#its full of my bassy high energy music

[littleperson404]

Finally got the cleaning bug after god only knows how many months!

Bunchs text about what i cleaned bc it just flowed out. No filter

Washed my stuffies, pillows, blanket, and sheets. While those washed, i reorganized my computer area. Then, after they were washed, i remembered i wanted to flip my matress around. While my matress was up, i realized that was the perfect time to clean under my bed since now there was light 💀 vacuumed, scooped up the big shit, found 5 missing cold packs, and then also reorganized the plugs in my extension cord while i could get under more easily. Then cleaned under my bedside desk bc i wanted to see if my missing flash drive was under there. It was not...

BUT! MY BED IS CLEAN. MY PILLOWS ARE CLEAN. MY DESKS ARE CLEAN. AND MY PLUSHIES ARE CLEAN. I even had energy left over to do the usual house chorse bc it was my turn

Let this be your motivation to get up and clean! Get that power playlist goin and clean!!

[senaar-ika]

The Pixie & The Bard: Ch. 1

Hi there. It’s been a while. I honestly just haven’t had the creative energy or motivation to write recently. I moved house and started working more and I’m about to start a new semester of university. What with the world being a flaming trash bin my brain hasn’t quite been up for much. 

Welcome to all the new followers and thank you to everyone who’s stuck around. I’ve had this first chapter of a multi-chaptered fic sitting in my drafts for a while so I thought why not share. I hope you enjoy!

Summary: You’re working as a fairy at a Renaissance Festival in the New York countryside when you meet Charlie and Henry. A father and son who are quite the pair. You flirt with guests at the festival for fun all the time, but something feels different about this one . . . 

CW/Tags: nothing major, just heavy flirting, awkward dad Charlie, literally too much Henry but I promise his relationship to reader is important, also E making up shit about renaissance faires, this is mostly just me longing to dress up like a fairy and go to a festival and watch people joust ok 

Word Count: 2.6k

Chapter 1 - An Chance Encounter

The festival grounds are surrounded on all sides by forest. Trodden down dirt walking paths snake past vendors and performers, ultimately leading visitors to the main events in the center clearing. The Fairy Tree -as it is affectionately known by performers and guests alike- is your territory. The ancient sycamore tree looks like something right from the pages of a storybook with its sprawling roots, knotted trunk, and layers of thick branches. 

Your inner child sprang out on your first day when your manager led you to the tree, explaining that your character should mostly keep in a close radius to it. She didn’t have to tell you twice. You were up the tree and swinging casually from the branches in minutes. Some of the other fairy cast members wander the festival, making mischief and spreading glitter. But you’re perfectly content to hang around your tree. 

Of course you’re safe, never climbing too high or swinging too recklessly. You keep a little wooden flute at one hip and your bag of “fairy dust” at the other. Piping out mysterious tunes from up in the tree only to surprise guests who happened along past. If they have children you often toss a handful of sparkling fairy dust down, relishing their squeals of delight. 

Today is Saturday. First Saturday to be exact. First Saturday is always the busiest, or at least that’s what the returning cast members have been telling you. First Saturday always falls on the first weekend when schools are closed for the summer, so the families turn out in droves. You likely won’t get a real break today; it’s all hands on deck. 

You lean against the trunk of the old fairy tree, one arm hugged as far around it as you can. You’re only about ten feet up, but it feels like you’re part of the forest. A breeze rustles the leaves, bright and green for the start of summer. You close your eyes gently. In the distance you hear a horn sound and a wave of cheers rise up, carried by the breeze. 

Afternoon tournament already? The day has flown by. Cast members don’t get to have any modern technology on hand while performing, so you tend to gauge the time by the schedule of festivities. Afternoon tournament started at two. You’d been up in the tree since lunchtime. The tournaments, which include jousting, sword fighting, and axe throwing, pull the biggest crowds. Meaning smaller attractions got a bit of a break. 

Carefully you slide down to sit, resting your back against the trunk and balancing your legs horizontally along the length of the branch. You breathe in deeply, just listening for the familiar sounds of the tournament. 

“Dad, look!” The whisper-shout of a young boy pulls you away from the quiet, but your first glance at the boy’s father nearly fells you from your perch. Tall, dark, and built like one of the festival’s knights. He’s focused on his phone, typing furiously. The boy tugs at his father’s sleeve, trying very hard not to look away from you, as if he’s afraid you might disappear.

“What is it, Henry?” It isn’t sharp, just distracted, offhanded, but the bassy richness of the man’s voice sends a flutter to your chest. 

“There’s a lady up in the tree! Look!” You smile down at the boy, Henry, leaning forward a bit so that the iridescence of your wings catches the light, and you wave. The dad glances up briefly from his phone only to do a double take.  

“Hail and well met, gentlemen!” You called, pitching your voice up and putting on your character’s fairy accent. “Ye wouldn’t happen to be lost would ye?” 

Henry is quick to speak up, “My dad is trying to get a good phone signal!” The dad’s face turns a ridiculous shade of pink, his expression sheepish and embarrassed. You giggle, swinging your legs over the side of the branch so they dangle. 

“I dunno what that is, young lad, but perhaps he’d have better luck with a carrier pigeon?” One of the top rules was to always stay in character. No talking about modern life. Immersion is key and after all you’re here to make magic. But Henry seems confused.

“You don’t know what a phone signal is? Don’t you have a phone?” Ah so he’s one of those smart kids. Before you can say anything, Henry’s father cuts in.

“She’s a fairy, Henry, look. Fairies don’t have phones.” The dad explains, gently. His voice is practiced, as though he has to explain a lot to his son. You nod along with him, crossing your ankles and propping your chin on your hand. 

“Aye, he’s right!” You chime in, “And you two look like . . . hmmm.” You scrunch your face in consternation for a moment. “Ah! I know! A knight and his squire?” You point from father to son.

Henry starts to laugh and his father smiles, looking from you to his son and back. 

“Yes! Young squire Henry and the brave knight Sir . . .” You trail off, gesturing towards the boy’s father. 

“Charlie,” He finishes, holding your gaze steadily. You feel your grin widen and you tilt your head, reminding yourself to stay in character. 

It’s not like flirting with guests is discouraged; actually, it’s almost expected of most fairy cast members. You’ve just never been caught off guard like this before. Something about this man, Charlie, sends your heart racing. Perhaps because he seems far too dashing for a dad, or maybe it’s how quickly he is willing to play into the immersion of your job. 

“So the brave knight, Sir Charlie, and young squire Henry find themselves at the Fairy Tree.” You slide yourself over to the trunk and begin climbing down, using the little foot and hand holds nailed into the tree. “Trying to relay a message with no luck?” 

When you reach the ground, Henry bolts over to you. “Why didn’t you just fly down?” 

You crouch down to his height. “Flying for me is like running for you. It’s so exhausting!” 

Henry nods, understanding, and looks back over his shoulder at his dad, still standing a ways back. Charlie smiles at the two of you before glancing back at his phone. 

“My dad is trying to send a picture of me to my mom.” There it is. You feel something in your chest sink a little. You should’ve expected it really. Hot dad and cute kid? There has to be a mom somewhere in the picture. Henry, unaware that his simple statement shook you, continues on. “She lives in LA, but I get to come see my dad every month. He likes to take me to do things like this.” Oh, hot divorcee dad. 

“And what have ye done around the festival today, young lad?” You actually smile as Henry carries on in that childlike way, just talking. Simple statements. Pouring out their day for you. 

The two of you plop down to the forest floor. Henry absentmindedly plays with the grass and pebbles. You pluck a couple of clovers from the grass and begin stringing them together. Usually the fairies are encouraged to tell stories to the children, but this particular child seems happy to tell you the story of his day. Henry is just finishing up recounting how they had eaten turkey legs and french fries for lunch when his dad approaches. 

“I’m surprised to see such an adventurous pair missing the tournament,” You remark, handing Henry the bracelet of clovers you had woven while he was talking. “But I’m glad to hear your stories, young Henry.” 

“There’s a tournament?” Henry’s eyes light up as you slip into your role, telling him all about the lore of the festival.

“Why of course, young Henry! Every sixth day the King holds tournaments where our bravest and strongest knights may show their skill! There’s sword fighting and jousting and horses, and of course all the fair maidens of the kingdom come as well!” You try to avoid looking up at Charlie, squatting down beside his son, for fear of stumbling over your words. “The fairy folk like me perform great songs and dances for the royal court, and all the guests like you cheer and awe at all the talent!”

Henry is hanging on your every word, completely frozen and enraptured in your performance. 

“Unfortunately for you, the tournament for today is probably just finishing up.” Seeing the boy’s face start to sink with disappointment you add, “But! After the tournament the fairy folk will lead a parade back to this very tree and we’ll tell stories! There’s always a bit o’ music with our stories. I play this!” You pull your flute from its slot on your belt and hold it up for Henry, whispering your next sentence. “If you and Sir Charlie aren’t in a rush, I suggest you stick around, the parade should be arriving any minute now.” 

“Can we stay, dad?” Henry turns excitedly towards his father, eyes still wide. Charlie’s face breaks into a full grin that goes all the way to his eyes which crinkle at the corners. A noticeable dimple also appears on his cheek. Stay in character, you have to remind yourself. 

“Of course, honey, if you want to.” Charlie places a hand gently on his son’s back. 

It seems as though Charlie’s about to say something to you, but before he can you’re overtaken by the sound of jingling bells, flutes, and footsteps crunching along the dirt path. 

“The parade!” Henry scrambles to his feet, turning in the direction of the noise. 

You catch Charlie’s gaze as you both move to stand up as well. He mouths a silent “Thank you.” You smile and give him a wink, lifting your flute to your lips. Moving quickly, you dance back to the tree and climb up to hang by one hand from one of the handholds nailed into the trunk. The tune of your flute matches up with the commotion coming up the path. 

At least once a day, a large group arrives at the Fairy Tree led by cast members like yourself. It’s part of the job, performing like that. So why are you so nervous? 

The parade rounds the forest bend, finally coming into sight. Two fairy cast members lead the group, one with a tambourine, the other a pan flute. A dozen or so children are close behind with a couple more fairies mixed in. Bemused parents and adult stragglers make up the rear. 

“Aha!” The performer with the tambourine, halts the parade and points to you. “Kind guests and members of the parade, this is our sister Dewdrop!”

You hop back down to the ground, lowering your flute, and slip into the loose script that formed around storytime each day. “Are we to tell these fine folks a story today, Evergreen?”

And with your line, you settle. This is just your job. You do this every day. Every day there’s a new story. Every day there’s a new crowd. 

You and the other fairies sit the little ones down on “toadstool” seats while the adults gather around. Henry choses the seat closest to where you stand, you notice, so you make sure to give him a smile when you can. Like a good actor, you dance your eyes across the crowd, trying to bounce rather than stick to anyone in particular. But.

But you can’t help but get stuck on Charlie. He’s watching you so intently, occasionally glancing down at Henry as he laughs at all the silly jokes and goofs. Today’s story is one about how the king of the festival was trapped and magicked to dance for eternity by the trickster pixies until a kind hearted fairy saved him. The stories are always a bit silly like that. 

When you and the other fairies take your final bow, all conducting the children in a chorus of “The end!” and tossing handfuls of fairy dust, you make eye contact with Charlie again. Everyone is clapping politely. He’s smiling at you. You hold his gaze for just one second longer. He’s the first to look away, clearing his throat and raising his gaze to the treetops. You barely have time to process what just happened before Henry is tugging at your skirt. 

“You didn’t tell me your name is Dewdrop!” He exclaims, somehow still thriving off of the high energy of the show. 

You giggle, dropping down to his level. “You never asked, young Henry!” 

“That’s a funny name.” He scrunches his nose in such an innocent way you can’t help but smile. 

“Well all the fairies are named a bit differently than you humans.” You explain, “We’re given names that connect us to nature and-” 

“Wait a second!” Henry interrupts and suddenly runs over to his dad. 

They converse softly for a moment, Charlie leaning down so Henry can whisper in his ear. Charlie seems to be thinking hard about whatever his son is saying. He flicks his eyes over to you for what seems like a millisecond, you can’t even be sure he did look at you. Then he nods and Henry scampers back over to you. 

“My dad says we can come back tomorrow! I want to see the fighting and the contests like you said!” Your heart seems to stop for a second before you become very aware of it beating in your ears. 

“That - That’s wonderful, young lad!” You shake yourself back to this fantasy that is reality. “You must stop by the tree and say hello then.” You chance a look over at Charlie to find his eyes locked on you. He smiles and gives a slight nod of his head. 

He steps forward reaching for his son’s hand. “Alright, Henry, let’s get going now and let our friend get back to doing … fairy stuff.” Henry’s face scrunches in a way that your years of working around children tell you he’s not thrilled at the idea of leaving. So you swoop in with a little assist. 

“Sir Charlie’s right, young lad.” You take a pinch of fairy dust from the pouch on your belt, “I’ve got official fairy business to attend to around the festival. But here, I’ll give you a bit of parting sparkle so that you’ll shine until we meet again!” With a flourish, you dust Henry’s flower bracelet with the glittery powder. 

That seems to satisfy the young boy as he gives you a toothy grin and turns to leave with a quick “Bye! See you tomorrow!” 

“Well hang on just a second!” You decide to milk this moment a tiny bit more, just for fun. “That’s no way to leave a proper lady! Give us a bow and a fare thee well!” 

Henry looks confused for a second but Charlie elbow’s him lightly. “Like this,” he whispers. He executes a wonderfully low bow, crying out “Fare thee well, Dewdrop! We shall return on the morrow!” in an over the top sort of faux English accent. 

You laugh, fully, almost definitely out of character. That’s when Charlie looks up from his bow, holding your eyes as he rises back up to his full height. After a second, he clears his throat and elbows at Henry again, muttering “Your turn.”

Henry does his best to imitate his father, but his bow is a bit shaky. “Fare thee well, Dewdrop! We shall . . . Dad what is it?” 

“We shall return on the morrow,” Charlie mumbles, failing to conceal a smile. 

“We shall return tomorrow!” Henry finishes and stands back upright. 

As the two of them finally start down the dirt trail you call after them. “Safe travels, Sir Charlie and Squire Henry! T’was a true pleasure that our paths should cross!” 

“Bye!” Henry yells back. 

Charlie looks over his shoulder at you one more time. You wave. He smiles. And then they turn the corner. And they’re gone. 

[getaroomyouheck]

Album Analysis #15: Linkin Park, The Hunting Party (2014)

(ayyy sorry for taking so long, we’re finally back with the album analysis’! thank you all for being patient with me, i hope this meets your expectations)

Linkin Park was a band that had always been a piece of my childhood. Yet for the longest time, I only knew of Hybrid Theory (2002), Meteora (2003), and Minutes to Midnight (2007). Despite the memes and such regarding the group, I held them up in high regard, with Minutes to Midnight standing as one of my favorite albums ever made.

It wasn’t until the passing of frontman Chester Bennington that I really begun giving attention back to this band, and began to survey releases I hadn’t listened to, like A Thousand Suns (2010). And while that album is fine for what it is, what drew me to The Hunting Party was its heavy rock sound, reminiscent of their earliest works.

So going into this album, I want to hear that heaviness really come to life. I wanna hear Chester’s screams and those chugging guitars and that aggressive beauty. Let’s begin, shall we?

Keys to the Kingdom: Instant attention grabber of an intro, a really great way to begin the record. Chester’s pained screams diluted with an audio effect over them, sounding glitched out and demolished. Only for the roaring guitars and heavy drums to kickstart and fire off into the song. Just hyper aggression and energy, throttling drums and soaring vocals and guitars atop it. Hell, even this structure feels like classic Linkin Park, Mike rapping or singing over the verses, with Chester coming in and screaming his way through the chorus. What changes it is that instead of the nu-metal sound of Hybrid Theory or Meteora, this is full heavy hardcore rock and metal, and I adore it. It’s aggressive, it’s punchy, and above all else it sounds wonderful. I especially love the instrumental bridge, the sound cuts out abruptly and begins to build back into itself, with a buildup of layering guitars and drum patterns. Eventually it just builds into this absolute explosion of grimy guitars and crashing cymbals and snare hits, an overwhelming cacophony of sound, which leads us right back to the refrain of the chorus to end it off. 

Lyrics are not as huge a highlight here, which might be my only criticism to it. What stands out, stands out very much, like the chorus where Chester screams out “No control. No surprise. Throw the keys to the kingdom down that hole in my eyes.” and the verses are rich with shit talking and imagery paralleling war. Linkin Park is, in a sense, committing war and fighting back against all their naysayers. With the 2nd verse from Mike being a direct callout, with the line “Careful what you shoot because you might hit what you aim for”. Some bars from Mike do get kinda swarmed in the sound of the instruments, which while sounding good does take away from his words. Other than that, this is an amazing song which kicks off THP near perfectly. Fantastic, a favorite for sure. 9.5/10

All for Nothing (ft. Page Hamilton): A slower more methodical track after the punchy opening Keys to the Kingdom was, and a little bit worse in my opinion. Definitely not bad, I think the verses from Mike are some of the best on the project, and the instrumentation and production is crisp and fantastic. I especially love the grimy fuzzy guitars on this one, they really underscore the verses incredibly well. Mike’s bars themselves are charged and full of anger. It’s egotistical, but in an entertaining way, like how he states “And no, I'm not your soldier, I'm not taking any orders. I'm a five-star general infantry controller”. It shows that even years on down as an MC he still has that anger and energy that made his bars work. What holds the rest of the song back is I think the pre-chorus and chorus kinda kill the momentum and anger of Mike’s verses. It doesn’t link together well, and instead of feeling like a nice natural link between verse to pre-chorus, it feels like the song hesitates and stutters a bit. It’s a shame, because everything else is still great. I just wish the chorus and how it linked to the verses was better. 8/10

Guilty All the Same (ft. Rakim): In sharp contrast to the last track, this one is bursting with energy and passion. I ADORE the minute long instrumental opening. Beginning with lo-fi crashing cymbals and guitars to loop into a super crisp version of it. Then cutting off to an instrumental buildup from guitar into the main riff utilized in the chorus. Just in general the instrumentation and production of this song is perfect. They know when to make the guitars sharp or fuzzy, exactly how to make the cymbals crash and smash in the right way, how to make each hit of the snare sound like a gun going off. It sounds wonderful, especially underneath the vocals. Unlike most of the songs on THP, this is mostly just a song with Chester. He handles most of the songs vocals besides the guest verse by Rakim, and as always his vocals are infectious and commanding. His utter power as a vocalist in both singing and screaming was always what drew me and others to Linkin Park, and that’s in full effect here. The guest verse from Rakim is also incredibly good, he finds an interesting way to find all these pockets and flows overtop these fuzzy guitars and bass-filled drums, it’s like rap-metal almost. This then breaks back into one more repeat of the chorus and the final explosion that breaks into silence.

Both Chester and Rakim’s lyrics stand out wonderfully and match the angry aggressive sound of the song. Calling out the industry as a whole, caught in their guilt whilst trying to set blame, attaching that grander message and applying it to record labels and their ever present lust for money over genuine talent or strong music. Where Chester’s verse is more basic and has larger more broader strokes in its narrative, Rakim’s verse is clearcut, and the message is sharpened and jagged in its bladed diatribes. Mentioning “corporate hands is filthy” and “All they think about is bank accounts, assets, and realty.” as direct stabs at the grander corporations iron grip on the media we consume. Passion is snuffed out in favor of what sells. It’s a message stated wonderfully through both vocalists, mixed with the crisp instrumentation and energetic fervor, this is definitely one of the favorites. 10/10

The Summoning: Probably the weakest piece here, there isn’t especially much to say. It’s just a 70 second interlude piece between Guilty All the Same and the next song, War. While the sonic landscape it builds is nice, it’s cut far too short to really build up to anything worthwhile or impactful. In the grand scheme of the album and with so many other far more impactful cuts, including a far more atmospheric instrumental piece later in the record, this one just falls to the side. Inoffensive and nice on the ears for the time being, but not anything close to standout or memorable in a way most other songs here are. The one song that being cut from the record would not detriment it in any real way. 6.5/10

War: Easily the track with the most blistering punk energy here, at just over 2 minutes it’s an incredibly scorching speeding track filled with fast energetic guitar riffs and a frenetic blood pumping drum performance layered in with Chester’s screams and strong vocal performance. There’s barely any breaks, from the opening lo-fi guitar scratches and riffs to the looped audience laughter at the end, it’s a pummeling track that has you headbanging and screaming the whole way through. Like most of the albums songs, the lyrics feature a heavy war motif, this time speaking of the general chaos found in war. As Chester states, “It needs to sides to justify, laying down your life”. War does not care about the sides you fight on, if it’s right or not. It will render you null and slaughter you all the same, no matter whom is ostensibly correct. Really the only issues I have with the piece is that like The Summoning, I feel it doesn’t have enough time to really flesh out to be a super standout track. It’s incredibly fun and powerful for the time it’s active, but it doesn’t have too long to be something I can truly say wowed me. Still awesome though. 8.5/10

Wastelands: A nice cooldown from the blistering heat of the last track. It feels more in the Linkin Park wheelhouse, Mike rapping the verses and Chester handling the chorus. It has a very nice production crunch to it, amplifying the drums during Mike’s verses only to have the guitars explode out with energy in the chorus. There’s a nice push and pull dynamic in the song that’s created by this choice, creating a nice duo between the poetry being rapped and the poetry being sung. It once again features pieces of war imagery, but it’s more direct in its commentary.  Rather than being a conceptual musing on war or some metaphorical drive, it’s a very angry critique at the direction of rock, or rather it’s misdirection. Referring to the grand landscape as a metaphorical wasteland, where all true musiciosos who once made rock have abandoned. Mike’s verses are lined with braggadocio, stating his verses rise above all and that what he’s spitting is far above the drivel his contemporaries spit. For the most part, it works, but there are a couple issues I have with the piece. Some of Mike’s rapping can feel stilted and a fair amount of the lines don’t seem to particularly connect to the topic of the song, and feel more like the people he is supposedly stating are trash. It’s still a very well done song, and one I would easily return too, but it feels kind of weak in that department. 8/10

Until It’s Gone: This piece is one of the more emotionally resonant and impactful tracks on the entire record, taking a more lamenting and heartfelt passionate performance in both instrumentals and vocal performance from Chester. There’s a definite boom in each smash of the snare, a bassy overwhelming crunch in the guitar, the instruments layer and unite with the vocals to create this almost marching feeling. It strangely reminds me of the booming repetition found in a couple songs on Swans LP To Be Kind (2014), particularly the cut Nathalie Neal. It creates a feeling of marching to war, that you and the insurmountable masses are all marching towards another goal, a brighter future perhaps. It’s one of the more triumphant songs Linkin park have crafted in terms on the progression and feel from the piece. In that strength I feel it resonates and booms with impact as one of the strongest cuts here. The only real weakness is that the ending with the small beat with skittering hi-hats and explosive snare hits feels a bit tacked on; but it doesn’t take away from the core song and experience found here.

 Speaking of which, the lyrics and poetry Cjester sings here are what make the song whole and piece everything together. Rather than building on the anger and prevalent war imagery found all over the record, it stands out with a muse and waxing poetic on the concept of what you have and what you lose. Specifically, the famous saying of “You don’t know what you have until it’s gone”. It’s that exactly mantra Chester passionately sings in the chorus of this song, verses taking on a similar tone and message. Lines like “I can finally see your light when you let go” refer to this idea, that sometimes you can only recognize the true benefit and reason for why you have something or someone only when they’re gone. It’s a message to cherish the things you have and never let them go. Which, given what’s happened to Chester, is simply heart wrenching. One of my favorite cuts here, amazing in most every way. 9.5/10

Rebellion (ft. Daron Malakian): In a very sharp contrast to the prior cut here, Rebellion is one of the most blistering and energetic throttling cuts here on the entire record. In no short part to the guest guitarist Daron Malakian, of System of a Down fame. This feature immediately excited me, as SOAD was one of the most creative and very incredible metal acts to sprout up in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. Blending alt-metal with elements of polka, Russian folk music, Armenian hymns, and much more. The instrumental performance here is nothing short of excellent, fast and powerful guitar riffs and chugs connect wondrously with the tumultuously churning drum beat. Overwhelming with it’s instrumental power, barely any breaks to be held here. Akin to a cut like War, but even more filled out and more standout in the way the piece progresses and the vocal cuts found from both Chester and Mike. It almost feels like a SOAD track, just featuring vocals from Linkin Park. With how creative the chord progression is and the multi-faceted structure and switching tempo’s found all over the cut, very reminiscent of a piece like B.Y.O.B or Radio/Video in that sense.

Lyrically I feel it stands out prominently as well. It’s a piece focused on the political instability found all across the world, more specifically calling out the whinging and whining from those in first-class worlds. The message is best exemplified by the chorus’ repeating of the line “We are the fortunate ones, who never faced oppressions gun”. In comparison to places where people's rights are violated almost every singular moment, us in First World countries have no right to complain. While I feel that it’s a bit too broadly painted, the core message of “There are people who suffer far worse than us, so sit down and shut the fuck up” I agree with. And even discounting that, it’s still a wondrously put together piece. Arguably my favorite song on the entire record, def one of the best songs Linkin Park ever put together. 10/10

Mark the Graves: Much like the prior track, Mark the Graves is a very instrumentally-oriented track, driven most heavily by the ever present guitarwork lining the record. An incredibly creatively structured and segmented piece, not following the standard song structure found in other pieces here. Alongside this chopped abstract structure, there are constantly changing rhythms and tempos, cutouts of silence that lead into explosive colossuses of sound, smashing drums and overblown bass layer in alongside the guitars. Buildups and blistering walls of flame give way to a repetitious marching drumbeat, echoing and bridging towards another beast of sound. Chester’s screamed delivery following a softly delivered refrain into the outro. The entire piece oozes creativity and uniquity in structure and delivery, sound and presentation, and it hits aces in essentially every aspect. Even lyrics, while not the prominent quality, still fuse and work with the soundscape quite well.

This is a song about memory and mistakes, more so the mistakes of your past and trying to reconcile and atone or make peace with what you have wrongly done. Each line in the verse makes references to the past and seeking to atone, specifically within the line “If we can’t let go, we’ll never say goodbye”. Chester is telling us that to truly say goodbye and forget the past, you have to let go and make do with your mistakes. All you do by holding on is chasing yesterday’s ghosts, and ignoring tomorrow’s premonition. You have to live and let go, otherwise you’ll forever be trapped in the sin of your own failures. A sin of your own machinations, manifest by the mistakes never once rectified or forgiven. It’s a beautiful piece, firing on each cylinder and making no mistakes in idea, or execution. An absolute favorite for sure, no problems whatsoever. 10/10

Drawbar (ft. Tom Morello): This cut was actually one that took me a long while to really get into. Like The Summoning, it’s another instrumental track that serves as an interlude between Mark the Graves to Final Masquerade. Featuring the acclaimed guitarwork of Tom Morello, of Rage Against the Machine fame. Arguably one of the most talented and creative guitarists in the entire scene. Yet, for the longest time I thought this was the weakest cut here. It felt far too plodding, not nearly as throttling or memorable as most other cuts here were. But one day, it clicked, and what I once saw as plodding, was slowly creeping and building suspension and tension in the piece. Each swirling synth, each sangling piano hit, each small snare hit or hi-hat tap, they all add to this creeping feeling of the piece. It’s a languorous and dreading piece, that builds to a climax within this sonic landscape. While I still feel the production sounds cheap at times or that the guitar work can sound somewhat flat for someone as skilled as Morello, it serves its purpose well, and is a track I can easily see myself coming back to. 8.5/10

Final Masquerade: Unlike both Rebellion and Mark the Graves, this is a heart-bleeding cut in which the power comes from the lyrics and Chester’s incredible vocal prowess, almost ballad-esque in the sonic ideas found here. Slower than virtually every other song on this record, it holds a heartbreaking resonance to it that rings true through the entire piece. Instead of blistering and energetic, this penultimate piece has hollow, lamenting guitar tones and a slow, pounding, consistent drumbeat, as if a heartbeat to the final moments of life breathed. Of course, the main focus here is Bennington’s vocal performance, and this is one of his most emotionally powerful and sorrowful pieces he’s ever delivered. Barely any screams to be found here, simply powerful delivery in sung vocal passages, tugging at the heartstrings and making his words manifest in their consonance and passion. Lyrics here are the other main standout besides Chester’s ever beautiful singing, and they’re some of the most powerful in the entire bands career.

This song dictates the falling out of some sort of relationship. Words never said, thoughts never expressed, slowly creating a gap and filling both members hearts with despair and mistrust towards one another. Each day becomes darker, light ebbing away into the darkness of both their locked hearts, apathy rendering what was once there null. As said in the song, “All I ever wanted, the secrets that you keep. All you ever wanted, the truth I couldn't speak”. One refuses to tell them their secrets, the other refused to tell them their truth. It’s the natural way fallings out tend to happen. Both partners simply feel nothing, and refuse to just open their hearts and just speak what they need to speak. Only speaking when it’s too late, when there’s no longer a red string of fate tying them both to the same destiny. No flaws about this piece, beyond gorgeous. Absolutely top 10 Linkin Park song, favorite song here next to Rebellion. Perfection. 10/10

A Line in the Sand: This isn’t the first time LP have concluded a record with a 6+ minute long epic, their album Minutes to Midnight ended in much the same fashion with the piece The Little Things Give You Away. Though whereas that was lamenting, heartfelt ballad about Hurricane Katrina and the horrific damage and fear it brewed in millions, this is a blood pumping, throttling cut packed with screams, slowdowns and swift tempo changes, adrenaline pumping rap sections, and much more. Powerful vocal performances from both Mike and Chester, as per usual I suppose. Long instrumental bridges that lead into charged, anger intensified pieces of energy and flame, into quiet leading passages once more. Genuinely, this feels almost like the bands quintessential song. It feels like Linkin Park’s message and ethos of how and why they make music distilled into a singular piece. Hell, I’m pretty sure Shinoda has said something to that effect in some interview a while back somewhere. Lyrically, this is no different as well.

Lyrics are essentially an encapsulation of the lyrical themes and ideas found present within the rest of the record prior to this. Anger against the ineptitude and growing complacence in the rock scene and music industry. Rage against the critics and those who lambasted LP when they dropped their nu-metal sound post-Meteora, calling them out on their hypocrisy against them. Shinoda puts it best with his lines the 2nd verse, stating “I'd never been a coward, I'd never seen blood. You'd sold me an ocean and I was lost in the flood”. He put trust into these critics and faith in this industry, as he was inexperienced and didn’t know what to think about these things. Like he said, he was sold an ocean but was lost in the flood. From his inexperience came anger, and now he’s here to pay his dues and collect his repentance for what these critics gave done. While not a perfect encapsulation and send off like Final Masquerade probably would have been, it’s essentially who Linkin Park is, or was, distilled into a singular song. Fantastic, a favorite for sure. 9.5/10

Final thoughts + rating: After the relative disappointment of Living Thing’s (2012), this was an incredible return to form for the group. That heavy, aggressive sound I was searching for was found in aces all across this record, plus the wonderful bonus of some more slower melodic pieces as well. And alongside with some incredible instrumental features really making the whole thing come together. Just front to back, nonstop aggression, adrenaline and excitement. All around, this album is a 9/10 for me. Easily one of my favorite releases in the Linkin Park discography, second only to Meteora and Minutes to Midnight. An album I have returned to several times prior to writing this, and one I will continue to return to several times afterwards

Favorite songs: Keys to the Kingdom, Guilty All the Same, Until It’s Gone, Rebellion, Mark the Graves, Final Masquerade, A Line in the Sand

Least favorite song: The Summoning

[imnoexpertblog]

Here's some stuff to do and listen to.

7/20/18

Are you ready to receive some suggestions to entertain your fine selves? ‘Cause I’m ready to give it.

For those who are local: My dad and brother run NYFO together for Green Bay. What’s NYFO? WELL. “NYFO 7on7 Football is the next generation of player development, no matter your skill set. NYFO is the NATIONAL GOVERNING BODY for 7on7 & Non-contact Football. Our leagues, camps, and training exist to ultimately transition better, safer, and more fundamentally sound knowledgeable players. NYFO is committed to helping every player in our program improve no matter their skill level. By doing so we will ultimately enhance the sport of football, from youth organizations through the NFL. NYFO is ‘Non-Contact’ For parents, ‘non-contact’ can be translated into ‘one-hand touch.’ Without the distraction of full-contact, players can focus on fundamentals. With so much negative media attention given to concussions and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), 7on7 offers parents a safer alternative for kids wanting to play football.” Quick additional info: They offer programs for age groups 8U, 10U, 13U, 15U, and 18U. Go to their website if you’re interested in signing your kids up! Okay but anyway, if you need something to do this Friday you should go to a Bullfrogs baseball game! Bullfrogs “Stars Of Tomorrow” fundraiser family & friend tickets are $18 and include your ticket (duh), a Bullfrogs hat, a hot dog, AND a soda! A damn steal if you ask me. It helps out NYFO and you’ll have something fun to do! All registered players from NYFO get in free with and a portion of the proceeds from family/friends tickets sales going to the NYFO by simply using code “NYFO7on7” at the point of purchase. Go to greenbaybullfrogs.com, click Buy Tickets Now in the top right corner, and enter the promo code (NYFO7on7). Gates open at 6:05pm and the game is at 7:05pm!  See you at the diamond on July 20th! Give them a follow on Instagram! @greenbay.nyfo

I never really blog about music for how passionate I am about it. I have mentioned before that I sing, too. I’d love music even if I couldn’t sing though. Anyway, everyone loves finding new music, right? I’m gonna tell you my most listened to artists and songs on my Spotify. First, I’ll tell you how I found this data. I found this question forum on this link: https://www.quora.com/Is-there-a-way-to-see-my-most-played-artists-songs-in-Spotify. You’ll see in the answer that there’s Spotify.Me or there’s ManageMyMusic to see your most listened to stuff. Spotify.Me is intricate and gives you information like your favorites, streaming habits, and listening insights. Apparently, what I listen to the most is considered to be a bunch of different types of “pop.” I don’t know if I agree with that. They also tell me that “I know what I want” because 84% of my favorite artists are within my most-listened to genre. That I can agree with. It says I’m high energy lately in my streaming choices, but I don’t see it. I have been choosing really chill music, in my opinion. The other link in that question/answer forum is called ManageMyMusic and it gives you a ton of lists; Top artists and tracks for the “Short Term (4 weeks),” the “Medium Term (6 months),” and for the “Long Term (Years).” I’ll give you my top ten for each category, though I know there will be overlapping. I obviously love everything I am about to include so please give this stuff a listen. You’re about to get an intimate peek at my soul.

Top artists -- Short Term (4 weeks)

Jon Bellion

Drake

Milky Chance

Hozier

Andrew Belle

Bazzi

Aaron Carter

Roy Woods

dvsn

Troy Sivan

I didn’t realize that I listened to that much Jon Bellion lately. I mean, he is fantastic. I just didn’t realize I listened to so much of him in the last month.

Top artists -- Medium Term (6 months)

Drake

Blackbear

Tory Lanez

Marc E. Bassy

Jon Bellion

Bazzi

Post Malone

Hozier

Aaron Carter

Sam Smith

I can say for DAMN SURE that Baby has heavily influenced who I listened to these past 6 months. Drake has always been my man but I never listened to Blackbear, Tory Lanez, or Marc E. Bassy before I met him.

Top artists -- Long Term (years)

Drake

Sam Smith

Troye Sivan

Andrew Belle

Justin Bieber

Jon Bellion

The Weeknd

Jessie Ware

Hozier

Tove Lo

None of that even remotely surprises me.

Top tracks -- Short Term (4 weeks)

Jessie Ware, You & I (Forever)

Hozier, Jackie and Wilson

Sabrina Claudio, Orion's Belt

Jon Bellion, Overwhelming

Jon Bellion, 2 Rocking Chairs

Vance Joy, Mess Is Mine

The 1975, Somebody Else

Jon Bellion, The Good In Me

JAHKOY, Still In Love

Young the Giant, Cough Syrup

This is all very "me" lately.

Top tracks -- Medium Term (6 months)

Alina Baraz, Show Me

6LACK, Learn Ya

Tory Lanez, I Sip

Blackbear, moodz (feat. 24hrs)

Marc E. Bassy, 4am

Tory Lanez, Skrt Skrt

Ansel Elgort, Supernova

Bazzi, Mine

Post Malone, Psycho (feat. Ty Dolla $ign)

R I T U A L, Better By Now

This list is definitely Baby-approved.

Top tracks -- Long Term (years)

Justin Bieber, The Feeling

Troye Sivan, WILD

ZAYN, PILLOWTALK

Snakehips, All My Friends

Tatiana Manaois, Helplessly

Bryson Tiller, Don't

Chris Stapleton, Tennessee Whiskey

Sam Smith, Not In That Way

Hozier, Work Song

A R I Z O N A, Let Me Touch Your Fire

Honestly, the first 5 tracks do surprise me a little, but that was back when I had my music on constantly when I was single and home alone quite often. I remember keeping those on repeat for hours at times, so I’m not sure how accurate that actually is only because of that fact. This was all super cool to see, though. Some of it was expected, some unexpected. Either way, I hope I gave you some new stuff to listen to! And you should check out for own profiles. Nice opportunity to learn a little about yourself.

This past weekend, it was pretty warm out. Baby and I wanted to get Nugget a sprinkler so I took the little one with me to the store aaaaand they were sold out. Due to all the warmth. So I bought Nugget some water guns instead. We got 2 smaller ones and 2 larger ones for THIRTEEN DOLLARS, TOTAL. YEAH. This s’mom was shocked by that price, that’s for sure. We played and sprayed when we got home. Baby and Nugget had some fun together. The first thing Nugget did when we filled his gun though was spray me right in the (get ready) vagina. Yes. Then he yells, “I’M SPRAYING YOU IN THE PARTS.” I was like, “Uhhhhh, let’s not spray anyone’s parts and also let’s talk about anyone’s parts. It’s not polite and those are private” LOL. He’s never said anything to me about private parts or anything so that was new to me. He walks into my room when I’m changing a fair amount of the time and I know for a fact he’s seen more than I meant him to, but he has never asked questions, pointed anything out, etc. I think it’s important to set an example for your children in the sense to be comfortable with their bodies and such. This might be a whole new chapter with Nugget! We will see. Enough about my “parts” and back to the water guns. Baby said that on one of the weeks that we don’t have Nugget, that he wants to do a water gun race with me. I got 2 free beach balls from Sprint when I got a new phone last week (among a ton of other free shit, which I'll tell y'all about soon) and Baby said we should see whoever can get the beach ball across our backyard the fastest by spraying them with the water guns. I honestly think that sounds more fun than any idea I've ever had LOL. It reminds me of when I almost bought us both Nerf guns. So, if things are little mundane (or even if they’re not) maybe you and your love should find your inner children together! Get water-balloons and have a water-balloon fight, chalk up your driveway, set up obstacle courses, have a scavenger hunt! You can make it interesting by making fun deals. Whoever loses has to make dinner, for example. I think we will try all of these ideas eventually.

Speaking of shopping with Nugget, I am in the process of teaching him about not asking for toys every time we go. Baby went through a break up after a 3 year relationship before we was with me. He told me that he felt awful that Nugget no longer had two people raising him and Baby made up for that by buying Nugget toys every time they went to the store. I could tell there was a reason why Nugget would ask like clockwork what toy he would get every time we went shopping. I have been working on breaking Nugget of that expectation, as well as working on having him appreciate the things he has at home. I explain to him Daddy and I only have a certain amount of dollars and that its usually only enough to buy what we needed from the store in the first place. He actually understands this concept very well. He always asks why we are going to the store, so I always have the opportunity to tell him what we need to buy. When we went to buy the sprinkler he asked me, "Can we get a toy from here?" and I replied with, "Buddy, remember what we came here for?" He answered correctly about buying a sprinkler. I said in a very positive tone, "Yep and I'm pretty sure we only have enough dollars for a sprinkler. And you also have a bunch of toys at home that you love to play with." We walked by a few things that piqued his interest. As we walked by some bubble-guns, he goes, "Oooh, those look fun. But we only have dollars to get the sprinkler." I was so proud of him for making this connection and also proud of myself for explaining it to him so that he really does understand this. I was raised by people who didn't explain things. It was always a "because I said so" type of world and I learned to accept it. I won't put Nugget in that world, though. I want him to recognize reasoning and be able to grasp why things are the way they are. He is incredibly intelligent and capable of knowing this information. I also want him to trust me and be honest with me as we grow together, so the first step is me trusting him and being honest with him first. Just wanted to share my super proud s'mom moment of the week. I'll be back tomorrow with new recipes for you!

[luuurien]

Ross From Friends - Tread

(Future Garage, UK Bass, House)

With more elation and greenery than most electronic artists, Felix Weatherall's Ross From Friends project has shown a forward-thinking mindset to garage and IDM compared to his nocturnal peers. On Tread, it's simply too much, and not much of excitement comes out as a result.

☆☆½

I was genuinely surprised when I hit the exact halfway point of Tread and found the entire second half of the record so unengaging. It's with no doubt the central issue I have with the record, and one I can't ignore for how odd it makes listening to this album for a repeat listen. Where other albums usually have so-so tracks dispersed throughout their tracklist, the fact that not a single one of the final six songs on Tread grabbed me makes it an impossibly difficult record to discuss. Because all of my issues sit in a single, huge spot on the album, sequentially spitting them all out feels intensely formulaic and bland. But, that's exactly how I felt listening to it. The first half of Tread is genuinely a good bit of indietronica fun, pitched up sampling pulled out of the Nicolas Jaar dance music camp and dark UK garage rhythms are admittedly textbook, but they're played with the kind of youthful brightness that's impossible to not smile at. Love Divide is a purring piece of deep house with clandestine synth work and warm drum pads that are built upon with soulful harmonies that don't dampen the energy built in the first few minutes of the track. Revellers and XXX Olympiad are both rippling garage cuts with shuffling grooves and keyboard work worthy of an ambient release if you took out all the bassy beats, and despite the repetition, they both stay engaging with Weatherall's understanding that truncated thumbnails of sound are sometimes all you need to add to do the trick. Grub, the final track of the album's first half and one of my favorites, gleefully sneaks in some Jon Hopkins piano balladry alongside techy intricate sample work that makes it one of the most addictive tracks on the record despite being one of its quaintest. All my issues with Tread begin from there. The second half of the album is filled with so much dead weight or, ironically, retread ground that I have a hard time getting into a second of it. Spatter / Splatter is one of the better cuts with its thick live drum samplings, but by the second half it is so fatigued that I can't even fall into the dreamy atmosphere the way I can for someone with a similarly homogeneous sound palette (Burial, Mount Kimbie). Run, at six minutes of genuine boredom, promises growth from its flatlining first four minutes with a driving synth lead and arena-style hand clapping, but it never gets to shine. It builds unbelievably high and then dissipates, and it's not like the rest of the song beforehand was exciting enough for this to work, either. Life in a Mind and closer Thresho_1.0 are both alright, but don't do enough with their more barren instrumental work to make me care for them much, Weatherall aiming for positive forward-thinking electronics and yet more unsure of how to get there than ever. More than anything, I'm just bored by the vast majority of Tread. I can understand the enjoyability of these tracks, especially in the drought of new garage and IDM music from its big names this year, but they just don't do anything for me. The repetition rarely is hypnotic enough to hold strong for these long track times, the songs themselves aren't all that exciting, either, and there's so many empty calories on Tread that I can't help but wonder if this would have worked much better as a leaner and sweeter EP. The lack of much memorable artistry found on Tread is the killing blow for me, and marks it as an album I have little reason to return to in full anytime soon.

[bumblebaubles]

fave kpop releases of 2*2* (im censoring the year it was awful)

La Di Da Everglow: So impactful, i have a bias towards 80s pop themed songs. 80s pop is so overdramatic and self indulgent with its poppy synth and deep dirty bass and la di da delivered on that. It *is* the song i blast at full volume going 75 on the freeway. literally my anthem, like what more can you want from a song. The girls are literally screaming at you for three minutes teling you to fuck the haters and get a bag while looking sexy ITS EVERYTHING. 

Love sick girls BlackPink: for some reason this one got me in the emotions. I cried listening it the first few times. its not often you get a pop release that also fucks with your feelings. last time i cried was feel special. This song is a rollercoaster. from hopelessness, to denial, to heartbreak ,to screaming at the raining sky  WHY DONT YOU LOVE ME like, ahhh plus rose and jisoo have writing credits so maybe its so emotion filled because its a passion project. their first writing credits on a song yay them. rose belting but we were born to be alone really did hurt my feelings ouch 10/10.

pporappipam sunmi: love story of the century what more can i say. I told you already i love 80s pop what did you expect from me? The soft vocals the soft purples the midnight 

5 STAR CL:is this what its like being in love? pporappipam and 5 star are the closest i’ll get to experiencing it. the lyrics go so well with the music. its hard not groove. its the slow song, its the love song, its the song you remember long after the relationship is gone and you listen back and smile through your tears bopped

Diver yooa: Ok you’ve heard i love 80s pop but what about 70s disco? yes yooa pprovided that for me. I’m very greatful, its powerful like a ballad, funky like a dancetrace, and catchy as a mother f*cker

wannabe Itzy: it doesnt even feel like wannabe came out this year but it did so let me go back in my head to march.the dance break, especially when you’re first seeing it is impactful. Its that heavy bass girl power bop that sustained me through finals week of the winter semester amen. The song really delivers on telling the listener to be unapologetically them. 

Bad girl woo!ah!: Theres so much about the song. I- where do I begin. I like that they take risks with the song, its not the normal pop bop formula thats popular nowadays. its still had a bit of a edm(?) type influence like wooah’s debut but theres also more sonically cohesive or better sounding things in the song as a whole, but they didnt lose their uniqueness either. The rap parts are killer, the dance break is weird and fun, and and the after chorus screams girl power. plus all the wooah girlies are so damn cute how can i not love

Tag Me weeekly: I literally never shut up about this song.I never shut up as soon as i heard it this was all that i talked about. this song IS for main characters. Its girls, its sassy, its retro its what me and the girls needed and weekly provided. 

tiger inside superm: how do i explain why i like tiger inside so much. It feels like an action movie track. But not any action movie track. Its like when the main character realizes their true power under pressure and starts kicking ass or something. 

black mamba aespa: its bassy fun. I described the concept as acid trip powepuff girls and i stand by it.  Feels like an action movie track which is why its next to tiger inside. Its canon that superm and aespa are connected or at least in the same universe, but give sm credit, notice how the high note at the end of black mamba is the similar to baekhyuns climax in tiger inside?

So bad stayc: ne, ne ,ne, ne, ne meoli meoli. ne meolisoge. Once again another love ballad pop song with high energy synth and bass. I ALREADY SAID THIS i love overdramatic self indulgent obnoious pop songs like im sorry im basic. when i first heard it there was something in it that reminded me of early 2000s pop but i couldnt put my finger on it. but once again overall bop im a sucker for melodramatic love songs bye

90s Love nct u: THIS IS HOW WE DO IT DA YEOGIE or something idk korean. point is out of all the nct 2020 releases this is my favorite. misfit and make a wish are a close second but my husband jeno is there so 

Bazooka Gwsn: NAN ANAJUL GEOYAAAAAAAAAAAA ugh its one of those songs that so chic? like something you’d strut down a runway too, or theres a shopping montage when your out on the town with the girls™. the whole synth pop upbeat swing thing it had going on is so freeing in a way. its feels airy summery and fun and when thar NAN CHAJAJUL GEOYAAAAA WHOAH hits its over.

better twice: gosh ok how do i explain myself im sticking to one song per artist and better beat out cant stop me i ok ok- chill let me explain. I do fucking LOVE 80S pop/city pop and i cant stop me was everything i love in an 80s song but when i first heard better it gave me the feeling. you know the feeling. that youve heard the song before and you already love it. I didnt even need to know the lyrics because the song is so nostalgic in its own way, i already pieced together it reminds me of a friendship/relationship we all wish we had. I listen to the song when im lonely and yes i tear up a bit ok i cry a lot.

got that boom secret number: it is a step up from who dis. and i liked who dis. who dis was basic harmless fun. got that boom though, GOT THAT BOOM though,,, 👀that chorus,, like bazooka, got that boom has the feeling of freedom and fun and colors and i stan it. when the girls say “Dance, dance. Dance. Get up dance” you know exactly what the fuck to do. Someone else pointed out that the lyrics in the chorus of who dis slows down. It takes its time to say what it needs to say and i feel like got that boom is the same way. especially ESPECIALLY when denise (i think) starts belting after jinny’s tounge twister rap. “Fly Fly Fly away -” for some reason it felt like spice girls but i cant place why. overall bopped.

Play Chungha: i had to pick one chungha song, its play. play is love, play is mischief, play is energetic,  play is end of the year spectacle all wrapped in one because chunga doesnt know how to flop. Something about the music in the chorus feels like it contrasts chunghas voice. Plus the influence from other cultures adds that spice. 

revolution: alexa i love you. shes so uwu. and this chorus splash of ice cold water in the face. alexa wants you to get the message shes yelling at me in the chorus “THIS IS A REVOLUTION_ REVOLUTION OF THE MIND” and then of course in alexa fashion theres a ridiculous dance break near the end. Its the talent for me love. 

home YEZI: once again, this song is probably the closest i’ll feel to romantic love. 10 for the vocals, ten for the song, 10 for the MV. 

MORE k/da: Does k/da count as a kpop group because im counting them as a kpop group first listen i wasnt sure during their brief intro but as soon as akalis part cae on i knew that once again a virtual character from a game had managed to become the singular pillar holding up the music industry yet again. the way the music cuts out and akali goes in, goes IN!  AND SHE DRAGGED ME IN WITH HER. SHE SAID “ Im giving you more cause im greater than, i never did numbers i hated them ( i paraphrased that lyric) , but all of my numbers are talking babe, got money like ms.monopoly” GOODBYE 

[fluidsf]

Project A2 01

Kadaitcha: Tar

Release year: 2019

Reviewed format: FLAC download of Kadaitcha self-released album as kindly provided by Kadaitcha

Welcome to the first review in the Project A2 series of reviews written based on releases I receive from artists and labels in the field of Noise and other related extreme experimental and underground music which also includes lighter styles of underground sounds too. In this review I’m excited to share with you the recently new released new album by Ukrainian group Kadaitcha titled Tar. The version I’m reviewing is the digital version of this album which is available from Kadaitcha’s own Bandcamp page, the files provided in the download were 24-bit/48kHz high resolution FLAC files, which is most likely also one of the options you can choose on Bandcamp if you purchase Tar there. Now, for people who have read my review of Flaming Pines’ excellent Kaleidoscope compilation, the name Kadaitcha is definitely not new but whilst there was some crunchy heaviness on that compilation too, this full album definitely gives the full picture of Kadaitcha’s dark, murky but also surprisingly varied sound. The group consisting of Andrei Kojoohar and Yuri Samson blends a lot of at times quirky but also often quite harsh synth experimentation, noisy guitars which at times form riffs but oftentimes fall into a stream of hazy noise and vocals that appear on multiple tracks on Tar, at times ritual, other times manic and wild. Acoustic drums feature too, albeit it often almost masked by the masses of sound Kadaitcha created but drum machine is used too with a Krautrock like sound to it. Archaic music is one of the influences of Kadaitcha’s sound and whilst the group has a feel for spaced out craziness the dark, low and mid frequency focussed sound palette definitely emits a lot of this kind of ancient, primitive intriguing type of trance atmospheres which appear to be directly connected to imagery of dusty caves, black earth and indeed the Tar from the album title. Running for a full hour, the album is also one of the longest releases the group has recorded so far so full immersion is encouraged. Indeed, let’s immerse ourselves in these 7 tracks.

First track Idle Hands starts of with a sparse melody played on guitar in mellow strummed chords and separate tones backed my mechanical whirring, squealing and hissy steam like high pitched noises, in the background resonant sampled and widely auto panned ambience pads add a mysterious ghostly ambience to the whole. The guitar’s tone’s also gradually become modulated through reverse. This section crossfades into a stronger more fierce stream of sound which still features some squelchy mechanical elements but now the guitar plays strong at times dissonant power chords, strange manipulated samples of vocal music and AM radio blending through the tense ambience like manic ghosts. This section then moves through a short period of metallic liquid like synth noises into the heaviest part of the track, the finale, which starts of with a thunderous rumbling bassy electronic drum rhythm with a crunchy, bitcrushed Industrial Techno like sound. A clean rhythmic guitar melody enters which quickly morphs into a distorted droney kind of Noise which is backed by further feedback laden sweeps of Noise, emphasised resonant howls from the bit crushed percussion and the strange manipulated vocal music samples return, the piece eventually ends with a single rhythmic guitar drone taking much of the foreground within the piece. It’s great how Kadaitcha builds most of the tracks on Tar as composition with multiple parts which progress throughout and blend melodic Rock elements with a lot of imaginative Noise, synth effects and sound manipulations which give the music this unique Post / Drone Rock kind of feel in how Noise is blended with traditional composition techniques whilst still retaining the energy, variation and sonic qualities that the Noise, Power Electronics and Death Industrial styles have within at times more chaotic structural frameworks. It’s good that Kadaitcha also doesn’t spoil the heavier extremes still to follow on the album, on this track. 2219 F then brings us a piece which takes the noisy side of guitar Drone as its main focus with most of the track being taken up by a swirling see of fuzzy distorted dramatic guitar drone, backed by galloping rimshot heavy acoustic drums which don’t quite drown in the drones but rather float quite easily. Before this fiery action erupts however, the piece starts with the mysterious sounds of strange filtered glimmering synth tones, bug like clicking sounds and various high pitched synth effects culminating in 8-bit styled digging through the crushed bits that eventually transitions to the sea of guitar drone. The waves of guitar drone are interrupted in one moment in which the eerie atmosphere of the start of the piece returns until the guitar hits again, once again enveloping us into the melodic, harmonically rich Noise. In this second wave of Noise fragile brittle high pitched fuzzy synth enter, adding some melodic variations to the drone. I like how Kadaitcha have found a curious way to create an ambience like a strange tribal fire ritual within this piece through the juxtaposition of the guitar Noise that also feels like instrumental Drone Metal in a way and the Earth like organic sonic elements and high pitched piercing tones give it that rough muddy, dirt filled edge of primal activities out in the open merciless nature. Afterwards on Ran, Kadaitcha turn up the Noise factor itself quite a bit more with a piece that features heavy a Rhythmic Noise groove made up of a heavily distorted kick and various distorted hits and heavily spring reverb manipulated metallic percussive elements. The melodic part of the piece is driven by a surprisingly clean sounding guitar riff, but as I mentioned, the blasting metallic screechy mayhem is where I feel most of the fun in this track is. The Noise rhythms and additional screeches shift in tempo in relation to the guitar riff which causes interesting polyrhythms within the piece and the manipulations of rhythmic and straight screeches make for richly varying energetic shapes of crunch and metallic rumble. Variations on the main guitar melody enter in the second half too however, in which the rhythmic Noise also follows the strumming with marching steel footsteps pounding in wide stereo reverb making for a slow but sure climax towards a solid stream of stuttering hollow malfunctioning alien machinery sounds, to put it into more “poetic” words. Then on Saima Kadaitcha move between interesting juxtapositions of elements, starting with a combination of squelchy synth effects, metallic reverberated vocals as well as cleaner Ritual like chanting featuring the word Saima from the title amongst other words. An again metallic sounding distorted drum machine rhythm which has some extremely panned stereo reverb creating that metallic sound gives the music a steady easy-going pace, as well as a pulse with the accent being the bassy kick drum, with tom and snare percussion adding some extra texture to the sound of the piece which especially in the final part of the track move into a much more distorted direction. A heavily rhythmic droning wall of resonant dissonant guitar strumming is the main focus of the piece tonally, taking up a considerable amount of its total length, with strangely turning additional guitar chords creating this Jazz like kind of odd juxtaposition between the two guitar parts. The guitar ambience is hypnotic and intensely gripping but also still keeps you within the realm of a kind of cult or mysterious religious ritual. The aforementioned last part of the track is where things get quite crazy, transitioning through a quirky little section of metallic guitar improvisation into an ever increasing wall of resonant distorted rhythmic mush formed by the drum machine, with the ritual vocals from earlier returning into more abstracted wordings (these don’t featuring during most of the droning guitar part of Saima in fact. The hovering wall of distorted mush which also wildly vibrates between the two stereo channels eventually erupts into screeching mono feedback which subtly fades out ending the piece in quite an explosive piercing finale. It’s great how Saima features both these hypnotic ritual elements and metallic Industrial experimentation in such a smooth composition with the tonal and textural aspects of the piece making for an equally entrancing as well as exploratory listen into the resonances and “breaking” aspects of the increasing distortion of the rhythmic pulse. Afterwards on Eclipse Kadaitcha envelop us in a monolithic wall of squelchy heavily distorted Noise. Featuring mouth harp like heavily distorted synth squelches, twisting stereo synth effects, dark auto-panned vocals and distant mysterious samples of vocal music, the music again moves into Ritual territory but with that now familiar raw Kadaitcha edge of intense mayhem. The vocals themselves are mostly death-themed and have this growled quality to them, but it’s the combination of the vocals with the excellently layered mixture of distorted synth effects and cleaner synth and sound manipulations that circle around your head as the piece progresses. The second half of Eclipse brings in more melodic elements in the form of a bass and electric guitar melody as well as a fiery mixture of acoustic and electronic drums. I’d say the qualities in Eclipse are definitely in the mysterious ambience that is created in the first half of the piece by the mixture of the music samples and Noise elements as well as the way the piece moves towards a great rocking climactic outburst in the second half. The guitar riff in the second half is nicely dramatic and the synth sounds and sound manipulations go particularly mental in this part of Eclipse. It’s definitely a piece that is more of a straight up Noise (Rock) jam but very enjoyable and relentless in that sense, just loosen up and go with the rawness of this one. Afterwards follows what is definitely one of my favourite tracks on Tar, which is Serpent Hill. Perfectly fitting its title the piece does indeed featuring these very tasty squelchy warped distorted synth sounds, making up what does indeed sound like this strange mountain of organic muck, with the filtered liquid like synth effects adding a lot of great organic details to the sound image in general. It definitely does sound very physical and alien in nature. Glitchy synth effects add some great stereo details to the sound too, very rough and nicely hissy. Furthermore we can hear some lovely growling deep and resonant serpent-themed vocals which quite kick into the mix like a hefty layer, the delay applied to them also helps to create extra space in the piece. A piercing distorted feedback loop overtime moves us towards the climax of the piece which features some intensely bassy, banging Industrial Techno drums alongside some great stereo crackled rhythmic additional layer of distortion and some very intense and even more resonant (seemingly modulated) wordless growled vocals. I’d say the many strengths of this piece especially got to do with how focussed the sound design of the distorted sounds is combined with the exciting progression of the piece which gives me both a feeling of very crisp murky sonic imagery but also plenty of raw Noise intensity which works great without losing definition of the separate layers within the piece. Being one of the most texture focussed pieces on Tar it still has a lot of brooding curious life within it that is very immersive, dirty but enjoyable. Final piece Yatagarasu then combines pretty much all elements Kadaitcha used on Tar up until this piece into an extended wild Noise jam. Based around a grungy and nicely clicky distorted drum machine groove the piece is quite like an in the moment improvisation of various layers of sound constantly moving, changing and intensifying. We have quite a lot of synth effects which are often very squelchy, rubbery in texture and mostly quite high pitched though with some great low-end thumps in them too at times. There are some wild screechy vocals in here too, sounding quite inhuman but also quite humorous in a very weird way. There is some nice jazzy guitar freak out in the piece too, which is amusingly clean sounding too. Towards the beginning of the piece there are also the sounds of what I’m guessing are circular saws, which are definitely quite fitting in the general chaos of the piece. But besides these elements the main drum groove itself also goes through great tasty distorted feedback laden manipulations which also accentuate the noise used within the drums themselves for some Rhythmic Noise flavouring and some funky cowbell does get added to the mix at some point even. A deep bassy drone flows along in the background of the piece too. Yatagarasu eventually reaches is disintegrating finale with much fire and sonic mayhem, I won’t spoil that however as it’s best to check it out yourself. With Yatagarasu we’ve reached the end of Tar by Kadaitcha. Tar is a quite varied album of dark, raw and energetic experimental Electro-Acoustic music which has a great general flow to it and an excellent balance of more conceptually focussed Ritual like pieces and more chaotic Noise jams. Kadaitcha’s consistency in their sound, which mixes harsh synth sound design, punchy saturated drums, hazy guitars and energetic vocals performed in various styles makes Tar a very enjoyable and great album throughout it’s full 1 hour playing time. This is a great listen for fans of dark, murky experimental Electro-Acoustic music, Ritual music, Noise, Power Electronics and Death Industrial as the mixture of influences Kadaitcha embeds in their music always makes for surprising new turns and imaginative experimentation though always fed through their own musical imagery of darkness and mystery. Definitely a recommended album, so go check this album out. You can purchase Tar as a digital download from Kadaitcha's Bandcamp page here: https://kadaitcha.bandcamp.com/album/tar?fbclid=IwAR06Ysi9EGAi9yKxXU5pLwzbg1za-KKIo1VNUh8dK_iTlU94YY3Wjg9yU9w

[persondudeman]

10 Albums I Fucking Loved in 2018

Howdy y’all! I’m fuckin’ late to the year end stuff but that’s because I actually needed some time to think about what to say and who to pick for my favorites list this year! As always, these are only in a particular order for me but all of them are very interesting albums that you should totally check out. So without further Adieu let’s get to the list!

10. ATMOSPHERES - REACH

This is one of those albums that you know if you’ll like it or not after the first few tracks. To be honest, you either sing along to the middle guitar riff of MORPH or you don’t and that’s kinda just how it is! ATMOSPHERES makes a very particular brand of airy but also heavy but also minimal but also complex metal that’s hard to pin down in words but you’ll know exactly what it is once you hear it and straight up it’s a real love it or hate it kinda thing. For me I personally fuckin’ love the juxtaposition of the djenty super heavy riffs along with the airy vocals and production but I can very easily see somebody hating this exact type of thing. If any of the adjectives I used to describe this call out to you, I suggest giving it a shot and seeing what you think!

9. Good Tiger - We Will All Be Gone

This one is just straight up fun y’all! I’ve been following Good Tiger for a hot minute and I loved the shit out of A Head Full of Moonlight back when it came out. Hell, I funded the original Indiegogo campaign!

With this, Good Tiger refines their sound breaking away from the metal origins of the band members’ pasts and creating something unique to them. Everything good about A Head Full of Moonlight is still here. Elliot Coleman’s unique vocals, electrifying dual riffs from Joaquin Ardiles and Dez Nagle, and the strong rhythmic backbone of Alex Rudinger and Morgan Sinclair without the need of the harsh vocals or heaviness that some tracks would use as a crutch.

What they traded in for surface level technical flair they got back in spades with their commitment to songwriting making for some of the most infectious songs they’ve released yet! I know for a fact I couldn’t get Such A Kind Stranger, The Devil Thinks I’m Sinking, or Ninteen Grams out of my head for a good while after I listened to them. At a tight as FUCK under 40 minutes, this album is one that you can easily replay again and again. And you’ll fuckin’ want to if you get those songs stuck in your head! Good Tiger has grown from the ashes of their metal past and is all the stronger for it!

8. Between the Buried and Me - Automata

Okay hear me out on this one. I love Between the Buried and Me but in order for me to get into listening to them, I gotta be on a kick. I can’t just pop in a BTBAM record. Partly because their albums are a bit on the longer side and partly because they have a very particular songwriting style that I need to be in the mood to listen to. Some days I just can’t handle those transitions, y’know? So you’ll need to believe me that it isn’t just fanboy squealing when I say I wasn’t ready for this album. Not to mention they arbitrarily decided to split it into two separate albums even though its length is just fine as one album. Their last album Coma Ecliptic was a hair longer than this one and it fit on one album just fine! How am I supposed to listen to this thing and really take it all in if you release it piecemeal?? Anyway, enough griping about the album’s release. In terms of actual musical content, they’ve really done something great here! They took the scale of Coma Ecliptic but let it have a broader scope so instead of the big, indulgent rock opera they use the same resources to go back to the kitchen sink approach of Colors and The Great Misdirect to really flesh out the parts that were just brief flirtations with other sounds on previous records. What I’m especially noticing on this outing is a real southern rock kind of flavor. ESPECIALLY on the album closer, The Grid where near the end they go out and deliver some killer SQUEALING blues riffs and it’s some of the straight up coolest shit I’ve heard all year.

Should this be your first BTBAM album? Probably not, That should either be Colors or The Great Misdirect but it’s a worthy album in BTBAM’s prolific and excellent catalogue that fans and people wanting to become fans should totally listen to.

7. Oceans of Slumber - The Banished Heart

Okay listen, I went through a bad breakup (and kinda still am going through it let’s be real) at the end of 2018 and I discovered this band right after I got broken up with. To be honest I kind of needed this. The fact that it’s a woman of color fronting a doom metal band would be enough to get me intrigued but then I heard the title track off of this album. I was blown away and the rest of the album capitalizes on the energy promised by the singles.

Cammie “God Damn” Gilbert has some of the most radiant and emotional vocals I’ve heard all year with such a commanding presence and control of her instrument that sends chills up my spine whenever she sings. Combine that with crushing, doomy, riffs from the trio of Sean Gary, Keegan Kelly, and Anthony Contreras as well as drumming and occasional beautiful piano playing by Dobber Beverly and it creates a dense and intense mixture.

If this list was ranking pure emotional power, this would be #1. With the aforementioned dismaying production and powerful vocals, this thing also packs a lyrical gut punch of equal parts grief, longing, and righteous anger. This isn’t just an album to feel sad to. This is for when you need to purge yourself of emotions. It’s the sonic equivalent of going out into the forest and primally screaming where nobody but you can hear you and I fucking love it. Admittedly I haven’t listened to it much because it’s a very powerful and very tough one to sit through so I need to be in the right frame of mind for it but if you ever feel like this might be up your alley I strongly urge you to give it a shot.

6. Alithia - The Moon Has Fallen

Alithia has stumbled onto something amazing here with The Moon Has Fallen. They seem to have carved out a genre of spacey, tribal, psychedelic prog rock that’s entirely unique to them crafting really creative arrangements that honestly need to be heard. If this list were based on pure creativity, this would probably be my #1 because of how interesting the avenues it goes down are. From the warbling, echoey, gigantic sounding guitars to the vocals that do everything from soft melodies to yells to the atmospheric synths, Alithia does something else on this album. There’s 2 fuckin’ drummers here for godsake that's gotta count for something! What this album totally should be is an album to expand minds to. Like, if you wanna reach the next plane of existence or something, put on The Sun or Breathe or Blood Moon and I’m almost certain that you’ll attain enlightenment or something.

5. Covet - effervescence

If I really wanted to I could put a picture of that good vibes only cup here again and I totally will but I want to stress that Covet is really good and while they have a similar chill vibe to last year’s pick CHON. It is ever so slightly different. CHON’s vibes are beachy and crunchy whereas Covet is very foresty and soft. All those 8tracks playlists about forest nymphs, replace them with Covet songs and it’ll totally fit.

4. VOLA - Applause From A Distant Crowd

If I did awards, I would probably give VOLA the “most improved” award of this year. Their previous album Inmazes was very unique and demonstrated some really interesting potential with their sound but Applause From A Distant Crowd just came in and fuckin’ blew all of that out of the water!

A lot of the fans of Inmazes bemoan how this album was lacking in the heavy department but honestly, I think that’s part of why this works so well! There’s a dime a dozen progressive metal acts that’ll just throw out some super heavy djent riffs over odd time signatures and call it a day but it takes a really good band to find the elements of that style and really make it their own and that’s what VOLA has done here.

From the synths to the emphasis on clean vocals to the melody focus of the album one can tell right away that this is a different beast but one that is entirely VOLA’s own. Outside of the aesthetic synths you have the distinctive vocals of Asger Mygind who has an intriguing low register that I rarely hear in progressive metal vocalists. His voice offers a great texture to the music. Add in a much tighter, controlled songwriting style and Applause From A Distant Crowd makes for an endlessly listenable, utterly unique experience that I urge all of you to check out.

3. Dance Gavin Dance - Artificial Selection

Okay, y’all know me right? If you’ve seen any of my lists before you’ll know that I’m a big Dance Gavin Dance fan and any year they make a new record they’re almost bound to have a spot on my favorites list and pretty high at that. This feels like a career defining moment for DGD because this is the most consistent lineup they’ve had in forever and with how shaken up the fanbase has been with the frequent lineup changes over the years, a sense of calm feels like foreboding as clean vocalist Tilian Pearson and bassist Tim Feerick head in for an unprecedented fourth album.

As always, DGD fuckin’ killed it with this one. This time they transition into pop inspired production and songwriting that absolutely destroys when paired with their technical ability and overall style. Tracks like Care with its infections chorus, Count Bassy with its big leading vocals, and the anthemic closing track Evaporate all culminate to make another glorious heavy, funky, crazy, catchy album that’s become a staple for DGD. In fact Evaporate was so fuckin’ good that people legitimately thought the band was going to end after it because it was so big and final. Like, straight up y’all it’s just fuckin’ good. There’s only so many words I can use to describe it but Dance Gavin Dance has crafted another collection of rad ass tunes and it’s just fuckin’ good babey!

2. Time the Valuator - How Fleeting How Fragile

Oooh! We got some new blood on the list! And they’re really high too! “What is this?” I hear some of you asking. Well, Time the Valuator are a band I’ve been following for a good minute. Back in 2017 I saw them trickle out singles for what would eventually become this new album and needless to say I was pretty hype because they showcased something I really cherish and that is crossover appeal! Do you have a friend who you think is ready for something harder than Hands Like Houses but think the overtly djent-y style of Periphery might be too much for them to handle? Time the Valuator is for you!

Their style runs the gambit of more accessible post hardcore fair on songs like In Control and Elusive Reasons to the technical flair of Terminus and Starseeker to extremely emotional songs like Heritage and When I Met Death. Careful listeners will catch many different influences like the aforementioned Periphery but also the cadence of a certain singer from The Contortionist on How Fragile. Their influence may be in progressive metal but their style is more accessible than any prog metal band and it’s a joy to listen to. The standout performances on this thing are Rene Möllenbeck who in addition to delivering really nice riffs does all the piano bits on this thing. Pay attention to the tracks, When I Met Death, Heritage, and Starseeker to see this man’s pianowork in action. The other standout are the absolutely killer vocals of Phil Bayer who can do everything from a careful midrange to a high as hell falsetto and everything in between all while having a great amount of power. Standout tracks for him are In Control where he and Breathe Atlantis vocalist Nico Schiesewitz dual to see who the more soulful one is, Starseeker where he pierces the high heavens with his voice, and When I Met Death where he delivers the most somber of performances.

This album was one hell of a surprise and I cannot wait for what Time the Valuator has next. Do yourself a favor and give this a listen!

1. Polyphia - New Levels New Devils AND Andres - Heroes, Villains, and All That Jazz

What??? 2 albums get to be number 1?? How?? Well, I realize I’ve never been exactly consistent with how I pick my number 1. One year it’ll be how emotional the album is, another year it’ll be the one I liked the most, and this year it’s something completely different! I’ve picked these two as my number 1 because I think these two artists made some of the biggest strides in terms of moving the genre forward and their embrace of styles outside of traditional rock and roll music is integral to that. I believe that if we want rock to actually be relevant to the listening public again, it needs to take cues from different genres and not be influenced by the same crop of 60’s and 70’s rock. I love that style as much as the next guy, but it is the exact opposite of relevant or frankly even interesting in the world of rock music. These two bands I feel did something really interesting and any band looking to push boundaries or do something interesting in the following years should look to these albums as inspiration. So without further Adieu let me actually talk about the albums themselves.

Polyphia - New Levels New Devils

I’ve been a big fan of Polyphia ever since their first album Muse came out but as I’ve grown as a listener I started to realize that a lot of their music ESPECIALLY pre Renaissance is kinda indistinguishable from other instrumental bands with high levels of technical skills and something tells me Polyphia themselves realized this too. In a world with fifty thousand guitarists, you can’t be famous for being the most fast or the most technical because every single guitarist is gunning to be the next rock god. Realizing this, Polyphia has done what I think is a great move and transitioned from the prog kids noodling out riffs to style icons or to quote a twitter user

“[sic] old Polyphia concerts were a bunch of prog kids standing around in silence, currently Polyphia concerts are where a bunch of super hot people beat the shit out of each other and do cocaine in the mosh pit”.

Their music captures this superbly. If I told you that instrumental progressive rock worked well with trap influences, you’d probably laugh at me. However, upon hearing tracks like Nasty, G.O.A.T, Saucy, and even the poppy So Strange, it is evident that Polyphia didn’t just use this influence as a gimmick but as a full fledged stylistic incorporation. This leads to some of the most interesting soundscapes of the year, absolutely SAVAGE bass and drum work, and it culminates in an aesthetic that is unique to Polyphia in the prog scene. I really can’t wait to see what they do next and I hope it’s just as ambitious as this.

Andrés - Heroes, Villains, and All That Jazz

Daaang, 2 years in a freakin’ row?? I’m being entirely serious here when I say Andrés completely knocked it out of the park this year. I had high expectations for this because that last album was really good and this one completely shattered it. What Andrés does on this thing that is so special is that he demonstrates his abilities as something of a musical chameleon. Vocally and stylistically he can do anything from R&B to an emo cadence to even shrieks and he uses these influences superbly in his songwriting, crafting tightly written, expertly performed bundles of greatness into every track that have a great range but also an accessibility that rivals even the best of modern pop music.

Lyrically, he displays an awareness that was lacking on his previous release and as the album progresses you get a fuller picture of the person singing, his past, his insecurities, his flaws, and the patterns he finds himself in. To the point where once Poetry comes on and he’s screaming “And the truth is I would give up anything including you just to be famous”, it makes the lines in previous songs like “I ain't stopping till I'm big as Michael Jackson” sound like a threat.

The fact that he is influenced by so many genres and styles outside of rock would be reason enough to put him on this list. The songwriting is excellent! But what puts it over the edge is even in some of the saddest emo music, I haven’t heard anybody be as open and honest about their own shortcomings as Andrés gets on this thing. If anything, what rock music needs is some god damn vulnerability. So much of rock music is steeped in elitism and garbage that we need unique voices now more than ever to make us take a look in the mirror and examine ourselves, to try new things and to experiment and I think Andrés and Polyphia did that the best this year.

[geggidys]

Spirit

TLDR; It’s very early on a Wednesday, I rambled hard. I fucking love this album and you can pry it from my goddamn hands when I’m dead

It’s just been fascinating to me lately how different other people’s reviews have been for this album! Seeing older fans and newer/younger fans love and hate the album for different reasons.

Granted, I do consider myself a newer fan. Sure, Just Can’t Get Enough, Personal Jesus, Master & Servant, Sweetest Perfection, Enjoy The Silence were already known to me and I had them already in my iTunes chilling around, but it was just a few years ago when I went “Hey, I want to listen to the entirety of Violator because I hadn’t yet, hey let me listen to this Songs Of Faith And Devotion album right after.”

I love electronic music. My late nineties, early aughts were full of a bunch of techno and trance whatever I could find on Kazaa (remember that shit I SURE DO). I still have some Blank & Jones and Scooter from that time, that just never wanted to leave. Know what else I love when it comes to music?

Atmosphere.

It takes a lot for me to hate an album. I don’t think there’s an album I’ve listened to that I actually legitimately hate. Songs, maybe, but I stay away from them when I do. When I listen to an album, I love the songs for their own reasons to varying degrees and then figure out the feel of the album. Ultra actually took a while for me to like because I couldn’t find a feel to the album, so I disregarded it until I gave it another listen and found its feeling, at least to me. A person going through a dream and a nightmare in the same night.

When the world was introduced to the era of peche under Ben Hillier, we got Playing The Angel. This loud, all over force of an album that just had SO MUCH in it and man. It was good! Sure it’s funny when you’re going from Goodnight Lovers on Exciter to A Pain That I’m Used To and its goddamn Inception bwongs, but that energy continues into John The Revelator and into Suffer Well and even into the less intense The Sinner In Me and Precious. Each of the songs on PTA felt similar no matter what their pace was.

Sounds Of The Universe is weird. It is. Because of the feel of the album, it’s definitely one of those, with all its exaggerated bip-boops, that some of songs by themselves seem out of place, but playing them in sequence from the album, they make more sense. It’s like SOTU is one song in multiple parts. 

(That said holy shit Come Back and Corrupt amirite)

And then we got Delta Machine. I. Man. I love DeMa, it’s bassy and swaggy but I will admit, it did have a few weak spots. And I know people that love the weak spots on that album. Welcome To My World is one of my favorite peche openers, Angel is great, Heaven is great, Secret To The End ... I don’t know what it was? I couldn’t latch on to that song. Or My Little Universe. Or Broken. Soft Touch Raw Nerve. Alone. The vocals with the music just didn’t seem to match.

The 4-year void is full of MG and Angels & Ghosts, my workout album and “I’M GETTING EMOTIONAL ON A 4 HOUR CAR RIDE HOME OVER MY SUN” album respectively.

When we were getting more and more bts news of Spirit in March and April of last year, and we all found out about James Ford, I got excited. One, because new producer, woop! Two, because he’s worked with Arctic Monkeys and Florence and Foals, which is some good pop I’ll be honest. 

I did, unfortunately, listen to the album when the leak came out. I did a first taste, recorded it, then deleted the album to wait for its proper release. As I started writing this, I started the album, and Poison Heart has just finished.

When Going Backwards starts, it isn’t the heavy bass beat of Welcome To My World, it isn’t the startup of a modular system of In Chains, it isn’t the... bwongs of A Pain That I’m Used To. It isn’t remarkable, just a piano and a simple beat. As Dave starts to sing, and then he finishes, and the music swells a bit more, there’s already something. There doesn’t seem to be a fight over the music or the vocals. One isn’t louder or more intense than the other, like the vocals are their own instrument and actually a part of the song? Martin’s backing vocals are there in support and it doesn’t feel like it’s overpowering Dave like some bits of Delta Machine felt?

Everything is balanced what the fresh hell is this.

Then Where’s The Revolution starts. We know this song by now. Going from the first song to this, the synth is there. It isn’t exaggerated like SOTU. But there’s something else starting now before Dave starts singing about how we’re getting pissed on. There’s that subtle... like a guitar string stroke, that sounds like train wheels on a track, before it continues to be just a subtle guitar through the rest of what Dave’s singing before the chorus repeats. I love that shit. And the train rhythm on “train” and “coming” and “get” and “board”.

What’s that going on in my brain? Is that. Is that atmosphere returning on a Depeche Mode album?

The Worst Crime starts. It feels like Gone Too Far from The Light The Dead See. Which is my favorite song from that album, diggin’ that already. Yeah this song is political I mean it’s talking about a lynching ffs, it’s slow, and that buildup is a goddamn tease. Again, though, the bass and the treble aren’t overpowering each other. You’re still stamping your foot to the drums, then it stops.

Scum. I love Scum. Have I said I loved Scum I fucking love Scum. There was a review that described it as My Little Universe getting drunk and hanging out with bad people at a club and it still makes me laugh because it does. Dave’s... abusing the microphone dust filter as he’s singing it but it adds to that - gasp my heart - atmosphere of it being this omnipresent whatever following this, well, scum, around. Then  we get to that “You wouldn’t even offer up your crumbs/to the dying/and the crying/you’re dead inside you’re numb/you’re hollow/you’re shallow/your empty life is done” and it just feels like a threatening lean-in before the “PULL THE TRIG-AH” and man. Man. Man.

So what’s next. You Move. Oh my heart. It starts like a sleaze and while it isn’t Deeper And Deeper from Hourglass sleaze it’s still a sleaze. There’s a good low bass, these reversing forward and back quick bips of something and that lead-in effect on Dave’s vocals makes it, oh no I’m saying the word again, feel smokey and whispy and just something you want to throw twenties at. The lyrics are simple but I don’t care I’m throwing my money at it I LIKE THE WAY YOU MOVE FOR ME TONIGHT.

Then it ends, then an organ. Then “I felt better.” Cover Me. Now, sure, like any song this could’ve sounded different in lots of ways. But this is perfect. It feels empty, purposefully. A void of space and stars, like you’re sitting alone in a field at night and looking up. Then the 2:40 mark and the remaining 2:15 is just drifting, but speeding up, building up to something and you’re going somewhere. I love it. Even the Alt Out mix of this song is fantastic and satisfies the Blank & Jones I used to listen to. (Also reminds me of Science & Machinery by Andy Stott, for some reason?)

Eternal is now starting. We get another organ, and Martin’s fallen angel of a perfect voice sings “Oh little one, I will protect you” and I feel all verklempt because it was definitely written around when his daughter was born around this time last year. It’s Addams Family-like, there’s an odd dread to it, and you figure it’s just him being gothic as it talks about black clouds and something that starts with ra as he drags that a bit and you’re thinking oh, it’s rain. But it’s a different word, and the black cloud is something else and you get this “Oh NO.” feeling as that dread throughout the rest of the song is now something less campy and A LOT MORE SERIOUS, and at the climax of the song - ack atmosphere I’m dying help I love it I can’t-

Now we get twangs, and a heavy drum, and Dave singing about Poison Heart. Honestly, this should’ve been Delta Machine. This whole song. It ravels around something, then suddenly unwinds into this mess of intense before it ravels and coils around again like thorns. You know Dave’s tattoo on his left arm? The heart with the thorns across it and the elongated cross-shape piercing down from the top of it? That’s it, that’s Poison Heart.

And suddenly we’re all going to bop to So Much Love. It’s like I Feel Loved met A Question of Time at a party, broke a window or two or five, and are now running from the cops. Sure, any of the layers of synth in this song could have been louder than any other, I’m sure you can figure out which layer I’m talking about, but they weren’t, they’re busy being crisp and playing off of each other. 

We’re back to being political with Poorman, and at this point I really don’t mind because I’m still coming down from the high of the last song, that the mid-tempo of this song and the continuing, not even sure if it’s a guitar note dragging out or not after the half-way point, is getting my pulse evened out. Sure this song isn’t my top five on the album at all, but again we get a nice balance and something I won’t skip if the album is playing in my car or in my headphones like some songs on Delta Machine might.

I’m always wary about peche songs that have titles like No More (This Is The Last Time), it reminds me of Soft Touch Raw Nerve or Miles Away/The Truth Is and I love the latter a lot more than the former. Everything is low, it’s like it belongs in a movie when two characters are facing each other on a cloudy city day and have to turn around and walk away from each other within the three minutes the song lasts. Man isn’t atmosphere great?

Speaking of low, the last song is sung by Martin, and fuck when did we get so blessed? He’s normally second-to, from Blue Dress going into Clean, One Caress going into Higher Love, The Bottom Line going into Insight, or Jezebel  going into Corrupt. But nope, Martin gets the last say this time, and going by the feel of the album I don’t mind that at fucking all. Because I got to hear Martin sing the word “fucked”. The synths seem their purest in this song, like an updated Speak & Spell, it feels 80s but we know it isn’t. It’s 2017. 

Depeche Mode is evolving. Some older fans don’t want that but hey sit down shut up for a second. 

They are evolving. For the over three decades they’ve been around, the rise-rise-rise they had, building their... little world of their own brand of darkness that isn’t really darkness, the explosion of everything of Songs Of Faith And Devotion, the tiny sprout in the ashes that was Ultra, the start of wildflowers that was Exciter, the sudden expanse of flora that was PTA, SOTU and DeMa. So what’s Spirit? Well, in all the trees and the light and the dark in the world that’s been here forever, Spirit is the final piece. Spirit is the deer in the distance, looking at us and acknowledging us. It came from somewhere, it may have already been here, we may have heard of it from the people that knew of it since their world was forming. But we’re finally seeing it for ourselves. 

ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

[superstusenpai]

Top Albums of 2016: #5-1

Alright, the last post for a while, I imagine. The previous titles are all favorites, but these top 5 albums, the second i heard them, I knew they were special. Each one of these I’ve listened to maybe 20 times. Each addicting in its own way. if you only read one post, read this, and check out these albums. Can you guess the top ones? I may surprise you...

#5: Black Terry Cat - Xenia Rubinos

A newcomer to my ears, and holy crap what a find. Xenia is a force. The beats are so funk driven entwined with lyrics that range from spunky to profound to both. And the vocals. Oh man the vocals. This woman spins her voice as an instrument in such a brilliant way. Trying to describe her, it’s hard to not sound contradictory. Her music is some hybrid of some Lauryn Hill, some Esparanza Spalding, a dash of Winehouse and Dessa, and yet it is still so unique it’s unmistakably her. 

Her music reeks of purpose. Being Afro-Caribbean, Xenia reaches out to several people and their different cultures. Whether the songs are light or pounding with heavy bass, they are thick in message. It’s rich. The bow on this entire package is that Xenia is full of surprises. keyboard and drums one song, followed by two basses the next? This album is stupendous and deserves more love. Your love. please indulge.

#4: We Got It From Here...Thank You 4 Your Service - A Tribe Called Quest

This is one of the greatest sins in music I’ve committed: I’ve never taken the time to listen to A Tribe Called Quest. Never against them or anything, just never sat down and chose to listen. But like many other stories I’ve told earlier in this list, I figured a new album is as good time to try as any. And....wow....simply put, this is my kind of rap. It took me a second, but I figured where the hook for me was. You see, my first easing into rap was through Adult Swim during the mid-2000′s. The bumps in between shows were always backed by these incredible beats. Eventually, I had to hear the whole song, not just the few seconds on cable. This east coast sound is really hard to top, and after doing some backtracking on Quest’s discography, it’s easy to see that the sound I’m so in love was definitely made possible by them. 

The mixture of killer production and lyrics that match the rhythm consistently make for incredible songs. And while they’ve never been anything but amazing, the years and experience have helped Tribe Called Quest perfect their grasp. There are no real drags in the album as I can remember. Each is single worthy, and like all of the top 4, I knew the second I finished it, it was a 5 star album. Whether to reflect on our society or to simply have something to dance to, this album is absolute gold.

#3: A Sailor’s Guide to Earth - Sturgill Simpson

So yeah, I’ve evolved from teenage years of fighting country as a genre and learned that there is good. It was easy to find those slower, deeper folks, the classics, those that bordered on alternative folk/rock. But I’ve been craving some serious country. Something I want raise hell with as well as maybe drink away feelings to. And here comes Sturgill Simpson. I looked at the album because it looked like a typical Nordic theatrical metal cover. Someone told me it was country. I couldn’t believe it. I pushed play....and I listened to the single greatest country album I’ve ever heard.

Horns. Energy. Purpose. I haven’t heard this in any country in the past couple decades, and I genuinely wasn’t sure if I ever would. This album has super highs and dark lows, each graced by Sturgill’s voice which carries the perfect tone to put you exactly the mood he wants you to. The bold choices or keyboards, horns, sax, and funkiest bass sounds in country history are just good to deny his greatness. I looked up his history, to see how the country world accepted him, and found that he seems to be quite outcast, which is maybe why I love him. When ACM made the Merle Haggard award, Sturgill was quoted saying “ "If the ACM wants to actually celebrate the legacy and music of Merle Haggard, they should drop all the formulaic cannon fodder bullshit they've been pumping down rural America's throat for the last 30 years along with all the high school pageantry, meat parade award show bullshit and start dedicating their programs to more actual Country Music." There is hope for country. I doubt there was a point hope wasn’t existent, but with Sturgill, I’m sure we’ll see a lot more quality from the genre.

#2: Cut The Body Loose - Astronautalis

I’m a sucker for Astro. His music has this bizarre connection I can’t shake, and the more I listen, the more I relate to this crazy stranger. To this day his album “This is Our Science” is one of my favorites of all time. Its focus on the incredibly relatable struggles of being in your late twenties and the immersive music was hypnotizing. I knew “Cut the Body Loose” couldn’t do the same. And it didn’t. Not even close. It came at me with so much more. This album is as much a celebration of being a middle aged dude in a young man’s game to the nostalgia of his childhood, and It’s as beautiful and haunting as it is fun and thrilling. This album, like so many of his others, has a perfect range of pulse pounding tempos, to morose moments of reflection. And I found myself connecting to all of it. I’m not in my 30′s, I don’t know that Southern life, let alone a childhood there. Still, each story is presented so masterfully, I find it engrossing and have a hard time listening to one track without taking the whole album in. 

This album hits on so many levels. It has Bassy party beats, punk tracks sticking it to all kinds, from Rick Ross to Kurt Cobain to Obama, Organs playing blues, a swing track, A GODDAMN THEREMIN, and ends with what I always picture to be an ironic soulful church hymn. It’s snide, angry, funny, punk, lively, macabre, and truly just so honest I can’t have anything but love for it. So many ideas are thrown at this album, and they all work because Astronautalis is one of the best in the business. One of the best albums of the decade, and while I may always be a “This is Our Science” guy, I’ll never not give this album the credit its due. 

So what could be number one?

What could possibly surpass all these albums? 

...

...if you know me...you knew it before you ever started reading this list...

#1: Blackstar - David Bowie

No surprises from me. No, the spot for best album of the year was pretty much solidified in the second week of the year. Where “The Next Day” was an honoring of the music stylings that had made Bowie great, this one was...transcendent. This album is everything Bowie, and for him to go out on this note...it’s something dark and magical. This is not just a simple goodbye or a fizzling out...this is a bombastic farewell made to haunt. Bowie’s masterful grip on the artsy and strange is in full swing, as his ten minute opener makes very clear. The finality in every song just sinks into me, especially with its prophecy fulfilled only days later. To say it is praised because of Bowie’s death is conflicting. Yes, this album is amazing because he’s gone, but that is the theme of this album. It’s an added level of beauty I wish wasn’t there. To witness a god of music shed his mortal coil is hard, but to be given a soundtrack to it is surreal.

Bowie has been a youngster, a dancer, a badass, and whatever else he decided to blend into. This final album, though, solidified that no matter what side of himself he changed into, he is always first and foremost a weirdo. Freak. The strangest of humans. “Blackstar” encapsulates this perfectly. The intro is operatic and dynamic, followed in an absurd catchy track based around sex and frustration. And of course, while other tracks do a splendid job of bidding adieu, the immortal song “Lazarus” will grip Bowie fans for the rest of our lives. All these songs twisted and welded together with deep bass notes, moaning guitar chords, and the saddest horns. Everything about this album is so final, so fatalistic. I’d give anything to make this album less meaningful, to be about impending death from a man with many years left in him. Hell, I’d give anything to destroy the entirety of 2016, but if we are stuck in a dark world where life is unfair, how blessed we are that people like Bowie can give us one last experience like this? So yeah, no competition, this was far too easy, but give it a listen, and if you’re half the Bowie fan I claim to be, I feel you’ll be able to relate.

I hope you enjoyed the list, and if you read this, I’m genuinely interested in your favorites of 2016. Thank you for your time, and take care.

[bharatiyamedia-blog]

a Tremendous-Easy Sound Bar That Hits the Proper Notes – Assessment Geek

http://tinyurl.com/y4ebm4wz Ranking: 7/10 ? 1 – Absolute Sizzling Rubbish 2 – Sorta Lukewarm Rubbish 3 – Strongly Flawed Design 4 – Some Professionals, Tons Of Cons 5 – Acceptably Imperfect 6 – Good Sufficient to Purchase On Sale 7 – Nice, However Not Finest-In-Class 8 – Incredible, with Some Footnotes 9 – Shut Up And Take My Cash 10 – Absolute Design Nirvana Worth: $250 Anker Anker is a widely known model within the cellular house: the corporate’s battery packs and different equipment are easy, purposeful, and thrifty. Anker hopes to carry that very same vibe to its Soundcore sub-brand, now increasing into residence theater. Here is What We Like Nice, highly effective sound Easy interface and distant Compact dimension with built-in subwoofer ARC help And What We Do not Questionable Dolby Atmos utility Prime-mounted interface lights are exhausting to see The Infini collection consists of two cheaper soundbars, the usual and “Mini,” each providing stereo sound at underneath 100 bucks. However the Infini Professional is an fascinating proposal from Anker: premium, highly effective sound, with a easy setup that appeals to non-audiophiles who need higher audio from their TV. It makes use of a 2.1 setup with an built-in subwoofer and only a few frills when it comes to connections or settings however provides in Dolby’s Atmos kinda-sorta-surround sound and Bluetooth to assist justify the upper $250 price ticket. And for probably the most half, it succeeds. Anker’s minimalist method to design will undoubtedly be welcome by individuals who don’t know—or care—what ARC or optical audio cables are. The straightforward setup makes it simple to get good sound from kind of something with barely any thought. This comes on the expense of flexibility and the next value—$250 could be greater than some are keen to spend. Preserve It Easy, Soundbar Constructing off the essential success of the Infini and Infini Mini, Anker retains issues easy with the Professional. At a little bit over three toes broad and 4.5 inches deep, the bar is larger than many on this value vary however justifies the dimensions with the built-in subwoofer and top-firing Atmos audio system hiding behind the material wrapping. The upward-firing Atmos subwoofer drivers are exhausting to identify: discover the faint circles on both facet of the management cluster. Michael Crider There’s one thing notable in its absence, nevertheless: a display. Even low cost soundbars usually embrace a small LED for fundamental audio and supply administration, however the Infini Professional does with out.  As an alternative, it makes use of a brief row of LEDs, reverse the {hardware} buttons on the highest of the central unit, to point connection and enter standing. The Infini Professional is a little bit over three toes broad, with devoted tweeters, woofers, and subwoofers. Michael Crider By itself, that’s not a foul thought. Maintaining the consumer interface to a minimal is an efficient name for one thing that’s going to be sitting in entrance of your TV. However whereas the LEDs are pleasantly obscured once you’re watching from a chair or sofa, meaning you’ll want to face as much as see if the enter you’ve modified has any impact. It’s a shocking whiff when it comes to usability. There’s a Bluetooth-powered app, but it surely doesn’t supply any extra choices than the distant. Michael Crider Elsewhere within the field, you get some minimal documentation and an infrared distant, which has a simplified management setup that appears similar to the mini remotes from Roku, Apple TV, et al. The distant is minimalism achieved proper, with an intuitive structure that nonetheless manages to discover a logical spot for each perform. After a few days, I may management the whole lot I wanted to with out counting on a backlight. Which is sweet, because the distant doesn’t have one. You’ll additionally get some small, flush brackets for mounting the soundbar to a wall. Not Wanting For a Hookup The Infini Professional’s enter choices are a bit sparse, however they need to get the job achieved for the overwhelming majority of customers. HDMI pass-through and HDMI ARC will maintain issues for many TV and receiver connections—although if in case you have an audio receiver, I doubt you’d be searching for an all-in-one soundbar resolution. Optical audio enter and an ordinary headphone jack are there if you wish to preserve issues even less complicated. The rear panel contains what appears like a USB 3.Zero port, however the handbook says it’s for service solely: it will probably’t be used for an audio connection or instantly loading native music. The Infini Professional provides customary HDMI, HDMI-ARC, optical audio, and a headphone jack. Michael Crider One additional trick is Bluetooth 5.0, permitting the consumer to play audio instantly from a cellphone. (Or a laptop computer or a pill or perhaps a tv, however let’s be actual right here: you’re going to attach out of your cellphone.) This can be a good inclusion and appears to be anticipated above a selected value level as of late, however I can’t say it’s one thing I depend on frequently. If I’m already in entrance of my TV with my cellphone, I’ll be utilizing Chromecast or simply manually opening music by way of the Roku interface. And yeah, that’s just about it when it comes to I/O. One further perform of the flamboyant Bluetooth is which you can management the Infini Professional out of your cellphone; nevertheless, the Soundcore app doesn’t do something that the distant can’t deal with sooner and extra effectively. You can too management energy, quantity, and supply with the buttons on the bar itself, however they’re contact buttons as an alternative of extra conventional tactile buttons, so that is extra of a trouble than anything. Once more, the distant is the much better choice. The Sound of Shock As somebody who loves low cost TVs, I’m no stranger to low-end soundbars, since they’re vital in order for you to have the ability to hear, effectively, something on a low-end mannequin with its piddly built-in audio system. So I used to be anticipating the Infini Professional to be a minimum of reasonably higher than a budget LG 2.Zero bar I’ve been utilizing for years because it’s greater than twice as costly. What I wasn’t anticipating was simply how a lot better it might be. Regardless of solely a nominal enchancment in total sound and energy (the Infini Professional has 120 watts throughout its tweeters, woofers, and subwoofers, in comparison with the LG’s 100w), the distinction in total sound was dramatic. The upward-firing subwoofers, the “.1” within the Soundcore’s 2.1 score that pull double responsibility as its Dolby Atmos {surround} sound function, supply an enormous enhance to total quantity and steadiness. Resonance chambers add to shocking bass energy. Michael Crider “Built-in” subwoofers are one thing I’ve solely seen on way more costly soundbars, the sort that attempt to mix good sound with a touch of magnificence by ditching the devoted subwoofer field. Anker’s managed to get that function on a relatively economical design. I’d be mendacity if I mentioned I used to be blown away by its energy or high quality, however contemplating the value, the amount, and the comparatively small dimension of the soundbar, it’s a wonderful mixture of options. What about {surround} sound? That’s a bit more durable to make a definitive name on. Dolby’s Atmos system simulates actual {surround} sound by bouncing sounds off the partitions of a room, which is iffy at finest. The Infini Professional’s Atmos mode didn’t make a distinction to the Netflix motion pictures I watched with it (5.1 Atmos-compatible sound enabled); it simply made them louder and extra bassy. That is sensible because the upward-firing subwoofers are the supply of the {surround} channels. The Atmos drivers are exhausting to see, however right here they’re shaking Samus. Michael Crider My lounge isn’t a pristine audio testing chamber, however with my TV and sofa equidistant from partitions on the facet and never removed from the again, it’s fairly splendid for Atmos. Even so, I couldn’t hear any particular profit from the {surround} channels. It may very well be that my surroundings isn’t nice, or it may very well be that it simply isn’t all that efficient in a 2.1 setup (different sound bars with built-in Atmos have a 5-channel tweeter/woofer association within the bar itself). The underside line is that I don’t advocate you purchase the Infini Professional as an alternative choice to a {surround} setup, for all that Anker is pushing the Dolby Atmos function. Premium Options for a Easy Setup At $250, the Infini Professional is a big step up from the underside tier of funds sound bars. And that leap comes with just a few drawbacks, like a comparatively easy setup for I/O, poor {surround} efficiency, and settings which can be exhausting to see from a sitting place. In order for you a sound bar that basically enables you to dig into its settings or connect with half a dozen completely different sources without delay, this isn’t it. The highest-mounted buttons and LED indicators are exhausting to identify when sitting on the sofa. Michael Crider Having mentioned all that: the Infini Professional hits all of Anker’s excessive notes. It’s easy, with a effectively configured distant and an interface that gained’t confuse even novices. And whereas it’s costlier than some choices, it’s punching above its weight when it comes to options, dimension, and sound high quality. When you’re prepared to speculate a little bit extra in your leisure heart’s sound, with out increasing to a full {surround} setup or one thing that wants a number of house, the Infini Professional is a wonderful selection. Right here’s What We Like Nice, highly effective sound Easy interface and distant Compact dimension with built-in subwoofer ARC help And What We Do not Questionable Dolby Atmos utility Prime-mounted interface lights are exhausting to see !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script','https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');fbq('init','1137093656460433');fbq('track','PageView'); Source link

[fluidsf]

Fluid Label Focus on Crónica 019

Francisco López & Miguel A. García: Ekkert Nafn (2019)

Reviewed format: review copy of CD Album as kindly provided by Crónica

Welcome to another new review in the Fluid Label Focus series on the Crónica label in which today I’m reviewing an album that I received as a review copy on CD from Crónica quite by surprise. With many review copies nowadays coming in in digital format through the email or other ways, finding an extra review copy in my physical package of a release I didn’t review yet was a very nice gift. Indeed this album, titled Ekkert Nafn by Francisco López & Miguel A. García was also the exact kind of album I had actually been subconsciously waiting to check out for quite some time, with the last time I’ve checked out López work being through a CD release in a very arty package that I ordered from the quality but unfortunately by now closed Experimedia mail order store so seeing his name on this album already gave me high expectations as through my always ongoing interest in underground and experimental music the glimpses of descriptions of his sound always left me intrigued. Indeed through the ever-growing interconnection by networking with an ever growing number of artists and labels that I review I’ve already come across Miguel A. García’s name as well, but didn’t know yet what kind of sound his material has. Through Ekkert Nafn I found out however that these two Spanish sound artists and experimental musicians have a lot in common in terms of their approach to composing, manipulating and performing with sound but through subtle cues there is a kind of division between the two artists audible on this album, although when listening to this album in full, the transition from López’ piece to the track by Miguel A. García is so seamless that the compositions become one piece, one continuous experience. And while before writing my reviews I always read the release descriptions and refer to them somewhat too, the more compact text on the back cover which doesn’t reveal a lot is in this case also enough to be able to get into these pieces, as like López also said in an interview before, not knowing what these sounds are sourced from is often better than having this knowledge to get into the compositions with a completely fresh mind and no pre-formed expectations in your mind in advance. So that’s also the approach I will take with this review, as much interpretation of the compositions without too much reference to possible recognisable sounds. Before I get into the compositions, I’ll talk a bit about the artwork of this release on CD, as always. The CD of Ekkert Nafn comes in a nice compact cardboard gatefold sleeve with artwork by Raul Dominguez and the signature Crónica design by Miguel Carvalhais. The front cover is quite fitting to my impression of the sound works on this album themselves, abstract paint-like swipes of white and purple-ish colour combined with blue dots puncturing these textures appear over a dark nocturnal background which matches the rather mysterious nocturnal ambience I’m getting from the pieces, strange glimmering sounds appearing in front of you in the dark quiet night. In the middle you can see the artist names, album title, Crónica logo and catalogue numbers in uppercase type in a nice contemporary labelling style. The spine follows the familiar Crónica style again, artist names in normal uppercase type, album title in bold and label name, catalogue numbers + year in regular style again over a black background. The back cover is black as well, listing the track list plus track timings, creation dates and locations, copyright data, links and album credits in serif type. Inside the gatefold you can find more artwork (which is especially focussed around the aforementioned holes in which lights and shapes peeking through). The CD itself is housed in a round die cut in which it can slip in and out. The CD features signature Crónica design, black background, with a pretty bold border around it and shows the Crónica logo in transparent style, catalogue numbers, artist names and album title and the CD logo.

Now onto the pieces themselves, as I mentioned, listening to both pieces by Francisco López and Miguel A. García in sequence on this album does give a listening experience that feels more like one continuous piece rather than two solo works (Untitled #351 by Francisco López being track 1 and Applainesads by Miguel A. García being track 2) and this isn’t entirely surprising as the back cover states that both artists based their pieces on the same batch of source sounds that they also collaborated on within the creation process of that sound set itself. There is definitely a cross of sonic material on this album but while reading this description might make you wonder if that doesn’t render the compositions very similar to eachother, that’s not really the case. Instead the pieces compliment eachother. For a start, let’s look at López’ piece Untitled #351. Lopéz takes on a very dynamic, varied and intriguingly alien approach to his sound world and composition, giving us sounds we think we recognise but bringing these into very mysterious situations. Glimmering mechanical sounds backed with low sub bass pulsations often give the impression of some kind of strange abstract moving structure of particles glowing and twisting in front of you, in the dark night. This “night” suggestion is one I got from both pieces because the sound is very focused in a certain direction in the stereo field, often leaning to centre or a bit more to the right of the stereo field, this mixed with the curious separation in frequencies of the sonic spectrum in which the low end is very low, while other sonic energy floats in the mid-high - high end of the spectrum but has some quite prominent resonant frequencies sticking out quite a lot. Very quiet sections, quite lowercase are also prominent in López’ piece, with a quiet listening environment or headphones being a true requirement for this piece to be able to actually hear everything within it as the piece can vary from louder sections of at times, industrial styled sections of composed sound rhythms and metallic pulsations to very soft, sub-bassi sections of soft tones and tonal elements. This constant variation in manipulation, blend of sonic textures and at times surprisingly musical ways of handling sound through repeating rhythms or tones creates a listening experience that feels like a very nice fresh approach to soundscapes and the Sound Art field in general as while the sonic images are audibly rooted in concrete real-world sounds, the glimmering, glitchy, at times punchy rhythmic pulsations, bass throbs, metallic “percussion” textures and high frequency details together form an ever changing sonic landscape that moves from intense bright activity to sections of very subdued “hidden sounds” at the edge of the threshold of hearing, which creates a great depth, progression and “story line” to the piece which makes it a very memorable, inspiring immersive listen which I highly recommend. Because of the adventurous structure of the piece I also don’t want to spoil how this piece progresses but I can tell it’ll definitely give you whole fresh new perspective on how powerful and also fun sound art and composed soundscapes can be. Applainessads, Miguel A. García’s piece follows up López piece in a great way through a more drone based continuous kind of flowing soundscape which is more high end based in terms of sound spectrum and which features plenty of eerie strange sounds, some of which are recognisable as nature sounds, like crickets and wind. It forms a great extended coda to Untitled #351 with its mixture of nature sounds blended with metallic textures and resonating droning tones. But also this piece does feature its own kind of rhythmic elements in the form of hollow “drop” like sounds that appear quite distant, like water drops reverberating in a damp wet cave. I’d say this piece feels quite a lot like an examination of strange dust particles in the night air turned into a subtly evolving soundscape, like a brooding mostly continuing ambience of metallic resonant ghostly textures that feels both oddly alien and strange but also comforting organic and natural at the same time. Its differing compositional and textural style definitely does make it obvious as being a distinct different piece from López’ composition but the coherent metallic resonance that is also audible in López piece connects both together for a seamless experience and thereby forms an awesomely unique layered sonic journey that feels quiet at times and yet also so close in front of you.

Ekkert Nafn by Francisco López & Miguel A. García is definitely a very strongly recommended album and one of the best Crónica releases from this year as well. A thrilling, immersive and highly detailed sonic journey of concrete sound bordering on recognisable musical elements that unpredictably flows from one event to another and conjures up awesome nocturnal images of subdued or more “open” mystery through the mixtures of nature sounds, metallic mechanical sounds, resonances, sub bass rhythms and lush high frequency details. A highly recommended release for anyone into the composed side of soundscapes, sound art and fans of Drone, Industrial as well as perhaps Noise will also find familiar elements in these pieces to enjoy and with such expertly crafted textural compositions this is an album to re-listen many times. Definitely go check out this album.

Limited Edition CD and Digital Album are available from the Crónica Bandcamp page here: https://cronica.bandcamp.com/album/ekkert-nafn

[fluidsf]

Fluid Label Focus on GENOT CENTRE 14

ICE_EYES: INDIVIDUAL DROPS (2019)

COVER BY H5IO6I54K

Reviewed format: advance WAV download of album as kindly provided by GENOT CENTRE

Welcome to 14th review I’m doing of music released on the GENOT CENTRE label, which is why I adjusted the labelling of this review finally. What I have for you today is the brand new GENOT CENTRE release of INDIVIDUAL DROPS by ICE_EYES, released this year (2019). This is a 10 track album released on limited edition cassette tape and digital download featuring 5 original tracks by the Greek duo ICE_EYES (side A of the tape), accompanied by 5 reworks by an exciting selection of artists in the contemporary underground music scene (side B on the tape). Once again we can find some exciting new sonic manipulation, post-club deconstruction, high quality sound design and thrilling surprising compositional turns in the relatively short original tracks and remixes which are all exciting, imaginative and on point pieces of music with that wild contemporary mark of quality that is the GENOT CENTRE label. This is accompanied by H5IO6I54K excellent fitting artwork which features a blend of organic elements of nature, sci-fi typography and Metal themed logo hand drawn letter manipulations which looks especially gripping on the physical red coloured tape version, which also comes with a neat abstract sculpture shaped out of a recycled piece of PET similar to the organic rock like masses you can find on the artwork on the J-card and digital album cover file. The artwork definitely embodies this release really well, as INDIVIDUAL DROPS’ 5 original pieces and remixes feel at times almost like “masses” of organic material and synthetics that move, evolve, change shape and ultimately feel like true otherworldly soundscapes that at times almost feel like Club music but always hit you with unexpected sounds, harshness or changes that keeps the music feel very fresh and new. For this review I got sent a great press kit by GENOT CENTRE which features various additional materials, but for now I’ll mention only the main contains of this release which are the music, which I got in WAV format (of which the original tracks are in 24-bit/44.1kHz high resolution audio and the remixes in 16-bit/44.1kHz CD quality audio) and the excellent album artwork which you’ll get as a full J-card with the cassette version and as a square version of the album cover in the download. The artwork varies slightly at these formats, but you will get a good resolution image whichever format you choose.

Now, let’s move to the music on INDIVIDUAL DROPS which is really awesome. This album really is one of my favourite releases I heard and another favourite from the GENOT CENTRE label catalogue in general. As I read in the accompanying text file in my press pack the album’s concept is focused on really fluid organisation of sounds and an approach to making music which is really focused on relationships between rhythm, pitch and the fargoing usage of sound bending granular and other stretching / manipulation based techniques. And this fluid manipulations of sound into pieces that are blending or diffusing the borders between groove, soundscape and sonic structure are ultimately a really great main focus of the GENOT CENTRE label in general, which I’ve discovered after reviewing many of their releases by now and ICE_EYES music in here and the energetic remixes on here are a great example of that right from the start with CYAN GRADIENTS. The piece introduces us to the sound of INDIVIDUAL DROPS with scattering, tumbling percussive rhythms featuring crackles, stuttering kicks, pitch shifted stereo claps, hissy synth stabs and various chopped samples of voices. The music feels like an organic mass that is alive with movement, blending earth and both metallic and plastic materials together to create a kind of ambience that almost feels like Earth as a living creature. It’s moving, changing, taking all human made artificial objects with it, throwing these all around itself as well as absorbing some of these within its clay. Indeed, in terms of style this music can definitely be labeled as Deconstructed Club music and while people will always debate about the validity of such tags I personally like the style as it takes on many shapes like what we have here with music as a living organism of mixed concrete sound and artificial elements. The glitchy atmospheric synths also give this piece a quite brooding background but fear not as the sun is still shining, even in this piece. Afterwards we move onto title track INDIVIDUAL DROPS which feels like a Dub Techno track analysed and reprocessed as a data structure and then exported into a sound file, but again, a living file. Deep synth style hinting at that smooth flowing deepness of Dub Techno scatter around and seem to be resting on wooden planks, drums have been completely repurposed into data-synced high pitched stutters and glitches of sound and squelchy synth effects and alien voices are only remnants of originally human samples. It’s a piece that feels alien, but even at this level of abstract, the stabs are calming and the music feels like hope. Good to point out also is that this album has some impressive thick bass and sub bass in the kicks and low percussion used, so I do recommend you to listen with a good bass on headphone or your sound system to experience that. ARGO follows with a more melodic sound that’s got quite a lot of Bass Music elements, choppy phased synth melodic synth patterns, a funky bass arpeggio and even some continuing rhythms as well. But the music is definitely a lot more mechanical sound full of squeaky drill and bass like granular stretches as well as a thick saturated kick and the rough edges of the pieces combined with the cyborg vocal samples make the music feel more Industrial. I really like how the simple melodies in this piece intercut, glitch, get distorted in such grinding abstract ways that it feels like the music is almost turning inside out, breaking its phase yet still wanting to give us something recognisable to hold onto with its melodies. In the next piece EXOGENOUS blends elements of Bass Music, Plunderphonics and Glitch to create a soundscape groove full of musical details, fragments and quite a lot of high frequency effects which feels like a film soundtrack remade with code firing off elements and bits of both the sound effects and original music of the original film soundtrack at the environment the film takes place in. Like the music both gallops over and aurally describes a calm gorgeous landscape with a blue sky and brightly shining sun but triggered by many randomised captures of areas of film frames. KHOROS is the last piece from the original tracks, feeling like a collage of processes, actions, human sounds and technical sounds the piece harkens back to classic dadaist Sound Collage techniques but brings these into hi-fi digital territory. Like an alarm clock not just going off with a sound or bit of music but throwing out a mass of impressions from a full day’s worth of activities and details thereof reminding us that every day, even when we are just relaxing is filled with sounds, details, movement that shapes the sonic environment we live in. A great final track from the first half of this album release. Then we move on the second half of INDIVIDUAL DROPS, the 5 remixes. In CYAN GRADIENT (RENICK BELL REMIX) RENICK BELL rearranges the elements from the original into a very driving jumpy piece of experimental club music in which he scatters around percussive sounds from the original in Plunderphonics style over a FFT filtered bassy groove that keeps changing overtime. The hiss from the samples is also quite pronounced, making the piece feel like a “melodic” piece of “future Industrial” music in which we’ve long forgotten about the old hissing, steaming, clanging sounds of machinery and digital clean glossy artificial materials emit hyper sound designed noises to identify which actions are taking place. There’s a lot to this remix that harkens back to the organic “living” element of ICE_EYES original but the FFT filter effect and fuzzy edges of the remix to remind us of a certain fragility and that we might actually be listening to a recording of the future, but a very exciting one nonetheless. On INDIVIDUAL DROPS (BENELUX ENERGY REMIX) Wim Dehaen, who’s also one of the GENOT CENTRE label heads puts on his other jacket and brings us an amusing piece of sonic mayhem in this completely plundering remix. As part of the BENELUX ENERGY sound he adds massively compressed Hardstyle kicks, beats and Noise filled synths to the mangled samples from the original piece to create a piece that sounds like Industrial machinery getting impulses to completely rave out. It’s a very noisy and at many points harsh remix, but definitely very fun and the quick progression and short length help to make this a sweet burst of sampledelic energy. Then afterwards things calm down a bit on ARGO (CXLO REMIX) on which CXLO turns the Bass Music vibes from the original into a gorgeous atmospheric Braindance piece in which elements of one of the melodic patterns in the original are looped, filtered and reverberated to create gorgeous resonating glassy pads which are backed by awesome glitchy filtered drums. I love the attention to detail in the sound design and composition of this piece, wherein the elements are constantly changing and evolving into new forms, fluidly shifting between various details of the resonances and texture of the drums. The bassy kick is also utilised wonderfully in here and the metallic layer of drums adds a nice Industrial shine to the piece, very nice. EXOGENOUS ({ARSONIST} REMIX) is quite true to the some of the Deconstructed Club elements that are audible in the original piece, but here the separate elements seem to be triggered by a percussive rhythm, so rather than galloping through a landscape, the landscape seems to be galloping with us. Ambient pads form a warm glow in the remix and quirky synth effects and glitches rain softly down on us creating an experience both quirky and serene. The piece also quite a clean sound to it with the ambience as background and foreground synth and percussion forming to clear layers which add a good sense of depth to the music. KHOROS (GALEN TIPTON REMIX) is the last remix and final track on INDIVIDUAL DROPS ending this album with a fiery banger of a remix. This is probably the most Club oriented piece on this release, remixing the elements from the original into a very catchy driving fast groove with punching kicks, rhythmic stabs of original samples from KHOROS, metallic hi-hats, as well as various other Industrial manipulations from stems of the original piece. It’s a great cross of a contemporary underground Club track, ultra-wide stereo effects and the metallic shine of Industrial into a short and fiery remix. A great closing piece to this album.

INDIVIDUAL DROPS by ICE_EYES definitely shines as one of the strongest releases of this year so far. The impressive sonic landscapes of the original tracks by ICE_EYES are grippingly organic in nature but also invitingly layered with sonic details, surprising evolution within the compositions and a very personal touch to the wonderfully shaped sound design of the music. The remixes rework these pieces in exciting, often groove-based directions and form a great complimentary sonic exploration to the first half and can also invite listeners to go back to the originals to find details in them the remixes lay bare or magnify, thereby also crossing over in terms of sonic imagery. I highly recommend this album to anyone who likes the more sonically rich side of underground Club music, Deconstructed Club, Glitch and also Industrial and Plunderphonics but also anyone looking for a unique listening experience that is both immersive and organic as well as having really strong bassy grooves. Go check this album out.

Limited edition cassette tape and digital version are available to pre-order from the GENOT CENTRE Bandcamp page here: https://genot.bandcamp.com/album/individual-drops

[fluidsf]

Sonic Picks 26 AMNESIA SCANNER: ANOTHER LIFE (2018) Reviewed format: CD Album on PAN Today on Fluid Sonic Fluctuations in the Sonic Picks review series I'm featuring the debut album by AMNESIA SCANNER, ANOTHER LIFE, released in 2018 on PAN. This fiery, bass heavy and dystopian future like sounding album is packed with 12 tracks over 40 minutes, channeling contemporary digital Electro Industrial influenced sonic manipulation into club music inspired grooves and more cinematic broding ambience pieces, most of them featuring heavily distorted and mangled voices by AS's ORACLE voice as well as Chinese artist PAN DAIJING's vocals on AS UNLINEAR and AS CHAOS. The CD of the album that I"m reviewing comes inside a thick cardboard sleeve housed inside a thin card slipcase. The cardboard slipcase features the album cover on front (with AMNESIA SCANNER hype sticker on the plastic packaging) and a 2+2=3 graphic on the back. The spine features the artist, album title, PAN catalogue number and release year. The cardboard sleeve housing the CD features AMNESIA SCANNER black and white graphics, in a kind of 80's DIY collage kind of style, mixing drawings and cartoon like imagery with various phrases relating to the music on ANOTHER LIFE. The unnumbered tracklist and album credits are added to the back of the sleeve alongside the graphics. The CD features a white design with the album title and AMNESIA SCANNER logo. ANOTHER LIFE starts with AS SYMMETRIBAL, the track begins with heavily manipulated alien vocals, sounding like a mashup of a Middle Eastern melody and a Middle Eastern string instrument playing the same melody. Then, a choppy abstract synth melody comes in with particularly hissy EDM like sharp detuned synth sound to it. Kicks blasts and noise percussion bursts accompany the alien vocal melody into a pretty chaotic yet also controlled sounding galloping rhythm. The track did take some time for me to get into, but once it does, the melody and rhythm did have quite an intense dark effect on me. After the glitchy galloping melody and rhythm end, this crossfades into a subtly brooding low synth melody, built out of mostly descending scales. Then follows AS UNLINEAR FEAT PAN DAIJING, a fiery groove driving track full of Arabic style mid tempo Industrial clanging drums as well as excellent sound design in the synths, both bass and high synth + electronic drum sounds. PAN DAIJING performs some rather fiery expressive vocals on this one, with her voice often shifting from a mixture of clean with pitched and further mangled vocal effects. Her vocals have got a great energy, not overly aggressive sounding yet also bringing enough convincing tension to the track to make it sound genuinely urgent. Excellent track and like the other tracks on this album, very well mixed by AMNESIA SCANNER, bringing out their well performed / produced dystopian Industrial structure rhythms and cinematic bassdrone ambiences really well. JEREMY COX's mastering is well controlled well, keeping the sonic balance right in the sweet spot, never sounding crackly clipping even with this much bass and hevaily compressed and distorted elements in the music. AS A.W.O.L. is one of the most straightforward songs in terms of its structure but the vocals are heavily pitched down in the verses and pitched up in the choruses. The song features Trap style bells, but its groove is filled with Industrial drums, distortion and the guitar is oftentimes unrecognizably distorted and mangled. The song sounds oddly calm but also threatening, the relative depth of he sound field also gives the ambience of the song a feeling like it describes an event happening outside in a murky and muddy place filled with a gray cloud sky and enormous factory buildings. Once the track changes its key in the second half this has a pretty frightening effect as well, sounds great. Then on title track AS ANOTHER LIFE we have a rather bassy and distortion laden groove full of piercing "drill" bass synth bursts and not quite as mangled pitched vocals over heavily EDM influenced squeaky heavily compressed synth phrases. With every pop single length track on this album AMNESIA SCANNER achieves quite a lot of captivating energy and compositional progression and it's no different here as guitar and the crunchy drums and drill bass growing in intensity blast into the room. Feels like a much darker and mechanic version of a minimalist EDM track, very nice again. On AS DAEMON a calm quirky synth pattern plays over a very low bass, heavily manipulated vocals create a kind of highly abstracted melody full of fuzzy overtones and the text the vocal is singing is not clear, but it works with the strange alien ambiences that often appear on ANOTHER LIFE. In the second half a heavily manipulated flute sound creates a simple stuttering and ring modulated ringing melody. A calm and cinematic slower beatless piece that works pretty well as a nice brooding contrast in between the more beat-heavy tracks. Then we have AS TOO WRONG, which features a pop-influenced simple vocal melody sung by very distorted alien vocals over a very crunchy bass heavy beat, besides the Middle Eastern sound there's also traces of Grime in this track. There's a lot of cool details in the sound design in here, especially in the percussion, with many distorted squeaks, metallic hihats and assorted Industrial percussion creating many variations. This track gets particularly more tense in the second half with the ending slowling the groove down and a hissy distorted and further heavily manipulated synthguitar sound playing a dramatic dark melody accompanied by intensely buzzing low bass. It creates a very nice steampunk like dystopian finale to the track and adds yet another unique element to the sonic imagery on ANOTHER LIFE. Then we have AS SPECTACULT (FEAT ORACLE) is an atmospheric piece inside a huge space in which ORACLE, who does thw vocals on most of the tracks emits short vocal phrases, like a kind of prayer ritual in the mountains in a huge temple. This is accompanied by Asian sounding instrument sounds creating an ambience of peace but also dark foreboding. This is definitely music for a cult indeed. A futuristic religious cult perhaps. Then AS FACELESS blasts in, coming in especially loud after the previous atmospheric piece. AS FACELESS is pretty much a straight-on dark and dirty Industrial glitchy Deconstructed Club groove with vocals that sound more human but again the lyrics are hard to distinguish at all which heightens the chaos as well as alien vibe of the music. Great bursts of ever heigtened aggressive energy in here with vocals, drums, choppy synths all adding blasts of Noise, harshness and squelchy or corrupted effect sounds. Very nice. With AS CHAIN we're back into the calm again, metallic guitar synths, mangled moaning vocals and subdued droning pads create a post-apocalyptic sound of quiet, walking in the ruins of destroyed buildings under the dark grey sky. Again, rather cinematic sounds from AMNESIA SCANNER in here, very good. AS SECURITAZ combines an Asian string instrument melody with a bursting screechy distorted mechanic synth and various hits of mechanic, percussive, noisy and ringing instruments and Industrial instruments, overtime building towards a rather dramatic sounding melody, feeling like the kind of music you could hear in the soundtrack of dark 80's influenced steampunk sci fi film influenced by the harsh Noise / Industrial experimentalism of David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti. It's ANOTHER LIFE's most expanded piece in both sound design and composition and definitely feels like a good track to introduce the finale of this album (with AS CHAOS FEAT PAN DAIJING and AS REWILD coming up as final pieces). AS SECURITAZ has a rather fiery and very noisy build at the end, full of fast kicks and very screechy crunchy synths which does end in a cold but still satisfying ending. On AS CHAOS FEAT PAN DAIJING PAN's vocals are much more manipulated, like human AI hybrid singer. The track features some excellent Grime influenced drilling piercing synths and crunchy and trilling drums. The piece is indeed chaos, but in a very well controlled and hard hitting groove kind of manner. Massive. Then we have final track AS REWILD which definitely feels like a film soundtrack finale. Featuring a fuzzy drone of mixed melodic sounds, dark piano chords and sad piercing vocals. The piece also references earlier pieces on ANOTHER LIFE with the stuttering metallic synth. Indeed this track really confirms my ideas that ANOTHER LIFE could ac actually be a fictional soundtrack to a both 80's and steampunk aesthetics influenced, dark dystopian sci fi film. But both as an album and this ficitional soundtrack, ANOTHER LIFE is definitely a nicely varied and thrilling journey of dark, crushing cinematic experimental music that I definitely recommend. ANOTHER LIFE by AMNESIA SCANNER packs the energy and progression of an expansive dystopian motion picture into 40 minutes of music, spread over 12 pop-song length tracks that feature immersive sonic imagery conjured up by AS' excellent compositions, sound design and unique musical concepts. PAN DAIJING's vocals add some great edges of aggression and powerful energy on the tracks she features on and ORACLE guides us through this dark world. Once again, I definitely recommend this album, for anyone into Industrial, Deconstructed Club with a hard edge as well as both Noise and more cinematic focused music. CD Album on PAN available from the AMNESIA SCANNER Bandcamp page here: https://amnesiascanner.bandcamp.com/album/another-life