#Retro Digital Melancholy

[dratedvisions]

a path that leads nowhere

[gokaiu]

[help-an-alter]

hello

I believe i might be a fragment in need of help

I dont really have a solid name, but i have been considering something like Guest_File.txt

Themes are melancholy, rain, weirdcore and nostalgia

hey! _File.txt or just .txt can be added to any of these if that’s the vibe you’d like to stay with! i hope this helps!

names : storm, synth, celeste, mika, almond, exa, digit, neo, dial, radio, tick, gale, levin(a), styrmir, tempest, euria, kisa, moe, breeze, caelus, dalphon, cloud, chip, dell, cisco, caelum, boo, casper, caesar

pronouns : stat/static/staticself, glitch/glitches/glitchself, jpeg/jpegs/jpegself, rat/rats/ratself, crypt/cryptic/crypticself, web/webs/webself, wei/weird/weirdself, amb/bient/ambientself, melan/cholic/melancholicself, stra/ange/strangeself, ne/neon/neonself, joy/joys/joystick(self), ze/hir/hirself

comfort : old video games, playing with emulators, older movies, retro fashion, grandpa sweaters, rain sounds, old cartoons

[musicarenagh]

Dr Dawsound's "Amor De Verano": A Dizzying Spell of Romanticism With the radiance of a beachside sunset captured in melody, Dr Dawsound's "Amor De Verano" is a sonic cocktail that intoxicates with its bubbly charm and seductive beats. Infusing the zest of dance-pop with the retro flair of classic pop Latino, this single is an effervescent ode to ephemeral summer loves, wrapped tenderly in English verses and caressed by a Spanish chorus so alluring it could coax the stars closer to Earth. https://open.spotify.com/track/5tz5PqPsuQClHTNjf7gzig?si=c6af2b48c46049c1 The heartbeats of Marseille pulsate throughout this love letter as Dr Dawsound—the one-man orchestra—crafts every beat and harmony in his intimate home studio. The result? A dizzying spell of romanticism tailor-made for windswept hair and sandy toes. Daniela Rivera’s mixing touch turns waves into symphonies, fixing each layer with surgical precision yet preserving the raw emotion penned across this digital canvas—a testament to modern creativity’s boundless reach through platforms like Soundbetter. Like lovers' names etched on the shoreline, there’s beauty tinged with sorrow; as Rivera ensures each note crashes gracefully onto our eardrums before receding into silent longing. [caption id="attachment_54643" align="alignnone" width="2000"] Dr Dawsound's "Amor De Verano": A Dizzying Spell of Romanticism[/caption] With feet tapping rhythmically to reggaeton-inspired vibrations that echo legends á la Ricky Martin or Shakira during their heyday—with just a twist more electro-synths—the track insists not merely on movement but unbridled joy. Rippling beneath are rivers deep: themes gloss over life's luminescence against shadowy impermanence; melodies become memories reincarnated from fleeting kisses stolen between laughter and whispers shared under canopies woven from starlight. In "Amor De Verano," we taste salt on sun-warmed lips—an auditory piña colada rich enough for connoisseurs yet accessible as sand grains scattered wide upon love's endless beach. This song isn’t just heard; it envelops you like warmth brought forth by July ardor—it forces an inner reckoning whether to dance along obliviously or close your eyes — savoring sweet melancholy behind closed lids — knowing soon autumn will chase away balmy nights, leaving only echoes where passion once danced unabashedly beneath summer skies. Follow Dr Dawsound on Website, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.

[butchyy]

Took these pics

[jugofuturizam]

intentionally offensive / vibe and wave

[legacy-of]

Guillotine. Collage - 208 Vincent Cann production. My collection.

[capitanmorgancyberzine]

COMPARTMENT No 6  by Juho Kuosmanen

Original title “Hytti nro 6″. A nostalgic story recalling the last years before the advent of digital technology, the 1990s. A film on the road, narrated with particular attention to human feelings. They freely adapted compartment No 6 from Richard Linklater's novel “Before Sunrise”. Film debut, Cannes 2021.

The film takes place on a train journey between Moscow and Murmansk. The main character Laura (Seidi Haarla), a Finnish student studying Russian in Moscow, finds herself on the cusp of a love affair with her landlady, Irina (Dinara Drukarova), and so Laura willingly embarks on a journey to Murmansk on an almost surreal mission to see some rare cave paintings in the region and to find out how she feels. Laura discovers she has to share her second-class berth with a tough-looking Russian, Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov). Her first impressions are not positive: Ljoha, a young Russian on his way to the mines for a new job, is tense, drinks vodka and smokes. Laura spends the beginning of the journey trying unsuccessfully to get away from him. But things change during an overnight stop after which, and not because of any peculiar revelation, they wake up as friends.

The director skilfully and meticulously recreates the retro-western environment of late-1990s Russia in such a complete and enveloping way that one can hardly imagine the smell of the compartments and the chills of cold draughts entering the obsolete carriage doors. The filming, focused on the past but shot with modern technology, confirms a remarkable mastery of handheld, non- intrusive filming that quietly cares about its characters without ever idealizing them. Two actors portray the ordinary and are extraordinary in this. The role of Haarla, the protagonist, is more subtle, her almost palpable insecurity constantly contrasting with the quiet self-confidence of her travelling companion Ljoha. In opposite, Borisov as Ljoha buries his soul under a restless, constant physicality. Admirable in conveying the smallest of changes in the chemistry between the characters, and together, one expects love to blossom.

Compartment No. 6 is full of surprises. It is not just a monotonous and poignant work that evokes a deep nostalgia for rather loneliness or melancholy that is gone lost, for which only a certain love was the cure. The film vindicates in a crystal-clear way, with a nod to the analogue, that period just before the digital revolution put a mobile phone in the pockets of every one of us and that we as a species lost the ability to be truly alone and able to live with ourselves and relate to each other in a less frenetic way and especially in the absence of electronic devices.

Director: Juho Kuosmanen

Actors: Seidi Haarla, Yuri Borisov

Countries: Finland/Estonia/Germany/Russia

Year: 2021

Runtime: 107 Min.

Ita -->

Titolo originale “Hytti nro 6″. Vicenda nostalgica che richiama gli ultimi anni prima dell’avvento del digitale ovvero gli anni Novanta. Un film on the road narrato con particolare attenzione verso i sentimenti umani. Compartment No 6 é liberamente tratto dal romanzo di Richard Linklater: “Before Sunrise”. Il film debutta a Cannes 2021

Il film si sviluppa in un viaggio in treno tra Mosca e Murmansk. La protagonista Laura (Seidi Haarla), una studentessa finlandese che studia russo a Mosca, si ritrova all’ apice di una relazione amorosa con la sua affittuaria, Irina (Dinara Drukarova) per questo motivo Laura intraprende volentieri un viaggio verso Murmansk in una missione quasi surreale per vedere alcune rare pitture rupestri della regione. Laura si troverà  a dividere la sua cuccetta di seconda classe con un russo dall'aspetto duro, Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov). Le prime impressioni non sono buone: Ljoha, è un giovane russo in viaggio verso delle miniere per un nuovo lavoro si presenta teso, nervoso, beve vodka e fuma. Laura, trascorre l’inizio del viaggio cercando senza successo di allontanarsi da lui. Ma le cose cambiano durante una sosta notturna dopo la quale, e non a causa di qualche rivelazione particolare, si svegliano come amici.

Il regista sapientemente e minuziosamente ricrea l'ambiente retro-occidentale della Russia di fine anni '90 in modo così completo e avvolgente che non si fa fatica a immaginare l'odore degli scompartimenti e i brividi dati dalle correnti d'aria fredda che entrano dalle porte obsolete delle carrozze. Le riprese incentrate sul passato ma realizzate con le tecnologie moderne, confermano una notevole mestria di ripresa a mano, non intrusiva che si preoccupa tranquillamente dei suoi personaggi senza mai idealizzarli.I due attori sono straordinari nel ritrarre l'ordinario. Il ruolo di Haarla, la protagonista, è più sottile, la sua quasi palpabile insicurezza  è costantemente in contrasto con la tranquilla autostima del suo compagno di viaggio Ljoha. Invece Borisov nel ruolo di Ljoha, seppellisce la sua anima sotto una fisicità inquieta e costante. Ammirevoli nel trasmettere il più piccolo dei cambiamenti nella chimica tra i personaggi, e insieme, infatti ci si aspetta che sbocci un amore.

Compartment No. 6 sa essere pieno di sorprese, non è solo un opera monotona e struggente che evoca una profonda nostalgia per quel genere di solitudine o melancolia che é andata persa, alla quale solo un certo tipo di amore ne era la cura. Il film rivendica in modo cristallino, con un richiamo verso l’analogico, quel periodo poco prima che la rivoluzione digitale mettesse un cellulare nelle tasche di ognuno di noi e che noi come specie perdessimo la capacità di essere veramente soli e capaci di vivere con noi stessi e rapportarci con l’altro in modo meno frenetico e soprattutto in assenza di dispositivi elettronici.

Regia: Juho Kuosmanen

Attori: Seidi Haarla, Yuri Borisov

Paesi: Finland/Estonia/Germany/Russia

Anno: 2021

Durata: 107 Min.

[hochulia]

I liked the sketch of it very much, but it went out pretty bad, but I still felt like I should post it anyway. Thinking about new work I’m going to make. 

I post more on instagram 

[1albumaday]

2020

2020

The Chats - The Clap

Easy-peasy punk rock album 

Loving - If I am only my thoughts

Charming sun-dappled folk-pop, clean, gentle melodies

Steve Spacek - Houses 

iPhone/iPad recorded, latino and jazz accented dance/house beats

Ghali - DNA 

Total Flop and failed expectations. Mishmash of bland and frivolous lyrics and arrangements.

King Krule - Man Alive!

Alienating, violent, romantic, anguishing, doomed, noir / jazz, post-punk, soul, dubstep, electronic, garage rock, hip-hop

Justin Bieber - Changes

Disappointing comeback - boring r&b with zero sex appeal and cheesy lyrics and all-the-same songs

Guided by voices - Surrender your poppy field

Unusual time signatures, song lengths, and baroque-prog structures - mature rock and sometimes pixie / 80s dreamy

Corrections - Simply Activities

80s new wave and post punk nostalgia - cheesy vocals at times - first half more solid than second

Swim Mountain- If

A lovely mix of indie and funktronica, synth pop, r&b

Caribou - Suddenly

Sly and sofishticated sound design flits between uk garage disco and more - some tracks way less strong than others

Grimes - Miss Anthropocene 

Mix “Ethereal nu metal”, ambient, dance, electronic, drum’n’bass, country - is violent and dark but sexy, delicate and dreamy

Porridge Radio - Every Bad 

A dissonant lush indie rock sometimes dreamy sometimes dark and ironic with mantra-litany dusky lyrics from peaceful to desperate

Four Tet - Sixteen oceans

Wind instruments, synths and drum patterns gradually fade to calming ambient sounds, intense and meditative but also danceable and powerful

Kamaiyah - Got it made

Short, stripped-down, bubbling keyboards and drum-machine handclaps. NO current rap trends. windows-down bass-rattle record of one person’s confidence in her own sound and charisma

Poolside - Low season

Funk percussions, retro synths, pop and disco influences + indie vocals

Morioh Sonder - Is this psychedelia?

Surf pop and psych rock, dreamy post punk influences, danceable and whimsical 

KEYAH/BLU - Sorry, I forgot you were coming 

Perfect blend of rap, rnb, experimental pop, dark rhythms textured electronics, intimate tales 

TOPS - I feel alive

Pop, radiant and 80s romantic with a contemporary experimental palette

The Chats - High risk behaviour 

Classic old-school pure punk / cheerily undemanding fun

NIN - Ghosts V: Together

Buzzy ambient, melodic hooks, emotional palette of sounds 

NIN - Ghosts VI: Locusts

Together’s opposite, anxiety-inducing, despairing horns, breathing and devouring sounds.

Roger and Brian Eno - Mixing Colours

Feels like a balm for these anxious times

Fiona Apple - Fetch the bolt cutters

Handclaps, chants, makeshift percussion, echoes, whispers, screams, breathing, jokes, dog barks, rattling blues. Contains no conventional pop forms. freeing and powerful. 

The Weeknd - After Hours

Satisfying collision of new wave, dream pop, R&B, synth-pop nostalgia

BC Camplight - Shortly After Takeoff 

Jazzy eighties rock with some icy funk and electronic pop, painfully personal and uneasy but so self-deprecating it speaks like your best friend

Rone - Room with a view 

Deft splicing of beats-based electronics and dance music with classical influences. 21st century baroque chords, snatches of conversations, speeches, children’s voices

Other Lives - For their love

Bluesy acid-rock, dreamy meditation sounds, eerie string-crescendos, music for the afterlife

Lil Uzi Vert - Eternal Atake 

Drill-influenced rapping, melodic crooning, trends-aware hip-hop beats, untouchable pop sound production

Squarepusher - Be up a hello

Frantic breakbeats littered with echoes of classic jungle, hardcore, and drum’n’bass, ’90s drill’n’bass, glitchy 8-bit chaos

The Orielles - Disco Volador

Cosmic, playful, funky dreamy indie pop, shuffling organs, woozy guitar, shimmy-shimmy hand percussion

Portico Quartet - We welcome tomorrow

Perfect dreamy sequel of ‘Memory streams’

Charlie XCX - how i’m feeling now

Quarantine creation / 2020 romance manifesto of club-pop, trap, k-pop, video game sounds, fuzzy synths and crackling bass

Holy Fuck - Deleter

Trippy, psychedelic tapestry of euphoric escapism, ‘90s dance, glitchy beats, airy vocals, experimental electronics 

Luge - Luge

Energetic and playful avant-garde and quirky math rock, zolo? 

Good With Parents, Triple Stephens - Comments & Reflection

Playful indietronica synth pop + classical instruments 

Wishing - None of this was your fault 

Lo-fi indie, ambient, slowcore w/ fragile lyrics 

Bibio - Sleep on the wing 

Indie folk treated like ambient / a gorgeous soundscape of strings, guitars and flutes, feelings of loss, hope and escape. Perfect picture of tranquil countryside memories

Piotr Kurek - A Sacrifice Shall Be Made / All The Wicked Scenes

Electroacoustic experimental, meditative-ritualistic atmospheric music / conceived for theatrical performances 

Military Genius - Deep Web

Meditative ambient, retro-futurist soundscapes / hypnagogic pop, dark, abstract and mysterious / early ‘70s folk interjecting jazz-brass sections 

Jockstrap - Wicked City

Melancholy waltz and winsome ballads, fluttering strings, soft piano glissandi mixed with gnarly and distorted hip-hop beats, buzzing guitars and synths / cherubic vocals, pcmusic-style manipulated at times

Georgia - String Token 

Experimental ambient electronic, minimal, melodic, futuristic, hypnotic and grim

EVOL - Madball Manners

Lingering experimental rave electronic, hardcore, techno 

Upsammy - Zoom

Playful, sampling, abstract IDM, ambient techno, melodic and rhythmic, surreal, futuristic, sparkling synths and billowing pads

Tomasz Kunicki - Muzyka dla Świątyń

Playful and abstract IDM, glittering synths, obscure pads, glitchy and bleepy

Tomasz Kunicki - The sound is gone, where did it go, I have no idea

Very bassy and very dubby IDM, atmospheric ambient and loopy electronics

Kate NV - Room for the moon

80s new wave, progressive electronic, synth pop, cornucopia of melodies and genres. Wriggling synths, chirping flutes, warm baselines, jazzy sax, woodwinds, marimba. Russian girly vocals cartoon theme-song-like.

Khruangbin - Mordechai 

Psychedelic / funk rock with some soul, dub, lounge, poolside disco - exotic and atmospheric 

Dalai Lama - Inner world

Chanted mantras rhythmically woven into wafting new-age flutes, chimes, strings and free-form guitar picking. 

K-Lone - Cape Cira

Tropical ambient house, warm, lush, soft. Zen yet bouncy rhythms. Digital and analogue recordings, at times feels like you’re underwater. 

Arca - KiCk i

Experimental industrial club rhythms with reggaeton and folk influences

The Beths - Jump Rope Gazers

Sleek and personal indie rock, romantic ballads, more sentimental and slow than the previous album

J Lloyd - Kosmos

Tasteful soul and funk pop in 25 tiny tracks, charming low-key, rich textures, good vibes

Julek Polsk - Tesco

Dissonant, ominous, dense, post industrial ambient, noise, sound collage, deconstructed club music

Taylor Swift - folklore

Folk/chamber pop, indie folk, bittersweet, mellow, melancholic ballads

Bill Callahan - Gold Record 

Contemporary folk, warm and deep vocals, pastoral, peaceful and melancholic 

Mura Masa - R.Y.C. 

Indietronica, post-punk revival, catchy indie/synth pop, early 2000 EMO, lots of hip collabs

Fontaines D.C. - A Hero's Death 

Post-punk, indie rock, art punk, gothic rock, raw deadpan male vocals, darkish and melodic

RAMzi - cocon 

Tribal House, ambient dub, balearic beats, downtempo, hypnotic and tropical 

Auguste - Indust 

Experimental ambient electronic + field recordings, glistening and splintered sounds 

Paul Blackford - Betamax

Dreamy and hypnotic trip hop, downtempo, synth wave

A.G.Cook - 7G

49-track archival collection of sketches, cover versions, volatile lab experiments, divided into 7 discs. a glimpse at the whirring cogs beneath hyperpop’s pristine casing.

Clap clap - Liquid Portraits 

Experimental musical tapestry and collage / high-energy concoction of unpredictable and wavy rhythms, exotic vocals and heavy, relentless bass and drums / UK Bass, ambient dub, footwork + far-flung field recordings

E.M.M.A. - Indigo Dream 

Progressive electronic, ambient house / 80s melodic atmospheres, goosebump-inducing synths, whimsical melodies and classical leanings

Leif - Music for screen tests 

Performed live @ Barbican as a 54min session ambient / drone film soundtrack (Andy Warhol's Screen Tests)

Crack Cloud - Pain Olympics

Post/art/dance punk, experimental rock - energetic, anxious, apocalyptic, dark, male vocals

Document - A Camera Wanders All Night 

Post-punk, noise rock, past-hardcore, distorted and raw male vocals

Keisuke Matsuda - Clumsily Back Up

Experimental electronic with playful hummed vocals, lo-fi beats, melodic, youthful, dreamlike

Coi Leray - Now or Never

Gen-Z superstar, melodic flows, bouncy trap, energetic killer lyrics 

The Ophelias - For Luck

Artful, string-laden indie-pop EP, grungy dream-pop, a quarantine remake and a Joni Mitchell cover

Romare - Home

Deep house, UK Bass, groovy and detailed sonic palette + soul and funk influences - dancefloor highs and after party wind-downs

Mulatu Astatke, Black Jesus Experience - To Know Without Knowing 

Ethio-Jazz, Cuban, funk, reggae workout + rapid-fire rap or Afrobeat drums 

Good Doom - Spider Temple Valley

Experimental psych-wave, gentle and peaceful lo-fi, dreamy and oozy with flute, sax and field recordings

Ralph Kinsella - Abstraction

Dark ambient experimental / instrumental electronic

IDLES - Ultra Mono

Post-punk, garage punk, hardcore, noise rock, raw male vocals, dense, energetic, angry, political

Mild Orange - Mild Orange 

Alternative, Indie rock, dream pop, 

Skinshape - Umoja

Experimental psychedelic rock - afro beats - afroswinig - funky - world music

Vulfpeck - The Joy of Music, The Job of Real Estate

Mixed bag of funk, jazz, soul, self-indulgent? classical reworks, progressive electronic, melodic and uplifting, groovy drums and bass lines 

OPN - Magic OPN 

Manipulated and sequenced archive radio and sounds collages as interludes, uncanny processed voices, poppish trope ballads, art pop, sentimental and surreal, dense, progressive hypnagogic electronic and more

Pa Salieu - Send them to coventry

Combined dancehall, Afrobeats, hip-hop and grime. Scattered drums, stop-start energy, handpicked words and rhymes. skips from trap trills to baile breakdowns.

Mama Ode - Tales & Patterns of the Maroons

Classic hip-hop album with jazz, funk, blues and reggae influences. Creole Sega Rap Roots music, afro-drum patterns and grooves

Tony Allen, Hugh Masekela - Rejoice

Live sessions of unique fusion of afrobeat and swing-jazz with lyrics in English, Yoruba and Zulu 

Miley Cyrus - Plastic Hearts

Pop rock, 80s synth-rock, grit and freewheeling sense of fun, rough-hewn panache of vocal performance, bittersweet eclectic and sentimental / collabs with rock idols

2019 

LCD Soundsystem - Electric lady sessions 

Live recording with some new wavy covers 

Harry Styles - Fine line 

Not catchy / mediocre pop 

Boothe - 8 or 9 Walled Room

10 minutes of playful electronic and soft vocals

Good with parents - Good with parents 

Clever indietronica synth pop, fun + ironic + millennial + sax 

Taylor Skye - Kode fine & sons 

Synth, beats and pop vocals 

Famous - England 

Wonky pop punk mixed to electronic sounds and raw spoken vocals

Orville Peck - Pony 

Simple pop rock Johnny Cash style ballads and 80s

Sassy 009 - Kill Sassy 009

Distorted electro pop with strong vocals + post-punk notes

J-Walk - Mediterranean Winds 

Jazzy electronica with glassy synth pads cheesy and chilled out

Mattiel - Satis Factory 

Punky garage rock strong female vocals

Ross Backenkeller - Come Around

Country dreamy and melancholy guitar and vocals 

Legss - Writing Comedy 

Art rock and a dark underbelly of post-punk + topnotch spoken track and electronic sounds

BEA1991 - The Lost Demo EP

Trip-hop with Bjork-style vocals

BEA1991 - Brand New Adult 

Chamber folk and yacht rock meld with R&B and trip-hop

Matt Maltese - Krystal

Lo-fi flowy bedroom pop breakup album

Faye Webster - Atlanta Millionaires Club

Folk-pop, mellow and melancholy soul with an r&b tinge

Infinite Bisous- Period 

Soothing and warm bedroom night album 

Achille Lauro - 1969

Trap changed into rock with romanticised lyrics 

Jerkcurb - Air Con Eden 

Indie-psych and retro Americana, atmospheric, sensitive, wobbly

Octo Octa - Resonant Body

Breakbeats and house bangers

ALASKALASKA - The Dots 

Jazz fusion, disco rhythms and high-gloss art rock

Orphan - Yijoda

Glitchy and sharp electronics + ambient-atmospheric sounds

Honeymoan - Body

Avant-garde pop tapestry of beats and synths with playful vocal

U-Bahn - U-Bahn

Traditional new wave DEVO-moulded, Hypnagogic pop, art-punk, some vaporwave synth sounds

Hail Conjurer - Erotic Hell

Obscure and raw Finnish black metal 

Ride for revenge - Chapter of alchemy 

Quality black metal with long and short tracks pretty smooth 

Boys Age - Neverchanging, Neverending 

Lo-fi, slow-tempo, soul, r&b, mellow tracks with sad very low vocals

MorMor - Some place else 

Indie-pop with sweet synths and delicate vocals 

Felicita - hej!

Overproduced pop dance hits broken down into harsh and jarring staccato melodies, hissing ambient and screams

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Ghosteen

Endlessly giving and complex meditation on mortality and our collective grief, scored by synths, pianos, and electronics

Portico Quartet - Memory Streams

Ethereal keyboards, hypnotic grooves, layered post-rock textures mixed with electronic, ambient and magnetic jazz build-ups

Charles Rumback + Ryley Walker - Little common twist 

Mellow and pastoral folksy guitar melodies and soft drums + ambient tones, drone electronic

Shadowax - Nikolai Reptile

Effervescent techno and mutant bass jams

The Rhythm Method - How do you know I was lonely?

Ostensibly witty and warm pop songs from hip hop to indie and electronic about romance and millennial youth

Martin Dupont - Accident of Stars

80s kinda goth new wave full of electronics, guitars synths and clarinets

Raime - Planted

Latin American and Chicago footwork influences merged with alien sounds, half-heard voices, dark and rhythmic bass and percussions

Sunn 0))) - Pyroclasts

Sunn 0))) - Life Metal

Slow-motion drone feels like a religious ritual / pipe organ and cello, guitars webbing together the space between notes

Special Request - Vortex 

Breakbeat barnstormers and house epics, with room for bleep, electro and gabber

Caterina Barbieri - Ecstatic Computation

Oscillating sequencers, rhythmic pulsations, cascades of synthesiser melodies echoing dance music/new age

Battles - Juice B Crypts 

Playful electronic wizardry, dense array of beats, bleeps and squelches, loopy keyboards and guitars, ecstatic vocals

Haruomi Hosono - HOCHONO HOUSE

Home-recorded aesthetic, funk shaped into minimalist space-age lounge music 

Florist - Emily Alone 

Thoughtful, calming and melancholic, full of hushed, enveloping guitar sounds and gentle vocals

Spencer Radcliffe - Hot Spring 

Alt-country, indie falk americana, very relaxed,pastoral and wry poetics

Ciamkam - Play-doh Dog 

Noise ambient / screeching, dissonant, surreal, ominous 

Equiknoxx - Eternal Children 

UK soundsystem style, reggae groundings, earthy dancehall with a vast range of puzzling vocalists

Eh hahah - Fissure

Experimental deconstructed electronic, sound collage, glitches and post-club music

Upsammy - Wild Chamber 

Lucid shades of IDM, bleep techno, perky synths and frazzling hi-hats, polyrhythmic drum patterns

Otik - Blasphemy

Fresh, vibrant, dark experimental club music, techno + dance + electronic 

Shanti Celeste - Tangerine

Tech / ambient / deep house, breakbeat, rhythmic and mechanical yet dreamy 

Bez - Banki Mydlane

Dream pop, shoegaze, noise pop, space rock, reverberated female vocals + spoken word

Yu Su - Roll with the punches 

Ambient dub, downtempo, tribal ambient, sampling, mellow, atmospheric with female vocals

Drive45 - Dried up 

Bitpop, Artpop, indietronica, quirky and playful, androgynous vocals 

Lala &ce - Le son d’apres 

French hip hop, trap, cloud rap, alternative b&b, dancehall / sparse dark and ominous, warm female vocals

Leif - Loom Dream

Tribal ambient / ambient techno + field recordings / pastoral, ethereal, atmospheric 

deathcrash - Sundown (a collection of home recordings)

Slowcore, drone ambient, post-punk, fragile male vocals

FEET - What’s inside is more than just ham

Post-punk, indie-rock, dance-punk, sarcastic, playful, technical, male vocals

Coi Leray - EC2

Trap, hyphy, pop rap

Ariwo- Quasi 

Dub techno, afro-cuban jazz, ambient techno, chants, programmed beats, pulsating relentless rhythms and percussions, loud sax

Floating Points - Crush

Strikingly melodic and elegant, cinematic, frantic and distorted rhythms, shuddered synths, vibrant breakbeats, sampling, UK garage nodding

Jacques Greene - Dawn Chorus

Bittersweet, sad but triumphant, mix of experimental electronic and lightweight techno + field recordings, hazy sampled textures, distorted drones + disco house + percussions + spoken word

Men I Trust - Oncle Jazz

Indie electronic, minimal, chillout downtempo, dreamy female vocals, jazzy

Raveena - Lucid 

R&B, soul, experimental, pop, groovy, jazzy and dreamy, with some field and spoken words recordings

2018

Shit and Shine - Very high 

Lazy hippie funk with slowed rnb vocals 

Saloli - The deep end

New Age-inspired delicate only-synth music 

Adrianne Lenker - abysskis 

Guitar and sweet and warm vocals 

Ever ending kicks - Ideas relayed 

Sweet lo-fi similar to the previous two 

Negative Gemini - Bad Baby 

Solid synth pop with dreamy intimate vocals

Okay Kaya - Both

melancholy bedroom-pop sarcastic and harsh lyrics

Trust Fund - Bringing the Backline

Witty yet melancholy self-aware pop-rock

Jockstrap - Love is the key to the city 

A fusion of Bossa Nova, 1930s Disney-esque orchestra, and coarse electronica

Noah Cyrus - Good Cry

Pop and rnb debut album with a bit of gospel and melancholy

Carla dal Forno - Top of the pops

Alternative indie electronic, subtle instrumental backdrops with plaintive vocals

Lala Lala - The lamb 

Alternative/Indie rock with grunge tones and personal and warm vocals

Diamond Thug - Apastron

Progressive but dreamy pop, graceful vocals

Denh Izen - Storage Solutions 

Dark and charming sounds with warm and distorted vocals, desperate but calm

Imperial Triumphant - Vile Luxury 

New York Jazz mixed with top-notch black metal great for a sci-fi dystopian movie - especially Cosmopolis

Oliver Coates - Shelley’s on Zenn-La

Beat-oriented electronic music, sublime cello and synths

Dylan Carlson - Conquistador

drone-metal imaginary Western mostly solo electric guitar

Project Pablo - Come to Canada you will like it 

Dozy laid back deep house with  jazzy chords and subtly swinging drums

Ryley Walker - The Lillywhite Sessions 

Dave Matthews Band tribute with proggy folk, primitive guitar, free improv, Chicago jazz-rock on darker tones 

Grouper - Grid of Points

Empty room, piano and voice slip through your fingers like water

Kali malone - Cast of Mind

Glacial synth tones mapped to acoustic woodwind and brass 

Likes - New Pedal

Short tracks of fun glitch / hypnagogic pop

Jake Tobin - Fifth Thought

Fun and whimsical take on classical sax sounds and guitars

Jake Tobin - 135

Avant-prog / jazz fusion / romanticism / off-kilter melodies / psychedelic chords with the emotion and aesthetic of bedroom pop

Twig Twig - Darkworld Gleaming

Experimental pop, whimsical instrumentation, lo-fi uplift, beats and loops

George Clanton - Slide

Cult 2020s electronic born from vaporware influences mixed with whispery chillwave and downtempo R&B, feels like a 90s rave in an open field, no irony

Good Doom - Mood Life

Unique, very chill, dreamy sound, incorporates world music, trip hop beats, lo fi bedroom pop, krautrock and noise

Ex:Re - Ex:Re

Husky and mellow ambient pop, dream pop? Lethargic and melancholic 

Zaumne - Emo Dub

Minimalistic ominous and repetitive ambient house with ASMR-like spoken words

Ehh hahah - And the weather so breezy, man, why can’t life always be this easy?

Progressive experimental electronic, deconstructed club music, EDM, bubblegum bass, playful yet dark

Kate NV - для FOR

Progressive electronic, ambient, new age, minimalist, surreal, otherworldly and playful. wet, fleshy bleeps; bubbly, liquid noise

Leon Chang - re:treat

Mellow lo-fi hip hop, downtempo, electronic, future bass, sampling 

Coi Leray - Everythingcoz

Pop rap, trap, hyphy tunes, powerful + well produced 

Domenique Dumont - Miniatures de auto rhythm 

Sophist-pop, balearic beat, chillwave, dreampopish, soft female vocals, lush, summery and rhythmic

Big Joanie - Sistahs 

Pretty standard textbook indie-rock, post-punk with female vocals 

Darto - Fundamental Slime 

Haunting and spacious, deep male vocals, intriguing eerie melodies, dream state lullabies + sax and spoken word bit

Old Maybe - Piggity Pink 

Chaotic post-punk, unusual time signatures, strong shouted female vocals

Brad Mehldau Trio - Seymour Reads the Constitution! 

Elegant and melodic modal jazz - post-bop album, fragmented but coherent, ever changing time signature and tempo

2017

Ross Backenkeller - Bardo

Folk indie guitar melodies with honest and gentle vocals

Maruego - Tra Zenith e Nadir

Italian trap with disillusioned and ironic lyrics + cool collabs

Nervous Condition - Untitled 

Forceful drums, wails of sax and commanding vocals - mix of experimental rock, post-punk, no wave, jazz

Powerplant - Dogs Sees Ghosts

Synth punk, garage punk fast and fun

Wool & The Pants - Wool & The Pants

Experimental r&b / soul / hiphop vibez pretty smooth and lo-fi

TOPS - Sugar at the gate 

Soft rock tunes, vintage atmosphere, fuzzy, honey-dipped songs 

Slothrust - Show me how you want it to be 

Covers album with grungy sounds and good arrangements 

Rone - Mirapolis

Misty synths and heavy bass lines, dreary and melancholic industrial electronics, packed with doomed vocals of all sorts of guests. 

Ada Babar & Kasra Kurt - Nino Tomorrow

Weird pop and experimental DIY with MIDI keyboards and guitar, playful lyrics, video game menu music

Good Doom - New Shapes for you

Evocative, dreamy and atmospheric melodies, warm at times, chilly, spooky, grungy, dark at others, synth buzzes, glitchy drums

Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger in the alps

Atmospheric ballads for sad times, deeply personal stories of heartbreak and loss 

Florist - If Blue Could Be Happiness

Indie folk, soft and atmospheric, pure gentle quiet and soft female vocals about understanding light and darkness. Swooping guitar, dots of piano notes, gentle beats that recall Simon and Garfunkel

Wishing - Heat Death 

Ambient pop, lo-fi indie beats w/ soft vocals that make you feel things you haven’t felt in a while

Martyn Heyne - Electric Intervals

Ambient in the broadest sense, calm instrumental downtempo guitar-centric with electronic flourishes

Equiknoxx - Colón Man

Vivid and tactile masterful sound design, syncopated loops, wonky and scintillating rhythms 

American Pleasure Club - I blew a dandelion and the whole world disappeared 

Lo-fi acoustic guitar with raw male vocals

Andrea Laszlo De Simone - Uomo Donna 

Progressive pop, baroque/psychedelic pop + field recordings / bittersweet and pastoral 

Drive45 - Have you seen me? 

Bitpop indietronic, glitch pop, sequencer, dance pop

Drive45 - System Format

Bitpop indietronic, playful video game sounds

Leon Chang - bird world 

Bitpop electronic, sequencer, videogame music, future bass / uplifting mellow and playful 

dynastic - SPACE/SUMMER 

Glitch hop, electronic bubblegum, kawaii future bass, mellow and uptempo, cheesy sax, chaotic sounds + dance floor dnb

Darto - Human Giving 

Spacey experimental electronic mixed with post-punk, warm tones, 80s synths, soft melodic vocals + spoken bits

Pregnant - Duct Tape

Indie/art/soft rock, electronic, brilliant pop tunes, dreamy yet rhythmic

2016

Ever Ending Kicks - Music World

DIY colourful dreamy hazy songs 

Mild Eye Club - Skiptracing 

Low-key folk dreamy with 60s 70s vintage links

Loving - Loving 

Easy and dreamy pop melodies, wavy, warm and mellow

Lala Lala- Sleepyhead 

Alternative/Indie rock with grunge tones and personal and warm vocals

Gruff Rhys - Set fire to the stars

Soundtrack to the homonym 2014 film set in the 50s - soft romance rock, jazz-inspired, elegant and familiar

Oliver Coates - Upstepping

Deep house, techno, footwork blended with sharp and experimental classical strings 

Garden Center - Garden Center

Erratic pop music, fun and playful electronic sounds, silly vocals

Raime - Tooth

Ominus and gloomy sound of dub, electronic and post-rock / stripped down to the flesh 

Amiina - Fantomas 

Violin, cello, drums, percussion, metallophone, harp, ukulele and electronics fused in a contemporary classical post-rock gentle melody-focused experimentation

Jake Tobin - Sorta Upset

Short tracks of experimental rock, avant-prog - eclectic and dissonant, technical and manic

Jake Tobin - Accidentally on Purpose

Post-modern experimental pop, jazz influenced sounds, off-kilter saxophone, silly humour 

Vanishing Twin - Choose your own adventure

Swathes of percussion, exotic drum beats and funky guitars merge into a cosmic blend of reverberating bleeps with jazz skits / heady voyage across sound influences

Good Doom - Hug

Good Doom - Naps

Both off-beat lo-fi with a rock twists, spacey, fuzzy, grainy sounds

Zeal & Ardor - Devil is fine

Top notch black metal merges African-American spiritual slave music and some electronic beats and sounds

Shield Patterns - Mirror Breathing

Haunting vocals and sensual cello, clarinet and piano, all wrapped up in ethereal synths

Ashley Henry - Ashley Henry’s 5ive

Complex and uplifting post-bop jazz, imaginative flare, delicate and soothing piano

Florist - The Birds Outside Sang 

Lo-fi indie, ambient-dream pop,sparse, minimalist keyboard leads bordering on chilly drones + intimate and personal songwriting

CBMC - OOR

Acustic lo-fi bedroom pop with an airy tone and somber feel but still feels fresh and lighthearted 

Told Slant - Going By

Slowcore indie pop/folksy emo, ‘intimate spaces in which small town kids write memories of touch, togetherness, loss, love, depersonalisation’

Kate NV - Binasu

Art pop, progressive electronic, sequencer, joyful grooves but also atmospheric and ethereal sounds, eclectic and dense, melodic female vocals

Zaumne - Przezycia

Minimal ambient techno with a couple of spoken word bits 

Mauno - Rough Master

Enticingly and eclectic indie rock, smooth vocals, strings and moody guitars, delicate piano, powerful drums

Susso - Keira

Tribal house, tribal ambient, folktronica, Mande music, rhythmic and powerful chants

Phern - Cool Coma  

Psychedelic pop, lo-fi, mellow and playful 

Hellier Ulysses - Ulysses Hellier 

Experimental rock, math rock, jangle pop mixed with post-punk, technical, lo-fi, uncommon time signatures

Brad Mehldau Trio - Blues and Ballads 

Deceptively sweet-sounding jazz album, songs are played with variations and every phrase is a cliffhanger - gracefully executed + bonus of my fav song <3

2015

Adeodat Warfield - Pacific, Missouri 

Synth pop with electronic beats, vaporware notes

Ross Backenkeller - Rare Please

Folk indie guitar melodies with honest and gentle vocals

Grimes - Art Angels

Immaculate and authentic, synthetic and unreal but also super pop, folk, and dance / POST-art pop?

Jake Tobin - Third and Fourth Thoughts

Short tracks of weird avant-prog where the vocals follow the melodies all the time

Florist - Holdly

Vocals move slowly and sweetly through gentle meditation sound and soft guitars

Starry Cat - Starry Cat

Indie pop, lo-fi indie, wavy and shaky, bitter-sweet and personal male vocals 

CBMC - FOOTWEAR

Acustic lo-fi bedroom pop with a somber feel but still feels fresh and lighthearted nearly asmr-like vocals 

Wishing - To Forget

Lo-fi indie slowcore, fuzzy synths + acoustic sounds mixed with short electronic tracks / lyrics are whispered and very intimate 

Oren Ambarchi - Live Knots 

Two very long live recorded tracks of propulsive drumming full of tensions and releases + droning notes, plucked strings and mournful guitar 

Juxta Phona - we will not be silence 

Ambient, electronic, minimal melodies over crisp, tactile beats

Khruangbin - The Universe Smiles Upon You

Psychedelic / Funk rock, rhythmic and jazzy, tropical warm and peaceful

Red Sea - In The Salon 

Indie experimental rock, psychedelic pop, math rock, melodic yet uncommon time signatures 

Eyeliner - Buy Now 

Synth-pop/funk - vaporwave / instrumental, melodic, uplifting, lush, futuristic / great bass lines! 

2014

Ricky Eat Acid - Three love songs

First half found sounds, experimental electronics, fuzzy piano loops. Second half IDM beats and keys, choir-like vocals / “might be the sound of music having a dream within a dream about music”

Jake Tobin - Torment 

Jake Tobin - Life as a Clerical Error

Weird dissonant mix of avant-prog, art punk and jazz fusion but in an amazing way

Richard Dawson - Nothing Important 

Brittle, crudely amplified nylon-string acoustic guitar, experimental drones, folk sketches, imitation field cries, and free jazz diversions

2013

Ever Ending Kicks - Weird priorities

Sentimental chill instrumental and colourful with gentle vocals

Gruff Rhys - American Interior

John Evans-themes concept album - witty folk oriented retro-futurist music 

Michael Andrews - Spilling a rainbow

Well-crafted pop tunes, nostalgic and lighthearted memories of folk rock with a dash of avant-garde electronic haze

Pill Friends - Blessed Suffering

Lo-fi indie/emo noisy and raw with existential and stark male vocals 

2012

Told Slant - Still Water

Lo-fi/bedroom-punk with folksy guitars and delicate vocals as if they could break down in tears at any moment

2010

Hype Williams - Find out what happens when people stop being polite and start gettin reel

Ypnagogic vortex of incredibly canny hard to pinpoint music with distorted spoken vocals

Zach Hill - FACE TAT

Constant restless drumming, squiggly melodic instrumental hooks, mosaics of disconnected noises, fuzzy sounds and vocals

2008

Amplifier Machine - her mouth is an outlaw

Half-improvised ambient - drone - experimental - electronic - post-rock

E. Bandel, Victory & Good Hunting - s/t

Classical, piano, folk, melancholic, haunting

2007

Seabear - The ghost that carried us away

Indie/folk multi-instrumental dynamic floating sound, warm melodies, calm and gentle vocals

HEALTH - HEALTH 

A masterful noise/experimental rock with elements of post-punk, drone and electronic - disorienting rhythms, tempo-shifting, noisy outbursts

2005

The Darkness - One way ticket to hell

Hard / glam rock ballads and pop tunes 

2004

The Emperor Machine - Aimee Tallulah is hypnotised 

Mix of electro euro disco, post-punk, krautrock, sci-fi scores, jazz-funk. Thick dance rhythms and mind-altering synths

2002

ESG - Step Off 

Sweet soul with a punk attitude, jazzy sassy vocals

Hella - Hold your horse is 

Non-stop, indie-audio assault / Nintendo music / midi and electronic beats / head-spinning leading drums, very fast guitars

1998

Eels - Electro-Shock Blues

elegantly sad grief and death themed album, deeply personal, yet brilliant pop tunes, post-grunge, jazzy arrangement, archive sounds, electronics

Duster - Stratosphere

Bashful slowcore lo-fi experimental space/indie rock

1975

Bobbi Humphrey- Fancy Dancer 

Funky jazz with forms of world music, soul, club music and pop

1973

Kevin Ayers - Bananamour

Progressive pop, art rock with mix of soul, r&b, reggae - choirs and country type ballads

1972

Kevin Ayers - Whatevershebringswesing

Experimental new age prog rock, semisweet tunes, lighthearted, skewed sounds

1970

Kevin Ayers - Shooting at the moon

Experimental, progressive, avant-garde, rock with jazz influences, sound recordings, excellent songwriting

[moviemagistrate]

ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD review

ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD is my favorite movie of the 2010’s. 

I’ll give you a minute to put your recently-blown mind back together.

So why do I love this movie so much? The overall response to Quentin Tarantino’s supposedly penultimate opus has been very positive if not rapturous, but I’ve seen some surprisingly lukewarm and even negative reviews, with people criticizing it for being slow, meandering, lacking in depth or *shudder* boring. Obviously the quality of any movie is subjective, as I’m quick to remind anyone who hates Michael Bay movies, but I honestly don’t understand people who dislike OUATIH. Maybe it’s a matter of expectations, because I didn’t know how to feel about the film for much of the first time I watched it either.

The year is 1969, a time of great political and cultural change in the country and in the entertainment industry. The star-driven films of yesteryear are giving way to grittier, artsier, more auteur-driven works as we primarily follow Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), former star of a popular cowboy show whose failed attempt to start an A-list movie career has left him relying on guest spots as TV villains-of-the-week to stay afloat. This is wonderfully laid out in the opening scene where he meets casting director Marvin Schwarz (Al Pacino, easily his best role since JACK & JILL), who lays out Rick’s lowering hierarchical status (“Who’s gonna kick the shit out of you next week? How about Batman & Robin? PING. POW”), while offering him an opportunity to be a leading-man again in Italian pictures.

Tagging along is Rick’s best, and maybe only, friend Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), Rick’s go-with-the-flow stunt-double who in the slowdown of Rick’s career has effectively become his driver and gofer, as well as Rick’s sole source of emotional support. Rick is also neighbors with Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), the beautiful young actress and wife of then-superstar director Roman Polanski (whose inclusion in the film is minimal and handled tastefully), as she lives out her idyllic life, beloved by those around her like the ray of sunshine she was in real life. Her gated, hillside home looms over Rick’s, as he ponders aloud about how even meeting her the right way could resurrect his career.

For almost two-and-a-half hours, we follow these three characters as they just live out their lives, Rick nursing hangovers and having emotional breakdowns in front of his 8-year-old co-star on set while contemplating his future, Cliff going where the wind blows him while taking care of his adorable and highly-trained dog, and Sharon as she drives around Old Hollywood, spends time with her friends, and sneaks into a matinee showing of one of her movies, her eyes and infectious smile beaming with pride when the audience laughs at her comedic timing and cheers her martial-arts prowess.

I think it’s safe to say it’s not the film any of us were expecting from Quentin Tarantino. Having only made loud, gory, over-the-top genre pastiches for the last 15 years, you’d expect from the trailers for this to be about an actor and his sexy stunt-double getting mixed up with the Manson family before teaming up with Bruce Lee to save Sharon Tate from her horrific real-life fate, mixed with the filmmaker’s usual self-indulgent homages to films of yesteryear. While some of this is true to some extent, it’s surprisingly a much more relaxed, easygoing dramedy that follows a trio of funny, charismatic people as they just…exist, as people living in the moment instead of relics.

OUATIH is much more concerned with atmosphere, character, and capturing the feeling of a bygone era than the traditional narrative structure. It’s more effective than pretty much every nostalgia trip movie I've ever seen because you can feel Tarantino's affection for this era of his childhood bleed through every character, car, song, radio advertisement, TV show, background poster, etc. It’s through this meticulous level of detail and willingness to just hang out with these characters and take in this world that he reconstructed, Tarantino successfully resurrects the era in all its 35mm glory, but with the knowing twinge of real-world melancholy.

I guess the reason I love it so much is because the love that Tarantino has for everything and everyone in it is so tangible that it’s infectious. Watching OUATIH I honestly felt like I understood him better as both a filmmaker and as a person. He shows a level of restraint and maturity I haven’t seen since JACKIE BROWN. Even most of his trademark foot fetishizing is tasteful and subdued (I say “most” because I recall at least three close-ups of actresses’ feet that definitely made him a bit sweaty behind the camera). He’s a weird, shameless nerd with a big ego, but he’s 100% sincere about expressing his love for film and its rich history. And it’s this love, and the skill and style with which it’s expressed, that just put a big smile on my face each of the 6 (SIX) times that I’ve seen it since it came out. 

Tarantino offers a tantalizing contrast between reality and fantasy. Throughout the film, as the characters of Hollywood live in their own idyllic world, relaxing in pools or driving around in bitchin’ cars, we also see the disquieting eeriness and griminess of the Manson family. The soundtrack and accompanying old-timey commercials for tanning butter or Mug Root Beer that plays through a lot of the film is a joy to listen to, but we also hear news bulletins of the war in Vietnam or the aftermath of the Bobby Kennedy assassination. You could argue this is just to set the scene for the era, but it feels too deliberate, because even after that joyously fantastical ending, we remember that it was just a fairy tale and real life didn’t turn out as pleasantly. Tarantino’s ability to make his world and characters so meticulously detailed and lived-in works to great effect in instilling a bittersweet melancholy to this film in a way I was really taken aback by. It feels like a window into his soul, someone who yearns for the fantasy of the world he grew up in but remembering that not all good things last and not everything in your nostalgic past was good to begin with.

One beautiful, spellbinding scene is Rick and Cliff coming back from their excursion into the world of Italian filmmaking. In this montage, we see Rick, Cliff and Rick’s new Italian wife arriving at the airport and driving home before unpacking their baggage, interspersed with Sharon Tate welcoming a guest at her home and having lunch, before cutting to a series of shots of famous LA landmarks like Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Taco Bell, and Der Wienerschnitzel all meticulously resurrected in their retro glory as they light up the night. “Baby, baby, baby you’re out of time”, sings Mick Jagger as we’re watching multiple stories about people who are each embodying those words: Rick’s career, his friendship with Cliff, Sharon Tate, and Hollywood itself.

Tarantino himself feels like one of the last mainstream auteur filmmakers, as well as one of the last and biggest proponents of shooting large-budget movies on film (even Scorsese’s embraced digital now, the fantastically-talented traitor). And with the rise of streaming services, one can’t help but feel like the movie-going experience itself is also becoming obsolete, especially recently, what with theaters going to war with distributors over fucking TROLLS: WORLD TOUR, not to mention that global pandemic we’ve been having lately all but killing general audiences’ enthusiasm for the movie theater experience (Christopher Nolan’s TENET certainly didn’t help). If all these things, both real and fictional, are indeed out of time, then at least with Tarantino’s penultimate film they get one hell of a bittersweet sendoff, a great time that’s more of an Irish wake than a funeral, and it’s a film I have no issue calling a truly introspective, late-career masterpiece.

And that’s without mentioning uniformly incredible cast. Leo DiCaprio, an actor I normally don’t care too much for, gives the best and funniest performance of his career as a dependent prima donna actor clinging to his remaining fame. Brad Pitt earns the hell out of his Oscar as an embodiment of old-school masculinity and charisma with an amazing set of abs (and everything else) whose outward coolness masks his mysterious past and complete badass-ness. Margot Robbie shines in her depiction of Tate, a beacon of warmth and likability who in many ways symbolized the love and carefree attitudes of the swingin’ 60’s. I’ve heard people criticize her character for not having a lot of dialogue, but to me it feels like they’re ignoring the visual storytelling, which just gives way to them assuming the film is sexist just because the female lead isn’t constantly monologuing. Every member of the supporting cast is memorable with their own quirks and great lines, no matter their screentime.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a Tarantino joint without some truly hilarious and shocking violence, and without going into spoiler territory, the last 20 minutes delivers on this promise to such a degree that I feel comfortable calling it the best thing he’s ever done. Some may decry the climax as unnecessary or over-the-top, but the way it leads to an alternate world while subtly acknowledging what happened in the real one is cathartic beyond belief. And if you’re paying attention, every scene in the movie has been quietly building towards this finale, which to me takes away any potential of feeling meandering in the story. If you saw the movie and didn’t much care for it, I recommend giving it another watch. Having the context ahead of time makes it feel so much more rewarding, and even on the fifth watch I’m noticing clever, subtle set-ups I missed beforehand.

It’s also just super cozy and really easy to watch. The two hours and 45 minutes fly by. I could watch a 4-hour version of this.

Quentin, if you’re reading this, please don’t let your last movie be Star Trek.

[rugessnome]

I'm going to pretend @overlyelegantstranger tagged me... 1. Nickname: Mouse is my longstanding online nickname, and for a bit less, DT (for Darth Tenebrous, actually, given my URL) ...actually I spelled Adrien the way I did because I've an OC who shortens her (different) name to "Ien", but I haven't found it convenient to introduce, nor convinced myself it refers to me. 2. Zodiac sign: I'm supposedly a Taurus; actually the sun was in Aries at my birth, and while those often suit me in tumblr astrology, I resent the assigned nature of it all so uh... also no. 3. Height: Five four, maybe five foot five if I'm lucky and standing particularly straight 4. Hogwarts house: Mostly Ravenclaw, with some Slytherin sympathies and a newfound appreciation for Hufflepuff. I will actively resent Gryffindor colors unless you tell me they're actually Shuos (even though I would probably be a Nirai, if anything, in the hexarchate. But I love certain of my foxes.) and/or somehow Sith. 5. Last thing I googled: "Nebuchadnezzar poisoning", because @piermanwalter reminded me of an anecdote in The Disappearing Spoon about how the eating grass thing might have been prompted by inadvertent poisoning. I didn't remember which element; turns out it's lead AND antimony. 6. Favourite musicians: Idk; Over the Rhine are up there, and lately The Mountain Goats. I've also seen Belle & Sebastian and Camera Obscura in concert, so I suppose they're up there. Vienna Teng, Regina Spektor... This is an incomplete list. 7. Song stuck in my head: the phrasing of this question keeps putting some song I don't even really know that has "over my head, over my head" in it? But really it's OTR's "And Can It Ever Be?", with which I am a little obsessed anew, because: "This night is so dark/this night is silence, and very little fear/tell me that this welcome peace/isn't dancing with the ghost of future tears" 8. Following now: four hundred ish? I'm going to check and come back and edit. The vast majority of whom are inactive and/or not personal blogs. 9. Followers: I think this is around 500, although I am/may be long overdue for a purge of spam/porn blogs 10. Do I get asks: Mostly only when I ask for them. But occasionally. 11. Amount of sleep: I gravitate towards about 8 hours. I am practically nonfunctional normally on much less than 6, and lately, thanks to um... anxiety, even getting by on 6 is difficult. 12. Lucky number: ...in some ways π, in some ways e 13. What I’m wearing: Star Trek ~lounge pants I made from Enterprise/"Star Trek" print fabric, and an oversized t-shirt I got when I participated in a litter cleanup 14. Dream job: uhhh something involving as many as possible of: sci-comm, math or programming tasks, a result helpful to people, and maybe a bit of domestic travel now and again?? Idk, I seem to change my mind on this frequently and don't really have a good or set idea. 15. Dream trip: I think the idea I'm most into at the moment is one day, hoping the present situation doesn't actually end service for good, is riding the uh "Empire Builder" Amtrak route through the northern US. Aside from that, I recently went to West Virginia and western Pennsylvania and would enjoy going back and also I am (except for quarantine concerns) almost always up for a road trip to Michigan. 16. Favourite food: this is not something I am good at deciding. There are too many good ones. Something, such as I had for dinner, involving potatoes, corn tortillas, and some peppers and tomatoes (or tomatillos in something else) and cheese as seasoning is my idea of great comfort food. I appreciate a good meatloaf but I also really don't mind eating vegetarian meals on a regular basis, given they're something I like. 17. Instruments: um. I can kinda play a few pieces, with idiosyncratic timing, on keyboard/piano and that's about it. I don't fluently read music though I might be able to work through something in treble clef. I recently acquired a cheap ukulele but I am struggling with tuning it, or understanding how it's used in songs or... 18. Languages: rusty, at best I was almost capable of halting conversation, German and Spanish. I have the Duolingo Latin tree but I don't think it's um... that extensive. I have learned a little Russian and beyond that just... too many interests, without much time being devoted to any of them. 19. Favourite song: I'm into "And Can It Ever Be?" anew, as I said above; also more recently "Your Honor" and "Ghost of Corporate Future" off Soviet Kitsch (aand, a bit awkwardly, "Hotel Song"). "You Or Your Memory" "Dance Music" "This Year" and "Up the Wolves" (which is to say that basically the larger part of my album rotation lately is Soviet Kitsch, The Sunset Tree, and Till We Have Faces)... 20. Random fact: I have been watching retro computer repair videos lately (Adrian's Digital Basement esp) and they've made me kinda want to learn to solder. Though I'm not sure whether I'll look into this before we're past current events or not. (Probably I'd start with some of the kits from Evil Mad Scientist Labs) 21. Aesthetic Standing in a broad-shouldered greatcoat surveying a wintry landscape, perhaps feeling powerful, but with a note of melancholy and humility to it. Welcoming a dear friend in, pet in arms, with an array of beautiful if homely chopped vegetables and prepared ingredients inside waiting to be cooked up. A hobbit math professor relaying an algebra theorem or a physics application. Walking near a wetland in a flannel, among the trees and wildlife.

[amoebo-id]

a o t d !!!

no more than 1 release per artist to keep it interesting. selection and ranking is arbitrary and would prob be wildly different if i did this tomorrow. also i only went down to #42 cause everything after that didn’t feel like real aotd status - at least as far as the specific relationships i built over the past 10 yrs with the music i was listening to

#1 laurel halo quarantine

nobody did machine-body dialectic like laurel halo in 2012. i loved everything else from her this decade too but every time i listened to Carcass it made me leave my body physically. absolutely unreal album art too

https://laurelhalo.bandcamp.com/track/carcass-2

#2 e+e the light that you gave me to see you

2012 was a good year. pop/ambient/noise/radio-dj-tag sound collage ascended to spiritual intensity. makes you feel like a child experiencing awe. also fire-gut used to have probably my favorite music video ever but i think it’s gone now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p-SSuwW9cw

#3 ilovemakonnen 5

not to be confused with Drink More Water 5, this one’s from 2010 during his mostly-forgotten diy outsider-pop phase. off-key singing and amateur beats and the sheer absolute joy of making cool songs. all 5 are perfect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORKpg_-z0Mk

#4 macintosh plus floral shoppe

would’ve made top 10 on album art alone. music, aesthetics, and cultural impact are inseparable here but going back to the album reminded me just how engaging its 2010s-updated chopped-and-screwed sound is, musically not just conceptually

https://vektroid.bandcamp.com/track/420

#5 jason lescalleet this is what i do 17

hard to pick a favorite from jason lescalleet’s semi-monthly document of his electroacoustic / field recording / tape loop practice but i’ve cried to multiple tracks on tiwid 17 so it gets the nod. couldn’t find any of them online so here’s something else of his

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t33x8OOm68E

#6 barrio sur बड़ा शोक (heart break)

dedekind cut guy’s weird one-off side project ended up being my favorite thing to come out of the last few years’ obsession w cowboy/western/country music/aesthetics. pure mystery

https://soundcloud.com/user-366783613/redemption-7inch

#7 cities aviv come to life

i think maybe people thought cities aviv was just another no-flow pseudo-”conscious rap” type rapper in 2014 but actually this album is nuts. hyper-energetic vaporwave rap? what if death grips were happy? idk

https://citiesaviv.bandcamp.com/track/url-irl-2

#8 beach boys the smile sessions

this cool fresh 1960s rock myth arrived fully formed and way more fun than the other ones. brian wilson’s concepts and songwriting got so unwieldy we had to wait 50 years to hear the sessions. i don’t care about conversations about his genius or whatever these songs kick ass

https://oldmasterpainter.bandcamp.com/track/surfs-up

#9 mindspring memories & intl. debris international memories

did this really only come out in 2017? i feel like i’ve been listening to it since i was born. tangential lateral kind of wormhole out of vaporwave into two meditative spiritual infinite-feeling loops that perfectly complement each other

https://noproblematapes.bandcamp.com/track/sad-horizons

#10 nyege nyege tapes sounds of sisso

absolutely obnoxiously insanely high energy high pitch high bpm dance music. i can’t believe this isn’t what people mean when they say future bass. set me down the path of historical and contemporary non-”global north” ideas about dance/rhythm/bass which i’m still on

https://nyegenyegetapes.bandcamp.com/track/mshamba-video-mster

#11 blithe field face always toward the sun

the most gorgeous implementation of the sorta-ambient guitar-looping vignette aesthetic. is this a real trope or did i listen to this album so much i convinced myself it was a thing? for me this is the sound of what its like to feel completely content with life and at ease in the moment

https://blithefield.bandcamp.com/track/zen-den

#12 anohni hopelessness

listening to this album and singing along while driving my car made me feel absolutely disgusting. unbelievable hooks, grossly hi fi sound design, and overblown drama add up to imo a scary effective type of explicitly political or ‘protest’ music

https://anohni.bandcamp.com/track/drone-bomb-me

#13 21 savage, offset, & metro boomin without warning

why is these 3 pop stars’ vaguely halloween-themed one-off collab my favorite trap album? 21 savage, offset, and metro boomin were all wildly corny in different ways but everything was perfectly balanced. i hope metro boomin makes like one seriously ambient album next decade

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWv-bR_X-VM&list=PLC1uUM4twa8i6zsD_Sn1LRUq4vhl_PLCx&index=11&t=0s

#14 laura les big summer jams 2018

‘crying in the club’ type bangers with no fear of ugliness and no fear of beauty and no fear of wildly unfashionable tropes like skrillex-y dubstep and guitar solos. so much input from other trans/queer artists it felt like a big t4t party

https://osno1.bandcamp.com/track/the-river-feat-scum-yung-skrrt-and-99jakes

#15 triad god nxb

the other triad god tape from 7 years later is just as good. what was this man doing in the intervening time? i just imagine him riding london public transit while it rains or something. i love knowing that most of his cantonese spoken-word/rap parts are insults and jokes rather than like, melancholy observations

https://soundcloud.com/hipposintanks/triad-god-remand

#16 dj koze knock knock

what if pop music sounded like this? somehow every song on here is wildly danceable, wildly sing-alongable, and also wildly detail-oriented. feels like a transmission from an alternate present where things are okay

https://djkoze.bandcamp.com/track/club-der-ewigkeiten

#17  ocora world of traditional music

box set of “world music” recordings from the label that french electronic composer pierre schaeffer started in the 1950s as a project to teach people in rural west africa how to dj. ethnography can be a fucked up idea but afaik ocora is one of the good ones and if you can sorta try to disengage from the tropes/cliches that get imposed on it, the music is phenomenal. hard to find a track specific to this box set but here’s another from the label

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJm8rn6gW5I

#18 oneohtrix point never replica

opn feels like an artist i’ve ‘grown out of’ i guess but samples never felt more alive or more dead than they did on replica. set a template for the kind of melancholy ‘soundscape’-y vibe that i spent years trying to find more of after

https://oneohtrixpointnever1.bandcamp.com/track/power-of-persuasion

#19 rihanna anti

the most perfect imaginable pop album. i keep trying to move it higher up. i almost put club chai vol 1 on this list purely cause of the Woo remix but then i remembered the original is better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dDCUKElEwk

#20 colleen a flame my love a frequency

colleen’s ultra deadpan singing and wriggly rhythmic synth put me in a trance. everything sounded dry as hell even though it was covered in reverb. i think maybe some people were put off by the corny song names and lyrics

https://colleencolleen.bandcamp.com/track/separating

#21 dj paypal drake edits

back when drake seemed like a sorta-shitty dude rather than seriously creepy, dj paypal used the power of footwork to expose both the melancholy-ambient modality and the serious-bass-music modality latent in his voice and beats

https://mallmusicinc.com/track/brand-new

#22 huerco s. for those of you who have never (and also those who have)

not really as ambient as it first seems imo, but rather like a really intense focus on what we mean when we describe things as ‘static’ or ‘dynamic’. i know it’s corny but i wanna say these tracks are fully both and fully neither

https://brianleeds.bandcamp.com/track/promises-of-fertility

#23 girls rituals reddishness

for a track so deliberately shitty-sounding I Know had no right to be so fucking danceable. persona and production synthesized into the only ‘singer-songwriter’ music i could really get into

https://temporaryenjoyment.bandcamp.com/track/i-know

#24 chromatics kill for love

fakeass 80s retro melancholia digitized and pushed so far past pastiche it turned into pure slime. the phone call in There’s A Light Out On The Horizon came straight from the void

https://soundcloud.com/johnnyjewel/chromatics-kill-for-love-album

#25 actress ghettoville

the only genuinely post-apocalyptic music. specifically the postapocalypse in wall-e but if there was no wall-e to clean it up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcCPdfUFq6k

#26 playboi carti die lit

every beat on this album was reducible to a 4-second loop that perpetually demanded its own repetition and playboi carti somehow knew exactly what to do with them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2pjiKmhlAI

#27 charli xcx vroom vroom

the charli xcx that came after this was fun, but there was black hole levels of power compacted into when she said vroom vroom on Vroom Vroom

https://soundcloud.com/vroomvroomrecordings/charli-xcx-vroom-vroom

#28 pacific breeze: japanese city pop, aor & boogie 1976-1986

it’s kind of amazing to think that this compilation only exists because vaporwave aesthetics made ‘japanese grocery-store kitsch from the 80s’ a marketable thing in the us. anyway every single one of these is an absolute bop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl91bvEKj20

#29 young thug barter 6

i can’t get enough of listening to young thug’s voice. i’ve seen his rhythmic-melodic-textural sensibility described as virtuosic and i don’t know really if that term means anything but it feels right to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg9ZxQKSDuw

#30 magic eye babylon

smeared dreamy lo-fi guitar music w wistful buried melodies pushed to an extreme. every song sounded the same and i wish there was more than the one cassette

https://magiceye.bandcamp.com/track/flame

#31 tirzah devotion

you could say this was ‘stripped down’ r&b but i think more accurately what separated it was that every sound stood exactly and only for itself

https://tirzah.bandcamp.com/track/basic-need

#32 mount eerie clear moon

it’s amazing how well mount eerie navigated the move from a lo-fi sound/mode/affect to a hi-fi sound/mode/affect. clear moon wasn’t his first attempt but it was the one that most embodied the feeling of the new possilibities that had been opened up

https://pwelverumandsun.bandcamp.com/track/through-the-trees-pt-2

#33 kelela aquaphoria

this mix was such a good idea it immediately seemed shocking nobody else had tried afaik. and kelela executed it so well you forgot the tracks already existed in other contexts

https://soundcloud.com/kelelam/aquaphoria

#34 james ferraro skid row

not sure what it means that the only james ferraro i really love is also the one i think of as the least abstract/conceptual. his recited lyrics had a rare spoken-word-poetic power

https://breakworldrecords.bandcamp.com/track/to-live-and-die-in-la

#35 salyu x salyu s(o)un(d)beams

absolutely unbounded sense of joy and creativity and possibility hovering between bangers-lite and ‘soundscape’-y electronic manipulation

https://soundcloud.com/snouu/salyu-x-salyu-s-o-un-d-beams

#36 dj rashad just a taste vol 1

double cup got all the press but it was so smoothed-over it could never have done something as absurdly beautiful as Ghost or even Go Crazy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZuHPAbte9U

#37 yves tumor serpent music

i’m sorta put off by the high-gloss sheen of music like this but serpent music somehow had the right combination of total cohesion and a ridiculous density of impactful moments

https://soundcloud.com/pan_hq/yves-tumor-the-feeling-when-you-walk-away-pan-73?in=pan_hq/sets/yves-tumor-serpent-music-pan

#38 maral mahur club

lo-fi beat collage elevated to something that could actually genuinely be called world music

https://astralplanerecordings.bandcamp.com/track/avesta-khani-reggaeton

#39 lucki ecks watch my back

did not expect this super low-stakes sadboy trap to end up on this list but i love his min-effort flow and somehow every beat is exactly the vibe even when the tracks aren’t volume balanced

https://soundcloud.com/boob7/leave-wit-you-prod-plu2o-nash-clams-casino?in=boob7/sets/watch-my-back

#40 arca stretch 2

not sure why i get more out of arca’s nonsense broken-beat non-rap than any of her later projects

https://unonyc.bandcamp.com/track/tapped-in

#41 klein only

a new way to do fucked up noise w pop leanings. ‘audacitycore’

https://klein1997.bandcamp.com/track/pretty-black-2

#42 city arcadia

another mysterious transmission, this time w lots of harp

https://soundcloud.com/halcyon-veil/city-arcadia

[dentalsleepmedicine72-blog]

20 Tips For A Happy Retirement

I am not claiming that simply because you step onto your yoga mat a couple of occasions every week that you will master the art of happiness. In response to a 2008 study from the College of British Columbia and Harvard Business School, people who spent money on others have been happier than those that spent money on themselves. The research offered members with a windfall of either $5 or $20 to spend on themselves or on a present or charitable donation; the more beneficiant group reported higher ranges of happiness, no matter how a lot money they acquired.

Find ways to domesticate gratitude on a daily basis. Giving thanks and being grateful for all you've got will make you happier and extra content. Gratitude is a thankful appreciation for what you could have acquired in life. These items could also be tangible or intangible. While you spend time every day acknowledging all that is good in life, you will see there may be extra good than you understand, and you'll find that unhappiness, nervousness and melancholy are diminished. Why will we love all issues retro? Maybe as a result of nostalgia makes us completely happy. Nostalgic feelings, or reminiscing about our past, will help us reconnect with feelings of love and a way of marvel and fulfillment. Our previous shapes us and defines our identification. After we bear in mind good instances and blissful reminiscences, we are able to increase our self-confidence and really feel closer to those around us. You must always live in the moment and focus on the child. This helps take care of the scenario at hand somewhat than non-existent problems. Maintaining the deal with happiness throughout this time helps you take on all of the struggles that come up during this section. Wassan Dental Specialty Middle gives Dental Sleep Medicine in Oman to assist the individuals of Oman to realize and maintain a wholesome smile. Now we have resident specialists in Orthodontics (Brackets and Aligners), Invisalign, Prosthodontics (Dental Implants), Endodontics (Root Canal Remedy), Beauty Dentistry (Whitening, Veneers and Digital Smile Design) and Baby & Paediatric Dentistry apart from Common Dentistry.

[darkspellmaster]

All Anon Asks as of 10/29/2018 in my in box.

1.       One thing to point out about these “leaks” as opposed to the two real leaks in the past, the new leaks are on purpose and posted with the intent to cause drama and hype. And as for DW not making a statement, why would they? They are getting free marketing and with such a huge gap between the last press event and the last season why not let it fester and create that hype, they know people will still watch. People are gonna want to tune in to find out the truth, DW knows that.

You know the saying about “No news is good news” well in regard to management in a lot of cases to draw in hype, and also to pretty much not have to deal with the legal nightmare of finding all the images and getting the fakes taken down they go with the idea of “Any publicity is good” because that means that they’re getting hype as you pointed out. As you said Anon, the point of these leaks is to cause drama and create issues between fans and then sit back and laugh at all the shocked kids that are freaking out. They probably are already planning round two or three of this.

2.       Voltron is set in the super fancy future why would anything ever be sepia tone? Especially something that’s happening in a flash forward.

So the basics here is that it’s supposed to feel “Nostalgic”. Like “Oh look at that memory we shared together of a wonderful time.”

Again typically sepia is used to make things look or feel aged. Old photos, memories, etc. Sepia is not a color you use willy nilly because it doesn’t always look good on screen in large dosages in filter. The color brown in general is typically used, or at least that color, for sunset like moments to make the viewer feel melancholy that time is ending. You never use that color when you’re showing something triumphant. Also if you do use it for a happy occasion you tend to use it for a photo in a memory book.

Look at Coco, and the photos on the alter, you have several that are black and white and a few that are a brown color because they’re supposed to invoke a certain feeling in you. You want to feel warm and welcome and like everything is in the past and nostalgic. And the leakers got people to feel that way with the colors. And Flash forwards tend to be brighter and blurred in some cases with frosted edges. Or something to depict that it’s not in the present. And if it is just a time skip, there would be no need for the color change.

3.       I think it’s weird that in the second wedding photo Shiro is leaning away from Roy as he leans in. Odd???

It’s something that normally happens in some anime. The less, shall we say dominating person leans back embarrassed by the attention and more aggressive actions by the more dominate person who is initiating the kiss. By the body language this means that Roy here is the more aggressive figure in their relationship going in for a kiss though still acting a bit shy about it, while Shiro is less aggressive and is being more shy and then decides to go with it. This sort of action usually happens with a girl in Shiro’s place, as in Japan the girl is seen as less aggressive a figure and why certain female characters over the years have been seen as very different than most of their counter parts.

4.       Don’t know if it’s been pointed out yet but in the kiss pic Roy’s arm just randomly disappears through Shiros chest. That’s not how it works.

Correct Anon. The arm should be either around his waist or on his shoulder or chest. As per the kiss with Hikaru (Rick Hunter) and Misa (Lisa) from Macross. Roy’s arm is blending into Shiro’s side and that’s not a good thing. I know Mir makes some small mistakes here and there, but man this would have the art being sent right back to the studio if it was blurring that badly. Unlike Hasbro in the 1980s this sort of thing isn’t tolerated as much anymore because digital means it’s a quick fix rather than hours of reanimating the scene.

5.       so, since you're the go to person regarding the legitimacy of the Voltron leaks, I just saw the [SPOILER] photo of the paladins grown up projected on a screen with people in front smiling [/SPOILER] the person that shared this with me said this is a photo of the french VA team finishing dubbing. Thoughts? Comments? Tumblr doesn't let me link the image, but if you're interested I can share it with you some other way.

Holy hell, um. Not sure what to think of that. But okay. XD Yeah I discuss that in the main blog post about it.

http://darkspellmaster.tumblr.com/post/179532344635/update-and-edit-and-master-post-to-the-fokker

So as I said before I think the photo of the cast is real, and more than likely taken on another date. The thing that jumps out to me about the photo after examining it more is where they are looking. Everyone is staring off to the center of the screen, but the camera that took the photo is off to the right. This means that this was probably a photo being taken because of the man in the center, who I’m betting is a famous and well known voice actor.

These sorts of pictures happen from time to time, even here in the states, when a cast gets someone that is famous and they want to take a photo with them. Remember actors are fan boys and girl’s too.

When I went to Anime Midwest a few years ago Sonny Straight (Lupin the 3rd, Krillen, a number of characters in anime) mentioned how he was sitting next to the late VA of Speed Racer, Peter Fernandez, who was signing small cars of the Mach 5. He was talking to him, while geeking out in his mind, and Mr. Fernandez gave him a car with his autograph on it. Sonny basically was playing with the car when Mr. Fernandez wasn’t looking making the noise of the Mach 5.

Nolan North just recently confessed to chasing down Sir. Anthony Hopkins on to an elevator and talking to him for a while, because he didn’t want to miss a shot to meet the famous actor who was recording lines on Retro Replay. (Also watch the show it’s funny.) 

So more than likely the picture was being taken with a well-known French VA and that it was for posterity sake for the studio and the actors. Studios will sometimes do this if they have a named actor in the cast doing a voice.

6.       I've gone back through Bexs likes and I don't see any of the leaks. What's the source on that claim?

I’ve only been told about this, I haven’t seen anything of it either. I do not have an Instagram so I can’t tell you about that stuff.  

Either Bex liked something that was similar, or someone thought that they liked it, or something. I really can’t say for sure. But regardless, unless it’s in their contracts and the NDA states they can’t like fan art, actors typically do like art.

7.       Watching your post about the whole studio thing I thought about something, I didn’t know about Ezor’s va leak but maybe when she did it she simply didn’t think the fandom would immediately jump on it and spread it, then is it possible that the french studio ‘leak’ is real too and that the same thing happened?

Most actor’s don’t think that what they say is important. I think in Kimiko’s case she really wanted to just give the fans the okay that Shiro was going to show up again because of all the freaking out on Social Media about it and trying to be a good person. Lionel (I think that’s how you spell his name) the French VA seems like he was thinking of just showing that they were recording the show again. Maybe getting people excited, since, most people that follow Voltron aren’t following the dub actors save for those that are following in France right now. And I don’t know how many know of the actor due to the fact that he’s more a live action actor like Steve is so this is his first dubbing job for a cartoon.

The thing is that the second picture was a personal one that was taken at some other point in time, because of the change that Lionel’s hair has gone through it seems. Also, as I said before this was taken from the side meaning that they’re looking at another camera, so it’s not a case of them taking a “Last hurray” photo, and more likely that they were taking a picture with a well-known actor that had visited the studio to do a voice.

The “leak” is real in that it is a legit photo of the cast, what’s fake is the stuff behind them.

8.       I reported the violations to the French company but they haven’t got back to me :/ surely over something this serious they would?

I wouldn’t expect them to be getting back to you regarding this. The photo that was taken wasn’t their property in this case, it’s owned by whoever took it from the side of the editing booth. If it was a professional photo, then yeah they would want to know info.  It could be that too, much like DW here in the state’s the legal department isn’t seeing anything huge to go after and would rather people just ignore it.

After all they have only a month and a few days here states side for it to come out, also in France too, so more than likely they are more worried about the promotional stuff they need to do after She-ra comes out.

You’re right, if it was serious we would see things about it all over the place, not just on Tumblr but on other sites that cover this sort of news. Like with the Mir incident. This is not serious to them and probably isn’t even registering yet for them.

9.       One of the most glaring things for me is that Roy isn't even on the poster. Even the most minor characters are in it and yet you're going to tell me Shiro's future husband isn't? Yeah, no way. Also in your post debunking the leaks you forgot to mention how the background characters are weirdly static (especially Pidge) in the wedding edits, but Shiro and Roy are moving.

Yeah having Roy on the poster would be a legal nightmare waiting to happen, as rsasai said in one of their other posts, since the show is airing in Japan and Japan worships Roy and Macross, you would have to deal with Studio Nue, Tatsunoko and Big West for any rights to be used. Not to mention that fans of Macross would want to know what the hell was going on since Roy is a big deal. As I said above reminds me way to much of a Newtype magazine static illustration that was traced over.

10.   I commend you on your impeccable taste in TV shows, my good comrade. Also, whomst else misses the 80s & 90s where people would just watch and enjoy the shows they watched, and didn’t ruin them or the experience for other fans? Ahhh the good old days!

Maybe I’ll list all my favorite shows. XD And thank you, I like to think I have good taste in shows. At least I hope I do.

Well it depened on who you watched the show with, but over all, for the most part, people genuinely weren’t as worked up over shows. Or at least I never noticed save for a Lisa is better, Lynn is better fight I once saw between two girls on the playground about Robotech, but other than that…it was mostly quiet. Not sure about at offices in the day though over shows like Dallas or Dynasty.

11.   To the people who say “The staff having not said anything about the leaks yet means they are true!”. I am almost sure they didn’t say anything about the “Klance voiceline leaks” either, and it was fake.

O.O What? Wait…is that like a dialogue line that was said? OR are we talking about those old telephone call lines where you paid like 9.95 and a dollar or something every minute after a few minutes to talk to your favorite character? Because if it’s the latter, hell yes it would be fake since no one does that anymore. Well save Cdawg who does it for Black butler calls but those are free.

12.   An anon sent to you said "maybe DW just doesn't care anymore since the show is almost over" but it's really not about VLD anymore. Like I said before in a previous ask, this sets a very bad precedent. DW is a business, which means they have to look to the future. By not taking this seriously, they're implying they won't take any of their other licensed shows/IPs seriously either. No company would want to damage their reputation so badly just because a contract is almost over.

But see, the thing is, it’s not that they don’t care it’s a question of how the legal wants them to handle it. If you kick up too much of a fuss, then it’s “Well they are real” if you  don’t then you have people saying you’re not doing enough. Ultimately it’s not up to DW to chase things down since they are not the main license holder, that is WEP, and the other studios are not owned by DW or WEP they are only licensing the series to dub via Netflix. Then throw NBC Universal on this, and you have that factor in play here…you’d have a lot of people involved. Does it look bad, kinda. But most studios have the same response. It’s easier to let things die on their own than interviene as it becomes making a mountain out of a mole hill. Or to put it in a better way. Let’s take a real case that recently happened. There’s a famous artist that likes to take images and do a little change then say they are his own works of art. He’s been doing this for years and artists hate him because he’s taking their copyrighted works and screwing with them only a little and calling them his own. Recently, like a year or so ago, he went on Instagram, found cosplay and other pictures of female celebs and non celebs, commented on it. Took the photo and the comment, put it together as a larger picture and called it his own. This is considered art appropriation and can be seen as a legal way of doing art. Richard Prince, the artist in question, has been getting away with it for years. And someone who’s cagey enough probably could use that as a defense in a lawsuit. https://www.theverge.com/2015/5/30/8691257/richard-prince-instagram-photos-copyright-law-fair-use

13.   in the french va video, who is the guy in the middle? the director?

That guy in the middle may be Patrick Borg. Reason the cast may be taking the picture with him is he’s the voice of Son Goku in Dragon Ball and has been since the start of Dragon ball Z, and is a well-known in VA in France. Or It’s Jerome Wiggins who does a main character on Zagtoonz Zak Storm. My guess though, it’s probably Patrick, and since the crew is pretty much younger actors who grew up around the hype of Dragon ball Z, wouldn’t surprise me if  they were taking a picture with him because he was doing a voice for them.

14.   No, it's the opposite now. All the evidence in the Universe prooves that the leaks are real but you all choose not to believe in it. And I'm okay with it and I'm more than okay If I'm wrong but if the leaks are real almost everyone who believes that the are fake would be greatly dissapointed and will feel betrayed

As I said before Anon, if you want to believe it, fine. That’s up to you. I have no horse in this race, I’m only presenting facts as I find them and having two graphic designers and other people look over the images and such, to them they seem doctored or created. I’d rather people make the call themselves, but as other’s have said well before me, it seems insane that two studios decided to risk their careers to leak this stuff. You do realize that in doing so they will have cost the trust of several other clients they have and it would probably put them out of business with Netflix, and cause BTI Studios to lose the deal with Altor and Shamrock that they recently made this past year, and for Netflix to pull out of it’s vendorship with VSI and probably make other networks, like CN, and Nick, pull out of the deal. No one, in their right mind, would put themselves or their careers in danger over a cartoon show. No one. It would cause them to be blacklisted and not have work in the VA community ever again. The sheer level of WTF that would have to run through someone’s minds to do this if they were a professional in this field would be astonishing. Honestly, no I wouldn’t feel betrayed or disappointed. I would be more worried for the studios and wonder if they would be able to continue to run as they are, or have to close due to the fact that most of their clients would bolt knowing their intellectual property wasn’t safe. Then there would be the lawsuits from WEP, NBC Universal and probably Mir for putting out copyrighted material that they don’t own. Would I be upset about the show, no, honestly I wouldn’t. Allura dying would be a mirror and parallel to Ryou dying and taking Lotor with him from Go lion, something Voltron the original didn’t do. Shiro being married, awesome. Roy Fokker getting his name out there and getting people to watch Macross to know who the hell this hottie is, okay in my book. The crew taking a picture together, nothing wrong there.

The only thing that could disappoint me is no ending or a cliff hanger, since, well I got that with Force from DiC and this would be the first show to have a real ending outside of the original.

I don’t get why people are worried about me or others feeling disappointed when there are four other variants of the show that exist that we can watch. That’s just silly. I’m more surprised that people don’t care about the well-being and lively hood and careers of the VAs internationally being wrecked by all of this. That’s where my concern lies. Shipping and all the other things, I don’t care about. My care was that the characters were happy and got along, and that the robot fights were cool.

15.  You list Roy's arm/hand as vanishing on 13 but they're both still visible, I've redlined it for you: i(.)imgur(.)com/2UHctWY(.)png

Side note. you can’t send pictures that way.  And if you mean where the arm seems to blend down around the waist area. I can’t tell for sure if that’s his right arm or his left. Also that would be a weird way to hold someone if you’re going to kiss them like that in genera. 

[caveatauditor]

Best singles of 2018

As long as I can find inane novelty songs to play on loop a billion times, there is hope in the world.

1. Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin, “I Like It”

The problem with Invasion of Privacy, Cardi B’s whirlwind tour of every current hip-hop radio style, is that she’s simply better at some styles than others--fewer Chance duets, more Latin trap, please! She peaks with “I Like It”, a trap-salsa monster that earned its coronation as song of the summer; it was a pleasure to hear, overhear, and over-hear everywhere. By sampling Pete Rodriguez’s old-school boogaloo hit, she and her Spanglophone buddies imagine a diaspora-wide block party that stretches across dimensions of space and time. When the snare drum imitates the dizzy spin of the salsa horn (initially, at 0:07), “I Like It” demonstrates that certain rhythms can cross instrumental, stylistic, and cultural boundaries. Globalization is scary but genre-fucking is fantastic.

2. Rae Sremmurd & Juicy J, “Powerglide”

While the blankly pretty Swae Lee murmurs through his boyish Auto-Tune filter, Mike Will fashions a smooth, acrobatic beat, replete with key changes. The synthesized strings evoke a slow-motion car chase in the rain, parkour at night, an ideal of perfect stylized motion. It takes years of practice to achieve such athletic precision. 

3. Doja Cat, “Mooo!”

To claim “Bitch I’m a cow/bitch I’m a cow/I’m not a cat, I don’t say meow” is to express a desire for one figurative sexual boast to replace another in hip-hop’s complex metaphor system, and the laid-back neosoul beat suits Doja Cat’s insouciance. 

4. iLoveFriday, “Mia Khalifa”

Here’s the backstory behind this: a fake Twitter account impersonating Mia Khalifa, the retired porn star, dissed Smoke Hijabi, one half of the emo-rap duo iLoveFriday, previously best known for their successful vlog series. Unaware that the account did not represent the real Mia Khalifa, she and Auto-Tuned moaner Xeno Carr recorded a diss track in which they accuse her of various obscenities, although none as egregious as the needling whine of their voices. The amateurish flatness of Smoke Hijabi’s delivery in the second verse was the most obnoxious and glorious noise I heard all year. When people talk about the radical potential of the internet to change life and art, this is what they mean.

5. Fromis_9, “Love Bomb”

The plinky arpeggios, the sampled vocal sputter, the candied synth confetti, the constantly accelerating drum machine, and the giant chorus zooming irrepressibly into the sky render the kind of rush that is immediate and visceral. I aspire to have feelings as intense as those evidently experienced by Korean girl-group singers. Infatuation--who are you?

6. Khalid, Ty Dolla $ign & 6lack, “OTW”

Internet acronyms in pop songs imply distance, from Kelela’s “LMK” to Khalid’s “OTW”. The abstraction of language suggests an underlying anxiety about communication, especially when mediated by virtual/digital reality; the feints and dodges that proliferate when two people are trying to figure out what the other is thinking, already an essential pop subject, are thus heightened by yet another layer of technological distance. “OTW” is a musical rendition of Zeno’s paradox, a car song that doubles as a communication song: Khalid promises, in his sweet murmured baritone, that he’s on the way, but he never arrives, as the song keeps him frozen in perpetual transition. The bouncy shimmery beat mirrors the melancholy in his voice and the smoothness of his ride, as he roams the city looking for his beloved in the streetlights. If they don’t connect, it’s okay--he likes to drive.

7. DJ Snake, Cardi B, Ozuna & Selena Gomez, “Taki Taki”

In the eight or so years that he’s been a pop presence, I’ve seen no evidence that DJ Snake is a real person, rather than the anthropomorphized EDM zeitgeist--he’s gone from stupid headbanger drops to diluted reggaeton to moist trophouse gush as if engaged in the Billboard Hot 100 equivalent of insider trading. Now he’s apparently a Latin trap producer. Cool! “Taki Taki” kicks into gear with a whistled synth hook so pleasurably and painfully squeaky you long for it to repeat throughout the entire song, and indeed it does, as the cadre of stars, brought together by a shared fondness for harsh synthesizers, compete to outswagger each other. Each hears the hook and imagines a different song--Ozuna’s is lithe and chirpy, Cardi’s jumpy and aggressive, Selena’s whispered and sensual. The sum of such parts is a multivalent contraption that unites and celebrates a plethora of sensibilities. Ozuna is the glue, but Cardi is the firebomb.

8. Karol G, “Mi Cama”

Bed spring sound effects were apparently a thing this year--Karol G’s “Mi Cama” and EXO’s “Tempo” were two excellent pop hits in which creaky beds give the singers away, recorded on opposite sides of the globe. While the pingponging keyboards that accompany the creaking in “Mi Cama” are supposed to be erotic, they also sound creepy, like music that might play when a bunch of cackling munchkins in clown makeup scare you in a haunted house. I’ve hummed this song in nightmares.

9. Kylie Minogue, “Stop Me From Falling”

Kylie Minogue does country-disco right because she understands that all the best country-disco hits elongate the English high back rounded vowel. It’s quite simply the best vowel to belt, to exclaim, to sing along with (imagine if Taylor Swift had instead been twenty-threeeeeeee-eeee-eeee). “Stop me from falling,” she begs, but it’s too late, the soaring chorus has already taken off: the sweetly inevitable “for youuuuuuuuu,” over rosy keyboards and synthetic banjo. In a year when much of the best country cultivated a sense of displacement, of being a sparrow uprooted from the nest, I treasured Kylie’s playful crossover moves for the tension between traditionalism and novelty.

10. Da Pump, “USA”

Here’s the backstory behind this: an aging Japanese boy band, not having recorded for four years, decided to score a modest comeback single by covering an obscure Italian Eurobeat song from 1992, and were promptly shocked when the song became a massive hit and the song of the summer in Japan. They should have known better: you can’t just release a song with the hook “Come on baby, America”, punctuated by skittering retro synthesizers and braggadocious chants of “USA! USA!”, and expect people not to notice, now can you?