#which is an album I thought was from 2020 but apparently it was recorded in 2019 and published later

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

hey weird question but, with the context that while conspiracy thought in and of itself is just a sort of dangerous logical fallacy, most conspiracy theories have some kind of tie to antisemetism, are there any antisemetic aspects to gaylor theory? i can't think of how but somehow it almost always weasels in there, no matter how innocently silly something seems on the surface.

DEEP SIGH okay it's time to talk about Scooter Braun and his place in the Gaylor conspiracy

I'm not going to recap everything but will instead link you to this US Weekly article (I know, sorry) which is basically a fine summation of events despite being a bit sensationalist in calling a business disagreement between two adults a "feud"

tl;dr for anyone who doesn't want to read all of that (it's not actually that long, I prommy): in 2019 talent manager Scooter Braun acquired Taylor Swift's former record label Big Machine, giving ownership of the masters of her first six albums. Swift objected to this very publicly on the grounds that she wanted ownership over her own work and had repeatedly been denied the opportunity to buy it outright, while also alleging that Braun has been harassing and bullying her for years. ultimately, Swift has remained unable to buy back her work, leading to her steadily re-releasing expanded versions of her first six albums under the "Taylor's Version" headline.

obviously, given my stance against speculating on the personal lives of famous rich people, I'm not particularly interested in debating whether or not there's merit to Swift's accusations against Braun, although given the exploitative nature of the music industry I hardly think her claims are implausible.

regardless of whether or not Braun sucks as a person, it's important to note that he was only very briefly in ownership of Swift's discography: as the linked article above notes, he only owned them for about a year and a half before selling them off in 2020.

despite this, Braun holds what I would consider a rather outsize role in a lot of Gaylor conspiracy theorizing, with many apparently believing that Swift fully intended to come out in 2019 with the release of her seventh album, Lover, but was prevented from coming out by Braun purchasing her discography. I've seen some claim that he actively subjected her to homophobic bullying and others saying that she didn't him to financially benefit from any career boon she might have after coming out (although no one ever seems to have an answer for why she still hasn't come out three years after he sold her discography).

I can't say whether or not the majority of Gaylors, like, know or care that Braun is Jewish, but it feels tragically predictable and yucky that a Jewish man is given such a disproportional share of blame for why Taylor "can't" come out and is made a scapegoat in the ongoing effort to evade reality with "arguments" like this

(source)

... hang on, what's that?

oh man I love when a Jewish family gets put n SCARY ALL CAPS

okay so let's talk about Karlie Kloss and Josh Kushner!

as many of you probably know by this point, Karlie Kloss is the pinnacle of Taylor Swift's platonic gal pals that she gets relentlessly shipped with; I think it's fair to say that "proving" a romantic relationship existed between the two of them is the primary focus of a lot of Gaylorism.

since 2018 Kloss has been married to Josh Kushner, heir of THAT Kushner family. his infamous brother Jared is in fact Donald Trump's son-in-law and probably guilty of, like, a lot of federal crimes. that doesn't inherently make Josh a shithead or anything and he and Kloss both claim more liberal politics, although it should be noted that like a lot of rich liberals Josh does also suck pretty hard. he and Jared own a real estate management company together and were suing their tenants and evicting them during the COVID-19 rent moratorium, so that's kind of everything you need to know about him and Karlie Kloss IMO!!!

having said that, Josh being a bastard landlord doesn't make it appropriate to frame a Jewish family as having some kind of sinister interest in suppressing a queer woman's sexuality or imply that Kloss and Josh Kushner are in some kind of sham marriage. for YEARS Kloss' marriage to Kushner, including her conversion to Judaism and their two living human children, have been dismissed as elaborate turbo-bearding, with some Gaylors going so far as to allege that Kloss and Swift have actually been married for years and Kloss is just having Kushner's children for... reasons unknown... which feels like, you know. a pretty gross dismissal of a Jewish family in favor of pretending two WASPiest WASPs to ever WASP are secretly scissoring.

anyway I certainly don't think it's the most egregious or deliberate anti-semitism that's out there in the conspiracy world but are there some Gaylors blaming The Jews(TM) for forcing poor innocent Taylor to stay in the closet? resounding yes.

#gaylorgate

[byronicbi]

6 albums I’ve been listening to a lot lately! Plus one track from each that I’m especially fond of.

tagged by the wonderful @valenshawke!!

i haven't been doing much "full album" listening lately since going into a project usually means listening to a lot of tailored playlists, but i have been revisiting some... oldies.

Wish Upon A Blackstar - Celldweller; "Unshakeable" This was my first ever Celldweller album and it was introduced to me by a now defunct tumblr mutual about a decade ago. Apparently they thought "Blackstar" suited a character on my ongoing fic at the time, and I instantly fell in love with Klayton's music. "Unshakeable" is definitely on the playlist for one of my current MCs.

The Black Halo - Kamelot; "When the Lights Are Down" Kamelot is one of those bands Lil Goth me (freshman) got introduced to by an Elder Goth (senior) back in 2005, though "Ghost Opera" was technically the first ever song of theirs I ever listened to.

The Open Door - Evanescence; "Your Star" I wasn't joking about oldies. Again, surprising amount of MC vibes coming off this album which makes me fear for the poor guy's life.

POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR - Bring Me the Horizon; "1x1" So, the funny thing about "1x1" is that, at their core, every single one of my protagonists can be summed up by this one song and I don't know what that says about me as a writer. I mean, 'annihilation never looked so good' as a lyric never fails to make me want to headbang.

DEATH STRANDING: Timefall - Multiple artists; "Ghost" by Au/Ra My endgame as a creator is to become the next Hideo Kojima like I want to make my own company and make utterly self-indulgent and fucking insane shit how I want to make it and then have all my cool artist friends either star in it or record songs for soundtracks. That being said, I'm yet to come across a video game soundtrack that's just banger after banger after banger.

Love is Dead - CHVRCHES; "Graffiti" I came across this album during the beginning of the pandemic and I listened to it so many times that multiple people reached out to ask if my discord was glitched because the status kept showing the same songs over and over. I'm not sure why it latched onto me the way it did, but February 2020 was sure a time.

Honorable mentions!

7. Woman King - Iron & Wine; "Freedom Hangs Like Heaven"

8. Lifa - Heilung; "In Maidjan"

9. Pictures of Mountains - Cody Fry; "London" & "Photograph"

tagging @lucillesharpeapologist, @vanessaaftonsgirl, @opaleyedprince, @fortunatetragedy, @wrencatte SHOW ME YOUR MUSIC TASTES (but only if you want to, ofc!)

#texts. #boy howdy i'm all over the place when it comes to music. #tag game

[apureniallsource]

“There’s no one here to be a flash in the pan,” Niall Horan affirms, despite all signs of his career pointing to longevity and impact. This was a surprising declaration for a successful artist who has captured the hearts and ears of millions worldwide, and as our well-spent virtual time together unfolded, it became obvious why this would even be a floating intention in his mind.

Having already hypnotized the masses, surrendering to his talent, charm, and warmth as one-fifth of One Direction, Niall Horan, like the others, took a solo leap into the music scene, crafting an individualistic DNA. In 2020, he dropped his album, Heartbreak Weather, at an unforeseen inopportune time of the world shutting down. As I connected with Niall, it became immediately apparent to me that his creative force is fuelled by his onstage performances. While the album was well-received, his solo tour was knocked down before it got a chance to kick off, a consequence so impactful that it could trick even the most favored heartthrobs into questioning their longevity in the game. His songs were destined to go unsung by crowds for years, forcing him to explore stimulus and find inspiration for his next project from the place we were all ordered to stay—inside. What resulted from this ill-fated circumstance, is his most-realized, mature, and introspective album we’ve seen from Niall Horan yet, The Show.

An all-too-philosophical metaphor for life, The Show, naturally captures Niall’s value systems of what is important to him during his blip on the planet—with many songs being positioned to interpersonal relationships, of course—and proving that his musicality is often influenced by a comprehensive concept. Niall gives us an entire life’s trajectory of music to lean on—talk about longevity—“Never Grow Up” touches upon holding on to child-like joy, “Heaven” speaks to the quintessential quarter-life crisis and title-track “The Show” is a nod to the impermanence of it all, ebbs and flows in their glory. Embodying the concept of the record, Niall reveals that “The Show” is particularly meaningful to him, “It’s one of those ones that I go around singing the melody to myself, and I wrote the song nearly three years ago,” which champions the idea that this album will stand the test of time.

In “Meltdown”, a winning moment on the album, Niall talks us down from a feeling of being consumed by one of life’s surprises of something going unexpectedly sideways, spiraling into thinking your life is bound to go downhill from there, a familiar anxiety-based delusion many can understand. His ability to candidly speak our truths is organic, but not unintentional, he tells me, “I think [the songs] are all [capturing] universal feelings. I haven’t gone so introspective to the point where you can’t understand. I think that with the topic being so universal, the idea is that people will be able to relate. More so, than probably anything I’ve ever released.”

Niall Horan is proving himself to be a thoughtful, bigger-picture thinker whose creativity is informed by minimal mental bounds. The Show’s standout single “Heaven”, he tells me, was the longest song to get together. “I knew exactly what I wanted to say and it was just getting the words out and the music to go with it. I had the concept and I was singing the verse, chorus, [and] melody, but didn’t really know what the music was. And then [it] just popped up at 1 in the morning and fell out of us. That was probably the toughest song to write but when you stay patient and wait for that big moment, it’s a very good feeling.”

The stripped-down emotional highlight of the album, however, had a unique inception. “Some songs are completely different,” he shares, “like ‘You Could Start A Cult’, I sat down with a guitar and wrote in forty minutes. Things happen very differently. I always like to have an idea of what I’m going to say and some sort of musical thing—whether that be a melody, piano, guitar riff—I’ll always come in with something and see what happens.”

Growth looks good on Niall Horan, an artist a lot of us have grown up with and who remains relatable throughout the years despite having a surreal life experience. The Show takes a more experimental approach, incorporating synths, emphasizing the role of backing vocals throughout the production, and reflecting the musical evolution that comes with age and exposure. While still maintaining his signature style and Niall-isms, he tells me this album was heavily informed by his overall maturity. “There’s something about it that’s just different, I can’t really put my finger on it. It’s probably just age and growing up them few years and writing stuff from this current point of view.” The willingness he demonstrates to explore new territories is admirable but assures me that he’s always aware of creating stuff that is not so different that will scare people away, “You don’t want to do that!”

It’s this same maturity, in tandem with his starting his career as a contestant on a talent competition show that has equipped him with the valuable insights he can share with aspiring artists as a coach on The Voice. Early in our conversation, he excitedly shared that he was looking forward to potentially winning, and as further proof of his capabilities, he did. Gina Miles, under his wing, impressed the masses with her vocals and took home the win of Season 23. His best advice for his team? Take it easy.

“It’s such simple advice. I find on The Voice [the contestants] are so technically gifted, and with that comes taking it really seriously. At the end of the day, we’re on a reality TV show on a Monday night. I’m always trying to remind them to just take it easy and enjoy it for what it is. You get the platform to stand up there every night and sing songs that you love in front of a nation. It’s a really cool opportunity if you look at it that way. If you look at it [more seriously], it’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done. As I’ve gone on, I can see my artists are actually making friends and enjoying the process of it all. Because it can be over in two seconds. Take it in, and know that if you leave The Voice, it’s not the end of your career, you’re sixteen!”

Simple, uncomplicated advice is often what’s needed but can sometimes only be realized with so many years under your belt, as we adjust and learn to surrender to the aforementioned ebbs and flows of life that The Show is all about. With this, comes the inevitable facing up of mistakes and lessons learned both professionally and personally that can eventually equip you with the knowledge to be a viable mentor.

“You do learn. I listen to a shit song I’ve written and go ‘That was shit’ and what did I do there that I didn’t do in one of my favorites? You’ll learn like that. It’s a progression thing, across the board, musically and personally. And from what I’ve gathered, that doesn’t come to an end any time soon.”

Leaning into the idea of the album’s concept, and in theory, if our life is a show, then surely you get to be in the writer’s room to imagine your desired season finales. In typical Niall nature, he tells me, “I’m one of those people that doesn’t look past my note. You gotta live it as you’re in it.” I guess it is true what he sings on “The Show”, it’s all fun and games until the party ends. And who else better to party with than Lewis Capaldi? The two UK-born artists have established a close relationship through their experiences in the music industry, developing a close bond that has secured Lewis a regular, main character spot on Niall’s “show”. “He’s well and truly in the show. It’s a good relationship to have. And I don’t go around the world looking for famous mates because that wouldn’t say too much about me,” Niall tells me, “I always found if you get on with someone [you] can usually judge [them] on ‘would I go for a pint with that person?’ and I’ve gone for plenty of pints with that man.”

On a more profound note, Niall expands on his humble ambitions, “Obviously, you’ve got to think about the future, [but] you can fry your own brain, planning your whole life out. And if you don’t hit any of those goals, you feel like you have failed. I’ve always tried to swim through it and see what happens. I’ve never felt more enjoyment of what I do than now, and hopefully, I can make music at this level and remain happy in my home life. And cross the bridge when it comes to it, I suppose.”

Clear in his direction, Niall is dedicated to making music and continuing to adapt his voice to his life experiences, for as long as he can. “I think we all go for longevity. Longevity and time [are] the most important things to me. If I could win some awards or get No.1 [on the charts] here and there, that would be good too. But, I would love length and longevity in my career.” Much of Niall’s legacy will rightfully be rooted in One Direction, “I wouldn’t be doing this now if it weren’t for 1D, I’ve got zero issues with that following me around forever,” he says, pointing to the obvious impact of that historic and iconic era.

As Niall Horan’s introspective journey thus far, culminates in The Show, his individual artistic vision is delivered with clear force, carrying in it his expansion and development. Despite the setbacks of 2020, his upcoming tour promises to be a triumphant return to his natural home, the stage, where he can once again captivate audiences with his magnetic presence. With longevity as his compass, Niall Horan is poised to solidify his place enchanting new fans—and recovered Directioners—for years to come.

#niall horan #09june

[acrossthewavesoftime]

I was tagged by @cparti-mkiki to share a few albums close to my heart (I am not sure if it has to be four exactly which is why I included six) so here they are, in no particular order, and with a brief personal note/sales pitch:

La traverse miraculeuse (Les Charbonniers de l'Enfer & La Nef, 2008): with my profile picture, some naval-flavoured music was to be expected, right? Particular favourites include their bilingual take on the song Le combat de la Danaé, a French ship captured when outnumbered three to one by the Royal Navy in 1759 which proceded to serve as HMS Danae until 1771, and the classic Dans les prisons de Nantes.

Dark Cloud. Es geht ein dunkle Wolk herein. Lieder aus der Zeit des Dreißigjährigen Krieges (1618-1648) (The Playfords, 2019): What it says on the tin. Songs of the Thirty Years' War, sometimes arranged traditionally, sometimes with a playfully modern twist. I am particularly fond of Es ist ein Schnitter heißt der Tod (There Is a Reaper Called Death), and Mit Lust von wenig Tagen (With the Delight of but Few Days) which you'll find, was a 'cover' of an extant song about some chap called William who really liked the colour orange and didn't talk very much apparently, has no business whatsoever being so catchy.

The Mad Lover - Sonatas, Suites, Fantasias & various Bizzarie from 17th-Century England (Théotime Langlois de Swarte & Thomas Dunford, 2020): I got a ticket to see them perform live with music from the album this summer, not really knowing anything besides that a) the tickets were criminally cheap and b) they would play baroque music from England in a historical palace. Not only can these men play their instruments, and play them well, but their genuine interactions with the audience and excitedly explaining their craft and thoughts on the pieces added to the enchanting music. By the third encore, everyone was singing along to Langlois playing Yesterday by the Beatles on his 360-year-old violin. I have to say, never felt an evening more authentically baroque to me. I highly recommend listening to the entire album in order (and of course seeing Langlois and Dunford perform live, if you can), but in case you want a brief taste, take Nicola Matteis Jr: Fantasia in A Minor.

Plain and Simple (The Dubliners, 1973). I grew up listenting to this album and don't recall a time when I didn't know who the Dubliners were (which may have had to do with the place I lived in at the time) and it doubtlessly impacted my interest in the Irish struggle for independence on account of several of the songs on it. An absolute gem is the uniquely-arranged The Jail of Cluain Meala, an 1820s song about an incarcerated Whiteboy (a secret late 18th century organisation whose aim was to protect the rights of tenant farmers, and whose name derived from the white clothing donned for their night-time raids) sung by the great Luke Kelly and accompanied by a harpsichord.

Dearest Enemy. An American Musical Comedy (Orchestra of Ireland et. al., recorded 2013): Because this is Tumblr, here's my favourite musical. First performed on Broadway in 1925, it's as cheesy an enemies-to-lovers why-is-he-so-hot-when-I-actually-hate-him story as one could imagine, but loosely based on historical events and with many a little historical squint-or-you'll-miss-it Easter egg to spice up the, following a rocky start, rather touchingly narrated love story of Betsy and Sir John that does not ignore their starkly contrasting political views. I would love to see a stage adaption- the mix of tunes still reminiscent of the operetta tradition of the 19th century often steeped in 1920s jazz and the 1770s setting would have so much potential. Favourites include Here in My Arms and Full Blown Roses. (And yes, that's John André with a lipstick mark on his cheek on the cover...)

L'Essentiel 1977-2007 (Francis Cabrel, 2007): Brings back all the memories of childhood summers for me. There was Francis Cabrel on in the car travelling to France on golden, endless summer holidays, with La Cabane du Pêcheur and Hors-saison having stuck with me in particular.

I'll tag @benjhawkins, @fleur-de-paris, @defensivelee, @vankeppel, @nordleuchten, @anarchist-mariner, @clove-pinks and @chiropteracupola (no pressure if you don't want to participate, consider it an invitation!) and anyone who would like to join!

#tag game #ask reply #cparti-mkiki #music

[nocompromise-noregrets]

guys is it stupid to be crying at a bassline? only I'm listening to the newly-remixed version of Hanoi Rocks' Oriental Beat album from 1982 (apparently the original was really poorly mixed and they think it had an adverse effect on their career, which I never knew - the original tapes turned up in 2020 and they've had the whole thing remixed), and all right, most of these songs have been engraved on my soul for 30 years, and it always does me good to hear Sami Yaffa playing the utterly awesome bassline intro for Motorvatin' live, but since I saw the original lineup last September (when I thought for 30 years I'd never get to see them), it turns out that the old songs, which are absolutely not the sort of songs that would ordinarily invite an emotional reaction, make me cry like a child these days.

(I had a CD player for my 18th birthday and immediately bought their Best Of CD from our local second-hand record shop because a lot of the bands I liked were citing them as an influence, and the shop had an awesome poster of them behind the till - all of which was 30 years ago this month. They've been an integral part of my life ever since, and given how obscure they wound up being over here, discovering a fellow fan is always like discovering a new best friend.)

Anyway, the new mix is amazing - I usually can't really tell with these things, but I know these songs inside out, and they sound so different and so much better. <3333333

brb, off to continue being overwrought by a bunch of lightweight glam-punk songs with slightly wobbly English lyrics...

#hanoi rocks #you kind of had to be there...

[howaminotinthestrokesyet]

I Swear It’s True: Jason Cropper

The original bassist for Weezer was born on June 27, 1971 in Oakland, California. He was a founding member present at the band’s first practice on Valentine’s Day 1992. He recorded with the group on their first three demo tapes before the group officially signed with Geffen Records. During the recording of the Blue Album, Cropper learned that his girlfriend Amy Wellner had become pregnant. This news immediately affected Cropper’s behavior on a daily basis eventually disrupting the recording environment for Weezer. The decision to fire the guitarist came when he arrived in New York for recording without telling anyone with no place to stay. The final decision was up to Cuomo, who made the call without a second thought. Karl Koch, frequent Weezer partner, said, “He wasn't handling it well ... he always said he was fine, and then 20 minutes later he'd be up on the roof of Electric Lady screaming or something." Cropper would later say that Rivers told him that his behavior was putting the recording process into jeopardy, which could not continue. In 2014, the former Weezer member said that he agreed with the decision to dismiss him. In 2019, he elaborated on it saying the fact that his girlfriend visited the studio broken a golden rule set forth by Cuomo. Matt Sharp disagreed saying that it was not one thing, but instead a series of “minor infractions” that caused the decision to be made. Apparently, Cuomo wanted a change to be made before they shot the album cover, instead of after having to explain his presence on the cover. This was a very good decision on his part now knowing how iconic that release has become over time. Ironically, Cropper did receive a songwriting credit on the track “My Name Is Jonas” for the opening bassline. A deluxe version of the Blue Album would be released and the vinyl edition included the track “Jamie” that had guitar and backing vocals from Cropper. Rivers and Jason still remained friends with the latter attending the singer’s wedding in 2006.

After Weezer, the musician and his wife Amy Wellner-Cropper formed the group Chopper One. The single “Free Lunch” would be released in 1995 followed by the group’s debut album, Now Following in 1997. The couple had three children together, but divorce between 2004-2005. After the end of Chopper One, the bassist helped to form the band, Fliptop, which released an ep and played a few local Vans Warped dates. In 2003, he sang the theme song for the short lived sitcom Andy Richter Controls the Universe. Beginning in 2006, Cropper began posting new music on MySpace, while also producing the second album from Atlanta group, Buffalo Alice. He also helped with their songwriting, while even being listed for a short time on their website as the band’s bass player. In 2020, the guitarist appeared on the Rivers Cuomo hosted podcast, Island in the Zoom, as well as We'z Talkin' Weez' 2 podcast analyzing the group’s catalog. In July 2020, he released his first ever solo single, “The Golden Hour.” The vinyl edition of Van Weezer, the band’s 15th album, included the track “I’ve Thrown It All Away,” which was a reworked early 1990’s track that gave the bassist a songwriting credit.

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

I don’t want to be negative but I’m kinda disappointed that the new album is just a collection of their old songs. My excitement level dropped significantly lol. I listen to their old songs all the time and i love them and i want them to make something similar but not the exact songs!we need something new, something refreshing. I was so ready and excited for a new era and new songs but now I feel meh 😑 i just hope my excitement builds up again somehow.

You can be negative with me no problem 🤝

Is it even a matter of negativity tho??? I said a while ago I don't usually have any expectations for their releases except that they look like the company actually invested in them. Even with no expectations boy what a way to kill any excitement about a comeback. There's no logic to it from an *artistic* standpoint; they haven't put out more than two songs in two years. They used to do two albums per year. The only people I've seen genuinely excited about this are *some* of the 2020 armys, which of course, it's pretty much their first comeback 😭😭 and even then other new fans aren't happy about it.

It's a money grab album. No way to sugar coat it. The music is music we already know. If the rumours are true there will be a couple of demos and that's about it. The only probably exciting thing about it could be the additional content that they'll release for the comeback. Which is why half of the fandom are here for anyways, for the Bangtan bombs and the videos and all the ot7 content curated for them. Bighit has consistently used nostalgia as a clutch for every release and even performances, that's why every year there are theories about BTS doing something like hyyh again; because bighit has hinted at it every year and it was never true. This time they took it seriously and are apparently re-releasing hyyh I guess 😳

It also made me think about how armys (I guess they are mostly "older" armys) always wanted to have hiphop BTS back, and they don't say this anymore, probably because they've moved on, but they would say that they wanted the old BTS back, we want to listen to the old BTS, stuff like that. And some super suuuuuper edgy sassy af armys were like "the songs are still there, if you want to, you can go and listen to them". Now some of those same people are like "this is actually the epitome of brilliant marketing people who never listened to the old songs and for some reason can't go on YouTube or Spotify, now have an album to buy so they can finally listen to those songs that have been on the internet since 2013!!!" What a relief, where would army be without this new album. Compilations have always been made to sell only, and that's it. And for the record, when people say they want the old BTS, they mean that they want good music.

It also made me think back to the live they did for BE re-release on February 2021, that Jimin was like "I said we should include at least one new song :/ " and he was right to probably feeling embarrassed about it. It's literally a scam to sell the same product as something brand new. At least they put 3 new songs in this one 🤪

Back in 2020 I thought mots7 and the things they said at the end of the year award shows were kind of pointing to it being the last album and tour, and now I think it probably was. The compilation would've been released at the end of the year as a way to tie it all up nicely. That made sense, at least to me. Ironically, they got a second chance, they got a couple more years to keep making music and being BTS. Not everything was bad, of course, I loved dynamite. I think 2020 was really good musically wise, because dynamite is a nice song and the performances were good. After dynamite, nothing of artistic value happened. I don't even hate butter or PTD, but it's not music that I consider to be good and that I willingly listen to.

Bottom line is, I don't think a compilation/anthology album is bad. It's bad to release it after two years of no music and when nobody knows if there will be more music after this year, because it's likely that at least Jin will have to enlist come December.

No money or time or efforts or even feelings went to producing, composing or writing new songs, it's a safe and lazy decision. In the case they're all enlisting together (I personally don't think they will but in the case), to me it feels like a sour end. The last time they actually put out an album was 2020. It's just sad to me, I don't think I'm disappointed because the bar was already on the floor after 2021, but it's just sad, I guess I could say I am bitter about it.

This person is a clown. BTS are not releasing anything; HYBE is releasing and all they want is the sales 😭 armys actually hate kpop groups and then hide that behind their army identity; that's all I'm going to say.

Other things I agree with:

[c-40]

A-T-3 086 Disco Reggae Lovers

The last few days I've shared tracks on record labels that you might call Archive labels, unlike budget reissue labels these releases sell at a premium. Archive labels have proliferated since the early 2000s. The most well known of these is probably Light In The Attic. LITA's reissues have a Sunday colour supplement feel to them. Below is a Guardian article about The Shaggs written by Bob Stanley, in it he draws comparisons to Vashti Bunyan (who in 2000 was currently being refound in the Sunday supplements and on Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone radio show) and The Free Design who LITA would reissue in 2003 https://www.theguardian.com/media/2000/jul/27/tvandradio.television1. The Shaggs' Philosophy Of The World had been reissued not long before this article came out in 2000, Light In The Attic would reissue it in 2016 on coloured vinyl to match the colour supplements

It was the 2012 documentary film Searching For Sugar Man that really put Light In The Attic on the map. LITA had reissued Rodriguez's Cold Fact album in 2008 and Coming From Reality in 2009. The documentary highlights Rodriguez' apparently unbeknownst stardom in South Africa. In fact in SA (and Australia) these albums hadn't been out of print since they were originally released there. There are documentaries made of other artists LITA reissue like Betty Davis (Betty: They Say I'm Different, 2017) and Karen Dalton (Karen Dalton: In My Own Time, 2020)

Light In The Attic is founded in 2002. The same year and 10-years after releasing their first reissue Soul Jazz records make the Studio One Story. The Studio One Story is released as a double album with the 4-hour documentary on DVD. This is the first Soul Jazz documentary, others will follow like Dub Echoes, and Jende Ri Palenge - People of Palenque the Afro-Colombian music and film project, Iron In The Soul: The Haiti Documentary Films Of Leah Gordon. As well as films Soul Jazz produce anthology books like Cover Art of Studio One Records

Soul Jazz began it's Studio One archive series with the compilation album 100% Dynamite in 1998. It has been the labels biggest seller. When it came out I saw it as a reggae equivalent of Blue Note's Blue Break Beats. Sanctuary owned the Trojan back catalogue at the time and put out the budget Trojan Records Box Set series on CD. Each box has about 50 tracks and the sleeve notes are sparse, so they're a bit like dumping all your photos off your phone onto instagram. 100% Dynamite and the subsequent 'Soul Jazz Studio One Series' are the opposite, they're thought outing come with a lot of info

The main focus of Light In The Attic isn't archive series like this (they have a few, the track below is from LITA's 'Japan Archival Series' begun in 2017) the bulk of their reissues reflect a label more like Rykodisc or Rhino

A better comparison with Soul Jazz would be Numero Group, launched 2003 in Chicago, USA. Numero's uniform packaging isn't far off the Mastercuts series albeit paired down for contemporary tastes. Numero was an archive label from the get go, numero NUM001 was Eccentric Soul: The Capsoul Label which was also the beginning it's first series 'Eccentric Soul.' Like Soul Jazz there's a lot of passion in these collections

You can see labels like Emotional Rescue also pay a debt to Soul Jazz

Ernest Ranglin – In The Rain This cover of the Dramatics R&B classic was put on the expanded 15-year anniversary edition of the Soul Jazz compilation HUSTLE! Reggae Disco - Kingston London New York. A few years later Emotional Rescue reissue the album In The Rain is on Be What You Want To Be. Emotional Rescue have a good relationship with Noel Williams (King Sporty) in Miami, USA and have slowly been releasing his productions which this is one. In 2021 Emotional Rescue put the track on a 7" as part of their 'Disco Reggae Lovers' 7" series

Another 1983 track from Emotional Rescue's 'Disco Reggae Lovers' series is Red Cloud - I Want To Be Free. Emotional Rescue are also putting out tracks from the Dancefloor label. The coup here is the dub on the b-side

The third 1983 original in the series is Lorraine by Dambala taken from their album Azania. It comes with a nice dub by Lexx on the bee. I wonder how this goes on at a party over the original?

#1983 #ernest ranglin #king sporty #red cloud #dambala #reggae #lovers #dub #usa #uk #80smusic

[alphafightmusic]

The Doo-Wap Queen is back!? Meghan Trainor has a New Album!?

“A wild Meghan Trainor has appeared!” is something I would say if I was traversing the city of Pallet Town in a Pokemon game. Literally had no idea Meghan was dropping a new album entitled Takin’ It Back. This took me by complete surprise because unlike Midnights and The Loneliest Time I wasn’t being constantly reminded of their existence by the constant fanfare and promotional advertising of their albums. I thought to myself “This girl has really fallen from grace”. Once a rising pop superstar, it seems like she has become an afterthought of Epic Records and another casualty of an artist on their way of having their work “shelved”. Meghan burst onto the scene with 2014’s “All About That Bass” an inescapable earworm which either made you want to get up and dance or stab your ears out. The song rocketed to #1 on the Hot 100 and made waves across the world. She followed it with multiple Hot 100 top 20 hits “Lips Are Movin’” (#4), “Dear Future Husband” (#14), and “Like I’m Gonna Lose You” (#8). Her debut album Title went on to debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot 200 and she even won a Grammy for “Best New Artist” in 2016. And then her sophomore album Thank You dropped in 2016 which was successful but not quite as successful as Title. Producing only two top 20 hits “No” (#3) and “Me Too” (#13) and debuting at #3 on the Hot 100 could have been the start of her demise. Fast forward to 2018 where her supposed third studio album No Excuses was supposed to be released after being pushed back multiple times and finally releasing in 2020. This was the nail in the coffin for Meghan. Her debut single for the album “No Excuses” released in 2018 didn’t even reach the top 40 (#46). Things only got worse for Meghan after two singles intended to be on No Excuses “Let You Be Right” and “Can’t Dance” didn’t even chart. This likely caused Epic Records to keep delaying the record until they could come up with a gameplan to salvage what was left of her career. Then in 2019 her second official single for the album “Wave” dropped. This song was a sonic departure of Meghan’s earlier work as she wished to pursue a “new sound”. Unfortunately this did not pay off. “Wave” failed to chart and to this day only has 10 million (a far cry from “All About That Bass” at 2.5 Billion). When No Excuses finally arrived in 2020, it hardly made an impact (debuting at only #25). On the same day of its release, the music video of its 3rd single “Nice to Meet Ya” ft. Nicki Minaj dropped. Now I personally thought this song was an absolute bop but was shocked to find out it only charted at #89 on the Hot 100. Perhaps with some better marketing and promotion, this song could have become a smash? That brings us to today where her latest studio album Takin’ It Back just dropped. Did anyone even know she had a new album coming out? And on the day of Taylor Swift’s Midnights? With all the Midnights buzz it appears that Meghan’s album was simply an afterthought to her label. The lack of marketing for the album makes this even more apparent. Did she even go on any talk shows or do any interviews for the album? Because I haven’t seen anything. I love Meghan but her label is mad slacking and making it seem like she is on the way out. From what I’ve listened from Takin’ It Back so far, it’s pretty good and marks a return to her signature doo-wap sound. Perhaps the virality of her song “Title” on Tik Tok had something to do with this. To my surprise though, the album seems to be holding its own so far. Currently, it sits at #5 on the U.S. Itunes charts right behind all the variations of Midnights and a handful of the songs are on the Itunes top 200. She dropped the music video for the track “Made You Look” on the album’s release date which is at the time of this writing is #8 on the Youtube Trending for Music charts and is steadily approaching 2 million views (the Jojo Siwa cameo was iconic, just saying). Can Meghan be a dark horse and rise back up to the prestige of pop’s elites or will she continue to falter? Guess we’ll just have to wait and find out.

#meghan trainor #megatron #takin' it back #pop music #pop diva #new album #midnights #taylor swift #swifties #jojo siwa #dance moms #music review #journalism #tabloid #top 40 music #billboard #hot 100 #radio

[mrpsychokiller]

I just finished it. I'm ok I'm ok I'm normal

#I am stimming so hard rn ejvdisbiebe that really made me really excited #do I have an hyperfixation on ajj? is that possible idk if hyperfixations work with music too #but Ive be listening almost exclusively to them lately #OH i also listened to good luck everybody #which is an album I thought was from 2020 but apparently it was recorded in 2019 and published later #I liked it though not as much as the older ones not sure why... #i guess they may change their style along so many years #it was also pretty short. older albums have lots of songs this one felt like it ended pretty quickly #less long songs too #but your voice as I remember it.... man #also Im glad that I can understand the context now cause when he talks of trump I can understand #you know a thing Ive been thinking #is how he made an album in 2007 that was sad and full of his suffering #and now in the 2019 album and in the 2021 songs.... they're still sad. he still suffers. #it makes me kinda depressed. like. he never got better. no one does #kinda feels like we're all doomed to be sad forever? #idk Im rambling I said Im normal

[bts-weverse-trans]

210104 Weverse Magazine ‘Be’ Comeback Interview - Suga

SUGA “I'm grateful that there are still unvisited areas in the world of music” BTS BE comeback interview 2021.01.04

SUGA has this way of talking passionately with a deadpan look on his face. Full of passion about his life and music.

How is your shoulder? SUGA: Good. I think it’ll get even better once I take off this brace. Apparently, it takes several months for a full recovery, but I'm trying to get better as fast as possible.

How does it feel like to have resolved a problem that has distressed you for long? SUGA: First of all, I'm glad. The pain is one thing, but when my shoulders got worse, I couldn't even raise my arms. But when I heard that this might recur when getting the surgery at a young age, I waited for the right time and had decided to get it done early next year regardless of the COVID-19 situation. I had planned to get the surgery after the year-end stages, but I got it done this year (2020) because my doctors advised me to start preparing early for next year’s promotions and activities.

How does it feel like watching the other members doing promotions? SUGA: I can't say it feels great. I could see the emptiness because we've been together as a group of seven for so long. Not necessarily because I'm not there but because something that should be there is missing?

Is that what made you join the promotion as much as possible? You shot lots of video footage in advance and you even appeared in the Mnet “2020 MAMA” through VR. SUGA: Fake SUGA (Laughs). There’s this 3D studio where we shot it. I shot, scanned, and acted there, but couldn't see the actual result at the studio. I thought a sense of displacement was unavoidable, and that was exactly the case. (Laughs) I acted normal because it would have been aired anyway even if I hadn’t had the surgery, but it seems a lot because it’s aired after the surgery.

You must feel restricted not being able to go on stage. SUGA: The thing is, it's only been a month after I got surgery, but my absence on stage is so apparent. But my doctors keep telling me that I shouldn't be impatient and in fact, many athletes get a resurgery when they return to the field without proper rehabilitation. So I'm working on trying to care less. For the first two weeks after surgery, I felt so frustrated that I tried out new things. I even watched movies I didn't watch.

What movies did you watch? SUGA: I watched ‘Samjin Company English Class’ as it happened to be on IPTV, and now I have ‘Tenet’ on my list. ‘Parasite’ was the last movie I saw at a cinema. As the social distancing measures became stricter, I haven’t been going outside, except going to the hospital. I even eat at home. I'm also watching a lot of TV nowadays. Watching music shows like ‘Sing Again’, ‘Folk Us’, and ‘Show Me The Money 9’ made me think of what I should do in the upcoming days.

Could you elaborate on that? SUGA: A lot of candidates on ‘Sing Again’ are very talented but hadn't had the opportunity, and on ‘Folk Us’, I noticed that many took their own guitars on stage. I started playing the guitar lately and I'm having this urge to broaden my scope of music. And since my interest in the music industry in the U.S. grew, I'm getting prepared, studying English and all.

What fueled your interest? SUGA: In some ways it’s the most commercially developed market. You could lose the industry attention in a flash if it's not feasible. So in this system, you would try everything and that would be an efficient way. I want to do music for a long time, and to this end, I always want to learn more about the global music industry because I want to do music that’s loved not only in Korea, but also in the U.S., Japan and Europe.

Speaking of which, it seems BE was influenced from music of the past rather than today's trends. SUGA: I especially like impromptu music. I love the songs that were made in one take instead of being recorded several times. In this era of crossover genres, the desire to do better in music is growing inside me.

As the genres become more blended, the melody you use must be more important. Does starting to play the guitar affect your composing in any way? SUGA: I always liked using guitar sounds. And I have always liked the Eagles. If you play the guitar, it’s way easier to write songs because you can carry it along wherever you go, pluck on the strings to create melody lines. Keyboards are difficult to carry around. (Laughs) I usually work on my laptop but I had this thought that I definitely needed an instrument. It accelerates my work and improves my understanding of chords.

It makes me think you could intuitively make melodies. SUGA: It’s easier to write a song because you can intuitively make a progression and try many different things. During my work on ‘Eight’, IU had recorded and sent me a song from her phone. At the time I couldn’t play the guitar, so we tried to make sure we’re working on the same page when keeping track of each other's progress. That made me feel the need to learn an instrument.

This is actually before you started playing the guitar, but I found ‘Telepathy’ in BE very interesting. The varying melodic progressions between hooks for each member made me wonder if you wrote the melody intuitively for each part. SUGA: I tried writing a melody for the first time this year (2020), and as I started knowing the fun of music, it opened a lot of new doors for me. So it was kind of easy working on it. I just played a beat and wrote from the beginning until the end. Done. I wrote it in just 30 minutes. The song almost wrote itself. The trends of pop and hip-hop these days cross boundaries between vocals and rap. I like this trend.

When I listen to your singing, it feels like you’re hitting the beats rather than singing along the notes. So I thought perhaps you're singing as if you're rapping. SUGA: When you're rapping, you just think of the rhythm, so it’s like simply putting on a melody to a rhythm. To define which comes first, I think melody adds to it while writing the rap.

In ‘Life Goes On’, the lyrics ‘Thankfully between you and me, nothing’s changed’ are somewhere in between. It's not rap but it’d be mundane to say it's a mere melody. SUGA: There are obviously songs where the rap needs to be highlighted. For example, in ‘Dis-ease’ or ‘Ugh!’, you have to be good at rap. But in songs that should be easy to listen to, impressive raps are not always the way to go. Sometimes, you want smooth transitions without obstacles.

In that sense, the rap flow of ‘Blue & Grey’ was impressive. Rather than a dramatic effect that emphasizes each part, you extended the rap just as much as the slowing beat. SUGA: To be honest, this beat is difficult to rap to. The beginning of the song only has a guitar line, which made it even more difficult. I participated when we wrote lyrics for ‘Blue & Grey’ and I've always wanted to work on a song like this. It was because verse 1 talks about the theme of the song.

It seems you achieved almost everything that you wanted in BE. SUGA: I think it took less than a week to make my part in the album. After having written one or two melodies for ‘Life Goes On’, I wrote a version complete with rap, and liked it that I even worked on a separate arrangement and lyrics. Rather than pondering over the ways that might work, I choose to simply play the music and write.

Many creators are unsure even after they’ve produced good work. How do you get the conviction to release your work? SUGA: Many musicians are unsure whether they should release their music or not. It was the same for me, but the thing is, you’ll never release anything if you nitpick everything. For example, if we release 10 songs, we have a chance to unveil them in concerts or fan events. And sometimes, as we listen to the song, we think, ‘Why does this part that had bothered me no longer bother me?’ Some things might feel awkward at some point, but in time, it no longer feels awkward. Even I forget about it. So it's more efficient to fine tune, looking at the big picture, rather than thinking too much about the details. On top of that, during promotions, I don’t have the time to pick tracks that others have sent for 10 hours. It would be a success for all of us if each of us play and write a melody in their own time and collaborate with others on the details. So the way of songwriting has evolved in many aspects.

What motivated such evolution? SUGA: I think it evolved naturally. I've changed in personality this year (2020), as well as in terms of my interpretation and attitude toward life to the extent that I almost thought I've been rehearsing. How would it feel like if there were no stage to go to or anyone looking out for me? This thought made me realize the value of these things.

In ‘Dis-ease’, you sing ‘I don’t know if it’s the world that's sick’. Was it this lifestyle that changed your thoughts about your work? SUGA: Yes. When I was young, I had embraced the belief that ‘It must be my fault’, but as I got older, I realized that this is not always true. Most of what I had thought was my fault was in fact, not my fault. On the other hand, there are things that I did well and times I had been lucky.

‘I NEED U’ came out during a time when you were still thinking, “It must be me”. After the members put on a stage with ‘I NEED U’ in KBS' ‘Song Festival’, you wrote on Weverse, “It’s the same as five years ago.” How would you compare with back then? (This interview was held on December 19, 2020.) SUGA: We've matured quite a bit. And our stage performances have become more natural. I still like ‘I NEED U’. Just listening to the beat makes me sentimental, and above all, the song came out nicely. So as I was watching this and that when I stumbled across old videos. Watching them made me think that we haven’t changed much.

In what aspect haven't you changed much? SUGA: Before the social distancing measures got stricter, I talked with the photographer for BE, whom I had met four years ago. The photographer was surprised that we hadn’t changed much after all the success, even though he had assumed we’d be very different.

I'm amazed personally. I’ve had the chance to meet the members before your debut, but from your way of talking with members or others, it seems you haven't changed. SUGA: I think it's because we don’t give it a big deal about success. For example, it's incredible to be ranked first on the Billboards, but there’s also this sense of, “Okay, and?”

Even the Grammys? (Laughs) SUGA: When we got nominated for the Grammy Awards, we thought, ‘Is this real?’ (Laughs) Of course we were delighted, but it didn’t make us think, ‘We're singers nominated for the Grammy.’ If you're nominated, you're nominated, and if you get the award, you get the award. You don't get shaken by that. I know it's a great award and would be so grateful if we receive it, but we know that nothing is possible without the tremendous support of our fans. What’s more important is that the fans are more flattered than us when we receive a great award. So everyone's rejoicing, but it’s like, ‘Let's do what we have to do.’ We've been training ourselves to keep finding our places, so no one remains overexcited.

In ‘Fly To My Room’, there are lyrics that say, ‘This room is too small to contain my dream’, and ‘Sometimes this room becomes an emotional trash can, but it embraces me.’ I had this feeling that the room had been such a place and that you were accepting that you have changed. Then the essence must have remained the same. SUGA: It wasn’t easy to accept that we eventually change. But I think it's a good thing that we changed. What we did back then was possible only at that time, and we could change because of the things we had accomplished.

Then, what new things are you dreaming about? SUGA: I'm eager to continue doing music. Since all performances were canceled due to COVID-19, I had a chance to talk to so many musicians in Korea. I talked with legendary singers as well as people who are my contemporaries. Talking with them once again made me realize that I love music so much. Because music is my profession, I can’t imagine myself not doing it. I'm grateful that there are still unvisited areas in the world of music.

What kind of music do you think you’ll be engaged in in the future? SUGA: I was greatly motivated when I saw the concert of Na Hoon-a last Chuseok . I wondered how many musicians would actually be able perform and write music for so long like he has. At that moment, it occurred to be that ‘I want to be like him’. He has passion and desire, and most of all, he is a superstar. A few years ago, I took my parents to a Na Hoon-a concert, and when they watched the performance last Chuseok, they said it was way less impressive to see him perform through the TV. (Laughs)

That must explain your interest in a broader spectrum of music from instruments to composing and musical genres. Because you want to be doing this for a long time. SUGA: My goal is to continue doing music in any shape or form. In that sense, I have this great respect toward Cho Yong-pil. He takes the best sound there is and reinterprets it into his own. I think that’s something I want to emulate and keep changing and evolving so that I can continue doing music for decades to come.

The lyrics ‘Thankfully between you and me nothing’s changed’ must sound more meaningful for the fans because they will be listening to your music for a long time. SUGA: A month and a half in the current times must seem like a lifetime for the fans when we're far apart. I feel the same. But I think that's proof that we worked hard for the past seven years and that the fans have been passionately reaching out to us. I'm striving to get to them as fast as I can, and I'm eager to go on stage. I'm going through this because I want to be better on stage in a better condition, so don't be sad, and please hang in there a little longer.

Trans © Weverse

#bangtan #yoongi #weverse #weverse magazine #Be Album #comeback interview #210104 #2021

[lucky-sevens]

mechanisms basics & lore

welcome to my updated mechanisms intro post! this post will cover both the topics discussed in my mechanisms basics post, which is geared towards people who don’t know what the mechanisms are, and my deep lore post, which aimed to be a comprehensive compilation of all the important character and world lore. this post should serve the above group, but it’s geared towards people who have listened but feel there’s a lot of lore that seems to be common knowledge they’re missing. we’ll start out with a basic introduction, and then go into crew lore and a semi-comprehensive guide on where to go for further information.

basics

the mechanisms were a steampunk concept band, known for their queer representation and their tragic stories. they are no longer together, their last performance being january 2020, but several of their members are still creating related spinoff content.

they follow the trope many steampunk bands do, which is albums that tell a story; think similar to listening to a musical soundtrack, but geared to a visual-less experience. what distinguishes them is 1) narration tracks between each song, making the plot very easy to follow, and 2) being meant to be watched live, meaning there’s layers of meta that are more easily understood by watching recorded gigs rather than studio recordings of albums. specifically, there’s a focus on the narrators, known as the mechanisms or the crew of the aurora, who are immortal space pirates telling the stories and occasionally inserting themselves into them. though they are tragic figures themselves, their banter serves the purpose of bringing a lightheartedness and dark humor to the stories. if there’s an aspect of the lore you’re confused on, it’s probably related to the narrators!

to watch the mechanisms live, you can find recordings on youtube, dropbox, google drive, soundcloud, or vimeo, which are all compiled in this post (including transcripts!). if visuals aren’t your thing, i’ve linked the studio recordings later on in this post when they come up, and here are the mechanisms’ official spotify, bandcamp, and youtube, as well as an unofficial comprehensive lyric videos channel. 

the albums

regarding the albums specifically, there are 4 main ones (once upon a time (in space), ulysses dies at dawn, high noon over camelot, and the bifrost incident), 2 that are compilations of miscellaneous songs (tales to be told 1 & 2), 1 single (frankenstein), and 1 album that’s a high-quality recording of their last live show, including an alternative performance of the bifrost incident, 2 songs only performed at live shows, and 'the deathsong’, which details how they all eventually die (death to the mechanisms).

as you might have been able to tell from the titles, they’re all based off of various myths, folklore, literature, and/or fairy tales, using different genres on top of a sci-fi setting to add a fresh twist to them! for example, high noon over camelot is a western based on arthurian mythos, set on a space station. (the albums are known for all ending in tragedy, so be careful if that isn’t your cup of tea!) if your goal is to get into the mechanisms, i’d suggest sitting down and listening to them all in full; links will be provided below, or alternatively you can watch once upon a time (in space) live here, ulysses dies at dawn live here, or the bifrost incident live here. (there is no full live recording with visuals of high noon over camelot, sadly, but there are partial and audio only recordings.)

once upon a time (in space) - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

ulysses dies at dawn - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

high noon over camelot - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

the bifrost incident - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

tales to be told, volume 1 -  spotify/bandcamp/youtube

tales to be told, volume 2 - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

frankenstein - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

death to the mechanisms - edited video with the stream corruption fixed + subtitles / stream / spotify / bandcamp / youtube / transcript pt. 1 / transcript pt. 2

reading the fiction is integral to understanding both the albums and the mechanisms themselves. the fiction is a collection of short stories set in the mechanisms universe posted on their website here and compiled by me here, with an extra high noon over camelot story here. (there are also audio versions for ‘mirror mirror’ and ‘a rebel yell’ included on both the website and the compilation).

the crew of the aurora

as for the crew, at their peak there were nine members played by people, as well as the ex-member dr carmilla, who has extensive solo lore and is still active (which we’ll touch on in a few paragraphs). there is also their ship, the aurora, who is sentient and has her own lore. in fact, every member of the crew has their own backstory, set in a different genre or historical period; for example, nastya rasputina's is historical, jonny d’ville’s is a western and marius von raum’s is a mecha anime. however, they’re all still different flavors of steampunk! below, i’ll list each member, their performer, and the main sources of lore about them. for the majority of them, they have their own song in tales to be told, but there are a few outliers. everyone also has their own bio up on the website, which can all be found here. 

the aurora (n/a, ship)- on aurora (meta)

jonny d’ville (jonny sims)- one eyed jacks (song), jonny before he was mechanized (meta)

nastya rasputina (anonymous)- cyberian demons (song)

ivy alexandria (morgan wilkinson)- archive footage (fiction), crew bio

ashes o’reilly (frank voss)- lucky sevens (song)

drumbot brian (ben below)- lost in the cosmos (song), crew bio

the toy soldier (jessica law)- the story of the toy soldier (fiction)

gunpowder tim (tim ledsam)- gunpowder tim vs the moon kaiser (song/minialbum)

marius von raum (kofi young)- the death of byron von raum summary (blog post)

raphaella la cognizi (r l hughes)- crew bio

if you’ve noticed the crew bio doesn’t say much about raphaella, that’s because we know little to nothing about her backstory. the only thing we have to go on is a quote from the tv tropes page, which looking at the edit history, was likely written by one of the mechanisms. the quote is ‘Science officer who may or may not have cheated her way onto the ship after becoming a little too interested.‘ and the page is here.

the majority of fandom content is about the crew, working off of what we get from the tales to be told songs, the live gigs, and the fiction.

dr carmilla

speaking of characters with obscure lore, let’s talk about dr carmilla! rather than linger, i’ll just link my carmilla basics post, which is a comprehensive summary of who she is in and out of universe. to summarize, she’s a character based on the novella ‘carmilla’ by sheridan le fanu, commonly regarded as the first vampire novel, but her lore has diverged heavily from that original starting point since then. she is the oldest out of all of the crew, and made the majority of the other crew members immortal. she, as well as aurora, is from a planet called terra, which was destroyed partially as a result of her actions. her character is defined by her immortality and how she deals with it, her experiences on terra, her relationship with the mechanisms, and her dysfunctional relationship with her ex-girlfriend loreli, the last of which is the most covered by her songs. out of universe, she is played by maki yamazaki. all her lore lines up with what happened out of universe, and ties to the fact the mechanisms were originally dr carmilla and the mechanisms. she has two solo albums and two singles, which i’ll link below.

ageha (prototype edition) (album)- bandcamp | youtube

exhumed and {un}plugged (album)- bandcamp | youtube

the city {nex:type mix} (single, in-character cover)- bandcamp | youtube

eleven (single)- bandcamp | youtube

the majority of her lore is still to be officially revealed, and will be in the trilogy of albums maki yamazaki is working on.

further reading

if you’d like to delve further into the lore, there are a few sources i use! there are official, in-character, blogs, as well as things that are harder to dredge up; i won’t link them here, but some sources include @/thedreadvampy (the band’s artist, as well as morgan wilkinson’s sister and kofi young’s partner; don’t bother her for lore or anything, but she’s previously made posts sharing previously unknown information), old websites and deleted content found on the wayback machine, the tv tropes pages, and most notably the lore doc.

the ‘maki forbidden lore doc’ is an archive of all the lore maki yamazaki has shared on the mechscord, the official mechanisms discord which she’s on, and her own personal server, where she’s running an arg (alternate reality game) as a way of relaying more lore about the dr carmilla universe. for an idea of the scale, the doc is currently 91 pages and 28346 words, and recontextualizes much of what is known about dr carmilla and maki’s canon of the mechanisms universe. it is confidential to anyone not in her discord or the mechscord, as she’s said that this lore isn’t thought out nearly as much as the albums and is subject to change, so she’d rather it not be out in the open. however, information on how to join the mechscord can be found here. there is also a non-canonical fan project based on the arg in progress, but information on it is also confidential for now.

with regards to the above phrase ‘maki’s canon’ it’s worth noting that all of the individual band members have their own idea of what counts as canon and what doesn’t, and as you foray deeper into lore that division becomes more and more apparent.

with that, here are the mechanisms’ blogs. they are all both run in-character by the main nine band members and inactive unless i note otherwise.

twitter

tumblr

facebook

website/wordpress (run ic by tereshkova’s ghost, the blogbot, for the most part)

carmilla twitter (active, run ic by dr carmilla)

conclusion

now that we’re coming to the end of this, i’d like to thank whoever got this far, and to say a few words. my interest in the mechanisms has been slowly fading, and i’ve been writing less and less meta and lapsing in keeping up with new lore myself. honestly, i’m pretty worn out by how much i’ve done on this blog and in this fandom, and the commitments i’ve assigned myself. i do have plans for future meta, but it’s unlikely they’ll come to fruition. so, i thought i’d do a new version of my two oldest posts on this blog, and hopefully enable other people to look into the lore and theorize themselves with the new information.

to find more information, remember there’s a mechanisms wiki, and that my askbox is always open.

thanks for reading!

#the mechanisms #the mechs #meta #my posts

[1ddotdhq]

Sun 31 Jan ‘21 

Happy Walls Dayyy!!!!!! Today was the first anniversary of our #1 fave debut album of 2020, and we all celebrated, Louis included! Last but best thing first: WE GOT A DEMO!! Louis ended the day by publishing a dreamy clip of a demo of the title song ‘Walls’. His clear voice croons over beautiful sliding electric guitars and background reverberance- if that’s his FIRST draft then he is, as we knew, a GENIUS! AND, the King Himself came on twitter to interact with his “loyal” (his words) subjects (that’s us!). He popped up at first to say that his tour, when it comes around, will be “fucking unbelievable...this is our day!”, and talked about his favorite part of the last year (“the two shows I played”), what he noticed most when performing solo the first times (“the space on stage” ughhhh all the tears), what he was looking forward to after COVID (“everything”) and getting through these times- “remember that everything is going to be better when normality sets back in.” He also explained that while he was gonna put out merch today, he “didn’t want to market the day”, but rather make it “a celebration just for us”. But, uh, the merch will be coming eventually! He then replied that there were “too many greedy fuckers out there” who try turn celebratory events into a “cash grab” (to quote the fan), and harries then got mad at that because THEY were like this must be about Harry (lol uhhhh) and assumed he was shading him and Jeff rather than, I don’t know, his OWN FORMER LABEL?? Cool cool cool, but it’s still Harry’s moth on Spotify, so cope. He told us that his proudest moment on the album was recording the strings for the Walls the Single, that he wouldn’t have approached the process differently because he’s still really proud of the album, that he was most looking forward to us hearing KMM or Walls, that Doncaster is his fav place (to no one’s surprise lmao), and, asked what song he likes to rock out to off HIS ALBUM was like oh hey have I got a rec for you: “Maybe Tomorrow” by the Stereophonics. It goes, “think I'll walk me outside and buy a rainbow smile, but be free” and “maybe tomorrow I’ll find my way home” (huh is there something happening tomorrow that could be linked to... OH. Right. Huh. Well all that is just a coincidence I’m sure, it’s not like Louis ever said he likes to rec songs because he wants us to read into the lyrics or anything... oh wait.)    

LTHQ did a insta quiz over on their stories (I only got two questions wrong!) and they did the promised virtual listening party and tweeted along to each song and retweeted fans’ reactions (and all the usernames, larries everywhere, we SEE YOU). Friends of Louis joined in the celebration- Only The Poets, Ashton Irwin of 5SoS fame, Helene Hornyck (“all the love,” she said!), Isaac Anderson and more, and All On The Board made one of their lovely Frankenstein poems which mashing up a bunch of LT1 songs, but in keeping with the theme of the day (and COVID I GUESS) did it as fanart rather than the usual in person board. And all of that was the BORING part of the day, can you BELIEVE?? The FUN part was the Walls Fanart that was chosen to be the new Spotify cards on the official Walls album. As in, they are up right now if you want to go check them out, but I’m gonna tell you straight up: they’re half Harry tats! The Defenseless card, especially, as it is just straight up fanart of Harry’s moth tattoo, especially fun when he had JUST got us talking about its Papillion origin with his finsta! The artist had been worried that Louis would be mad at them for submitting ‘Larry art’, and was overjoyed to learn that, uh... apparently, he was NOT. That was not all! The ‘Too Young’ art card is H’s rose tattoo, ‘Habit’ and ‘Fearless’ were both different variations of H’s anatomical heart tat (the ‘Habit’ one even included the word kind :{) ), and the We Made It rainbow wheel did, in fact, make it to Spotify, just like we thought! “Perfect Now” was Louis standing under a rainbow spotlight—they made that one black and white for spotify but the artist shared the original version. Harries were beside themselves, and tagged Jeff (Azoff), Ben Winston, and Gemma Styles (what?), demanding that they make Louis take the art down because it was clearly Harry art, which 1.) how much more blatant can you be if even ANTIS are noticing and 2.) what sort of control do they think Jeff, Ben, and Gemma have over Louis seeing as, uh, none of them currently work for him??? Weird, are they thinking there might be some kind of link... between Harry and his team and Louis... tell me more antis, truly, I’m fascinated!

One would think that’s more than enough for one day but WAIT THERE’S MORE Zayn is in EXCELLENT quirky Zayn form having fun with his own merch—he posted a gremlin (from the old RL Stine movie ‘Gremlins’) in a NIL beanie captioned “one size fits all humanoid shaped heads” late last night, haaaaa. Yes, I agree! The red stitching really makes the gremlin’s red eyes pop, and his fangs have never looked this good! And the question arose, is Harry’s finsta actually just his side account for following nothing but gay meme accounts? Evidence—the discovery of a second follow, of the openlygayanimals account-- would suggest yes! Well that’s valid, imagine having to not only navigate the internet AS HARRY but also without funny memes of your choice, that’s no life to lead. And Niall complained on twitter that people didn’t understand his sense of humor because SARCASM! He also tweeted about golf, which I’m sure was cool for people who understand it.

#louis tomlinson #zayn #harry styles #niall horan #lmao @ all the people who were like LOUIS JUST SHADED HSHQ #like uh NO HE DIDNT YOU DID #lajdflkdajfsd #also COULD LOUIS BE MORE ON LA TIME??? NO HE COULDNT #i love this today was fun and much needed! #to celebrate im gonna rewatch the liveshow tonight! #anyways! #song of the day! #maybe tomorrow by the stereophonics! bc LOUIS

[sugadaily]

SUGA has this way of talking passionately with a deadpan look on his face. Full of passion about his life and music. How is your shoulder? SUGA: Good. I think it’ll get even better once I take off this brace. Apparently, it takes several months for a full recovery, but I'm trying to get better as fast as possible. How does it feel like to have resolved a problem that has distressed you for long? SUGA: First of all, I'm glad. The pain is one thing, but when my shoulders got worse, I couldn't even raise my arms. But when I heard that this might recur when getting the surgery at a young age, I waited for the right time and had decided to get it done early next year regardless of the COVID-19 situation. I had planned to get the surgery after the year-end stages, but I got it done this year (2020) because my doctors advised me to start preparing early for next year’s promotions and activities. How does it feel like watching the other members doing promotions? SUGA: I can't say it feels great. I could see the emptiness because we've been together as a group of seven for so long. Not necessarily because I'm not there but because something that should be there is missing? Is that what made you join the promotion as much as possible? You shot lots of video footage in advance and you even appeared in the Mnet “2020 MAMA” through VR. SUGA: Fake SUGA (Laughs). There’s this 3D studio where we shot it. I shot, scanned, and acted there, but couldn't see the actual result at the studio. I thought a sense of displacement was unavoidable, and that was exactly the case. (Laughs) I acted normal because it would have been aired anyway even if I hadn’t had the surgery, but it seems a lot because it’s aired after the surgery. You must feel restricted not being able to go on stage. SUGA: The thing is, it's only been a month after I got surgery, but my absence on stage is so apparent. But my doctors keep telling me that I shouldn't be impatient and in fact, many athletes get a resurgery when they return to the field without proper rehabilitation. So I'm working on trying to care less. For the first two weeks after surgery, I felt so frustrated that I tried out new things. I even watched movies I didn't watch.

What movies did you watch? SUGA: I watched ‘Samjin Company English Class’ as it happened to be on IPTV, and now I have ‘Tenet’ on my list. ‘Parasite’ was the last movie I saw at a cinema. As the social distancing measures became stricter, I haven’t been going outside, except going to the hospital. I even eat at home. I'm also watching a lot of TV nowadays. Watching music shows like ‘Sing Again’, ‘Folk Us’, and ‘Show Me The Money 9’ made me think of what I should do in the upcoming days. Could you elaborate on that? SUGA: A lot of candidates on ‘Sing Again’ are very talented but hadn't had the opportunity, and on ‘Folk Us’, I noticed that many took their own guitars on stage. I started playing the guitar lately and I'm having this urge to broaden my scope of music. And since my interest in the music industry in the U.S. grew, I'm getting prepared, studying English and all. What fueled your interest? SUGA: In some ways it’s the most commercially developed market. You could lose the industry attention in a flash if it's not feasible. So in this system, you would try everything and that would be an efficient way. I want to do music for a long time, and to this end, I always want to learn more about the global music industry because I want to do music that’s loved not only in Korea, but also in the U.S., Japan and Europe. Speaking of which, it seems BE was influenced from music of the past rather than today's trends. SUGA: I especially like impromptu music. I love the songs that were made in one take instead of being recorded several times. In this era of crossover genres, the desire to do better in music is growing inside me. As the genres become more blended, the melody you use must be more important. Does starting to play the guitar affect your composing in any way? SUGA: I always liked using guitar sounds. And I have always liked the Eagles. If you play the guitar, it’s way easier to write songs because you can carry it along wherever you go, pluck on the strings to create melody lines. Keyboards are difficult to carry around. (Laughs) I usually work on my laptop but I had this thought that I definitely needed an instrument. It accelerates my work and improves my understanding of chords. It makes me think you could intuitively make melodies. SUGA: It’s easier to write a song because you can intuitively make a progression and try many different things. During my work on ‘Eight’, IU had recorded and sent me a song from her phone. At the time I couldn’t play the guitar, so we tried to make sure we’re working on the same page when keeping track of each other's progress. That made me feel the need to learn an instrument.

This is actually before you started playing the guitar, but I found ‘Telepathy’ in BE very interesting. The varying melodic progressions between hooks for each member made me wonder if you wrote the melody intuitively for each part. SUGA: I tried a melody for the first time this year (2020), and as I started knowing the fun of music, it opened a lot of new doors for me. So it was kind of easy working on it. I just played a beat and wrote from the beginning until the end. Done. I wrote it in just 30 minutes. The song almost wrote itself. The trends of pop and hip-hop these days cross boundaries between vocals and rap. I like this trend. When I listen to your singing, it feels like you’re hitting the beats rather than singing along the notes. So I thought perhaps you're singing as if you're rapping. SUGA: When you're rapping, you just think of the rhythm, so it’s like simply putting on a melody to a rhythm. To define which comes first, I think melody adds to it while writing the rap. In ‘Life Goes On’, the lyrics ‘Thankfully between you and me, nothing’s changed’ are somewhere in between. It's not rap but it’d be mundane to say it's a mere melody. SUGA: There are obviously songs where the rap needs to be highlighted. For example, in ‘Dis-ease’ or ‘Ugh!’, you have to be good at rap. But in songs that should be easy to listen to, impressive raps are not always the way to go. Sometimes, you want smooth transitions without obstacles. In that sense, the rap flow of ‘Blue & Grey’ was impressive. Rather than a dramatic effect that emphasizes each part, you extended the rap just as much as the slowing beat. SUGA: To be honest, this beat is difficult to rap to. The beginning of the song only has a guitar line, which made it even more difficult. I participated when we wrote lyrics for ‘Blue & Grey’ and I've always wanted to work on a song like this. It was because verse 1 talks about the theme of the song.

It seems you achieved almost everything that you wanted in BE. SUGA: I think it took less than a week to make my part in the album. After having written one or two melodies for ‘Life Goes On’, I wrote a version complete with rap, and liked it that I even worked on a separate arrangement and lyrics. Rather than pondering over the ways that might work, I choose to simply play the music and write. Many creators are unsure even after they’ve produced good work. How do you get the conviction to release your work? SUGA: Many musicians are unsure whether they should release their music or not. It was the same for me, but the thing is, you’ll never release anything if you nitpick everything. For example, if we release 10 songs, we have a chance to unveil them in concerts or fan events. And sometimes, as we listen to the song, we think, ‘Why does this part that had bothered me no longer bother me?’ Some things might feel awkward at some point, but in time, it no longer feels awkward. Even I forget about it. So it's more efficient to fine tune, looking at the big picture, rather than thinking too much about the details. On top of that, during promotions, I don’t have the time to pick tracks that others have sent for 10 hours. It would be a success for all of us if each of us play and write a melody in their own time and collaborate with others on the details. So the way of songwriting has evolved in many aspects. What motivated such evolution? SUGA: I think it evolved naturally. I've changed in personality this year (2020), as well as in terms of my interpretation and attitude toward life to the extent that I almost thought I've been rehearsing. How would it feel like if there were no stage to go to or anyone looking out for me? This thought made me realize the value of these things. In ‘Dis-ease’, you sing ‘I don’t know if it’s the world that's sick’. Was it this lifestyle that changed your thoughts about your work? SUGA: Yes. When I was young, I had embraced the belief that ‘It must be my fault’, but as I got older, I realized that this is not always true. Most of what I had thought was my fault was in fact, not my fault. On the other hand, there are things that I did well and times I had been lucky. ‘I NEED U’ came out during a time when you were still thinking, “It must be me”. After the members put on a stage with ‘I NEED U’ in KBS' ‘Song Festival’, you wrote on Weverse, “It’s the same as five years ago.” How would you compare with back then? (This interview was held on December 19, 2020.) SUGA: We've matured quite a bit. And our stage performances have become more natural. I still like ‘I NEED U’. Just listening to the beat makes me sentimental, and above all, the song came out nicely. So as I was watching this and that when I stumbled across old videos. Watching them made me think that we haven’t changed much.

In what aspect haven't you changed much? SUGA: Before the social distancing measures got stricter, I talked with the photographer for BE, whom I had met four years ago. The photographer was surprised that we hadn’t changed much after all the success, even though he had assumed we’d be very different. I'm amazed personally. I’ve had the chance to meet the members before your debut, but from your way of talking with members or others, it seems you haven't changed. SUGA: I think it's because we don’t give it a big deal about success. For example, it's incredible to be ranked first on the Billboards, but there’s also this sense of, “Okay, and?” Even the Grammys? (Laughs) SUGA: When we got nominated for the Grammy Awards, we thought, ‘Is this real?’ (Laughs) Of course we were delighted, but it didn’t make us think, ‘We're singers nominated for the Grammy.’ If you're nominated, you're nominated, and if you get the award, you get the award. You don't get shaken by that. I know it's a great award and would be so grateful if we receive it, but we know that nothing is possible without the tremendous support of our fans. What’s more important is that the fans are more flattered than us when we receive a great award. So everyone's rejoicing, but it’s like, ‘Let's do what we have to do.’ We've been training ourselves to keep finding our places, so no one remains overexcited. In ‘Fly To My Room’, there are lyrics that say, ‘This room is too small to contain my dream’, and ‘Sometimes this room becomes an emotional trash can, but it embraces me.’ I had this feeling that the room had been such a place and that you were accepting that you have changed. Then the essence must have remained the same. SUGA: It wasn’t easy to accept that we eventually change. But I think it's a good thing that we changed. What we did back then was possible only at that time, and we could change because of the things we had accomplished. Then, what new things are you dreaming about? SUGA: I'm eager to continue doing music. Since all performances were canceled due to COVID-19, I had a chance to talk to so many musicians in Korea. I talked with legendary singers as well as people who are my contemporaries. Talking with them once again made me realize that I love music so much. Because music is my profession, I can’t imagine myself not doing it. I'm grateful that there are still unvisited areas in the world of music.

What kind of music do you think you’ll be engaged in in the future? SUGA: I was greatly motivated when I saw the concert of Na Hoon-a last Chuseok . I wondered how many musicians would actually be able perform and write music for so long like he has. At that moment, it occurred to be that ‘I want to be like him’. He has passion and desire, and most of all, he is a superstar. A few years ago, I took my parents to a Na Hoon-a concert, and when they watched the performance last Chuseok, they said it was way less impressive to see him perform through the TV. (Laughs) That must explain your interest in a broader spectrum of music from instruments to composing and musical genres. Because you want to be doing this for a long time. SUGA: My goal is to continue doing music in any shape or form. In that sense, I have this great respect toward Cho Yong-pil. He takes the best sound there is and reinterprets it into his own. I think that’s something I want to emulate and keep changing and evolving so that I can continue doing music for decades to come. The lyrics ‘Thankfully between you and me nothing’s changed’ must sound more meaningful for the fans because they will be listening to your music for a long time. SUGA: A month and a half in the current times must seem like a lifetime for the fans when we're far apart. I feel the same. But I think that's proof that we worked hard for the past seven years and that the fans have been passionately reaching out to us. I'm striving to get to them as fast as I can, and I'm eager to go on stage. I'm going through this because I want to be better on stage in a better condition, so don't be sad, and please hang in there a little longer.

#yoongi #suga #bangtan #bts #interview #210104

[bananaofswifts]

Taylor Swift appears to be waging war over the serial resale of her old master recordings on two fronts. She recently confirmed that she is already underway in the process of re-recording the six albums she made for the Big Machine label, in order to steer her fans (and sync licensing execs) toward the coming alternate versions she’ll control. But now that she’s followed the surprise release of “Folklore” with the very, very surprise release of “Evermore” less than five months later, the thought may occur: If she keeps up this pace, she may have more new albums out on the Republic label than she ever did on Big Machine in a quarter of the time. Flooding the zone to further crowd out the oldies is unlikely to be Swift’s real motivation for giving the world a full-blown “Folklore” sequel this instantaneously: As motivations for prolific activity go, relieving and sublimating quarantine pressure is probably even better than revenge. Anyway, this is not a gift horse to be looked in the mouth. “Evermore,” like its mid-pandemic predecessor, feels like something that’s been labored over — in the best possible way — for years, not something that was written and recorded beginning in August, with the bow said to be put on it only about a week ago. Albums don’t get graded on a curve for how hastily they came together, or shouldn’t be, but this one doesn’t need the handicap. It’d be a jewel even if it’d been in progress forevermore and a day.The closest analog for the relation the new album bears to its predecessor might be one that’d seem ancient to much of Swift’s audience: U2 following “Achtung Baby” with “Zooropa” while still touring behind the previous album. It’s hard to remember now that a whole year and a half separated those two related projects; In that very different era, it seemed like a ridiculously fast follow-up. But the real comparison lies in how U2, having been rewarded for making a pretty gutsy change of pace with “Achtung,” seemed to say: You’re okay with a little experimentation? Let’s see how you like it when we really boil things down to our least commercial impulses, then — while we’ve still got you in the mood.Swift isn’t going avant-garde with “Evermore.” If anything, she’s just stripping things down to even more of an acoustic core, so that the new album often sounds like the folk record that the title of the previous one promised — albeit with nearly subliminal layers of Mellotrons, flutes, French horns and cellos that are so well embedded beneath the profuse finger-picking, you probably won’t notice them till you scour the credits. But it’s taking the risk of “Folklore” one step further by not even offering such an obvious banger (irony intended) as “Cardigan.” Aaron Dessner of the National produced or co-produced about two-thirds of the last record, but he’s on 14 out of 15 tracks here (Jack Antonoff gets the remaining spot), and so the new album is even more all of a piece with his arpeggiated chamber-pop impulses, Warmth amid iciness is a recurring lyrical motif here, and kind of a musical one, too, as Swift’s still increasingly agile vocal acting breathes heat into arrangements that might otherwise seem pretty controlled. At one point Swift sings, “Hey, December, I’m feeling unmoored,” like a woman who might even know she’s going to put her album out a couple of weeks before Christmas. It’s a wintry record — suitable for double-cardigan wearing! — and if you’re among the 99% who have been feeling unmoored, too, then perhaps you are Ready For It. Swift said in announcing the album that she was moving further into fiction songwriting after finding out it was a good fit on much of “Folklore,” a probably inevitable move for someone who’s turning 31 in a few days and appears to have a fairly settled personal life. Which is not to say that there aren’t scores to settle, and a few intriguing tracks whose real-life associations will be speculated upon. But just as the “Betty”/”August” love triangle of mid-year established that modern pop’s most celebrated confessional writer can just make shit up, too, so, here, do we get the narrator of “Dorothea,” a honey in Tupelo who is telling a childhood friend who moved away and became famous that she’s always welcome back in her hometown. (Swift may be doing a bit of empathic wondering in a couple of tracks here how it feels to be at the other end of the telescope.) One time the album takes a turn away from rumination into a pure spirit of fun — while getting dark anyway — is “No Body, No Crime,” a spirited double-murder ballad that may have more than a little inspiration in “Goodbye, Earl.” Since Swift already used the Dixie Chicks for background vocals two albums ago, for this one she brings in two of the sisters from Haim, Danielle and Este, and even uses the latter’s name for one of the characters. Yes, the rock band Haim’s featured appearance is on the only really country-sounding song on the record… there’s one you didn’t see coming, in the 16 hours you had to wonder about it. Yet there are also a handful of songs that clearly represent a Swiftian state of mind. At least, it’s easy to suppose that the love songs that opens the album, “Willow,” is a cousin to the previous record’s “Invisible String” and “Peace,” even if it doesn’t offer quite as many clearly corroborating details about her current relationship as those did. On the sadder side, Swift is apparently determined to run through her entire family tree for heartrending material. On “Lover,” she sang for her stricken mother; on “Folklore,” for her grandfather in wartime. In that tradition the new album offers “Marjorie,” about the beloved grandmother she lost in 2003, when she was 13. (The lyric videos that are being offered online mostly offer static visual loops, but the one for “Marjorie” is an exception, reviving a wealth of stills and home-movie footage of Grandma, who was quite a looker in a miniskirt in her day.) Rue is not something Swift is afraid of here anymore than anywhere else, as she sings, “I should’ve asked you questions / I should’ve asked you how to be / Asked you to write it down for me / Should’ve kept every grocery store receipt / ‘Cause every scrap of you would be taken from me,” lines that will leave a dry eye only in houses that have never known death. The piece de resistance in its poignance is Swift actually resurrecting faint audio clips of Marjorie, who was an opera singer back in the day. It’s almost like ELO’s “Rockaria,” played for weeping instead of a laugh. Swift has not given up, thank God, on the medium that brought her to the dance — the breakup song — but most of them here have more to do with dimming memories and the search for forgiveness, however slowly and incompletely achieved, than feist. But doesn’t Swift know that we like her when she’s angry? She does, and so she delves deep into something like venom just once, but it’s a good one. The ire in “Closure,” a pulsating song about an unwelcome “we can still be friends, right?” letter from an ex, seems so fresh and close to the surface that it would be reasonable to speculate that it is not about a romantic relationship at all, but a professional one she has no intention of ever recalling in a sweet light. Or maybe she does harbor that a disdain for an actual former love with that machinelike a level of intensity. What “Evermore” is full of is narratives that, like the music that accompanies them, really come into focus on second or third listen, usually because of a detail or two that turns her sometimes impressionistic modes completely vivid. “Champagne Problems” is a superb example of her abilities as a storyteller who doesn’t always tell all: She’s playing the role of a woman who quickly ruins a relationship by balking at a marriage proposal the guy had assumed was an easy enough yes that he’d tipped off his nearby family. “Sometimes you just don’t know the answer ‘ Til someone’s on their knees and asks you / ‘She would’ve made such a lovely bride / What a shame she’s fucked in the head’ / They said / But you’ll find the real thing instead / She’ll patch up your tapestry that I shred.” (Swift has doubled the F-bomb quotient this time around, among other expletives, for anyone who may be wondering whether there’s rough wordplay amid Dessner’s delicacy — that would an effing yes.) “‘Tis the Damn Season,” representing a gentler expletive, gives us a character who is willing to settle, or at least share a Christmas-time bed with an ex back in the hometown, till something better comes along. The pleasures here are shared, though not many more fellow artists have broken into her quarantine bubble this time around. Besides Haim’s cameo, Marcus Mumford offers a lovely harmony vocal on “Cowboy Like Me,” which might count as the other country song on the album, and even throws in something Swift never much favored in her Nashville days, a bit of lap steel. Its tale of male and female grifters meeting and maybe — maybe — falling in love is really more determinedly Western than C&W, per se, though. The National itself, as a group, finally gets featured billing on “Coney Island,” with Matt Berninger taking a duet vocal on a track that recalls the previous album’s celebrated Bon Iver collaboration “Exile,” with ex-lovers taking quiet turns deciding who was to blame. (Swift saves the rare laugh line for herself: “We were like the mall before the internet / It was the one place to be.) Don’t worry, legions of new Bon Iver fans: Dessner has not kicked Justin Vernon out of his inner circle just to make room for Berninger. The Bon Iver frontman whose appearance on “Folklore” came as a bit of a shock to some of his fan base actually makes several appearances on this album, and the one that gets him elevated to featured status again, as a duet, the closing “Evermore,” is different from “Exile” in two key ways. Vernon gets to sing in his high register… and he gets the girl. As it turned out, the year 2020 did not involve any such waiting for Swift fans; it’s an embarrassment of stunning albums-ending-in-“ore” that she’s mined out of a locked-down muse.

#taylor swift #evermore #review

[trentsleatherboots]

Carach Angren, interview translation Dutch > English

Published in the magazine Rock Tribune, edition June 2020, nr. 192.

Text by Morbid Geert. Fotos: Stefan Heileman.

WILL THE REAL FRANKENSTEIN STAND UP NOW?

At the end of last year you could already read about how we kept close watch on Carach Angren. Back when they were still heavy in the production process, on Halloween Day we went over to Ardeks homebase and studio to see the first glimpse of their new work and later Rock Tribune got invited to listen to the album in Germany. Now it's almost time for 'Franckensteina Strataemontanus' to be shown to the world and that's why we wanted to take an even deeper look. Weaponed with an oil lamp and shovel we went onwards towards the graveyard to uncover the soul stirrings of Ardek. (Text: Morbid Geert)

---

Ardek, the last time I talked to you the songs were still in a very early stage and what we heard was more of a pre production. Did you tinker more afterwards to come to an end result or did you purposely keep your hands off to avoid overproduction?

"In terms of song structures and lyrics not much changed on the premature songs that you heard. What followed however was another production-finish, where especially the mix and mastering made a big change. That last stadia really lifted it all to another plane and you can really hear that."

A FRESH LOOK.

As far as I knew, Patrick Damiani was still fully onboard working on the songs at Tidal Wave Studio in Germany. How important was it for you to pull an extra producer into the process? After all, you are very much at home with that as well? Or maybe not as much as you'd like?

"Back then he worked on drumediting and played the basslines, but his role is way bigger than that. We've worked together a lot and now we're doing something for L'Âme Immortelle, where we vibe together perfectly and know exactly how to handle such a project.  When he takes on production for Carach Angren however, I notice how much better he controls it. He has so much knowledge about drum sounds, mixing,... and he's really specialised in it. It is nice to add that knowledge, it brings a lot of added value. These days a lot of bands record at home and that all makes it a lot cheaper, but a good producer brings a lot of experience and equipment, it ends up with a whole different result. Besides, we left the mix and mastering to Robert Carranza."

That last one is a pretty big name, who among others worked with Marilyn Manson. I can imagine that has a big impact on your budget, but was it worth it?

"I think so. When I listened to 'Killing Strangers' by Marilyn Manson on headphones and heard the bassline, it went so deep that it turned me upside down. Apparently Robert Carranza mixed that album.  Furthermore he does a lot of different things such as make latin music and win grammy's, but in the extreme metal scene he is totally unknown.  However, he wanted to help himself to our record and yes, the price was steep, but I managed to convince both the band and the label… even though that wasn't without some doubts, since all eyes were on me for a bit. I had a good feeling about it and shared it, with the result being having a record now that doesn't sound like the others.  He had a fresh look on our work and thus we could avoid the recognisability of the average metal producer.  There are too many records that when you hear them you know exactly who had their hands on them and in which studio they were recorded.  Contrary to what you might think, there was constant contact with him (Robert) and a lot of talking about how we wanted it to sound. In particular the clarity of the sound is massive and gives it a bit more of a cinematic effect. There was no compression applied where everything sounds constantly loud and where as a listener you'd get easily tired, but the dynamics were preserved."

DIDN'T FEEL LIKE IT ANYMORE.

To refer back to Patrick Damiani: if he does so much and even plays the basslines, do you see him as sort of a 4th band member or is that just a bit too much credit?

"That's not how we see him. He's an amazing producer and musician, who gives us his opinion and helps us out. On the other hand he is not part of the creative process and he isn't on stage with us… but it is a relationship that's been going on for 12 years and something we get a lot out of."

Now I'm saying '4th band member', but after the recordings of your new record ended, your brother and drummer Namtar left the band. Can I ask what happened and if you saw this coming, or whether it was a bolt from the blue?

“In November he recorded his drum tracks and back then everything went fine, but then there came an offer to play at '70000TONS OF METAL'. Since we always looked at the financial side of the band together, we talked about the offer and he was immediately against it.  I thought that was strange and to me it seemed better to sit around the table with three to talk about it. Then it became apparent that he'd been wrestling with it for sometime and in brief didn't feel like it anymore.  We offered him to take a break of a few months instead of just throwing away what we've worked for the last 20 years, but that wasn't a solution.  It wasn't an easy decision, but afterwards we saw it had been an issue for a long time and at that point you rather put a stop to it.  That hit us hard, but you can never force somebody to stay in a band.  To keep our motivation high we played '70000TONS OF METAL' after all with Michiel van der Plicht of God Dethroned as replacement. That pleased us all and he's willing to help us out in the future."

Michiel van der Plicht in indeed an amazing drummer. Are there any plans to keep him in the band permanently or is this an emergency solution and is there an offer still standing?

"I discussed that extensively with Seregor, but together the two of us stay the core of the band. We already have an extra guitarist live and in the studio we will definitely have those people join again, but all decisions will be made by us two in the end.  We want to avoid that other people leave a mark on the band, causing us to lose our individuality (personality). It's about so much more than just making music: the stage decor, our own stage outfits,... for us it is very clear and it's going well, so we only need help to fill in with the music in the studio and during lives."

MILKED OUT?

Let's get to the core of business. At the end of this month is the release of your 6th album, 'Franckensteina Strataemontanus'. Now lends the Frankenstein story itself perfectly for a horror metal band, but I wondered if the story isn't too milked out by other bands… unless you do it with a completely new vision. After all, that's what you did with 'This Is No Fairytale', where Hans and Gretel were transported to the now and the horror became bigger than ever. 

"When we started, I had the same feelings about the Frankenstein story, but there's a twist to it. Everything started for me as a dream, where I flew through an old house. There, I heard dissonant piano tunes and I got sucked into a room where a portrait of an old man hung on the wall. Later I made a drawing of that portrait and it got stuck in my head. When I began doing research for the album months later and even read Mary Shelley's amazing book 'Frankenstein', I found out that there is a theory that when she wrote her book she was influenced by Johann Konrad Dippel, an 18th century alchemist.  Then when I looked him up, he turned out to look like what I had seen in my dream, which personally motivated me to dig deeper. Dippel is an unknown figure for the masses and that's why it seemed fascinating to us to do something with it.  There is fiction and truth mixed in our story. By the way, Dippel lived in Frankenstein Castle near Darmstadt, where he was looking for the elixir to eternal life. He was also a theologist, but he clashed with the church and was therefore cast away. Because he also did experiments on cadavers and sought life extending resources, he would've inspired Mary Shelley for her story. What we did was make a concept around the source of her story instead of following the clichés.  That monster with screws in his head, we've seen it already before…"

Yet it doesn't seem like a concept album, because I notice that you address very diverse subjects.

"It is definitely a concept, since all stories are connected to one another, even if it's not noticeable. 'Operation Compass' is about the North-African desert war between the Brits and Italians. In official documents the Brits were ordered that if there were to be a fallback, to make all sources unusable for the enemy with 'Dippel's oil' (a nasty substance that made water undrinkable but did not poison it, so it was in battle with the Geneva protocols).  In our story it leads to a demonic outburst that went towards the soldiers. So you see, Dippel comes back throughout different moments in history. 'Der Vampir von Nürnberg' is about a real figure that is still alive. He committed necrophilia, killed people and drank their blood, … but is now at large. In our story he lost his ways after reading Dippel's books, which once again links it with the core story. 'Here In German Woodland.', the opening song, is about a boy that gets lost and dies in the forest surrounding Darmstadt, but later comes back and eats his parents. In the closing song 'Like A Conscious Parasite I Roam' it all comes full circle: Dippels life elixir only works for his soul, and his body rots away, so he searches for a guest body and his spirit creeps into that little boy." 

In a few songs, some German lyrics show up. Is that besides the concept also because of the grim sound of the language or is it simply because you live so close to Germany and it has a certain impact? 

"The subject lends itself to it of course and Seregor speaks German very well, which made things easier. And yes, the sound does play a certain role. 'Der Vampir von Nürnberg' sounds way better than the English translation, it immediately sets the right tone."

Some of these stories are the result of reality, but are often at least as gruesome as many fantasy stories: such is the bonus song 'Frederick's Experiments' about the sick science experiments of emperor Frederick II, a man who apparently was not inferior to the Nazi doctors?

"Yes, you can say that he set a good example! Seregor came with the idea and somewhere the story did fit within the total picture, even though we couldn't fit it into the big story. Our label Season Of Mist however asked for a bonus track and that's how we managed to include the song after all."

CROSS-POLLINATION.

What I noticed with the first sneak preview, but what has become clear now, is that Carach Angren this time worked very innovative musically.  Watch out, it is immediately clear that it is from Carach Angren, since you already have your own sound, but at the same time there are noticable things we haven't heard from you before. The title track has a considerable industrial touch and we also hear something from Laibach in it, just like 'Monster'. Is that something you've only recently been getting into or have you maybe secretly been an industrial fan for years?

"It is more recent, even though I've always been appreciative of it. By also collaborating with Till Lindemann for his project Lindemann, I also came into contact with it more and started taking it up unconsciously. Afterwards I got to experiment with it for my solo project and that's how I came up with the song 'Monster'. Seregor tested some things out for singing for that song and it just made sense.  It was very cool to experiment like that, which you should when you're making a record based on Frankenstein…"

It became a musical experiment instead of scientific experiment, but you do create a parallel, yes.

"Inside Carach Angren we like to put a lot of variety in the songs and if you can also give that a different look, then that is something you should try. We ourselves are absolutely crazy about it! Some fans will have to swallow when they hear those songs, but for them there are plenty of old school songs on it."

To come back to Lindemann: he and Peter Tägtgren got you involved since you are so good with classical orchestras and arrangements, but in the end it seems to have become two-way traffic, doesn't it? Have you learned a lot from it and developed other visions? 

"We worked together in a very awesome way and you do learn a lot from that. You grow as a componist, as musician and as producer. It made me compose more compactly and I sometimes pursue slightly less complex songs, like the two more industrial based songs. Always great to be able to take a different approach."

Both those songs have an easier buildup, but in the other songs you go back to the complexity that you left out purposefully 'Dance And Laugh Amongst The Rotten'. Is it a way to generate more contrast?

"In some ways yes, but it depends on how it works out in a song. We tried to make the title track a bit longer, but then the effect fell away and it didn't feel right anymore. But strangely enough I write a complex song like 'Der Vampir von Nürnberg' easier than a less complex piece like 'Monster'.  With less arrangements it quickly becomes hard to keep it exciting(engaging), but seeing as you want to keep the concept to level, you need to have enough variation. The industrial songs sound a bit less complex, but there is a lot happening in the background and they are full of tiny details that make the difference."

MIXING COLOURS.

With the new approach you have opened some doors to maybe do more experimenting in the future. Is that actually your goal or is there nothing reasoned behind it and do such new influences pop up sooner when they seem to be able to improve the song?

"It all almost comes down to what the concept of the album requires. Back when we wrote 'Death Came Through A Phantom Ship' we added swirling waves and custom/adapted sounds to it. With the new record the 'marching' of the pulsing industrial beat seemed to work the best with our Frankenstein theme. You have to see it like a painter who is mixing colours to make a new colour to fit his vision. We don't do any different and we would love to experiment more in the future. If we see what we've already tried with singing now … in the long run we were completely out of control trying to do crazy things."

The singing is indeed a very remarkable part of 'Franckensteina Strataemontanus'. We always thought Seregor had a good black metal voice, but we were very impressed by the way he twisted his voice this time around and helped set the mood.

"We are very happy about that ourselves. He delivered an excellent job and we really pushed everything to get to that point. We actually took several weeks to make sure my home studio was in perfect condition and sometimes Seregor had to redo a certain part up to 10 times to get the result we wanted, but he did it without struggling. A lot of singers that ask so much from their vocal chords are dead on their feet after an hour, but then there is Seregor who gets through the day without complaining, even while screaming his lungs out.  While recording 'Operation Compass' we did however find out it is better to record a deep grunt in the early morning, since your voice is still a bit slow and heavier from sleep.”

MUSIC AS A BOOST.

The whole corona crisis made it so that as a band it is way more difficult to promote an album now, since all concerts got cancelled. Did that have a big impact on Carach Angren or can you make it?

"I myself am very concerned with the people who are really affected by the disease and that is why I can partially ignore the inconveniences for ourselves. Nevertheless, it has a serious effect on the music industry, although that is secondary to me. We are dealing with a pandemic, people are dying and we all have to work to keep everything under control. In addition, it is strange to release an album in a full crisis, but we decided to go for it anyway. It's a cool record and we already started the promotion, so we just keep going. For now, tours are not planned, but that does not mean that we will now stream all kinds of performances to attract attention. We are not that type of band… what is a shame is that our plans for a very cool video clip are now also being abandoned. We had to go to Germany and there are also the social distancing rules, which make such a recording impossible.  But should we really want that and turn it into drama? Of course it sucks to have to promote the release like this, but the whole world is just not what it was a few months ago."

Do you have any alternative ideas to bridge that gap? I know that you guys always have enough visual ideas and there already is a lyric video for 'Monster', but I can imagine that there is more to come.

"We are working on that yes, because last month we made one for 'Der Vampir von Nürnberg' and next month we might take another song in hand. We will keep doing those sorts of things together with some 'making of-' videos that we recorded in the studio, that way we can give the album some extra promotion.  Nothing for us to worry about so… by the way, there is something about releasing a record in times like these. The people have been stuck at home for months and have nothing to do, so if we can give them a new piece of music to listen to to get through the day, then that is awesome too. It would be disappointing for the fans if we just put our new work on the shelf because of this pandemic. Every band should do what they think is best, but we had already started our press campaign anyway and we would also be a lot less driven if we only had to arrive 'with old stuff' within six months or later."

Carach Angren already has a few beautiful video clips which are build up with a real story and don't only have something musical to offer. In addition, there are also the lyric videos, where certainly those for the complete album 'This Is No Fairytale' with comic images by Costin Chioreanu stand out from the crowd. Have you never thought of bundling everything on a DVD?

"We've honestly never thought about that, but that's actually a really great idea! I think it would be nice to bundle everything together and that way we immediately remove some (away) from youtube. That can always be a good idea for the future."

LEARNING SCHOOL.

As songwriter of Carach Angren you may have previously absorbed a lot of influences that shaped you into the musician and songwriter you are today. Can you list the five most essential records or artists that shaped you personally and what exactly were their interests?

"That is a good question that doesn't let itself be answered very easily. In the classical field and orchestras I think Tchaikovsky and Stravinski are very important. They both had a lot of influence on me as a componist. Another important inspiration to me in that respect is John Williams (modern componist famous for his film scores for Star Wars, Jaws, Jurassic Park..) They helped shape me even more when it comes to layered composing, although I don't come close to what they do. As a child I followed keyboard lessons for 8 years, I did a year of conservatory and studied a year of music and media, as well as cinematic orchestration. Those last two were online, but on a serious level and you really had to write pieces for an orchestra. I learned a lot there, but ever since then I kept learning by actually doing it myself, looking through books and analyzing musical pieces.  But if I hadn't gotten the theoretical basis I had as a child, I would've never been able to do this today. On production level I have to mention Nine Inch Nails and, something you'd might find strange, Michael Jackson! If you see how well their albums are produced, and how many layers are incorporated, it's amazingly well done! You can say about Michael Jackson's music what you want, but the way the songs are built up and how much dynamics are in there thanks to the arrangements by Quincy Jones, it is absolutely astounding.  There is no lack of bells and whistles and sometimes, for example, the snare drum comes in in four layers, something you don't hear so loudly even in extreme metal. I mainly listen to those albums as an audiophile to analyze them and see what I can get out of it as a producer. Last week I checked the solo record of Roger Waters, in which I heard effects that seemed to be situated outside the loudspeaker field. Then I want to know how that is done and whether I can integrate it with Carach Angren. That kind of thing is the reverse of the compression they use too often today and you wonder why we don't all go in that direction anymore."

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Translated by Jeordie/Trentsfishnets.

(For the record, if this interview already exists in English, I will just see this as translating practice C:)

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