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cleolinda · 1 year

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Varney the Vampire: A Preface

I want you to think back to what it’s like to reread your old work from years ago—your old stories or poetry, your old school papers, or even your old tumblr posts. Sometimes you’re actually kind of pleased, sure, but I want you to really go back and locate yourself in the heady cringe of that feeling.

In related news, I'm going to pick back up with the Varney the Vampire recaps I started in late 2010 CE. I got about nine chapters in, and then something, who knows what, derailed my life, as things tend to. Like, I'm used to this, it happens with the regularity of a lunar cycle. But I like writing about vampires (clearly), and since I feel like Dracula has been tread pretty thoroughly in recent times, I figured I might go back to something different; we had some lively discussions about Varney back then.

But 2010 was a time before A Lot of Things happened. I was in my early 30s at that point, so I won't say, "Oh, I was so young," but I had a very different energy as a blogger 12-13 years ago. So I've decided to rewrite the recaps a little—some more than others, some not much at all. I just feel like I have a really different perspective on the first chapter in particular, in 2023.

As before, I'm using the full, unabridged text. It is hideously long, something like 230+ chapters, but go big or go home, I figure. The thing is, I was using the files hosted at the University of Virginia, and now you can only get those through the Wayback Machine, but they are still usable for now. I have various backups saved, but I do want you to be able to see that I am, as ever, Not Making It Up.

I'm also not going to quibble anymore as to whether James Malcolm Rymer or Thomas Peckett Prest wrote this behemoth. Per Wikipedia sources, scholars seem to agree that it was all or mostly Rymer. When it's mentioned that they figured this out based on his dialogue style, I went... yeah, that checks out. Because it sure is A Style, and I'll be honest, the repetitive filler dialogue in chapter 10 was such a speedbump for me that I just threw up my hands and said, "I don't know how to recap this. Something I can't remember now is going on in my life and I Cannot. I no longer Can."

Well, it's the 2020s and we're gonna. Like I can't tell you how much stress I do not have about this. I've had covid three times and also spinal surgery. Varney the Vampire can no longer hurt me.

To start, this ordeal has a preface—apparently written upon the occasion of collecting the serial into book form—wherein The Author expresses his gratitude for "unprecedented success of the romance of Varney the Vampyre." First off, Rymer uses "vampire" and "vampyre" interchangeably, because fuck me for caring about consistency, I guess. Second, as Wikipedia notes,

It first appeared in 1845–1847 as a series of weekly cheap pamphlets of the kind then known as "penny dreadfuls." The author was paid by the typeset line [YEAH, I NOTICED], so when the story was published in book form in 1847, it was of epic length: the original edition ran to 876 double-columned pages and 232 chapters. Altogether it totals nearly 667,000 words.

For comparison, all of Lord of the Rings plus The Hobbit is 576,459 words. I sure do blanch every time I see those numbers! It's fine. We're gonna be fine. Back to the preface:

The following romance is collected from seemingly the most authentic sources, and the Author must leave the question of credibility entirely to his readers, not even thinking that he is peculiarly called upon to express his own opinion upon the subject.

"Seemingly" is doing a lot of work here.

Nothing has been omitted [for real, nothing down to the tiniest fly-swat has been omitted] in the life of the unhappy Varney, which could tend to throw a light upon his most extraordinary career, and the fact of his death just as it is here related, made a great noise at the time through Europe, and is to be found in the public prints for the year 1713.

I've seen more than one Dracula multimedia art project where people recreated the letters and diaries and recordings in the book (have you heard my whole thing about how Dracula actually was a cutting-edge techno-thriller back in 1897?), but I've never heard of anyone creating ARG-style media for the Totally for Actual-Fact Real tale of Sir Francis Varney the Vampire, and I think it would be hilarious if someone did.

I won't belabor the entire preface, but what I do want to touch on is Rymer's mention of "unprecedented success." Varney is actually standing on the shoulders of a vampire giant, and it's not the one we would think of. Nowadays, our big touchstone—the influence so great that most works either evoke it or take the trouble to say "Our vampires are different"—is Dracula, obviously. Which was published exactly 50 years after Varney, in 1897. But Varney's touchstone is Polidori's short story "The Vampyre" (1819). And for most of the 1800s, this was everyone's touchstone. Per Wikipedia (which I'm going to lean on for how concise it is, but I concur with this from my own research as well):

An adaptation appeared in 1820 with Cyprien Bérard's novel Lord Ruthwen ou les Vampires, falsely attributed to Charles Nodier, who himself then wrote his own dramatic version, Le Vampire, a play which had enormous success and sparked a "vampire craze" across Europe. This includes operatic adaptations by Heinrich Marschner (see Der Vampyr) and Peter Josef von Lindpaintner (see Der Vampyr), both published in the same year. Nikolai Gogol, Alexandre Dumas [note: I have the Ruthven play he wrote around here somewhere] and Aleksey Tolstoy all produced vampire tales, and themes in Polidori's tale would continue to influence Bram Stoker's Dracula and eventually the whole vampire genre. Dumas makes explicit reference to Lord Ruthven in The Count of Monte Cristo, going so far as to state that his character "The Comtesse G..." had been personally acquainted with Lord Ruthven. [...]

In England, James Planché's play The Vampire, or The Bride of the Isles was first performed in London in 1820 at the Lyceum Theatre based on Charles Nodier's Le Vampire, which in turn was based on Polidori. Such melodramas were satirised in Ruddigore, by Gilbert and Sullivan (1887); a character called Sir Ruthven must abduct a maiden, or he will die.

Back when no one gave a shit about copyright, Polidori's work was spun out into a cottage industry of knock-off stories and plays, an entire horror zeitgeist. Lord Ruthven was, for 78 years, who you copied, who you riffed on, who you parodied, what Count Dracula is to us now: the archetypal vampire. The Big Guy. And Varney is clearly cut from his cloth—the ostensible gentleman who worms his way into the lives of respectable, unwitting people. Unlike Dracula, there's no foreigner Othering, no "historical basis," no undercurrents of contagion and infection, no ambition to make the world his wine-press, none of that; Ruthven is a simpler figure, but the dominant one of this time no less. He is a stranger who shows up in the middle of London high society, icy and distant, his eyes “dead grey”—stern, yet somehow compelling when he cares to be. And when he cares to be, you're in trouble.

And this is the cultural consciousness when Francis Varney shows up.

[Chapter one will go up sometime this week, March 8-10 or so.]

#varney the vampire #vampires #vampire studies #honestly I am nervous about what I want to say about the first chapter #not sure it's gonna go over very well #long post #welcome to hell it's my blog #tv tropes warning. here is your rope to climb back out

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thebroccolination · 10 months

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it confuses the hell out of me how Tumblr out of all places harbors most negativity toward BMF. situation it's much better now though, but the early period and before the show aired was nothing but spite an vitriol filling the tags. on the bright side, pretty much every other platform is head over heels for BMF, especially Reddit. they're usually critical af but BMF seems to be universally praised. anyways, I'm beyond excited for the remaining eps, and here's hoping for a strong finale so this show becomes one of the often recommended ones 🙏

On BMF getting more negativity on Tumblr than other places:

I thiiiiink it's because Tumblr has an especially high North American/European user base, and that's where the majority of the Krist hate seems to come from. What people still point to (the IG story, the rape filter joke, the "I don't want to watch Singto specifically kiss other men because this is fanservice on a variety TV show that people are going to quote out of context as me saying I don't like watching men kiss" thing) are either debunked or happened years ago, but when interfans arrived in droves in 2020, they kicked up old news like it was brand new and passed around hearsay like it was fact.

I mean, even I've learned new things since I made my post and thread about Krist back in September. For one, GMM didn't arrange his press conference in 2020 to address the issues. Krist did. Even though he'd already apologized multiple times over the years for things he never repeated, he still wanted to take accountability because of the amount of attention interfans were bringing to it. Part of that press conference was Krist even saying he'd never make excuses for what he's done and that he'll apologize as long as he's asked to.

The first(?) apology Krist made for the IG story was long, long ago, one I can't even find a translation for, that's how long ago it was. But Krist's long-time fans said that someone did translate it, but their English wasn't strong, so interfans picked apart their translation as if Krist's apology was lacking. (It's like how some interfans criticized Win in Between Us for being forceful because the subtitles originally said "kiss me" when what he actually said in Thai was "can I kiss you?" Interfans who don't speak Thai just make assumptions based on translations sometimes and it's part of my villain origin story.) Again, I don't have the apology to hand, but apparently one part of it was Krist saying something like, "I responded without thinking of how it would look. As a Y actor, I don't have those kinds of bigoted thoughts. This is my home, and I'm very proud of and supportive of the community that's raised me and cared for me," and the fan translation apparently paraphrased all of that into something like, "As a BL actor, of course I'm not homophobic." So like. Even when he's apologized, interfans have historically found a way to throw rocks at him anyway, so it gets exhausting to see people casually calling him homophobic because Melanie in Minnesota saw a screenshot of an IG story on Twitter and then made a list of six problematic BL actors you should definitely avoid because they skin babies and punt puppies into volcanoes.

On BMF being great:

I'm so excited for the last three episodes. \:D/

I'm so proud of Krist and Gawin for the work they've done up until now. It's wild to think about the amount of information they had to keep in mind as they were filming. Because, like, series already film out of order, but they also had to keep in mind different timelines of the same characters out of order. The fact that you can see not only Kawi's growth but everyone else's as well so fluidly and consistently over the episodes so far says a great deal about the quality of the production, I think. The directing, the writing, the acting. All of it is really, truly phenomenal.

Aaahhhh why is it only Tuesday. :'(

ANYWAY thank you, Anon! Sorry for the rant about Krist. I'm just tired of seeing him get so much hate for years on end when he's such a loving and giving person who's been a vocal queer ally since SOTUS. Not just during Pride, either. He really has been deeply misconstrued by interfans at large, and I just hope the people who've made up their minds about hating him (and the ones who've made their hate so public they're too stubborn to admit they misread him) will just learn to ignore him and stop tormenting him. He's already suffered panic attacks and depression as a result of the constant abuse, and it's repulsive that anyone thinks that's acceptable to do.

#kiranokira answers #krist perawat #be my favorite

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akookminsupporter · 5 months

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You are the third person I see who got an ask about checking out other groups ajhjaskksf I was also asked by an irl friend :"D Like... I have sat through awards before. I have sat through music shows before. I know what groups are out there. I know what kind of music they put out. I have friends who are multis and respectful. I do actually give a listen to a few songs from other artists whenever I like a snippet. If I wanted to check out a different group, I would've already done that :"D

Not to be rude to these people because I'm sure they didn't mean it in a bad way, but why does bts have to be gone for you or me or us to check out different artists? Asking is always okay in my opinion but it's funny how I've seen multiple people get this question (myself included) immediately AFTER the boys enlisted :'D

Really? Could it be the same person asking the question all over the place?

I get your point. My first awards show was MAMA 2020 and god, it was not only long but boring. Not being familiar with how it worked and not knowing that BTS always performed at the end, I watched the whole thing. And it was torture. No offence to anyone, but it reminded me why I didn't keep listening to KPOP groups' music when I tried to give it a chance a few years ago.

I remember a while back I got an Ask from someone saying that it wasn't fair, I think was the word used, that I didn't listen to other groups in that industry. And it's crazy that they think like that. It's crazy that they think that, because BTS isn't around at the moment, some people act like it's almost an obligation, to support other groups.

Since yesterday I've seen tweets and videos on TikTok of people complaining because old BTS songs are showing up in the charts and some are saying that it's not fair, that ARMY have to give other groups a chance and that's crazy. Who said that would happen? Why did they think that would happen?

I don't doubt that some fans will look at other groups, but that doesn't mean that the fandom as a whole will.

#bts military servicio #bts fan opinions

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kraaico · 1 year

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Where/how do you get the ideas to make these super cute art? I love art but I basically copy others and I wanna have my own style.

What a nice question!! I could honestly write a book about this, but for now I'll keep it condensed. (maybe uhhhh a blog post later or smthn) ....Sorry it's long anyway lol

These are my thoughts as an independent illustrator/artist that has the time and freedom to create what I wish, keep that in mind. I can't vouch for what it takes to get through art school or build a portfolio for <specific thing X> cause I don't know shit about that, this is just for creating art that you love making.

✨️Developing a style ✨️

A lot of people talk about 'finding your style', but I'm personally an advocate of developing a style - and most importantly it being a process that never stops. Now I don't know how old/experienced you are, but especially when you are just getting into art (and with 'just' I mean years) it'll change a lot because you will be improving a lot!

Now for me personally, I've been busy ~finding a style~ since I was 10. And up to like 2 years ago (I'm now 28) I was frustrated I just wasn't able to find one. Every half year or so I'd try to get back into art "for real this time", stick to one medium and general style and/or subject, and within a matter of weeks become frustrated and then not draw for a good while. That style-mentality really took a toll on the fun I had in making art, but also stunted my own artistic development. I was restricting myself at a stage where I should be everything BUT. I told myself I wasn't good enough, not cut out to be a professional, wouldn't be able to sell myself if I couldn't stick to one thing, yada yada. Great mentality. I'm now in therapy!

Anyway, what broke me free of that was a promise I made to myself back in 2020. I told myself I would get back into making art, but this time, just do what feels fun *at any given moment*. Let go of the pressure. I didn't post to socials and just shared with my friends, and eventually started posting to my then very humble Twitter following. I liked Twitter, cause there wasn't the pressure that Instagram always gave me of having to have a perfect feed. So I drew digitally, I drew with pencils, did some painting, got oil pastels, tried collage. And those experiments all influenced one or another. That's been key for me. If I feel like I hit a creative wall, I just try another medium or another CSP brush or another app on my tablet. Just experiment with lines and colors and not worry about what ends up there. (it's usually cats) Creating like this kept the fun in it for me and I've created nearly every single day since then, and that too is key to style development: Create A LOT. Don't hyperfocus on one perfect piece when you can also create 4 good-enough pieces in the same time.

Now on the topic of copying: it's a natural thing to do. Just be responsible about it! (don't share on socials if you blatantly copy something. While it's a good method to learn certain techniques, it's something that should stay in your private sketchbook) Also be sure to study from many different places, don't fixate on just a couple of artists! Find what inspires you in real life: be it buildings or nature or animals or people or objects, and try to capture them in different ways: from realistic to just the basic shapes. You'll find out what kind of style and level of detail you're naturally drawn to soon enough. Creating your own visual library in your mind by drawing many different things is ultimately what will allow you to put your ideas to paper in a quick and intuitive way. Having a (cheap!) sketchbook that you don't show anyone but just goof around in and explore everything and anything is a very helpful tool.

✨️ Generating ideas ✨️

I get my ideas from SO many different places. Many of my cat paintings were actually created to deal with a strong emotion or feeling I was having at the time.

Now externally, I get a lot of inspiration from nature and from the place I live in. I used to live in a fairly urbanized area, but it wasn't until I moved to the country side with wide and far views that I saw daily that I started getting interested in drawing landscapes. I didn't draw a lot of cats until they were chilling in my garden everyday. When I lived at home I drew a lot of fish, cause my dad had an aquarium. What you see and observe everyday matters. Taking your camera or phone on a walk in the neighborhood and capturing small details is a great way to gather inspiration, even if the area is a bit boring. I have a Fujifilm X100F that I try to carry to most places I go, cause I can quickly photograph things and I like it better than phone photography.

I also draw a lot of ideas from the media I consume: shows, movies, games, comics, music... Sometimes it just hits that inspiration button and lights a lil flame that'll turn into an idea. I love the magical worlds Studio Ghibli creates for example and the soothing calmness that games like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley have. Things like that just work their way into my art, often subconsiously.

I also draw what I yearn for: be it a doodle of a comforting hot bowl of soup when I crave it, or a beach scene cause I want to go for a beach walk. It's fun, and lets me daydream a little about things I maybe cannot have in that moment.

Another big thing is worldbuilding and storytelling: I have this fictional world in my mind that I desperately want to get out, and it will, piece by piece.

So yeah. There's many places to grab inspiration from. Writing down what inspired you is useful. Doing it every year or so is too, cause then you'll start to see trends and get a better understanding of what drives you. Cause in the end that's what's most important, I think: Find the things that ignite a flame in you and then let it out in a way that is fun and comforting to you. Don't worry about what other people are making or that you're not making what you 'should' make!

I hope this was somewhat helpful - it was fun to write at least, I have many thoughts about this :')

#art #art process #art education #personal #ask #thoughts #learning artist #learn art #creativity #art style #illustration #infodump #tldr: have fun making what you wanna make #you're spending more time with your art than anyone else #better to make sure you're enjoying it #artists on tumblr #art resources

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randomstranger24 · 1 month

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I’m certain a lot of people think I’m some deranged lunatic and will be skeptical and or just won’t believe anything I have to say. I totally get it and if it were me on the other end, I think I’d draw the same conclusion as well. It’s more than reasonable, but I promise there is a much bigger picture and I think you deserve to at least know another perspective.

Not sure where to begin. I’ll start off first by saying I won’t be referring to anyone’s names or occupations to conceal anyone’s identity including my own.

I owe a big apology not just to the BoC fans, but also to Mike and Marcus, not that they would even give a shit, but if so, I’m sure they’d hate my guts. Yes, I am the original creator of the “Thrift Store Tape" and no, I am of no relation to the brothers, (no surprise there). I do feel spiritually connected to their music though if that’s of any consequence? (no surprise there either) I’m sure they’ll never see this, but I realize I could be viewed as an untalented hack and a giant piece of shit. This, I understand and I accept it. I never had bad intentions, I promise that, but it’s like they always say, “The road to Hell is paved with good ones”.

Here’s how this entire thing got started. Regardless of what anyone might assume, I never in a million years set out to intentionally deceive people into believing this was some long lost BoC record. Hear me out and let me explain from the beginning.

For years prior to all of this, I have been experimenting with recording my musical creations onto VHS and cassette tapes in attempts to capture those warm fuzzy lofi aesthetics, but Sometimes the final product is actually disappointing because you’d be surprised how good VHS tapes actually hold sound. So, fast forward 2018, one of my housemates at the time, who was actually the one who helped manage a Red White And Blue thrift store. This was the catalyst of what sparked this idea in my head after my housemate mentioned all the blank VHS tapes that were being donated.

I Purchased a whole bin of tapes and started dubbing my music, (both old and new) onto the donated VHS tapes to send back to the thrift stores to be re-donated in efforts of someone finding them. Kind of like putting a message in a bottle and throwing it out to sea in hopes someone finds it. I would donate several of these VHS tapes and would leave my dubbed mixes over top of older shitty movies. I had the idea of rummaging through and curating all of my “Old Tunes” sound-alikes and Vaporwave tracks or anything sounding adjacent and placing them on several tapes.

I probably dubbed well over a hundred tapes over the years since 2018, both used and blanks

I ended up donating most of them to several different thrift stores. Mostly old generic shitty “dollar-bin” movies that nobody really wants and generic kids cartoons. I would never destroy a collectible VHS or anything of value, so no worries there, but I doubt anyone will ever find the ones sent out and even if they do, they’ll most likely throw it away or something. I have a few tapes that escaped that were made with music that accidentally got deleted years ago and I would pay top dollar to get back, but that’s another story for another day.

Anyway, So, my other friend (Not housemate), who, (we’ll just say, is an independent filmmaker of sorts) had the idea which kind of spawned from mine to do a found-footage VHS horror film project also known as “Analog Horror” or the genre at least. Now, keep in mind, this is the spring of 2020 during the height of the pandemic lockdown. So, time is all we had.

I had the idea of using an ARG for people to solve to lead them down a “Rabbit Hole” as part of an interactive movie project. It would start off pleasant and would progressively get more sinister and darker and even more disturbing the further down you went. My main intention and goal was to hopefully have this project be the subject of topic on a big name youtube channel like “Nexpo”. I figured the music and aesthetic would all be “Old Tunes- BoC-inspired” and would give it a more suitable twist. I figured any fans that would ever come across it would take notice instantly that it was “BoC-inspired” or at least the music. I also figured the BoC cover tracks would add a few disturbing layers to the mystique of this “Rabbit Hole” mystery. especially since we wanted to catch those "Backrooms" "Liminal Space" vibes.

I’m sure folks will be skeptical and that’s okay, but just hear me out on this and yes, I’d be thinking the same way too, so I certainly do understand any skepticism.

Originally, the inspiration for the name “Strange Soup” Mixtape was used in the original upload in efforts to connect ties to this twisted bizarrely disturbing video titled “Blank Room Soup (Dark Web Video)”.

Now, you can do a google search about this video. It was a strange mysterious viral sensation for quite a few years after emerging on 4chan and has been a part of other “Rabbit Holes”. We ended up deleting the original video so that another one could be uploaded in place of it.

The idea was to incorporate it as part of this story, but we needed to scratch other ideas altogether because the numbers did not properly equate to the letters we needed to start the ARG and time was running out. We also needed the upload date to fall in line with the project. The creation of these ARG’s are not easy to create. Believe me when I tell you. I’m just some uneducated moron, so figuring this stuff out took trial and error. Even with the help of my friend.

Now, if all would have gone as planned, we would have opened another account uploading another tape in connection with the thrift store tape. We were in search of materials to craft out costumes like the one’s seen in the “Blank Room Soup” video and wanted to utilize the office space at my friend's school.

Originally, this is how this should have all played out in order for this horror project to have worked. We needed The first video to be uploaded at a certain date in order to maintain validity for the ARG storyline so it could be incorporated into the film project. The goal from the start was never to deceive people into believing this was a “long-lost BoC record”. I’ll explain more below.

The next step, after a week or two, was to have all of us post the link to the video in “thrift store finds facebook groups” in order to drum up the mystery. He and I shared the link on a few of the forums online such as Reddit and so on. The forums had absolutely nothing to do with music or ARG’s. Just thrift store finds and VHS collector’s groups. We wanted to build the mystery up and clue people in eventually. The original video sat on youtube for quite some time. It had like maybe 60-75 views after a month. That view count just stayed stagnant. Then one day in, I think late March out of nowhere, I got the messages in the comments. They were friendly at first with some people just mentioning it was “Boards of Canada”. I thought to myself, “Oh shit, they found the video”. Soon the view count just kept on climbing and Soon enough some folks started becoming hostile. I convinced my housemate to make a response video explaining everything. We all thought this was the best course of action because of how unbiased he’ll be for the simple fact, he has no idea who BoC is (Well, he does now lol) and he is not a musician, like, at all haha.

Me and my filmmaker friend were excited at first that at least we had an audience now and could run with it. So I figured the response video my housemate put out would quell any outrage and save our project in order to move forward but, boy, was I dead wrong.

The views kept climbing up and the comments kept coming. People were becoming hostile and outraged. Things got way too real and I started to panic slightly. I have a bad anxiety disorder and it triggered it for sure. I just had all these thoughts like, “What if I get sued by the band?” I had nightmares of the brothers coming after me and them telling me how much of a piece of shit I am.

BoC fans are some of the craftiest people you’ll ever come across, lemme tell ya lol.

They had somehow figured out the metadata from the original deleted video that was uploaded months prior. After it was confirmed and revealed to me they could dig this info up, I was in a full blown panic attack. I started hyperventilating. I messaged my buddy and told him what was up. He was against it at first, but I told him, “hey I have to delete this whole channel, they��re going to find out where I live next and who I am!” I just had the worst thoughts imaginable.

So, I hit the “Killswitch” button and within minutes it all vanished like a bad dream. I was genuinely worried at first that I could potentially face legal backlash, but my friend explained to me that I wasn't out there putting any BoC label on it or even labeling the tracks and attempting to make any money from it.

Some time had passed and the dust settled a little bit. I was kind of shocked to see people had ripped the original audio from the video and were sharing it to facebook and reddit and soon uploaded to Youtube. The “Dan Fingerman” channel was the first to reupload as I read through the comments and to my surprise they were all mostly positive. Some people thought for sure the music was BoC and others were skeptical, but most of them didn’t believe for a second, but yet still they kept talking about how much they enjoyed it. Even “David Firth” the creator of “Salad Fingers” left a comment at some point stating he liked the music, but didn’t care for the BS backstory. I was so happy that this music that had been sitting around for years on end had finally found a home somewhere.

This music is only meant for a small niche audience. Most folks will not appreciate it. I think where I really fucked up, was becoming addicted to the excitement of seeing people enjoy the music that I had accumulated over a decade. Believe me when I tell you, there is more where that all came from. It is ridiculous the hundreds of unfinished or hidden tracks I have stored on several harddrives, VHS and cassette tapes, but I am happy to finally put it all to bed today.

Here’s where I need to really step up and take accountability for my ignorance and selfishness.

Again, I was truly happy that people were actually enjoying the music so I did a foolish thing and ran with it like an idiot. All the hate and backlash that I will receive after all of this is all well deserved. Yes, I’m a giant loser, I'm an idiot, a talentless hack with no life. I’ll take the “L”. I just wanted to purge the last of this music and put an end to all of it once and for all. I think this was much needed and I can now move on with my life and stop obsessing over creating music that sounds like BoC. I can go back to writing and producing dark progressive black and death metal like I once used to lol.

The day I discovered BoC’s music is the day it changed my life forever and how I saw the world through a new lens. I became obsessed with wanting to replicate their sound. I think it is more than relevant to talk about it to help illustrate my madness.

Growing up in my teen years I was an extreme metal fanatic. I listened to a lot of black and death metal bands and played in many metal bands as a guitarist. My biggest influences were bands like Slayer, Immortal, Death, Opeth, Dimmu Borgir, Gorgoroth, Deicide, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest. You name it, If it was extreme, I was probably into them. I wanted nothing to do with any music that wasn’t extreme metal. I was very narrow-minded back then. That’s not to say I’m no longer a fan of metal, I’m just not as closed off as I used to be.

As the years went on, I would watch my favorite front men from the most prolific metal bands give interviews and mention their musical influences and would always be blown away by how far away from metal their influences actually were. One of them would mention Radiohead in multiple interviews and naturally I got curious and started trying out “Radiohead" and soon fell in love with Thom Yorke’s experimentations. I think this is where my taste began to shift. I started getting into the “chill trip-hop’ genres and bands like Portishead, producers like DJ Shadow, Flying Lotus, and J Dilla. So pretty much the recipe for being receptive to BoC was already in the making.

Eventually I stopped playing in bands after I learned how to play every instrument: Bass, Piano, drums and so on. It just got too hectic with everyone’s schedules to keep the dedication. I wanted so badly to learn how to write, record, and produce my own music. At the time I had a friend who used “Frooty Loops” to make Industrial beats, but that was about it and he would never teach me how to use the program. I wanted so badly to make my own black metal album and perform and record all the instruments as well as sing vocals.

“Opeth’s” front man Mikael Akerfeldt influenced me in other directions from the metal genre and

I eventually outgrew those desires and over time I became more interested in collecting vintage things like vhs camcorders, tape players, and record players. This really set the stage for me. Some years later, I was surfing Youtube in 2008 in search of videos on the drug `DMT" and a slideshow video of psychedelic imagery started playing and that’s when I was introduced to BoC's "Roygbiv" for the first time. As I was listening, it was like something inside of me was born. I’ll never forget that day.

Now, I grew up in the 80’s and I distinctly remember “PBS” and the shows that would air back then like Reading Rainbow and Sesame Street. As I’m listening to Roygbiv, I was in this state of disbelief. How did they manage to pull that off? These sounds of rich warm vintage analog tones of the mid 70’s TV bumpers on public broadcasting networks. It took me right back to my childhood and unlocked this part of me that had been missing my entire life. I had shivers down my spine. From that moment, I instantly fell in love. I just had to find out who the creator of this music was. I did some digging and one comment read the band name and I sought out more of their music. The next track I listened to was “Bocuma" and it buried into my soul even deeper. I had both tracks on repeat all day. It took me back to the simple days of my childhood of the early 80’s. I just had to find out what software they were using. I wanted to learn how one could possibly recreate something of the past with such an unreal haunting aesthetic.

I eventually found out this music was released in 1998 and that, of itself blew my mind as well.

I was so certain the music was from the present day using “present-day-computer-technology”.

Eventually, I got my hands on a computer and started to dabble in music production and also learned how to convert analog to digital and vise/versa. I had read on multiple forums and interviews of how they could achieve their signature sound and naturally I followed.

I would damage and degrade tapes to record on them and I had some incredible results and as mentioned before, a lot of disappointment because VHS has such a good HIFI sound. Almost better than any digital.

I would fall asleep and dream of melodies and try to figure them out. It got to a point where it plagued everything I did musically. Everything I would make would always end up sounding similar to their music. This is why I am happy today, to purge the last of it and move on with my life.

Am I mentally ill? Perhaps? Am I a lunatic? Far from it, but I needed to get all this out of my system. I am sorry for everything and I hope you can just enjoy the music for what it is. It was never about clout or recognition. I'm not here to profit financially. All I ever wanted was it all to find a home. Thank you so much for even listening and giving it the time. I owe so much to them. They opened my eyes to a whole other artistic realm. Special thanks and gratitude all goes to the brothers for all the inspiration over the many years. Thank you Mike and Marcus. Your music has settled deep within my heart and I will take it to the grave. Thank you so much and Thank all of you for all your kind words that I probably don’t deserve. Thank you for taking the time to read. I am so grateful.

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wellbelesbian · 7 months

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20 questions for fic writers!

tysm for tagging me @bazzybelle, it took me a while to get around to this but it was a lot of fun!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

37!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

113,598, not bad.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

mostly the Simon Snow Trilogy, but I have a couple of Greek Mythology/Epic Cycle fanfics too. i used to write for Percy Jackson and Marve, but not anymore.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

two old Marvel fics are right at the top, then it’s:

i want the love on your wrist (oh give me the heart on your neck), the first explicit work i’ve ever written, maybe a sign i should write more.

The Tale of the Two Merwolves, which I wrote with a bunch of other lovely people in the fandom

Everything I Am Not, my COTTA fic from 2020

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

yes, I always try to!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

definitely crimson, my COTTA fic from 2022, but a close second is Visions, a little Trojan War Helenus fic i still really like.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

well a lot of my fics have fairly happy endings, but I’d say All That She Wants, an Agatha-centric fic, and Happier Memories, a proposal fic, have the most hopeful endings.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

no, I don’t think I ever have, luckily!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

only twice so far, though I have another stewing in my brain that might get written. I can’t really say i'm limited to a certain “type” though, i’m pretty versatile, pun intended.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

no, they’re not really my thing.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not to my knowledge! i hope not.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

back when i used to write on wattpad i got some DMs asking to translate my fics and i always agreed, but i don’t know if they ever followed through.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

yes, i really love doing so! I wrote a stucky fic with one of my friends years ago, but we never ended up posting it anywhere. also, the two aforementioned marvel fics were co-written with another (now ex) friend, and the tale of two merwolves was written as part of a group.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

snowbaz, definitely. it’s been my longest-running OTP (do people still say OTP?) and i’ve written so any fics for it.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

hmm, i’ve only got 3 wips and i think i’ll finish them all eventually, but blow on the tinder and we are slaves to the gods are definitely on the back burner for now.

16. What are your writing strengths?

i’ve been told i’m good at writing dialogue, which is good because that’s two thirds of all the words i write.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

descriptions and anything sappy, which gives me second hand embarrassment.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

i tend to shy away from it, but if i do i always put it in italics and will put a translation in the notes unless it’s super obvious, and like when other authors do the same.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Percy Jackson! I wrote so much solangelo and was actually pretty popular on wattpad, one of my fics broke a million hits which is still insane to me. i still get the occasional message asking me to come back and finish my fics, but i logged out of that account in 2018 and am not going back.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

oh, that’s hard. i’m really enjoying writing Shoulder To Shoulder right now, but i still love All That She Wants and Liar Liar. i also really love I’m On My Way To Believing, which is a greek mythology Pyrrhus/Hermione fic. they’re my blorbos. but i’d have to say my all-time favourite will always have to be the first carry on fic i ever wrote, which got me out of a years long writing slump: Rats.

i don't know who has already done this, so i'll just tag @ileadacharmedlife @prettygoododds @aroace-genderfluid-sheep @imagineacoolusername @ic3-que3n @forabeatofadrum @aristocratic-otter @larkral @hushed-chorus @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @youarenevertooold @artsyunderstudy @alexalexinii @shrekgogurt and @j-nipper-95

#tag game #long post

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silvermare · 6 months

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If you know me outside of Tumblr, don't tell my mom

I said goodbye to my old car last night. Vivid green 2012 Hyundai Accent hatchback. That thing had stellar fuckin gas mileage (for a non-hybrid anyway, I could squeeze like 40mpg out of it if I tried), hauled around way too much shit, played FAFO with black ice, was stolen in Amarillo, TX and recovered south of Oklahoma City, OK - and for context, I live in Indianapolis - back in 2018, and transported many friends and even some coworkers. It also has had kernels of dry field corn in the floorboard for the past two years. Oh, and I broke the frickin passenger side mirror by backing out of the garage too close.

Her name was Arachnaverde because she was green and I kept an anatomically incorrect spider skeleton (halloween decoration) on the dashboard. Spood's job was to let me know when I was taking a turn too fast. He would skitter away if I did.

Prior to Arachnaverde, I had a 1994 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme that I called Madame Blueberry. She was a lovely teal color, had two doors, and I once forgot an entire watermelon in the back floorboard in college and it rotted and stank so badly. -4/10 do not recommend. Also her trunk had loose soybeans from when I took a few dried soybean plants for some reason or another. ADHD be like that sometimes.

Prior to Madame Blueberry, I had an unnamed charcoal gray 89 Mercury Grand Marquis. This car had one interesting anecdote, and 3 notable events.

In the long long ago when I was still in junior college (2 year college for people who live in states that don't fuck with junior colleges), I left it overnight in the college parking lot for some reason I no longer recall. When I retrieved it in the morning, someone had used car window paint to write "HOOPTY" on the back windshield. To be fair, it was.

That car was how I learned not to leave a can of silly string in a hot car. Did you know if a can of silly string gets hot enough it will straight up explode? I didn't until I found a really messy plastic bag and blue spatters all over the roof of my car.

I used to park under a specific tree in front of the house, because I lived with my parents on a farm, and the garage was for my mom's vehicle, no one else's. Dad's main ride parked in the patch of ground between the barnyard fence and the garage (dad's parking spot, mostly), and the farm truck parked in the barnyard. Anyway, point is, I parked under a tree which worked quite well for many years except at the very end a large fragment of dead tree pierced my car *right* in front of the hood so I had a rough rectangle of Missing Car for the tail end of my ownership.

Anyway, I've known for months that I needed to get a new car. Needed new front struts, a replacement sensor in the steering column, new back brakes, new front tires.... I tried back in May but for some reason the car I found just didn't vibe with me (Mitsubishi Mirage). It was kinda noisy, very basic. Also very cheap.

Last week, the stars aligned and I found a hopeful prospect with low mileage, decent mpg, and within my budget.

So now I have a new-to-me brick of tofu (white Kia Soul 2020).

I have said my farewells to the green beast, and look forward to what kind of adventures I'll get into with the as-of-yet-unnamed toaster.

So far the best name I've come up with is Tofungus because I am awful. I definitely want to give it a black horizontal stripe and add the "Fujiwara Tofu Shop" decal to the side because i'm a fuckin weeb and also did you know there's a sequel to Initial D this season? I'm enjoying it.

#cars #new cars #old cars #nostalgia #car stories #adhd stories #car names #naming #initial d #mf ghost #kia #kia soul #adventures #adventure time

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destinyc1020 · 1 month

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Confession:

I check N's account every now and then. My parasocial self thinks she still have something for Tom. She often post stories whenever T or Z go viral. Few things I remember:

1. Her posting being at Soho House (I think in London) in 2023 when Tom celebrated his birthday in Soho House (US) with his family and Z.

2. Her posting on Sept 1 or 2 2022 (depending on the timezone) and captioned it Good old goods. Well what I see on the post is she wants to show that she's out and happy (nothing wrong about that but girl, why sept 2 of all dates?)

3. When Tom went viral because of fixing his girl's door, N posted a story about his current boyfriend being a handy man or something to that effect (well I admit I may be overthinking this one and my understanding of British humor could be wrong)

4. Shared a story about attending Dorian Gray opening night which happened the same day as Dune 2 premiere in London (and TZ went viral that day as expected)

Sorry for the rant, just need to let it out..

Thanks Anon for your confession....

I'm just going to be honest here since that's what I usually am on my blog lol. I'll give you my honest opinion. 😅

I'll first be honest and admit that I really haven't paid much attention to N (if at all) since 2021 lol.

Once it became apparent that Tom dumped her to get back with Z, and he and Z were starting a relationship back up again, I really didn't see the need to follow whatever N was doing tbh.

I mean, maybe you might be on to smthg? But my honest feeling is that you might just be reading a little too much into innocuous things. Just because N posts on the same day as smthg going on with TZ doesn't automatically mean she's not over Tom or over a breakup.

She and Tom barely dated each other... 👀 It's not like they dated each other for years upon years, or even went out on dates like a regular couple (most of their time together was spent indoors during the Covid-19 shutdown).

Honestly? It's 2024. If she were still pining after a guy that dumped her almost 4 years ago back in 2020, I'd say that it's time for her to go to therapy and figure out what's going on there, coz that's not normal. 👀😬

With that said, I personally doubt N is still holding a torch for Tom. It was pretty obvious when she was throwing shade re: their breakup, but after 2021, I haven't seen her behaving in that manner. I also kind of get the feeling that she made peace with the whole thing long time ago.

Sometimes, I think fans forget that Tom was actually her rebound from Stanley. Tom himself was also still rebounding (imo) when he dated N. 🤷🏾‍♀️

I really don't think it was as serious as some fans made the thing out to be tbh.

Last I checked, N seems perfectly happy with her new beau. ☺️

#confession Sunday

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accio-victuuri · 1 year

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i can never really tell with XZ hahahahaha i’ve had this whole “xz, a mastermind” post on my draft but i probably won’t complete it. take this as my poor attempt to ramble about this thought. I also wanna touch upon a video that’s been going around and why if you go to the bjyx super topic now people are being so loud and telling each other to not be glass hearted. but first things first, one of the accessories he wore today aside from the lion themed bag is a very recognizable scarf.

1. There was an Anti, days ago who posted about WYB wearing a worn out jacket and saying he’s poor. I mean they can’t find anything wrong with him at all so they just to make anything stick. So people are saying that, the reason why GG wore this old/recognizable scarf is to say that he repeats his outfits too. So what?

2. The appearance of this scarf lends more proof to WYB delivering winter clothes/accessories to XZ in Shanghai. What are the chances that he was photographed ( stalked ) in CQ every damn day that he was shooting there and he was in shorts. Even if it was getting colder. Then he goes incognito in SH. Shows up very late to early in the morning in Suzhou just in time for Weibo night ( wearing the same GUCCI coat he was photographed in today ). Disappears. Now he decides to grace us with his presence and wears this SCARF. Where the hell did this come from. An old scarf that is probably stored at his Beijing home. Yes, we know he can have his stuff shipped and all that but what are the chances — we were clowning about it and then this “evidence” pops up. It’s some kind of self fulfilling prophecy we have going on here or something.

3. He had his phone out. This usually doesn’t happen when he shows up in airports. It’s like he is confirming to us that what we know about his phone case is true. Plus it is suspiciously similar to Bobo’s ( as seen in Wuzhen but we need a clearer photo ).

I may be giving XZ too much credit but this guy knows what he’s doing. He can be out of people’s sight if he wants and just show up when he needs you to see him. I don’t think him being spotted in Suzhou that day close to WB night was a coincidence. There were lots of talks about the event being cancelled and no word from the awards show’s account, so him being spotted there was the confirmation. The star of the event has arrived, the show will go on. It’s not a coincidence that XZS often posts personal vlogs/photos of him when rumors about XZ are getting out of control. It gives something to distract the fans. It was on purpose that he showed up in the streets of Beijing ( in broad daylight ) when people said he was in Changsha. What i’m trying to say is him being intentional is not only because of CPN — it’s how he manages his professional career too. He always said that when he goes to work, he needs to know what the purpose is. He can’t just show up.

Tho when it comes to CPN, I think it’s a mixed bag. Some are intentional and other are so natural because they are ingrained in each other’s lives. It’s either he is confirming things that fans are talking about and whether we pick up on it or not is up to us. Hours later, I think I know why this was happened.

THIS VIDEO WAS LEAKED TODAY. I won’t keep it. Watch it and judge for yourself. This was allegedly after 2020 Starlight Event where people were invited for a get together of some sort. The shrimp opinion book who has connections with XZS ( allegedly ) already published a message on this as follows:

As the team has repeatedly refuted rumors, the artist has always been single. This is after 2020 Starlight Awards. A big party organized by the organizers, those who are invited to the event of the day and there were many artists and staff. There are other artists and organizers around the artist. Obviously, the video was intentionally cut out. The people present on the left, right and in front maliciously create and convey false impressions that confuse the public. Now two years later, long after the end of the cooperation, afterwards, it flows out in this form, and the intention is very obvious.Please don't believe in such instigation methods, don't fall for it, thanks!

So when I watched it, I knew their “shippers” would love it. but tbh, the way XZ treats her is like a younger sister. not an equal at all. I think we all have a good guess of why this was leaked now. Right after the entertainment ban at that, making sure to release something “explosive” about XZ. Some people just cannot stand to see him shine on his own merit during the Weibo Event last 11/29 so they gotta do something to discredit him. I feel sad that he had his guard down at the time, It was his first awards show after 227 and i guess he thought he was in a safe environment. Obviously not. I’m glad that he is much guarded now because it seems like everyone around him cannot be trusted. I wonder how many of these so-called friends have secretly filmed him and kept those stuff as ammunition for later on. It’s so disgusting. 💀💀💀

I don’t know how XZS will handle this or if the shrimp opinion book message is their way of putting out the fire. It depends if it will gain traction with melon accounts or whatever. The only consolation is this, we will get a big candy anytime soon. It his track record is to be trusted, then he will drop things. or has already. Anyway, that’s all. The road ahead is long. Some days I forget that our boys have so many people who want to tear them down in whatever means they can, but they won’t win. Evil never wins.

-END.

#yizhan #bjyx #there is no science here folks im just clowning like i always do

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flowerboycaleb · 3 months

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february was a really good month for music!!! i enjoyed so many projects from both artists i've loved for a long time and some i haven't enjoyed in the past at all. there were a few disappointing ones too, one album in particular spawning some of the most irritating discourse in a long time, but i'm trying to look at the positives!! here are my thoughts on some of the most notable projects that dropped this month!!! to check out my thoughts on some of the songs that dropped this month click here!!! also feel free to follow me on rate your music and twitter <3

What Now - Brittany Howard

🥇 ALBUM OF THE MONTH

◇ genre: psychedelic soul

When Brittany Howard dropped her first solo record, Jaime, back in 2019, I was absolutely obsessed with it. The shift from the blues rock-centric sound of her other work to the world of psychedelic soul worked extremely well. However, as with most new music I was obsessed with during that time, it feels like it was so long ago. I think the pandemic made me sort of forget a lot of these albums I once loved. For some subconscious reason, I don't revisit many of the new records I loved from late 2019 to early 2020. Jaime was unfortunately one of them. When I heard this new album was on the way, I was excited and listened to like one of the singles, but nothing more. When I finally sat down to listen to What Now, it felt like meeting up with an old friend and hitting it off almost immediately.

The opener "Earth Sign" shook me to my core on my first listen. It's spacey, slow-building, but when Howard emphatically sings that third "out thereeee" in the third verse it acts like a call to arms for the drums to come booming in. Such a cool moment moment. The next track "I Don't" is one of the more straightforward psychedelic soul cuts on the album and it's so gorgeous. I can't get enough of it. The title track picks up the pace a bit and is almost funk rock. I adore Howard's fuzzy guitar on this song. It's probably also a good time to mention how the rest of the musicians on this project do an amazing job. "Another Day" and "Prove It to You" are really interesting detours into a more dance direction. They simultaneously sound out of place while also fitting right in. I would love to hear these sounds be explored further on future albums. The album's home stretch kicks off with "Samson" which might be Howard's most intimate moment from a musical standpoint. Very bare guitar parts, organ, and some saxophones peppered in. Stunningly beautiful. She immediately fires back up for "Patience" which features some of my favorite instrumentation across the whole record. Mixing together those funky basslines and guitar licks before shifting into some sweeping keyboards on the later half of the track. "Every Color in Blue" is a phenomenal final note. Again, mixing together some subtle jazz instrumentation with Howard's awe-inspiring vocals. You just have to hear this. I've listened to this album a ton since it dropped. I'm still uncovering new things I didn't appreciate on the last listen. Please don't let this album fly under your radar!!

listen here: Apple Music Spotify Bandcamp SoundCloud YouTube ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

SCRAPYARD - Quadeca

◇ genres: art pop, experimental hip hop, electronic

I'll be honest, I didn't know who Quadeca was before his last album I Didn't Mean to Haunt You. I learned after the fact that he was a YouTuber and that many were shocked he had made an album that good. The quality for "YouTuber music" is nearly in the dirt, but that record kind of pushed Quadeca out of the label of "YouTuber music." I enjoyed the album a good bit, although I found him to be a bit overhyped by many following its release. I don't know if that's where my lack of knowledge on Quadeca comes into play, but it's just how I felt. Then comes SCRAPYARD and I'm forced to eat the biggest crow ever. This new mixtape from Quadeca has him showcasing his range as not just a producer, but a rapper, lyricist, and multi-instrumentalist as well. Opener "Dustcutter" is an emo-rap track with elements of art pop mixed in and it's amazing. His exasperated, frantic delivery at various points throughout the track creates this very anxious tension that feels almost palpable. The next track, "A la carte" with brakence, picks up the pace a bit and the two work very well together. "Pretty Privilege" veers heavily into the art pop and it's so great. Hits pretty close to home as someone who has struggled with body image issues and Quadeca handles these themes in a tactful way. "Easier" shows another switch-up as he delves into some folktronica. He shows so much more depth as an artist here and to think this is the "scrapyard." One of the more no-frills hip hop tracks here is "Guess Who?" and it's a fun listen. The final three tracks are extremely poignant and offer some of the most intimate moments on the record. "U Tried That Thing Where Ur Human" reminds me a bit of a Xiu Xiu track except a bit less ... Xiu Xiu. "Guide Dog" is a really emotional indie folk cut and one that grows on me over reoccurring listens. "Texas Blue" is the most I've enjoyed a Kevin Abstract feature since like high school. Quadeca and Abstract have an incredible chemistry here. It really feels like the perfect way to end this project. Quadeca, I'm sorry for thinking you were overhyped. This SCRAPYARD mixtape is exceptional and I can't wait to hear what you do next.

listen here: Apple Music Spotify Bandcamp SoundCloud YouTube ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Where we've been, Where we go from here - Friko

◇ genre: indie rock

Many reviewers have drawn a clear line of influence from Where we've been, Where we go from here and indie rock of the 2000s. Those reviewers would be absolutely correct too. If you told me this was an indie rock staple of that era with a Pitchfork Best New Music review to its name, I might believe you. However, this is a band's debut album in the year 2024. One of the most exciting in recent memory, made even more so by Friko being relatively unknown before this project. It's like it appeared out of thin air. Randomly here's one of the most polished indie rock albums in a while that puts a modern twist on an old formula. An old formula that I have a soft spot for, for better or for worse. Even by the opener, "Where We've Been," I knew this album was something special, at least for me. Vocalist and guitarist Niko Kapetan absolutely steals the show here. His voice is shaky, but effortlessly melodic. "Crimson to Chrome" has one of the most memorable choruses I've heard in a minute, it's been stuck in my head for days. Drummer Bailey Minzenberger really kills it here too. The energy keeps up on the next track "Crashing Through." Those first three tracks alone are a hell of a statement for a debut record. "Chemical" veers into the post-punk and shows the band's range very well. Even when the band get a bit quieter like on "Until I'm With You Again," there's still just this ... energy to it all. Friko sound so confident here, like they know they're gonna be a big name in the genre in a very short time. I hope I'm right about that because this album is amazing. I was a bit floored by how much I enjoyed this. Incredibly excited to see what Friko have in store for us next.

listen here: Apple Music Spotify Bandcamp SoundCloud YouTube ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

PHASOR - Helado Negro

◇ genres: indietronica, neo-psychedelia

Similarly to Brittany Howard, Roberto Carlos Lange's music has escaped me over the last few years. I enjoyed his 2019 album This Is How You Smile, but I just kind of lost track of him. However, I saw his new album PHASOR getting some buzz and I decided to check it out. I'm glad I did! It's a gorgeous album full of sweet, borderline ambient songs. "I Just Want to Wake Up With You" is such a simple song, but it's so enjoyable. The repetition of the chorus never feels irritating because the production and instrumentation are so nice. It almost feels like you're swimming and the little synth flourishes remind me of early electronic music from the 70's. The whole album is full of stuff like that too. It's such an easy listen. Each song just breezes past you so gently. It doesn't demand your attention, but if you decide to give it some you will be rewarded. "Out There" sounds so cool and more complex than some of the other songs here while not losing the subtlety of the album. "Best For You and Me" is similar in this aspect too with its driving piano chords and fuzzy synths bubbling up underneath Lange's soft vocals. The most raucous track here is the opener "LFO (Lupe Finds Olivieros)" which is a cool mix of indie rock with the rest of the album's spacey synth work. This album has really grown on me over multiple listens. It's so easy to throw on whenever. It fits nearly every mood and doesn't overstay its welcome at all. It's also reminded me to go back and revisit more of his work from the past!

listen here: Apple Music Spotify Bandcamp SoundCloud YouTube ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She - Chelsea Wolfe

◇ genres: darkwave, post-industrial

Chelsea Wolfe is a name that sounded vaguely familiar to me before I listened to her new record She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She, but I'm pretty sure I've never heard any of her stuff before this. Upon listening, I have a strong desire to dive into her back catalog. This album is excellently produced and wonderfully written. These songs are dark and often chilling. Both due to Wolfe's unique vocals and the production. You're thrown right into it with "Whispers In The Echo Chamber" as Wolfe sings about seeing things "beyond reality" and the dark synths really accentuate that feeling. The song eventually builds into a big industrial burst with a ripping guitar part towards the end of the track. I loved the range presented here and it's present across the whole album. Wolfe shines in both the softer moments and the louder moments. "House of Self-Undoing" is more straight-forward industrial rock. Even amidst the wild drums and guitars, Wolfe's vocals stand out. The lyricism here strikes a nice balance between substance and style. The majority of the tracks here have at least one lyric that is razor sharp despite the ethereal vocals. "The Liminal" is a really great trip-hop cut and an unexpected, but welcome change of pace after the slow-burning "Tunnel Lights." As was "Eyes Like Nightshade" which blends elements from dance music into this dark world Wolfe is creating. It's such an easy album to get sucked into. Even with the sonic shifts, these songs immerse you in their weird world. The album ends with one of its most fiery moments, "Dusk," as Wolfe aptly sings "and I will go through the fire" as the heavy industrial guitars and drums almost drown her out. I really loved this album. Wolfe managed to balance both the chaos and relative tranquility on the album just by her performance alone. Really need to listen to more of her stuff!

listen here: Apple Music Spotify Bandcamp SoundCloud YouTube ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

All Life Long - Kali Malone

◇ genres: drone, holy minimalism

My first introduction to Kali Malone's work was through her 2022 album Living Torch. A really interesting two part, 33-minute drone piece that had a really dark atmosphere to it. Her last album, Does Spring Hide Its Joy, was way more expansive at three hours. I had to listen to it over multiple days. It played on a lot of the themes of the previous, except grander. This new album is trimmed down a bit, but it has some of her strongest material. Opening the album with the choral "Passage Through the Spheres" is a very interesting choice. It doesn't really sound like much of the album musically, but it sets the tone very well. All Life Long sounds like the album art suggests. Everything feels cold. Maybe not the standing the snow kind of cold, but a really strong, uncomfortable chill. The title track, split into versions both for organ and voice, is a big highlight here. Malone's plodding organ on the former feels like you're stepping into somewhere you shouldn't be. It sounds haunted. "No Sun to Burn (for Brass)" lightens the mood just a bit and is a really striking minimalist composition. "Prisoned on Watery Shore" is a mellow drone cut and it keeps you hooked the whole time. Just by the first four tracks Malone has taken us down so many avenues and flexed her range as a composer. I love the dark droney synths and little organ flourishes on "Fastened Maze." I do like when Malone works with a brass quintet and the choirs, but they really shine with the drone stuff. She's so good at creating distinct atmospheres in each of her compositions. All Life Long might be my favorite project of Malone's yet. The majority of the songs here are really well composed and evoked some kind of reaction from me. Not sure if I would recommend starting with it if you're new to Malone's work, I would say Living Torch is still the best entry point, but definitely give this a listen after.

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Prelude to Ecstasy - The Last Dinner Party

◇ genre: indie rock, glam rock, pop rock

I mentioned this in my singles & songs post from last month, but I have been loving the singles leading up to this album. Even if the entire debut from the London glam rock band didn't live up to the hype those songs gave me, I would still be pretty satisfied. Luckily, Prelude to Ecstasy is a really good debut. The band dives into themes of gender, generational trauma, and toxic relationships accompanied by some catchy, cathartic songwriting. The best example of this is the band's biggest hit thus far, "Nothing Matters." I touched on it briefly in the aforementioned post from last month, but I just adore that song. One of the most well-crafted rock songs of the decade so far. That chorus sticks with you for days. I wish I could be a bit contrarian and say that the biggest hit isn't the best song, but I just can't here. That isn't to say the rest of the material here is weak, far from it, this album is loaded with great songs. "Burn Alive" veers into a more post-punk sound which fits the band so well. The lyrics discuss turning pain into art and lead vocalist Abigail Morris has defined it as the band's "mission statement." Very strong start to the record. I wrote about how great "Caesar on a TV Screen" was last month, but I enjoyed it even more in the context of the album. "Sinner" is another great example of the band's glam rock sound. It sounds so classic, but not in the extra-derivative Greta Van Fleet way. They use these sounds from the past and put their own spin on it. All in all, this is a very strong debut album. Occasionally the band can drift into the generic, but those moments are few and far between. They're even more forgivable when you compare them to what other new stuff is playing on your local alternative station. I'll definitely take it over any son of Mumford.

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Loss of Life - MGMT

◇ genre: neo-psychedelia

Nearly 6 years removed from their stellar previous album, Little Dark Age, MGMT have finally returned with Loss of Life. An album that sees them leaning away from the synth-heavy sound of the previous in favor of a more organic sound. Guitars and the occasional piano are usually the driving force behind these songs. The psychedelia present through all of their work is also here which is to be expected. The album opens with "Loss of Life Pt. 2," which features some of the most electronic instrumentation across the whole record and a lot of it would be reprised for the closing title track. Lead single "Mother Nature" follows it and it really was the perfect choice for a lead single. It introduces this "era" of the band perfectly. More organic instrumentation, more mature lyrics, while still having those hooks that really stick with you. I think this is one of the best songs the band have ever made and while a lot of the songs following don't reach those heights, plenty come very close. "People In The Streets" follows the same formula as that song, but way more mellow. I love the bass on this track, it's so prevalent in the mix. The next track "Bubblegum Dog" is almost glam rock and they pull off that sound pretty well. The lyrics feel like a meditation on the creative process and moving forward. Interesting themes that I'm interested in hearing from them at this stage in their career. A lot of the songs here, as good as most of them are, just leave me wanting a little bit more. I often found myself wanting the band to take a few more risks and get a bit wilder on the musical front. I feel like you could've explored these more mature themes while also getting a bit crazier with it. As this album dropped only last week, I don't feel like my opinions on it are fully formed. Maybe I'll enjoy it more over more listens as the year rolls on. For the most part, Loss of Life is a really good return for the band and an interesting release in their discography.

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Still - Erika de Casier

◇ genre: contemporary r&b

Erika de Casier had been on my radar for years, but I never got around to listening to any of her albums in full. I was inspired to listen to her new album due to her incredible single from last month, "Lucky." A really sleek, atmospheric drum and bass cut with a killer hook and production that still wows me even after multiple listens. It's probably still my favorite track on the album, but that's not to say there aren't other amazing tracks on Still. The reggaetón undertones of "Home Alone" were a very welcome surprise. "ice" is has a very funky bassline and a nice feature from They Hate Change. "Believe It" has a subtle bit of trip-hop thrown in and some of my favorite hooks on the whole record. The album's sounds are deceptively eclectic as de Casier blends them together so well. The incredible production across Still can sometimes be to its detriment. On a few tracks, the production feels let down by some weak songwriting. Not bad by any means, but I just wish there was a bit more of an edge to them. de Casier is a very good pop songwriter and pretty much every track has a good hook, chorus, etc., but it doesn't leave much of an impact beyond that. "Ex-Girlfriend" and "Twice" are examples of this. Really nice beats, but I feel like they never reach the heights they have the potential to. Even with those gripes, Still is a really well-crafted record and there is no shortage of great stuff here.

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Other Rooms - Adriaan de Roover

◇ genres: ambient, electroacoustic

I don't know much about Adriaan de Roover at all. I found this album on the front page of Bandcamp and decided to check it out because the genres looked appealing. Sometimes you need a good ambient album and Other Rooms is a satisfying listen. There are some gorgeous ambient soundscapes on this project with some glitchy moments peppered in. In fact, the album starts off with one of those moments. "Yet" has these prickly, glitchy synths throughout, yet an almost eerie wave of noise accompanies them. It creates a really cool dynamic. If you're just looking for some good ol' ambient, check out the tracks "Homebound" and "Dank U." My favorite piece here is the title track. It features some nice ambient synth-work alongside these distant choir-like vocals and some chilling piano chords thrown in. The backend of the tracks turns to something far more sinister with one of the most outwardly unsettling dark warbles. There always feels like there's something underneath a lot of the songs. I just wish it was a bit more fleshed out. At just under 30-minutes in length, I feel like there was a bit more to explore. Still definitely worth checking out if you're looking for a good ambient album with a decent amount of depth to dive into.

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Club Shy - Shygirl

◇ genres: house, dance-pop

There's not really much to say about this new Shygirl EP except that it's a really strong, concise collection of house and dance-pop tracks. A bit of a detour from the sound of her previous album Nymph, but it works so well. She works with a ton of different producers here and it's incredible how cohesive it all sounds. Every track hits and there's very rarely a dull moment. "4eva" and "thicc" are probably the biggest highlights here for me. I'm a total, anti-social geek that doesn't go to clubs, but those songs make me want to. If you need a quick collection of thumping club songs, look no further.

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Unwired Detour - Asian Glow

◇ genres: noise pop, indietronica

I've listened to a decent amount of Asian Glow's work over the last few years. They've been involved in some pretty interesting projects throughout the decade so far both on their own and with other noisy/shoegaze artists such as Weatherday and Parannoul. They played bass on the latter's After the Night live album which was one of my favorites last year. However, it seems as though the Asian Glow project is coming to an end with Unwired Detour. They announced on their Bandcamp that this would be the "last album [they'll] ever release for Asian Glow." It doesn't feel like your typical "final album" though, at least to me. I'm sure it has a lot more personal significance for the artist, but this just sounds like an extremely promising album from a young artist and one that could be a stepping stone to much greater heights.

The album features some really good noise pop/indietronica tracks with some having more of a rock edge than others. "Ashes" is one of my favorite cuts here because of that rock edge. It also feels like one of the more lively tracks here from a production standpoint. I feel the same way about "Kuroitamago #2" and "Faucet." This album is at its best when they cut loose a bit. A lot of these songs are really good, but the production feels like a big barrier preventing them from reaching that next level. Like on the opener "Down in the sink" which is just begging to be free from the Wall of Sound production style. I still think on the whole this project is worth checking out. I also am excited to hear whatever comes next from the artist formerly known as Asian Glow.

listen here: Apple Music (not available) Spotify (not available) Bandcamp SoundCloud (not available) YouTube (not available) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

2093 - Yeat

◇ genres: industrial hip hop, experimental hip hop, trap

I haven't really been crazy about a lot of Yeat's music, but 2093 is probably his strongest album to date. There are so many really cool ideas here and there are some awesome moments here from a production standpoint. However, it would be even better if it were reigned in and shortened by maybe even 20 minutes. He commits to the concept of 2093 and being in the future, but that kinda wears thin when multiple songs hammer that concept home over and over again. On the whole it can be a very tiresome listen made somewhat worthwhile due to a large number of highlights. "Morë" and "U Should Know" are my two favorite tracks on the album if just for the beats alone. They sound so cool and the former dives into the industrial hip hop sound really well. Yeat's bars are pretty nice for the most part, he's not my favorite rapper and often he never surpasses the "this is fine" territory, but he works within these songs very well. I'll always be a sucker for reoccurring lyrical themes across an album. Lil Wayne locked in for his verse on "Lyfestylë" which makes it another standout. I really had a difficult time getting into the later half of the album, but the penultimate track "If We Being Rëal" brought me back into it. There is a really, really solid album within 2093. If you took the cream of the crop and maybe saved the rest for a deluxe edition, you would be absolutely golden.

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TANGK - IDLES

◇ genre: art rock, post-punk

IDLES decided to switch things up going into their fifth studio album, partially stepping away from the raucous energy of their previous work in favor of something softer, less aggressive. They enlist the help of Nigel Godrich and frequent collaborator Kenny Beats for the bulk of production duties here. Godrich especially has heaps of experience in the art rock world mainly through his production work on every Radiohead studio album besides Pablo Honey. The production really is one of the standout things about TANGK, unfortunately I don't really know if IDLES is the best at making the most of it. This isn't a bad album by any means and I do warm up to it bit by bit after every listen, but I can't help but feel like a lot of this is underwhelming. I'm all for bands expanding their sound and trying different things, but I feel like IDLES lose a good bit of their charm by going into this direction. The best moments on the album are the ones reminiscent of the wild energy of their previous work. Especially "Dancers", a collab with LCD Soundsystem and a track that somehow flew under my radar last year. That swinging chorus rules so hard. "Hall & Oates" is another massive highlight for a lot of the same reasons. "Gift Horse" is awesome too and shows the band kinda leaning further towards dance-punk.

IDLES really thrive with that rough around the edges sound. Not all of their forays away from it are bad, in fact, none of them are really. Many just feel kinda boring.

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Drop 7 - Little Simz

◇ genres: UK hip hop, electronic dance music

It breaks my heart to write this, but Drop 7 was underwhelming. Little Simz is one of my favorite artists going today and her last three studio albums are absolutely incredible. Her 2021 album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert was my favorite album of that year and I would give it a very prestigious 10/10 score!! I was so hyped for this EP once she started teasing it on social media. The snippets showed her venturing into some more electronic production and I was intrigued. Unfortunately, those experiments don't really come together to make a great EP. There are some really good moments though. The opener "Mood Swings" is great and shows her feeling right at home with this style. The next track "Fever" is also one of the better cuts here, but it highlights a big issue I have with this project. Her typical incredible flows and lyricism aren't really present here across this EP. Most of the time her bars feel like an afterthought and oftentimes there isn't much else to carry the tracks on any other front besides that. One of the only exceptions is "SOS" which is a nice tribal house track that makes me want to dive into the genre more. I'm trying not to be too harsh on this EP because it's obvious she uses the Drop EPs to experiment and test out ideas, but Drop 7 left a lot to be desired. I don't think this journey into electronic/house music is a bad idea, but I just hope it can be fleshed out properly on her next full-length project.

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Vultures 1 - Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign

◇ genres: pop rap, trap, alternative r&b

It feels pointless to dive into Kanye's weird, antisemitic antics over the last year or so. He obviously doesn't care and his ardent supporters don't either. "Separate the art from the artist!" they cry meanwhile said artist is making light of his antics in the art itself. Thus making it impossible to separate it from him. So that begs the question ... why do people still cling to him? Does the man who just a few months ago uttered the phrase "Jesus Christ, Hitler, Ye — third party, sponsor that" still make good music? Maybe if the beats go hard enough you can forgive and forget as he boasts about still being "the king" despite his vile antics? Unfortunately for the Kanye fans, this might be his worst album to date. No longer can they use the shield of "but he still makes good music!" I've tried to write about how I feel about this album over and over again, but it's so frustrating. Pretty much every song has a fair amount of bullshit thrown in which makes the whole thing unenjoyable. "Stars" is a decent opener until Kanye says "Keep a few Jews on the staff now" as if it somehow absolves him of his past remarks. "Keys to My Life" has a cool beat, but Kanye's verses are some of the weakest of his career. "Talking" probably has the least amount of bullshit and it can be a bit touching at times. "Back to Me" ranks among the worst things Kanye's ever touched. Everything about it irritates me, I don't even enjoy the Freddie Gibbs feature. The same can be said about "Hoodrat." "Do It" isn't offensively bad, but it bores me to tears. "Burn" is just pathetic as Kanye tries to get a quick nostalgia pop because the beat and his flow are sort of reminiscent of The College Dropout era, y'know when he made good music. "Fuk Sumn" and "Carnival" are the most enjoyable tracks here, but I can't see myself ever really going back to them. The title track isn't good and is proof Kanye has lost pretty much all of his sauce. The last two tracks, "Problematic" and "King," are embarrassing. The former where Kanye refers to his current wife as a "reference" to his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and the latter where he says he's "still the king!" despite people rightfully calling out his behavior. These over-the-top egotistical bars would at least be a little bit forgivable if the songs were any good, but they aren't. I almost forgot to mention this is a collab with Ty Dolla $ign and while he has some decent moments (his verse on "Talking" is a genuine highlight), as he says on the track "Paid," he's "just here to get paid." Vultures 1 has to be one of the worst albums by an artist of Kanye West's standing. Someone responsible for making some of the most influential music of the last two decades having a fall from grace this hard and fast would be sad if he weren't such a massive piece of shit. My apologies for going in on this album, but if you know me you will know that I used to be a massive fan of this man's music. I own like half of his discography on vinyl and I stuck with him through so much bullshit. I'm catching up on my Kanye hate after many years of being a delusional dickrider of his. He's making it easy too, not just with his antisemitism, but with this bad record too.

listen here: don't, listen to something good instead ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Slut Pop Miami - Kim Petras

◇ genres: dance-pop, house, electropop

I really am rooting for Kim Petras. I thought she was making some cool stuff near the end of the 2010s, but I just haven't been able to get into anything she's dropped lately. Especially these Slut Pop projects. It was already uncomfortable how often Petras collaborated with alleged sexual abuser Dr. Luke, but releasing a bunch of hypersexual bangers produced by him is just very uncomfortable and tone deaf on many different levels.

listen here: don't, listen to Club Shy for ur house and dance-pop fix this month ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ thanks for reading <3

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