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elliewan · 4 years ago

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Boom Boom - Behind the Scenes

Hi everyone! As hinted in Chapter 14th notes, here is a (long?) tumblr post for some behind-the-scenes trivia about Boom Boom! I’m sorry it took me some time, but I’ll probably develop my HC for Thermite and Ace in another post :]

So. Here’s a small table of contents for this post. And of course, massive spoilers incoming! haha

Origin of the Title

Chapter and Rhythm building

Thermite’s friendships

Interviews with Harry

IQ/Kali’s background relationship

HC Timeline

In a nutshell

1. Origin of the title

The initial placeholder title was “Norwegian Dynamite”, then “From Texas with Norway”, then… “Boom Boom”. I’m still not happy with the title, but I think it’s good enough. And funfact, it’s kind of a mistake, but not so much. In French, my native language, heartbeat’s onomatopoeia is “Boum Boum”, while I read that in American English (the English I tended to use for my fanfic), it’s supposed to be “Thump Thump” or something like that. But I also read than in most of Norwegian dialects, “Boom Boom” could be understood as a heartbeat too. So anyway, Boom Boom refers both to the beating of their heart and to the explosions of their hard-breaching gadgets. It’s also dual, meaning that each of them is a “Boom” haha And it’s also a cute Mika song about two people being totally in love despite what their families think, and making love everywhere haha (cause in French “Faire crac crac boum boum” [“doing crac crac boom boom”] means “having sex” haha)

2. Chapter and Rhythm building

Unlike most of my fanfics, Boom Boom wasn’t written “as it goes”, I didn’t “discover” the fic while writing it. In fact, I hadn’t contemplated writing a multi-chapter for them until some comments on my Siegetober Ace/Thermite one-shots where people showed interest in the ship and a potential multi-chapter or longer story for them.

So after the Siegetober rush, while I had several wips ongoing, I started working on it. The first blank page was basically: Ace/Thermite – how do they get together for real and a series of bullet points for potential scenes. Then, I opened a PowerPoint file and started filling the following diagram:

Though this is now a bit obsolete, this was the first foundation. Thanks to this diagram, and the several bullet points for potential scenes I had brainstormed, I started building the story in a (ugly) board. Once again, several things are obsolete and I never really updated it – it was more of a working document for the “pre-writing” of the fic, to see if the story really made sense:

And one thing that really didn’t help was Ubisoft releasing the cutscene about Aruni out of nowhere haha. At the beginning, I panicked a bit because I thought it changed several things in my Thermite HC, but it happened to eventually fit quite well and even help adding more drama haha

And once I was ok enough with the board, despite it having several plot holes, I tried to measure the intensity of “love” and “dramatics” to see what kind of rhythm the fic was going to follow and check if I found it entertaining enough:

3. Thermite’s friendships

In the initial draft, Castle had a MAJOR part as Thermite’s best friend. He would help him sort his feelings, see the evolution of his relationship with Ace, and even go to Texas with him to help him face his family. But when re-reading for the umpteenth time Thermite’s file, I realized there was not a single mention of Castle, contrary to Hibana, Twitch and Thatcher. Not to mention Harry’s board where it’s written Thermite has a “sibling” relationship with Ash.

And that’s when everything ticked: Thermite is surrounded by great women. Sisterhood is part of who he is, how he was raised, how he lives. And this is why those women should have a stronger place in the story. So Hibana, Twitch, Aruni and Ash became real sisters to him. Hibana and Aruni being more like the big sisters – they’re reliable, sturdy and coolheaded, they provide him with advice and comfort; Aruni especially is quite similar in temper to his biological sister in my HC. Twitch is more like his same-age sister (though she’s younger), they see eye-to-eye but there’s no authority nor “big sister” feels between them; she’s the confident. As for Ash, she’s more like that distant sibling that has evolved a lot in life to the point where they don’t talk as mush as they used to… but who could move mountains just to get to him if she hears he’s in trouble. This is what I tried to convey :’)

4. Interviews with Harry

Honestly, interviews with Harry were my ultimate cheat code to give more information regarding Ace and Thermite’s psychological statuses, and various hints regarding their mental health. Though I sometimes prefer to bring this sort of nakedness and vulnerability throughout conversations with close friends, it wasn’t very possible here because: 1. Ace had no close friends with whom he could be this vulnerable, and he’s still new at Rainbow. (and he’s not even aware of his coping mechanisms and insecurities) 2. I kind of wanted Thermite to be incredibly good at clouding his issues, changing subjects and rejecting any kind of help, meaning that only Harry could get him to openly talk (or so he thought haha) about his mental health.

As for Harry’s behavior, I tried to render him as this kind of smooth, yet not evasive, therapist. One that wouldn’t be in the judgement, and who could wait whole minutes for the person to take their time to open up, and slowly but gently poking at the aching spots, and providing various resources to help them :)

Also, since in most of his psychological reports he seems to be very aware of friendships at the base, and to push some operators to meet some others, I tried to convey this vibe too. Just like when he says that he finds similarities with Ace, Dokkaebi and Sledge. Or when he offers Thermite to ask Lion and Meghan about their tattoos etc.

Also, here’s a bit of HC on how each of them deals with Harry haha

5. IQ/Kali’s background relationship

I have to admit I may have accidentally mirrored a lot Ace/Thermite’s relationship with IQ/Kali’s. Thing is that I wanted Kali to change too! I wanted her to be this impartial and authoritative bossy businesswoman that would slowly change into someone, though still sharp and arrogant, more human. I wanted Jaimini to show up a bit more. I have given veeery small hints to offer some glimpses at her true self, at what’s behind that mask. For instance, there is that moment in the fic where Ace and Kali argue, and he tells her:

“Jai, you and I both know very well that you didn't take this contract just for the money.”

Which makes Kali pale a lot, because he’s hitting a good nerve. In fact, I kind of headcanon Kali having softened enough around him, throughout their collaboration, to have confided a tiny bit about why she created Nighthaven, and all the frustrations she had grown up with. And thing is, Kali created Nighthaven because she wanted to be a hero too, just like him. She wanted to be at the heart of the battle, to protect people, to save lives, and she dreamed of a soldier life, of self-sacrifice and heroism. She just slid the wrong way, and her childhood dream turned into a private corporation of which she became a ruthless tycoon. Just like Ace, I think things went out of control at some point for her, and she just lose connection to reality and morals.

And the thing with IQ happened quite naturally. At the beginning, once I was okay with the three main squads (especially Alpha and Bravo), the relationship just happened on itself. While Montagne and Twitch were just those lovely and patient sweethearts, IQ was the one that had the hardest time with the Nighthaven folks, whether it were Ace or Kali. Both because she didn’t trust them and their secrecy, and because she has very little patience for people with difficult tempers in general haha

So, Kali being that bossy and defiant puzzle, refusing to let her see Nighthaven’s gadgets’ blueprints, things were just meant to sparkle between them. And Kali just couldn’t resist teasing IQ and reminding her she was untouchable. And through the teasing, the premises of a relationship were born. But unlike Ace/Thermite, I don’t think it followed a Colleagues to Friends to Lovers progression, but more an Enemies straight to Lovers progression haha

So anyway. I wanted to give a little boost to Kali, so that she opens up a bit more with Rainbow, and to bring a truce between Rainbow and Nighthaven’s disputes. And love just happened, once again, to be the perfect last push <3

Another thing that could have helped her would perhaps have been some true challenging from an authority she does respect, but I found it difficult to stage and Kali wasn’t the focus of the fic anyway – perhaps another time ;)

6. HC Timeline

And here is the ugly timeline I worked with haha It’s still probable that there are some inconsistencies, but I tried to avoid them as much as possible and I’m sorry if you find some! I’m horribly bad with figures, years and stuff haha

I used most of the canonical dates, except for Jordan’s mother and sister deceases, which weren’t accurately dated in his biography and which I reinterpreted a bit to fit my story.

Also, isn’t it absolutely lovely that their birthday is only 1 day apart? u_u #ProudPisces!

7. In a nutshell

So, those were my major documents that helped me build the foundations of the fic. What happened next was some drafting and pure writing, following the publishing tempo. I think the gist of what I wanted to convey through the story is still there, even if I reworked some chapters entirely. The journey (and the destination <3) is still the same.

+ I want to once again give a proper shout out to all the wonderful readers of the fanfic, whether they’re anonymous or not! I had never received so much feedback, and so many sweet words on any work before, even back in my time on fanfic.net. I feel so grateful for that, and though I already answered to everyone who commented, and wrote many notes, I still can’t find the way to properly translate just how much it means to me. So once again THANK YOU :’D

And thank you for reading this post too, if you did haha <3

#long post #ace/thermite #iq/kali #writing fanfiction #r6s fanfiction #my hcs #my work

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out-of-jams · 5 years ago

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Airplane Mode | Track 06: Base Line | jhs

Summary: Inspired by Love at First Touch by bagelswrites

In a world where a bruise marks the first touch of your soulmate, time is the only thing that matters. The marks take hours to appear, sometimes even days if you're really unlucky. Once First Touch is initiated, both parties only have a few weeks to find the other. From then on, the body begins to reject any form of sustenance other than the touch of the other. If one fails to find their soulmate in time, they starve to death.

So what happens when your soulmate is a world famous idol?

And you're just one fan in a sea of many who can't even speak the same language?

Pairing: Hoseok/ FemOC

Word Count: 5.1k

Genre: Fluff. Angst. Idol!au. Smut. Soulmate!au. Explicit language.

Warnings: Explicit language.

Words written in bold are spoken in Korean.

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Eunjae woke up very confused.

To the sound of loud, constant ringing.

It startled her sleeping body so much that it yanked her out of the land of dreams and back to reality. Slowly peeling her heavy eyes open, Eunjae stared blankly at the unfamiliar white wall across from her. Her brain was not yet awake and was could barely process where she was and how she got there. So it took her a moment to realize that the obnoxious sound echoing through her ears was a doorbell.

“Miles, I swear to God.” Eunjae mumbled incoherently. Reaching up to rub the sleep from her eyes, she sat up in bed, causing the thick comforter to pool around her waist. She was still dressed in the same outfit from last night since she had nothing else to change into. Though she’d shed her bra and joggers right before collapsing into bed.

A sigh left her lips as another round of doorbell ringing started up and she tore her eyes back open in irritation. It wasn’t until her vision landed on the brown wood of the long dresser across from her bed that the memories came rushing back to her. She most definitely was not in New York.

“So then who—” Eunjae’s eyes widened as the sound of light knocking accompanied the ringing of the doorbell. Whoever was on the other side had given up on just ringing, and started to match the tempo of both sounds to tap out some kind of nonsensical song. Blinking in the dim light shining through the black curtained window, her mouth parted in realization. “Oh, shit.”

Eunjae sprang out of bed and almost face planted into the rug underneath when her foot got caught in the comforter. Curses flying from her mouth, she stumbled across the room, ripping her joggers and bra from where they’d landed on the vanity mirror after she blindly threw them. Eunjae scrambled into her clothes and swung the door to her room open so fast that she almost smacked herself in the face.

No one ever said she was the most graceful person first thing in the morning.

“I’m coming!” Whoever was on the other side of the door was either deaf or too caught up in the track they were remixing on her door to hear her.

Eunjae’s bare feet padded down the short narrow hallway outside her room. She’d been so tired last night that she’d barely even given her new living space a quick, cursory glance before crawling into bed. So now as she grandma-shuffled towards the door like some half-assed zombie, she let her eyes wander.

To the right side of the hallway was a door that led to a bathroom that she was sure she would explore later to shower. As she emerged from the passageway, it opened out into a kitchen/living room. To the left was a small, but nice kitchen. And instead of a table, there was a long bar/island with stools pushed underneath. All of the equipment looked brand new and it was too bad that she wouldn't have a need for it.

The living room was straight ahead. A leather couch took up one whole wall and the cream colored shag rug underneath looked soft enough to sleep on. Separating the couch from a dark wood tv stand was a rounded glass coffee table. The walls throughout the whole apartment were painted a boring eggshell white that was almost blinding in the sun.

“I’ll have to fix that.” Eunjae muttered to herself. The place wasn’t huge, but she didn’t want it to be. She didn’t want to be put up in some lavish penthouse like some weird, trophy soulmate. Eunjae already felt awkward enough for how much Big Hit was already doing for her; best not to add more to the list.

As Eunjae reached the door, she stopped from grabbing the doorknob when she caught her reflection in the mirror hanging on the wall. With a grimace, she quickly ran her fingers through her wild bedhead in an attempt to tame it. Seemingly satisfied, Eunjae quickly yanked open the door before the neighbors decided to file a noise complaint.

Jung Hoseok stood on the other side of the door, one finger hovering over the doorbell as if he were about to ring it again. His expression converted from amused to surprised, and then back to amused, before finally settling on friendly. Eunjae decided right then and there that he was way too awake, way too early in the morning. Hoseok’s dimples came out to play as he flashed her a grin and an energetic wave.

Not only was he completely awake, but he was fully dressed for the day too. With his white and red long-sleeve pullover, french tucked into a pair of jeans, he looked very casual. He’d parted his dark hair in the middle so that it exposed the lightly tanned skin of his forehead. And a black belt was threaded through the hoops of his jeans to keep them from falling down his slim waist.

All-in-all, his very put together appearance made Eunjae look like some half-dead monster that just crawled out of the sewer.

Just call me Master Splinter . She thought, staring up at him with tired eyes and messy hair.

Hoseok dropped his hand and leaned casually against the doorway. His fresh scent filled Eunjae’s nose and she vaguely wondered if all of the members smelled that good, or if it was just a Hoseok thing. Tucking a hand into the pocket of his jacket, He gave her a greeting that was way too cheerful for her exhausted brain to mimic.

“Good morning!”

Eunjae hummed in acknowledgment and reached up to rub at her cheeks. “Morning, Hobi.”

He seemed completely unoffended by her lack of enthusiasm which she was grateful for. “Sleep okay?”

“Yeah. You?” Blinking up at him through dead eyes, Eunjae tried her hardest to match his energy. It was infectious; beginning to filter through her haze filled mind like a stream of fresh water.

“Yes. Good!”

“That’s good.” Eunjae mumbled around a yawn, “‘hat time is it?”

Hoseok tilted his head to the side cutely in confusion. When he hesitated in replying, Eunjae sent him a sleepy smile and lightly tapped on her wrist; the universal gesture to ask for the time. Hoseok made a noise of understanding in the back of his throat and fished around in the pocket of his jeans to pull out his phone. As he flashed the screen her way, Eunjae gave a slow blink at how early it was.

The both of them had gotten back from the airport a little after four am, and the numbers flashing across Hoseok’s phone read that it was now ten am. If Eunjae was doing the math right (which she probably wasn’t), that only equated to around less than six hours of sleep total. Which was definitely pointing to the danger side of her sleep-o-meter.

“Oh.” Was the only sound that could leave her mouth and a pout formed unconsciously on her lips as she squinted up at Hoseok.

How was he already awake and ready to begin his day now ? She really envied his ability to pull energy out of thin air. Though she couldn’t help but wonder why he was there. Eunjae thought someone from the company was supposed to pick her up and take her shopping for the early half of the day. Surely Bit Hit wouldn’t send her out with Hoseok. Because that would undoubtedly cause a huge scandal if they were caught. Not that she would have minded spending time with him, but she wasn’t quite prepared to be bashed into the next century in the next issue of Dispatch.

Eunjae shifted a little closer to the door and tried to peer around Hoseok’s tall frame to see if any of the other members were in the hallway. Or anyone at all. When she found no one, she turned her attention back to the man in front of her, who was slipping his phone back into his pocket.

“Where, um,” Eunjae paused, brows knitting as she tried to search for the words in Korean. At coming up blank, her nose scrunched. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Everyone?” Hoseok parroted back with a blink. Shrugging, he offered her a smile. “Only me.”

“Only you?” Her lips twitched up in response at their weird back-and-forth game of repeating words. As if saying them out loud would help them to translate somehow.

Pulling a hand from the pocket of his fuzzy pullover, he gestured back down the hall to where he’d informed her last night was where Bangtan resided. Their apartment was all the way on the opposite end of the corridor, and Eunjae could just barely make out the outline of the door.

“Left.” A string of non-english words then left Hoseok’s mouth and all Eunjae could do was stare up at him blankly. At noticing her confusion, his mouth pursed and he tilted his head, leaning further against the doorframe. If he felt at all frustrated by their lack of ability to communicate, he didn’t show it. “Earlier. But not me.”

“Oh. Why?”

Hoseok clasped his hands together and held them up to his cheek dramatically, swishing from side to side with his eyes closed. “Tired.”

“So you slept in, then.”

Eunjae said it out loud mostly to herself, but he answered her with a cute, “ding, ding, ding! ”

Which made her wonder how much English he could or could not understand. But that was a question to answer at some other point in time, when she wasn’t falling asleep standing up. Running her hands down her face to try and wake herself up, Eunjae’s tongue flickered across her dry lips.

“Are you here to take me with you to the company, then?” She couldn’t help but continuously feel guilty over the fact that she couldn’t communicate very well in his language. Him being the one to be forced to speak in hers didn’t sit well with her.

Eunjae could definitely tell when Hoseok was confused. In the few short hours that she’d known him in person, she received that look from him a lot. He’d tilt his head to the side and furrow his brow a bit. Then his eyelashes would flutter faster than normal as if the answer to his confusion was right in front of him, but he just couldn’t see it. And his pale pink lips would part just enough to stop from looking like a full on pout. Not only that, but a small little hum would resonate in the back of his throat, sounding more like a sigh than not.

And Eunjae was on the receiving end of a very confused Hoseok.

Pursing her lips, she tried to think of a way to communicate what she was trying to say. Her mind went blank and she cringed internally at the now awkward air encasing them like a bubble. Eunjae wasn’t really sure if a game of charades full of wild gestures and confused faces would somehow disperse the cringeworthy tension.

Too caught up in trying to find a way to bridge the invisible, gaping chasm between them, Eunjae failed to see the imaginary light bulb go off above Hoseok’s head. His sudden movement, however, caught her attention as he fished back into his pocket and whipped out his phone. He quickly held up a finger telling her to wait as his other hand swiped across the screen. Eunjae couldn’t see exactly what he was doing due to the fact that he had what looked like a privacy screen attached to the glass.

Hoseok whipped his phone around to show her and Eunjae almost smacked her forehead at her stupidity. On display was a translator app and as he passed her the phone, she couldn’t believe that she hadn’t thought of the idea. It was so obvious.

“Talk for English to Korean.” He waved a hand at the phone, but before she could speak, the app picked up his voice and a translated version of what he’d just said came out of the speakers in a robotic voice.

Snorting in amusement, Eunjae repeated what she’d said previous and Hoseok let out a tiny hum and gestured for his phone back. The words that left his mouth went in one ear and out the other, and Eunjae shifted on her feet as she waited for the app to translate. Hopefully she’d be able to get a burner phone sometime during the day so that she could download the app for herself. Getting lost in a foreign country with no means of communication was something that was not on her bucket list. After mentally calculating the funds in her bank account, she was sure she could swing it.

“Sejin texted that someone would be here to pick you up at eleven.” The female monotonous, robotic tone snapped Eunjae out of her thoughts and she eyed the phone Hoseok held out between them. “But you have no clothes, right?”

It took Eunjae a second too long to figure out how he knew that bit of information. The night before (or that morning) had been kind of a blur to her. The memories came back to her slowly: him questioning her about her missing luggage, and the add on the fact that she was still in the same outfit.

Hopefully I don’t smell bad . She unconsciously wrinkled her nose at the thought.

“Right.”

Instead of answering her, Hoseok pushed off the doorframe and gifted Eunjae with one of his eye smiles. He gestured for her to follow him and her face contorted in confusion, but she slipped on her shoes still by the door and stepped out into the hall anyway. As the door closed behind her, Eunjae couldn’t help but ask, “where are we going?”

She asked more out of curiosity than anything else. Miles would always berate her about the fact that she was too spontaneous, too willing to bounce from one plan to the next. Eunjae was the type of person to just go along with whatever was thrown her way. And she liked to live life that way; there was something freeing about not holding yourself to a plan sometimes. Most of her more cherished memories were created by taking a leap of faith.

“Clothes!” Hoseok threw over his shoulder, waving his hand in the air to usher her along. Eunjae’s short legs had a hard time keeping up with his long ones and she internally cursed her genetics. At least being a 5’1” woman in South Korea was kind of average. Well, that’s what Eunjae liked to tell herself anyway.

The hallway they were walking down was empty and she took a moment to wonder if any of the other apartments in the building housed celebrities. Surely they had to, what with how expensive they were and the amount of security to even get into the building. Hopefully that meant that there would be little risk of someone exposing the nature of her and Hoseok’s soulbond.

That was just a hassle she didn’t want to deal with.

Eunjae almost ran into the back of the rapper, shoes scruffing against the carpet as she slid to an abrupt stop. Hoseok didn’t seem to notice, instead quickly keying in the code to the apartment and swinging it open. He turned to the side, back pressed against the door to hold it open, and motioned for her to enter first.

The situation was slowly starting to dawn on her. As an ARMY for a little over a year, the prospect of being granted access to Bangtan’s apartment threatened to bring out the fangirl in her. The shock of Hoseok being her soulmate had still not settled in, but as Eunjae was brought more and more into his world, the reality she once knew began to shatter. For now, the walls were merely cracked, but she didn’t doubt that once she met the rest of the members, it would implode into tiny pieces.

After taking a moment to compose herself and not let her inner ARMY show, Eunjae crossed over the threshold. As she passed through the doorway, her shoulder brushed against Hoseok and the electric heat that jolted under her skin almost made her trip over her feet. That feeling was something that Eunjae doubted she would ever get used to. The sound of the door closing drew her attention away from the wide hallway of the entryway and back to Hoseok.

“Need to hurry.” He waved her to follow him as he walked quickly through the wide hallway of the entryway.

Eunjae nodded in response, despite the fact that he couldn’t see it from where he walked in front of her. Hoseok turned left at the end of the short hallway wand the apartment opened up into the big living room. The far wall was made up of all windows, though the blinds were drawn halfway down so she could barely see the view of the city.

The building was located in Hanam Hill, which housed some of the most expensive apartments in Seoul. It was just far enough out of the heart of the city to provide privacy, but not so far that the boys had to travel a long distance to the company. Eunjae had yet to get the chance to see the view from her own apartment since she’d gotten in so late.

The boy’s living room was nice and spacious, but it wasn’t at all flashy. The two of them passed by a large cream colored L-shaped couch and with a wide screen tv mounted to the wall. It was decorated with various knick-knacks that must have been collected from various members.

The marble floor reflected the lights overhead and Eunjae had to stop her jaw from dropping at the sight of the luxury kitchen. It was big, way bigger than hers, and all of the equipment looked state of the art. Which made her wonder if the boys had some kind of personal chef, or if they all just ordered in whenever Seokjin didn’t want to cook.

Hoseok must have caught her rapidly wandering eyes because he threw a grin over his shoulder and offhandedly waved around the space. “See later.”

“You have to go?” Eunjae assumed that’s why he was speed walking through the apartment like a bat out of hell. She had to speed up to a trot in order to keep up as they passed various closed doors down the hallway next to the kitchen.

“Yeah.” Hoseok finally stopped at a door on the left that was already cracked open. He pushed it the rest way and spun around to usher her in. “Practice.”

Hoseok’s room wasn’t super huge, and Eunjae already knew through Miles that he shared it with Jimin. There were two beds against the far wall, separated by a bedside table. There were a few shelves hanging on the walls with various trinkets that Eunjae couldn’t tell who they belonged to. Hoseok crossed the carpet and stopped at a closet door. There was another one a little to the left, which must have been Jimin’s.

Without pause, the door swung open to reveal a smaller version of a walk-in closet. It was big enough to fit both of them if they squeezed, but not so large that she could fully stretch out if she laid down. There were clothes hung up in a random order that Eunjae couldn’t discern, bright colors popping out in between darker ones. Lines of drawers covered the bottom half of the opposite wall, but all of them were closed.

Back pressed up against the door frame, Hoseok gently laid a hand on her shoulder to guide her closer to the closet. “Pick any.”

“For me?” Eunjae pointed a finger at herself. She felt a little slow on the uptake.

Sure, he’d said that he was taking her to get clothes, but she didn’t imagine that he’d give her some of his. Her inner fangirl was starting to crawl its way out and Eunjae had to bite down to keep it from escaping. Was he really about to give her full access to his closet? Not only was her inner ARMY screaming, but the wannabe fashion designer inside of her couldn’t wait to pick through his designer clothes.

Her excitement at the situation must have been showing because Hoseok’s contagious giggle left his throat. He moved away from the door to stand behind her, both of his hands on her shoulders as he ushered her closer. “For you!”

As he let his hands drop, Eunjae turned to shoot him a beaming, grateful smile. The one that made her nose crinkle. “Thanks, Hobi.”

Hoseok grinned and mumbled something in Korean too fast for her to catch. Before she could ask what he’d said, the phone in his pocket dinged . He slipped it out and glanced at the screen before giving her an apologetic smile. “Got to go.”

“Go!” Eunjae waved him off with both hands, not wanting to be the reason he got in trouble. “Don’t be late.”

Hobi hummed and put his phone and opened his arms wide to gesture at his closet. “Stay. Pick any. I will see you...soon!”

For whatever reason, he’d decided not to use the translator on his phone. Either he forgot about it in his haste or he wanted to go without, Eunjae wasn’t sure. But she appreciated the gesture either way. If anything, him trying his best to speak English gave her more incentive to learn more Korean for him.

Eunjae was a little shocked that he trusted her, a near stranger, enough to leave her alone in Bangtan’s apartment. Sure, they were soulmates, but she could have been some kind of crazy sasaeng. So him gifting her that trust was something that she didn’t want to betray.

“See you soon.”

Hoseok gave her a cute little wave before disappearing out the room. As she turned back to the numerous amount of clothes hanging in the closet she could hear the front door open and close. With hands on her hips, Eunjae spun in a small circle, analyzing the different choices. She already knew that she didn’t have a chance in hell of fitting into any of the taller man’s pants. At least not if she wanted to be able to walk without tripping over herself every five seconds. Her fingertips brushed through the fabric with pursed lips.

She was going to have to get creative.

As he walked down the hall, Hoseok could hear the boisterous sounds of the rest of his members spilling out of the practice room. Jimin’s laugh greeted his ears as Hoseok pushed open the door and slipped inside the room. All six of the boys were sitting in a messy circle in the center of the room and the smell of fried chicken and sweat invaded his nostrils.

Jungkook turned at the sound of the door closing with half a piece of chicken sticking out of his mouth. A mumbled, “hey, hyung,” sent bits of chewed up food spraying from his mouth and onto the floor.

“Kook-ah!” Jimin scrunched his nose down at the mess next to his leg. “That’s disgusting.”

Jungkook just shrugged and shoved the rest of the chicken into his mouth. His greeting brought everyone else’s attention to Hoseok as he crossed the room to squeeze in between Yoongi and Taehyung. Neither of them moved to make room, so Hoseok just stretched his legs out between them, half leaning on Yoongi as he did so.

“‘Bout time you got here.” Yoongi raised a brow at the other rapper as he brought his chopsticks to his mouth.

Namjoon, who sat on the opposite side of the circle, quickly swallowed the food in his mouth before addressing Hoseok. “So, how is she adjusting?”

Leaning back on his hands, Hoseok gave a small half-shrug. All eyes were back on him again as they waited for his answer. The members had been just about as excited for his soulmate to arrive as he’d been. Though the language barrier was definitely a large obstacle, Hoseok still had faith that they could figure out an effective way to communicate.

Prior to his soulmate’s arrival, he’d been following Namjoon around in his free time to bug him for English lessons. Hoseok may have known enough English to somewhat follow along during American interviews, but he wasn’t knowledgeable enough to have full blown conversations. That was where the regret had settled in. He definitely should have been more adamant in the past about learning it, but there was nothing he could do about that now.

Hoseok had gone out on a limb when he first met Eunjae by giving her his contact information. Sure, she was his soulmate, but he wasn’t reckless enough not to take the fact that she was a fan into consideration.

The rest of his members had been a little worried and somewhat skeptical, but at the end of the day, they trusted Hoseok’s judgement. They knew that he wouldn’t do anything to put them in harm’s way. He’d had faith that the universe wouldn’t pair him with someone who wasn’t a good person, so he’d taken the risk. And it had paid off.

Though he didn’t really know that much about her and they hadn’t been able to communicate a whole lot with his intense schedule. But Hoseok held out hope that they could form a strong bond. He’d been taken by surprise by just how strong the magnetizing pull between them was. Even after all of the research that he did as he laid in bed late at night hours after practice and interviews and studio sessions.

Jung Hoseok would be the first to admit that he didn’t know a whole lot about soulmates. He’d never paid much attention to it during primary school. The only time it even crossed his mind was whenever a news article would come out, but even then he’d forget about it soon after. Which was yet another thing he regretted.

Maybe if he’d paid more attention, he would have been prepared for how addicting the touch of a soulmate was. It was like a drug that he couldn’t help but want to get his hands on all the time. Not that he would, since he barely knew her and didn’t want to scare her off somehow.

Hell, he was barely even conscious of his body’s own movements before he touched her. Hoseok wasn’t even big on copious amounts of skinship with the exception of the other members. Even then, he wasn’t as touchy as Jimin or Taehyung. So wanting to constantly initiate skinship with a near stranger was overwhelming.

“Earth to Hobi-ya!”

A kick to the bottom of Hoseok’s show brought him out of his thoughts. Seokjin raised an eyebrow from across the circle, waving his chopsticks like he could magically pull the thoughts from his head.

Hoseok shot him an innocent look. “Did you say something, hyung?”

With a dramatic roll of his eyes, Jin gave another kick to his shoe. “What’s got you all spaced out? Namjoonie asked how your soulmate is adjusting.”

“Ah.” The rapper gave Namjoon a sheepish smile, who just waved him off in response. “I’m not sure. It hasn’t even been a day.”

“But we’re gonna meet her today, right?” Taehyung turned to him with hopeful brown eyes.

He’d been one of the most excited ones to meet her beside Jimin. And Hoseok couldn’t help the grateful blanket that settled in his chest. The fact that his members were so accepting of the situation was something that he was thankful for. If they wound up not getting along with his soulmate, Hoseok wasn’t sure what he’d do. So he didn’t think about it.

Hoseok patted Tae’s shoulder with a smile. “Yup! She should be here some time later. Try not to embarrass me.”

He’d said the last part playfully, but a small part of him meant it.

“You said to make sure that we embarrass you, hyung?” Jungkook’s doe eyes peered over another piece of chicken that he was about to shove into his mouth. Though his overly innocent expression gave away his mischief.

“That’s what I heard.” Yoongi’s monotone voice did well to hide his playful sarcasm. He ignored the deadpan look from Hoseok and busied himself with downing the rest of his coffee.

“Let’s at least try not to scare her.” Namjoon, ever the responsible leader piped up with a shrug and a snort of amusement. “At least let her settle in first.”

“So don’t let her meet anyone then. Got it.”

The kick to the bottom of Hoseok’s shoe came from Jimin this time and he ignored it in favor of pushing Taehyung’s chopsticks away from his face. The smell of chicken must have broken through whatever tied over exhaustion gracing Hoseok’s system, because his stomach growled loudly enough for the whole room to hear.

Seokjin eyed him from across the circle, eyes narrowed and pouty lips pursed. His expressions morphed into one of concern as he nodded his head towards the food containers in the center of the circle of boys. “You should eat something.”

Hoseok’s nose wrinkled at the thought of putting any type of food in his mouth. The last time he’d eaten something, the taste of garbage had coated his tongue for the rest of the day. It wasn’t something that he really desired to repeat, so he wanted to forgo that option for as long as he could. “I’m okay.”

“Jin-hyung’s right.” Taehyung pushed the piece of chicken dangling from his chopsticks against Hoseok’s lips. “You should eat.”

With a grimace, Hoseok opened his mouth to reiterate that he wasn’t in the mood to scrape the taste of decay from his taste buds. But before he could, Taehyung shoved the food into his open mouth. Cringing in absolute disgust, Jin sent him a glare before he could spit it out.

“Chew and swallow.”

Not wanting to be on the other side of Seokjin’s wrath, Hoseok did his best to chew without letting the food touch his tongue. After he swallowed, Taehyung ducked his head to hide his smile of victory.

“See, that wasn’t so bad.”

Hoseok would have answered Jin if it wasn’t for the fact that his stomach twisted in sudden nausea. The small bit of food that he’d just eaten was about to make a reappearance. Ignoring the looks of concern from the other boys, Hoseok shot off the floor and stumbled his way to the door. He’d almost made it too, but his system was fast working and he hadn’t been quick enough.

His fear of throwing up came to fruition--all over the floor of the practice room.

“Fuck.”

#bts fic #bts #hoseok fic #hoseok fanfic #hoseok #bts fic rec #won't let me link my Masterlist for some reason

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putschki1969 · 5 years ago

Text

H-el-ical// Music Explanation

Notes: These short comments from the pamphlet provide a lovely insight so I thought I would translate them for you. Please enjoy!

pulsation

Hikaru comment

The song conveys a strong sense of sprinting forward and since I knew that it would be my first song, I wanted to make it feel like a powerful beginning. At first I was really worried because I had no idea what I was doing but then I realised that if I kept worrying I wouldn’t be able to come up with anything good. That’s why I focused on my feelings at that time and the way I had been dealing with music so far. I just put all of that into words. For me as Hikaru// this song is about finding the strength to get up again when you are down, how to move on when you are depressed. It’s not something that simply passes by, from my experience so far it’s a conscious decision, “all right! I will try again and persevere!” It’s that kind of feeling I wanted to put in my lyrics. “Let’s live in a way that makes it possible to come to terms with the meaning of life!” That was going through my mind while writing the lyrics, I felt very much alive during that time. Perhaps I have already conveyed these feelings little by little to all my fans who have continuously supported me but when I actually put them into words I think it became a very strong message.

Gushimiyagi comment

Of course I had known of Hikaru//-san's previous activities for many years so initially I felt a bit lost when trying to write a song which would suit Hikaru//-san's vocals. I wanted to do my best, after all I had to create a song that would perfectly fit the image of Hikaru//-san. I think I was quite reckless when I made it. The first time we met, I brought a short demo tape with me and told her, "this is more or less the direction I wanna take and we will expand it from there...” The song gradually took shape. It was supposed to have an image of “presenting/announcing H-el-ical// for the very first time”, so I was very adamant about having a lively chorus and a sense of moving fast. I tried to make it sound catchy and impressive. Back then Hikaru-san didn’t really tell me what she thought of the song so I would really like to ask her now *laughs*.

Avaricia

Hikaru comment

Transitioning from “pulsation” to “Avaricia” I really wanted to have something different. I didn’t want to stick to just one genre, I wanted to sing songs with many different elements so when I first heard the song I immediately thought, “ohh, I like this!” In the case of "pulsation", I think it is a rather straight-foward song since I am expressing my life experiences and thoughts but when it comes to this song, it is very vague, indirect and between the lines, it can have various meanings depending on the listener. "Is it meant this way or that way? This kind of interpretation doesn’t apply to me but it might apply to someone else." So depending on the audience, the song can come across as very sexy or you can interpret it as having a strong message. I also used this song to play a little with words. When I started writing the lyrics I wrote the following line for the first verse, “ひと時だけのアイズ/hito toki dake no aizu”. アイズ written in katakana was supposed to have a double meaning, it could have been understood as “eyes” or “cue/signal”. But since we also had English translations for all H-el-ical// songs I eventually settled on “eyes” to make the translation less confusing.

Gushimiyagi comment

I made this song at the same time as the first song but since that one had a rather normal beat and a sense of sprinting I wanted a big change for the next song. I composed this with a quintuple/triple measure. Its tricky acoustic sound makes it sorta feel like jazz but I guess it ended up being more along the lines of folktronica. The song has both a digital as well as an analog feel to it. I pretty much created this song to be the exact opposite of “pulsation”. When I gave the song to Hikaru//-san I feared it would be hard to find lyrics that suited the beat but to my surprise she really enjoyed playing with the words. Her lyrics combined with the melody really add to the atmosphere, they left a lasting impression on me.

Splendore

Hikaru comment

The first thing that came to mind when I listend to the song was “fantasy”. That’s why I added some fantasy elements to my lyrics. For a period of time, I was working part-time at a nursery school for some social studying. The children I worked with were honestly a ray of sunshine, they were shining so brightly and they all lived in the here and now. When we grow up we always worry and think ahead, our dreams and hopes become goals that start to feel real. So for a moment, let’s not do that, let’s just live life and enjoy ourselves in the present! I wrote the lyrics with this sort of fantasy element in mind, “I want to fearlessly grab the sparkles in front of me and hold onto them forever.” That’s the image I wanted to convey. Also, this song was written during an extensive back and forth between Gushimiyagi-san and myself.

Gushimiyagi comment

When I started on this, I simply wanted to try composing a song with a four-on-the-floor rhythm but apparently I am not the kind of person that can write bright and lively music like that so instead of sounding like an exciting piece of electronic dance music the song turned out to have a rather quiet and calm passion *laughs*. I was imagining a night and the starry sky. It's dark but there is some sparkling, like seeing Peter Pan flying across the sky. When I read Hikaru//-san’s finished lyrics it all made sense to me, the way she created a sort of fantasy. The song does express all of that so she really managed to put everything perfectly into words with her lyrics.

Amanhecer

Hikaru comment

When I first received the demo tape for this song, I couldn’t help but think of “water” or the “waterside”. It has a slightly gloomy vibe. It left a strong impression on me so I wanted to write lyrics that did proper justice to the melody, I wanted listeners to get a real feeling for the sceneries and sensations of it. The song is pretty quiet but I felt like adding a certain youthful charm. Not a mature one nor a child-like one, I thought a lot about it but an adult view wouldn’t have fit the song so I settled for a feeling that’s slightly adolescent *laughs*. I created a bittersweet love story. In this kind of song the vocals stand out a lot so I sang it with a breathy voice and only let my voice become louder and stronger when I wanted to emphasise a certain word or line. I had to adjust a lot while recording the song.

Gushimiyagi comment

Here I wanted to create a song that started with vocals. The first thing you hear is a breath, I wanted everyone to be able to enter Hikaru//-san's world from the very first second. I wanted people to immediately be smitten by Hikaru//-san’s voice. Just like "Splendore" this was originally meant to have a “night” theme but I eventually changed it to a dawn-like atmosphere. The acoustic guitar and drums feel a lot more understated compared to the previous three songs. The rhythm is very simple and clear. Usually during the recording you do a lot of takes in order to pick the best one but each and every one of Hikaru//-san’s takes was amazing, just the expression was slightly different. Each take had top-notch quality, it was refreshing but also difficult to choose one.

yolcu

Hikaru comment

When it was time to make this song we were just starting to think about doing a live. So I asked for a track that would pump up the crowd during a live performance. This song has an exotic feeling so I wrote the lyrics while thinking of the Middle East. There is a bit of mystery, it feels like you are running through the streets of Aladdin’s town, making it past the crowds and eventually arriving at a plaza with a big fountain. I had these sceneries in mind so I put them into words. It was a lot of fun to write this song. However ... while it was fun to write lyrics for this sort of tempo, it is incredibly hard to remember my lines *laughs*.

Gushimiyagi comment

The theme of the song was to create an exotic vibe. “What ideas should I apply to make it sound exotic?” This is what I kept asking myself when I wrote the song. I ended up with EDM which in this case stands for exotic dance music *laughs*. By the way, I made this with a lot of vigor so the tuning was quite special, while writing I had no idea what chords I was using *laughs*. The title of this song is Turkish, I think the title should always be chosen by the person who is writing the lyrics. All H-el-ical// song titles, including the title "yolcu", were chosen by Hikaru//-san.

Existence

Hikaru comment

The line "do you remember~" is repeated multiple times on purpose. When you keep saying the same words over and over again, they aren’t easily forgotten, instead they get imprinted in your memory. By repeating lines, I wanted to create impactful lyrics. Also, this was the first time I wrote proper English lyrics. When you have a song where the same melody gets repeated you need something that draws attention. I guess I could have written something in Japanese but I wanted the song to have a different feel. It's not uncommon for Western music to have repeated lyrics. So I wanted to try something like that for this song. The H-el-ical// project is produced by Japanese people of course but I want everyone overseas to listen to my music as well. I want to create music that can be loved and accepted by all kinds of people. I would be very much interested in continuing to take on such challenges.

Gushimiyagi comment

This is a nice guitar rock piece. I wanted to create something that would sound like a Foo Fighters song. When I sent the first demo to Hikaru//-san, I added a short note saying that this was like an American rock song. Hikaru//-san wrote a big portion of the song in English and the title is also in English.

Fili

Hikaru comment

I wanted to add an element that I had never used before, I wanted it to have a Northern European vibe with a somewhat grassy feeling. However, when I first expressed that wish to Gushimiyagi-san, he looked at me quite puzzled, “what do you mean exactly?” I tried to answer him as best as possible *laughs* “I guess something with an earthy atmosphere. Something that makes me think of grass-covered plains...” When I got the song I thought a lot about it, I kept replaying it in my mind and came up with a few lyrics so I could try singing it. I started wondering whether it really had an earthy atmosphere. Eventually I realised that this song is not so much about the earth itself, it is about history. The history of each individual but also the course of history regarding our entire earth. "I'm alive right now because of the eternal flow of time." It’s this kind of image I had in mind when I wrote the lyrics. By the way, the title of this song means "poet" in Gaelic.

Gushimiyagi comment

This song sounds a bit Celtic doesn’t it? Hikaru//-san experienced many different world views as part of Kalafina, there were quite a lot of exotic and oriental elements in their music. For the H-el-ical// project I did my own interpretation of that by trying to find the best way to convey this image as a solo artist. It is quite celtic but not too ballad-y. I am once again using a triple measure and even though it technically qualifies as a ballad, the drums, percussion and timps are heavily accentuated. Hikaru//-san’s previous activities very much align with my own vision and world-views. It’s not about holding on tight to that old image but there is certainly no need to throw it away completely. I'm sure fans will treasure it as something that has become part of Hikaru//’s image.

Tsumugu

Hikaru comment

The title for my concert is also "Weaving/Spinning ~TSUMUGU~" so I decided I wanted to create a song that I could sing at the end of the live. That's the reason why we tried to make a very simple song. All the thoughts and feelings I experience when I get to meet the fans, when I get to communicate with them... Having that in mind I wrote the lyrics. This interview is being done before my concert so I haven’t had the chance to be on stage as H-el-ical// yet but when I wrote the lyrics I tried to imagine what the live performance would be like. I also wanted to remove any sort of extra filter when I wrote them. Typically when you are talking with someone, you want to look your best, maybe even show off a little but in this case I didn’t want to think or worry about any of that. I really expose all of myself in these lyrics so the song is quite embarrassing for me *laughs*.

Gushimiyagi comment

This was always intended to be the final song of the live so I made it with that in mind. “What would be a suitable climax for the concert?” I kept asking myself this question while composing the song. I consulted with Hikaru//-san so she could share her personal opinions and views regarding the previous seven songs as well as the upcoming live. When I made the song I thought, “yes, I think this track will be appropriate for the occasion”. It was quite easy to write it since I had a clear vision.

#kalafina #hikaru #helical #hikaru//#helical//#h-el-ical//#my translations #my translation #long text post

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a-silent-symphony · 4 years ago

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INTERVIEW – MARKO HIETALA OF NIGHTWISH

Like any band, Nightwish has a story to tell. Full of ups, downs, frustrations, and triumphs, in reality, few can tell a tale quite like these Fins. Coming at a crossroad at the peak of their success, they made a bold decision, yet landed on their feet. Then a few years later they were faced with yet another difficult choice, and still righted the ship. A testament to comradery between the key members of the band, one of the steadying forces through it all has been Marko Hietala.

Joining up just prior to their 2002 Century Child album, Hietala has become a cornerstone in Nightwish not only on the bass, but also as a leading voice. A signature part of the band’s success over the last two decades, Hietala recently sat down to chat about his time with Nightwish, weathering the storm of challenging times, his other projects, plus a whole lot more.

Cryptic Rock – You have been an intricate part of the Nightwish family for nearly two decades now. Before going any further, tell us, what has your time in Nightwish been like?

Marko Hietala – Woah man! It will actually be two decades next year. It’s probably been the biggest, lasting part of my life that there has been. Of course, there is my older band, Tarot, which we started in the late ’80s and still did things in the 2000s. That was a long lasting thing, but as life goes, Nightwish has made my living. There has been ups and downs as well as joys and sorrows.

Cryptic Rock – You have certainly accomplished a lot with Nightwish. When you came on, you became a very big part of the band right off the bat, particularly with your voice. That addition of your voice added a new dynamic to Nightwish’s music. What was it like initially working with the band and utilizing your voice to the music’s advantage?

Marko Hietala – We started from a pretty good common background; the guys are Karelian and I’m Savonian. There was already that kind of country boy attitude with us. Then when we started, rehearsing and swapping ideas for Century Child (2002), it became really comfortable really fast. We just got along.

Of course, when you have humans, you get drama occasionally, and of course we’ve had those times. In the end we have been pretty honest about troubles and being understanding, and if need be, forgiving. We have a great personal chemistry with this bunch.

Cryptic Rock – It shows. The band has faced adversity and overcome it. Let’s look back for a moment. In 2004, Nightwish released the Once album, which launched the band into a new stratosphere of success. However, shortly after that release, the band parted ways with Tarja Turunen. Looking back 15 years after, was that a stressful time?

Marko Hietala – Yes, it was. Everyone was anxious, restless, and troubled all the time already. We had no connection and we decided, just as the band started to get bigger, we needed to take back our voice in the band. That’s why it happened. It was scary, but it was a thing where we were already eating so much of our own spine; in order to survive we had to amputate. We were already feeling bad about so many things, it was something that had to be done.

We survived until the next few years of troubles, and we still got through it. I said this already in the documentary, but I think we showed an exceptional persistence and group spirit through a lot of times. God damn, I cherish it!

Cryptic Rock – That unity is evident. It all just adds more to the story of Nightwish. The band has settled in nicely in recent years with Floor Jansen. A fantastic addition, what has it been like working with her?

Marko Hietala – She’s brilliant! She’s a powerhouse vocalist who wants to perform, sing, and loves doing shows. I’m pleased with how things are now. Of course some people have been complaining that I’m hanging a little bit more in the shadows now that she is there, but I’m not. I’m doing a shitload of vocals and background harmonies; there are just a good bunch of songs and we do them the best way they will sound.

Cryptic Rock – Understandable. It is about what the music calls for. If the music calls for you to be more upfront and center, then you will be.

Marko Hietala – Indeed. It’s not like I don’t have things to do. I have bass playing, which on some nights with hot lighting, is compared to shoveling in its calorie consummation. (Laughs)

Cryptic Rock – (Laughs) Well you have done a great job. Speaking of new music, Nightwish recently released the epic new album Human. :II: Nature. What was it like putting this record together?

Marko Hietala – There are certain ways we have gotten used to doing things. We had a month and a half of summer camp rehearsal sessions and then started recording. Kai (Hahto) went to a different studio to record the drum bottom tracks because our summer camp didn’t have the space with the proper ambiances for that to be recorded. We then put up the amps/vocal mics and we laid down all the other stuff for the album pretty fast and comfortably.

Of course there was this thing that we started to do, which is apparent on the album, where we had some pretty nice harmony vocal sessions. I have spoke about this a few times, but when we did the Decades Tour, we wanted to do something different for the oldies – so we figured with Troy, me, and Floor that we could do a bunch of live harmonies to beef them up. It sounded so nice that we figured that we could do them more on the album. Tuomas (Holopainen) wrote stuff so we could do those harmonies, and we ended up doing quite a lot of them.

A lot of our barbecue sessions at our summer camp there would be an acoustic guitar or battery-operated keyboard; we would try some lines out, figure out ideas and swap them. I would say Troy and I were writing that stuff mostly, but Tuomas and Floor were also always around so we could test things and see how they went. It was nice.

Cryptic Rock – The end result is quite good. It is a very well-balanced collection of heavier and more somber tracks. What can you tell us about the concept behind the album?

Marko Hietala – I guess if you take human nature, and either two words, separate or combined, the theme is a bit loose. All the songs on the album connect to those things – human or nature, or human nature.

Cryptic Rock – Very interesting. Then there is the second disc, which is predominately all instrumental. Were you apart of the second half of the album at all?

Marko Hietala – I didn’t really work on it. When Tuomas was writing it, he did ask the rest of the band if it was okay to have a classical orchestra for the second half of the album. Basically, the only people who worked there was (Troy Donockley) with some piping and Floor with some vocals.

Cryptic Rock – It is a great addition to the first half of Human. :II: Nature. You also released your solo album, Pyre of the Black Heart, earlier this year. What was the process behind that album?

Marko Hietala – It was a long time dream for a guy like me who writes a lot. When Nightwish had a sabbatical, I called a couple of friends of mine to work on the album; there was Tuomas Wäinölä on guitar and Vili Oillila on keyboards, who I have known 10-15 years. I had this idea this album was not going to drop into a straight Heavy Metal box, but that it was going to be more Prog Rock or Hard Rock with Metal in between. They helped me finalize the arrangements.

Tuomas Wäinölä also ended up recording and producing most of the album. It turned out to be an inside project with me and those guys. Then we ended up hiring a drummer who we also knew, Anssi Nykänen. As a result of the making of the album it started to grow into a band. We actually had a little tour in February before everything closed out. It was really great, a lot of people liked it and we had a lot of wide grins in the audience.

We also did a Finnish version of the album. About half and half of the songs were written in Finish or English. I just had to crisscross translating them to get both albums out.

Cryptic Rock – Very cool! It really turned out well. You have offered your talents to many other bands through the years. To name a few, you have worked with Eternal Tears of Sorrow, To/Die/For, Charon, etc. Do you enjoy collaborating with others?

Marko Hietala – Yea. When I was in my twenties I got to be an apprentice recording engineer. That is why I was sitting in the studio and helping people out. I was also doing a lot of studio vocal work; both coaching, arranging, and singing harmonies. It had been an interest of mine, but I do have to say lately I have been putting the brakes down. (Laughs) At some point in time I was doing so much work it started to lose its point. These days, I try to very basically keep it to projects who I am friends with and whose music interests me.

Cryptic Rock – Understandable, you do not want to spread yourself too thin.

Marko Hietala – Yes, but also, interesting things are interesting. A couple of years back, for the first time, I did a Modern Classical thing with Ayreon. There were a lot of words, melodies, keys, tempo, and time signature that was changing all the time. I have to say before the premier I was crapping my pants, but I pulled myself together and it went well.

Cryptic Rock – It sounds like that was an exciting new challenge. Obviously we are in the midst of this worldwide pandemic. It is hard to tell what tomorrow will bring, but is Nightwish going to resume touring when they can?

Marko Hietala – We have had cancellations for the summer festival. We were also supposed to go to China in April. We are trying to move some things to 2021. The Central European tour, it should be sometime next fall, it’s still open. With the summer festivals, it seems like we are watching dominoes fall.

Cryptic Rock – It is unfortunate. Hopefully we can return to some sense of normalcy soon.

Marko Hietala – I agree, but what can you do? It’s a god damn virus, you cannot reason with it. This is the situation. Although, we have the album out and hopefully people are getting to listen to it. Hopefully we get to see each other some time in the future. I love doing shows and I’m really bummed out that we have no shows. It would have been really great to go out there and start doing it together. After all, there are vibes involved when you build up that bubble for people, yourself, and your bandmates. When you do it together, it’s a vibe that you are hooked to… at least I am.

Cryptic Rock – Yes, a lot of people are hooked to those vibes. Last question. If you are a fan of Horror and Sci-Fi films, what are some of your favorites?

Marko Hietala – In Science Fiction, a film that went kind of under the radar was Predestination (2014). It has a brilliant time travel story. Of course everyone knows Interstellar (2014), which was big and great. Europa Report (2013) was also great as well.

Horror is more problematic for me, because I can’t be scared anymore. Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House was pretty good.

#marko hietala #nightwish #2020 interviews

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englishitaliantranslations · 4 years ago

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Italian English Basic Translations

Right/Correct- Giusta Wrong- Sbagliato Leave- Partire / Lasciare Left (Direction)- La Sinstra Right (Direction)- La Destra / Il Destro Rights (Law)- Il Diritto / Diritti Turn- Girare Stop- Fermare Change- Cambia Switch- Passare Twist- torcere Straight- Dritto, diritto, direttamente Ahead/Forward- avanti Behind- dietro Between- tra / fra Spin- roteare Sit- sedere / sedersi Run- correre, funzionare, andare, gestire Walk- camminare Wash- lavare Clean- pulito / pulire Wake (up)- svegliati Choose- scegliere Select- Selezionare / scelto Sleep- dormire Talk/Speak- parlare / dire Shout- urlare Hurt/Injure- ferire Heal- guarire / curare Though- anche se Through- attraverso Thorough- approfondito Maybe/Perhaps- può essere / forse Lift- sollevare Shake- scuotare / agitare Move- spostare Push- spingere Pull- tirare Press- premare / pressare Point- indicare / puntare Carry- portare / trasportare Drag- trascina Drop- far cadere Bring- portare Break- rompere Up- in alto / verso l'alto Down- in giù / verso il basso Above- sopra Below- sotto Rip- strappare Tear- lacerare Cook- cucinare / cuocere Boil- bollire Hit- colpire Punch- punzonare Hug- abbraccio add- aggiungi subtract- sottrarre minus- meno eat- mangio drink- beve lick- leccata Pay- paga Cancel- Annulla

Write- scrivere, (you write- scrivi, I write- scrivo io, I write to you, ti scrivo, wrote- ha scritto, written- scritto, scritta, was writing- stava scrivendo) Enter- entrare (entered- entrato, entered into- entrato dentro, entering- entrando) Exit- la uscita, uscire (exited- uscito, uscita, exciting- uscendo) Withdraw- ritirare / ritirarsi Return- il ritorno, tornare, ritornare, restituire Restart- ricomincia, riavviare, ricomincia Corner- Angolo Shoot- sparare Park- parcheggiare Start- inizio / cominciare Finish- finire End- La fine Continue- proseguire / continua Follow- segui inside- dentro outside- al di fuori front- davanti rear/back- posteriore / di dietro hold- tenere remove- rimuovere less- di meno more- di più another- un altro other- altro

a- un / una about- circa all- tutti / tutte also- quasi and- e as- come at- a be- essere become- diventare because- perché but- ma by- via / di / da / a / per can- può / potere come- vieni / venga could- potuto day- giorno do- fare even- anche find- trova first- primo / prima for- per from- di / da / a / per / a partire dal get- ottenere (obtain) give- dare go- vai / andare hate- odio have- ho / avere he- lui her- sua (objects) here- qui / ecco / qua him- lui his- il suo (objects) how- come I- io if- se in- in / nel / nella into- in is- è it- esso / essa / lo / la its- suo / suoi (objects) just- appena know- sapere / conoscere like- piace look- guarda make- rendere / fare man- uomo many- molto / tanto me- me more- ancora my- mio need- bisogno new- nuovo news- notizia not- non now- adesso / ora yes- sì no- no of- di on- su / in funzione off- spento / spenta one- uno / una only- solo / sola / soltanto / solamente or- o other- altro our- nostro / nostra out- su / fuori own- proprio / propria people- gente say- dire see- vedo / vedere

she- lei so- così so-so- così così some- alcuni / alcune take- prendo tell- raccontare than- di / che that- quello / quella the- la / il / le / i / gli / l’ / lo their- le loro / i loro / il loro them- loro / esse / essi / li / le then- poi / allora there- là / lì / ci / vi / colà these- questi / queste they- esse / essi / loro thing- la cosa / il coso think- pensa this- questo / questa those- quelli / quella / quei / quegli time- tempo to- a / per / di two- due / i due up- in piedi use- uso very- molto / molta want- volere / voglio was- era / è stato way- modo we- noi well- bene what- che cosa when- quando How much- quanto / quanta

How many- quanti / quante where- dove whether- se / che while- mentre which- quale who- chi why- perché / come mai will- volere with- con

without- senza would- voluto year- anno you- Tu / te / ti / vi / voi you (plural)- voi tutti your- il tuo / vostro

touch- toccare sight- vista smell- odore hear- sentire / udire / ascolta taste- gustare feel- sentire sense- percepire allow- permettere / consentire ban- bandire / proibire / vietare / interdire set- impostare / esporre over- oltre under- sotto Keep- tenere release- rilasciare assume- assumere believe- credere put- mettere place- porre / collocare after- dopo before- prima collect- raccogliere / riscuotere dispose- disporre / smaltire

cut- taglio empty- svuotare / vuotare fill- riempire toward- verso, versa away- lontano, lontana throw- gettare catch- catturare however- tuttavia, però, comunque, per quanto this or that- questo o quello otherwise- altrimenti record- disco, registrare measure- misurare

answer- rispondere, la risposta question- la domanda, interrogare problem- il problema reply- replicare, la republica ignore- ammettere play- giocare, suonare replay- replay repeat- ripetere) ask- chiedi, chiedere admit- ammettere agree- essere d’accordo, concordare disagree- disaccordo, dissentire join- aderire, unire, unirisi separate- separare, separato, disgiungere, disunire leave- lasciare, partire appear- apparire, comparire disappear- scomparire

again- ancora, di nuovo, nuovamente encore- bis against- contro

#italian #english

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linernotesandseasons · 6 years ago

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My 18 Favorite Albums of 2018

Well...Here it is again! 2018 was a...YEAR. One of the toughest I’ve had so far. But full of hard work, growth, challenges, & little victories. Here are some of the albums that soundtracked it. 18 releases that I loved & supported. Songs that helped me make it through. For the seventh year in a row...My favorite albums. Listed here in no particular order (unless you know/enjoy the english alphabet). Top 5 are probably Monae, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Field Report, McEntire, & Liza Anne, in that order. Music marks time & space. These are the ones for this year. Enjoy!

AMERICAN TRAPPIST / Tentanda Via

We start our 2018 journey in a comfortingly familiar place with the second official full length album from Toms River, New Jersey’s American Trappist. His self-titled debut made my 2016 favs list and his old band River City Extension (top 5 reunion tour wish list for sure!) were second to Fun. on my list way back in 2012. Safe to say Joe Michelini is one my favorite songwriters of the last 10 years. Lucky for us, 2018 found Michelini writing equal parts depressing & uplifting boardwalk rock & roll for/from the underdog/underground. Tentanda Via (Latin for “the way must be tried”) is a blast of an album; full of horns, drums (both jazzy & rock & roll-y!), inspired piano, & Michelini at the helm sounding altogether confident in his existential breakdowns. To me this reads like a coming-of-age album at heart (the way must be tried!), but a deeper, wiser sort of unraveling. A mid-30′s rock opus about learning to live with yourself. Learning how to make yourself better. These songs are inspiring and mix more than a little Springsteen ethos (maybe it’s the horns?!) with some late 90′s/early 2000′s emo/indie/alternative etc...

The straightforward rockers “Death Wish” & “Nobody’s Gonna Get My Soul” bookend the nine track album with surprisingly nimble & crunchy electric riffs and off-the-charts energy! In between, the mid tempo drive of “Getting Even” & “Don’t Get In” lets Michelini’s emotional writing really shine. The words jump out of the songs, full of passion, desperation, & an urgency that makes me glad people are still making records like this. There’s also a unholy, weird interlude that you have to hear to believe called “Unfresh Dirtwolf.” American Trappist is a band that came from the ashes of another band. A band that seems reluctant to tour West of...Ohio. A band that stays under the radar. Michelini has been writing some of my favorite songs for awhile & it feels good growing older together. Here’s hoping for a new one of these every other (or just every?!) year for me to belt along to with the windows down in my Subaru. Joe, if you’re listening out East, don’t stop. This is why I love music.

“Driving through my hometown I feel the peace of the Lord / Ride up behind me on a blind dream from my childhood / Looking back again, it’s hard to understand / Getting older, I guess I do / Waiting on some waking dream like it might find you...”

BLACK BELT EAGLE SCOUT / Mother of My Children

I bought Black Belt Eagle Scout’s debut album at Twist & Shout Records the day it came out. I think I loved the cover art and the idea of Katherine Paul’s solemnly solo rock album, recorded in the dead of Winter in rural Washington, sounding like just what I wanted in my headphones to face the Fall. Then (as so often happens) I got a text a month later from my partner at 12:27am that read simply...

“I’m okay. Going to bed meow. Listen to Black Belt Eagle Scout.”

From there we took Mother of My Children on a snowy road trip to Durango, Colorado. Crisscrossing mountain passes through snowstorms, & visiting Mesa Verde National Park, we let Paul’s earnest, determined, & emotional songs, sweep us into the gray. All this to say that this album has already marked some pretty specific time & place for me. There is a starkness to these songs, a simplicity that makes the songwriting stand alone. Where lesser lyricists would be revealed as phonies (or simply bad) Katherine Paul’s stark, powerful words are illuminated by her minimalist production. With a rhythmically mournful 80′s/90′s emo touch (for more modern emo fans I might even hear a little Manchester Orchestra) Paul doesn’t pull any punches. The guitar gets delightfully heavy on the outro to six minute epic opener “Soft Stud” and then twirls & spirals with the drums in the entrancingly sad “I Don’t Have You in My Life.” This is an important album for Paul to have written and there is a great power in her words. Oh also... she plays every instrument on the album!?! Guitar, bass, drums, vibraphone, keyboard, organ, various percussion, & all vocals. Very Vagabon. Very Caroline Rose (spoiler alert!)! With our world on fire, and full of threats (from our own government) to native lands & native people, it’s increasingly important to listen to and hear/heed the words and writings of people like Paul; a radical, indigenous, queer, feminist from Oregon. Thanks for speaking out KP. Listen to Black Belt Eagle Scout.

“Do you ever notice what surrounds you? When it’s all bright & tucked under / Do you ever notice what’s around you? When it’s all right under our skin...”

CAMP COPE / How To Socialise & Make Friends

Camp Cope is a GREAT band name. Camp Cope is a REALLY GREAT band. Camp Cope has a wit & an attitude that is so punk rock, so genuine, & How To Socialise & Make Friends is a powerful album. Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, Camp Cope rides a practiced garage-y sound and lead singer & lyricist Georgia Mac’s passionate howl and impressive writing. As someone who grew up on early 2000′s pop-punk, emo, & alternative (something I guess I probably regret more often than celebrate. Because toxic masculinity & white male fragility) there is something so bittersweetly nostalgic in these chord progressions, the earnest electric strums, the yell-sing vocals, that takes me back to high school. Georgia Mac has a way with words, sliding them in & out, over cascading, steady strums, & then sometimes building them up to a frantic yelling. These are songs that sound as if they had to come out, had to be sung this way, like no one else could write or sing them. With an equally muscular rhythm section, “The Opener” attacks music industry sexism head on (if you haven’t seen Camp Cope live, it is chill inducing hearing a whole room belt along to every word) with a bass riff that could fly a jetliner. The three members interact so well together musically and everything from the driving “UFO Lighter” to the lilting “Sagan, Indiana” sounds tightly rehearsed. Equally passionate in their social media presence and their willingness to engage and fight for social justice issues, Camp Cope represents the future. Bands like this are changing the game right now and it’s exciting to hear it in real time.

When I close my eyes for a second, as the title tracks rings out and the gorgeously, lightly sad “The Face of God” ambles in, I’m 17 again. I’m driving for the first time, crying at the moon by myself or laughing with my friends. I’m a freshman in college, skipping my Friday classes (and braving mountain passes!) headed west, headed home. Then I snap awake and I’m 32, it’s Winter here and Georgia bellows “Just get it all out, put it in a song. Just get it all out, write another song!” Thanks Camp Cope. This album is special.

“It’s another all-male tour preaching equality / It’s another straight, cis man who knows more about this than me / It’s another man telling us we’re missing a frequency / SHOW ‘EM KELLY / It’s another man telling us we can’t fill up the room / It’s another man telling us to book a smaller venue / Nah, hey, cmon girls we’re only thinking about you / Well, see how far we’ve come not listening to you / ‘Yeah just get a female opener, that’ll fill the quota’...”

CAROLINE ROSE / Loner

It took Caroline Rose four years from her weirdly rootsy-riffy debut album to find her true self, but Loner sounds every bit like an artist comfortable in their own skin & confident in their craft. Dialing up the synths, fuzz, and brilliantly tongue-in-cheek lyrics, Rose touches on all the big topics: drugs, death, sex (ism), and money! with a casual, conversational songwriting maturity that belies her 28 year old sophomore-ness. Favorites include “Jeannie Becomes a Mom” (check out that bouncy organ!), the steady build & twisty, head-turning songwriting of “Getting To Me,” & the electro warp & wend of “To Die Today.” I was finally convinced into falling for this album when my partner played it three times (or was it six?) back-to-back-to-back on a rainy Summer Sunday afternoon drive from Granby, CO back into Denver. Something about the pacing; the complex, yet immediate song structures that leave you wanting more. These are songs of tested confidence. But shining through it all, Rose is a wild card. A red clad rockstar with a palpable spirit, not afraid to wear her heart on her sleeve & laugh a little along the way. Loner is full of dance jams for the cool kids & the loners. At its core it preaches acceptance, and teaches us to love ourselves & love each other for who we are. Go Caroline! See you in a month in LA!

“Waitress sets the tables, two & four & six / Laying placemats, knife, fork, spoon, upon napkin / All the counter people, she knows us all by name / A counter people fission, everywhere we are the same... / & so you line ‘em up, a single cell, another one gone / Ostracon vase with your name on the line...”

FIELD REPORT / Summertime Songs

At some point during this year I begin to realize how important beloved songwriters releasing new works is always going to be to me, I was falling (& re-falling) for new works from long time favs Calexico, Gregory Alan Isakov, Florence & The Machine, & of course Phosphorescent. But somehow it was Field Report’s third release Summertime Songs that stuck and became perhaps the most meaningful of all. I fell in love with Field Report in the midst of a hard, hard winter (2012 I think). Their sophomore album Marigolden has been a constant companion since 2014. I first heard this set of songs (the ones that comprise Summertime) in the June of 2017, sweating in the familiar Eau Claire, Wisconsin heat. Hearing a set of 100% new, unreleased material is exciting and also kind of a risk. After the set I wrote that the new tunes “Sound like June. Like wet cement & flash floods. Like swollen rivers & mosquitos full of hard fought human blood. Like growing older & having kids. Intimate details stretched over skittery, percussive thunderclouds. Like grabbing an electric fence. Digging in &...replanting.” I was 100% in it. On a high in Wisconsin & falling deeper in love with music. Then Field Report went mostly silent & we had to wait till early 2018 to get the recorded versions. Adding even more drums (Shane Leonard deserves a shout-out here as a killer pocket player!) some electronic effects, and ramping up on the arm-out-the-rolled-down-window singalongs definitely serves Chris Porterfield (did you know the name Field Report is just an anagram of his last name?!) well. Whoever it was who asked him “why don’t you try Summertime songs” was on the right track. His songwriting is as electric as always on this set of heartbreakers & as usual he follows a lot the same threads. His lyrics here are visceral, wordy, & wise, & i can feel the songs growing up with me. Sometimes I lead, sometimes they lead me, but we always seem to find each other exactly when we need to.

“Time is a bird with a mean, hooked beak / & he’s just waiting around to work on you & on me... / Shotgun wedding, black on blue / The river’s swelling like a bruise...”

H.C. McENTIRE / Lionheart

Heather McEntire has been carving out a name for herself in the North Carolina music scene for years fronting old-school punk band Bellefea & more recently, the much loved Mount Moriah. But way way back in January, Lionheart roared in under her own name; all ferocious & tender, confident & wild. A true southern record, Lionheart is vocal & lyric forward. From the Sunday morning hymn swell of opener “A Lamb, A Dove,” to the driving swing of “Baby’s Got the Blues,” & the late night, red wine country of “When You Come For Me.” McEntire enlists all her talented musical friends on this effort. There are co-writes with the legendary Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill (whom McEntire credits with helping her find her individual voice), bgvs from Amy Ray (Indigo Girls), Angel Olsen, & Tift Merrit, & inspired guitar work from William Tyler & Durham favorite Phil Cook!

Through it all, McEntire stays true to the thread that made Mount Moriah’s “How To Dance” one of my 2016 favs. Lionheart exudes the smells & scenery of North Carolina and reads like a map at times, referencing points from Stoney Creek to the Green River Gorge. Some of my favorite songs written over the last five years (or ever) have a very strong (& often specific) idea of place. If country music is going to representative of the country that I want to live in, it’s going to be sung by people like Heather McEntire. A powerful queer southern woman; vulnerable & brave, a true Lionheart.

“You’ll find me in the hollow, dosing anything that might / Make the map look any smaller, give me a dog in the fight / So call it off or call it God, call it anything you like / Do you see it in my eyes? / A levee on the rise, do you see it? / The tellin’ ain’t told gently, so pay your tab & pay your dues / The dogwood & the chicory & a silent wood stove flue / Your baby’s got the blues just like you...”

iZCALLi / IV

I was late to the party on Izcalli (a band from my own city!) and when I found them, it was magical, I think they were playing an opening set for Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas at Lost Lake and I probably stumbled in late from PS Lounge or Tommy’s Thai to shredding electric guitar & ska, latin funk, & pure Led Zepplin Rock & Roll. Frontman Miguel Avina was howling & stomping in Freddy Mercury-meets-Mariachi white pants, his long curly hair everywhere, all energy. I was immediately hooked. Calling them my favorite local band and finally getting to put them on this end of the year list. Izcalli joins some pretty good “local band” company here on linernotes&seasons. From Nina De Freitas’ EP last year; Yawpers, Covenhoven, & Rateliff in 2015, to Isakov & Covenhoven in 2013 & The Lumineers all the way back in 2012! Izcalli has been playing around Denver for 13 years and have slowly built up enough of a following to headline the Bluebird Theater last year. Their fourth album (aptly titled IV) comes out swinging and showcases plenty of heavy power chord riffs, violin, horn, & songs in both English & Spanish. Their heavier, more classic rock influenced songs (”Lightning Red” & “Eso Velocidad”) absolutely explode with fiery lead guitar and inspired drumming. When they dial it back and let their Mexican influences show through, like on the eerily crunchy, violin led “Quite de Mas” and the woozy saxophone breakdown of “Solo Se Morir,” they showcase depth and a real songwriting ability. There is an almost Muse-like thunder to the monstrous organ riff of “A New Lie” and closer “Si Estoy Contigo” sends everybody out dancing. With influences from all over (most notably their homeland Mexico City) & a live show that’s not to be missed, Izcalli embodies everything I think of when I think of a true Denver band.

“A frozen heart in me turned out to be my one way home / I swear I’ll leave, I’ll drive myself down to Mexico...”

JANELLE MONAE / Dirty Computer

Dirty Computer is my favorite album of 2018. Much like my favorite album last year (Lorde’s Melodrama) no one was as simultaneously honest & excavating in their personal songwriting; while still writing such absolutely shredding club bangers, as Janelle Monae. Dirty Computer acts as a coming out party of sorts for the 32 year Kansas City-ian, although, to be fair, her first two albums had already scored her Grammy nominations and the stamp of approval from Prince, Eryakah Badu, & Michelle Obama. Her debut The ArchAndroid and her followup The Electric Lady, found her creating elaborate alter egos, protest songs, and complex, critically acclaimed song cycles about life as a black woman in America. With Dirty Computer she is able to hold multiple titles at once. Schizophrenically on top of her game, tying all her alter egos together with stellar production, monster vocals, and some of the best, most interesting pop songs since...well...maybe since Prince. From the Brian Wilson assisted eerie sci-fi sweetness of stage setting opener “Dirty Computer,” she lets loose on some of her most fun, live-a-little anthems “Crazy, Classic Life,” and “Take a Byte.” Deeply personal, political, & inspiring “Django Jane” is stunning, & sets the stage for mega back-to-back singles “Pynk” & “Make You Feel.” Songs of my (and everybody else’s) Summer for sure. “I Got The Juice,” is light & bouncy, & personal favorite “I Like That” is rebellious & rides an immediately memorable instrumental into one helluva vocal take from Monae. She makes a political statement in closing with the anthem “Americans,” (anybody else think this one especially sounds like a lost Prince track?) but her strength is her ability to be both personal & political; a true diva with a purpose. These songs are Janelle creating and sounding exactly how she wants, pushing the limits of what a superstar can do, Her show at the Paramount in July was a highlight for me, and Dirty Computer is hands down my album of the year.

“Box office numbers & they doin’ outstanding, running out of space in my damn bandwagon / Remember when they use to said I look too mannish? / Black girl magic yall can’t stand it...”

LIZA ANNE / Fine But Dying

In a year where I seemed to gravitate to albums & songs about living in, and growing through, mental health issues; Liza Anne’s blistering (and epically titled!) Fine But Dying was definitely a top five album for me. A gifted songwriter, Dying finds Anne finally letting it out with a heavy band, a light touch, & a deep dive into the insecurities & struggles that seemed to be (gulp) some of the same ones I was going through this year. Songs about conversations, relationships (both romantic & platonic), and most importantly, about examining & improving yourself. No one on this list unpacks, observes, and mines their own heart & mind as well or as deeply as Anne does across these 11 tracks. When she really cuts loose, like in the ballistic breakdown of “Kid Gloves,” the fuzzy crunch of “Get By,” or the spiraling, swirling (& also epically titled!) “I Love You, But I Need Another Year” she shines. Fine But Dying is wise beyond its years and a no-holds-barred, place-in-time look at mental health & how we should all be addressing our issues & working things out. Her show at Globe Hall here in Denver back in April was cathartic, thoughtful, & one of my favorite of this year for sure. Yay for fearless songwriters, Yay for rock & roll. Fuck yeah Liza Anne!

“I ran once, took my flight across the ocean / I thought if I could make my way across the sea I’d find a place / Now I’m swallowed up by a city that doesn’t give a fuck / To whether I am up on time / Or whether if I am, well...alive / & I’m so good - getting too good at hiding / Too good at keeping to myself that I’m spiraling...”

MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO / Ventriloquism

I think it was “Atomic Dog 2017″ that first caught my ear at some point last year. I didn’t know Meshell Ndegeocello, but I knew that what I was hearing was classic. The off-kilter guitar strums slithering into that bass drop, finally settling into a steady groove, that melody appearing (seemingly out of nowhere) into a rolling, & instantly recognizable chorus. Next thing I know I’m googling George Clinton and off into an 80′s funk youtube rabbit hole. A covers album to stand up to any other covers album, Ndegeocello has a masterpiece on her hands in both song selection & creativity. In a year where she turned 50, the sneakily titled Ventriloquism is her 12th studio album, Inspired by listening to oldies radio on car rides to her childhood home, influenced by Prince & Neil Young; Ventriloquism is a super smooth revamp of 80s & 90s R&B. What Ndegeocello does so seamlessly on Ventriloquism is take these songs and make them flow as a part of a whole. There is light in the darkness here. There are threads of continuation here. An appreciation for those who came before, those who paved the way. Ndegeocello is a true artist and these reinterpretations not only nod to classic songs & artists, but dig out their own little important niche in 2019.

“Sometimes it snows in April / Sometimes I feel so bad, so bad / Sometimes I wish life was never ending / & all the good things they say, never last / Springtime was always my favorite time of year / A time for lovers holding hands in the rain...”

MIYA FOLICK / Premonitions

Every year I wait till the last minute (and beyond!) to finish this list. I write it up in November & December, agonizing & filling out what I think are my favorite albums (18 this time!) of the year. I enjoy whittling the list down to a manageable number, but I also enjoy reading everyone else’s lists; finding new finds & hearing what other people liked. Then, sometime in the middle of December, I am knocked out by something I missed over all the year of listening & reading. This year it is MIYA FOLICK! I was given a wintry new year’s mix of goodbye 2018 (and F*** you!) tunes from my partner (which I will probably post & write about sometime as soon as I finish posting this because it is goooood), and track 9 of that spotify mix. Bouncy horns, a killer beat, & lyrics that cut right to me but leave me smiling. Rhyming “self home” with “cellphone”?! Singing about leaving the party?! Yesssss!. This is for me! On deeper listens, Premonitions is a goddamn masterpiece. Starting slowly & melodically, openers “Thingamajig” and the title track are captivating, then it unexpectedly explodes into 80′s dance bangers about half way through. Most of the album is deeply personal and self examining, finding Folick digging into to her own weaknesses & fears, without always settling on answers. She is vulnerable yet grand; part Lorde, part Florence, part Stevie NIcks, part Regina Spektor...All Miya. At its core, Premonitions celebrates life, celebrates the little victories. If you want to know/hear what that sounds like, maybe I should let you read from Miya’s bandcamp page...

“Premonitions begins with ‘Thingamajig’ -- something you can't quite recall the name of, but you know exactly what it means and what it feels like. Like the pull of desire that comes with not quite remembering fully. The magnetism of something just on the tip of your tongue. I wanted the album to feel like that thing.

I think a lot about about memory-making as an act of creation, the words we use to describe a memory give shape to and sometimes mutate the memory itself. I believe that the way we choose to describe the events of our lives is not only a means of creative fulfillment, but an absolutely vital part of creating the world we want to live in. When we are dishonest in the present, we create a dishonest future. When we are honest in the present, we create a more honest future. I wanted this album to be the vehicle for a hopeful, truthful, generous, and loving world. I tried not to posture or pretend. I wrote about my life as I've seen it and how I'd like to see it, as both memory and premonition.

The producers, Justin Raisen and Yves Rothman, and I spent months collecting organic sounds to fill the world of this record. We threw away everything that felt false and tried to keep the soul of each song alive. I hope Premonitions gives you comfort and joy. I hope it feels like all the mysterious details of your lives, all your massive and mundane glories. I hope it reminds you that there is beauty in the details. Rainbows in your sprinklers. Drinking water from a hose. The way it felt to make a friend for the first time. Locking yourself in a bathroom to avoid everyone. Dancing until your shins burn. Leaving your phone in an Uber and making your best friend drive you an hour away to knock on a stranger's door after locating it on Find My Phone. Losing a friend. Losing yourself. Remembering...”

MT. JOY / Mt. Joy

I had almost finished making this list and nearly forgot about an album that marked a month-plus in the Spring when I listened to almost nothing else! Philly by way of LA’s Mt. Joy debut with an album that blends sunny California folk & smoothed out east coast pop-emo, into easy listening, easy singing indie rock. Named after a mountain in Valley Forge National Park (SE Pennsylvania); Mt. Joy’s songs similarly find geographic touch points across the US, making this a true road trip record. Multiple California references (San Fran, Mulholland, Hollywood, the ocean), make their way down to New Orleans, and end up on the east coast (”blood on the streets in Baltimore” & “the beaches of Chincoteague”). Without breaking any new musical ground, Mt. Joy sounds comfortable & confident, and their songs play bigger & stickier than your average radio friendly pop-saturated-folk. When the title track hits its festival ready build (”you can’t stop us, feel like Ziggy Stardust”) you’ll have a hard time not rolling down your window and singing along. “Way up over Mt, Joy. Where everyone’s free now. To move how they feel now.”

“Your life will change straight out of the blue / The clouds in your mind just passing through / Image the horses when you set ‘em free / Go tear down the beaches of Chincoteague...”

NONAME / Room 25 (& Song 31)

Room 25 kicks in innocently enough: smoothly humming wordless voices, steady drums, & jazzy piano flourishes. Like a lazy Sunday morning. Noname (Chicago’s 27 year old Fatimah Warner) introduces herself with a laid back, matter-of-fact, stream of consciousness “maybe this is the album you listen to in your car when you’re driving home late at night, really questioning every god, religion...” But then she says something that should make you pay attention.

“Nah. Actually this is for me.”

That creative confidence. That freedom, defines the rest of her album. No matter how much critical acclaim Room 25 racks up (I saw this album on a ton of end of the year lists!), no matter how downright fun & laugh out loud funny her breakneck rhymes are, this one is for Noname. I mean, you can still download (aka OWN...like for your ipod!) the whole album on bandcamp FOR FREE! Following in Chance’s footsteps, it’s free mp3s for people like meeee! Raised in Chicago’s slam poetry scene, she dabbles here in downtempo, smoothed out, futuristic jazz & soul. All the while she is unapologetically herself. Her words tripping over each other, too many thoughts, too much energy, too much passion to hold in. A clear blockbuster talent. One of my favorite new finds from last year’s Eaux Claires festival, her late afternoon set up on the hill was radiant & joyful. The artwork I used here is from her early 2019 single “Song 31,” as she has pledged to change the official Room 25 cover art, due to assault charges leveled in October against the artist who did the original cover. “I do not and will not support abusers, and I will always stand up for victims & believe their stories.” Noname said, and she has been proven to be as vocal in her personal life as she is on tape. As she says in the uplifting “Ace...”

“Globalization is scary, and fuckin’ is fantastic” And yall still thought a bitch couldn’t rap huh?...

“When labels ask me to sign, say ‘my name don’t exist’ / So many names don’t exist / Moved into Inglewood & the trauma came with the rent / Only worldly possession I have is life / Only room that I died in was 25...

Medicine’s overtaxed, no name look like you / No name for private corporations to send emails to / Cuz when we walk into heaven, nobody’s name gonna’ exist / Just boundless movement for joy, nakedness, radiance...”

RAINBOW KITTEN SURPRISE / How To: Friend, Love, Freefall

Rainbow Kitten Surprise made one of my five favorite albums this year (and probably the one that I sang along to in the car more than any other!) Imagine Modest Mouse growing up in North Carolina, in the 2010′s, writing smart, anti-lumineers-imagine dragons tunes, and going on to play arenas & rock clubs alike. This Boone, NC (pop. 17,000) five piece crank out catchy pop rock tunes; equal parts funky basslines, ooohs & ahhhs, and deceptively clever lyrics about religion, the south, and relationships both platonic & romantic. Huge single “Fever Pitch” rides rolling drums, background whoops, and finds charismatic frontman Sam Melo languidly recounting his religious upbringing and sing-rapping about getting to know you better. Other standouts include the acoustic blues (and Aha-Shake-era-Kings of Leon reminiscent!) “Painkillers,” the “Moon & Antarctica” rattletrap sing-song of “Possum Queen,” and the laugh-out-loud funny breakneck alternative pace of “Matchbox.” But it is song of the year contender “Hide” where Melo lays bare his feelings about growing up gay in a deeply religious south, when you get a peek at what Surprises these Rainbow Kittens are capable of. What starts as a bouncy love number takes a turn into some deep songwriting with “I’m running from a place where they don’t make people like me, I keep the car running, I keep my bags packed. I don’t wanna’ leave, just don’t wanna’ leave last.” This is Fruit Bats’ “Soon-to-be Ghost Town” written by someone who’s lived it. RKS packages it all up as emotional anthems, dancey-catchy choruse that stick, & an album that-while serious, is so damn fun to sing along to. They’ll be at Red Rocks next Summer so come hop on the bandwagon and get to know your new favorite band!

“You’re a master of passive-aggressive magic tricks like “that’s not the card that I would’ve picked, but it’s your life to live like how you’d like to live...’”

SUN JUNE / Years

Sun June’s debut record Years is an album that I never expected to be on this list, but one that pushed its way into my heart, ears, and mind a lot over the early Summer. I kept comparing it to Leif Vollebekk’s gorgeously haunting 2017 release Twin Solitude that made it on last year's list in that it managed to be rhythmically funky & interesting while being mostly SO quiet. Even the more “upbeat” numbers; from the gorgeously, golden swing of “Young,” to the steady backbeat of “Baby Blue” keep their composure meticulously. The writing is transfixing on Years and the band is so tight, with every member adding just the right amount of soft sound. I tried to explain it to somebody as music you have to “squint to hear.” It sounds good in the background, all sweet & rolling. But better up close, turned up in headphones. All together & bright. This is an album I would listen to sleepily, on my way home from work, driving Colfax in the first light of dawn at 5 in the morning. Sun June’s lack of an internet presence is refreshing (is there ANYWHERE I can find the lyrics for this album??!!), I think they’re from Texas, and I don’t think they’ve even played a show in Colorado yet! Regardless, Years is tied together with a quietly tight rhythm section, and Laura Colwell’s wispy vocals, grabbing at the edges of my brain, calmy insisting “Four in the morning, I could get used to this...”

“I was almost always leaving / Looking for the reason / Bedside hospital daylight / I go with the Southern mountains / Down the 405, I’m coming tell me you don’t deserve this / I was young...”

TIERRA WHACK / Whack World

I love me a good concept album, but even I would’ve thought that the idea of 15 one minute songs(complete with video accompaniment) making up an entire album, would be a tough sell. Whack World makes good on an innovative concept, delivering something breezy, catchy, & lasting, and making Tierra Whack one of my favorite new finds of 2018! My little sister showed her to me on a “Get-your-ass-to-the-gym” playlist and “Fruit Salad” was immediately stuck in my head for weeks. Mostly down-tempo, Whack is clearly a witty lyricist and creative mind, and at 23, a game changer in the music scene. Also an effortlessly cool, musical, badass. With almost no choruses, this is an album you can listen to over and over (and throw any tracks in mixes) without any clear singles. The bouncy gospel-tinged “Pet Cemetery” has hand claps & dog barks, and is followed immediately by the laugh-out-loud vocals of “Fuck Off.” Whack never takes herself too seriously (so many off the wall and laugh out loud funny vocals!) and the Philly native shows that one minute songs can turn a lot of heads and end up on a lot of end of the year best album lists! Whack World!

“Crispy clean and crisp & clean / For the dough I go nuts like Krispy Kreme / Music is in my Billie genes / Can’t no one ever come between yeah / Don’t worry about me I’m doing good, I’m doing great, alright...”

TYPHOON / Offerings

It seemed like a lifetime since Typhoon released their sophomore knockout, masterpiece album White Lighter back in 2013. I’ve grown a lifetime since, experienced everything since. In the first few weeks of January 2018, out of the darkness, out of the silence: came something darker, weirder, but still magical and at its core, celebratory. Typhoon is one of my all-time favorite bands, one of my favorite live shows, and frontman Kyle Morton writes about memory & loss, life & death, better than anybody in the game. With Offerings they have dropped the peppy horns, slimmed down to (only!) seven members, and zeroed in on the heavy, spiraling folk-rock that hearkens back a little to Bright Eyes or The Decemberists, Broken Social Scene or Arcade Fire. As a loose concept album, Offerings explores in four movements (Floodplans, Flood, Reckoning, & Afterparty) what happens to a mind stripped of memory. Or (side quest/plot/twist) a world willfully forgetting its history. From the hushed chanting that explodes into huge string swells, drums, and shouts of opener “Wake” to the rhythmic, glowing build of the 8 minute “Empricist,” to the mystical picking and ruminating of “Algernon” the first movement could almost stand as an album of its own. The rest of the album unravels at equal parts slow reflection (”Mansion” & “Beachtowel”) and sweeping indie rock (”Remember” & “Darker”). Although a lengthy (and at times not easy) listen, I think Offerings will go down as one of the most ambitious rock records of the last few years.

“& so the light fades / It’s still your birthday / So blow out your past lives like they’re candles on a cake...”

VALLEY MAKER / Rhododendron

There is a mysticism buried somewhere in the emotive vocals & break-in-the-clouds writing of North Carolina by way of Washington State’s Valley Maker. Austin Crane is the singular voice behind the Valley Maker project, painting time & space on a dark, slippery canvas, and hiding complex truths in the rhythmic tides of Rhododendron. This ground has been tread before; by countless folk singers & prophets, wailing of death, dark magic, & the myriad mysteries of time, but Valley Maker understand their place in the linear and bring a modern take to ancient stories. Part War on Drugs-highway-drone (check the double yellow rattle of “Light on the Ground”), part Ben Howard’s-foggy-British-countryside (”Beautiful Birds Flying”), Crane writes songs that stick. They claw and seep their way into skin, into veins, and haunt in a way that echoes of the past. This is songwriting as a conduit. These stories are Crane’s, but they are older; tales told since religion begin. From the first lines of the roiling, dark sky opener (”time is just a game I play / it’s written on the ocean’s waves / circling beyond my brain / something I could not contain.”) to the uncertain give & take of the earthy “Seven Signs” (”I’m cutting in line but I haven’t decided...”) the writing is equal to the musicianship Crane and his backing band clearly have in spades. With Chaz Bear (Toro Y Moi) providing stellar percussion and Amy FItchette (who I was lucky enough to see sing with VM at the Doug Fir in Portland) lending absolutely haunting, otherworldly harmonies, Crane has depth beyond his strange tunings and bleep & bloop electric forests. Through it all there is a steady rhythm to the darkness and like in “Baby, In Your Kingdom” when he tops a wonderfully simple, acoustic walk-down with “Baby are you satisfied? Take a decade, take a lifetime, I know we’re always on a one way street...” there is a timeless beauty even in the mystery. Oh, and saxophone. Rhododendron has some great saxophone.

“Baby in the next life / I can touch you, I can ride the light / Goddamn I wan’t where I thought I’d be / 29. Burn the world around me & I hide / Baby in your kingdom / Sink my roots in, I’m a tall tree / I know, wind is gonna blow again / I know, when I am with you...I am known...”

#black belt eagle scout #camp cope #caroline rose #field report #janelle monae #liza anne #meshell ndegeocello #miya folick #mt joy #noname #rainbow kitten surprise #sun june #tierra whack #typhoon #valley maker #izcalli #american trappist #h.c. mcentire

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tevotbegotnaught · 6 years ago

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“The conductor…in the power he has over others…it is in his interest as a human being, as well as that of his musical achievements, to resist the temptation to misuse it. Tyranny can never bring to fruition artistic-or for that matter human- gifts; subordination under a despot does not make for joy in one’s music-making. Intimidation deprives the musician of the full enjoyment of his talent and proficiency. Yet I should certainly not want to impugn the employment of earnest severity or even the occasional borrowing of the Bolt of Zeus; the latter if the hand knows how to wield it, can in exceptional situations bring surprisingly good results. Severity is a legitimate even indispensable means of dealing with people...”

Bruno Walter

In my Summer of 42 (years), I was a college freshman…again. With neither Mexican weed nor dormitory hijinks to distract me, I worked through the full Brooklyn College Core Curriculum and a handful of music courses. My degree plan also required an ensemble each semester. When the Assistant Dean interviewed me, he looked over my CV and immediately suggested their Jazz Band. After hearing them, I chose a contemporary music ensemble founded by a composition professor. Fall semester, she was on sabbatical and a trumpet prof, Juilliard guy and veteran freelancer, ran the class. To begin, he sat everyone in a circle and asked us to play “Happy Birthday" in hocket. Most of the class was unsure of the melody and some also thought it a stupid idea. With our nonstandard instrumentation, we massacred Second Viennese School composers for the rest of the term.

Spring term, the founder returned. She was just over five feet tall, brown-skinned, with narrow shoulders and mineshaft dark eyes. When she listened, her head nodded while bottomless eyes fixed on you. Raised in a distressed country, her life moved from prodigy to conservatory-trained professional with impeccable musicianship: piano, score reading, solfege, conducting, improvising, composing. Then, she came to the US, with zero money and English and rebuilt her career from scratch. At BC, she conducted the orchestra until politics pushed her out. Now, she gave composition lessons and led this ensemble.

Our roster still read as spare parts: three singers, three pianists, two flutes, violin, saxophone, clarinet, guitar; some highly skilled, others not. For most, English was a second or even third language. Our professor's first assignment: list your colleagues’ instruments, find pieces for a subset of our forces, select only pieces written after 1960, bring scores/parts for audition.

The following week, we presented our finds. First, someone showed her a John Cage duet. As she turned pages, Maestra’s face went blank .

“Why did you get this?”

A mumbled answer.

Maestra closed the score. “You got eet because eet looks easy. Didn't you? First of all, it’s a short duet. Three, maybe four minutes of music. Nothing to do on a real pro-GRAM. Not serious. Not serious at all.”

More mumbling.

“Get something else. Thank you.”

She jabbed the score into their hands, then addressed the class.

“Nothing about John Cage. John is extraordinary. When you choose music, don’t just take a name you theenk you know. Read the score. You are musicians …supposed to be….”

Next, one of the singers produced a folio. Its font, ornate and oversized. I winced. Maestra saw it was a Puccini aria with piano accompaniment and recoiled.

“After nineteen-sixty? Thees? You are kidding me!”

Again, she faced us.

“Thees is NOT opera work-SHOP. I know some of you did not make it there. I'm very sorry about that. Please find some other music to sing. There are so many good theengs. I hope you will find out. Music does not end with Verdi, Puccini.”

So it went. Gratefully, she anticipated our poor choices and suggested some pieces.

Meastra spoke Spanish to some students, aware of the terrain they navigated and supportive. Jorge, a Mexican pianist, was one of her projects. He was a skilled player, an enthusiastic and warm colleague. His giggle often broke up the class. In our third meeting, we rolled the piano front, Jorge sat on the bench. While he longed for mama's home cooking, he wasn’t missing any meals in Brooklyn. His midsection expanded well beyond his tight-waisted pants, straining shirt buttons. Maestra questioned him on preparation: “you’re playing the second movement, what about the third?”

Unaffected by the prodding, he began to play. A minute in, she said, “stop”.

He continued, eyes closed.

She shouted, “Stop! I’m telling you, STOP"

He looked over.

“JORGE….WHAT…ARE…YOU….DOING?”

It wasn’t meant as a question. Jorge smiled and gently shook his head.

“Why are you smiling? Look at you!”

Her voice leveled.

“This is not ready. It’s better, but it's not ready.”

She shifted.

“I am very worried about you. Look..at…your…STOMACH. You need to take better care of yourself. You know, pianists perform in pro-FILE. Theenk what you show to the audience.”

Jorge wasn't smiling. He put his hand on his belly.

“Everyone should con-see-der an exer-CISE pro-GRAM. I am forty years, Dio mio! Almost FEEFTY years older than some of you. Take care of yourselves.”

She dismissed him with a sweeping gesture.

“Ok, who is next? Anna, where is the list? Geeve it to me!”

Her assistant, a brilliant, tiny, Yankee grad student, always cleaned up.

Maestra partnered Jorge with another pianist for a Gyorgy Ligeti duo. Its ingenious architecture, a complex cycle revealed one beat at a time. In Yogi Berra's construction, half the score was ninety-nine percent rests. The players needed infallible inner time. While they played, Maestra leaned over the piano, right hand supporting her, left turning pages. She nodded her head slightly in tempo. The pianist's hits charged toward and away from each other like Pacman's gobbling goblins.

“You are late!” she slammed her left hand down. They went back. Another hammer blow. Back again. The piece never made it to the program.

At the end of the initial class, she approached me about Milhaud's “Le Creation du Monde", a chamber work for winds, including alto saxophone. We didn’t have the other winds, of course, but a young woodwind quintet, in residence for the year, would help out.

“Le Creation" story moves from brooding chorale to a raggy bolero where the winds pass around jumpy tunes, then strut them all, polyphonically, in a joyous finale.

At the first of four rehearsals, we were less than half personnel. Maestra had been enthusiastic about the quintet, encouraging us to meet, hear and study with them. But they were collaborating with major artists and appearing all over the world. Their residency, now in name only. No one in the group even bothered to return her emails. Our conductor was livid. (Later, the assistant assured us that Maestra never returned emails, either.) In rehearsal, the music just marked time. In long stretches with no tune and no landmarks, I fell into a hole and missed my entrance.

“What are you DOING! Counting! Count-ting! I can’t do everytheeng for you.”

Concert day was the first we all sat down to play. In the midst of my disciplined colleagues, I was a bellowing hippo. During the chorale, my slow descending notes were either out-of-tune, out-of-time, the wrong dynamic, or all three.

The baton came down hard “NO..NO..NO. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

“How can you be late. It's jazz. Jazz! You play jazz? Right? You know who is John Col-TRANE? Play it like Col-TRANE! Why should I have to tell YOU this. Come on!”

I wore other hats that night: soprano, clarinet. Still, my mind remained fogged through the Milhaud finale.

The quintet players all demolished their solos. With a huge smile, Maestra gave each well-deserved bows. When they were done, she flashed her eyes at me, scowling. Then, jerked both her hands upwards, like she was flipping a pool toy. I stood up and stared straight down.

Next semester, a composition student brought a score. It was mostly squiggles and arrows, notation designed to move the music forward without defining functional harmony or conventional melody. She conducted a circle for each “bar”. We could gauge the length of each gesture and respond in time. Simultaneously, she sang the gestures using their pitched start/end points, conducted, turned pages and offered substantive commentary. If one of us was even a second late, her glance immolated them.

I became friends with some of her students. Waiting outside her office, they often heard shouting. When the door opened, students walked out in tears. Some planned to work closely with Maestra toward their Master's or DMA. Those plans would change...

An alumni couple created an endowed chair for Maestra, protecting her from political games. To celebrate, students accompanied her to the donors’ Connecticut home for a musicale. We loaded two vans with the usual music school suspects: waifish Asian virtuoso string players, an Eastern European sturm und drang pianist, a diffident “difficult” composer, and bit players like me.

Both donors were in their eighties and fabulously rich, earnest, lefty intellectuals. The wife wore a gas mask-like apparatus, its hoses attached to a whirring box on her back. I strained to understand her speech, but her eyes shone with love and curiosity. The couple warmly welcomed us to a large room packed with guests.

I was part of a quartet: oboe, flute, clarinet and piano, playing a student work. The composer, a young Dominican guy, rising star in the program. A Caribbean undergraduate writing skilled takes on contemporary European music. His piece used the difference-tone clusters of Gyorgy Ligeti: loud, high notes, staggered and longheld, producing acoustic anomalies: window-fan undertones and piercing oscillations. Bathing in timbral waves and madly counting beats, I couldn’t find the piano part, though we made it to the end without requiring oxygen or a conductor. The composer took a awkward bow and disappeared.

With Maestra as Maitre’d we served up a baroque cello sonata, Beethoven piano music and some Sondheim. Then, our little foursome loudly dropped a turd on the buffet table.

The donor husband was one of those ruddy-faced white guys who wear baggy corduroys and turtle necks over their barrel physiques. He sought me out, towering above me as I packed up my clarinet.

“What did he mean with that piece?"

“Sir, I…I wouldn’t want to represent the composer, he never said anything about..”

“Now, you must know something.”

He was an important man accustomed to getting answers, fast and in full.

“I know my part and how it fits with the others. The woodwinds are playing difference tones, Stravinsky used...”

“Why didn’t HE explain that to us? We go to concerts all the time. Conductors explain new music. They give examples, give context. You can’t just write something like that and expect people to automatically understand it.”

Gulp....“Of course.”

“It’s his responsibility to help the audience understand the music”

I looked over. By the buffet, the composer was holding a plate, one of the string players laughing next to him. Mrs Donor approached me, extending her hand. The box on her back hissed and clicked. Above the mask, searching eyes, below, a voice from a radio in another room. Was she talking about the quartet? It was too uncomfortable. I interrupted.

“Thank you so much for your hospitality and the opportunity to play for you. You and your husband are so generous.”

She squeezed my hand and leaned in, radio transmission drowning in static. Her husband came to her side.

“My wife is saying we've been to many, many concerts of new music. Starting way back, with Lenny Bernstein. He taught us there’s always something to learn. He introduced us to many extraordinary artists”

He put his hand lightly on her back. Over her shoulder, Maestra was listening to a guest, head level with their sternum, eyes searchlights in reverse. The radio faded and its whirring submerged in the din.

We got back very late. Our vans parked by the gatehouse and turnstile on the east side of campus. A few yellow lights glowed in the music building. Maestra thanked us. We said goodnight.

Drifting on an acoustic sea, our ancestors explored sound, harnessing the waves. Between foaming peaks and psychic undertow, they found power. From our African beginnings, to the stars, every lineage counted on those who navigated, who mastered instruments, who carried in them songs and stories. They became the music, while it lasted.

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secretradiobrooklyn · 4 years ago

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That Gingerbread Feeling | 12.19 & 12.25.20

Secret Radio | 12.19 & 12.25.20 | Hear it here.

That Gingerbread Feeling edition

1. Irving Berlin - “Snow”

I really enjoy picturing Rosemary Clooney beelining for a snowbank with a bottle of shampoo in one hand, blissfully mashing clumps of snow into her hair.

2. Christie Laume - “La musique et la danse”

The payoff holler in this song is like hearing an unknown animal call from the palm trees over there.

3. Gedou - live 1975

This is a straight-up holdover from the last broadcast. We were delighted to discover Gedou’s Japanese glam rock glory — especially in the context of the videos, where you can see how extremely unlike their world they are. In this one, a crowd of excited teens watches and claps along, and you can tell that they’re the rockers of their peers — they all sport variations on early rock pompadours. Gedou, however, has blown right past that style and is going full-orchid Spiders from Mars. They appear to be loving the shit out of every second onstage, and it’s completely infectious. This take also has a killer lead-in to a great live “Scent,” the song of theirs we played last week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdAP9ud-uEQ

4. Mannequin Men - “Private School”

I would like to shout out the rich music life of Chicago’s rock world, specifically from 2002-2008 but extending in both directions on the calendar. I feel truly fortunate to have been in Bound Stems, on Flameshovel Records, for most of those years. James and Jesse worked from an office above the Empty Bottle, sharing the space with a young Riot Act Media, and that label was the center of so much great music. Paige and I both especially loved Mannequin Men’s “Fresh Rot” album �� I always think of me and Paige in the Stems band van on Milwaukee Ave, headed gradually northwest toward Midwest Buy and Sell aka the best amp shop in Chicago, with “Private School” cranked, watching the train pass the other way, feeling like the city went on forever.

5. Ed Blaszczyk, Rock Band Himself - “Hully Gully Neurasthenique” from “The Quirky Lost Tapes 1993-1995”

Born Bad Records is the hottest of spots. I don’t know anything about this guy but I am under his control.

- Five minutes of a pink oyster mushroom playing modular synthesizer

A sincere thank you to Kevin Vlack for introducing us to the mesmerizing thoughtwaves of a pink oyster mushroom, as expressed by a wickedly set-up synth. By any objective measure it sounds random and unmusical, but my subjective experience is that it is incredibly smooth and welcoming to hear. It feels almost like an aural massage or something. I feel an autonomic response to it. In any case, we both immediately listened to it a bunch, and it only gets more appealing.

6. William Onyeabor - “Hypertension”

We still haven’t seen “Who Is William Onyeabor?,” so all I know about him is that his rhythmic approach is always totally absorbing. The cascading phrase that happens throughout the song feels like water being poured out of a jug. I especially dig how they split the vocalist between “hyper” and “tension,” kind of not unlike The Fall.

7. Renato Carosone - “Tu Vuó Fa’ l’Americano”

You want to be American — in Italian. Fun is being poked. It gets so surprisingly intense in the instrumental middle passage!

“Whiskey soda rock & roll”

8. Star Feminine Band - “Rew Be Me”

Another return performance from last week! Star Feminine Band’s new album is so freakin awesome. “Rew Be Me”’s rhythms are so fascinating on every instrument. Also, they’re made by girls between ages 11 and 17. This song is so many songs in one!

9. Ros Serey Sothea - “Kom Kung Twer Evey (Don’t Be Mad)” - “Cambodian Rocks”

More jaw-dropping ’60s Cambodian rock full of epic melodies and major-league parts from every member of the band — above all Ros Sereysothea, who was pronounced the “Queen with the Golden Voice” by the King of Cambodia.

Like every musician of her generation in her country, she was killed in the Khmer Rouge genocide.

10. Lohento Eskill et T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - “Mireille”

11. Mohamed Mazouni - “Ecoutes moi camarade”

A scenario that we’re just starting to consider is Algiers, which was a French territory in North Africa with as many Europeans as Africans. Before and after the revolution in 1962, Algerians are expanding the definition of French citizenship. An intoxicating version of the two cultures having equal input on the song’s palette and reference points.

- The pink oyster mushroom

12. The Fall - “Free Range”

This 7” came from a visit to a record shop in London that had an entire wall of Fall albums and singles and I just goggled at it. Kind of picked this one at random and it hits just so hard. For some reason this song sometimes reminds me of Self-Help Seminar, good friends from Seattle who we played with from early on. Harvey Danger did a version of their song “Heroine with an E.”

13. Les Poppys - “Non non rien n’a changé”

A pretty large chorus of garçons just kind of beautifully swarming around, I don’t really know where to put this song in my head. I love the “Hey Joe” style bassline in the finale passage so much!

14. Mahmood - “Soldi”

This is driving around Cambridgeshire to London, again and again, listening to this music and shouting “Fregherai!” This trip’s soundtrack was exclusively the 2019 candidates for Eurovision’s top prize. This was Italy’s contender. It was considered controversial, I was told, because they’re drawing on a musician who is speaking in Italian and describing the world from a minority’s experience in Italy. That’s pretty bold to use as your country’s champion — I thought that was pretty cool.

15. John Williams - “Home Alone Main Title”

Merry Christmas! We time-traveled in this moment up to and through Christmas. It was a quietly wonderful Christmas, I must say, and included viewing “Home Alone” for the first time in decades. “Feeling that gingerbread feeling” indeed. We’re thankful for so much this year even in the middle of all this giant mess.

16. The Fall - “Jingle Bell Rock”

My preferred Santa voice.

17. Lithics - “Hands”

Sure do like this band more than ever. “Tower of Age” has been nothing but awesome so far.

18. Samba Negra - “Long Life Africa” - “La Locura de Machuca”

Happy holidays to Ryan, who just got this album! Analog Africa is one of the flat-out most amazing record labels on Earth, and they put out this album this year. The cover art is insane, and the music is — also insane. This is the setup: “One night in 1975, a successful tax lawyer named Rafael Machuca had his mind blown in Barranquilla’s ‘Plaza de los Musicos’. Overnight he went from a high-ranking position in the Columbian revenue authority to visionary production guru of the newly formed record label that bore his name, Discos Machuca, and for the next six years he devoted his life to releasing some of the strangest, most experimental Afro Psychedelia Cumbia and Champeta ever produced.”

I mean, right?!

19. Meridian Brothers - “Salsa Caliente: Versión Aumentada”

This came to us via Francis Bebey, in the big ol’ stream. I definitely see the relationship. That’s what I’ve been really appreciating recently, how musicians from all over the globe seemed to be in musical communication with each other in the ’70s. There was such a wild explosion of music happening worldwide, influencing each other in a way that must have been at least partially psychic.

20. The Little Rabbits - “Yeah”

I got this CD in an armful of albums from Harvey Danger’s French distributor. I put this one on and was just… it was fascinating. This song is a definite high point, but the whole album is a complete jam. It’s clear to me (though I’ve never done a lick of study on this) that the Little Rabbits worked with Beck on “Odelay,” because you can hear whole passages of music that you associate with Beck songs stitched inside this album. I always want to know more about what happened there and I never

21. Orlando Julius & the Afro Sounders - “Alo Mi Alo (Parts 1 & 2)”

Another example of that international ’70s kismet! This horn passage reminds us strongly of Adriano Celentano’s “Prisencolinensinainciusol,” written in faux-English for a French audience in 1972. This song was written somewhere between 1969-72, in Nigeria!

I also love how the song has this sort of geologic dynamic going, where instead of bouncing between parts, it changes flavor gradually over the course of many minutes, until it ends far from where it began — not unlike a film.

- Bug Chaser - “Christmas Van”

We miss Bug Chaser, St. Louis lords and legends. We played some magic shows on the City Museum rooftop with them, and danced our faces off at their shows all over town. If you lived in St. Louis in the last ten years, I hope you went to Bug Chaser shows, because they were the realest of deals.

22. Half Japanese - “Swept Away”

I hadn’t revisited Half Japanese in a long time, for no good reason at all. It’s part of what I have loved about Yo La Tengo and Daniel Johnston and Jonathan Richman and what I love about Jad Fair, so giant and so sincere all at once.

23. Thomas Roebers & Floris Leeuwenberg - excerpt, “FOLI (There is no movement without rhythm)”

Speaking of sincerity, this is an excerpt from a 10-minute movie called “FOLI.” I don’t know how it came to be made, but this section in the middle immediately grabbed me and feels super African and somehow refracted through a Western lens as well

24. Ayalew Mesfin - “Zebeder (Mesmerizing)”

The thing about Mesfin is that his band seems to set up the song in a Western tempo and pattern, and then Mesfin lays an Ethiopian melodic count across the top of the phrases they play, creating a third pattern from the intertwining. It creates a sense of the exotic and the familiar at the same time, which sparks into a dreamlike feeling, where you remember something you know you never experienced. I feel like that opens up some capacity to appreciate his melody’s deeply human quality.

- “Tuneup #1” from “Rent” / Glenn Miller - “Moonlight Serenade”

25. Ella Fitzgerald - “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”

Consider this an invitation! Send us a message however we normally talk and we’ll send a link. Or not! In any case: here’s to making it through 2020 (chin chin), and here’s to a productive, restorative 2021 (chin chin)

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chroniclesofawkwardness · 5 years ago

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90 Days

What can you accomplish in three months? Could you lose weight? Could you find love? Would you really know if a job you thought you wanted was the right fit? If you were still a fetus within those first three months, you’d have grown from a single cell to about the size of a domino piece that, according to WebMD, could open and close its fists.

Most tourist visas (for fetuses and otherwise) last 90 days. I’ve often wondered whose decision this was, and why. When I was staying in Serbia on a tourist visa, I never seemed to be able to get a straight answer, which was par for the course.

I’ll never forget the first time I had to leave Serbia because my tourist visa was expiring. It was October 2007, and the weather was finally beginning to turn colder. I’d had my mom pay too much money to mail me my own sweaters from home, but even her monetary efforts couldn’t delay the passage of time.

Adam and I woke up early that morning because we wanted to go to Tempo (think a smaller version of Wal-Mart) to buy a wall heater for the upstairs bathroom of the house. The closest Tempo was in Baja, Hungary. Baja wasn’t that far from Sombor, so going to Tempo seemed like the perfect opportunity to get my obligatory border crossing out of the way, and make it back to Serbia without too many sideways glances at my U.S. passport. Privately, I hoped that the same policemen who were on the Serbian side the Hungarian border when we crossed would still be there when we came back, so I wouldn’t have to explain the whole story of what I was doing in that part of the world to someone new, even if I didn’t know what my whole story was.

We crossed into Hungary without incident, and I got a stamp in my passport of a little car as proof of when and how I’d left Serbia that day. It sat nicely next to the one of a plane that said Surčin from when I landed at the airport in Belgrade almost three months before. It was a new day, but the sun wasn’t up yet. I’d been spoiled by the long days of summer. While the days had grown gradually shorter since the end of June, I remember looking at my watch thinking the sun should have been up by then. Whatever my circadian rhythms were telling me, our first priority was to exchange our dinars for the local currency, forints.

As we drove around Baja looking for a place to exchange money, the city looked to still be asleep. Adam finally found a hotel with an open exchange office, and we were on our way.

Tempo was just as dead. I was amazed at how few people were in the store. Most of them were older, and moved quite deliberately, either as a sign of their age, or other conditions not so easily estimated by the naked eye. It reminded me of visiting Wal-Mart with my dad to gather supplies for days of painting Spartan Municipal Stadium for my Eagle Scout service project.

Adam’s phone rang just as we walked out of the store with the wall heater. It was his father, and my yoga teacher, Fabijan:

“You guys got up really early this morning,” he said.

It was only then I realized that we’d both forgotten about the time falling back an hour overnight. We finally understood why we had such trouble finding an open exchange office, and why Tempo had been largely devoid of human life.

We crossed back into Serbia, but since the police had taken the white card that was my Declaration of Temporary Residence when we left, I’d have to go back to the police station and get another one -- the first of many such trips in the years to come. When I went to the police station in Sombor that Monday to get another white card, the lady behind the desk looked really confused. Her lips didn’t form any words, but her facial expression seemed to say, “You left Serbia and came back?” It’s also possible that she’d seen a U.S. passport as often as she’d seen a guy with two fs in his last name like me. Serbian is written exactly as it’s spoken and vice versa, so the second f at the end of Ratcliff would be unnecessary.

I left Sombor for Novi Sad not long that return trip to the police station, but my 90-day clock never stopped ticking. My first two weeks in Novi Sad were the hardest. Not only was I sleeping on Ivica’s (someone I barely knew) couch, but I also couldn’t register at his address because he only rented the apartment. I needed to legally report my presence to the Novi Sad police in exchange for yet another white card, but I first had to hope that Fabijan and Slavica - especially Slavica - hadn’t already reported to the police in Sombor that I was no longer living with them. Fabijan had at least been gracious near the end of my time in Sombor, telling me one day that he didn’t ask me to come, so he wouldn’t ask me to leave. Slavica, on the other hand, struck me as the type of vindictive cunt who would snitch on me to the cops out of pure spite, since it turned out that I wasn’t the rich, look-at-me symbol of American excess she needed to trot out in public to stroke her ego and become the envy of the neighborhood.

If Slavica decided to rat me out to the police in Sombor, I would have had to go to the police in Novi Sad with either the owner of Ivica’s apartment or at least her lična karta (national ID) as proof she knew I was living there. Given how my welcome in Sombor had worn out, and the fact that the lady who owned the place had no idea I’d crashed on the couch, this wasn’t something I felt comfortable doing. During those two weeks, all I did hope and pray the lady didn’t show up unannounced, as I had. I worried about being kicked out of the country since I could have had police from both cities after me. I thought even Serbia’s bureaucratic system, which was notorious for making things extraordinarily difficult on its own citizens, would be able to produce all the evidence it needed to deport me as something of a persona non grata within a matter of minutes.

Tick... tick... tick...

There were times when Sanja’s business partner and fellow English teacher, Maja, would take me to their school in Šid to get my trimestral obligation out of the way. Strangely, from Novi Sad, it was easier to get to Šid by briefly crossing into Croatia rather than staying in Serbia the whole time. Maja told me she’d seen cops prop their feet up on the swinging gate on the Serbian side of the border to combat boredom, and she even heard one admit to watching westerns to pass the time.

More than once after I started working with Daniel and the man in the cowboy hat, we’d hop in the man in the cowboy hat’s yellow Chevy Spark, cross the border with Croatia to get the exit stamp, and just turn right back around. I could feel that the women who worked in the division of the Novi Sad police department responsible for keeping track of foreigners were growing more and more suspicious of me. One lady, in particular, had long black hair, and eyes that seemed to burn a hole through my forehead every time she looked my way. To this day, I don’t know if she was angry because she saw me so many times, or because my appearances frequently interrupted her morning coffee service, and make her do work that didn’t involve her playing hostess.

Whatever her motivation, or lack thereof, I wished she’d focused her energy on stopping crimes committed by Serbian citizens, and let my single American life slide. Besides, her country’s institutions of law enforcement had such a history of helping criminals get out of the country with fake passports in the nineties, that I didn’t think any policemen would pay attention to the fact I was trying to stay in my real American one almost two decades after their most recent round of wars ended (at least on paper). That is until I heard a knock at the door one day.

I’d been living with Zs. under somewhat more comfortable conditions. With Sanja’s help, I’d managed to get the mandatory health insurance I needed because Serbia’s visa regime was undergoing changes meant to harmonize its regulations with those of the European Union. We’d also managed to get my fiancée visa in just under the wire. Due to another change, if I hadn’t transitioned to a fiancée visa before my last tourist visa had expired, I would have had to leave the country for three months before being allowed back in. Some kind of 90 days in, 90 days out rule had been put on the books by the time the knock came.

Zs. was still in her underwear. I’d just finished my latest hack job attempt at shaving. I’d nicked myself in too many places to count, and applied dozens of tiny toilet paper squares to my face to curtail the bleeding. The sound of the knock startled us both. A quick glance through the peephole in the door showed two uniformed police officers waiting outside. Zs. ran to put on pants, I ran to dispose of any flyers advertising schools of foreign languages, worried that if the wrong eyes fell upon them, I’d find myself having to explain away almost indisputable evidence that I’d been teaching English under the table because I had no legal right to do so. This time, I didn’t have to worry about Slavica. I had to worry that the mere sight of an officer’s holstered gun would compel me to tell the truth, just as it had when I was a kid, and my dad would stroll in to the kitchen every Sunday night dressed in uniform to work bingo, and share in the roast my mom had made more often than not.

Yes dad, I know I currently have a C in Algebra. Yes, dad, I know I can do anything if I apply myself, I’ll bring the textbook home and read ahead every night until my grade gets better. Yes, dad, I know Timmy Smith’s father is a piece of shit, and Dr. Jones didn’t get to be a doctor by running around with the idiots he went to high school with.

Tick... tick... tick...

Surprisingly, these officers didn’t want much from me. One just stood around staring off into the distance at God knows what, the other sat on the couch asking Zs. and me questions. I can’t remember how many bloodied squares of toilet paper fell from my face like snowflakes from the sky during the interview, but I do remember the officer asking me if I was born in New Orleans (where my passport was issued), and asking Zs. what her occupation was. Our encounter with Novi Sad’s finest wasn’t anything like the hours-long interrogations I’d come to expect from watching too many true crime shows on television. I didn’t know if these guys had honed their interview skills by watching reruns of Columbo, or if, from behind their desks, they were just too worn out and disinterested to care. I imagined them like my dad, content at their keyboards or relive their glory days of kicking in doors and slapping handcuffs on supposed bad guys.

Satisfied with our answers that I lived of remittance from relatives abroad, and Zs. was a university student, the officers turned to leave. I couldn’t shake the notion that even though the leftover bloody toilet paper snowflakes seemed to fall from my face all at once -- out of relief that, like me, they no longer had to cover up what they’d been hiding -- one of the officers would catch sight a neglected school flyer, turn to me like Lieutenant Columbo, and say: “Just one more thing.”

I flashed back to an experience I had with my dad when I was about fifteen. He’d insisted on taking me somewhere I didn’t want to go. As I begrudgingly opened the passenger door to his black, beat up 1987 Cutlass Sierra S, fully expecting us to ride together in silence, he looked at me and said, out of nowhere: “Your mother tells me you’ve been saying fuck a lot.” I knew I was busted, so I had no choice but to come clean about my affinity for a certain four-letter word.

More than a dozen years after the confrontation about my love of fuckery, as the officers came closer to our apartment door, I could still see myself cracking under the slightest pressure of being asked just one more thing. In an instant, I thought my whole charade would come crashing down, and I’d have to tell the whole, unadulterated truth to yet another a cop:

Yes, officer, I’m teaching English in your country illegally. Yes, officer, the monthly transfers into my bank account aren’t enough to live on, even here. Yes officer, I fully intend to marry this psycho bit... I mean, uh... fine woman.

I was so close to freedom from the inquisition, yet I had to remind myself that even as the doorknob turned, I would not be truly liberated until our apartment door had closed and the officers’ footsteps had faded down the hallway. Despite the years of practice I’d had with my dad, after our visit from Novi Sad’s boys in blue, I started feeling unsure of how long I could maintain my smokescreen of half-truths and one-word answers to authority figures. I began to entertain the idea of leaving Serbia before my next 90-day period came to an end. I knew full well that thanks to Zs. I had a fiancée visa which lasted a year, but after years of “tourist” trips across borders and back, 90 days had become my default measurement of time.

When such questions came from behind the glass that shielded one of my fellow countrymen at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, I started thinking that even they didn’t want me to stay. Zs. had to visit the embassy multiple times as part of the application process for the scholarship she would eventually win to study in the United States. I don’t remember why they called me over during one of her visits, but I do remember the man behind the glass looking at Zs., looking back and me, then asking, “Did you marry her yet?”

I felt like I was on an episode of a popular “life unscripted” TV show where the contestants (if you can call them that) have 90 days to get married before one has to leave whichever country they’re in. 90 days isn’t enough time to know if a job’s a good fit, or if a commitment you made to drop extra pounds has become a lifestyle change, let alone if a person’s a good match to spend the rest of your life with. Sure, the contestants’ day-to-day activities, fights, and occasional intimate moments might make interesting fodder for the masses who’d rather watch navigate their lives instead of living their own, but you’d be hard-pressed to convince me that contestants’ lives didn’t really start until the cameras stopped.

The producers of those so-called unscripted shows know this, but they’re still laughing all the way to the bank. They’re betting their audiences would prefer sitting back, cracking open a White Claw (or munching on a bowl of movie theater butter popcorn), and watching someone else’s relationship Hindenburg to working on themselves. it’s easier to indulge in the hard seltzer craze, pretend to care about koala colonies threatened Australian bushfires, or flex to your friends about how much you love your new sheets made from ethically-obtained cotton than it is to unplug the Wi-Fi and really try to fix your life. Zs.’s favorite “life unscripted” show was about brides-to-be trying to find the right wedding dress. I wonder why that was?

I know these shows exist because I’m just as guilty of watching them as anyone else. Some moments make me cringe, others make me cry, and a third grouping makes me want to yell at the television about what I hadn’t seen as much as what I had, thanks to some magical, manipulative editing.

Perhaps the best approach is to take life one day at a time, whether you’re battling an addiction, trying to put on a pretty face for the camera, or take one off after the lights have gone down. Either way, the show must go on.

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floofsta-x · 7 years ago

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I Stan Monsta X, Part One of a Series

A rather detailed and insightful guide as to why a music major in college might listen to Monsta X 24/7 instead of classical or Jazz, like she “should”, and justifiably defends it

Under the cut, one shall find the detailed transcriptions, points of awe, and cold, hard facts (not to mention gushing, but that’s uh not important) as to why Monsta X keeps my brain engaged and ears happy.

All logic and transcriptions presented in this are mine! I henceforth give monbebe permission to use these in their own defense! (Like we’d ever need to produce musical reasons to stan our seven beautiful, handsome boys though, amirite?)

Without further ado!

In this post: An Introduction to me, plus reasons why I love the rap line

♪ #00: Introduction

Hello everyone, my name is Bryony, and I am a twenty year old girl from the midwest USA, Colorado and Nebraska to be more exact. Really, I’m just another young woman trying to make her way through school and one day, hold a steady paying job and make something of her life.

I decided quite early on that when I graduated High School and went on to post-secondary (college or university), I would pursue a degree in music. I’ve always absolutely adored making others happy via the performing arts; I stood on stage with elite children’s choirs in elementary school, and later started doing local theater productions and joined my small town’s Master Chorale. I only found my true love, however, when I entered fifth grade and picked up a clarinet for the first time. It wasn’t long before I was fully involved in musical activities all around, playing in band and singing in choir. I even learned saxophone so I could start playing Jazz. To boot, I was good at it. The pinnacle of my high school career was being selected to Colorado All-State Band and Colorado All-State Choir in the same year, and attending both.

However, what I thought I knew in high school came nowhere near what awaited me in college. I chose my undergraduate school because of the stellar teaching and strong faculty mentor and leadership at a particularly low cost, and I am confident that this was the correct move. I have been loving it, as much as before, but also found myself constantly challenged. I have been slowly engraining and applying my new understanding of music theory, structure, and harmony.

As a music major, I have been finding that even in my arbitrary, everyday listening, I actively seek out the elements that intrigue me in the genres I love. This includes one of my biggest, Korean Pop. Ever since becoming a full time lover and fan of it last November, questions have been floating around in my head, musings related to if the music itself, meaning notes, rhythms, harmony, melody, etc. of these beloved groups plays a major part in their popularity. Also, how the music industry over in South Korea affects the basic elements, and what gives each group their distinctive sound.

I’m not the type to have a favorite K-Pop group just because, and also, not just on the basis of the members or popularity. Yes, I giggle over the boys and their antics just like any other crazy kpop stan, and I’m always pressing for more recognition for my under-appreciated faves, but that is only a small part. I focus on the music itself a lot. I’ve never called myself an analyst, but as I said before, when you’re immersed in music like I am, you start to pick apart what you listen to.

I’ve explored the discography of many, many groups. All of them thus far have intrigued me, and I love them to a greater or lesser extent. This includes smaller groups like Boys Republic, 24K, BOYFRIEND, and Cross Gene, as well as ones with bigger fanbases like Super Junior, BTS (Bangtan Boys), EXO, and VIXX. However, there is one group whose music gets stuck in my head more than the rest, one group whose discography is stellar in every way.

That group is Monsta X.

They may be my bias group, but they weren’t my first exposure. Before I even was truly interested in K-Pop, I listened to BIGBANG. Also, I heard a few of EXO and BTS’s songs via my little sister. Today, I still often listen to them, but I keep going back to Starship’s premier hip-hop group. Time and again, Monsta X has proven themselves a cut above the rest.

I want to take a series of posts like this to talk about why, musically, this is. My intention is not to put any other groups down; I love them for different, individual reasons. Instead, I want to lay out things I’ve come to love and appreciate about the seven talented young men whom STARSHIP chose above the rest, in the brutal survival show NO.MERCY. These boys have, over the last two years, fused into the close-knit and hardworking group we know them as today.

Son Hyunwoo | Shownu, Leader, dancer, vocalist, variety show king.

Shin Hoseok | Wonho, Sound engineer, composer, dancer, vocalist, visual.

Yoo Kihyun, Lead vocalist, savage squid, honorary mom.

Lee Minhyuk, Face of the group, vocalist, visual.

Chae Hyungwon, Model, vocalist, dancer, visual, actor.

Lee Jooheon, Rapper, marvelous singing voice, well-connected, cute off stage but fierce on it.

and finally, Im Changkyun | I.M, maknae, rapper, latecomer to No.Mercy but now loved by all.

These seven have captured my heart. So has their music. And without further ado and beating around the bush, here’s why.

♪ #01: The Rap Line

Ok, so I would like to start in a way that, if you know me, is no surprise. See, I am Jooheon biased (he’s also my ultimate, I will admit this quite unashamedly), and I adore his rap game. One of the few things I am not good at is rap, and I think that because I can’t identify, I admire him so much more.

It’s clear that Jooheon has an intense love for what he does. This plays directly into his famous ‘frightening on stage, adorable off of it’ personality. Performing really changes him. Jooheon is so heavily pushed and heaped responsibility upon, a fact that pains me every day. Any person with less of a love for the music, I imagine, would break under the strain. I can see no other motivation for him to continue than his passion for performing and making others happy with his raps. (He’s stated as much, in that last No.Exit broadcast we never mention because Matthew.)

I.M too, the younger one in the rapper line, has an obvious passion for it as well. Just the fact that he’s stayed on and become as beloved as he is among his hyungs is testament to that. He is just as talented a rapper as Jooheon is; I’ll even go out on a limb here and say that he might have more untapped potential.

I have been absolutely loving trying to work out the rhythms they use between the two of them in Monsta X’s tracks. Let’s break one down, how does that sound? We’ll analyze some of their best raps in the last two years. I’m going to start out intensely, at the beginning of MX’s latest title track, 아름다워 (Beautiful).

Of course Blue is Jooheon and Green is IM. Click here for a larger version. (I’ve also posted this as a separate post, I got a little impatient, admittedly, lmao.) It may have some errors, I believe at the very end of each’s phrases–depending on length of syllables, the eighth notes might not be quite on-dot, “straight”.

Now at first this doesn’t seem complicated, right? It’s just a whole bunch of eighth notes and some variations on sixteenths; admittedly, rhythm isn’t all that impressive written out on a staff.

But let’s consider some other factors here:

That the tempo is 150bpm. This is very quick, In classical terms, it’s called Presto or Vivace.

These boys are sometimes fitting SIX OR SEVEN SYLLABLES into a time span of ONE SECOND. (Here’s how I figured this out, in short: bpm=beats per minute. there are 60 seconds in a minute. 150/60=2.5. So, two and a half beats [a half note + an eighth note] is equivalent to one second.)

That they’re doing it clearly enough to be understood, the rhythm is pleasant to the ear, and a trained musician like myself can follow it.

They wrote these lyrics themselves, and (I’m sure) painstakingly planned out where every syllable would be placed before stepping foot in the recording studio.

And then afterwards, they memorize and remember their raps for live performances.

This is, to me, what is truly impressive about that jumble of notes and colors up there. Any trained Kpop rapper is fully capable of it, but Jooheon and IM have taken this art to the next level.

Last, but not least, their raps are coordinated not only in feel and sound, but also in lyric. Here are the English translations:

[Jooheon]

Why is it you? I’m going crazy What is this? I think I’ve fallen for you All day, in my head Round and round it goes A question mark, every day I know you have thorns But I want you, red rose

[I.M]

Because of the thorns A beautiful rose can bloom Dark red flowers, it means I love you Even if I bleed everywhere, I wanna know you Cause I think about you errday I’m already addicted to you

Jooheon sets up the opening idea that this song is about being madly in love, crazily in love–and then hits upon the idea of the object of his affections being like a rose.

Changkyun then takes Jooheon’s last two lines and runs away with them, connecting rose with red with blood and going back to the crazy idea–addiction, we consider addicts mentally ill.

I regret not being able to get a feel for the lyrics in the original language–this to me is part of the problem of being an international fan, no matter how hard I try to learn the language, both spoken and written, I will probably never be able to think entirely in Korean. I will always be trying to connect back to English, my primary language.

Then there’s the second break, which goes something like this:

(full resolution.) It’s only eight measures, but just look at that relentless rhythm. Any normal person would trip over their own tongue; I know I do. The sheer clarity of everything at this incredible speed is breathtaking.

The lyrics line up too:

[I.M]

Two fingers thumbs up You make me say words of awe, You take away my right mind I think I’ll go crazy When I smell your scent

[Jooheon]

It spreads, it grows I’m addicted I’m prickled, hurt It’s between love and pain You’re so awesome

If I hadn’t separated their lines, I could believe that they were written by the same person; again, we have the concurring themes of deep, “crazy” love, and the rose (Changkyun’s ‘scent’ and Jooheon’s ‘prickled’).

It seems hard to believe that two years ago there was hostility between these two. Monbebe know the story–the show that made them a group, No.Mercy, was very high stakes. In a spur-of-the-moment decision, after a round of especially tough elimination, Starship Entertainment authority decided to throw I.M into the show and among the trainees. He was new, unfamiliar, and to boot, the youngest of them all. This situation was not good for anyone. However Changkyun was clearly destined to be there, and he had a good heart and persevered.

Anything could have gone wrong–but once the two boys started talking to each other and got their initial feelings out of the way, magic happened. Now Changkyun and Jooheon are best friends, to the point that they’re not afraid to play off each other in the recording studio and in the planning stages of a song, working as a rapper line instead of just two talented rappers.

They’re also growing as artists and musicians, something that becomes very clear when one listens to Changkyun’s rapping at debut / during No.Mercy compared to now. It’s obvious that he’s put a lot of himself into it, and has promised to continue to do so. I am truly excited to see more from him in the future.

The close lyric coordination is a fairly recent development, but the fast rapping isn’t! I’m going to continue really intensely with another very impressive track, 네게만 집착해, Stuck (Focus on You), from The Clan Pt. 1.

(full resolution.) Alright, trust me guys when I say that transcribing this took absolutely FOREVER. I literally went on Youtube, tried it at full speed, and gave up after like five bars. So I slowed it down by a quarter. Still gave up. So I went down to half speed and finally felt comfortable there. Now that I have it all written out it makes sense, but at first I was floundering for rhythm. I will admit that I’m not very experienced yet, so some trouble was because of that. However also this part goes by so fast! Even after something like 45-50 times listening to Changkyun’s part on slow speed, I had to physically direct and place downbeats (the first beat of every measure) to piece everything together. Anyways,

If you thought that the rhythm before was relentless? Well feast your eyes on this one. (Also! Listen to Changkyun’s huge catch-breath in the last couple bars, on the quarter rest!) Stuck is right around the same speed as Beautiful, perhaps a little slower, but the subdivisions that Jooheon and IM use are smaller. Good God, they are both fitting ten syllables into a scant second at the beginning of their breaks, using running sixteenth notes and also, in Jooheon’s case, triplets. Honestly, I believe that triplets are not used enough in rap. The MX rap line actually break into them a lot; that’s one of the things that I love about them.

This section provides a nice contrast to the almost laid-back feel of the chorus. Also I think that Jooheon and Changkyun’s quick rapping is a great amplifier to Hyungwon’s part in the verse before, which is really half sung, half rapped.

I never really realized exactly how fast this was until the other day, I was listening to a YouTube compilation of favorite parts from Kpop boy band songs. The video was a good fifteen to twenty minutes long, and Stuck was right in the middle. They had picked the rap part (who wouldn’t, honestly?) and it caught me off-guard. Compared to Stuck, everything before and after seemed so slow. For the rest of the night, I paid close attention to the rapping in things I watched. Nothing was as quick. Certain things might have had beats close to 145, but no one used sixteenth note subdivision, with the exception of TOP’s Doom Dada (a legendary rap track, honestly) and a few of G-Dragon’s singles.

Why are some of the words underlined in red? Well my lovely reader, those are combination syllables, meaning that Jooheon or IM have combined two separate syllabic sounds from two different words into one. Choral music often does this in order to make a pre-existing text fit a rhythm. It's not just because, or at random, though. The audience must still be able to understand, and the choice must make sense in the context of the rhythm and lyrics. Combination syllables tend to work better on longer notes, or nestled between longer notes.

That said, I find it interesting that Jooheon tends to use the former technique. The first time that he twists syllables together, his chosen rhythm ties across the barline. This is a common occurrence, even in the music I sing in English, and if one considers that the fundamental sounds of language are common between many people and cultures, it makes perfect sense. The second time (the quarter note) he carries over the t in the last triplet. So it’s more like he’s saying ‘teois’ than anything else.

This is actually also common choral practice. It’s bad form to change to a consonant (or change vowel shape) in the middle of a note, so we often delay it until the next one. It’s generally more clear that way. So if one’s supposed to sing ‘bitten’ on two notes, for example, we prefer ‘bi-tten’ over ‘bit-ten’. (This happens quite a few times during the duration of this rap. I got some of them, but others (like what I just mentioned) I didn’t quite catch.)

Changkyun, on the other hand, likes to combine on the sixteenths. His ‘yoeop’ could almost be transcribed as two notes. ‘eoan’, by contrast is very quick. I have to purposefully listen for it.

I often wonder what the creation process is like with Jooheon and Changkyun. Do they write something and fit all the words in their allotted time? Or do they construct a rhythm from the beat and write lyrics over it? If I had a little while with these two (which would be heaven on Earth, honestly) I would have so many questions to ask! As a classical musician, this genuinely intrigues me.

That said, the stage is a whole different ballgame than the recording booth. Of course, during promotions and performances and things like that, the boys are doing music that they’ve rehearsed hundreds of times, poured their entire heart and soul into, and they know like the back of their hand. I wouldn’t be surprised if one or both the boys rap lyrics to Beautiful, Ready or Not, or Hero in their sleep, lmao. But when it comes to special performances, to be able to do them in a classy way is quite hard.

And at this, too, Jooheon and I.M succeed with flying colors.

How about we take their collaboration with Soyou and Hyolyn of SISTAR from last year’s MBC Music Festival? 섹시한 남자 (Sexy Guy), wasn’t it? Their rap break right after Soyou’s slow intro is pretty impressive to me.

Since I don’t have reliable romanizations and I don’t trust myself to do my own, I’ll just present the rhythm as I hear it.

(full resolution.) As always, Jooheon is blue, I.M is green. There’s a blue-green color too, I’m not sure how well you’ll be able to see it but that is the two of them together. Notice that this isn’t any less amazing than the raps they do over recording. Every time I listen to one of these one-shots (which they are!), I’m truly impressed at the level of detail in every word, every sound that comes out of their mouth.

This time, it’s Changkyun doing the triplets! And Jooheon has a thirty-secondth note in his part. If you notice the tempo, we’re a little slower here than in Beautiful and Stuck, so it gives him room to do that. Still, it’s very impressive. Most classical musicians would balk at the thirty-secondth.

I don’t believe that they’ve performed this rap since the 31st of December (last year, 2016). They must have planned it out beforehand, however, considering what I said before, that Jooheon and I.M have phrases together, especially the last four syllables at the end. I wonder how many hours they spent on it.

Things get even more crazy when one starts to think about how they also had to learn and perfect choreography along with the backup dancers, Hyolyn, and Soyou. They really must know how to squeeze every last drop of productivity out of a day. I am, admittedly, envious.

Alright! Well, I could honestly go on all day. Transcribing raps is one of the most entertaining things I’ve ever done (even if I do have to listen to Jooheon and Changkyun at half speed for an hour or more) and it really gives me heart eyes for my boys. I think that you’ve had about enough of my rambling though, right?

I really hope that you enjoyed this. If there’s something you would like to add, correct, or request of me (as I start doing transpositions of entire MX songs ahhhh) don’t be afraid to drop into my ask box! Really, I’m down to gush over things like this anytime. My love of music runs so deep and I am really excited to connect it back to another one of my passions, Monsta X (and also kpop in general).

Until next time!

–Bryony ( @floofta-x )

Next: The wonderful that is the Monsta X Vocal Line (and not-so-vocal but vocal nonetheless line)

#monbebe net #stanmonstax #monsta x #reasons i love monsta x #kpop♪theory #mine #writing #i feel like such a nerd figuring these all out ahah #am i a nerd #i am huh

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brujahinaskirt · 8 years ago

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Stylized Fandoms - or, when It’s All The Same, but also It Isn’t.

NECESSARY STUFF: The OP above gave full permission to use their post as a launchpad for this commentary, so please don’t mistake this as either endorsement or criticism, and please do not mistake it as a group invitation to attack. I’ve written about this phenomenon in the Rowling fandom before and this gives me another excuse. Plus, as someone who tried to join a fandom via this writing strategy and failed, I think I can contribute some thought fodder on the issue of content sameness.

I’m bout to drop an essay, hobbits. This essay isn’t, however, a critique. This is a non-evaluative observation and a writing theory. And, finally, an open question to fellow fic writers.

BASE OBSERVATION: The dominant writing styles in book-based fandoms mirror and pay homage to the style of the original author.

In Summary: The Hobbit fandom (and the Harry Potter fandom, which I originally theorized about) experiences a high degree of stylistic sameness as a whole because a lot of stories attempt to recreate Bilbo’s voice as it appeared in Tolkien’s first-person-via-third-person POV technique. They achieve this, naturally, by following the original text. This trend may be especially pronounced for The Hobbit as opposed to the Lord of the Rings or Silmarillion works because Tolkien’s narratorial voice is more exaggerated – if not better-written – in The Hobbit.

Now, to break that down a little more.

Tolkien’s Hobbit style contains a few highly recognizable elements that stick out to a contemporary prose reader: sentence structure that mimics speech, brisk dialogue, use of mundane exchanges to instill realism, avoidance of emotional description, exclamation use, childlike diction, minimalistic characterization, parentheticals, verse, sweeping summarization as an alternative to scene, laboriously expanded setting descriptions that prioritize listing physical details over atmospheric metaphor, reliance on simple/well-known similes, frank delivery of fantastical elements and world mythology, limited access to character feelings, and huge time skips. When an author chooses to maintain most of these at once without selective deletion or without constantly highlighting their own personal stylistic flourishes, we get something that sounds – ‘course – super Tolkienesque.

There’s a really dominant style in Snicket’s fandom, too. And Butler, Bradbury, Rowling, Gaiman, etc. Which is important to note, because…

Generally speaking, stylized writing tends to be more popular, more memorable, and more marketable than contemporary “high literary” minimalism. And it’s more likely to have intensely stylized fandoms. Which makes sense; book-readers generally come to fanfic because they want more of published content that is already familiar to them in some way. It follows that one of the reasons those style-adherent/style-preserving Hobbit fics are so successful is because they gain a lot of traction with people who are specifically looking for recreations of Tolkien’s writing style. (Since stylized writing isn’t really prominent on those abovementioned literary main markets anymore, I think this is a large part of his lasting appeal.)

Let’s take a quick look at the opening chapters of a few of the most popular, widely-read fics in this fandom to pinpoint what I’m getting at. I’ve only sampled first chapters here – mainly because I don’t want to spoil ‘em for anyone.

First, from the illustrious Sansûkh:

"You have come to a place of rest, Thorin son of Thráin," said the voice, and Thorin blinked furiously, trying to make out the voice's owner in the gloom. His excellent Dwarven dark- vision did not seem to be working, and he began to push himself up onto his elbows. He was unclad, and his skin shivered and prickled in the icy darkness.

"Explain," he snarled. "And show yourself!"

"Patience," the voice chided. It did not sound angry at Thorin's disrespect. Rather, it sounded fond, even fatherly. "Do calm yourself. Your sight will return."

In my opinion, this style is the pinnacle of faithfulness to Tolkien’s Hobbit voice. Taking a minute to identify Tolkien elements, we observe a skilled and almost intimidatingly close use of: Tolkien dialogue, Tolkien exclamation patterns, Tolkien diction, Tolkien avoidance of emotional description, Tolkien character access, Tolkien rhythm and tempo, and much more as we continue to later chapters.

From A Shot in the Dark:

Shaking, he scrambled out beneath the mountain of blankets and quilts and stumbled over to the mirror. Grasping the edge of it, he stared at the face of the young Hobbit before him with freckled skin and thick brown curls, and felt something in him crack.

"I'm young again," he said aloud, watching the face in front of him repeat his words. "I'm young again, and in my old house in Bag End before I went to Erebor—"

Understanding dawned on him and brought him to his knees. He recalled now, a story from long ago, of a Hobbit lass that had watched her beloved die in an accident. When she awoke the day after his funeral, she found herself reliving the days before the accident over and over again, and was able to save her beloved from his cruel fate.

Obviously, this fic – and every fic – displays subtle voice differences from Tolkien (and, by extention, other fic writers). And thank goodness for that, or how would an author develop a fanbase at all? That said, we can see a lot of Tolkienesque, highly attentive and skillful patterning in the prose itself, the vantage point, the syntax, and the overall voice.

Just a few more clear examples of this homage-style at its best and brightest:

An Expected Journey:

An ancient hobbit lay in a soft bed below them. His eyes were closed. There was a breeze coming in through the open window that made his thin white curls stir slightly. The sheets lifted with each shallow breath and Bilbo realized that he was looking down at himself and that he was dying. There was a pale cast to his features that showed that he was not much longer for this world. Outside, Frodo sat in the garden the elves had gifted them, a book in one hand and a half-eaten apple in the other. A smile made his face light up as he turned the page and there was an inner peace about him that helped to settle Bilbo’s fretful heart a little. His nephew would be happy here and maybe with time the pain of his wounds, the ones on his heart especially, would diminish. No doubt he would miss his uncle, but that was such a small thing that it hardly seemed to matter now.

“Change is a fickle thing. Remember this in your journey, Bilbo Baggins, and perhaps you will be able to alter history after all.”

The hobbit in the bed took its last breath and was still. Frodo closed his book.

Comes Around Again:

“Come on, slug-a-bed,” his mother called. “Time to rise.”

Gimli blinked at the ceiling. Was he in the Halls of Mahal? He didn’t expect them to look quite so much like his room in Ered Luin. He pushed himself up to look.

The room was exactly as he remembered: dark, lit by lamps shining blue-green with the glowing plants that lived in the deep, dark places, and with grime caked in corners that he could never scrub clean. There was the crack in his wall, more an eyesore than a danger. The tapestry he had hung to hide it, his first and last attempt at loom-work, had fallen again. The stone face was too brittle. His chest of drawers, also a product of his hands, stood straight and even, if modestly decorated. His mirror, tinted green with age and spotted black, had been a relic found when they had come to these mountains when he was a lad. Between his drawers and his trunk lay his things: his training axe, his ‘prentice tools, a pile of clothing that would quickly become far too small for his growing frame.

[Purely an aside: You may notice a striking similarity of introductory schemas, too! Most of these fics begin with the classic “protagonist wakes up” scene popularly found in all storytelling mediums – but given the tragic nature of the source material, it’s become a “wake up from death” scene. This, though, is not a precedent set by Tolkien; it’s a marker the Hobbit fandom gravitated to all on its own. How? I dunno, exactly; seems like it just kind of happened that way. Cool question, if you’re a writer/literary critic/English major type.]

Please note here that I am completely uninterested in debating how good these fics are (or any fics, for that matter). Frankly, my dear, I do not give a damn whether or not you love Sansûkh, A Shot in the Dark, An Expected Journey, or Comes Around Again. What’s indisputable and relevant is that all of these fics are extremely successful. For the sake of this piece, we’re going to put artistic innovation on the back-burner and define successful by two measures: 1. sustained popularity, and 2. accurate replication of their source text. Do they achieve the dominant fandom (original author) style, and does this style reap the harvest of massive audience feedback? It’s hard to argue no, regardless of how these fics measure up to your personal tastes.

To put it another way: If you misread this essay as a rallying cry, then go and yell at individual authors for making successful creative choices, I DON’T KNOW YOU, and what’s your fuckin’ problem? That’s like yelling at one person for painting their room green because you feel there’s too much green in the world. These writers are fandom tone-setters. They know their room is green; they picked it because they like green, not because they aren’t skilled interior designers. Targeting a writer for a style trend is not helpful; it’s bratty, it’s misguided, and it’s futile.

So why would anyone worry about this? If overwhelming majorities are deliberately seeking works that recreate the experience of reading Tolkien’s prose, and writers are having great success with that style, are there any drawbacks?

IMO, there’s one big one. In fandoms like this one, I think authors can come to feel beholden to Tolkien’s style – like if they don’t recreate it, their fic will flounder – and that danger zone, not homage, is where creativity and variety come to die.

This can put a fic writer in the uncomfortable position of making a choice between three imperfect options:

Faithfully reconstruct and largely adhere to Tolkien’s style. (This is the choice most Big Fic writers in any book-based fandom make. On the downside, this limitation can feel creatively constricting. It should, however, be mentioned that some writers find this strategy ultimately increases their creativity – the stylistic constraints demand they make more daring creative choices in other realms, such as plot or characterization.)

Ignore the original materials. (The downside here is obvious: In a book-based fandom, this choice is likely to significantly decrease traffic on Page One and therefore decrease responses to your fic. As the overwhelming majority of fic writers will attest to, nothing kills a fic faster than a writer who feels like no one is interested.)

Take the middle-road. Borrow a few secondary elements from Tolkien; consistently prioritize core elements of your natural style while deliberately limiting his. (Runs the same risks as the above example. This can also be incredibly difficult, especially for newer writers who haven’t quite settled on their natural style yet, or for authors whose natural styles conflict with Tolkien’s. It’s more complex than saying “get gud scrub.” Many new writers use fandom to begin the process of creative self-discovery. This process takes years of constant writing and is arguably never finished. Long story short: We can’t simply foist this strategy upon everyone and sustain a thriving book fandom.)

To more fully illustrate the pitfalls of Option Three, let me turn the criticism on myself and my own floundered fic – one of the nameless masses out there that never got airborne.

I tried out the middle-road mentality: taking a few major elements of Tolkien’s style and weaving it with personal storytelling priorities. But since some of my priorities are in direct contrast with Tolkien’s style – the style I tried to lean on! – and since his style is so dominant, I think I ultimately left readers feeling duped.

For the sake of this theory, maybe we can take my common experience and apply it to why stylized fandom functions as it does. My primary failure was that those Tolkien elements I wrote in effectively set up a story contract I had no intention of fulfilling. To explain: You’d not be out-of-the-norm in this fandom to spot those telltale Tolkien signs and expect to get the whole Tolkien suite, and you’d not be out-of-the-norm to feel disappointed when you end up somewhere you specifically didn’t want to go… namely, stuff that isn’t like Tolkien.

In my story’s case, the Tolkien seduction might be his parentheticals, and the disappointment might be winding up at action scene, lots of emotional description, and snotty diction – all antitheses to Tolkien. People don’t usually come to Tolkien for those elements, so it stands to reason they don’t often come to Tolkien fanfic for them. And it stands to reason they’d feel confused or even cheated when the contract they expected carefully set itself up only to run off to the Keys with some nobody from accounting.

Option Three can feel, to those readers, like a carefully constructed scam.

In fact, I wonder if contract-thinking is one of the major reasons why the readers who feel dissatisfied with the dominant Hobbit style find themselves flummoxed by all this. Tolkien’s Hobbit voice is obviously married to and designed for Bilbo. If you’re not paying pedantic attention to the writerly mechanics (maybe even if you are), hearing Tolkien’s Bilbo-voice transposed over another character’s POV can be a disorienting experience – if you’re in this particular reader’s shoes, something sounds off, but you can’t quite put your finger on what it is.

SUPPORTING NOTE: I see this sameness happening at some level with characterizations, too. For The Hobbit, this strikes me as especially true with characterizations of the dwarven people as a whole – their culture in fandom tends to appear as traditionally male-prioritizing, Western nuclear family-based, and (strangely, given the Jewish inspiration roots of the dwarves) Christian-toned. They are also often considered by fandom to be among the more progressive Tolkien civilizations, but that by itself isn’t saying too much. (I expect this is because patriarchal habits are so prevalent in Tolkien’s canonical civilizations, even in the ones that aren’t supposed to be.)

OPPOSING NOTE: The biggest characterization element I can’t reconcile with this theory, annoyingly enough, is my personal pet peeve: the romantic feminization of Bilbo. It’s often found in fandom and often grounded in sexist stereotypes, but is not a feature of Tolkien’s original works. That’s another essay, though, and I’ve already rambled long enough.

On to the open question!

It’s probably too late to dismantle a dominant style in a fandom as longstanding as this one – and anyway, the cost-benefits of dismantling any style trend are sketchy at best. In general, though, I wonder what can be done to neutralize the more damaging byproducts. Specifically, how can we stop that “contract” dead in its tracks, and prevent fic writers from feeling obligated to an original author’s style?

Any ideas, folks? I’m scratching my head.

(Also, if you read all this, I love you.)

Special thanks to determamfidd, MarieJacquelyn, scarletjedi, and Silver_pup -- whose works were cited in this analysis without solicitation -- for writing, and for providing hours upon hours of joy to your thankful, hungry fans.

EDIT: Edited to clearly explain how fic “success” is defined here, as well as to further prune any impressions of my personal fic preferences. Success, in this essay, is quantified partly by number of kudos/comments a piece receives and partly by the closeness of its style mechanics to Tolkien’s. These quantifiers are used here solely to explore the relationship between popularity and stylization. In the broader world, popularity on its own is a poor measure of quality or artistic merit. (And it would kind of break my heart if you left this essay feeling down about your own work. Writers out there, please know that’s not at all the implication.)

In simpler terms: Just because it ain’t famous, honey, doesn’t mean you ain’t damn good at what you do.

#the hobbit #tolkien #bagginshield #bilbo baggins #fanfiction #essays #writing

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auskultu · 8 years ago

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The Rolling Stones: Between The Buttons

Keith Altham, New Musical Express, 14 January 1967

The STONES' LATEST ALBUM, reviewed track-by-track by Keith Altham with special comments by Mick Jagger.

"HOLY BEACH Boys, Splatman – the Rolling Stones have done it again" – that at least is my opinion having listened toBetween The Buttons – the latest Rolling Stones album which is smack in the middle of "Wonderland" – a kind of beat Fantasia!

Andrew Oldham has produced an album richer than ever before in terms of variation of pace, sound and excitement – the Stones send the mind reeling and limbs wheeling.

There are imitations of Dylan on 'She Smiled Sweetly' (what a single for Percy Sledge!) and 'Who's Been Sleeping Here' – a good-humoured glancing blow to that "Well Respected" sound of the Kinks on 'Something Happened To Me Yesterday' – and re-echoing down the corridors of time comes the early Bo Diddley excitement of 'Please Go Home', punctuated with "radio-phonic " modern madness from Jones and Richards.

Side one... 'BACK STREET GIRL' is probably the most thoughtful-ever Composition from Jagger and Richards. The lyrics are sad, reflective and sung to nostalgic Parisian accordion, acoustic guitar and tambourine backing which reminds one of a rainy day somewhere, anywhere, in France. MICK: "I wrote this in some weird place which I can't remember. It's got the feeling of a French cafe about it – I just thought about this chick – it was an easy number to write. Nice ballad."

'YESTERDAY'S PAPERS' – Opens with a very simple drum and bass effect which is accelerated to a medium tempo and augmented by chimes-bells, a vocal chorus and plenty of bass pedal effect from the drums. Another song which everyone has written but never in such an original manner. MICK: "I saw this as completely different when I wrote it – it was going to be very straight but it's ended up donging about all over the place. All tinkling and weird. Charlie said he wanted to think up a weird drum rhythm for it and brought about two dozen different drums into the studio for it, then he asked me if I thought he was getting contrived? This has been covered by someone else – the way I originally saw it."

'MY OBSESSION' – Earthquake sounds with a stretched bass effect which sounds like a Tube train on the loose. Thrashing about in the background are Ian Stewart on a boogie woogie piano, crisp drumming from Charlie Watts and Mick's vocal fighting for life in a barrage of effects. Shades of the Who in places. MICK: "We recorded this six months ago."

'CONNECTION' – Drums like they are inside the head. Powerful bass rhythms punctuated by guitar runs – for the dance. MICK: "That's me beating the bass drums with my hands. Stu on the piano and organ pedals."

'SHE SMILED SWEETLY' – This is the voice that Jagger uses to get off the record and into the air. Kind of a sinister 'All Things Bright And Beautiful' with Dylan influences. An ethereal quality lent by a church organ – hit single for someone. MICK: "This is very religious really – it was 'He' smiled sweetly but someone changed it. A quasi religious up tempo mid shuffler. That's Jack Nitzsche on piano."

'COOL CALM AND COLLECTED' – A kind of Chaplin-esque Charleston sung in a "whoopee" style by Jagger. Has almost everything, including a honky tonk piano and brilliant kazoo break from Keith! The wind up sounds like someone switched the speed to 78 rpm. MICK: "I did this like an English Ragtime singer – the speeded up portion was entirely spontaneous. It was recorded in the U.S.."

Side two... 'ALL SOLD OUT' – Sounds like 'Get Off My "Everything"' – the mixture as before, but still good enough to excite with the traditional drum splatter from Watts and a whining guitar. Done in a different way it could be a single for Dusty.

'PLEASE GO HOME' – The Bo Diddley sound with shades of Dr. Who from the rest of sounds effect department. Lots of echo – lots of beat – lots of dance appeal. MICK: "That high-pitched whine on it is Charlie's wife screaming. Few sounds on it – lots of reverb – ages mixing it."

'WHO'S BEEN SLEEPING HERE' – Acoustic guitar and harmonica. Clever lyric and shades of Dylan. MICK: "Can't say anything about this."

'COMPLICATED' – Sounds like a fairground organ with growling bass, smashing cymbals, maracas and a few jungle effects thrown into the boiling rhythms on the instruction "Right" from Mick. MICK: "Recorded in the U.S. again – it's all about a groupie."

'MISS AMANDA JONES' – Squealing guitar effects, driving rhythms and interesting lines squeezing through the barrage of sounds – "round and round she goes – her suspender shows." Good one to ban if you've got anything against suspenders. MICK: "Like I 'fought' we'd make a rock 'n' roll record."

'SOMETHING HAPPENED TO ME YESTERDAY' – is the Kinky track which starts off like something from a Looney Tunes cartoon and develops into a fantastic piece of entertainment. Guitars supplemented by chortling clarinet, sleazy trombone and drunken euphonium. Whole effect is like a Ray Davies trauma. Keith gets a vocal solo on this one. Must be covered as a single by Dr. Crackpot and his Medicine Junk Band. Great production! Mick rounds it all off by doing a Henry Hall – "and so from all of us to all of you, not forgetting the boys in the band and our producer Reg Thorpe, goodbye, and don't forget if you're on your bike tonight – wear white!" MICK: "I leave it to the individual imagination as to what happened. The ending is something I remember hearing on the BBC as the bombs dropped."

#mick jagger #rolling stones #album review #between the buttons #nme #rock #1967 #1960s #sixties #60s

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glenmenlow · 5 years ago

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How Narratives Improve Ideas And Decisions

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. ~ George Bernard Shaw

How do Amazon’s leaders decide what to do and what not to do? How do they develop ideas and rationalize them? Much the same way they hire the best people. They use the narrative process to answer these questions and to capture and explain their ideas.

The Killer Feature: Clarity

Michael Porter, Harvard professor of strategy, has stated that “strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different.” By developing clarity and simplicity in what you are doing and not doing, you are improving the ideas, making deliberate decisions, and gaining shared understanding in the organization. The fundamental mistake leaders make in developing digital strategies is not seeking clarity, especially regarding the customer experience. What will delight the customer? What operational model supports this experience? What data and technology support the operational model? How will we measure?

Achieving clarity can be uncomfortable. It can disrupt. People tend to want to avoid conflict, be collaborative, and basically accept all the ideas and all the wording. This tactic does not demand the best thinking and avoids the sensitive topics in the spirit of “getting along.” A well-written narrative, on the other hand, demands rigor on exactly the right wording, compels getting to the heart of risks and sensitive topics that have to be addressed to achieve the goal, and requires straight and simple language to ensure that everyone understands the key points. A well-written narrative and the process of writing it will force teams to get beyond being polite and get to insights.

An Amazon leadership principle is to “Invent and Simplify.” Driving toward clarity of thought through a written narrative is a key operational approach to get both invention and simplification. “Almost every meeting which involves making a business decision is driven by a document,” says Llew Mason, an Amazon vice president. “One of the great things about a written document is that it drives a lot of clarity in the process.” Ah, clarity in thinking. Clarity on what you decide to do. Clarity on how the idea will affect users and the business. A longtime business partner of mine who worked with me both before and after Amazon has told me many times that what he sees me doing with my clients, which he has seen to be tremendously helpful, is that I’m always trying to simplify and clarify the communication. I learned this at Amazon.

What Is A Narrative?

At Amazon, leaders write narratives for all plans, proposals, services, and investments. PowerPoint is not used (insert applause). Much has been written about how PowerPoint dumbs down an organization or puts it at risk. In his 2017 letter to shareholders, Jeff Bezos wrote, “We don’t do PowerPoint (or any other slide-oriented) presentations at Amazon. We write narratively structured six-page memos,” Bezos continues. “We silently read one at the beginning of each meeting in a kind of ‘study hall.’ Not surprisingly, the quality of these memos varies widely. Some have the clarity of angels singing. They are brilliant and thoughtful and set up the meeting for high-quality discussion. Sometimes they come in at the other end of the spectrum.”

Narratives at Amazon are two-or six-page documents written in complete sentences. A narrative must be expressly tailored to the situation based on the topic, the timing in the initiative, and the audience. It must flow in a way that makes sense relative to the topic and audience. It is verboten to dump excessive bullet points or slides into the narrative. Data, charts, and diagrams can be included, but they must be explained in the narrative. Appendix material is also allowed. I believe that the discipline of writing out ideas is at the heart of Amazon’s innovation process and can be replicated to the same effect. As explained by Greg Satell:

At the heart of how Amazon innovates is its six-page memo, which kicks off everything the company does. Executives must write a press release, complete with hypothetical customer reactions to the product launch. That is followed by a series of FAQs, anticipating questions customers, as well as internal stakeholders, might have.

Executives at the company have stressed to me how the process forces you to think things through. You can’t gloss over problems or hide behind complexity. You actually have to work things out. All of this happens before the first meeting. It’s a level of rigor that few other organizations even attempt, much less are able to achieve.

The Process Of A Narrative

Why do programs and projects take too long, go over budget, become bloated, and fail to deliver according to expectations? Execution and project management technique can be reasons, but the biggest root cause is failing to accurately define the end state at the beginning. Teams want to launch quickly and start designing, building, and testing. Taking the time to write a narrative will dramatically improve the definition of what needs to be done, plus make it as small and concise as possible, so it can be done faster, cheaper, and with more agility. But writing narratives takes time, so they are done when they are done. It is difficult to predict how long it will take and how much effort will be required. It is completely reasonable to create a deadline. “You have one week to write a narrative” might be appropriate.

Narratives can be written by one person, but it is often a group effort because multiple people and teams contribute to the idea. Forcing people to own the narrative jointly has huge benefits in both getting the best ideas on paper and building shared understandings and relationships through authorship. Part of Amazon’s practice on narratives is not to include the author’s name or names on the narratives. This sends the signal that the narrative is a community activity.

When the narrative is done, think through the review meetings and decision-making process. Who needs to deeply understand and agree with the narrative before a decision is made? Who are the key decision makers? At Amazon, review meetings tend to be 60 minutes long. They start with 10 to 15 minutes of silence to deeply read or “grok” the proposal and vision. This is followed by a discussion debating the merits, options, appropriate next steps, and decisions.

The process of authoring, reviewing, and deciding must be carefully considered. It must be rigorous. It must take time and effort. It is done when it’s done. What do narrative writers do wrong? They don’t spend enough time on their writing. As Bezos wrote: “They mistakenly believe a high-standards, six-page memo can be written in one or two days or even a few hours, when really it might take a week or more! . . . The great memos are written and re-written, shared with colleagues who are asked to improve the work, set aside for a couple of days, and then edited again with a fresh mind. . . . The key point here is that you can improve results through the simple act of teaching scope—that a great memo probably should take a week or more.”

The Structure Of A Narrative

A narrative must be constructed of complete thoughts, complete paragraphs, complete sentences. You may include charts, numbers, and diagrams, but those items must be explained in the narrative. Other than that, there are no rules on structure, and the structure the authors choose will depend on the topic, the timing in the discussion cycle, and the audience.

The first sections of the narrative are typically customer focused. “Who are the customers? What benefits are we bringing them? What problems are we solving for them? Why would this idea delight them?” Sections after that might include what the customer experience would be, dependencies or requirements, metrics to measure success, business case, and key risks.

A Sample Narrative

By now you hopefully understand the importance of writing ideas out completely and clearly. For your projects, investments, strategies, and executive topics, ditch the PowerPoint presentations, and force teams to put their ideas and plans in writing. Meetings start with 10 to 15 minutes of silence to read the narrative. Phones and computers are left outside. Then debate the merits of the narrative. Don’t be afraid either to ask that the narrative be improved or to write a follow-up related narrative.

Make no mistake. Creating narratives takes skill, experience, commitment, and patience. You can’t rush great narratives because you can’t rush great thinking and communications. It takes practice. Writing is less an artistic exercise and more a practiced skill. It’s less of a spontaneous combustion and more of a methodical construction—like building and rebuilding the perfect birdhouse. Do you have the discipline and commitment to write in plain English your most important ideas and proposals?

Other executives and big companies are recognizing how writing as a forcing function to create clarity is key to innovation. JPMorgan Chase, whom I have had a chance to talk to about many of these ideas, is using narratives as one of the ways to try to be literary, more like Amazon. “Mr. Bezos notoriously banned slide presentations to keep Amazon in startup mode as it grew, instead asking employees to craft six-page documents complete with a press release and FAQs. Over roughly the past 18 months, JPMorgan has started a similar practice in its consumer businesses under Gordon Smith, the bank’s co-president and co-chief operating officer.” Are you able and willing to commit to hard habits like writing narratives to change culture, speed, tempo, and innovation?

Writing ideas and proposals in complete narratives results in better ideas, more clarity on the ideas, and better conversation on the ideas. You will make better decisions about what to do and how to do it. The initiatives will be smaller and less risky. Writing narratives is hard, takes a long time, and is an acquired skill for the organization. High standards and an appreciation for building this capability over time are required.

Questions To Consider

1. Do your ideas and plans suffer from incomplete thought? 2. Do your projects get bloated with size and unnecessary complexity? 3. Do your executives understand and influence the details of a proposal sufficiently to make a well-informed decision?

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: John Rossman. Excerpted from his book, Think Like Amazon, 50 1/2 Ideas To Become A Digital Leader (McGraw-Hill)

At The Blake Project we are helping clients from around the world, in all stages of development, redefine and articulate what makes them competitive at critical moments of change through online strategy workshops. Please email us for more.

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

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