!”

“I won’t,” she sighed with all the apathy of a beleaguered teenager, and closed the door behind her.

Dmitri waited a few more seconds before he spoke again. “Am I permitted to ask what that discussion was about?”

“You were eavesdropping?” Lilibet teased.

“I dropped no eaves, I was merely close enough to hear you. I cannot turn off my ears at will.”

With a sigh, Lilibet shifted on the couch, rising onto her knees on the cushions and turning toward the back of the couch to face Dmitri. “There was a boy Georgette had feelings for in high school, his name was Tommy Hagan. And Tommy decided to pretend he had feelings for her as well, as a joke. And apparently he was very convincing, because it went on for weeks, with Georgette thinking they were in love, and eventually she gave him a… let’s say, a very private photo of herself. By the next morning, he’d had hundreds of copies made and taped up all over the school for everyone to see.”

As Lilibet spoke, Dmitri’s expression hardened, his mouth a tight line, his eyes icy. He looked toward the front door again, then back to Lilibet.

“May I ask two more questions, my dove?”

She nodded, and the chef knife twirled in Dmitri’s grasp.

“Where is this Tommy Hagan now, and how dead would you like him to be?”

dividers by @saradika-graphics // photos suggested by @comfortably-obsessed-fangirl ♡

[rukimakino-heirofheart]

ZUN's Music Collection vol. 10: Mugen Noh of Tanabatazaka ~ Taboo Japan Disentanglement.

Getting a new Hifuu CD after so long is extremely exciting, especially when the cover looks like this (Maribel's design getting ever so slightly closer to her completed Yukari appearance) and especially when one of the arranged tracks is fucking AoCF Necrofantasia. The CD was fully uploaded and translated within 24 hours of the Reitaisai release — never change, RenMerry shippers — so I immediately went to check it out.

Track 1: Dawn Breaks on Tanabatazaka (Original)

Not very much to say about this one other than that it's nice and the soft instrumentation lends it an interesting tone.

Track 2: Tinkerbell of Inequality (Original)

Surprisingly heavy percussion and bass here. Unlike the minimalist Fires of Hokkai, though, this track has a complex "mechanical"-sounding drumline that feels more like something you'd hear out of Len'en. I like this a lot.

Track 3: Does the Forbidden Door Lead to This World, or the World Beyond? (HSiFS)

A hard downgrade over the original. I get what ZUN was going for — stage-1-ifying the song makes it more of a tonal fit with the album — but making it less punchy and softening the drums in the mix makes it sound kind of generic.

Track 4: Smoking Dragon (UM)

Mostly the same as the original but with a key change and a more complicated piano harmony. Not much to write home about.

Track 5: Mugen Noh ~ Taboo Marionette (Original)

ZUN rarely writes in 3/4, so this was pretty surprising. I like this a lot; the mood is tranquil but with plenty of drive at the core, and its instrumentation gives it DiPP/PCB-era vibes while still being unmistakably modern Touhou.

Track 6: Crazy Backup Dancers (HSiFS)

Woah. I like this a lot better than the original from HSiFS, the updated arrangement does a great deal here and the new section in the second half makes the track as a whole a hell of a lot less annoying.

Track 7: Yorimashi Between Dreams and Reality ~ Necro-Fantasia (AoCF)

Opening right off the bat with an original intro (is that 12-string guitar(?) patch a new instrument???), the long-awaited AoCF cover sounds fucking awesome in the newer style! Cutting down the mix to just the ZUNpet and one or two other patches for percussion texture is a fun technique and it's cool to see it deployed so well here. My only real complaint is that it feels like it should be longer.

Track 8: The Lonely Road of Hitachi (Original)

3/4 swing melody over an unswung 3/4 beat (with occasional 4-tuplets?), neat. The heavy arpeggio delay on the piano gives the track an "asynchronized" feeling that I like a lot.

Track 9: The Lamentations Known Only by Jizo (WBaWC)

The addition of the choir layer is a good choice imo, and the tone overall is more melancholic which fits its context in this album. Feels a bit space-filler-y but it's still solid.

Track 10: The Concealed Four Seasons (HSiFS)

This sounds pretty much the same as the original. Don't get me wrong, the original was a good song (if atypical for a stage 6 boss), but it's kind of disappointing that the arrange isn't very distinctive.

Track 11: Ghosts Exist Even When It's Not Night (Original)

A slowly-building staff roll-ish track that works nicely to cap off the album. I like it.

Overall thoughts & story

Eight years since the last Hifuu CD, ZUN still has it. The worst it ever gets is "well that was disappointing" and the best it gets is fresh and exciting. The story is an interesting development while leaving plenty of room for future exploration — it explicitly connects the shared features of Okina and Yukari's abilities to Merry's use of time travel in CoSD, for one thing — and the choice to include Okina's narration stands out and has me curious what volume 11 is going to be like.

9/10 definitely worth it.

[astraeawritingarchive]

I posted the Thirty-ninth chapter of my fanfiction, Arpeggio 21: The Devil’s Chorus! I intend to keep posting another chapter of a fic every Wednesday between 1 and 3 Pacific Time.

Chapter 39 Passage:

The plane finally lands, and Hiruma is relieved enough that he almost takes off like a bat out of hell to get to their destination. Almost. Collecting his luggage from the baggage claim carousel, Hiruma glances over his shoulder. Sena had enough foresight to send his guitar and everything off to the American hotel a few days before, so no one would see just yet. As Sena picks up his bag, he glances at Hiruma, and smiles. Shit, are ya trying to make me do something stupid in public??

[astraeasilvers]

I'm a hobby-author currently posting fics on AO3. I have a story ongoing on Wattpad as well, but have been struggling with writing that one, so only the prologue and first chapter are up.

I mostly write Eyeshield 21 HiruSena ship fics. I hope you all enjoy! Thank you for sticking with me!

Currently working on:

Silver Phoenix - Wattpad

Lightspeed Heartbeat - AO3

Arpeggio 21: The Devil’s Chorus - AO3

Beyond the Veil and into the Dark - AO3

In Your Company - AO3

Coded - AO3

The Guardian from Hell - AO3

What Lurks in the Heart - AO3

The Details in the Devil - AO3

Maybe This Time - AO3

Completed:

Sidetracked - AO3

I've started uploading Music Compilation/Playlist Videos onto my YouTube! Feel free to check them out!

Check out my Linktree for more fun stuff!

YouTube:

Masterlist Link

Spotify:

Masterlist Link

Tags:

Masterlist

I try to be active on updating you guys here, but I've got the memory of a goldfish, soooo...

A Little About Me:

I go by they/them or he/him pronouns. I'm Genderfluid. Specifically Demiboy/Agender.

I'm also Ace/Aro! If that isn't already obvious by how I write certain scenes... (take that as you will)

I have two cats! Well, technically four five, if you count my sister's, and now my late oma's cat

I have major ADHD and forget to be active on social media, so when I am, its in spurts of chaotic energy.

I'm autistic. So I do not handle social cues well at all. So keep that in mind if you interact with me LOL

I intend to write a lot of fics, but I try to keep myself limited. Yeah, well that doesn't always work, seeing as I'm now at four eight (plus the unposted ones), and promised myself only one.

[extraordinaryhistories]

#6 – 'Dumb I Sound' (A Sun Came, 1998)

A Sun Came is in many ways an album of superlatives. You will find the furthest extremes of nearly every quality a Sufjan song could have on his debut, aside from, perhaps, quality itself. The worst; the most abrasive; the weirdest; the most earnest. ‘Dumb I Sound’, for better or for worse, continues that illustrious trend. In a catalogue with ‘John Wayne Gacy Jr.’, ‘The Only Thing’, ‘Borderline’ and ‘Futile Devices’, ‘Dumb I Sound’ stands out as perhaps the most melodramatic song in Sufjan’s oeuvre, and I do not necessarily use that in a pejorative sense. Like ‘Rake’, this song is not at all shrouded in ambiguity. It speaks what it means and means what it speaks. ‘Dumb I Sound’ speaks of a universal human experience turned earth-shatteringly personal: rejection, and its dazed, woozy aftermath.

What makes ‘Dumb I Sound’ such an interesting little corner of Sufjan’s catalogue is this: it is a daring, even rather dangerous, type of song to write. In an age where incel communities are an embarrassingly real cultural force, the ‘rejection song’ trope is afforded a great deal of stigma. It is a dangerously fine line that lies between a tortured outpouring of self-hatred and an incessantly pursued – wholly unrequited – affection. We are primed (I would say quite rightly) to sympathise with the former, but treat the latter with disdain. The issue is that these are real, unavoidable emotions. I have experienced the latter. Doubtless you have too. We know it is wrong; we know it is an unfair expectation to place on someone who committed no crime at all; we know they ‘want to be with someone else’; and yet we feel it anyway. We are helpless to our follies, despite us knowing they are follies. Ought we to not put them in song, share them with a sycophantic audience?

When I first listened to A Sun Came, ‘Dumb I Sound’ immediately stood out as an especial highlight. I barely registered the lyrics at first. There was plenty of magic in the music: the featherweight piano arpeggios, melodramatic as all hell and seemingly lab-engineered to evoke dejection, nevertheless had an undeniable centre of gravity that drew me in. This was very clearly the work of a younger, less mature songwriter, far more prone to cliché, but it fascinated me. I had never heard this sort of compositional approach from him before, far more Keaton Henson than Elliott Smith. The vocal melodies were good, too; the approach to the verse melody didfeel like later Sufjan in its pared-back repetition.

Then the song just kept building and building. The flutes, sounding like weeping mourners at a funeral procession, played aching melodies, while the guitar added counterpoint and a particularly adventurous early Sufjan vocal (he would improve a lot come Michigan) wailed away. Even the syncopated drum part impressed me; how many times would you single out the drums as a highlight of a Sufjan song? The whole affair read as a fairly knowing attempt to create a big, weepy power ballad, but I liked that. I liked how unique it was for Sufjan. Its end, though typical A Sun Came wry noise, did not detract from the song all that much. On first listen, I enjoyed the song a lot.

On second listen, I read the lyrics, and I proceeded to never listen to the song again.

This realistically says a lot more about me, and my ability to handle unvarnished emotion in music, than it does about ‘Dumb I Sound’. The chorus, anchored by ‘but you love someone else – but you want to be with someone else – and I can’t believe how dumb I sound,’ stirred in me a visceral cringe that irrevocably ruined the song. They’re not into you, Sufjan. Get over yourself.

Where does this come from? Is this because the song reeks of incel sentiment? Not really – Sufjan never speaks ill of the target of his affections at any point in the song. If this is an incel anthem, it is a pretty poor one. Or is it because – and this seems quite likely – the depiction of rejection’s aftermath here is so painfully accurate? It’s that feeling of knowing logically how absurd your feelings are, but still being painfully beholden to your mind’s whims. Maybe Sufjan tapped into something that I would really rather not admit about myself.

The opening couplet – ‘something’s suddenly unclear, someone’s suddenly my fear’ – is one of many devastating opening salvos in the Sufjan catalogue. I know that feeling well. You build up a conception of this person in your mind; you build a world with them. You are so deeply in love that you allow yourself to plan a future with them in it. ‘If you’re happy, I am too, and if you’re sleeping, I’m with you.’ And then they reject you. Everything goes foggy. You quickly find out your world had no foundation. A gust of wind and it all comes crumbling down.

Rejection, Sufjan rightly contends, has the uncanny ability to transmute hope into self-hatred. It is devastating to hear him sing ‘I can’t believe how dumb I sound, and I will put my face over the ground,’ lines that approach a level of po-faced honesty really only matched by ‘Futile Devices’ some ten years later (‘and I would say I love you, but saying it out loud is hard’.) It’s a perfect evocation of that particular brand of self-doubt that creeps in during the direct aftermath. Loving someone brings tremendous rewards, but at a tremendously high risk. When you strike out – when the wheel hits black and you bet it all on red – you’re bound to think that the problem is you, that you are not worthy of love and not strong enough to love. A later, more mature Sufjan might include a fleck of hope somewhere in a song like this; not so with ‘Dumb I Sound’. There is only failure. Pathetic, miserable, hopeless failure.

And this is what makes ‘Dumb I Sound’ so difficult to listen to. I cry all the time to Sufjan songs. I have cried to ‘Casimir Pulaski Day’, to ‘Fourth of July’, to ‘Mercury’, and have immediately come back for more. Most of Sufjan’s catalogue is encased in a sort of poetic shell that allows you to keep a safe distance from the subject matter at hand. (That, or Sufjan speaks of a subject matter highly personal to him but to nobody else; you experience pathos, but little else.) ‘Dumb I Sound’ is different. ‘Dumb I Sound’ externalises things about me that I would rather not acknowledge. Try as I might, I cannot claim the moral high ground over it.

A painfully effective song that I will never voluntarily listen to.

[dustedmagazine]

PJ Harvey — I Inside the Old Year Dying (Partisan)

Photo by Steve Gullick

I Inside the Old Year Dying by PJ Harvey

PJ Harvey’s tenth album, I Inside the Old Year Dying, is death-haunted. Not in the sense of being fearful of mortality, but of stoically recognizing that life and death are two sides of the same coin. Or, as Harvey puts it on opening song “Prayer at the Gate,” “life a-knocking at death’s door… life and death all innertwined.” The words are delivered over an eerie descending chord progression, a ghostly octave reverb shimmering at the edges. Right from the start, this record is a sober, humbling listen, but one that’s deeply moving if you’re receptive to its patient unfurling.

Each song is superficially simple, a musical conglomeration of a handful of carefully selected elements: a spare, loping rhythm; piano or guitar tracing out a melodic and harmonic skeleton; perhaps some atmospheric effects or field recordings; then Harvey’s remarkable voice weaving its way through the scene, at times betraying her heritage with its lovely West Country burr. The instrumental parts patiently map out their terrain, Harvey intones her vivid poetry, often backed by long-time collaborator John Parish’s affecting voice, then the song will stand aside. It’s only on repeat listens and by drawing threads between the individual songs that the beauty of the whole begins to take form. 

Children make multiple appearances throughout the album. On “Autumn Term,” there are snatches of what sounds like playground clamor as Harvey reminisces about the horrors of commencing the school year: “I ascend three steps to hell / The school bus heaves up the hill.” “The Nether-edge” features “chalky children on the steep / buckets full of shadows.” There’s “A Child’s Question, July” and single “A Child’s Question, August.” And the stunning “I Inside the Old I Dying” is haunted by the refrain “the chalky children of evermore.” Another repeating theme is the Elvis Presley song, “Love Me Tender,” which makes an appearance on “Lwonesome Tonight,” “A Child’s Question, August,” and “August.” 

Musically, there’s a definite affinity with the kinds of textures Nick Cave and Warren Ellis summoned on Skeleton Tree. “The Nether-edge” has a spectral, heavily effected backing, Harvey’s voice pulsing with modulation. The fractured opening soundscape of “All Souls” could almost be a backing track on Frank Ocean’s Blonde. The guitars on “August” sound like they’ve been recorded on tape that’s been chewed beyond redemption. Then there’s closing track “Noiseless Noise,” which has snarling guitars that hark back to Harvey’s earlier records. At its conclusion Harvey sings, “Go home now love, leave your wandering,” over guitar arpeggios reminiscent of Slint’s “Washer.” The album ends with the sound of birds and bees, singing and buzzing. Life goes on. 

Tim Clarke

[luvwich]

word search tag game 📖

tagged by @wanderingaldecaldo 💜 these are always fun!

looking for privacy, claim, suspicion, flush, chords in Arpeggio & Jaded...

privacy

She scowled at her surroundings. Tufted booths curved womblike to shelter each node of straight-backed suits from one another. Nattering imbeciles, all their droning voices signifying jack shit, but everyone was convinced that whatever they had to say required privacy. Their world had told them their words mattered, and enough of them believed the lie that it became the truth.

-- Arpeggio, ch. 25

claim

He pushed her further, and then the tiniest bit further than that… and then he stopped. V felt like she'd been dangled from a thirty-second-floor balcony and then yanked back. Her shoulders tensed as she wriggled within the restraint, aching to regain control. But she ached even more to yield further, to feel him claim every part of her with every part of him.

-- Arpeggio, ch. 23

suspicion

Visited by a phantom of familiarity, River wondered where he might have seen this guy before. An actor? He cleared his throat. “Skiing, eh? Never been, myself. Tahoe hasn't had a full snowfall for as long as anyone can remember around here." He let the small talk settle like a cloud of banal dust and pressed onward. "So what worries have been troubling you.. I'm sorry, it was Charlie, right?”

River lifted the whiskey to his lips. An unnamed suspicion crept up the back of his shirt to prickle at his neck as he met the man's eyes.

-- Arpeggio, ch. 16

flush

It’d been a long-ass day. Weird dreams last night. The tiger reappearing on his arm, animated, telling him things. He hadn’t been sleeping enough, but he was flush with eddies and that’s got a way of perking you up even when you should wind down. That’s how Mike ended up with five gin-and-tonics in him before eleven p.m., his head heavy and propped on his hand as he held court at his usual spot.

And when he saw her this time, when he heard her light laughter at the other end of the Afterlife, he didn’t run and hide in the boy’s room. 

-- Jaded, ch. 5

chords

After that interminable date in corpo hell earlier, though, the dive's cheery bustle put her spirit at ease. The booths were ratty but comfortable, the lighting low enough to be flattering and warm enough to see the color of your companion's eyes. Patrons enjoyed hearty bites of food as a man with wisps of silver hair plucked ethereal chords from a guzheng, the sounds of ancient mountains and rivers weaving around the laughter of Watson's raucous sons and daughters.

She spotted him in a corner booth, surrounded by half-empty small plates and a huge stein of beer that was as pale as the hair on his head. His lips split into that crooked grin when he saw her. 

“Whoa, glad you could make it, hotshot. Didn’t think you’d show.”

-- Jaded, ch. 6

keepin it going sans pressure if yall want:

🔎 spice, question, fury, paint, gentle 🔍

@another-corpo-rat @cinnamon-mey @dani-the-goblin @fly-amanitaa @ghostoffuturespast @gracewithsomesacrifice @merge-conflict @theviridianbunny

[alfafilly]

What do you MEAN it’s not Halloween anymore?! Aha that is INCORRECT.

Due to various reasons, I wasn’t able to finish this in time for Halloween. But I figured, you know what? NO. It WILL be complete. 

I tried to pick a combination of interests I was into this year vs things that I thought fit. Pigeon!Linda is Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop because I FINALLY watched it (I'm late to the party). Big tiddy power outfit. Arpeggio and Neyla are Ratau and the Lamb from Cult of the Lamb because I played that this year and tell me it's not accurate I dare you.

Linda is Hooty from The Owl House but mildly sexy because it was funny (I should have made it sexier but ya live and learn). She and Hooty would be friends 100%. Forte is Ichigo from Tokyo Mew Mew which I DIDN'T watch the remake of but I wanted to because I was obsessed with the OG for a brief period as a kid LMAO also because my friend Trist drew him as an anime maid gorl once and it was too amusing to not duplicate.

Akemi is Lady Dimitrescu because I apparently just like to draw people as her (she has a big hat and big claws and is a dragon??? thing?? So shut UP it FIT HIM). Almost drew him in his plane from Dragon Pilot because HA HA but I didn't want to draw plane parts leave me ALONE.

And lastly, we have Kailani dressed as Mako in her uniform and Feddy as Gamagori from Kill la Kill. This one is kinda funny because while watching it, when Gamagori showed up I was like "haha Feddy cause he big and has spikes teehee" and Shep looked at me all "Keep that in mind for later" and I was like "uh oh". I won't spoil that. If you know you know.

Also these are (roughly) accurate height comparisons between all of them, give or take because I had to bump the background chars up on the plane a bit to not obscure them. Kailani and Feddy are freakin' huge what the hell. Bigger than an entire dragon. Who woulda thought.

[ultravioletfuture]

ULTRAVIOLET VISIONS: Mid August New Releases

Hello everyone! This week I've been going back and listening to some things I picked up during this month's Bandcamp Friday, as well as doing some digital crate-digging through the Vaporwave/Plunderphonic tags on Bandcamp. Let's get started with some of the new releases that have been in my rotation this week!

Starting off with the new Tabby release,"Macintosh Hell, this is one of the releases I picked up on Bandcamp Friday over at the Pause and Reflect Music label. This is actually my first release I've heard from Tabby and I have been pleasantly suprised. Macintosh Hell is 14 tracks of pure Vapor/Electronic vibes that fluctuate between upbeat and joyful tracks like the opener "Online", to heavier tracks like "Hacker". The vocal sampling is a core piece to this record and is something I instantly gravitated towards like in the track "Personalized Entertainment”. I love the heavy Electronics in tracks like "The Second Big Bang" where the synths creep in so beautifully, bringing you this larger than life soundscape that is so cinematic. The instrumentals of this record remind me of sounds you'd hear in something death's dynamic shroud's "Darklife" mixed with the terminally online lingo and presence of something like Death Grips "The Money Store" or JPEGMAFIA's "Veteran". Overall this album has been an extremely refreshing blend of my favorite Electronic sounds with some of my favorite Vaporwave tropes. With this record, Tabby has cemented themselves in my brain as an artist to keep a look out for in the future. Favorite songs: Online, Hacker, The Second Big Bang, Every Lie We Had.

"Someday We'll Find It" was a surprise collaboration announcement between the amazing Scarlett Lemieux and Serenade Systems Incorporated (aka Amanita), and released this Tuesday on First Class Collective! This album is a split release filled with 10 slushy Vaporwave tracks with 5 tracks by Scarlett and 5 tracks by Amanita. There is a common atmosphere of this "stage play" vibe where the collections of songs sound very large and grand, as well as having these sorta interludes between of sampled songs from the Muppets (something I would've never guessed to hear in a Vaporwave album lol). Scarlett and Amanita compliment each other beautifully and crafted this nostalgic mesh of ambient and slushwave where each song makes you reminisce childhood regardless of whether you recognize or relate to the sample material or not. Definitely a recommended listen as is a very unique blend of atmospheres for a Vaporwave release. Favorite tracks: Go Back There, Labyrinth Walk, A Call From A Child's Dimension

"Trois Mouvements" is the newest release from up and coming ambient vapor artist, Endless Corridors. I've been aware of this artist since their debut back in April last year over at Skyline Tapes. The album runs a little over 30 minutes and is split between 3 tracks, "I, II, and III". "I" starts off by building an incredible atmosphere with 13 minutes of smooth, ethereal pads that make you feel like you're gazing through skyscrapers in a city. As the song develops, the sounds start to crackle and deteriorate as we enter the track "II". "II" is a darker piece in comparison where we start off in a more simple somber note and then gradually progress into more harsh noises and textures. A little bit past the halfway mark is when things sound like they are coming to a climax as the track wails towards the end before entering "III". "III" ends the album off in such a beautiful way. The rain has fizzled out and we are left with extremely soft pads as this low key arpeggio comes in as if to welcome you and rewarding you for making it here. A flute melody comes in and is accompanied by these soft plucked pianos that make you feel so personally connected to the sounds being presented to you. An extremely gratifying ending with such a slow satisfying build up towards the end as we wind down and close off this beautiful sonic atmosphere. Favorite track: III

"MEMORIES保存する価値がある" is the latest release from classic vapor/mallsoft artist, 𝕄ꌦꌚ✞ỉር Ⓜᗩ爪𝕭ꋬ. Memories shows off Mystic Mamba's classic vapor style with their love and connection to the sample material. This record feels like a personal trip down Memory lane through this wide sonic atmosphere as we revisit songs from Mystic Mambas past. I think they gave such an accurate description to the emotions you may feel when listening in their description:

Sometimes, a special person enters your life. Someone with whom you share numerous wonderful experiences. Someone who you grow to love, as a friend, as extended family, as someone you could call a partner. And you feel like things are meant to last forever, but sometimes, that’s not how things turn out. The wonderful times come to an end, and while that may be sad, it does not mean that you should live with regret. Because those memories brought you happiness. The laughter, the smiles, the peace you shared, that’s what matters in the end. And those memories are worth saving…

I typically never gravitate towards mallsoft styled music, but this album feels very personally hand crafted to mimic a curated mixtape of tracks from their past that specifically remind them more than just a time, but a person and their connection with them as well. It's very common to invoke nostalgia in Vaporwave, but to invoke the feeling of longing for a personal time period in one's life is truly special worth listening to. Favorite tracks: ⓢ☋❡ꍏ☈Ϝ♗♫ꍏ, ❡ꍏ♔♗♫❡ Ϝ⊙☈ ♄⊙☋☈ⓢ, ⓢ​⌘​ⓢ​ω

Spencer Hodo dropped a small 2 track release over on the Anti-Club label. Both tracks feature Hodo's classic eclectic blend of break-beats and electronic music. Hodo wastes no time with these tracks and just hammers down idea after idea in order to keep things moving without staying still for too long. The first track "due diligence" is extremely electronic and glitchy at its core. Thee synths are shifting into different rhythms and melodies every second while retaining their familiarity. The drum breaks on this track are meticulously chopped to keep the track in a constant state of flow and movement. The second track "intentional lands" starts off on the opposite spectrum with its more acoustic sounds of a guitar melody on top of some more low-key drumming. Around the 1:20 mark is when things start to come to fruition with this insane wailing synth sequence that somehow blends perfectly with the original guitar without sounding at sonic odds. What we're left with is this beautiful blend of organic sounds mixed with electronic sequences. Favorite track: intentional lands This month's releases have been amazing so far and I highly recommend everyone to give each and every one of these projects a listen. If you have any newer releases you'd like me to cover, feel free to send me submissions over at my Discord, in the submissions tab here on my blog, or send an email at portals.rwb@gmail.com. Thank you all for checking out this week's UVF blog and please share it around to your friends :). I'm gonna try and come out with a new post every Friday and cover things from New Releases in the scene as well as albums Ive just been listening to and highly recommend. Have a great Friday UVF! -portal.uvf

[the-takosader]

TMMSOTI Ramble

Can I just mention how weirdly unsettling it is to know that we've got a partially lost media that we're trying to find the origin of? Now, I know we found the "origin" of it. Darius S.'s broadcast recording from 1984 on NDR2. But in this case, that's not enough.

Now, I know you might be wondering, "Why's he on about this? What's with the massive topic shift from the post he made on Sunday?" Well, it's because I mentioned TMMSOTI in the image, if you were mad enough to go so far as to look closely at the image (It's the normal orientation of the Gas Station dream, next to the biggest text on that image.), but that's not important.

What is important is that it feels weird to know that this song exists, has existed for close to 40 years now, and no one is even close to figuring out its origins. Granted, the search only started 4 years ago, but still. And the strange thing is, they can't even find NDR's official record of the broadcast!

"Strange." Heh. As if I didn't know that's not nearly the worst case of record-keeping out there. The BBC has a much MUCH worse history of record-keeping, especially from the mid-50s. Most of early Doctor Who's serials are audio only now, and who knows how much of Hartnell and Troughton's acting was lost because of the BBC deciding to wipe without backups. (Side note: those are REALLY British names, even to me, a Brit.)

But back to business. TMMSOTI is undeniably a product of the '80s. From the sound of it, it's unashamedly synth-heavy, as heard in the chorus, but overall, it doesn't feature electronic instruments all that much. It doesn't feel so much like punk, or "post-punk", as Wikipedia describes it, but I'm not a connoisseur of that genre. The only song I've really listened to from it is London Calling by The Clash (who have enough range to also write such songs as Rock the Casbah and Should I Stay or Should I Go), so I'm in no such way describing myself as someone who does, solidly and truly, know what the hell they are talking about.

If there's a solidly defined bassline in there, I sure as hell cannot decipher it. Transcripts I find on Songsterr do not feel solid about the bassline. Literally the only things that feel solid in that song are the guitar and the drums. The guitar feels solid because it's the main driving force, right the way through the whole song. It plays eighth note power chords in the intro and guitar "solo", and arpeggios in the verses.

AS FOR THE DRUMS. HOO BOY. I don't think I've mentioned this here, but I have a minor penchant for the drums (read: done every Beatles song to the best of my ability). I listen to that, I hear someone who's been playing for a while. Every fill has a different pattern. The timekeeping is rock-solid. About as close to metronome as humanly possible.

So, what's so significant about rock-solid drumming? Well, apart from the fact that it's a grand measure of skill, it's also a sign that this isn't just your average garage band (not to be confused with the app of the same name.)

So it's a semi-professional drummer with a skill for keeping time, and a guitarist that knows his way around some chords. The bassline is obscured by the quality, and the synths are generic enough as is. Some theorise it originated from behind the Iron Curtain, but if that's the case, why send it to NDR2, based in Hamburg, instead of the much closer West Berlin?

In my very VERY limited opinion, I think it's much more likely that it's a small West Germany band that got lucky enough to get their demo featured on Musik Für Junge Leute in 1984, where it was then, unceremoniously dumped into the nearest rubbish receptacle. If anything, had it not been for Darius S. taping that night's NDR2 broadcast, we might not have heard this song... ever, in fact. Hell, even he forgot about the tape for that broadcast until digitising them for an archive 20 years later.

I guess that goes to show how remarkably fickle memory is, where no one remembers the song's title or the band's name. Also has the side effect of being fucking creepy when you think about it, because it's quite existential in a way. How, when all's said and done, everyone might forget about us unless we are immortalised in some way. I guess that it helps that the Internet exists now.

[29pageshomestuckeveryday]

Homestuck, page 2,988

[S] ==>

storyboards: http://readmspa.org/storyboards/02987.swf.html

Song used: Frost by Solatrus

Song commentary:

Solatrus:

(original commentary)

Anyway, man, where to begin on this one? My most famous song, one of the proudest moments of my musical career, etc. etc. I could go on.

But I’ll start with the roots.

Frost didn’t start off as the theme for the Land of Frost and Frogs. It started off as the theme for the Land of Thought and Flow. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post on this song, you really need to look at this image to understand what went through my head.

Remember that image? Yeah. Okay. Now then, go listen to the first 30 seconds of Frost while staring at that image.

Got it?

Good.

That’s how it started.

And then Andrew asked me to use it in the animation and it got renamed. But, considering half of the song no longer fit the new theme, I rewrote the second half to include a lot more percussive instruments to give that icy feeling.

Frankly, I’m not sure what’s more well known, the really ethereal arpeggio that opens the song, or the industrial drums that drive it.

(commentary redux)

I can’t really make a post about this song without mentioning the above flash animation and the following image:

Because, really, if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be explaining a significant amount of the story behind this song.

This image of Terezi standing in the Land of Thought and Flow is what inspired the opening arpeggio for Frost. The whole Land’s environment is fascinating to me, and I simply had to write a theme for that medium world. As I have probably mentioned, my preference in writing music is for settings, which gives me my really ambient sound, contrary to other musicians on the team who prefer to write melodical songs describing emotions and people.

I ended up realizing an industrial kit would work extremely well for an unusual drum beat, particularly to contrast the incredibly ethereal sound I had already established. Hell, this song is so ambient people have a hard time telling what the melody is… and no, it’s not the french horn. :D

Eventually the arping bassline comes in and all is good.

Anyway, I was really hoping that Terezi’s land would be explored more, but that never happened. I ended up getting contacted by Andrew to feature this in the comic, and I was really ecstatic. My music went from a few dozen people listening to it regularly, before I joined the team, to probably a few thousand after Volume 5. And then with this feature, I jumped to having hundreds of thousands of people listening to one of my songs. And it’s grown since then.

That was a really mind blowing, and really awesome. I’ve had very few proud moments in my life more worthy than this one.

After the feature, though, I scrambled to improve the song’s quality. I changed around a few things in the first half (most notably making the whole mix a bit quieter), and pushed the melody a bit more forward. The second half, I basically swapped out this very strange sounding piano improvisation I did with the percussion (vibes, glockenspiel) instruments and a saw pad for lead. The replacements work incredibly well for trying to give an icy sound, and I’m pleased with how it turned out.

I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to doing songs that are this ambient and minimalist, because my composing skills have progressed significantly since then, and I require much more complexity in my work. Also, now that this song is actually over two years old (for me), I’ve noticed how flawed it is.

But nonetheless, this is probably one of my best songs, and it’s well loved by the Homestuck fandom. That’s good enough for me.

Author commentary:

Charles Dutton had a respectable acting career, and I'm sure he said many memorable things, to whoever might have been listening. But he didn't say this. Shocking, I know. What's with all these misattributed quotes? Did I explain this? We've just covered a big stretch of story which, thanks to Vriska, has been heavy with notes about crassly misappropriating certain kinds of content—words, deeds, entire story events—and slapping someone else's name on those things to retroactively reassign credit and reshape the way the content is perceived. Almost a cyclical contamination of the content, an attempt to confuse and misdirect by repurposing what is already known. Combine this element with the misquotes that go back to Act 1, as well as some other things like the tendency to rename pets, and it seems to me we have the basic constituents of what you might call a "theme." What is the nature of the theme? What does it mean? Do I need to tell you everything?? Maybe it's time for you to put that noggin of yours to work and come up with some of your own answers. I already know what it means. My boy Dutton over there knows what it means, Look at him. He's tickled as fuck that you can't figure it out. Laughing his ass off at your ignorance. Good, I'm glad you feel ashamed, it's character-building. What I will say is, the latter part of the quote, about solid flesh and dew, that's Shakespeare. The rest of it I just made up. You can kind of tell, right? None of the other poetic excerpts had original material woven into the misquoted text, but Jade always was the pattern breaker of the group. Customizing the false quote with specifics relevant to this moment—the forge, winter skin, bedsheets (Jade's on a bed in this Flash), irons in the fire—makes it better suited to her land intro. It's also sort of retro-fitted to the Shakespeare line, expanding on the idea that a blanket of snow is like a layer of flesh, which can melt upon the introduction of a heat source. Like the first human to appear in a frozen wasteland, or the dormant volcano she brought with her, which she has the ability to stoke. There's…a lot going on here??? The point is, then I slapped Dutton's name on it for some insane reason, and called it a day.

Another land intro, more scenery porn and haunting music. I don't usually subscribe to the idea that these books absolutely murder the souls of the animations by making them static, but these environmental pieces really do feel vacant without the music. There was some magic in getting to know these places for the first time in the Flash format, and I think this was one that really sold that feeling in particular. The "Frogs" in the LOFAF title remained garbled right up until this moment, to keep you guessing. Finally the time is right to show it. Is it a stunning reveal? Not really. But censoring it until now lets us know it's a significant bit of information, and the moment it's revealed kind of signals something about the mystery word. That signal is something like, "Hey, it's time for us to start getting serious about frogs and meditate upon their deeply significant cosmological role in the story." The Space player is all about creating space, i.e. the universe itself, which is one big frog, so she's all about frogs, breeding them and then deploying one special frog into Skaia via the Forge. We've finally crossed that threshold, and so has Jade. It's frogtime.

The "pollutant" of Jade's land is thick snow cover, brought about by something in the general department of nuclear fallout. Her bedsheet pattern has stylistically flipped to green, with the recurring sun icon conspicuously assuming this hue, in direct reference to—brace yourselves—The Green Sun. I know, the symbology is getting pretty hard to interpret, but hang in there. Much like Bec's head on top of the frog ruins reminds us of Bec Noir's sudden domination over these realms, flipping the familiar sun sigil to green also Signals that the Green Sun and its infinite energy supply are fully presiding over events now as well. It has the whole session, and this planet in particular, on lock. The green Bec-powers have always been associated with a sort of radioactive energy, so that would seem to be the impetus for this wintry nuclear fallout that's enveloped this planet, which is otherwise covered with banyan trees and frozen lakes full of frogs in icy stasis. LOFAF is the planet that goes through the most dramatic change when its ecological problems are solved. It quickly transforms into a tropical, swampy planet rife with all kinds of amphibious life ready to be harvested for cosmic breeding duties. It also seems to be the most trivial cleanup challenge, since all you have to do to get rid of the snow is light the Forge, making the planet warm enough so the snow melts. Jade does not appear to have much trouble doing exactly that later in this act. But it probably doesn't hurt that she gets some help from another Space player who already did it.

[voice-of-anarchy]

Michael Amott: “I like Depeche Mode, but I don’t want Arch Enemy to sound anything like them. I love Jimmy Page, but I don’t want to play like him. I’m happy being me”

“They said I ruined the band”: Michael Amott looks back on his days with Carcass and recounts the creation of Arch Enemy’s explosive new album, Deceivers

With his long black hair covering his eyes and much of his face, Arch Enemy founder Michael Amott sports a wide grin that belies the savagery of the band’s melodic death metal as he saws into his white blood-spattered Dean Tyrant Bloodstorm signature guitar.

Whether rooted in place next to vocalist Alissa White-Gluz, swaying along with fellow Swedish extreme metal veteran, bassist Sharlee D’Angelo, or playing back to back with guitarist Jeff Loomis, Amott unfurls rapid-fire riffs and sky-piecing solos with equal finesse, delighted to be onstage again in front of thousands of fans.

This particular gig, August 14 at the Alcatraz Festival in Kortrijk, Belgium, comes two days after Arch Enemy released their 11th studio album, Deceivers, one of the band’s strongest and most eclectic offerings – which is saying a lot.

Since he formed Arch Enemy in 1995, Amott has been the primary writer for the band’s 11 consistently high-caliber albums, and the architect behind nine other records by his and D’Angelo’s soulful stoner metal supergroup, Spiritual Beggars.

Working with such a diverse range of rock has kept Amott creatively sated and helped him to weather various storms: stressful lineup and label shifts, shifting industry trends and, most recently, the Covid pandemic that prevented Loomis, the band’s lead guitarist, from joining Arch Enemy in the studio.

“I don’t like all the complications, of course, but writing a new album is super fun for me every time, no matter what,” says Amott from his home in Sweden. “And I enjoy it so much, so there’s never any lack of interest or ideas.”

Amott’s enthusiasm is infectious, and his abundant energy – at age 53 – resounds through Deceivers, the band’s first album since 2017’s Will to Power. Deceivers capitalizes on Arch Enemy’s greatest strengths – crushing riffs, hooky guitar licks and an abundance of crafty rhythmic shifts, atmospheric arpeggios and multifaceted vocal cadences  that create a striking balance of euphoric energy and unrelenting aggression.

As soon as it was released, Deceivers was greeted with universal praise and continues to enthrall listeners, whose devotion has turned Arch Enemy into one of the most popular extreme metal bands.

Deceiver, Deceiver has been streamed almost 7.5 million times on Spotify, and two other songs from Deceivers, Handshake with Hell and House of Mirrors each have accrued more than five million streams. For Amott, the goal wasn’t to increase the band’s profile or craft Arch Enemy’s raison d’etre, but simply to use familiar elements to create a new batch of great authentic songs.

“We still have the same team and it’s the same chefs in the kitchen,” Amott says with confidence. “We all know what we can make, so we just said, ‘Okay, let’s come up with a new menu for this season.’ And then you try to use all your ingredients in the best way possible.”

In addition to talking to Guitar World about the excitement that fueled the creation of Deceivers, Amott addressed the challenges of being unable to get Loomis into the studio, Arch Enemy’s unique approach to writing and recording, and whether there’s any life left in Spiritual Beggars.

Five years have passed since you released Will to Power. Were you itching to put out a new record?

“Absolutely. This has always been my passion. It used to be a hobby and then it became a career, so I’m really lucky. But I’ve always really enjoyed making new music, whatever I’m working on.”

Were there any challenges you faced in creating the songs for Deceivers?

“The only time it’s a little bit daunting is in the very beginning when I have no ideas and it’s just like I’m staring at a blank piece of paper. But then before you know it, you have half a song together. Soon after, you have two or three songs. And then you’ve done six or seven and you think, ‘Okay, shit, we’re halfway there.’ And you keep on going.”

What effect did the pandemic have on Arch Enemy?

“We were not so badly affected. We ended our tour for Will to Power on December 15, 2019, and we always planned to take a year off and write an album, so we were not going to play any shows during that time anyway. I guess we got away easy in the beginning. Then, of course, moving into 2021, it became more of a problem for everybody.”

You and drummer Daniel Erlandsson started working on new songs in January 2020. Did you finish writing the album before Covid shut down the music business?

“We accumulated a bunch of riffs and fragments of songs, and over the beginning of the year we put most of the songs together before we got stuck in Sweden. But Sweden didn’t have a lockdown the way the rest of the world did, so me and Daniel could still meet up and work on the demos. We did that through the summer and then we got over to Denmark and recorded the drums. Then, of course, I did my guitars, and we did the bass and vocals.”

Why didn’t Jeff Loomis join you in the studio to record his parts?

“We tried to get him over. We had the correct paperwork, and everyone was tested, but Jeff was not allowed to board the plane. We booked three different flights for him, but it was at a time when everything was shut down and they wouldn’t let him fly to Denmark.”

Did you and Jeff send files back and forth or work over the internet?

“I sent him the parts where I wanted him to record a solo, and then we worked remotely on them. I prefer to record face to face, of course, because in person you can see exactly what’s happening and give immediate feedback based on what you both just experienced in the room.

“When someone’s in America and you’re in Sweden and he’s uploading solos while you’re sleeping and then overnighting them, you don’t have that kind of feedback. When we’re all together, maybe I get inspired by the last part by something he plays. And I’ll go, ‘Well, fuck it. Why don’t you do something at the end of the song as well as an outro. You can just let it fly.’

“That doesn’t work as well when you’re not both there. We tried and did our best and I think his solos on the record are great, but I missed the vibe of recording together.”

You both play solos on the record. How would you compare your styles?

“We have very different, contrasting styles, and I’ve always loved that. It’s like in Iron Maiden. I’ve always liked Adrian Smith’s style compared to Dave Murray’s. Sure, I like Dave Murray, too, but I enjoyed Adrian’s more hard rock, blues style compared to Dave’s legato stuff. I always make sure Jeff has a whammy bar to play with, so we have a lot of Floyd Rose dives.

“I don’t do that, but I like to hear it in the music. He’s in a category of his own, but it comes more from the ’80s shredders. And then, I have the wah pedal, which fits nicely with my sound because my main influences are the classic hard rock guys like Michael Schenker, Uli Jon Roth, Gary Moore and Frank Marino.”

For your rhythms, you draw from classic thrash in addition to Swedish death metal.

“I think my main influences rhythmically are thrash people like James Hetfield, Dave Mustaine and Slayer. That’s the stuff I grew up on and I love that intensity and that very speedy riffing style. But I also really like Florida death metal guys like Chuck Schuldiner [Death] and Trey Azagthoth [Morbid Angel].

“I’m also influenced by a lot of Judas Priest, Saxon and the other New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands, plus the first few Motörhead records and Accept guitarist Wolf Hoffman. I love a lot of kinds of metal, and I think it all finds its way into the sound of Arch Enemy.”

Did Jeff record any of the rhythm tracks on Deceivers or is that all you?

“I always do them all. I think it works for straight-ahead rock bands to have both guitarists play the rhythms, but this isn’t the Rolling Stones. There’s not that playful interplay between guitarists. It’s more about getting everything really tight. And since I’m writing it, I know exactly how I want it played and sometimes it’s hard to teach that to someone else so it’s as precise as it needs to be on the album.”

Do you write songs one at a time or do you work on multiple pieces simultaneously?

“I always find it really easy to start a song, and then it’s more difficult to wrap it up. You have to come up with the right middle eight, the solo sections, the outro. That’s a lot of stuff that’s got to work together. We usually go into the verse, the pre-chorus, and the chorus and that happens quickly. And we often write a bunch of those before we decide what other parts work in the song. It’s a very emotional process. It’s from-the-heart songwriting. It can’t be a methodical or mechanical thing. For me it’s got to be instinctive and mean something.”

When you hit a creative obstacle, did you ever dip into the riff vault for inspiration?

“No, it was all fresh from the ground up on this record. Daniel also writes music so there are always ideas going around. And I never get tired of playing and playing until something strikes me, so there’s never a shortage of riffs.”

What was the hardest song to play?

“In Sunset Over the Empire, the riff on the verse is a bit demanding. There’s a rapid pattern, and you need a bit of stamina to keep that going.”

Is it ever hard to replicate something onstage that you recorded?

“That happens a lot. I write this stuff and then when we’re rehearsing for the tour, it’s just, ‘Holy shit. What have I done?’ In the studio, I’m sitting down and playing, and it’s very comfortable for me. There’s no pressure. If I make a mistake, I can start again. But then you’ve got to pull all that stuff off live in one take and you’ve got to try to look cool doing it. You can’t look lost or flustered.”

There are more soaring clean vocals and beautiful melodic passages on Deceivers than there were on Will to Power. Is there ever a point where you’re resistant to toning something down too much, or do you like the way the softer parts contrast with the heavier passages?

“I’m very die-hard. I want to keep that metal edge and that heavy vibe, so we don’t experiment with electronic beats and samples and we’re not going to work with pop singers. We don’t hear new bands and get influenced by them to do something more modern.

“When I formed Arch Enemy in 1995, I knew what I wanted to do. There was always an agenda and we’re still on the same path, so the basic formula is the same. The goal now is just to write great songs within the framework of extreme metal and have a lot of melody present, especially in the guitars.”

You were in Carcass in 1993 when the band recorded Heartwork, which is widely considered a breakthrough in melodic death metal.

“I was right there when there was a movement to make death metal more melodic. I’m still proud of what we did on that album and I’m still that simple, stubborn son of a bitch that’s happy doing what I do. I like Depeche Mode, but I don’t ever want Arch Enemy to sound anything like them. I love Jimmy Page, but I don’t want to play like him. I’m pretty happy being me.”

When you worked on Heartwork, did it feel like you were breaking new ground?

“When I was writing This Mortal Coil and Heartwork with [Carcass guitarist] Bill Steer I remember thinking, ‘Shit, Carcass is such a brutal band. I wonder how people are gonna react to this.’ I had never heard any death metal that was that melodic before.

“On Heartwork, we had guitars playing all the harmonies. That had never been done before. Now, it’s commonplace but somebody had to be the first and I think, maybe, that was one of those very first times when that happened. It was pretty cool to be a part of that. Of course, a lot of people who liked early Carcass couldn’t stand that record. They said I ruined the band.”

With Arch Enemy back at full tilt, have you and Sharlee considered working on a new Spiritual Beggars album?

“No, not really. We did our last record, Sunrise to Sundown, in 2016 and right now we have nothing planned. To be honest, it just kind of ran its course. Maybe we haven’t officially split up or anything, but I haven’t really felt inspired to write anything in that style in a long time.”

It sounds like there was a point where you lost interest. Did something happen internally with the band?

“I think it has a lot more to do with Arch Enemy. If I can blame anything for the end of Spiritual Beggars, it’s probably our busy schedule. Arch Enemy has become a much bigger band than it was before. It takes a lot to keep it going and I can’t physically be doing multiple bands anymore.

“But that’s a good thing. I’m not a frustrated guitarist who dreams of doing a solo album so everybody can hear the real me. Because what I do in Arch Enemy is who I am. I get all my energies out with the band. So, this is my real journey.”