#ive been a sonic fan since consciousness

[fantasiac]

he's the only hyperfixation that never really seems to die

Once again marvelling at the absolute infectious power of Sonic the Hedgehog, as a character and a series. So many of us got the bug from just... watching one playthrouh, seeing him in a crossover game, or parody and spoof dubbing. It doesn't matter.

Because once he gets you, he gets you. Here for life. A brain main stay. Commandeers your obsessive tendencies. Many such cases.

[onestowatch]

Open Lila Drew’s ‘locket’ of Empathetic Emotions & Serene Pop Melodies [Q&A]

Photo Credit: Miriam Marlene

Born in London but raised in Los Angeles, Lila Drew is an 18-year-old who isn’t afraid of vulnerability and self-reflection. Drew grew up listening to old school records of Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye, which allowed her to organically develop her passion for music. Rooted from honest journal entries, Drew’s stunning new EP, locket (side one), is a grand reflection of her life as she moves toward adulthood.

locket (side one) captures the purest of emotions as Drew revisits the feelings she’s experienced in some of her most challenging times. “take it back” sees Drew embodying the self-reliant woman she is and overcoming obstacles on her own. Layered with enticing instrumentals, “november” features Drew’s soothing vocals alongside comforting backing vocals as she once again stresses the importance of independence. The serene “hide” follows Drew on a journey through self-discovery as she realizes the difference between right and wrong when it comes to relationships.

Opening with hollow guitars, “nothing” has Drew recognizing the invincibility we all have within ourselves when we accept that some people aren’t as worthy as we once thought they were. “seconds (demo)” is a sorrowful song composed of downtempo beats about sacrifices and longing for someone we just can’t have. locket (side one) closes with “faded/2am,” which features rapper GoldLink. Examining a failed relationship, “faded/2am” is drenched with Drew’s angelic vocals and stirring electronics that pair well with GoldLink’s flawless verse.

Treat yourself to Lila Drew’s locket (side one) below:

To celebrate her new music, we recently chatted with Lila Drew about her debut collaboration with GoldLink, her slumber party themed EP listening party, and of course, locket (side one).

OTW: Who are your musical inspirations?

Drew: I grew up listening to a huge array of music. I’m super grateful to my parents for that. They exposed me to everyone from Led Zeppelin to Aretha Franklin to A Tribe Called Quest, really opening my mind to the spectrum of artists and genres! My biggest inspirations for songwriting are Frank Ocean, Phoebe Bridgers, and Paul Simon. They write the most poignant lyrics and I love that they all write nonlinearly. Some other inspirations of mine at the moment are Blood Orange, Ariana Grande, Crumb, and Beabadoobee (who is only 18 too!).

OTW: How did you manage to collaborate with GoldLink on your debut single, “faded/2am?”

Drew: Honestly, I’ve always been a huge fan of GoldLink! I love his combination of traditional R&B and new-age rap with a hint of funkiness. He’s insanely talented. My manager sent "faded/2am" to GoldLink’s team on a whim, and he really liked the song and wanted to collaborate! I was absolutely blown away when we got his verse, I think I cried in the kitchen with my brother!

OTW: Can you describe your songwriting process?

Drew: My songwriting process is super free form. I try to write every day, but my favorite songs are the ones that come super naturally. My best ideas usually come at night! I usually write melody and lyrics at the same time, which I think is a little bit strange - lyrics and melody often come at the same time for me. After I write melody and lyrics, I’ll go to the piano and mess around with some chords and see what fits. I try not to force the songwriting process, and I think my songs would sound and feel different if I didn’t take as organic of an approach. I also don’t really write about particular events, I’d rather write about specific feelings. I kind of collage different moments into each song in order to articulate a feeling - it’s super stream of consciousness.

OTW: How does it feel to know that locket (side one) is now out in the world?

Drew: I’m honestly a bit nervous! It’s always weird to know that people will actually hear something you’ve worked on. Despite that, I am super excited to just get more music out there and let people interpret the project in their own ways. This project is super special to me and I’ve been working on it for about two years now, so I’m definitely ready to get it out into the world.

OTW: Do you have a favorite song off locket (side one)?

Drew: Yes! I feel like I shouldn’t pick favorites, but “seconds” has to be my personal favorite off the project. I wrote it in my birthplace of London last summer, and it’s always felt the most “me” out of all the songs. I find something different lyrically and sonically every listen.

OTW: What’s a funny memory you have from shooting the “take it back” music video?

Drew: Honestly, the whole “take it back” shoot is a funny memory. I shot the "take it back" video with these amazing directors called Weird Life Films who are based out of Chicago. I absolutely love them and had such a great time filming and collaborating with the whole Weird Life team! One funny memory is that Jackson, DP and lighting extraordinaire, somehow is never addressed by his actual name. Some nicknames that were thrown around were Richard, Chardo, Lee, Lionel, Lionel Richie, Char Doggie, the list goes on. As Jackson said, “It ain’t all fun and games in nickname town.”

OTW: Tell us about your slumber party themed EP listening party!

Drew: I’ve had this idea for a while to throw slumber party themed events, and the EP drop seemed like the right time to do the first one. A lot of the music on this EP is centered around nostalgia and the importance of childhood memories, so I wanted to create a safe and artistic space that people could come to and travel back to their early childhood for one night. We covered the whole backyard of my friend’s house in Venice with blankets, pillows, bean bags, and rugs. We also had giant games, lots of food, and scrapbooking! Another part of the event was an art gallery that I curated with my friend’s art that was all around the space -- everything from sculptures to sketches. My friend Jack H-W played a few songs, and then I played most of my EP, and snuck in a Frank Ocean cover (“Higgs” from Endless). We also screened my documentary that I made with my friend John Hein. It was such a great night and went exactly how I’d dreamed it. I said this to a few people, but I think it still stands - 12 year old Lila would’ve been proud.

OTW: Who are your Ones To Watch?

Drew: There are honestly so many amazing new artists out there right now! I love Beabadoobee (who I mentioned before). I also love Choker; I could listen to his albums forever. I’ve been listening to Col3trane since his first single and think he’ll be huge. I really like Sasami too. And Grace Ives!

[ben-winch-writer-rocker]

Broader Context

Top Five (for 2018):

Caterina Barbieri—Patterns of Consciousness,

Anouar Brahem—Blue Maqams,

Terry Riley—Persian Surgery Dervish,

Lojii—Lofeye,

Loren Connors—Airs.

(These are the albums I listened to most in 2018, not albums released in 2018.)

Backstory:

I never was a rock ’n’ roll animal. More like a werewolf, prone to sudden fits of rockism. I spent my teen years listening to Joy Division, New Order and early Cure albums. Favourite song? “All Cats Are Grey” (from Faith) or New Order’s “In A Lonely Place”. Slo-o-ow. Most bands played >75% fast. I craved >75% slow. Really, I craved atmosphere. By age 17 I was sick to death of distorted guitars. (I learnt to love ’em later, of course, but not to the exclusion of all else.) I thought music was serious business—“art”. And I thought art was “sophisticated”. So I took a stand, adopted a niche, and, to a large extent, that niche was anti-rock.

Of course, to a large extent, that stance was a pose. My first ever album purchase was Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet! I dug “Back in Black”, the Cult’s Electric, ZZ Top. But Joy Division’s Closer changed all that. The synths, the starkness, the spaciousness, the sense that anything could happen. The journey from anger through grief, resentment, resignation, desperation, and awestruck sad wonder. It’s unique, haunting, deathly serious. And though maybe what I should have done (what would have educated me more) was to hunt down Joy Division’s influences, instead I did what was easier and followed those they’d influenced. But in the back of my head was always this sense that music could do more. Of course I realise now that actually some of the straightest rock tracks are mini miracles of energy and precision, but maybe my respect for that form is heightened by the fact that, deep down, it isn’t mine. My music is (mostly) introspective, reflective, delicate. And slowly, as once-obscure albums have become more widely available, I’ve discovered other music like mine, like the music I’ve always heard in my head.

What brings me to this juncture, then—to the point of blogging about rock—is my background as a rock-fan who wanted more. Not more volume, more aggression, or more of any of the things that are normally associated with rock, but more infiltration into rock by other musics, other sounds—sounds which, in many cases, I couldn’t even identify myself, I just knew I wanted them. Keep in mind, I’d never had much money for music. I never was a collector—far from it, Never even owned a turntable. In fact, I always pirated music, first on tape, then on CD, then via download. Nowadays, I stream. So from taping friends’ albums, to burning CDs I’d taken on approval from the record store where I worked (not for long; I’m more of a bookseller), to taking whatever I could get on the Pirate Bay, to the minor miracle of Spotify and YouTube, the scope of my listening has steadily expanded.

I remember hearing Philip Glass and Steve Reich aged 20: I’d never heard anything like that before, and I never would have heard it then if not for a friend’s parent’s CD collection. I first heard Rhys Chatham and Glen Branca aged 35; even though I’d been listening to Sonic Youth since my early 20s, it took a guy ten years younger and internet-savvy—a workmate at a bookshop—to turn me onto their influences. (He turned me onto Bitches’ Brew too.) I was a late uptaker, technology-wise. I never thought music was about technology. I guess I thought I was Neil Young or something: just plug in and play and some loyal engineer would take care of recording, just as some Alan McGee or Ivo Watts-Russell would distribute the result. It didn’t happen. In 2009 I bought my first halfway-decent computer. Nowadays, almost everything I listen to is something I researched and sourced via the internet. Sometimes, an algorithm spits out something worthwhile. Maybe owing to my age and the fact I have a family, and that much of my listening is done via headphones while working on something else—that music, for the most part is background rather than foreground for me—90% of the music I listen to is ambient, predominantly textural, and distinctly lacking in melody. “In your face” it is not. But then again, maybe for that reason there’s nothing I like better than a sudden burst of rock.

One last point: maybe owing to a traumatic childhood and a lifetime’s Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, I’ve always favoured music that subdues me rather than music that exhilarates me. Gangsta rap was good for this purpose (maybe incongruously, it reminded me of the Cure’s early days, synth-driven and minimalist and steeped in a sense of doom). The doom was crucial. I never could stomach a lot of cheese, or any false sense of reassurance. My ideal mood was a cushioned sense of doom—as if danger were all around, but I was, for the moment, safe. But maybe I’m over-simplifying. Exhilaration is fine, but usually for me it’s slow-building. The realisation of just how moving and well-constructed something is, for eg—that’s exhilarating. And then, sure, 10% of the time I like to blast myself with loud guitars and driving beats.

Other influences: Autechre, Tricky, J Dilla—Donuts, Miles Davis—Bitches’ Brew, Coltrane—Crescent, Floating Points, Visible Cloaks, Oneohtrix Point Never, Howard Shore—Crash, Stephan Bodzin, Plastikman, Flying Lotus, John Lee Hooker, Fats Domino, James Carr, Leonard Cohen.

Observations:

Ultimately, I can fist-punch and air-guitar with the best of ’em, but only on full moons. Which is to say, I love rock ’n’ roll, but not as a lifestyle, not as a religion. I like light and shade, always have. I’ve got my own take on rock, and to some extent it’s an outsider’s. I like bands whose aims are different from the average—who try for reactions other than fist-pumping.

More importantly for me personally, the fact of my slow education in music other than rock means I came to that music through rock. My skills as a musician and a critic (if I have any skills as a critic) are rock-centric. I want more than the average rock band offers, but it needn’t be more musicianship (though that’d be nice). I believe in a minimum of means. I believe in punk. I believe “There’s more to the picture than meets the eye”. But I also wanna see rock grow up.

ROCK THEORY, then? It’s about what I want rock to be, based on what I’ve loved in rock and outside of it in the past. The best rock has a magic to it. And it’s that magic I’m hunting here, trying to pin it down, to examine it. Why? In the name of science, I guess.

[kayawagner]

[Quantum] [Flux] [BUNDLE]

Publisher: Skirmisher Publishing

This special 60% off bundle contains Skirmisher Publishing's Quantum Flux: Unique Superscience Artifacts and the five issues of the Wisdom from the Wastelands supplement for modern, sci-fi, and post-apocalyptic RPGs that contain about half the items that appear in it (#39, #42, #44, #48, and #49). It is designed to be a good deal for both new customers and ones who own any of the issues of Wisdom from the Wastelands that include overlapping material.

Quantum Flux: Unique Superscience Artifacts Regular price: $4.99 Bundle price: $1.99 Format: PDF With his second law, that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” Arthur C. Clarke articulated a concept that could have been a shadowy undercurrent in the wider consciousness for centuries, possibly even millennia. All the items in this book were designed with two ideas in mind: they were created using Ancient technology so advanced that it seems like magic and they’ve gone through Hell since the apocalypse. Damaged, jury-rigged, infested with nanites and parasites, warped by energy, rebuilt by insane machines — these are the kinds of changes that make these artifacts dangerous, unpredictable, and, above all, unique. Quantum Flux contains 86 unique superscience artifacts suitable for use in any modern, sci-fi, or post-apoca... Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #39: Unique Superscience Artifacts Regular price: $0.99 Bundle price: $0.40 Format: Watermarked PDF Imagine — barely 50 years ago — pulling out your smart phone in Dallas to take a selfie as President Kennedy passed by. The technology people casually sit on today might have gotten you disappeared by an alphabet agency, for possessing alien devices and/or photobombing by the Grassy Knoll gunman. A hundred years ago, talking into your hand could have landed you in an asylum. Three centuries ago, they would have burned witches for catapulting surly birds at petulant pigs. This idea, Clarke’s Second Law, is a powerful philosophical/imaginative concept and a very useful tool for Mutant Lords. In Mutant Future, it translates into superscience: Ancient equipment so advanced it seems supernatural, able to break the laws of physics and engineering. Wisdom from the W... Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #42: Unique Superscience Artifacts II Regular price: $0.99 Bundle price: $0.40 Format: Watermarked PDF Excalibur. Mjolnir. Aegis. The Millennium Falcon. The Eiffel Tower. A red shirt. A sonic screwdriver. The Horn of Roland. The Spear of Destiny. Whether from myth, history, fiction, fantasy, or actual real life, weapons and armor, personal objects, vehicles and buildings all can become iconic, even legendary and use such advanced technology that they appear to be magical. Wisdom from the Wastelands’ first installment on superscience artifacts introduced the idea of creating these unique and amazing devices and this time around some of the artifacts get a little bigger and maybe even a little weirder. Wisdom from the Wastelands is dedicated to providing useful information, game content, and ideas to players of modern, science fiction, and post-apocalyptic table-top and... Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #44: Unique Superscience Artifacts III Regular price: $0.99 Bundle price: $0.40 Format: Watermarked PDF Following a theme begun in Wisdom from the Wastelands Issues #39 and #42, this issue of Wisdom from the Wastelands focusing on superscience artifacts coalesces around things alien — whether otherworldly, extra-planar, or just plain weird. Whether derived from myth, history, fiction, fantasy, or real life, weapons and armor, personal objects, vehicles and buildings can all become iconic, even legendary, and employ such advanced technology that they appear to be magical. Come and examine nine such items, the Mother Seed, Oasis In a Pill, Ooze Brain, Orange Block, Palace of Bones, Psion Shackles, Sea Charm, Silver Sphere, and Silver Twig. Wisdom from the Wastelands is dedicated to providing useful information, game content, and ideas to players of modern, science... Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #48: Unique Superscience Artifacts IV Regular price: $0.99 Bundle price: $0.40 Format: Watermarked PDF The unique items in this issue of Wisdom from the Wastelands are so advanced they appear magical to post-apocalyptic peoples. Although intended for use with Mutant Future, these items could easily be used in other science-fiction or fantasy games. Each has a history that will hopefully enrich, inspire, and possibly drive your own gaming story and, if desired, could become a central plot point or continuing idea for a whole gaming session or even an entire campaign.  Wisdom from the Wastelands is dedicated to providing useful information, game content, and ideas to players of modern, science fiction, and post-apocalyptic table-top and role-playing games in general and to fans of Goblinoid Games’ Mutant Future RPG in particular. The material it conta... Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #49: Unique Superscience Artifacts V Regular price: $0.99 Bundle price: $0.40 Format: Watermarked PDF With amazing powers, terrible mutants, and scientific advancements available only in our collective imagination, Mutant Future stretches the bounds of conception. From a foundation of Clarke’s Second Law and Goblinoid Games’ supplement Realms of Crawling Chaos, we present superscience artifacts, devices that are one step beyond and seemingly magical even to characters familiar with wondrously advanced technology. This issue of Wisdom from the Wastelands coalesces around the mind-bending, with artifacts ranging from hazardous personal-improvement gear and pet accoutrements to a many-pedal building and diabolical nightmare toys for both kids and adults. These items are intended for Mutant Future games but could easily fit into other science-fiction ...

Total value: $9.94 Special bundle price: $3.99 Savings of: $5.95 (60%)

Price: $9.94 [Quantum] [Flux] [BUNDLE] published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com

[kayawagner]

[quantum Flux] [bundle]

Publisher: Skirmisher Publishing

This special 50% off bundle contains Skirmisher Publishing's Quantum Flux: Unique Superscience Artifacts and the five issues of the Wisdom from the Wastelands supplement for modern, sci-fi, and post-apocalyptic RPGs that contain about half the items that appear in it (#39, #42, #44, #48, and #49). It has the same price as the sourcebook alone and it is designed to be a good deal for both new customers and ones who own any of the issues of Wisdom from the Wastelands that include overlapping material. 

Quantum Flux: Unique Superscience Artifacts Regular price: $4.99 Bundle price: $2.51 Format: PDF With his second law, that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” Arthur C. Clarke articulated a concept that could have been a shadowy undercurrent in the wider consciousness for centuries, possibly even millennia. All the items in this book were designed with two ideas in mind: they were created using Ancient technology so advanced that it seems like magic and they’ve gone through Hell since the apocalypse. Damaged, jury-rigged, infested with nanites and parasites, warped by energy, rebuilt by insane machines — these are the kinds of changes that make these artifacts dangerous, unpredictable, and, above all, unique. Quantum Flux contains 86 unique superscience artifacts suitable for use in any modern, sci-fi, or post-apoca... Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #39: Unique Superscience Artifacts Regular price: $0.99 Bundle price: $0.50 Format: Watermarked PDF Imagine — barely 50 years ago — pulling out your smart phone in Dallas to take a selfie as President Kennedy passed by. The technology people casually sit on today might have gotten you disappeared by an alphabet agency, for possessing alien devices and/or photobombing by the Grassy Knoll gunman. A hundred years ago, talking into your hand could have landed you in an asylum. Three centuries ago, they would have burned witches for catapulting surly birds at petulant pigs. This idea, Clarke’s Second Law, is a powerful philosophical/imaginative concept and a very useful tool for Mutant Lords. In Mutant Future, it translates into superscience: Ancient equipment so advanced it seems supernatural, able to break the laws of physics and engineering. Wisdom from the W... Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #42: Unique Superscience Artifacts II Regular price: $0.99 Bundle price: $0.50 Format: Watermarked PDF Excalibur. Mjolnir. Aegis. The Millennium Falcon. The Eiffel Tower. A red shirt. A sonic screwdriver. The Horn of Roland. The Spear of Destiny. Whether from myth, history, fiction, fantasy, or actual real life, weapons and armor, personal objects, vehicles and buildings all can become iconic, even legendary and use such advanced technology that they appear to be magical. Wisdom from the Wastelands’ first installment on superscience artifacts introduced the idea of creating these unique and amazing devices and this time around some of the artifacts get a little bigger and maybe even a little weirder. Wisdom from the Wastelands is dedicated to providing useful information, game content, and ideas to players of modern, science fiction, and post-apocalyptic table-top and... Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #44: Unique Superscience Artifacts III Regular price: $0.99 Bundle price: $0.50 Format: Watermarked PDF Following a theme begun in Wisdom from the Wastelands Issues #39 and #42, this issue of Wisdom from the Wastelands focusing on superscience artifacts coalesces around things alien — whether otherworldly, extra-planar, or just plain weird. Whether derived from myth, history, fiction, fantasy, or real life, weapons and armor, personal objects, vehicles and buildings can all become iconic, even legendary, and employ such advanced technology that they appear to be magical. Come and examine nine such items, the Mother Seed, Oasis In a Pill, Ooze Brain, Orange Block, Palace of Bones, Psion Shackles, Sea Charm, Silver Sphere, and Silver Twig. Wisdom from the Wastelands is dedicated to providing useful information, game content, and ideas to players of modern, science... Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #48: Unique Superscience Artifacts IV Regular price: $0.99 Bundle price: $0.50 Format: Watermarked PDF The unique items in this issue of Wisdom from the Wastelands are so advanced they appear magical to post-apocalyptic peoples. Although intended for use with Mutant Future, these items could easily be used in other science-fiction or fantasy games. Each has a history that will hopefully enrich, inspire, and possibly drive your own gaming story and, if desired, could become a central plot point or continuing idea for a whole gaming session or even an entire campaign.  Wisdom from the Wastelands is dedicated to providing useful information, game content, and ideas to players of modern, science fiction, and post-apocalyptic table-top and role-playing games in general and to fans of Goblinoid Games’ Mutant Future RPG in particular. The material it conta... Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #49: Unique Superscience Artifacts V Regular price: $0.99 Bundle price: $0.48 Format: Watermarked PDF With amazing powers, terrible mutants, and scientific advancements available only in our collective imagination, Mutant Future stretches the bounds of conception. From a foundation of Clarke’s Second Law and Goblinoid Games’ supplement Realms of Crawling Chaos, we present superscience artifacts, devices that are one step beyond and seemingly magical even to characters familiar with wondrously advanced technology. This issue of Wisdom from the Wastelands coalesces around the mind-bending, with artifacts ranging from hazardous personal-improvement gear and pet accoutrements to a many-pedal building and diabolical nightmare toys for both kids and adults. These items are intended for Mutant Future games but could easily fit into other science-fiction ...

Total value: $9.94 Special bundle price: $4.99 Savings of: $4.95 (50%)

Price: $9.94 [quantum Flux] [bundle] published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com