#roc-adjacent

[youjustwaitsunshine]

Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher, ROC 2011

Translation under the cut

Joko (interviewer): I'm scared when you're still holding the bottles, I don't trust you. First off, congratulations to you two

Michael: Yeah, thank you!

Seb: Thank you!

Joko: I don't trust you in any way!

Michael (innocently): why?

Joko: No, it's alright, what's more fun then, winning or spraying champagne? [gets interrupted by seb pouring champagne over his head]

Seb (inaudibly first, then again to the microphone): The spraying!

Joko: Spraying, okay!

Michael: now you have the answer!

Joko, to Seb: It feels like you like the car you had at the end there, that 'grasshopper' or what I'd call it [if I'm not mistaken he's talking about the roc buggy which definitely is sebs weapon of choice at roc].

Seb: Yeah, it's a lot of fun, I mean, I believe it doesn't look bad on TV either because there's stuff happening (mimicks the buggys suspension) and also it's great fun to drive, and I just said, when you exit the last corner you don't know exactly, was it enough or not and the people start screaming and cheering and you think 'it's fitting', you look, you look, you look, 'it did fit.' and then, it's of course great. Five, five times in a row - Joko interrupts, repeats 'five times in a row' - for this man it's the second time five times in a row (reaches for Michael).

Michael: Yeah, that's right.

Joko: You did, we saw it earlier, when you had to go into the shootouts again - bwoah this stuff burns in the eyes -, did you have a talk beforehand? Did you decide, are you going to drive again, are you, or what did you talk about?

Michael: No, it's clear who drives, how the slots are appointed, but we just motivated each other a bit and uh, because Sebastian was very strong on this car which I didn't drive much, he gave me a few valuable hints which paid off well.

Joko: Now I know, when one of you wins, it's always getting merry in the evenings [literal translation of german compound word 'feucht-fröhlich': moist/humid-joyful; adj; meaning an occasion where alcohol flows]; does that mean you two are going to compete tomorrow with alcohol left in your body or-

Michael: No no, alcohol is never in the picture with us.

Seb: Where did you get that from?

Joko: I was told, they told me before to talm to you about it, I just know it always gets funny!

Seb: Rumours...

Joko: Rumours, rumours. But tomorrow-

Seb: We'd have a reason now, theoretically, to toast to at least in any case

Michael: [something inaudible about toasting]

Joko: You have enough to drink left. But tomorrow against each other - does that mean separate beds tonight when you go home, yeah?

Seb: Yeah, hah, that anyways.

Michael: He doesn't like it much when you're with him in his room.

Seb: He tried before, but... I didn't like it that much. I didn't have a duvet anymore. He steals your duvet!

Joko: Thank you very much for the information, we'll see each other tomorrow,

Seb: You wanna know anything else or-?

Joko: No, I'm done now. Do you wanna knkw anything?

Seb: You want a sip?

Joko: No, I don't drink alcohol. Sad. Well, only at the moment, maybe I'll change my mind. Have a good evening, thank you very much and congratulations again to you. Until tomorrow.

Michael: Until tomorrow, thank you, have fun.

#sebastian vettel #michael schumacher #ROC 2011 #I tried to translate as literal as possible but bro theyre a mess #anyways so much to unpack here #seb is super cocky but in a loveable way and he just keeps talking it's so endearing #it's funny how chill he is when it's not f1 adjacent people interviewing him and in an 'unprofessional' setting #also i do need to know what tf happened that there was only one bed #because that story has a bit too much detail to just be a fun lie #sebichael bed sharing + duvet stealing fic when? #soz 4 typos i am tired and lazy and got distracted playing solitaire like halfway through translating #anyways joko is a p cool guy afaik; him n his co host did some genuinely good stuff when they got completely free uncensored broadcast time

[doyoulikethisemoband]

#des rocs #alt rock #alternative rock #modern alt rock #rebel blues #rock #emo adjacent #music poll #poll #musicblr #rate your music

[tollingreminiscentbells]

All of my best fic ideas are AUs or at least AU-adjacent. I have this really fun idea for a canon divergence Harrymort heist story, which sounds unhinged (it is unhinged), but I categorically cannot touch it until I've finished RoCS because heist stories can be hard to pull off.

Much like a museum heist.

There are just a lot of genre conventions and fiddly details you can't fuck up or the whole thing will collapse under its own weight. And I don't have the capacity to write two deeply involved and complex stories at once. I'm not that kind of writer.

I think my problem is that my impulse is to construct these big stories with a ton of world building and intricate plots. I mean, for fuck's sake, I have an idea for a naga fic that should just be an excuse to write weird sex, but I can't do it without determining exactly how we got to the naga thing in the first place and what the rules of this mini-universe are. As though that is what someone interested in monsterfucking fiction is going to care about. But I care. I care profoundly.

One day. I'll get all of them written one day.

[brightgnosis]

Could you build me a playlist based off of your mood?

Oh this is fun! I've never gotten one of these before. Let's see ... I'll cap it at 10 for sanity's sake.

Living Proof by Des Rocs

She Ain't Me by ZZ Ward

Pain of Love by Whissell

Trouble Finds You by Juliet Simms

Swan by Willa

Heaven's Got A Back Door by Dead Sara

Fire Burnin' by Dead Posey

Watcha Waiting For by Rayelle

Whiskey Fever by Dorothy

Unstoppable by Eva Under Fire

I've been in the mood for Bluesey Rock and Outlaw Country and adjacent sounds a lot lately- probably because we didn't get to go to Bluegrass Festival this year like usual, ha. Sorry!

#beneathfrenzy #Answered Asks #2023 Asks #Blessed Ear Wigglers #2023 #Misc Asks

[wings-of-fire-reforged]

From all four of you, I want your thoughts:

mythical creatures can include any beast from mythologies and folklore around the world; from unicorns to raiju to rocs to fenghuang. this would include pseudo-dragons, non-sapient draconids that are to the true dragons what apes are to us.

hominids are likewise humans and human-adjacents. uncertain if demi-humans like merfolk and the like could be included, but elves, dwarves, and the like absolutely would be.

#yee poll

[bathspaces]

Blog Info/Pinned Post

Welcome to @psycada’s oc blog. While this is not necessarily a NSFW blog, my work is meant for an 18+ audience. Please see under the read more for info.

#plaguewalker - Prion, a wizard whose powers revolve around disease, and Tunic, a demon trapped in fabric, travel across a plague-torn land in order to find a way to restore it.

#paravirus - Tae, an average college student, is infected by the sentient man-made parasite Hirudi.

#mutualism - Roc, a disgraced harpy eagle prince, journeys across several islands to answer his question: what is humanity?

#midnight arcade - A collection of entities living within an arcade, with each entity embodying an aspect of the arcade experience.

And several other individuals, who will have their own tags eventually. 

Since childhood I have been obsessed with the inner body, biology, organs, the process of eating, disease, parasites, etc. It is a facet of my autistic special interest. You will find this reflected in my work no doubt. Much of my work is also “fetish adjacent”- with an interest in the inner body comes terms like vore and endosoma. I would not say this is an outright fetish blog (I have a separate account for that, after all) but there will be fetish work featured, and it will not always be clear whether or not something is truly “fetish”. There are also other actual sexual aspects that make my work 18+, so please keep this in mind. I will tag things to the best of my ability.

I tried very hard to separate the fetish from the story, or to decide what to categorize things as, and I believe the lines are too blurry. To kill the fetish is to kill the story. To me, autistic special interest and a fetish are the same feeling, under different names. There is a substantial amount of people who interact with their fetish in a SFW way, and those who interact with their special interest in an NSFW way. In the past my work has been accused of being fetish art, both when it wasn’t intended as such, and when it was intended as such and was clearly labeled. I put this paragraph here in hopes that people with similar feelings will see it, and understand the freedom of embracing their strange obsessions.

#pinned post #plaguewalker #paravirus #mutualism #midnight arcade

[howlsmovinglibrary]

tagged by @symphorine which is fitting bc I'm pretty certain my On Repeat is all just BG3-adjacent brainrot rn :')

shuffle your on repeat playlist and put the first ten songs

lust to love - renforshort

Shake, Shake, Shake - Bronze Radio Return

Raphael's Final Act (KING SHIT)

Unknown/Nth - Hozier

Dangerous Hands - Austin Giorgi

Maybe, I - Des Rocs

Dangerous - Royal Deluxe

Allies or Enemies - The Crane Wives

Dead or Alive - Stileto

Good Girl Era - Upsahl

Tagging anyone who wants to play xx

#tag games #spotify on repeeat #it's all just D&D brainrot or BG3 brainrot and my one depression song lmao

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Branching

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/876EIpM by Cornflower_Blue Branching happens just before owlets start learning to fly, and is when they start to move out from the nest and stand on adjacent branches Dick sets out on a mission. Words: 2664, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Series: Part 6 of An Appropriation of Owlets Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen Characters: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne Relationships: Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne Additional Tags: Angst, Reverse Robins AU, Dick Grayson-centric, Dick Grayson Needs a Hug, Dick Grayson Has Issues, Protective Jason Todd, Good Sibling Jason Todd, Jason Todd is Goldfinch, Protective Damian Wayne, Good Sibling Damian Wayne, Damian Wayne if Roc, Protective Bruce Wayne, Dick gives everyone a heart attack, Court of Owls read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/876EIpM

#IFTTT #bruce wayne #batman #the caped crusader #the dark knight #dcu #ao3 #ao3feed

[light-lanterne]

when you get this, put 5 songs you actually listen to, then publish. send this ask to 10 of your favourite followers. (non-negotiable, positivity is cool :D)

hii sorry ik u alr got one of these but ur like my fav follower (cant believe u follow me lolll) so idk if u wanted to put more songs or smth idk u dont hv to answer this if u want anyway ur cool lol <3

hello ~ ah, i'm just some little dude, nothing special about me, but thanks ^-^ please don't worry about tagging me / sending me an ask game thing even if i've already done one of them; i like these games :]

anyway, much like before i'm only putting one song per artist even though i could link their entire repertoire ~ also, i was four songs in when i realised there was a theme going so behold: songs i listen to, spooky edition >:]

i. des rocs — woo, at last, something that's not metal / metal adjacent :D no clue how i even found this song tbh, but it's really nice ~! spooky, but measured ~

ii. mgmt — i think people might be familiar with these guys ? they made "me and michael" anyway. i, quite predictably, prefer this song, though :]

iii. death spells — i'm a big fan of most of frank iero's projects and this is no exception ~ out of all the songs from this album, however, this is the one i return to the most :] strong donnie darko vibes :O

iv. kim dracula — ah, a recent obsession of mine, but they're just incredible ~ they play all the instruments and have so many different singing styles and are just the coolest :] i've been listening to their album quite a lot, but i keep returning to this one for some reason <3

v. snow white's poison bite — if we're talking spooky i can't leave these guys out. they only have two albums in total, and the last one ("featuring: dr. gruesome and the gruesome gory horror show") is the perfect thing to get one in the mood for halloween :D

so that's it !! again, i hope there was enough variety so that maybe someone found a song they liked ? hopefully,,, anyway, thank you for the ask ~!! i hope you have a beautiful day / night :D

#💕 #💌 #🎸 #🌻 #🧸

[erichymowitz]

Houston’s Dynamic and Well-Preserved Museum District

A Houston-based entrepreneur, Eric Hymowitz has been in business for some 20 years and has guided new residential construction at the helm of ROC Homes. Eric Hymowitz’s firm focuses on First Floor Lifestyle homes that combine green space with private driveways and are sited in top-tier neighborhoods such as Garden Oaks, River Oaks/Montrose, and the Museum District.

Situated directly southwest of downtown, the picturesque Museum District encompasses unique galleries, cultural landmarks, and community organizations. Originally a wealthy urban enclave built in the early 20th century, the Museum District's inception as a leisure destination came in the late 1970s, as grassroots efforts coalesced to restore the area’s oak-lined streets and pedestrian-friendly architectural heritage. In the residential sphere, new developments in contemporary styles are tastefully integrated within existing neighborhoods in ways that preserve the area's history and charm.

Adjacent to Rice University and the Texas Medical Center, the district includes landmark destinations such as the Houston Zoo, the Houston Museum of Science, and Children’s Museum Houston. Another highlight is the Holocaust Museum, which offers an educational and sobering view of the past and is the fourth-largest such institution nationwide.

#Eric Hymowitz

[sodomitecastiel]

Heyo, got some spn (mostly Dean or Cas adjacent) song recs. (1/2)

Steal from the rich, give to myself - Simon viklund

True dark - murder by death

Bullet with butterfly wings - tribe society

Black rifle - King 810

Witches wrath - the Bridge city sinners

I'm always walking as somebody else - American murder song (cains mark/demon Dean coded as fuck)

Devil in the churchyard - port sulphur band

Let me live / let me die - des rocs

Twisted - Missio

The things I done - c.W. Stoneking

The unforgiven -Blakwall

The Eagle has landed - avatar

Quixote - crywolf

Superhero - Johnny hollow

hey thanks! i'll give 'em a listen :)

#i'm veryyyy particular about music but i'm very intrigued by some of these titles #nathaniel.txt #answered

[pennylanefics]

Forgotten - Finn Cole

a/n: this is kinda like a fic i did a while back, except the roles are reversed: finn is the one to lose his memory. also sorry for the lack of fics. mindless behavior and roc royal’s fine self have taken over me again 😂 and school sucks

warnings: mentions of accident, injuries. not proof-read, whoops

•••

One call changed your life for the near future, or for forever.

Finn had gone out to a few bars with his friends, needing the night to let go and have fun after a few long months of non-stop filming. You were more than happy to let him go out, seeing as he’s been super stressed and overwhelmed, so he deserved a night off.

It was about one in the morning, and you were still up, wanting to make sure that Finn got home safely, let alone he got home at all. You were laying in bed, playing on your phone, when a call interrupted you. It was one of Finn’s friends that he was out with.

“Hey Will, what’s up?” You ask, sitting up in bed.

“(Y/N), Finn! He-he, I don’t-I can’t,” he stutters out, sounding like he was sobbing.

“Will! What’s wrong with Finn?!” Your heart was racing and you were terrified.

“He got h-hit and he’s really hurt!” Your blood runs cold and time freezes.

“How hurt?” You were surprisingly calm, but you knew as soon as you saw him, you would lose it.

“He’s on his way to the hospital. Kane Central Hospital.” Within seconds, you are getting dressed and rushing out of your flat, driving as fast as you can to the hospital. Running in, you quickly find his friends waiting near the door.

“(Y/N)!” CJ calls out. You stride over to him and he brings you into a hug, and that’s when you break. Seeing them crying and nervous, you knew it wasn’t good.

“What happened?” You mumble through tears as you pull away, though CJ keeps you close. You two have always been good friends since you met because of Finn, and he was also the most sober one of the group.

“We were all standing around, waiting for the Uber to show up. We were on the corner of a street, when a car came out of nowhere and hit him and Aaron,” Will explains softly. “They were drunk and rightfully arrested.”

You were speechless, you couldn’t say anything. All you did was shrink closer to CJ, wanting nothing more than to see your boyfriend and make sure he’s okay.

“They didn’t say how critical he is, but he was unconscious the entire time, from when he was hit to when he was taken away in the ambulance,” CJ mumbles. His hands rub your bicep to comfort you,

“Can we see him?”

“They said they would come get us when he wakes up, or when he’s resting. We don’t know what his condition is.” You three take a seat in the waiting room chairs, tears silently streaming down your cheeks.

“How was your night before?” You wonder after a couple hours of nothing. You were growing extremely worried. Shouldn’t he be up by now?

“It was great,” Will smiles. “He seemed to be having a lot of fun.”

“He hasn’t had a break in a while. He’s been filming Peaky Blinders for a month and every night, he comes home so tense and overworked. He loves it, but he definitely needed this break.”

“He was enjoying it, but he couldn’t stop talking about you,” CJ steps in. Heat rises to your cheeks at his words, the idea of Finn gushing about you making you fall more in love with him.

“Yeah. He was looking forward to taking you on a trip to France once filming wrapped.” More tears fall down your cheeks and at that moment, a doctor walks up to you guys.

“Are you the ones here for Mr. Cole?” He asks. You stand within seconds, but CJ holds you back.

“Yes, we are,” he says. “Is he okay?”

“Right now, he’s awake, thankfully. He went right into surgery upon arrival, they assessed his broken ribs and internal bleeding. After he got out, he was responding well to treatment and we weren’t expecting him to wake up so soon. But there is a problem. He has amnesia.” Your expression drops even more as you, Will, and CJ look between one another.

“How serious is it?”

“He remembers nothing. He knows his name, he knows his age, he doesn’t know the date or month, but he does know the year. If you would come with me to see if he remembers you three, that will help us know how serious his case is.” Nodding, you follow him to the room your boyfriend is in. CJ and Will were close by you, ready to hold you or grab you when you break down.

“Hello again, Finn. How are you feeling?” Finn’s expression stays the same as he responds to the doctor.

“That’s good. I’m going to ask you a few more questions. Do you recognize any of these people?” He gestures to you three, standing awkwardly at the end of the bed. Finn furrows his eyebrows, trying hard to remember.

“No.” His simple response shatters your heart. He doesn’t remember you.

“You don’t know me, Finn?” You whisper. You could feel your tears getting ready to fall from your eyes as you watch him shake his head.

“I don’t. Are you...a friend? A cousin?” CJ wraps his arm around you comfortingly, allowing you to cry against him.

“I’m your girlfriend, Finn. We’ve been together for four years,” your voice breaks towards the end. He looks apologetic and sad, wanting to remember you.

“I’m sorry. You’re very pretty, though.” Chuckling through sobs, you remove CJ’s arms from you and storm out of the room, not wanting him to see you cry.

“Hey,” Will’s soothing voice follows you. “It’ll be okay.” He pulls you in for a hug as you break down, sobbing and whimpering that you hate everything.

“I want my boyfriend back,” you whisper once you calm down.

“He’ll get back to how he was. I know it. It may take some time, but I know he’ll remember you.”

“What if he doesn’t?”

“Don’t think like that, hun. The doctor is saying that he should be back to normal eventually.”

“How long is eventually, huh?” WIll sighs and strokes your hair, not knowing enough to comfort you.

“I’m not sure, darling.”

Finn was kept in the hospital for a couple weeks, just to make sure his ribs were healing correctly, and to monitor any more internal bleeding. But when he got home, it was very heartbreaking.

Aaron had come with Will and CJ to drop Finn off, offering to do so because they knew you were going to be too emotional to drive back. Aaron had walked away with a broken leg, so he was better and had been released days later.

“(Y/N)?” CJ calls out as they step inside. Finn was limping due to his fractured ankle. Will was helping him since he couldn’t use crutches because of his ribs. He gently takes a seat on the couch, propping his leg up. You come walking in, nervous for what was to come.

“Hey guys,” you smile, hugging them. Your eyes then land on Finn, who was already staring at you. He offers a small grin, then quickly averts his gaze.

“Uh, we’ll be okay, if you want to go,” you say to the guys. CJ walks over to you and rubs your back.

“Are you sure? We can stay for however long you need?”

“I’m sure we’ll be fine, right Finn?” You ask. He looks taken aback, not expecting to be brought into the conversation.

“Yeah, uh. I think.” Sighing softly, you hug CJ, trying your hardest not to cry.

“Call me if you need anything, yeah?” You nod and they all leave your apartment, leaving you and Finn in a very awkward situation.

“Um, do you want anything to eat? Drink?” You ask Finn. He glances at you for a moment before nodding.

“Do you have mac and cheese? That was my favorite food at the hospital and I’m craving it right now.” Giggling, you walk to the kitchen and get started on making a box. While it heats up, you sit with Finn in the living room.

“So, are you feeling better?” You wonder. You kept your distance from him, sitting in the recliner adjacent from him.

“Yeah. It’s still hard to breathe, and I’m already sick of the cast, but I’ll get through it.”

“That’s good. How many ribs did you end up breaking?”

“I’m not sure. I thought they said three, but I don’t know if they meant one side or altogether. Everything’s been super jumbled in my mind.” You feel a pang in your heart at his words, and he notices your change in mood right away.

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to,” he whispers.

“No, it’s okay. It’s not your fault.” He smiles thankfully and tries to situate himself to get more comfortable. You are up within seconds, sensing his struggle. You move a couple pillows around so he can sit up, making sure that his leg is still propped up.

“Is that better?” You question.

“Yeah, thank you.” Feeling a bit overwhelmed, you go back to the kitchen to check on the mac and cheese, staying there for a few minutes after you pour the noodles in. Your cheeks were wet with tears because of how close you got to Finn.

Sure, it seemed like nothing, but you haven’t been with him in two weeks, and now that you are, it’s not the same Finn that you knew.

“(Y/N)?” Finn calls out. You run back to where he was laying, checking to see if anything was wrong.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I just, uh, I wanted to ask you something?”

“What is it?” You sit back down.

“When did we first meet?” He wonders. A smile creeps onto your lips and you keep your eyes on your hands.

“We met at the season three premiere of the show you star in, Peaky Blinders.”

“Are you on the show?”

“No. I was at the premiere with my dad, who is a producer for the show. I knew no one there, so I was standing alone while my dad mingled with some people. You came up to me asking what I was doing alone, then you offered to stay by my side for the rest of the night.” You wait for him to say something, but he doesn’t.

“You were very sweet and funny, making me laugh all night. And not to mention how insanely cute you were. Hair slicked back, with your tux and bow tie, instead of a regular tie. You didn’t want to introduce me to anyone yet because you saw how nervous I was just being there and around everyone.”

“I wish I could remember,” he whispers, not daring to look up at you just yet. “It sounds like a really fun night.”

“Yeah,” you sigh. “It was a great night.”

“Can I ask you more things about us?” You pause, your jaw opening and closing in shock.

“Um, let me finish making your food, and then we can talk things out, okay?” He agrees and you walk back to the kitchen, seeing that the mac and cheese was almost done.

The main reason you stalled in that moment was because you weren’t expecting it. Amnesia is different with everyone, but you didn’t know how long people would be okay with talking about their lives before everything happened. So, you weren’t sure if Finn was going to be okay with being bombarded with a bunch of new information and memories of his life that he doesn’t remember.

You quietly enjoy dinner together while watching a movie, a favorite of Finn’s, which he unfortunately doesn't remember. He keeps glancing over at you every now and then, wanting to comfort you but still not feeling well enough to get too close to you.

Once your food is finished and you wash the dishes, Finn wants to take a shower, which wasn’t going to be easy.

“Um, do you want me to call one of the guys over to help you?” You wonder, feeling a bit awkward with the whole situation.

“You can help me, if you want. I don’t...want it to be weird for you or anything but-”

“Not to be weird, but I’ve seen all of you before,” you giggle, blushing a little. Finn chuckles and shakes his head.

“I guess that’s true. Sorry, I-”

“You have nothing to apologize for, Finn. It’s not your fault you can’t remember much and it’s not your fault you’re in this position. I don’t blame you, okay?” He nods a little as a silence hangs in the air for a bit.

“So, let’s get you to the bathroom,” you say. Helping him up is tough, since he weighs so much and he can’t really stand on his own yet.

Thankfully, there’s a bathroom on the first level of your apartment, so stairs wouldn’t be a problem, for now. Once you’re in there, you awkwardly look around, wondering how Finn wanted to do this.

“Do you need me to, um, help you with anything?”

“Yeah, I need help getting undressed. I have a bag that the hospital gave me to put over my cast so it doesn’t get wet,” he says softly. You go back to the living room where his bags were still sitting, and rummage through them as quickly as you can.

Undressing Finn isn’t an easy task. His shorts are easy to remove, but his shirt was a struggle. He couldn’t lift his arms much, and he was instructed not to as to not re-injure his ribs. After a lot of chatting and brainstorming, you remove his arms from the sleeves first, then slip the shirt over his head.

Finn was giggling the entire time, watching you go through different ideas. But when your hands slowly remove his shirt, he can’t help but feel a way. He sees and feels how caring you are and he could tell how much you love him. He felt bad for not reciprocating it.

The shower process was even harder. You had to wash his hair and body, which was weird for him, though he went through with it because he knows, in a sense, that you had seen him before. You assured him the entire time that if he wanted you to stop, just say so. But he never said a word.

“(Y/N)?” Finn’s soft voice calls out for you. You were helping him settle into the guest bedroom for the time being, since stairs aren’t the best idea yet, so he couldn’t really sleep in your room.

“What’s up?” You turn around from rummaging through the closet for extra blankets.

“Um, when is our anniversary?” A small smile displays on your face as you take a seat next to him.

“October twenty-second. Nine days before our first Halloween together.”

“What did we go as?”

“Mortica and Gomez Addams. We won the costume contest we entered,” you chuckle. He grins and wants to grab your hand, his eyes darting to it resting by his side, but he keeps himself from doing so.

“That sounds like fun. Maybe seeing pictures of us together could help regain my memory.” Sighing softly, you shake your head and stand.

“You’ve had a long day, Finn. I think you need to relax for the rest of the night.”

“Okay, I guess that’s true.”

“I don’t mean to be rude, but it’s been a tough day, even for me.” Finn’s expression dropped and you immediately felt bad.

“No, not like that, b- Finn.” He catches your little slip up but ignores it. “Helping you shower and undress took a lot out of me.” You both share a laugh before you gather the covers you got and lay them on top of Finn’s body, which was under the comforter. He was complaining about being colder than usual, but the doctors and nurses warned his friends that this was normal.

“If you need anything, I’m going to be in the living room,” you tell him, turning the light off.

“Okay. Goodnight, (Y/N).” You give him a tight-lipped smile and close the door. You are close to breaking down in tears, wanting your boyfriend back more than anything.

Days and days go by, and Finn’s memory still remains gone. There’s no sign of it getting better, which is scaring you. His doctor told you that within a month, he should be improving, but it was coming up, and still, nothing.

The nights are the hardest. You sleep alone on the couch, so in case he needs anything, he can easily call for you since he’s right down the hall. You hadn’t gotten a goodnight kiss in the longest time, or a kiss at all.

One night, things were especially hard. Finn was going through a rough patch with his memory, where he ended up forgetting you all over again for a couple hours. The doctor said this was normal as well, but didn’t warn you how or when it would happen.

You were going to help him change his clothes and he freaked out, pushing you away and wondering who you are. You follow the doctor’s instructions, stepping away from him and giving him some time to relax. But, you can’t help but cry.

Taking a seat on the couch, you sob into your hands. You hadn’t cried this much in a while, even though you basically cry yourself to sleep every night. The fact that he doesn’t remember you again breaks you, setting you back even further from the progress he was sort of making.

“(Y/N)?” Finn whispers, standing in the hallway. He also has tears on his cheeks from what just happened.

“Yeah?” You mumble, rising and wiping at your cheeks.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t apologize, Finn. It’s not your fault.”

“I know, but I feel so bad and-”

“Well don’t. I’m not upset with you, okay? I was just...not expecting that episode just yet.”

“The doctor said that would happen.”

“He told me too. I did what he told me to do, give you time to calm down and come back.”

“And I did.”

“That’s good. So, do you want me to-“

“No. I mean I’m fully back.” His words make you freeze. Before you can say anything, he steps forward.

“I remember the fact that you’re my girlfriend. We’ve been together for four years. I was filming for Peaky Blinders for months and now that I’ve had a break, I decided to go out. I was supposed to take you to France a few weeks ago. I remember that I love you so much and you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” Tears were silently falling from your eyes at this point, staring right at Finn as he continued to move forward to you.

His hand reaches out for you, but within seconds, you were in his arms, sobbing loudly as you shove your face into his neck.

“You’re back,” you mumble against his shirt. He laughs softly and nuzzles his head against yours.

“I’m back, love. And I’m never leaving you again.”

“What if it goes away again?” Finn pulls back and wipes your tears away, keeping his hand there.

“Let’s not think like that right now, yeah? Why don’t we head upstairs and rest?”

“Yeah. I missed you a lot.”

“I missed you too, my love.”

•••

@peakyxtommy​

#finn cole #finn cole imagines #finn cole imagine #finn cole x reader #imagines #fanfiction #fanfic

[tiredandtoothless]

I need to know more about when the ying yang twins invited you to their hotel room and i need to know it NOW

hahahaha ok here we go!! THIS IS SO LONG SORRY

important context: i went to a college with a very weird, intense academic culture. no one saw their grades unless they were failing or asked to see them, so people tended to compete over who was the most stressed out/busy with Learning (i am rolling my eyes bc in hindsight it was so unhealthy and toxic). every senior has to write a thesis to graduate, and it’s a Very Big Project—like you have to defend it in front of a board and all that stuff—that culminates in a massive, three-day, campus-wide party once you turn it in.

on the second night of this party, there is always a surprise performer. my senior year, i had friends on the committee that plans the party, so i knew ahead of time that it was going to be the ying yang twins. (sidenote: mac demarco was ALSO supposed to perform that night, but he ended up cancelling because he didn’t want to share the stage? super weird of him imo bc if i was mac demarco, i would be *pumped* to share the stage with the ying yang twins but w/e)

since it was my senior year AND i knew it was going to be the ying yang twins, i of course told my friends that we had to do [redacted illicit substance] on the night of their performance. i couldn’t tell them WHY since i was sworn to secrecy, but my school had a pretty pervasive drug culture (again, a very unhealthy and toxic place lol) so it was not difficult to convince them.

ok so cut to the second night of the party. the ying yang twins take the stage. we lose our fucking minds. i, in particular, lose my fucking mind when they performed ‘get low.’ once the show is over, we go to the student senate office (which is in the same building where they performed) to drink water and talk about our feelings, as people on drugs are wont to do.

i’d been chugging water all night, so eventually, i needed to use the restroom BAD. now, an important fact about me is that i am sometimes a little chaotic and have a tendency to disappear with strangers if they offer me weed or just seem weird in a non-violent but interesting way. not the smartest behavior, i know, but it HAS resulted in some of our very best stories ok

so, when i announce to the room that i need to pee, one of my friends (who was drunk, but not on drugs & taking very good care of us) immediately decides that i cannot be trusted to go alone lest i disappear with a couple of scots (actually happened one time), so she agrees to go with me.

in order to get to the bathroom, you have to go downstairs, exit the building, and then re-enter through another door. we do just that. things go as you’d expect and we start our way back to the office.

but as we exited the building, there was a BIG. ASS. ESCALADE parked right outside on the walkway. my friend and i were like “ok so obviously that’s them,” but decided to leave them alone and return to our friends. once we got close, though, they rolled down the window & started calling out to us. basically just telling us we looked good and shit like that—it was honestly a little cringe, but like w/e.

we walk up to the car and they’re like “what are you two doing?” and my friend—who, again, was drunk—starts shaking her ass in the direction of the car. meanwhile i (on drugs and desperate to get back to the deeply emotionally vulnerable and intimate conversations happening amongst my friends upstairs) am just standing there blinking. somehow i remember myself enough to tell them we’re just killing time before the next dance party that night.

kaine (the short one) asks, “do you two wanna come chill with us?”

my friend and i freeze. i’m like “excuse me sir??”

d-roc (the tall one) goes, “we’re staying at [hotel downtown], do you two want to come with us?”

now. there are two kinds of people in this world. there are people, like me, who get invited back to the hotel room of the people who wrote their favorite song in the 4th grade and just LAUGH bc like. dude, i used to listen to your music while i practiced LONG DIVISION and now you want me to suck your dick or something?! what?!

then there are people, like my friend, who immediately open the door to their escalade and hop the fuck in. i freaked out a little bit, i won’t lie, but she was very, very, VERY sure that she wanted to go off with them. (the irony of my CHAPERONE taking off with the ying yang twins when she was initially worried about ME disappearing was not lost on me or any of our friends)

anyways she buckles in, and d-roc tries to sweet talk me into going with them. again, i laugh and then say, i kid you not, “no thank you, i want to get back to my friends. we’re talking about trauma and i need to tell them about my spongebob-adjacent trauma.”

the ying yang twins looks at me like i’m a freak, bc tbh i am, and i take that as my cue to peace out. my friend goes back to their hotel. she tries to convince them to have a threesome, but they refuse and end up just going to sleep. she wound up getting kicked out of the hotel at like 4am though, because they woke up to her posting pictures of them on snap lmao.

as for me, i went back to my friends, told them about my spongebob-adjacent trauma, and then spent the rest of the night dancing to the talking heads. everyone won imo.

as a general aside, getting invited to their hotel was actually the SECOND time i met them that night, but i am saving the story about the first encounter for my memoirs.

#asked/answered

[stereostevie]

The Rap Grammy Nominations Are Weird As Hell | Nov 25, 2020 11:12 AM BY TOM BREIHAN

The very first time that the Grammy Awards recognized rap music, it was an utter fiasco — a clear case of an aging pop-music establishment failing to understand this vital new youth music that had sprung up and rewritten the rules. For the 1989 awards show, the Grammys added one rap category, Best Rap Performance. DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince won it for “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” beating out LL Cool J and Salt-N-Pepa and Kool Moe Dee and JJ Fad. The show didn’t deign to recognize Public Enemy, N.W.A, EPMD, Slick Rick, Big Daddy Kane, Eric B. & Rakim, or Ice-T, all of whom had released classic albums within the voting window. The award wasn’t televised, and most of the nominees, Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince included, skipped the show, attending a “Boycott The Grammys” party instead.

Since that night, the history of rap at the Grammys has been a series of baffling, embarrassing decisions. It’s Steely Dan winning Album Of The Year over The Marshall Mathers LP. It’s Gretchen Wilson winning Best New Artist over Kanye West. “It’s weird and it sucks that I robbed you.” It’s also a history of rappers getting angry over the Grammys: “I never let a statue tell me how nice I am,” “You think I give a damn about a Grammy?” In 2019, Drake showed up to accept Best Rap Song. In his acceptance speech, he talked about how the Grammy voters weren’t necessarily the right people to define rap success. The broadcast cut him off mid-speech. Earlier this year, Kanye West, a man who once cared more about Grammy Awards than anyone else not named Neil Portnow, tweeted a video of himself pissing on one of his Grammys. (The Grammys still nominated West this year, for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album.)

Yesterday, the Grammys nominated Freddie Gibbs and the Alchemist’s Alfredo in the Best Rap Album category. That’s great! Freddie Gibbs is a great underground rap success story, a guy who bet on himself and kept doing great work in his own lane even after multiple major-label situations fell apart. Gibbs has never made a hit song in his life, and he’s gotten himself into a position where he doesn’t need to make hit songs — where he can just follow his instincts and keep his own style intact. Alfredo isn’t my favorite rap record of the year. (Even in the field of Alchemist-produced 2020 rap albums, I’d give the slight edge to Boldy James’ The Price Of Tea In China.) But the nomination for Alfredo is still a very cool surprise, the kind of thing that I would’ve never expected to see from the Grammy nominating committee.

And yet Gibbs’ nomination doesn’t exactly announce a new golden age of Grammy rap consideration, a time when Recording Academy voters are finally figuring out how to approach the genre. Instead, his nomination points toward something else: An institutional recognition of middlebrow, middle-aged, respectable rap music.

All of this year’s Best Rap Album nominees are Black men between the ages of 35 and 47. The oldest nominee is Nas, who is now on his fifth Best Rap Album nomination and who has never won the award. (The Best Rap Album Grammy didn’t exist in 1994, when Nas released Illmatic, but there’s no way in hell that Nas would’ve won it anyway. The Academy would’ve given the award to Coolio’s It Takes A Thief or something.) The youngest nominee is D Smoke, a former high school Spanish teacher who is also the brother of the TDE R&B singer SiR. D Smoke made his way into Grammy contention after winning the first season of Rhythm + Flow, the Netflix rap-competition show. (Two of the three judges from Rhythm + Flow, Cardi B and Chance The Rapper, have won Best Rap Album themselves. T.I., the other judge, has been nominated three times and never won.)

D Smoke isn’t exactly a revered or popular rapper, and I have’t seen anyone calling his perfectly-OK album Black Habits a masterpiece, though the man has certainly done better than anyone could’ve expected from a rap reality-show winner. But D Smoke raps exactly like a diet version of Kendrick Lamar, so his nomination works as a clear indication that the Grammy voters really, really wish they had a Kendrick album to nominate. D Smoke is also up for Best New Artist, alongside fellow rappers Chika, Megan Thee Stallion, and (I guess) Doja Cat. Presumably, Megan’s Good News would also be nominated if it had come out early enough to be eligible. Meanwhile, Chika hasn’t released an album, and Doja Cat is nominated in the pop categories, not the rap ones.

Instead, then, we’re looking at five guys hovering around the age of 40, all of whom are respected technicians with boom-bap inclinations. Jay Electronica, who’s nominated for A Written Testimony and who should probably be considered the front-runner, is technically a New Orleans native, but nobody thinks of him as a Southern rapper. (Jay-Z is all over A Written Testimony, to the point where anointing Jay Electronica feels a bit like throwing awards love to Jay-Z in a year with no Jay-Z album.) All the albums up for Best Rap Album are, at the very least, solid. A couple of them, Alfredo and A Written Testimony, are very good. But this is still a remarkably stodgy list — one that shows that the whole middle-aged respectability fetish that’s long plagued the Grammys is now embedded in its rap voting wing.

Freddie Gibbs and Nas and Jay Electronica and D Smoke and Royce Da 5’9″ are all gifted rappers who have done great work. Most of them could justifiably be considered legends. But none of them really show the world where rap music is, let alone where it’s going. By recognizing those albums, the Grammys have pointedly elected not to recognize something like Lil Baby’s My Turn, which is probably 2020’s most popular album in any genre and which is also a fine example of the 808-heavy depressive melodic-goo rap music that currently dominates the genre’s mainstream.

Other hugely popular, artistically important albums are also absent: Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atake, Roddy Rich’s Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial, Polo G’s The Goat, Gunna’s Wunna, Rod Wave’s Pray 4 Love. Instead, the rap albums getting nominated are the 2020 equivalents of the Steely Dan album that famously beat Eminem. That’s not an indictment of the nominated albums. It’s an indictment of the stuff the Recording Academy values. It’s also a cautionary look of how things might look if the Recording Academy ever gets its way, if rap comes to rely on accepted ossified skill-sets instead of its current state of constant, furious stylistic evolution.

As someone who’s around the same age as this year’s Best Rap Album nominees, I’m not all that amped to see emotionally troubled, pill-gobbling 20-year-olds dominating rap music. But those kids are crucially moving the genre past whatever old men like me might want it to be. Fortunately, there’s at least one Grammy category that has done a pretty good job capturing where things are right now, and that’s Best Rap Song. The list of nominations there — Lil Baby’s “The Bigger Picture,” Roddy Ricch’s “The Box,” Drake’s “Laugh Now, Cry Later,” DaBaby’s “Rockstar,” and Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage” — isn’t necessarily perfect, but it’s a fairly accurate representation of the kind of rap that moves people right now. I don’t know why the division between the Best Rap Album and Best Rap Song nominees is so stark. Maybe it’s a signal that the album is increasingly irrelevant. Maybe it reflects two different voting bodies. Either way, it’s striking.

Look, the Grammys are weird. They are always going to be weird. Fiona Apple’s Fetch The Bolt Cutters should’ve been the biggest lay-up in the world, but it isn’t up for Album Of The Year. Instead, the Academy’s voters went for Coldplay and Jacob Collier and a deluxe edition of a Black Pumas album that didn’t even come out in the eligibility period. “Rockstar” and “Savage” are both up for Record Of The Year, but Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding is the only album that’s even rap-adjacent that’s nominated for Album Of The Year this year. I thought for sure that Lil Baby’s My Turn would be the token rap album that would inevitably lose to Taylor Swift. Instead, we didn’t even get one of those, and My Turn got snubbed even in its own category. Nothing makes sense.

But this year’s Best Rap Albums nominations still show a weird alignment between Grammy Voters and a certain streak of real-hip-hop rap conservatism. Watch out for that. Nothing good, except maybe a Freddie Gibbs Grammy win, will come out of that.

FURIOUS FIVE

1. Roc Marciano – “Downtown 81” It’s not on streaming services yet, but Roc Marciano’s new album Mt. Marci is out in the world now, and it is marvelous. (I can’t tell you whether the digital download is worth the $40 that Marci is charging on his website. Make your own financial decisions.) Right now, the only song out for general consumption is one of the few that Marci didn’t produce himself. (It’s a Jake One beat.) But otherwise, “Downtown 81” is exactly the sort of laid-back, intricately worded deadpan splendor that you can expect to hear on the LP, whenever it goes wide. So maybe that’s worth the price of a full tank of gas.

2. Meek Mill – “GTA” (Feat. 42 Dugg)

Meek Mill released his Quarantine Pack EP on Friday, and the track currently getting the big push is the downbeat Lil Durk collab “Pain Away.” But the real thrill here is in hearing Meek and 42 Dugg getting bracingly urgent over a Detroit-ass bassline.

3. Chief Keef & Mike Will Made-It – “Status” Sosa and Mike Will have evidently chosen to name their new song after this column. Gentlemen, I see this tribute, and I appreciate it. I love you too.

4. Willie The Kid & V Don – “Mother Of Pearls” (Feat. Eto) This is pretty.

5. Statik Selektah – “Play Around” (Feat. Conway The Machine, 2 Chainz, Killer Mike, Allan Kingdom, & Haile Supreme)

Once upon a time, maybe 13 years ago, I was apparently such a recognizable and influential part of the New York rap press that Statik Selektah noticed me at an MOP show, introduced himself, and tried to get me to listen to his mix CD. All these years later, Statik is a globally acknowledged boom-bap specialist with enough juice to put three of the world’s greatest middle-aged rappers on a track together. I’m proud of Statik. I bet he gets nominated for a Grammy someday.

#alchemist #chief keef #d smoke #freddie gibbs #grammys #grammy awards #hip-hop #jay electronica #meek mill #mike will made-it #music #nas #rap #roc marciano #statik selektah #stereogum #willie the kid

[thesunlounge]

Reviews 344: Oto No Wa

I’m overjoyed to write again about Music for Dreams’ “Serious Collector Series,” not only because this run of compilations has produced some of the best vinyl sets of the past few years in the form of Jan Schulte’s Tropical Drums of Deutschland, Moonboots’ Moments in Time, and Basso’s Proper Sunburn, but also because the newest such collection, Oto No Wa: Selected Sounds of Japan 1988 - 2018, features a trio of curators who have all influenced this blog in significant ways. Listed first on the breathtaking cover is Ken Hidaka, who in addition to having a storied career as a DJ, journalist, and international record label liaison, has had a significant hand in coordinating many of my favorite reissues from the past few years…things such as Gigi’s Illuminated Audio on Time Capsule and Yutaka Hirose’s Nova + 4 on WRWTFWW, not to mention facilitating serenitatem…that spellbinding collaboration between Yoshio Ojima, Satsuki Shibano, and Visible Cloaks released last year on RNVG Intl. Then there’s Max Essa, one of the premiere practitioners of the balearic beat, whether it’s remixing tracks into euphoric seaside cruisers or producing expansive original works such as “Panorama Suite” for Is It Balearic?, the Lanterns LP for Music for Dreams, or his recently concluded trio of EPs for Hell Yeah Recordings: Themes From The Hood, The Cad & The Lovely, Haz Zan Roc, and The Great Adventure. And finally comes Dr. Rob, a far-ranging musical adventurer and gifted wordsmith whose reviews, interviews, mixes, and stories spread across Test Pressing and Ban Ban Ton Ton showed me entirely new ways to write about music, with his expressive poetics, deep references, and inimitable sense of cleverness rising far beyond standard music criticism and going a long way towards inspiring the creation of this very website.

As far as the music comprising Oto No Wa is concerned, Dr. Rob gives some background at Ban Ban Ton Ton, where he speaks of the trio meeting after one of their Lone Star nights at Bar Bonobo and compiling an initial list of some 200 hundred fantasy selections, which was miraculously whittled down to just 20 tracks. But then, the typically unflinching Japanese record label ecosystem slashed that list to all but nothing, leading Ken, Max, and Dr. Rob to reconsider the entire experience. I like to think that this was ultimately for the better, for in reworking the concept and flow of Oto No Wa, our trio of selectors struck upon the brilliant idea to, in the words of Dr. Rob, ”plot a course from pioneers, through to younger generations who`ve picked up the baton,” resulting in a spectacular set of balearic eclecticism focused on the 90s and 00s, which are periods often missed in the world of Japanese archival reissuing. Indeed, in contrast to the environmental ambiance, city pop, fusion, and jazz so often considered, the sounds here lean much closer to the romantic seaside vibrations of Flower Records’ Silent Dream CD mixes and the Ibizan chill out comps of React, as house beats are repurposed for summer fusion sways, sun-dappled ivories seek out a panoramic horizon, strummed acoustics jangle in an island breeze, electric guitars slide across cinematic deserts, dubwise basslines stroll down white sand beaches, chamber strings play themes for impossible sunsets, and steel pans bring touches of Caribbean splendor. Elsewhere, balafons dance through tropical forests, oceanic soundbaths wash the spirit clean, deep sea explorations transmute into Berlin school magic, and ceremonial drum layers surround barely there violin reveries, with the entire experience being bookended by a pair of kankyō ongaku drifters.

Oto No Wa: Selected Sounds of Japan 1988-2018 (Music for Dreams, 2020) Yoshio Ojima’s “Sealed,” the sole track here from the 80s, comes from the second volume of the producer’s now legendary Une Collection Des Chaînons: Music For Spiral collection and sees glowing hazes moving in slow motion…these harmonious swells mimicking the motions of some celestial sea while textures of digital crystal twinkle overhead. The vibe is hopeful and soothing, though there are moments where the swelling drones turn minor key and melancholic and the glass and gemstone atmospheres get caught in hyperspeed delay trails. But we always return to the floating stretches of major key majesty, with the music perfectly suited to scoring the motions of clouds across the sky or leaves drifting down a stream. And like many of Ojima’s tracks, there is a false ending…a fade to silence preceding a rebirth, wherein the melodic textures from before are reconfigured into mysterious forms…as if the cerulean sky scene mentioned earlier has been washed out by moody grey rainclouds. The original mix of Olololop’s “Mon” revels in washy 90s post-rock atmospherics, with increasingly free ambient jazz drumming underlying cascading pianos and plucked harps. And while the “orte Remix” by Kumi Hayashi and Takaaki Suzuki preserves many of these elements, the vibe here is more oriented towards classical chill out. The beats are rigid and slamming as they lock into a mechanized seaside swing, with the original’s jazz drumming fluidity replaced by pounding kicks, panning ride taps, and sketchy shaker patterns. Piano and harp flow into the stereo field, dropping plucked rays of golden harmony and washes of ivory ethereality before settling into a balearic dreamdance, one carried by gentle trance electronics and layers of droning bass positivity. At some point the rhythms pull away and we find ourselves in an extended beatless bliss out, wherein melodies of ocean crystal pulse around melodious harp motions, abstracted kick taps flutter on echo breezes, and pan-pipes sparkle in the distance. And later, the mix reduces to an industrial downbeat drum sway and a ceremonial hum of subdued choral mesmerism as the piano continues merging vibes of new age fusion and beachside romance.

Among my favorite cuts here is Kazuya Kotani’s “Fatima,” coming from the 2007 CD Made in Love. Seed shakers and rainsticks roll through echo machines, oceanic string panoramas shift in phase, and bongos and congas beat out a seaside beat as a cooing voice whispers sweet nothings in a way reminding me of Sth. Notional’s “Yawn Yawn Yawn (Dream… Another Reality Mix)”. Bulbous basslines bring touches of gentle dub exotica and a glorious chill out breakbeat swings with infectious forward momentum even as it lands like air, while pianos shimmer and shine via wavering chord mirages and prismatic delay leads that presage Coyote’s use of the instrument. The way everything locks in is so perfect, with hand drums bopping alongside the seaside breakbeat cruise and angelic strings glowing beneath sparkling ivory dreamspells…the whole thing coming together like some prototypical cut from one of José Padilla’s Cafe del Mar compilations or a Phil Mison curated Real Ibiza collection. At some point the drums pull away, leaving behind soft piano flutters, breathy whispers, and overlapping waves of orchestral resonance. And when the beats return, they are joined by heartwrenching chamber string progressions…a sort of swooning dance of cinematic sunset majesty before the track effortlessly glides back towards beachside chill out perfection. The B-side opens with “N.I.C.E. Guy” by Scha Dara Parra, who Dr. Rob describes in the liner notes as “Japan’s answer to the Beastie Boys.” The “Nice Guitar Dub” of the track presented here takes us into the world of the Major Force dance collective, and sees house kicks, hand drum loops, and clipped snares underlying lysergic repetitions of “feel good / checking things out” before dropping into a summery groove led by walking sunshine jazz bass, Hiroshi Fujiwara’s acoustic guitar strums, and Hirofumi Asamoto’s piano…a sort of ambient honky tonk cascade scoring some lagoon adjacent saloon. Occasionally, heavenly strings blow through the stereo field to envelop the vocal samples and there’s a strange midtro given over to urgent stick clicks and rimshots while towards the end, b-boy drum cut-ups and turntablist flourishes disturb the flow.

Little Tempo is an ever shifting group of dub and reggae explorers led in part by Takeshi “Tico” Toki and his shimmering steel pan. The collective has played the world over and released an impressive number of albums since the mid-90s, one of which is Ron Riddim, a 2xLP from 1999 containing the track “Frostie.” A stoner beat moves beneath a tropical panorama of steel drumming, with hi-hats occasionally opening, shekeres scraping, and snares pushing through granular reverb, and as we drop into the groove, liquid dub basslines pulse and slide while a piano glistens in the moonlight. The ivory performance is powerful and awash in twilight romance and noir mystery, sometimes dancing in solo and other times accented by glimmering steel pan flourishes. Elsewhere, the pianos are replaced by electric guitars, which let loose bluesy slides and space western leads…the mixture of desert twang and equatorial riddim strongly evoking the dubbier sides of Tortoise. There’s a moment where the track gives over to martial snare intensity as amphibian lasers and telephonic tracers fire across the sky, with the latter sound pulling my mind to the work of Eddie C. And eventually, the track settles into a sort of bluesy reggae zone out, with subsonic basslines skanking and dubwise drums smacking while wavering steel drum mirages surround spaghetti western slides in the style of Doug McCombs. Karel Arbus & Eiji Takamatsu will of course be well familiar to readers of this blog, both for their amazing Some Backland Plaze tape on Max Essa’s Jansen Jardin and for that completely stunning rework of Cantoma’s “Kasoto” from last year. “Coco and the Fish,” taken from the aforementioned cassette, sees idiophones splashing through sea spray while enigmatic electronics swirl in the background…like a vortex of kosmische wonderment pulsating in colors of deep purple and blue, one that occasionally opens up to reveal deep house chord stabs. It’s hard to say whether the main instrument played is marimba or balafon, but either way, it’s a hyperkinetic performance exuding an energy at once meditative and ecstatic...all while phaser wisps, starshine sparkles, and hidden voices swirl in the distance.

I first heard globetrotting DJ and Flower Records alum Kentaro Takizawa courtesy of Phil Mison and his Pure Ibiza 2xCD set released by I Label in 2008, which included the “Silent Dream Version” of the song taken from the aforementioned Silent Dream compilation. Originally though, the track closed Takizawa’s album Gradual Life from 2006, and this is the version included here. Ride cymbals shine amidst glorious murmurations of ambient synthesis while percussive eco fx mimic the songs of lizards and toads. Elecrosnares rocket across the spectrum, beauteous acoustic guitar arps fall like summer rain, and further six-string solos move in counterpoint, with subdead leads mesmerizing the mind. As psychoactive threads of static surround decaying triangles, sundowner string orchestrations ascend towards the clouds, causing the heart to soar in that Sacha Putnam or Vangelis kind of way, and when the beat drops, it’s a lackadaisical sway led by rolling bongos and tapped cymbals. Guitars dance playfully over a backdrop of fourth world alien magic and ever so often, filmic string themes diffuse into the spectrum. Elsewhere, the drums wash away, leaving e-pianos to execute breathtaking descents before disappearing into a synthesized mirage. Rainsticsk flow over the stereo field as the track evolves even further towards new age bliss, with a harmonious conversation of acoustic guitar sunshine proceeding in a fantasy jungle, wherein sunlight reflects off of glistening palm fronds and tropical birds sing intoxicating songs. And after returning to the bopping rhythms and tapestries of chill out exotica, the tracks ends with guitars being replaced by pianos while mermaid pads whoosh through a sunbathed rainforest setting. Mystical percussionist Yoshiaki Ochi inhabited similar circles to Yoshio Ojima, releasing through NEWSIC and seeing his music played, like Ojima’s, at the arts center of Wacoal lingerie company, otherwise known as Spiral. In “Balasong,” taken from 1990’s Natural Sonic, balafons bounce playfully while executing Steve Reich-style pattenrs of minimalist exotica. The drunken daydream motions and otherworldly idiophone polyrhythms are occasionally interspersed by fast motion twiddles and rapid fire rolls, while at the edge of the mix gourds buzz and textures of metal sparkle…perhaps the ghostly chiming of temple bells.

Kaoru Inoue is a hugely influential figure who for decades has been perfecting his own esoteric combination of house, techno, ambient, and spiritual world music. “Wave Introduction” was originally released on the artist’s 2006 album Slow Motion before being repurposed as the opener for one of my favorite albums ever released: Inoue’s horizontal masterpiece Em Paz released in 2018 on Groovement Organic. The track features the relaxing sounds of waves crashing to shore, joined by twinkling synths, distant foghorns, and psychosonic liquid drips, which eventually transmute into a Reich-ian dream sequence awash in textures of mermaid crystal. Undulating bass arps support slow moving pads that drift like cosmic fog while rhythmic wisps of laser static tickle the mind and the whole thing takes on the feeling of a drunken dream dance that slowly moves towards ambient rapture. The influential Flower Records and its founder Eitetsu Takamiya are represented here by the highly sought after “Scuba” under Takamiya’s Little Big Bee alias. Psychedelic bubble clouds blow over Kenji Jinguiji’s slithering bass guitar romantics and the e-pianos of Plaza Fujisaki glow with a sort of new age spirituality while Hawaiian guitars slide across a sunburst sky. A hushed house beat is accented by gentle clacks and seed shaker pulses as Jinguji’s lowslung basslines lock into a balearic fusion dance replete with vocal slides up the fretboard and as the pacific breeze guitar slides swim between solar organ dub chords, spaceage arpeggiations flitter all around. I detect a definite lean towards The Orb’s early merging of dub, ambient, and techno, with a stereo field colored through by cut-off motions, resonance flares, and whalesong pads that settle into a haze of golden light. The beats cut away momentarily, leaving filtering cosmic synthetics, pulsing organ accents, and emotive basslines while stick clicks build a rainshower rhythm. Seafoam siren synths swell in strength and subsume the entire mix as angels breath rainbow mist across universal expanses and eventually, a liquid guitar slide reintroduces the south pacific chill out groove, which now features hyperkinetic click cascades.

Coastlines, the duo of Masanori Ikeda and Takumi Kaneko, are huge favorites around here and given that I reviewed their cover of Ralph MacDonald’s “East Dry River” when it was originally released as a 7” back in 2018, I’ll present a modified version of my words from that time: Joyously ascending piano chords and deep vocal bass percussions set the scene before we smash cut into a smooth coastal fusion jam, as tambourines and toms pound beneath radiant piano strokes and synthetic steel drum dances while four four house kicks and luscious sub-basslines move the body. Angels bring touches of pure euphoria as they rain down from the sky, and elsewhere, fretless bass solos wiggle above the island rhythm dreamscape…the Motohiko Hamase-style note clusters and liquiform slides trailing under subtle ping-pong delays while colorful hand drum accents evoke slow-motion dancing on some fantasy beach. There’s a brief moment where everything washes away, leaving lush piano chords and sparkling steel pans adrift in solitude, and later, after returning to the seaside house rhythms and melodic textures of jazz fusion fantasy, we are treated again to a crazed fretless bass solo, one that grows ever more frantic and chaotic before finally dispersing. Though beloved producer Susumu Yokota is no longer with us, his memory lives on via his profound influence and his intrepid bridgings of academic ambient and techno body pressure, not to mention archival projects such as the Jon Tye-assisted Cloud Hidden from 2019. “Uchu Taniyo” is taken from Yokota’s 1999 album Sakura and begins with a voice pushing through clouds of reverb as ritualistic percussion builds from the depths. Hand drums and wooden clacks lock into a ceremonial dance kissed by cosmic fx and growling ambient forms swirl into the stereo field…these morphing tremolo gurgles imbued with atmospheres of melancholy. Voices continue babbling as a violin enters the scene, letting loose folksy melodies and post-classical whispers that barely break through the layers of rhythmic repetition. And as the track comes to an end, the exotica drum webs fade out as frogsong electronics decay into the void.

The vibe continues to spread out towards horizontal ambiance in “Time and Space,” a track exclusive to this compilation from the duo of Isao Kumano and Kenichi Takagi, who are often found working with Alex from Tokyo in Tokyo Black Star, but who here appear in their “secretive” Chillax guise. Crystallized sequences, smoldering static waveforms, and hazes of ocean either intertwine as chiming melodies ascend on unseen currents towards a sun soaked sea surface, and I can’t help but think of the underwater kosmische of Iury Lech and Miguel Noya, as well as the seafloor ambient excursions of Shelter on Profondeur 4000 and Private Agenda on Île de Rêve. Soft focus chord bursts breath ambient house ether into the mix while tick-tocking arps build slowly in the background, eventually growing in strength and taking over the mix as the vibe flows from deep sea drifting to Berlin school melodrama, wherein searing filter motions surround the spirit and vocoder cyborgs chant amidst subsuming chord decays. I’ve said much about Takashi Kokubo across this blog, though thus far everything has been focused around his hugely influential Get at the Wave. And given how well mined that album is by now, I’m quite thankful that Ken, Max, and Dr. Rob have opted instead for “Quiet Inlet,” a track appearing on Kokubo’s Eternity from 2006. Waves lap gently against the shore of some hidden island scene...a place of peace and picturesque beauty known only to the fish, reptiles, and birds. A calming piano lullaby enters the scene, marrying Satie-like ambiance and Riley-ian minimalism while digital colorations and e-piano bubble clouds flit all around. A choir of angelic sirens bathe the mix in vocal radiance while bell trees mimic sunlight refractions on the ocean’s surface and after a false ending, the dreamscape ivory cascades, pointillist e-piano melodies, and heavenly choirs return, with everything shrouded by pearlescent pad layers and gaseous blankets of reverb. Windchimes blow on a sea breeze and periodic swells of mermaid magnificence work into the mix and as the sampled waves continue their motions, they lull the mind towards daydream visages of the titular seaside paraiso.

(images from my personal copy)

#oto no wa #selected sounds of japan 1988-2018 #music for dreams #the serious collector series #ken hidaka #max essa #dr. rob #yoshio ojima #olololop #kazuya kotani #scha dara parr #major force #little tempo #karel arbus & eiji takamatsu #kentaro takizawa #yoshiaki ochi #kaoru inoue #little big bee #coastlines #susumu yokota #chillax #takashi kokubo #album reviews #vinyl reviews #music reviews #vinyl #2020 #sun lounge #octagon eyes #balearic

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

First official names given to features on asteroid Bennu Asteroid Bennu's most prominent boulder, a rock chunk jutting out 71 ft (21.7 m) from the asteroid's southern hemisphere, finally has a name. The boulder - which is so large that it was initially detected from Earth - is officially designated Benben Saxum after the primordial hill that first arose from the dark waters in an ancient Egyptian creation myth. Benben Saxum and 11 other features on the asteroid are the first to receive official Bennu feature names approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the internationally recognized authority for naming celestial bodies and their surface features. The accepted names were proposed by NASA's OSIRIS-REx team members, who have been mapping the asteroid in detail over the last year. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, NASA's first asteroid sample return mission, is currently visiting the asteroid and is scheduled to collect a sample from Bennu's surface this summer. "Since arriving at the asteroid, the OSIRIS-REx team has become incredibly familiar with all of the geological features on Bennu," said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson. "These features are providing us with insight into Bennu's history, and their new names symbolize the essence of the mission - studying the past to both discover our origins and understand our future," said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson. The approved Bennu surface feature names are listed below. Bennu's diverse terrain types - including regiones (broad geographic regions), craters, dorsa (ridges), fossae (grooves or trenches) and saxa (rocks and boulders) - will be named after birds and bird-like creatures in mythology, and the places associated with them. Tlanuwa Regio is named for the giant birds who scattered the Earth with pieces of a serpent that turned into standing pillars of rocks in Cherokee mythology. Tlanuwa Regio is an area covered by large boulders in Bennu's southern hemisphere. Benben Saxum is named for an ancient Egyptian mound that arose from the primordial waters Nu. In Egyptian mythology, the god Atum settled upon Benben to create the world after his flight over the waters in the form of the Bennu bird. Benben Saxum is the tallest boulder on Bennu. Roc Saxum is named for the Roc, an enormous bird of prey in Arabian mythology of the Middle East. Roc Saxum is the largest boulder feature on Bennu. Simurgh Saxum is named for the benevolent, mythological bird in Persian mythology. The Simurgh was said to possess all knowledge, and Simurgh Saxum defines the prime meridian on Bennu and is the basis for the asteroid's coordinate system. Huginn Saxum and Muninn Saxum are adjacent boulders named for the two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, who accompany the god Odin in Norse mythology. Ocypete Saxum is named for one of the Greek harpies, the half-maiden and half-bird personification of storm winds that would snatch and carry things away from Earth. Ocypete Saxum is located near the origin of the Jan. 19, 2019, particle ejection event on Bennu. Strix Saxum is named for the Strix bird of ill-omen from Roman mythology. Strix Saxum is a large boulder flanking the OSIRIS-REx mission's backup sample collection site. Amihan Saxum is named for the Tagalog (Philippines) mythological deity, who is depicted as a bird and was the first creature to inhabit the universe. This large, flat boulder appears to be partly buried and is located in Tlanuwa Regio, which has an unusually high concentration of large boulders. Pouakai Saxum is named for the monstrous bird who kills and eat humans in Māori (Polynesia) mythology. Pouakai Saxum is a 55 ft (10.6 m)-wide boulder located in Bennu's southern hemisphere, slightly north of Benben Saxum. Aetos Saxum is named for the childhood playmate of the supreme god Zeus, who was turned into an eagle by Hera in Greek mythology. Aetos Saxum is a conspicuously flat boulder, with a general wing-like shape located near Bennu's equator. Gargoyle Saxum is named for the French dragon-like monster with wings, bird-like neck, and the ability to breathe fire. Gargoyle Saxum is a large prominent boulder near the mission's backup sample site that is one of the darkest objects on the surface. IMAGE....This flat projection mosaic of asteroid Bennu shows the locations of the first 12 surface features to receive official names from the International Astronomical Union. The accepted names were proposed by NASA's OSIRIS-REx team members, who have been mapping the asteroid in detail over the last year. Bennu's surface features are named after birds and bird-like creatures in mythology, and the places associated with them. CREDIT NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

#space #science #Astronomy #physics #NASA #bennu #asteroids