#most of these are straight picked for having pretty lyrics a la poetry so a lot of them are slow and sad

[alamari-chibi]

@pocket-size-cthulhu

I'm making a separate post bc I kind of sent myself down a rabbit hole. I wanna clarify that I am a Big Hozier Fan and that most country music is a different lyrical ballpark entirely bc of the nature of the genre. (If I had to describe it I'd say it's more literal and storytelling than the whole, like, in-the-woods poetry thing hozier's got going on.)

Anyway I tried to find some that have the same kind of poetry to them or at least aren't about dirt roads and, like, alcoholism. (this is very hard to do there are so many songs about drowning your sorrows in alcohol. I think maybe that's a bad thing but what do I know about songwriting)

Zach Bryan - Something in the Orange

Ryan Bingham - Wolves

Deana Carter - Strawberry Wine

Chris Stapleton - Tennessee Whiskey

Brooks and Dunn - Neon Moon

Uncle Lucius - Keep The Wolves Away

Juice Newton - Angel of the Morning

Johnny Cash - God's Gonna Cut You Down

The Band Perry - All Your Life

Lee Ann Womack - I Hope You Dance

Josh Turner - Would You Go With Me

I also have a few that I think just have generally clever lyrics that you probably won't enjoy very much if you don't like country music:

Rodney Atkins - If You're Going Through Hell

Sugarland - It Happens

Jessica Andrews - Who I Am

Billy Currington - People are crazy

Blake Shelton - Honeybee

Tim McGraw - Just to See You Smile

[westernchords]

2020: a replay & reflection

so... here we are at the near end of a very long, unsettling & strange year. and at this particular moment in time, spotify has released its 2020 wrapped feature, an annual highlight for gay people everywhere (self VERY included). since the world is very large & this is a personal blog with a limited scope, i'll talk about what i know best: the view from my corner of the musical world.

i only had two songs in common with any previous year -- i wish i missed my ex by mahalia & sugar by brockhampton (... i know, the heartache is loud already,)

4 unique rain asmr audios made it into my top 15 (they help me sleep lolol)

show tunes was my #4 most listened to genre and yet not a single one made it into my top 100. (i'm pretty sure it was all of my late night waitress sing alongs)

i discovered 1,012 new artists and 162 new genres

all very fun and interesting things! however, in looking at this year, there are two things to discuss that are most important: the amount of time i spent listening to music (111,989 minutes) and my top song, fake mona lisa. let's discuss both.

on time: in short, music means a lot to me. in long, i mean that music has been central to my life for as long as i can remember. i think of my church choir and my mother singing eartha kitt and corrine bailey rae in the kitchen, my father's surprise talents at piano when he would play in chapel, and how i like to make up little ditties to sing for my dog or while i cook or to solely entertain myself. if one was to take a look at my journals, each entry is annotated with the song i was listening to or suited my mood at the time i was writing. at any moment, i am capable of revisiting the emotional landscape of old memories all set to the very soundtrack that holds that particular past closest.

i still remember plucking violin strings at 5, how i used to stack music books so i could sit up straight on my piano bench because i was too short at 7, picking up woodwinds in highschool and letting my best friend act as conductor, and now, singing endlessly- day in and day out, because it makes me feel like i am traveling home. i think of creole folk songs that connect me to my family, my diaspora. i remember the favorite songs and artists of people i don't know anymore, but still. it stays with me. my friend cj says i have a great emotional sensitivity to music, but more so, music simply connects to every cornerstone of who i am. the creation of it, the listening, the love of it. the constancy.

music is integral to my daily routine and life. since i was 13, maybe younger, i have always believed that the first song i hear in a day sets the tone so i always try to play something i love and makes me feel joyful to start off on the right foot. i will do this my entire life. every day is permeated by sound and the data shows it. 111,989 minutes is almost 3 months straight. this doesn't even count soundcloud listens or youtube tracks or music i play on my own. this felt fitting. music, this year in particular, has been a salve to both new and old hurt. and maybe i am picking at my scabs, but 2020 has amplified so much anger and shame and fear and despite that, there is so much joy in art. music is a balm for the world, it is poetry in its own right.

on fake mona lisa: so .. i am kind of obsessed with this song. fifteen hours worth of listening, i text my friends i'll join the video call soon - i just need one more replay, i got high and played this song while lying in the middle of a meadow and experienced more emotions than i had had in a very long time, my friends lovingly tease me about it so it's sort of like a character trait now, kind of obsessed. my turning to this song was the sort of romance that i didn't anticipate, but fell very hard into and, if you know me, you know that's my favorite kind. let's get into why: when dedicated side b came out, i was heartbroken. there's really no other way to put it. i was alone, back in my childhood bedroom, and harboring a reopened wound from past relationships that maybe had never closed in the first place. i was in this strange, melancholic knee-deep-in-emotions place & if you're an avid CRJ fan, you recognize that's a place she knows and sings about well.

as a song, fake mona lisa tends to be one of carly's more lyrically opaque tracks. which is fine, i'm a storyteller at heart, i'll craft my own narrative. (and honestly, there wasn't much legwork here.) without doing a full blown analysis, here are pieces that i find important to note about the song lyrically and resonate most with me -- big or small.

(transcription at bottom)

what i'm basically saying is that this song is about risk and young love and sex. its about secrets, cheap thrills, fast & easy desires, and the fantastical euphoria of a dead-end-but-still-fun “we're young so what's the matter,“ relationship. (very reminiscent of LA hallucinations, imo) and to me, someone who has been in and out of this same subset of emotional affairs, fake mona lisa stuck with me. vegas is a city of high risk, high reward- where else to chase that superficial, unattainable someone? more so, the song gives you the understanding that the relationship doesn't last, but that was not what carly ever truly wanted out of it. fake mona lisa is, at its core, about over indulgence in pleasure as a stand in for actual love + commitment, something i am oft to do myself & only did more of after dedicated side b dropped. i latched onto the slow and simmering exposition into glittery pre-chorus, starlit imagery, shiny-faraway vocals, and frankly, there was no competition for my song of the year. the song is a dream. i love it and i know what that says about me, but i stand by it. 

dedicated side b, especially fake mona lisa, carried me through the healing process of heartbreaks that crystallized into many other things- indulgence, desire, risk, short lived romances, secrets, joy, kisses i should've kept to myself, spontaneous dance breaks, tears, etc., it is an album about love, recovery, and returning to the self. fake mona lisa is just my favorite stop on a long train ride to an okay-ness with aspects of romance (both with the self and others) that i am still figuring out the messy, rose-tinted, contours of.

and sonically? i just adore the key of d minor.

as a last touch point, fake mona lisa was only the tip of the iceberg of songs  i obsessed over about not-exactly-ideal romances. again and again and again, heartbreak anthems appeared in my top 100, a deviation from my typical warmth towards romantic sentiments that appeared in past years. instead, there is a sense of love-at-a-distance, a painting yourself as the object of desire, a severed attachment, a not wanting to commit at all (see let's be friends, heartbeat, want you in my room, all by crj ... all appearing on the list.) however, much of what appeared celebrated love and having tremendous, special, struck by cupid, feelings. it's all there. what i'm saying is that carly rae jepsen writes music for lovestruck people- both lucky and not so much, hopeless or hopeful -- you name it. she writes about how you can fall in love with almost anyone, soundtracks for the highs of the first throes of intimacy, the first (and last) kiss, the shared moments between two people when they are each other's whole world, and the palpable distance of heartache, separation, and the landscape between. 

she writes as though she is both eros and psyche, armed with arrows of cascading melodies, tipped with a salve for suppressing+healing+amplifying heartbreak, and lyrics so intimate and dreamy, you really can't help but believe in love with the way she speaks of it. love is a venture from shame, a fantasy that is more real than anything else, tender and kind, pleasurable, and escapable into. the world is better in it, the world is better because of it. in carly rae jepsen's discography, love is the defining pillar of experience. a northern star and guiding principle. it is the only thing, no matter what form. & frankly? i cant help but agree.

as a final note, in hanif wills-abdurraqib's emotion review for MTV, carly rae jepsen's public displays of affection, he says this:

thats all for now. bye 2020.

- august

///

transcription of my notes:

verse 1:

city/star light imagery

i am known for wearing a star stamp on my cheek

infatuation & attraction

paints a photo of a starlet and her lover, a fair weather affair

pre-chorus:

always waiting fro a chance the object of desire

a high from love, addictive pleasures

chorus:

sex & art & risk taking (art synonymous with beauty. + seduction)

she knows she cant handle this in a real way, but wants it

desire vs/& (in conjunction with) pain

verse 2:

an idealistic worldview, hoping for the best, always somewhere else not present. 

dreamy lyrics + dreamy state of mind, cloudy even.

specifically the words fake mona lisa:

contrast, beautiful yet fully acknowledged to be unreal/superficial

a stand in for “real art“ aka “real love“

[dustedmagazine]

Dusted Mid-Year Exchange, Part 2: Positive No to Yves Tumour

Six Organs got a lot of mid-year love this time

Welcome back to part two of the Dusted Mid-Year Exchange, in which we tackle the second half of the alphabet. If you missed part one, with its lengthy description of what we’re doing here, you can read it here. Or just muddle through. Cheers.  

Positive No — Kyanite (Little Black Cloud)

Kyanite by Positive No

Who recommended it? Tobias Carroll

Did we review it? No.

Tim Clarke’s take:

Positive No braid tight bursts of guitars, bass and drums into upbeat yet agitated shapes. There’s a touch of Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino in Tracy Wilson’s vocal delivery, or My Bloody Valentine’s Belinda Butcher, especially on expansive opener “Elevator Up.” At just under half an hour, the urgent economy of Kyanite’s songwriting makes all the more sense when you learn that it’s the band’s final album, released on Valentine’s Day this year. As their parting gesture, nothing is wasted, everything invested. As one of the song titles says, “Get In, Get Out. Don’t Linger. Go On.”

 Raspberry Bulbs — Before the Age of Mirrors

Before The Age Of Mirrors by Raspberry Bulbs

Who picked it? Jonathan Shaw

Did we review it? Yes, Jonathan said, “Even in its heaviest metal moments, on ‘Reclaimed Church’ and excellent closing track ‘Given Over to History,’ the record’s punk vibe cuts and grins. It insists on a deadly aesthetic seriousness, and at the same time, it’s tugging the rug out from under its own feet.”

Jennifer Kelly’s take:

Raspberry Bulbs splices punk’s antic venom with metal’s storm and roar, shifting from one mode to the other inside individual tracks, sometimes measure to measure. Consider “Doggerel” which kicks off in a pogo-ing furor, rattling violently over rapid oi band rhythms, everything clipped and percussive, even the vocals, though hoarse and splintered. Midway through, a sirening guitar riff intercedes and the singing turns ominous and measured; all the sudden it’s metal. “Midnight Line” pulls the opposite trick, beginning in clanging, feedback-morphing guitar and larynx shredding howl, then introducing a punk rock palm-muted chug and anthemry. It’s a volatile mix, at times nearly playful, at others agonizingly heavy, at still others (the “Intervals” mostly) surprisingly lyrical.  I lean towards the punk-er tracks—"They’re After Me” and “Doggerel”— metal fans may feel otherwise.

 Stephen Riley — Friday the 13th (Steeplechase)

Who recommended it? Derek Taylor

Did we review it? Yes. Derek said, “Knuffke and Riley are a directly collaborative pairing now and their partnership politely demands many more dates like this one.”

Justin Cober-Lake's take:

Saxophonist Stephen Riley has put together a quartet with a singular idea of playing these classic tunes on Friday the 13th in relatively straightforward and spacious renditions. Their take on Eddie Vinson's “Four” has Riley and cornetist Kirk Knuffke trading long solos. The rhythm section does its job, but it's a horn players' record. The album comes alive most when Knuffke and Riley interact more immediately. On Oliver Nelson's “Hoe Down,” they reveal how great a partnership they have, initially matching each other on the main melody before spiraling off. “Round Midnight” could have been too obvious a choice, but the combo's personalized take on the standard works out. Everyone sounds at ease enough within the song that they take a few more risks, and the horn players supplement each other nicely with more harmonic considerations. The album ends with a trio of spirited numbers, and in each case Riley and Knuffke play off each other's solos with a sharpness that by now makes sense. Riley's listening to Monk and playing like Rollins (hence the title track) as he and his group find ways to make old bop sound new.

  Gil Scott-Heron and Makaya McCraven—We’re New Again, A Reimagining (XL Recordings)

Who recommended it? Jenny Kelly.

Did we review it? Yes. Arthur Krumins notes, “McCraven lays down a lush musical backdrop that allows Scott-Heron’s words to have emotional impact.”

Jonathan Shaw’s take:

The word “reimagine” has a sexy resonance, and for that reason, it’s often too casually used. But in the case of We’re New Again, the word is warranted. Drummer and producer Makaya McCraven doesn’t just remix Gil Scott-Heron’s final record, I’m New Here (2010); McCraven shuffles the track list, adds some relevant recordings of Scott-Heron’s voice, and creates entirely new arrangements, moods, and musical accompaniment for the earlier album’s songs. It’s ballsy — I’m New Here is justly recognized as a masterpiece, and it’s marked by a stylistic austerity. On that record, Scott-Heron sang and spoke and recited his poetry over minimalist beats, a strummed guitar, or his own piano playing. McCraven attentively reimagines the tunes, working with polyphonic, post-Bop ensembles; busy hip-hop soundscapes; gospel and funk quotations. Remarkably, none of the richness of Scott-Heron’s vocals and none of the complexity of his poetry get obscured. More often, McCraven inventively intensifies the impact of Scott-Heron’s songs. And the reordering and recontextualizing of the tracks reveals a different narrative, grounded in the resilience and the suffering of Scott-Heron’s upbringing and too-short life. You listen and you feel it. It’s a terrific record.

Six Organs of Admittance — Companion Rises (Drag City)

Companion Rises by Six Organs of Admittance

Who recommended it? Jennifer Kelly

Did we review it? Yes. Jenny said it’s “straight-down-the-middle Six Organs, not as loud and abrasive as the first Hexadic disc, not as reticently wisp-y as the older folk-derived records.”

Patrick Masterson’s take:

Back when Dusted was still a dot-com, we talked about making a site-specific canon for our 10th anniversary, a kind of “Dusted 500” field guide. There was a shared spreadsheet and talk of a benefit show and a mixtape comp and so on that never amounted to anything for myriad reasons, but I can promise you Ben Chasny would’ve figured into it somehow — and nearly a decade on from that, my promise stands. The latest (30th? Let’s call it 30th) Six Organs of Admittance record is a beautiful slow burner that shows why, all astral spirits and slow-rolling starlight guitar plucks that is, as Jenny rightly notes, a Six Organs line drive. My belief after numerous spins since early February — mostly in the mornings, for which this music also seems suitable accompaniment — is that, like the rest of Chasny’s oeuvre, it will appeal to anyone who likes guitars or reads this. On the off chance you stumbled in here or haven’t heard this record yet: Welcome. It’s always been this way.

Patrick Masterson

 Spanish Love Songs — Brave Faces Everyone (Pure Noise)

Brave Faces Everyone by Spanish Love Songs

Who recommended it? Ian Mathers

Did we review it? Yes. Ian said, “it’s more a record of solidarity and mutual support than it is anything more prescriptive.”

Patrick Masterson’s take:

L.A. quintet Spanish Love Songs occupy a very specific point on what I like to think of as the Bar Band Spectrum, where one end is a bottom-rung covers-only collective found in just about any weeknight dive pre-COVID playing for beer money out of boredom and modest ambition… and the other end is Bruce Springsteen. This band isn’t as ramshackle as, say, Ladyhawk, nor have they yet hit a glass ceiling à la the Constantines; they sound to me more like Beach Fossils or Single Mothers, where everything from their songwriting to their slightly glossy production suggests they’re as ready as they’ll ever be for arena life. And what a record to make the case, too: Brave Faces Everyone is the sound of Run for Covers Records growing up or early onset Gen Z realizing a glass of wine after everything is, in fact, a coping mechanism for adulthood in a profoundly uncaring world. It’s got a big, young heart to match its big, old sound. It says, loudly, that in the increasingly untethered reality of 2020, we are all losers forever — but there’s still a “best of it” to be made if you wanna and the bravest face is an optimistic one. I’ll rock with that (from the quarantined confines of home and the other side of another lousy livestream, of course).

Patrick Masterson

Squirrel Flower — I Was Born Swimming (Polyvinyl)

I Was Born Swimming by Squirrel Flower

Who picked it? Patrick Masterson

Did we review it? Nope.

Arthur Krumins’ take:

Making the most of a dour mood, Squirrel Flower squeezes disaffection from her vocal delivery. The instrumentation is reminiscent of a less noisy Built to Spill, or maybe Julie Doiron, and is effectively now a retro indie rock sound originally from the late 90s or early 2000s. The jamminess of some of the drawn out riffs feel both pretty and sad, and could be a good soundtrack to a rainy drive. The heaviness is well developed without being bogged down. The lyrics catch your attention with their plainspoken narration of conflict (“You slap me, I’ll slap you right back” she repeats in “Slapback”). A fitting album for looking your troubles head on while still being totally surrounded by them.

 Waterless Hills — The Great Mountain (Cardinal Fuzz)

Waterless Hills - 'The Great Mountain' by Waterless Hills

Who picked it? Bill Meyer

Did we review it? No.

Arthur Krumins’ take:

A dissonant flow that steadily increases in intensity starts this record, which is a live recorded improvisation. The combination of aching, modal violin by dbh with slightly overdriven cascading electric guitar by C Joynes makes for a feel reminiscent of “Venus in Furs” by the Velvet Underground. The percussion by Andrew Cheetham, a drum kit plug some extras like a hung Chinese gong, creates texture and mood. Sometimes there’s just a steady counting of time in the background, at other moments waves of cymbals crash and make a cacophonous emphasis as the music rises and falls. The overall effect of the jams is hypnotic, like getting absorbed in a swirling light show. The players’ sensitivity to the musical interplay of their instruments, combined with a masterful looseness, makes it a trip worth taking.

Well Yells — We Mirror the Dead (Self-released)

Who recommended it? Ian Mathers.

Did we review it? Yes. Ian Mathers notes, “tipping towards the slightly industrial/EBM side of the genre, We Mirror the Dead gains a kind of gloomy propulsion without losing any of the atmosphere or intensity of [the band’s] prior work.”

Jonathan Shaw’s take:

The Gothic is not famous for stylistic restraint, and neither are the various contemporary subgenres that have inherited goth music’s romance of dark interiors, painfully fraught feeling and highly stylized self-fashioning. A few recent acts have cut against the grain of those established maximalist textures: see the grim industrial rancor of Street Sects, and the more experimental, sample-based austerities of Wreck and Reference. Well Yells’ music feels similarly stripped down to a pulsing electronic essence. But the record is more interested in the strobing spaces of Clubland than in decrepit factory ruins, and the darkwave gloss of We Mirror the Dead presents a more conventional relation to goth’s sensations. At its best—as on album opener “Kill the King”—the music of Patrick Holbrook, sole member of Well Yells, snaps and glimmers with compelling dread and arch sophistication. Holbrook’s breathy tenor is a useful counterpoint; his vocals are vaguely reminiscent of the best of those other habitués of Clubland, the British New Romantics (remember Bronski Beat?). It’s good stuff, somehow simultaneously polished and dirty.

  Lucinda Williams—Good Souls Better Angels (Thirty Tigers/Highway 20 Records)

Who recommended it? Justin Cober-Lake

Did we review it? No.

Bill Meyer’s take: I haven’t listened much to Lucinda Williams; the one record I have by her, Sweet Old World, is 28 years old. The first thing that hit me when I listened to Good Souls Better Angels is what’s changed. Williams’ voice is much rougher, and she’s adjusted the music correspondingly, adding Hendrixian guitar flourishes to “Bone of Contention” and coarsening the domestic violence scenario “Wakin’ Up” with bad-trip electronics. The next is how pissed she sounds. Violent boyfriends are bad enough, but having a charmless sociopath for president is even worse. Fortunately, bile hasn’t overwhelmed her writing chops. Big-sounding roots rock isn’t really my thing these days, but if I feel the need to change that, Good Souls Better Angels is a good place to start.  

  Wire — Mind Hive (Pink Flag)

Who picked it? Andrew Forell

Did we review it? Yes, Andrew said, “Mind Hive is concise yet full of restless intelligence, musical ideas and willingness to push boundaries.”  

Derek Taylor’s take:

I tapped Wire late and left early. That truncated exposure lends a narrow vocabulary in describing their music contextually, pre- and post-reunions. This latest missive sounds alternately like what I remember and at least several zip codes removed with a heavy lean into synths. “Be Like Them” and “Primed and Ready” fall in the former category, while “Off the Beach” trades gangly ennui and menace for what almost resembles instrumental optimism until the lyrics stack dutifully into another ode to the disaffected and disconnected. “Oklahoma” feels inscrutably weird. “Hung” drops as the album’s extended, incremental, post-industrial dirge. There’s additional insulation sheathing this Wire, an inevitable adjunct of ascendancy to elder status, but the current foursome is still dependably conducting current.

 Yves Tumour — Heaven to a Tortured Mind (Warp)

Who recommend it? Patrick Masterson

Did we review it? No.

Ian Mathers’ take:

Listen to music for long enough and you might realize that most of the time when you hope any artist goes in any particular direction with their work, you’re bound to be disappointed. But every so often, maybe after a promising album that you just didn’t fully click with, an artist does exactly what you were hoping for and fully manifests all the potential promise you thought you glimpsed. Yves Tumor’s 2018 album Safe in the Hands of Love was admirable in many ways, but it was really only on crucial single “Noid” that all the combustible elements were really brought together into something that properly bangs. Well, Heaven to a Tortured Mind might not have as many showcases for the ambient/noise chops that Tumor definitely has, but it does consistently bang for 36 minutes of should-be alternate universe pop hits, from the brassy “Gospel for a New Century” to the floaty duet “Kerosene!” For anyone who loved “Noid” and then found more to respect than the viscerally love on Tumor’s last record, this is the record you were waiting for, and it is magnificent and ferocious.

[ambitionsource]

wait i actually have more weirdly specific questions (if ur up to it) - how do the kids feel about poetry? do they follow any sports? what childhood tv shows were their favs? do they have celebrity crushes? fav coming of age movie? how are they doing in quarantine? what time in history were they obsessed w as a kid? have they ever been to summer camp? what type of candles do they like? what song do they cry to? how do they drink their coffee/tea sorry if u’ve answered already/too many questions

wooooo thank you for your patience iz!! we’re gonna go point by point

poetry?

charlie loves it genuinely and will read it for fun. riley likes it enough but doesn’t go out of her way to read it. farkle loves coming up with insane explanations for the metaphors and is smug about interpreting it in class. zay doesn’t care for it, neither does lucas. asher appreciates it but finds it boring; dylan likes it for the same reason farkle does, only not to look smart but to come up with something completely crackheaded to combat farkle’s interpretation (which he can’t then say isn’t correct, bc its poetry, so all interpretations are valid!). isa doesn’t like it because she doesn’t get the metaphors on paper the same way she can pick them up in film. maya hates it even though multiple people have pointed out that song lyrics are basically poetry -- she will tune you out.

sports?

sports aren’t Big at aaa (aside from dance), but there are remnants here and there. riley follows basketball of course -- even tho as demonstrated in 110, she cannot play it to save herself -- and she tried out for cheer in 9th grade at her old school but was rejected from the squad (another bad mark on a terrible year). farkle prefers wii sports over any actual sport, but will sometimes watch golf with stuart because it’s quality time with his very busy father. charlie did soccer when he was younger before it got phased out by dance and semi keeps up with it. dylan also “played” soccer, but this meant the other little league teammates getting pissed at him bc he never paid attention to the game and was just like “hey! hey, dennis, look at this!” and did like 3 cartwheels across the field. it was a smart move when randall pulled him from the team bc those intense soccer moms were gonna like beat them up fDJSKG. so now dylan is just an unofficial gymnast instead.

isa doesn’t like sports but played them a lot with foster siblings, and even though she sucks she gets very competitive. lucas liked baseball and was good at track in middle school, but he never thought about doing a sport for real because he knew he was going to quincy eventually where his dad is a coach... yeah. no. but he’s great at running fast from the police!

maya hates sports (aside from the art of dance). waste of time, waste of energy. asher has never done a sport nor ever contemplated a sport. the most Sport he’s endured is going with jade to support dave at his swim meets (where nigel also does swim) and suffice to say, asher wasn’t there to look at the swimming.

childhood tv?

dylan to this day is a spongebob squarepants STAN. legend, icon, scholar, best television show ever made, in his opinion. he also was well-versed in pokemon, adventure time, gravity falls, and phineas and ferb. asher and lucas both didn’t watch lots of tv growing up (if at all), so dylan considers it his job to give asher a thorough education in the quality tv he missed as a kid.

maya was all over hannah montana (miley is still a role model to this day for her), and she, zay, and charlie all remember the fever dream that was shake it up. zay especially loved it bc he was (is) obsessed with zendaya. zay and maya both also watched victorious. charlie was sharing a tv with four siblings so he just ended up watching whatever the dominant sister that day wanted to watch. riley was a disney channel girl, and farkle was a pbs scholar (arthur, cyber chase, fetch! with ruff ruff man... classics).

 celebrity crushes?

zay = zendaya (as previously mentioned). charlie = harry styles to a major degree, although his Cover Story would be zendaya if you asked (ironically). maya = britney spears (but in a I Want To Be Her way, major idolization rather than attraction) and technically the same for valerie de la cruz but like... rip to that lmao. isa = loki, yes we know, but sometimes it be that way (altho that does extend a little bit towards tom hiddleston in general). asher = logan lerman, aka the main valid white boy who dresses nice, is polite and soft-spoken, and minds his own business (not to mention he is the Same Type as dylan). dylan = had crushes more on like... personalities so like ash ketchum and percy jackson, and now its irrelevant bc he met asher and became obsessed and its like every other potential crush just flew out the window of his brain. it’s full asher territory in there nowadays.

riley doesn’t have a specific one, she thinks lots of people are Pretty but no one particularly strongly. farkle doesn’t have one because he’s insane and doesn’t have the mental capacity. lucas doesn’t have one because he’s demi and also hates most celebrities as people.

coming-of-age movie?

maya’s is mean girls. farkle’s is ladybird. zay’s is easy a. riley’s is bend it like beckham. isadora’s is eighth grade. charlie’s is dead poet’s society. asher’s is perks of being a wallflower. dylan’s is spiderman: into the spiderverse. lucas doesn’t know movies.

quarantine?

we’ve somewhat discussed this before, but ultimately es and i elected to let aaa remain in a nice, calm universe where they don’t have to endure covid. lucky them. blow a kiss to the ether for us, buds,

fave time in history?

riley is huge on ancient greece and greek mythology. maya loves the theatricality and Drama of the roaring 20s (a baby flapper at heart). zay vibes hard with the 80s. charlie likes the fashion and romanticism and music and art of the 70s (that sort of flowery positivity clashing with the rebelliousness of the movements of the 60s... yeah. that hits something in him). farkle’s is the great depression not only bc he’s an emo but also all the raw and desperate art that came out of it. isadora was a egyptian mythology kid. i know lucas sounds lame (he is), but i don’t think he cares about history -- but if pushed he’d probably say the 90s bc he dresses like he’s straight out of there, everyone was angry rocking, and he wasn’t born. asher likes the victorian era bc of the sheer elegance and Aesthetic to everything. dylan doesn’t have a favorite time period because due to being the subconscious multiverse conduit (i.e. the being that is somewhat connected to every other version of himself) sometimes he wakes up and for a minute he doesn’t even know what year it is 🤪anyway...

summer camp?

charlie has been to many a christian youth summer camp. zay went to the kossal program, but that was basically it. lucas no although he probably wished he could be anywhere else during the summer sometimes including a camp he would hate. riley went for a few years in elementary school. isa has gone to a couple of “foster kid” summer camp bonding things that she despised. farkle went to jewish summer camp One time and was like that was HORRIBLE, never make me spend a whole summer outside AGAIN. asher was more of a Enrichment courses at the rec center during the summer kid than a camper. dylan no because the orlandos couldn’t afford something like that. same for maya.

candles?

riley has a small variety of scented ones that are like... warm scents, like cinnamon and stuff. asher a couple that smell like clean linen but his fear of accidental fires keeps him from ever lighting them. maya has one and it smells like “star power,” a gift from her mom one christmas. isadora can’t have any because many of her foster homes don’t allow them. lucas legally shouldn’t be allowed anything that catches on fire. dylan doesn’t have one but similarly should not be given one. the minki have a whole collection for different things so farkle can just pluck one at any time if he needs one like for a super fancy bath or whatever the fuck rich people do.

mental breakdown song?

charlie’s are “falling” and “from the dining table” by harry styles.

riley’s is “manhattan” by sara bareilles and “rainbow” by kacey musgraves.

zay’s are “imagine” by ariana and “dear life” from the step up soundtrack (post zc breakup).

farkle’s are “vienna” by billy joel and “get it right” from glee.

asher’s is “don’t cry” by ruel.

isa’s is “you are my sunshine” because valerie used to sing it to her a lot when she was really little, so it will always make her a little emotional.

dylan’s (although rare) are “soon you’ll get better” by ts and “make you feel my love” by adele. the second one is because his mom loved adele when she was just starting out bc 19 was released the same year that she passed away so there’s a lot of like subconscious association there even if he doesn’t realize it.

maya doesn’t have one, and lucas also doesn’t have one because in the rare moments he does cry its in his closet in the dark silence alone bc he literally can’t stand the sentience of knowing he’s crying so. sensory blackout.

coffee / tea?

riley will add at least 3 sugars to anything, but she’s ultimately an iced tea gal. lucas drinks it black but only because it never occurred to him to add anything to it and so it’s a big wake up call when he realizes you can drink it and have it NOT be bitter and horrible and demoralizing ( “i thought we were all just suffering for the caffeine fix??” ). isa is a tea girl mostly, although she wishes she could drink black coffee for the aesthetic (and hates that lucas can... it’s like... he didn’t even Earn that aestheticism, smh). asher doesn’t drink caffeine bc it makes him Jittery (and he’s already jittery) so he’s like... the lemonade bitch at coffee shops which kin, and then dylan definitely drinks caffeine but not thru coffee, he’s more likely to get like a hot chocolate.

farkle lives on coffee but he can only drink it from home because they’re rich and can have like fresh ground good imported whatever the heck etc etc so he’s like spoiled about coffee. zay will hit up a starbucks now and then and will order coffee at a diner, but he’s not too attached either way. maya is a fun n free starbucks gal with her frappes and lattes and lots of cream (whipped or otherwise). charlie doesn’t drink coffee or tea bc hes hyper aware of his body and health (he doesn’t really have soda either) and it was frowned upon in his house.

[bishreview]

Top 50 Singles of 2017

My final article of 2017! There have been a lot of good music this year. Trying to cut down to 50 songs was a hard task, having over 70 songs by different artists before cutting them down. This means I’ve missed a lot of songs that I really wanted to add. I have finally got it down to 50 though and I have made a Spotify playlist which I will link to this if you want to check out the tracks that made it. I’ll only list from 50-21 (like I did last year) but will talk about the top 20 tracks. For statistics, I have one Canadian, four from the UK, eight from the states and a whopping 37 from Australia.

50. Never Let Me Go - Green Buzzard (AUS)

49. 911/Call Me - Tyler the Creator ft. Frank Ocean and Steve Lacy (US)

48. call the police - LCD Soundsystem (US)

47. Birthdays - The Smith Street Band (AUS)

46. Yanada - The Preatures (AUS)

45. Love Can Be. . . - Vince Staples ft. Ray J, Kilo Kish and Damon Albarn (US)

44. Pure Luck - Ninajirachi ft. Freya Staer (AUS)

43. Crushing Hard - Urthboy (AUS)

42. Murder to the Mind - Tash Sultana (AUS)

41. Dawning - DMAs (AUS)

40. Diamonds - A$AP Twelvyy ft. A$AP Rocky (US)

39. Second Hand Car - Kim Churchill (AUS)

38. Golden - Kingswood (AUS)

37. The Remedy - Polaris (AUS)

36. P Plates - Ruby Fields (AUS)

35. These Kicks - Citizen Kay ft. Georgia B. (AUS)

34. Shred for Summer - DZ Deathrays (AUS)

33. Feel It Still - Portugal. The Man (US)

32. Science Fiction - The Belligerents (AUS)

31. Cigarette - Ali Barter (AUS)

30. Got On My Skateboard - Skeggs (AUS)

29. I Haven’t Been Taking Care of Myself - Alex Lahey (AUS)

28. Andromeda - Gorillaz ft. DRAM (UK)

27. Man You Want Me To Be - WHARVES (AUS)

26. Afterthought - Dear Seattle (AUS)

25. True Lovers - Holy Holy (AUS)

24. Homely Feeling - Hockey Dad (AUS)

23. Low Blows - Meg Mac (AUS)

22. One More Love Song - Mac DeMarco (CAN)

21. The Evil Has Landed - Queens of the Stone Age (US)

20. Not Worth Hiding - Alex the Astronaut (AUS)

Alex the Astronaut has had a huge year. She released her debut album and has seen a growing fanbase to make her one of Australia’s most popular solo female artists. Her lead single Not Worth Hiding is a gorgeous song, reflecting her humble, gentle, kind attitude whilst having a relevant political point about accepting LGBTI communities

19. Night of the Long Knives - Everything Everything (UK)

Night of the Long Knives is a huge song. From the first time the chorus drops, it brings you into a darker, experimental world, shaping what is to come on most of their album A Fever Dream. Jonathan Higgen’s voice is again flexed, his falsetto being a brilliant feature in the verses.

18. Deadcrush - Alt-J (UK)

There are many highlights on Relaxer and I had a hard time picking between this, In Cold Blood¸ and Adeline. Deadcrush has become my favourite off the album though, the weird vocal in the chorus and thumping bass heavy beat making it both an intriguing listen and a danceable track.

17. Destiny’s - Arno Faraji (AUS)

Triple J’s Unearthed High winner, Arno Faraji, is the future of Australian Hip Hop. His beats are mellow, and his rapping style laid back, having a heavy influence on US rappers like Chance the Rapper and GoldLink. Definitely an artist to watch for the future, with Destiny’s being his best song so far

16. Dumb Days - Tired Lion (AUS)

Tired Lion’s debut album this year was a good listen. The title track though blows the rest of the album away. With a strong theme of growing up and missing the feeling of being younger, Sophie Hopes belts out the Smashing Pumpkins like track, with the outro chorus hitting right into the feels.

15. Friends - Kwame (AUS)

One of my best discoveries of the year was Sydney rapper Kwame. His EP Lesson Learned was a great listen from start to finish. Friends is a highlight from the EP, with a beautiful piano motif throughout, reminiscent of artists like Kanye. Another Australian rapper who will hopefully shape the future of the genre.

14. Fuck Off - Pist Idiots (AUS)

Another Triple J Unearthed find, Pist Idiots are a great punk band. On Fuck Off they don’t hold back, detailing a broken relationship where the partner doesn’t want anything to do with him anymore. The brutality of the lyrics combined with the distorted, messy instrumentation is brilliant, conveying a feel of desperation in the music.                 

13. Be About You - Winston Surfshirt (AUS)

From one of the year’s angriest tracks to one of the year’s sexiest tracks, Be About You is a smooth song. With Winston’s intimate delivery in both the rap verses and the falsetto chorus, it builds like an Anderson Paak or Justin Timberlake song. Definitely the most intimate song of the year.

12. Chateau - Angus and Julia Stone (AUS)

Brother and sister duo Angus and Julia Stone returned from a long hiatus this year with their album Snow. The highlight from this album was Chateau, their biggest song since 2010’s Big Jet Plane. With gorgeous production, beautiful harmonies and a relaxed vibe, their switch to a more pop direction was a good choice, producing one of their best songs yet.

11. Run for Cover - The Killers (US)

Just missing out on my top 10 was the comeback from Las Vegas rockers, The Killers. Although lead single The Man was good, I felt Run for Cover highlighted their sound better, being a strong rock song reminiscent of past hits such as When You Were Young and Read My Mind. The quartet came back into mainstream attention this year in a big way, and Run for Cover was the track that proved it.

10. Feel the Way I Do - The Jungle Giants (AUS)

If someone told me that Jungle Giants would be releasing fresh tunas like this I’d be shocked and appalled. But here we are. From the opening keyboard motif to the singalong choruses, this has everything a perfect indie pop song needs.

9. Humble - Kendrick Lamar (US)

Humble is the biggest track of the year. It will probably win the Hottest 100 (deservedly) and will continue to dominate most dancefloors around the world. It’s mix of a catchy hook, a strong beat and Kung Fu Kenny’s signature rapping style is brilliant and it’s obvious why this song has become such a megahit.

8. Nuclear Fusion - King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (AUS)

Out the 50-something songs that King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have released this year, the early release Nuclear Fusion still stands tall as the best. Their exploration of microtonal tunings and riffs are at their best in this song, as they utilise microtones to create a catchy yet dissonant melodies, catching the listener off guard. The “nuclear fusion” voice is a winner as well.

7. You’re in Love with a Psycho - Kasabian (UK)

Writing a perfect pop rock song is pretty hard. It’s a risky move, balancing catchy hooks with enough experimentation to remain interesting. You’re in Love With a Psycho is one of those songs which master it though. A song which is impossible to remove from your brain once you listen to it, it’s a completely fun, silly song which you can’t stop playing on repeat. With lines like “you’re like the taste of macaroni on a seafood stick”, Kasabian might have written the most fun pop song of the year.

6. The Comedown - Ocean Alley (AUS)

Like The Jungle Giants, I wasn’t too big on Ocean Alley a couple of years back. They’ve completely converted me though with The Comedown. With crisp piano, a smooth baseline, some beautiful guitar effects and the amazing voice of Baden Donegal, Ocean Alley have filled up the hole that Sticky Fingers left behind.

5. Marryuna - Baker Boy ft. Yirrmal (AUS)

I don’t think I’ve ever heard a tradition Indigenous language rapped before, but Baker Boy’s unique style of mixing his Indigenous tongue with English is genius. He switches between languages with ease, whilst creating catchy hooks which will get you singing along, even if you don’t really know what the words mean (highly recommend looking them up though). Baker Boy is a huge talent for the next generation and hopefully we hear more Indigenous hip hop following his success.

4. Boys will be Boys - Stella Donnelly (AUS)

This song is a tough listen, and even harder to write about. Stella Donnelly’s song detailing the experience of her friend’s experience after being raped, including the victim blaming by friends and family of the rapist, is hard to hear, especially when it’s described in such an honest and detailed manner. It’s a song that needs to be written though, with it’s message as relevant as ever with protests like the ‘#metoo’ campaign bringing light to rape culture and victim blaming/shaming. It’s a beautiful song as well, with Donnelly’s voice perfectly blending with the gorgeous guitar accompaniment.

3. Exactly How You Are - Ball Park Music (AUS)

Ball Park Music were relatively quiet for most of 2017, but they released two great indie tunes in the second half, the best being Exactly How You Are. A gorgeous love song which is as beautiful as it is simple sounds like an early Beatles or Beach Boys song, as Jen and Sam’s voices harmonise perfectly together in the chorus. Be prepared for an album by the band in 2018, with second single The Perfect Life Does Not Exist also being a great song

2. Watch Me Ready You - Odette (Aus)

Some songs take a couple of listens to really sink in, but some hit you immediately. Watch Me Read You fits in that second category. I remember my first experience with this song, straight away being entranced by the lyrical work on display. Odette’s delivery is both beautiful and sinister, with a beat-poetry-like vocal performance in the verses bringing light to the stories within the lyrics. She also shows she can belt out a chorus, with the hook highlighting her impressive vocal range. This is one of those songs which stays with you but continues to surprise when you listen. Hopefully we hear more of this later on in Odette’s career.

1. What Can I Do if the Fire Goes Out - Gang of Youths (AUS)

My number one mid-year still hasn’t changed. Although released early in the year, Gang of Youth’s lead single off their acclaimed album Go Farther in Lightness still hits me hard with every listen. From the ferocious drumming, the beautiful guitar riffs and the powerful voice of David Le’aupepe, WCIDFTFGO is a massive song. With lyrics which question one’s beliefs and faith when things go wrong, it’s a deeply personal but relatable song. It’s quite ironic that this year’s number one is about the loss of faith, whilst last year’s number one (Kanye West’s Ultralight Beam) was celebrating faith. This is a powerful track though, with its highlight being the gorgeous yet intense guitar breakdown just before the final chorus. 2017 was Gang of Youth’s year, with many tracks off their album going close to taking out my number one. This single though still reigns as the strongest track though and will definitely be a Hottest 100 top 20 (and maybe 10) contender, along with other hits like Let Me Down Easy and The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows.

Well that’s 2017 done. I will definitely be doing a review of Gizzard’s last album of 2017 this week sometime (I promise) and will try to have a look at N.E.R.D’s latest album as well as hopefully seeing films like All the Money in the World and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and reviewing both of those, as they are highly anticipated films for myself. Have a good New Year and thanks for the support. It’s been hard to keep consistent with this blog this year but next year should be a lot easier and I will try to review both films and music on a weekly basis (might be harder some weeks but we will see). Thanks.

[gamerfcapuno-blog]

The Adventures in Fansubbing: Localization and the Song of La Béfana (FR Miraculous Ladybug S2)

At this point, I just have a feeling I need to write this (mainly since I think people might find this interesting). If people are ever curious about the process of making subtitles/captions and what goes on, I’ll share some of that right now.

Now, releasing subtitles to a show isn't super abnormal these days. But there are some challenges that do come with making them.

Most people these days aren't too fussed with getting a direct translation from a fan subber, but when trying to create a quality project that keeps with the spirit of the original work is much more difficult to execute well. If you want to know more, keep going. You’ve got a lot of reading under the cut.

Professional captioners have some standards to keep to which can drastically alter what you read. These can include:

Ensuring the lines only show up in a certain number of lines and within a certain percentage of the screen. (The standard is a max of two lines, with few exceptions being three.)

Making the captions easy to understand and read in a timely manner.

Format captions to flow easily and smoothly to a viewer.

Making the idiosyncrasies, jokes and cultural references of one country understandable to other cultures. Otherwise, using an appropriate cultural reference in their place. (AKA Localization)

It's a lot of work trying to stick to that list and can often result in many things being lost to translation. A lot does hit the cutting room floor and things are altered to get an idea across in a shorter form. It's the kind of stuff that people might criticize on forums or such, but it's sometimes a necessary evil that has to be done.

With that, I want to talk about the last tick on the list (localization) in relation to S02E04 La Béfana in Miraculous Ladybug. Of course we’re talking about captioning the French language version.

I’ll start with a disclaimer: I am not a translator. I am not even fluent in a second language. I don’t even claim to be a professional captioner. I only do this for my own personal fun and education. Most of what you’ll read now is merely anecdotal and based on experiences doing this as a hobby.

It’s a pain in the butt trying to write subtitles for a language you aren't at all fluent in. What's worse, is when you run in to something that only works within the context of the original language or culture. It happens too many times to count.

I'm only going to detail a small sampling of what happens.

In this case, we have two very time consuming issues in La Béfana: the song that Béfana sings while flying around, and subsequently Chat Noir and Ladybug's responses to the song. These two are exactly the kind of localization problems that slow down jobs when you're not working on a team of multiple people. Let that be known if people are thinking of picking this up.

I won’t detail people on Miraculous Ladybug, one can easily Google the show on their own. But to set the stage for us here, La Béfana is actually based on the myth of Befana from Italy. She's a very popular figure who gives gifts to children on a flying broom, kind of like Santa. She gives candy and presents to good children in their stockings and coal or dark candies to bad children. The way Béfana in Miraculous Ladybug is portrayed is in line with this myth. Naturally, the show also has her sing a traditional Italian song while she's flying around. I wasn't able to find the original song this was based on (which may have made this easier to understand). Allegedly, it's a song that's found in a Befana opera, according to a friend of mine but I could be wrong. Knowing this background information can be helpful in understanding how to handle what we’re tackling. (Google is your best friend!)

The song in the show looks sort of like this:

La Béfana arrive sur son valle volant aus enfent j'en tiens don de bonbons aus enfent benial chet du charbons

*NOTE: I'm aware this is most likely not correct at all

This is not obvious to someone that doesn’t understand French, but this song isn't entirely in French. It's some sort of mixture of French with some thick Italian undertone and word selection. It's non-standard. The best I could do was sound it out and look through dictionaries and grammar books to figure out what Le Béfana is singing. This problem is exacerbated by the fact I know neither French or Italian and have no basis on their grammatical structure or phonetic language.

This language mixing also makes it hell for a normal translator to pick through since while it sounds like one language it doesn't line up with it (in this case it's French). It caused a lot of confusion when I asked a French translator to assist me. I spent hours trying to figure this out but I can't be spending more trying to figure this out if I'm on a timetable.

Needless to say, how do we handle this scenario for captioning?

There's two ways this can go. One is to try to bring over the spliced languages. I've actually done it before when working on No Game No Life. Of which I have and example here:

The alternative is to just play it straight and not even bother with bringing the song's language mixing over. That would look like this:

The Befana is here On her flying bike All good children get candies All the naughty ones get coal

In this case, I threw out trying to chop in multiple languages in the English caption and not bring over the idea of Béfana singing in not-Italian. Why? Because it would slow processing it when it's read.

This is just a song that La Béfana sings that (specifically) American-English speakers won't understand the significance of. Additionally, it might not even be intentionally mushed together! Trying to write the mangled-ness might even be insulting. I'm pretty sure the people who wrote the French script didn't actually intend for it to be interpreted as really terrible joke-Itali-French. And unless you live in that area of the world, the meaning of it is lost regardless of what I do and I don’t want to disrespect it.

This is a case of a functional change. I can't salvage this even if I wanted to. It felt best to not try and overstate the mixed sentences as a thing. However, I did leave the not-real spliced not-French-not-Italian caption above the English caption in case someone cares for it. (This technically is my file I make for fun. I can do whatever I want with it.)

At that point, it was just choosing between a direct translation and a more artsy lyrical one. Long story short, in this case, we (my translator buddy and I) just picked a lyrical one because we liked it more. It's not 100% what Béfana sings, but we wanted it to read as chipper as the tune. In the end, we end up with something that looks like this:

Doing alright so far! Next!

Our second issue was Chat Noir and Ladybug singing in response to Béfana in the second half of the episode. It goes a little something like this.

CHAT NOIR (singing) Chat Noir vient lui aussi Descret comme mort la nuit

CHAT NOIR (speaking; questioning tone) ...What also rhymes with "-it" [I]?

LADYBUG (singing) Il défend Paris Avec sa Lady

In this case, Chat Noir is wondering what will rhyme with "aussi" and "nuit" which end on the same phonetic sound of "-I". Ladybug jumps in and supplies "Paris" and "Lady" (which also end on the same sound in French). Oh man. This is a gag that specifically works because of how French is pronounced.

This is also entirely a children's show joke. There's plenty of words in French that rhyme with "aussi" and "nuit". It's silly, and perfectly in line with the normal comedy line of this show. The problem was trying to get that idea and feeling across to read in English captions. If you translated this more directly, it would look something like this:

CHAT NOIR (singing) Chat Noir arrives as well Discretely like the night

CHAT NOIR (speaking; questioning tone) ...What rhymes with “night”?

LADYBUG (singing) He protects Paris with his Lady

It's serviceable. It's functional. The gag is completely lost though and it makes no sense to read.

Well. Let's try an alternative version! It might go something like this:

CHAT NOIR (singing) Chat Noir is here as well Discrete as the dead of night

CHAT NOIR (speaking; questioning tone) ...What rhymes with "-ell"?

LADYBUG (singing) Defending from the tower, Eiffel Helping his Lady fight

Hmm. This at least rhymes now in English, but it's clumsy to read. I really don't like it. We don’t want it to look like some strange archaic poetry you need a masters in English to interpret.

As a related aside, sometimes you do have to completely rewrite a cultural joke or a gag to work when bringing a work to a different culture. This happens all the time (especially in dubs) and it's definitely based on how much people would know about at the current period.

A super famous example of localizing a cultural item was turning rice balls in to donuts. One has to understand, that at the time this sort of change was made (early 90s), people didn't know much about Japanese foods. The standard was people knowing about ramen and sushi. Rice balls look similar to sushi (specifically maki roll type sushi). They might have even been interpreted as sushi. But rice balls are 100% not sushi. (joking) What a mistake one can make! (/joke) On top of that, having rice balls be retained in the context of the show had a chance of not being accessible, thus a change was made to keep the flow of the show intact.

Another one that people might not be familiar with is changing ramen in the Phoenix Wright games to hamburgers. (If you want to see an insane piece of localization work, look up articles on the localization of Phoenix Wright. It's fantastic. The amount of alterations in that game series is astonishing.)

In our case in Béfana, this is just a phonetic gag. This gag may only make sense right now in French because of the way French is spoken, but it’s still only a phonetic gag. I don't have to look up anything like French expressions or idioms or cultural lore or even specific items. I could make a completely serviceable alternative that shouldn't look as weird or insert an equivalent American-English gag.

Unlike in the case above where we couldn’t retain La Béfana’s not-Italian song, we can do something here. Our goal here now is to capture the spirit of the joke or the joking nature of the lines. If we have to toss out the direct meaning of the words to do it, we’ll have to do it.

Spend a couple of more hours with a pen and some scratch paper and end up at this:

CHAT NOIR (singing) Chat Noir is now here, you see Coming like the night on the scene

CHAT NOIR (speaking; questioning tone) ...What rhymes with "-ee"?

LADYBUG (singing) And he defends Paris Alongside his Lady

Surprise! We got super lucky here! I didn’t have to rewrite an entire section of episode dialogue!

It isn’t exact, but it’s not a full replacement of the original French lines. The same questioning of the rhyme still exists. It's working on the fact that it's pretty much all half-rhymes, but if you actually read it out loud (of course pronouncing Paris as "Par-ee" and not "Pah-ris") it sounds pretty good! The line where Chat Noir is referring to the night can also be connected to the environment transitioning to night time so that tracks as well. On top of that, there’s plenty of words that rhyme with “ee” in English. (Get it together Chat Noir!) As a bonus, this version is singable to the tune they sing to in the show. It works just fine for my purposes. We saved the joke! That’s all that matters!

Job done! Looks nice! Time to ship it out!

Now, If you survived this long reading this and you're thinking "Oh god. Is it over?" while I did just write an essay, you probably only read this in a fraction of the time it took to solve this issue. I’m heavily generalizing this process. In reality, these two sections alone took maybe seven hours to settle on. Surprised?

You don't want to imagine listening to these dialogue exchanges for that long trying to interpret what's being said and workshopping captions till you find a set you like. This is just a small snippet of what goes in to these sorts of things. It's work. It takes (a lot of) time. It's exhausting. But in the end people that do this do it out of enjoyment of the same piece of media you enjoy and to help other people enjoy it as well.

That's about all I have to say for now. I hope this was informative. I may see you all again some time in the future.

Thanks to aprilblossoms for being my translator buddy for this one! And thanks to all my friends for putting up with me while I was giving myself a lobotomy trying to hammer this out! (Special note to C-Note for helping me come up with the final captions for Chat Noir and Ladybug's song response.)

[noldorinwa]

11 Questions meme:  rules: answer your set of questions and add 11 of your own

tagged by the lovely @vardasvapors

thank you so much! <3 this was a lot of fun

1. What is the best breakfast you ever had?

I don't know about the best ever, but I love brioches and apricot juice (bonus points if it’s at the beach, when it's early enough in the morning that the sand is still cold under your feet)

2. What was your favorite book when you were 13 years old?

My favorite anything used to change pretty often back then, but it was probably something by Isabel Allende. 

3. Describe your ideal fic (one that you do not have to write)

There are far too many (sometimes contradictory) things that fit my criteria of 'ideal' which I would love to read, so I will just name a couple of my favorite things to happen in fic off the top of my head that are usually guaranteed to get me hooked:

When done well, I am an absolute sucker for magical realism 

Messy family dynamics. Give me all the long-suffering, bitchy siblings who have repeatedly hurt one another but would secretly die for each other, oh my god

I also love when a fic lets me gradually infer personality traits/characterization from good dialogue and action rather than description

4. Describe a fanart you would like to see

Oromë and Nahar on one of their hunts in Middle-Earth during the Sleep of Yavanna. Also more Valinor pls 

5. State 1-3 opinions on cheese

yes

but if what you think of when I say "cheese" is a square orange thingy, then no

6. Describe your most recent public or  mass transportation experience

Two and a half hours sitting by myself in a nearly empty train carriage. Excellent spot for reading and daydreaming about fictional elves while listening to Linkin Park. 9/10 would repeat (point deducted due to the unidentified stains on the seat next to mine)

7. Without checking to see if it’s correct, type something you have memorized (a line of poetry, a lyric, an equation) (yes i’m just straight up stealing this from june)

Um. This is going to be in Italian, and I don't have a decent translation at hand (nor am I sure it even exists), but these are the first lines from one of my favorite poems:

Dov'era la luna? Ché il cielo

notava in un'alba di perla, 

ed ergersi il mandorlo e il melo

parevano a meglio vederla. 

8. A random headcanon for anything

I just know in my soul that modern au Fingon has at some point in his life set up a youtube channel for hair tutorials

9. What’s the nearest piece of art to wherever you are sitting right now (interpret as broadly as you wish)

An art collab between a three and a five year old. Let's call it an abstract piece. Brilliantly executed. It features a lot of golden tulle.

10. A dumb opinion you used to have

Man, I don't really know, but I have no doubt been ignorant and misinformed about many things in my life. I probably still am, with the difference that 20+ year old me is far more prone to admitting I am in fact wrong/uninformed on a given issue than 15 year old me used to be

11. Freestyle here about a really good story (of any type) you recently read

I will skip this one on account of 1) the fact that I have been reading mostly non-fiction during the summer 2) English being my second language and me not being entirely sure of what "freestyle" means in this context 3) being lazy as hell

11 Questions For Whoever Responds To This:

1 Are your favorite characters usually characters that you can relate to? 

2 Prose or poetry? Why?

3 How many languages do you speak? 

4 Pick two of your favorite characters who have never met each other. If they did, would they get along? 

5 Villains or heroes? (Or morally gray in-betweens?)

6 Do you tend to reread books?

7 Do you talk to yourself?

8 Do you like animated movies? Do you have a personal favorite?

9 Are your books usually well kept? Do you underline passages/scribble on the pages/crack their spines/make dog-ears etc.?

10 Are you a minimalist or a hoarder?

11 What is your favorite creative outlet? 

tagging @lordhellebore @einemelodieimwind @gellavonhamster @silenzio-assenzio @the-artifice-of-eternity @queen-haleth @butwewereanempire if you guys want to, and if anyone else does please go ahead!

[amanharwara]

Aman's Top 10 Albums of the Year 2019

2019 saw the release of many a music projects, many of which I gave a listen to. Of all the releases I was able to give a listen to, there were some that I liked, some that I didn’t. Here are 10 of those projects from the year which I enjoyed a lot.

Do note that the ordering of the list is not rock-solid. What record I’m enjoying more than the others, changes often depending on my mood. Also, you might notice that most of the albums here are hip-hop albums, and that’s because hip-hop is the genre that I mostly listen to. That, by the way, does not mean I don’t listen to any other genre. I try and listen to music of any genre I’m presented with. If I like it, then I like it, and if I don’t, I don’t.

I’ve created this list based on what new projects from 2019 I enjoyed the most. This is just my opinion. I haven’t ordered the list by any quantifiable measures; it’s just based on enjoyment. That’s because I don’t think it’s fair to rate music objectively. Everybody’s taste in music differs, and not everybody will agree with each other’s picks. Anyways, I hope you find something here that you might like.

https://amanharwara.xyz/blog/2019/12/25/Aman-s-Top-Albums-of-the-Year-2019/

uknowhatimsayin¿

Next up is the latest record from acclaimed Detroit rapper Danny Brown. uknowhatimsayin is a much more lenient record than Danny's previous works. The contents of this album aren't as extreme and dark as his previous record, Atrocity Exhibition. The run-time of the album is just 34 minutes running throughout 11 songs. Danny has taken a much more laid-back approach rather than having the album be concept-driven. Songs on the album aren't as punchy and hard-hitting like his previous works, either. However, that should not deter you from listening to this album at all. This is still a pretty solid hip-hop album to listen to, with production from some legendary producers like Q-Tip and Flying Lotus, and features from the likes of JPEGMAFIA and Run The Jewels.

Fav Songs: Change Up, 3 Tearz, Savage Nomad, Negro Spiritual

Schlagenheim

Schlagenheim is the debut album by London-based experimental rock band black midi. It's hard to put this album into specific boxes because the album manages to create an amazing mixture of multiple styles of music. Listening to the album, you really can't expect what are you going to experience next in terms of the style. The album doesn't conform to ordinary and traditional song structures. It is jam-packed with different grooves and a lot of tempo changes, constantly throwing you off the hook of what you'll expect the music to be. It is very dense and well-composed. Very much recommend to give this album a listen. Especially if you like genres like math rock and noise rock, you will definitely get a kick out of this album.

Fav Songs: 953, "Near DT, MI", Years Ago, Ducter

Hiding Places

billy woods and producer Kenny Segal join to bring the first album of woods' since the 2017 release, Known Unknowns. billy woods' style of rapping is pretty unique to him; his tone is kind of monotonous, and his delivery walks a fine line between rap and spoken word poetry. His lyrics have a coat of grittiness and are very cryptic, often layered with a dark sense of humour and heavy cynicism. He doesn't hesitate to commentate cynically on our society, pointing out to us that we live in sick, twisted world. This record is much more close and personal to Billy. On it, he manages to reveal a lot of interesting stories, while somehow still being very private and hidden in the shadows. Give it a listen if heavy-hitting, dark, depressive cynicism doesn't scare you. Amazing album.

Fav Songs: Spongebob, Houthi, A Day in a Week in a Year, Crawlspace

Caligula

Caligula is the latest album by Kristin Hayter, also known by her stage name, Lingua Ignota. The album is an unsettling, ominous amalgam of genres and musical styles like noise, industrial, opera and classical music. Listening to this album is an uncommon experience that you will most not likely encounter listening to something else. To call this experience tormenting would be understating it. However, that is not a downside of the album. The album has a very dark, tortured atmosphere; it crawls under your skin. It expresses anguish and agony in full power from the heart of an abuse survivor, tackling the life as an survivor. It is by no means an easy listen, quite the opposite actually. If you can get through the album, it won't disappoint you.

Fav Songs: DO YOU DOUBT ME TRAITOR, MAY FAILURE BE YOUR NOOSE, DAYS OF TEARS AND MOURNING, SPITE ALONE HOLDS ME ALOFT

Infest The Rats' Nest

Infest The Rats' Nest is King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s 15th studio album. The album is heavier and more intense than anything else the band has done in the past, with the band citing influences from artists such as Metallica, Slayer, and Rammstein. On Infest the Rat's Nest, the band go full metal. The first half of the album is set in the near future and is about the current situation of humanity, especially ecological disaster. The B-side is a mini-concept album telling the story of a group of rebels who are forced to leave Planet Earth and try to settle on Venus. On the album, the band criticizes human society for the destruction of civilization and the environment. While the album is good enough even just to rock out, it has a very nice concept behind it that will definitely enhance your listen if pay attention.

Fav Songs: Perihelion, Mars For The Rich, Planet B, Superbug

Guns

Detroit rapper Quelle Chris released his latest solo project this year, Guns. On the album, Chris explores gun usage in black communities and how it affects them. He also examines how skin color is weaponized, and how communities can govern their relationships to firearms. On songs like "Spray and Pray" he depicts how people can get trapped in the cycle of gun use and it is impossible to get out of such a lifestyle. Chris is an incredibly proficient lyricist. So, if you're a fan of lyrical hip-hop, then this album is definitely a must-listen for you. The album takes musical influences from various styles of rap from different areas. These include West Coast rap on songs like "Mind Ya Bidness", early-90's RZA-style production on "It's the Law", "Wild Minks" and more. A very good album and I would definitely recommend this to hip-hop heads.

Fav Songs: Guns, Mind Ya Bidness, Straight Shot, Obamacare

H.A.Q.Q.

H.A.Q.Q. is the fourth studio album by American black metal band, Liturgy. One way to describe this album easily would be to call it simply, as the band themselves do, "transcendental black metal". The band themselves also describe this album as the "most vulnerable record for Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, addressing anger and struggles around mental health, sexuality, and religion." I don't have much to say about the record other than the fact that I enjoyed it very much. This album might not be for everyone, but do give it a try.

Fav Songs: VIRGINITY, PASAQALIA, GOD OF LOVE, HAQQ

Bandana

Bandana is the second album by the Madgibbs duo, with Freddie handling the rap side and Madlib handling the production like always. Fans are divided between both albums, with some saying that Pinata is better and some saying that the newer one is better. I, personally, prefer this one. Madlib's beats still have the flavour of his signature production - off-kilter, eclectic beats, with skillful use of samples. Freddie's penmanship is still top-notch, with his signature street attitude. The chemistry between these two flourishes very much on this album. This is the best hip-hop album of this year, in my opinion.

Fav Songs: Palmolive, Crime Pays, Fake Names, Giannis

There Existed An Addiction To Blood

There Existed an Addiction to Blood is the third studio album by American hip hop group clipping. Clipping described There Existed an Addiction to Blood in a press release as a "transmutation of horrorcore," continuing that it "absorbs the hyper-violent horror tropes of the Murder Dog era, but re-imagines them in a new light: still darkly-tinted and somber, but in a weirder and more vivid hue." There Existed an Addiction to Blood absorbs the hyper-violent horror tropes of the Murder Dog era, but re-imagines them in a new light: still darkly-tinted and somber, but in a weirder and more vivid hue. The album is quite gruesome at points. I enjoyed the album a lot and you might, too.

Fav Songs: Nothing is Safe, Story 7, Run for Your Life, La Mala Ordina

All My Heroes Are Cornballs

And finally, the best album of the year according to me, is "All My Heroes Are Cornballs" by the one-and-only JPEGMAFIA. All My Heroes Are Cornballs, is Peggy’s third studio album, following up his critically-acclaimed 2018 sophomore album, Veteran. After the release of the aforementioned Veteran, Peggy recorded around 93 songs for the next project which he whittled to about 18 songs, adding up to the runtime of 45 minutes. There's a lot more singing on this record than his previous record, which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing. But, the quality of singing is really lacking on some of the songs which end up sounding really annoying. Most of the record contains Peggy's signature glitch-hop beats which are very fun to listen to. However, due to their glitchy nature, this record might not really be a listen for hip-hop traditionalists. I, for one, enjoyed this album a lot and even though I don't think that this is the best hip-hop album of the year, it definitely is the best album of the year for me.

Fav Songs: "Jesus Forgive Me, I'm A Thot", Beta Male Strategies, Free the Frail, BasicBitchTearGas, Thot Tactics

[stormyrecords-blog]

new arrivals and halloween

stormy records13306 michigan avedearborn, mi 48126 313-581-9322 halloween is coming. we will have trick or treating her eint he shop os saturday oct 28th from 4 to 6pm, and many shops in east dearborn will be participating also. bring your shildren or you dog and we will have treats for them. then on tuesday we will be closing up early so we can give out candy in our neighborhood. THIS WEEKEND WE CHANGE THE CLOCKS. it's fall back time. also a great time to change the batteries in your smoke detectors. new arrivals for 10-26-17 Alvarius B: With a Beaker on the Burner and an Otter in the Oven - Vol. 1 Natural Wonder LP $22.99Alvarius B. on With a Beaker on the Burner and an Otter in the Oven - Vol. 1 Natural Wonder: "Volume One of three new LPs I am releasing simultaneously called Natural Wonder, this is the more melodic, savvy one and you might like it. Maybe I'm lying and it's the innocent, straight record so maybe you should get Vol 3 (ABDT 059C-LP) instead if you're in a darker mood. But that's not really true either. Or maybe it's one of those records that grows on you the more you continue playing it... like a cancer. The musicians who played on all three albums don't deserve to be involved in these kamikaze promotional descriptions so don't blame them for any of this. They played so well on these records, in fact they play much better than you do, and their performances deserve a 'Whammy,' which is the awards show where I'm in charge and the winners get to shoot members of the music industry academy dead in their seats. That's where it's all headed you know. . . . The modern world of record making has become so fucking dull and obedient that someone has to ram a poison dagger up your asses and since you're all under hypnosis, I promise you won't feel a thing. I could pay Dougie Jones to write this piece to match your intellect or hire a publicity company to promote it but who really gives a fuck? I'm still making records for myself and the rest of humanity doesn't speak my language anyway. By deciding to write my own album promos, I can perform some market research. For example, this album description text will undoubtedly be copy/pasted by most online retailers onto their respective sites because they don't write their own new album reviews or get too excited about music, they simply want to create the illusion that they're in business to sell records. So I could put something like: Fuck all website retailers that copy/paste this description onto their site because they are too fucking cheap, lazy or chicken shit to have an opinion to write individual album reviews -- and they probably wouldn't even notice while doing it. Anyway, back to my new album. These songs are pretty good, most likely way better than your songs, and I don't even have time to be a real songwriter, so what does that say about you? It says that you suck. And most of you do. But you should buy my new three album set because it's probably as good or better than any other LPs that will be released this year. But if you aren't ready to go all-in with confidence, then forget it. I don't want any mudskipper sub-species of the crayfish to buy my records. There are always a few speculators who'll pick up the extra copies you won't buy anyway." One-time pressing; Includes printed inner sleeve with lyrics and credits. Baird, Laura : I Wish I Were A Sparrow  CD $12.99lp also available $23.99"With a musical timeline dating back to her early childhood, Laura Baird is an exceptionally talented multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, best known for her projects with her sister, Meg, as The Baird Sisters, and guitarist Glenn Jones. Baird's own sound stems from the Appalachian folk tradition, and she connects to it via family lineage -- her great-great uncle I.G. Greer's folk recordings for the Library of Congress are a large influence. Also woven in are classical composers like Bach and Satie, and modern day musicians such as Opal and Yo La Tengo. With this debut solo album, I Wish I Were A Sparrow, Baird plays odes to the traditions from which she learned, combining Appalachian balladry and the roughness of old field recordings, but there is also a dose of dreaminess and solitude that captures sleepy central New Jersey. This is where she departs from tradition, leaving the communal origins of folk music to capture the singular self. The lyrics also present an amalgam of old and new, with half of the songs, including 'Dreadful Wind and Rain' and 'Pretty Polly,' being passed down from the folk tradition, and the other half, including 'Wind Wind' and 'Love Song From The Earth To The Moon,' coming from Baird's own hand. While the most salient part of her previous Baird Sisters project was the melding of familial voices and various instruments, Baird's solo effort is centered around the combination of her virtuosic banjo playing and prominent but airy vocals." Cipriani, Stelvio : Bay Of Blood LP $34.99A Bay Of Blood (1971) is a film directed by Mario Bava, known for explicitly inspiring the Friday The 13th saga as well as for being the forerunner of the slasher genre, is undoubtedly one of the most inspirational masters of horror cinema. His magical use of camera zoom, off-field, and out-of-focus, and cynical and crude death set pieces, make it a masterpiece in which every scene exudes very personal and expressive poetry. Stelvio Cipriani's score, which develops a rich sequence of different themes and genres, and all accented by the evocative melodies and excellent orchestrations of the maestro, is brilliantly supported by the excellent rhythm performance of Enzo Restuccia on drums and Mandrake Som on the tumba and bongos. It is the voodoo-style percussion and violin that introduces the splendid original theme played by the maestro himself who plays piano, celestial, spinetta, harpsichord, and organ in the arc of the soundtrack. All in all, 21 tracks that make up the score: "Evelyn Theme", the bossa nova "Due Amanti", the dramatic and psychedelic "Un Cadavere Nel Lago", the Italian-style samba of "Giovani e Liberi", "Shake Giradischi", whose title is well representative, the tension the pursuit of "Inseguimento E Uccisione", the abstraction of "Ritrovamento Dei Cadaveri", and so many others. First time on vinyl; Edition of 500 (hand-numbered). NWW: Swinging Reflective 2CD $23.99Out of print for 17 years, Nurse With Wound's The Swinging Reflective was originally released in 1999. Features collaborations with Coil, Diana Rogerson, Jim O'Rourke, William Bennett, Legendary Pink Dots, Foetus, Current 93, David Tibet, Tony Wakeford, Inflatable Sideshow, Aranos, Chris Wallis/Peat Bog, and Tiny Tim. All tracks are remastered and it is the perfect partner for Swinging Reflective II (DPROM 134CD). Also features Steven Stapleton and Stereolab. This set is packaged with all new artwork; Comes in a heavy board, gloss laminated six-panel digipak. Ty Segall Band: Slaughterhouse  2LP $29.99"A reissue of the 2012 debut release by the Ty Segall Band on In The Red, featuring a bonus song not on the original release! The Ty Segall Band is Ty Segall (obviously), Mikal Cronin, Charlie Moonheart and Emily Rose Epstein. While Segall has released many incredible solo releases, Slaughterhouse marks the first time he recorded with his touring band. For this mini-album (originally released as a double 10-inch, but now expanded to a double 12-inch) the band recorded with Chris Woodhouse at the Hangar, turned their amps all the way up, set their fuzz pedals on 'obliterate' and commenced to kick ass and take names. Seriously, this record will melt your face. All of Segall's usual psych-pop sensibilities are present but Slaughterhouse adds the full-throttle, go-for-the-throat bombast that the band delivers in the live setting. The fuzz riffs, bratty howl and Cro-Magnon bashing culminate with a feedback freakout that's clearly the only sensible way to end a workout of this magnitude in shit to announce the debut release by the Ty Segall Band." Durutti Column: Paen to Wilson  2LP $32.992017 blue vinyl repress. 2013 RSD release. Paean To Wilson is arguably Vini Reilly and the Durutti Column's most important and consistent piece of work since the demise of the original and seminal Factory Records in the early 1990s. It was commissioned by the MIF (Manchester International Festival of Music), in July of 2009. Vini had already composed pieces for Tony to listen to while he was ill in the hospital and it was from here that the project developed. The bonus disc first appeared in 2005 via Wilson's project F4, the fourth version of Factory Records. Originally it was a download-only release, Heaven Sent (It Was Called Digital, It Was Heaven Sent), then was issued on CD in 2010. Goat: Fuzzed In Europe LP $30.99When the masked Swedish collective Goat toured Europe in the autumn of 2016 to promote their then recently released third album Requiem, the band came up with the idea to record every show. On returning back to their home town of Korpilombolo, Goat painstakingly went through all the recordings and picked out six tracks to be released on a limited live album presented here, Fuzzed In Europe. Goat picked these six tracks in particular because they are different versions to what is found on their releases. Goat's live reputation is second to none -- since their first public shows in 2012, they have stunned audiences across the globe. The band's brand of danceable, tribal psychedelia is guaranteed to create mass hysteria from the wanting crowds -- Goat know how to create music that is made for the "head" as well as the "body". There are rumors of Goat disappearing into the hills, that they have hung up their masks now for good and have slipped away as quietly as they arrived on to the scene. Whether this is true or not, it can't be said, but even if they have or have not disbanded from public view, this is a great document of their immersive power to cherish. It celebrates a band completely at the top of their game. The eye popping beautiful artwork for Fuzzed In Europe was created by the great poster artist Adam Pobiak who has worked with everyone from Soundgarden to Justice and Swans to the Flaming Lips. Green/black splatter; Edition of 2000. Nocturnal Emissions: S/T 2LP $29.99Double LP version. Led by Nigel Ayers, Nocturnal Emissions was one of the first bands to use tape cutting, avant-garde art, and underground video works to create a stage experience that was cultivated by like-minded artists like Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire. The band moved on to using samplers and electronic noise in their early '80s work, creating a twisted funk sound that would go on to influence everyone from Foetus to Negativland. They still utilized their former tricks, upping the ante with extremist performance art and more professional video displays. The group avoided signing to a major label, instead focusing on releasing their own music more effectively. They followed this path into the '90s when they started www.earthlydelights.co.uk, an incredibly detailed website that promotes their various ideologies -- they are strongly against the British monarchy and believe that citizens should have unlimited access to space travel -- and constant release schedule. The band has released countless tapes and CDs of their material, and continues to unleash their noise through their website. Nocturnal Emissions is a compilation of classic tracks from the early to mid '80s. Track selection by Alessandro Adriani. Graphic artwork by Simon Crab. Audio mastering by Rude 66. Battiato, Franco : Pollution LP  $32.99"Franco Battiato is often heralded as Italy's answer to Brian Eno. A quizzical composer/lyricist, Battiato turned pop music upside down in the early '70s with three classic LPs -- Fetus, Pollution and Sulle Corde Di Aries -- that formed a confluence of avant-folk sensibilities and analog electronics. Pollution from 1972 is the captivating follow-up to Fetus. Like its predecessor, the album features Baroque textures, motorik rhythms, weird tape effects and Battiato's perfectly oblique vocals. Upon hearing Pollution, Frank Zappa joyfully proclaimed it 'genius.' While Battiato's core group of collaborators remains largely the same as on his debut, this phenomenal band (joined by an eighteen-year-old Roberto Cacciapaglia on keys) appears even more in the foreground on Pollution. Out of the Ash Ra Tempel-like riffs and urgent guitar strumming emerge hypnotic grooves and cinematic flourishes, suggesting a futuristic meeting point between Stereolab and Ennio Morricone. Dedicated to the Centro Internazionale Studi Magnetici, Pollution touches on themes of environmental catastrophe. Futurist allusions seep in through eccentric lyrics (at times sung backwards) about hydraulics, magnetic fields, etc., yet listeners don't need to speak the artist's language to grasp his melancholy vision. With Pollution, Battiato solidifies not only his cult figure status, but also many of his forward-thinking ideas on rock 'n' roll. Superior Viaduct is honored to present the first-time domestic release of Pollution on vinyl. Reproducing the original gatefold jacket, this reissue is part of an archival series that chronicles Franco Battiato's masterful body of work from 1971 to 1978." Roach, Steve : Structures From LP $25.99"Steve Roach is one of the defining American artists of new age music, perpetually on a quest for silence and the suspension of time in his music. Structures From Silence is his third album originally released in 1984, and is his first purely textural album, with a smooth, dark, gentle atmospheres unlike any of his other albums. 'Full of purring drones and high notes that shimmer and fade. Like a desert mirage, these structures hover forever at the horizon, an oasis from the din surrounding it' --From Pitchfork's 'Best Ambient Albums Of All Time'. 'Steve Roach's Structures From Silence remains one of the most important ambient albums ever crafted. It isn't as high profile as similarly poised records from Brian Eno, but its enduring influence has been unmistakably visible in the three decades since its release.' --FACT Magazine. Remastered from the original tapes, this is the first vinyl reissue of the album since its initial release in 1984." Nazoranai: Beginning To Fall In Line Before Me, So Decorously, The Nature Of All That Must Be TransformedLP $29.99"Nazoranai is the supergroup of Keiji Haino, Oren Ambarchi and Stephen O'Malley. For close to four decades, Haino has been a legendary figure in Japan's avant-garde community through his commanding presence in the band Fushitsusha and numerous solo ventures. Ambarchi, a prolific electro-acoustic composer of heavy ambience and hypno-rock, has long stood at the leading edge of Australia's experimental music scene, while O'Malley remains a principle architect for the drone / doom metal project Sunn O))) in harnessing extreme sub-harmonic frequencies. Collectively, Nazoranai operates as a live recorded collaboration, although Haino is quick to point out the difference between the words 'nazoranai' (which in Japanese calligraphy means 'not repeating,' as in developing a distinct, individual style) and 'sokkyō' (referring specifically to improvisation). In this parsing of terms, the group separates themselves from the free-music scene, which can be just as convention-bound as the established genres from which improvisers hope to escape. On the trio's third album, Beginning To Fall In Line Before Me, So Decorously, The Nature Of All That Must Be Transformed, Nazoranai explore two side-long tracks of superb abstraction. Ambarchi and O'Malley provide the perfect brute-rock rhythm section to Haino's recklessly pure expression through instrument and voice. Blurred noise, dark hurdy-gurdy and thunderous harmonics build an accretive mantra of jagged electricity. While Haino's extensive discography resists easy interpretation, he constantly challenges himself to further his art by channeling the unknown. Shifting from his native Japanese to English, he asks: 'Do you still have a mystery?' This existential plea could apply to the artist's own deep inquisitions or stand to confront his audience about that which eludes their understanding. W.25TH / Superior Viaduct is proud to present Nazoranai's latest work, recorded at SuperDeluxe in Tokyo, which marks the band's first release on an American label."

[baskny-blog]

NOLA's Grosser Gets Personal; Raps, Relationships, and Reality on His New Project "PONY"

Photography: Connor Crawford

Rarely does a project from an underground artist manage to strike the intricate three-way balance between raw emotional content, well executed and thoughtful rhyming finesse, and most importantly, organized packaging that is clear and concise. New Orleans based artist Grosser manages to check off all three of these boxes on his second project “Pony,” released January 21st

Production wise, “Pony” is a refreshing menagerie of booming, lo-fi production that thumps with percussive fury. Stylistic tropes of the quintessential southern sound are blended effortlessly with rugged lyricism and delivery that seems to be clearly rooted in the east coast sonic movement. This pleasantly unconventional stylistic pairing is in many ways a metaphor for Grosser himself as an artist; a VA born and raised emcee transplanted to New Orleans, a city rich with hip hop history.  

“Pony” as a project functions almost like a Pandora’s box of emotion; once you open the lid the emotion literally flies out. Grosser seems to share his deepest self with his listeners; with depression leading to despair, and finally manifesting in the cold, steeled sense of determination present throughout the entire project. This honest and thoughtful display of emotion makes “Pony” as relatable as it is inspiring; it’s the story of an emcee passionately battling his own depression. The star studded features on “Pony”, including Chicago based artist LUCKI (f.k.a. Lucki Eck$) serve to further strengthen the ability of “Pony” to stand alone as a complete project. Raw talent, thoughtful honesty, and a focused aesthetic make “Pony” a must listen and confirm Grosser as an underground emcee that deserves close attention.

  Photography: Ben Davis

I had a chance to chat with Grosser about himself as an artist, “Pony” as a project, his creative process, and the next steps for him and his sound.  

B: Let's start basic: where are you from, what’s your background, and when did you start rapping? Grosser: I was born and raised in Virginia, and then moved to New Orleans for college. I graduated from Tulane with a degree in philosophy and political science, and couldn't even come close to bringing myself to leave NOLA after I graduated. As far as rapping, I was freestyling with homies a bit at the end of high school and a lot in college, and then started writing stuff down when I was about 19. I've always been playing music though. I've played drums for over a decade and played other instruments throughout my childhood and adulthood. Rapping became my outlet as I grew older and my life circumstances began to drastically change. B: What would you say your biggest sonic influences are in general, including music outside of hip hop? G: This is a question I take very seriously I'd say the first band to really influence me deeply was Rage Against the Machine, who I probably still consider to be my favorite band. I was influenced by politically driven hip hop at first, like Immortal Technique and shit. Now a days I'm genuinely influenced by the whole spectrum, from popular top 40 to very lo-fi indie music. Obviously I'm drawn to Atlanta, Chicago, LA, New York, you know, cities with hip hop strongholds, but I'm also influenced by all the various niche movements - like what's happening in Broward county, FL right now, and all the infinitely deep corners of soundcloud in general.  I have a bunch of friends in bands here in New Orleans so I have a decent pulse on the general indie band scene. Finding new music and new influences is what gets me up in the AM.  

B: Wordup, what would you say your biggest hip hop influences have been? G: Yeesh - at the start it was just the 90s and the greats -  Nas, ‘pac, Zack de la Rocha, Immortal Technique, Tribe, Eminem, Kanye, Wayne, Company Flow, Dilla, MF DOOM, stuff like that. Then I became obsessed with Earl, still am, and now find myself influenced by a ton of different modern hip hop shit - Travis Scott, all of OF, Thug, Future, Carti, A$AP. The list is low key endless because I can be influenced not only by someone's sound but also their place in the culture/the fabric of the genre. I don't rap like Uzi but I'm definitely enamored by his and someone like Yachty's aesthetic. However, if I had to pick one rapper that I was straight taking notes from, teaching myself how to rap, it’s definitely Earl back when I was in college. Earl is a fucking mastermind - raps wise and production. B: As a white rapper, what do you feel your role is in hip hop right now, given both the tumultuous situation the country is in right now, and the revolutionary origins of the genre itself? G:  I think it's massively important for white people to be doing a lot more listening than talking, so that's what I'm focusing on. Listening to the POC and women in my community and those affected by all this madness more so than I. I'm very attracted to and identify with the revolutionary roots of hip hop.

B: If you could sum up “Pony” in three thematic concepts what would they be?  

G: I'd say the three most prevalent themes of “Pony” are the idea of self concept, battling w and understanding mental health, and relationships. B: What did this project mean to you? What do you want this project to mean for the listeners? G: First and foremost, I'm always trying to grow with each new project, even every new song I write, so that was my primary goal. I wanted to sound of “Pony” to impact the listener in a personal way, really invade the listeners brain and shit, both sonically and lyrically. But, I also see great benefit from being able to play something in public and have it be enjoyable to a general mass of people, so I try to maintain some form of radio-esque sensibility in what I'm writing these days. For the listener, I wanted “Pony” to be somewhat of a self-exposure; I find that that's generally why I make music period. I tend to feel, as many do, wholly unknown by everyone around me, and music is a way to show someone what's really going on in a matter-of-fact way. B: Talk about the influences of New Orleans and NY on your sound, as well as the ways in which these cities are different and/or the same. G: What I'll say is you just have to come here. New Orleans got me as a young kid and has turned me into an adult real fast. It's not America here, more like the northern Caribbean. The general swagger and demeanor the people is what I feed off of the most - it's pretty much impossible for one's surroundings to not bleed into their art. NY is a city that I personally have less experience in, but have spent time there and have immersed myself in the culture via art - mainly music but also visual art and poetry. I always feel like I have much less privacy in NY than in NOLA - just by nature of the design and population. New York artists were obviously the first to teach me about rap, and invented the genre itself, so I obviously owe a lot to the culture and people of NY. B: What do you think of the direction of hip hop currently, mainstream and underground? G: Shit, I think it's a goddamn renaissance. I do however think that the rapping ability of these modern guys gets overlooked and misjudged pretty immediately for a myriad of reasons; addiction to the culture over content, media representation, vocal inflection, the list goes on.  Admittedly, some of these 'rappers' aren't rapping, they are more after a pop music icon mold. That being said, the same judgements of inability were bestowed on to Young Thug until everyone looked up the lyrics to 'Halftime' on genius and tried to rap along with him, immediately realizing how fucking money he is...point being, a lot of these guys can flat out spit.

Grosser: To Me, It has some similarities to the abstract expressionist movement in the 60's and 70's. Artists were ridiculed for their lack of precision, style, ease of making work, abundance of work, perceived difficulty of work, etc etc. Just because someone closed their eyes while splattering a canvas with one color of paint doesn't remove it from genius. A similar mindset and ear; understanding this music as a 'avant-garde' movement, while treading lightly on classic examples of excellence is much needed for understanding/enjoying the raw talent of a lot of these guys. Don't get me wrong, there are a million wack rappers out there who I don't fuck with, but I just don't think that if someone doesn't bring a classically fire 16 then that removes them from the upper crust of hip hop. It’s all cyclical though, I wouldn’t be surprised if hyper-lyrical rap takes the main-stage in the coming years.

B: Art is often a reflection of life. Talk about the process; the feelings, events, passions, and people that went into the creation of “Pony”. G: I mean, for sake of not getting overly dark I won't get too deep into the details, but I had a woman in my life, and, for a thousand and one reasons, but largely due to my own deteriorating mental health at the time, it wasn't a safe or healthy relationship. All of those emotions, my battle with clinical depression, and the realities of living with all the other fun disease titles doctors want to assign are embedded into “Pony”, and pretty much all the art I do in general. Apart from my past relationship and personal battles with mental health, the concepts of truly knowing oneself (very difficult), and truly knowing other people (more difficult, probably impossible), drive a lot of my lyrical content. B: As an artist, if you could tell yourself one thing two years ago what would it be? What would you say to yourself two years from now? Where do you hope to be? G: If I could give myself a piece of advice two years ago I would say to put a chokehold on every penny you have an only spend money collabing with people that you really trust and you know you can benefit from. In two years I hope to have a big Internet following based off my music, you know, lots of Twitter and Soundcloud followers and all that, in addition to making records that people truly respect as great art. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t dream about fame, but my most important goal is to make music that leaves an impact with each listener, every single time.

Photography: Erica Lipoff