#night palace

[dustedmagazine]

Mount Eerie — Night Palace (P.W. Elverum & Sun)

It’s been a big year for big albums. The mother of them all has to be Cindy Lee’s 32-track, 123-minute opus, Diamond Jubilee. But there’s also been Broadcast’s 36-song, 66-minute demos collection, Spell Blanket. Now we have Mount Eerie’s 26-track, 81-minute Night Palace, which unites the many facets of Phil Elverum’s musical preoccupations into a raw, artful, sprawling double album. Unwieldy as it is, there are so many wonderful moments across the track list that it pays dividends to invest the time.

As ever, Elverum situates himself within the living, breathing natural world of his home state of Washington, in the chilly Pacific Northwest. (Indeed, five of the song titles start with the first-person: “I Walk,” “I Heard Whales (I Think),” “I Saw Another Bird,” “I Spoke With A Fish,” and “I Need New Eyes.”) Blast beats evoke thunderous storms; cacophonous cymbals evoke the crashing of waves against the shore; white noise and amp hiss evoke the wind whistling through the trees. There are countless references to animals, landscapes, and weather events, and the sounds themselves have been lovingly laid to tape in Elverum’s home studio.

Night Palace most closely resembles Clear Moon and Ocean Roar, the wonderful pair of Mount Eerie albums he released back in 2012. Here, though, the calm and the chaotic are intermingled. At one end of the scale is the 53-second screaming death-metal interlude, “Swallowed Alive,” which features a guest appearance from Elverum’s daughter. At the other end of the scale is the ponderous 12-minute spoken-word piece, “Demolition.” There are a couple of songs in the middle of the track list, “Non-Metaphorical Decolonization” and “Co-Owner of Trees,” that almost sound like Stereolab, with their motorik drums and droning organs. Most of all, though, Elverum sounds inimitably himself, even calling back to past Microphones releases (“the Gleam pt. 3”).

While recent releases A Crow Looked at Me and Now Only were painfully direct in their confrontation of grief, Night Palace feels more abstract, as if Elverum is now operating from a place beyond the immediacy of personal trauma. There’s a sense of unmoored drifting in these songs, as if the music is constantly unfolding, never quite settling into place. For this reason, it’s a challenge to apprehend, but a challenge worth accepting.  

Tim Clarke

[olivesjaw]

Mist kissed face Vast grass shuffling Treeless place Expanse encircling

[etudiantfantome]

[yr-bed]

[o-reviews-media]

Night Palace - Mount Eerie

review!!!

Phil's done it again!!

I couldn't wait for this album to come out - as every project elverum has released I've adored - and this one was no fucking exception. I think that this album definitely really shines on the second half of the album, but I wouldn't want the first half cut just to get to there. it all has its place and it works so so beautifully. Phil is just such a beautiful writer and musician; the stuff he is saying on this record is just... oh man. what have we done to this beautiful world we live in... --- some favorite lines I can recall: On I Spoke With a Fish: I told a fish: "What you see as a palace is running water" The fish said: "No. What you see as those mountains is flowing matter" I said: "OK" --- On November Rain: They keep their outside light on though I guess to let everyone else know "Keep away, this patch of night sky I also claim as mine"

But don't they realize All our stolen wealth is built on screaming bones?

In their lights that dot the hillside I see blinking eyes --- like the entirety of Demolition; but this is a strong one: "I moved a little bit away from the town of Anacortes where circling military jets roar their reminder "There's wars. This peace you breathe is flimsy. We rule." I bite the inside of my cheek and sidestep mere despair at the gnashing human world And go downstairs in the dark" --- Favorite Tracks: Swallowed Alive, I Spoke With a Fish, Non-Metaphorical Decolonization, November Rain, Demolition

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

rym

[lesbiannieism]

good afternoon i made a thing

[mellxncollie]

Dead Boy Detectives characters + live, laugh, love variants

+ bonus:

[illustratus]

[justamultifandomartist]

[indigo-jaws]

but for now I pass across the land like everyone, a piece of wind, a little confluence only the occurrence of a person

[hannaloony]

Types of Magic

[olivesjaw]

This America, the old idea, I want it to die Non-metaphorical decolonization Beneath the one sky

[moresandmanstuff]

[wetfloor-sign09]

I don’t have words just noises

[deconstructthesoup]

One thing I absolutely adore about Dead Boy Detectives is the immaculate costume design. Specifically, how it perfectly encapsulates who the characters are, both as a whole and who they are in the moment.

From the very first scene of the show, we know immediately that Edwin is a bookish, somewhat stuffy guy from the Edwardian era who attended a boarding school, and Charles is a punk from the 1980's who's most likely the wildcard between the two of them, just going off of the way that they're dressed. Both of them have distinct color schemes and different styles, but the general shape of their outfits is actually relatively similar---both of them have collared shirts (Edwin's dress shirt, Charles's polo), something over those shirts (Edwin's vest, Charles's suspenders), a jacket of some kind (Edwin's suit jacket, Charles's flannel thing), a longer overcoat (Edwin's traveling coat, Charles's peacoat), something around the neck (Edwin's bowtie, Charles's necklace), slacks, and nice shoes. They're distinct, yet matching, two clearly defined separate characters yet part of a set.

Edwin's prim, proper, buttoned-up personality lends itself to the way he dresses throughout the season---in the first episode, he only dresses down when he's in the office with Charles, aka his safe place and his safe person, and he doesn't really dress down like that again for a good long while after getting stuck in Port Townsend (though, if my memory serves me correctly, he does take off the suit jacket while watching TV with Niko). But in episode six, he's changed up his usual look for a cozier, casual-looking sweater and a little bit of collarbone, and in episode seven... well, he's in his nightclothes, and he's about as open, raw, and vulnerable as you can get. Edwin's color scheme is also predominately blue, which lines up nicely with his logical and practical, yet deeply sad and closed off personality, and the only time he really wears anything other than his normal blue-and-brown outfit (willingly, that is) is when he's in that green sweater in episode six. And, uh... all I can say is that it's quite telling how blue and green---or, well, teal---are the main colors of the gay/mlm flag.

Charles, by contrast, dresses down a lot, and that makes a lot of sense when you consider the fact that unlike Edwin, he feels comfortable pretty much anywhere. On any given episode, he goes from wearing his peacoat to just wearing his flannel to ditching the flannel to not even wearing the freaking polo---though, again, the latter is something that only happens when he's in the office with Edwin. Safe space, safe person. And, well, plenty of people have analyzed Charles's polo shirt going from red to burgundy to black over the course of the series, and there being a little bit of red under the collar of his coat that's only visible when Edwin fixes it, and then it goes back to burgundy, and then it's red again when Edwin's out of Hell... for good reason! It's color symbolism at its finest! Not to mention, the red and black not only perfectly contrasts Edwin's color scheme, but it also lines up with Charles's personality---he's a rebel, he's hotheaded, he's bold and brash and loud... and yes, he's angry, but he's also so, so loving.

When we first meet Crystal after she loses her memories, her outfit choices feel very deliberate. They're stylish and vaguely trendy, they're arty and a little bit witchy---pretty fitting for a psychic who's also a showbiz kid, even if she doesn't know that last part. But all of her clothes appear thrifted, or at the very least vintage, and the patterns and the general vibe all feel natural and comforting. Her makeup's always fairly simple, her hair's either down or up in a couple of cute space buns... overall, this Crystal looks like the kind of person who'd make you tea when you're in a bad mood, who'll listen when you just need to vent, and who may not always know the right thing to say but will understand what you're going through. But when we see her in the flashbacks, her clothing's flashy and prioritizes high-end trends over comfort, she's either got her hair up or has it straightened, and she not only has dramatic makeup, but acrylics. This is a girl who talks shit about you behind your back, who's bitter and cynical and wants everyone to feel the same way, who makes up for the lack of love and stability in her life via material things. It's also worth noting that Crystal's color scheme has a lot of purple, which is a color that connects to wealth and luxury, but also creativity and magic---which, yeah, fits her two conflicting sides pretty damn well.

You cannot talk about Niko Sasaki without talking about her outfits, and the meaning behind each of them has already been talked about at length. However, one thing that really stands out to me is that the reason they're so iconic isn't just because of the monochrome color schemes, but because they're out there. They're weird, they're eclectic, they're a little mismatched in style sometimes, and they're so unapologetically her. Niko wears heart-shaped sunglasses, unironically. Everything about the way she dresses speaks to how, even though she's a recovering shut-in who initially doesn't want to be perceived, she's still very sure of who she is.

Jenny's design, like Charles and Edwin's, is a design that gives you the key information you need the minute she first appears onscreen. The dark makeup, the silver jewelry, the leather apron, and the hairstyle all point to a person who's tough, doesn't take anyone's shit, and has long since given up on caring what other people think---in other words, she's a badass. But the butterfly tattoo hints at a softer side, a side that we see time and time again throughout the series as she shows that she cares about Crystal and Niko, and even the boys... eventually. Also, Jenny's design is perhaps one of the most clearly queer-coded in the series, to the point where her being a confirmed lesbian is pretty much a no-brainer.

Esther's design oozes camp, from top to bottom. The fluffy coat, the bustier, the boots and the cane and the everything, speak to a woman who's kept with the times and yet has seen it all. There's really not a lot I can fully say about her design, other than what Charles has already said: "She looks like a witch... like, kind of a sexy witch, who smokes a lot." (Or maybe I'm just tired and running out of steam at this point, idk, I love Esther's design and I can't really put it into words.) It's also pretty fitting that her color scheme has a lot of yellow in it---after all, she's always striving for more, so what better color for her than the color of gold?

Everything about the Night Nurse's design speaks to a woman who follows rules and discipline above all else, from the pantsuit to the pinned-up hairstyles to the tie to the heels. She's also the most muted out of the main cast in terms of color, dressing mostly in browns, dull greens, and duller browns---and while I don't have a lot to go into detail about there, I feel like that's kind of a symbol of her narrow-minded and bureaucratic worldview.

And the animal characters... Jesus Christ, I fully forget that they're all being played by human actors. Tragic Mick dresses like a man who's always spent his life by the sea, layered denim and all, and it's never a stretch to see this sad, bushy-bearded, baggy-clothed fisherman and imagine him as a walrus lounging on a beach. Monty, at first glance, seems to only wear black, which would be perfectly fitting for a crow, but when he's in better lighting, you see that he dresses in layers of red and blue, calling to how he envies Charles and Edwin and clearly longs for something more---and this might just be me, but I think that even though his outfits seem fairly normal at first glance, they feel kind of like a costume for Monty more than anything else, like he's trying to emulate a teenager that he's seen on TV more than someone in real life.

The Cat King fits this just as well, with all of his outfits aligning perfectly with whatever his cat form is at the time---when he's a fluffy ginger, it's always sequins and fur coats and clothing pieces that are specifically designed to take up space and call attention, and when he's a black shorthair, it's sleek styles and shiny leather and pieces that are designed to cut an intimidating yet more subtle figure. And while I could go into detail about all of those, what really stands out to me is how clearly queer everything is---more than Jenny's alt lesbian attire, more than Esther's campy coat and corset. From the very first scene he's in, he's wearing a skirt, and it looks natural. Nothing about the way the Cat King presents himself is exaggerated, nothing about the way he dresses is played for laughs---he's flamboyant and feminine and flirty, and he looks so fucking hot while he does it. It's gorgeous.

So... yeah, uh, all the awards for the Dead Boy Detectives costume designers!