#THOSE ARE ALL SONGS IN DIFFERENT GENRES AND YET THIS PATTERN KEEPS THEM CONSISTENT

[d-criss-news]

20 Questions With Darren Criss: How Acting Has Helped Him Make New Music

While Darren Criss has graced our TV screens with a range of characters, from high schooler Blaine Anderson on Glee to serial killer Andrew Cunanan on The Assassination of Gianni Versace, he was last spotted just being himself, on our For You Page on TikTok. “I’m walking to rehearsal with a guitar on my back with a Trader Joe’s bag ... I did not bring an umbrella because I forgot that it was raining. I’m rocking that NYC musician life,” the Glee alum explained in the hilarious clip posted three days ago.

While Criss’ acting work has earned him acclaim and stardom, he leaned into making music during the pandemic. On Aug. 20, he dropped a new EP, Masquerade, featuring five new tracks that Criss says were inspired by the different characters Criss has embraced throughout his career. After Criss wrote songs for his musical comedy web series Royalties and Apple TV+’s animated sitcom Central Park before the pandemic struck the United States, he then used those experiences as a precursor to his new EP. As Criss continues to promote his new music, he answered 20 of Billboard's questions – giving us a peek into how his new EP came together, and how growing up in San Fransisco shaped him as an actor, singer and all-around artist.

1. What inspired your latest project, Masquerade?

Although I would have preferred that it come at a far less grim cost, I finally had the time. Before the pandemic, I had written 10 new songs for my show Royalties -- along with an original song for Disney and another for Apple’s Central Park. These were all assignments in which I was writing for a certain scenario and character. Go figure. It was the most music I had ever written in a calendar year. This really emboldened me to rethink how I made my own music— to start putting a focus on “character creation” in my songs, rather than personal reflection. The latter was not proving to be as productive. The alchemy of having this time and having set a new intention with my own songwriting and producing made me put on a few of my favorite masques and throw myself a Masquerade.

2. How do you think your background as an actor complements your music?

They are one and the same to me. I treat acting roles like musical pieces— dialogue is like scoring a melody; there’s pace, dynamics, cadence, tone. Physical characterization is like producing -- zeroing in on the bass line, deciding on the kick pattern. Vocal characterization is like choosing the right sonic experience, choosing the most effective snare sound, and mixing the high end or low end. It goes without saying that it works in the complete opposite direction. Making each song is taking on a different role literally and employing the use of different masques to maximize the effectiveness of the particular story being told.

3. On Instagram  you wrote that “Masquerade is a small collection of the variety of musical masques that have always inspired me.” Which track do you identify with most in your real life?

Everybody absorbs songs differently. Some key into the lyrics, some into the melody, some the production, some into vocal performance. When I listen to songs, I consider all of their value on totally different scales. So it’s hard to say if there’s any track I “identify” with more than any others, since I -- by nature -- identify with all of them. I think I just identify with certain aspects more than others. If it helps for a more interesting answer, I will say I enjoy the slightly more classical, playful -- dare I say -- more Broadway-leaning wordplay of “Walk of Shame,” but that’s just talking about lyricism. I enjoy the attitude of “F*kn Around,” the batsh--t musicality of “I Can’t Dance,” the relentless grooves of “Let’s” and “For A Night Like This.” All have different ingredients I really enjoy having an excuse to dive into.

4. What’s the first piece of music that you bought for yourself, and what was the medium?

Beatles audio cassettes: “Help” and “Hard Day’s Night.” I just listened on repeat on a tape-playing Walkman until my brother and I got a stereo for our room with a CD player in it, which was  when I just bought the same two albums again, but this time as compact discs.

5. What was the first concert you saw?It’s hard to say, because my parents took us to a lot of classical concerts when we were small. But I guess this question usually refers to what was the first concert you went to on your own volition, and that my friend, was definitely Warped Tour ’01. My brother and I went on our own— two teenagers going to their first music festival, in the golden age of that particular genre and culture. It was f--king incredible.

6. What did your parents do for a living when you were a kid?

My dad was in private banking and advised really, really wealthy people on how to handle their money. My mom was, by choice, a stay-at-home mom, but in reality, she was my dad’s consigliere. They discussed absolutely everything together. They were a real team, and I saw that every single day in the house. They both had a background in finance (That’s how they met in the first place.) and were incredibly skilled at all the hardcore adulting things that I absolutely suck at. They were total finance wizards together. So of course, instead of becoming an accountant, I picked up playing the guitar and ran as far I could with it. Luckily, they were all about it.

7. What was your favorite homecooked meal growing up?

My dad was an incredible chef. For special occasions, I’d request his crab cakes. They were unreal. I’ve never had a crab cake anywhere in the world that was good as my dad’s.

8. Who made you realize you could be an artist full-time?

I don’t know if I’ve actually realized that yet.

9. What’s at the top of your professional bucket list?

The specifics change every day, but the core idea at the top is to continue being consistently inconsistent with my choices, and to keep getting audiences to constantly reconsider their consideration of me. But I mean, sure, what performer doesn’t want to play Coachella? What songwriter doesn’t want to have Adele sing one of their songs? What actor doesn’t want to be in a Wes Anderson film?

10.  How did your hometown/city shape who you are?

San Francisco. I mean, come on. I was really lucky. The older I get, the more grateful I am for just being born and raised there. It’s an incredibly diverse, culturally rich, colorful, inclusive, vibrant city. By the time I was born, it had served as a beacon for millions of creative, out-of-the-box thinkers to gather and thrive. I grew up around that. The combination of that with having parents, who were unbelievably supportive of the arts themselves, laid an incredibly fortunate foundation to consider the life of an artist as a legitimately viable option. It’s a foundation that I am supremely aware is not the case for millions of young artists around the world. I was absurdly lucky.

11.  What’s the last song you listened to?

I mean probably one of mine, but not by choice. I know, lame. But I’m promoting a new EP, what’d you expect? But if you wanna know what I’ve been listening to, as far as new s--t is concerned: a lot of Lizzy McAlpine, Remi Wolf, and Charlie Burg.

12.  If you could see any artist in concert, dead or alive, who would it be?

The Beatles is an obvious "yeah, duh." Sammy Davis, Mel Tormé, or of course, Nat King Cole. I would’ve loved to see Howard Ashman give a lecture on his creative process and his body of work.

13. What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen happen in the crowd of one of your sets?

I feel like just having a crowd at all, at any one of my sets, is pretty wild enough.

14. What’s your karaoke go-to?

The real answer to this I’ll write into a book one day, because I have a lot to say about karaoke etiquette. I have two options here: I can either name a song that I like to sing for me, for fun, or I can name a song that really gets the group going. The answer depends on what kind of karaoke night we’re dealing with here. So I will say, after I’ve selected a ton of songs that services a decent enough party vibe for everyone else, then I would do one for me, and that would be the Beatles’ “Oh! Darling.”

15. What’s one thing your most devoted fans don’t know about you?

What I have up my sleeve.

16. What TV show did you binge-watch over the past year?

Dave is a stroke of genius. There are episodes that I believe are bona fide masterpieces. Also, My Brilliant Friend is a masterclass in cinematic television.

17. What movie, or song, always makes you cry?

It’s A Wonderful Life.

18. What’s one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?

Get used to sharing everything about yourself and your life now, or more astutely, to the idea that you don’t necessarily get to control how your life is shared. I know it’s not really your thing, but you’re gonna have to get used to it, so start building up those calluses now. And don’t worry, all the stuff you love now will be cool again in your mid-thirties, so keep some of those clothes because you’ll be a full-blown fashion icon if you just keep wearing exactly what you’re wearing. Oh nd also, put money into Apple and Facebook.

19.  What new hobby did you take on in the last year?

I’ve always been a linguaphile. My idea of leisure time is getting to study or review other languages. This past year, I took the time to finally dive into learning how to read, write, and speak Japanese. Other than making music, it was one of the biggest components of my 2020-2021.

20. What do you hope to accomplish or experience by the end of 2021?

I hope I get to play live shows again.

[hotdogct]

blooms in adversity ||| n.jm

pairing: na jaemin x reader genre: angst-ish, fluff. words: 1.8k a/n: you ever get rejected from a job and have a complete meltdown over your future hahahahahhaaa just asking for a friend :) title is an obvious nod to ‘mulan’, i listened to way too much hippo campus while writing this. enjoy!!!

network tags: @czennienet​

At this time we have decided to move forward with other candidates in the hiring process. Thank you for your interest and we wish you the best of luck in the future.

The rejection email might’ve landed in your inbox late in the afternoon, but you had been anticipating its arrival all day long - the thought of it lingering, stagnant, weighing heavily on your brain like a storm cloud that refused to pass. 

Jaemin knew this, anticipated it. It’s why the two of you were outside, taking full advantage of the warmth the sun was providing this late spring day. After noticing the neglected planter on your balcony in the early days of your relationship, Jaemin wouldn’t stop nagging you about his ‘legendary’ green thumb. As soon as winter began to fade to spring he began to wax poetic,  explaining the overwhelming benefits plant ownership has on a person and pretty please can-he-take-you-to-the-nursery and-

It’s not that you didn’t appreciate flowers. Some of your fondest memories of the early stages of your relationship were the bouquets Jaemin would spoil you with at each date - how you used to keep them on display prominently in the kitchen, a silent reminder of his newly blooming affection towards you. Even after they wilted, lost their petals, there was seldom time to mourn. A new bouquet would always take its place, and the absentminded cycle could continue.

Absentminded. That was your whole problem, the reason for the sad remains of dead flowers residing in the neglected planter. You had started off with the brightest of intentions when moving into your first apartment - wanting to establish routine and create the perfect place to unwind at the end of the day.

Nervously you had browsed the outdoor section of the nearest hardware store, shaky hands brushing over begonias and marigolds, before settling on a flat of dusty pink petunias to take home. None of these names meant anything to you, no terms familiar. Equipped with extra gardening tools courtesy of your mother, you spent that afternoon carefully digging into the soil. Gently sitting each starter petunia into place and covering their roots as if tucking in a child for the night. For the next few days, you’d make sure to have your daily nightcap of wine out on the balcony, watch the sunset and water the planter. 

But one day you forgot. The next you were tired. Then you went out of town for the weekend. And at that point, shame left you frozen. Rather than attempting to salvage your petunias, you passively let the entire idea and label of “plant mom” slip from your brain.  A pattern that followed you your entire life - never quite being able to follow through, see something to completion. Sometimes you almost feel as wilted as the abandoned petunias themselves.

This was why Jaemin, with his prince-like features, his romantic gestures and bouquets, swept you off your feet almost instantly. Rather than nagging you about a drawer being left open in the kitchen, a light left on in the living room, the messy dining room table after a night of arts and crafts, he would simply take care of whatever chaos you had left in your wake. You might’ve been a storm, tremendous and unpredictable. Yet Jaemin thought there was nothing more beautiful, and decided he was up for the thrill of the chase. 

So it was only fair to humor him, to try again at the “plant mom” thing. After his consistent nagging reached a crescendo that rivaled only the oncoming cicada brood in terms of volume, you found yourselves strolling through the nearby nursery bright and early on a weekend morning. 

“You’ve put this off all Spring long,” Jaemin lamented, gesturing wildly with his hand at the expanse of greenhouses before the two of you. “And look! Now there’s nothing pretty left!”

“What are you talking about, Na?” You could easily spot at least three to four different flats of colorful starters that had already caught your eye, and started to walk tentatively over in their direction. Before you could get too far, Jaemin’s firm grasp on your wrist prevented you from moving much further, a pout apparent upon his features. Instead he pivoted you both in the opposite direction, towards the more complex greenery and shrubs. You shot Jaemin a confused glance, which only led to a small laugh escaping his lips, followed by words that left your cheeks as crimson as the nearby roses:

“Those flowers weren’t nearly pretty enough for the balcony, let alone pretty enough for you.” 

It had been Jaemin who had pushed you to apply for this job. You were blinded by the familiarity of the stressful retail gig you held long before the two of you even met. The ever changing schedule, along with the grueling work and constant understaffing was your unshifting reality. But you had health benefits and a small, but earnest 401K started - what could you really complain about?

Turns out, quite a bit. It wasn’t until one late night in bed, where Jaemin was massaging your back and shoulders wordlessly after a brutal shift - doing his best to water and tend to you, his most beautiful flower. Silently pressing his hands firmly on, around, all over your shoulder blades in a busy pattern, he tried his best to keep his anger contained to the intensity of his movements. How could they neglect you so? A flower of your caliber needed full sun - and Jaemin didn’t need to feel the tight knots your muscles had twisted themselves into to know that you were wilted. While he was especially gifted at keeping his mouth shut, a brief look at your pained, exhausted expression was all it took for him to slip, speak up.

“You deserve better than this.”

Immediately wide eyed despite how tired you were seconds before, Jaemin realized the vagueness of the previous thought, and clarified, pulling away from your body so that you could roll over, sit up. “N-not like that. This job is going to kill you.” 

Your face softened. While stubborn to a fault, even you could admit Jaemin’s argument was sound. When was enough enough?

And then, doubt. Before you could even begin to imagine the possibilities, the blue sky ideas that could await you. Instead, you immediately hone in on the skills you don’t possess, requirements you don’t meet. The idea of not running on automatic, the thought of having to try, of doing something new. The overwhelming fear of rejection. Pulse racing now, each shallow breath in only made the thorns that had grown around your ego constrict themselves further, pressing in uncomfortably.

Jaemin’s arms find their way around your trembling body seconds later, his added weight bringing you back down to earth. You periodically feel his lips leaving gentle kisses, pressed with the utmost care along the back of your neck, the curve of your shoulder. In between, ghost whispers of comfort land reassuringly in your ear.

“You have so much to offer the world.” 

“You deserve to be somewhere where you can shine.”

“Let's get you blooming again, yeah?”

The smile that graced Jaemin’s face when you told him you had a second interview scheduled was so bright it could probably be seen from outer space. True to his word, over the last month he helped revise your resume, hunt for job listings, prepare for interviews late into the night. There was gradually less and less tension in your muscles when Jaemin would massage almost nightly. Buds slowly began to appear on your stems, where rot had once been. 

The second interview went great - or so you had thought. Then the hours after turned into a day, then two, then the week passed without hearing back. Your expectations had plummeted like a sagging helium balloon, days past its prime. The subject went unmentioned by both you and Jaemin, the silence instead speaking volumes.

The two of you were out on the balcony, music blaring. You’re sitting on an uncomfortable stool watching Jaemin below you, donned in a gardening visor and bright pink gloves. He was planting the flowers you were absolutely frightened to take care of, when the rejection email arrived, unceremoniously. 

You blink once, twice, comprehending the words on your phone screen individually. Move forward - are you now set back? Other candidates - no, that’s you, you feel like the “other”, luck - you’ll need it, alright-

Deep breath. 

You look over and down. Jaemin is so heavily invested in covering a starter daisy just right with soil that he missed your initial reaction, your brief show of raw emotion.  Sensing your eyes on him, he looks up at you, squinting into the sun, smiles bright. If autopilot didn’t fail you now, the small smile on your face would convince him you’re fine, everything was fine. 

But Jaemin was intuitive, he was smart, and he knew better. The speaker was playing some cheerful pop song, the weather was cooperating and tolerable. His nail beds were caked with dirt and soil, a favorite feeling of his from childhood that comes with the satisfaction of gardening. His wide eyes were still studying you. There you were, his radiant flower, sitting in the fullest and brightest of sun, and he had nurtured you back to growth.

So why weren’t you blooming?

“Are you okay?”

A small chuckle leaves your lips, knowing the truth and the inevitability of it all. This time when you blink once, twice, in an attempt to avoid Jaemin’s overwhelming gaze, you can feel hot liquid streaming down your cheeks, taste the saltiness of the tears once they hit your lips. You can hear the clatter of gardening tools being abandoned, plastic flats of flowers being shoved aside, and you can feel Jaemin’s broad frame envelop you seconds later, almost knocking both of you off the stool. 

You lose track of the time, sobbing into Jaemin’s chest. An exaltation of the saddest manner, but necessary when coming from someone as normally stoic as you. His tight grip around you never wavered, the softest of rocking motions to settle you down, his familiar hands massaging at your weary frame. Loving words on loop from his lips.

“This is just a minor setback...it’s alright...”

“They don’t know what they’re missing.”

“We’ll get you back out there tomorrow.”

Eventually your brain stops screaming, though a headache remains. Your breath steadies into a slow rhythm. As quickly as it had arrived, the overwhelming anxiety courtesy of the rejection email disappeared.  The once raging storm had subsided.

And still, Jaemin thought, there was nothing more beautiful.

[insomnihan]

han’s Entire Thoughts & Feelings on Dreamcatcher’s “BEcause”

WE ARE F UCKING UNDER ATTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

there are no read mores here so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ALRIGHT SO-

THE SONG WHERE DO I START WELL- I SAW A COMMENT SOMEWHERE THAT WAS LIKE ‘THIS HAS GOODNIGHT CREEPINESS WITH RED SUN ESSENCE’ WHOEVER THAT WAS YOUR BRAIN IS GINORMOUS™ AND WRINKLY- IF YOU LISTEN TO IT THE SLIGHT SUMMER VIBE IS TOTALLY THERE YET THE PIANO AND THE HARP (MAYBE I DUNNO BUT WHAT I DOONO IS THAT IT SLAPS) THE PRE CHORUS BUILD UP FAST AS HELL THE DRUMS ARE FAST AS S HIT THE CLOCK IS SO CREEPY THE GUITAR IS JUST ASDFFJGHLHKL;;’ THE DOUBLE TIME DURING DAMIS RAP THAT WAS LITERALLY™ AN ATTEMPT TO TAKE MY LIFE (they were this 👌 close istg) AND THEN THE BRDIGE…………………… SOMEONE TAKE THE WHEEL-

AND THEN THEIR VOICES POWERFUL AS ALWAYS AND THAT F UCKING DISTORTION S HIT DURING ‘FOREVER LOVE AND FOREVER MINE’ IS ACTUAL DR*GS- i dunno what it is but the instrumental being like that and then (to me anyway) theres such a sweet undertone (???) in how they sing and then knowing the lyrics likE I KNOW THEYRE OBSESSED- B O I DO I MISS A FAST DAMI RAP P L E A S E I FEEL LIKE SHES THREATENING ME I LOVE THAT PSYCHO NOISE B ICYJ- THAT BRIDGE IS F UCKING CRAZY SIYEONS AND HANDONGS AND YOOHYEONS GENTLE VOICES AND THEN S U A!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOUREALLYGOTTACOMEOUTOFTHELEFTGODDAMNFIELDWITHTHATICANTSTANDYOUHOWDAREYOUJUSTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hello hello for the dance section i will be using THE mcountdown performance yEAH THE ONE POSTED BEFORE THE ACTUAL MV/ALBUM DROP- FIRST OF ALL THE INTRO sorry i have to talk about this theyre so creepy and doll like and jiu is so menacing lIKE WHAT THE F UCK IS THAT (someone answer me what iN THE F CUK did she feed yoohyeon)- NOW ANYWAY I HAVE THINGS TO SAY ABOUT THE ACTUAL DANCE-

OFF THE BAT THE MIRROR INTRODUCTION IS *CHEFS KISS* and then gahyeon choking jiu?????????? LORE????????? IN CHOREOGRAPHY?????????

LISTEN. L I S T E N. ALL OF THEM LIFTING YOOHYEON AT 1:29 LIKE THATS INSANE AND SO FITTING FOR THIS SONG AND VIBE plus yknow………………… handong doing a lot of the lifting………… 👉👈

this specific video doesnt show it during suas verse (which is like Rude™ but fine they show it elsewhere obv) but when shes singing and the rest of them are dropping down slowly………………… yeah-

THE CHORUS EVERY👏SINGLE👏F UCKING👏TIME👏 LIKE THE POSE THEY DO FOR ‘BE’?????????????? THE POWER AND THE GENIUS™ OF IT??????????????????????

DAMI UNHAND ME UNHOLY DEMON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the bridge…………… the rocking from side to side…………… whatever the f uck handong and yoohyeon are doing…………… it was almost like sua was controlling everyone right like deadass im scared-

THE DANCE BREAK PLS LET ME BREATHE

the ending with everyone bowing but gahyeon…………

BICTH……………… BICHY- THE VISUALS JUST KEEP LEVELING THE F UCK UP THATS LIT RALLY INSANE I LOVE THAT FOR THEM- the moment that mystery code was revealed and we were getting demented creepy carnival i waS V I B R A T I N G™ WITH EXCITEMENT the creepy scenery of the  dark hotel lobby and the rundown carnival with the merry go round and teacups AND WITH A CULT and the hallway with the mirrors and the lights (like the use of SO much red and green……… the symbolism………) JUST EVERYTHING IS SO F UCKING ABANDONED AND S HIT- THE LITERAL MIRRORING AND DIMENSION S HIT WHAT THE F UCK!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT CREEPY ASS ROOM WHERE THEY KIDNAPPED GAHYEON IN AND SIYEON WAS ACTING ALL TWITCHY OR WHATEVER WHAT WAS THAT-

TIME TO SHOW WHICH SCENES I LIKED

THE WHOLE GODDAMN THI-

(jk ☺️)

OFF THE BAT GAHYEON MAIN CHARACTER I KNOW THATS RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

…………………… i just wanted to put this here-

i just wanted to put this here too-

HOW DID YOU EVEN GET HERE

id like to think that the real handong is one getting dragged away and the one standing is the doppelganger (for Plot™ purposes)

W H A T T H E F U C K

I DUNNO WHAT TO SAY OTHER THAN IM SCARED-

G OD WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE THIS PART WAS SO WEIRD WHAT DOES THIS MEAN WHAT DOES IT MEAN

HELLO??????????????????

yeah sure let me take this apple from this broken mirror where another me lies within the walls of this creepy hotel anD EAT IT

W E L P-

………………………………… F-

T H E M

I DUNNO HOW IM BREATHING RN-

JIU

whaT IN THE F UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS SCENE IN THIS SCREENSHOT IS ALREADY A LOT the way she looks seemingly unassuming and harmless in that reception desk that brown and white outfit (is her hair in like………… pigtails???) and then the smile to the instant glare you jusT KNOW youre gonna d*e in that place- MAAAAN BANGS OR NO BANGS SHES STUNNING EITHER WAY AND THATS SO RUDE………… the white dress and those red ACTUAL TALONS will be the d*ath of me

SUA

if i counted correctly she had three (3) different outfits??? outside of the dance ones??? white and red then black and purple then that green and black one??? i think of all of those i really like the red and the green one theres SOMETHING ABOUT THEM i think the green one with the big puffy sleeves more NOT BC ITS MY FAVORITE COLOR I SWEAR the green looks silky and then she also has the thing on the side of her face the pearls in her hair- AND THEN THAT RED ONE with the white sleeves and the frilly collar dude whAT THE F UCK LIKE I KNOW WE SAW IT A LOT BUT I WANNA SEE MORE THO……………

SIYEON

OKAYOKAYOKAY LOOK- THIS OUTFIT IN THIS SCREENSHOT I FEEL LIKE I SHOULDNT LIKE IT YET I DO????????????? two completely different looking patterns that animal print and the strips and then that big ass belt (???) around her waist like this shouldnt be like a GOOD look i dont think……… truly only She™ could make this look work 😔😔😔 i got A LOT A LOT to say about the red and orange plaid crop top and skirt with the different colored clips in her head but the only thought going through my Dumb of Ass Stupid Brain™ iS HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

HANDONG

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY NATURAL BLONDE BELOVED this white dress and the BLACK BOOTS AND THE CHOKER SHE BETTER S TOP- AND DO NOT I REPEAT D O N O T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SPEAK TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ON THAT SHORT WHITE DRESS WITH THE WHITE BOOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHOEVER STYLED HER YOU DONT CARE ABOUT ME AND THE OTHER HANDONGISTS YET I ALSO LOVE YOU SO MUCH the one with the pink dress dont talk to me dont approach me donT EVEN F UCKING LOOK AT ME IM GOING THROUGH A LOT RN

YOOHYEON

im really Dumb of Ass™ i thought that one pink and (maybe???) super light blue dress had a clock on it- BUT MOVING ON FROM THAT the space buns and whatever those accessories those are and the pink makeup this is sO- then the white dance outfit with those (mesh??? lace??? i just know that its see through-) sleeves and those big ass earrings THAT LOOK AT 2:24 the boots (yeah i gotta mention that first since i just ALWAYS have to mention them) the white blazer all those pearl long ass necklaces and whatever that is on the side of her face why do her visuals HURT SO BAD-

DAMI

bicth…………………………………… B I C T H- WHAT HAS THIS WOMAN BEEN DOING??????!!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!??!??!?!?! THIS OUTFIT IS SUCH AN ATTACK I DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT IS ON HER FACE THIS WHOLE LOOK IS SOMETHING ELSE™ her tattoo 🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵 that bottom part of her hair is kinda clapped tho honestly- the pig tails?????? braids?????? in the dancing part on the black and white tiles IM DOWN YALL IM DOWN SO BAD AND ITS F UCKING RUDE™ THAT WE DONT SEE S HIT OF THAT DRESS AT THE END-

GAHYEON

IM GONNA SAY IT AGAIN LEE👏GAHYEON👏MAIN👏CHARACTER👏I👏KNOW👏THATS👏RIGHT👏👏👏👏👏👏👏!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS RED HAIR IS A BLESSING (especially in that high ponytail i-) SHE IS ATTACKING ME BUT YKNOW WHAT THATS OKAY- im SURE theres a plot significance to her two different dresses the mostly black and the mostly white but my brain can only register WOMAN PRETTY that white one in particular…………… the choker with her hair up and those boots…………… i saw it clear as day and im d wording over it-

BONUS TIME: B-SIDE TRACKS (thoughts and parts i liked)

Intro

i usually expect the intro to be like SUPER HYPE AND INTENSE yknow which it kinda is! however it is consistent that it fits very well and captures the overall vibe of the entire album the calm beginning with the bell like were walking into an establishment and at the halfway point it picks up its intriguing and the ‘i like you’ adds a subtle eeriness that adds just enough to make one wanna continue listening its v good 👌

Airplane

LISTEN……………… LISTEN- this is the VERY LAST genre i expected out of this group YET im not even a little bit shocked that they did this like this cutesy izone-esque summer bop of a song is a DREAMCATCHER™ song……………… YALL- THE AMOUNT OF SEROTONIN THAT ‘AIRPLANE LALALALALALA~~~~~~~’ BRINGS IS SOMETHING SO PERSONAL THIS SECOND GENERATION SUMMERY ASS INSTRUMENTAL WHAT IN THE F UCK- I FEEL LIKE IM RUNNING ON THE BEACH I FEEL THE COLD WIND OF THE WATER BUT THE HEAT OF THE SUN AGAINST MY SKIN AND IM PLAYING WITH A DAMN BEACH BALL WITH A COCONUT DRINK (I F UCKING H*TE LEAVING MY HOUSE) JIU AND DAMI SOUND SO F UCKING PHENOMENAL

Whistle

im pretty firm on believing these b sides represent different times of a summer day and this is the late evening or twilight like not nighttime but CLOSE- i thought i wasnt gonna like the whistling part but that only makes it catchieR THIS SONG IS MAKING ME YEARN AND TRYING TO RECALL LOVELY MEMORIES I DONT EVEN HAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! then again……………… theres always usually a song on their albums that make me unlock and feel hidden emotions………… THIS SONG GOT ME MISSING A PERSON THAT ISNT REAL this is such a mellow yet so powerful in the way they sing and express each syllable- they all did so good on this song but i gotta mention dami again for her part like oH mY gOoOoOooOoOOOooOD

Alldaylong

JIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the way this song was inspired by a hug jiu got from yoohyeon…………… THIS IS NOT A JOKE she said ‘i wanna try city pop’ anD SHE DONE DID IT- i have NO IDEA how this song managed to hold so much joy and light happiness in every word and instrument used in this but im :ccccccc i literally wanna hug someone after listening to this 😔😔😔 this also makes me yearn for something but at least this one isnt unrealistic or unobtainable i dont think! there are some songs out there that make me cry from its lyrics and its sound but THIS ONE the lyrics and just how happy this song is bro reading the lyrics im about to cry for like the fifth time- they who im love so much… :ccccccc doesnt it make you just wanna hug someone and tell them you love them????????? that you appreciate them??????????

해바라기의 마음 (A Heart of Sunflower)

i knew FOR A FACT FOR👏A👏FACT👏 that they were gonna have a ballad for this album bc road to utopia didnt have one i will admit i was one of the 🤡 that thought jiu would be credited on this song 😬😬😬 ANYWAY- AGAIN WITH THE DAMN YEARNING FOR SOMETHING BUT THIS TIME IM F UCKING SAD AS S HIT why must this song be so powerful to make me emotional before i even got to read the lyrics to fully grasp it……………………… now im truly yearning in the Sad™ way and waiting for some imaginary person who i dont even know will even come back…………………… those damn adlibs are pretty as hell it was sua (and i have to mention dami again okay shes really killing it on this she woNT LET ME LIVE-) who got me feeling this the most like yeah…………………… i am a fool…………… im a fool for loving and missing someone who just disappeared from my lifE G O D D A M N IT-

LIKE this is COMPLETELY surprising album BUT IN THE BEST WAY POSSIBLE as its described it really is a ‘special’ album as while the title track still has their music style and sound theres still an element of summer (a very Terrifying™ summer BUT a ✨Summer✨ album nonetheless) like the b sides are SO different and COMPLETELY caught me off guard when i listened to the highlight medley YET this group of seven amazing and talented women pulled it off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its extremely obvious at this point that their steady and organic growth has grown VERY HIGH this time and (although im still very confused by how everything was released and announced BUT i digress) this different kind of method in performing the song the day before seemed to work?????????? I DUNNO WHAT TO SAY ANYMORE this section could literally be summed to just I LOVE DREAMCATCHER SO MUCH 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

IN CONCLUSION: LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM BECAUSE ITS BOMB AS F UCK

AND AS ALWAYS

[neokad]

Touhou VI: The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil - or my first journey into a bullet hell game

Touhou is that one pew pew game series with cute anime gals, right?

Source: https://pixiv.kurocore.com/illust/54033795

Just like what I think are many people, that’s pretty much all I knew about the franchise as a whole! And to be honest, for a long long time, I was AFRAID of going any closer to anything Touhou-related! Because of them being bullet hecks, they seemed like the most frustrating and unfun games I could possibly be playing! But then... time passed... Fast forward to somewhere in 2020: I was watching the biyearly Games Done Quick event, and one of the first runs showcased during it was none other than Touhou Luna Nights! But while the speedrun itself was very impressive, the thing that really captivated me was well... everything else! Even though this was only a Metroidvania fangame, IT LOOKED LIKE SO MUCH FUN! The graphics, the special effects, the mechanics... everything just seemed like a dream!  In spite of that, I only picked the game up and played it about a year later, thanks to a Steam sale! And to keep things short, I ADORED it. It was a bit too short, but everything else was spot on, and even better than I thought it would be from what I saw at GDQ! But that’s sadly a review for another time :(  Because I literally fell in love in this game, well... I thought “screw it, I’ve been morbidly curious for years now, let’s actually try a freakin’ Touhou game!” 

And so, after some research I’ve learned that the sixth game - the first one released on Windows PCs! - was the one that served as inspiration for Luna Nights as a whole - its characters, music, stage aesthetics and more! It just seemed natural to settle with this one~

How did it go? What did I think about it? Well, that’s why we’re here: those are my thoughts about Touhou VI: the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.

Now for a pointless history lesson: as I said earlier, Touhou 6 was the very first game published for Windows PCs, all the way back in 2002! The five previous games were actually exclusive to a Japan-only machine, the NEC PC-98, a line that prevailed strongly in Japan before Microsoft conquered the world. As such, it’s really the first game that’s still relatively accessible today, as PC-98 emulation is... not really a stable thing yet -_- So even though this wasn’t quite true, it’s as if I started my journey into Touhou with the original! And once I started playing, I was honestly surprised at one thing once I hit the title screen: this game actually has lots of options to make the experience easier or harder!

I know that being able to change your starting lives, starting bombs, choose your overall difficulty and such isn’t groundbreaking at all, but honestly? I didn’t expect things to be so customisable in a bullet heck game series - a genre that’s known for being merciless to players! I did decide to go on Normal to have the “intended” experience, but things aren’t as daunting as you may think!

This game also allows you to play as not only Reimu, the poster character of the franchise, but also Marisa! Both of these girls also boasts two different weapons each, with their own strengths, weaknesses and bomb attacks! Again, I genuinely did not expect so much breathing room even though looking back... I feel like I should have : P

Once I actually started playing the game itself, there’s yet another thing that surprised me: the difficulty curve... it’s... manageable??

Now granted, I’m a person that plays a *lot* of games, and on top of that, I play lots of action games as well, games that require quick reaction times, good pattern reading and so on so forth. So there’s a chance my judgement on the game’s difficulty might be wrong or biased... but to me? Embodiment of Scarlet Devil actually has a good difficulty curve! The first stage of the game has many enemies that can shoot many bullets, but they’re slow, predictable and relatively easy to avoid because you have lots of space to maneuver around! On that same train of thought, Rumia, the first stage’s boss, certainly doubles down on the number of bullets she can throw at you. But, their patterns are once again pretty slow and predictable, making things much more comfortable at the start of your adventure!

But hold on a minute here, how does this game actually plays? Well, this is where I need to let out a horrifying truth:

Touhou is actually really, REALLY fun.

At first it does seem like a pretty standard shooter: you shoot at things, dodge bullets, collect power ups to boost your weapon’s strength, and make sure you don’t die too much in order to reach the final boss in good shape. However, what I ended up loving about Touhou are its many, many mechanics that spice things up beautifully! The first one I wanna focus on is “Grazing” and it’s actually pretty simple: if you do your best to get close to a bullet or a laser without touching it with your (very small!) hitbox, you graze that bullet! Not only will a satisfying sound effect play out each time you graze something, you will also gain points each time you do this maneuver, making it essential for a high score, and especially, to gain extra lives faster!  Secondly, there’s bombing! I am totally repeating myself here, but while each character has a different kind of bomb to their disposal, they each function in relatively the same way: you get to launch a strong attack against your opponents, get invincibility frames, and on top of that, get rid of any bullets that are currently on the screen! I love bombs in this game because they create a great balance: you can totally use them for offensive purposes, buuuut they also serve as a great defensive clutch if you just find things too difficult at the moment.  Bombs even have two extra layers to them! When you will get hit and lose a life (and believe me, you will) your bombs will get refilled back to three, urging you to not hoard them too much even if you’d prefer to save them for a tougher part. Because if you die, you might just “waste” bombs in a way! However, here’s an advanced kicker: if you manage to hit the bomb button just as you are hit by a projectile (8 frames within death I think!) you not only are able to save yourself from losing a life, you also won’t lose a bomb at all, either! This is a very difficult trick, but a very cool and potentially important one if you plan things out in the heat of battle ^^

Then there’s a mechanic that, to my knowledge, got introduced in EOSD: the POC, as in Point Of Collection! Now, as you destroy the many enemies after Reimu or Marisa, they naturally drop many power ups and point icons, and because there’s many of these you’re bound to miss them. However, this is where the POC comes in: if you are at full weapon power, you will earn the ability to collect every icon on the screen! This makes sense and is actually very smart, because most players - myself included - tend to hug the bottom of the screen as bullets are more scarce and slower here. BUT reaching that POC close to the top of the screen is a great way to incentivise players to risk things in order to get a massive amount of points and gain extra lives way faster! And finally, as soon as you do reach that max power, the game will automatically wipe every single projectile off the screen, so it’s even possible to time when you’ll get your final power boost to make things easier on yourself!

All of those mechanics together make Touhou EOSD a pure joy to play! It’s simple on the surface but has such interesting mechanics and risk-reward elements that can push you out of your comfort zone, but never forces you to! And sure enough, I got addicted~

Even though I did say that the game had a good curve and started off not too difficult, it does not mean that your journey will be easy: even early game bosses such as Cirno and Meiling took me lots of practice to get consistent at, by studying their patterns and testing out which strategies worked the best for survival. And eventually, even Patchouli and Sayaka’s stages will test you out with lots of predictable-yet-deadly bullets to test out your screen reading skills and even reflexes.

Touhou may be more accessible than I thought, but do not be mistaken: on Normal, this game will still challenge you, and I absolutely love it for that <3 

Another thing that helps this game out is - please pretend to be surprised - the music. Touhou has always been known for bringing some very good tunes all around, but besides Luna Nights’s incredible soundtrack, I actually never got to listen to any of them besides Bad Apple and one fanime opening my bestie sent me one year ago. And well... it’s true!

The game uses some very artificial, even out-of-tune instruments for its music, but strangely enough, it REALLY works! It gives the music a very nostalgic, warm feeling that’s hard to describe, but it works so well at making those songs catchy as all heck! It also helps that the compositions themselves are pretty strong and surprisingly complex for its genre, too! I would pick a favourite theme to show off, but the soundtrack’s just really consistent and good all around!

Sadly, I mostly cannot say the same for the game’s presentation. This game is a PC app from 2002 and it sadly somewhat shows. I’ll even bring a special mention to the in-game portraits, which are hilariously HORRIBLE! Thankfully dedicated fans have made a patch to improve the game’s visuals so that they’re more in line with later titles, but at base it’s really not the prettiest gem visually...

...except for the spell cards, the bosses’s strongest attacks, which are genuinely gorgeous multicolored motives that will struck you in awe before you are inevitably destroyed by them, it’s great! My favourite is the one you get from Meiling’s mid stage encounter, pictured above!

Before wrapping up this long, long post, I do wanna add this: the game will unfortunately only give you the good ending only by playing on Normal and above, and only if you beat the game without using any continues. This is called a 1CC, or 1 Credit Clear. Even if I don’t think the bad ending’s actually that unsatisfactory, I did want to get better at the game! So I practiced for many hours a day for a couple of weeks, memorized each boss’s patterns, learned where to graze, when to optimally reach the POC to get as many points as possible... this game pushed me to get better with an incentive, a reward waiting at the end, on top of the satisfaction of simply cheesing what used to be so difficult at some point and... well, I think this is the proof of a well-crafted game right there. After many failed attempts, I finally managed to 1CC this game (pictures below!!) and it was, genuinely, one of the most satisfying moments in my gaming life <3 

So... yeah. I might be a Touhou fan now. Welp.

Touhou VI: The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil was such a pleasant surprise for me: I expected a game I’d find somewhat boring at best and frustrating at worst, but I ended up having a very, very good time, and honestly? It’s not as hard as you’d think it is! You can beat a Touhou game, so long as you are interested in practicing and getting better, and I promise it’ll feel rewarding in the best of ways <3

I just wanna say thank you to Luna Nights and Team Ladybug, because without them, I would have never been curious and then surprised by how cool this game is. Thank you <3 

And many thanks to you, the reading, for staying until the end! Thank you for reading!

[candyshua]

It’s a Long Way Home | Chapter 8

Pairing: Joshua x Minghao x Reader

Synopsis: It was dark, and then it was light. You’re finally lucid. After 15 years of not being conscious, you wake up in a desolate and post-apocalyptic earth where infected flesh-eating beings roam the streets. Soon enveloped into a mysterious group of survivors, you consistently wonder who they are. But most importantly, who are you?

Genre: Heavy angst, some fluff here and there

Warnings: Gore, bad language, physical & verbal abuse

Word Count: 4.3k

You awoke in the familiar room tucked in Minghao's arms. You were in the bunker, the place you stayed at when the herd was passing through. Minghao knew his way by heart, and the two of you found a car that Minghao started up and drove here (of course parking very far away, not wanting to attract suspicion). You would frequently have nightmares and Minghao would make his way into your room, and he'd hold you until you fell asleep.

You had never felt the fear of your past catching up to you, and the feeling was burdening and heavy. You despised it with all of your might, hating the power of your memories. Even with The Doctor back, your head was still hazy. You hadn't fully processed what had happened, even if it did happen a week ago. Minghao was the clear headed one, even if he was just as worried as you.

Time was not on your side. The longer you waited meant the higher possibility of your friends being dead. Not only that, you knew that they were searching for you - the scientists -.

That he was searching for you. Whether it was him or his minions, they were on a hunt and you were their perfect little prey.

You had wondered what went wrong with your father's plan, because you knew that he would've never agreed to go back down to earth. You knew he was dead, you just knew, but denial can sometimes be an unstoppable force. In this case, you welcomed it with open arms. Comprehending what had happened to you these past few days, weeks, hell - even months, was a mentally draining action. A part of you just wanted to run away again, and never come back.

But, even problems that you couldn't remember followed you, so what's the use? Problems that didn't even begin on this planet still made their way to you. There was no escape, and you weren't a coward.

So you'd do what you were best at - fight.

You shook Minghao slightly, and a slight gruff moan elicited from his chapped lips. He sighed, tearing his eyes open to look into yours. "Morning." He greeted, giving you a small smile that you desperately needed. The smile was a simple gesture that usually would comfort you, but it set ablaze a small little fire in your heart. You felt butterflies, and you had no clue why.

"Morning." You responded, sighing. You didn't even remember going him coming into bed with you, you just remembered being scared and then not. Hell, your dream couldn't even resurface in the depths of your mind. Everything was hazy.

The two of you got up out of the bottom bunk, and he ran into the other room to change. You changed your clothing to heavy layers, since the frigid winds of February were relentless. It was freezing in the bunker, and you scolded yourself for getting used to electricity so quickly when you moved back to Fort Lockwood.

You met each other in the hallway, wordlessly heading outside of the bunker to go and get some supplies. You stole the clothes you were wearing from a corner store, they weren't even your size but you were absolutely freezing when you left the fort. Your biggest concern was freezing to death, but a fire burning inside of you is what kept you at bay.

The two of you went in your separate directions, you going to one of the fully stocked basements of a warehouse near by (supplied by Wonwoo) and slowly hauled food, water, and weaponry to your bunker. Minghao did the same as you, and soon when small little flutters of white started falling from the sky, you stopped.

You had never seen snow before coming to Earth, and you were still not used to the fascinating weather pattern. Minghao looked at you with an unreadable expression in his eyes, as you observed the white flakes with wonder. He smiled to himself, realizing how much of an alien you were. Who knew humans could be aliens? But, he was used to the snow, his parents would make him shovel it every winter, and he'd play it in with his friends and girlfriend.

Minghao hadn't thought about his late fiancee in a while, actually. He had been too preoccupied with ogling over you. He knew that she would've wanted him to be happy and move on, but he still can't help but feel a twinge of guilt in his heart whenever he looks at you. The biggest person holding Minghao back was himself. A war inside his head was going on, and that was piled on with heaps of calamity and life threatening situations. A dead fiancee wasn't exactly a nice asset, it was only another thing that burdened him - another load to carry on his shoulders.

"Minghao look," You started giddily, "it's snowing."

"I noticed." He retorted, smirking playfully. You just shook your head and smiled to yourself, a smile that didn't reach your eyes like it usually did. Minghao felt a pang of pain in his heart every single time you wore the facade of a smile, knowing you were internally conflicted and just plainly sad. He knew you worried for Josh, and Minghao did too, but he knew your love for him is what fueled your worry.

Even in dire situations, he couldn't help but realize how he was so desperately in love with you.

And it hurt so fucking much knowing that the love was one-sided.

He tried to distract himself from his love for you by coming up with plans to get his friends safe, or thinking of dance routines to old songs he learned before everything went to shit. Yet no one seems to grasp how much of an unstoppable force love is. Love is the root of your actions, love is the unknown purpose that convinces people to get out of bed in the morning. Love is what made you keep fighting, even if it hurt so much to do so.

"I'm scared." You blurted, not needing to mention what you were scared of, for Minghao knew and felt the same. The snow wasn't so comforting anymore.

"Me too, Y/N." Minghao admitted, looking at the snowflakes caught in your hair.

"Minghao, remember the night we got drunk?"

"You mean when you got drunk?" Minghao deadpanned with a heaping amount of sass, and you snorted. Minghao was the comic relief you needed desperately. You were eternally grateful for him, for you were convinced your sanity would've disappeared a long time ago without him.

"That doesn't matter. I just remembered something, we were talking about me being immune." You muttered, letting the words hang in the frosty air. The snow continued to pour with a much more spiteful force now, along with Minghao's shock.

"I don't know Y/N. How will we ever know? It's too risky to test it out." Minghao argued, not wanting to believe in the false hope that was protruding through the crevices of you. He didn't want to put his faith into something that could end his suffering, the world's suffering, he had done it before and the disappointment was earth shattering. He was already putting his hope in you, a false and blind hope that one day you might love him back, and deep in the depths of his heart he knew you'd never feel the same.

Yet, Minghao dealt with denial problems just like you did.

"Just think about it, Hao. Why else would I be an experiment? They want to see how everybody else could be immune-"

"How the hell does that make sense? If you lived in orbit, how could the virus possibly affect you?" Minghao interrupted, and he did ask a good question.

But you had an even better answer.

"Because they made the disease. Because..."

A memory interrupted your words.

You walked through the icy and grey corridors, wandering in territories you shouldn't have set your feet in. But, curiosity was your biggest weakness, especially at the meek age of 10.

Curiosity is what kept you from going insane. The fact that things could amaze you was spectacular. You were a fighter, not letting the horrible physical and mental toll the experiments took on you affect your attitude.

You heard growls, ugly loud ones that elicited hunger and vulgarity. You followed the noises, wondering what they could possibly be coming from. You opened a door that was surprisingly unlocked, to a white room filled with clear, shatterproof glass screens everywhere. Behind these screens were plain white rooms, and ugly creatures with completely white eyes and chattering teeth. Their hair was thinning and falling out, their flesh on the brink of decaying. To the adolescent you, they looked like monsters.

But you've seen monsters before, you've dealt with them, you've been at the hands of them. So, these ones didn't faze you in the slightest.

And there was a cart in front of one of the screens, and on the cart was a vile filled with a familiar green color. It had been the serum you've been injected with so many times, and it was here in the open.

You knew it was powerful, but why? Why did you get a bad feeling when looking at those creatures behind the screens? They were a different kind  of monster. The kind that were thoughtless and primitive. The kind that were sick and so far gone a second after they leave.

Fear suddenly engulfed you, and you ran swiftly out of the room, through the corridors, and to the library. Ever since your father had began training you, your lying skills were perfected. So, when asked where you were by one of The Doctor's subordinates. you expertly fibbed and he believed you effortlessly. And from that point, you never went down those corridors again.

"Y/N?" Minghao asked, jogging over to you. Your eyes were squeezed shut, and you felt every little emotion that 10 year old you experienced while walking through those corridors. You felt the fear in your stomach, and you felt the corrupted innocence. Were you ever innocent? You hope so. You hoped that you were once oblivious to the harsh reality of the world, you had hoped you were once naive and free.

"Because those psychos created the virus." You spat, realization washing over you like a fiery volcano immersing the city of Pompeii into ashes. The fierce realization ignited something in you that you have never felt before, pure rage. You felt the heat of your feelings take over you, and your breathing was hot and ragged in the icy snow. With your fury, you could melt this winter abyss and turn it into a scathing summer.

"What? Then how would it get down to Earth, Y/N-"

"There were pods you could go down to Earth with. It's how I got here, they go down and immediately fly back up. They must've put one of the infected on a pod."

"Why the hell would they do that? Huh? Why would they bring down the reign of the human race? You're making no sense, Y/N." Minghao spewed, and you just shook your head, blind with rage.

"I don't know. I will one day, Minghao, and I'll get the answers out of The Doctor. We're going to invade Fort Lockwood, and we're going to kill every single one of those bastards, and-"

"You sound bat shit fucking crazy!" Minghao screamed, and you denied him because he was wrong, you felt it in every fiery inch of your body. Everything was burning, it was so different from the icy clarity you once felt. No, it was the answer you've needed desperately, and it burned with the power of a furious fire.

"Do you know what they did to me?" You asked rhetorically, knowing that Minghao would answer anyway. You had told him the explicit nature of the experiments performed on you, you had showed him all of your scars - both internal and external.

"Of course I do." Minghao said, his tone softening; the sudden realization that you have been through pain that Minghao could not even begin to fathom.

"Then you'll help me."

And so he did. He helped you in more ways than one, and you realized that you could never repay the selfless man that was Minghao Xu.

Yet, you did just by existing. You were more than enough to him, and he had hoped you would realize that.

-

"Okay, so we're going to ambush at night, usually when everybody except the guards are sleeping. How many people were on that ship with you?" Minghao explained, ending the explanation with a question. His eyebrows furrowed slightly, his black mullet messy and disheveled.

"Not a lot. About 200 people, Fort Lockwood has a larger population." You answered, and he nodded while making marks on a map displayed on the pool table of the entertainment room.

"We go in silently. We have silencers for our guns, and we're both very slick and quiet fighters. Plus, not everybody from that ship is down here."

"They're just down here to look for me and then go." You muttered, almost shivering at their cryptic intentions.

"I won't let that happen." Minghao promised, sincerity oozing from his rough tone. His eyes bore into you, and you knew he meant every word he just said. You knew he had a deep rooted appreciation for you, you knew he would sacrifice his life for you, but you just didn't know why. What drove him to do such noble things for you? You returned his gaze with the same fire that it held, and no words needed to be said for you to tell him that you believed him.

"Okay, so we go in at night. Then what else?"

"We knock out or kill everyone we don't recognize. If it's The Doctor, we capture him. We need answers."

You felt an odd peace in your heart. You knew that the chances of your plan succeeding were slim, especially since it was just the two of you versus some powerful scientists. Yet, you know that you would either accomplish what you've wanted, you would've avenged yourself - or you would've died trying.

Minghao was about to walk away to go to sleep, since you two attacked in two days, but you held onto his slim yet muscular arm. You heard his heartbeat quicken at your touch, and his fierce eyes looked down at you with yearning.

"Thank you." You fervently lamented, and then pulled Minghao into the most sincere and real hug you could muster. He hugged you back without any hesitation, the feeling of his strong arms encasing you igniting a bubble of excitement in your stomach. You pulled away, your faces in very close proximity. Your noses were basically touching, and your doe eyes looked into his fierce ones with the same expression he looked at you with.

Yearning.

But then you thought of Joshua, and he was the main reason you were doing all of this, so you pulled away and bid him good night.

"Y/N." He called out, and you turned around, the distance between you much vaster. It felt like he was an infinity away, but in reality he was right there. He had been right there for all this time, and he will always be right there.

"Yes?"

"We're either winning together, or going down together." Minghao vacillated, and you knew exactly what he meant. You wanted to argue, and say that he should save himself if he could, but you knew you wouldn't save yourself if you were in his situation.

"I wouldn't have it any other way." You croaked, smiling boldly. He then nodded, hands clasped together in front of him, and walked back into his room. "We're in this together," You whispered to yourself, because you needed to hear it the most.

And then you thought of your father, and maybe he needed to hear that too. Wherever he was, you just hoped he was happy. You hoped death was the end in his case, so he could rest eternally.

And if everything went to shit, you hoped you could rest eternally, too.

-

Soon, tomorrow came with roaring anxiety. The angst in the air was a force to be reckoned with, and the nervous way you ate your breakfast basically screamed I am scared, someone comfort me.

Minghao whispered words of encouragement, not fully lucid just quite yet. It was early morning, and he was lost in thought.

The realization that tomorrow could in fact be the end to Minghao Xu's life was sinking in, the reality of his upcoming actions slapping him upside the face. He was willing to die, because he knew his life wasn't going to be a lengthy one in a world like this. He just wished he could've said goodbye to everyone.

And then he figured out that he could say goodbye to you, and you could do the same.

Minghao was never a quiet man. He spoke his mind confidently, no matter how obnoxious he sounded. His witty remarks and defensive attitude weren't the ideal package, but you accepted it. You accepted him.

And suddenly, he felt the urge to spill everything. He could keep a secret, that's for sure, but when he knew that the possibilities of him dying were very large, he felt the overpowering urge to just scream I love you. He didn't want to die with something to ponder about in the after life. He didn't want a "what could have been" moment. Minghao had very little regrets, but none of them consisted of the things he didn't do. If Minghao wanted something, he'd at least try to get it.

But he never tried to get you.

Would his biggest regret be refusing to admit his love for you?

But then Minghao knew that he wouldn't let that happen. Minghao Xu wasn't going to have a single regret involving you - in fact, meeting you was a moment he will always treasure. Even the black hand of death couldn't suppress his almighty love, his love for you would continue to leave on eternally after you died. He knew this because he would soak up the courage to utter the oh so precious words to you, and those words would hang in the icy air of February forever.

No one could silence Minghao. He wouldn't be his own worst enemy this time, and he'd make sure of that.

-

Joshua sat down in the chair, his wrists and ankles strapped in. He was covered in horrendous gashes, bruises, and odd marks. Blood seeped from the new wound on his leg, given to him by that asshole doctor, and pain rang in every inch of his body like an echo. Somebody was continuously shouting and the pain was ricocheting off of himself, only to deflect back on to him. This was a repetitive and infinite process, the end he so longed for no where in sight.

He knew where you and Minghao went. But he would never tell, because locked at the bottom of his heart was a hope he felt, call it a hunch, but he knew you were going to save him.

Joshua loved you so much, to put it bluntly and quite vaguely. The thing that kept him alive and from going insane was you. He'd relive memories while being tortured, you being the star of every single one. He knew you didn't leave without some help, he knew you were with Minghao. He knew Minghao wanted to save you, and unlike you he knew why.

Everybody knew why. Joshua was out of the loop for a while when it concerned the gossip of Fort Lockwood, but when he heard that you and Minghao had left, it was obvious. Joshua wasn't an idiot, he was quite smart actually. So, it didn't take a while to put the puzzle pieces together.

He knows feelings aren't things that can be controlled, but he still felt a twinge of resentment towards his best friend.

He would continue fighting for you, no matter what.

He had no idea what was going on in Fort Lockwood, all he remembers was being escorted into the gym Minghao used to work out in (and train you in). And then he remembers being tortured by the man who must be The Doctor, being fed very bleak and shitty meals, and hearing the screams of his friends. He had no idea if they were okay, which was the most pressing and gnawing fact that ate at him every single moment he was awake. In his dreams, he dreamed of you and him and everything was okay, and he was suddenly back in that parallel universe with you and the kids.

You kept him sane, even without being there. That displayed your sheer power over him, how you intoxicated him endlessly. He was under a spell of yours that you didn't even mean to cast, but Joshua was into clumsy women anyway.

He knew, in his heart, that his friends were fighting just as much as him. He knew that they would say nothing, and they would keep mum even if it killed them. But what Joshua didn't know was the health of his citizens.

These bastards couldn't kill all of them, or else they'd be weak and lost in the fundamental dynamics of Fort Lockwood. They needed the citizens to navigate their way through the complex fort, or so Joshua hoped.

He didn't think about the alternative, though.

"Still not talking, huh?" The Doctor hissed, as he patted a bloody club against his hand.

Funny, he goes all retro when he's a fucking scientist. Why not torture me with substances or some other shit? Joshua thought, his black humor making him chuckle darkly. It was a scary laugh, a desperate and crazy one to put it quite simply. The smile was cryptic and held so many layers beneath it, and he would not show a single one.

The Doctor does not react kindly to Joshua's laughing, resulting in a punch to the jaw. Joshua grunted in pain, but he didn't utter a single word. The ache was a dull one, but it was loud and made his ears ring. Joshua swallowed dryly, trying his hardest to distract himself from the pain.

Unsurprisingly, you flashed in his mind.

"Just tell me where they are. Where she is. Then, we'll take her and never bother you again." The evil man thickly persuaded, trying to get under Joshua's skin. The trapped man merely shook his head and clenched his jaw, the pain radiating throughout the lower right region of his face.

He shook his head no. He didn't care about that, he just wanted you. He was being irrational and selfish, but that's what love can do to you. It can dent your entire view on the world, either darkening or lightening it.

Yet, Joshua wasn't going to lose you, even if that meant he had to lose everything else.

"You know why we want her, right?"

Joshua remained still, in the same jaw clenching position he was in before. To be fair, the only alterations he could make in his position were in his face or torso, but they were minor. It was too painful to move anything else, and he was bound by very tight ropes.

"She's immune to the virus. She holds the key to the cure." The Doctor admitted, expecting a dry gasp, but instead he got a cold response.

"There is no cure." Joshua sternly spewed, speaking to this man for the first time.

"Ah! So you do talk! But if there is a cure, it's in her-"

"Shut the fuck up! There is no fucking cure, so stop torturing her to get one." Joshua spat, struggling underneath the ties he succumbed to.

"Nobody meant for it to go this far." The scientist whispered cryptically, and Joshua refused the urge to show his confusion. The Doctor took his silence as an invitation. "It was just supposed to be a disease, and then we'd cure it. And then we'd go down in history. But you see, sometimes things get out of hand, and other plans fall through."

"What are you saying?"

"We - I - created the virus. But then it went much farther than I intended, and it was contagious - and the cure didn't work. We worked on Y/N for 13 years to make a cure, because she was immune to every thing out there. But the disease was...Amplified. It turned into much more than it was intended to be, therefore our original cure didn't work. We tried to muster some cure out of the only girl that was immune, but then she fucking escapes."

"You created this? You're the reason everybody is FUCKING DEAD?" Joshua wretchedly asked, feeling primordial and uncivilized. He felt dirty in this man's presence, for he merely created a disease he thought he could cure for what?

Fucking fame?

Even if he didn't mean for it to get out of hand, his plan still involved people dying due to his actions.

He was a sick, sick man.

"Why are you telling me this?" Joshua hoarsely questioned, suddenly feeling bile pile up at the back of his throat. So many people died...because of a man with a selfish dream. He had the blood of billions on his hands, yet not one shred of guiltiness was felt.

"Because," The Doctor said while picking up a vile with a green serum in it, "you'll die having your questions answered."

And Joshua knew it was the end the moment The Doctor plunged the syringe into his blue veins, and the last image that flooded his mind was one of you, him, and the two kids you had.

In another life.

[beatsfortheillperth]

Words with Twin Nemesis

The United States is the homeland of a lot of the creatives we've had words with over the years, and Soph and Sylv, the masterminds behind Twin Nemesis are just two more US beat-smiths and creatives who just so happen to be cohesively moving sound-waves over in the USA.

The girls are tweaking valleys of bass that display a musical landscape that is infused with funk and wave wonder and this duo will intrigue like the piper, tame ones head to bop and, damn feet to tap with their select but distinguishing variety of tracks.

Twin Nems sound will either have you wishing you were out in an underground nightclub, bouncing by the speakers or, chilling at home on a rainy day with a hot cuppa. It can go both ways with these talents, something that's not easy to encourage, but these beat-smiths do so in the most pleasing matter.

Keeping their minds well and in tune away from producing through their studies in University and Med School. These two are not only fuelling their minds but the minds of their listeners worldwide. 

Thank you Twin Nem and please don't let the studies led to a musical disappearance, Bass needs you both to continue your relationship and we need you to stay together, for our speakers' sake. 

Much love and enjoy words with these unique talents.

Listen to Twin Nemesis, Saying Hello on Spotify -https://open.spotify.com/artist/0aSDNbyGRzbragp1DE9ZKk

Hey, Twin Nemesis thank you so much for taking the time to share words. I thought we would start will a few quick questions.

Favourite Food: Sophie - Mac and Cheese Sylvie - I love food, so that's gonna be hard! I'd say sushi, vanilla berry cake, gummy candy or Thai food :). Oh, and a juicy burger and onion rings. Favourite Beverage:   Sophie - Mojito ;P Sylvie - Plain and simple, water! Stay hydrated, folks! Last track you listened to: Sophie - The Suburbs- Mr Little Jeans Sylvie - Jon Casey's 20/20 mix! That part at 1:30 is insane!! A childhood memory in regards to music: Sophie - The first song I remember is Karma Police..my mom was playing it in the car when I was like a few months old and it stuck with me. I heard it again maybe when I was 14? It was like a shot of lightening. I felt this nostalgia. It was insane. It's my favorite song.   Sylvie - Without a doubt, driving with my dad in the car to Sergio Mendes and the Beatles. I grew up on Bossa Nova and Classic Rock :) First Album you ever purchased: Sophie - Ok Computer  Sylvie - Sheesh, I can't recall to be honest! Most likely something from Sergio Mendes. Last Album you purchased: Sophie - Don't remember tbh  Sylvie - I stream on Spotify, so I haven't quite been purchasing! Views on Cheese: Sophie - Give me all the cheese, just not the weird french ones Sylvie - Cheese is godly. The music you were listening to in Middle School: Sophie - Dubstep (UKF, etc) Sylvie - In Middle School, I was a huge fan of dubstep and drum and bass! UKF releases were the bulk of my then ITunes (rip) library! Still love both genres, especially the soulfulness of liquid drum n bass! What you like to do in your downtime: Sophie - Run around, play videogames, music Sylvie - I'm almost constantly studying, to be honest. However, if I do have a moment, I'll be reading medical journals or watching operations. I want more than anything to be an Emergency Room Physician, so I'm constantly reading articles about the ER when I find good ones. 

I'll also often hop on a shift to volunteer for Crisis Text Line, a truly powerful platform where you can be there for people in difficult times <3. Spreading love and reaching out is incredibly important to me. I also spend a lot of hours as well training for fencing and at the gym for cross-training... Not much "free time" I suppose, but that's exactly how I like it! I'm a busy bee. :D Your ideal feast would consist of: Sophie - Pizza, mac n cheese, nugs. Basically all the foods that will send me to the grave. Sylvie - Probably too much food to realistically procure for one feast. 

Thanks for that, so I'd like to start by asking, how did you both meet? Had you known each other long before you started making music together? Sylvie - We met in fencing in middle school and instantly became best friends. We just clicked! About a year into our friendship, I mentioned in fencing practice that I produced music, and Sophie wanted to join. We learned the ropes of Maschine together, and she picked up Logic faster than I did. Sophie proved to be a natural, and things just flowed from there!

Sophie - We went to the same middle/high school but met during fencing practice! We both fenced sabre for a couple of years and bonded through that. So probably like 2-3 years before we started making music.

    How did your musical relationship start and at the beginning were you both making your own music separately? How long have you been making music together? You've been releasing music on Soundcloud for 5 or so years under Twin Nemesis. Had you been making music together even before releases such as "Nocturne"? Could you share a memory from your early days making music together that has inspired you to continue creating? Sylvie - Sheesh, I would say it's been 6 years. We waited a year before releasing. We're both perfectionists. Before Twin Nemesis, I was releasing creations on my personal account. Sophie vibed with them, and before long we were producing together. In high school we would have "production nights" where we would stay up all night and produce something on one computer, one Maschine. Right after? Dance party time. These have been some of my best memories to date. Sophie - Sylvie taught me everything about how to use Logic and Maschine when we first started! I remember during fencing practice she was talking about producing beats and I thought that was so unique and interesting since I didn't know anyone who did that. We started hanging outside of fencing at her house experimenting with the Maschine and I just fell in love. 

What equipment do you guys use to create your sound? Also if it applies, what musical instruments do you both play? Does knowing how to play an instrument necessarily benefit someone trying to make beats more? Sylvie - I have background in drumming, so I gravitated towards the Maschine. I'm actually a classically trained violinist, and have been playing for 16 years! I also play the bass and drums. In terms of helping beat-making, I'm not quite sure. Plenty of really legendary beat-makers don't play other instruments-- I don't think it's needed to play anything. But I like to incorporate classical or jazz elements into my music when I can. Sophie -  I do not actually play any instruments but I use Maschine as well as Logic and Ableton. I wish I understood the theory behind a lot of the music being put out today but playing by ear has worked out so far.  Could you share a paragraph of what Twin Nemesis represents to you individually and also what Twin Nemesis represents to you both collectively? What inspired the name Twin Nemesis? Love it. Sylvie - Its really special to be able to make music with your best friend. To me, Twin Nemesis represents a creative outlet where we can express our feelings through a medium that has no words.

 We're able to pinpoint that feeling, and hone in on the sonic experience that can deliver a sense of it into our listeners. I want to be able to uplift them, be there for them, show them that they're not alone, be their shoulder to cry on, and help them if I can with our music. 

To me, it's my hope that we can help heal people with the joy of music, (cheesy as it sounds). There's no greater joy than helping others, and I hope we can do that not just in our day- to-day lives, but in our music as well. 

Sophie came up with Twin Nemesis actually, and it's ironic, because I'm an actual twin. We are far from nemeses, my twin is a best friend as well, and I'm extremely lucky to have her. So there's no connection there, Sophie just thought it sounded cool. She's creative as heck! 

Sophie - I think I came up with the name and honestly I think it came from the fact that Sylvie and I just looked very different (blonde vs brunette), yet we're both girls so I wanted to keep that dichotomy but also, yeah, it just sounds cool haha. 

For me Twin Nemesis is a great way to relax. I just finished my BS at Cornell University and am starting medical school at UCSF so my life tends to be very busy and stressful. Making music really grounds me and I found during the most stressful times of my career I tend to create the best music.   Going back to your track "Nocturne" I wanted to discuss it a little further as it is Twin Nems' earliest release that I felt contrasted it's follow up release on Soundcloud delightfully. That follow-up release was "Nostalgia". Were the contrasts in these two releases intentional or are the tracks unrelated? Can you share what making Nostalgia and Nocturne was like? And what you were trying to portray with each track? Sylvie - The two of those tracks were meant to be lofi hip-hop-esque. They were meant to evoke feelings of, well, nostalgia, from two different waveforms. For these two, we busted out our Maschines, and went for something as groovy as it was soulful. 

The process was relatively simple, as we were still figuring out the ropes- chop up a sample, lay down a bass-line, and of course, drum out a groovy, swinging drum pattern. That was really it, admittedly, but we felt that there was a special soulfulness in these tracks, so we released them. Sophie - Skipping, tbh don’t remember much other than I was going thru a bad breakup and these songs helped haha I just wanted to add, back in 2015 Twin Nemesis released a track called Chapel of the Devil via Bandcamp and the sounds displayed in that beat could easily nurse a rap, you guys had skill even back then, much love. What was it like for you making Chapel of the Devil and how do you feel your style has adapted over the years since? Do you feel more confident with each release over time, or do you feel you were more confident with your earlier releases? Sylvie - Mmmm. Good question! Sophie was more involved with that one. She found the sample and chopped it nicely. I can't really take much credit for that. In terms of style, I've began to shift into more bass-music, experimental types of music and have started to produce a fair amount of lo-fi hip hop.

What does making a beat do for you? Does it help you in any personal sort of way like offer an escape? What is it that you think draws more and more people into wanting to create their own beats? Sylvie - Making a beat is an outlet where I don't have anything to lose. When I'm making music, I tap into my emotions, and if not mine, my boyfriend's, my close friends', the worlds', or even my dog's (I'm obsessed with her). More and more people are gravitating towards beatmaking because it's become more culturally relevant with the rise of Soundcloud- the ability to share your creativity with the world is unique, and the fact that everyone has access to that upload button makes music production rather appealing. 

We live in a world of music-- it's all over us. To be able to create your own tunes has been an ever-present drive of humanity-- it's visceral. I gotta give one of my best friends, (an extremely talented classical pianist), Phoebe some credit for coming up with a quote that sums up why music itself is so powerful, especially in times like these-- 

"There’s nothing like the comfort of listening to a song that gets you. And that’s why music is so powerful, it can relate to any kind of person and make him or her feel safe and understood."

People are looking to make that song that gets them, to find that exact feeling that resonates with them and express it without words, in, what my boyfriend Jackson, (a phenomenal guitarist), describes as a medium that is visceral and can touch each and every person that listens differently. 

He believes some of the beauty of music is the ambiguity of the meaning as well. I had to credit these two here for their deeply insightful thoughts. 

Sophie - Refer to previous question, my life is very academically stressful so I use it as an escape away from the pressures of school. Twin Nemesis is also responsible for some bass-driven mixes that are just timeless. Listened to your minimix "That Wavy College minimix" which you both made two years ago and it is still relevant, thank you! Had you both always been into mixing or was it something you picked up along the Twin Nem journey? What gets you in the mood to want to create a mix and what inspires the tracklist you curate? Sylvie - YESSSSSS BASS MUSIC :) Mixing was something we picked up on the way. It really depends on who is making the mix. If it's Soph, it will be more melodic and rap-driven usually.

If it's me, it will be all about the drums. These are pretty consistent distinctions. The track-list is based on what has me bobbing my head and making the stank face at the moment. :)

Sophie - Sylvie makes most of the mixes and I loooove listening to them, especially when I'm studying. Her music taste really vibes with mine. I've tried making mixes but have yet to post anything....maybe soon... Twin Nemesis will also be doing a beatsfortheill mix which we are super humbled about, thank you both. What can our readers and listeners expect with this up and coming mix? Sylvie - You'll see ;) Bringing the timeline forward to a year ago, we have to discuss your track snüp, one of my personal favourites by Twin Nem that I feel perfects the sound you'd want any beat to create when you're trying the lay back, much love. How did you go about creating snüp, how long did it take you guys to make and what inspired it's creation? Sylvie - It was rather simple as well! Snoop Dogg acapella + sample chopped up + infectious drum groove + bass. Done. I would say it took us about 3 days actually. 

The both of us love jazz, old school hip hop, and soul music, so we wanted to integrate the sound of old school hip hop with more "new school". 

Adding the vinyl-ridden sample to a Snoop Dogg vocal was a contrast that we found worked very well, so we followed through with the idea and released it. 

Sophie - I'll let Sylvie answer this one You also released a track called Echoes of the Past in the same year and it was a track that showed me that you guys could tackle any genre. It's chilled, slightly romantic and soothing on a lofi lovers ears, thank you for creating this track. What inspires your shifts in sound in general from genre to genre? And on the subject of this particular track, what was it like to put together? Were you trying to share anything subtly with this release? Sylvie - Shifts in genre are because of our extremely diverse tastes in music. We listen to music spanning almost all genres, (save country, and for me, indie). 

This allows us to want to produce along the gamut of vibes! When we're especially enjoying lo-fi, like we were when we were making Echoes of the Past, we'll make lo-fi. If we're inspired by left-field bass/trap, we'll make something like Hello.Jpeg. It all depends, and there really is no specific reason for why make what we make, when we make it. It just happens that way! I wish I could say that I was trying to convey something...  In regards to music-making, what draws you in about a certain sound or vocal that makes you want to sample it? Sylvie - For me it's all about the groove. You know, when a groove is just *so infectious* that you can't help but bob your head and get those chills down your spine and turn the volume up higher.

I'm a sucker for creamy keys as well, like a Rhodes sample, the Korg Triton, jazz chords, 7ths. I love old soul and jazz music :) 

But also, I equally enjoy warping glitches and harsh sounds. For drum samples? Drums. Must. Slap. They have to cut through the mix and be powerful and beefy, with a liberal amount of syncopation added for that off-kilter groove.   Sophie -  I love oldies and sampling classical music, so if I'm listening to a random track and hear a catchy melody I download it right away and create something with it. I also am drawn to sadder more melancholy melodies. Not sure why but it's always been like that. The song that introduced me to your sound was "Hello.Jpeg" and I was blown away with this track. The intro reminded of something N.E.R.D could have produced and the bass will convert any avid bass listener, thank you again. What were you going for with this release? Did it take long to put together? Also, what do you enjoy most about this track? Sylvie - Awww sheesh, thanks! We were going for my favorite musical element, bounce. For me, that's what makes a track (in bass music). 

It's gotta have that bounce. We'd been listening to Jon Casey, Tsuruda, Explore, Mr. Carmack, etc. for ages, and were hoping to achieve a similar bouncy, stompy feel. 

This track by far took the longest to put together-- probably upwards of 2 weeks? There were a lot of elements there. As for the last question here, I think you can tell what I'm proudest of in this track.... (hint: the bounce). Sophie - We love experimenting with different genres and Hello.Jpeg was our jump. It was extremely fun and very natural to make...we're probably going to create more of that type.  Do you have any Musical Recommendations you could share? Sylvie - Ahhh, yes. I'll go by genre. 

In terms of bass and future beats, the "20/20" mix by Jon Casey is impeccable. Check out that 1:30 time stamp. "Spit That" by Chee has that groove and bass that keeps me wanting to come back for more. "Neptune" by Sam Gellaitry has an incredible groove in the second part that will have you bobbing your head, with that lush bass swirling around. You really can't go wrong with Mo Vibez either. "Hammer" by Tsuruda, "Deception" by Herzeloyde, and "React" by Chromonicci have that signature bounce that I love as well, I'm always scouting for bouncy songs. 

In terms of more hip-hoppy stuff, I'm gonna have to recommend Tek.lun's "Seshat". It has that bossa nova feel I've always loved, blended with hard-hitting drums. 

Drum and Bass! "Progression" by Flite. Anything by Dawn Wall. It's rolling and soulful. Speaking of soulful, soul! 

Tom Misch nails it every time, and I cannot recommend Gareth Donkin's track, "Catharsis" enough. It's beautiful. See for yourself. Classic rock, bossa nova... okay, should I just make a Spotify playlist for y'all? 

This could be too long. 

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/27nkDj0eqPrzOl2CLGNikJ?si=btVmbVLST5SOFRqSgDs6Fw Sophie - I love Sasha Marie mixes. I've found so many songs and artists through her soundcloud page. Give it a listen. Any up and coming releases we should keep a lookout for? Sylvie - Again, you'll see ;) 

Any Last Words? Sylvie - Yeah! An important part of my creative process and just, my life in general, are my amazing boyfriend and best friends, and my family, (yes, that includes my dog, of course). 

Just wanna give them a shoutout here. They're always cheering me on, and I'm absolutely so blessed to have them in my life. I cannot thank them enough. Sophie - Thanks so much for all this, truly blessed to be interviewed! Support Twin Nemesis Here: Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/twinnemesismusicofficial

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/artist/0aSDNbyGRzbragp1DE9ZKk

Bandcamp - https://twinnemesis.bandcamp.com/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/twinnemesismusic/?hl=en

[bonelessone-blog]

How To Play Electric Guitar - A Beginner's Guide

Learning how to play electric guitar can be a challenging, yet very rewarding thing to do. It can be fairly easy to pick up the basics though, and actually, with the right guidance, you could be playing some of your favourite songs in next to no time. To fully master the instrument however, can take years of practice and dedication; indeed, it can take an entire lifetime. How far you want to take it is up to you. In this article I'm going to discuss some of the key things you'll have to know if you want to learn how to play electric guitar, and cover some of the techniques that are used by professional guitarists.

The electric guitar is a very versatile instrument, and it can be heard in many different styles of music. Whatever the type of music though, broadly speaking the electric guitar will usually fulfil one of two roles - either that of an accompaniment or rhythm instrument, or that of a solo or lead instrument. First of all then, I'll explain briefly how to play electric guitar effectively as a rhythm instrument, to accompany a solo voice or lead instrument.

The rhythm guitar forms part of the rhythm section of a band, usually along with the drums and bass guitar. The role of the rhythm section is to provide a backing over which the lead instruments or voices can be played or sung. Because of this, it is very important for all instruments in the rhythm section to play together in perfect time, in order to keep a steady tempo to what is being played. If you hear a band with a good, tight, rhythm section, it's a sure sign that they are very competent musicians, whereas one of the biggest giveaways of an amateur band is sloppy timing amongst its rhythm players. To achieve good timing when learning how to play electric guitar you should always use a metronome when practicing. This will make you sound much more professional when you come to play in a band.

You'll find that in a lot of music, the role of the rhythm guitar is primarily to play chords in a rhythmic pattern so, for this reason, learning as many chords as possible, and being able to change between them fluently is an essential part of learning how to play electric guitar. You'll need to learn different strumming patterns and rhythms as well as the chords themselves, but strumming is not the only way chords can be played. Individual notes of the chord can also be picked, one at a time, either with the fingers or a pick, as arpeggios, or broken chords. This is another very common thing to hear rhythm guitarists playing. It is a lot more difficult than simply strumming in time, so will require a lot of practice. Care should be taken to play all the notes cleanly and evenly, and in time, in order to sound professional.

But there is more to rhythm guitar than just chords and arpeggios. Another common type of rhythm guitar playing involves the use of power chords, particularly in rock music. A power chord is basically a two note chord containing just the root note, and the perfect fifth. Sometimes the octave is added to fatten it up, and there are variations whereby the fifth may be diminished or augmented for example. Power chords are usually played with some amount of distortion, and are often moved around the neck in quite fast sequences. It is best to play power chords using down strokes and palm muting to keep it sounding tight. Anyone learning how to play electric guitar should spend time practicing power chords cleanly and rhythmically, in time to a metronome, as a lot of guitar music relies heavily upon their use.

Another important aspect of playing rhythm guitar is learning how to play riffs. A riff is a repeating melodic pattern, chord progression, or refrain which makes up the basis of a composition. Although they can be used in any genre of music, they most commonly appear in rock music. They can be very simple - just a few repeated notes - or very complex and fast, as might be heard on heavy metal records. They can be one of the most technical sides to rhythm guitar playing and, therefore, it's important that you get to grips with playing riffs early on when learning how to play electric guitar, so that you become comfortable and confident incorporating them into your playing.

So that explains a bit about rhythm guitar, but what about electric guitar as a solo or lead instrument. Thanks to the vast array of sounds, and the expressive timbre that the electric guitar possesses, it is perfectly suited to this role. Learning how to play electric guitar as a lead instrument is one of the most enjoyable and fulfilling aspects of guitar learning, as it allows you to truly express yourself as a musician. Mastering lead guitar, though, will require you to become proficient in a number of specialist techniques, as well as gaining a thorough knowledge of scales and theory. Let's take a brief look at some of these techniques.

Most of the time, lead guitar consists of single note melodies, runs, and licks, so it is vital, when learning how to play electric guitar as a solo instrument, to master the art of picking correctly. In order to pick cleanly and accurately, you should hold your pick close to the tip, so that only a small part of it touches the strings. This will give you more control when you pick. Try to keep all movements as small as possible, and don't allow your picking hand to become tense. The actual motion for picking should come from the wrist, not the elbow or fingers. As with all guitar practice, picking should be practiced with a metronome, and you should pay attention to the dynamics of the notes as well - try to play all notes at consistent velocities.

The next two most important techniques to master when learning how to play electric guitar are string bending and vibrato. These closely related techniques are a fundamental part of lead guitar playing, particularly if you want to play rock or blues. Having a good vibrato will really make you stand out as a good player - a bad vibrato is the hallmark of an amateur - so it's important to spend time working on yours. Vibrato is achieved by bending a note slightly sharp, and then returning it to its original pitch, over and over again. The motion for this should come from the wrist, not the fingers, so it's a good idea (contrary to what you should do normally) to hook your thumb over the top of the neck, to get a good grip. You should then use a twisting, rocking motion of your forearm and wrist, whilst keeping your fingers straight and still, to produce the vibrato effect. One key mistake made by amateurs is not returning fully to the original pitch after the bend up, making the note sound sharp and out of tune, so pay close attention to your intonation at all times. You can vary the 'width' of the vibrato by increasing or decreasing the amount of bend you apply, as well as the speed. The important thing is to stay in control of the vibrato, and don't let it run away, out of time or too fast. This will require a certain amount of muscle strength to be built up in the wrist and forearm, so you should practice this regularly, and be patient.

String bending uses the same technique, but instead of alternating between two pitches, you bend up, usually a semitone or a tone, to a new note and stay there. You can add vibrato to this new note, or bend it back down as you wish. You can also bend up to the note before you pick it, and then release the bend the bend once it is played. It is best to use either your second or third fingers to do bends with as these are the strongest. Again, it is important to watch your intonation when playing with bends. Another technique, which gives a similar sort of sound to bending, is sliding. This is another very common technique heard in lead guitar playing, so needs to be mastered by anyone serious about learning how to play electric guitar. To play a slide simply pick a note then slide your fretting finger up or down the fretboard to another note. This second note can be picked once you reach it, or left ringing from the original note as you like.

Picking every note you play can sound a bit jaggedy and harsh; sometimes you want a smoother sound. Playing notes smoothly is called legato, and on the guitar this is achieved using hammer-ons and pull-offs. To play a hammer-on all you do is play a note, with your first finger say, then to play the next note you hammer the string with your next finger, say your third finger. You do not pick this note, the sound is produced by the hammering action of your third finger. At first this is quite a difficult technique to master; many beginners find it hard to get adequate volume from the hammered-on note. Therefore, when learning how to play electric guitar, you should practice this technique regularly, as always with a metronome, and pay particular attention to achieving even volume and tone with all hammered-on notes.

The opposite of a hammer-on is a pull-off. This is played by playing a note, this time with your third finger for example, then with another finger already in place on a lower fret, say your first finger two frets lower, you pluck the string with the third finger of your fretting hand by pulling it towards the floor - hence the term, pull-off. Again, the second note is not picked, the sound is produced by the pull-off action. This is a slightly more difficult technique to learn than the hammer-on, but anyone wanting to learn how to play electric guitar as a lead instrument needs to master both. By combining these two techniques you will be able to play very fast, impressive guitar solos.

I've covered the most common techniques used in lead playing, and those are the ones you absolutely have to master when learning how to play electric guitar as a solo instrument, but there are other, more advanced techniques that you might like to look at as well. I must warn you that these can take a lot of practice to get to grips with, and their applications are more limited than the techniques discussed above, but they will set you apart from other guitarists if you do take the time to master them. The first of these is tapping. Tapping is an extension of the legato technique looked at earlier, but this time you use fingers of the right hand to hammer-on, or 'tap', notes that the left hand can't reach. In its simplest form only one right hand finger is used, and often it just taps repeating three or four note patterns at very fast speeds. This technique does produce some very impressive results, and with a little practice it's actually quite easy to master.

This simple, one finger, tapping technique is just the beginning though. Taken to it's logical extreme you can use all four fingers of your right hand to tap, in what's called '8 finger tapping'. In practice, 8 finger tapping often uses only 7 fingers, as the first finger of the right hand keeps hold of the pick to allow easy transition between techniques. Using this technique enables players to play things that would otherwise be impossible, like full scale single string legato runs, large intervals, and very fast arpeggios. The principles of right hand tapping are the same as those for left hand hammer-ons and pull-offs. As I'm sure you'll appreciate, to get really good at this will take a long time, and a lot of practice and, with its limited application, only players who are really serious about learning how to play electric guitar tend to worry about it.

Another advanced technique, one with perhaps more application, and certainly more common, is sweep picking. Sweep picking is used as a more efficient way of moving the pick from one string to another, particularly when you are only playing one note on each string, such as when playing arpeggios. The technique itself is quite simple, but it takes a lot of practice to master it. It involves playing successive strings using all downstrokes, or all upstrokes, depending on which direction you are going, in a 'sweeping' motion, similar to strumming. The key is in maintaining control of the timing of each note played with the picking hand, whilst making sure only one note at a time is being heard by careful muting with the fretting hand. Once mastered, this technique will allow you to play amazingly fast arpeggios with ease, but when done badly it can sound terrible, so you really have to practice this technique before attempting to use it in your playing. It can also be used when playing scales or runs when changing between strings - in this case it is often called 'economy picking'. When learning how to play electric guitar as a lead instrument many people leave sweep picking till late on, as it is very hard to master, but I would advise anyone who is serious about their playing to try and tackle it early on, for precisely the same reason. It's definitely a technique worth having.

All this technique however, as important as it is to develop, is useless if you don't know what to do with it - in other words, what notes to play, and when. The only way you can learn this is by becoming proficient at playing, and understanding, scales. A scale is a group of notes that work well together over a given chord or backing. Examples of common scales include the minor and major pentatonic scales, the major scale, and its modes. When learning how to play electric guitar it is vital, especially if you want to be able to improvise or compose your own solos, to be able to play as many scales as possible, and in any position on the neck.

Scales must be practiced until they are ingrained in your head, so you can play them without thinking, but playing scales up and down is only one way to practice them. You should play them in thirds, melodically and harmonically, fourths, fifths, and all other intervals. Practice different sequences of the scale notes too. For example go up three notes, then down one, up three, down one, etc. Or up six, down three, or up three, down one. There is virtually unlimited number of ways to practice scales; play them all on one string, on two, or three. Play them up and down skipping one string all the way. By practicing scales like this you will become fluent at playing the right notes, without just going up and down the scale, enabling you to improvise and compose guitar solos that are much more musical. Anyone learning how to play electric guitar should make learning scales a priority. Vsiti

In this article I've given a brief overview of the most common techniques used to play electric guitar, but there is another important aspect to the instrument that I'd like to quickly look at before I'm done, and that is getting a good sound. This will require an amplifier of some kind and, perhaps, some effects. It's very important, when learning how to play electric guitar, to understand the importance of producing a good, professional sound out of your instrument and equipment. Whole books have been written on this subject, so I won't go into too much detail here, but I'll just mention some of the most important things to think about. Of course, the sound initially comes from the instrument itself, so make sure it is well looked after, properly set up, with good strings, and in tune. Take full advantage of the controls on the guitar, as well as the different pick-ups. The real secret to getting a good sound is in the way you play. Experiment with different pick angles, and velocities, and pay attention to the sound of the notes you play. Always try to avoid unwanted string noise. more

As for amplifiers, there are so many to choose from, it really comes down to the type of sound you're looking for, how much power you need and, of course, how much you're willing to spend. Whichever amp you use though, you should spend time familiarising yourself with the controls, and experiment until you find some sounds you like. It is worth noting, however, that often a sound which sounds great on its own will be lost in the context of a full band as it fights for space with the bass and drums. If this happens, you usually need to turn up the mids. Also, you usually don't need anywhere near as much distortion as you think you do, as this can also muddy the sound, especially in a live context. Finally, a brief word on effects units; use them wisely. When done correctly, effects can add a whole new dimension to your guitar sound, but when over used, or miss-used, they can ruin it. Often, over-use of effects is a means of hiding bad technique, so don't fall into that trap. If you can play well, you shouldn't need to smother your guitar with effects in order to sound good. http://www.bonelessone.com

That brings me to the end of this article which I hope you've found informative and interesting, even though it is only the briefest of introductions to some of the technique involved in learning how to play electric guitar.

[im-basically-logan]

Painting in the Night

the title sounds way more dramatic than the fic actually is pff i wanted to write more moxiety. also i know nothing about nail polish lmao Summary: Patton catches Virgil painting his nails, so he joins in of course. Nail painting ensues. (universe alternate where the rooms don’t affect the other sides for convenience sake lmao) Words: 1,948 Ship: platonic Moxiety (you can read it romantic tho) TW: Uh none that I can think of! Other than very small moment of self-deprecation in the beginning Please send an ask/message me if i should add a trigger Genre: Fluff! @your-dark-strange-son @living-on-the-virge @lnfinitum @nokatai-realm @riverbendover @crowsketches

Sometimes when Virgil couldn’t sleep he got some of his nail polish out, turned on a lamp, and painted his nails. It was jet black, as expected, and although he didn’t put it on often, it was soothing to apply. The repetitious action was nice and the thought of having some killer nails made it worth it. He never told anyone, though, and usually picked it off before leaving his room. But tonight would be a bit different.

Patton made his way to the commons, craving a bit of a midnight snack. A few saltines and water was good. He was about to sit at the table when he felt that Virgil was awake. He wasn’t surprised, but a little worried all the same for the anxious side’s sleep schedule. He took a few packets of crackers with him and another water bottle then sank into Virgil’s room.

“Kiddo…?” He slowly entered to find Virgil on his bed painting his nails with a pair of earbuds in. Virgil jolted in surprise, accidentally pulling his earbuds out and almost spilling the bottle of nail polish that was on the bed.

“P-Patton!” He waved his hands awkwardly, closing the bottle with the cap and putting the hand with semi-painted nails to the side.

Patton jumped a little himself at the reaction, putting the snacks down on the end table. “Sorry, Virge, I didn’t mean to spook ya.” He gave a small smile, looking over curiously at the nail polish.

“I… it’s nothing. I just…” Virgil started, averting his eyes from Patton. “It’s… It’s stupid. I know. Um, you can leave if you want. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not stupid at all!” Patton said, giving the other a bright grin. “I didn’t know you painted your nails. Is black all you have?” Virgil slowly nodded, surprised at the immediate acceptance. Patton pouted. Virgil needed a whole rainbow of colors to choose from!

“Wait right here, I also brought crackers and water if ya want,” Patton said before sinking out. Virgil watched as the moral side left in confusion. He just shrugged and took some crackers from the open wrapper to eat. He would trust Patton to come back.

Patton snuck into Roman’s room and took all the nail polish he could carry from a little drawer. He successfully made it back into Virgil’s room without waking the prince and gingerly placed the nail polish on the bed. There was an array of bright, dark, and even glittering paints. Patton hoped Virgil liked them-- and he did. His face practically lit up in surprise, his eyes scanning all the colors.

“Oh wow… Thanks, Patton,” Virgil said, giving Patton a genuine smile. “Where’d you get ‘em?”

Patton giggled as he answered. “Roman’s room.” Virgil let out a small giggle as well.

“I doubt he’d notice, he has so much stuff in his room.”

Virgil moved the crackers and water on the end table to make room for the nail polish. As he did that, Patton was setting up a happy playlist on his phone and plugged Virgil’s earbuds in. The playlist consisted of positive and calm songs and instrumentals. They both got settled, sitting criss crossed besides each other. Virgil took a purple and a shimmering gray bottle from the bunch, deciding to do a simple stripe pattern first on his semi-painted hand. He did a few strokes of gray on the remaining nails then let them dry. He then subconsciously began leaning on Patton, who didn’t mind at all. Virgil was finally relaxing and they were having bonding time.

“I’m glad you like them. I bet Roman would let you keep the nail polish, hehe!” Patton said, ruffling Virgil’s hair a little. Virgil at this point realized he was laying against Patton and was tempted to sit up, but he was surprisingly comfortable so he stayed put.

“He’d have to steal them from me if not,” Virgil commented with a smirk. “Thanks again, Pat.” Patton nodded, then began tapping his leg to the beat of the music. After a few minutes, Virgil checked the nail polish with the back of his unpainted nail. He tapped it lightly against the gray paint and decided it was dry enough so he took the purple bottle and applied some stripes to the gray. When he was done he carefully put the cap back on, Patton helping him in the process.

“They look really nice, Virge!” Patton exclaimed, stifling a squeal. Virgil had 2 black nails, and 3 gray and purple nails and he personally liked the latter a bit more.

“They look very polished,” Patton commented, earning a short laugh from the other. Virgil waved the hand a little, wishing it would dry faster.

“Heh, thanks.” Virgil looked away modestly, really unsure of how to take compliments. “Hey do you… Can I do your nails, Patton?” The side in question practically exploded with excitement as he nodded a firm ‘yes’ at Virgil. He laughed a little at the reaction, turning to put the purple and gray bottles on the table.

“Okay okay… What do you want?” He asked, grabbing a packet of saltines and dropping them on the bed. There would probably be crumbs but he could clean them up later.

Patton put a hand under his chin, thinking in a comedic manner. “Hmm… I dunno. Surprise me!” He shrugged. “Do whatever you want, kiddo!”

Virgil took a moment to think himself, then thought of the perfect thing. He didn’t want to spoil it quite yet so all he took was a blank white bottle from the table and placed it in between his ankles this time so it wouldn’t fall. He took one of Patton hands with his now dried hand. He held it up steady and covered a good third of each nail in the white on the tips. He repeated the same steps with the other hand.

“Oooh! Little tips! They look pretty,” Patton said, stretching his hands to see better.

“Just let ‘em dry first. I’m not done,” Virgil replied with a knowing smile. Patton raised a brow in interest, but didn’t say anything. Patton left his hands on his knees, calmly sitting with Virgil leaning on him again. After another few minutes, Virgil checked Patton’s nails with the back of his own. When he was satisfied that they were dry enough, he sat up and grabbed a red, orange, yellow, green, and blue bottle.

Patton gasped and his eyes lit up as he saw the colors Virgil chose.

“A rainbow!?” Virgil nodded with a soft chuckle, taking the red’s cap out first. He held Patton’s hand again, stroking a smooth line on Patton’s thumbnail that made the nail look like it was manicured. He progressed through the rainbow in the same manner, creating a rainbow on the other’s hand.

“How’s that look?” Virgil asked, closing the blue bottle.

Patton stretched out the rainbow nails with glee, looking at Virgil with pride. “It looks amazing, Virge!” He held back the urge to hug the other, not wanting to ruin the fresh coat of polish. Virgil smiled before reaching for the red nail polish to repeat on Patton’s other hand. He and Patton then listened to music as they waited for the new coat to dry.

“I’m glad you decided to do this,” Patton said, admiring his nails again.

“Um… Don’t mention it. You did get the other colors after all…” Virgil replied, glancing briefly at his small bottle of black nail polish. Patton began to tap his leg again to the beat of the song, subtly mouthing the lyrics as well. Virgil put the bottles of the rainbow back on the end table, taking a cracker out of the packet as he returned to leaning on Patton.

Patton checked himself that his nails were dry, although with the skin of his finger, but they were dry nonetheless.

“I bet Roman’ll be jealous,” Patton stated with a triumphant giggle.

“Probably.”

“Hey, Virge, can I do your nails?” The question was sudden, but Virgil didn’t really have to think twice before accepting Patton’s offer. “Oh great, kiddo! I’ll make ‘em look great!!” He grabbed a bunch of colors, the bottles making sharp sounds as he piled them on the bed then got to work. He gingerly lifted Virgil’s hand and covered a nail in white and the rest in black.

Patton looked at Virgil for instruction, something the anxious side never thought he’d see. “Alright so we just leave those to dry, right? I wanna put little designs on them!” Virgil nodded, but looked on in curiosity as to what the designs would be.

A few crackers and sips of water later, Virgil’s nails were dry and Patton began putting the little designs them. On the one white nail, Patton painted a light blue heart, the outcome looking smoother than he thought it would. Then on the index finger nail, he drew a light purple lightning bolt as best he could.

“I couldn’t fit your emblem’s rain cloud, but that’s what the thumb is for!” Patton explained, now dabbing the thumb with the same purple paint to make a cloud shape. Then he painted on a yellow smiley face on another nail and then painted a sparkly red diamond on the last nail. Virgil’s designs were a bit all over the place, but he liked them anyway.

“Now we’re nail buddies!” Patton said, beaming at Virgil who gave a thumbs up with the hand with dried nail polish. Virgil and Patton ate crackers, drank water, and listened to music as they waited for Virgil’s nails to dry, both now tapping to the beat of the music being played.

“I think they’re dry,” Virgil said, stretching his fingers out after checking to see if the polish was tacky or not, which it wasn’t. “Nice job, Patton.”

“You too, kiddo!” Patton gave Virgil a big hug, smiling into the other’s shoulder. As they broke off from the embrace, Virgil was still left there with a permanent, small smile on his lips.

“Thanks… Sorry I kept you up,” Virgil said, scratching his arm awkwardly. “It’s like… 4 am or something by now.” Patton shook his head, putting his hands on Virgil’s comfortingly.

“It’s fine, Virge, we’ll just have to sleep in for a while.”

“We?”

“Yes of course! You deserve a good night's rest too.” Patton took out his earbud and put the packet of crackers and nail polish bottles onto the end table, taking two crackers for Virgil and himself before putting the earbud back in.

“You can put on that a soft murmur thing with the music, right?” Patton asked, handing Virgil a cracker.

Virgil ate the cracker and picked up his phone, mumbling as he chewed.“Uh… yeah. I think so.” He opened up the app and sure enough, it worked with the music still playing. He softened the music slightly in order to hear the rain and thunder clearer. Patton snapped his fingers and his cat onesie was on.

“Y’mind if I sleep in here tonight, kiddo?” Patton asked. “I know you sometimes like to squeeze your pillows to fall asleep easier, but…”

“Sure,” Virgil finished. “You’d be much better than a pillow anyway.” He kept his jacket on as his usual pajamas and snapped on a pair of black sweatpants.

The two layed down in Virgil’s bed, Virgil behind Patton as he wrapped his arms around the other’s body to entangle Patton’s hands with his own. Patton squeezed Virgil’s hand briefly, hoping Virgil felt safe and secure. Their new polished nails could be seen all together now, two rainbows on a pair of hands and simple, little designs on the other pair.

[gocchisama]

10 Reasons that explain Keyakizaka46 breakthrough in 2016

Rookie no more. The 48group has witnessed the birth of SKE, NMB and HKT and now was the turn for Nogizaka to get their own. But to expand in such ludicrous speed over a stagnating fanbase, the chance to make fans weary and bored increased tenfold. It is hard to not become “another sister group of...” and appeal to a japanese audience, now hard to convince. And yet Keyakizaka46 took the idol world by storm, and even ended 2016 by appearing in Kouhaku in less than one year. What were those key moments that made the difference? Through this small write up i will attempt to highlight what made Keyakizaka a force to be reckoned with.

1) Bringing Music back to the foreground

Music is a matter of taste. But there will be a difference in production, like how much resources you invest in an A-side compared to a B-side. To release a powerful song as first single was a smart move: the goal was to make people react and break the orthodox type. The use of hispanic percussions, accoustic guitar which oppose the pop auto-tune of regular idol release helped Keyakizaka quickly build an unique flavor. Not only Silent Majority, but Sekai ni wa Ai Shikanai is a bold release using poetry and heavily feature piano to stand out.

Idol industry, especially 48group, has suffered from lack of consideration musically wise, as they weren’t taken seriously or even not considered as artists. However, AKB48 proved it wrong releasing great songs like Oogoe Diamond, Iwake Maybe, Everyday Kachuusa and River in a row ( it was called the kamikyoukutachi era). It was possible to praise idol music, and Keyakizaka managed to bring it back to the foreground. In a recent Foreign survey (600 answers), Silent Majority was chosen “Song of the year” by fans.

2) Meaningful lyrics that strikes people hearts

Lyrics of their songs, most of the time dark and rebellious, helped to shape Keyakizaka trait. It’s still Akimoto Yasushi who’s in charge of lyrics, but this time, thanks to Keyakizaka easy-to-perceive personality, he succeeded in making lyrics consistent with music videos. We can quote the excellent B-side Yamanotesen, Hirate Yurina solo, that pictures well the melancholy of a girl lost in thought, or Bob Dylan wo Kaesanai, another B-side but this time from Yuichanzu, makes a smart allegory between the struggle to forget someone and the reluctance of giving back a Bob Dylan CD.

Idol songs are most of the time fluffy and light hearted. Keyakizaka A-sides developed other theme like pain, hardship, and willpower. More frequently, and with more intensity. Because those themes are unusual, they garnered more attention, becoming the “rebellious” group. Lyrics help the listener match his own feelings with the song; and thus getting more involved in the group.

3) A group-oriented choregraphy designed by talented dance teacher

Probably TAKAHIRO-sensei is the most respected staff by Keyakizaka fans, as he hugely helped Keyakizaka build their identity as a group. In a regular group formation (16 members line up), there’s the center on the front, and the choregraphy revolves around the center. However, TAKAHIRO sensei tought it would’ve been more impactful to design Silent majority into highly paced / synchronized sequence involving everyone, reminding the military pattern. Through this dance, Keyakizaka gained a lot of amplitude that others sister group didn’t have. In Kataru Nara Mirai wo, choregraphy reached another level thanks to signature moves like the cross-formation. ( 4x4 teams switching places with the same timing).

TAKAHIRO-sensei himself is a very reliable person that members can look up to, especially because they are inexperienced and need someone to guide them. With great professionalism, he encouraged the girls to have faith in themselves and to not shy out from excellence. Something Keyaki fans will be eternally grateful for. Takahiro biggest strength is probably to efficiently forward the meaning of the song to the choregraphy itself.

4) A powerful Ace, like Maeda Atsuko at her time

It’s debatable if having an eternal center does make a difference, but no one will deny that AKB48 golden age was when Acchan was Ace. Hirate Yurina draws attention thanks to her gaze, intense energy and maturity even though she was only 14 centering Silent Majority. The reason why a group need an Ace is to draw attention to neophytes, non-idol song listeners. General audience are different from idol fans, and react to songs and members differently. They won’t remember a member very well if you rotate the girls in front all the time. They won’t remember if the girl in front doesn’t give them a “raw” first impression. An Ace is someone able to trigger an emotion on someone in a very short of time. The first impression is probably the most important too.

Hirate “Techi” Yurina also has this particularity to “embody” Keyakizaka songs to perfection. She performs the song like she’s possessed, making her dance unique. Her kind of Ace aura is also different from others, as she is more known for her serious stare than her cute smile like top members Acchan or Watanabe Mayu. To hold a mysterious, intense Aura hooks people and make them curious. Not even mentioning the high level of performance that makes fans stay.

5) A wide range of members with strong personalities

Aside from having an Ace able to release the full potential of a song, it’s definitively all the members of the group that create the core fanbase. In AKB48 there was Acchan, but also the Kami7, which fans could easily refer to as their personalities were recognizable. An interesting group is basically interesting members, who have skills and qualities that make them stand out.

Hirate Yurina is the wondergirl, Nagahama Neru is the cute/girls next door, Sugai sama is the princess type, Moriya Akane is the majime type, Shida manaka and Watanabe Risa are the kakkoi (cool type), Uemura rina/harada are the loli type, Imaizumi and Kobayashi Yuis are singer, Oda nana and Ozeki are moodmakers, Suzumoto Miyu and Saito Fuyuka is the best dancer, koike minami and Yonetani are the cute type... In fact, the range of personalities in Keyakizaka ensure that fans can find the type he has the most affinity with. We all know that an idol fan relationship is a lot about feelings, and to see the girls growing their character is the reason why fans are liking the members even more.

6) Reaching brand new fanbase : female and youth

Something that could also apply to their sisters of Nogizaka (by being cool and elegant): to have build a rebellious, cool and strong character hugely helped in reaching a new fanbase. While AKB48 is targeting middle age man through gravure and cute song, Keyakizaka (or more like Sakamichi series) was able to increase their range where female fans yearn for members like Watanabe Risa and Shida manaka (who are good at danso/modeling) and young fans who are more into cool songs like Silent Majority.

This is a trend i’ve observed on Social networks like Twitter. Most of Keyaki fan accounts are the same age as the girls themselves, around 97′ and 00′. To have been able to appeal to this fanbase allow Keyakizaka to avoid this harmful stagnation that is suffering AKB48 (not in sales, but in handshake slots sold). You could also say that, by not splitting handshake events like 48group sister group, Keyakizaka has higher chance to sell their slots, but in the long term, to add multiple fanbase is the reason why they sales are high.

7) Promote music skills and ensure song diversity

Keyakizaka46 has found their identity and signature through the word “rebellion” with songs that follows a pattern (Silent Majority, Otona wa shinjite kurenai, Fukyouwaon) but lyricist and songwriter also vouch for diversity, like Futari saison being a meaningful ballad.It’s even more significant with B-side venture “Shibuyagawa” and “Tuning” from the duo Yuichanzu. Thanks to those retro-pop-folk refreshing songs from the showa Era, Imaizumi & Kobayashi Yuis succeeded in balancing with the rough and dark set of  Keyaki songs.

Something that strikes me is how one sided resources to make music are in the idol industry. Most of the time, it’s a huge use of synth and machines. It doesn’t do justice to the idol genre who emancipated through genre like Metal and Rock too. In the case of Yuichanzu, A-capella performances and acoustic guitars is hugely praised by fans who root for a comeback to basics. Imaizumi has yet to be center, but display great vocals that would be a waste to not capitalize on. Same with yuipon. Not also mentioning Keyakizaka obvious ability to make standard idol songs like “Aozora ga chigau” or “Matta atte kudasai” (Nagahama neru solo)

8) Proper promotion and financial back up from management

This must be an obvious statement, but it isn’t always applied (Hello SKE). Keyakizaka had the chance to have 1 regular TV show (Keyakitte Kakenai), 2 season of national TV show (Keyabingo), One drama (Who killed Tokuyama) numerous appearance in music show including Kouhaku Utagassen (because Silent Majority buzzed), recently Variety show (Nagahama Neru participating in Quizz show), radio broadcast ( Yurakuchou radio program, All night nippon radio program), exclusive modeling contract ( Watanabe Risa with Non-no magazine), countless photoshoot from top members ( Moriya Akane, Sugai yuuka, Shida manaka, hirate Yurina)

A group success is the meeting point between huge amount of tools and resources with girls holding huge potential. It’s also a lot about timing : Since management want to keep Keyakizaka active and in the forefront so people don’t lose sight of them, they release their single in a very solid pace. NGT debuted at the same time as Keyakizaka, but one group released only 1 single while Keyakizaka is on it’s fourth release.

9) A style and identity they can call their own

Nogizaka are cool and elegant. HKT are young and cute. SKE are energetic and positive. NMB are fun and native. Keyakizaka, in result of the music, the lyrics and dance, has found their own characterstic : Raw and untamed. Not only their high level of performance give them the aura of “professional performer” but also is coherent of the message they want to forward : “We give our all because we want to break of our chains” (freeedoooooom)

People recognize you when there’s something to recall. This is probably why underground idol struggle to go beyond their local market because they don’t have a style that make them different. I won’t say Keyakizaka is doing something original (because cool idol songs exist with Beginner, Uza, etc...) but that’s the adequacy between everything (dance, music, lyrics) that bring what’s unique in Keyakizaka and that other group can’t replicate. 

It was a turning point to have their identity quickly defined because Keyakizaka had started during Nogizaka’s great momemtum. To acknowledge kinship with Nogizaka and claiming their own at the same style was Keyakizaka key to success.

10) A potential that keeps fans enthusiastic

Keyakizaka benefit from the “rookie” factor : they are fresh and bring new blood to the idol scene. The momemtum is still high and Keyakizaka has still goals to reach, like bigger concert venue, increasing individuals outdoor work like their sempai Shiraishi mai or Nishino nanase or even starting other drama. The truth is, 48g has seen their endorsement contract fading one by one ( in Acchan era, AKB members endorsed 10+ product, now they barely make 2-3), which translate a loss of interest of idols from general audience. The challenge ahead of Keyakizaka, or even all idol group, is bigger than ever.

Keyakizaka has the potential to reach this level of visibility in japanese entertainment scene once again. But they need to keep their excellent level of performance and develop a network between production companies ( Ogi pro, Ohta pro, Watanabe pro...) to make each individuals viable in various field. In order to become national idols, you need to go beyond idols : become models, talento, actress and singer.

In conclusion, Keyakizaka has found success in fields AKB management failed to invest once again. But it’s up to the girls to turn their work opportunities into concrete realities. And as any project, it needs time to get return on investment. What’s interesting to point out, is that even though Keyakizaka is a rookie group, most of the girls are past 17 and are likely to seriously continue their path as idols ( in AKB group the girls are young without career opportunities, so they graduate after high school). This is a relief for all fans who want Keyakizaka to surpass the other sister groups. 

[recommendedlisten]

To its credit, 2019 has taken a much different path and feel to its start than recent years in music. There has definitely been more than enough to appreciate, but if you look through these first three month’s of recommended listens, it’s held with it a unique way of intriguing us with albums by artists on the rise and breaking out, those of familiar faces reinventing themselves, or some mastering what they’ve always done exceptionally well. There’s plenty more of that which this one-human writing operation didn’t have a chance to elaborate its admiration for on initial release. With a fresh season in swing, here’s a dozen more listens that will help you soak in the longer stretches of daylight in the coming months.

American Football - American Football [Polyvinyl Records]

American Football's music holds a magical conjuring to it that elicits cozy desires of the purest emo feels. The band is two decades removed from the hallmarks of their 1999 genre-defining classic debut, however, and as with all things in life, time has changed them, and that’s especially evident on their fully grown third eponymous effort. On American Football, Mike Kinsella and company leave home, but don’t forget where they’ve come from. Lyrics reflect on adulting with a worn out twinkle of the eye in a way that sees the past, but move on from living in it. The sonic sphere of the Midwestern scene heroes has shape-shifted according as well -- No longer concerned with deciphering ornate arpeggio patterns of long division inside insular spaces, and instead expanding the vantage point over gorgeous, lush-flowing atmospheres of post-rock. Voices of Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell and Land of Talk’s Elizabath Powell make apparitions inside Kinsella’s daydream realities as well, and with that, American Football find a new world of somber comfort to live in.

Angel Du$t - Pretty Buff [Roadrunner Records]

True punks embrace change, and Angel Du$t are a very good example of moving beyond the comfort zone boundaries. The Baltimore band, which began somewhat in the fashion of a supergroup led by Trapped Under Ice’s Justice Tripp, fellow TUI bandmate and frontman for Turnstile in guitarist Brendan Yates, his ‘mates in drummer Daniel Fang and rhythm guitarist Pat McCrory, as well as Jeff Caffey of Mindset, has turned the corner of throaty melodic hardcore heard on their 2016 debut Rock the Fuck on Forever, and head first into jockish feel-good pop-punk jams with their sophomore effort (and first since signing with heavy-hitting major Roadrunner Records) Pretty Buff. Stripping down amps in favor of crunchy power-pop bliss radiates positivity throughout their music. At any point, these songs can become love odes to a human as much as they can be a fur friend, with Tripp’s positive glee.being the kind of thing that ushers in the upcoming days where more warmth and daylight has a funny way of making you appreciate everything around you a tiny bit more.

Ariana Grande - thank u, next [Republic Records]

It’s somewhat of a shame that Ariana Grande’s fifth studio album thank u, next has arrived so soon on the heels of last year’s blockbuster Sweetener, because we didn’t even have a chance to get sick of. What’s different here, though, is that while thank u, next’s hit singles have led the charts in abundance, these jams are more so a testament to her stylized staying power, art of the mood-making, and consistency in craft rather than the big production immediacy of what songs like “no tears left to cry” or “breathin” blew out of the speakers. Essentially, it’s a suitable bookend to its predecessor from a different point of view -- A comedown, if you will, to the glitter and stardust where Grande meets her old nemesis heartbreak once again in the middle, and this time around, challenges the way it shapes her expression. There’s a reason why Grande has been adorned this festival season’s pop crossover headliner, and it’s because albums like thank u, next defies the mainstream’s conventional wisdom.

Better Oblivion Community Center - Better Oblivion Community Center [Dead Oceans]

It was so obvious and almost too good to be true, yet we set our expectations to disbelief. Better Oblivion Community Center, however, is the secret gift given to us by kindred songwriting spirits Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers we should have seen coming all along. Bridgers, a spry 24, is the student mastering the art of veteran Oberst’s long lineage of sad eyed songwriting, and that they had toured and collaborated occasionally with one another before unveiling their self-titled debut was an early indication that this creative bond was formed for the long haul. Leaning into each other for their journey into the unknown, the two bring out each others’ best, which is a testament to Bridgers’ rising star as a contemporary vanguard and a redemption for Oberst, who has been finding his way back to himself slowly since putting his Bright Eyes days to rest. Songs wield in cryptophasia, with voices mutually pitied and political in their shared perspective, while chords tumble in the same key. It’s pure craft, because of how real they’ve always kept it.

Girlpool - What Chaos Is Imaginary [ANTI-]

There was a time when Harmony Tividad and Cleo Tucker’s sights were merely set on their world getting bigger, but with Girlpool’s third studio effort, the duo have ventured into an expanded universe of promising new patterns in their continuous evolution as artists and individuals. What Chaos Is Imaginary is the natural progression forward from what their 2017 sophomore effort Powerplant generated in melancholic electricity. Tividad’s songwriting blusters in dreamy swaths of reverb, and although the stories told only become more opaque in their synthetic texture, it’s fitting for the outer body experiences they indulge. Tucker on the other hand is becoming comfortable with their hands, with LP 3 being the first release since they began transitioning and discovering their own sure footing in brittle indie rock honesty. We’re witnessing both Girlpool members come into their own elements here, and having each other’s backs every step of the way only reinforces that growth.

Hand Habits - placeholder [Saddle Creek]

Meg Duffy has spent many years playing an important hand in crafting other people’s music inside the studio (they have worked alongside Kevin Morby and Weyes Blood), but on placeholder, their breakout sophomore effort as Hand Habits, all attention goes into both their own words and sound in a warm-lit display of tumultuous memories stretched across the canvas with an ease that juxtaposes their difficulty. Akin to their new Saddle Creek contemporaries Adrianne Lenker and Tomberlin, Duffy knows their way around every detail in the moment in the same way they know how to ornate them through rustling folk guitars, a vocal calm, and burning ember production that sweeps beneath this collection of songs’ melancholy pacing with just enough lasting impression to keep them in the corner of their rearview vividly. It’s not necessarily moving on, but rather sitting with these emotions where Duffy processes them the most through their creative identity.

HEALTH - VOL. 4 :: SLAVES OF FEAR [Loma Vista]

The way HEALTH has evolved from being one of the most aggressive experimental noise acts into that of a blown-out industrial complex has been a rewarding part of their allure over the years Their 2015 effort DEATH MAGIC was arguably thei band’s largest shift away from dense layers of sonic collision and creating noise for the sake of, as they began to emboss pop vocals and the impact of EBM into their sound with an effect to match the pulsating gristle of their live show. VOL 4 :: SLAVES OF FEAR is the Los Angeles trio’s full commitment to that side of their creative identities, as the listen -- while still devastated by crushing drums and industrial pile-ons -- is onset with a glossier coverage of rock textures as well as a heavier focus on movement. It’s also elevated singer Jake Duzsik platform on their earth-rattling surface, as his hollow echoes lead HEALTH further into the downward spiral of their nihilism, enjoying the free fall rather than trying to fight it.

La Dispute - Panorama [Epitaph Records]

La Dispute’s wilderness of post-hardcore isn’t the easiest to navigate. For years, the Michigan quintet have been of the most intentionally experimental of “the wave” alongside the likes of Touche Amore, Pianos Become the Teeth, Defeater and Make Do and Mend in a sense that makes it easy to conceive them as the scene’s answer to a band making their own Radiohead-like trajectory. Panorama, their fourth full-length effort, is another dense, complex exploration into the nuances between dead silence and deafening blows, again seeing its ebbing arpeggios, percussive footsteps, and angular detours polished into knifelike maneuvers and expanded into widescreen view by producer Will Yip as their first album for punk vanguard Epitaph Records. Despite its big picture feel, Panorama is deceptively focused on more intimate ruminations concerning love, death, grief, and existential relief. As vocalist Jordan Dreyer narrates his trek from points in Grand Rapids to Lowell alongside his partner, we meet the faces of each, though often they’ve been familiar to us all along.

Lomelda - M for Empathy [Double Double Whammy]

Where we last left Lomelda’s Hannah Read was in the pursuit of outward-seeking connection in the midst of wanderlust on her 2017 breakout Thx. Its follow-up may be a departure from that quiet grandeur, though what’s most curious about a return by the Los Angeles-by-way-of-Austin songwriter to tape deck bedroom folk lore is how it also suffices to compliment a flip on perspective from the other direction. M for Empathy, a brief 16-minute-long listen, isn’t short of inward inspection on the matter of better understanding one another in many directions, and given a deeper appreciation for it thanks to her time on the road. This mental homework performed by Read is done justice in its humbled environment of tender acoustic strums, warm key hums, and memory fragments. Just as she knows how to make the most of these simple strengths, she knows herself better, too.

Nanami Ozone - NO [Tiny Engines]

Let’s be honest: Today’s young indie rocker are very much going to the well one too many times in reappropriating alternative’s golden age, but at least Nanami Ozone are breathing their influences in a totally different atmosphere. NO, the sophomore effort from Nanami Ozone, is a borealis of bliss. By now, we’ve heard punks do their best to reinvent the wheel of dream-pop and shoegaze to an exhausting degree, but what the Arizonian quartet are doing the most here are is searching far beyond the static to make it sound both loud and colorful. That they’ve two vocalists to lead these distortion waves through that polarity in guitarists Sophie Opich and Colson Miller is one aspect of it, but collectively alongside bassist Jordan Owen and drummer Chris Gerber, NO is multi-dimensional in its ‘90s pillaging of big riffs and feedback, equal parts indebted to the Breeders knack for noise pop, Sonic Youth’s dark mazework, and the psychedelic haze burning off Swervedriver. It’s heavy with an objective, and anti-gravity when emotions take the reigns.

Nothing - Spirit of the Stairs -- B-Sides and Rarities [Relapse Records]

The sound of Nothing now exists in a plane within this music universe beyond the heavy shoegazing punk of the Philly band’s formative years. Last year’s great third full-length Dance On the Blacktop was evidence of how the quartet have maximized an already loud sound to fill the void with bigger production cues and reigning control over reverb in a way that can make deathly quiet moments feel just as huge. Appreciating the steps made from getting to point A to point B is thoroughly documented on Spirit Of The Stairs – B-Sides & Rarities, a collection of demos, live outtakes and covers of songs by Grouper, Low and New Order that the band has amassed since their early years until today, and now collects itself as an essential listen for any listener of their work, be it longtime or someone being introduced. Hearing the bones rattle on some of their more recognizably fleshed out listens colors Nothing’s catalog in new shades of darkness while shedding light on its depths.

Solange - When I Get Home [Columbia Records]

Solange’s 2017 soul-baring standout A Seat At the Table was a contemporary R&B pop masterpiece that demanded a voice for women of color amid the white noise of volatile world, and was executed with such pristine songwriting precision that it was undeniable to ignore. With her fourth studio effort When I Get Home, Solange is setting her soul free, however, as she escapes into an experimental sonic revelation obscured by the fragments of its many Houstonian fingerprints she’s pieced together in mosaic fashion that feels fittingly reactionary to its predecessor. Here, she crosses a 19-song-long universe in just 38 minutes time through production that’s locally sourced and rooted in chopped and screwed samples, cosmic jazz free flows, and futuristic hip-hop. Appearances by the likes of Earl Sweatshirt, Tyler, the Creator, Steve Lacy, and Pharrell are masterfully complimentary, yet barely visible against the backdrop of her black energy, which the listen wholly beams even if refracts in the light.

[ivycali-blog]

Musical Ideas From My Notebook pt.5

Everything you do that has structure can be analogous to songwriting. Petting Kiki (my cat) - Motif 1: Rubbing her stomach, Motif 2: Scratching her chin, Motif 3:etc. It’s all about Timing & Placement, variety, and how each motif interlinks.

Each genre has instruments that are native to it, & within those, a few prominent/strong instruments are frequently used. (Hip-hop: Bass & 808′s)

Every moment is important.

Lack of melody in the vocals, & consistent/straight-time rhythm puts a lot more emphasis on the drums.

Write a song imagining a theatrical, musical performance. <--Nightmare Before Christmas

What is causing you to bob your head the most? The hi-hats/cymbals? Kicks? Snares? (In Travis Scott’s “Skyfall”, it’s mainly the cymbals you’re moving to.)

What are some things that if you did them, said them, or heard it/them, that it would cause an extreme emotional response?

Vocal flow - Swagger/Attitude pace - Like Tank God said in the Rockstar beat deconstruction video, the hi-hats create most of the swagger of the song, and hi-hats/vocals have almost identical rhythmic flow patterns.

Work backwards, and ask yourself: When I listen to this song/section, what do I want to hear? How do I want to move/groove? How do I want to feel?

Cadence/movement of the voice in music- very speech-like, yet exaggerated when important moments arise

Continual instrumental play beneath vocals = A point/situation/concept being unfolded

Instrumentals annunciated/straight-time/matched with vocals = A very important point/situation/concept being told as fact.

What (part of the) scene is the song/section portraying?

Music is like sex, it’s “play” for the purpose of finding/charging an immense amount of (pleasure/completion of desired goal/feeling). (The structure of each are relatable as well)

The combinations of patterns used to culminate the feeling of the chorus can be of any variation or variety, as long as they tease elements of the chorus.

Long structure? Or shorter? ABABC? ABABB? ABCCCC? Infinite combos for different experiences/end feels.

Best musicians are those that have the best “pleasurable auditory transactions” with their listeners, or make them dance a dance they would want to dance again.

Every situation in life has movement & feeling structures in relation to the human brain/experience. Mimic each structure for desired feeling.

Some structures have no climax. All contained structures have smaller structures contained within.

Some things like music/sound, drugs, and sex are innately pleasurable, but need an effective delivery, or structure, for maximum impact and linger time.

Motifs are programmed bits of pattern, mostly programmed for a purpose, such as pleasure or function.

Certain people connect with some aspects of a song/motifs vs. others.

Frame (How) of Music (What) for a purpose of pleasure or function (Why).

Fibonacci sequence with dynamic & intensity. “Phi” moments? (Sound field on youtube)<-- When, & how many instruments are introduced?

What do you want the song to “taste” like? (Aesthetics)

Ad-libs & harmonies should be used to accent/reinforce the words/message being said.

Sensations aren’t either bad, nor good. It’s the context added with our expectations (of the outcome) that determine the resulting sensation/reaction.

Start with writing the chorus first sometimes.

If it’s listenable, it doesn’t matter how much sense it makes.

Which rules you choose to break, which notes you choose not to play, and where you choose to place spaces/breaks determines your perceived artistry.

For hip-hop & vibe music, use a few “dense, short, & to the point, feeling motifs”, & repeat where necessary/needed.

Repetition creates rhythm. Hip-hop & dance music are rhythm-heavy.

Put in & take out the “feeling” or driving motifs to keep the same vibe going for extended periods of time, or change beat, intensity, register, etc.

For each motif, you want an attention grabber, a “playing around” technique or comprehendible pattern, and an end to reflect on or link into the next motif.

Nothing makes complete sense until you’re involved & in the moment with it.

If you build it (a song/movie/building/experience), they will come. Most people don’t actually want to be creators or visionaries, most are connoisseurs and consumers.

Genres & frames are lifestyles.

Find the rhythm, & your mind finds the melody.

The ideal limits the possibility of anything greater.

A parable or lesson taught about an ideal/icon influences those most compatible/gravitationally matched with the lesson to pursue the same path (of thought).

Music - A pattern put in place that can be experienced & used/enjoyed over and over again.

Does the motif contain enough information to signal the correct response?

The surrounding environment frames the subject. In music, every added track affects the feel of every other track.

The most frequent/most noticeable note or beat sets the groove.

1-chord songs - Rhythmic, stationary

2-chord songs - Back & forth, taking you from “home-base” to another platform using a specific transition based on the key being used, then back to home base.

3-chord songs: further evolving of the “2-chord” concept, home-base to platform 2, to platform 3, then back to home base.

More chords mean more transitions/transitional motifs. (Transitional motifs take over/hijack the role of the transitional feeling between the two chords’ transaction.)

Tease a movement in a direction, or just tease, tease, tease, then give.

To have a pattern is to survive in safety. To break a pattern is to thrive in adversity/adventure or to perish.

We follow direction/emotional gravity/momentum wherever it may go simply out of curiosity. (Curiosity - lack of resistance to a possibility of positive outcome)

A song is just a framed, elaborated upon, idea.

When writing music, the thought “why not?” is an important one.

There are no proper or improper songs, just songs you want to listen to/are gravitated to, and songs you don’t/aren’t.

Step into character when you are performing or writing. (The vocalist/guitarist/pianist/etc.)

An instrumental melody communicates the intent of the persona/character playing the instrument.

Lead - akin to vocals, gets the attitude & swagger out there. This is the overtone of the song/section, so it’s important to pick a strong instrument.

Rhythm/melody - The reinforcement, or the undertone. For the secondary tone of the song, it’s also wise to choose an instrument with strong personality.

Framing is reinforcement.

Each new instrument added needs to be less prominent, more simple, and more “accented”.

Simple melodies are versatile/combinable/repeatable.

Don’t write or perform for the “Choir of the indifferent”, “Das Man”, or “The masses”. Perform for you and yours, only.

A song is a presentation of a feeling/experience out for adoption be the listener.

You know what you like and where you want the direction to go. Keep variety & motion.

Intended frame, presented frame, and perceived frame always effect the total feeling of the artwork.

Aesthetic experience is all about the focus and journey of the senses and how they relate to the mind/heart.

The drums carry the tone/texture of the song’s heartbeat. (Egg timers and pencil tapping are soft and relaxed, while snares and explosions are hard and intense). How does the song’s heart beat?

[terryblount]

Borderlands 3 – Review

Borderlands arguably kicked off the looter-shooter genre. And in the current console generation, there’s plenty of those to go by. Now five years (or three if you count The Pre-Sequel) since its latest outing, Borderlands 3 is here.

With smart changes, upping the content load, and retaining most of the core gameplay almost to a T, Borderlands 3 is like what you’d expect: more Borderlands. Though saying only that is underselling it how great it is still.

Presentation

Borderlands 3 carries the same signature cel-shaded-ish design it is so famous for. The colourful characters and the drab wastelands do get some nice pop with all the black outlines and dashes on them. Yet, the game still suffers the same issue of textures loading too slowly.

The UI is tidier and with a nice font choice. If only there’s a way to increase the small font size.

The guns overall look even better. The different gun manufacturers have even more pronounced styles based on what brand it is. And it still lends a nice surprise seeing from a super angular Hyperion to the old-school Wild West-style of a Jakobs gun in your very frequent loot drops.

Not only do the guns look distinct, so are the sounds. You can hear the sci-fi-ness of the Maliwan guns spooling before it wreaks havoc. Some Tediore models deteriorate into an 8-bit gun noise as the magazine empties. The explosive sticky pellets from a Torgue shotgun pops in a satisfying crackle.

While you’ll be hearing the guns blazing through the speakers most of the time, the soundtrack that hums diligently in the background of Borderlands 3 is sublime. Each planet you’ll travel to has a different vibe, genre and composer. Which results in some nice variety in the soundtrack. I particularly adore the ambiance in the high-tech Promethea, where it feels a dash of cyberpunk and a swathe of synthwave being used lavishly.

Not to mention, the song on the main menu is so good I spent way too long idling on it.

Gameplay

In Borderlands 3, you play as one of four Vault Hunters. Your goal is to open the Vaults before the Calypso Twins. The villains are bratty streamers that have amassed a literal cult following and aspiring to be gods. The story takes place after Tales From The Borderlands, with characters from Telltale’s adventure game being part of the plot here.

The writing is, depending on how you look at it, is as good or as bad as the previous games. It follows a bit too formulaic to Borderlands 2 with its plot points. The early 10 hours feeling rather weak. But it does come together nicely into its own near the end.

The jokes, which still involves contemporary meme and references that may or may not age well in the next few years, are as what you would expect. I don’t know if it’s good or bad that the in-game characters (and possibly, the writers) are self-aware of how crude the “jokes” can be.

They are a few good ones, including one where resident punching bag Claptrap was not the butt of a joke. Though you must really love low-brow humour to be laughing out loud throughout the game.

Loot And Shoot

Borderlands 3 is all about two things- the looting and the shooting. And those two core pillars of the gameplay loop remain stalwart as ever.

You may notice the word ‘mayhem’ is being thrown out of a lot in the game’s marketing, and they were not kidding. Each fight and combat encounter feels more intense and hectic than past titles. The areas are bigger with a lot of cover spots and vantage points. There are more elemental hazards other than just barrels, including puddles you can electrify.

Enemies flinch when you shoot them, and even flop off and go ragdoll on bigger blasts like from a shotgun. They can also gib and explode in a pool of gore, adding more visceral-ness to the already chaotic combat.

You can now slide after sprinting and mantle on objects but so are the AI enemies. The enemies will scuttle around to flank you, throw grenades to flush you out of cover, and more often than not carry similarly zany weapons as you are. At times it is utter chaos where you cannot even discern where the enemies are because too many effects are popping off left right and center.

At its best, you don’t feel the enemies being extravagant bullet sponges as you control the chaos being unfolded with your guns and skills, exploiting the environment to your advantage.

This is most evident in the improved boss fights. Named boss fights with big health bars on top will have phases where they attack differently. On normal difficulty, it’s still a case of circle-strafing and dealing consistent DPS to beat them, and the patterns are not as wild or difficult. Yet it beats the boring bullet-sponges of the previous games, so a good step forward.

Glorious Guns

The bazillion of guns you get as loot gets some nice overhaul across the board. Each weapon manufacturer brings even more pronounced characteristics than ever and it’s really fun to experiment with. Maliwan weapons now have wind-ups but it’s satisfying to see it splurge in sci-fi bullets, for example. The alt-fire addition brings new wrinkles to gunplay, and makes the already huge pool of procedurally-generated guns even more diverse.

And it goes without saying that each of those guns overall just feels good to shoot.

As per tradition, each new Borderlands comes with a new set of four Vault Hunters, the playable characters. Borderlands 3 tweaked a bit on how the action skill works and make each character plays even more differently. Zane gets to equip two action skills instead of one, while Moze’s two equippable action skill determines what guns her Iron Bear mech has. Other than that, most of the passives divided into three skill trees are as expected. It seems straightforward at first but there are some wicked synergies and potential for interesting builds.

Also, Gearbox improved the car handling, and made you care more of those Catch-A-Ride vehicles with custom parts to find and unlock.

(Questionable) Quality Of Life

With five years and a bunch of looter-shooters on the market these days, Borderlands 3 brought a lot of quality of life changes. you now have a one-number gear score for quick comparisons of gear stats. The map is so, so useful now that it is in 3D that shows elevation. Ammo, health and cash pickups automatically after opening boxes. If you are in the range of a collectible, an icon pops up to show you it’s there. No need to worry if you and your mates have the right character level as there is an option to enable level scaling to the party leader, and have loot instanced for each player so no loot stealing. You can fast travel from anywhere now. Ally AI sometimes will accompany you in fights and will help revive you.

Though it could still do more. The UI when bringing up the ECHOCast (the player menu) is horrendously slow to load. With the map being so huge why isn’t there an option to highlight each of the markers immediately so you don’t spend minutes trying to find where your objective is at?

On that note, Borderlands 3 really needed another pass on polish. While I personally don’t find framerate to be an issue during the hectic combats, reports of performance issues from all platforms, especially in split-screen, are pretty much true. I also found the AI getting stuck at geometry, and some side missions not spawning the enemies (the one about a ratch in Promethea, in particular). And the player menu sometimes just give up loading the skill trees when you load it straight after a level up.

Content

Borderlands 3 is amazingly girthy in content. It is still designed to be a full-packaged game with a campaign to beat. Not a games-as-a-service like other looter-shooters. And that campaign can take you more than 30 hours. I finished my first playthrough at 40, doing as much side missions and exploring the map as much as I can.

There are plenty of these side missions, and as you’d expect most of the questionable humour and references come from here. These take place in parts not seen in the critical path so at least it’s worth seeing the areas where you wouldn’t stumble upon naturally.

The collectibles this time are much more gratifying to collect. The three Typhon DeLeon audio logs on most maps not only give some good lore, but a great reward in the form of a loot cache, with a bigger chance to spawn rare loot. It’s worth going for them.

Circle Of Slaughter, the series’ Horde mode, returns again. And there’s a new mode called Proving Grounds where you push through a few combat areas and then face a boss, which plays closer to the usual gunplay in the story. Both of these are available normally within the story. But now it has separate matchmaking so you can play these as if they are an entirely different game mode.

After finishing the story, you will then get access to True Vault Hunter mode, the New Game+. On top of that is the Mayhem Mode modifier that adds wacky status effects and make the game even tougher. These two modes offer better loot drops, so that’s a good incentive to go back for another round. And of course, going through the game as another Vault Hunter and try out different builds is always on the cards.

Guardian Ranks (previously Badass Ranks) will now only unlock after beating the game. So all the extra passives are strictly for your next playthrough. Again, more reason to keep going after the 40-hour mark.

Gearbox has promised an event for all players and there is already a season pass of DLCs. If it follows what the previous titles did, expect a long tail of content, free and paid.

With Borderlands 3, the game dabbles a bit more on cosmetics. The skin variants don’t have palette swaps, colours can be customised separately. On top of the skins and head variants, you can now add emotes and also put on skins and trinkets on weapons. Honestly, it’s not that compelling and this feels like the game is playing catch-up with its genre peers. But it doesn’t hurt anyone, there’s no micro-transactions of sorts. Hopefully it will continue that way.

The Twitch integration is excellent. Not only can viewers of Borderlands 3 streams peruse the streamer’s inventory and skill trees, but there are also cool events that can show up, with opportunities to mess them up by buffing badass enemies or reward them with goodies. Plus, you can nab a piece of loot from the red chests they open for yourselves too.

Personal Enjoyment

When the first Borderlands arrived, I was already a fan of Gearbox’s output from the Brothers In Arms days. So I have a personal bias of loving this franchise from the start.

Borderlands 3 is the Double Down burger of video games I feel. It’s excessive and loud. It’s indulgently good. The ultimate comfort food if you, like me, love crispy greasy chicken patties. But it’s not just one burger, playing through Borderlands 3 is munching through a platter of these Double Downs non-stop. Instead of meat on meat on meat, it’s guns on guns on guns.

But boy, I am not gonna lie, it can be a bit overwhelming. During the early 10 hours, I feel like there were too many excessive combat sections. And with not much of a strong plot thread for me to cling on to.

Proper stakes in the story do get set up after that initial hump. And the pacing gets better with heavy combat sections sparsed out a bit. The shooting shines and getting rare loot, even if it is just minor variations of a gun archetype you’ve seen before, is rewarding.

And the soundtrack has synthwave. So, big points for that.

That said, those quality of life issues does affect my enjoyment. I didn’t spend time comparing weapon stats as much and hated the times I need to sort my backpack because of the chugging menu. Those need to be snappy and I hope it’s one of the things to be rectified, alongside the performance issues.

I have a feeling that once these issues are sorted in the months to come, it would make an already great experience even better.

Verdict

With more chaotic gunplay and many small improvements, Borderlands 3 proves that the pioneering looter-shooter series still has a place in 2019.Though it still carries the same low-brow writing and the performance issues cannot stand as is.

That said, if you’ve used to the series, Borderlands 3 is like grabbing a huge platter of your favourite comfort food. Clear some time, get your mates if you can and sit down. It’s time to dig in and get those orange drops.

Review based on version 1.01 played on the regular PS4. Review copy purchased by the reviewer

Borderlands 3 – Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[playlist-project]

The Playlist Project

I like music. Plain and simple, I like music. Really, I love music. My passionate affair with music is deep seated and goes a ways back. When I was young, my lullabies were Crowded House ballads. My mother loves to tell the tale of my older sister and I, aged 2 and 3, throwing devil horns and headbanging to Twisted Sister. I was raised on rock and indie alike.

Nowadays, I haven’t gained much in the ways of musical knowledge. I don’t listen to classical music; I can’t remember half of the greatest composers’ full names. I don’t drive, so I don’t listen to the radio, and as such I’m consistently unfamiliar with whatever’s popular. I’m perpetually infatuated with the bands I’ve been listening to since childhood, and select ones I’ve discovered along the way. As for new music, I find it by chance. Some people say, “You never know where you’ll meet your soul mate.” I say, “You never know where you’ll hear your next favorite song.” TV commercials, a stranger’s car passing by with open windows, a suggested YouTube video on a music video you’re already watching. Also, Spotify’s Discover playlist helps tremendously.

Through a little process called collaborative filtering, trusty Spotify knows just what music gets me through the day (and hides these beauties among a sea of duds, but me and my premium membership can skip right over those). When I first started paying for Spotify, I figured I may as well use my newfound ability to pick and choose what songs to play and when, and so I made a slew of playlists, organizing every song I’d ever heard and loved into three categories: loud, quiet, and jamz.

My “loud” playlist consisted of leftover remnants of my tragic, poorly executed scene phase-- just a handful of songs in the screaming-and-whining genre that I still enjoyed. The “jamz” playlist was all about feel-good summertime music. I lived in upstate New York for a few months, and though I nicknamed it Hell, it had a damn good radio station that played nothing but indie rock, and 90s rock, and underground modern rock, and just about every other kind of rock you could think of. It was fantastic. I found a million new songs on that station that I love to this day, all of which put me in a mood I can only describe as “summer-y”. My “quiet” playlist rose to become my favorite. 

I’ve long since abandoned this three playlist system, because really, it wasn’t very logical. Some of the songs on that radio station were quiet enough to fall asleep to, and didn’t quite fit the “jamz” vibe. So which playlist would it go on? Sometimes I’d hear a song on my Discover playlist, and while I wanted to remember it and hear it again sometime, it didn’t fit any of the three genres. I’d toss it into the playlist of best fit, and it would interrupt the flow of the other songs in the future. So I made one big, all-inclusive playlist, slapped the vague enough title of “errthang” on it, and went from there. Reminiscent of old school mp3 players with little to no organizational functions, this playlist has every song I like, and I flip through them as I please.

I haven’t added to the quiet playlist in some time, but I keep a mental note of which songs to listen to on rainy bus rides home, or warm midnight summertime walks, or on sleepless nights lying in bed watching my ceiling. These songs are something special. They’re beautiful. Of course, there are different brands of quiet. There’s quiet with a beat. There’s slow quiet. Quiet with smooth voices. Quiet with sharper voices. Quiet that gets a little loud at the end. All of them are amazing, and all of them have been well loved over time.

I compiled a rudimentary list of all the songs I thought worthy of mention. I figured a cohesive playlist should have 10 or so songs. This list had 24, and that was narrowed down from what could have easily turned into a box set of mix CDs. I tried to break the list down into different Quiets, a callback to my old three playlist system from a year or so ago. The songs in each playlist aren’t in any particular order; I always listen to my music on shuffle, unless it’s a well-loved album that crescendos from beginning to end in such a way that can’t be tampered with. These songs are meant to meld together, to work in harmony. There’s no room for predictability here.

I’m embarking on a somewhat pretentious journey to share my playlists, old and new, with whoever is willing to listen to them, starting with Quiet and working my way out from there. I’m calling it the Playlist Project, and the goal is an arrogant one designed to get my music taste out there. Everyone thinks their music taste is the best. I’m no different. There’s no telling whether or not I’ll stick to this venture, but I’ll try. It’ll give me something to do, and a way to get my profound appreciation for this music out into the world.

The three quiet playlists, simply titled one, two, and three, will follow. After those are written out, complete with lyrics of significance and commentary on what makes these songs as beautiful as they are, the other groups of music will follow suit. Jamz can be broken down into dozens of subcategories. After that, more lists will be compiled as I find more music myself. Suggestions are always welcome. It’ll be nice. Just you wait.

As for now, I need to study up on my music, brush up on my categorizing patterns. I hope to shine a light on some songs that aren’t very well known, or some that have been forgotten, or some that are on the rise and just haven’t gotten there yet.

Happy anticipating, whoever’s reading. Or not. Hope you give them a listen, anyway. 

[t-baba]

Testing Data-Intensive Code With Go, Part 1

Overview

Many non-trivial systems are also data-intensive or data-driven. Testing the parts of the systems that are data-intensive is very different than testing code-intensive systems. First, there may be a lot of sophistication in the data layer itself, such as hybrid data stores, caching, backup, and redundancy.

All this machinery has nothing to do with the application itself, but has to be tested. Second, the code may be very generic, and in order to test it, you need to generate data that is structured in a certain way. In this series of five tutorials, I will address all these aspects, explore several strategies for designing testable data-intensive systems with Go, and dive into specific examples. 

In part one, I'll go over the design of an abstract data layer that enables proper testing, how to do error handling in the data layer, how to mock data access code, and how to test against an abstract data layer. 

Testing Against a Data Layer

Dealing with real data stores and their intricacies is complicated and unrelated to the business logic. The concept of a data layer allows you to expose a neat interface to your data and hide the gory details of exactly how the data is stored and how to access it. I'll use a sample application called "Songify" for personal music management to illustrate the concepts with real code.

Designing an Abstract Data Layer

Let's review the personal music management domain—users can add songs and label them—and consider what data we need to store and how to access it. The objects in our domain are users, songs, and labels. There are two categories of operations that you want to perform on any data: queries (read-only) and state changes (create, update, delete). Here is a basic interface for the data layer:

package abstract_data_layer import "time" type Song struct { Url string Name string Description string } type Label struct { Name string } type User struct { Name string Email string RegisteredAt time.Time LastLogin time.Time } type DataLayer interface { // Queries (read-only) GetUsers() ([]User, error) GetUserByEmail(email string) (User, error) GetLabels() ([]Label, error) GetSongs() ([]Song, error) GetSongsByUser(user User) ([]Song, error) GetSongsByLabel(label string) ([]Song, error) // State changing operations CreateUser(user User) error ChangeUserName(user User, name string) error AddLabel(label string) error AddSong(user User, song Song, labels []Label) error }

Note that the purpose of this domain model is to present a simple yet not completely trivial data layer to demonstrate the testing aspects. Obviously, in a real application there will be more objects like albums, genres, artists, and much more information about each song. If push comes to shove, you can always store arbitrary information about a song in its description, as well as attaching as many labels as you want.

In practice, you may want to divide your data layer into multiple interfaces. Some of the structs may have more attributes, and the methods may require more arguments (e.g. all the GetXXX() methods will probably require some paging arguments). You may need other data access interfaces and methods for maintenance operations like bulk loading, backups, and migrations. It sometimes makes sense to expose an asynchronous data access interface instead or in addition to the synchronous interface.

What did we gain from this abstract data layer?

One-stop shop for data access operations.

Clear view of the data management requirements of our applications in domain terms.

Ability to change the concrete data layer implementation at will.

Ability to develop the domain/business logic layer early against the interface before the concrete data layer is complete or stable.

Last but not least, the ability to mock the data layer for fast and flexible testing of the domain/business logic.

Errors and Error Handling in the Data Layer

The data may be stored in multiple distributed data stores, on multiple clusters across different geographical locations in a combination of on-premise data centers and the cloud. 

There will be failures, and those failures need to be handled. Ideally, the error handling logic (retries, timeouts, notification of catastrophic failures) can be handled by the concrete data layer. The domain logic code should just get back the data or a generic error when the data is unreachable. 

In some cases, the domain logic may want more granular access to the data and select a fallback strategy in certain situations (e.g. only partial data is available because part of the cluster is inaccessible, or the data is stale because the cache wasn't refreshed). Those aspects have implications for the design of your data layer and for its testing. 

As far as testing goes, you should return your own errors defined in the abstract data layer and map all concrete error messages to your own error types or rely on very generic error messages.   

Mocking Data Access Code

Let's mock our data layer. The purpose of the mock is to replace the real data layer during tests. That requires the mock data layer to expose the same interface and to be able to respond to each sequence of methods with a canned (or calculated) response. 

In addition, it's useful to keep track of how many times each method was called. I will not demonstrate it here, but it is even possible to keep track of the order of calls to different methods and which arguments were passed to each method to ensure a certain chain of calls. 

Here is the mock data layer struct.

package concrete_data_layer import ( . "abstract_data_layer" ) const ( GET_USERS = iota GET_USER_BY_EMAIL GET_LABELS GET_SONGS GET_SONGS_BY_USER GET_SONG_BY_LABEL ERRORS ) type MockDataLayer struct { Errors []error GetUsersResponses [][]User GetUserByEmailResponses []User GetLabelsResponses [][]Label GetSongsResponses [][]Song GetSongsByUserResponses [][]Song GetSongsByLabelResponses[][]Song Indices []int } func NewMockDataLayer() MockDataLayer { return MockDataLayer{Indices: []int{0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0}} }

The const statement lists all the supported operations and the errors. Each operation has its own index in the Indices slice. The index for each operation represents how many times the corresponding method was called as well as what the next response and error should be. 

For each method that has a return value in addition to an error, there is a slice of responses. When the mock method is called, the corresponding response and error (based on the index for this method) are returned. For methods that don't have a return value except an error, there is no need to define a XXXResponses slice. 

Note that the Errors are shared by all methods. That means that if you want to test a sequence of calls, you'll need to inject the correct number of errors in the correct order. An alternative design would use for each response a pair consisting of the return value and error. The NewMockDataLayer() function returns a new mock data layer struct with all indices initialized to zero.

Here is the implementation of the GetUsers() method, which illustrates these concepts. 

func(m *MockDataLayer) GetUsers() (users []User, err error) { i := m.Indices[GET_USERS] users = m.GetUsersResponses[i] if len(m.Errors) > 0 { err = m.Errors[m.Indices[ERRORS]] m.Indices[ERRORS]++ } m.Indices[GET_USERS]++ return }

The first line gets the current index of the GET_USERS operation (will be 0 initially). 

The second line gets the response for the current index. 

The third through fifth lines assign the error of the current index if the Errors field was populated and increment the errors index. When testing the happy path, the error will be nil. To make it easier to use, you can just avoid initializing the Errors field and then every method will return nil for the error.

The next line increments the index, so the next call will get the proper response.

The last line just returns. The named return values for users and err are already populated (or nil by default for err).

Here is another method, GetLabels(), which follows the same pattern. The only difference is which index is used and what collection of canned responses is used.

func(m *MockDataLayer) GetLabels() (labels []Label, err error) { i := m.Indices[GET_LABELS] labels = m.GetLabelsResponses[i] if len(m.Errors) > 0 { err = m.Errors[m.Indices[ERRORS]] m.Indices[ERRORS]++ } m.Indices[GET_LABELS]++ return }

This is a prime example of a use case where generics could save a lot of boilerplate code. It's possible to take advantage of reflection to the same effect, but it's outside the scope of this tutorial. The main take-away here is that the mock data layer can follow a general-purpose pattern and support any testing scenario, as you'll see soon.

How about some methods that just return an error? Check out the CreateUser() method. It is even simpler because it only deals with errors and doesn't need to manage the canned responses.

func(m *MockDataLayer) CreateUser(user User) (err error) { if len(m.Errors) > 0 { i := m.Indices[CREATE_USER] err = m.Errors[m.Indices[ERRORS]] m.Indices[ERRORS]++ } return }

This mock data layer is just an example of what it takes to mock an interface and provide some useful services to test. You can come up with your own mock implementation or use available mock libraries. There is even a standard GoMock framework. 

I personally find mock frameworks easy to implement and prefer to roll my own (often generating them automatically) because I spend most of my development time writing tests and mocking dependencies. YMMV.

Testing Against an Abstract Data Layer

Now that we have a mock data layer, let's write some tests against it. It's important to realize that here we don't test the data layer itself. We will test the data layer itself with other methods later in this series. The purpose here is to test the logic of the code that depends on the abstract data layer.

For example, suppose a user wants to add a song, but we have a quota of 100 songs per user. The expected behavior is that if the user has fewer than 100 songs and the added song is new, it will be added. If the song already exists then it returns a "Duplicate song" error. If the user already has 100 songs then it returns a "Song quota exceeded" error.   

Let's write a test for these test cases using our mock data layer. This is a white-box test, meaning you need to know which methods of the data layer the code under test is going to call and in which order so you can populate the mock responses and errors properly. So the test-first approach is not ideal here. Let's write the code first. 

Here is the SongManager struct. It depends only on the abstract data layer. That will enable you to pass it an implementation of a real data layer in production, but a mock data layer during testing.

The SongManager itself is completely agnostic to the concrete implementation of the DataLayer interface. The SongManager struct also accepts a user, which it stores. Presumably, each active user has its own SongManager instance, and users can only add songs for themselves. The NewSongManager() function ensures the input DataLayer interface is not nil.

package song_manager import ( "errors" . "abstract_data_layer" ) const ( MAX_SONGS_PER_USER = 100 ) type SongManager struct { user User dal DataLayer } func NewSongManager(user User, dal DataLayer) (*SongManager, error) { if dal == nil { return nil, errors.New("DataLayer can't be nil") } return &SongManager{user, dal}, nil }

Let's implement an AddSong() method. The method calls the data layer's GetSongsByUser() first, and then it goes through several checks. If everything is OK, it calls the data layer's AddSong() method and returns the result.

func(lm *SongManager) AddSong(newSong Song, labels []Label) error { songs, err := lm.dal.GetSongsByUser(lm.user) if err != nil { return nil } // Check if song is a duplicate for _, song := range songs { if song.Url == newSong.Url { return errors.New("Duplicate song") } } // Check if user has max number of songs if len(songs) == MAX_SONGS_PER_USER { return errors.New("Song quota exceeded") } return lm.dal.AddSong(user, newSong, labels) }

Looking at this code, you can see that there are two other test cases we neglected: the calls to the data layer's methods GetSongByUser() and AddSong() might fail for other reasons. Now, with the implementation of SongManager.AddSong() in front of us, we can write a comprehensive test that covers all the use cases. Let's start with the happy path. The TestAddSong_Success() method creates a user named Gigi and a mock data layer.

It populates the GetSongsByUserResponses field with a slice that contains an empty slice, which will result in an empty slice when the SongManager calls GetSongsByUser() on the mock data layer with no error. There is no need to do anything for the call to the mock data layer's AddSong() method, which will return nil error by default. The test just verifies that indeed no error was returned from the parent call to the SongManager's AddSong() method.   

package song_manager import ( "testing" . "abstract_data_layer" . "concrete_data_layer" ) func TestAddSong_Success(t *testing.T) { u := User{Name:"Gigi", Email: "gg@gg.com"} mock := NewMockDataLayer() // Prepare mock responses mock.GetSongsByUserResponses = [][]Song lm, err := NewSongManager(u, &mock) if err != nil { t.Error("NewSongManager() returned 'nil'") } url := https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlW7T0SUH0E" err = lm.AddSong(Song{Url: url", Name: "Chacarron"}, nil) if err != nil { t.Error("AddSong() failed") } } $ go test PASS ok song_manager 0.006s

Testing error conditions is super easy too. You have full control on what the data layer returns from the calls to GetSongsByUser() and AddSong(). Here is a test to verify that when adding a duplicate song you get the proper error message back.

func TestAddSong_Duplicate(t *testing.T) { u := User{Name:"Gigi", Email: "gg@gg.com"} mock := NewMockDataLayer() // Prepare mock responses mock.GetSongsByUserResponses = [][]Song lm, err := NewSongManager(u, &mock) if err != nil { t.Error("NewSongManager() returned 'nil'") } err = lm.AddSong(testSong, nil) if err == nil { t.Error("AddSong() should have failed") } if err.Error() != "Duplicate song" { t.Error("AddSong() wrong error: " + err.Error()) } }

The following two test cases test that the correct error message is returned when the data layer itself fails. In the first case the data layer's GetSongsByUser() returns an error.

func TestAddSong_DataLayerFailure_1(t *testing.T) { u := User{Name:"Gigi", Email: "gg@gg.com"} mock := NewMockDataLayer() // Prepare mock responses mock.GetSongsByUserResponses = [][]Song e := errors.New("GetSongsByUser() failure") mock.Errors = []error{e} lm, err := NewSongManager(u, &mock) if err != nil { t.Error("NewSongManager() returned 'nil'") } err = lm.AddSong(testSong, nil) if err == nil { t.Error("AddSong() should have failed") } if err.Error() != "GetSongsByUser() failure" { t.Error("AddSong() wrong error: " + err.Error()) } }

In the second case, the data layer's AddSong() method returns an error. Since the first call to GetSongsByUser() should succeed, the mock.Errors slice contains two items: nil for the first call and the error for the second call. 

func TestAddSong_DataLayerFailure_2(t *testing.T) { u := User{Name:"Gigi", Email: "gg@gg.com"} mock := NewMockDataLayer() // Prepare mock responses mock.GetSongsByUserResponses = [][]Song e := errors.New("AddSong() failure") mock.Errors = []error{nil, e} lm, err := NewSongManager(u, &mock) if err != nil { t.Error("NewSongManager() returned 'nil'") } err = lm.AddSong(testSong, nil) if err == nil { t.Error("AddSong() should have failed") } if err.Error() != "AddSong() failure" { t.Error("AddSong() wrong error: " + err.Error()) } }

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we introduced the concept of an abstract data layer. Then, using the personal music management domain, we demonstrated how to design a data layer, build a mock data layer, and use the mock data layer to test the application. 

In part two, we will focus on testing using a real in-memory data layer. Stay tuned.

by Gigi Sayfan via Envato Tuts+ Code http://ift.tt/2AdwbD7

[wionews]

Bhupen Hazarika's political melody

One had to travel through rural Assam’s greenery and at that very instant listened to Bhupen Hazarika singing somewhere around to appreciate what Gulzar meant when he said Assam’s nature oozes through Bhupenda’s voice. A particular combination of opulent tenderness, seductive nasality and inexhaustible vocal melody, not uncommon among Assamese folk singers, assumed a different proportion in Bhupen Hazarika through his specific style of singing. What factors contributed to acquiring that style will require a different space for fuller discussion, but certainly, his years of training as an activist/singer/composer in the IPTA was one of the most important ones among them.

Sudakshina Sharma - Queen as she is lovingly called - Bhupen’s sister and a veteran singer gave me an interview in which she reminisced about his initial years as an IPTA activist: "When Bhupenda returned from America – that was way back in 1953 - Hemango-da (Hemango Biswas) brought him into the fold of the IPTA. Hemango--da was by then one of the chief organisers of Assam IPTA and he was quite close to our family which has always been a family of singers and musicians.

We used to live in Kharghuli - up in the hills - where Hemango-da was a regular visitor. Bhupenda and Hemango-da travelled together to distant places in Assam for organisational work. I remember once while returning from such a place halfway through they realised they had not a single anna left. The evening was descending, at a corner of a street they started singing impromptu, you can understand the effect of these two voices singing together. After they finished, people from the crowd started giving money to them thinking they were a group of itinerant street musicians. Whatever they gave was sufficient for the team to get back to Guwahati."

IPTA was the first organisation that spoke about the need of highlighting the syncretic nature of its culture in a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual state like Assam.

  ×

It was much before that that Bhupen came into contact with Jyotiprasad Agarwal and Bishnuprasad Rava, doyens of Assamese culture and the two most important names of the Assam IPTA. Jyotiprasad made him sing in his film Indramalati (1939) when he was just 12 years of age. When Bhupen Hazarika returned from America, upon finishing his Ph.D., Jyotiprasad had passed away. But IPTA by that time went from strength to strength in Assam, after its first and second conference in Silchar (1947) and Dibrugarh (1949) respectively.

IPTA was the first organisation that spoke about the need of highlighting the syncretic nature of its culture in a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual state like Assam. In the first conference in Silchar, the two hundred odd representatives who participated consisted of artists from Tripura hill tracts, Jayantiya, Bodo, Manipuri, Dimasa - Kachhari, Miri and other ethnic communities along with Bengalis, Assamese and tea- plantation labourers.

IPTA in Assam held on to this tradition and to the spirit of the draft proposal that declared that it is meant to be a platform where every ethnicity is part of a larger collective in which it contributes voluntarily, knowing that its own cultural distinctiveness will not be compromised or co-opted in the process.

Many people have discussed at length how Bhupen Hazarika was influenced by Paul Robeson whose acquaintance he made during his stay in the USA as well as by Pete Seeger’s protest songs.

  ×

Many people have discussed at length how Bhupen Hazarika was influenced by Paul Robeson whose acquaintance he made during his stay in the USA as well as by Pete Seeger’s protest songs. The initial years when Bhupen started composing songs for the IPTA, certain signs of their influence were undoubtedly pronounced. And yet, the way he used Assamese traditional music (Bihu, bangeet, borgeet or jhumur) at that point and throughout his later life was something extremely unique.

He could pull off a melodic structure with major notes and a strong rhythmic pattern like ‘Nami Axa’ and another with predominantly minor notes and zero or soft rhythm like ‘Haradhon Rongmon katha’ (co-composed with Hemango Biswas) with equal ease and elegance. Even when one keeps in mind the rich oeuvre of Jyotiprasad, Bishnu Rava, Parbatiprasad Barua or Anandiram Das whose pioneering creations influenced IPTA artists in composing their own, it is not difficult to see why Bhupen Hazarika’s place in Assamese modern music is still singular on many counts.

As Hemango Biswas writes, ‘ In the musical milieu of Assam, IPTA ushered in a new legion of songs about life and revolution. In this work, the musical tradition of the revered Jyotiprasad was our chief inspiration. Works of our folk composer Anandiram Das, the late Hemen Thakur and later those of Abdul Malik helped us. But the true architect of this genre was Dr Bhupen Hazrika. The ordinary lives of Assam like that of the lumberjacks, the stone breakers, the train drivers, tea-plantation worker Jagnu, farmer Rongmon, weaver girl Rodoi and palanquin bearer Dolabhari - these characters succeeded in sweeping aside the impersonal genre of music devoid of social consciousness that had been prevalent thus far.

Nothing perhaps better describes how in Bhupen Hazarika such diverse musical styles had found their easeful co-existence beyond the usual divides of traditional, modern, eastern or western forms.

  ×

Newer expressions and styles made their presence felt in the creation of the tunes. The local musical form remained intact, but its narrow structures were broken down in a fresh attempt to showcase a new reality. Numerous songs of the IPTA spread to various cities and villages. This metamorphosis in Assamese music is a widely acknowledged fact today’.

Nothing perhaps better describes how in Bhupen Hazarika such diverse musical styles had found their easeful co-existence beyond the usual divides of traditional, modern, eastern or western forms. As a singer, his internalisation of this was so complete that anything that he performed: From kamrupi folk to bangeet, from ‘sa banuar geet’ (tea- plantation songs) to Bihu, from lullabies to protest songs – he seemed to be a natural denizen of all the territories he travelled.

It is true that Bhupen Hazarika’s political views took a significant turn in his later life and in many ways he became the cynosure of conservative politicians of different hues. We should add to it our collective misfortune that there is no dearth of politicians in this country who can appropriate a cultural capital towards a political end and turn it to material/ military/ electoral gain- a very recent example would be the inauguration by the political who’s who of the Bhupen Hazarika Bridge in Assam which is supposed to be the longest bridge in India (not undisputedly, though).

But because of this very reason, it seems all the more necessary to document Bhupen’s immense contribution to the leftist cultural movement in India – his long and hard creative years in Assam, Bengal and outside of those before he finally moved to Bombay. Perhaps we got to remind ourselves now that that period also coincided with the genesis of many of his greatest creations the history of which needs to be written urgently.

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[nickdelahoydeenemy-blog]

Finding Rap Songs

Understanding how to write rap music requires an comprehension of the basics. Each rap song has hook a beat, and poetry, however there are several things. Each song, while it is hip hop, rap, R&B, or a different genre, has a style or pattern that's normal to each song belonging to that genre.

The first basic element is the beat. Every rap has a beat. It may vary based on the kind of tune the artist wants to make, and it can be exhausting. Not all raps are angry and filled with violent beats and loud hooks; there are rap songs that not filled with words and lyrics and are composed to others and dance beats who are happy. Every rap song has three basic parts - the hook or chorus, intro, and verses. It is these three elements which will need to bear in mind when learning how to compose a rap tune.

There are various ways as to how a rap song may begin. Writers try to determine that will suit the song the best, generally when working on how best to write a rap song. Raps usually start with an instrumental bit that's followed with a verse or two. But depending upon the rap artist, the song can start right with the hook which contributes to the instrumental, which is followed by the first verse. Based on the kind of song the artist is hoping to compose, the amount of the parts of verses and arrangement varies.

Some songs have four verses and 32 bars each, although on average rap tunes consist of three verses. It is dependent upon the lyrics and beat of the rap. The verse is the part that's the rap or lyrics or vocals. This is in which the song's significance is portrayed to the audience as well as the part that contains the majority of the lyrics. Usually, the verses from the song have the same length, but that is not a requirement. The length of poetry might be different if the beats of the song fluctuates.

Composing a rap tune demands an understanding of the fundamentals of rap song composing. The requirements of writing rap comprise of first lyrics, knowledge of approaches, and developing. Rap consists of rhymed couplets, which are usually set to a bass beat and drum. Flow and having a fantastic rhyming technique is essential to writing a rap song.

Lyrically, to writing a rap tune, the first step is to choose a topic that is great. The subject serves as the central theme of the rap song. It could be about just about anything, or pain, love, joy, greed, racism, justice, partying.

The beat is essential to writing a rap tune. Their lyrics are written by lyricists but the lyrics are written by others first and then create the most instrumental track. A bass beat that is fantastic make or can crack a rap tune. A musician can create a bass beat working with a drum loop or bass guitar. It is this bass beat that drives the flow along with the rap track. The rapper needs to keep up with the bass beat.

There is A hook essential to form this rap tune's chorus. Lyrics should be composed with the rhyming scheme that was chosen and the bass beat. Lyrics are considered a rap's power. Lyrics are the feature of rap, which makes rap songs that are distinct stand apart from others, even those that possess exactly the exact instrumental beat.

Proper structuring is required by composing a rap song, after writing the lyrics. This entails incorporating breakdowns or appropriate bridges to add thickness and interspersing the verses. Lyrics are listed over verses the bass beat, chorus, and bridge. The addition of punch lines can be used to bring an extra level for your rap lyrics, supplying comedy and amusement. Drum fills such as additional beats of bass and melody lines can also be inserted to the rap to add increased depth.

To compose good rap songs, you'll need to customize your rap lyrics and listen to and examine music tunes and rap artists. An ideal Mix of scheme, word play punch lines, melody, and bass beats that are catchy, is going to end in a rap song that is popular. Rappers and different rappers collaborate and work to write a last draft rap tune.

By following some writing measures of pattern and structure, writing a rap song, can be achieved. Rap as a genre may seem limited by a predefined set of verses and beats, but there's much more that goes into a rap tune than these components. Each rap song has parts that are common to each of tunes, no matter the artist or genre. As an example, each rap has hook a whip, chorus, and poetry; it is the arrangement of those components that differs from song to song and artist to artist.

Usually, when writing a rap song, the artist will start by working on the beat before writing the lyrics and vocal tracks. This is because once the instrumental defeat is completed, it is typically simpler to write lyrics that than writing the lyrics first and then attempting to develop. Raps consist of a monitor and bass line that performs together with the beat. Because the portion of a rap is your vocal track, especially the hook or chorus which performs on repeat between 31, not parts are required.

However, rap tunes are getting more experimental and collaborative nowadays, and many artists collaborate with different rappers during the process of writing a rap song. This leads to a final product that's a blend of 2 rap styles which should complement one another. Furthermore, it makes the song writing process more manageable and more intriguing as each artist has a unique perspective that is musical and creates a new fashion.

Occasionally along with all the tracks and bass lines, a rap tune samples loops of tracks by other artists, not necessarily belonging to the rap genre. Such samples coating over the first instrumental tracks to bring yet another dimension to the song. This rap songs brings about a combination of two unique genres which collaborate for writing a rap song with all the components of a traditional rap, together with the defeat, hook, and poetry as well as a looped sample trail that provides a new layer to the rap song.

Writing a rap song demands practice and editing. In all probability, your first draft will probably be fair at best. That is fine and will be anticipated. Just rewrite, reorganize, and rework it until you achieve the desired affect. You might also hire a rap author and editor to help turn your rough draft into a finished song.

When you've got a few skills required to be able to achieve that it is possible to compose your own rap tune. The most important skill that you will need is thought process or a fantastic creativity. Other skills include being able to concentrate, knowing about rap songs and using a format. First, having an imagination is important when it is time to write your own rap song since you will have to come up with a few sexy rap legends which people may wish to obey.

There are so many rap songs out on the market today and it is difficult at times to come up with something that's fresh and distinctive. You particularly need. For this, you need to use your creativity. You don't wish to go that everyone else is using. Imaginative and the more unique your rap lyrics are, the better chance that your rap song will have of making it on the peak of the music charts. This also entails a idea procedure that is fantastic.

When you write your own rap tune, you'll have to think out your lyrics and write them. There are lots of ways that you can produce a format the best way is just to just write every stage of the tune out according to the order that each stage will appear. Starting with the name, you'd write your own rap song from begin to finish as though it were an article. This includes verses and your chorus. Write every step as you come to it so that you are not overwhelmed.

You should be familiar with the rap tunes in The audio business and the artists that made them. This can help you to understand what songs are successful and which ones haven't. Break the tunes that are well-known apart and think about what's made them hot use your knowledge to write.

People rappers who pride themselves on composing their own rap tunes, sometimes collaborate with other writers. Whether that means using a rapper write a verse or even the whole song or bouncing ideas off one another, there is not anything wrong with collaboration. Many rappers even use ghostwriters to write records, but the ghostwriters are not acknowledged and the rapper performs the rap.

Are you interested in learning how to write a rap song? Well if so this guide needs to have the ability to help out you and have you composing rap songs in no time flat. As a producer I am quite knowledgeable about the procedure for composing rap songs. Since I believe that I have some information that others are going to benefit from I chose to discuss it. Within this article I will discuss some easy steps that will help.

You must be aware that there are ways which you may go about studying this process. What I am going to share with you are the steps that I use to create rap songs. Use these steps the way that you want or follow these steps. It is entirely up to you.

Get A Topic - Take a idea of what your song will be about. The mood that you are in will give a few topic ideas to you. For example if you're feeling happy and at a party mood you might want to compose a tune along those lines. You are having a bad moment. This may also provide you with a slew of suggestions for your rap tune. If you let your tune subject is determined by your mood it would be a matter of time until you have a set topic.

Brain Storm - This is an essential part if not the most important part of learning how to compose a rap song. Brain storming is a fantastic way to get the creative juices flowing. Before I even get a pen, I sometimes sit in my seat for 30-45 minutes. Just let thoughts flow before you begin writing anything.

Think Of A Title - Today is a great time to think of a name for your tune. This doesn't mean that the name can't change . By selecting a title, you will be given somewhat.

Compose The Chorus/Hook - before I begin writing the verses I personally like to write the chorus of the tune. I do this because it actually helps me to ascertain what the lyrics will be. If you are writing to some beat there would be a good idea to feel the beat out and then compose your hook to really fit the beat you're using. You should know that in most situation the hook is what makes or breaks a tune, so when creating yours, take your time.

Compose Your Verses - When it comes to writing a rap song I usually recommend writing 2-3 verses, preferably 3. If you're going to use 2 verses they should be somewhat longer your are verses each would normally be. A verse usually is made up of 16 bars (a pair of rhyming sentences = I bar). Ensure that you are composing them to fit your chorus when writing your verses. Your basic song arrangement goes hook, verse, hook, poetry, intro, verse and hook. Obviously this arrangement can be altered by you to your liking. Just make sure it sounds to out the normal.

Twist Up It - Now that your tune is totally composed you need to go on it. You want to make sure that your lyrics make because and that your hook is perfect for the song. Do not wait over your tune a few times before you sell it or capture it on your own. Learning how to write a rap song doesn't need to be tough and hopefully that is hopefully proven by this article.