#the music is perfectly glitchy !

[bluwus-art]

You guys have no clue how long I've wanted to make a y2k themed kaito drawing. (Music: Sweet trip dsco cover by Indeterminant) (Lime ver. under the cut)

[obsessivemusicfr3ak]

10/18/24 12:00 AM

NEW FUCKING MACHINE GIRL ALBUM JUST DROPPED WE FUCKING LISTENING BITCH

1:Ok fr tho already heard first song from single its aight (better than i remember now that im listening again) ((theres also no lyrics out yet so im not gonna mention those at all))

2:Second song titled "nu nu meta phenomenon" is fucking INCREDIBLE the sound design and awesome drums continue the awesome trend of live instrumentation mixed with glitchy elements that leads to a heavenly experience!

3:Glitchy goodness continues on the third track, which has some amazing synth leads that are just a fucking amazing vibe. The ending is great aswell! A nice build up and climax to some CRAZY noise.

4:The standout element of this album is definitely the drums. The groove you get from them is exemplified perfectly on this track. Pretty nice track although ill have to let it grow on me a bit ngl.

5:This track is completely unique from anything else ive heard on the album. (I cannot get over the fact that the first verse uses the same flow as your favorite martian on mr douchebag.) The sound design continues to be otherwordly, legitimately so on this track sounding like music from outerspace. The latter half of this track is a lot more smooth and enjoyable than the first half.

6:Ohhh my god this interlude is amazing. Super ambient yet creepy vibes. Just a really nice relaxing track im definitely coming back to a ton.

7:Ive heard this song before. Absolute peak. Easily top 3 machine girl songs ever released, imo. Perfect blend of awesome electronic drums and live instrumentation in the more "punk rock" sections. The idm sections have an awesome groove and the transitions to the punk rock sections are just SO good. When this first dropped i was very surprised by it, but hearing it in context it makes perfect sense and fits snuggly as the center of this album.

8:Super cool track. Awesome drum grooves with some really unique vocals. Overall this is just a really fun song, with the high pitch really "bright" sounding instruments. The switch up later on brings a really nice element to this track aswell. Will be returning to this track many times i can tell. Not much to say here its just really good lol

9:The high pitch vocals really make this track for me. Super (again) groovy feel and awesome sound. The chaotic ending gives this track a good feel that makes it stand out from the rest of the tracklist

10:Living up to its name, "Grindhouse" starts with super dark feeling, as if you are in a house party on acid in a movie. This track just gets me moving man its so dancable! The second part of this track blends themes of house and techno with the experimental dark sound going on here, machine girl style with crazy sound design and distinctly machine girl vocals. This song just has a bounce to it that i love.

11:Another great interlude that sounds like a radio transition on a bad trip.

12:Transition into this song was amazing. The vocals already are captivating me with this aphex twin drukqs synth vibe, similar to cock/ver10. Vibing hard to this crazy ass track, just loving this switchup midway through, suddenly switching to a nice chill beat that still somehow sounds cracked out. AND IT SWITCHES UP AGAIN! Holy this song is so fucking good... the bass synths going loud in my ears and insane sounds im hearing definitely makes this track sound exactly like its name, "schizodipshit". The glitchyness adds to it aswell, and the cut back to reality with this simple beat right after omggg this song is phenomenal!!!!!

13:This was the third single for MG Ultra, and i love this song through and through, from the starting section with amazing drumming and superb chorus. I know the lyrics by heart to this song already i love it so much!! Its super relatable to me with it being about being belittled in small ways adding and not feeling respected by your peers. With lines like "psychic attack, when you're talking shit behind my back, psychic attack when i fall and hear your laughter" reveals this theme. Amazing final track that is a perfect closer for this just amazing album.

FINAL THOUGHTS: This album is the start of a new direction for machine girl, one of punk rock influence and more live instrumentation which I am really excited for! This keeps the same crazy energy and wild sound design and mixes it with punk rock groovyness. A must listen for machine girl fans. They have outdone themselves with this record. 10/10

[colbyxlabear]

An honest review of Eusexua by FKA Twigs.

It has taken me about 4 listens to come up with a clear and concise review of FKA Twigs' latest masterpiece "Eusexua". I've been taking in a lot of interviews and listening to the album to get a full picture of this euphoric and abstract work.

Eusexua is by all means a dance record, but even that analysis would be a gross understatement for how layered the metaphor and meaning of this record is. With its lyrics spanning from the freedom and bliss presented in tracks like "Room of Fools" and "Striptease" to the existential and thoughtfulness of "Keep it, Hold it" and the albums title track "Eusexua, the record lyrically is a humanist experience of catharsis and healing. Eusexua is fun, but the fun is not just senseless and shallow like most traditional pop, rather it is the feeling of liberation from societal norms and freedom of unabashed self expression.

The sonic soundscapes of this record feel like Twigs mastering her very specific brand if Avant Pop while infusing it with more traditional electronic production. Songs like "Perfect Stranger" and "Childlike Things" have an undeniably dancey groove that would fit perfectly on any dance floor while tracks like "Sticky" and "24hr Dog" feel like a more refined version of sounds explored of her first album "LP1" with their sparce and spacey production and skittering high hats. This album also takes major inspiration from artists like Björk, Sophie Xeon (especially Room of Fools) and oddly enough 90's Madonna in songs like "Girl Feels Good" and "Perfect Stranger". The stand outs production wise are obviously "Drums of Death" with its pounding, glitchy drum line that is an inescapable earworm and the closing track "Wanderlust" which is a more stripped back song with brutally honest lyrics and more acoustic production which makes it the perfect closer for the odyssey of Eusexua.

All in all, Eusexua proves that FKA Twigs is continuously expanding the breadth of her sound, evolving with the feeling of her inner self to guide her artistic output. If you are a fan of Twigs this is definitely a delight and even if you're new to her music i would venture to say that this is her most approachable body of work to date. I give Eusexua a 4 out 5 and can't wait to see how the rest of this era unfolds!

[potol0ver]

I WOULD LIKE TO ASK FOR THE MOMMY KINK FIC WITH AN AFAB READER PLEASE!!!!!!!!! Thank you ^^;

Ok amazing! I’ll be glad to do this , also if you’re the anon from before (which you most definitely are) I’m sorry I didn’t understand your ask at first but now I do- (believe it or not I’m dyslexic-) so with that being said- let’s do it!!!

I’m writing this the day after and I fixed vocab issues, but if there are any left I beg tell me, I’ll happily fix anything I missed.

Ok so- apparently this is kinda glitchy at the end- idk how to fix it bc I can’t see the glitch myself- it’s where a couple paragraphs are copied over and over- I’m sorry if you get this glitch I don’t know how to fix it

Tags; Eric Phantom of the Opera, mommy kink, AFAB reader, sub!Eric, Dom!reader, overstimulation, marking

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You were in Eric’s layer originally just going to relax and live around each other like usual. This time though, things got a little heated,you swear you just meant to check up on Eric’s progress on his music. You walked behind him and leaned ever so slightly over him to see his music score.

Eric's breath hitched the moment he felt your plush body against his back, when you came over to him he wasn't thinking about his music, he was thinking about lewd thoughts about you that kept getting louder and louder over the past week. Now with your soft chest and stomach gently pressing into him from behind, Eric can barely hold himself together.

“Eric, are you alright my dear?” you said in that honey-laced voice he adored. Your hand came and traced up his neck, to his jaw, to under his chin, and making him look up at you. He could feel how his cock was begging to be touched now, straining against his pants, and how you could probably see it from this angle only made him harder.

He looked up at you with big puppy-like eyes, with a light red on his cheeks, he bit is lower lip so he didn't let out a whimper. Eric was perfectly placed between your chest now, your warm soft boobs on either side of his head, God it was driving him mad.

You let out a dark chuckle seeing how Eric was turning to putty by the slightest of touches. You traced your hands down his throat and inside his flowy shirt, slowly pulling the garment off of his shoulders and letting it hang off of his waist. Your hands trailed up from his navel to his chest where you let your hands fidget with his nipples, making Eric gasp and arch his back.

Eric can feel it bubbling at the back of his throat now, the damned title he accidentally gave you during a masturbation session. He bit his tongue harshly as he tried his best to stay quiet. Your hands made it so hard for him, ghosting over his skin to eventually return to his chest and play with his nipples. He swears if this happens for much longer he's going to die.

“Eric, look at me.” your voice snapping him out of his mind, he hesitantly fluttered his eyes open to meet yours looking down at him, eyes half-lidded. “What's wrong? You don't have to hold back your voice for me. Your singing voice is heavenly, id love to hear it in this form too.” gently praising him as you lower your head to his neck and started kissing lightly.

Eric was torn, he could tell you what you wanted at the risk of you not wanting the title, or he could stay silent and hopefully, you'll continue. His silence was getting on your nerves, so you tried your best to coax the noises out of him.

The moment Eric felt you suck and nibble on his neck, his mouth flew open and let out a whiny moan.

“Mommy- mommy please- I'm close” he unconsciously begged you, he could feel you grow a smile against his skin. Your hand slid down and rubbed his cock through his pants while your other pinched and twisted his nipple.

“Cum for me Eric, cum for Mommy.” you lowly whisper to him, with a high-pitched whine of your title, he bucked his hips into your hand, cum ruining his pants. Kissing up his spine you reassure him “you did good Eric, let's get you cleaned up.”

As you turned from him, he quickly grabbed your wrist. “You didn't finish my muse,” Eric says, now with his back facing the organ, and pulling you closer. “Please use me to cum mommy.” His hands already working on getting you undressed, and before you could even say anything, he was sucking on one of your breasts.

His sucking and nibbling had you pouring out guttural moans as you straddled him on his organ stool. Your hips rocked against his clothed hard on causing him to suck harshly on your nipple. You lifted yourself from him just enough to pull his pants down to his mid-thigh. His cock sprang up against his stomach, aching to be touched by you.

Eric knew you had to get your clothes off properly too but he could part from you. So he did the one thing he thought best and ripped it off of you, earning a gasp and a chuckle from you.

“My baby couldn't wait could he?” you said teasingly looking down at him, his face still buried in your plush chest. “Don't worry, mommy won't make you wait any longer.” gently lining his dick up with your now soaking cunt, you slowly slide down on him. He couldn't focus on anything else anymore, he let go of your breast and laid his head against your chest, moaning like a porn star.

That's where you find yourself currently, you placed your hands on the now-closed organ, and as soon as he was in you to the base, you started moving slowly on his shaft. Eric felt like his skin was burning, it was all too much, but he wants more, so much more.

“Please” Eric choked out “please- mommy- more- mo- aAH” his pleas didn't go ignored as you sped up. You couldn't hold your own sanity anymore, not with his tip hitting the deepest sensitive spot in you perfectly.

“M-mom-my- YES- G-GOD YES-” Eric proclaimed and moaned out how good you were making him feel. He was getting close again and the ache in your stomach was getting unbearable. You slid a hand down to play with your clit, but it was quickly pushed to the side by Eric who was more than willing to take the job.

“L-let your good b-boy take car- aAH- care of you- Mommy-” he said popping your nipple back into his mouth. In seconds you were cumming and spasming on his cock, Eric cumming right after feeling your walls milk him. His moan being choked out of him until you finally stopped fluttering around him.

You two sat in silence, only your heavy breaths could be heard as you two leaned against each other. After a couple minutes of your daze, you moved to get up, earning whines from a over exhausted Eric. Thankfully you were taking him with you as you lead him by his arm.

“Come Eric, let’s go wash ourselves.” You called to him as he stood up with shaking legs, that happily followed you anywhere.

After a couple silent moments, with only your breathes being beards for minutes on end, you finally move to get off of him. Eric whined at the loss of touch but thankfully you we’re trying to take him with you. “Come Eric, let’s go clean up.” His wobbly figure happily followed you for the rest of the night.

Both of you took a moment to breathe, and soon enough you got off of him, much to Eric's dismay. “Come Eric, let's go bathe,” you said with a soft voice and led him with shaking legs to the bathroom to get cleaned up.

[star-going-supernova]

Got an idea and I'm interested in seeing what you do with a prompt like this.

FNAF SB is definitely future time, so the digital world implants are actually more common than just private Fazbear Tech. So Gregory already has his own chip (that he uses to play games on mostly) when he gets stuck in the Pizzaplex, and being the little gremlin he is, he hacked it to allow him access to V.A.N.N.I. network and all the shenanigans he can do with it without needing a full mask.

This is a sci-fi sort of AU where implants just exist and are pretty common, and they have a variety of uses, one of which includes using similar “short cuts” as seen through the mask in Ruin. 

The Tormenting of Moon

Moon growled and lunged for Gregory for the fifth time in as many minutes, but Gregory only laughed and, from Moon’s perspective, passed straight through a section of netting on the play structure. Safe on the other side, Gregory cried, “Too slow again!” 

He took off into the twisting halls of colorful plastic and foam, delighting in Moon’s howl of frustration. 

“How are you doing that?” Moon shouted with his raspy, glitchy voice. 

“It’s not my fault if you can’t figure it out!” 

To be fair to Moon, Gregory having an implant wouldn’t be anyone’s first thought. Legally speaking, a person had to be sixteen or older to have a permanent one surgically grafted to their brain stem. And the removable types for anyone younger or those who didn’t want an internal chip were usually in the form of glasses, masks, and visors—none of which Gregory had. 

So, to Gregory, Moon wasn’t an idiot for not catching on. But he was maybe a bit naive and unobservant. The scar on the back of Gregory’s neck wasn’t exactly subtle and neat and professionally done—rather, it was raised and jagged and far bigger than a real doctor would ever make for a chip placement. 

But hey, there was a black market for everything, even if you were only twelve years old. And implants were too handy for Gregory not to make use of.

Switching his perception back and forth between Standard and Network, Gregory wove through the play structure, always keeping well ahead of Moon’s grasping fingers. He’d always enjoyed a challenge, and this was pretty low-stakes for a chase. Like a slightly more intense game of tag. This wasn’t dangerous; it was fun. 

“Missed me, missed me!” he crowed, diving into the opening of a slide. He took the curves at high speed and shot out into the ball pit. Gregory quickly wormed his way to the bottom of the pit and did his best to slither along without making too much of a racket. With his implant, and the upgrades he helped himself to early on in the night, he tapped into the security cameras in the daycare. 

The night vision mode worked perfectly. He switched between views a few times before finding Moon. The animatronic was stalking back and forth along the edge of the ball pit, looking not unlike a cat who had lost its prey. He half expected Moon to dive headfirst into the pit like a fox into snow. 

Deeming himself far enough away from his pursuer, he carefully slinked up to the surface, only just barely poking out. The darkness provided helpful cover, and the obnoxious music masked the quiet rattling of plastic. 

He threw a ball as hard as he could, and a moment later, it clattered loudly on the other side of the pit. The shadow that was Moon ducked toward it, giving Gregory a chance to take up a more defensible position, tucked in a corner. 

And then, because he was an awful child, he carefully started tossing balls over the edge and into the rest of the daycare. They landed near silently on a padded mat and proceeded to roll down it to make quite a mess. Every now and then, he threw another decoy elsewhere in the pit to draw Moon’s attention, as he was currently swimming through the ball pit like a gangly shark. 

This went on for some time, and Gregory had to pause more and more often to smother his laughter into his shirt. 

Finally ready to reap the rewards of his troublemaking, Gregory boosted himself up onto the ledge and loudly declared, “Wow, what a mess!” 

Moon got as far as leaping to his feet in an explosion of plastic balls before he was rendered still and speechless, horrified by the disarray of his daycare. Over a hundred plastic balls lay scattered around the floor. 

His programming demanded he clean up. In his head, Sun wailed with the need to return order to their domain. Moon himself wanted nothing more than to wring the neck of the menace responsible. His head twitched and sparked. 

Cackling, Gregory climbed up a slide with little windows carved in the sides, and there he camped out to watch the animatronic have a mental break down. 

[val-likes-music]

Val's Albums [2] - Bedside Toxicology, Rx

A contradiction at its finest - harsh and abrasive, but packed full of emotion, and incredibly addictive.

Bedside Toxicology is a box of nightmares dreamt up by the one and only Ogre (Kevin Ogilvie). Weird and abrasive, Ogre's penchant for eeriness is on full display in this album. Being the sole album released under Rx (changed from Ritalin for legal reasons) and produced with Martin Atkins, this is a 12-track esoteric fever dream filled with clean yet disorientating sounds. It’s perfectly clear that Martin and Ogre are creating music for themselves, and no one else. It’s the kind of abstract that’s both confusing and bewitching, expressing emotions and ideas behind layers of glitchy electronic noise.  

Ogre was in a sort of purgatory when Atkins first approached him, suggesting a collaboration. Ogre’s last band, Skinny Puppy, spiralled into disastrous internal conflict as he sank into a crippling drug addiction. He decided to quit the band in 1996, and thankfully managed to get clean, but he was still left to his own devices. His latest music project at the time, W.E.L.T. (that would later become ohGr) was at a standstill due to a particularly shitty contract with American Records. Desperate for something to devote his creative energy to, Ogre happily agreed to Atkins’ suggestion, and Rx was formed. 

The album starts out in an unexpected way, to be sure. Fans of Ogre or Skinny Puppy will know that when he dedicates his voice to a song, it’s rarely clear, understandable, or melodic. One of the hallmarks of Skinny Puppy was vocals thick with distortion, almost impossible to make out sometimes. Yet, as the first song on Bedside Toxicology begins, we’re greeted with Ogre… singing? And it’s clear?! While Ogre has a bit of an unconventional singing voice, it’s actually nice to hear his voice clear and bright. Already, this album is a departure from the Ogre we know, and its experimental nature is shining through from the get-go. Accompanied by just an acoustic guitar, Ogre warbles out a cover of Syd Barrett’s Scarecrow, starting the album on a rather sincere note. 

As it winds to a close, the next song begins - and with it, the electro-creepiness that coats the next 10 tracks. K Y Re:Amin is unconventional in both its name and its structure, starting out with an eerie melody and some higher-pitched vocalising. The track builds, drum beats punctuating each line, unfolding as Ogre chants evilly over a catchy beat. “The smell remains the same…”

What now becomes immediately apparent about Bedside Toxicology is the harmonious weirdness it manages to achieve. Taken apart, the myriad of sounds layered on top of each other are strange and abrasive and make no sense. But Ogre and Atkins arrange them into some kind of demented harmony - there’s flow, emotion, depth hidden amongst the menagerie of bizarre noises. Here is where the skill lies; making such fucked up yet devilishly catchy music takes no small amount of talent.

And then Reuptake begins, a perfect example of Rx’s eerie but clever nature. The track has a slow buildup, with sharp drums and a high-pitched circus-like melody oscillating below more nonsensical Ogre chants. The tension in this track just builds and builds. More elements are slowly added, a sick sense of dread amounting through the instrumental. And suddenly, just past two minutes in, it roars to life - a twisted carnival ride of a song that pulses like a heart, soft vocals echoing through the dark descent of the track. It’s a decline into madness put into music, a drug-dipped spectacle of a song that spins around and around until a sharp cut to silence, only a few mournful notes from Ogre to bring the song to a close. It’s fast and deadly and it’s over before you know it. That sharp contrast at the end, full musical insanity cutting to nothing but a melodic sigh, feels almost like snapping back to reality.

There’s another cover - Downtown, by Petula Clark, modified to be an abstract commentary on heroin. The track is punctuated by bass-packed drums that have by now become an Rx staple. They stick out, sharp kicks being used as a kind of punctuation mark, bringing attention to the evil tone of Ogre’s voice. The agonising cries of “So happy again!” are packed with pain, a glimpse into the struggle Ogre experienced during those long years of addiction. 

Track five, Imago, sticks out perhaps the most to me. It’s experimental in every sense of the word, with harsh techno sounds and Ogre’s deep chants being spliced and cut off, bursting to life and fading, all above a persistent bass drum beating like blood in your ears. There are so many layered vocals in this piece, with the insistent chant of “Down in the back and around the corner”, to the malicious “Wanna hear a story?” at the very beginning, to the ramblings laced through the harsh instrumentation. It’s skewed and tilted and disjointed, lingering in the peripheral vision. Phantasmagoria at its finest - constantly shifting, constantly changing, a delirium that drives you all the way through bat country and back. 

In fact, that describes the whole album rather well. No two tracks are similar, and classic musical structure or expectations are faraway concepts. It’s sharp and clear but confusing and muddied. Indecipherable, harsh, yet strangely raw and emotional. It’s the corruption of the human mind in music form, the bad trip, strange at first but darkly addictive to listen to. It’s a twisted work of art. 

Ogre and Atkins’ relationship was one of the reasons this album got made in the first place. According to Ogre, even when he was in a bad place, Atkins was one of the people who kept checking in on him, leading to a close friendship between the two. He’s stated that Bedside Toxicology was a pure 50/50 collaboration between them. It was a space for Ogre to experiment, and to grow beyond the pressures of Skinny Puppy. In his words:

“It might not meet up to people’s approval, who will expect this distorted, unintelligible voice, but there’s thirteen [Skinny Puppy] records of that!” [source]

Bedside Toxicology is musical experimentation at its finest, a chaotic juxtaposition all the way through. It’s dark and creepy and fucked up, yet solemn and emotional. But above all, it’s Ogre making the music he wants to make, on his own terms. 

Track listing 1 - Scarecrow 2 - K Y Re:Amin 3 - Reuptake 4 - Downtown 5 - Imago 6 - Crackhead Waltz 7 - The Daze 8 - And When 9 - Idle Contact 10 - Exfoliate 11 - For Dusts and Mists

Listen here: Spotify Apple Music Youtube

[dustedmagazine]

Ed Schrader’s Music Beat — Orchestra Hits (Upset the Rhythm)

Photo by Goopcat

Ed Schrader’s Music Beat has come a long way since we last crossed paths on the 2012 debut Jazz Mind, an altogether more punk and percussive outing that first paired Ed Schrader with the bassist Devlin Rice. “Even now, even on record, there’s a strong whiff of performance art to what Schrader does, the live spectacle implied in whomping, ritual rhythms and a shout-sung delivery that is as much poetry slam as punk rock,” wrote a much younger Jennifer Kelly for Dusted that year.  Three other records have come in the intervening years—Party Jail in 2014, Riddles in 2018 and Nightclub Dreaming in 2022—along with a growing suavity and new wave lounge-i-ness. 

With Nightclub Dreaming and now Orchestra Hits, Schrader has settled into languid romanticism with a baritone croon that might remind you—a little—of Bryan Ferry at his most sex positive. You can also hear echoes of new wave bands. “Into the Knotted Tree”’s urgent rhythms and trebly twinkles, all slathered over with smooth-ness, sounds a bit like The Thompson Twins. “Waterfront” grooves in an ominous, dystopic way that makes me think of the Fixx. But go ahead, pick your own late-1980s, early 1990s synth obsessions—New Order, Depeche Mode, Kakagoojou—Schrader’s Music Beat resonates with the whole darkwave period.

Is that a slam? Not at all. Orchestra Hits are sleek and sensual, prickling with glitchy synth tones and seething with pheromones on the prowl. “I Turn the Ocean Blue” looses agitated howls that are, nonetheless, perfectly styled and coifed. “She won’t…. she won’t return,” cries Schrader and it’s like Future Islands at a rave.  “Roman Candle” pulses with dance-floor hedonism, aches with post-bender regrets. It’s hard to tell if these songs celebrate youth and beauty or mourn it from a remove; there’s a bit of both in every track.

And indeed, that combination of surface and undercurrent, rave-up and desolation, dance beat and aria, is what makes Orchestra Hits so compelling.  There’s never been a shortage of “everybody party now” songs, nor can an honest person deny their appeal. But “everybody party cos we’re all gonna die” has always felt infinitely more compelling. Ed Schrader’s Music Beat drinks champagne on the edge of a precipice, tossing the bottle down and waiting to hear it shatter.

Jennifer Kelly

[fleshsigil]

census designated - review

//content warning: discussion of depression/suicide/self-harm/dysphoria

census designated is in my top 3 albums of all time. i would give it a 10/10, but i think that rating music with numbers is stupid.

census designated is the sophomore album of jane remover, an artist who had originally broken into the music scene in 2021 with the seminal hyperpop EP, teen week. she then proceeded to release frailty later that year, a face-melting and depressing emo/hyperpop/edm fusion, which is another one of my favorite albums of all time.

needless to say, census designated is a pretty large departure from her source material, but one of the most positive changes i've seen in an artist's material ever. it trades in frailty's twinkly, edm-inspired vibe for a more acoustic and shoegazey style, while still retaining all of the things that made jane's music amazing in the first place. it features crackling, wailing walls of noise and basslines interlaced with screams and similar digital glitching effects to frailty; the hip-hop style drums used in frailty are swapped out for more acoustic, natural-sounding drums and the synths are much more warm and organic, fitting perfectly into the atmosphere of the rest of the album.

the tracks on census designated are on the longer side, ranging from 4 and a half minutes to almost 9. normally, seeing lots of long tracks on an album worries me as sometimes it can result in a lack of substance; this was most certainly not the case for this album. the long playtime makes room for bleaker, quieter moments building up into ear-splitting, astronomically cathartic breakdowns and climaxes. census designated effortlessly weaves together bedroom pop, shoegaze, and harsh noise into a varied and oppressive but beautifully blended soundscape for the entirety of the album. walls of warm synths and glitchy audio makes way for droning, feedback-riddled guitar melodies and minimal basslines.

the way that this album is able to convey the bitterness, desperation, anger, and hopelessness that are present in mental illness and dysphoria is something that i have seen in few other pieces of media. akin to uboa's the origin of my depression and giles corey's self-titled, census designated paints a visceral and vivid picture of depression, suicidal ideation, and struggling with one's identity, through both its lyrical content and sound. as someone who personally has struggled and is struggling with these things, this album has been unbelievably cathartic for me. all of the desperation and anger that jane funneled into this album is made into this palpable, dreamily vivid experience. a great example of this is the first ~20 seconds of video, a deafening wall of guitar, screams, frantic drums, and synths. during moments like this, jane also used a noisy sort of glitching effect to convey this complete collapse, this almost inability for the music to even stay within its bounds, breaking down into a messy, roiling sea of noise; a feeling that a lot of people who struggle with mental illness can relate to. this is then followed up with a bleak and soulful buildup until the eventual climax towards the end. despite this being a common song structure and theme throughout the album, it's re-engineered and done in a different way in each song, fully different from all the others; each song also discusses different topics, such as toxic relationships, going unnoticed in life, self-harm, hopelessness, the music industry, among other things. the lyrical content is vague enough for the listener to project their experiences onto it, but still personal enough for them to relate to jane's own experiences. there's this dark twinge of body-horror/cannibalism-themed metaphors for intimacy/sex/attraction ("biting chunks out of my face", "arm candy falling into his lap / take a bite") which jane herself said was inspired by horror movies that she had been watching at the time. anyone who has ever been in love, in a shitty relationship, or been ignored by the people around them will find the lyrics immediately relatable and impactful, although it's still enjoyable regardless.

the fact that jane remover was able to transition from terminally- online, attention-deficit digicore and hyperpop (which i still love, don't get me wrong) to one of the best shoegaze/noise rock projects i've heard in years is amazing and really shows her unfettered creativity, musical ability, and capacity to blend together multiple genres into a beautiful, cohesive project.

overall, i highly recommend that anyone who enjoys this style of music gives this album a listen. in my opinion, it's a masterpiece, and if you give it a try, you might think so too.

LINKS TO ALBUM ON BANDCAMP AND SPOTIFY BELOW

(i post music reviews sometimes, if you want more of that kind of thing, you should follow me)

[skyplayssplatoon3]

My Predictions/Guesses for Side Order DLC:

-The player is Agent 8, who had chosen Team Order in the Splatocalypse

-Inkopolis Square was abandoned shortly after the events of Splatoon 2, as everyone moved onto Splatsville for Splatoon 3, which is why it was left dead and decaying

-OR, something took over Inkopolis Square and pushed everyone out, because notice the signs on the tower have been changed from all-directions to perfectly straight

-I imagine we travel through familiar Single Player and Turf War maps of Splatoon 2, perhaps trying to rebuild memories to bring 'life' back to this part of Inkopolis and help the city regrow again

-Throughout the adventure, we learn more about how Pearl and Marina met, and how they developed their music together that made Inkopolis Square the place to be!

-As another member of Team Order, my guess is Commander Tartar is 100% returning as the villain for this DLC

-We get another incredibly difficult Secret Fight in this DLC, probably harder than Inner Agent 3 (Inner Agent 4?)

-Pearl acts as our 'Marie', being our guide and our funny dialogue throughout the game as we possibly look for, or travel to Marina

(Notice the glitchiness/hologram look of Marina here!)

-Once beating the game, Inkopolis Square becomes available as a fully accessible plaza much like Wave 1 Inkopolis, including being able to see the shopkeepers (who may end up updated as well?)

AGAIN these are just predictions!! And ones I'm making both from a mix of all the theories I've read, and just kinda throwing stuff at the wall! Do not take this as accurate or canon, but I will be referencing this post again in the future to see how close I was 👀

[renova-time]

Ahem

I was lying in my bed doing nothing

Then I remembered Memphi's design

Why does she look like that?

What happened to her?

The reason behind her design is the mindset of mine when it comes to creating characters based on music or anything like that

and one more thing

this soundtrack described Memphi in best

The glitchy moments in that soundtrack perfectly matches Memphi and her uncanny valley mindset

I might dump everything abt Memphi now

P.S: even though it's "Gold Pilot"

Memphi was a lone fuchsiablood with goldblood genes (I'll explain that)

[garyholt]

I had a dream about you and literally all it was was a really horribly made slideshow carrd thing that was Halloween themed and generic Halloween music played while jt circled through pictures of some of the band images you post here and they all appeared twice on the same slide so it looked really glitchy and there was a million random Halloween clipart things suddenly appearing and it didn’t end I just woke up I think it’s still cycling through. Happy Halloween

A. GASPPP you had a dream about me

B. I can visualize this perfectly

C. Happy Halloween to u too!!!!!!

[wyattvsmusic]

Skrillex - Quest For Fire / Don’t Get Too Close ALBUM REVIEWS

From 2011-2014, Skrillex was synonymous with the boom of dubstep and big room EDM as he was churning out hits and was known for his signature “wubs.” In 2014, he put out his debut album, Recess which I was pretty mixed about as I liked a lot of things about it but certain songs and features just missed the mark. Since Recess, the only other album that Skrillex has put out was his Jack U collaboration with Diplo. After that, he stepped back from the spotlight, continuing to produce some pretty big records for people like Justin Bieber but his production was noticeably different as he strayed away from the brostep sound and made more pop songs. This departure in sound is a pretty natural segue into the sound of his newest albums, which are his first proper studio albums since Recess came out 9 years ago. He recently opened up on Twitter about his struggles with alcoholism after the passing of his mother in 2015 and spent this time in between albums focusing on his wellbeing. He seems to be in a much better place now considering he put out two new albums and has been playing pop up shows with Four Tet and Fred again.., which look really fun and these two producers seem to be having a good influence on the artistic direction of Skrillex’s new albums. Quest For Fire is an album full of nonstop bangers that are much more stripped back compared to the typical Skrillex sound that he was known for. While there are plenty of exciting dubstep songs on this album, there’s a lot more variety in the music as he heavily incorporates elements of house, UK Garage, and Chicago Juke into the music, which to me is a very welcome change in sound as I prefer these styles. The music emphasizes the groove more than the drop even though there are plenty of incredible beat drops on the album but no wubs which I am completely fine with. The album starts with Leave Me Like This, which has one of the most epic house drops on the entire album. Because it was a single, it feels weird as an intro but it hits just as hard every single time. I love the clunky drum sounds that he incorporates in the song as well. The song RATATA is an explosive banger featuring a very exciting feature from Missy Elliott, who sounds amazing on these types of tracks. Tears has somewhat of that dubstep bounce to it. I like the eerieness of that song. The song Rumble is a welcome change in sound as Skrillex collaborates with Fred again.. for a glitchy yet minimal mid-tempo dance song featuring a show-stealing appearance from Grime legend Flowdan, who delivers another incredible performance on the song Hydrate. I am glad that Flowdan is now getting more exposure to a new generation of people who might not know about Grime or Flowdan’s status within UK music. The song Butterflies is a nice club-ready house song with a great feature from Starrah, who delivers an even better performance on the dubstep-inspired Good Space. My favorite three-song run comes in the middle of the album with Inhale Exhale, which has great vocal contributions from Aluna, whose voice gets looped and placed into one of the filthiest drops on the whole album. The song has a nice bounce to it and pairs perfectly with A Street I Know, which has one of the catchiest melodies on the entire album as well as a nice groove to it. The song Xena probably has the best buildup/drop combo if we want to compare it to previous Skrillex songs as the contributions from Nai Barghouti are hypnotic and builds perfectly into a bombastic yet minimal drop as the rattling drums make up the entire drop and keep building back up. I think it’s such a clean transition and makes for a better song. The drop towards the end of the song switches into a house song but still continues to blend the original rattle into the beat. I think Too Bizarre is the perfect redemption for Coast Is Clear as Skrillex finally made a good Juked song. Swae Lee sounds great on the song. The only song I didn’t care for much on this album was Supersonic as I just found it underwhelming. Still Here closes out the album nicely with a 2-step Garage beat that samples Snoh Aalegra’s Time. I don’t love the high-pitched effects but it’s a good song. Quest For Fire is a new and improved Skrillex making a triumphant return during EDM’s new rise in popularity. He might lose a lot of his original audience with this new sound but I think this album contains the best songs that he has ever made. His return has multiple sides to it as he released his third album, Don’t Get Too Close the day after Quest For Fire. While I think it’s great that Skrillex showcases his versatility with these two albums, I think Don’t Get Too Close is a serious decline in quality. While I don’t hate it and I’m not a big fan of the more pop/emo-heavy sound of this album, I just don’t think it’s very good. I liked the slow rework of Leave Me Like This that starts the album and I liked the jungle-inspired Way Back with a good feature from Pinkpantheress but I really did not the Trippie Redd feature. I thought Selecta with BEAM was very good and made me realize where the sample from Rumble comes from, which was cool as Skrillex has sampled his own songs before to make even better songs (First of The Year). I thought Summertime with Kid Cudi was very good, Swae Lee sounded good on Mixed Signals, and I liked the way the album closed with Painting Rainbows. However, the rest of the album was just not very good in my opinion. It’s not really my type of music to begin with but I didn’t care for the features all that much and Skrillex’s singing on the title track wasn’t too great either. Don’t Get Too Close is definitely the inferior album but does not spoil my enjoyment of Quest For Fire, which is easily one of the best albums of the year so far.

Fav Tracks from Quest For Fire: Leave Me Like This, RATATA, Tears, Rumble, Inhale Exhale, A Street I Know, Xena

Fav Tracks from Don’t Get Too Close: Don’t Leave Me Like This, Way Back, Selecta, Summertime, Painting Rainbows

[bigbovrilburrito]

CW: mentions of transphobia, terfs, and the United Kingdom

Does Aphex Twin say "trans rights"?

Aphex Twin, AKA Richard David James', the enigmatic dance music producer / DJ, who famously called Radiohead "boring" in one of his rare moments of voicing an opinion, performed at a festival I went to recently. Now if you know Aphex Twin or have been on the internet too long, you will likely recall this image, the art to one of his most popular singles, "Windowlicker".

This was sometimes called the first "faceswap" before it became an early meme and well before it became a filter on most phones. Now this performance, which was incredible by the way and not just because I'd taken an edible beforehand, had an awesome light show and visuals designed by the artist Weirdcore that matched perfectly with the glitchy hardcore onslaught that was overwhelming our senses.

During part of the light show the screens also flashed up various other faceswaps of James' face with other celebrities and public figures. When people recognised faces they either got a cheer or a boo. Stephen Merchant: Cheer, Boris Johnson: Boo.

This was really nice because you could tell that a lot of thought had gone into selecting the faces and making it special and specific for the city the festival was held in; Bristol. Stephen Merchant is from Bristol himself, so him and other local heroes, some dearly and sadly departed, got big cheers from the crowd. The King of England? Big resounding boo. It's Bristol, where they threw that slaver's statue in the river, they're pretty cool.

One face that appeared a bit, quite a fair bit actually, was arch-transphobe JK Rowling. As said earlier, Bristol is cool and Bristolians are pretty cool, so seeing her got a loud and resounding "boo!" from the audience every time her face mixed with James' appeared on the screens.

There were countless faces that I either didn't recognise or that could have just been random people and not celebrities, but one swap I did notice in the mix was that of the sorely missed producer SOPHIE, who sadly passed away in 2021. SOPHIE, if you don't know, was a transwoman famous for a string of absolute bangers from 2015 onwards and being one of the early influential forces on hyperpop.

So her face was put up in there, giving her a shout out, which is about the most emphatic voice of support James' will give. He mostly uses interviews to talk about whatever bit of kit he has turned into a Frankenstein's Monster to make the desired noises for a new track, and when he's not doing that he can be exceptionally curt, responding to questions from Spain's largest newspaper with gems such as What does he look for when he composes? "Nothing" How does he know when a song is finished? "When I'm sick of making it".

So TL:DR / recap: Aphex Twin/ Richard James, who not much is known about was happy to both put up a prominent transphobe's face to be jeered at and gave his support to a trans artist, indicating he respects them. Does this means Aphex Twin says "trans rights"?

[justkeeponsimming]

Glitch: “You were incredible, Ree! You did it!”

Reed: “Me? No way! Glitchy, did you see the way you hit that part of the song? The instrumental was -“

Reed and Glitch interrupt each other constantly out of excitement as they try to compliment one another on the performance. Their first try performing Without You, their original song, and it went perfectly! Glitch will spend forever editing the footage, but Reed’s confident that her brother will make the video look even cooler than it felt to film! 

Giving up on praising his sister, Glitch grabs Reed’s arm and pulls her into a huge hug! She melts against him, holding him close. Reed and Glitch have been best friends since they were children. They live together. They do everything together. Now, they will achieve their dreams together!

Reed: “Thank you so much, Glitchy! I don’t know what I’d do without you!”

Glitch: “You’d still have made it, Ree, but I’d be cheering from the sidelines. There’s no way that we’re losing Sim Idol with this song and music video. Come on, we need a selfie to document this moment!”

[fictionallyinparadise]

For the 70s/80s music ask game, ‘Let’s Dance’ for anyone, for no reason other than my favorite musician wrote that song (is that the correct way to say that??? I’m new to music small talk. And music that isn’t just video game OSTs in general. And will that opinion have me judged? Sorry if I’m being awkward,)

~stars-n-freckles45

OOOO David Bowie goes BRRR <33 Dw about being awkward, music small talk (for me at least) either goes "this song made me cry you should listen to it", "this reminds me of you/your OC(s)", or "you just unlocked a memory about music and I'm gonna go down a rabbithole about it" so shghsg- Also!! Video game OSTs are so fucking good dude like.....omge. ANYWHO ANYWHO, I answered this with Iceberg bc I'm melting from brainrot to the point of no return <3

David Bowie - Let’s Dance: Are there any songs you’ve picked up from your F/O or their media, or because they remind you of them?

One song that reminds me of him for no reason is "Touch-Tone Telephone" by Lemon Demon. There's no reason, I just think it fits :]

Onto the songs that I can go and ramble about-

"Cold Cold Cold" by Cage The Elephant reminds me of him. Considering that he is literally Cold™️. I feel like he'd scream this song in his car before going into work....... "Some Rotten Man" by The Taxpayers but it's in an angst way,,,like. Hang on I need a specific lyric-

"Some rotten man. Nobody's savior. Your oldest friend" LIKE I can literally picture him saying those to me. "Some rotten man" in passing conversation. "Nobody's savior" after something Goes Wrong At Work™️. "Your oldest friend" whispered in the dark when he thinks I'm asleep.

"Mary On A Cross" by Ghost because like.......he's got some Abnormal Thing about him (his body temp is like....19.4° F) and my self insert has some Abnormal Thing about them (their eyes are glitchy! Like when they're confused their eyes show a literal bluescreen)!! SO THE "your beauty never ever scared me" HITS SO HARD............

"Hayloft II (Burning Barn Acoustic)" by Mother Mother is another and it's specifically the Acoustic bc that one itches my brain so hard. There's something about it that carries his Unhinged yet Contained energy so perfectly.

There's so many more but at the rate I'm going I'll never end this MSGHSHGHH..........

[purefandomonium]

Connection Part 12: Contemplation

Their talk went on well into bedtime, and Leann was soon passed out on the bed, the GameBoy lying beside her. Red had learned so much about what life was like outside of his virtual prison in that short time. He’d never really asked before but curiosity had overcome him. He turned the screen off so the brightness would not disturb her and contemplated.

The subject of what he’d do if he was ever freed had come up once again, and while he was insistent that there was nothing for him in the real world, he now knew he’d spend his time repaying Leann for her kindness. He may be no closer to getting out, but she had made his existence so much more bearable. He didn’t think he’d ever feel anything other than bitter rage yet here he was. He was almost… happy, in a way. It was nice.

Red’s mind soon wandered to what was going on in Leann’s. He could hear her steady breathing and wondered if she was dreaming. He made a mental note to ask her about that tomorrow. He knew what dreaming was in a general sense, but the specifics eluded him. It certainly sounded a lot nicer than falling into a blank void and completely losing any and all thought. Or the alternative, which was to exist in a constant state of awareness.

He wondered what the previous players who’d encountered him were dreaming of, wondered if they’d ever truly forgotten him. Being able to forget was both a blessing and a curse. He would know.

Red sighed at himself and where he was letting this train of thought take him. He materialized into Lavender Town and roamed about, disregarding the broken NPC’s and glitchy terrain. Here, too, had fallen victim to the pervasive corruption that tormented him endlessly. The one and only place he could find any sort of refuge, reduced to an only marginally better variation of that jumbled city. The sounds and background music were no longer coherent, nothing more than garbled shrieks and crackles underscored by a constant hum. The only reason it wasn’t getting to him was Leann’s soft breathing.

However, there was still something so serene about the place. Entering the tower was no longer a wise option, so Red opted to meander about the perimeter. Normally, walks like these helped him clear any darker thoughts from his mind, but now they were persistent.

Despite all she’d done and all she was willing to do, he still couldn’t believe Leann didn’t have an ulterior motive. Everyone else he’d shown his sentience to had become scared, terrified even. Some never believed him, seeing him as merely a cheap hack. A few even had the audacity to get cocky and challenge him and his abilities.

What little good it had done them. Red didn’t make idle threats.

What had changed then? Was he just lucky? After all these years maybe fate or whatever cruel entity did this to him finally felt pity. Perhaps it was nothing more than happenstance that he wound up with such a kind player.

…Or maybe Leann knew something more. She refused to believe his—admittedly, not very convincing—stories of what happened with the other players. Fair enough, he supposed. He’d never needed to lie to people before so he was bound to screw it up. What threw him for a loop was how good with technology she seemed to be.

Leann had told him about dozens of little pet projects she’d been working on. In addition to the setup she’d rigged with the old GameBoy and the software she’d created that somehow blended perfectly with the code keeping him prisoner, she’d informed him of how she’d fixed people’s computers, created programs and games, even how she once got to code a little robot. If she was to be believed, she was only fourteen. That seemed like a lot for a simple fourteen-year-old to know how to do. Of course, he was also privy to her complaints of how much homework she was given at school, and Red couldn’t say he was familiar with the subject, so maybe those were things all kids were given basic knowledge of. Prior to meeting her, he’d never bothered to learn anything from the players. It was more than likely a normal thing for someone her age.

Still, part of him feared she may have been one of them. Perhaps they’d discovered his continued existence and wanted to find out more. So they seized his cartridge and were using one of their own to trick him. Lie to him and get him to trust her so they could get access to the code and erase him. He shook his head to clear the thought. If that were the case, the moment he’d revealed himself she would’ve deleted him. Despite all his pleas for exactly that in the beginning, Red no longer wanted to go through with it. He’d gotten a taste of life and wasn’t about to throw it away. Not yet. Not until he’d had his fill.

He let himself smile at the irony of wanting life in a place as dead as Lavender Town.

Part 11: here

Part 13: here