#i've seen a way

[dustedmagazine]

Mandy, Indiana — i’ve seen a way (Fire Talk)

There are plenty of different ways for a record to be overwhelming. We sometimes talk of great pop music as undeniable, as if solid enough craft has its own kind of inexorability. There is of course pure sonic and/or conceptual extremity (heck, there’s a whole book on that if you’re interested), and in even more subjective waters we can each find our personal limits when it comes to emotional intensity. Mandy, Indiana have made an LP that has some familiarity with most of those realms, but also shows off one other particular kind of overwhelming. i’ve seen a way can seem at first both thorny and kaleidoscopic in construction, a discombobulating whirl of a record. But it has a sneaky way of reconfiguring your expectations, so that even listeners who don’t know quite what to make of it may find it evolving from patchwork to singular statement even as they’re listening.

For Anglophones, at least, there’s one immediate barrier here; although the quartet formed in Manchester, vocalist Valentine Caulfield sings entirely in her native French. The kinetic and sonic force of her vocals are present regardless of linguistic background, but translating turns up everything from a list of things men have said to her about her body (the fierce “Drag [Crashed]”) to… instructions for video game players (the stiff robo-grooves of “Injury Detail”). The rest of the band (Alex Macdougall on drums, Simon Catling on synths, Scott Fair on guitar and production) match her range and radical force. If you want to start tracking down rough genre referents for i’ve seen a way you’ll be grabbing pieces from post-punk, synthwave, industrial, noise, and more and spotwelding them together, less worried about achieving seamlessness and instead taking pride in the visible joins. Most bands don’t display the kind of range found here, for example from the seesawing, shuddering blare of “Peach Fuzz” to the fervid steamcloud ambience of “(ノ>ω<)ノ :。·:*:·゚’★,。·:*:♪·゚’☆ (Crystal Aura Redux),” let alone sequence those examples next to each other.

At times, like when the menacing, cavernous “2 Stripe” evokes a half-dub of Massive Attack’s Mezzanine or when the brief “Mosaick” overdrives vocals, cymbals, and various grinding noises into the red, it’s easy to feel in the moment like you’ve gotten a bead on what Mandy, Indiana “does.” But then they immediately pivot somewhere you might not have immediately expected (to the placid feedback howls of “Iron Maiden” and the cyberpunk motorway music of “The Driving Rain (18),” respectively). And miraculously enough these shifts always feel like they make sense, even like they’re building to something. Mandy, Indiana are still a pretty young band; 2021’s … EP was a thrilling and promising debut, and i’ve seen a way is a lot more than that. If they keep improving (and expanding) at this rate, the prospect of what that might do is almost a little scary. Overwhelming, even.

Ian Mathers

[knightofleo]

Mandy, Indiana | Injury Detail

[sklira]

Berlin | Mandy, Indiana

[a1sart]

if there's one thing this last episode has affirmed for me about Alastor it's that he FUCKING HATES being reminded that he's not the most powerful creature in hell.

Like, he hates being ignored by Carmilla when she says she doesn't care why he was gone

He hates Lucifer ON SIGHT

He threatens to KILL Husk when he dares to mention that Alastor is working for someone more powerful than him

and now this.

Alastor freaking out because he almost died. Something almost killed him. He can fucking die. There is something more powerful than him out there. And it's not something he can ignore or brush off because it almost killed him.

Alastor hates the reminder that he's not as powerful as he tells people he is. He isn't indestructible, he isn't invincible. And he fucking hates that.

[inkedberries]

if any one of you missed me it's because i've been playing hades game nonstop since a month ago and there have been shown no signs of stopping as of yet i love my silly boys

[balfeys]

#BOBBY NASH THIS WAS SO HOT OF YOU

[tempo-takoyaki]

"It would be my pleasure to give you a proper tour and introduce you to everyone."

Here is my full illustration for @svsssbigbang for the fanfiction Night at Cang Qiong Museum by @adventure-waffles! An incredible Night at the Museum x Scum Villain AU! Don't hesitate to also check out the other two artists incredible pieces for this fanfiction: dustmeadowx and qiye!

And since I know that tumblr tends to destroy the quality of my illustrations, here are some close-ups under the cut:

[pequod-come-pick-me-up-im-scared]

:p

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Just your average male living space.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[scooterpengie]

@buggachat said redraw these Miraculous screenshots and I don't even watch Miraculous but I love her art so much I had to obey 😍😍 (seriously she's one of my favourite artists check out her work if you haven't already!!)

[knightofleo]

Mandy, Indiana | Drag [Crashed]

[amaurylandia]

(​ノ​>​ω​<​)​ノ :​。​・​:​*​:​・​゚​’​★​,​。​・​:​*​:​♪​・​゚​’​☆

[synodicsoma]

Stan quite literally chewing his was way out of that trunk he got shoved into and left for dead ✨

[vacuously-true]

Cis intersex women being discriminated against in sports for not being "real" women is not misdirected transphobia, it is intersexism.

A century of sex testing for sports participation is intersexism. Calling intersex women "not real women" is intersexism. Saying their sporting successes are due to their not being real women is intersexism. This is on purpose, it's not collateral damage from transphobia. It's intersexism.

When you post about an intersex woman experiencing intersexism in sports but your message is "this person is experiencing transphobia, but actually they are cis! Let's talk about trans women being included in sports!" that is intersexism. If you're using instances of intersexism to discuss transphobia and not even acknowledging the intersexism, it's intersexism.

And it fucking hurts. It fucking hurts when I see a post about one of these athletes and I think "oh! Maybe this post is actually going to acknowledge the discrimination intersex people face! Maybe someone is actually going to care about us!" and the discrimination is immediately minimized and the spotlight is immediately yanked away.

Shut up shut up shut up people like me are worth caring about beyond the extent to which you can use us to talk about other issues!

[reckonslepoisson]

... (2021), I’ve Seen a Way (2023), Mandy, Indiana

I cannot be arsed to concoct a visual image of the place to which Mandy, Indiana’s music transports, but there’s a cohesive, thorough atmosphere and mood to this group’s music which is certainly worth tuning in for. Muscular, filthy and nightmarish but also cool and trendy. That sort of vibe.

Pick(s): ‘Alien 3’, ‘The Driving Rain (18)’