#Balkan Bass

[marmotsomsierost]

I just made it about 50 seconds in this song before going 'wait what' so do me a favor, click the link and don't look at the description.

It's not a rickroll, that's too easy.

[mashmouths]

[prodigyxspectre]

Wrath. The moment Obek Silan's eyes fell upon the object of his ire, all else became clouded in a red haze. Sarius Siskus draws his prim shren, revving the terrifying eight-bladed shield. The wind whipped around the exposed circling swords as the akretuzh and kitol stare each other down. The winter-white scales and garnet eyes of his rival reminded Sarius of his long-dead enemy. From that memory came revelation as Obek proclaimed to Sarius an inverse of his own words from decades ago: "Fan plor fan, Sunkiran."

Obek charges forth with all the force of a deranged bear, directing his bardiche's tip towards Sarius's heart. The elder warrior twists his shielded arm up, parrying the blade and ducking low to deliver a powerful hook to Obek's unarmored ribs. Obek staggers from the parry and is denied rest as Sarius thrusts his prim shren forward. Obek brings his leg high, kicking Sarius's arm out of the way. Obek brings his pommel to Sarius's helmet, knocking Sarius out of close range.

Obek raises his bardiche high, preparing a devastating blow before a shot from Sarius's pistol punctures his armor. His scales stop the bullet from going too deep, but the force of it causes Obek to collapse. While Obek is gasping for air, Sarius fires a knee up into his chin, knocking Obek onto his back.

Obek brings his bardiche up just in time to use its fasium shaft to catch Sarius's blunted blades. He struggles against the prim shren's mechanical might as Sarius tries to dig one of the hooked blades into Obek's throat. Obek cries out mightily, smashing his head into Sarius's as his pushing destroys the prim shren's engine. A blade punctures Obek's right shoulder and pec, tearing out a decent chunk of his shoulder's tendons and pectoral muscles as its owner reels.

Obek tries to stand using his arms arms, discovering that his right arm is out of commission with an agonized roar. Obek grips the bardiche near its crescent head with his functioning left arm. Sarius recovers from the stunning pair of the headbutt just in time to see the limp-armed draconic brute rushing him with a wild strike. Sharp pain wracks Sarius's body as crimson gushes from the point where silver lodged itself within his ribs, narrowly missing his heart. Sarius drops to his knees. Obek yanks the sharp edge out of Sarius, causing blood to pool at his side. Sarius compresses the wound as he falls onto his back.

Obek stands over his mortally wounded foe, laughing heartily as he holds his crippled arm. He starts to brag to his dying adversary before a commanding bark shuts him up. Sarius's face wrinkles further as he snarls, "Skrä. Vepfoi. Ӓä! Vin... Vin uumempf frü kna jäär!" He takes a moment to pant painfully. "Wnei sri deeb schtru?..." Sarius gets up onto his elbows and pants violently through his teeth before screaming with indignant rage. "MYI!! DEEB!!" Obeck honors Sarius's wish, speaking not a letter longer. Obek ends his long awaited villain quickly, spearing him through the skull.

[jokeroutsubs]

📝ENG TRANSLATION: Križanke Anniversary Part 2/3

The band Joker Out revealed to us what can't be missing backstage. You'll be surprised...

To celebrate 2 years since Joker Out's concert at Križanke, we decided to translate some content from that time. This article was translated as part of our celebration.

Original article written by Alma Rahne for Metropolitan.si, published 08.09.2022. English translation by @chaosofsmarty, review by @kurooscoffee, proofread by @flowerlotus8.

Audio version available here.

Translation below the cut 👇

(Photo: Aleksandra Saša Prelesnik)

The boys had the doors of the secret spot where they spend the most of their time wide open for us. Among other things, they told us what was the most unusual gift they got from a fan and what they do during the drives to concerts.

Joker Out doesn't need a special introduction, but still... The Ljubljana group of five, consisting of Bojan Cvjetićanin (vocals and majority songwriter), Jure Maček (drums), Kris Guštin (guitar), Jan Peteh (guitar) and Martin Jurkovič (bass), did not rest during the summer. Instead of chasing the sun's rays, they shut themselves in the studio, where they worked tirelessly on the new, second album 'Demoni', which was released recently. There are 10 new songs on it, including two in Serbian. The band performed at the Exit festival in Novi Sad in July and made it clear that Slovenia has become too small for them and that there are no limits for good music.

This time, we visited the members of the popular band – drummer Jure Maček was absent due to unpostponable obligations – in the rehearsal room. A place that they have equipped in their own way with a little imagination and creativity.

Even though the space is small, that's exactly what makes it special, homely. At first glance, it gives the impression of a living room, in which many instruments, speakers and cables are displayed. You can immediately feel the special energy and at the same time the wish for a private acoustic concert. I admit, I wouldn't have said no to it. Read on to find out everything we spoke about...

(Photo: Matic Kremžar)

What are demons to you?

Bojan: What all people have in common is that we have our demons and that we're demons for someone. For me personally, demons were songs. The demons were the expectations, waiting, creating... Now I'm starting to face other demons. The five of us are each other's demons. Žare (producer) is a demon. Jan is the resident demon exorcist.

Jan: Žare is a big demon. Maybe demons are something that comes when you have too many dirty thoughts.

Bojan: I just wanted to say, demons are dirty thoughts that you can't get rid of.

Martin: The songs we've been making for so long are our demons.

On the new album there are two songs in Serbian. You don't hide your craving to conquer the Balkans as well...

Bojan: Our huge desire and inspiration is expanding our musical journey to the Balkans. In fact, in the Balkans, which used to be the mecca of rock 'n' roll, the scene has completely died out. I would dare to say that of the countries within the former Yugoslavia, Slovenia is by far the most favorable for musicians of all genres, except for turbofolk performers.

It seems to me that there's one big gap in terms of these 'live performances' and they also lack young bands and interesting performers. Let's just say that one of our missions would be to expand there and get the younger people to listen to guitars, drums again. Slovenia is an area that would be very suitable for them, because there are no more venues in the Balkans where unexperienced bands could perform, or there are very few such venues. Whereas here, there's a huge amount of them. It would be very nice if some mixing started to happen. They accept us and we accept them.

(Photo: Aleksandra Saša Prelesnik)

Kris: I'd like to see us establish a sort of "precedence" that Slovenians are also going to the Balkans, in addition to Senidah, who has already done so, and that young rock 'n' roll bands can also come to Slovenia. To somehow re-establish the Yugoslav spirit, especially in music. I want Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian young bands to start going to Slovenia more, because this direction, at least in terms of rock 'n' roll, is not utilised as much.

Listeners' expectations before the release of each subsequent song are high. Is there any fear present?

Bojan: You can't know, but we listened to the album so many times and really enjoyed listening to it so much that we completely lost that feeling of nervousness about what they were going to say out there, because we were really happy with what we did and we didn't care.

Kris: We're pretty confident about what we've made and created.

(Photo: Aleksandra Saša Prelesnik)

How many times do you record a certain song to be able to say it's the final version?

Bojan: For example, we recorded the song 'Katrina' only once.

Kris: You have pieces that come together right away, and you have some that you have to work on for months. We tried to make the song 'Padam' in a much more band-like format than it is on the album now, but in the end we found that it completely takes away the message of the lyrics and we just let it kind of float with the instrumental.

Where did you get the idea to put the song ‘Ne govoriva več o tem' (We Don't Talk About It Anymore) on the album with the abbreviations Ngvot?

Kris: When I brought this piece to rehearsals, I already had it written with the name Ngvot. I don't know why... It's already so ingrained in our collective subconscious that it's Ngvot that we've said let's leave it that way. And that something else interesting happens when you're looking at the tracklist. But I'm shocked at how many people just read the word and don't think that it could be an acronym (smiles).

Bojan: In the playlist for the concerts, we always wrote it as Ngvot, just like Vdg ('Vem da greš' - I know you're going).

If I'm not mistaken, the arrangement of the song on the album is different than what we've heard at concerts so far. Why?

Kris: We had a little bit of a problem with this piece because when I wrote it in 2018, it was still very high school, teenage and the lyrics stayed the same. The piece has a kind of naïve honesty that didn't match this rock banger base that we've had so far. There was always some kind of dissonance in the piece.

What our producer Žare did was to guide us to back up this naivety and sincerity in the piece with some nostalgic base. We chose a very 'Beatles sixties vibe' for it and it's very good.

On the first album, a lot of the headaches in its creation were caused by the song ‘Vem da greš’. Which one did you struggle with the most this time?

Bojan: 'Novi val'. From some demo, a song was created that we changed to a completely different form at least five times. We actually flew from genre to genre, from sound to sound. In the end, one day, Žare pulled the handbrake and told us not to move anywhere. I went to the recording room a little offended and 'Novi val' happened.

Many people think of the coronavirus first when they hear the word new wave. Are there any parallels?

Bojan: Actually, the trigger for the lyrics were the wildfires in the Karst region that were happening at the time we were in the studio. The line "Where do we go from here, if we're already setting the horizon on fire?" is from there, and from there onwards I built the lyrics.

We've seen you on several occasions in the company of Magnifico¹. Have you done anything together?

¹Magnifico, one of the best-known singers on the Slovenian scene. He recently celebrated his 30-year career with a spectacular concert just outside of Ljubljana, which Joker Out also attended. You can watch our translation of Bojan's intervew from this concert on our video titled: Bojan Cvjetićanin on Magnifico's concert for his 30-year career.

Bojan: No, we never created together with Magnifico. I didn't even dare to think of ever writing anything for him. If I liked the offer, I would accept it, but it seems to me that Magnifico sees us as very independent performers. Magnifico is Magnifico, but he's a very big fan of ours. Which he will confirm himself if someone asks him, so that no one will say that I am lying (smiles).

Kris: At the beginning of August, we had two concerts, one day after the other in Zagorje and then at the Castle Festival. In Zagorje, we played after Magnifico, and almost all the members of his band, including him, stayed for the whole concert and listened. In the end, they were thrilled.

How are the preparations for your first concert in Križanke² going?

²Joker Out held a concert at the Križanke venue on the 9th of September 2022. They presented their second album, Demoni, there.

Bojan: We honestly wanted to have a little rest the week before Križanke, in addition to rehearsals, of course. But there's so much work still to be done when it comes to promoting the new album.

Kris: Luckily, we have a really well-established team that handles a lot of the things for Križanke that we would have to be dealing with otherwise. Let's say for the whole stage scene, the sound system, the logistics... We're working with our chief creative director, Mark Pirc, who also shoots our music videos and who was also involved in the creation of the album cover for the second album. In fact, we already trust him so much and he understands well what we are, what we want, that he doesn't need to be corrected. He always comes up with good ideas, and then we just give him our blessings.

(Photo: Marko Alpner)

Damir Raković Ponorelii will design your outfits for Križanke. Have you ever been in a situation where you had to put on a piece of clothing that you didn't feel comfortable in?

Kris: We get along so well with Ponorelii, we have a friendly relationship. He puts something on you, and if it's not cool with you, you tell him. But it's also good that he also notices that you're not okay with it. He doesn't want to force you into something that doesn't sit well with you, either.

Jan: You just tell him, this skirt is a little too tight for me (laughs).

Speaking of skirts... How are you with them? Right now, the trend is for men to wear skirts (Brad Pitt, Harry Styles ...). Would you wear it?

Jan: I don't care about that. If I felt good in a skirt, I'd just wear it.

Kris: Same.

Bojan: But we're not at skirts yet (laughs).

Jan: We don't really plan on it.

Bojan: In general, because skirts have come into this hype, we definitely don't want to go into skirts just for that. Maybe we'll put them on in five years, when they're already out. Because we're kind of Joker Out (smiles). We're happy to have come to the point where the band is bigger than the name.

(Photo: Vita Orehek)

Are you ever afraid of everything that is happening around you? A lot of media attention, recognition on the streets, a lot of female fans...?

Bojan: It would be absolutely brilliant if we could have this "Daft punk" (French music duo with a helmet) moment when no one knows what you look like and you can live on stage to the maximum of what a musician can reap, and under the stage you can live a completely normal life. That would be a dream. But that's impossible for us, because we didn't introduce these masks from the beginning (smiles).

How do you pass the time while driving to concerts? What do you do in the van?

Everyone: Scratch! We support Slovenian Paralympians because we scratch scratchcards³.

³For the occasion of the Tokyo Paralympic Games, the Lottery of Slovenia, in cooperation with Slovenian Paralympic Committee, issued a new scratchable lottery ticket to support paralympic athletes on their way to Tokyo.

Martin: The van is the best thing.

Kris: Physically, it's moderately comfortable, but what's comfortable is that you're in the company of people you spend a lot of time with. Above all, you can sort out all those things that you otherwise don't because you never remember. All five of us are in a pile, and you can arrange/discuss/sort out everything then. And a lot of business decisions are made in the van as well.

(Photo: Aleksandra Saša Prelesnik)

Who has the main say in the group? Are the roles divided?

Bojan: It depends entirely on the sector we're talking about. If there's a question about the image on social networks, then Jan is the alpha and omega.

Kris: That means if the rest of us don't agree, then it won't happen. We respect each other.

Bojan: We operate in such a way that someone in their sector can take full responsibility for things that we know we will all agree on. Fortunately, so far we have never had any disagreement that someone should actually impose their veto.

Jan: But we do hold a vote if there is a more important issue.

(Photo: Aleksandra Saša Prelesnik)

The strangest thing that was thrown onto the stage?

Bojan: Last time, I got flowers from a guy over the barricades, still in a pot, with soil. I think they were cyclamen.

You recently surprised us with the announcement of a concert in Stožice on October 6, 2023. You also promise guests. Can you give us a hint as to who will join you on the biggest stage in Slovenia?

Bojan: You know them (smiles).

Kris: So we're going to say... There will probably be some guests we haven't anticipated at the moment. Our creative paths for Stožice are still very much open.

(Photo: Marko Alpner)

Are we going to have to wait a year for a new song?

Bojan: You certainly won't have to wait a year for a new single. But we probably won't be doing an album, at least for now, we don't plan to.

Kris: Now we still have to convince people of this new 'Demoni' album.

Martin: I was just thinking that you don't have to say twice how motivated we're going to be when we're all together, that something might even happen.

Kris: By the time of Stožice, the new material will be available for sure, but I don't know in what form yet.

Martin: Maybe it'll be a cassette tape (laughs).

What should not be missing backstage at your concert?

Everyone: Table tennis is definitely required.

Bojan: We really like it when there's a big enough table backstage because we bought a portable table tennis set so we can play it.

Kris: A full fridge of goodies.

Martin: A safe, warm place where the band can relax, rest and retreat.

Jan: Once we added a mirror and five towels on the list as a joke.

Kris: A shower in the backstage is a very welcome thing, but unfortunately you can't always ask for it (smiles).

We will not waste words on the fact that a group of talented young musicians has already left a strong mark on the domestic music scene. The fact is that they have found their circle of fans in both younger and older generations. And they turn their creations into a hit in an instant. Although their growing popularity would make many people - especially those envious - attribute superiority, haughtiness to them, the boys remain grounded, confident and true to themselves and their work.

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

Jewish Song of the Day #12: Bellida

Comments:

Okay so at one point I went spelunking for more female Jewish singers singing in classical styles, and I stumbled upon this song, which is sung in Haketia, a Moroccan dialect of Ladino that also incorporates some Arabic.

It's a secular(ish) song, but very much culturally Jewish.

I'm not going to explain it well, so instead I'll simply quote from this article about it:

On October 25, 2019, Bloch and Zaaluk released their newest hit single Bellida. The song is sung in the traditional Haketia, an endangered Jewish Romance language also known as Djudeo Spañol, Ladino Occidental, or Western Judaeo-Spanish. Tamar is part of a new generation of young artists from Arab and Islamic countries who sing in their mother tongues. Her mother was born in Morocco. “I’m not involved in a preservation project and the social narrative isn’t what’s important to me. In my music I have found, after much searching, a real place for intimate expression – a language that’s a home, ” said the singer in her interview with Haaretz Magazine. Bellida is “definitely a pop album. It’s not world music from a distant and inaccessible culture, which is being preserved. I bring the songs in modern arrangements in the understanding of how relevant this music is.” The song was arranged with the help of Roee Fadida. It is a humoristic women’s song that represents the tradition of women singing in everyday life. “It tells the story about a Jewish-Moroccan girl (Bellida) who falls in love and marries Pepe, a Christian man. The ladies in her village make jokes about it but comfort her with local food.” Although Bloch and primarily sings with the goal of inspiring audiences to sing and dance, she understands her creation bears social obligation. Specifically, it is the female responsibility aspect of Bellida that Bloch warmly embraces. “It is something that I really yearn for,” she says. “Jews assimilation is a very serious prohibition, yet Bellida is not ostracized. She is cared for by means of tradition and food.” Bellida is Bloch’s interpretation of secular feminine folklore. “I imagine these women dancing together. Music brings people together. In Morocco, you see everyone sitting and singing, and being familiar with the words,” she says. “In Israel music reflects the various cultural homes from which we came. The real challenge is to try to create a new sound from within every such home.” In sharing her story of how the heritage songs came into her life, Bloch explained that in 2014, Roee Fadida, a role model, invited her to join a band that plays contemporary Moroccan music. She described having a physical reaction to that music. It felt like I was “smelling a roll outside a bakery and I had to take a bite.” Bellida is performed alongside Bloch’s band Zaaluk, a trans-Mediterranean and North African ensemble that revive lost Haketiya women’s songs. Their age-old melodies are performed to inspire people to sing and dance together and embrace the heritage of the ancient Jewish community of Spanish Morocco. Their sounds are inspired by Andalusian, North African, and Balkan musical traditions. Their music is a combination of electric guitar, bass guitar, drums, percussion, and powerful vocals, performed in Israel and abroad. The name of the band refers to a local Moroccan salad and captures the group’s multi-cultural essence.

[hit-song-showdown]

Year-End Poll #65: 2014

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry, John Legend, Iggy Azalea, OneRepublic, Jason Derulo, Magic!, Meghan Trainor, Ariana Grande, Sam Smith. End description]

More information about this blog here

As mentioned in the previous poll, we're now seeing streaming services like Spotify taking over music consumption. Much like how Billboard had to adapt to individual retail sales in the 1950's, MTV rotation in the 1980's, Nielsen SoundScan in the 1990's, and YouTube views in the early 2010's, Spotify streams are now going to be incorporated more into Billboard's charts, with their album charts adapting to this shift in late 2014.

But before we welcome in another chart, 2014 is the year we'll also have to say goodbye to one. It feels like just yesterday we were talking about the rise of the ringtone. But as musical ringtones were starting to fall out of favor in the general public (with streaming people were growing accustomed to no longer having to pay 99 cents for a song -- they weren't going to pay 2 dollars for a snippet of one), Billboard's ringtone charts were retired in 2014, with Taylor Swift's Shake It Off as the final number 1 ringtone in America.

In 2014, we're seeing the continuing rise of retro-inspired production, with the neo soul of Pharrell Williams' Happy, the doo-wop pastiche of Meghan Trainor's All About That Bass, and the funk elements of Ariana Grande's Problem. And with Jason Derulo's Talk Dirty sampling its hook from Balkan Beat Box's Hermetico, it seems like this was a pretty good year for brass samples. Also fun fact about Happy, apparently that song was Pharrell Williams' tenth attempt at writing a song for the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack. Sadly, we will never hear those other 9 versions. Or else I would have put all of them on this poll.

Speaking of musical influence, we're also starting to see trap starting to rise in mainstream popularity. Trap music is a style of rap originating out of the southern hip-hop scene, notable for its 808 drums, snares, and triple-timed hi-hats. The origins of the style can be traced back to the 1990's during the rise of southern rap, with many trap acts coming out of Atlanta and Memphis. In fact one of the guest rappers on today's poll, Juicy J on Katy Perry's Dark Horse, is one of the pioneers of this style with his group, Three 6 Mafia. While Three 6 Mafia is associated with a variety of subgenres (gangster rap, horrorcore, crunk, etc), the trajectory of trap music can often be traced back to them. I don't usually give out homework on these polls, so instead I will just strongly suggest that you check out Mystic Stylez if you haven't already. We'll have to wait a few years until we see the explosive growth of the modern trap movement in the mainstream.

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2004 - Number 19 - Toše Proeski - "Далеку од мене"

It's time for Macedonia's tragic hero. Toše Proeski was a very big deal. Across the whole of the Balkans, his name and his voice were household names. A child star, since the beginning of the 21st century his reputation had been growing to major proportions and his performances were huge. He even had a superhero comic book character named for him. Super Toše fought evil to the delight of Balkan comic fans.

He should have been at the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest. He won Beovision to represent Serbia and Montenegro, however owing to the massive number of entries that forced the EBU to finally start holding semi-finals, Serbia and Toše had to wait another year.

In 2004, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia were also back (having been relegated in 2003), so fate allowed Toše to represent his native country. Given his status, Skopjefest made way for a song selection final in which he would sing all eight songs. It's a strong final - many of the songs are worthy.

Далеку од мене (Daleku od mene/Far Away from Me) is by Ognen Nedelkovski and Sanel Suljanović. Of these two, Ognen has the biggest history with both Macedonian Eurovision potentials as well as Toše himself. He wrote Солзи прават златен прстен (Solzi pravat zlaten prsten/Tears are Making a Golden Ring) which finished 3rd for Toše at Skopjefest in 2000. He'd go on to write many songs for Macedonian selection finals over the next ten years.

The song itself is a driving EDM power-ballad that's all about Toše's voice showing just what it can do. It starts off with big drum hits, and squelchy synth bass races off daring him to keep up. This is full-on, high power singing with barely room to breathe. He's missing his love so much that the mountain tops will know by the end of the song. There's even room for a big held note that carries on through the key change in the bridge. That's just showing off. Listen to that crowd at the end.

It nearly became Macedonia's song for the year - just missing out and ending up the runner up. The winner was far and away the favourite, but this was clear in second place too. In the end of course, Toše did get to Eurovision with the winning song.

Just three short years after this competition, he was dead. His fame had only increased, with massive concerts in Skopje at one of which the huge crowd refused to leave. He gave the profits from his last concert to USAID. He died in a road accident just eleven days after that last concert. Macedonia held a national day of mourning, gave him a state funeral and named Skopje's major stadium after him. Toše was huge and only ever shining more brightly when he tragically taken from the country and people who loved him.

[acebytaemin]

hi ana what are your top ten fave songs right now quickly 🎤

hi angel whew ur straight to the point aren’t u well let’s go! 🫡 you get 5 balkan tracks and 5 non balkan tracks bc ive been very balkanic recently & also i made this into a little playlist to make it easier for u to check out as ur reading my commentary (ofc there’s commentary who do you think you’re talking to)

svemir by devito (SOOOOO GOOOOOOD this has been out for a while now but it stays on my on repeat playlist)

nenormalan lik by nikolija ft devito (ANA FT LINOOOOOO no further comments. can go both ways actually which is the beauty of it all also i NEED to see him throw it back to ‘nenormalan nenormalan nenormalan lik’)

monster by jala brat & buba corelli (IM SORRY AS IF ITS MY FAULT ŠTO SAM LEVEL UP ZATO ME I NE VOLE [shakes ass until tmrw] also i can’t wait to have my dragon tattoo so i can sing along in EARNEST and no i won’t explain this bc im actually insane)

rosalia by jala brat & buba corelli (again sorry. like im to blame i was born in balkan and their tracks go so fawking hard to me)

periferija by voyage ft nucci (aka by bangchan ft changbin. Yes everything is always about something else to me and also Yes i’ve already made a post abt this LMAOOO)

did it like i did - remix by swervy (thanks to m @linoguy and the analisten playlist it’s SO good to me.)

du du du (english ver) by tan (i have NO idea who these people are but their song was on one of my playlists on spotify and it went in the likes right away i LOVE the guy who says just enough to sweeten up my morning coffee w this energy -> 🤪. Obsessed w him)

fade by knk (another thank you to the analisten playlist, specifically @ohmuqueen for this one 💞. The way this song sends me to OUTER FUCKING SPACE.)

too sweet by hozier (the bitch (cunt song releasing hozier) is back 💋 also the bass is FAT and i love the lyrics sm)

small reminders by tinashe (throwback but ive been listening to 333 the album so much lately esp this song.. ‘ain’t nobody telling me shit about shit and that’s that’ truly hits such a special spot to me these days 🤭)

PS everyone still very welcome to add to our collab playlist!! here u go if u lost the link 💖

[starsbegantofall]

On the subject of "The Planet of the Bass" and people posting comments of how they first heard this song when they were in the Balkan or former Soviet Union at a dance club and or bomb shelter while the war was going on and they felt glad and not sad, even though said song was recorded this year:

I have been listening to 90s anime theme song playlists for some time and trying to figure out why music from the 1990s to the 2000s sounds good to me and should be revived and so forth ala citypop or eurodance.

Is this music subjectively good? Probably not, if we have to be honest (well, to me, it's subjectively good, lol like melody and lyrics and production, it really is solid even compared to more polished current works).

But is this music the anthem and theme and leitmotif of a time in our lives when we were young and naive and carefree and couldn't really know how much worse the world was going to get despite it being kinda already bad? Yes. Definitely yes.

And I think that feeling of nostalgia for your youth hits harder than any bass beat.

[thesinglesjukebox]

KYLE GORDON FT. DJ CRAZY TIMES AND MS. BILJANA ELECTRONICA - "PLANET OF THE BASS"

Time to find out once and for all who hates fun!

[3.50]

Crystal Leww: A fun weird thing that happened this year is that Kyle Gordon premiered "Planet of the Bass" at the party that I book called hulaHOOP, which is a trance, Eurodance, and euphoric dance music party that I started this year with two of my best friends. He was a last-minute add to our lineup, which was filled with friends and artists that we admire from around the world who are not white, not straight, and not dudes. I have nothing bad to say about Kyle Gordon, a guy who genuinely seems to love Aqua and Vengaboys, treated our team and the club staff with nothing but respect, and willingly took a ten minute slot that we gave him. But it was very weird to see "Planet of the Bass" become the center of conversation for a Eurodance and trance revival well underway that had been for a while spearheaded by mostly not white dudes. None of this stuff should be taken that seriously -- I'm on Team Dance Music Should Be Fun -- but it's kinda sad that something as goofy as the Eurodance revival still gets dominated by bros who are not even that good at the music part of it. The day before our party, Boiler Room dropped sets from La Darude, the collective from Paris that is really spearheading a lot of this stuff. Suggest you listen to those instead to embrace the goofy, euphoric whimsy from people who are really, really in it. [4]

Kat Stevens: I don't mind people taking the piss if it's banging, but this is just spiteful. [1]

Oliver Maier: If you are here reading this website you probably don't need me to explain all the ways that this isn't particularly spot-on as Eurodance pastiche. Maybe someone else will do it for me. Fortunately, "Planet of the Bass" gets the most important thing right, which is to have fun. It's pretty funny (throwaway 30 Rock joke/10) and pretty catchy (memorable, but not an earworm/10). Try though I might, I simply have no strong feelings about "Planet of the Bass"! Takes, I'm wanting more. [5]

Jonathan Bradley: Taken beyond meme length, "Planet of the Bass" seems increasingly dubious: are silly accents and ESL phrases actually hilarious, or is this tired American condescension? Forgive me for imposing some level of scrutiny on that lowest from of entertainer -- the internet comedian -- but the DJ Crazy Times project fails for its sloppiness about the details. Purportedly a parody of '90s Eurodance, it sounds more like it belongs to the 2000s than alongside "Rhythm is a Dancer," "Another Night," or "The Rhythm of the Night." It also posits its performers as central European or Balkan, while the big hits from the time it seeks to parody came from nations that hadn't just emerged from behind the Iron Curtain: Germany, Italy, the Netherlands. Maybe Slavs are supposed to be inherently more ridiculous than western Europeans? But the weakest quality of "Planet of the Bass" -- what makes it fail as a song rather than a gag -- is that it isn't interested in what the Eurodance acts of the '90s were doing with their big boshing beats and unusual syntax: adopting simple English phrases that could be understood in a club across the continent, regardless of which of the dozens of Europeans languages might be spoken there, yet still communicating a sense of dancefloor yearning that plays anywhere from Copenhagen to Cordoba. [2]

Will Adams: Like most viral memes today, "Planet of the Bass" was pummeled into oblivion in a matter of weeks. The life cycle of a joke landing to the jokester re-telling the joke (keep 'em laughing!) to the resentment of the joke to discourse about the joke to, finally, the chatter fizzling out... this isn't new. That's not the issue. The song is fine. The chorus is quite good; I trust that Kyle Gordon knows his Eurodance references -- I'm getting equal parts the goofy dude rap of Aqua and Toy-Box and the emotive female vocal of Matrix's "Can You Feel It" and Vengaboys' "Superfly Slick Dick." The issue is that the core joke belongs to the genre of "ESL? LOL!" comedy (hi Brian Jordan Alvarez!) that generally has a short shelf life. [5]

David Moore: I only recognize one TikTok meme as a legitimate 2023 banger, and it is "Sitting" by T.J. Mack, the alter ego of comedian Brian Jordan Alvarez. (The Paul F. Tompkins big band version is great, too.) [1]

Rachel Saywitz: Sometimes what goes viral on TikTok should stay viral on TikTok. [0]

Katherine St Asaph: Kyle Gordon appears to be a bit of an asshole, but an asshole with some genuine appreciation for the genre and for Y2K visual aesthetics. But regardless of how much Eurodance he's heard, he does not seem to realize that their English lyrics were almost never this bad -- and that deliberately bad English is both rarely funny and never emotionally charged like the real songs were. Should have stayed a meme reel on Croatia Roosevelt Island. [4]

Hannah Jocelyn: This doesn't understand what makes those songs great beyond the most obvious signifiers of broken English -- even shit like "The Fox" had a euphoric EDM outro that made at least one person in my life say "wait, is this actually good?" (No.) "Planet of the Bass" aims for that transcendence, but the production does the bare minimum, and nothing in the song is as beautifully unhinged as "I'm as serious as cancer when I say rhythm is a dancer." But "Planet of the Bass" brought me as much joy as anything else this year: a loved one and I constantly quote the spoken-word bridge, itself lifted from a deep cut that shows Kyle Gordon knows his shit. If that knowledge was translated to a stronger arrangement, we would have an all-timer parody song on our hands. But we'll always have the immortal affirmation "women are my favorite guy." [6]

Tara Hillegeist: As Gordons getting their five minutes of fame out of the way off a techno-type beat and meme-ready lyrics go, I'd genuinely much rather be listening to "Gordon Kill the Thomas". Peanuts-kun at least extends their socmed-ready pisstake with some wild, one might even say creative, decisions; "Planet of the Bass", by contrast, can't even get its feet motivated enough to reach the dancefloor. I would be lying if I said the bonehead genius of pastiche lyrics like "women are my favorite guy" inspired utterly no joy in me, of course, but as a full song, this misses the Vengabus. [3]

John S. Quinn-Puerta: Disney Channel Original Trance Song [5]

Nortey Dowuona: Half of this is BASS. The other part is a barely-there repeat of circa-'05 pop dance I'd hear in Torino. [3]

Tim de Reuse: Reviewing musical comedy is hard because you have to ask whether it's funny. And then when the answer is "the first time, I guess," you have to ask whether the music is good. And then when the answer is "it's unremarkable," you've run out of things to talk about. [3]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: No one who is actually funny will take a joke and try to milk it for all he can. That's just disrespectful to the craft. Even if this were initially amusing, the moment that Kyle Gordon dropped the full song is when he went from comedian to content creator. [0]

Will Rivitz: TSJ in 2014: collectively unable to parse that a Eurotrash genre sendup could be sublime. TSJ in 2016: collectively unable to parse that a Eurotrash genre sendup (except for at least one of us!) could be sublime. TSJ in 2023: admittedly, this song is no QT or Charli, but it rips regardless. I hope we've learned our lesson. [8]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: All jokes aside, that's genuinely an all-time great dance-pop hook. It's a shame about the other 2 minutes of the song, though! [5]

Aaron Bergstrom: This could have been a clever tweet (I'll admit that I chuckled at "women are my favorite guy" the first time), but instead it's a three and a half minute song that overstays its welcome by at least two. By the end he's basically just doing Borat. [3]

Taylor Alatorre: Those European people to the east of the Rhine -- they don't speak the English too good, do they? And they sure do love their bass-thumping, fist-pumping club music, right? Well, at least in the '90s they did. Now it's a different decade, and they like some different kinds of electronic music than that. But still, we could make pretend like we're back in the '90s and excavate a harmless, beloved, frozen-in-amber genre for the purpose of mocking I mean "celebrating" it, and have our YouTube TikTok comedian guy say some sex-obsessed and politically naïve phrases that probably sounded funnier as a recurring bit on Twitter than they do when spoken aloud. That's something, right? Ylvis still appears in Uber One ads, right? [3]

Brad Shoup: It rocks that he made a Eurodance track for locals and when the locals finally heard it, they had no idea what to do with it. The structure and timbre are dead on--I particularly enjoyed the electro freestyle ostinato--but the deep-fried Continental English stopped being funny real fast. There's just something really beautiful about European dance-pop: the way that shamelessness and fun can carry idiosyncratics like Hit'n'Hide or Rednex over the border. "Planet of the Bass" gets at a little of both, but it mostly feels like a joke about Slavic hustle. I guess I'll wait for the third-wave ska parody. [4]

Ian Mathers: Brevity is the soul of wit. Chorus is still pretty good, though! [5]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

[bermudianabroad]

We're at the year's halfway point, and I figured I'd share a list of all the books what I read so far this year, since I haven't in a while.

Loved: Trust; The Remains of the Day; Katalin Street; Besieged: Life Under Fire on a Sarajevo Street; The Island of Forgetting; Whale Rider; Libertie; The World's Wife.

(Plagiarizing my own goodreads notes for some of these.)

Trust was like a nesting egg; stories within stories within stories. Each section was like peeling back a layer that revealed a tangled mess of fabrication and truth. A touch predictable in terms of the 'big reveal' but also managed to dodge expectation in terms of how we got there. The Island of Forgetting struck a nerve within me. Maybe it was that push/pull of small island life, being in love with a place that might not love you back, wanting to get out more than anything, wanting to stay, needing to leave in order to grow in some fundamental way. Whatever it was, it spoke to me. Plus 100,000 points for the use of 'vex' lmao. I hadn't realised there were other places aside from Bermuda that still threw it out from time to time. That put a smile on my face. I read Whale Rider right when I needed something a little more irreverent and this hit the spot. Humourous and warm without being saccharine. Oodles of reread potential in The World's Wife. I mean, it features a poem about the amorous desires of Mrs King Kong, so what's not to love?

Special Mention to: Days Without End: absolutely stunning and inventive prose, but difficult to sustain it for a novel's length of story. By Nightfall: similarly gorgeous, witty prose, but occasionally tilts into pretentiousness. The Bass Rock: fun (somehow), but also incredibly depressing and bleak! Like Fleabag but with more gothic horror and murder rate statistics. Silence: one that hooked me, but I didn't fully feel connected to it. Some of the more religious aspects went over my head.

Did not Enjoy: Crawdads; ACOTAR; It Ends With Us; The Cellist of Sarajevo; The Unquiet Dead; Verity; Novelist As A Vocation.

Ragging on Colleen Hoover's works seems like low hanging fruit at this point, so I'll gloss over the details and just say they weren't for me. Two back to back duds as I explored the Balkans in literature: Cellist was flat as cardboard. No sense of place or personness in Galloway's writing. Just dry, dry, dry. I was hoping reading The Unquiet Dead might be a balm (in as much as reading about war crimes can be a balm...) because the premise sounded like a unique take on an old formula. Taking each 'ingredient' of the story individually, it should have been a rich feast for thought, but instead it was a hot, wooden, misogynistic mess. One of the main POVs is a female detective who just seethes whenever she has to interact with another woman and it's very quickly it's apparent that this isn't the character's internalised misogyny but an issue of the writing. The number of times boobs are hatefully acknowledged and described is cartoonish. Went into the Murakami essays hoping for... insight? I know that's not really his style, so more fool me I suppose, but it would have been nice to have *something* more substantive that what we got in Novelist as a Vocation. I get being stymied by the prospect of writing about writing; when your process is somewhere between flinging ideas at the wall to see what sticks and then buckling down and grinding out words, there's not a lot of compelling meat to talk about. But all the same, this collection was... wishywashy.

Let's end on a high! Animorphs. Yes. I have a box of these in my parents cellar and despite the dated 90s references, they are still bananas fun. This one featured tiny egomaniacal aliens who immediately kill their leader upon election, so that their reputation isn't tainted by poor decision making. Very sane and normal.

[hummingbird-hunter]

ok wait maybe I'm not lazy (because I'm a lil bit insane!)

Jose Mauro (Google him tho his whole story is fucking insane ngl!) Makes I think stuff in Portuguese.

Kit Sebastian makes stuff in I think English & French?

Azymuth is a Brazilian funk/jazz trio.

Arthur Verocai is Brazilian as well, he's made some cool stuff.

Lily Allen did a version of Smile in Simlish which is always fun if you have both in your playlist because it's a horrible 50/50!

The Mauskovic dance band is an interesting band, I think they're from the US?

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble is like 8 siblings and a random dude they hired to be a drummer, really good band, Ballicki Bone is very good.

I'm not sure what language it is but Haydar Haydar by Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek is fun.

Out Of Reach by Klaus Johan Grobe is in German?

People, Let's Dance by Public Service Broadcasting & EERA is in German.

I think Men I Trust has stuff in Quebec French.

Utu by Eno X Dirty is a bop.

Sonos Cor De Rosa by Tiawa is Spanish & English.

Sudan Archives is in English but she makes really fun & interesting art pop especially in her current album cycle.

CASIOPEA is Japanese like Jazz, Mint Jams is a really good place to start.

MF DOOM & BadBadNotGood's song for GTA is partially in Spanish.

Also Madvillian by Madvilliany is one of the best albums I've ever gotten to listen to.

SAULT makes amazing music, they've pit out a crazy amount of music since 2019.

Birds Of Paradise by Karnan Saba & Hone Be Good is really good. (I really like the label it came from)

Ethel Cain's debut Preacher's Album is definitely something, I loved it, be warned it's fucked up, and long.

Pip Millet has a series of Amazing EP's, still need to listen to the album though).

MĀ has an amazing album (Breakfast with Hades).

Deltron 3030 by Deltron 3030 is a great album.

Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones) by Jai Paul is amazing, it's a tragedy that it ruined his creative drive.

Caroline Polachek has done 2 art pop records under her own name, both are amazing.

Ravenna has made some beautiful music.

Ayonha by Hamid Al Shaeri got me into Arabic Jazz.

Balkan - Honey and Blood by Jordi Savall is a really investing album, idek how i found it.

La Sabotesue by Yazz Ahmed is a really good album.

Dub Yalil by Natacha Atlas is just, an amazing song.

Cosmic Funk by Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes is good, my brother loves it and he has amazing taste.

Todo De Ti is really good pop, it's all in Spanish but I'm surprised it didn't get a Dua Lipa remix.

The Nu Deco Ensemble version of I Am The Antichrist to You by Kishi Bashi is beautiful. but haunting

Rosalia's Motomami is amazing. Hentai is a really beautiful song.

Celeste's album "Not Your Muse" was a really good listen.

All You Get From Love Is A Love Song & Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft (The Recognized Anthem of World Contact Day) made me desperately to find this album from The Carpenters.

If you're feeling Horny the remix of Wizz by Coucou Chloe is fun, same with the Cupcakke remix of Good Puss. Also anything off Alias by Shygirl.

Roisin & Crooked Machine are great albums.

Tinashe's 333 is an amazing album, it's so good.

Orville Peck is gay country music.

Revulva is an 8 piece jazz band, Stop Pulling On My (Hair) is so pop though.

Lava La Rue makes amazing (and very queer music).

If I Sleep by Dystopia hits really hard.

Code by The Comet Is Coming had my friend jamming out because it sounds like the comet is coming.

I Feel Love by Donna Summer is one of the most important songs in moden music history and its so fucking good.

Nia Archives makes jungle, it's Drum & Bass but more fun.

Giving Up Air was a really nice EP by Bloodmoon, amazing production.

Julia Jacklin & Stella Donnely are both kinda sad Australians, thank you land of Muck for these artists. And the story of Engadine Maccas in 1997.

TRYON by Slowthai is really amazing, espech the A/B side differences.

Blood Orange's 4 songs are a nice chilled out 4 songs.

Self Esteem, I too do this all the time, but yet I don't Prioritize Pleasure.

She's So Kind by Harve is the sibling song of Theirs13 by JGrrey, both artists wrote the songs about eachother, truly a queer love story.

Wolf Alice's Blue Weekend has some moments more Blue than others.

The Danger Mouse & Black Thought album is well produced, with amazing features. Do not skip Strangers.

Doomsday by MF DOOM is an essential song, same with Nobody by Nas & Ms. Lauryn Hill, also recommended is One Mic, One Gun by Nas and 21 Savage.

Body Dysmorphia. by RAYE is such a constant mood!

this is the hits from my like 7.3k song spotify playlist

Thank you I am saving this

[mashmouths]

has anyone on this website heard "balkan bass" by sam and the womp feat. mista trick bc there are 3 posts total and only one has audio and it's a soundcloud link with 0 notes. where is the love for 2018 instant classic "balkan bass" by sam and the womp featuring mista trick. where is your feminism.

[daegulinekush]

The death of peace of mind

~ A Kim Taehyung fanfiction

Chapter one: ★ I hope my last breath is a sigh of relief ★

Contains: underage smoking, smoking, reference to past events (will be discovered later), reference to (lack of) mental health, drinking, some nakedness (?), drunk OC, Balkan culture insert, some cursing, Jimin can be a meanie T-T

(please tell me if I forgot anything)

The multicolored lights are swirling around the otherwise dark room, landing on different bodies and different clothes, sparks of green, red and blue all around. It’s a typical Friday night, to put it like that. It isn’t the first time me, Jimin and Taehyung get out at questionable hours, when the Moon has already rised high in the sky and the street lamps along with the ones of the closed shops make everything somehow seem even more magical.

It’s the way we’ve always gone through life, in a way, taking everything in strides, solving things as they come and making the best out of them.

Finals have been a pain this year and even more, the exam for getting into University have got us with anxiety brimming over the roof. The tension taking over all of our bodies and minds is something we must relieve as fast as possible, the creases in the foreheads and the bags under the eyes along with sparkles dimming along with the informational dump we did on ourselves and lost nights of sleep make us look somewhat older.

Maybe it’s normal to look older, considering the new phase of life we’re all entering together. It’s a huge luck, in all honesty, that all three of us are the same age. Universe truly couldn’t have us be separated, it seems like.

It makes sense. I don’t know what I would have done without any of those two, but even more without Taehyung. After all, not losing my sanity entirely during those last four years and even the four before those have been mostly his doing, even as we have been more separated than together in the first part of our lives.

The music or, better said, the bass of it shakes my whole heart and guides my body to the rhythm. It’s quite hypnotizing and as always, I know most of this night will be a blur of feelings and laughter. I’m not limiting myself anymore tonight, safely kept under the eyes of the two men I trust most in my life.

The music already makes adrenaline thrum through my veins, along with the pre-drinking game me and Jimin had before going out, each drowning a few shots of soju. I wasn’t such a fan of it, it never truly rubbed on me, the drink itself, as I’m more of the sweet alcohol kind of enjoyer, but I could never refuse a shot - especially when I genuinely felt the need to stop my mind from working after it raced constantly for a too extended period of time. Even less could I refuse when he swore up and down this one is sweeter than the usual one, as he decided to entertain me with the mix of soju and sakura blossoms with a bit of cherry. It did feel less like I was drinking straight up sanitary alcohol, the supposed burn on the throat not a problem, but still not a favorite of mine.

Getting over the alcohol problem and how different mine and Jimin’s tastes are for it, what I do vaguely remember and will probably not forget for quite a few days is me trying desperately to fix my eyeliner - a feat in itself with my obvious white genes and hooded eyes - already wearing a crop top tight on my skin, so tiny it basically almost made my chest spill from it with black bra and all, along with some too ripped jeans to be for anything else than partying. The heavy boots I was wearing had thick platforms and helped me gain around an inch, but those boys always seem to forget I am much shorter than them expect for the occasions they find to tease me about it - with Jimin as main bully. So yes, I do remember very clearly the coldness of the sink when they a bit too enthusiastically and hurriedly told me to move faster while basically squishing me and forcing the edge of the cold sink to almost dig into my exposed abdomen, just as well as I remember the space being too tiny, Jimin’s front of the jeans brushing unintentionally over my ass and the way I snapped at them to get out before I strangle someone.

That being said, I obviously don’t remember how we got there, in this club - is that really a club or just a basement someone tried so hard to make a club out of?

It doesn’t truly matter either. We’re here to dance and get drunk however you take it.

Jimin is lost somewhere in the crowd as I remain close to Tae - or he sticks to my side, I can’t even be sure of which one is the case with how oftenly we are together - and I spot him easily with my gaze, a few meters away, lights shining on him as they always do, his head thrown back as his hair slick with sweat makes him look even better, his already large and exposing sleeveless shirt somehow pooled (wrapped?) around his hips as my cheeky friend enjoys the swirl of women around him, one with dirty blonde hair, letting the slight yellow-brownish liquid of what seems like beer with the foam it makes slowly glide over his chiseled chest and between the lines of his abdomen as he dares chuckle and even pull his pants the tiniest bit lower with his fingers wrapped around his buckle.

Shameless, more than usual, and I can only blame it on the stress he’s wnet through, maybe even more than us, with his constant need of being the best in what he does and being his parents’ proudness. It always makes me wonder who’s the worse influence: me, with my crazy ideas steemed out of endless balkan normal activities deemed as bad ideas and good memories, as I have grown in an entirely different culture, or him, with his impossible tolerance to alcohol and the way he loses himself when it comes to a party he feels comfortable during?

I rip my eyes from the way both sweat and alcohol drip from Jimin’s skin in favor of seeing my childhood bestfriend - Taehyung - with his green tips and slightly long hair, bangs falling onto his forehead, his black leather jacket barely hanging onto one of his shoulders, the wideness of them making him look more masculine with every new year passing. He’s tall, way taller than me, in the way I can’t even reach his shoulder without wearing heels. This time, I barely brush them, as he’s decided to wear sneakers. He looks as good as always, with the way one of the corners of his lips curl upwards in what seems like a smirk at first, but I know better, as his dark eyes sparkle slightly and his big hand reaches for mine slowly. It’s easy to give in when it comes to him, it’s always been easy and I’ve always adored giving into the moments of slight goofiness as he grips my hand in such a gentle way, always gentle and warm, just like him, his fingertips merely pinching mine as he makes me twirl and then pulls me closer with his other arm be wrapping it around my lower back in a way that lets me feel the coldness of the leather barely brushing my skin, but never actually touching it properly nor pressing.

Blurs like this one are something I live for. The simple feeling of losing yourself in a crowd, in happiness, while also knowing that whatever will happen I don’t have to worry about anything around me and I can just soak in those feelings. Somehow, it feels like time is endless and so am I with it.

It’s not the first time I feel like this, like me and him are the only ones mattering and existing in this world. On the contrary, it’s became more and more common since we started living under the same roof four years ago. It’s maybe the way he smiles at me, the way his lips twitch first and his eyes crinkle at the corners just for his teeth to entirely be showed in a boxy smile that makes his cheeks look even fuller, just warmth emanating from every pore of him. Maybe it’s the way he has to bend down so much to be at almost the same level with me, yet it never seems to bother him, how time has put so many centimeters between our bodies. Maybe it’s simply the way we sway together and as the song changes, air becomes electrified and we dance more and more, swirl more and more with each other, always so in tune with the other’s movements. The way he gives into my way of moving too, the way he’s always been my number one support, the way he never makes fun of me for wishing to show my culture instead of inhibiting it or even try dances from other cultures I grew up surrounded by, be it from media or other ways.

Just like now, as the songs become more and more repetitive and in a burst of moment, an impulsiveness, making me go and change the song with one the majority are not used to at all, the oriental rhythm taking over my body in such a natural way, one I know since little.

The song is Albanian, a definitive change to the korean r&b that was put, the trumpets strange for the ones not used to this. For me, though, they are like breathing, like dancing is for Jimin, like paint and photography are for Taehyung, and being with those two has always made me more comfortable in my skin, even in a sea of people who might scrunch their noses in disgust instead of having the openness to try different things.

It’s not any different now. Taehyung knows very well the way I move, just as I know his, the endless nights when we would dance together in the kitchen with his siblings looking at us curiously and his mother inevitably laughing and taking it all in deeply imprinted in our memories. Days when the homesickness would be too much for me, when he would do anything to pull a smile out of me, when nights of silent crying alone will never truly end alone, as if he was able to sense when the worst parts of me would swallow the best, trying to rot them.

It’s the way it became memory muscle, maybe, to bend my knees and twist my hips in synchron with his as we drop at the same time and then pull ourselves right back up. It’s the way our feet move fastly but don’t knock into each other anymore. It’s the way his long fingers intertwine with mine and I can feel his huge hand swallowing mine in it’s strengthening grip, knowing better than to let go of me for this one. It’s the way my mind can still recite in my ears the sweet thump our feet used to make on the wooden floor back home with every harsh hit specific to this dance. Or maybe it’s just the way I grip better his hand, to the point our very bones seem to want to mingle together, to make space for each other and become one as he bends himself at the waist with his jacket on one of his shoulders and makes a harsh flutter out of it, heavy and bursting so much happiness within me that I can’t help but let my head fall back and my hair tickle my shoulders as I laugh whole heartedly.

There’s no better feeling than having him by my side. Even as Jimin is his soulmate, I have never felt more complete than with my bear, my sweetest honey. He’s the very life buzzing through my veins, the most human parts of me, the brightest of lights shining through my cracks. He’s such a heavy part of me that the moment his breath will stop, I will force mine to do so too.

There’s no life without him and I am deeply convinced of that. No matter who will come into my life, into my soul, they will never have the same impact as he has on me. Not when with him, I learnt the best how to not back down, how to not waver, how proudness truly feels like. Not when he’s seen me at my very worst and has been my very backbone, when he’s someone my very heart and life has stood on the hands of for so long.

As colors and moves blur together, as my head becomes dizier and dizier, swirling around and Jimin comes back to us, the scent of all kinds of alcohol etched into his skin from his previous games, I can feel all of the stress leaving my mind and my body. Jimin is already holding a bottle of something I do not recognize in his hand, a firm grasp over the still not opened bottle, the etiquette of it entirely blurred to my eyes. Better said, I did not care enough to focus on the mark nor the contents of the new object, focused rather on the way Taehyung’s fingers fish into the back pocket of his jeans for the obvious: a pack of cigarettes.

If with Jimin I am not sure which one of us is the worse influence, with Taehyung I am sure it’s me. Sometimes, I think that maybe he wouldn’t have smoked if I wasn’t enough of a fool to let him try a cigarette and actually teach him how to drag the toxic smoke into his lungs. Maybe if I, myself, have not been foolish enough to start smoking at 14, both due to cultural things I have grown up with and the events that had taken place dragging me to my only actual addiction, maybe then he wouldn’t have smoked right now. The only contentment I am left with on this subject is the fact that he’s not smoking a lot unless under heavy stress and as such, I don’t stress much on the guilt trying to take over my mind, rather preferring to admire the way his slender fingers pull out one of the cigarettes. I have never exactly understood his reason for not keeping the filter between his pointer and middle finger, many times teasing him about how he’s making it look like he’s smoking anything but mere, legal tabbacoo from the way he hold it. Needless to say, it hasn’t changed his way of holding the flimsy tube. It is funny, though, to see how small it looks in his hands anyways. How tiny and breakable.

Without a word, I simply pull another one from his pack, Volvo, as I steal the lighter from his very same hand. I can literally feel his amused yet burning gaze on me as I inhale deeply the toxic smoke, then let it slowly leave my lips, my red lipstick sticking to the filter as I pull the cigarette from my mouth.

“What?” I kind of scream so he would hear me over the loud music. I can hear Jimin snickering by me left side, right between me and Taehyung, but I pay it no mind.

“Stop stealing my cigs. You’ve got your own” his voice is deep, deeper than the bass of the flimsy song playing now. It was a shock that my mind somehow still took sometimes, once in a while. After all, I’ve known him for so long that I am one of the few people who actually remembers very well how his voice used to sound before puberty hit him. Smoking has somehow got it even raspier, even if it’s not been long since he started.

“What’s yours is also mine” I could feel my lips splitting in a the cockiest of grins ever. “Especially when I’m the reason you could avoid mom killing you in the first place, or have you already forgotten that for her, this is /my/ pack of cigs?”

It was impossible to not tease him endlessly about it. We all knew his mom would have his head if she heard he started smoking. She’s even found his pack of cigarettes in his jacket. As his best friend, of course I warned him that if she ever is to ask about it, it’s mine. It’s also very believable and easy to get over with, as she knows I started smoking way too early and the reasons behind, just like she knows this protective bear has always got something on him to cover me with in case of cold.

Years might pass and we might change, but some things will always remain the same, which is in some way incredibly comforting. One of those things is how adorable his smile is and the way he pouts at my teasing when he realizes I’m right - like now, his lips a bit red and pushed out.

“If you’re going to smoke I’m literally gonna leave. Don’t want the stink on me” Jimin frowned. He’s scolded us already a thousand times for this and even as I know he’s right, I also frankly don’t wanna hear it. The way I entered my teenage years was already terribly messy and this is truly the easiest of ways I’ve coped with it all. In all honesty, I could have done a lot worse.

Inevitably, both me and Taehyung decide to move to a corner of the room, closer to the exit, where more people smoked, as for the ‘stink’ to get out easier, faster.

Not like that could kill the mood. No, quite the contrary, because of the quite too many people there, we ended up being even closer, bodies so close they were almost glued. It has passed some times since we’ve been quite this close physically, but it happened so naturally, the slight distance, that I haven’t remarked until now, not truly.

It made sense for the slight limits to be build, though. After all, he had a girlfriend and they had been together since the second year of highschool. She was a bit older than him, I have met her on the pass. I didn’t necessarily like her that much but it didn’t matter as she was making him happy. He’s been sparkling for quite some time and as much as she wasn’t the reason behind his sadness, I didn’t mind. I simply want him happy, appreciated to his true value.

It would be a shitty move for me to not back down a bit, even as his best friend. I am still a girl and I do understand very clearly that some things are just not to be done. We also did grow up, after all. It can’t be the same as it was before and it’s normal, but that doesn’t make it bad. We are just as close, just in different ways, after all.

Want it or not, the adrenaline and pre-game got me slightly buzzed. Feeling free after so long definitely gets one to feel different, in a good way. As I pull another smoke from the cigarette, my eyes fall on the way smoke leave’s Taehyung’s, his shoulders slightly crouched, along with his chin downwards to his chest, a strand of his hair falling over his forehead as his back slightly touches the wall behind.

The crowd is quite chaotic here and I can feel his other had on my hip, pulling me closer to him. I can feel a breath being pulled out of my lungs, the only reason I recognize it as being his hand being how used I am to him. It surprises me, gets me a bit out of balance, and my own hands are pushed in front of me to find something to grasp onto, out of possible habit clutching to his wide shoulders and putting myself back onto my own feet.

He smells of sweat and cologne, dark and yet fresh, masculine in a way that’s so comforting, so homey, cozy. If warmth had  a smell, that would be Taehyung.

The song is another than I was aware of a few minutes ago, one I know we both enjoy, and just by the slight arch of his eyebrow I can tell already what he’s trying to signal me. Silent, without any words needed because there’s no need for one.

Fondness. I truly can’t help it, can’t help the way it washes over me, the way I shake my head and roll my eyes, but I wrap my arm around his middle anyways and pull myself closer to him, by his side, our hips rolling and moving with the rhythm of the song, left and right, time passing by.

I’m not sure how the time passes. I don’t know how the songs blend together nor do I know if I’m even real as the lights and adrenaline of being finally free, even for just one night, blind my mind until the moment from a slow sway of bodies I feel the contrast of coldness creeping up my spine and warmth at the front, forced to open my eyes instead of continuing to lose myself.

It’s still him close to me, the same Taehyung, but this time his jacket is entirely off from his shoulders, sleeves wrapped around his middle. He’s more touchy than usual, even as I know he hasn’t put one drop of alcohol on his tongue, the usual of lately, but time does happen to drift people apart as things pile up. It’s been so long since we’ve had our once usually weekly night of marathons and spilling tea, talking about everything and anything that came to our minds, nights that usually ended up in us falling asleep in the same bed, cuddled together, both refusing to let go.

His eyes are like the sky itself would be in a totally isolated part of this world, away from all the artificial lights, sparkling with such force that they seem to hold entire galaxies, all the stars in the universe, while also being so dark, so focused. I’ve always loved his eyes, the expresiveness of them. I also loved the way they had always looked at me with warmth, trust, openness.

Never have I expected for them to ever feel…heavy. Dark in a way that wasn’t just because I was teasing him or pissed him with something and he was ready to scold me, but for a reason unknown to me.

Cornered. I was basically cornered and if it had been someone else, another man, my body would have gone into fight mode, I would have kicked, would have searched for a way to escape.

Yet, this was Taehyung. Taehyung, whom I trust more than I trust myself. So I wasn’t frightened nor was I worried. Panic didn’t lick up my spine, especially not as even in his moves his hands have been careful as to not have me making a painful contact with the wall, one of his arms around my back and the other behind my head. It was hard to fear someone you’ve literally slept squished under, feeling his warmth seep into your very bones and soul.

The one behind my head moved as to prop his body onto the wall, by the side of it, I could see it with the corner of my eye the place where it sprawled his long fingers over the wall, while the other I could feel slightly gripping at the part that wasn’t exposed from my hip, the high waisted jeans definitely helping in that aspect.

I wasn’t sure what happened to get to this point. Maybe it was too crowded and someone had almost knocked into me without me realizing, as it wouldn’t be the first time something like this has happened, just like it wouldn’t be the first time he would pull me away to avoid such an incident.

So why did it feel heavier? Why is my whole body electrified, why is my heart beating like that? It’s hard to breath and yet it feels so good, the closeness, the way he leans more into me, the way the tips of our noses touch.

Maybe, deep within myself, I’ve missed being close to him, without limits, without worrying about his girlfriend taking it the wrong way. The way we used to be.

The tips of our noses rub together in soft affection and I can feel his hand cupping my cheek, closing my eyes to relish in the warmth of it all, more or less voluntary a smile blooming onto my lips, even as he slightly tilts my chin. He smells of tobacco and a slight tint of strawberry, even his breath is warm.

The ache I feel is for the old times, right? For how this reminds me of them, of thousand of nights spent curled up together, of the times when there was no care for what others might believe of our closeness or our friendship…right?

“We should go back to Jimin” I whisper, even as there’s heaviness on my chest, one I truly can’t explain from where it comes. “Someone might see us and think the wrong thing”

Because I truly don’t want to put his girlfriend in such a position, in the position where she wonders, where she deals with maybe rised insecurities. I don’t want to provoke her heartbreak nor get between them. As much as Taehyung is happy, so am I.

“It wouldn’t be the first time people take our friendship the wrong way” and even with all of this loud music, it feels like the noise is just that: background noise, his voice the only one mattering.

He’s right. I know he is. Many had taken our friendship for more than it is, teasing about how it can’t be true for our friendship to be just that. Just because of our sexes. Just because technically, we could be attracted to each other.

“I know” and yet, even if I know, even if it wouldn’t matter if anyone else would have thought of it as literally any point, I still searched in the crowd for Jimin. “Let’s go. Yo, Chim!” I screamed over the crowd as we moved. “I bet I can down more shots than you!”

Doom. Those words truly had been the way the night went more or less downhills. It wasn’t the first time I was trying to out-drink Jimin and it surely wouldn’t be the last, each time leaving Taehyung to take care of our asses, but it was just something about it that rose competitiveness within me everytime my God complex went a bit too far, maybe.

Shot after shot of things I can’t and won’t bother remembering, I could feel my mind buzzing more and more, the warmth and dizziness of alcohol setting in more into my bones, along with a weird slugishness.

From there, I can remember just fragments. I remember at some point dancing between Jimin and Taehyung, deciding to go home when the streets were already way too empty, for once the city almost quiet, except the cars - at least in this zone of Seoul.

We all knew it wouldn’t last much either. We had to pass some bridges, somehow deciding walking was a ‘good idea’ - it was totally not, but at least we were together in it.

Getting out of the huge mass of sweaty bodies was the first step to make - one which happened with a lot of pushes, pulls and quite blurred everything.

Once outside, with the cold air of the night hitting my face, I felt my brain slightly scrambling itself together, none of us actually so drunk we got a blackout or something - never gonna be /that/ reckless. My boots were making harsh sounds against the pavement as I slightly struggled to walk.

“Got so pretty for nothing. You promised you’d take photos of me, TaeTae, and all I got was you and Chim knocking me into the sink!” I couldn’t help but grumble, definitely not satisfied at all with the prospect of ending this night with no photo.

Maybe I was being too sensitive from the alcohol, but a promise is a promise and it bugged me. It truly bugged me, the thought that maybe he’s said it just for the hell of it or out of habit, even as I know he’d never promise me something he can’t fullfil. Maybe this is exactly why it bugged me so much.

Lucky or not, both me and Jimin had some cans of juice to drink, more empty than anything with the thirst that followed and Taehyung bugging at us to drown the juice. Jimin was more awake and more composed than me, but I didn’t feel /that/ drunk either.

I was merely hanging onto Taehyung’s arm, my own wrapped around it, in order to keep myself warm - which led to him simply putting his jacket onto me, as it usually happens.

I heard Jimin laughing, a “Yah! You forgot about your promise, Tae!” leaving his lips.

As the good friend he is, I pulled the phone from his pocket and fixed it on my empty can, moving back to at least take some decent photos after I set the timer.

With the world slightly swirling around me, I inevitably almost stepped on his poor phone - which led to yet another one of our usual bantings.

"Why my phone?! No, my phone, don't —"

Messy. This night could be any messier? 

Laughter and blurred lights and just as blurred roads and steps, our voices maybe a bit too loud for the almost silent city, along with the late (early?) hour, but it didn't matter to us.

"I didn't get to take any photos! Jimin, this is your fault!"

"How's it my fault that you broke my phone?!"

"I didn't break it!"

"You almost did!"

"Almost! I would have bought you a new one if I did!"

"You better would have! You should have!"

"Then why don't /you/ take some photos of me! Or what, am I not attractive enough to be your muse or something?" I basically anything but hissed at him.

"I'd rather fuck a rat, in all honesty"

"You little shit—"

I ended up inevitably squished between Taehyung and Jimin, Jimin's hand around my hip, his fingers firm on the skin. Unlike Taehyung, who had his arm around my shoulder and insistently pulled for some reason at his already huge jacket to cover me better — probably because of the cold of the night — and seemed keen in not touching me too much.

"So, what was that between the two of you?" Jimin broke the silence as we strutted over the bridge from one side of the road to the other.

"What do you mean?" I couldn't help but ask. With all of the stuff that happened tonight and in general with his cryptic way of words, it was hard for me to tell what Jimin was referring to.

"The way you were so close. Taehyung, you have a girl-"

"And me and ____ are just friends". His voice was more gruff than usual, seemingly tired.

"My feet hurt" I couldn't help but whine, the heels suddenly not so worth it anymore, no matter how comfy when sober.

"It didn't seem like so and I'm pretty sure someone could have taken a photo of you two in that position and—" Jimin started rambling.

Yet, Taehyung was crouching in front of me as I struggled to take off my boots, feeling the pain literally burst through my feet in harsh waves.

"You can't walk like that, _____, there could be anything on the road—"

"Then carry me!" I whined, high pitched and annoyed. "Piggyback me home" I pouted at him, flaring my arms around helplessly.

Warmth. There was warmth again in his gaze, along with a chuckle, and just a few moments after I was happily snuggled at his back, his fingers gripping close to my knees.

We used to do this a lot when we were younger, in all honesty.

Finally arriving home — mine and Taehyung's, Jimin's being close by — I was simply let to fall softly into the bed, more like slip down bit by bit like a slime until I was comfortably taking over the entirety of it.

They were talking, but I could barely register their voices anymore, already tired enough to simply fall asleep.

Do I truly need to explain the headache I felt the next day? It would be easier than explaining how by some kind of miracle Jimin's phone had got to take some good photos of me, but pretty worthless.

Hey, petals! This was the first chapter of this fic. I hope you liked it and anything regarding it is welcome and even asked! (Reblogs, tags, asks etc)

I would love to see how you felt or what impressions you have over OC/Jimin/Taehyung!

Tagging @naomihatake because I couldn't have done this without her encouraging me and also tagging @parkdatjimin because this sweet angel said she wanna see it 🥺 👉👈