#exordium music

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

The song 2525 ticks me off because they don't commit to the numbering all the way through. 2525, 3535, 4545, 5555, 6565, good so far, but then 7510. What kinda tomfuckery is this? They're cowards for not powering through it; 7575 is only 8 syllables compared to 6 for the rest, they could have made it work. And then 8510, that's just egregious. There's no good reason they couldn't have gone back to 8585, it has the exact same number of syllables as the rest! And then they end with 9595, so they made a conscious choice to make 7 and 8 suck.

[reckonslepoisson]

Goyard Comin’: Exordium, Goyard Ibn Said (2023)

New moniker, new style – sort of. On Goyard Comin’ there’s very little of the political stuff that has marked Ghais Guevara releases but also very little stylistic change or development. At the end of the day, it’s just pop rap – which is fine, but not a patch on the past two proper Guevara records.

Pick: ‘Hakuna Matata’

[caltropspress]

Spittin' Wicked Randomness with Small Professor

or, Bizarre Rides II the Pharthest Cyde; 

or, A beginning doesn’t need an ending, only a portal

Make your body a temple. Make your home a shrine. You are a God, live like one!

—Timothy Leary, “You Are A God, Act Like One!” (1967)

Psycholinguistic structural confusion leads to insidious beat wrecking missions and continuous speech recognition, prescription, vocal anecdotal object impressions…. Synergistic sample arrangements.

—Jungle Brothers, “Trials of an Era” (1993)

EXORDIUM

I long for the anonymity the internet once provided. Everyone was faceless. Vacant visages—not even an avatar. I’ll often try to remanufacture this premillennial experience for myself. I deliberately avoid seeking images to accompany the names I see on the screen. Many people nowadays—most people, the writer bemoaned—make this nearly impossible. Vanity of vanities—all is vanity! But I do try, I do. I look away; I increase the scroll speed; I squint to blur and becloud. Like Iris DeMent desired, I try to let the mystery be. On Rakim’s plodding “The Mystery (Who Is God?),” the God MC suggests you can solve the mystery if you realize the answer revolves around your history. But I need the mystery to stay intact. So many years on, and I’m still figuring out da mystery of chessboxin’, looking all the way back to when Wu-Tang was in black hoodies on the man-sized chessboard—cloaked rooks shouting peace to all the crooks with bad looks. “You cannot hook up a 100 million years of sensory-somatic revelation to your puny, trivial personality chess board,” so says Timothy Leary. I’m inclined to agree.

Aside from his music, I’ve known Small Professor—Jamil Marshall, if we split the veil—only through his words, through his text on my chosen screens: pixelated patterns of character images. But late last year, I stumbled across an image of him appearing not unlike a cloaked rook. Draped in a black robe, Small Professor appeared beside his Wrecking Crew brethren as a Sith Lord. The occasion was a Halloween performance at Cratediggaz Records in South Philly. Small Professor’s face was hidden, and so I could fuck with this type of qualified exposure. His shrouded appearance elevated my intrigue rather than diminished it. This was no flashbulb, soul-capturing, photographic evidence of existence; this was no selfie self-absorption; this was simply some spooky shit. 

Of the many messages that Small Professor measures out into the ether[net], the ones that have frequently caught my attention make some mention of hallucinogenic drugs. Here again, we have [e]strange bedfellows—that being technology and drugs. Twinned conceptualizations: drugs as teknology; teknology as drugs [scanned as tricknology, too, two]. Programming in the Silicon [Uncanny] Valley with the capital-I Internet reformatted as a Third [Eye]nternet. You scream as it enters your bloodstream. “Build, elevate to a higher comprehension, / Let your third eye rise above evil interventions,” if we’re properly tuned in to the Jungle Brothers’ “Troopin’ on the Down Low.” Teknology and drukqs might be more familiar than we (Eye) thought.

As we know from Jesse Jarnow, psychedelic saints were known as “heads,” which, underground hip-hop stalwarts of a certain age will wreckonize as an honorific for their own dedication to a way of life and listening. Stewart Brand, author and publisher of the Whole Earth Guide, would later speak of computers and online communities as the most auspicious collective force “since psychedelics.” Hua Hsu brings this to my total attention, but with my full cooperation (word to Def Squad), so there’s a few more things I’d like to mention. Computer science research centers saw networking and information sharing as devout acts “borrowed directly from Deadhead communalism.” Again, not dissimilar from the tape trading so crucial to the spread of this thing of ours called hip-hop. John Morrison writes of how “hip-hop owes much of its early development and propagation to an underground economy,” to the “recording and circulation of cassette tapes of park jams, live battles, DJ sets, and radio broadcasts” that brought a burgeoning and insurgent art form to the masses. The backchannels and clandestine conduits that made this dissemination possible suggest a secret organization with figures like Geechie Dan and Elvis “The Tapemaster” Moreno as its stewards. These cross-cultural, cross-generational connections exist despite Jerry Garcia’s abhorrence of rap as a legitimate musical form [see below: “Deadhead” diss-poem]. Small Professor centers himself within the radial lines of this complex mandala. His production isn’t strictly for the psych heads, or the hip-hop heads—his musick is For the Headz at Company Z. 

Small Professor understands the possibility and catalytic practices of rappers, much like William S. Burroughs did: “With computerized tape recorders & sensitive throat microphones we could attain insight into the nature of human speech & turn the word into a useful tool instead of an instrument of control in hands of a misinformed and misinforming press.” Somewhere you can hear the echoing call of Newwwspaaaaperrrr from the  Jungle Brothers’ “Book of Rhyme Pages,” a song with a prophetic register, a song that reads. 

In Burroughs’ essay “Academy 23: A Deconditioning,” which appeared in the San Francisco Oracle (c. 1966-1968), the beatific junky proposes that “academies be established where young people will learn to get really high…high as the Zen master is high when his arrow hits a target in the dark…high as the Karate master when he smashes a brick with his fist…high…weightless…in space.” As high as Wu-Tang get, I might add, Allah allow us pop this shit. Burroughs believes it’s “[t]ime to look beyond this cop rotten planet.” The students in Academy 23 “would receive a basic course consisting of training in the non-chemical disciplines of Yoga, Karate, prolonged sense withdrawal, stroboscopic lights, the constant use of tape recorders to break down verbal association lines. Techniques now being used for control of thought could instead be used for liberation.”

Small Professor is already present in such an academy, his “lab”—be it Albert Hofmann’s Sandoz Laboratory or RZA’s antediluvian lab. Like Bobby Digital, Small Professor experiences the “Lab Drunk,” the studio stupor: Stumbled into the lab half-drunk—honey-dipped, stinking blunts. The neural activity of Madlib’s psilocybin; the mind expansion of MKUltramagnetic; outlaw practices: tripping on LSD or sampling on an MPC—same diff, really. “The experience,” Leary wrote in the East Village Other, “must be communicated, harmonized with the greater flow.”

PART I

[December 23, 2023 | 9:10 PM] 

Small Professor:  Ah, fuck. I was supposed to plan this out. Just took 2 tabs to the dome officially at 9:00 PM. At some point tonight I will be looking around at my room like I just got here from outer space.

[10:14 PM]

Caltrops Press:  Where’s your head at right now?

SP:  Difficult to see. Always in motion is the right now (to paraphrase Yoda). Right now I am listening to “Right Now” (HAIM, live).

CP:  Are you alone?

SP:  I believe that to be true, but we can never be 100% sure, can we? I don’t presume to speak for you of course, but I’d wager that you may have, at least once, considered that The Truman Show could be real life, after all. According to this, though, yes:

CP:  Somebody once said, “Every day is Truman Show. True men show their face and expose flesh…” Do you think acid allows you to see beyond this reality?

SP:  No. It allows me to see this one more clearly. Time, or whatever it is that we collectively agree is this forward feeling momentum, seems to slow. So you (me) see the same things that you see everyday, but that your brain kinda knocks aside after a while. Things look new.

CP:  Are you typically playing music when you trip? Does the music slow down? Not literally. But do you process it differently? And, of course, I’m curious if you ever try to make music in this state?

SP:  I like making music that barely makes sense in whatever state I’m in at that time, so when I come back to it I’m even more confused. Like leaving yourself a drunk voicemail, but on purpose. I’m generally high—it’s just a matter of how. And to the last question: Do or do not, there is no try. 

PremRock:  I think [Small Professor's] work has benefited from discovering [hallucinogens]. He’s pretty passionate about ’em! I think it’s made him more expansive and he’s more eager to try far out ideas. He was always psychedelic in nature, but this just provided more of a conduit.

Zilla Rocca:  Even without shroomz he always had a bugged-out sense of melody, rhythm, and layered samples. Smalls has always been a seeker. We connect like that. We love unearthing old rap to learn from it while appreciating all the new styles.

When brothers start buggin’, I bug the most.

—Jungle Brothers, “Simple As That”

CP:  I’ve never fucked with psychedelics, so I generally have either a romantic or sensational notion of what it must be like. Have you ever had any experiences where things went really weird, or have you ritualized it enough so that you know what to expect? Like it’s become yoga or meditation for you by this point. 

SP:  Yeah, it’s pretty meditative. The first time I had acid was so surreal that nothing else could dream to compare.

CP:  When was that? Do you still remember the details?

SP:  Well, first of all, I couldn’t have started such a journey without such caring guides, for they did not have to take time from their lives to explain how much to take, how much not to, to be mindful of the kind of media you’re ingesting while in that space—like nothing too scary and shit like that. They specifically said, “Maybe watch a comedy tonight. Something on the lighter side of things.”

CP:  I’ve heard that’s important, having a guide.

SP:  So I believe I initially started off with the smallest amount I could take, cuz I didn’t know any better. But the effect was immediate. I remember going outside and just standing in an empty parking spot in front of my crib and watching it rain. It was night already. I was like, Wow, this is the best rain I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot of rain. And then I went out to get more tree. On my way home though, so…okay. How do I explain this? So, my Lyft driver on my way back to my house, he and I strike up a conversation. At the end of our talk, which included a phone call to someone of high stature in the 5% community who spoke to me directly, I embarked on the path to knowledge of self.

CP:  Like, sincerely? Or only until you stopped being high?

SP:  Well, I know now it started there. But I’ve always known that I am god, in some way. It’s just that, after you find out, what do you do with that knowledge of your own god-dom? That’s one thing I can appreciate about psychedelics. It’s like, Alright, well, if I know my brain is capable of such a thought or a piece of music in this one state, then I should be able to get back to it.

CP:  I get that. Like, “I’ve done this before, so I can surely do it again.” But, for so many artists, they struggle to capture whatever it is. I know a lot of times I’ll look back on something I’ve written and then ask myself, How did that even happen? Because the process—the making of something—is often so unconscious. 

Curly Castro:  Smalls calls me after the fact (bka “a trip”) and regales me with a cornucopia of odd and odder occurrences. I will say that one time [redacted] and that’s when [redacted] and what could say after [redacted]. I just told him, Say Less.

CP:  How long will this trip last? You took two tabs at 9 PM, and it’s been 4.5 hours.

SP:  Oh, I’ll be up for a while. Night hasn’t even begun.

CP:  I need to crash because I’ve got to be up early. But keep dropping whatever random thoughts you have here. We’ll call this Part 1.

SP:  Fantastic, Pt. 1

SP:  “God is never small.” Those are the words that man said, and my reply was, “...I am? I am. Ohhhh. I am.”

[Small Professor links me to a video showing Donald Lawrence & The Tri-City Singers performing “I Am God.”]

SP:  Also, I’m quite proud of the fact that my government name [Jamil], oddly Arabic considering how Christian my dear mother is, quite literally translates to “Beautiful Ruler,” with my first name actually meaning “god” in certain places (“Jamil” is one of Allah’s 99 aliases—I found that out earlier this year). My mom HATES THIS BOYEEEEE. She thought it just meant “handsome.”

SP:  Words mean things but don’t have to.

SP:  [Denmark Vessey & Scud One’s Cult Classic] (This is my official trip soundtrack.) “Throw bricks at him if you can’t build wit ’em, / Whoever marquee, top bill, I’ll Kill Bill ’em.”

SP:  It’s 8:23 AM. Still trippin’.

PART II

[December 24, 2023 | 9:15 AM] 

CP:  You awake? If so, talk to me about “Dettol.”

SP:  I feel like that beat was made along with a few others in that same span of time with Roc Marci in mind. Not only in terms of the drum un-emphasis but also being intentional about giving an MC room to operate, to breathe. On Midnight Marauders, both “Electric Relaxation” and “Lyrics To Go” are special beats because they operate within the parameters of 4/4 time but the bar lengths aren’t the typical 8. On “Dettol,” you have mostly 8-bar loops until it shifts to 12 for one measure, and then it starts over. (Not sure about my beat math there.) So the Armand Hammer guys had to each approach that in their own way. Couldn’t have drawn it up any better. “Numbers look crooked like King Kong shook it.”

CP:  (That’s your second Slum Village reference in this convo.) Paraffin was the first album I heard by them, so that beat would’ve been the third Armand Hammer song I heard overall. And that “giving them space” idea definitely benefited me—a guy who hadn’t been paying attention for years, specifically because lyrics weren’t grabbing me like they used to. 

The psychedelic experience is not just an internal, private affair. The “turned on” person realizes that he is not an isolated entity, a separate social ego, but rather one transient energy process hooked up with the energy dance around him.

—Timothy Leary, “You Are A God, Act Like One!”

CP:  How did you originally connect with woods and ELUCID? 

SP:  I may have been aware of ELUCID as early as 2005 by way of his Tanya Morgan/Lessondary/Okayplayer fam associations, but 2007 when he dropped Smash & Grab is when I instantly knew, Ah, this guy’s one of the best rappers ever. By 2009, that became, The best ever. That was the Myspace era, so we connected on there musically but also on some homie shit. We were working on a song of his in like 2011 or ’12 for the BIRD EAT SNAKE mixtape, “Dumb Out.” 

ELUCID:  BIRD EAT SNAKE is a whole lifetime ago. I had just met woods. I was also just beginning to develop the Cult Favorite record with AM Breakups. I was super charged creatively and was fortunate enough to have a lot of space to develop that. “Dumb Out” was such a strange beat that made my pen move immediately. Nothing overthought or drawn out. Just really chunky, vibed out, and punchy energy. I just began to acquire these attributes during the making of that tape. 

CP:  “Don’t eat the brown acid…”

SP:  Originally woods was supposed to be on there. I distinctly remember this being one of the first times I heard him because…okay. He recorded a verse on this beat and ELUCID sent his acapella but no reference to guide from. And I’m very good at matching up acapellas, so the fact that I could make no sense of his flow—where to place it in the mix—always stuck out to me. 

CP:  Is that why he didn’t end up on the song?

SP:  I don’t believe so. That would be funny if true, though. Because it feels like I have more music with those two than what tangibly exists. 

CP:  Also funny because, as their audience has grown—exponentially of late—the “discourse” returns to whether woods raps “on beat” or not.

SP:  Once I understood that the question of if he’s rapping on- or off-beat is the wrong one—when it should be, Why do I hear this as off-beat? How do I hear what he heard to deliver it that way?—that’s when it clicked for me.

CP:  Was “My Blank Verse” your first beat for them officially?

SP:  That was the very first song me and ELUCID made together. Don’t think it was for anything in particular, initially.

CP:  Got it. So it wasn’t approached as an Armand Hammer track, per se. Just ended up on an AH project. When did you connect with ELUCID in person?

SP:  I wanna say I met him in person at a show in Philly, at the Khyber. But the time I remember the most is when I was in Brooklyn with him (this actually might have been when we met up to record “My Blank Verse”), and he showed me the block where B.I.G. grew up. I like to imagine my power levels increasing on that day due to the residual holy hip-hop energy on the premises.

CP:  That’s dope. I’m surprised to hear you recorded the track in person. Both because so much is done remotely now—the producer and the MC separate—and also because ELUCID, I’ve read, is pretty private when it comes to recording. Maybe that came later, though.

SP:  Yes, that did come later to my knowledge. But also, I’m special. 

ELUCID:  This was the era when Willie Green’s studio was still in his apartment. I had just started recording with Backwoodz, and “My Blank Verse” was indeed recorded that afternoon. I usually don’t have people hanging in the studio while I record, but I think my comfort level with Jamil speaks to the ease I feel in our dealings.

SP:  I also remember going to meet ELUCID in New York specifically to get a flash drive that had he and woods’s verses for the Sean Price “Midnight Rounds” song they all should have been on together. His internet was down.

CP:  Why didn’t that track come to fruition?

SP:  woods’s hook was an interpolation of Apache’s “A Fight” (because, midnight rounds). The label was like, “Oh nah!” Word for word! Bar for bar! Sean P would have appreciated it.

CP:  Jersey’s own.

billy woods:  At that point in my “career,” I was kinda disappointed to get cut but not surprised. I guess I had a long history being snubbed regularly by peers and institutions in the indie music scene, so it just seemed like, Yeah, more of the same. I was pleasantly surprised to be invited, and unpleasantly unsurprised to be disinvited.

SP:  So, kept ELUCID’s verse and subbed in my man Castle, making this song the spiritual successor to a track I did on me and Guilty Simpson’s Highway Robbery, also featuring those two. Things fall apart, but they also come together. How they’re supposed to.

CP:  What’s the story behind “No Grand Agenda”? Also, where are we at in terms of the trip?

SP:  It’s slowing but at a light jog now. The beat for “No Grand Agenda” was originally part of an album I did made up entirely of exactly 1-minute long songs called You’re Killin’ Me Smalls. There were 60 songs. ELUCID was one of the only rappers I sent it to, specifically because it wasn’t “supposed” to be for raps. I had an ex who stomped out my computer and hard drives one day, including the original files for this project. All except for that one.

SP:  “Are we sure there’s no grand agenda?” And ELUCID took my stems and arranged it how he heard it. It was meant to loop in on itself, like the other songs on that project. It was originally named “Kelvin Spacey,” and I’m sure I’m misremembering but I wanna say “Dettol” was originally named “Kelvin Duckworth,” if only to verify Zilla Rocca’s guess that I was the producer in question that had sent woods a beat named after his favorite Portland Trailblazer.

CP:  So you’re saying, like any good friend, ELUCID jacked that beat?

SP:  Oh, I remember him asking to rap on it, perhaps for nothing in particular at the time. But who am I to deny the goat? And it’s obvious to me that this is how it was supposed to go; ain’t nothing coincidental or accidental, dunn.

ELUCID:  The making of “No Grand Agenda” was a cornerstone for a foundational era of style for me. I felt like I made a song that seamlessly weaved both verse and chorus in a way that felt absolutely hypnotic. It was a new belt for me, this sense of control. Small Pro was one of the first producers to trust me enough to send his beat stems. During this period is where I began producing more of my own music, so I also wanted to arrange the song how I heard it. Thankfully, Jamil dug it. 

CP:  What do you like about ELUCID’s rapping?

SP:  Some of it is the voice. Some of it is the things that he’s saying. But mostly, my favorite rappers all share this in common: they can get busy on any style of beat, any tempo, any sound, any Small Pro time puzzle. I was listening back to his older stuff a little while ago and heard him doing whole specific styles on one song, and never doing it again. The versace, versace flow, in particular. It felt like he was bored at the time and peered ahead three years to see how everyone was rapping, came back, did it, and that was that.

ELUCID:  [Working with Small Pro] is a special thing. Something that I’m still exploring. I think a Small Pro x ELUCID tape would be ill. Knowing his attention and care in the translation of my bars and flows is the type of partnership real MCs aspire to. It just hasn’t happened yet!

SP:  He and woods both have had a way of inspiring me through specific lines. “Go where the drummer commanded me,” for example. It’s me. I’m the drummer. And woods, a few songs before “Dettol” says, “Beg producers to take out the drums,” which he said was meant to be a joke, but I took it literally and started making beats that could exist with or without drums equally. 

All of my Backwoodz-related songs are credited as “Small Pro,” not “Small Professor.” I was on shrooms the week after my birthday earlier this year when I realized those are now different entities. Especially because woods was once like, “Wait, you did ‘No Grand Agenda’?” And I was like, “I did….I think? No, that was Small Pro.”

The last full project I—or I—did before moving back to Philly was a reimagining of A Jawn Supreme 1-3 from the Small Pro remix perspective. It was my—or my—first time remixing my own music, hearing things without the drums I put on them originally. It was an enlightening time. I hear voices at the fortress.

CP:  I think it’s rare for a producer to be so attentive to what the MCs are saying, let alone to look at what they’re saying as guideposts. The idea of a differentiation between “Small Pro” and “Small Professor” is interesting. Where does the Small Pro path ultimately lead? Into this larger Armand Hammer universe?

SP:  I feel like when I started out making beats my natural inclination has been to make things as busy as possible. Small Pro is like, What if I take away instead of adding? Or, How can I still have a million things going on in the track but it sounds bare or like, not done? “My girl say this beat sound unfinished, / I said, ‘Yeah, that’s where my voice go.’”

SP:  (Not sure when I passed out. I knew the crash was inevitable.)

[December 24, 2023 | 6:47 PM]

SP:  To your point about it leading to the AH-verse, that may be part of it too. They’ve both inspired me as rappers but also their production decisions and choices—ELUCID quite literally, as his production has always confounded me, but woods too. Two producers who have had just as much an influence on me as anybody I worshiped when first starting out are August Fanon and Messiah Musik—modern legends. Fanon can make beats for literally anyone. But Messiah’s natural style is one that both Hammers can sound great on from the get-go, whereas I have to consciously get myself into that mode. They also both sometimes do odd and potentially challenging things regarding time in their beats, as I do, but in their own way.

CP:  Do I remember seeing you mention somewhere that you still use Fruity Loops and Cool Edit?

SP:  Yup. I wanna say since 2008. Well, technically since 2003. But I’ve been using the same versions of those two programs for a minute now. Still using Windows XP, too. It’s comforting to me. And ridiculous. Like Rasheed Wallace faithfully wearing Air Force 1s his whole playing career.

CP:  I love that. Some real “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” ethos. Any rules for yourself when it comes to sampling? Strictly vinyl or are you irreligious when it comes to source format?

SP:  98% of my beats are made from mp3s. The remaining fraction is YouTube or some other source. Haven’t used vinyl for sampling purposes in many years but ironically try to make my beats sound like vinyl. As far as rules, everything I thought was law were things I later learned the musicians I look(ed) up to sneered at. 

CP:  Ain’t that the truth. Very little is sacred when it comes to process, I find. That’s a lot of ego. What efforts do you make to have the beats “sound” like vinyl?

SP:  On “Dettol” is my go-to record crackle sample. That’s also in 98% of my beats, and something I specifically remember was like, corny or something, but—ah, here it is: Slum Village reference #3 to fulfill the rule—on “Hold Tight” Dilla uses a needle pop as a snare bolster as well as the accompanying static. It’s there for added depth and texture but also can act as a counter-rhythm to your percussion. Reality features an inherent level of static in the form of cosmic microwave background radiation around us at all times. Art imitates life.

[December 25th, 2023 | 11:41 AM]

CP:  “No Christmas this Christmas…”

CP:  I always like to think of the story—apocryphal or not—of Evil Dee using bacon grease hissing on the stove for extra crackle.

SP:  The turntable hum is freakable too. Makes for a great bass sound but also something you can feel.

CP:  Do you ever have acid trips accidentally interfere with other obligations? I imagine you’re always planning for a blocked out number of hours. But best laid plans…

SP:  There’s a recovery period the next day, so that can be interesting to navigate. But yeah, I usually am in my room avoiding external interactions on whatever kind of trip it is. In my experience with acid, you gain more control over your “self,” and shrooms is the opposite, where your sense of self and awareness is reduced. Go home, brain—you’re drunk.

CP:  The loss of control is something I just can’t handle. Have you ever found yourself in a situation on shrooms where you emerge later, like, “Damn, that was a bad look”?

SP:  Yeah. My first time taking an 8th to the face (I ate it on a burger) after getting to and past the point of looking in a mirror and not recognizing my face for a sec. I later came upstairs and my BM had made some, like, lasagna? And it was so good that I’m just there demolishing it over the stove—like I was Garfield. Her friend walked in the kitchen at that moment and I should have been mortified, but in that moment there was only delicious lasagna.

CP:  Real Gs move in silence like lasagna…

CP:  Listening to Terror Management on Xmas morning. Is “Marlow” your beat/song with the most synchronicity between you and the rapper?

SP:  It’s up there. That album is interesting to me because of the repeating motif of having two beats from different producers for one song—always thought that was cool. The intro on that beat had the spoken part added after the fact, so it did really feel like some good ole fashioned teamwork. 

CP:  And specifically the serendipity of you naming the beat for your late father, correct? I imagine an artist won’t typically name their song after the name of the beat. Was there a reason you named that beat, out of so many, after your father?

SP:  Originally it was a play off of the artist’s name I sampled (a lot of my song titles are born this way), but I can also say it makes me think of my father’s dark side. He was one of the happiest, generally cheerful people I’ve ever known, but I’ve seen him go into green belt mode when pushed too far—only a few times, but it was like, Oh snap. 

woods closed his set with “Marlow” at a Philly show last year shortly after my pops passed, and it’s one of the nicest gestures anyone has done for me. I was at the bar crying like a newborn fucking baby, god.

billy woods:  That was a special moment for me, too. I really love that song. Pro and I have not worked that much together, but a lot of what we have done is really dope. He has produced a handful of Armand Hammer songs but they all hit, in my opinion. But [“Marlow”] is a song I really love and has come in and out of my setlist, but always makes it back in. The fact that it happened at that moment, and that it had that extra meaning for him was an honor for me.

SP:  That album [Terror Management] as a whole has always intrigued me because of the repeating motif of two producers each having a beat on one track (this happens on some Armand Hammer albums too, now that I think about it, but it’s a different effect when it’s two MCs on each beat instead of one). 

CP:  Lots of doubles—the name, the sides of your father, “Small Pro” versus “Small Professor,” two beats, etc. Double-consciousness, perhaps. Not necessarily in a Du Bois sense; more so in the sense of realities. 

SP:  I’m all about man’s rugged duality.

CP:  Did you and your father connect over music?

SP:  Oh, absolutely. Our music rooms were down the hall from one another when I got started in college, and over the years he would start wandering in to hear what I was working on. Eventually, as he started transitioning into working in DAWs, he would ask for advice with things he knew I would be able to help with. He loved showing me whatever he was working on, and I knew he valued my opinion as one of the people responsible for a lot of my music edumacation in the first place. 

[December 26, 2023 | 12:26 AM]

CP:  Would you reciprocate and show him what you were working on? Did he look upon hip-hop favorably?

SP:  He was from probably the last generation that didn’t grow up with hip-hop, and by and large it was probably offensive to him on two fronts: as a pretty religious dude the language and subject matter was too much, and musically all he heard were the loops, repetition, and sounds he loved and recognized being used all over again in an inferior, simple way. (I found a lot of the samples from Mobb Deep’s second album amongst his tape collection.) But over the years, as he saw how seriously I took it—as well as being impressed as a person who played 7-8 instruments by what I was able to do with two computer programs and mp3s—he was able to appreciate it as an artform (at least, the production side) even if it wasn’t quite his thing. 

He’s also half the reason I’ve always been enamored with non-common time signatures, a key feature in a lot of the music he dug—that Weather Report, Yellowjackets, Return to Forever, Herbie Hancock, Steely Dan, late ’70s, early ’80s chamber. My mother was more into “traditional” jazz and classical. They shared gospel personally—and professionally—as working church musicians. On my first album, there’s a 5/4 beat that I remember excitedly showing him because it took me forever to get the chops lined up in an un-choppy fashion, and there’s a switch on there between drum pattern grooves much like what you would find on a jazz fusion-type song. I felt like if I could impress him, I must be doing something right. The last time we hung out before the cancer did him in, he was showing me how far he had gotten learning how to play drums, and I got on the sticks and tried to replay the patterns on some of my beats (emphasis on tried). The “trouble don’t last” jawn, in particular, to which he responded by telling me I was already a drummer. Memories live. 

The times I saw his email pop up in my Bandcamp purchase notifications, I figured it was just a proud dad supporting his firstborn…nah, he was actually listening. His favorite project was the album I did along with my group Them That Do, which was my version of Madlib’s Shades of Blue on the beat tip. Besides digging the actual sound (updated jazz rap), I think he was most taken by the fact that he couldn’t quite tell what was sampled from where and that I had made all these sound from sometimes vastly different records seem like they were supposed to be together, and the beats made sense from the perspective of a person who understood music theory.

CP:  “I said, Well Daddy, don’t you know that things go in cycles.” Beautiful that you guys got to share those moments.

SP:  (I even said the part about two beats on Terror Management twice.)

SP:  My brother (the actual drummer of the family) just sent me “Spain” by Chick Corea, one of our dad’s favorites. Speaking of my brother—who I credit with teaching me how to program drums and how to count bars and all that—one time we were on our way to church with my dad, and Steely Dan’s “Black Cow” was on. Pops started to try to explain the lyrics, what a “black cow” was, why they were very high…all that. 

So a few years back I was proud to send [my father] “Gas Drawls” from Operation Doomsday because this story has always cracked me up, but also that’s a great-ass sample chop (and one that he appreciated, as opposed to the time my broski and I were buggin’ out over the beat for Jay-Z’s “Kingdom Come” and he was like, Is nobody doing anything original anymore?). 

[December 28, 2023 | 12:56 AM]

CP:  You should’ve sent him Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz after “Gas Drawls” and been like, “See.” As a drummer, does your brother fall more in line with your musical tastes or your father’s? 

SP:  I’d definitely say my brother has a much more diverse and varied musical vocabulary/understanding/tastes than I. We both grew up hearing, and then eventually listening, to rap. Twenty-three to twenty-four years ago when the neo-soul era was beginning, we were smack-dab in the middle of it, in the literal eye of the storm. Things Fall Apart, Like Water For Chocolate, Black on Both Sides, Reflection Eternal were just coming out. Musiq Soulchild was on the radio. Voodoo (which I didn’t get into until much later when I listened to it riding through Zanesville, Ohio countryside in 2007 [it’s still “Brown Sugar” over everything, though]) was everywhere. But there was also his actual school music education from primary to college, as well as listening to people from all instinctive travels and paths of rhythm, so he knows it all—or because he’d be like, “Shiiii, no I don’t!—a bit about a bit.”

I keep saying “my brother” when I have two. My younger bro is the drummer but my older brother’s tape collection was everything in high school (actually, even before that I was stealing his It Was Written tape when I was in seventh grade to play on the way to school). Being eleven years older, he was in high school when the great 90s east coast revolution was happening, and his Nike shoebox archives reflected the sounds of the time. As far as his tastes go, if DMX was still with us and dropped an album today, he’d get it without a second thought.

[December 28, 2023 | 11:10 PM]

CP:  Sorry to trail off. Got a bit busy on my side. Would you be down to hit me with a handful of your most interesting beat names at the moment?

CP:  This is art.

SP:  The “Will Smith as…” series is new. They all slap.

[Small Professor posts a since-deleted message on X quoting Werner Herzog talking about stealing a 35mm camera from a Munich film school. The quote: “I don’t consider it theft. It was just a necessity. I had some sort of natural right to this tool. If you need air to breathe, and you are locked in a room, you have to take a chisel and hammer and break down a wall. It is your absolute right.”]

CP:  I love this. “A natural right” to make something. Like a compulsion within. (I also love Herzog, so I appreciate the anecdote.) Do you remember where you first acquired that cracked Fruity Loops (and maybe Cool Edit, too)? If I think back, I probably had a friend hand me a disk, a CD-RW, back in like 1999 or something. God knows what sketchy site he downloaded them from.

SP:  In college when I first started doing beats, I torrented everything—movies, programs, especially music—with nary a second thought. It’s a good way to give your computer a bad cold, which I did on several occasions. And I too appreciate Herzog because I love no myth more than my own as well.

CP:  Have you got any myths on par with rescuing celebrities from wrecked cars or nonchalantly brushing off bullets to your abdomen?

SP:  No, but I can say I did albums with both Sean Price and MC Paul Barman.

CP:  Indisputable. I think this is an appropriate spot to (un)officially close this. Anything else you want to talk about?

SP:  Gotta give a shout-out to the Jungle Brothers for making Crazy Wisdom Masters in 1991. PremRock told me legend was that they made it on shrooms and when I listened to it on acid I was like, Oh, yeah, y’all were high as fuck when this was made. I could tell not only because the music itself is bugged out but even the pace of the record is accelerated. They had some songs on there that were a minute-and-thirty-seconds but so much was going on , sometimes different things in either stereo channel that it gives off the effect of being on a trip and you’re noticing—for what feels like the first time again—that everything is happening everywhere at once.

Listen to Crazy Wisdom Masters when you get a chance. It’s a personal classic that I’ve listened to at least fourteen times this month. Warner Brothers did them dirty (this was their M.O. apparently—this was the same time period they were beefing with Prince) by delaying the entire record two years and having them clean up the tracks, and disrupting the carefully curated listening experience by taking tracks away and rearranging the entire thing. J Beez wit the Remedy, the resulting hodgepodge, would drop on my birthday in 1993, and when I first heard it, I was like, Hmm, something’s awry here, and that’s how I found out about Crazy Wisdom Masters. 

CP:  I think I downloaded it or thought about downloading it recently when people started talking about it again. Is there a “definitive” version to look for? I know Bill Laswell had uploaded a version to his Bandcamp page a while back. 

SP:  That’s a good question. The version I found that concludes with “For the Headz At Company Z” is the album as the god(s) intended.

Just as Small Pro is distinguished from “Small Professor”, “Crazy Wisdom Masters” is a distinct personality from “Jungle Brothers.” Small Pro is a definitive, lost Laswell version—a ra ra kid who catches wreck with randomness. He doesn’t channel, but grooves, as the most psychoactive Afrika Baby Bam and Mike G doppelgänger. We end up doubled-over; “dope-sick,” if you will. You sleep on it, then you wake up in the morning and dwells on it, as Small Pro casts his spells on it. (It’s as Simple As That.) SP’s Comin’ Through, and when he does, multiple realities accelerate as he explores radical possibilities. He’s chewing on the chemicals and raising up the levels on the decibels. We—his audience of lab assistants, his dilated pupils [and peoples]—“experience the ultimate, the infinite.”

Images:

Most images are from the Vol. 1, No. 10 October issue of the San Francisco Oracle or unknown issues of the Chicago Seed | Small Professor “Sith Lord” photo courtesy of Matthew Shaver for WXPN | The Grateful Dead tapers section photo, Unknown | Screenshots by Small Professor | Apache tape photo by Caltrops Press | Gilbert Shelton, “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers,” East Village Other (detail) | “Deadhead” poem by Joseph Rathgeber

[josefavomjaaga]

Marshal Soult and his Murillos

A curious thing that I have found so far on checking Google Books is that, in the earliest mentions of Soult’s Murillo paintings in British newspapers, there is no mention at all of the dubious way he may have acquired them. To the contrary, the tone is, considering it’s coming from »the enemy«, almost friendly. As the Spanish government had not allowed paintings of the Spanish school to leave the country before the French invasion, only very few works by Murillo had found their way to London, and the paintings Soult had in his possession simply astonished British visitors.

It seems like it’s only after 1822, 1823, when Soult’s collection started to become renowned, when it was clear that his Murillos were indeed much better than anything British collections had to offer and when a famous art trader named Buchanan loudly claimed he was about to buy the whole of Soult’s paintings in order to bring them to London – a deal that Soult in the end did not agree to, because he rather sold his country estate than his Murillos – that every mention of the collection had to include the description »looted in Spain«.

This article in the London Magazine, Volume 6, of 1822, about a visit to his gallery was written before that. And while Soult is described in a highly condescending (but funny) tone, he’s actually compared favourably to his countrymen, just as his Murillos are compared favourably to paintings of the French school. The whole article is much longer and to be found here. I’m merely quoting the part relating to Soult.

After having mused for a long while about contemporary art and music, the author continues;

But what has all this to do with Soult and his Murillos? - nothing, save that it occurred to me as I was crossing the Pont Royal on my way to his hotel, and so completely engrossed my attention, that I was nearly run over by a cabriolet. Having finished my exordium, and escaped the wheels, I proceeded to the Fauxbourg St. Germain, and turned into the courtyard of Marshal Soult, Duke of Dalmatia, in a corner of which were four stablemen, too busy in tossing up halfpence to bestow even a look upon the visitors. Probably, his Grace has often indulged in a similar recreation, but having tossed up his halfpence to better account, he has found his way into the saloon, and left his competitors in the stableyard. A groom of the chambers having conducted us through that indispensable appendage to every French mansion, a spacious billiard-room, led us to a small ante-chamber, where we were received with a plain frank courtesy by the Marshal, a middle-sized, though somewhat corpulent personage of from fifty to sixty years of age, whose dark curling hair rendered somewhat conspicuous the bald patch in the middle of his head, while his sun-burnt complexion accorded well with his dark intelligent eye. His black stock, plain dark coat, and loose blue trowsers, which, capacious as they were, could not hide his bow-legged form, obviously suggested the soldier rather than the courtier, the Marshal rather than the Duke; though if I had encountered such a figure in London, I should rather have guessed him to be an honest East or West India captain. A Frenchman entitled by birth to similar rank and fortune would have been forward, and vain, and loquacious, amid his unmerited distinctions, but methought upon Soult's countenance there sat an air of reserve, and even awkwardness, in doing the honours of his proud mansion, as if he felt conscious that he assimilated not well with its magnificence; I could fancy him saying to himself: Here I stand, a plain soldier of fortune, consenting to use splendidly the wealth which I have acquired, and the greatness which has been thrust upon me, but disdaining to adopt in my own person any of the fopperies of state.

[fvriva]

🐖 thrandy thrandles throckmorton

thrandington below the cut, my dear

send an oc + an emoji (or order the WHOLE HOG)

✨- How did you come up with the OC’s name?

Technically this was Tony's doing I believe. He named Elthrandor Sessamine with the logic of "a name that fits his elven naming scheme", in a world where Ellie was raised by U'tlunt'a. If I recall correctly as well, this was where Thrandy came from in the first place!

🌼 - How old are they? (Or approximate age range)

Thrandy is the same age as Ellie, though minutes younger. She will tend to remain aloof about it and go "almost 14".

🌺- Do they have any love interest(s)?

In the campaign they got jokingly paired up with Log, a fankid of the two Animus Vitrum leads. Log's hardass personality simply meshed well with their prim and haughty tendencies.

In Exordium, their royal standing isn't as secure, so their personality isn't as pompous. Regardless they're set up currently to be dating Ida in the future, potentially.

🍕 - What is their favorite food?

Like Ellie, she needs to eat copius amounts of sugar because of her elf heritage. But she prefers spicy foods, especially savory types. She really likes her mom's shakshouka with some sweeter peppers and honey in the sauce.

💼 - What do they do for a living?

He's currently the crown prince of the kingdom of Musaphia, though it's kind of an honorary title because the place is in tatters on top of their present plight. So right now he's basically a wanderer. Isn't making much of a living.

🎹 - Do they have any hobbies?

She likes listening to music, podcasts, and collecting laemellograms. She isn't as cerebral as her siblings, but she still has a healthy appreciation for learning. She also enjoys keeping fit and practicing various fighting techniques. In Prophecy she also liked working on cars (specifically a fancy Night Court type of vehicle that was shaped like a bronze bug) and listening to jazz (covers of 90s music).

🎯 -What do they do best?

Of the triplets, she's the best at combat. She's been trained by the royal guards and by her mom, from whom she inherited a magical technique that lets her grow her fingers into long claws.

🥊 -What do they love to do? What do they hate to do?

Thrandy loves physical activities and adventure, stories and games, and seeking out all kinds of excitement. She gets bored really super easily and doesn't deal with it well. She does secretly like holding court, but only if there's going to be drama for this reason.

❤️ - What is one of your OC’s best memories?

It was after a particularly rough training session with his mom. U'tlunt'a patched him up but then took him out to the market as a special treat, as she very rarely leaves the palace grounds with her station. There was a big to-do and the endorphins were definitely helping.

✂️ - What is one of your OC’s worst memories?

Watching his mom sacrifice her life for him by trapping herself in a soul jar with a war machine. Then later watching Ida get herself cursed and being unable to help her.

🧊 - Is their current design the first one?

Nope! Their design has been a little all over the place. Their Exordium design has been a little but more stable but could also change in the future as I decide more of the world's aesthetic.

🍀 - What originally inspired the OC?

Originally, a silly roleswap au between Ellie and their girlfriend Nymra where Ellie was the suave royal-in-distress and Nymra was a goofy chuuni hero. Ellie in this au was an elf named Elthrandor, and the dm and I were in talks to try and canonically retcon them into being a half-fey changeling because we liked the idea so much. He surprised me with Elthrandor during the campaign.

Lately, it's been a lot of Olivier from Hello from the Hallowoods as well as Coco from Little Witch Atelier.

🌂 - What genre do they belong in?

I think high fantasy, but with a little more courtly intrigue such that the little extending claws are a more perfect spy type utility! Unfortunately this is an apocalypse story. Alas. They get to do this better in Skylands.

💚 - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?

Thrandy is bi and genderfluid and uses she/he/they.

🙌 - How many sibling does your OC have?

He has two siblings but he doesn't know them, so he's very only-child about everything.

🍎 - What is the OC’s relationship w/their parents like?

She's very very close with her mom, Archmage U'tlunt'a Spearfinger. Her bio dad, Daeyim, is out of the picture due to Circumstances, but she's very resentful of him being absent.

🧠 - What do you like most about the OC?

I'm still feeling him out, which is the fun part. When I'm adapting an npc that exists for a specific goody niche for a serious character arc, the fun lies in finding where I can really make these characters squirm and suffer the most. I also like how much he works as a foil for his siblings, being an opposite in a lot of ways but a parallel in others.

✏️ - How often do you draw/write about the OC?

A bit less than the other two triplets but she does have the most written fic currently in Exordium.

💎 - Do you ever see yourself killing off the OC?

Not really. I just don't think I'd get much mileage from it currently.

💀 - Does your OC have any phobias?

They're a little squeamish when it comes to things like heights. And the dark, which is not great for the eternal night world.

🍩 - Who is your OC’s arch-nemesis or rival?

They butt heads with Lilibeth a lot but everyone does because she's got a difficult personality. They also are definitely going to be fighting both Ida's brother Goliath and Lili's mom, V'rylla.

🎓 - How long have you had the OC?

The au was created in late 2020. I don't remember exactly when they debuted in game but it wasn't too long after. This makes it about 3.5 years.

🍥 - What age were you when you created the OC?

I would've been 20!

[website-enjoyer]

new albums of 2023

2023 was a good year for music imo! so i decided to put together a list of new albums i really liked. i was originally going to write a short reflection about each album but it felt like homework, anyways they're good albums! might make it a yearly thing :)

8485 - Personal Protocol

Jane Remover - Census Designated

Wicca Phase Springs Eternal - Wicca Phase Springs Eternal

underscores - Wallsocket

Ada Rook - Rookie's Bustle

Jim Legxacy - homeless n**** pop music

Holly Waxwing - The New Pastoral

Rebecca Black - Let Her Burn

Jeff Rosenstock - HELLMODE

Cacola - Requiem

Lil Yachty - Let's Start Here.

Oneohtrix Point Never - Again

Leroy - Grave Robbing

Beverly Glenn-Copeland - The Ones Ahead

100 gecs - 10,000 gecs

Kesha - Gag Order

Alice Longyu Gao - Let's Hope Heteros Fail, Learn, and Retire

Danny Brown - Quaranta

Goyard Ibn Said AKA Ghais Guevera - Goyard Comin': Exordium

Eartheater - Powders

GHÖSH - PRISMASSIVE

HEALTH - RAT WARS

JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - SCARING THE HOES

LiL Lotus - nosebleeder

Fred again.. & Brian Eno - Secret Life

Patricia Taxxon - TECHDOG 1-7

[wherefore-whinnies]

6, 19, 27!

6. A series you’ve enjoyed since your early days of gaming and still enjoy to this day whether it still has games coming out or is one you return to

Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons!! I must've had hundreds of hours on Friends of Mineral Town when I was a kid and here I am now playing the FoMT remake currently. I don't actually play much of the new original titles lol but I might try them at some point

19. A game you started up for the first time and you knew from the start it was going to be great

hmmm I think the closest I have to that would be Three Hopes? iirc I was so high off the ashen wolves trailer coming out that I could not focus on work so I took the afternoon off to stream the demo for my friends. and I started it up and we just spent several minutes staring at the title screen and listening to the music in awe lol.

27. A game you love the atmosphere of

man I definitely have one of these but I forgot it?? scrolling through my switch games the next one I can think of is Slay the Spire actually. the music is so good and the enemy designs are so neat. love the little louses (yes I know) that I named all Louise. love the exordium music. love the city music and the part where it does, (gestures), the thing. it is so, blobmelt emoji.

(the thing is the bit at around 2:00.) love the boss music. outing myself as just wanting to talk about video game music tbh

[dojaejung]

(Your EXO-L Secret Santa here) I'd love a CBX comeback, too! Maybe when Baekhyun comes back next year. I'd like to answer all your questions but I feel like I'm answering more than I'm asking, haha! So I'll just ask some blunt questions if that's ok: If you had to pick your favourite (or top 3, if you can't decide) MVs of Chen, Baekhyun and Sehun (can be solo, unit or group) each, which ones would you pick? And do you have any favourite performances by any of them (concert, music shows etc.)? x

hii my secret santa 💞💕 i'm sorry it took me so long to reply to you! hope you've been doing well! to answer your questions, my top 3 mvs:

chen: beautiful goodbye; blooming day; obsession. baekhyun: un village, monster, obsession. sehun: on me, obsession, love shot. (+ universe is my all time favorite mv for all of them)

some of my fave exo performances:

2018 sbs kpop awards - tempo + love shot; 2019 smtown in japan - gravity; exordium - monster + wolf; exploration in soul - wait; exploration in japan - bird.

and some fave solo performances:

chen: exploration - lights out. baekhyun: 2019 cbx magical circus - am i okay like this. sehun: on me (wish there was also a live performance of it ;;)

[maximuswolf]

Zager And Evans - In The Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus) (1969) [Rock]

Zager And Evans - In The Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus) (1969) [Rock] https://youtube.com/watch?v=vdSqLfuRN18&si=APwpznSGToP4BOP8 Submitted September 04, 2024 at 06:30AM by IPersonaI https://ift.tt/G6lPhB8 via /r/Music

[parkerbombshell]

From Memphis To Merseyside Ep 93

Thursdays 8pm EST bombshellradio.com From Memphis To Merseyside Ep. 93 One Small Step…. This week, Tony and Aaron celebrate Apollo 11 and the first time man walked on the moon in July 1969. Lots of great music and talk about another time and an historic moment. #Rock #ClassicRock #FolkRock #PopRock #JazzRock 1. Ric Denis - This Rumbling Sky 2. Frank Sinatra - Fly Me To The Moon 3. Elvis Presley - Blue Moon 4. Jerry Butler - Moon River 5. The Beatles - Mr. Moonlight 6. Jonathon King - Everyone’s Gone To The Moon 7. The Beatles - The Ballad Of John And Yoko 8. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising 9. Tang Commercial 10. Oliver - Good Morning Starshine 11. Blood, Sweat & Tears - Spinning Wheel 12. Zager And Evans - In The Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus) 13. David Bowie - Space Oddity 14. Glen Campbell - Galveston 15. David Bowie - Starman 16. Cat Stevens - Moonshadow 17. King Harvest - Dancing in the Moonlight 18. Elton John - Rocket Man 19. The Kinks - Supersonic Rocket Ship 20. April Wine - Bad Side of The Moon 21. Pink Floyd - Eclipse 22. Paul McCartney - Loup (First Indian On The Moon) 23. Klaatu - Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft 24. The Kinks - Full Moon 25. Prism - Spaceship Superstar 26. George Harrison - Here Comes The Moon 27. The Guess Who - Moon Wave Maker 28. Kate And Anna McGarrigle - Move Over Moon 29. Joni Mitchell - Moon At The Window 30. Van Morrison - Moondance 31. Bobby Womack - Fly Me To The Moon 32. Bryan James Duffy - The Red Brick Road         Read the full article

[vawsculturecorner]

My Musical 2023: Musings by a girl who can't stop getting high and tweeting.

PART 1: People don't know what "A weak year for Music" means.

End of year time chat - you know what that means, everybody and their mother wants to tell you what the best, most valuable per minute piece of funny sound waves was in the year of our lord 2023. Cynicism aside, I like year-end lists! Despite my immense disdain for attributing any form of hierarchy to art, they are good fun to put together when we throw out any notions of objectivity. It's a way to preach how much we love something by measuring it against other things that we love.

Attempting to not be brazenly hypocritical, I’ve taken a “Mic the Snare” approach and grouped albums together under categories that make some sense to me and probably none to you. The hope is that if you like one thing on this list, you find something similar that you haven’t heard to try. The ultimate takeaway I want people to have after reading is “fuck I should listen to this aye”.

I am nowhere near a skilled enough writer (or observer, frankly) to make meaningful commentary on everything (or anything depending on who you ask). For the sake of brevity and our collective sanity I’m only going over the standout stuff from this year, my absolute favourites and whatever else I deem relevant/vaguely amusing. Consider anything mentioned here to be an album that I think of positively. If I don’t include it here, I didn’t hear it or I forgot because unbeknownst to you I am capable of making mistakes. If I don’t go into depth on something, assume I love it but I possess insufficient skill to do it justice/not quite obsessed enough with it to make an ass of myself trying

Herculean Hip-Hop

Goyard Comin': Exordium - Goyard Ibn Said Y'all gotta stop annoying the shit out of my man on Twitter and let him make his music. Yes, the artist who you may know as Ghais Guevara has put out some high-quality conscious hip-hop but man's also makes fucking bangers. To quote the album, you can't even go a yard without collapsing - hit the gym and bump tracks like Blood on My Grails whilst you are there. Faith is a Rock - MIKE x Wiki x The Alchemist MIKE, Wiki and Uncle Al link up for my favourite Alchemist-produced project of the year. Bleeding New York to the bone, this intergenerational meetup runs seamlessly across its brief runtime with the signature Alchemist production and intricately spun lyrics from MIKE and Wiki. Listen to Be Realistic.

Voir Dire - Earl Sweatshirt x The Alchemist Whilst we are talking about Alchemist, his long-awaited collaboration with Earl Sweatshirt is another solid addition to his discography. You really can’t go wrong with these two, and I feel like Alc’s beat really lend visibility to Earl’s pen and avoids intrusion, providing a clearer spotlight to the labyrinth of Earl's rapping. Undoubtedly My Brother, The Wind and 27 Braids are the two tracks I find the heaviest hitting.

14K Figaro - Wiki x Tony Seltzer Wiki had a fucking year hey - of his releases this is pretty handily my favourite, with Tony Seltzer's more digital production adding a “vintage in the modern” feeling with more synthetic sounds and beats contrasted with naturalistic and lively rhythms. Goes without saying that Wiki brings his A-Game to the mic as well. Fried Ice Cream would be my go-to track for the project.

Notorious Dump Legends 2 - Mach-Hommy x Tha God Fahim You really thought Hommy wouldn’t be here? Mach-Hommy and Tha God Fahim link up again, the legendary duo delivering on what they do best. A great appetizer before RAH next year - check out lead single Olajuwon. Glockoma 2 - Key Glock This album was my introduction to Key Glock and it is just a mixtape-style project packed with murky southern bangers. His deep, rolling delivery lends himself to a broad span of topics and emotions whilst maintaining a cold-blooded bluntness that is as cool as it is compelling. Sucker-free got an immense amount of play in the car this year. The Estate Sale - Tyler, the Creator. Hear me out - I know this is much smaller than CMIYGL and sure that album is tighter because it's more fleshed out, but on purely a song-for-song basis? I think I prefer these songs. In a decade where Tyler has released his best music yet, tracks like Dogtooth and Wharf are some of the strongest showings in his catalogue so far. Sorry not Sorry is also his best closing track period.

Soul of Too Birdz - Too Birdz Too Birdz defy genre in a blistering kaleidoscope of jagged noises and sounds that are increasingly difficult to pin down or label. All the better for it, Soul of Too Birdz introduces a cavalcade of phantasmic futurism to Australian music that mesmerizes the mind as the group's lyrical mantras are enveloped by folds of digital madness. Blood Money Millionz is a must-listen. (An addendum - this probably should have made relentless replays because I think this is one of the best albums to drop this year).

Decay - Fatboi Sharif x Steel Tipped Dove If the Too Birds album is the phantasm jolting from the street lamps at midnight then Decay is the poltergeist haunting abandoned homes in transient suburbia. The lethargy of a dying world has manifested in the voice of Sharif and the prowling soundscapes of Dove. As Sharif proselytises the apocalypse, you can hear the buzz of flies infesting corpses on key tracks like Brandon Lee. A stunning project from both artists.

Melodic Amazement and Terrific Trunknockers:

Straight up, I found it really hard to write about these ones but you should listen to them so I am including them here so again you have stuff to check out. Melodic Amazement: Ooh Rap I Ya - George Clanton George Clanton follows up his legendary "Slide" with another solid serve of hypnagogic warbly audibles. Manages to sneak in a couple of classic tracks for his catalogue too with tracks like I Been Young and For You, I Will featuring Hatchie. Filth - Collarbones The Swansong for cult-classic outfit Collarbones, the band goes out with a bang as Filth is pumped with ethereal yet driving euphoria, with Marcus Whale's singing oozing with sensuality and intimacy. The album is packed with essential tracks but I want to give a special mention to God is Here for being such a triumphant close to the beloved Australian Duo. Muscle Memories Vol 1 & 2. I saw these guys at SXSW this year and whilst I had heard tracks from them before, their set was the pure definition of mesmerizing. That same crystalline funkiness is here in spades across the two EPs that they put out this year and I am hotly anticipating their next moves. 5D dub is an excellent track to start with. What Colour Is the End? - Nikodimos Speaking of artists I found by watching them live, Nikodimos was the first artist I caught at Big Sound 2023 and fuck me was the bar set high. A jack-of-all-music-trades, there is no genre or instrument or musical crevice that Nikodimos does not excel at - case in point, What Colour Is the End? Lathered in psychedelia and warm jazzy tones you could lose yourself forever in the layers of these songs. IT HURTS! is a standout track for its emotional vocals and groovy percussion. How To Capture Playful - Pink Navel x Kenny Segal Coming off last year's EPIC, Pink Navel's earnestness and slightly dorky energy is the type of thing you would expect to be grating, but in fact, it just fills your heart with warmth and sugar. They team with the one and only Kenny Segal for an album about video games, and the results are endlessly endearing. Lead single Present Vendor is a great introduction if you are a newcomer to their music. In The End, It Always Does - The Japanese House Ok, I have to admit something that is going to have my queer femme card revoked - I am not really that enamoured with Phoebe Bridgers. She's an incredible musician, but the emotional connection that most people have with albums like Punisher I think I'm starting to have with this album here. Touching Yourself is pure saphic bliss and I swear to god if I don't meet a beautiful femme woman soon to have an emotionally charged intimate situationship I might just kill myself.

Terrific Trunknockers: OPPBOYZ - SOLLYY x Dxvdre Seriously this lil fuckin album is non-stop anthems and tracks that will make you non-stop bop. Hard on the car stereo and on the decks this album will have you yelling OPP BOY DOWN OPP BOY DOWN on top note, irrespective of the time or place. Also special shout-out to that CK line it was a bit of a cultural reset. Definitely check out OPP BOY DOWN. STRESSOR - Teether x Kuya Neil Look I'm still pretty new to the underground Australian music scene but if there is one thing that became clear to me pretty quickly, it's that Teether is one of the godfathers of this shit. Another artist who had a jam-packed year (even ending up featuring on Backwoodz release plus one from the multi-talented Fielded), this link-up with Kuya Neil is one of the most critically acclaimed underground hip-hop records of the year for good reason. Kuya Neil offers a masterclass of production here with smooth textured production riding on top of punchy, breakneck percussion. Closing track RENO is already a classic.

The Spiritual Meat Grinder - Zheani Zheani is just an incredible man - I did not expect the pivot into more electronic, dancier takes on her signature occult alt-metal-rap stylings but it's executed immaculately. How can I not recommend Bring Wet Cunt, honestly, it's such a banger.

Inconsistently Incredible and Future Funhouses:

(slightly) Inconsistently Incredible: Am I going to say these albums are perfect back to front? Not really, but there are enough moments of brilliance that go above and beyond that I think it's a disservice to skip over them.

And Then You Pray for Me - Westside Gunn W$G continues to prove he has this curation shit down fucking pat and continues to indulge his creativity with a datpiff tape-styled trap-ier take on his signature Griselda sound. Let this man executive produce a Tyler the Creator album please. Kitchen Lights is the stunner for me on this album for sure. Utopia - Travis Scott Mr "Play FEIN Ten Times in a Row" has become a more difficult sell for me as of late (and very little of that has to do with his album output) but UTOPIA manages to make good on a few moments of dusty, garish pop-rap constructed on a level of grand spectacle (I mean this as a good thing). I KNOW?, TELEKINESIS and DELRESTO (ECHOES) will probably go down as some of my all-time favourite Travis tracks. Burning Desire - MIKE MIKE continues to almost click with me (the closest I’ve come thus far is Tears of Joy) but moments on this album are like portals to a dimension where he is one of my favourite rappers working right now, with a distinct realm of abstracted explosive creationism that I genuinely struggle putting into words. Plz Don't Cut My Wings is absolutely my favourite song he has put out and has this distinct melancholic grain that wraps around MIKE's lyrics of memory and making it to the light at the end of a rough road. Something to Give Each Other - Troye Sivan Personally, I don't come back to this album in it's entirety as full listens can sometimes drag a bit, but individual tracks like the singles and a few deep-cuts like Can't Go Back Baby are undeniable gay boy summer smash hits and I am so fucking here for them. 

Future Funhouses: These are albums that I did hear this year but didn’t really dedicate enough time to properly sit with them. That said, I feel pretty confident these will grow on me with more listens. Obviously, because of this I'm not gonna write anything on them because I would be talking out my ass! HELLMODE - Jeff Rosenstock Never Falter Hero Girl - Katie Dey - ok but this one is really good and is probably the one you are most likely to have not heard of these albums listen to Katie Dey shes incredible Lahai - Sampa Did you know there is a tunnel under Ocean Blvd - Lana Del Rey Again - Oneohtrix Point Never

[fvriva]

*gets real close to the mic* Yeah can I get the uhhhhhh

Ida?

(Exordium specifically)

for you, sir, it's on the house.

✨- How did you come up with the OC’s name?

Ida Sicari's name is derived from the Latin name for a type of recluse spider, Sicariidae. Fitting for a rogue/assassin-type themed after a spider.

🌼 - How old are they? (Or approximate age range)

It's hard to say because I haven't totally nailed down elven aging yet, but she's young, Thrandy's age. He's 13, so let's call Ida 14.

🌺- Do they have any love interest(s)?

She's got a little crush on the royal she's charged with protecting, Elthrandor Sessamine. Her crush on them WILL cause problems in the future with her family.

🍕 - What is their favorite food?

Tough one because I haven't decided on the cuisine in Exordium yet. Post-curse, she develops all kinds of allergies to things she used to love eating, so she's not really vibing regardless. However, the food she misses the most is a very garlicky, vinegary, roast chicken with chili paste and honey.

💼 - What do they do for a living?

She's currently a royal bodyguard in a shambling kingdom. She's facing a lot of pressure from her crime family to betray her charge currently. In a modern au, Ida would probably find herself in a businesslike setting doing something unassuming, like accountant work.

🎹 - Do they have any hobbies?

She likes racy literature, secretly. She can't read (it's a very rare skill in Musaphia) but she's got a secret stash of smutty audiobooks. She does lots of knife tricks and acrobatics to stay sharp. She also enjoys collecting musical lamaellograms and instruments (these she keeps in her room in the palace mostly), though she doesn't know how to play any of them.

🎯 -What do they do best?

Ida's observant, and possesses a healthy degree of skepticism. She's a competent fighter and very stealthy.

🥊 -What do they love to do? What do they hate to do?

She hates having anything to do with her family. They're annoying, don't respect her boundaries, and are always trying to get her to do dangerous, illegal, and morally suspect things. She also rather dislikes being out in unknown territory and other places where she's on unsure footing. Ida genuinely loves being near Thrandy and the other Sessamines, though, and wholeheartedly cares for them.

❤️ - What is one of your OC’s best memories?

Uhh. Well, I feel like it probably would be something with Thrandy. Maybe she was in Thrandy's room listening to her play something on an instrument, giggling and laughing and eating snacks.

✂️ - What is one of your OC’s worst memories?

I haven't fully fleshed it out yet, but I can imagine something akin to the nightmare she's given when she touches the cursed dagger of her brother, Goliath, morphing into some manner of monstrous creature as he tightened his grip on her. Shortly before U'tlunt'a was trapped by the Creature in the time loop, she was probably threatened by him in a similar way.

🧊 - Is their current design the first one?

Ida's very first design was in an rp between @the-goblin-cat as Elthrandor and myself as a vampire version of Ida, wearing a very frilly school uniform. She still has the mask, mutated mouth, hair, and overall demeanor, but she's been dressed in clothing better for Musaphia and has a deeper purple skintone now.

🍀 - What originally inspired the OC?

My single biggest inspiration was Rayne from the Webtoon Homesick, but this is pure vibes. There's also a particular brand of body horror I'm trying to tap into with her involving an unassuming girlish frame and a monstrous face for contrast. I can't think of any specific entries of it just now.

🌂 - What genre do they belong in?

I think she could be at home in a horror story, or a horror-slice of life. She doesn't HAVE to be an elf as she wasn't one originally, but she's currently kind of living in a dark fantasy.

💚 - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?

Ida's a cis girl, and I don't know if she would know too much about her sexuality just yet because she's rather young, but Thrandy is genderfluid, so whatever that is, that's what she is.

🙌 - How many sibling does your OC have?

Ida is the family baby. She has 7 siblings, all members of the a gang that peddles a drug made from concentrated moonblood resin. They're all named after members of the Sicarius family of spiders.

The oldest is her brother Goliath and he's the kingpin of the group and a real bully.

Then there's her brother Valletano, who is disabled, plays the violin, and helps cover for his siblings. Ida has a good relationship with him.

Next oldest is her only sister Fumoso, who manufactures the product. She's kinda fruity about it. Decrepit. Very mutated.

Her next oldest brother is Ornato, who does the finances.

Twin brothers Cariri and Yurensi are both dream magic enforcers. Cairiri is a talented dream mage where Yurensi trained Ida to be an assassin like him.

The youngest, Jeqi-Tenho is in charge of distribution. He's only 3 years older than Ida is.

🍎 - What is the OC’s relationship w/their parents like?

Ida never met them. They died shortly after she was born in a convenient and very tragic accident. She was raised by her siblings, but understands that on reputation they were honorable guardsmen.

🧠 - What do you like most about the OC?

I think she looks very cool. I also am excited to do more spider mutation stuff with her. Simple needs with regards to Ida, really.

✏️ - How often do you draw/write about the OC?

Not super often, though last year I did write a story about her and Thrandy seeking shelter in an ancient lighthouse in the middle of a desert.

💎 - Do you ever see yourself killing off the OC?

I could, but I don't really know what I'm doing long-term with Exordium just yet.

💀 - Does your OC have any phobias?

Well, it was spiders...

🍩 -Who is your OC’s arch-nemesis or rival?

I don't have one yet, but she's intended to be a foil for Nymra, Ellie's love interest in the Wickrath plot. I don't think they'd fight or anything though. They're both too awkward for that.

🎓 - How long have you had the OC?

Since 2021! 3 years now. Jeez.

🍥 - What age were you when you created the OC?

I suppose I was 21. Right as I started going back to school again if I'm not mistaken.

send me a character + an emoji (or order the WHOLE HOG)

[xmystophalesx]

Best New Heavy Metal Releases Week of November 4th, 2022

I know this is sounding like a broken record every week when I talk about the insane amount of new releases, but damn, two weeks in a row with 150 plus Hard Rock and Metal releases. Looking forward to the next few weeks, it doesn’t look as busy and I have to admit a bit of a break is going to come in handy. That end-of-year best of list looming just over the horizon. Hard to believe the year is almost up. The last few years have seen quite an uptick in the amount of incredibly high quality releases coming out, which bodes VERY well for the future. The list is once again VERY long so lets get to some the highlights.

Dolchstoss-War is Eternal (Black)**

Black Metal with some Punk Rock influences in the rhythm section which I am a sucker for. Quite a few Saidan vibes here which is always a good thing.

Disillusion-Ayam (Death/Progressive/Melodic)**

Ever wonder where modern era Opeth would go if they leaned further into the realm of Progressive Metal? I think Disillusion is that answer. I will fully admit the vocals may not click with everyone but the music and songwriting here is absolutely stunning.

Nocturnis-Unsegen (Black)**

No fucks given old school Black Metal. This isn’t trying to be anything else and I get the feeling this band could give a shit less whether you like them or not.

The Jokers-Rock and Roll Bones (Hard Rock/Heavy)**

Blues influenced Hard Rock that makes for a great palate cleanser in between some of the more extreme forms of metal I routinely enjoy. Fantastic album all the way through.

Lokurah-Distorted Truth (Melodic Death/Thrash)**

Great mix of Death and Thrash Metal with incredible production and a more modern approach in the songwriting.

I will cut it off there. When the list is this long, I always feel like I need to mention that there are more than a few albums that could have made the “Best of the Week” category but some tough choices had to be made. You may feel completely different, so don’t sleep on any of the albums on this list. Until next week and, as always, just remember that music is the passion of the soul.

BANG THY HEAD!!!

All worthy of a listen if you like the genre

*= standout in that genre

**=best of the week regardless of genre

Best of the Week

Dolchstoss-War is Eternal (Black)**

Theory-Obsidian Haze (Heavy/Progressive/Power)**

Stranger Vision-Wasteland (Power/Heavy)**

Legions of the Night-Hell (Heavy Power)**

Black Anvil-Regenesis (Black/Thrash)**

Iron Kingdom-The Blood of Creation (Heavy/Traditional)**

Disillusion-Ayam (Death/Progressive/Melodic)**

Nocturnis-Unsegen (Black)**

Sarcator-Alkahest (Thrash/Black)**

The Jokers-Rock and Roll Bones (Hard Rock/Heavy)**

Lokurah-Distorted Truth (Death/Thrash)**

Mist of Misery-Severance (Symphonic Black)**

Standout in their Genre

Vexation-Trepidation Reigns (Thrash/Death)*

Vltima-Ouroboros (Black)*

Red Mourning-Flowers & Feathers (Stoner)*

Nadir-Eternal War, Forevermore (Progressive Thrash)*

Redreigner-Eater (Death)*

Satan’s Blade-Curse of the Blade (Heavy/Traditional/Speed)*

Rodrigo Gutierrez’s Jadoo-Chain Reaction (Heavy Power)*

Mandragora Thuringia-Rex Silvarum (Folk)*

Dragonhammer-Second Life (Power)*

Ggu:ll-Ex Est (Drone/Doom)*

Lemegeton-Demons I to X (Black)*

Pahan Ikoni-Ikonoklasti (Death/Thrash)*

Pitch Black Mentality-World Final Wake (Thrash/Melodic)*

Warlung-Vultures Paradise (Psychedelic/Stoner/Doom)*

Mezcla-Vidas Suspendidas (Death/Thrash)*

Exordium Mors-As Legends Fade and Gods Die (Black/Thrash/Death)*

HÖST-Nightmares and Goals (Black)*

Aeveris-White Elephant (Metalcore)*

Ninth Realm-A Fate Unbroken (Thrash)*

Osyron-Momentous (Heavy Progressive)*

Warlung-Vulture’s Paradise (Psychadelic Doom/Sludge)*

Wolfcross-From the North (Black)*

Dunkelheit-Inner Awakening (Black)*

Worth a listen if you enjoy the genre

Hell Theater-S’Accabadora (Heavy/Thrash)

Celtic Legacy-Redux (Heavy)

Funeral Harvest-Redemptio (Black)

Psychlona-Palo Verde (Psychadelic/Stoner)

Ratlab-The Hammer and the Dance (Hard Rock/Heavy)

Denial of Death-A Failed Exorcism (Death/Black)

Atomic Witch-Crypt of Sleepless Malice (Speed/Thrash)

Second to Sun-Nocturnal Philosophy (Black/Post)

Deliverance-Neon Chaos in a Junk Sick Dawn (Black/Sludge)

Ingested-Ashes Lie Still (Brutal Death)

Iron Flesh-Limb After Limb (Death)

Last Wander-Last Wander (Melodic Death)

Under Threat-Impermanence (Melodic Death)

This look encapsulated the difficulty in making the Pick of the Week this week, but with 4.75 worried looking bulldogs out of 5, Disillusion takes this weeks top spot.

[netego]

I haven't felt comfortable in my skin these past years

[nice-young-satanist]

do i miss her? do i miss love? do i miss company?

or all of the above?