#i love doing early music w synthesizers

[ritualvirtuality]

here's ecco la primavera by francesco landini (ca 1325-1397) recorded by me on my eurorack modular--a little test of my newly tuned vco!

equipment used: - mutable instruments braids - doboz vco340 (< this is the new one) - various utility modules - arturia keystep pro - klevgrand ting and kleverb (running in ableton)

[electrificata]

Here is what i have been listening 2 lately yes im avoiding something no i dont listen to a lot of """new""" music

"This corrosion" the sisters of mercy - nothing revolutionary here, its a goth (sorry eldritch) classic with the big stupid jim steinman bombast that i love. If you want a good time search "andrew eldritch interview" on youtube, he's a huge bitch its so funny

"My lady of mercy" the last dinner party - a cute fizzy indie pop song that splits open into huge, triumphant stoner rock choruses. Its my understanding this band has weathered "industry plant" rumors despite being like, not. Anyway if industry plants made shit like this id be ok w the concept

"Kybalion" killah priest - my friend sold this wu tang associate to me by saying a) he's into the occult, b) not sure if he's actually any good, c) hes making animal noises on the new album. "Hermes trismegestis of lyrics that specialize in physics and pyramids" literally what else do i have to tell you

"Blood makes noise" suzanne vega - i love when a singer songwriter chick has one hard track on her album and this one sounds urgent and clanging and ominous im having a great time

"You aint no celebrity" jungle - everybodys losing their shit over "back on 74," and rightfully so, but this is the ass shaker on the album, its like an update on all those 2000s sean paul hits i liked before i heard at too many bar mitzvahs (it actually knicks the buzzing theremin from "get busy," which was always better than "temperature")

"Naked eye" luscious jackson - 90s crunchy touchy feely divine feminine radical vulnerability nonsense

"Come together" primal scream - these guys were kind of narrowly revolutionary in the 90s and i dont hear anybody under 40 talk abt them ever but i loooove the early 90s uk "what if classic rock was dance" shit that was happening with them and i guess kind of madchester?

"Obsession" animotion - this is the loud obnoxious goofy 80s pop hit all the other ones want to be. The boy-girl vocals are really fun BONUS the singers fell in love and are still married, go look up a recent performance of this song theyre so old and so horny for each other i love it

"The big sky" kate bush + "chains of love" erasure - two very different 80s pop classics, but i listen to them the same way, and frequently right after each other. I have a theory of art and fiction i call, for the moment, "mythological awareness." I use this to refer to work that knows what old folkloric/mythological/archetypal symbols and narratives and images it evokes. Work that knows that any love story is every love story, every mad scientist is a wizard and a shaman and a hacker as well. Kate is singing about the things we pay attention to as children and forget as adults, the sky is a marvel its easy to forget about because its there every day, but that doeant mean its any less a marvel. This might be the most straightforward u2-ish rock single bush ever put out, but it feels like shes marching at the head of an army of zeppelins and airplanes and rockets powered by the laughter of gods. Andy bell of erasure is singing about a fictionalized pre-aids era of gay utopia like its something that used to be real and can be real again if we all clap our hands. He details a world of "sisters and brothers" open to the pleasures of the world, fucking and loving and worrying about what theyll do for dinner rather than whether they can get into the hospital to watch their loved ones die. And over an unstoppable synthesizer bounce, falsetto floating over clouds of gospel-inflected backing vocals, you believe him. He could be talking about atlantis or hobbitton or erewhon or the greek age of heroes and he knows that, the halcyon past is a myth none of us can get away from, maybe we need to understand it and use it rather than disavow it. I was born years after both of these songs hit, and my parents didnt listen to either of these artists, so they come to me fresh and bright and veiled in the light obscuring mist of morning, for me and no one else (everyone else)

[twh-news]

How do you score a show that tinkers with time, features a Norse god who is neither hero nor villain, and continually confounds the viewer with new mysteries?

That was the challenge facing English composer Natalie Holt, who with her music for “Loki” becomes only the second woman to compose the dramatic score for a Marvel Cinematic Universe film or TV series (after Pinar Toprak, who scored 2019’s “Captain Marvel”).

The music of “Loki” is a bold combination of a traditional orchestra with vintage analog synthesizers, Scandinavian folk instruments and the weird, unsettling electronic sounds of the theremin, once associated with ’50s sci-fi movies.

“He’s a kind of grand, Machiavellian character,” Holt tells Variety from her London studio. “And Tom Hiddleston’s performance has a touch of Shakespeare to it. So I wanted to give him some gravitas and classical weight to his theme, but also have this space-age sound as well.”

Holt had been listening to 1950s theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore and had one day hoped to utilize it in a score. So she was surprised to learn that “Loki” director Kate Herron was also “keen to involve the theremin in the soundtrack.”

The unusual instrument was heard in such Hollywood classics as “Spellbound” and “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and, more recently, in the Apollo 11 movie “First Man.” “The character of it just seemed to suit the score,” Holt says.

In addition, Holt and Herron saw similarities between the Norse god of mischief and the character of Alex, famously played by Malcolm McDowell in the 1971 Stanley Kubrick film “A Clockwork Orange.” She says, “He does these horrific things, yet you feel this empathy for him, you can almost forgive him, and his redemption feels painful.”

Wendy Carlos’ Moog synthesizer sounds for the Kubrick classic became another key influence on the score as a result.

Holt began, last August, by creating a “suite” of themes that represented the antihero Loki, his new nemesis/partner Mobius (Owen Wilson), the mysterious Time Variance Authority (TVA) and variant Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino). This became the blueprint for much of what she would write for the series over the next six months.

The concept of time, and the possibility of altering a timeline, is central to the series premise, and so the sounds of a ticking clock (actually samples of different clocks, notes the composer) appear in the TVA theme.

Holt’s research into Norse mythology also led to the use of two Norwegian instruments, the hardanger fiddle and stringed nyckelharpa, to suggest Loki’s Asgardian home and his late mother Frigga.

The entire score was created remotely, with Holt working in her studio; other musicians contributing theremin, synthesizer, guitar and drum sounds from various locations; and the Budapest Film Orchestra supplying a traditional symphonic foundation.

“I love those really powerful forces coming together, giving something like the weight of [opera composer Richard] Wagner, but with this unusual twisty edge,” says Holt.

Classically trained as a violinist at the Royal Academy of Music and in composition at the National Film and Television School, Holt confesses that she prefers to sketch her musical ideas on paper. “I’m so old school,” she says with a laugh.

That enabled her to design a score that started with the finale and worked backwards from there. “I had the theme for the end very early on,” she says. The final two episodes, due July 7 and 14, also feature a 32-voice choir, she reveals.

Holt was a 2017 Emmy nominee for music in the PBS series ���Victoria,” and has completed work on a Netflix film, “Fever Dream,” slated for release later this year.

[lokiondisneyplus]

How do you score a show that tinkers with time, features a Norse god who is neither hero nor villain, and continually confounds the viewer with new mysteries?

That was the challenge facing English composer Natalie Holt, who with her music for “Loki” becomes only the second woman to compose the dramatic score for a Marvel Cinematic Universe film or TV series (after Pinar Toprak, who scored 2019’s “Captain Marvel”).

The music of “Loki” is a bold combination of a traditional orchestra with vintage analog synthesizers, Scandinavian folk instruments and the weird, unsettling electronic sounds of the theremin, once associated with ’50s sci-fi movies.

“He’s a kind of grand, Machiavellian character,” Holt tells Variety from her London studio. “And Tom Hiddleston’s performance has a touch of Shakespeare to it. So I wanted to give him some gravitas and classical weight to his theme, but also have this space-age sound as well.”

Holt had been listening to 1950s theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore and had one day hoped to utilize it in a score. So she was surprised to learn that “Loki” director Kate Herron was also “keen to involve the theremin in the soundtrack.”

The unusual instrument was heard in such Hollywood classics as “Spellbound” and “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and, more recently, in the Apollo 11 movie “First Man.” “The character of it just seemed to suit the score,” Holt says.

In addition, Holt and Herron saw similarities between the Norse god of mischief and the character of Alex, famously played by Malcolm McDowell in the 1971 Stanley Kubrick film “A Clockwork Orange.” She says, “He does these horrific things, yet you feel this empathy for him, you can almost forgive him, and his redemption feels painful.”

Wendy Carlos’ Moog synthesizer sounds for the Kubrick classic became another key influence on the score as a result.

Holt began, last August, by creating a “suite” of themes that represented the antihero Loki, his new nemesis/partner Mobius (Owen Wilson), the mysterious Time Variance Authority (TVA) and variant Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino). This became the blueprint for much of what she would write for the series over the next six months.

The concept of time, and the possibility of altering a timeline, is central to the series premise, and so the sounds of a ticking clock (actually samples of different clocks, notes the composer) appear in the TVA theme.

Holt’s research into Norse mythology also led to the use of two Norwegian instruments, the hardanger fiddle and stringed nyckelharpa, to suggest Loki’s Asgardian home and his late mother Frigga.

The entire score was created remotely, with Holt working in her studio; other musicians contributing theremin, synthesizer, guitar and drum sounds from various locations; and the Budapest Film Orchestra supplying a traditional symphonic foundation.

“I love those really powerful forces coming together, giving something like the weight of [opera composer Richard] Wagner, but with this unusual twisty edge,” says Holt.

Classically trained as a violinist at the Royal Academy of Music and in composition at the National Film and Television School, Holt confesses that she prefers to sketch her musical ideas on paper. “I’m so old school,” she says with a laugh.

That enabled her to design a score that started with the finale and worked backwards from there. “I had the theme for the end very early on,” she says. The final two episodes, due July 7 and 14, also feature a 32-voice choir, she reveals.

Holt was a 2017 Emmy nominee for music in the PBS series “Victoria,” and has completed work on a Netflix film, “Fever Dream,” slated for release later this year.

[evenmoregreener]

Questionnaire of Laruku from B-PASS magazine (March. 1995)

Another translation of a translation from Russian. This "interview" was translated for Russian l'arc fan-club in 2018. I haven't found any other English translations on the net, so I decided that it will be interesting for you to read something like this. All credits are down below, big thank you to the original translator, what a great woman! 

The original Russian text has some typos plus English isn't my first language, that's why text might seem a bit of strange. About special signs: (translator's note) - notes of an original translator; "*" - my own notes; (?) - neither me nor the original translator understood the context. Please, enjoy!

1. Date of birth Hyde: 13th of Friday Tetsu: 3 of October Ken: 28th of November, Sagittarius Sakura: Secret 2. Blood type Н: Color of the blood - red Т: А or 0 К: АВ S: The hot blood of a man runs in my veins 3. Place of birth Н: Jelsarem's Rod Т: Kansai К: Alaska’s native S: Kingdom of Nerima (Nerima is a ward in Tokyo, where Sakura was born - translator's note) 4. Height, weight, shoe size, visual acuity Н: “?” Т: Small, light, 24,5 – 25 cm К: 178 cm, 56 kg, shoe – 25,5 cm S: 5 feet 8 inches, 120 feet, 10 inches, about 1,0 and 1,0 5. Body size Н: As in the previous Т: I don’t know К: I prefer В 85, W 58 H 88 S: “Nice body” 6. Which musical instruments and how many years do you play? Н: I've been playing guitar for 9 years Т: 11 years on bass К: From about high school S: Secret 7. Where did you work? Н: Mister Donats Т: At the record store К: Jewelry store, tutor S: Secret 8. Skills Н: Shaolin martial arts, second dan Т: Calligraphy К: Youth baseball S: Secret 9. Hobby and special abilities (besides music) Н: Bite Т: Radio controlled models К: Tetris S: To make people do something

10. Philosophy of life Н: Do not stick sticks into the rice Т: I sleep today for tomorrow, tomorrow I sleep for today. (a phrase from manga - translator's note) К: Hurry slowly S: Live today 11. Real name Н: Jiji Т: Teppi К: Jakenosuke S: Sakurajima Samuel Tarot

12. Favorite musicians Н: Depeche mode Т: Me К: The The (an English new wave band — translator's note) S: Ishihara Yūjirō (Japanese actor, singer, film producer - translator's note) 13. Favorite celebrity Н: Takeda Tetsuya (Japanese singer and actor - translator's note) Т: Me К: Isshiki Sae (Japanese actress — translator's note) S: Saburo Ishikura (Japanese actor - translator's note) 14. Respected people Н: Yoshitada Hirai * Т: Me К: Professor Ichinose S: Takakura Ken (Japanese actor - translator's note) 15. Favorite films and films that you’ve recently watched Н: The Omen. Recently watched Jurassic Park. Т: Favorite film – The Outsider, recently watched “Cría cuervos” (Spanish film of 1976 - translator's note) К: Perfect World, cried when watched, although usually I don't cry during films S: Jingi Naki Tatakai (Battles Without Honor and Humanity) 16. Favorite books (including manga) and books that you’ve recently read Н: Stephen King. Recently read compilation that’s called Night Souls (?). Pretty interesting. Т: «Harper’s Bazaar», Vogue Italia, recently read Matsumoto Hitoshi’s “Isho”. К: «Kirin», about motorcycles, novels for men. It’s a bit of awkward, but I buy Young Rose which I love to read for a long time. S: I can't list everything. 17. Alcohol and tobacco Н: Both, about 10 years already. Alcohol – a little, tobacco – one piece. ** Т: I don’t smoke. Alcohol – yes, except sake, I drink rarely though. К: I love Kassis, always have it at home, drink 2-3 times a week. I don’t smoke right now. S: Any alcohol, I can drink a lot. Per day I smoke more than two packs (Seven Star) 18. Do you love animals? Do you have any pets? Н: I do, but I have allergy. Т: I do. I had 5 dogs and one cat, now I don’t. К: I love obedient and loving. S: More than pets I love girls. 19. The concert that left the strongest impression Н: GASTUNK in EGG PLANT (legendary club in Osaka of 80’s - translator's note) Т: Shiki-Yakou (the name of tour Dead End of 1985) К: In Aichi Kinrou Kaikan (concert hall in Nagoya — translator's note) S: Radio concert Anikies (Dankon Anikies – fictional band that was made up by ken, sakura and kyo (Die in Cries), when ken and sakura were guests at kyo’s radio program «kyo MIDNIGHT　ROCK　CITY» on 9th of December, 1994 - translator's note) 20. Three most beloved albums Н: Some Great Reward of Depeche Mode, God’s Own Medicine of The Mission, La Vie En Rose of D'erlanger*** Т: Laruku’s new album, Tierra, Dune К: Black Sabath – Heaven & Hell; Cure - Disintegration; Kisugi Takao (Japanese singer and composer - translator's note) - Best collection S: Secret 21. Recently bought CDs and your impressions of them Н: No Т: Second Coming/The Stone Roses К: Suede (Britpop band - translator's note) S: Secret 22. Concert that you visited recently Н: Haven't been on the concerts for about a year, but sometimes before Shibuya live watched Modern Choki Chokies (a Japanese pop band from the early 1990s - translator's note) Т: Echobelly (a British rock band — translator's note) К: kyo-chan’s solo S: Secret 23. TV shows that you often watch and radio shows that you often listen to Н: Doramas and MIDNIGHT ROCK CITY Т: TV – BEAT UK, I don't listen to radio К: Yoru-ni dakarete (dorama of 1994 - translator's note), though it has already ended. I don’t listen to radio, since I don’t have one S: I’m interested neither in TV nor radio 24. Favorite dish, favorite color and flower Н: Japanese cuisine. Monochrome color. Flowers that grow well in an apartment, even if they are not watered Т: Sushi, tillandsia, cacti, I like all of the colors К: Favorite dish – ice cream, caviar, sushi. Favorite flower – orchid. Favorite color – silver S: Anton rib (dish that was mentioned in Kinnikuman - translator's note), sakura, black 25. Musical instruments that you can play and ones that you want to learn to play Н: Guitar, bass, acoustic guitar, would like to learn to play flute. Т: Several guitars and basses К: Guitar, bass, synthesizer. Would like to learn how to play saxophone S: Variety which you can find in stores 26. Thing that you want the most right now Н: Hot blood of some girl. Т: Sharp Zaurus P1-5000 К: Onsen, pool S: “?” 27. How do you spend your weekend? Н: Sleep Т: Vacantly К: Go back and forth S: Stay under the waterfall 28. What do you do when you are all alone at home? Н: Sleep and writing lyrics Т: Play the guitar, listen to music К: Watch TV… S: Drumming Japanese drums 29. A dream that you have seen lately. Н: Back at night souls of dead sheep were hurrying through the window, I was worried where they are going. I told Sakura: when the sheep will come back, let’s go after them, but they didn’t come back. Т: A dream where I somehow ended up eating sushi in America. К: Relocation S: In loincloth and a bandage on the head I wandered in a stormy sea. And that was awesome! 30. Most attractive feature Н: Compact, compact and compact Т: “?” К: Ankles. Strong side: strong legs. Weak side: often catch cold. S: 31. Role in the band. Н: Probably, bringing everybody together Т: President К: Am-group (?) S: Educator of the head of singing monkeys 32. Describe in one word what Laruku is Н: Cloudy sky after heavy rain Т: Rock band К: Rainbow S: Soul of a man 33. What do you expect from the other band members? Н: I’d like everybody to stay as healthy as they are now Т: Perfection К: Rainbow! S: Soul of a man 34. Where do you want to go abroad? Н: Paris Т: To America К: Any countries where I could live. To drive back and forth S: Country on the shore of the Japanese Sea 35. Where have you been? Where have you recently traveled? Н: During the vacation in September traveled to Nagano to visit Osamu's house four years later, I would like to live calmly in the district of Karuizawa station. Т: To Okinawa. It was beautiful. К: Morocco. It was hot. S: In Morocco I saw the waves of the Atlantic Ocean 36. What do you recommend to see in your hometown? Н: On the roof of Nisshou haitsu Т: A lot of yankees. К: The view on the fast stream S: Secret 37. Enjoyable things that you like during tours (except for concerts) Н: Food Т: Except for concerts, nothing (laughs) К: You can overeat S: Meet different locals with the soul of a man 38. What do you definitely do before the concert, what do you pay special attention to? Н: I am in a deep thought Т: I listen to Metallica at full volume К: Going to a toilet S: Warm up and stretch of the muscles 39. What do you pay special attention to before the interview? Н: I find out the topic Т: So as not to be late К: I try to be serious S: Worried about whether I can express and tell about my masculine soul 40. What do you carry with you all the time? Н: Watch and two bracelets because I like them Т: Nothing К: Bracelet, necklace - I feel uncomfortable without them S: Pants 41. Memorable thing Н: The bracelet that I bought when I first came abroad. I really wanted it, but pretended that I am not interested, and bargained. But since there is no set price, I don’t know if it’s cheap or not. Т: No К: Various guitars, they are associated with different memories. S: Secret 42. Three biggest news in the last six months Н: 1. Motoka’s wedding. 2. The house in front of my window was demolished. 3. Because of the house, which has now been built, the lighting has become worse. Т: Promotion trip; creation of an official fan club; award from the director! К: Couldn't go to the sea. Swam in a pool in Morocco. Was in onsen. S: Secret 43. Plans for the end of the previous year and the beginning of the new Н: Composing music and lyrics Т: Car driving and karaoke К: Continue visiting onsen. S: Polish my masculine soul 44. Your personal plans for 1995 Н: Enjoy work Т: Become an artist № 1 К: Necessarily swim in the sea. Master the butterfly S: Gain a soul of a man 45. Music that you listened to this morning or last night Н: Laruku’s new song T: Morning call from the manager K: Maribeth S: Pink Floyd 46. Dish that turns out well when you are cooking Н: Chinese cuisine Т: I can't cook К: Ikuradon S: Sashimi 47. The image of the ideal woman Н: An optimistic and domestic woman Т: No К: Fujiko-chan S: That looks like Shiraishi Hitomi (Japanese actress - translator's note) 48. Favorite sport Н: No Т: No К: No S: Judo 49. If I were born again... Н: I would like to become an astronaut and fly into space Т: I would like to be genius К: I would like to be a dolphin S: I would like to be a woman, in order to live and not talk nevermore about the "soul of a man" 50. Goals in life Н: Enjoy the rest of the years Т: It’s a secret К: Live a long life S: Soul of a man 51. One word for readers of our magazine Н: If you're not careful, I'll bite you! Т: Nice to meet you К: Hello, this is Ken. I'll continue in answer 52 S: Life in a loincloth and headband 52. Free theme Н: Woof Т: Nowadays Laruku are fully different! К: In 1996 I want to perform a lot at concerts. That is why we definitely will meet, so look forward! S: And this year there will be Anikies!

* Marked in credits to HYDE’s “Roentgen” album as an art director and designer. ** Probably he meant one pack. *** Was covered by HYDE in D’ERLANGER TRIBUTE ALBUM ~Stairway to Heaven~.

Translation from Japanese: Liubov Chachanidze aka Diana_ Translation into English by me (The Green Explosion inc.)  

Original: https://diary.ru/~l20arc-en-ciel/p216393417_anketa-iz-zhurnala-b-pass-za-mart-1995-goda.htm

[pennylane85]

Sob Rock Album Review

Happy Album Release Day, John Mayer! Thank you for your love letter to the ‘80s, it’s a phenomenal album and I love it! 

Sob Rock Review

The album is growing on me and each time I listen to it I fall in love with it even more. I can’t wait to take it for a drive. When Mayer said “It’s time to love an album again,” I had no idea how right he’d be. Columbia has been advertising the crap out of it, which made me a little skeptical. Listening to Mayer talk about “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood” hitting him harder than he thought put a smile on my face. I loved that movie, I loved how it was Quentin Tarantino’s love letter to the late 60’s/early 70’s era, I saw it twice in theaters and it easily became one of my favorite Top 5 Movies.

“Sob Rock” sounds like an album you would have bought in the ‘80s, like if Mayer had a time machine, went back 1985 and put this record out, it would have been a hit and it sounds like that time period. While listening to it, I feel like I was a teen then which I wasn’t, I wasn’t born until 1985, but I feel like I should have been like 16, probably a little older for me to have seen The Beatles, but that’s another story/time plot in my before life that I won’t get into so for now I’m a 16 year-old kid giddy over her favorite musician’s new album.    

“The idea of Sob Rock is that it might have been something that already happened, but when you go looking it’s not. The idea of Sob Rock is to implant false memories into your brain, that’s what it did for me” said Mayer in an interview with Zane Lowe. “Can you have memories of things that never happened to you? Can you go back in time to and synthesize a piece of work that’s so true to the era that when you hear it your brain goes ‘no, no, this exists, no, no, I’m going to find it and you can’t.”

So here’s how I feel about each song, I’m not good at describing music.  

Last Train Home – This song gives me major Toto vibes and it should as Greg Phillinganes plays keys on it. Fave lyric: “I’m not a fallen angel, I just fell behind, I’m out of luck and I’m out of time.”

Shouldn’t Matter but It Does – This is my favorite song off the album and one of my favorite songs he’s written. There’s pain, there’s hurt, there’s regret. “You shoulda been sad instead of being so fucking mean.”  Using “fucking” in this line gives it the same depth of “bitch” in SDIABR. I just love it. Fave lyrics: “Now the road keeps rolling on forever, and the years keep pulling us apart, we lost something, I still wonder what it was” and “I shouldn’t leave you messages in every little song.”

New Light – The song fits the album and at first I wasn’t sure if it would b/c it was kind of out there back in 2018. It lightens the mood coming after SMBID.  

Why You No Love Me – I like the music on this one. I think it’s going to be one that has to grow on me though, lyrically. It’s also been stuck in my head all morning.

Wild Blue – Good transition from “Why You No Love Me,” dig the music, like a late 70’s vibe, loving the guitar solo. On the Clubhouse chat last night Mayer said he had the music for this song before he had the lyrics and that he called it “August 6th” b/c he didn’t know what to call it. I jumped off my couch and said “That’s my birthday.” So this song has just moved up to the top, lol. I know it has nothing to do w/my birthday, but August 6th is like a regular date even for someone w/a b-day on it so I was like “Whoa.” Fave lyrics: “I’m walking through wilderness, and living off the loneliness.” “All the tears I meant to cry, dance across the evening sky.” “I found myself when I lost you.” And you’ll never know, the unlikely beauty in letting you go.”

Shot in the Dark – This one is light and airy in a fun way, loving the keys, the beginning sounds like it’s the start of an ‘80s John Hughes film. I’m not going to comment on the cheesy video he released since it’s the next single. Fave lyrics: “And I wonder what it all means, strange conversation with you in my dreams, and I don’t know what I’m gonna do, I’ve loved seven other women and they all were you.”

Guess I Just Feel Like – Another song we’ve had since 2018 and it goes w/this album so well. I also think in this pandemic after life we’re living in this one says how we all felt in 2020 and still even feel in 2021 It means more now than it did in 2018/2019, you know?

Til the Right One Comes – The music is different on this one, this is one of the songs where I feel like I’ve heard it before, even though I haven’t and it’s driving me crazy! It gives me old school country vibes and seems like it could have been on “Paradise Valley.” Mayer said he wrote this song about his reason why he’s not married yet and had other people “I feel that too” and he said “I though it was just me.”  I relate to some of these lyrics, my Mom turns 60 next year and is wanting grandkids and thinks my brother is her only hope at that. She wants him to meet someone and to her I’m a loss cause at this point. So when someone asks why I’m single I’m just going to go tell them to listen to this song. Fave lyrics: “Some people ’round here been calling me, “Crazy”, some people say I’ll never love someone, that’s alright, give it time and maybe, I prove you wrong when the right one comes.”

Carry Me Away – I loved this song when it was released in 2019, loved the video and the carefree simple lyrics. I think in a time of the pandemic and now getting back to living this new normal life, this song is very much relatable. Mayer said he after he released this in 2019 he felt like there wasn’t enough music so he went back and tidied it up. Fave lyrics: “I want someone, to make some trouble, been way too safe, inside my bubble, take me out and keep me up all night, let me live on the wilder side of the light.”

All I Want Is To Be With You – Total Springsteen vibes and tone. Like in another life, this one belongs to Springsteen, which I think is a huge compliment to Mayer. Another song I feel like I’ve heard before even though I haven’t. Good job at creating these false memories, Mayer. Fave lyrics: “Dancing alone to déjà vu.”

[parcai]

THOUGHTS ON GOOD 4 YOU PLEASE <3

i'm kinda tired so let's make this quick 😭

serious paramore/punk rock pop/early 2000s/teenage demi lovato/avril lavigne, etc. vibes. which i love!! i mean, i grew up on that lol so her strategy to play on nostalgia (which i have talked about in the past w/ driver’s license) is genius, again.

speaking of early punk pop/rock, she took the chance w being in the spotlight and brought back real instruments which- happiness.exe. i don’t think y’all realize just how long it’s been the same 808s crap w fake instruments/synthesizers/etc, and you know what? good for HER djdjkshskd it’s about damn time.

her producer absolutely slaps. idk as much about production as i do just plain old music, but ik a little, and every single one of her songs kills with the producing job. the guitar has feedback, triple picks, distortion, etc. which all contribute to that authentic punk pop rock sound. they even did it with the mic i think, bc her voice distorts at the ends of her phrases, almost like she’s overloading the mic to really make her anger and emotion apparent. then it’s got the acoustic drum to keep the rhythm, which is super important in punk pop rock, moving. 12/10 production, as always.

lyricism. i’m not particularly for or against taylor swift lol, but her writing really is just like swift’s, and it’s really good. she subverts her audience a lot. it’s very clever. also. bold bridges. v much a staple of swift. there’s a reason t swift is at the top of pop, and i don’t doubt olivia is heading in the same direction if she keeps it up like this.

really, really good voice. i don’t think people notice it as much bc her technique is not in your face like ariana grande or whatever, but this has been a constant in all her songs. the most noteworthy technique in this song imo was her vibrato. super fast, (i think some people call it hammer vibrato? idk i’m not a singer), and it keeps that same rock drive. she also doesn’t really end her phrases. like it sounds sort of like a scream as the song progresses, which is v cool and adds to the anger.

i’m fascinated by her music videos. deja vu was so interesting, but i think good 4 u has it beat. the pop culture refs? jennifer’s body at the end? the mean cheerleader early 2000s theme? she knows her audience. (plus she’s good at acting in her music vids and she’s not afraid to make faces instead of that boring pretty aesthetic (tm) that makes me scroll in the comments instead)

i don’t think olivia’s going anywhere lmao. marketing, production, presence, connection with fans, raw talent. she deserves her current success, and i wonder if this is partially bc she’s on disney plus, that she’s allowed to really let go and curse and experiment and find her sound. i don’t remember other disney ex singers being able to do this kind of stuff when they were transitioning to music. regardless, good for her she seems humble and nice <3

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume 6, Number 13

Trees

It’s four in the afternoon and already getting dark, a foot of snow on the way. One year is nearly over — and yes, we’ve got some essays on that coming up after the holiday break — and another one is taking shape in our inboxes, mail chutes and hard drives. But for right now, let’s take another look at 2020, doubling back on the records that caught our ears without exactly fitting our schedules, the ones that almost got away. Here are the usual free improvisations and long drones, hip hop upstarts and cowpunk also-rans, a harpist, a cellist, a tabletop guitarist and at least one stellar punk record that has us hoping for sweaty live music again in 2021. Contributors this time included Bill Meyer, Bryon Hayes, Andrew Forrell, Patrick Masterson, Jennifer Kelly, Jonathan Shaw, Arthur Krumins, Ian Mathers and Ray Garraty, heck let’s call it a quorum, and see you again in the New Year.

Mac Blackout — Love Profess (Trouble In Mind)

Love Profess by Mac Blackout

Mac Blackout owes his surname to his membership in the Functional Blackouts. That’s a garage combo that was once the subject of an article about how they’d been banned from various venues on account of the destructive chaos of their live performances. But you can’t do that forever, and nowadays Mac’s a painter and solo recording artist. His latest sounds are unlikely to make anyone want to put a chair into the mirror behind the bar, but they might send you flipping through your record collection, looking for the sounds that you and he have in common. Love Profess opens with a burst of piano-pounding, sax-overblowing free jazz, but that lasts for about nine seconds before it gets swallowed by some John Bender-worthy synth throb. Give “Wandering Spheres” a couple more minutes, and Mr. Blackout goes full La Dusseldorf on us. By turns spacy, spooky and seriously compelled to vent nocturnal loneliness, this half-hour long LP is both as familiar and as unknown as a well-shuffled deck of cards.

Bill Meyer

 Ross Birdwise — Perfect Failures (Never Anything)

Perfect Failures by Ross Birdwise

Vancouver-based electronic improviser Ross Birdwise rails against spatio-temporal norms. The concepts of tempo and rhythm are malleable in his universe. Architecturally, Birdwise is Antoni Gaudí, working in fluid lines to build incomprehensible structures. With Perfect Failures, he leaps even further away from the orthogonal grid of musical construction, dissolving beats into grains of sound. The warped rhythms found on Frame Drag are divested in favor of an approach that more resembles electroacoustic composition. As a matter of fact, the title track comes on like a digital recreation of a piece of classic musique concrète. Birdwise avoids venturing into purely ambient territory yet borrows some signifiers from the genre: keyboard melodies, elongated tones, washes of sound. He overlays these seemingly innocuous elements with crashes of noise, oblique jump cuts and hyperkinetic sequences, constantly forcing us to shift focus to make sense of his soundscapes. The febrile nature of the music is what intoxicates, but the discordant melodies are what enthrall.

Bryon Hayes

 C_G — C_G (edelfaul recordings)

C_G by C_G

Belgium-based French electronic artist Eduardo Ribuyo (C_C) and Israeli drummer Ilia Gorovitz (Stumpf) join forces on C_G, a one-take collaboration of molecular machine noise and improvised percussion. It opens as a slow creep, Gorovitz playing minimal rhythms that sound like someone walking through the pre-dawn streets of an awakening city. Ribuyo accretes whirrs, cracks and electrical pops to evoke the dread of a night not over. On “Normalising Cruelty,” for instance, the discomfort builds, the drums tumble in flight, the noise intensifies. The relative conventionality of the percussion tracks seems intentional and serves to focus attention on the granular details Ribuyo conjures from his machines. Think the experiments of similarly minded Mille Plateaux and Raster Norton artists. When played through headphones at volume, its full queasy Room 101 buzz and grind squirms most effectively into the brain. Easy listening this is not, but if and when home gatherings resume this would be an ideal way to clear the house.

Andrew Forell

  Che Noir — After 12 EP (TCF Music Group)

If you’ve been paying attention to hip-hop in the last few years, Buffalo’s Griselda camp has dominated the “old heads” conversation away from whatever the kids are vibing to on TikTok. But there’s life away from an Eminem partnership, and not just in the form of Benny the Butcher: Witness Che Noir, who has been on fire throughout 2020. After starting off the year with the 38 Spesh-produced Juno and following it up with the Apollo Brown-produced As God Intended, Che’s closing things out with this self-produced seven-song EP that covers a wide range of territory without dipping into tales of street hustling, just the age old struggle to get some respect. “Hunger Games” is an early highlight that shows her chemistry with Ransom and 38 Spesh, while she completely takes over in speaking to the times on “Moment in the Sun,” which is the clear emotional highlight of the EP. Amber Simone’s pleading chorus on closer “Grace” is another stylistic turn and closes things on a high note. The last words you hear are Simone’s as she sings, “Imma go get it”; the lingering effect is that you know Che Noir is already showing you as much. Miss this one at your own risk.

Patrick Masterson 

 Cong Josie — “Leather Whip” b/w “Maxine” (It Records)

Leather Whip / Maxine (AA single) by Cong Josie

Frankie Teardrop rides again in this smoking synth punk single from Australia’s Cong Josie. “Leather Whip” is about as menacing and minimal as synthesizer music gets, braced by the hard slap of gate-reverbed drums and a claw-picked bass sound (maybe electronic?) and Cong Josie’s whispery insinuations. “Maxine” is just as stripped, with blotchy bass sound and swishing drum machine rhythms framing a haunted rockabilly love song. It’s very Suicide, but isn’t that a good thing?

Jennifer Kelly

   Divine Horsemen — Live 1985-1987 (Feeding Tube)

Divine Horsemen “Live”1985-1987 by Divine Horsemen

With Divine Horsemen, Chris D of the Flesh Eaters had a brief but memorable run in vivid, gothic, country-tinged punk. This disc commemorates two red-hot live outings from 1985 and 1987, the first at Safari Sam’s in Huntington Beach, California, the second at Boston’s The Rat. A sharply realized recording shows how this band’s sound fit into the cowpunk parameters set by X, with strident guitar clangor and hard knocking rock rhythms (the ax-heavy line-up featured in this recording included Wayne James, Marshall Rohner and Peter Andrus on guitars, the Flesh Eater’s Robyn Jameson on bass). The secret weapon, though, was the ongoing and volatile vocal duel between the front man and his then-wife Julie Christensen, a classically trained soprano with an unholy vibrato-laced belt. You can hear how she transformed his art by comparing the Flesh Eater’s version of “Poison Arrow” with the one here. It’s as aggressive as ever, musically, and Chris D. is in full florid, echoey, goth-punk mode. Christensen, however, is molten fire, letting loose cascades and flurries of wild vibrating song. There’s a scorching, stomping romp through the vamping “Hell’s Belle,” and a lurid rendering of mad, howling “Frankie Silver,” and, towards the end, a muscular take on the Stones’ “Gimme Shelter.” Christensen later made a mark as one of Leonard Cohen’s favorite backup singers, and Chris D is still knocking around with a reunited, all-star Flesh Eaters, though there’s some talk of getting this band back together as well. I’d go.

Jennifer Kelly

 Dezron Douglas & Brandee Younger — Force Majeure (International Anthem)

Force Majeure by Dezron Douglas & Brandee Younger

Harlem harpist Brandee Younger and bassist Dezron Douglas faced down New York’s early months of quarantine with a series of live broadcasts recorded in their apartment on a single microphone. This document of intimate resilience collects highlights of the Friday ritual. Younger and Douglas perform covers of spiritual Jazz, soul and pop songs as well as the delightfully titled original “Toilet Paper Romance.” The music is so close you feel the fingers on the strings and frets. Younger’s harp playing is a revelation, pianistic on John Coltrane’s “Equinox”, pointillist yet robust on his “Wise One” which they dedicate to Ahmaud Arbery. Douglas provides vigorous and sympathetic accompaniment and his solo rendition of Sting’s “Inshallah” is a tender tough exploration of his instrument. Along the way there are lovely versions of pieces by, amongst others, Alice Coltrane, Kate Bush and Clifton Davis. Douglas closes with the words “Black music cannot be recreated it can only be expressed” and Force Majeure demonstrates that the same goes for humanity and creativity.

Andrew Forell

Avalon Emerson — 040 12” (AD 93)

040 by Avalon Emerson

It’s been a big year for Avalon Emerson, who started 2020 prepping a move from Berlin to East Los Angeles and ends it back home stateside with an almost universally acclaimed DJ-Kicks entry to her credit. This three-song 12” for the label fka Whities is a nice way to close out a triumphant year, illustrating her penchant for bright melodies and percussive detail. “One Long Day Till I See You Again” is a welcoming slice of beatless percolation to close; “Winter and Water” leans heavily on rhythmic tricks in the middle. That makes A1 “Rotting Hills” the ideal lead as a balance between them. There may not be so obvious a gimmick as a Magnetic Fields cover, but that makes it no less valuable for showing what Emerson can do. Call it one more fluorescent rush.

Patrick Masterson

 End Forest — Proroctwo (Self-released)

Proroctwo (The Prophecy) by End Forest

For some of us, the fusion of folk music forms with crust and metal mostly issues in obscenities like Finntroll (yep, a Finnish band that makes folk metal songs about…trolls) or in politically toxic, Völkisch nationalist fantasias. But some bands get it right; see Botanist’s remarkable work, and see also End Forest, an act just emerging from Poland’s punk underground. Singer Paula Pieczonka employs a traditional Slavic vocal technique that roughly translates to “white singing” — but before you get creeped out by any potential fascist vibes, please know that the “whiteness” at stake in the phrase is purely an aesthetic value. And her voice is really great, open and soaring. “Proroctwo (The Prophecy)” has the sweep and drama of a lot of contemporary crust, and all of the genre’s interest in symbolic violence. The lyrics envision a future wrought and wracked by social conflict, a coming conflagration of torn bodies and of piles of dislodged teeth housed in some horrific archive of viciousness (that’s quite an image). It’s harrowing stuff, big guitar chords accented by sitar and flute. The track is available on Bandcamp, along with several inventive remixes by Polish musicians and DJs, like Tomek Jedynak and Dawid Chrapla. End Forest indicates that a full record is forthcoming sometime in spring. Looking forward to it, y’all.

Jonathan Shaw

 Lori Goldson — On a Moonlit Hill in Slovenia (Eiderdown Records)

On A Moonlit Hill In Slovenia by Lori Goldston

Goldson creates movement and tension in an arresting way with a rough-hewn approach to the cello. This could be a good entry point to her solo work, which is varied and bridges the gap between DIY attitude and elevated levels of musicianship and considered approach. The flow of her playing here evokes the almost brutal scrape of the strings, which gives a welcome texture to the melodic squiggles.

Arthur Krumins

Hot Chip — LateNightTales (LateNightTales)

The LateNightTales series of artist-curated mixes has seen a fair bit of variation over the years since Fila Brazilia first took up the torch in 2001, which makes a certain amount of sense; how we spend our late nights can differ wildly, of course. Hot Chip’s instalment in the series hits some of the expected notes (at least one cover, in this case a deeply moving one of the Velvet Underground’s “Candy Says” they’ve been playing since Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard were in high school together; a closing story track, in this case Taylor’s father reading a bit from Finnegan’s Wake) and otherwise depicts the kind of late night Dusted readers might be more familiar with than most; one where a clearly voracious and eclectic listener is keeping their own private party going just for another hour or so, but always keeping things just quiet and subtle enough to not wake up anyone upstairs. The three other, non-cover new Hot Chip tracks all make for standouts here but there’s plenty of room for accolades, whether it’s for the smoothly groovy (Pale Blue, Mike Saita, Beatrice Dillon), the more avant garde (Christina Vantzou, About Group, Nils Frahm) to just plain off-kilter pop (Fever Ray, PlanningToRock, Hot Chip themselves). The result works as both a wonderful playlist and a survey of the band’s sonic world; and it does work best when everyone else is in bed.  

Ian Mathers

Annette Krebs Jean-Luc Guionnet — Pointe Sèche (Inexhaustible Editions)

pointe sèche by Jean-Luc Guionnet, Annette Krebs

Annette Krebs and Jean-Luc Guionnet recorded the three long, numbered tracks on Pointe Sèche (translation: Dry Point) over the course of three days at St. Peter’s Parish church in Bistrica ob Sotli, Slovenia. Location matters because this music couldn’t happen just anywhere; Guionnet plays church organ. Krebs was once part of the post-Keith Rowe generation of tabletop guitarists, but since 2014 she has abandoned strings and fretboards in favor of a series of hybrid instruments called konstruktions. Konstruktion #4, which appears on this record, includes suspended pieces of metal, a handful of toy animals, a wooden sounding board, vocal and contact microphones and a couple touch screens that manage computer programs. While both musicians have extensive backgrounds in improvisation, this recording sounds more like an audio transcription of a multi-media collage. Guionnet plays his large instrument quite softly, extracting machine-like hums, brief burps and dopplering tones that flicker around the periphery of Krebs’ fragments of speech, distant clangs and unidentifiable events. The resulting sounds resolutely defy decoding, which is its own reward in a time when so much music can be reduced to easily identifiable antecedents.

Bill Meyer

 KMRU — ftpim (The Substation)

ftpim by KMRU

If you happened to catch Peel, Joseph Kamaru’s wonderful release on Editions Mego in late July, but haven’t paid attention before or since, early December’s half-hour two-tracker ftpim done for (and mastered by) Room40 leader Lawrence English is a Janus-faced example of the Nairobi-based ambient artist’s power. As Ian Forsythe put it in his BOGO review of both Peel and Opaquer, “Something that can define an effective ambient record is an ability to disintegrate the perimeter of the record itself and the outside world,” a line I think about every time I listen to KMRU now. “Figures Emerge” feels more immediately accessible to me as a relatable environment where the gentle, pulsing drone is occasionally greeted by sounds outside the studio, while “From the People I Met” is more difficult terrain, a distorted fog of post-shoegaze harmonic decay — no less interesting, but perhaps more metaphorical in its take on the outside world. (Or not, given how 2020 has gone.)

Patrick Masterson

  Paul Lovens / Florian Stoffner—Tetratne (Ezz-thetics)

Enough years separate drummer Paul Lovens and guitarist Florian Stoffner that they could be father and son, and Lovens membership in the Schlippenbach Trio, and Lovens role as drummer in the legendarily long-running Schlippenbach Trio establishes him as an august elder of free improvisation. But the partnership they exhibit on this CD is one of equals committed to making music that is of one mind. Whether matching sparse string-tugging to purposefully collapsing batterie or burrowing sprung-spring wobbles to an immense cymbal wash, the duo plays without regard for showing us one guy or the other’s stuff. The point, it seems, is to how they imagine as one, and their combined craniums generate plenty of imagination. They operate in a realm close to that occupied by Derek Bailey and John Stevens, or Roger Smith and Louis Moholo-Moholo, but their patch of turf is entirely their own.

Bill Meyer

  Mr. Teenage — Automatic Love (Self-Release)

Automatic Love by Mr. Teenage

Melbourne, Australia’s fertile garage punk scene has squeeze out another good one in Mr. Teenage, a Buzzcockian foursome prone to short, sharp riffs and sing-along choruses. A four-song EP starts with the title track, whose arch talk-sung verse erupts into rabid, rip-sawing guitar, like Devo meeting the Wipers. “Waste of Time” piles palm muted urgency with explosive release, with a good bit of the Clash in the crashing, clangor. “KIDS” struts and swaggers in a rough-edged way that’s close to the violence of early Reigning Sound or Texas’ Bad Sports. “Oh, the kids these days,” to borrow a phrase, they’re pretty good.

Jennifer Kelly

 Nekra — Royal Disruptor (La Vida Es Un Mus)

Royal Disruptor by Nekra

Remember punk shows? Remember half-lit, dusty basements and fully lit, dirty kids? Remember your sneaker soles sticking to scuffed, gummy linoleum? Remember greasy denim battle jackets and hand-drawn Sharpie slogans? Remember warm beer (watery domestic suds in cans and cups) and cold stares (angsty bravado and bad attitude for its own sake)? Remember anarchists arguing with nihilists, and riot grrrls arguing with rocker boys? Remember people laughing and people smoking and people shouting and people spitting, all without masks? Remember the anticipation that crisps the air when the amps switch on? Feedback from the cheap-ass mic stabbing your ears? Beefy dudes elbowing through the press of flesh? That volatile, stomachy mix of happiness and truculence? Those warm-up thumps of the bass drum and the initial strums of crackling guitar? Remember all that? For the time being, in the United States of Dysfunction, here’s the closest thing you’ll get: an EP of feral, fast punk songs that sound like they’re happening live, right in front of your face. Thanks, Nekra — I really needed that.

Jonathan Shaw

 Neuringer / Dulberger / Masri — Dromedaries II (Relative Pitch)

Dromedaries II by Keir Neuringer, Shayna Dulberger, Julius Masri

Yes, Dromedaries II is a sequel. It follows by three years a debut cassette which was sold in the sort of microquantities that 21st century cassettes are sold. So, it’s more likely that you have heard another of the bands that the trio’s alto saxophonist, Keir Neuringer, plays in — Irreversible Entanglements. While the two combos don’t sound that similar, they share a commitment to improvising propulsive, cohesive music that will put a boot up your butt if you get in the way. While IE focuses on supplying music that frames and exemplifies the stern proclamations of vocalist Camae Ayewa, the trio plays instrumental free jazz that balances individual expression with collective support. Neuringer, double bassist Shayna Dulberger and drummer Julius Masri play like their eyes are on the horizon, but each musician’s ears are tuned into what the other two are doing. The result is music that seems to move in concerted fashion, but usually has someone doing something that pulls against the prevailing thrust in ways that heighten tension, but never force the music off track.

Bill Meyer

Kelly Lee Owens — Inner Song (Smalltown Supersound)

One of the distinctive things about Kelly Lee Owens’ marvellous debut LP a few years ago, as noted here, is that it felt so confident and distinct that it could have easily been the work of a much more seasoned producer. That impression, of a deftly skilled hand at the controls and a keen artistic sensibility and taste shaping it all, certainly doesn’t recede on Inner Song, whether it finds Owens homaging the grandmother who provided support and inspiration (“Jeanette”), gently but firmly rejecting unhealthy relationships (the utterly gorgeous “L.I.N.E.”) or teaming up with John Cale to make some bilingual, deep Welsh ambient dub (“Corner of My Sky”). And that’s one pretty randomly chosen three-song run! Owens continues to excel at both crafting gorgeous, lived-in productions and maybe especially with her handling of voices (her own and others), and she’s comfortable enough in her own skin that if she wants to open up the album with an instrumental Radiohead version (“Arpeggi”) she will, and she’ll make it feel natural, too.  

Ian Mathers

San Kazakgascar — Emotional Crevasse (Lather Records)

Emotional Crevasse by San Kazakgascar

You won’t find San Kazakgascar on any map, but give a listen and you’ll know where this combo is coming from. Geographically, they hail from Sacramento CA, where they share personnel with Swimming In Bengal. But sonically, they are the product of a journey through music libraries that likely started out in a Savage Republic and sweated in the shadow of Sun City Girls. They likely spent time in the teetering stacks of music collections compiled in a time when the problematic aspects of the term world music were outweighed by the lure of sounds you hadn’t heard before. More important than where they’ve been, though, is the impulse to go someplace other than where they’re currently standing. To accomplish this, twangy guitars, rhythms that straighten your spine whilst swiveling your hips, bottom-dredging saxophone and a cameo appearance by a throat singer who understands that part of a shaman’s job is to scare you each take their turn stepping up and pointing your mind elsewhere. Where it goes after that is up to you.

Bill Meyer

     John Sharkey III — “I Found Everyone This Way” (12XU)

Has Sharkey mellowed? This early peek at the upcoming solo album from the Clockcleaner legend and Dark Blue proprietor suggests a pensive mood, with liquid jangle and surprisingly subdued and lyrical delivery (albeit in the man’s inimitable hollowed out and wounded snarl). But give the artist a power ballad if that’s what he wants. The song has a graceful arc to it, a doomed romanticism and not an ounce of cloying sentiment.

Jennifer Kelly

 Sky Furrows — Sky Furrows (Tape Drift Records/Skell Records/Philthy Rex Records)

Sky Furrows by Sky Furrows

Sky Furrows don’t take long to match sound and message. As Karen Schoemer drops references to SST Records and Raymond Pettibone, bassist Eric Hardiman and drummer Philip Donnelly whip up a tense groove that could easily have been played by Mike Watt and George Hurley. Mike Griffin’s spidery, treble-rich guitar picking is a little less specifically referential, but does sound like it was fed through a signal chain of gear that would have been affordable back in the first Bush administration. The next track looks back a bit further; Schoemer’s voice aside, it sounds like Joy Division might have done if Tom Herman had turned up, pushed Martin Hannet out of the control room before he could ladle on the effects and instead laid down some space blues licks. Schoemer recites rather than sings in a cadence that recalls Lee Ranaldo’s; pre-internet underground rock is in this band’s DNA. The sounds themselves are persistently cool, but one drawback of having a poet instead of a singer up front is an apparent reluctance to vary the structure; it would not have hurt to break things up with some contrasting passages here or there.

Bill Meyer

  Soft on Crime — “You’ve Already Made Up Your Mind” b/w “Rubyanne” (EatsIt)

7'' by Soft on Crime

These Dublin fuzz-punks kick up a guitar-chiming clangor in A-Side, “You’ve Already Made Up Your Mind,” which might have you reaching for your old Sugar records. Sharp but sweet, the cut is an unruly gem buoyed by melody but bristling with attitude. “Rubyanne” is slower, softer and more ingratiating, embellished with baroque pop elements like flute, saxophone and choral counterpoints. “Little 8 Track” fills out this brief disc, with crunching, buzz-hopped bass and a bit of guitar jangle under whisper-y romantic vocals. It’s a bit hard to get a handle on the band, based on such disparate samples, but intriguing enough to make you want to settle the matter whenever more material becomes available.

Jennifer Kelly

Theoxinia — See the Lapith King Burn (Bandcamp)

See the Lapith King Burn by Theoxenia

Students of Greek mythology will grasp it right away, but in the internet age, it doesn’t take anyone long to figure out that when you name your record See the Lapith King Burn, you’re casting your lot for better or worse with the party animals. The Lapiths were one side of a lineage that also involved the considerably less sober-sided Centaurs, and the two sides of the family had a bloody showdown at a wedding that has been taken to symbolize the war between civilization and wildness. Theoxinia is Dave Shuford (No-Neck Blues Band, Rhyton, D. Charles Speer & the Helix) and his small circle of stringed instruments and low-cost repeating devices. If you were to dig through his past discography, it most closely resembles the LP Arghiledes (Thrill Jockey) in its explicitly Hellenic-psychedelic vibe. But, like so many folks in recent times, Shuford has decided to bypass the expanse and aggravation of physical publication in favor of marketing this LP-sized recording on Bandcamp. If that fact really bugs you, I guess you could start a label and make the man an offer. But if fuzz-tone bouzouki, sped-up loops and unerringly traced dance steps that will look most convincing when executed with a knife between your teeth and the sheriff’s wallet poking mockingly out of the top of your breast pocket sounds like your jam, See the Lapith King Burn awaits you in the realm of digital insubstantiality.

Bill Meyer

 Trees — 50th Anniversary Edition (Earth Recordings)

Trees (50th Anniversary Edition) by Trees

This boxed set presents the two original Trees albums from the early 1970s, The Garden of Jane Delawney and On the Shore, with the addition of demos and sundry recordings from the era. Here the band took the UK folk rock sound emergent at the time and drew it out into its jammy and somewhat arena rock guitar soloing conclusion. It’s good to have all of this in one place to document the myriad ways that Trees wrapped traditional material into new forms and with a bracing, druggy feel.

Arthur Krumins 

 Uncivilized — Garden (UNCIV MUSIC)

Garden by Uncivilized

Guitarist Tom Csatari presides over NYC-based large jazz ensemble known as Uncivilized, whose fusion-y discography stretches back a couple of years and prominently incorporates a cover of the Angelo Badalamenti theme from Twin Peaks. This 27-track album was recorded live at Brooklyn’s Pioneer Works space in 2018 with a nine-piece band, who navigate drones and dances and the multi-part Meltedy Candy STOMP, a sinuous exploration of space age keyboards and surging big band instruments. Jaimie Branch, who lives next door to Csatari and was invited on a whim at the last minute, joins in for the second half including a smoldering rendition of the Lynch theme. It’s damn fine (though not coffee). Later on, Stevie Wonder gets the Uncivilized treatment in a pensive cover of “Evil,” led by warm guitar, blowsy sax and a little bit of jazz flute.

Jennifer Kelly

 Unwed Sailor — Look Alive (Old Bear Records)

Look Alive by Unwed Sailor

Johnathon Ford, who plays bass for Pedro the Lion, has been at the center of Unwed Sailor for two decades, gathering a changing cohort of players to realize his lucid instrumental compositions. Here, as on last year’s Heavy Age, Eric Swatzell adds guitars and Matthew Putnam drums to Ford’s essential bass and keyboard sounds. Yet while Heavy Age brooded, Look Alive grooves with bright clarity, riding insistent basslines through highly colored landscapes of synths and drums. The title track bounds with optimism, with big swirls of synth sound enveloping a rigorous cadence of bass and drums. “Camino Reel” is more guitar-centric but just as uplifting, opening out into squalling shoe-gaze-y walls of amplified sound. Ford, who usually leans on post-punk influences like New Order and the Cure, indulges an affinity for dance, here, especially audible on the trance-y “Gone Jungle” remix by GJ.

Jennifer Kelly

 Your Old Droog — Dump YOD Krutoy Edition (Self-released)

Dump YOD: Krutoy Edition by YOD

American rapper Your Old Droog has been releasing solid music for years. He never had ups for the same reason he never had downs: he never left his comfort zone. Dump YOD Krutoy Edition (where “krutoy” stands for “rude boy” or “badass”) may be his breakthrough album. He always kept his Soviet origins in check, and here for the first time he draws his imagery from three different sources: New York urban present, Ukrainian folk and Soviet and post-Soviet past (even Boris Yeltsin makes an appearance). In this boiling pot, a new Your Old Droog is rising, among balalaikas and mean streets of NYC, matryoshkas and producers with boring beats, babushkas and graffiti writers.

Ray Garraty

[rorybergstrom]

𝑫𝑰𝑫 𝑺𝑶𝑴𝑬𝑩𝑶𝑫𝒀 𝑶𝑹𝑫𝑬𝑹 𝑨 𝑩𝑰𝑺𝑬𝑿𝑼𝑨𝑳 𝑹𝑶𝑳𝑳𝑬𝑹𝑺𝑲𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑺𝒀𝑵𝑻𝑯 𝑳𝑶𝑹𝑫  ???

            hello, it’s nora again…. hitting u with another child. a south london-born softboi who deserves tenderness. has a burner phone and doesn’t use social media. does techno dj sets. plays the synth loudly through the night if u live in gorham his room always sounds like a space ship just landed. deals weed around campus on his rollerskates. hates that he can’t get new light up wheels because ana coto made rollerskating cool again. as is tradition, here’s the pinterest board. this intro is recycled?? so if theres mistakes, sue me??? and be sure to like and subscribe for more unboxing content x

application.

『 FIONN WHITEHEAD ❙ DEMI-MALE』 ⟿ looks like RORY BERGSTRÖM is here for HIS JUNIOR year as a MUSIC TECHNOLOGY student. HE is 23 years old & known to be ECCENTRIC, FANATICAL, NITPICKY & DOGMATIC. They’re living in GORHAM, so if you’re there, watch out for them. ⬳ ooc name. age. tz. pronouns. 

aesthetics.

bed hair from a permanent state of slumber, calloused fingertips from strumming bass into the early hours and djing into the blacklit night, self-help books thumbed once and thrown beneath your bed, battered copies of choose your own adventure books, spliffs passed half-arsed across rooftops while light pollution obscures low-hanging stars, marxist literature in stacks against your bedroom walls, a burner phone twice-shattered and a stash of replacement sim cards.

tw ocd, anxiety, drugs

half-swedish, half-british. the swedish is on his mother’s side. he’s bilingual but thinks in english. only really speaks swedish around his mother. only child, and kinda put a lot of pressure on himself to be the perfect kid when he was young, but his parents are honestly, quite decent? and just want him to have a nice life, they don’t care if he isn’t successful or rich or anything, they’re honestly rather solid. (wow imagine having nice parents, a first for all my characters, im literally this meme)

grew up in peckham, a suburb of london. growing up, his mum was a model / actress / waitress who later retrained as a speech therapist and his dad worked in her majesty’s service at buckingham palace. his dad wasn’t allowed to tell his family what his job entailed but rory suspects it’s probably very boring and just involves a lot of…. logistics n security.

was bullied a lot at school. [cole sprouse voice] he didn’t fit in and he didn’t want to fit in. unironically wore a trenchcoat to school every day of his life. spent most of his lunchtimes in the library because it was his safe space. as a result he knows…. loads of useless information because 30% of his school years were spent reading anthologies on space and the vikings etc. would be good on a game show. obsessively recorded every episode of university challenge as a child.

middle-class and lowkey quite wealthy but rarely talks about money, one of those well-off people who still wears really old shitty shoes and only spends money if they absolutely have to

virgin who can’t drive

into star wars, not into the big bang theory. feminist. can’t watch horror movies

favourite film is where the wild things are. also loves the florida project. thinks kids are the sweetest thing and can’t wait to be a dad to some. right now is dad to one cat, whose name changes on a daily basis (identity is constantly shifting, duuuuude), but they were originally named ‘wheezer’

rory has been musical for as long as they can remember. first picked up guitar because he thought it would make this girl esther who he was in love with like him, but he just ended up falling in love with music instead.

formulated several different bands as a kid but ultimately had to give it up cos he was quite controlling and got fixated on making a certain sound so it wasn’t really fun for the others. got into electronic music because it was something he could do basically on his own and keep tweaking until he got it perfect

always drumming their fingers or strumming invisible guitar strings. tends to avoid parties bc he has quite has specific tastes when it comes to music and doesn’t like listening to r&b for eight hours while people throw up into plastic cups.

a techno connoisseur. has been making electronic music since he was about twelve.

after his parents divorce, when he was fourteen, rory & his mother moved to run-down suburban neighbourhood, pittsfield, massachussets.

big into photography. he mostly uses a canon 35mm camera, but occasionally uses disposable ones when he wants that more rustic feel.

moving to the states, their photography became more focused on suburban neighborhoods and are often quite dark and cinematic (think gregory crewsden). here are some shots of pittsfield i really like which rory has on his wall [1] [2] [3]

falls in love 12 times a day. never had a girlfriend or boyfriend. gets sweaty when someone cute looks at him. flirting?? what?? would prefer to idealise them from a distance

gender??? hm. doesn’t really know where he fits yet, sometimes he feels like a guy and sometimes they dont feel like anything at all. isn’t really bothered, cos they think it’s a social construct anyway. uses he/they pronouns interchangeably, but feels like ‘he’ is more fitting. won’t necessarily pull anyone up on it cos he knows having an identity that’s constantly…. in flux.. can be annoying for others … and doesn’t want to be a burden even tho it isn’t at all?? rory internalises guilt

everything is socially constructed. mirrors let you move through time. the whole thing’s a metaphor. he thinks he’s got free will but really he’s trapped in a maze. in a system. all he can do is consume. people think it’s a happy game. it’s not a happy game — it’s a fucking nightmare world, and the worst thing is, it’s real and we live in it

has ocd. tries to let it affect his life as little as possible, but obviously it’s incredibly hard to control a compulsive disorder. was teased for it at school when other kids started to notice. he was obsessed with the number five, would wash his hands five times, count stairs i groups of five, he could only use the corridors in one direction and always had to keep his hands busy. it manifests itself in hyper-fixations (trains when he was a child – specifically steam engines – then later he became obsessed with space and the patterns of constellations, and now he’s obsessed with synthesizers) and repetitive behaviours like counting stairs. doesn’t really affect his social life at all, he can jst get a bit locked-on n hyper-focused sometimes.

has insomnia. barely ever sleeps. finds it hard to switch off from work / writing / gaming / whatever’s preoccupying him in that moment. he’s always awake at 5am and quite often sleeps in through classes but still gets really good grades because he’s very good at his course. rarely attends classes. prefers to work independently. doesn’t really trust his tutors are intelligent enough to be teaching him, and is particularly suspicious of the lockwood tutors. a music snob tbh

secretly a small-scale drug dealer, only does weed n some party pills. rollerskates around campus dealing cos they dnt have a car

likes: techno, the webpage cats on synthesizers in space, allen ginsberg, vintage gramophones,  floating points, lcd soundsystem, marijuana, soft dogs that let you pet them, late-night strolls talking about the universe, independent films, cigarettes, herbal tea, gallows humour, long showers, brown eyes, tchaikovsky, dr. seuss, constellations, photography, late night jazz, vintage game boys and girls who could rip his still-beating heart out of his chest and use it as an ashtray. dislikes:  weddings, funerals, formality, button-up shirts that people actually button-up, bananas, hot coffee, social media, people who watch and play sports, rap music – especially of the misogynistic variety, indie wankers in wire-framed glasses that play ed sheeran songs at open mic nights.

plot ! with ! me ! i’d say all the usual “exes fwb hookups spiel” but rory… is very tender and tame… i feel like a deer in the headlights of love……. so give me

study buddies,

people who are also into techno and are music snobs about it,

people who love all kinds of music,

people who are in bands that maybe rory’s recorded and produced stuff for,

people he actually jams with (he plays bass and synth),

unrequited crushes!!

someone they met at a knitting club in freshman year and have remained friends with despite no longer going to it

people rory knows from open mic nights and gigs

library girlfriends / boyfriends that he stares at longingly while paging through leatherbound volumes

gamers !!! social recluses !!! hermits !!

people he deals weed to on his rollerskates (why r all my characters obsessed with rollerskates)

skaters. rory is really shit at skateboarding. like really shit. help the smol

hm now that rory has !Evolved! ig we can do hook up plots if u want but he’s not tht good at divorcing sex from emotion?? like he  hooked up w teddy once n felt hopelessly inlove so..... if u want soft plots b prepared for crippling sadness.......

stay groovy XD XD

[starlightinkwell]

Gene and his younger brother, Fred, had an act they performed together in the 1930s. And although Gene had studied classical ballet and just about every other form of dance, it was Fred who taught his older brother how to tap dance.

Early int their lives the Five Kellys was an act their mother Harriet had promoted when her children were young. Harriet was determined her children were going to grow up “lace curtain Irish” by having them study the arts. No working class low-brow education for her kids. Dance and music lessons were high on Harriet’s priority list. It was also a way for the struggling family to bring in some money if her children could perform in the vaudeville shows that were so popular during the early years of the 20th century. One time when the Seven Little Foys, one of the biggest vaudeville acts of the time, could not make an engagement for which they were booked in Pittsburgh, Harriet saw to it that her Five Kellys stepped in so the show could go on.

Fred loved performing and it was always assumed that he would be the one who would go on become the big star of the family.

The oldest son and second child, James, hated performing, and as soon as he felt old enough to get out from under the expectation, James did.

Louise eventually took over running the Gene Kelly School of Dance. And the eldest child, Harriet, Jr. called Jay, for short, became a schoolteacher.

Gene liked performing okay, but his real love was choreography. He found it humiliating performing in many of the terrible venues he and Fred did when audiences would throw money up on the stage. He and Fred called such places “Cloops”, a combination of chicken coop and club for many of the places they played were little more than chicken coops.

“The other thing I had to put up with playing the ‘cloops’ was verbal insults. It’s bad enough when people look away, but when they shout out names at you, that’s something else.You can do two things: shout back at them, which is undignified, and not particularly satisfying, or you can belt them, which isn’t very dignified either, but very satisfying. Sometimes I belted them. One night a guy called me a fag, and I jumped off the stage and hit him. But I had to make a run for it because the owner of the place and his brother took after me with a couple of baseball bats.” [Clive Hirschhorn, Gene Kelly, 1974, St. Martin’s Press, pg 43.]

Gene and Fred worked well together. But their lives took different directions when Gene decided to try his luck in New York. The first time around he wasn’t successful, but the second time around led him to eventual international stardom.

When Fred was on leave from the US Army during WWII, he made a junket to Hollywood. He was working on a film with Irving Berlin’s music, This Is The Army. Gene was working on the idea of the Alter Ego dance from Cover Girl at RKO .

Fred and Gene had been working on a shadow dance for their stage act at one time, so Gene enlisted Fred’s help in working out some of the kinks in the Alter Ego dance. For decades Fred did not receive any credit for his work on this, but new editions of Cover Girl have mentioned Fred’s contribution. Stanley Donen has, over the decades, taken a lot of the credit for that dance, but it was actually Gene and Fred’s work. What Stanley was a genius at was the work behind the camera. But Gene also did a lot of that work too, working with the camera crew to make the camera, essentially, another “dancer”. The Alter Ego dance was a major breakthrough in getting Gene Kelly’s vision of the three dimensional art form of dance onto the two dimensional art form of motion picture film.

Gene and Fred danced together on film only once when they danced the comic Swimmin’ with Woman in the movie Deep In My Heart.

Fred literally married the girl next door when he came home on leave and found that little Dorothy W. who lived in the house next to theirs had grown up to be a lovely young woman. The song, “The Boy Next Door” that Judy Garland sings in the film Meet Me In St. Louis, is an almost verbatim recounting of Fred and Dotty’s courtship. The addresses of the houses were changed slightly because “they sang better”.

Fred and Dotty’s life was laced with tragedy when their first born, Barry, contracted an infection and ran a high fever when he was just 14 mos old that lasted many days. The fever caused permanent brain damage. They had two more children, Michael, and Colleen, but Fred often had to be away during the time their children were growing up to earn money for Barry’s care.

Fred went to places like Brazil to run stage productions and teach dance. He also directed early television shows, and it was Fred Kelly who is credited with inventing Cue Cards. He told the TV crews to write out the lines for the performers and moderators of the TV shows he was directing so they could read their lines. Most early TV was done live, so there was no time for memorization.

There is no explaining Destiny. It was James and Harriet Kelly’s third child, Eugene, who was the visionary artist who simply had to keep pushing the envelope when it came to Dance. It was likely painful in some unspoken way for Fred to watch his older brother become the international star because it was Fred everyone had expected would be the big show biz success. Fred loved performing. But Gene loved creating what was performed. It was Gene who was compelled to find a way to make dance on film the dynamic thing it became under his direction, change the way audiences perceived male dancers, and to synthesize and create, out of all the varied forms of dance he had studied, what he envisioned: American Dance. 

[gotatext]

hello, it’s swamp witch nora again…. i couldn’t stay away.... hitting u with a tiny baby boy who is also terrible (sometimes).  musical softboi who loves karl marx and hates children dying in cobalt mines to make smart phones. as is tradition, here’s the pinterest board, have a peruse. fyi sorry for those of u who have read this intro a thousand times i literally.... can never b bothred to change it n i think thats really sexy of me x

CHARLIE PLUMMER / DEMI-BOY — don’t look now, but is that rory bergström  i see? the 23 year old music student is in their junior year and he is a rochester alum. i hear they can be whimsical, impassioned, self-indulgent and nitpicky, so maybe keep that in mind. i bet he / they will make a name for themselves living in griffin street. ( nora. 24. gmt. she/her. )

aesthetics.

bed hair from a permanent state of slumber, calloused fingertips from strumming bass into the early hours and djing into the blacklit night, self-help books thumbed once and thrown beneath your bed, battered copies of choose your own adventure books, spliffs passed half-arsed across rooftops while light pollution obscures low-hanging stars, marxist literature in stacks against your bedroom walls, a burner phone twice-shattered and a stash of replacement sim cards.

tw ocd, anxiety, drugs

half-swedish, half-british. the swedish is on his mother’s side. he’s bilingual but thinks in english. only really speaks swedish around his mother. only child, and kinda put a lot of pressure on himself to be the perfect kid when he was young, but his parents are honestly, quite decent? and just want him to have a nice life, they don’t care if he isn’t successful or rich or anything, they’re honestly rather solid. (wow imagine having nice parents, a first for all my characters, im literally this meme)

grew up in peckham, a suburb of london. growing up, his mum was a model / actress / waitress who later retrained as a speech therapist and his dad worked in her majesty’s service at buckingham palace. his dad wasn’t allowed to tell his family what his job entailed but rory suspects it’s probably very boring and just involves a lot of…. logistics n security.

was bullied a lot at school. [cole sprouse voice] he didn’t fit in and he didn’t want to fit in. unironically wore a trenchcoat to school every day of his life. spent most of his lunchtimes in the library because it was his safe space. as a result he knows…. loads of useless information because 30% of his school years were spent reading anthologies on space and the vikings etc. would be good on a game show. obsessively recorded every episode of university challenge as a child.

middle-class and lowkey quite wealthy but rarely talks about money, one of those well-off people who still wears really old shitty shoes and only spends money if they absolutely have to

virgin who can’t drive

into star wars, not into the big bang theory. feminist. can’t watch horror movies

favourite film is where the wild things are. also loves the florida project. thinks kids are the sweetest thing and can’t wait to be a dad to some

has been musical for as long as they can remember. first picked up guitar because he thought it would make this girl esther who he was in love with like him, but he just ended up falling in love with music instead.

formulated several different bands as a kid but ultimately had to give it up cos he was quite controlling and got fixated on making a certain sound so it wasn’t really fun for the others. got into electronic music because it was something he could do basically on his own and keep tweaking until he got it perfect

always drumming their fingers or strumming invisible guitar strings. tends to avoid parties bc he has quite has specific tastes when it comes to music and doesn’t like listening to r&b for eight hours while people throw up into plastic cups.

a techno connoisseur. has been making electronic music since he was about twelve.

after his parents divorce, when he was fourteen, rory & his mother moved to run-down suburban neighbourhood, pittsfield, massachussets.

big into photography. he mostly uses a canon 35mm camera, but occasionally uses disposable ones when he wants that more rustic feel.

moving to the states, their photography became more focused on suburban neighborhoods and are often quite dark and cinematic (think gregory crewsden). here are some shots of pittsfield i really like which rory has on his wall [1] [2] [3]

falls in love 12 times a day. never had a girlfriend or boyfriend. gets sweaty when someone cute looks at him. flirting?? what?? would prefer to idealise them from a distance

gender??? hm. rory don’t really know where they fit yet, sometimes he feels like a guy and sometimes they dont feel like anything at all!! slippin out of his physical form into the spirit realm! isn’t really bothered, cos they think it’s a social construct anyway. uses he/they pronouns interchangeably, but currently feels like ‘he’ is more fitting. won’t necessarily pull anyone up on it cos he knows having an identity that’s constantly…. in flux.. can be annoying for others … and doesn’t want to be a burden even tho it isn’t at all?? rory internalises guilt

everything is socially constructed. mirrors let you move through time. the whole thing’s a metaphor. he thinks he’s got free will but really he’s trapped in a maze. in a system. all he can do is consume. people think it’s a happy game. it’s not a happy game — it’s a fucking nightmare world, and the worst thing is, it’s real and we live in it!!!!

has ocd. tries to let it affect his life as little as possible, but obviously it’s incredibly hard to control a compulsive disorder. was teased for it at school when other kids started to notice. he was obsessed with the number five, would wash his hands five times, count stairs i groups of five, he could only use the corridors in one direction and always had to keep his hands busy. it manifests itself in hyper-fixations (trains when he was a child – specifically steam engines – then later he became obsessed with space and the patterns of constellations, and now he’s obsessed with synthesizers) and repetitive behaviours like counting stairs. doesn’t really affect his social life at all, he can jst get a bit locked-on n hyper-focused sometimes.

has insomnia. barely ever sleeps. finds it hard to switch off from work / writing / gaming / whatever’s preoccupying him in that moment. he’s always awake at 5am and quite often sleeps in through classes but still gets really good grades because he’s very good at his course. rarely attends classes. prefers to work independently. doesn’t really trust his tutors are intelligent enough to be teaching him, and is particularly suspicious of the lockwood tutors. a music snob tbh

occasionally deals weed n pills when strapped for cash, but only 2 ppl he knows, and on a very small scale grass-roots level!! (so its ok???) rollerskates around campus dealing cos they dnt have a car. we love to see it

aesthetics: bed hair from a permanent state of slumber, calloused fingertips from strumming bass into the early hours and drumming into blacklit night, self-help books thumbed once and thrown beneath your bed, watching vine compilations until your eyes turn square, battered copies of choose your own adventure books, spliffs passed half-arsed across rooftops while light pollution obscures low-hanging stars

likes: techno, the webpage cats on synthesizers in space, allen ginsberg, vintage gramophones,  floating points, lcd soundsystem, marijuana, soft dogs that let you pet them, late-night strolls talking about the universe, independent films, cigarettes, herbal tea, gallows humour, long showers, brown eyes, tchaikovsky, dr. seuss, constellations, photography, late night jazz, vintage game boys and girls who could rip his still-beating heart out of his chest and use it as an ashtray. dislikes:  weddings, funerals, formality, button-up shirts that people actually button-up, bananas, hot coffee, social media, people who watch and play sports, rap music – especially of the misogynistic variety, indie wankers in wire-framed glasses that play ed sheeran songs at open mic nights.

plot ! with ! me ! i’d say all the usual “exes fwb hookups spiel” but rory… has never hooked up with anyone… i feel like a deer in the headlights of love……. so give me

study buddies,

people who are also into techno and are music snobs about it,

people who love all kinds of music,

people who are in bands that maybe rory’s recorded and produced stuff for,

people he actually jams with (he plays bass and synth),

unrequited crushes!!

actually i think rory had sex w delilah in the last version of this rp so if u want a hook up plot its possible just unlikely. they’d hav 2 be the driving force i reckon cos rory doesn’t really act on impulses like desire or anythin.... jst bottles that shit up !!! but yea we could do a spicy hook up plot maybs, depending on the person

someone they met at a knitting club in freshman year and have remained friends with despite no longer going to it

people rory knows from open mic nights and gigs

library girlfriends / boyfriends that he stares at longingly while paging through leatherbound volumes

gamers !!! social recluses !!! hermits !!

people he deals weed to on his rollerskates (why r all my characters obsessed with rollerskates)

skaters. rory is really shit at skateboarding. like really shit. help the smol

[darlingnisi]

Celebration 2019 VIP Day 4

Opening Session

They had outfits set up on the a stage in the soundstage. This day was particularly interesting to me as we got to see these up close

JD Steele sing along was Boys and Girls

Screening August 14, 2007 London

1999

Musicology

Cream

U Got the Look Shh

Take Me With U

Guitar

Somewhere Here on Earth

7

Forever in My Life

Revolution Panel

Moderator : Duane Tuhdal

Did P talk about Paisley Park when you guys were together?

“Constant desire by him to find a place where everyone could go”

(Then it just wandered a bit for them sharing stories”

“If you ever said no to him he’d be like ‘next’”

If you look at your watch around him he’d be like “You got somewhere better to go?” - Wendy

I tried to have a social life. He flew me to LA and picked me up from the airport. He said “Mark I know you have a band”. ( Mazarati) Mark would go to their shows in a mask to not be discovered.

Prince didn’t have to compete with anyone...he lived and breathed music and sound it was natural

“It’s all he lived to do” - Mark

He could play what he heard all in one take...would start with the drum track first.

Inspiration Behind All My Dreams : W&L took Prince to a Kid Creole and the Coconuts show. August came out with a megaphone...All My Dreams has that same effect

“Don’t take my personal stuff and make it yours...he had to dominate whatever it was...” Lisa on Prince’s inspiration

You all were around for about 3 years...do you consider 1999 a revolution album?

“1999 not really” - Wendy but she does consider SOTT a rev album

P workshopped Time/Vanity 6/Family songs with The Revolution “We were his muse”

Brown Mark is the pancake maker

Bruno’s Barbecue and The Loon were some of Prince’s favorite places 

Funny to go out to eat. P would order the entire menu and nibble a little of each.

Doritos were def a favorite. “you’d walk in the room and it would smell like toes”

What was it like when the phone rang at 3am?

“Don’t answer!!!” - Wendy

He had something hot “I’m cutting and you’re missing out! *click”

Hucky Austin sent to retrieve Brownmark “Mark You Know good and well I can’t go back without you...”

We hardly got paid anything, but we were there.

Bobby talked about being at a party for his wedding and at 10:30pm Prince called a rehearsal...the origin of Empty Room.

“His emotions turned into music”

BrownMark did a lot of the choreography for the Revolution in Purple Rain.

“We understood his emotions..we all went through it together as a brand new thing...” - On the Purple Rain hysteria

“He had amazing bands that played rings around my abilities, but we were greater as a group than as individuals”

“Matt gave him the most extraordinary hands you can ever have on a synthesizer” - Wendy

“The stages of grief don’t count when you lose someone like Prince.” 

 That’s for people you know who die of natural causes.

“I cannot reconcile that that man is no longer on this planet anymore..we’re all trying to get some sense of who WE were when he was on the planet. That’s why we’re all here in this room today.” - Wendy

“When he died, he gave us each other” - Wendy

Funk Soldiers Panel Moderated by Andrea Swensson Kirk Johnson Chance Howard Renato Neto Sylvester Uzoma Onyejiaka II How did the Funk Soldiers shows go for you?

Kirk

“You’ve been through the Prince school. You think about how people would be affected. If it’s a Prince celebration it should be him singing his songs. Not a hologram. He told me to make sure they never did a hologram. You have to think about camera angles and how he’d want to be seen...I don’t want to take the credit for it Prince already did the work”

“He mentioned that the shows are the same because it’s like how a tour would be done...you do the same show.” - On why the show was the same as last year though there was more footage of Prince this year.

Chance

Last year he got sick and went to the hospital with gall bladder problems so he was excited to be there this year.

“To have him on that screen looking at us, it was surreal” (They had a screen down below that they could look at).

Renato

Came in a few days before, just a few rehearsals and was ready to go

He thanked Kirk for organizing everyone

Sly

He found it a little sad, memories, remembering what it was like to be on stage with this man

Kirk

Couldn’t use NPG because it’s licensed. Wanted a combo band including members of The Revolution, The Time, and different iterations of NPG, but not everyone was ready or didn’t understand what the band was.

What did you take away from working with Prince

Kirk

Prince advice always “play it how I want you to play” it’s that way for a reason.

Chance

Prince talks to you to educate you and he talks to you to bring things out of you. 

John Blackwell, Renato, Rhonda were jamming and Prince invited Chance in the early days. Chance tried to show off. P looked at him like “really”? During a break P walked Chance up the steps in the NPG music room to a room that was a barbershop at the time and they talk... P : Do you have any children? C : Yes  P : How would you feel if I slapped your sun upside the head? C : Before or after I put you in the hospital P : Laughs, Seriously. You’re slapping my children upside the head right now. These songs are my children... Renato Never seen anyone love music like Prince. He was 33/34 when he started and he respected how much time Prince put in to be the best

Sly

12 hours a day 6 days a week for rehearsals

Made him conscious of how he appeared in public. “I can’t wear sweatpants at the store?” No you’re in my band.

He took demanding more to heart.

Kirk

P told him he used to sleep with his guitar. Wake up playing and playing himself to sleep.

Renato

P allowed musicians to shine...one time P left the stage for 5-10 minutes while Renato was soloing. He was looking around like “when are you coming back” and P was offstage laughing at him

Kirk

5 fingers in the air means $500 fine.

“He wanted to get away from playing the hits...he wanted the audience to allow him to grow”

Emancipation Sessions (There’s a screen of Emancipation liner notes on the screen behind them with a kid version of Kirk)

P’d just fired everyone. 

They spent a year recording almost 100 songs

Little boy Kirk was photoshopped to be in front of a soundboard, he was originally sitting at a kitchen table

Kirk’s brother presided over Prince and Mayte’s wedding

He was also the best man.

Chance

Played on Call My Name and was just told a few minutes before the panel that the song won an Grammy.

Did you realize the whole world was hearing you play?

When performing with him you’re so in the moment of wanting to be great and not wanting to mess up. You don’t think about it everything you’ve done until way after the fact. - Kirk

Superbowl was 10 days of rehearsals - Renato

Sly  Clip of Big City

When they got there they got to work transcribing horn parts for the music, they then rehearsed as a group, and then with the band

Prince would re-arrange them by picking different bars from different songs and telling them to combine them.

The Revolution Concert

America

Computer Blue

Mountains

Erotic City

Let’s Work (With Stokley)

Let’s Go Crazy

When Doves Cry

Raspberry Beret

1999

Sometimes it Snows in April

Purple Rain (Omar Nelson came out and kissed Wendy like Prince does in the movie)

I Would Die 4 U

Baby I’m a Star

[intoxicatingimmediacy]

Big Ups: Clipping Pick Their Bandcamp Favorites

“Right from the beginning, we always wanted to make a horror-themed record,” says Jonathan Snipes, a producer in the Los Angeles-based progressive noise-rap trio Clipping, alongside MC Daveed Diggs and fellow beatsmith Bill Hutson. The group’s third project for Sub Pop, There Existed an Addiction to Blood, updates the cult horrorcore hip-hop trend of the mid ‘90s in a thrilling and forward-thinking fashion. It’s a striking and deeply atmospheric record, powered by synth-based sonic experimentalism and grisly concept-focused writing that exudes a sinister and shadowy feel.

There Existed an Addiction to Blood adds to a stellar canon of work that kicked off with Clipping’s introductory midcity mixtape in 2013. “That one was really us learning how to be Clipping, and what we sounded like,” says Hutson, who helped mastermind the project’s metallic, glitch-afflicted beats. On the following year’s debut album, CLPPNG, the crew moved further towards what Hutson calls “dark and noise-tinged instrumentals.” The omission of the letter I in the album title represents the way Diggs avoids rhyming in the first person. Hutson maintains that if much of hip-hop involves MCs rapping about their own lives, Clipping’s music strives to be “a novel, not a memoir.” Case in point: 2016’s Splendor & Misery took shape as an Afrofuturist sci-fi adventure that explored an artificial intelligence world; 2017’s single “The Deep” inspired the author Rivers Solomon to expand the song’s environment into a novella of the same name.

Basing There Existed an Addiction to Blood around horrorcore and gory movies is a natural representation of Clipping’s influences and the way the trio approach writing songs. “Horrorcore is this forgotten and maligned subgenre of hip-hop that we’ve always had a tremendous amount of affection for,” says Hutson. “So much of Clipping is about referencing styles of hip-hop—almost all our songs were conceived as our take on a certain type of rap song—so this horror album was always going to happen.” Snipes adds, “We think of each of these songs as self-contained movie scores of vignettes in a specific genre.”

The original horrorcore movement that inspired Clipping’s latest album was spearheaded by RZA and Prince Paul’s Gravediggaz project, plus artists including Houston’s Ganksta N-I-P, Detroit’s Esham, and New York City’s Flatlinerz. ‘90s horrorcore lyrics were packed with macabre imagery and references to psychological disorders, satanism, and cannibalism; the gruesome verses were often relayed over willfully dank and grimey production. Clipping’s resurrection of the subgenre taps into the same lyrical themes—but this time Digg’s intense verses are backed by marauding waves of monstrous synths, sharp abrasive stabs of discordant noise, and snatches of field recordings that bring a chilling realism to There Existed an Addiction to Blood.

Key song “Run For Your Life” plays out like a frantic short movie. It co-stars Memphis MC La Chat, who used to roll with Three 6 Mafia and the Hypnotize Minds roster back in the ‘90s. “She’s hunting down Daveed and approaching and moving behind him in a car,” says Snipes. “Then in the third verse, we’re fully in the car with her.” To drum up the effect of the protagonist being chased to a bloody demise, Digg’s lyrics are surrounded by constantly shifting ambient noise: The sound of passing cars blasting music and dogs barking literally pulls the listener into the chilling scenario.

The same blend of adventurous production techniques and concept-heavy writing present on Clipping’s latest album also runs through Hutson and Snipes’s Bandcamp recommendations. Blasts of abstract hip-hop lyricism mix with innovative thematic albums and avant-garde film scores, adding up to a smart representation of Clipping’s advanced-level musical DNA.

Bill Hutson

Dax Pierson - Live In Oakland

I first saw Dax Pierson play around 2003, when he was in a group called Subtle that was an Anticon side project with Dose One and Jel. Dax was also the secret weapon of the Themselves project, which was also Dose and Jel, and on tour he’d play keys and finger drum on MPCs. Dax is this compelling, creative performer and composer. This tape came out on Ratskin and it’s from a more recent show—I might have even been at the show! His music is fascinating, almost uncategorizable left-field dance stuff that’s blending all these ideas.

John Wall - Hylic

I was really enamored of improvised music in the early ‘00s, and it’s a lot of what fueled my ravenous collector habit, which came from having to track down these obscure records that came from Japan and Germany and Switzerland and England, where they were only pressing a couple of hundred copies. John Wall is very careful as a computer music composer, and he’d spend years and years cutting up tiny pieces of improvised sounds and turning them into these totally austere and totally alien compositions. I was fascinated by the disparity between how much intention there was behind it and how alien the result sounds. Hylic almost sounds like there’s no human brain making logical choices that would compose this music—it feels like it’s naturally occurring in some way, like you’re listening to the background radiation of the solar system—but there’s also the most extreme version of authorship going into it.

billy woods - Hiding Places

I think billy woods is a fantastic example of this very abstract and angular and strange rapper but with these really strong connections to the history of New York rap. It’s almost like he’s from a different timeline where southern hip-hop didn’t take over the mainstream in the ‘00s and we kept going with Nas and Wu-Tang, and it’s developed into this new form. [Producer] Kenny Segal is a buddy—we’ve toured with him—and he would have been a youngster in the Project Blowed days but came out of the experimental L.A. hip-hop scene that produced Abstract Rude and Freestyle Fellowship and, later with the beatmakers, birthed the whole Low End Theory and Brainfeeder movement. This album is a New York and L.A. collab record that seems to perfectly synthesize two different types of left of center aesthetics, but feels completely natural in a way we wouldn’t have expected maybe 20 years ago.

Kevin Drumm - 09082001 gtr​/​synth ‘solo’

I included this not because anyone needs me to tell them Kevin Drumm is a fuckin’ noise hero, but I wanted to include Drumm because I think what he’s doing is a really unique thing that Bandcamp can provide: A couple of months ago I bought Drumm’s entire discography for like $22, which was like a hundred or so releases! He puts out so much, and it’s all of such high quality. This specific recording is from my favorite period of his work in the early-2000s, but it wasn’t available [back then] until he started bypassing labels and physical copies and started putting everything up himself direct to the fans.

DEBBY FRIDAY - DEATH DRIVE

[The label] Deathbomb Arc put out some of the first Clipping stuff. I think of [founder] Brian Miller as A&Ring my listening habits because he’s out there finding new artists I wouldn’t come across and putting out their records. DEBBY FRIDAY completely blew me away—this release seems both out of nowhere and so fully formed. It’s just brilliant and sort of industrial hip-hop. It’s really like the best Skinny Puppy album we never got but with way better lyrics and content and performance. It’s so smart and dark—she’s a really great lyricist.

Jonathan Snipes

Missincinatti - remove not the ancient landmarks

Missincinatti was Jeremy Drake, Jessica Catron, and Corey Fogel, and they had this band for a short time in L.A. where they played these contemporary arrangements of sea shanties. They’re all incredible musicians, and their arrangements were always so off-kilter and smart. This album is only on Bandcamp, and it’s like a little monument to this band that I loved so much for a short time. One of my favorite things is arrangements of folk music that almost feel like critical theory about folk music and this project feels like it’s in this realm. I wish they were still around playing shows so I could go to them.

François-Eudes Chanfrault - Inside

I discovered François-Eudes Chanfrault when I saw the movie for which this is the score. Then, when I started looking into François’s music, I realized that I’d run across him in online nerdy computer music circles. He became one of my favorite composers, and I became obsessed with tracking his music down. The development of the Inside score is really slow and tasteful, and that’s hard to accomplish when working with film. I also score movies, and film music always feels like if the music’s following a picture. It wants to be fast and have abrupt changes—but François is someone who is somehow able to make these really long elegant cues that actually play against the action of the film in this really striking way. It’s probably the last score I’d expect anybody to write for that movie, and it hits exactly the right tone. His use of electronics and computers and his use of a chamber ensemble are perfectly matched.

Lauren Bousfield - Fire Songs

Lauren’s a really good friend, and this album’s only available on Bandcamp. She’s an incredible musician—an absolute genius. This is the album she released shortly after her house burned down and she lost all her possessions in the fire. It feels very personal. It’s easy to think of electronic and breakcore as just splattered breakbeats that feel mechanical and machine-based. But this one, with the context [of the backstory], feels very emotional, and almost makes me tear up when I hear it.

Bryce Miller - W A S P

Bryce Miller is someone I found through some Bandcamp journalism, which I read regularly. This album, which is based on the Stieg Larsson Millennium books, is elegant and precise. There’s a lot of this retro ’80s synthwave stuff flying around—I’ve made a fair bit of it myself—but somehow this really nailed the tone of feeling very contemporary, but also very ancient. It’s like what I wanted synth records in the ’80s to sound like at the time, but they never quite did. The sense of melody and structure and tension and release is really spot on. Bryce feels like a real composer in that realm.

Max Tundra - With Love To Mummy

I first heard Max Tundra on the double disc compilation Tigerbeat6 Inc. from like 2001. I was really into Aphex Twin and Squarepusher and Kid606 and Matmos, and I was trying to figure out who was doing weird electronic music and that comp came out and it ended up being a huge window into bands I’d never heard of. Max Tundra’s track [“The Bill”] sounded like a general MIDI soundtrack to a spy show that he’d recorded into his answering machine! I’ve been a lifelong fan of his since then, and this collection is, like, his teenage recordings—it’s really interesting to hear his old music. It’s charming and fun to listen to as a fan, and to note where his music took him after that. I suppose other people feel the same way about that Radiohead release.

[sinceileftyoublog]

Wild Pink Interview: 99% Literal

Photo by Hayden Sitomer

BY JORDAN MAINZER

One of the breakout indie rock albums of 2018 came from Wild Pink, the New York band led by John Ross that found success the same way The War on Drugs did: embracing the heartland. You wouldn’t necessarily think of rural America when you think of Brooklyn, let alone modern-day Philly. But Ross keeps both his music and his real stories broad enough to apply anywhere. At first a punk band who released two EPs in 2015, Wild Pink dropped their self-titled debut last year. Right then, Ross immediately started writing what would become Yolk in the Fur. At the same time, he was exploring ambient music with his solo project Eerie Gaits, something that added to the sonic expanse of Yolk. (EG released a split single with Dondadi in April.)

When I spoke to Ross a few months ago over the phone, he was at home in Brooklyn, having just played the record release show for Yolk in the Fur. (They played 7 of the 10 songs, still figuring out how to duplicate the remaining 3 due to their additional production.) Two nights ago, they started a tour with label mates Restorations; they play Empty Bottle Saturday night along with Cleveland’s Signals Midwest. If you’ve seen Wild Pink before, they may be a bit different this time around, and not just because of their new songs. They’ve added a keyboard player, and when playing in NYC, a pedal steel player.

Read my conversation with Ross below.

Since I Left You: Beyond what might be obvious to the listener, how is Yolk in the Fur unique as compared to the debut or anything else you’ve released?

John Ross: Man, I don’t know. I feel like in the past, I didn’t spend as much time on the songs. Each song on this record got its fair share of time.

SILY: What was the recording process like?

JR: We went with Justin [Pizzoferrato] of Sonelab in Western Mass. We did two days with him. There are a few songs I started recording at home, but then I brought it to Justin.

SILY: What influenced some of the sonic shifts from the debut--increased use of synthesizers, space, etc.?

JR: I think I just wanted it to sound bigger. After that first record came out, I started using synthesizers on my solo project Eerie Gaits. So I wanted to incorporate them into these songs.

SILY: Did doing Eerie Gaits, apart from having synthesizers at your disposal, have an influence on the aesthetic of Yolk in the Fur?

JR: Absolutely. I love ambient music. I think Yolk in the Fur has ambient music in its DNA. Everything that I do has some roots in that world for sure.

SILY: Lyrically, the new record has quite a bit of a sense of time and place. There are a lot of specific references to specific places and things. To what extent are they based on events or people, or are they based more on ideas or feelings?

JR: It’s all pretty literal. Like 99% literal. So every time there’s a time and place, it’s nonfiction. Or at least coming from an actual time and place. Maybe there’s some liberties taken here and there.

SILY: How do you decide what stories you want to tell?

JR: I don’t know. It becomes clearer when you spend time with an idea, whether or not it’s gonna make it or not. It kinds of becomes clearer, if that makes sense.

SILY: What about the title track made you want to name the album after it? Or did that come in reverse?

JR: The album title came after the title track. The lyrics around the title are a good representation of what I think the record is about.

SILY: A lot of lines are broad and sweeping and suggest a long period of time, and it fits with nostalgic, expansive music. Can you talk about the interplay between the music and the lyrics?

JR: It’s not anything I’m aware of doing. I gravitate towards and dig emotional music. Not emo, but emotional music. Sweeping, romantic stuff. It’s just what I enjoy listening to. That’s how the songs end up.

I like cinematic music. My music, to me, has a cinematic quality, and the lyrics are pretty narrative and lend themselves to a cinematic feeling.

SILY: Have you ever written a film score?

JR: Yeah. I’ve done the music for some short films and a feature film several years ago. I write a lot of commercial music. So putting music to video is something I enjoy doing.

SILY: What’s the story behind the album art?

JR: We knew that we wanted to have the same format as the first record. It’s the same dimensions, just a variation in the color and image. It’s an image from NASA of the Kuwaiti oil fires of 1991. In the same way I don’t exactly know why “Yolk in the Fur” is about knowing when you need to stand up and be tough, that image is just kind of looking at a huge representation of how shitty humanity can be. The striking image, at first you might not even be able to tell what it is, then when you do know, you’re like, “Oh fuck. There’s something seriously wrong with people who would do that to the planet.”

SILY: The shape of it almost looks like the Grim Reaper.

JR: Oh, cool! My opinion, at first glance, it looks beautiful, but when you study it more, you see the horror in it, which is a cool dichotomy.

SILY: A lot has been written about the difference in tone between your first two records, this one a bit more optimistic. How would you say that the new record balances between a sense of acceptance about the way things are and will always be and a yearning to make things better?

JR: I think the record is definitely more optimistic. I think the first record is loosely about how shitty things are in the world today. This record is definitely about that as well, but also appreciating people in your life and still trying to see some optimism in the world. There are a few songs on there about seeing something mundane that has some beauty in it. 

SILY: What gives you optimism on a daily basis?

JR: I love working on music every day. That’s huge. Honestly, my dog.

SILY: Animals may be less intelligent than us, but you never question their innate goodness.

JR: They’re pure.

SILY: Do you still identify with the aesthetic of your early material that’s a bit more punk and raw?

JR: No, but as soon as something’s released, you kind of just move on. Actually, for some reason, I just listened to the Good Life songs for the first time in 2 or 3 years, and it sounded like a totally different band. But I’m glad it started there. I’m glad it’s where it is now, too. I don’t really listen to a ton of punk music.

SILY: What's next for you?

JR: I’m writing another record right now, so I hope to start recording it at the end of this year or early next year at the latest. I’m also working on another Eerie Gaits record.

SILY: Do you have any idea what shape either of those records are going to take?

JR: I have some ideas--I don’t want to say too much and paint myself into a corner--but I have some rough ideas. I am writing quite a bit.

SILY: Is there anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading lately that’s caught your attention?

JR: Ken Burns’ Vietnam. I’m really enjoying the new Middle Kids record. I always like Bruce Springsteen. A lot of ambient music. I also just found this Ethiopian jazz guy I’ve been really liking, Mulatu Astatke.

Wild Pink & Restorations tour dates:

10/11 - Columbus, OH at Big Room Bar w/ Signals Midwest 10/12 - Cleveland, OH at Grog Shop (Signals Midwest's 10-Year Anniversary Party) 10/13 - Chicago, IL at The Empty Bottle w/ Signals Midwest 10/14 - Milwaukee, WI at Cactus Club 10/16 - Hamtramck, MI at The Sanctuary 10/17 - Toronto, ON at The Garrison 10/18 - Buffalo, NY at Rec Room 10/19 - Asbury Park, NJ at Asbury Park Brewery 10/20 - Brooklyn, NY at Rough Trade 10/21 - Philadelphia, PA at The First Unitarian Church

[luuurien]

Arca - KicK iii

(Glitch Hop, Deconstructed Club, Experimental Hip Hop)

Arca's best album this week, KicK iii is the most manic, raunchy and upfront music she has made in her career. With production as fiery to boot, KicK iii is Arca at her most sublime: fully confident in her most unconventional sounds and putting each of them through wear tests they refuse to break under.

☆☆☆☆½

So much is going on with KicK iii I don't even know where to begin. It's a crossbreed of piercing post-industrial, dance-kissed deconstructed club, 90s IDM fundamentals, and the most graphic and raunchy rapping imaginable. It's easier to explain the album in generalities than specifics, even if you could point out every single little detail Arca puts into these twelve songs. The project files for KicK iii must be 100 gigabytes for every song: I can only imagine the space needed to save it all. In a career built on being one of the strangest and malleable producers of our time: Arca has somehow topped everything she's done up to now with KicK iii. That should be an accomplishment in itself. Despite being such a sweaty and slicked-up listen, KicK iii ends up surprisingly tender and meaningful throughout. With production that's a love letter to the jittery IDM she grew up on as a kid. RDJ-indebted drill and bass mindfucks Skullqueen's mild-tempered ending of soggy synths and glitchy audio effects add an unexpected dash of glitter to the sound orgy, while the following Electra Rex is the result of sending that song over to another solar system and getting a miraculous response back. Early cut Morbo is built off reggaeton, a sound fundamental to Arca's new sound, now covered in industrial muck and untied to a consistent rhythm. I'm not sure Arca could ever make an album that is just unrelentingly crazy; she's too careful and obsessive a producer to haphazardly let everything through, which makes the insanity of the aforementioned blood-and-cum crime scene that is Bruja even more thrilling. Finale Joya nearly doesn't even fit into the overwhelming equation, a Björk influenced ambient pop closer that is so heartfelt and yearning that it makes the commanding boast of "Hey, I'm feeling so sexy, I don't know what to do / I'm feeling so hot from the inside out" almost feel like a joke. But it's always been the multifaceted nature of touch and connection in her work that's made each album a fertile breeding ground for sound. KicK iii hits closer to hip hop than any album of her's before, too, possibly egged on by the success of Latin rappers in the mainstream as well as her own foray into it in the summer of 2020. Still, she doesn't try to emulate anyone, it's hard to tell what her vocal influences could even be on this record. Her voice becomes an automatic rifle of syllables and short phrases on Incendio, the words she's saying turned into an unadulterated, hypnotizing rhythm. Her rapping in English is distinctly more snappy and demanding, the blush-inducing sexual demands she conceptualizes on Señorita ("Phlegm spit in your open hole before I cum in it / Pullin' it out then returnin' it) much more methodical than the uncountable number of "Dame"s that make up the entirety of Rubberneck's single verse. At times, it feels like her voice is more a conduit for melody or rhythm than an entity in itself, given just as much direction and power as every building-burning synthesizer or drugged-out drum machine. All this noise is expected to become dull, and it undeniably is by the end, but it's in service of a greater artistic goal. If each Kick album is an art exhibit, KicK iii is the one that forces you to emulate every action in her paintings, no matter how crude or humiliating it may be. KicK iii is an expression of freedom in its most baseline forms, and the amount of things Arca asks of you is endless. Coming back to the album for a third or fourth listen, your nervous system will only react to the jolts of electricity that come through her music, sending a wave of euphoria up your spine every time. The dancefloor is no longer a place, it's your home, chained to the sweat-covered ground and gleefully dragged across it by a smiling and delightful Arca. Those slurred, glitching vocals in the back of My 2 are the only thing you'll be able to utter after your run-in with the whims of KicK iii, and thinking of anything but following Arca's orders is a dream far removed from your mind as her potion of lust fills the air, every gulp saturated with images of your most devious fantasies that only KicK iii can fulfill.

[snuggly-cuddlebug]

Mr. Bungle: A Dizzying, Disconcerting, Schizophrenic Tour de Force

MR. BUNGLE

The Early Days 1985-1990

Eureka, California 1985 High School Students Trevor Dunn, Mike Patton, Trey Spruance, Theo Lengyle, and Jed Watts got together and formed Mr. Bungle a name taken from ‘Lunchroom Manners’ a Video on Etiquette (nobody wants to be a mr Bungle) shown during the Pee Wee Herman’s HBO Special.

Mike Patton and Trevor Dunn had been formerly in various bands together in high school called gemini and Turd. Patton initially began singing at Trevor Dunn’s request after a vocalist from another high school band he was in quit the group.

Their First Demo; The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny, was recorded during Easter 1986. Various Instruments where used to include bongos, a kazoo, Saxaphone, and a train whistle to set the soundscape for the fast low fi style of playing and singing.

The Second Demo Bowel Of Chile(’87) named after Dunn mispronounced his order of chili while the band was eating out and so became an inside joke, featured more ska, funk, and swing elements a review on Allmusic.com states “essentially the sound of some very talented teenagers trying to make their love of jazz and ska come together in whatever way they can”

The Third Demo Goddammit I Love America!, came out in 1988 and carried the same mood and theme as the Second.

Fouth and Final Demo OU818 had some call back tracks and some brand new ones, with a denser, heavier feel to them, and the first recording to feature new members Clinton :bar: McKinnon and Danny Heifetz. It was at this time in 1989 that Mike Patton joined Faith No More while still being very much a part of Mr. Bungle.

Self Titled Album 1991-1994

Mr Bungle signed to Warner Bros, and released their self-titled album in 1991. John Zorn helped produce the album featuring free jazz, carnival music, funk, ska, and metal. Jounalist Bill Pahnelas said “”an incredible musical tour de force, and hands down the best alternative rock record of the year so far” and critic Steve Huey wrote in AllMusic: “Mr. Bungle is a dizzying, disconcerting, schizophrenic tour through just about any rock style the group can think of, hopping from genre to genre without any apparent rhyme or reason, and sometimes doing so several times in the same song.”

Travolta, the first track off the album had to be changed after the initial pressings because actor John Travolta threatend to take legal action, so the song name (not the contents) were changed to ‘Quote Unquote’

In an effort to sell more albums, a Mr. Bungle limited edition bottle of bubble bath was given away with the album.

Disco Volante 1995-1998

In 1995, Warners released “Disco Volante,” an album that further explored the realsm of faux-jazz, fake tango, pseudo-surf, false metal, doppelgangers, and aimless soul searching. Some people were offended that parts of the record were written in a secret, “other worldly” language. Others were offended that parts of the record were NOT written in a secret language.

Critics were on both sides saying “a totally original and new musical style that sounds like nothing that currently exists” and The Washington Post said: “an album of cheesy synthesizers, mangled disco beats, virtuosic playing and juvenile noises”, calling it “self-indulgent” and adding that “Mr. Bungle’s musicians like to show off their classical, jazz and world-beat influences in fast, difficult passages which are technically impressive but never seem to go anywhere” where as writer Scott McGaughey described it as “difficult”, and was critical of its “lack of actual songs”

Disco Volante included a a liner note that claimed “if $2 was sent to the band’s address, participants would receive additional artwork, lyrics to the songs “Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz” and “Chemical Marriage” and some stickers.” The vinyl release of this album shipped with a 7″ by the then-unknown Secret Chiefs 3.

California 1999-2000

The Third Album, and considered widely as their Magnum Opus, was released in 1999 after another four year break. Robert Everett-Green wrote, “The band’s newest and greatest album does not reveal itself quickly, but once the bug bites, there is no cure. The best disc of the year, by a length.” while AllMusic described the record as “their most concise album to date; and while the song structures are far from traditional, they’re edging more in that direction, and that greatly helps the listener in making sense of the often random-sounding juxtapositions of musical genres”

On the different style of this album, Mike Patton explained that to the band “the record is poppy”, before adding “but to some fucking No Doubt fan in Ohio, they’re not going to swallow that.”

California was recorded on Analog Tape opposed to the Digital Recordings more and more bands where opting to use, but with over 50 tracks the songs required the use of several analog machines, resulting in layers of original samples, keyboards, melodies, and percussion.

Unfortunately Warner Brothers records, who were never impressed by mr Bungle had this to say about the new album and band:

“Mr. Bungle’s third CD is evidence of a rock band pretending to have roots in rock music. More meticulously orchestrated, more guided by mistake than their previous releases, they continue on a roll of self deprecation while writing music that is out of the range of their instruments.”

The new album, entitled “CALIFORNIA,” explores an ambiance new to the band, conjuring up the sultry dance moves of Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire; digging through the graveyard of riffs to find English Pop, Elvis, Neil Diamond, and Michael Jackson. The album is sure to alienate those expecting weird meter-changes and heartless vulgarities. To be sure, this is Western music, chockful of backbeats, strings, and vocal harmonies. But like the original 49ers, the listener is headed into a desert land of draught and famine — the dark side of the California dream.

Topics of charity, gregariousness, and escapism are accompanied by those of suicide, retribution, and apostasy. The band somehow proves to themselves, once again, that they cannot escape their twisted past, or their twisted future. And like Hollywood, the underbelly is glossed over with major chords, sparkling glockenspiels, exotic percussion, fuzz guitars, tears of joy, and plastic smiles. And it’s all in Technicolor, breathtaking Cinemascope, and stereophonic sound! Music to be listened to under the warmth of the cancer-inducing sun. It’s danceable, it’s singable. Grab an umbrella and join the slaughter!

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Kiedis saw Patton performing with Faith No More and accused him of imitating his style and ripping him off. California and the chili peppers Californication were actually scheduled to be released June 8th 1999 but California was pushed back to not confuse the audiences, Kiedis went on to have Mr. Bungle pulled from several Music Festivals in Europe and Australia where RHCP were headlining and had final say over hiring and firing bands. Patton stated, “Our agent was in the process of booking these festivals, and it was becoming apparent that we’d landed some pretty good ones—one in France, another one in Holland, some big-name festivals. Turns out someone’s holding a grudge! We were booted off several bills, specifically because Anthony Kiedis did not want us on the bill. He threatened to pull the Chili Peppers if Mr. Bungle was on the bill.” Trey Spruance added, “We were booked, months in advance, to do eleven festival dates in Europe. Come Summer, we get a call from the three biggest of those festivals, all of them the same day, saying that we can’t play, because the headlining band retains the right to hire and fire whomever they wish. We found out it was the Red Hot Chili Peppers, so our manager called their manager to find out what the hell was going on, and their manager was very apologetic, and said, ‘We’re really sorry, we want you to know this doesn’t reflect the management’s position, or the band’s for that matter, it’s Anthony Kiedis who wants this.'”

Halloween 1999

Mr. Bungle parodied the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Pontiac, Michigan on Halloween of 1999. Patton introduced each Mr. Bungle band member with the name of one of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, before covering the songs “Give It Away”, “Around the World”, “Under the Bridge” and “Scar Tissue”, with Patton deliberately using incorrect lyrics. Mr. Bungle also satirized many of the mannerisms of the band, mocking heroin injections, deceased guitarist Hillel Slovak and on-stage antics. Kiedis responded by having them removed from the 2000 Big Day Out festival in Australia and New Zealand, The feud continued with Dunn criticizing the Chili Peppers on his personal webpage, specifically their bass player Flea, stating, “Flea, in all seriousness, really isn’t that good. I mean c’mon Red Hot Chili Peppers were vaguely interesting in the late 80s, but Christ they fucking suck, they suck”.

When’s The Next Record?

A 2004 Rolling Stone interview confirmed Mr. Bungle had disbanded with Patton revealing, “We could have probably squeezed out a couple more records but the collective personality of this group became so dysfunctional, this band was poisoned by one person’s petty jealousy and insecurity, and it led us to a slow, unnatural death. And I’m at peace with that, because I know I tried all I could.”