#love me some movements music THEIR STUFF-ALL IS ‘YOUR ORIGIN’ CODED…

[flovoid]

If you gotta walk through hell It won't be without my help The waters getting too high Lost in the swell I can see it in your eyes You've tried too many times You're looking for a way out

[monkey-network]

Why EVE is The Best

Heads up. I’m basically gonna sperg about this whole film, so spoilers for this twelve year old film. Enjoy!

Wall-E is one of my favorite films; I would gladly kill and extort to bring the sequel I had in mind to life in any way; animatics would pleased me if nothing else but anyways. I love this film and one of the biggest reasons for that is the character EVE, a character that stuck in my mind longer than most if you can believe. So, better time than any, Imma just ramble about why I love this character. And, before we begin, I’m gonna say EVE is a girl, Wall-E is a boy due to my brain believing they were respectively female- and male-coded for most of my life but do NOT let this stop you from envisioning them however you please. If they’re both girls or boys to you, all power to you. With that said, here we go...

The Design

Now I’m not saying she has the greatest robot design ever; I don’t look at eggs and remember better days when I got to watch that film for the first time in my old house. But Pixar certainly knew how to make simplicity work to perfection. Simple shape, simple mechanics, simple movements. All feeling right at home with her coming from the more advanced future, especially compared to Wall-E where he’s literally a more grounded looking robot. Thematically, this design is fucking genius. A scouter robot with the ability to fly with ease and yet carries a literal arm cannon with incredible fire power. Both expressing how she can have her head in the clouds, observational when necessary, and yet trigger happy amidst the slightest inconvenience or surprise. *MWAH* What the fuck? It’s a great duality where the hard, more logical exterior possesses a sweet and approachable core just waiting to be shown and it’s wonderful seeing Wall-E, this literal block head, fumble his way into having a simple conversation with her. Now I can’t really disassemble how the programming in Wall-E works where they can behave like humans but follow objectives like a machine... but, I can try. With this scene.

Now take this with a grain of salt, the inferencing is more to the imagination otherwise the fun of this movie is tarnished. But from this scene, it’s clear that in this universe robots can show feelings for one another but can’t be romantic with humans because they can recognize human emotions and reactions but do so in an automated sense. The film expresses their curiousity just enough to where their reactions to human things and functions are within reason and yet doesn’t toy with the viewer’s believability. EVE is capable of responding to Wall-E’s advances but doesn’t 100% reciprocate his feelings because Wall-E isn’t her directive (least not yet, that’s for later). Not to mention, she isn’t that adept at romance unlike Wall-E who, by being alone with Earth’s technology, was able to learn and process human romance through the Hello Dolly VHS and potentially other things over the years. So this conversation works with the two having their limited knowledge, we don’t know how much they know, and the film keeps focus on having a balance between somewhat logical reactions and minor impulsive humane reactions that makes them alive but only just enough so it doesn’t feel like them being robots is pointless... Phew. Speaking of which, you know what isn’t pointless? Her motherfucking buster cannon.

Her whole ass arm houses a gun capable of nuking an entire cargo ship in a matter of seconds and it makes sense that she’d have it cuz how can a scouter robot defend themselves but beyond that, it’s just so goddamn cool. Like yeah, I can express how this symbolizes about America and... how they want to fuck their guns or something but who cares. She has a FUCKING ARM CANNON and it’s badass, end of discussion.

The Hanger Moment

Much as I love the moment where the two are in space flying, I honestly say that this moment where the two are in Wall-E’s house during the darude sandstorm is incredibly important. EVE is reasonably taken to his home and naturally, when the lights come on, she looks through the stuff he gives to her. She gets to take it easy for once, things can be quiet after she blew up a whole ship, have a giggle or two at the trinkets he’s collected, with the cigarette lighter being a good tool that’ll be used for later.

She’s curious, bouncy, still a bit quick on the draw, but is nonetheless taking in a lot this robot on Earth has to offer. It’s this and the small 1v1 they had before that is a lovely seedling to not only their connection but EVE’s development on her own, where we hardly need dialogue to show how she’s feeling about it all. And yeah, I’m with plenty of people to say that if this movie was just about the two of them being on Earth it probably would’ve been the greatest Pixar film of all time for many. Fortunately the plot kicks in when Wall-E shows EVE the plant, forcing her to go dormant, thus pulling Wall-E into an adventure on the Axiom ship. And I say fortunately cuz this is where EVE goes from good to great as a character.

The Axiom

While it’s something where we all wish that this film wasn’t the densly plotted, society driven second half, I say the second half on the Axiom carries the film’s themes and character building for EVE to good heights. We enter EVE’s territory, the slick, iPhoney synthetic world where humans have become literal potatoes and everything’s more or less automated. For EVE, the first half of the film lets us see the more playful side of her and doesn’t mind being around Wall-E, but isn’t immediately won over with the concept of love. She’s still goal-oriented and trying to keep the two stuck on Earth would’ve made her arc as open-ended and ambiguous as The Good Dinosaur. Time on the axiom puts her original sense of thinking to the test when Wall-E tags along.

To share the bigger picture real quick, the human element of Wall-E is complimentary to Wall-E and EVE’s humane behavior. To quote RealJims’ honestly flawless analysis, “What better way to show the humanity in a robot than to be among humans that act like robots?” For Wall-E the robot, this works perfectly as a fish out of water story. His time on Earth affects not only a few humans, but other robots like MO and the secretary machine, as minor as it seems.

So when Wall-E seemingly fucks things up, EVE is rightfully peeved. His slip ups especially with the Diagnostics scene tests her goal-oriented nature and patience, to a tasteful comedic strength. Doesn’t mean they now turned Wall-E stupid, the film makes sure the monkey wrenches are only accidents from someone severely out of the loop of things. This leads them and us well into

The Depths of Space

The scene where Wall-E gets launched in the escape pod thrills me with joyfully painful suspense every time. EVE making a mad dash to him as Wall-E madly tries to get out of the soon exploding pod, leading to it exploding and we get this from EVE. The wide eyes of terror followed by the whispering “No”s gives me shivers every time I see it in full. 

Now one could argue her concern was more for the plant getting destroyed, but I say she was more frightened at the idea of both Wall-E and the plant getting nuked. While Wall-E did make her mad, she nonetheless cared about him and wasn’t expecting the tiny bot asshole to send him to death. So it’s like, “Oh no, both my purpose and the one that helped me are both gone.” 

Luckily, thanks to some foreshadowing, Wall-E made it out alive with the plant in safe keeping and EVE seeing Wall-E actually care about her goal makes her beam with joy, being that reasonable spark that brings the two closer together. I mean if your love interest cheated death to help you out, why wouldn’t it? Everything about this moment is what made EVE stick with me long after I watched the film; the emotional journey the director was able to convey with her is so well-built to this point, it’s still amazing how they were able to do it with little dialogue or facial expressions. I especially love the emptiness we get of the two of them in space, where it adds focus to the two of them especially. But my god, that’s only half of it...

The space dance sequence between the two is still one of Pixar’s most gorgeous scenes. The way Wall-E is able to keep up with the fire extinguisher after having trouble in the film’s beginning, the wide shots of space, the lovely glow of the engines, the music. I especially like to think of this scene as a parallel to EVE’s initial flight on Earth. For her, it was that rite of passage after the touchdown and now she gets to share that same moment with someone she’s grown to like or appreciate. Then again, this isn’t the moment where EVE loves Wall-E. We’re close, but we need that one inch to finally show her the truth. That’s when she sees

The Recordings

The moment where EVE gets to see the memories of her time on Earth, including her dormant stasis, is where shit finally clicks. She essentially gets to know how Wall-E felt not only about her, but about love. Even when she couldn’t be there, she sees now that Wall-E cared about her and is able to process what Wall-E processed when he looked at Hello Dolly at one point. Scene also works because getting her directive, or the plant, was generally done and done with, she finally gets time to focus on something else, on her feelings for someone else. This leads well into... the well that leads to...

The Dumpster Moment

The scene with the recordings is where things finally click, but the moment with EVE and Wall-E in the ship’s dump is where it comes together. After getting betrayed yet again by AUTO, EVE’s concerns are now less with the plant and more for Wall-E and thanks to the moment previous, I can totally buy this. It’s teeth gritting seeing her try to rescue a now broken Wall-E from getting ejected into space and losing his energy thanks to a destroyed chip. So when we see her finally toss the plant aside and says Wall-E is her directive now, I tear up. It feels like a genuine, built up declaration on her part; the moment where EVE can rationally return his feelings ten-fold and truly be there for him. But that isn’t all to it, because Wall-E reasonably struggles his way to the plant to show that to save him, they need to get to Earth which means getting the plant back to the core of the ship.

This gives EVE newfound resolve and puts that to the test, where she has to basically defect against AUTO who’s become the physical antagonist of the film. The escape sequence is a bit of a step down since putting humans in danger doesn’t really affect the film’s themes all that well, but I can’t argue that pitting the captain against AUTO is a bad climax. 

The Death to Wall-E

Thinking about this film after so long, it is still pretty fucking shocking to realize how punishing they treat Wall-E in the final act. It’s even more shocking when you realize how the roles have reversed, where Wall-E focuses more on EVE’s goal with the plant instead of EVE herself and vice versa. Then again, I say it’s fair that they did this, to show how much Wall-E was willing to sacrifice for the one he loves which makes the painful wails we hear from EVE feel all the more impactful. Like you’re serious with her as she struggles to accept his death before they reach Earth. And speaking of Earth...

The Finale

Now, I can’t help but argue it’s an unfortunate plothole that EVE is somehow able to fully repair Wall-E in spite of never fixing anything else in the film. Then again, it’s fucking pumping seeing her move quick to put him back together and it’s that final stomp on the heart when, even when he’s fully restored, Wall-E bares no memories of her or anything. You see her desperately try to get him to remember anything only to be met with an emotionless, reset shell. In finally understanding Wall-E’s feelings of love, she can’t really be with him. Until...

True Love’s Kiss Saves the day

I can get scientific with how getting his memories back was possible, but I won’t because the scene just works. It’s quiet, takes it time, and that last eureka moment with the two truly get to hold hands makes up for any scattered logistics. I’d say this is where Wall-E finally gets the love, but the same can be said for EVE, after everything she went through. I’ve admittedly seen a few talk about how the female lead is only valid through the love of another, typically male, but I believe what works 120% here is that the two characters basically have themselves figured out, Wall-E more than EVE, and EVE’s journey is never hindered for a sudden realization to love. She still succeeds in her mission, but the stakes for her have risen once she comes to terms with her newfound feelings and these feelings aren’t out of pocket. Wall-E has his feelings for EVE from the getgo, but dedicates to helping EVE with the goal, even if it means death. The connection they get to have is earned and is what drives the plot. EVE earns what she realizes she wants and that makes her a great female protagonist in my eye.

The Conclusion

Wall-E is a pretty warm movie; a film how the love of two brings humanity to salvation and vice versa. How EVE and Wall-E’s love is synonymous to the intertwining of modern and older technology to shape the world. But honestly, that probably wouldn’t have worked as well without how great they made EVE as a character. Wall-E is great too, but it’s astonishing to see EVE’s journey with Wall-E and show her natural growth of understanding something as warm as romance. Her journey is pretty synonymous to how I feel with the movie overall. The time we get of them on Earth is symbiotic to the time we get in space; we get an intimate journey that expands to a film about society but remains personal and intimate nonetheless. And with EVE, we get this superbly fleshed out character that’s emotive, understanding, and above all gets a resolves that’s awesome to see every time I catch or just think about this film. What else is there to say?

They’re the Best.

[morethanboomtschk]

Alan Oldham: The Art of Techno Futurism

Alan Oldham is just that – a forward thinking futurist and former radio jockey whose work has long fused the not-so-distant worlds of art and music. Creating illustrations under his own name and spinning under the moniker DJ T-1000, Oldham’s status as a sci-fi visionary has made him one of the most unique and important figures to come out of the Detroit techno movement. “Detroit techno, in my view, was originally about futurism,” he says. “Futuristic black music. Look no further than Juan Atkins for that. A lot of old sci-fi movies and TV shows portrayed a future that had no blacks in it. Detroit techno was a statement that black people would be around in the far future. You can also connect Sun Ra and Mothership Connection-era Parliament/Funkadelic to that aesthetic.”

In the tradition of Sun Ra’s Arkestral manuevers and P-Funk’s explorations of funk’s outer limits, Oldham brings forth elements of science fiction, cultural awareness, higher levels of consciousness and even mythology to forge a sensibility from a future state of existence – with nods to realism interwoven. He believes those talents are innate. “I'm a natural,” says Oldham. “I had an art class in high school, but that's about it. I've been drawing since I was born.” His style – sharp, angular, forward and revolutionary – reflects both the evolution of his craft and his consistency. “My style has matured a bit, especially with my move to paintings,” he says. “But essentially, it's the same as it's always been.”

Oldham began his artistic career as a comic book illustrator, writing for small companies such as Hot Comics, Amazing Comics, Renegade Press, Caliber Comics and a few others. “I started out like everybody else, trying to draw superheroes and trying to get in at Marvel or DC by aping their basic style,” he recalls. “I came up with my own rip-offs of characters, then a few originals of my own. But once I stopped trying to draw like other people, I was able to get in on the indie comics scene of the late ’80s. Anime and manga influences were coming in. It wasn’t so much the basic Marvel or DC styles anymore. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles famously came from that scene, so it was a gold mine back then. Anybody could do anything and it would sell. You could come out with a black and white comic and sell 50,000 copies. We did over 15,000 on Johnny Gambit #1.” - Johnny Gambit is an indie comic book Oldham created at Visual Noise, a studio he put together in the late ‘80s as a place to ink and letter the comic. The name was recently resurrected for an art show Oldham mounted at the Record Loft in Berlin, where he is currently based. Yet in 1986 in Detroit, Derrick May took notice of Johnny Gambit and Oldham’s advanced illustrative style – and he introduced Oldham to the developing techno sound stemming from the Motor City.

“When I went to Wayne State University years ago, there was a place on campus called Student Center,” Oldham remembers. “We all used to hang out there between classes. Some semesters I had long gaps between day and evening classes, so I was there a lot. I was drawing Johnny Gambit at the time and I would have my art supplies with me. Derrick May used to work at this video arcade right off campus on Woodward, and lived a block away from WSU, so I began to run into him. I had known Derrick since we were kids, by the way. Like 10-11 years old. Anyway, he was coming through Student Center when he saw me working on Johnny Gambit. He said he was starting this new label and he asked me to do the label art for it. He offered me $50 for both sides, so I did the designs. $50 was a lot of money in 1986. The record turned out to be ‘Nude Photo’ b/w ‘The Dance’ and it turned out to be very famous.”

It would become the first of dozens of album illustrations for the Detroit techno community. “Derrick had this buddy who needed a logo for his label called KMS,” says Oldham. “So he brought Kevin Saunderson down to Student Center one day, and I met him. I ended up doing the first KMS logo, the one that’s on ‘Truth of Self-Evidence,’ ‘Bounce Your Body to the Box,’ etc. And it just went on from there.” - Oldham was landing gig after gig. In 1987, one of those gigs brought him to a different world: radio. An intern at WDET (a Detroit Public Radio station) the summer prior, he was then offered his own show, which was aptly called “Fast Forward,” holding true to Oldham’s futuristic approach to life. “Fast Forward” had become Detroit’s first-ever all-electronic radio program and ran between 1987-1992. Oldham had a graveyard shift initially – 3 AM to 6 AM – but his audience was vast, as he played everything from classic favourites to burgeoning techno beats from colleagues and friends.

Some of the music given to him for his radio show was from Jeff Mills and Mike Banks, who had just formed Underground Resistance, and they recruited Oldham for yet another gig – this time in the area of public relations for the newfound collective. “Jeff Mills was another childhood friend,” Oldham describes. “Mills lived down the street from this kid I used to draw with. This kid’s dad had this high-rise at 1600 Lafayette that we used to gather at to play Monopoly every week and Jeff was in the group. Years later, Jeff had hooked up with Mike Banks to form UR. By this time, I had my radio show on WDET, and they used to feed me reel-to-reels and white labels to play on the air.

“By 1991, UR was getting stronger and they needed PR help. I minored in English and learned to write press releases in school, so I started doing that for UR for gas money. We were all crammed into Banks’ mom’s basement. Rob Hood was in the group, too, designing flyers, pasting up stuff. This was pre-Mac, of course.”

Oldham’s involvement with Underground Resistance led to his introduction to DJing. “When Jeff left UR in ’92 and they had an Australian Tour all lined up, Banks asked me to be the replacement tour DJ,” he says. “Everybody had code names in UR, so that's when DJ T-1000 was born. I went at it with gusto, ’cause it was my big break. And that was that.” - However, the development of DJ T-1000 also led to the temporary demise of Oldham’s comic illustrations. “Once I got into DJing and traveling every weekend and making music, doing comics took a back seat,” he says. “But with the slow demise of the music business as I once knew it, I’m back to the first love, making comics and art again.”

His travels and constant connections resulted in Oldham creating art for an impressive roster including Derrick May, Miss Djax, Ben Sims, Richie Hawtin, Astralwerks, Third Ear Recordings, Opilec Music, Steve Bug, Cisco Ferreira (The Advent), Delsin Records, AW Recordings and many others. “Because of my work for Djax-Up-Beats, robots have become a theme in my artwork,” Oldham says. “People know me for that, so I decided to continue the theme in my big canvases. Big booties, stiletto heels, spaceships and robots.” Oldham’s art garnered international attention through the DJs and labels, especially in Europe, where there was (and still is) a deep fascination with Detroit techno. “When I started emphasizing on doing gallery shows in Europe, the techno art got even more popular,” he says. Although he felt something special stirring out of the Detroit techno movement, Oldham knew his calling was overseas. “All that interest from Europe… for me, just the chance to get out of Detroit and see the world and make so many international friends was a very big thing, and still is,” he says.

Today, Oldham travels the world showcasing his art, as well as his music. He continues to spread the futuristic message of Detroit techno on an international level through his talents. “My number one goal with both my art and music is to impact my audience in a positive way,” he says. “No negativity, just mood and cool. I’ve got paintings hanging in people’s homes and studios, and my music in their iPods. I want to push my aesthetic out there and leave my mark.”

This article was published on the Red Bull Music Academy website in November 2014. Written by Ashley Zlatopolsky.

[weirdlandtv]

Like the 1960s generation had The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan, the Big Three of the 1980s were Prince, Michael Jackson, and Madonna. Their new albums weren’t just song collections, they were messages uttered by the Oracle up on the mountain, echoing across the valley. They were events, statements, re-incarnations. Each new album presented a new persona for fans to imitate and for critics to evaluate, or, in the case of Prince, decipher. (Artists, back then, had to change with each new release or else be considered irrelevant. David Bowie entered the 1980s a smart yuppie, George Michael in the span of 7 years went from sparkling teen idol to sensitive, searching biker cowboy.)

Michael Jackson and Prince were regarded as rival gods, with the former more commercially successful but the latter preferred by most serious music critics (though in reality, fans, like me, liked both). Michael Jackson played games with tabloid journalists, who in turn responded with growing hostility; Prince played pranks on music critics, who wilfully allowed themselves to be deceived and wowed by this inscrutable prodigy.

Michael Jackson’s Avalon was Neverland, a fantasy dream that always invited ridicule (though not from me); Prince’s Mount Olympus was Paisley Park, a place deemed so mythical that fans constructed their own maps from the few photos and bits of footage that existed of it, and then endlessly speculated on what life was like inside of it: the parties, the concerts, sacred rituals, whisperings, the spontaneous nightly sessions. “Did you know,” they’d say, wide-eyed, “Prince has this huge vault of original masters and unreleased music right under Paisley Park? Only he knows the key code.” Whole albums (all masterpieces of course) had disappeared into that vault, never to be heard by ordinary mortals. And he never slept: nobody had ever caught him sleeping. He just went on and on, creating music. That was Prince, the enigmatic wonder, the living love symbol, and flamboyant question mark.

I still find it strange to realize so many of the artists I just mentioned, who so energetically populated my childhood and early teens, are dead. Michael Jackson, Prince, David Bowie, and George Michael all died within 7 years of each other; but there’s also Whitney Houston, Freddie Mercury, Kurt Cobain, and so many more. (Compare 1960s giants Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, who are still touring and releasing records.)

When Prince died, a little more than three years ago today, I was on Texel, an island to the north of Holland, where I live. I checked my phone, checked the news, like you so stupidly do every now and then, and then saw the incredible headline. A sunny day, clouds seemed to appear that moment. Some people love celebrity deaths and follow juicy rumor sites about who punched who and who stepped out of the limo without their knickers on; me, I get depressed. It’s like having swallowed a stone. The sensationalist cries around every celeb death to me are like a beehive of bad vibes, a pest, and I have to stay away from it as far as possible if I want to protect my mental health, or what’s left of it. Prince’s death made me take things slow for a week or so. I have to mentally chew on such things, change my settings, ease into the new reality, let my heart adjust to its new weight. I’ve often had to deal with death in my life, sometimes it’s as if every high-profile death shocks me back into that familiar feeling of dread and despair.

Though Michael Jackson’s Neverland has turned into a derelict theme park that carries the curse of being unsellable, Prince’s Paisley Park has become a museum. Occasionally, browsing the internet, I see photos of it, and I’m always struck, kind of uneasily, about how soulless it seems. What does the lair of an extravagant hermit look like? What did I expect? Not something that looks like the atrium of a New Age company maybe. Looking at the interior, those sad police photos that were released last year, I can’t help but see the stupendous mundanity of it all. The building itself, somewhere in a suburb outside of Minneapolis, resembles a bunker, and though the pyramid skylights, that vaguely resemble guard towers, provide some natural light, the rest of the building is artificially lit, but dark. The recording studio is just that. Some of the walls have sayings like “Everything You Think Is True”. Stained glass with stars, clouds, and guitars. There’s a potted plant here, and an ugly tangle of phone cords in the corner there. Prince’s bedroom was sparse with empty green walls, and a plastic trash can you can buy at your local Walmart (but he never slept of course). The legendary vault reminds me of the storage room of my dad’s old electronics company, with its disorderly shelves and half-opened cardboard boxes. And everywhere, in every corridor and every space, there’s Prince iconography, but it’s rather bland, like the cover of a cheap unofficial biography.

For Prince, it must have been strange living in your own mausoleum.

The music that came from that place though. I believe PARADE (1986) was the first full album he recorded there, and then everything that came afterwards. My uncle was a real Prince fanatic, taking a slew of albums with him whenever he stayed with us, bootlegs too, so from an early age I became quite well-versed in all things Prince. Bits of his lyrics are as familiar to me as old family sayings. Personal favorites are the albums 1999 (1982), BATMAN (1989), and the LOVE SYMBOL ALBUM (1992). I like the street-smart humor of his early stuff, the raw passion, the in-your-face sex metaphors, with symbols as loud as cymbals, just the wild mercury sound of it; later on, his work became more spiritual, and harder for me to follow. His whole being though was music, every movement was a melody, every step a beat; he created music the way other people breathe. He had more songs in him than a duck has quacks. If you listen to the posthumous release, PIANO AND A MICROPHONE 1983, it’s as if the piano, microphone and artist aren’t three separate things, but one organism, bleeding and generating music; it features some wonderful, loose playing. It seems to me that towards the end of his life, in physical pain and unable to play a piano or guitar unless stuffed with elephant tranquilizers, he started to drift, and drift further, until he fell over the edge.

Like Bob Dylan, whose mystique and inaccessibility he shared, Prince had a habit of frustrating his fans, by deliberately excluding a great song from an otherwise so-so album and storing it in his vault, or by making his music hard to buy or even find (online, before he died, there was almost nothing). That’s one reason I kind of stopped following him; the other is the depressing decline of his songwriting since the 1990s. Looking at his later albums, which I first dutifully bought until I didn’t anymore, there’s hardly anything I really like. None of the best-of compilations collect anything from after the 90s. What happened? Age is part of it of course. A decline in quality is inevitable, most musical artists do their best work in their 20s and 30s. It’s also possible Prince’s brand of singing about his women like they are divine vaginas simply went out of style. Once cheeky and outrageous (his work was why Parental Advisory stickers were invented), his songs no longer shock us 21st centurians. We’ve seen so much already. Dirty sex wasn’t the only topic he sang about of course (far from it), but it’s the one he pushed forward the most as part of his image; his “royal badness” was part of his appeal. (The BATMAN soundtrack originally was going to feature Michael Jackson as Batman, the force of good, and Prince as the Joker, representing decadence, sin, evil.)

But his supposed “badness” was an act of course. The cocky poses, flashy gestures and mean diva looks were an obvious shield against the outside world, a theatrical defense mechanism. An attempt to dazzle people before they can get to you. When you’re shy—and he of course was the shyest—you feel like everyone is constantly watching you, and you become overly aware of how you look, how you walk, how you come across; you are constantly aware of your physical being taking up space. So what do you do when you’re an artist? You perform. Everything you do becomes a kind of performance, a conscious act. It gives you a feeling of control: you know why people are watching, because you’re making them watch you. But the essence of it is always shyness and nerves.

There’s something endearing about that 1983 footage of him being invited on stage for an impromptu jam by James Brown, who a few minutes earlier had invited Michael Jackson up. Ready to upstage his rival, who had just performed some killer moves, Prince takes the stage, struts, plays some random riffs, struts some more, suddenly takes off his jacket and does some tricks with the microphone stand, claps to whip up the audience—and then as he wants to make a fast and sudden exit, he clumsily goes down knocking over a prop, stage hands hastily arriving from all sides to help him up.

He died in an elevator near the lobby, but the spot itself has been covered up by a new wall (it’s near the watchful eyes in the third image). I keep wondering what happened. Was he making his way down to the ground floor from his production offices, or was he going up from the recording studio to his bedroom to maybe sleep? One associate, questioned by police, stated that Prince had told her he “was depressed, enjoyed sleeping more than usual and was incredibly bored”, and that at his last concert, he felt like he was going to fall asleep on stage. Those were rare remarks. An intensely private person, he mostly hid his problems, not just from others, but even from himself. The end, then, was inevitable. As with Michael Jackson six years before, the drugs relieved him of his pain, and then of his life.

He never slept, and when he did, it was 4ever.

[crimsonbluemoon]

Working For Love: A TerrorMoo Story 7/17

Still sick, still trying to be on time with my posts. Sorry if I’m not responding to people, its just been a really busy week and the holidays are a bit of a mess. I’m hoping that when I go on vacation after Christmas I’ll answer asks and stuff. For now, please enjoy ^.^ 

Previous Part

Start from the beginning

Brock wasn’t a quitter. 

If anything had proved that over the past three months, it was his improvement in the gym. Once a nervous wreck who was too hesitant to try anything but the treadmill, Brock had started to branch out after losing more weight. The health articles and helpful advice from the guys at the gym (he’d even go as far to say his friends) had explained that doing cardio was great, but needed to be paired with healthy eating and weights. The free weights were still too daunting to approach (the men that lingered there had biceps the size of Brock’s head!), but the weight machines weren’t too intimidating. So Brock finalized a plan, and after his walk on the treadmill had finished, he set his sights on a new part of the gym to conquer. 

But it wasn’t as simple as Brock had originally thought; each machine had different weight ratios and knobs to alter the machine, and Brock was hesitant to touch any of it. The clanking of the adjustments felt loud to Brock, despite knowing that nobody around him would even take notice. They were plugged into their music and their own work-out routines, just the same as Brock was when he was in the zone. The old feelings of being watched came back full force as he tried to adjust the seat, nearly dropping a swear when the latch pinched his finger. It wasn’t a terrible pain, but more of an embarrassment for messing up something as simple as a seat adjustment. His face flushed as he stared down at the first machine, wondering if it was supposed to be a sign. Distantly, a memory sung to him like a siren, casting a wave of insecurity over his anxious soul. 

“You really can’t lift that? Your arms must just be for decoration, Brock, because they don’t have any muscle on them. We need to get you to a gym or something.”

Brock’s anger and resentment of his ex was no longer a gaping wound, but a scar he gave little thought to anymore. The longer he spent away from the rose-tinted image he had of their relationship, the more he understood their flaws. Sure, Brock had some responsibility in their discourse, something Craig never refused to acknowledge anytime the topic came up. Some of the nitpicking he did wasn’t always needed, but used as a defense mechanism when feeling bad about himself. And there was his struggle to try new things, despite his ex being willing to take risks on Brock’s tastes and hobbies. But he wasn’t a martyr, either; Brock could make peace with the fact that his ex treated him like an expectation over a gift. Like he simply thought that Brock should be there by his side until he decided he no longer needed him. Maybe until he found someone in better shape with the arm muscles he’d always ragged on Brock for not having. 

The scars were small now, but at times like this, they still whispered in ways Brock struggled to ignore. 

“God, I hate this machine.” The familiar voice didn’t cause Brock to jump as often as it used to, the warm body by his side making his toes flex pleasantly in his shoes. He glanced in confused silence to Brian, who didn’t hesitate to plop down onto the machine that Brock had been staring at for two minutes. “The calibrations are always so specific and I don’t like how hard the seat is against my ass.” 

“I thought Tyler told you to wear a hat,” Brock said, trying (and partially failing) not to think of Brian’s rear pressed up against hard objects. Craig would be proud, which wasn’t a comforting thought. 

“Tyler also tells Mini he’s not interested, yet lets him come here and sexually harass him without making him pay for his gym membership.” Brian skimmed the weight options of the machine that Brock knew his friend used on a daily basis. “Just can’t trust a man with that poor of taste. So I think one of the elliptical machines is wearing my hat right now.”

“He’s going to fire you one day.” They both knew it wasn’t true; despite his refusal to follow the dress code, Brian was Tyler’s right hand man at running the gym. It was common knowledge to most who frequented the gym often, especially with how much time Brian spent there. Brock doubted that Brian would ever really take credit where it was due, because he wasn’t helping Tyler for glory or recognition. He seemed genuinely invested in helping his friend’s business thrive, which compared to Nogla’s constant promotion of the establishment at his apartment complex. 

“And never see this beautiful face again? He’d had to close down from all the broken hearts.” Brian’s little smirk always sent Brock’s heart into a skittish flurry, though by now he’d learn to lean into the sensation over fighting it. Brian’s lovable personality was so comforting and warm that he couldn’t help it; he felt safe showing his weaknesses to Brian. From how often the other members at the gym reached out to him for questions or help, it was obvious the feeling was common. He wanted to show Brian how intricate he was to making the gym a welcoming environment. 

“What are you doing?” Brock asked instead, taking a step back when Brian finally clapped his hands and pushed off the seat of the machine. 

“Alright, this should be the right settings for you. Take a seat and tell me what you think.” The command didn’t hold any authority or sway, but Brock found himself following Brian’s request when a hand on the small of his back lead him to sit down. Guiding him each step of the way, Brian’s voice stayed eased when he wrapped his hands around Brock’s, adjusting the grip he had on the handles of the arm press. “Keep your fingers facing away from you so you have your strongest part of your grip parallel to your chest. It’ll help you get a better push when you lift up. Don’t use your feet, or you won’t get the same tension in your tricep and it’ll lesson some of your work-out. And make sure to take a good breath before starting your reps, okay? I started you small with weights, but you should be straining by the end of ten pushes. Think you can try this?” 

“Just don’t laugh when I can’t get past one.” Brock tried to make it sound like a joke, but he remembered the phantom pinches from his ex that littered the saggier part of his arm. He’d always held more power in his legs, nothing he’d been ashamed of before the break-up, so the little pokes and comments hadn’t been a passing thought for Brock back then. Now, as he stared at the arms preparing to push the handles of the machine up, Brock couldn’t stop thinking about it. 

“That’s one more than you could do yesterday.” But Brian just made it so easy to stomp out the ghosts of the past with his candid words and positive aura. “And that’s something to be proud of.” 

“Right.” The word was weak when he whispered it, fingers nervously dancing along the soft grips of the handles. His focus turned internal, flexing the muscles in his hands once and nodding. “Right, okay. Here I go.”

And surprisingly, when he pushed into the motion of the machine, it moved. It wasn’t the steadiest of movements, and his arms shook when they came down, but he didn’t fail. Brock almost forgot to hold up the weights, but a quick reminder from Brian to ‘breathe and go again’ had him right back into the swing of things. He took a slow and steady pace, trying to only focus on the motions of his arms and the little hints of help Brian provided. He didn’t get to ten the first set, eight being far too much for him before he dropped the handles down. But Brian looked over the moon at his attempt, and Brock had never felt like such a winner for something he didn’t complete.

“That was great!” Encouragement poured from Brian like a water spout, hands clapping onto Brock’s shoulders to show his excitement. “You did eight of em, Brocky. You rock.” 

“I didn’t get to ten, though.” Despite his response, Brock let himself lean into Brian’s comforting touch, which kept him from sinking into negative self-talk. 

“Seven more than you thought you could do, right?” Which was true enough to make Brock nod. The smile didn’t wipe off Brian’s face as he led Brock to another machine, using the same slow and encouraging tactic as before. The attention was appreciated but confusing to Brock, who wondered how Brian had managed to sneak the time away from his actual duties at the gym. 

But 20 minutes and six machines later, Brock got his answer. 

“Hope you enjoyed your little date.” Tyler seemed less prickly when he tossed out the words, his glare falling into an eye-roll with little heat. “Cause I’m clocking that as your break.” 

“It was worth it.” Brock doubted Tyler meant the threat because he wasn’t a bad boss. If anything, Tyler was coming up with an excuse to not write Brian up for ditching his duties. But the brightness of Brian’s eyes proved he meant his reply, even when he gave Brock a wink and moved away to argue with Tyler. Leaving the gym that day felt different, his muscles already protesting when he shifted the car into gear. He was sure he’d feel the pain tomorrow, and the pain the next day when he did the routine over again. But that was okay, because he was okay. 

Brock wasn’t a quitter, but it was nice to have Brian in his corner anyways.

Fun times at the gym for Brock and Brian! Its like a cute little first date. Hope you guys are enjoying this story, its been fun to write. As always, like, reblog, and let me know what you think! <3

[circuit-music]

2020 Music Recommendations

2020 – WHAT A SHIT YEAR! There was so much craziness in those 365 days – from politics to a pandemic. Music was often times one of those things we could take comfort in or use it as a tool to express a range of emotions. I’m always surprised when compiling these list (of which I’ve been doing for 20+ years now it seems) that no matter the state of the world, there is always an overabundance of great music to be discovered. 2020 musically, delivered - including surprising returns from some bands who’ve been rather quiet in the past years like Consolidated, Cabaret Voltaire, and Portion Control.  

The majority of what I listen to is electronic based music, with techno-body music being my favorite and there was STILL PLENTY of that in 2020 from labels like Aufnahme+Wiedergabe, Fleisch, Bite, X-IMG, Sonic Groove, SOIL, and more. Occasionally something a little lighter like the ethereal shoe-gaze goodness of Mint Julep (“Stray Fantasies” was an amazing record), or the post-punk of House of Harm (wonderful new discovery this year with “Viscous Pastimes”) and Sure (you all slept on “20 years” in 2020) works its way in to my listening. I still find synth pop from the likes of Riki, Korine, Tanz Waffen and Wingtips wonderfully appeasing. The wave material from the likes of Handful of Snowdrops, Linea Aspera, Zanias, Hante., Minuit Machine and Replicant was perfect for those melancholy moods. I even dipped into some aggressive near metal stuff this year from the likes of Pudeur, ESA and Youth Code – perfect for those days of anger.  Oh, and I was thrilled to see a lot of exclusive, unreleased and remixed Curve material surface this year – a band who embraces several genres (walls of guitar, shoe gaze, industrial) and moods.

This isn’t a top 10, top 25 or even a top 100. Instead, it’s an A-Z recommendation list encompassing many genres as those lines are getting more and more blurred. A good tune is a good tune, regardless of genre.  

HIGHLY encourage you to get out there and seek out new music; Visit the record stores, go hear a new DJ, fire up Spotify or another streaming service, check out some new music via podcast, DJ mixes, label sites, online retailers, even Facebook. One of the best sources for discovering new music is BandCamp - who in 2020 with the pandemic started BandCamp Fridays in which the site waived its normal fees to assist artist impacted. Taking place, the first Friday of every month, those will continue in 2021. There’s a plethora of discoveries to be found out there. If you do the work, you’ll be rewarded ;)     Speaking of Spotify – I made a playlist this year featuring plenty of the bands on my list. There’s at least a track or more from the artist who have a presence on Spotify. Sadly a few bands on this list aren’t on the platform, but check BandCamp and you can have a listen. Here’s the link:   https://open.spotify.com/playlist/02kQJZE7uvJxwHJD8j8zrh?si=SHlP4mVRTuaRejh6So3Mig

As in years past I’m certain I missed a few things, ignored the hype on certain releases or just plain forgotten something. It’s a chore to compile this list, but I love to do it. There’s a ton of new pioneering music out there for sure waiting to be discovered and it’s the “what’s next” that keeps me a motivated music fan. There’s never a dull moment in speaking, writing, DJ'ing or promoting new music, so I’ll keep doing it and hopefully be a guide for you all ;).   If it needs mention and I overlooked it - I may do an addendum in the next week or so. Anyways, got your notepaper and plenty of beverages ready? Don’t be a TL:DR (Too Long: Didn’t Read) fool. Read up. Enjoy the music of 2020!

Onwards with the list!!! :D  

2+2=5 - “Hidden In Plain Sight “ (COUP)  

Absolute Body Control   - “1980/2020” 3xLP (Oraculo Records)    

Agent 15   - “Voices In My Head” (Drone)  

Ah Cama-Sotz - “New Skin for Old Tribals “ (Self-released)  

Andi - “Corpse to Corpus” 12” (Aufnahme+Wiedergabe)    

Arabian Panther - “The Way of the Pentinent” EP (SOIL)  

Arnaud Rebotini – “Workout: This is a Quarantine EP6” (Self-released)  

Autumns - "You Always Taught Me Better" LP  (Detriti Records)  

Benedek - “Mr. Goods” 12” (L.I.E.S.)  

Blac Kolor   - “Extinction” EP  (Aufnahme+Widergabe)  

Blacksmith   - “Dominated” (X-IMG)    

Blitzkrieg Baby - “Remixed” (Aufnahme+Wiedergabe)    

Blush Response   - “Void In” LP (Megastructure)   - “Void Out” (Megastructure)    

Body Beat Ritual   - "Raw Dogs” EP (Pleasure Corp)  

Body Divide   - “Pleasure From Pain” (Squarewav)    

Cabaret Voltaire   - “Shadow of Fear” LP (Self-released)  

Calvary Stone - “Hate Unit” (Soil)  

Caustic - “The King of EBM” (Self-released)    

Cervello Elettronico - “No Sides” EP (SquareWav)  

Choke Chain - “Chain Tactics” (Self-released)   - “Grave” (Self-released)  

Chris Shape - “Shaped to Deform” (Unknown Pleasures Records)    

Chrome Corpse   - “Detecting Movement” Ltd. Edition 12" EP  (Oraculo Records)   - “Helmet Mounted Display” (Self-released)  

Chrome Corpse / Decent News   - “Split” (Self-Released)  

Codex Empire   - “Broken by Fear" Ltd. 12” (Horo)     - “Protected by Rage” 12”  (Aufnahme+Wiedergabe)  

Cold Cave   - “Waving Hands” (self-releaesed)  

Comfort Cure - “Serpentine City” (Rec.Body.Ltd)    

Consolidated - “Capitalism” (Self-released)  

Crystal Geometry   - “Samiam” EP (Sacred Court)   - “Senestre” 2x12” (Sonic Groove)  

Curve   - “Blindfold EP - Bootleg EP Series 1”  (Self-released)   - “Curve Oddities Bootleg Series 3” (Self-released)   - “Curve Oddities Bootleg Series 5” (Self-released)   - “Horror Head Raw DAT Mixes Bootleg Series 4” (Self-released)  

Cyan ID   - “Blurred Revelation” (X-IMG)  

Dive   - “Where Do We Go From Here” Ltd. Ed Box set (Out Of Line)    

E.L.I.   - “Dying to Live” (SOIL)    

E.S.A.   -  “Burial 10” (Negative Gain Productions)   -  “Eat Their Young / The Scorn” (Negative Gain Productions)  

Einstruzende Neubauten   – “Alles In Allem” (Potomak)  

Evil Dust   - “Desolation” (Crave Tapes)    

Fatal Morgana   -  “The Destructive Remixes” 12"   (Mecanica Records)   - “The Final Destruction” 2LP   (Mecanica Records)  

Filmmaker   - “Reinvent” 12” (Soil records)  

Fixmer - "Invasion” 12” (Bite)    

Fixmer/McCarthy   - “Unreleased From the Archives" (Planet Rogue Records)    

Foreign Policy   - “Watching Existence” 12” (X-IMG)  

Fractions   - “Nite NRG” (Monnom Black)    

Further Reductions - “Array” 12” (Knekelhuis)    

Hakai   – “No Flesh Shall Be Spared” 12” (Megastructure)  

Halv Drom   -  “Slum Vatic” LP (Fleisch)  

Handful of Snowdrops   - “Asymetrical” (NanoGénésie®) - “Echoes -The Complete Cover Collection” (NanoGénésie®)   - “The Four Winds” (NanoGénésie®)   - “The Impossible Dream” (NanoGénésie®)   - “Watch Me Bleed / Theme for Great Cities” (Self-released)  

Hante.   - “Fierce - Remixes & More” LP (Synth Religion)      

HKKPTR   - “Macht & Ohnmacht” EP (Aufnahme+Wiedergabe)    

House of Harm   - “Vicious Pastimes” LP (Avant!)  

Human Performance Lab   - “Impact Situation” 12"  (Aufnahme+Wiedergabe)  

Inhalt   - “Simulation” 2xLP Remixes (Mechatronica)  

Iron Court   - “Etched Forseights” (Detriti)    

Istigkeit & Angel Karel   - “You A’Int No Punk, You Punk”  (RND. Records)  

IV Horsemen   - “Compilation Vol. 1” (Self-released)     - “Human Crash” LP (Fleisch)    

Karger Traum   - “III” LP (DKA Records)    

Kenny Campbell   - “Blackest Ever Buckfast” (Drone)

King Dude   - “Full Virgo Moon” LP (Van)    

KLACK   - "Two Minute Warning” (Klackprodukt)   - “Move Any Mountain” (Self-released)     - “Catching Up with Klack” (Razgrom)   - “Distancing” (Self-released)   - “Move Any Mountain” (Self-released)     - “Probably” (Klackprodukt)  

Konkurs   - “Terminal Stage" (Megastructure, X-IMG)  

Kontravoid   - “Live from the Void” (Self-released)     - “Too Deep Remixes” (Fleisch)    

Korine   - “The Night We Raise” LP (Data Airlines)    

Kris Baha   - “Barely Alive” 12” (Emotional Especial)     - “Starts to Fall” 12” (Power Station)    

Kutkh Jackdaw   - “Sweat & Thunder EP and remixes” (Dark Disco)      

Lbeeze   - “Induced Expressions” (Phormix Tapes)    

Liebknecht   - “Demos The H4AR 2020" (Self-released)   - “Koln : Total Harmonic Noize remix” (Self-released)    

Linea Aspera   - “LP II” (Self-released)    

Looky Looky   - “Are You There Beach?” (Self-released)    

Machino   - “Ciudad Violenta” (X-IMG)    

Maedon   - “Escape To Berlin" (Sonic Groove)      

Marc Ash   - “Mirror Glaze Lavish" 12" EP (Fleisch)  

Marina Aleksandra   - “Animal Industrial Complex” (Randolph & Mort. mix)  

Max Durante   - “Fear and Desire” 12”  (Aufnahme+Wiedergabe)  

Mind | Matter   – “Souvenirs Brises” (Intervision)  

Mint Julep   - “Stray Fantasies” LP (Western Vinyl)    

Minuit Machine   - “Don’t Run From the Fire” 12” (Synth Religion)    

New Frames   - “Outer Limits” 12” (Bite)   - “RNF2” 12” (R Label Group)   - “Stylized Fear” 12” (Haven)    

Nordstaat   - “Singularity Second Coming” (X-IMG)  

NZ   - “More Of Us” 12” ltd. (Infacted Records)    

Objekt Clermont   - "Zeitgeist” EP (Self-released)  

Ofelia Ortodoxa   - “Maleficio” (Soil)    

Pablo Bozzi   - “Last Moscow Mule” (Dischi Autunno)   - “Walk on Wire” EP (Bite)  

Phase Fatale   - “Scanning Backwards” 2xLP (Osgut Ton)  

Portion Control   - “Head Buried” EP  (Portion-Control.Net)   - “Seed  1” EP (Portion-Control.Net)   - “Seed 2” EP (Portion-Control.Net)  

Pudeur   - “Magie Noire” (Area Z)    

Randolph & Mortimer   - “Enjoy More” 7” (Self-released)   - “Manifesto for a Modern World” 2xLP (Mecanica)     - “They Know We Know They Lie” (Self-released)   - “Union of the Faithful” (Self-released)    

Reka X Imperial Black Unit   - “Todo Avaricia” 12" EP  (Fleisch)  

Rendered   - “Stone Cold Soul” CD (Audiophob)    

Replicant   - "Regression” (Self-released)     - “Annihilation” (Self-released)  

Rhys Fulber   - “Diaspora” EP  (Aufnahme+Wiedergabe)   - “Resolve” (FR Recordings)  

Riki   - “Riki” LP (Dais Records)

Rommek   - “Break The Tension” 12” (Leyla Records)    

Salem Unsigned   - “Blood Origin” (RND.r recorcds)    

SARIN   - “Moral Cleansing Remixed" (Bite)      

Schwefelgelb   - “Der Puls Durch Die Schläfen Instrumentals" (n-Plex)     - “Der Puls Durch Die Schläfen" (n-Plex)     - “Die Stimme Drängt” 12"  (Cititrax)  

SDH - “Against Strong Thinking" 12" (Avant!)  

Size Pier   - “Typhoon in Busan” (X-IMG)    

Soft Crash   - “Spitzkrieg” 12” EP  (Bite)  

Soj   - “Land of Lovers and Hammers” (Infidel Bodies)   - “Slow Burn” (Industrial Complexx)    

Statiqbloom   - “Asphyxia Remixed” (Synthicide)      

Sure   - “20 Years” LP (Weyrd Sun Records)    

T_ERROR 404   - “Holographic Skull” (X-IMG)  

Tanz Waffen   - “Led Astray” (Self-Released)    

Teatre   - “Crime Imagery” (Self-released)  

Terrorfakt   - “Achtung 2020 Remixes” (SquareWav)    

The Marquis - “Poison” (Self-released)   - “Scab” (Self-released)    

Trauma Phase   - “Human Caused Disaster Response” (Detriti)   - “The Origin of Social Disabilities” (Self-Released)  

Unconscious   - “Regnum Novum” (X-IMG)     -"Slaves of System" LP  (Detriti)  

Unhuman   - “Voices of Distress” 12” (Bite)  

Various Artisits - “ASM II “ (Forkha) with: Chrome Corpse, Mind|Matter, The Undertaker’s Tapes, Evil Dust and more  

Various Artist -  “Meta Moto 4” (Meta Moto) with: Borsis Barksdale, Raw Ambassador, Filmmaker, Teatre and more

Various Artist - “Antikhrist Visions vol. II” LP (Industrias Mekanikas) with: Downwell, Delectro and more  

Various Artist - “BOY Records – Timeless Technology 1988 – 1991" 4xLP (Mecanica) Retrospective box of the legendary Boy label releases.  

Various Artist - “Crime Violente Vol.4”  (Up North Records) With: Calvary Stone, Lbeeze, Meshes and more  

Various Artist - “Dystopia in Action” 12” (X-IMG)     with: Alpha & Necromante, Kris Baha, Human Performance Lab and more  

Various Artist - “Ecdisis Vol 2” (Frigio Records) Snag this for the outstanding edit of Portion Control’s “Chew You to Bits”

Various Artist - “Murder 01” 12” (Murder) with: Codex Empire, Crystal Geometry, JK Flesh and more  

Various Artist - “Northern Nightmares Vol.1” (Up North Records) with: Autumns, Cardopusher, Teatre, Hate Magnum Opus and more

Various Artist - “Northern Nightmares Vol. 2” (Up North Records) with:  Notausgang, NGHTY, Violet Poison and more

Various Artist - “Sonic Groove: 25 Years 1995-2020" 2xLP (Sonic Groove) with: Orphx, Crustal geometry, Maedon, Rhys Fulber & Portion Control and more

Various Artist - “Uncanny Valleys Vol. 1” (Area Z) with: Chrome Corpse, Sarin x Imperial Black Unit, Celldod, IV Horsemen and more

Various Artist - “Uncanny Valleys Vol. 2” (Area Z) with: Ah Cama-Sotz, 3.14, MDS51 and more  

Various Artist - “Valley of Tears vol 1" 12” (Soil)   with: Imperial Black Unit, Fractions, Exhausted Modern and more

Various Artist - “Valley of Tears Vol. 2” 12” (Soil) with: SOj, Djedjotronic, Years of Denial and more  

Various Artist - “Seven Years of Delirium" (Liber Null)   with: Blush Response, NGLY, Zanias, Celldod, Phase Fatale and more  

Various Artist – “Detriti Split 1” 12” split vinyl (Detriti) with: Black Sun Dreamer and Trauma Phase

Various Artist – “Detriti Split 2” 12” split vinyl (Detriti) with: Mind | Matter and Iron Court  

Visceral Anatomy   - “Modern Anguish” EP  (Oraculo Records)  

Visitor   - “Technofossil” (Braid Records)  

Wingtips   - “Tears Of Pearls" (Self-released)    

Youth Code   - “Puzzle” (Self-Released)    

Zanias   - “Extinction” 12” (Fleisch)     - “Harmaline” (Self-Released)    

Zola Jesus   - “Live at Roadburn” (Roadburn Records)

[bltngames]

SAGE 2020: Indie Games

SAGE may closed more than a day ago, but thankfully, the website remains up for those who still want to download its games. So even though this article is technically very late, nothing listed here is out of date. The event may be over, but the games live on! Which is honestly a relief, because I think doing ten games per article is taking its toll on me. Normally, when I’d write for TSSZ, I’d do somewhere in the realm of 5-7 games per article, and even that would eventually burn me out. After writing about 20 games this year, I was clearly starting to feel like I was running out of steam. Oh well. We live and learn. Here’s another ten games!

There’s one more article left after this, a sort of “honorable mentions” round-up that will feature much shorter blurbs as I blow through way more games way faster. If I didn’t talk about your game here in these three articles, now’s your chance to let me know so I can say something about it in the final article.

Anyway, onwards to our ten indie games.

Victory Heat Rally

I’m all for any game channeling the spirit of Sega’s old SuperScaler arcade technology, and Victory Heat Rally is all about that. Everything about this game seems so MY AESTHETIC that my only complaint is that I’m hungry for more. A lot more. This demo is a simple time trial on one race track and I’m itching to sink my teeth into literally anything else this game has to offer. There is an older demo from back in April with more content, but it’s running on a different version of the code base -- this newest demo is significantly improved both in terms of visuals and control. I really don’t have anything else to say about it. There’s not much here, but what’s here is charmingly retro in the style of Sega’s Power Drift, but cuter and even more colorful.

  Sondro Gomez: A Sunova Story

I had been interested to revisit Sondro Gomez after playing the first demo last year, but I don’t know if I just wasn’t in the right mood for it this year or what, but I kind of bounced off the game this time. To my memory, Sondro Gomez is a kinda-sorta side game in the Kyle & Lucy universe. You may remember Kyle & Lucy as one of a growing number of games coming out of the Sonic fan gaming community trying to break out as an original title. A while ago, the developers announced a partnership with Stealth to use the Headcannon engine to make the game with, something that extended to Sondro Gomez here. The problem is, it feels kind of weird now, and I can’t quite put my finger on why. I think it’s the little stuff -- you don’t get a lot of positive feedback when attacking using your whip (the sound is a bit quiet), and the difficulty balancing errs on the side of caution. I died a couple times in my time playing this newest demo, but I wouldn’t characterize Sondro Gomez as a game that feels challenging. Some of that probably has to do with the fact this is still just a demo, which means you spend a long time fighting the same four enemy types in every single level. There’s a lot of charm to the story and the characters it involves, but that only takes you so far when it feels like you’re doing the same things over and over in the actual levels, you know? Either way, the touched up visuals and the new boss fights are welcome. Interested in seeing what the full release looks like next year.

  Delta Gal

In retrospect, a Mega Man Legends fan game seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? Where Delta Gal has a leg up is in controls. Even considering the era Mega Man Legends was released in, it had very awkward controls. Delta Gal’s response is to embrace standard third person action game controls with a mouse and a keyboard. Now, there is controller support, but even once you get it set up, you have button layout presets like “Bad” and “Almost Good.” Honestly, if you can, just play it with a keyboard and mouse. The demo offers about 30-40 minutes of gameplay, with a bit of the town, a forest section, a cave, and one whole dungeon. Visuals nail the best parts of the Mega Man Legends low-fi aesthetic, colors are vibrant, and the pixel art textures look very good. The town is full of characters with lots of personality, too. A particular favorite being the guy who runs the junkyard who likes to show off by flexing his muscles but then ultimately chickens out when it comes to exploring the cave he discovers. The only downside I’d say is the sound design. The game sounds okay, but some of the music is a little bland, and certain sound effects lack the right kind of punch. Granted, this style of sound design isn’t easy, so I can empathize with the developers in that respect. Honestly, it doesn’t really detract from anything at all, so maybe it’s not even worth bringing up. Either way, good stuff, and I’m looking forward to the full release.

  Bun n’ Gun

Here’s a cute little game about a bunny in the old west. I’m absolutely in love with the visuals and the music here, but the gameplay is… interesting. Bun isn’t a typical shooter or platformer, thanks to the fact that he appears to only have one arm, which is occupied by his gun. Now you wouldn’t think this would matter, as it’s pretty easy to design a game around only having to jump and shoot, and that’s fair enough. But there’s a strange heft to this character. It takes them a little bit to pick up speed, and it takes them a bit to slow down, and there’s an unmistakable, split-second delay between pushing the jump button and actually jumping. I know enough about this kind of game development that a delay between pushing a button and actually jumping has to be a deliberate design decision, and I split on whether or not I like it. I don’t think I hate it, because it’s pretty easy to get used to the way it feels, but it does mean you’re working with a handicap when it comes to split-second movements. Given the bunny seems to only have one arm, though, perhaps that’s the point. Either way, it’s cute. Give it a look.

  Shield Cat

I feel like I’ve been over-using the word “charming” to describe games at SAGE this year, but you know what? Shield Cat is charming as heck. People also tend to think it’s reductive to describe things by comparing them to something that already exists, but I say nuts to that, too. Saying “It’s like…” is an easy shorthand, and besides, if somebody is saying your project is like one of their favorite games, it just means they’re giving you praise and might lack the words to accurately describe that praise. Thing is, that’s actually kind of hard to do with Shield Cat. The nearest relative to this game would be The Legend of Zelda, but Shield Cat honestly plays very little like Zelda, beyond having a top-down perspective. Secret of Mana, maybe, with the stamina meters? I don’t know. Regardless, this is a charming (!!!) top down action game where you roam around exploring an overworld and solve light puzzles. It controls well and the aesthetics are nice. Can’t really get much better than that, though I do have to wonder what it is you’re supposed to be doing in this game. It took me about 30 minutes to see everything available in this demo, but there’s no story setup and only the smallest pieces of what could be considered a dungeon. What’s on offer here is interesting enough that I find myself wanting to know more about this world. For example, it’s called Shield Cat, but clearly you’re some kind of ferret. What’s that about? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

  Prototype N

I’ve sat here staring into the void wondering what to write about for this game for a long time, because it’s one of those demos that’s just… a solid and fun game that nails exactly what it’s going for. I would say that Prototype N leans a little too far towards the easy side of things, but the third level provided in the demo ramps the challenge up enough to be just about perfect. And, really, that’s it. That’s the game. You get two softer introductory levels to get you acclimated to the controls (which are similar to Mega Man, but different enough not to be a direct clone) and one “real” level to actually give you a bit of a work out. There’s nothing else to really say. This has the vibe of a 1993 or 1994 Capcom game, or maybe something from Data East. Every single part of this game’s presentation is laser-focused on that aesthetic, and it pulls it off flawlessly. Sound design, music, visuals, it’s a bullseye. This game fell out of a time machine in the best way possible. Definitely give it a look.

  Yan’s World

From a game that nails the SNES aesthetic to this, a game which pays tribute to the Virtual Boy… but not really? I actually became aware of Yan’s World many years ago through a mutual Discord, and it always looked interesting, but simultaneously a little confusing, something that still mostly holds true to this day. Per the game’s own Kickstarter sales pitch, Yan’s World is “stylized as a lost title for Nintendo's Virtual Boy.” I can get down with that, but the game almost instantly breaks its own rule because Yan’s primary method of attack is to shoot a missile from his head that can only be aimed using the mouse. As such, Yan’s World doesn’t have controller support, even though one of the stretch goals currently listed on their Kickstarter page is to make a version that can be played on real Virtual Boy hardware. And, honestly, what’s the deal with this game’s whole… everything else? Why is this kid an onion? Why are the platforms made out of clocks? Why does all of Yan’s dialog make him seem like he’s sort of pissed off when he’s got such a big happy smile? There’s a bit of a hand-wave to suggest the entire game takes place inside of a dream, and for once that actually means throwing logic out the window, I guess. Oh, the missile is a pillow? Fine, whatever. Use it to blast this demonic apple, and then threaten to kill an innocent NPC. It’s a dream! Despite how little sense that makes, it… kind of works? The sprites are big and lovely, the game controls well, and the level design is plenty creative. I can’t fault the game for that, it’s just trying to figure out everything wrapped around the game that feels so bizarre.

  Cosmic Boll

I don’t know if I really understand what’s going on in Cosmic Boll, but I love to play it just the same. This plays like if Treasure made Dragon Ball Advance Adventure while strung out on cocaine. The end result is pure hyperactive chaos. There is a whole complicated combat system at play here, and a very lengthy in-depth tutorial when you first start the game, but you can figure out a lot of it by just skipping the tutorial and playing the game for real. You can get by pretty easily by just mashing buttons and seeing what happens, and that’s not a complaint, because a lot happens in this game. Like, constantly. It never stops, it never really slows down. You’re always zipping around, spinning and flipping and punching soldiers, explosions everywhere, collectibles everywhere, just utter madness. It’s Sonic the Hedgehog plus Devil May Cry plus Gunstar Heroes and all of it is mixed up in ways you probably don’t expect. All of this is to say that Cosmic Boll is messy and cool and fun and you should probably play it.

  Brock Crocodile

This is a game I’ve seen a lot of around social media, and it’s nice to finally be able to try it. Weirdly enough, this is the first game all SAGE that has flat out refused to see my controller. For the last few years at SAGE, I’ve been using a Playstation DualShock 4, which typically causes me all kinds of headaches with games expecting an Xbox controller. This year, I’ve been using an 8bitdo SN30+. These things are designed primarily to be used on the Switch, but using a controller macro, you can change it to Xbox or Playstation modes. The “Xbox” mode has served me well so far, but Brock here fails to let me use the controller at all. Fortunately, with only three buttons, Brock manages to be mostly playable on a keyboard. That being said, a lot of this game feels a little bit off. The camera is kind of swimmy, as it's almost constantly in motion trying to get a better angle on what's around you. Brock himself doesn't have a smooth acceleration curve either -- it's more like shifting gears in a car, where you reach one top speed and then click up into the next highest speed. That can work, but Brock changes gears much too quickly and without much feedback, making it look like one jerky acceleration curve instead of two. And then there’s the visuals. Level art looks great, character portraits look great, but I’ve never been the biggest fan of the sprites I’ve seen in this game. Take Brock himself, for example: he’s got insanely thick thighs for some reason but the rest of his body looks thin and wispy, and he stands with kind of weird posture. The good news is, despite these complaints, Brock Crocodile is actually really fun to play. You eventually get used to the game’s control quirks, and the level design and included boss fight are excellent, striking that perfect balance where they aren’t too easy but don’t feel unfairly difficult, either. Plus, even though the cutscenes aren’t skippable (annoying as I was dealing with controller issues), the writing is snappy and the dialog is funny. It may not be perfect, but there’s still a lot to like here.

  Marble Launcher

Here’s one of those games where you can tell the creator is just starting out making games. And that’s great! These sorts of endlessly complex, winding mazes are exactly the kind of levels I started making when I first got into game development when I was 16 or 17 years old. One could spend hours searching every nook and cranny in these levels, which is simultaneously awesome and exhausting. Thankfully, near as I can tell, nothing FORCES you to go exploring, so if you’d rather just finish the game, it’s easy enough to head straight for the goal. Gameplay is extremely simple, otherwise. You’re a marble, you can attack enemies by bouncing off of their heads, and you have a slam move. That’s it. You might think that with this being a marble game, you’d get real rolling ball physics, but all you get is simple platformer controls. They’re good enough, especially considering how esoteric the shape of the levels can get, but it’s hard not to be a little disappointed. Still, it’s not a bad little game for what it is. Controls a bit better than some of my earliest attempts at game development, too.

Thirty games total! That’s a lot of games to talk about. And there’s still more to come, so stay tuned for that.

[dlamp-dictator]

Allen Rambles about Dusk Diver

I finished playing Dusk Diver, a small beat-em-up by JFI Games. I originally played it because it was on sale, I’ve had my eye on it for a few months now, and I needed a break from DMC5 for a bit. And boy do I have some thoughts about it now that I’m done with the game. Namely a bunch of nitpicks, but... we’ll get there in time. 

But as always, let’s start with that Synopsis.

Dusk Diver takes place in the Ximending district of Taipei, Taiwan. The story focuses on Yumo Yang, a Taiwanese high school senior that got caught up in a spiritual adventure over her summer vacation. While out with her friend she was randomly pulled into the alternate dimension of phantoms and demons. Before she was about to get killed by one a local loin god protects Yumo by (accidentally) transferring his powers to her. After she fends off the phantoms she decides to help clean her city of phantoms over summer break with the god’s help, along with the help of his eccentric and frugal boss... Boss. 

The plot takes off from there as Yumo pummels phantoms, gains allies, brightens up her town, and learns more about why the phantom and human realms are colliding. I gotta’ say, it’s nice to actually write the synopsis without having to either look at wiki article or outright copy it. This game is very simple for both good and ill. 

So... what do I think of this game? 

Well, unlike Assassins Pride I’ll be going over the bad first and then try to end on a high note, since for all my issues and nitpicks I did enjoy this game very much.

With that said, let’s start with...

The Bad

The Localization

So the localization is very similar to Under Night In-Birth Late[st] in that it feels very unfinished. When I talked about Under Night’s localization I was a little too harsh on it for my current liking and I’ll use Dusk Diver to explain myself a bit better.

Dusk Diver’s localization isn’t bad. I played this game listening to the Taiwanese dub and nothing sounded too off, but the script, the actual words on the screen, were rife with spelling and grammar errors, inconsistent terminology, and even moments where you could read the actual code of the game in the text. This the translation was either rushed, or it didn’t have enough time to really finish it, which makes it feel really sloppy. The said thing is that this game does have a rather charming script despite this, but reading all those errors and trying to correct them in your head can be... annoying.

The RPG Elements

So... this game is a beat-em-up that revolves around doing large combos and keeping up a hit counter to get higher drops of health, SP, TP, and other resources. The main goal of combat is to get combos going, collect SP and TP, and use those to do more damage to the enemies. 

So why is there an RPG level up system in this game?

I still have a lot of DMC5′s mechanics ingrained in me, so forgive me if this sounds pushy, but in most hack-and-slash/beat-em-up style games tacking on an RPG-style upgrade system only slows down the overall gameplay. 

Let me explain. Every time you complete a level for the first time you gain skill points. You use those points to improve your HP, SP, attack, etc.. This doesn’t feel good to do for this style of gameplay. In most beat-em-ups/hack-and-slash games skill points and similar currency are typically used for new moves or special abilities. DMC5′s red orbs are for new moves, Nero’s devil arms, and a limited amount of health and devil trigger increases. Senran Kagura uses its currency for costumes, accessories, and music, with the mere act of leveling up giving you higher bases automatically and more moves when you reach a certain level that proves you’re familiar enough with your current moveset to expand it. Solely making the numbers of damage and health go up doesn’t make you feel more powerful, it makes you feel like you can just handle the enemies that have gotten a lot more health and do a lot more damage for no reason other than slowing down the gameplay. I’ll save my recommendations for later, but the quick version is that the skill points should be used for more moves, more SP, and Drive duration only, as health and attack feel really arbitrary points to tack on for this style of gameplay.

The Platform/Alternate Gameplay Modes

Not often and namely during side missions for the Boss, but sometimes you have to do platforming segments and reach a certain point on the map and defeat some enemies.

They’re terrible.

Much like Devil May Cry, movement, jumping, and generally getting around feels fine save for me wishing Yumo’s run speed a bit faster. However, precise jumping and general platforming just don’t work. I don’t believe there’s a drop shadow in this game, the jumping itself has much different momentum when trying to maneuver in the air, making some moving platforms a pain to reach, and while the platforms themselves are rather large, the moving platforms go too slow compared to a lot of the fast-paced combat, making it a painstaking wait to get to the next fight.

Again, like DMC, this most platform this game should have is fighting on rooftops. In fact, I believe in the second or third mission you did have to traverse rooftops and it was actually pretty fun. Like I said, the platforms are usually wide enough that even with the wonky jumping it’s not a pain and getting to a higher point on the map and seeing the overall scenery is... nice. 

It’s just when you want me to pull off jumps like this is a Mario game is when things get dicey.

But those are all the big issues down, or at least my top three so...

Smaller Issues that Bug Allen

Like I said, I have more nitpicks than actual problems with this game. The game itself is a fine 10-15 hour experience, but there are several smaller issues that just pile up as you play it. It shouldn’t take you out of the game, but they did frustrate me a little. With that said though:

The minimap needs an ability to mark sidequests, it’ll make for a lot less backtracking and random pausing to look at the map and see where I need to go. I understand that this game is a more or less faithful for recreation of the Ximending district, but for non-locals playing this game like me finding locations is rather difficult. 

Since this game has visual novel styled cutscenes it’d be nice to have a log button to backtrack conversations just in case you skim over some important dialogue.

On that note, an option to control the speed of the text would be great as well, as I didn’t see one in there initially.

Cutscene Skip Button. It’s annoying to do the hard mode of these stages and having replay cutscenes I’ve already seen. Especially when I’m just hunting for Dragon Vein Shards.

Dragon Vein Shards should be tied solely to upgrades, as using them for plot advancement only adds to the grind... or so I would say if not for me have twice as many of the shards needed for progression every time. Again, I’ll go more in depth when I talk about my desires in a sequel, but for now I’ll just say these items should either be for leveling up or as a sort of collectible.

I’d like the rank system to be more like DMC, tying clear time, damage taken, max combo, and things like all together so that the end goal isn’t just to speedrun a stage for the S-rank.

Can the menu option be mapped to the triangle button like every other game? It kept throwing me off when I tried to pull up the map.

There doesn’t need to be a small cinematic when you do certain guardian attacks. It locks Yumo in place and has a real high chance to miss its target save for bosses.

It’d be best to map items to the buttons instead of the d-pad, as it kept tripping me up when I was trying to heal. 

I think that’s it for the major nitpicks, so let’s move onto the the good stuff.

The Good

Story and Theme

The story of Dusk Diver is simple, but effective. You go around saving the district by fighting monsters, you see how those monsters effect the district in each arc, and you solve the problem, usually getting an ally along the way. The few people that are aware of your secret job as a magical martial arts girl, usually the elderly or spiritually attuned, are very supportive toward Yumo. 

The game has an overall light, encouraging tone. It wants you to love the city as much as Yumo and Leo do, and it works. All of your side missions have you help out the locals in some way and you gain increased power for the super mode. You work at a convenience store, you partner with the local gods and guardians. Everything you do reinforces the idea of protect, preserving, and understand the town you live in. Yumo gets bonus dragon shard veins by frequently eating at local restaurants and becoming a regular. You help tourists out finding places to visit. You help an elderly man by taking photos of his old stomping grounds and he reminisces on what those old buildings were originally for. You help a coffee shop for free drinks. The list goes on, but a lot of the game reinforces this theme of community and loving the town do so much in. This is a very comfy game despite all the action of bashing demons and phantoms.

Characters

While simple, Yumo as a character is a very cheery girl that just wants to help others. She’s a bit annoyed at being forced to help at first, but she is someone that’s helpful at heart. And seeing her want to protect her friends and town is genuinely heartwarming. 

Plus, I really like her design. I’ve always been a fan of simple street clothes, and black with yellow highlights will always sell me on a character. 

Your guardians are pretty fun too. Leo’s knowledge of the city and desire to help others really gives him a cool grandpa vibe. Bahet’s a quiet and encouraging guy with a noble background despite his punk fashion. Le Viada is a model with a complex around her age and big sister mentality, the list goes on. Again, these characters are simple, but effective.

Gameplay

While I did have my nitpicks, the gameplay is solid beat-em-up action. Light and heavy attacks with the occasional use of the the guardians. And each guardian has a special ability with their damage. Leo can do massive damage to enemy shields, getting rid of them in one or two shots with his more powerful moves. Bahet can slowly chip away at an enemy with his scythe’s poison effect. Le Viada’s guns can outright ignore enemy armor and punch through it, as well as lay down traps, and... there’s a fourth guardian for when you beat the game. I won’t spoil it, but they’re basically a turret that stays in one place while you summor your other guardians, making her unique as you can’t usually summon two guardians at a time. And like I said before, aiming and lining up certain attacks can be a bit unwieldy since some moves playcinematics that lock you in place, but it’s overall fun. Racking up combos, using big AoE moves, it all feels great.

And with all of that out of the way.

Wishes for the Future

Much like in my Fire Emblem rambling I don’t like the idea of correcting a story or game that’s already been finished, but I find no issue with discussing what I want for the future. And I really thing this game can have a sequel. The game states that Yumo isn’t the first person in recent time with latent spiritual powers, or that this is the first time that the phantom and human realms became loose. And hell, Yumo is still someone that wants to protect her town, so it’d be easy to make a game in another area of Taipei that’s gone out of whack, or even give the reins to someone else. And I do want a sequel. 

Like I said, my main issue with this game are some nitpicks that could honestly be fixed with a patch or a two-month delay. If this game sold well enough to get a sequel I’d buy it. 

That said, here are a few things I’d like to see in that hypothetical sequel. Such as...

Rankings

A lot of these are going to be taking a page from DMC since I was taking a break from DMC5 to play this, but the ranks shouldn’t be tied solely to clear time. That just makes people speedrun the stage and miss Dragon Veins. Having rank linked to time, combos, hits taken, and so on would give you some breathing room when you try and explore a stage, as you wouldn’t be punished for being curious. You’d still need to be quick, but you won’t be completely screwed either.

Leveling Up

Leveling up give you skill points that you can stick into your health, SP, attack, super mode duration, just dodge duration, luck, and moves. This game shouldn’t give attack or health for skill points. This is just my belief with design, but beat-em-ups shouldn’t just jack up the health of normal enemies as you get stronger, instead just giving us tougher enemies with different patterns of attack. The game already does this with some success, so those slots that increase health and attack seem pointless. You get skill points when you complete a stage for the first time, or find dragon vein shards. This... really puts a lot of pressure on the kinds of skills you upgrade, and while I’m not against that it does make this very light-hearted oddly restricting as you debate what to upgrade. I’d recommend using those dragon vein shards solely to level up instead of for story progression as well. With each upgrade costing more and more dragon veins as you increase your stats. In this first game you can collect over 150 dragon veins. You only need 50 to complete the story mode, and I had about 75 by the time I reached the final mission. 

I know some people struggled to grab them, but... I didn’t, so... maybe have the veins do something else than gate story progression.

Post Game Activities

If we are going to have a post game to finish up some side quests for 100%, then we might as well have some extra things to do too. 

Oh right, I never mentioned that yet.

Yeah, once you beat the game you’re essentially in a free-run mode to finish some leftover side quests and do a few extra things you might have missed, but... I finished all the side quests before the final story, so I was left with just finishing some hard-mode missions and finishing up my upgrade tree. That said, if there is going to be a post game here’s a few ideas:

Survival Mode where you fight waves of enemies. Some akin to a Bloody Palace Mode where you can compete for a high score among friends and online.

Post Game dungeons that are hard as hell, this could be DLC if you wanted as I wouldn’t mind paying for more content like this.

Extra moves/skills. Yumo’s moveset is rather small compared to DMC and Senran Kagura. If we’re going to have just one character to play as then I’d rather have a complex character that takes awhile to learn than an easy one where I’m spamming the same moves over and over... or give us more characters to play as with equally simple movesets.

That’s really it. The game overall is fun with it’s only real flaw being a rather short game for 35 bucks. Like I said, either some DLC or a sequel would make me feel better about recommend this one, but if you want a fun, short beat-em-up game then this is out on steam, PS4, and the Switch. Feel free to get... though I’d recommend waiting for a sale.

In any case, back to DMC5 for me.

[bthenoise]

Q&A: Here’s How Some Of Your All-Time Favorite Music Videos Were Made Thanks To The Brilliant Max Moore

So you want to make music videos? Well, we have some good news and we have some bad news. The bad news? It takes a TON of hard work. The good news? We have some pretty solid advice from one of if not the best music video directors in our scene. 

Working with the likes of Converge, Code Orange, Knocked Loose, Motionless In White, Movements, New Found Glory and a ton more, Max Moore has built quite the reputation of being an ultra-consistent, ultra-creative and incredibly hard-working director working his way up from the DIY hardcore community. 

Talking with The Noise about getting started behind the camera and what he suggests to up-and-coming filmmakers, Moore commented, “I think it's so easy to get caught up in the comparison game of what camera somebody has starting out or where you live.”

“I don't live in Los Angeles,” Moore said. “I live in a random ass city in the Midwest. And if you can just get away from all the bullshit and just focus on making really creative, cool ideas, then you're going to be somewhat successful over the people who just freaked out about the new stabilizer or piece of gear.”

With a resume of nearly 100 music videos, commercials and short films under his belt, Moore clearly knows his stuff -- which is exactly why we wanted to reach out to the talented 28-year-old and find out how he got his start making some of our favorite music videos.

To check out Moore’s story and insightful guidance for future directors, be sure to look below. Afterward, for more, head here.       

How long do you think you usually spend on an edit? Obviously different videos vary but what’s your average time?

MAX MOORE: Well, not all directors edit their own stuff. But for me, it's a big part of what I do. And in terms of having control over the final product, I mean, you can shoot and direct something amazingly [but] if you don't have a good editor, it can all kind of fall apart there. So editing is the one thing that I still do all myself. So as you can imagine, it just depends on the project. But even more so than that, it really just depends on the timeline from the label or management or whatever. 

For example, the [recent] Knocked Loose video, I edited it in like a week. And you know, that's like working on it six to eight hours for a few days or something like that. But I've also had crazy deadlines where it's like, “Hey, the video is literally supposed to come out in three days from when we shoot it.” So I'll just hunker down and edit nonstop for like 48 hours. So I've literally shot a video in LA, flew (because I actually live in Kentucky -- Louisville, Kentucky -- where Knocked Loose is from) back home and edited a video and turned it in and it came out like two days later. So yeah, it really just depends. But I think the biggest thing is just if the labels are like, “Hey, it’s not due for a while,” I'm gonna let it sit. [laughs] I'm not trying to kill myself just to get it done.

Do you ever overlap with videos? Or is it usually one project at a time?

I usually always kind of have multiple projects going at the same time. It's varied in different years. I've been doing this full time for about six years. Some years, I did insane amounts of music videos. Some years, I do a little bit less. I think the most I did one year was like 40 music videos or something crazy. So if you think about that, there are only 12 months in a year. So there's obviously going to be some crossover. But these days, I'm trying to -- when I was first doing this I was like, “I want to do as many as possible and work with as many artists as I can.” But these days, I'm trying to be more selective about what I take on and I'd rather do fewer, really good [videos] than just pump them out. So I've also started directing commercials as well. I don't want to do 40 music videos a year. It’d be nice to do a handful of ones I’m really passionate about.

For young filmmakers and directors who are just learning, what’s your time management like or the schedule that you give yourself on a day-to-day basis?

I think the biggest key, especially when I was getting started, I would get a lot of offers to do videos and I was just so excited to have the work that I didn't know how to say no yet. So I kind of overbooked myself, like the year I did almost 40 videos, that was so stupid. Like, truly. I mean, I worked like seven days a week for the entire year basically. So I think it starts before you even get the work. By that, I mean learning when to say no. You know, “That video sounds really cool, I like that band, but I just don't have time.” Or you know, “Hey, it's a good budget. I don't care about this artist. Nah, I'm going to pass.” You know what I mean? So I think it starts from the get-go and I'm learning to be better with that. 

As the years have gone on, in terms of the day-to-day, I think it's just like any business. It's prioritizing things that need to get done based on when they're due. I think that sounds like a really non-answer but I think it's important to keep to your schedule -- especially when you're self-employed and you do a lot of it yourself. It's really easy to get overwhelmed and not know where to start. But I like to stay organized by keeping a well-established schedule and prioritizing by what's due when and knocking it out in that order if that makes sense.

Is there one video in particular you had to turn down that you're super bummed about?

Yeah, I mean, there's been lots of cases over the years. But it's been less of that, like, “Hey, we want you to do it” and I feel like I have to pass. The things that I mostly get more bummed about are the videos where I write it -- so the way the normal process works is it's not usually, it happens a lot for me [with] someone I’ve worked with several times [where] we're directly working together and they know “Hey, we want Max to do the video.” So we’ll figure out the treatment and what the video is going to be, but I am working directly with them. 

But usually, the way it works is that my rep, my music video rep, which is just like (that's what they call it, it's like my agent, basically) and so she will send me tracks from record labels and say, “Hey Max, do you want to write on this?” And so say it's a really awesome artist that I would love to work with, it’s like, “Oh yeah, I would love to write a treatment for that.” She says okay, so then I spend the day putting together a music video treatment, sending it off to her and she sends it to the label. But the label is also collecting several treatments from several different directors and you don't know how many, who's writing, who else is also writing on it or how many. 

And so back to the original question. I've definitely gotten bummed like, “Oh my god, I'm writing a treatment for blah, blah, blah, whatever band or artist. I'm so excited!” And then it's like, “Yeah, they went with somebody else.” And then you’re like, “Ahhhhh.” [laughs] This is the name of the game. It's as frustrating as it can be music video directing, or directing for some production in general. [You] kind of just gotta have tough skin. And if you get your feelings really hurt by not getting a job or the client not liking the video or the edit, or whatever, you gotta just have thick skin and roll with the punches. The people that can roll with the punches consistently and keep trucking even though they get bummed on not getting stuff, those are the people that are successful and can have consistent work. Not saying that's me [laughs], but yeah. 

When you're writing treatments, do you feel like the ideas come to you pretty instantly? Or do you have to think for a few hours, sometimes days?

I think it just depends on the specific situation. There have been times where I'll get sent a song and I immediately have something come to mind and the treatments done in like an hour. Then there are also times where I've literally sat at a computer for hours and hours and hours and gone on walks, took a shower, left and drove around and there's nothing I can do [because] I'm 100% in writer's block. I finally just end up being like “Alright, I’ll write this down and submit it.” But I think it just depends on the situation. I think it's always easier in a situation where it's an artist that I know and that I've worked with previously. Like a band like Code Orange or Knocked Loose. I've worked with both those bands multiple times and we have a rapport, a creative rapport that we can kind of reference previous videos or it's really just a trust thing. Those kinds of artists that I’ve worked with trust me and trust what I'm writing is going to make sense for the song or the record or whatever. So it's always easier when I have a direct relationship with the artist rather than when it's just more the standard business thing where there's several layers of middlemen in between– my manager, or my rep, their manager, a video commissioner. That's where the creativity is a little harder to pin down.

It’s interesting having a job in a creative space because there isn’t just some button you can push to come up with ideas. Like when people say, “Hey, think of some ideas for this.” It’s really not that easy.

Totally. 

But talking about the artists you've worked with. You mentioned Code Orange and Knocked Loose. When you came up in this music scene was that the music you were listening to?

Yeah. So when I was younger, I'm 28 now, but all through middle school and high school, I played in lots of different punk and hardcore bands and toured. Did that whole thing. My friends were in a band called Xerxes that was signed to No Sleep Records, which was kind of a poppin’ label back in the day and so that was very much my world that I came from like the DIY punk hardcore scene. So naturally, a band like Code Orange -- I was friends with them and that was the music I was already playing and it sort of just kind of lent itself for me taking on those kinds of videos. I didn't like set out to specifically direct music videos, it just kind of happened naturally from the fact that I had a big background in music and all these friends that were in bands and all these connections. 

But at the same time, I stopped playing music and went to film school and then those two things just naturally lead together into one. But yeah, to answer the question: Yeah, I mean, that's the world I come from and that's kind of why so much of my work has been in that scene, whatever you want to call it. Obviously, I've worked with lots of different kinds of bands like pop-punk bands, indie bands, stuff like that. But it's all really under the umbrella of “alternative music,” that’s what I would call it. But the cool thing about having my rep is that she and the production company I'm signed with, they can kind of give me opportunities to write for artists and bands that are kind of outside my own connections. Like a pop artist or hip-hop artists or something like that. So, though I come from punk and hardcore, I love all kinds of music. I listen to hip-hop mostly these days. And so even though [punk and hardcore is the] majority of what my work is done in, I definitely have a strong desire to branch out and flex creative muscles in a different genre or different types of video. If that makes sense.

Yeah, so who are some dream artists you'd love to work with?

I mean, I’d want to do the biggest of the big. [laughs] I want to do a Beyoncé video [laughs]. I’d do anything, man. But the cool thing about my background is people kind of pin me down as always the “hardcore director.” But in reality, if you actually know me personally, you know that my kind of interests is so much broader than just hardcore. When I was 17, I was a hardcore kid. At 28, I'm just Max [laughs]. I can like Drake. I can like Beyoncé. I can like whatever. So really the dream artist is anybody who's willing to give me the time. I know that’s kind of a cop out answer, but yeah. Anybody who's just down to let me make some cool stuff. I'm always interested in working with them.

So do you think some advice to incoming videographers is to not pigeonhole themselves into just one category and instead branch out and try everything?

Yes and no. I think, oddly, some of the reasons why I've had consistent work over the last few years is because there is this network of bands in the scene. Whether it's the record labels I work with, I think just like any business you get hired because you get good at one thing where you specialize in something, like you know, a plumber or electrician or any type of business. A plumber is going to get hired to do plumbing and in that way, it's been good for me to continue to work with bands in a similar genre because it just keeps the ball rolling and you’re able to create a style. 

But that’s why I think, starting out, I think it is kind of cool. This has just worked for me. The thing about music video directing, or directing as a whole, is that there's no right or wrong path. It's not like becoming a doctor where you have to take a test, you pass the test and someone gives you a piece of paper and says you’re a doctor. Everybody's path to music video directing, or directing any type of production, looks very different. So I'm just speaking personally and what’s worked for me. So I think working in this kind of genre of music has allowed me to basically make a living. But I think once you get to a certain level, or have a certain amount of videos under your belt or if you're just bored and want to try something different, I think breaking out and not being afraid to branch out, that's the biggest thing. Be consistent and put yourself out there but at the same time, don't be afraid to try new things with new kinds of artists or people.

A good example of that as far as your music videos go has to be the Chapel music video you directed with all the giant breakfast stuff which we assume was pretty challenging for more reasons than one. Speaking of, what has been the most challenging music video for you to shoot personally?

I would probably say, the most challenging would probably be the [Code Orange] “Forever” video -- and then I'll have the worst day on set story, I'll share with you. But with [“Forever”], there was just a lot of logistics. I actually self-produced the music video. We shot in Louisville, Kentucky. So there's just a lot of working parts to the video. I mean, there's so much in it and the biggest thing, the challenge is the big pyrotechnic stuff at the end of the video. You know, if we were shooting in LA or somewhere like that, getting a pyro person is no problem. They're everywhere and you can get them. Normally, when I’m shooting in LA, there’s a production team, the producers will handle all that and make it happen. But trying to like, you know, maximize the budget and put everything I could into this video, shooting in Louisville was a better option, which is where I'm from and just finding a pyro team in Louisville, Kentucky was not possible. [laughs] There isn't anybody. So we had to bring people in from Nashville and it was just a lot. I remember being totally overwhelmed. If it was any other artist, I would have been like, “I can't.” But because my relationship is strong and special with that band and I care about the art and believe in what they're doing, I was like, “You know, this is an important record, this is an important single” and I just felt that it was like “You gotta go hard on this one.” And yeah, they ended up getting nominated for a Grammy for that song. I'm super proud of what they've done and seeing them grow. So I think just because I cared so much, that's why that was the most challenging one if that makes sense.

Totally.

And then the worst day on set was with this band called Motionless In White, which also involved a ton of pyro behind the stage. It was just the longest day and our gaffer, who had all the lights and equipment, he was a no-call no-show the morning of the shoot and set us behind. And then the pyro thing, we had all this fire on the stage inside this warehouse and it popped the sprinklers and sprinklers went all over everything and I had my camera in my hand and I'm like running out. And it wasn't clean water, this was like an old warehouse and it's black fucking sludge coming out of the sprinklers. And I was like, “Oh my god, dude.” I was freaking out like, “It's done. It's over.” 

But then somehow the crew like shop-vacuumed it all up and we kept shooting and then finally the stage caught fire. There was like 300 screaming tweens -- they were just fans but they were in the video and it was just straight chaos. Anyways, it was a crazy day. The video turned out, came out and that's all that matters. So what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

What do you think is one of the biggest things people misinterpret about being a music video director?

I think the biggest thing that people don't understand, the biggest part of my job that I didn't even know was the biggest part of the job is it's not just about “Hey, can you direct a video? Or can you make a video?” As a working music video director, it's all about writing. That's something I had no idea about when I first got into it. Like, you can yell action and you can shoot and you can edit and produce and make an amazing, clean product. But you will not get work consistently or at all really if you don't know how to write a treatment and accurately portray your idea and write it and set it up in a way that all parties involved can clearly understand. 

So the biggest misconception is that it's not just about being on set. So much of my day-to-day is writing and pitching. In that way, it’s not good enough to just be a good director. You have to be a good writer and a good salesman for the ideas that you have and that you believe in. And even if you don't believe in it, you have to make them think that you believe it. And then when you get there, and it turns out it works, everybody's happy. But I think that's the biggest misconception of what a day-to-day music video director is. It's a lot of sitting in front of a computer and finding reference images for your treatment or searching online for that one still [image] you remember from a movie that will be great to go into the treatment or coloring reference images in Photoshop. I mean, most of my job is that. It’s pitching. And then, that's intercut with the shoot days and the edits. But it's a lot of hard work and it's not for people who, you know -- production isn't like the cozy nine-to-five thing. You got to really want it and you’ve got to be willing to continually be putting yourself out there. And it's hard but when you find some level of success and work consistently [and] see people really dig the videos -- like the Knocked Loose video came out the other day and people were digging it -- that's when it feels like “Hey, you know this is really hard and sucky sometimes but wow, it's worth it.” 

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A post shared by Max Moore (@maxmoorefilms) on Apr 18, 2019 at 12:24pm PDT

What are some of your favorite music videos you've seen that really inspired you or made you wish you thought of first?

I think watching older Smashing Pumpkins music videos is huge for me. Also weirdly, My Chemical Romance. I was right in that era where they were huge when I was like in [my] teen years and I was certainly into hardcore and all that but I'm a sucker for pop-punk. I was into that kind of stuff and I was watching Fuse after school and stuff like that. So, those era music videos are iconic to me. 

From a young age, I always thought those videos were sick. [And] like Underoath videos and stuff like that. There's a theme of like, darker imagery that I was just naturally drawn to. But those are things growing up like, “Man, that’s so cool. I would love to do something like that.” [And] now I've gotten to write on some Underoath music videos recently, so it's all kind of full circle. I would love to do a Smashing Pumpkins video, that’d be amazing.

Did you ever watch Making The Video on MTV?

Totally! Looking back on that era of music videos, the music industry has changed so much since then with streaming and how the budgets were bigger for music videos. But I think now music videos are so much more important and relevant than they have ever been. You know, when I first started directing music videos, YouTube was really in its infancy for music videos. Vevo wasn't a thing, viral content was just getting on record labels’ radar. So I kind of slipped into the industry when it was in a lull, like YouTube wasn't this giant thing where music videos lived yet and here comes this little kid and I just had a DSLR and got into the DIY punk thing. Then as that rose back up and labels started to put in more money for music videos, I kind of rose with that as the internet gave a rebirth to the music video in some ways. 

I mean, certainly there was always the major label people that were getting good budgets even during this slump when streaming stuff started to come out. But for me, in punk and hardcore, I was able to slide in there and just -- there is such a big disconnect between watching Making The Video and then my early music videos because it's like a kid shooting in his bedroom some close up that is on a shitty $600 DSLR [camera]. I think even now, the biggest budget things I do now, I still always have that DIY, do it yourself, punk mentality. At the end of the day, even if I have like a 60-person crew, 40-person crew, 20-person, 10-person crew, I'm steering the ship and no one's going to care more about this video than me. And I just still try to take that kind of DIY spirit into everything that I do, even today.

Is there anything else you want to tell the people reading this?

I have a lot of kids DM me or email me asking like, “Hey, what lens should I get? Or what cameras do you shoot on? Or how do I get into directing?” And I think to kind of mass answer that or to give some encouragement -- I always say this but I think it's important -- I think it's so easy to get caught up in the comparison game of what camera somebody has starting out or where you live. I don't live in Los Angeles, you know. I live in a random ass city in the Midwest. And if you can just get away from all the bullshit and just focus on making really creative, cool ideas, then you're going to be somewhat successful over the people who just freaked out about the new stabilizer or piece of gear. 

There's a time and place for that, you certainly have to be good at the craft. But beyond that, it's all about being creative and sticking to being DIY. If you want to direct music videos, there's no reason why you can't. Especially [since] everybody's an artist or some SoundCloud rapper these days. So everybody has someone that they probably know, at least by like a few degrees that is making music. And like, my phone shoots 4k [laughs] so there's no reason not to be able to make something if you want to do it. So just get away from all the bullshit and all the distractions and really just focus on creating cool ideas that are unique and push the boundaries.

That's really great advice. 

For sure. And I think it's, you know, people always hit me up because they want an easy-to-click answer. But the fact of the matter is everybody's path is going to look different. And if you just want it enough and you have that drive, you're going to figure it out. I think that's just with anything in life, for the most part. So the last thing I want is to come off like, “[If] you do this, you will be like me and have this.” I just work hard and I try to work with artists that I like and that's basically it.

[mihanada]

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation / Mo Dao Zu Shi Final Trailer

“Final Trailer” because I lost count of how many of these we got lol.

If you read Chinese, you now know something about the year it takes place in (probably)! I can only read ‘Year 25′ haha. I guess the first two have something to do with the era name...

Anyways, we have the burning Burial Mounds again in this shot.

lol Gusu Lan...you really don’t like giving clear screenshots do you? So stingy! Their cloud motif flag was at a bad angle + difficult to see due to the colors in the opening and now you can’t get a good screenshot of the flag with their name on it...

So: Jiang, Jin, (can’t actually freaking read this but it’s Lan), and Nie

all four clans are here! Pretty sure we actually got this a while back, but I’m not sure if I screencapped it.

Alright, we’ve seen these shots before...

Some text I can’t read...something about 13 years later...

Ah! An extension of the summoning scene!

Mo Xuanyu is appropriately...crazed? here. His eyes are bloodshot and wide open, brow furrowed, his voice has that desperate strain in it, plus the grimace or tension in his mouth. The red energy from the summoning and the darkness gives him that sinister feel.

Can’t forget how he still has his makeup on! Instead of looking silly, because of the lighting, it looks sinister...he looks like an evil ghost himself.

Don’t think we saw this before. It’s a shot of the summoning circle, then a silhouette of Mo Xuanyu weaving before falling down.

Mo Village. The voice over is saying something about the Mo family. I think it’s one of the Lan disciples talking (sorry, can’t tell your voices apart yet...)

It’s the spirit attraction flag that Mo Ziyuan stole! It’s...actually kinda cute. I always imagined them a bit larger. Nice design though.

Is this our dear friend??

This is Madam Mo in some blue flames or something.

Ah, so this part is actually

Lan Sizhui taking off his outer garment to use against the hand. (you can tell it’s Sizhui and not Jingyi by the long strands of hair at his sideburns; Jingyi doesn’t have them.

Then we get the signal flare calling for help!

Why you gotta show sad baby Jin Ling. why.

You know, if you take this totally out of context-

I’m gonna stop there before I die of laughter or Jiang Cheng curses me or something. xD

There’s ultra pissed Jiang Cheng stroking his ring/Zidian.

You can see the design a bit better in this shot. The pattern is kinda cute, it looks like the whip that comes out from the ring.

I want to know if they ever needed to draw this guy smiling or does he just have three modes: resting bitch face, angry, angry 2.0.

I’ve always liked the Yunmeng Jiang’s purple uniforms though...

sorry for the Jiang Cheng spam

how do you play this standing up and holding one end I want to know

finally got a good shot of the Lan sect’s clouds motif except it’s on the clothes.

Lan Wangji’s pretty face!

I like this shot of his forehead band and the sparks drifting in the background.

I’m pretty sure the only way you can show emotion on his face 70% of the time is with his eyes narrowing and even then you don’t really know what he’s thinking unless you’re Lan Xichen.

Wen Ning flying to the rescue! Ok but that is a slightly terrifying sight if you were a random cultivator on that damn mountain just trying to do your job haha.

Look at those demonic eyes! And holy shit your nails, Wen Ning. Come to think of it...he’s dead. Do his nails and hair still grow despite that?

More Wen Ning because why not. The animation of him wildly attacking is pretty nice, you definitely get that unhinged feeling from it.

Speaking good animation, I laugh every time I see our dear friend’s arm flopping around. I always wondered how the heck this thing moved.

Nice fight sequence, nice fight sequence. Fluid, I can actually see all of their movements when I pause the video. Needs a gif.

Yess fight on the roof! Wei Wuxian, what were you doing, going on a liquor run in the rain.

Ah, Lan Wangji is the real mvp here. He continues holding the umbrella! lol 

Uh, considering the Lan people’s arm strength this is probably more treacherous than it seems?? xD

I love how Wei Wuxian just dodges around though, his movements are always so fluid, carefree, go with the flow - just like his personality.

Oh! The waterborne abyss scene! Very nice, very nice.

Yess, we get to see more of the awkward “flying on my sword” scenes. I still think it’s sort of hilarious but ok. um. at least it’s cooler than a broom right??

lol Wei Wuxian do you just want to be different and not wear the Yunmeng Jiang uniform or something. (I think it can be implied that he does wear it in the novel, it’s just the animation decided to go with a variation of his black clothes. notably, he at least seems to have different styles at different times in his life so they aren’t all the same outfit like is so popular in certain shows)

donghua: we must color code our characters for the viewers’ convenience

after this we get to see these two being blown around by the force in the air but I won’t subject you to seeing Jiang Cheng’s ass so we’ll move on

wait IT REALLY IS LIKE SURFING

Jiang Cheng why do we almost see more of you than Lan Wangji in this trailer huh.

But also: young Jiang Cheng! Aw, baby face. Still scowling though.

So Wei Wuxian’s eyes were...purplish grey.

that’s su she the ass. look, you wouldn’t have lived to form your own sect if this guy hadn’t rescued your sorry ass because you decided to mindlessly copy Lan Wangji and lost your sword.

Also, this waterborne abyss is sort of even scarier in the donghua just because it actively SENDS TENDRILS TO TRY AND CATCH YOU.

Ok.

So, now that we have two images at approx. the same angles of Mo Xuanyu and Wei Wuxian (young), let’s compare:

Mo!Wuxian.

young Wei Wuxian. Ignore the derpy face.

I actually am sort of impressed at how they made very subtle changes to his looks. While you can totally ID Mo Xuanyu as Wei Wuxian (they’re like twins lol) they don’t actually look the same. Mo!Wuxian does look older (he’s certainly older than 15 even if we don’t know the exact age). the young, original WWX has more of a baby face.

and, like I’ve pointed out before, he has that ahoge and his fringe curls more than Mo Xuanyu’s.

they’re still practically twins lol.

Don’t know if they’re actually going to bother mentioning Su She’s name, but here he is. lol he’s like a freaking rag doll.

also, nice shot of Wei Wuxian’s outfit from this time period?

In this earlier one you can see his sword’s scabbard and the Jiang clan’s bell (it’s attached to the belt/sash and not the sword, but on the same side as it)

I LOVE THE DETAILS OK

also the music is very nice

Who are you fighting, Lan Wangji?

Falling into a pool of water I see. That green is kind of creepy.

This is just a very pretty shot. nice perspective too

Alright there is something moving in that water! I can’t screenshot it though, it’s too dark.

WELL, that’s a wrap. That was actually a really long post omg even though a lot of this content was stuff we saw before.

Anyways, I’m really looking forward to the donghua now! ahh it’s gonna be so cool.

but I will probably have to break the live blog into 2 parts per episode or else tumblr will probably flip out on me.

[uclaradio]

Interview with Tritonal @ the Hollywood Palladium

Interviewed by Jenny Tong (On behalf of Deep End Theory)

We were able to catch Chad and David from Tritonal during their show at the Hollywood Palladium.

Hey everyone, I’m Jenny. And who are we with today?

Chad: My name is Chad. David: And I’m David and we’re Tritonal!

So there’s a debate about how to pronounce that.

Chad: Right, it’s “Tri-tone-al”. So a tritone is a diminished fifth and augmented fourth. It’s a chord.

Got it. What excites you the most about the “U&Me” Tour?

Chad: We have developed a completely new show that is projection mapping. We’re running time-coded visuals onto a structure, so every video has lightings with pixelated strobes. It’s a new experience for our fans, essentially. It’s a ton of work setting up and taking down, a big undertaking with a large crew. I feel like most DJ shows and festivals you go to always have LED walls, like a big square wall or wall arrangements, and we’ve been playing on festivals and done a lot of hard ticket tours, buses etc., and have done LED walls for 6-7 years. So we were like, let’s do something new, let’s bring it back to how it used to be, go back to darker, lights, lasers, people moving dancing and enjoying themselves. We are just trying to do something different for us and for the fans.

We know it’s been a while since you’ve last released an album. What was the rationale of putting it out this year and what was the creative process behind the album?

David: Honestly we like making music all the time. The funny thing is, we were making so much music, we thought we could put out an album.

Chad: And then we doubled it. The album now comes to around 20 tracks. We keep making music and they’re like “well, there’s another album”. With Painting with Dreams, there was a story, and this one has one too like Dave was saying, we were really got into a rhythm of doing what we were trying to do. We would love it if we could release a track every three to four weeks, but we constantly get kickback from the label we own. We have a 20-person team in London that runs in, and we’ve got Ahmed and Joe, and managers think it’s good to release music but it’s also good for people to sit with the music and marinate for a while. We’ve been highly prolific with “track, remix, album, track, remix, mashup”. We love making tracks and we’re just like done, next! And sometimes it is too much. So an album is a great way to release a big body of work that you’ve been working on for a while. And this one, in particular, has a lot of music.

Is there any reason why it’s called “U & ME”?

Chad: Yes, because we feel like there is massive divisiveness in our culture right now in the United States between everyone. It’s your race versus mine, your political agenda versus mine, your beliefs versus mine … Everyone is using their false sense of self to propagate the idea of “me and the other”, the otherness of others … but there isn’t that much otherness of others. We’re more connected and unified than we think. The media propagates this all the time, and what we see at our shows is that people at all walks of life come to enjoy the music in the same way, and care about each other in the same way. So really it is a message pointing towards unity.

Absolutely. That’s what house music’s origin was all about being inclusive and everyone being together. So who are some of these people you have looked up to all the time?

Chad: When I was a rave bunny - I was listening to the old-school Josh Wink, Carl Cox, Sasha, Digweed, you know, the deep European progressive guys. and then there was a big trance movement when guys like Tiesto, Armand Van Helden, and Armin Van Buuren and the Dutch superstar was born. Dave and I religiously listened to trance around the world at that point, probably 10 or 11 years ago. The OceanLab Project was still a thing at the time, and we connected with Anjunabeats the most in terms of emotions. We did that record shopping thing for a while, but going back to when you are making a lot of music, you are sending A&R a ton of different things, and they just tried to cherry pick on top. So we had multiple labels pissed at each other, so we decided to start our own team, our own brand.

David: Right. Those were definitely good ones. I’m a little younger too, so I came up with Tiesto and Armin, and even some non-EDM acts like Coldplay and the sound design of Pink Floyd. I really like the oddity of it, and I’m kind of all over the map right now, but these different influences all kind of come hand in hand.

Chad: Definitely. We still listen to really eclectic music now. We don’t really listen to the music we make now. We have this other side that people don’t really know about. Specifically, we love listening to Jon Hopkins, and anything piano-based, weird sound designs, deep progressive trance stuff, and chill, cinematic orchestra. So we’re going to figure that out. Maybe it’ll be another project that we’ll make. For instance, the first album we had a track called “Only Mortals”, which was a pointer towards Hopkins. This album has two or three, one of them is called “Sapphire” … which are way different and way far away from “Out My Mind”. But we are humans, and humans can have multiple interests, so who cares.

That’s for sure, many people have different stage names too.

Chad: Yeah, and I think we should do that. Tritonal is so prolific and it has such momentum with what that needs to do, like sure you can have outliers, but we don’t want to just do an entire album Jon Hopkin style. I used to not think that, but I do now. There should be consistency within lanes. You could jump around a little here and there, but there needs to be a medium. When we make a future bass track, it’s usually a little sexy and emotional, very much the same way as “Now or Never” and progressive house tracks. So even if we do different rhythm sets, tempos, the melodic structure and chord progressions and types of melodies, whether it is broken-beaten at 140 or 128 on the floor. Fans may not see it that way, but that’s how I see it as a person who writes them.

Speaking of your label, how do you manage your time between that and touring?

Chad: Will, as well as our managers Ahmed and Joe try to offset as much as they can. Ultimately, there is no right answer for that. I have twin boys who are 18-months, and a 3-year-old daughter, and David a 2.5-year-old son. When I go home on Sunday they’ll tackle me and I have to be ready for that. But we do know one way that doesn’t help is if you’re drinking, eating bad food, not having a spiritual discipline whether that’s meditation, yoga, exercise, and you’re just living in chaos. I love working out, I meditate, I don’t drink ever; he doesn’t drink when he is on the road. We love doing this, it’s creative and it’s fun, but it’s a business too. We do treat this as a career.

Dave: We get up every single day and this is what we do, this is what we love. And we will cater to that. If you’re drinking or doing drugs, they’re getting in the way. It gets in your way when you have three little ones at home who If you are single, and that’s how you want to roll, then do your thing. No judgment, for real.

Was just about to ask what advice would you have for college students?  

Dave: THAT. And I was one in college. If you really want to do anything great in life, it takes a certain amount of discipline and focus. Even if you’re good. The best people you will find are disciplined. The great always are. They’re good, they have natural talent, but they couple it with consistency. And what we’ve done is consistently putting out music.

Alright. So that’s the mantra of the year, thank you so much for your time.

[d00dt00nz]

Obligatory promo stuff at the top because it sucks and I hate it and let's get it out of the way! follow me on twitter where I'm active, check me out on spotify for music, or like my facebook for sparse updates on music stuff. Thank you. The Cover art is by Ellie Tison

I'm 27 years old. It's a really frightening number to look at. It's been frightening for about two years. Honestly I'll probably only come to terms with being that age when I reach 30 – a much more frightening number. I'm told that at 30 is when my body will just absolutely start falling apart, so that's something to look forward to. That said, mostly I just try not to think about it. Obviously a high number is not a problem in and of itself, but I definitely feel like I haven't accomplished things that I'd like to have accomplished by this point. That said, if you're a millennial and you're on the internet and especially if you're reading this, then you probably are in a similar crisis. We simply don't have the economic and social mobility that our parents had.

Many people my age don't dream big. Our dream is of comfort – of building something of our own, carving out our own nook in life. Somewhere deep inside, we want to live as our parents did. We want to brazenly rush into things as our parents did but we cannot. I think a lot of millennial anxiety comes from growing up in the colossal fallout of mistake after mistake from a generation that not only could, but did rush into things. It's made us hyperaware of our own place in the world while being envious of people who don't know their place – people who just seem to fuck up over and over again while running away from their problems and pretending they don't exist.

Some people are good at running away from their problems. I'm very bad at it. It's not for lack of trying either. You'd better believe I'm prone to clearing out like Fred Flinstone. Unfortunately it doesn't work out for me. I'm bad with change and easily stuck in the past – like many people my age. Others seem to handle it better. It's not some kind of moral blame game either. In a world where we don't have a lot of freedom, escape is the only real power. Escape is, after all (in theory), a change.

Which is all to say I know a bunch of people who went to china to become english teachers. On the surface it can seem like a fun white middle class adventure. Personally I feel the reasons are much more complex and (sometimes) a little bit more sad. Most people, I've noticed, go to escape a life where they feel stuck and unsatisfied. China the final cheat-code of the aimless middle class slacker. Of course it's a fantasy because you can't escape yourself. You'll just be you in a different place. The goal I guess is that you become thrown into such an intensely alien situation filled with so much stimulation that you'll temporarily become somebody who isn't you. Again, there's no blame here. I'd probably do the same, but I've got that nagging hyperanxiety about losing what I do have.

That basically wraps up the “inspiration” of the song. Specifically it came when me and one of my good friends shared a beer on my driveway in the middle of the night. He was leaving the next day to teach english in China. I had a sneaking suspicion he was doing it to escape from a relationship where things had fallen apart, but both were too afraid to let go. I remember feeling incredibly alone. There was so much movement around me and I felt like I was staying still.

Instrumentally the song started out as my third attempt to capture the feeling of Fleetwood Mac's Think About Me from Tusk. I heard the song and immediately became obsessed with it's relatively minimalist groove and vaguely manic energy. I've always admired how Lindsey Buckingham can write an interesting song on a small amount of meaningful chord changes. I also very much enjoy that 70s production style of having a million different guitars, organs, and keyboards in that make up a big, simple, layered groove.

The melody was difficult for me because it's at the edge of my vocal reach. It took a long long time to get a good performance and then it took another long time to get another good performance as to double track the vocals. As well, the chorus melody that I originally planned was too high to song so I had to figure out another melody. In theory I could have took the song down a key, but I'd already recorded the verses as well as the backing track at that point and liked how they sounded.

I mentioned earlier that I was trying to mimic the minimalist vibe of a Fleetwood Mac singing-blindfolded-naked-at-3am type song but this finished product is obviously a little less minimalist. I'm not sure if it was actual good decision making or self consciousness, but I felt like the song felt boring (I am deeply afraid of moments in songs where nothing is happening). I added the Phil Spector sounding oo-la-la's in the pre-chorus purely as a “uh I gotta put something there” type reaction, and I guess it just turned out like that because it's my default mode of indulgence.

The whistle at the beginning was put there because the opening sounded pretty dull. There wasn't anything to grab onto, and frankly the guitars were just .... there ... There wasn't any feeling like “ta-da! I'm here!”. The song just felt like somebody strolling into your house and eating your food without acknowledging you. I didn't like that. The whistle might sound synthesized, but it's not. It just sounds like that as a result of the double tracking, and the compression, and the limiting, and the eq, and the reverb, ect. It's a penny whistle that I found lying around in my basement, which, who knows what bacteria was on that mouthpiece (am I patient zero of coronavirus?). The thing was actually a little bit difficult to record because the penny whistle was in C and the song was not. I saw a guy on youtube half covering holes on a penny wistle to get sharps and flats so I just kinda imitated that technique and figured out which fingerings I needed in sequence. It took some pitch bending with my mouth as well but that's okay, it worked out in the end. I doubletracked it for good measure to make it better mesh with the existing instrumentation. I'm actually worried that it sounds a little “asian” now, which makes me worry that people might miscronscrew it as a racist gesture, given that it's also on a pentatonic scale which some people associate with chinese music (don't get me started on that). I promise it's not mean to sound “chinese” or anything stupid like that, and it's not even on any kind of asian instrument.

In general, love the song. I'm very happy with it turned out. It might be my favourite song on the album. I tinkered with it for almost a year, which typically just ends up with a big vortex sludge of a song, but somehow it came out better for it.

[officialmaleclibrary]

This month we’re showcasing an author in the fandom who has written popular works such as Quite magical and A promise of forever. Pat is on ao3 as WendigoBaby and on tumblr as @maghnvsbane, and we’d like to thank her once again for taking part in the OML author showcase! 

1. When did you start writing fics? Tell us a little of your journey as a fic writer.

I believe I was 13 when I wrote my first ever piece of fiction (a really bad story about a lady assassin able to turn into a panther, don’t even ask) and it snowballed from there. For two or three years I used to do fics for this French cartoon called Code Lyoko, before moving to original stuff - it was a great exercise for keeping personalities and plot consistent, while also dabbling in character design. Then forth came Shadowhunters and I fell so hard for this show, that I’ve been stuck writing for it almost exclusively since the end of season one, with a small phase dedicated to The Raven Cycle.

2. What fic of yours are you most proud of and why?

My Simple blessings piece holds a special place in my heart, as I’ve poured a lot of emotion into it; the relief related to being able to love and be loved in return, the joy of domesticity and the intrinsic beauty of the world (or maybe I just love waxing poetic). The other one I’m proud of from a more practical standpoint is fire & gasoline; describing fighting is always a bit of a challenge, because you have to imagine all of the movements and stitch them all together into something that flows and reads comfortably, allowing the reader to imagine it all in their head. With that fic I feel like managed that quite decently and I'm proud of it.

3. Who is your favorite character to write and why? Which character do you find the most challenging to write?

My favourite is definitely Alec, since I relate to him in many aspects, both life and personality-wise: we’re both perfectionists, a little closed off and wary of newcomers, but tender and with a lot of love to give beneath a hard shell. Also we both love Magnus Bane, so there’s that. On the other hand, I feel like Simon is the most challenging one and it may be a strange answer, but his kindness and his specific kind of rambling, pop culture-related humour is hard to capture for someone more quiet like me.

4. What is the hardest part about being a fic author? The easiest?

Starting the fic and then bringing it to the finish line, definitely - the longer I work on a piece, the more doubts I get whether the idea is even worth the effort. Probably because the more I read over the same sentences, the more predictable they get and start to feel like boring writing, even when it’s only in my own head. I also get distracted fairly frequently by new concepts, which ends with me surrounded by half-finished fics that gather dust on my desktop. The easiest? Getting an idea - inspiration comes from anywhere and with time I start to hoard these little thoughts that one day may be born into full blown pieces - sometimes all it takes is half a sentence heard in a grocery store two aisles over.

5. What inspires you? Where do you find your muse?

Anywhere and everywhere, but most often from songs and aesthetic pictures I come across on tumblr. Other than that, it's movies, tv shows, video games, real-life conversations or even random things I dreamed about (although those tend to get a little strange and I don’t think should be turned into fanfiction).

6. How do you power through writer’s block?

I cry. No, to be honest, I just try to keep going. I write the most awful, kitschy sentences imagined and yell (complain and whine, more like) about them to my friends until it gets easier and my creativity flows again. If that doesn’t work, then I let myself take a day off, go outside, do something with my family or friends, or just start something new because pushing too hard for will just make everything  worse. Consuming new media also helps - going to the cinema, reading poetry or books, listening to music you'd never think you'd enjoy, anything to widen the horizon of your imagination and get yourself out of your comfort zone.

7. Do you have a favorite fic from another author?

Oh gosh, so many! Some Kind of Wonderful by magnusragnor/@magnusragnor (the best lifeguard au i’ve read ever, well-paced and characterized, I fell in love immediately and it’s one of the first fics that comes to my mind when someone asks for recommendations), and my heart is set on you, plus all of the single parent aus by @lightwoodlesbians /ohprongs (Charley has one of the most incredible styles with great natural humour and in-character writing; she is also one of the only people who can make me like children in fics), hold on to me (cause i’m a little unsteady) by ceciwrites/@daddariossmile (this just stuck with me, the soft way they interact, the whole concept of skating the way it’s used here, 10/10) and Appassionato by Chonideno (this moved me on a deeper level, the love of music included in this, passion written into every word, the original take on the concept of a first meeting, I love it all).

8. What’s something you’re looking forward to in season three of Shadowhunters?

As for Magnus and Alec, I’d love to see them have more conversations about the differences between them without death in the form of Valentine looming over their heads, as well as more casual intimacy and domesticity (hand holding, hello kisses, more hugs, a training scene, I’ll take anything). We’ve got a taste of Battle Couple, which I hope is just an introduction to more great scenes with them as a team. In general, I’m looking forward to Luke’s conflict with nosy Ollie (plus his hot date with Maryse) and more backstory on our favorite Downworlders - Simon and how he’ll get out of the Seelie Queen’s grasp, Maia’s and Bat’s growing connection. I miss this show already, I want to know everything!

9. Can you give us a sneak peek to what you’re writing next? Or at least any hints to what’s to come?

I tend to jump between ideas quite a lot and I like keeping them under wraps, so no sneak peeks from me! But as I’m looking at my to-write list, I can tell you to expect more domesticity, more canon fics with a sprinkle of aus and/or meet-cutes. The one I’m working on right now involves immortal husbands, pretty countrysides and a title inspired by one specific French song, maybe you can even guess which one it is?

10. Do you have advice for anyone who might be interested in writing fan fiction?

First - don't be afraid to start and second - keep going even if you don't feel like it. Writing good fan fiction takes a lot of trial and error as well as practice. My first fics were all around awkwardly written and as I continued with different ideas, I did get better. When it comes to finding the right balance for characters, it's good to read well-characterized fic from other writers plus meta posts as those tend to give an explained look into the character's personality. And if you're not sure about something, don't hesitate to ask others, just don't give up.

11. Does having English as a second language challenge you as a writer?

In some ways, yes. Although since I’ve been using English for about sixteen years of my life, it’s become almost like an extension of my thoughts. That doesn’t mean I don’t get things wrong, because I do, mostly in the department of grammar (all those pesky rules). Some words or expressions don’t translate well (or even don’t exist) in both languages, so as someone bilingual I have to maneuver my way around those obstacles either by looking through a thesaurus or a dictionary (I always have those two open when I write). Yet, beside grammatical nuances, strange expressions that make no sense when translated from Polish, and confusing words, the worst thing about being bilingual is forgetting the word I want to use in both languages at once. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy!

[gigsoupmusic]

Jason & The Rex Goes In-Depth about New Video "Bullets Are Flying" - Exclusive Interview

Recently debuting with an activist video on gun violence, Jason & The Rex is stepping onto the scene with "Bullets Are Flying". A mixture of hip-hop, future-funk, and dream-pop combine to create a dense soundscape of vibrant horns, a melancholy piano lead, and strange-sounding synths. Jason's pensive, sometimes manic, flow washes over creating a dialogue on the gun violence issue in the US. Jason was kind enough to sit down and give GIGSoup the exclusive inside scoop on the creation and inspiration behind "Bullets Are Flying". https://youtu.be/g5DTa6cvfcs Tell us about writing the song "Bullets Are Flying"…. what emotions were you feeling at the time? Chaotic. Disoriented. There’s a scene in Dario Argento’s Suspiria where one of the characters falls into a pit of barbed wire. The more she tries to escape, the more she bleeds. It’s a mangled inner conflict. That’s kind of how I felt when I was writing “Bullets Are Flying.” I felt more and more entangled in a barbed wire mess of thoughts and emotions and political jabs and daily, present concerns. When the Parkland incident happened, I was already feeling very professionally and creatively stalled. I’m an actor by vocation. At the time, I was going for a lot of Chinatown thug types -- violent, gun-wielding, angry Asian dudes. I was getting rejected over and over again for projects that I didn’t really even believe in. I felt inauthentic as an artist. Music was supposed to be my outlet, but everything I created was stale and uninspired. And the worst part, I felt like I was failing as a citizen. I was -- and still am -- a reasonably privileged adult who has skills and a higher education. The gun crisis stripped teenagers of their adolescence, and those teenagers responded by standing up to the gun lobby and the politicians they controlled. What was I doing? Beating myself up because, after several attempts, I still couldn’t land a part as a stereotype on Iron Fist? Something snapped after Parkland. All the “thoughts and prayers” and familiar rallying cries came to a fever pitch, and I just started writing down…stuff. I was trying to express grief, to articulate my panic and anger, while also trying to provide commentary. I wanted to find an explanation. And someone to blame. A way out. Or a way forward. I wanted to crack the code on gun violence. I was also coming to terms with my guilt. My social posturing. My vanity in all of this. In trying to create this piece, was I turning the attention to myself? It wasn’t joyous or inspiring. It was a regurgitation of all the thoughts and feelings -- all the stuff -- I hadn’t processed.

The refrain of the song actually came to me much earlier, quite randomly. I like to think it’s because it’s more of a passive observation. Bullets are flying. Where? And why? While they fly, people are mourning. These are constants. Whereas, the two verses -- they’re snapshots of that gloomy winter morning when I was pacing back and forth on my bed trying to make sense of Parkland. It’s like I was trying to extricate myself from the gun culture and the epidemic it has created. But every thought would just pull me back into the mess. Barbed wire. Can’t help thinking about it. Gun violence. Mass shootings. I dream of ways to reshape gun culture. But, uh oh, gun culture has shaped giant parts of who I am. And I contribute back into gun culture. Not only do I love a bloody action thriller. I routinely express my love for John Wayne movies. I think the Punisher is a pretty cool anti-hero. In debating and discussing issues related to gun violence, we shout into our echo chambers while attacking opposing views. We display our alliances. We present ourselves on a side. Scoring our solidarity points is just as essential to gun culture as shooting the guns themselves. In writing this song, I was incredibly self-conscious. Was I just filling my notebook with solidarity points and quips from self-reflection? I offered my perspective on gun violence, while simultaneously reflecting and taking apart that perspective. I felt angry and powerful. But I also felt guilty and insignificant. Is saying something mostly an empty gesture? Probably. But not saying something is equally, if not more, disconcerting. Maybe this song is entirely descriptive of this emotional purgatory I create after a mass shooting like Parkland, where processing anything is just squirming in my barbed wire, while bullets are flying. What is your favorite lyric in the song? "I’m an actor, so I know how to weep. "

There are lots of hidden layers and meaning in the video… can you tell us what some of those are and why you chose to include them? I’m pretty fluid with my interpretation of the video. But most days, it goes something like this: Setting - The characters are in a place of purgatory. It’s that place I create when I’m trying to process gun violence. They may or may not know each other. Screens - On the screens, the characters stare at scenes involving their physical selves. Characters - I play the boy, and we designed the look to reflect someone in a prestigious position. On the TV’s, he’s probably a politician of some sort. I don’t think that’s who the boy is in real life, especially if the boy is me. But in this particular place of purgatory (maybe there are multiple rooms in purgatory), I’m presenting the politically active parts of myself. The dancer might be a whole separate character. She’s someone directly impacted by political leaders and their decisions. So in this place, we have a civic leader and someone he impacts. Seen this way, let’s say the boy is fried in the beginning. He’s lost his will. Been in purgatory too long. The dancer enters. Maybe she sees a party she’s currently attending in the real world. She pulls the boy out of his funk. They are actual human beings who can connect. When we hear about gun violence, our screens create abstracts of the event and the victims. But here in purgatory, the two have to make actual, physical contact. Their actions directly impact each other. Movement - There is a loose choreography. But, mainly, Ashley (the dancer) and I created a structure and improvised within it. Basically, there’s a struggle in the beginning. Japanese Butoh definitely informs the early interactions in the video, as the style can create a sense of shared grief. The movement becomes more playful and celebratory, which I think reflects another convoluted part of processing gun violence. After Parkland, I sunk into a pit of melancholy for probably no more than half a day and then I was out with my friends. We’d talk about mass shootings, but then we’d goof off, and the topic eventually recedes, until we’ve tuned it out completely (though temporarily). In the video, the TV screens are upfront and center in the beginning, but then the movement draws our attention to the characters themselves. There’s an ominous outro, where we intercut to the party-goers on the screens lying facedown on a roof. Lives lost to gun violence? In the purgatory place, we only have close-ups of the characters, many of which focus on the hands in spell-like gestures. The issue of gun violence does seem to have this elusive, enigmatic quality. So maybe whatever happens between these two in this purgatory has some ineffable effect in the world.

What do you hope fans gain as a result from watching/listening to your art? Mostly, I hope this keeps the conversation going. Like I said about the video, the topic always recedes, often because the screens start showing other things to us. As artists, I think we can keep things front and center. It’s funny. When I finished the video, I came across grandson’s “Thoughts and Prayers” single. For a whiff, I felt like my project would be redundant. But, of course, until it’s a non-issue, I say the more content we produce, the better. On a more practical note, I’m pledging all the royalties from this project towards organizations like March For Our Lives. So when people listen or watch, they are indirectly or directly (starting to really question my understanding of this concept) benefiting the cause. I think it allows listeners a little extra way to participate in reform measures. You had a hand in creating all of the aspects of the single… writing, producing, creating the video….. tell us about that process as an artist. How does it influence your work? It slows down the process by too much. No, but really, it allows complete ownership over the process, at least of the track itself. I’m entirely responsible for every aspect of it. Holding the work so precious does create a lot of room for self-doubt, but the fears of commitment also pushes for more experimentation. When I create tracks, it’s like I’m recording and re-mixing an exploration. Or maybe it’s like I’m a one-man jam band in my room. It certainly allows me to include weird ideas like recording the words “thoughts and prayers” and using that sample to create different drum sounds. You can’t really tell when you hear it, but I think it’s a fun little Easter Egg. As for the video, I came up with a structure, but this is where I wanted to open up the perspective. I’m kind of enjoying the thought that creating the track itself was like the boy in the video struck in purgatory alone. Then with the video, I’ve invited other perspectives, just as there’s now another person with the boy in purgatory. I’m a nerd, I know. But, yes, I think because I gave myself a clear foundation after working on the track, we were able to do a lot of exploring with the concept of the video, which then allows for its fluid interpretation. Fun fact: the video was originally supposed to involve a dancer and an agent of death battling over a remote that controls one single TV screen displaying a party. You've spoken about how you want your music to be a platform for activism….. what are some other issues you are passionate about? There are a lot. But I’m just going to list one here to emphasize how important it is. THE ENVIRONMENT. Tell us about your upcoming album….. what can fans expect to hear? It’s tentatively called Synthesizer or Variations of: An Endemic Cycle. The EP will have about 6or 7 songs that expand upon the narrative in “Bullets Are Flying.” Just as “Bullets Are Flying” is set in emotional purgatory, the other songs will be placed in their own settings. All the songs will fit into a narrative that has a circular structure. I’m designing musical themes that provide a through-line in the tracks. If you play the album and replay it, the narrative from the last track continues right into the first. You can start the album from any track, and the narrative will continue and circle back. I’m also creating visuals for each track. So if you were to edit them together in a specific and play it on loop, it might feel like one single never-ending movie no matter where you begin. Gun violence is so cyclical. You can enter into it at any point -- initial grief, debate, ennui, etc. --and it’ll eventually loop right back to where you started. How would you describe your musical sound? Musical genres are so bewildering to me. I guess I’ll say this: I’m sort of finding a hip-hop voice in other genres I love. They’re mainly psychedelic dream-pop, future funk, new wave, or even cinematic anime soundtracks. If my process were a scene, I’d like to imagine Childish Gambino getting really high and watching the news with Tame Impala, and maybe Jon Bellion barges in and blasts his new album. I don’t know that these are the sounds that come to mind if you were to listen to my work. But they’re certainly the sounds I’m after, sounds that provide a framework when I produce my music. Read the full article

[thesims4blogger]

The Sims 4: New Game Patch (May 25th, 2017)

Update: 05/25/2017 – PC Version 1.30.103.1010 / Mac Version 1.30.103.1210

Hello Simmers,

Welcome to the base game release for Parenthood! Which is all about those quiet family moments. Taking time to enjoy when things settle down. When all becomes quiet, and you can just take it all in, reflecting upon life…

..er, wait sorry. That’s like 20-30 years after parenthood begins (results may vary).

I meant to say, this is a hectic time. A time of crazy, noise filled chaos, where the concept of quiet exists for only 3 hours between 2 and 5 am. And where tension is worn like a badge of honor! So wear yours with pride, and let’s start with just a little bit of what’s new in this release…

What’s New?

The Load / Save menu has been updated to be… modern.

Save slots now use household thumbnails instead of a text list

Save backups can now be restored via this UI by clicking on the Recover Save option from the Load Game dialog.

Users can now see where on disk a particular save file exists by hovering over the File icon in the Load Game dialog.

You can now rename your save from the Load Game dialog.

The auto-save feature has been removed as it was not functioning properly.

The Save As dialog has also been modified to show thumbs.

The first option in the Save As dialog is to be used to create a brand new save, but you can also choose to overwrite existing saves.

No more will you have to remember which save your Goopy-Gilscarbo household was in – it’s all visual now!

Thumbnails however will be blank until the save is opened, and re-saved post patch release.

You can also click the button to copy the path to your clipboard.

The feature as originally implemented was confusing and did not function as expected by users.

Save now occurs explicitly at the players request either by choosing to save when exiting to the Main Menu, Manage Worlds, or Quitting. Or by choosing Save or Save As from the ESC menu.

New Lights in Buy Mode.

Three new lights can be found under Ceiling Lamps in the Object by Function, Lighting sort.

Round Confection Ceiling Light

Square Confection Ceiling Light

Campanulate Ceiling Lamp

And today I learned that campanulate is a real word…

And then on to what issues did we address…

General Issues

Children can now smash a dollhouse that is currently in use by another child…

Sims will no longer get a whim to get married if they are already married.

The Successful Lineage aspiration (within the Family category) will no longer fail to recognize if a child had previously completed the skill and aspiration requirements of the 3rd and 4th step.

Babies will no longer change skin tone when they are picked up.

The Georgina Outdoor Lamppost With Double Hanging Planter can now be turned off by the player.

Silence phone once again will silence your phone…

Along those lines (the texting part)… Children should no longer receive inappropriate text messages from adults.

The Connections reward trait will no longer prevent your Sim from purchasing career rewards unlocked by career levels earlier than the boosted connections career level.

The Cu Cu Cachoo display skull now costs 175 Simoleons.

Performance improvement: Movement level 1 toddlers should no longer contemplate the use of objects on floors they can't reach.

Toddlers will now also visually drink from their sippy cup when seated on the ground.

Fixed a Sim reset issue that could occur when one Sim chose to autonomously tell a story to another Sim.

Sims are swimming laps again.

Sims with the masculine preference for clothing will no longer randomize into feminine full body swimsuits while in Create a Sim.

We fixed an issue that could cause a toddler to inherit the emotional whim of nearby adult Sims after loading into a lot, which could result with the toddler acquiring a flirty emotional whim.

Sims facial features should no longer adjust after selecting a different eye color swatch.

Young Adult and Adult lifespans have been increased by 4 days each to accommodate the addition of Toddlers.

Industrial Reinforced beams will no longer appear through the ceiling when placed on the floor below.

With cheats turned on, you should now be able to modify NPCs in Create a Sim by shift clicking on them and choosing "Modify in CAS".

Lights that have had their color and intensity modified, and then set to auto-light, will no longer revert to their default color and intensity setting.

You should no longer have to reload your lot or travel in order to get fresh cuttings to properly function from within your inventory.

We fixed an issue with how the stats panel appeared…

We have adjusted the hairstyles for our premade Sims (such as the Goths) to not change drastically during outfit changes, where it would not make sense for their hair to change.

PlantSims are now able to sleep in tents.

You should be able to once again share to Twitter from the game.

…because frustration is best served shared.

It’s simple folks, “Happy spouse, happy house.”

Getting a child to do “work” once is tough enough, getting them to do it a second time… I’d suggest hitting up the kid exchange for a trade in.

Um, you still receive the calls, you just won't hear them.

Well, you can hear the call of course, just not the ring, beeping, or musical stylings of Lorde Swift von Iggy-Flay …

Of course, I guess you don’t really hear, it’s more of a read…

Kind of a one way thing, with a yes no response mechanism.

Who invented this type of phone anyway?

We have fixed various possible ways in which children might receive inappropriate text messages… if you are still seeing this issue, please let us know.

In addition , care was leveled upon the career levels in order to carefully level the rewards in care of the connections.

The walrus is not for sale.

Highly intelligent toddlers may still contemplate their place in the universe.

Toddlers with high wisdom may still contemplate their daily movements.

High strength toddlers may move in contemplation.

Toddlers with unusually high charisma may seek contemplation of others.

And highly dexterous toddlers may contemplate how they might also be like Mike.

Previously they would only drink it through some sort of liquid teleportation behavior that defies explanation.

Blue eyes? Of course sir, let me just push your nose this way a touch. No? Then brown eyes? Yes, wonderful choice sir. Let me just pull your jaw out a bit. No? But sir, no need to raise your voice, you chose brown, not me. If you wanted your jaw to stay chiseled you should have chosen green!

Unless you have a bad contractor… then there’s really only one thing you can do, get yourself a nice MLT.

My town? Hawaiian shirts and bunny slippers!

…the stats panel.

It's a button in the upper right of the Simology panel? Shows stats? And stuff…

…about your Sim, you, things you may have done…

It's been there since the very beginning.

Ok trust me, we fixed a visual something or other there. It’s better now.

This issue was fixed for all in tents and per pose.

Vampires

Vampire ears on the base form of a Sim will no longer disappear when the Sim enters live mode.

Fixed an issue that could prevent a Sim from gaining access to others' homes when they have the Eternally Welcome vampire power.

Sims that have been turned into Vampires should no longer have a non-functional age bar.

Toddlers born with vampire parents, will now maintain the eye color they were born with (or that the player had modified them to be) even after loading them into Create a Sim.

Eternally Welcome, except this time. And… that other time. Oh, and remember after the house warming party? Yea… definitely not eternally welcome.

City Living

A Love Guru from the Romance Festival that is married into a household will no longer remain immortal.

I’m reminded of the philosopher Socrates, when after an eventful night of revelry, he said “I married what?”

Vintage Glamour Stuff

Light from the Fiery Façade fireplace will no longer shine through the back of the fireplace.

Butlers will no longer appear on retail lots when they should be at home... butler’izing.

Asset Issues in Create a Sim

Hey folks, so along the lines of our Create a Stuff Pack program, I’m going to take a moment in this section of issues to provide a little insight into what the issue is, and who on the team might address them, so that you can see a little into how to evaluate an issue.

I’ll start by providing information about what the issue was and what was fixed, and then provide some insight into who would address the issue.

These two issues are considered tagging issues.

You can now wear necklaces with yfTop_SP08ShirtButtonOpen.

You can now apply a bracelet to your right and left wrist when wearing the level 5 business career outfit yfBody_EF01BusinessSuitMed!

Issues like these are fixed by the production team. In both of these cases, an asset was set to restrict the placement of another asset.

Production modified the tags, and now these assets no longer restrict placement.

These three issues are considered clipping issues. They generally appear to the player as one asset poking through another asset (and in some cases the character model itself).

Fixed a clipping issue with GP01BootFoldover and various pants.

ymHair_GP04Slashed will no longer poke through yuHat_GP04Toque.

ymShoes_AnkleSquareToe will no longer clip with ymBody_EF04ShirtSkull.

These issues are fixed by the art team. And are generally addressed by modifying one of the offending asset’s geometry (moving stuff around), or addressing something like weighting (how an asset lays against other assets).

The highlight issue fixed here, turns out is also a clipping asset issue.

Fixed a broken highlight issue that would occur when hovering over yfHair_ShortShave and yfHair_BuzzCutNatural while in Create a Sim.

It could be engineering, since highlights are handled by code, however in this case, it was a geometry issue with the hair assets that created the highlight issue.

This is a character layering issue.

Female Sims with a masculine frame should no longer have two belly buttons when in Create a Sim.

Keeping this short, but Sims have layers (like an Ogre). And if the wrong layer is added to the stack, you get issues like this. This issue is an engineering fix that required a different layer to be used in order to properly create the Sim.

This is a geometry vertex issue.

Fixed an issue that could cause some eye presets to stretch the geometry of various hair assets improperly.

This issue is addressed by an artist, and in this case was caused by a single vert (the angular point of a polygon) that was being incorrectly shared with a part of the face that caused the hair to stretch.

This is a texture issue.

We fixed an issue with a visible seam on the torso of female Sims.

This issue is addressed by an artist, and required the artist to modify the texture of the base Sim model. The texture being the paint over that makes a Sim look like a Sim, and not a wire mesh. And the base Sim model being the bare Sim without any assets.

Hope that provided just a little insight into some issues, and who fixes them. I know this focused primarily on asset issues, but I just wanted to dip our toes into the waters of development…

…wow, that sounded really cheesy.

Many apologies, and thanks again for your patience and time!

-SimGuruGnome

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/technology/entertainment/how-will-satan-adam-play-in-2019/

How Will Satan & Adam Play in 2019?

An interracial blues duo born in 1980s Harlem was a symbol of harmony in a tense time. But times have changed.

May 2, 2019

“I can’t believe how many white people are in Harlem now,” Adam Gussow said. He was strolling around the neighborhood, marveling at how much the place had changed since he was a Columbia University grad-school dropout in the 1980s. “I was the only white guy in Harlem at the time. I just saw a white guy jogging. You never used to see that.”

But he was more than an interloper in Harlem all those years ago. He was the harmonica player in a blues duo called Satan & Adam that started off playing on the sidewalk of 125th Street and then went on to tour the country, make a record that charted, and even appear briefly on a U2 album.

“Back then,” he said, “everyone used to tell me, ‘Don’t go to Harlem.’ I would say, ‘Why not?’”

It was in Harlem that he met Sterling Magee, the guitarist he would play with for the next 12 years. Mr. Gussow was in town for the New York premiere of a documentary about the band. The movie, “Satan & Adam,” opened in theaters last month, and it starts streaming on Netflix early this summer.

“I feel like Rip Van Winkle. I’ve finally woken up, and now everything is different.” He turned reflective: “I wonder if anyone still remembers Sterling.”

Long before Mr. Gussow’s arrival in Harlem, Sterling Magee had been a neighborhood eccentric who called himself “Mr. Satan.” He was the bluesman of 125th Street, wailing on electric guitar, singing soulfully, and stamping out a rhythm with a pair of high-hat cymbals. He had a Moses-like beard, and rumor was he used to play in the bands of Ray Charles and Etta James and had performed with James Brown at the Apollo.

As the story goes, Mr. Gussow was getting over a bad breakup, and he wandered up into Harlem one day and encountered Mr. Magee. Feeling the blues in his bones, Mr. Gussow took out his harmonica and started jamming with him. Passers-by were riveted by the unlikely pair, and Mr. Magee’s tip jar filled up quickly, so he said Mr. Gussow could come back.

Racial tensions in the winter of 1986 were boiling over in New York in the wake of the Howard Beach attacks and the massive protests that followed. The duo’s image of musical harmony was soon picked up by the media, and they became a local news sensation. They played Central Park SummerStage, appeared on U2’s “Rattle and Hum” album, toured with Bo Diddley, and performed at the New Orleans jazz festival.

“They were playing the kind of Chicago blues I don’t think anyone was playing anymore much less in New York,” said David Fricke, a writer for Rolling Stone. “Here was this guy who did his time in the trenches, and this other guy who could play in that school and galvanize him.” He added, “The fact that they united at a time of racial tension is something important that should be paid mind, but if they sucked, no one would have cared.”

Mr. Gussow is now 61 and lives in Oxford, Miss. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton and he teaches English and Southern studies at the University of Mississippi. After his flight into town for the premiere, he was eager to retrace his footsteps in Harlem. Mr. Magee did not make the trip. He is now 82 and lives in a nursing home in Gulfport, Fla. He doesn’t play the guitar much anymore and his thoughts about the documentary were scattered during a phone interview last month.

“I’m still Mr. Satan,” he said. “I’m Mr. Satan all the way. There’s no explanation. I am truly Satan. The message I’m giving is the truth, and the truth shall set me free.”

I asked if he liked the documentary. After some silence, his caretaker spoke.

“We’ve shown it three times here,” he said, addressing Mr. Magee. “Your family saw it at a big showing. Then here at Boca Ciega. Don’t you remember all the fan mail, Sterling?”

I asked about Harlem.

“I miss Harlem,” he said. “My music reflects the energy of Harlem because it is my home and she was pretty. Maybe Harlem has changed but I haven’t.”

The tale of two musicians from different walks of life is the familiar heart of the documentary, but as a roiling national conversation about race is taking place in 2019, it’s hard not to wonder how their story fits into New York today. In the film, the Rev. Al Sharpton, who rose to prominence as the organizer of the Howard Beach protests that winter of 1986, considers as much. “To see two people that came from two diametrically opposite existences in the streets of Harlem,” he said, “even if it violates tribal code, takes a lot of self-confidence, a lot of courage, or a lot of ignorance to the environment that you’re in.”

The documentary focuses heavily on the myth of Sterling Magee. Born in 1936 in Mount Olive, Miss., he grew up attending a Baptist church and worrying his mother when he discovered the blues. He served as a paratrooper in Germany before recording hits for Ray Charles’s Tangerine label in the 1960s. In the 1980s, he radically reinvented himself in Harlem as Mr. Satan. Eventually, Mr. Magee suffers a nervous breakdown and disappears and is later found by the filmmakers living in Florida.

Mr. Gussow’s origins receive less screen time. Born in 1958 and raised in Congers, N.Y., Mr. Gussow’s father, Alan, was a celebrated landscape painter, and his mother, Joan, is an influential nutritionist who The Times once called the “matriarch of the eat-locally-think-globally food movement.” A 2010 article in the Home section of The Times visited his mother’s house overlooking the Hudson River, and his uncle, Mel, was a theater critic for The Times. He discovered the harmonica in his teens and he dropped out of graduate school in his 20s to busk on the streets of Paris.

“It’s funny, I think about my class position now sometimes in regards to all this,” Mr. Gussow said. “My parents had no money. We grew up poor in a big house. My grandfather was Lithuanian and grew up dirt poor.” His grandfather, he said, later founded a successful publishing company that printed trade magazines. “I had rich grandparents. But they never gave us any money. They lived in Sutton Place, but the world of Saks Fifth Avenue was not my world. I grew up raising chickens.

“The first time I ever felt class was at school,” he continued. “All the kids would go on ski vacations, and my parents got me oversize ski shoes. I’m not complaining, but that’s when I got my first real sense of class. I had a real chip on my shoulder after that because I realized there was this whole world of privilege I didn’t know about. I went to Princeton, but I also cleaned bathrooms at Princeton.”

He added: “Sterling was colorblind to me. I needed mentoring, and he provided that.”

In 2019, this kind of racial imbalance is seen in a much less forgiving light. But Mr. Magee said such comparisons fatigued him. “When we get together, I’m Mr. Satan and he’s Mr. Gussow,” he said. “I want to put the message out that Mr. Satan is in love with this person, and that I don’t give a damn about all that stuff.”

Some might say Mr. Gussow has grappled with the blues, its appropriation, and privilege in his work as a scholar. In 1995, he wrote an essay for Harper’s Magazine about his experiences with Mr. Magee, and he later published a memoir, “Mister Satan’s Apprentice.” At the University of Mississippi, according to his faculty page, he has taught courses like “The Blues Tradition in American Literature” and “Cotton, Slavery, Travel, and the Blues.”

V. Scott Balcerek, the film’s director, started documenting the duo in the 1990s. “I guess it always occurred to me Adam might be considered problematic even when I first met him, but I knew his heart was in the right place and that’s what mattered,” he said. As the documentary tours the festival circuit, he said, he’s gotten a few critiques of “white lens,” but he added, “It’s honestly only white people who bring it up.”

As the afternoon progressed, Mr. Gussow stopped at a patch of sidewalk on 125th Street. It was his old busking spot with Mr. Magee. But the block was unrecognizable to him, and so he moved along to Mr. Magee’s old apartment building. No one there remembered much. Mr. Magee’s favorite stoop, where he displayed his street art, had become part of a hotel. But at Paris Blues, the dive bar on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, Samuel J. Hargress Jr., its owner, remembered the duo and was pleased to see Mr. Gussow. “Yes, I remember a good-looking white boy who played the harp,” he said.

Mr. Hargress, 83, stepped outside in his three-piece suit and pointed to where Mr. Magee used to hang out. He opened the bar in 1969, and he said that Harlem’s gentrification has been good for him. Business is lively and his building’s property value keeps rising.

“I stayed in Harlem because I couldn’t leave,” he said. “I never thought any of this would end up happening.”

“It’s like winning the lottery,” Mr. Gussow said.

Mr. Hargress then gestured proudly to his bar’s live music schedule.

“Got some rich white boys playing here tonight in fact,” he said.