#illusorily

[xcutinzodlb]

Huge boobs chubby blonde plumper pleases a stranger a escondidas de mama Sinfully Fun Games Uncensored Huniepop 2, Creepyhouse and more BACKSHOTS FOR ASIAN TEEN big boob teen masturbating in the bathroom Fingering juicy wet pussy Spycam In The Shower Caught Girl Masturbating Her Pussy boonk gang Jap Aoi sano Blowjob cum on mouth

[majestativa]

Illusorily, I am both in my soul and outside it.

— René Char, Selected Poems of René Char, transl by Nancy Kline, (1992)

[clochettesworld]

From Being_is_it

"whatever you think is happening is exactly what the Mind interprets illusorily. When you think that the current moment is not ideal or imperfect, and you need to obtain an ideal state to replace the current state, or improve it to what your Mind's desire, then when you take it seriously like this, you will not achieve the ideal situation that you hope for. This is the effect of the Mind playing tricks onto itself. Such desire of yours is taking the Mind's hallucination seriously."

So because I think there is something to do, I am constantly in a cycle. When I realise who I am, things will become clear but BECAUSE I think I am a person, I experience it.

I think this makes it more clear when you think there is no separation, you see exactly what you know to be true. So if you believe in a person with a life, you will experience a person with a life.

Hmm his point in this was to not take those mind narratives seriously , it wasn't direclty about what you experience or not

• you are SEEMINGLY constantly in a cycle, it’s not an actuality

• ⁠”you see exactly what you know to be true “ -> it’s more just being aware of it, that effortless KNOWING, because there’s no “true or false” things just are and you’re just that awareness “behind them” which also “IS” them since it’s all there is

• ⁠there is no actual person with a life, it’s not “ “ experiencing an actual person with an actual life, it’s just “ “ experiencing itself hallucinating the play of “person with a life”

[s-lycopersicum]

This one is a bit simpler as illusions go, but I still think it's really cool!

The core of it is just an illusory contour (based on the Ehrenstein disc illusion), where the radial line segments form the illusion of a circle.

But, by changing the lengths of some line segments in the right order and with the right timing, I can make an illusory snake! Slithering around. Illusorily.

[infiniteko]

Can I get supernatural powers to improve my life? From being_is_it (x)

Question: Since everything is our manifestation, sickness, unemployment, dissatisfaction, etc. are all good opportunities to take notice, but isn’t it said that there are magical powers that can change everything? Then people want to change their lives via magical power so that they want to learn these things, why do you need to be enlightened? I want to know the relationship between the two. My life has lost its direction now. What should I do?

Answer: If you have the desire to "change your current life", then, unfortunately, you take it seriously and regard this moment as "someone called me is living his life", then there will be no magical power when you take the Mind's narrative seriously. Only when you no longer care about what is going on at the moment and there is no desire to change the status quo, then magical powers will appear naturally and automatically. Only the one who least needs supernatural powers can spontaneously and automatically seem to have magical powers. If you regard "enlightenment" as a tool to obtain personal benefits and improve the current situation, then this will not work as you hope for. Remember, what the Mind perceives as "reality" is precisely what the mind interprets simultaneously. What you think is happening now is only what it seems to be, rather than actually the case as you think it is. In other words, whatever you think is happening is exactly what the Mind interprets illusorily. When you think that the current moment is not ideal or imperfect, and you need to obtain an ideal state to replace the current state, or improve it to what your Mind's desire, then when you take it seriously like this, you will not achieve the ideal situation that you hope for. This is the effect of the Mind playing tricks onto itself. Such desire of yours is taking the Mind's hallucination seriously.

The more you beg for a miracle to change a situation that you think is unsatisfactory and imperfect, the less likely you are to have such miraculous powers. Because the Mind has hallucinated the innately perfect present moment as "not ideal" or "unsuccessful" or "imperfect". Under such illusory assumptions of the Mind, how can it be possible to have supernatural powers? Only when you have no demands on the present moment and are completely relaxed and just let it be as it is, then the entire energy field will subtly relax automatically and will automatically realign itself. Then, without any demands at all, miracles will happen spontaneously and automatically. For the one who has been completely relaxed, there is no need for miracles or magic. This is precisely how he can be immersed in infinite miracles. This seems ironic and contradictory, but it is not.

I don't understand, many people have managed to have what they want as they expect it (magical power or manifesting idk ) without being enlightened, so why do they say it can't be done.

? it's right there

Read again, it literally says all that can be said

It's right there. That's just a small part, the rest is right there.. you just have to read carefully

[astarab1aze]

✾ Domain Expansion: Hell Prism

Hell Prism is something the Shikabane more or less used against other people, namely their own family members, as a means of exerting power over them and expanding influence. Though, that wasn’t what it started out as, its primary use meant to specifically obliterate curses (not really too different from any other DE). The Shikabane were exceedingly proud of it, those capable of using it finely honing it over the centuries until it steadily became what it is now, as Kaede wields it.

It’s characterized by a surrealist, kaleidoscopic manifestation of a colloquial hell. The visuals are psychedellically haunting and seamlessly endless, a thousand vile, burning mirrors showing his targets the many ways he can kill them - and which one is real. It allows the user to effectively trap, torture, maim, and kill a target at their leisure within its bounds, while at the same time leeching their cursed energy and eating away at the body and soul. This may, at times, double-function as a psychological prison, given his ability to illusorily kill his target in an infinite number of ways to break them down psychologically, if he so chooses. As in, he can really kill you, or he can fuck with your head - you’re not really going to know what’s actually happening until you draw your last breath or his domain is broken.

The problem with Hell Prism, however, is that it requires immense cursed energy to use it, more than Kaede readily possesses, so the use of Blood Sacrifice almost always precludes it (think of Blood Sacrifice as a trade of sorts; he offers any amount of his own blood or someone else’s, containing cursed energy, in exchange for a sort of…overclocking; it’s essentially a power-buff-at-cost-of-max-health). But once Hell Prism is cast, despite it’s incredible strength, it has a few limitations. Such being that it can only take in an individual-small group of targets at a time, despite the push toward large-scale use by Kaede. The trade-offs are usually too high to justify using it too often, given that, whether Kaede uses his own blood or someone else’s, a small piece of himself is sacrificed regardless, per his agreement with the inugami. Moreover, the ‘cool down’ time following his use of it? Bonkers. It used to be a few weeks to a month that he couldn’t use it again - just too taxing on the body and soul - but he was able to whittle it down to a week. So he has to be extremely careful and choosy when he uses it, or risk losing his trump card for too fucking long. Perhaps someday, this bullshit 'cool down’ time will be reduced even further, to maybe just a day between uses.

Although, he’ll be in pretty big trouble if he uses it too frequently, since every use eats away at his soul like acid. Beyond that, though, he does go on to perform both large-scale uses of Hell Prism, managing to completely wipe both Inunaki Village and the Shikabane estate off the map (every curse he came across suffered dearly, tbh, especially the one that slaughtered the rest of his family).

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume 9, Number 6

Vulture Feather

Perhaps because we left it until the very end of the month, we ended up with a truly massive collection of short reviews this time.  Bill Meyer got especially busy with nine entries this time, but lots of writers did more than two, and a few who rarely participate made an exception for June.  It’s a diverse collection of musical artists, jazz, metal, folk, pop and indie, something for everyone.  Have at it, and enjoy.  Contributors include Bill Meyer, Patrick Masterson, Jennifer Kelly, Jonathan Shaw, Ray Garraty, Ian Mathers, Bryon Hayes, Jim Marks, Christian Carey and Tim Clarke.  

Tim Berne / Hank Roberts / Aurora Nealand — Oceans And (Intakt)

Oceans And by TIM BERNE - HANK ROBERTS - AURORA NEALAND

Forty-four years separate the release of Tim Berne’s first LP, The Five Year Plan, and this uncategorizable trio recording. The alto saxophonist has never been shy about mixing classical sounds and shapes into elbows-out jazz pieces of often-epic link, but he’s never done anything quite like Oceans And. One distinguishing factor is the ensemble’s line-up, which includes Hank Roberts on cello and Aurora Nealand on clarinet, accordion and generally wordless voice. These are players who can both inhabit genres and shuttle between them; they also do honor to the specifically scripted progress and illusorily orchestral arrangements of Berne’s elongated, reflective compositions. In particular, Nealand’s squeezebox delivers both the immensity and complexity of a full string section.  

Bill Meyer

 Blondshell — “Charm You” (Grand Jury)

Charm You (Blondshell Version) by Blondshell

Samia’s big year on the back of January’s bedroom indie staple Honey is about to get a second wind as she’s coaxed artists to cover her songs again, this time for a follow-up singles series called, imaginatively, Honey Reimagined. Maya Hawke, Hovvdy and Ruston Kelly are among the first names due up, but perhaps the biggest of them is another 2023 breakthrough artist: Sabrina Teitelbaum, aka, Blondshell. Teitelbaum’s touch here is pretty light as far as the source material goes, though she sounds a lot less vulnerable than Samia’s original — not just because of her delivery and the subtle addition of backing vocals in spots, but also because she’s plugged the six-string in and has heavier-hitting floor toms. Samia’s raw honesty and unadorned accompaniment is a big reason for her appeal, but even fans of the original will find something to love in a cover that does just enough to merit note.

Patrick Masterson 

 Devon Church — Strange Strangers (felte)

Strange Strangers by Devon Church

“Slouching Towards Bethlehem” nestles in your ear like a paranoiac whisper, soft but surreal, minimalist but also swelling with strings and gospel choirs. Devon Church murmurs baroque poetry about the end of world, matter of fact, mostly, but with a tinge of wonder. “Surely stranger things have happened,” he confides in the song’s understated chorus, as if he’s trying to make sense of it all on the fly. Strange Strangers is the second solo album from this Brooklyn based songwriter, a hollow-voiced devotee of Leonard Cohen who once made up half of ExitMusic. His songs are beautifully made, pillowy with artful arrangements, but even so very pure and simple. The wordplay is, similarly, plain spoken but twisted. “Jesus was a genius,” croons Church slyly, “but I prefer his early stuff,” and sure, don’t we all? And his voice is exceptional, with the haunted, gothy depths that would make even a laundry list sound apocalyptic. Fans of Mark Lanegan, Duke Garwood and (of course) Leonard Cohen, take note.

Jennifer Kelly

 Cut Trio — Pelletron / Dynamitron (Edition Friforma / Inexhaustible Editions)

Pelletron / Dynamitron by CUT Trio: Tanja Feichtmair / Cene Resnik / Urban Kušar

I believe it’s Evan Parker who acknowledged that while free improvisation didn’t exactly change the world, a network has emerged and endured of people who practice it where none existed before. If this album is representative of what happens in Slovenia, the Balkans are doing quite all right in that regard. This trio, which comprises drummer Urban Kušar and saxophonists Tanja Fechtmair and Cene Resnik, doesn’t propose a new concept, but it does what it does exceedingly well. The horns prod and challenge, ceaselessly pressing forward but forever ready to feint and jab; they’re immaculately light on their feet, but heavy enough to make it all feel real. Kušar is an emphatic ornamenter, and a source of focused but never overwhelming energy. While the chances are slight that either they or I will be in each other’s towns anytime soon, if it happened, I’d be there.

Bill Meyer 

 Erik Friedlander, Ava Mendoza, Stomu Takeishi and Diego Espinosa—She Sees (Skipstone)

Jazz cellist Erik Friedlander meets up with his Sentinel ensemble—guitarist Ava Mendoza, percussionist Diego Espinosa and the bass player Stomu Takeishi—for a genre-blurring romp. Chin-strokers keep out. These 10 compositions are pure fun, whether you start with the swaggering roots-blues of “Baskets, Biscuits, Rain,” the rock-propulsive “Blink” or the simmering groove of “Heatwave.” The cello is, naturally, front and center, leading melodically with clear, vibrant tones, but all other instruments get their spot. Newly added bass player Takeishi sounds particularly fine interlacing plucked lines with Friedlander in the meditative spaces of “Summit,” while Mendoza lances rambling “Ache, Air,” with shocked jolts of guitar rock dissonance.  The drums are also very fine, though not in-your-face; these songs swing with easy rhythm. I like gypsy reeling “Sliding,” maybe the best, though this album is a blast all the way through. I thought it might be an “eat your vegetables” kind of good, but it’s a sundae with a cherry on it.

Jennifer Kelly

 Gaika — “Lady (Feat. Bbymutha)” (Big Dada)

Coming off the War Island OST that soundtracked a room at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts in 2022, “perennial internationalist” Gaika returns with a new song on a personal note ahead of his Big Dada debut Drift in September. We covered him some years ago and said then that “a claustrophobic line runs through his production work,” and nothing’s changed his mood in the years since Security; it’s just that now it feels like the world has started to catch up with him. Part of this is because Yves Tumor’s similar David Bowie/Marilyn Manson/TV on the Radio approach to postmodern pop music has popped open an avenue of sound artists like Gaika and Le1f had already been exploring alongside them, and Drift will likely feel familiar to those already on board with such sonics. The trip-hop pace of “Lady” features strung out guitar flourishes and a few percussion fills as delivered by Kidä (from, yes, Yves Tumor), Azekel (Gorillaz) and Max Winter, and as a love letter to a partner, it sure sounds sinister. A promising shot across the bow to anyone that might’ve forgotten he was still out here putting in the good work.

Patrick Masterson 

 Geld — Currency // Castration (Relapse Records)

Currency // Castration by GELD

Geld doubles down on the groin-clenching characteristics of their band name with the title of this new LP, Currency // Castration. Yipes. Not sure if all the emasculating terminology is ironically intended, but there’s a strongly macho vibe running through Geld’s music. It’s hardcore from Oz, after all. A fair amount of critical chatter about the band stresses the ostensibly “psychedelic” properties of the music, and that was true, to some degree, of Beyond the Floor, the band’s 2020 LP (though for more effective recent demonstrations of what happens when the punks take some acid, see Glittering Insects or that amazing Oily Boys record). Geld’s move to Relapse Records has come with an intensification of big rawk sounds. See “Clock Keeps Crawling,” “Fog of War” and “Hanging from a Rope,” which evoke long-haired thrash as much as the metal-edged hardcore records of the late 1980s. This reviewer likes it when Geld plays fast and feral: “Cut You Down” and “Success” don’t seek to innovate, and the songs succeed by keeping things simple, snarling and frantic. The guitar solo in “Success” has some appealing shreddy intensity, like Dimebag Darrell in an especially hostile state of mind — not a dude who was ever interested in neutering his sound. If you’re going to strut, might as well do it like Darrell. If you can.

Jonathan Shaw

 Grindhard E, Rio Da Yung OG, RMC Mike — Ed, Edd n Eddy (Grindhard 4 Money)

These Flint rappers worked in twos before, but this is the first time they’ve recorded as a trio. It’s quite chaotic and kind of drifts along, perhaps because it didn’t have a clear structure in the first place. Just leftover studio sessions, late-night freestyles slapped together, clearly with no pretensions to be anything more. Only the final track “Heads,” with Louie Ray as a guest, has something resembling the usual verse-chorus structure. And it is the best among six songs, with RMC Mike and Grindhard E coming up with a memorable chorus and Rio and Louie Ray providing funny verses on a switched beat.

Ray Garraty 

Jean Luc Guionnet — Dyslexic Harp (Deciphered In The Dark) (Amgen)

DYSLEXIC HARP (DECIPHERED IN THE DARK) by Jean-Luc Guionnet

Dyslexic Harp is a test of memory and mettle. The piece, which was composed by Jean Luc Guionnet for harpist Rhodri Davies, is not a set of notes on staff paper but a set of rules. In short, the musician must sit in darkness so absolute that they cannot see their instrument and, using both hands, play all the possible pitches on the harp. When they make an error, they must play a specific pitch that signals that an error has occurred and then resume. There’s more — a lot more — but that’s enough to give a listener the idea of the sort of memory and concentration that a performer must bring to the task at hand. So, what one hears is a struggle to remember and recover rendered as sound, in which the moments of silence feel more tension-fraught than the purposeful sequences of known notes. Davies’ performance is by turns confident and hesitant, and the spacious recording puts the listener right in the room with him.

Bill Meyer 

 Hatred Surge — Demo 2004 (Iron Lung)

Demo 2004 (LUNGS-246) by HATRED SURGE

It may take you longer to read this brief review than it will to listen through Demo 2004, a sorta-significant document of heavy music — five songs in three minutes from the salad days of Hatred Surge (which may be the purest name ever devised for the super aggro sort of noise the band has made). Since churning out these formative sounds nearly 20 years ago, the band has made some terrific grind and powerviolence records, also experimenting in death metal and harsh noise. On later recordings, it would be hard to overstate the strong creative productivity of Chris Ulsh, the guitarist and drummer who has cut a merciless path through the 21st Century with a number of great bands, including Mammoth Grinder, Power Trip and (of course) Hatred Surge. For this one, Alex Hughes played everything. This reissued demo is likely most appealing to the historically minded and to collectors. But even in their raw, unproduced forms, tunes like “Invisible Noose” and “Wolf in Idiot’s Clothing” are immediately engaging, forecasting the powerful sounds to come.

Jonathan Shaw

 Hypnodrone Ensemble — The Signal in the Signal (Trepanation)

The Signal In The Signal by Hypnodrone Ensemble

It says something about Hypnodrone Ensemble’s last record, 2020’s Gets Polyamorous, that this one feels pretty stripped down in comparison. Boasting a mere six participants (including three drummers) vs. that album’s 15 (six drummers!), The Signal in the Signal still displays plenty of the ensemble’s trademark, well, hypnotic spacerock drone, just more monolithically. The two sides (which split the album title between them) started from a bass/drum pattern that repeats for the whole hour as other members layer guitar, bass, drums, sax, and viola over it. As the sides gradually build towards a swelling storm of noise it’s fascinating to hear how the character of that initial pulse appears to change as its surroundings do. It’s as apt a demonstration of “the more things change the more they stay the same” as you’re likely to find on record.

Ian Mathers

 Induced Geometry — S/T (Trouble in Mind)

Induced Geometry by Induced Geometry

Philadelphia duo Writhing Squares produce a prog-inspired psychedelic squall that is pretty darn catchy, so this cassette from bassist Daniel Provenzano is quite a surprise. Stark in comparison to his band’s more visceral sound, Induced Geometry borrows liberally from the oeuvres of Reich and Riley. Short synth patterns build upon each other until they become hypnotic geometric structures, with ever-shifting vertices. The complex and evolving shapes are luminescent, producing a strange aura that seems to morph with a deepening textural quality. There’s a warmth here that belies his initial intent with these songs, which was to create a plain, characterless music. Instead, Provenzano has produced an elegant series of synth tapestries that aren’t necessarily lush but are pleasing to behold.

Bryon Hayes 

 Aaron Leaney featuring Guy Thouin — Lockdown (Astral Spirits)

Lockdown by Aaron Leaney feat. Guy Thouin

The Astral Spirits release schedule is sufficiently full-on to tempt a body to skip over a title every now and then. If you’re considering such a move, Lockdown might not be the one to pass by. The title tells you when this Montreal duo made their record (at Hotel2tango, if you’re keeping score), but not much else. It turns out that Guy Thouin is a first-generation Canadian free jazzer, on board since the late 1960s. Aaron Leaney, who is much younger, contributes husky but nimble alto and tenor sax melodies, and also plays enough flutes and percussion that it’s tempting to pull the phrase “little instruments” out of your bag. Leave it there; this is more Interstellar Space meets Babi than AACM in sound, albeit not as heavy and full-on as such comparisons might imply. Instead, there’s a floating quality to this music that’s easy to hang with.

Bill Meyer

 Fred Lonberg-Holm & Tim Daisy — Current 23 (Relay)

Fred Lonberg-Holm / Tim Daisy "Current 23" (relay 034) by Tim Daisy, Fred Lonberg-Holm

Cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm and drummer Tim Daisy have been recurring partners in improvisation for over two decades, dating back to a time when they both lived in Chicago and they were in a couple of the same combos led by Ken Vandermark. Residence and work locations change, but they still make it a point to play together at least once a year, world health catastrophes permitting. The title of this recording, which was made while Lonberg-Holm was back in town for the Catalytic Sound Festival, suggests that it is a report — “This is how it is at the start of 2023.” At the moment, Daisy seems especially interested in using dynamic aggregations of small and varied sounds to create open fields of possibility. Turn up the music, and you’ll hear tiny strikes and rustles amid his brisk, ever-changing drum kit-work. Lonberg-Holm alternates between acoustic and amplified, electronically set-ups, but either way, he presses the boundaries of convention and instrumental potential. Daisy proves the perfect accompanist for his forays, forever expanding the perimeter in ways that frame and support Lonberg-Holm, but never limit him. Two notes: James Falzone’s long but extremely edifying liner note on the record’s Bandcamp page are well worth reading. And fans of physical products should be aware that this album, unlike other recent Relay releases, is a commercial CDR, not a glass-mastered CD.  

Bill Meyer

 Andrea Neumann — elletseuef (Thanatosis)

elletsreuef by Andrea Neumann

People who make the transition from classical music to various forms of improvisation sometimes talk about having to divest themselves of various forms of acquired baggage. Few have done so quite as literally as Andrea Neumann, who long ago got rid of the keys and the big, boxy parts of the piano in order to concentrate on the sonic potentialities of the rack of strings inside. She sounds said strings with bows and kitchen implements, and magnifies and distorts them electronically. Elletseuef, a solo performance from 2021, is particularly worthy of attention because she tends to record in collaborative settings. While there are passages whose patient accretion of details brings to mind Keith Rowe’s similarly re-evaluative guitar playing, it’s the quasi-industrial bursts of electricity, and her expert shifts between loudness and silence, that command attention.

Bill Meyer

 Night Gestalt — Staring Light (Bigo & Twigetti)

Staring Light by Night Gestalt

Swedish musician Olof Cornéer’s latest release as Night Gestalt takes all the finest qualities of his last album, Thousand Year Waves (covered in last March’s Dust) and distills them into a simpler, more resonant musical statement. The central elements are closely mic’d piano, where the creak of the wood and the swing of the hammers are as much of a sound source as the vibration of the strings, plus some glassy, nocturnal synth tones. There’s plenty of space in the mix, allowing all elements to individually shine, reverberate and fade away. Nothing gets cluttered or sounds out of place. Pop this one on headphones at night, venture outside into the chill air for some star watching and you’ve got your perfect soundtrack: pin pricks of light in an inky expanse, with sufficient breathing room for the mind to wander.

Tim Clarke 

 Maria Norseth Garli — Morning Light (Sonic Transmissions)

Morning Light by Maria Norseth Garli

Order and entropy do battle for Maria Norseth Garli’s allegiance on Morning Light, which is the Trondheim, Norway-based singer/guitarist’s third LP. You don’t get a Master’s degree from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in that town without sharing some practice rooms and student combos with free improvisers, and her work evidences an appreciation for dynamic and textural extremities that you don’t usually find in the work of self-confessed singer-songwriters. But it’s not really a fair fight; Garli is too committed to melody and the song form to let things fall apart. Instead, heavy guitar chords (including a few played by the undeniably industrious Nicolas Leirtrø of I Like To Sleep, Dafnie and TEIP Trio) fall like toppling timber into the moody meadows of Garli’s spare, image-oriented writing. It might sound dangerous, but nothing ever lands on her voice. Still, the combination intrigues.

Bill Meyer

 Palace, AmaneOG — Drive 2 EP (Noir)

It was one of those fortuitous occurrences that remind you the algorithms really are listening: There I was on the eve of the hundredth running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans — arguably the most famous motor race aside from maybe the Indianapolis 500 or the Monaco Grand Prix — casually searching for some distraction amid a final push on this work project I had going on when, lo, what should appear in my sidebar but Polish producer Palace’s “Drive” and what looked to be a scene from Lost Highway. What I clicked into and found was an eerie night cruiser akin to Kassem Mosse’s early Workshop releases set to actual onboard footage of a Porsche at Le Mans from 2015. The synchronicity was unsettling. AmaneOG goes uncredited in the above video because it’s not from the unhelpfully named Noir Records, which put out the Drive 2 EP upon which this song appears, but I assure you that won’t matter when you hear it. That the Porsche in question was a 919 and not a 909 feels like the only missed opportunity here.

Patrick Masterson

 Nathan Alexander Pape — coat after coat (The Jewel Garden)

coat after coat by Nathan Alexander Pape

This CDR (all respect to Jewel Garden for correctly identifying it on the label’s Bandcamp page; not everyone is so honest these days) documents the solo work of Tulsa, Oklahoma-based guitarist Nathan Alexander Pape. Sometimes titles provide clues, and coat after coat provides a few. If your thoughts drift to paint, it invites you to think of layers, which makes sense of music that is the product of a multi-staged signal chain comprising ideas, fingers, steel-stringed acoustic guitar, amplifier, an overwhelmed recording microphone and an out-of-town space that allows Pape to turn it up and get just the right in-the-red sound. If your associations are more attire-oriented, the direction is towards a series of outer garments. On successive tracks, Pape applies his imagination to Derek Bailey-descended harmonics play, seething timbres and minimalist strategies. And the choice to opt for completely lowercase titling suggests that this stuff is not meant to be momentous. One supposes that, instead of heading for a studio or navigating to some distant city for a gig, Pape has made music-making a part of everyday life.

Bill Meyer

 Pylar — Límyte (Cavsas/Cyclic Law)

Límyte by PYLAR

Andalusian doom-drone occultists Pylar are back with another slab of cosmically scaled, weirdo bum-outs that are psychedelic and soul-consuming in equal measure. Límyte isn’t quite as flat-out bananas as Abysmos, the band’s previous LP, but what it lacks in unhinged intensity it gains in relative momentum. This time around, the collective — allegedly formed by musicians in the orbits of metal bands Teitanblood and Orthodox — foregrounds a conventional trap set in its rhythmic structures and even experiments with traditional metal riffage, here and there; see especially “Ruptura-afuera.” Chanted clean vocals and moaning modular synths come and go in extended waves. The songs are still very long, and the rotational suck into a maelstrom of unhappily dense, strangely sticky textures is very strong. This reviewer likes it when the atmosphere gets spacy and the vibe is slightly more playful. The title song could be a soundtrack for a trip into a haunted house decorated by Dali, or it could just be the consequence of those suspect-looking mushrooms you ate an hour ago. Aficionados of music like this might say: Why choose?

Jonathan Shaw

  Queens of the Stone Age — In Times New Roman (Matador)

Longtime listener, first time caller. I’ve been digging QOTSA, on the sly, since Rated R. The last two albums got by me, but this one has the rupturing power, the slithery chill that has always defined this band. The sheer churn and roar of “Paper Machete” is what you come for, all roiling bass, thunderous drums, guitars yelping in electro-shocked outrage, and Josh Homme’s weirdly mannered, baroque falsetto. It’s a gas and a pose, but it also rocks you right to the ground. This is said to be QOTSA’s “angry” album, but man, I don’t know. Did you listen to Songs for the Deaf? They’ve always been pretty pissed. “Emotional Sickness” rides jabbing hook, as precise and violent as a boxer’s punch, then spirals out in swirling, psychedelic melody; QOTSA picks up your machine-gun riddled body and cradles it in gentle currents of song, and then hits you again. It’s obliterating, and smooth, like the best kind of whiskey, and it may remind you of all the records you don’t listen to anymore. At least it did for me. The girl who loved Van Halen 2, the women who went to school pickup with “Monsters of the Parasol” drifting through her head, the old lady who wants to listen to In Times New Roman one more time: all the same person. Hail the rock.

Jennifer Kelly

 The Soft Moon — Exister (Sacred Bones)

Exister by The Soft Moon

On June 23rd, Soft Moon dropped remixes for the 2022 LP Exister. It seemed like an opportune time to revisit the 2022 recording. Mostly a one-man show, Luis Vasquez handles the instruments and vocals. Even by the standards of The Soft Moon’s previous polyglot assemblages, Exister is a versatile affair. The singing is post-punk with a tinge of goth. The music itself encompasses these styles, with the addition of industrial electronica to the mix. “Sad Song” and “Answers” lean in to Vasquez’s haunting snarl. “Become the Lies” is altogether different, with a high-lying vocal and an alt-rock hook. There are guest artists, the rapper Fish Narc on “Him” and Alli Logout, who adds scary screams to “Unforgiven.” The title track arrives last, and its edgy yet atmospheric arrangement is well worth the wait.

Christian Carey 

 Star City Survivor — Orbital Decay (Soul City)

orbital decay by star city survivor

Star City Survivor is an electric guitar and drums duo from Chapel Hill, NC. The name of this album of spontaneously co-created, open-ended encounters suggests an eventual crash to earth, but the sounds they make are sufficiently gravity-defying to avoid any shattering impacts. Instead, Phil Venerable plays inward-turning, fuzz-encrusted lines that alternately surf atop or surge straight through Tommy Jackson’s kickdrum-heavy attack. A historical challenge of jazz-rock summits is the tendency of the musicians to neglect to rock, but that is not the case here.

Bill Meyer

 Rowland Taylor — A Righteous Man Falling Down Before the Wicked Is a Troubled Fountain (self-released)

a righteous man falling down before the wicked is a troubled fountain by Rowland Taylor

Virginia-based Rowland Taylor has released a number of singles and EPs of Takoma school guitar music over the past few years. The latest release is the longest yet, nearly half an hour, and it hits all of the sweet spots, from Rose-worthy slide (“boss card,” “hold fast”) to lengthy excursions (“krakow lament,” “the seagull”) and a banjo piece reminiscent of Glenn Jones (“i lost my way home last night”). Taylor can play very fast and forcefully when he wants to, but A Righteous Man is a bit less frenetic than some of his earlier work and even ends with a neat Eastern European-sounding fiddle piece swathed in studio effects. This recording also whets the appetite for a full-length album in which Taylor can develop such ideas more fully and indulge in the kind of experimentation on display in that final track.

Jim Marks 

 Vasco Trilla — A Constellation of Anomaly (Thanatosis)

A Constellation of Anomaly by Vasco Trilla

Percussionists commonly find themselves either keeping time or unleashing frenetic salvos of beats. Vasco Trilla obliterates both notions, choosing instead to explore and manipulate resonance. Every surface is a potential instrument for him to push to the extremes of its sound-making potential. On A Constellation of Anomaly, he produces a vast array of textures with an eclectic set of resonant bodies. Drones and groans sustain such that they hover like contrails in the air. Metallic shrieks slice through the atmosphere, leaving a vacuum that Trilla fills with microscopic sound particles. Not every track is wildly experimental: the two pieces called “The Shaking Hand That Leaves a Mark” find Trilla straying into territory that borders on melodic. These pleasing sonorities are a rare glimpse into the lighter side of his personality. He’s happier exploring the uncanny sound world of a timpani filled with wind-up music boxes or crafting a cloud of resonance with bowed bells. In his mind, the permutations and combinations of sound-making surfaces are limitless. Merely producing beats is out of the question.

Bryon Hayes

 Vulture Feather — Liminal Fields (felte)

Liminal Fields by Vulture Feather

Back in the 2000s, Baltimore post-punk band Wilderness released a handful of decent records then disappeared off the radar. Now, nearly 20 years later, Wilderness guitarist Colin McCann and bassist Brian Gossman are based in California and have regrouped with a new drummer, Eric Fiscus, to form Vulture Feather. The two bands have similar yet distinct DNA, clearly derived from the same lineage but evolving with their own character. Wilderness frontman James Johnson was a more declarative, center-stage singer, repeating his oblique, mantra-like phrases over and over. McCann takes vocal duties here, weaving his higher, wavering voice in the midst of the guitars and bass more discreetly, singing along with the music rather than standing atop it. McCann’s guitar lines are as chiming and anthemic as they were back in the Wilderness days, but more repetitive and driving, sounding as if they’ve sparked aflame in the jam room and the songs took shape from there. The result is an economical, tightly written and energetically performed record that proves there’s a worthwhile next phase underway.

Tim Clarke

[inun4ki]

死/// Headcanon.!!

✾ Domain Expansion: Hell Prism

Hell Prism is something the Shikabane more or less used against other people, namely their own family members, as a means of exerting power over them. Though, that wasn't what it started out as, its primary use meant to specifically obliterate curses (not really too different from any other DE). The Shikabane were exceedingly proud of it, those capable of using it finely honing it over the centuries until it steadily became what it is now, as Kaede wields it.

It's characterized by a surrealist, kaleidoscopic manifestation of a colloquial hell. The visuals are psychedellically haunting and seamlessly endless, a thousand vile, burning mirrors showing his targets the many ways he can kill them - and which one is real. It allows the user to effectively trap, torture, maim, and kill a target at their leisure within its bounds, while at the same time leeching their cursed energy and eating away and the body and soul. This may, at times, double-function as a psychological prison, given his ability to illusorily kill his target in an infinite number of ways to break them down psychologically, if he so chooses. As in, he can really kill you, or he can fuck with your head - you're not really going to know what's actually happening until you draw your last breath or his domain is broken.

The problem with Hell Prism, however, is that requires immense cursed energy to use it, more than Kaede readily possesses, so the use of Blood Sacrifice almost always precludes it (think of Blood Sacrifice as a trade of sorts; he offers any amount of his own blood or someone else's, containing cursed energy, in exchange for a sort of...overclocking; it's essentially a power-buff-at-cost-of-max-health). But once Hell Prism is cast, despite it's incredible strength, it has a few limitations. Such being that it can only take in an individual-small group of targets at a time, despite the push toward large-scale use by Kaede. The trade-offs are usually too high to justify using it too often, given that, whether Kaede uses his own blood or someone else's, a small piece of himself is sacrificed regardless, per his agreement with the inugami. Moreover, the 'cool down' time following his use of it? Bonkers. It used to be a few weeks to a month that he couldn't use it again - just too taxing on the body and soul - but he was able to whittle it down to a week. So he has to be extremely careful and choosy when he uses it, or risk losing his trump card for too fucking long. Perhaps someday, this bullshit 'cool down' time will be reduced even further, to maybe just a day between uses.

Although, he'll be in pretty big trouble if he uses it too frequently, since every use eats away at his soul like acid. Beyond that, though, he does go on to perform both large-scale uses of Hell Prism, managing to completely wipe both Inunaki Village and the Shikabane estate off the map (every curse he came across suffered dearly, tbh, especially the one that slaughtered the rest of his family).

[asteroidkatja]

不会说话的爱情 -- 周云蓬 English Lyrics

绣花绣得累了吗

Are you tired from embroidering?

牛羊也下山了

Even the cows and sheep have come down from the mountains

我们烧自己的房子和身体生起火来

We burn our house and bodies to make fire

解开你红肚带

Untie your red sash

撒一床雪花白

The snow white spreads over the sheets

普天下所有的水都在你眼里荡开

All the water in the world ripples in your eyes

没有窗亮着灯

No windows with lights on

没有人在途中

No people on the road

我们的木床唱起歌说幸福它走了

Our wooden bed sings a song about happiness it has left

我最亲爱的妹呦

My dearest little sister

我最亲爱的姐

My dearest elder sister

我最可怜的皇后

My most pitiful queen

我屋旁的小白菜

My little cabbage next to the house

日子快到头了

The days are coming to an end

果子也熟透了

The fruits are also ripe

我们最后一次收割对方从此仇深似海

We harvested each other for the last time, and from now on, our hatred will be as deep as the sea

你去你的未来

You go to your future

我去我的未来

I go to my future

我们只能在彼此的梦境里虚幻地徘徊

We can only linger illusorily in each other's dreams

徘徊在你的未来

Linger in your future

徘徊在我的未来

Linger in your future

徘徊在水里火里汤里冒着热气期待

Linger in cold water, fire and hot water, steaming with hope

期待更好的人到来

Hope better people would arrive

期待更美的人到来

Hope more beautiful people would arrive

期待往日我们的灵魂附体它重新回来

Hope our past souls would possess us again, come back again

它重新再回来

Come back again

[andrearrrrr]

The hole you see is not really moving, growing or expanding. The darkness will not swallow you.

The image is actually static and has much to teach us about how our brains and eyes see the world. In a study published last week in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, psychologists tested this illusion on 50 men and women with normal vision, and, using an infrared eye tracker, found that the greater a participant’s response to the illusion, the stronger the pupil dilation response.

They also discovered some people — perhaps even you — can’t see it.

Frontiers | The Eye Pupil Adjusts to Illusorily Expanding Holes | Human Neuroscience (frontiersin.org)

[maybelovesamystery]

A dream that is that winter drug

Illusorily reminiscent of one summer’s love

Those dimming skies and semi-luminescent lights

Swimming in golden pools on sweltering nights

Claiming the world in open arms before us was ours

Never thinking of clock hands chasing the hours

Nothing will beat

The warm summer heat

Bathing in sweet honeyed sweat

Those deep ocean eyes, I’ll never forget

Your tender gaze graced my skin with love

While the clouds, the sun, the stars passed above

Eternal trees were bearing ripe sugared fruits

And we feel the candied juices flow to our tangled roots

 We sowed the seeds of summer into our souls

And blossomed then a love full of holes

That only a dream and one moment still

Only a love to share could ever fill

 Bony branches scratch the weeping window of midnight

Hypnos and Cupid retired for morning light

My only companion a stray moonbeam

And the fleeting feeling of swimming upstream

 When then shall it again be

That I am trusting to see

Your radiant face again gleam

Outside the realm of my lonely dream?

m.w.

[widaugast]

    @feyspires  ---  plotted starter for jester!

        To say that Caleb was uncomfortable would have been an understatement.  A rather large one, in fact.  He has been trained in all of this, once upon a time, trained in deception and intimidation and a silver tongue, but it is one thing to use those skills as one man alone, one man as part of a group at the behest and benefit of his friends  ---  it is another to do that, consciously, as one of a pair.  It has been many years, he is probably out of practice  ---  but the quiet infiltration of a Zadashian nobleman's home, where an artifact lay that they hoped would bring further keys to their cluing in about the Beacons without disturbing a worse-for-wear now Pumat Sol with yet another proposition or weeks-long commission, they had decided, was worth the risk.

        Here, far from Rexxentrum and the circumstances that had led to their friend fighting alongside them, that had apparently freed Yasha from the Angel of Irons, from Obann and the puddle he had become with many, many hours of fighting, Caleb can at the very least breathe a little easier.  There had been too many ghosts in the Empire's capital city, dead and very much alive, and he feels one at his ear now, captured in his mind's eye.  A young man with shorter auburn hair, his own, kept to a bit longer than military length and a deceptive tongue, and the young woman on his arm, the pair of them barely out of being nothing more  (and simultaneously so much more)  than teenagers, blond hair shining in candlelight as she laughed, as her hand rested on his elbow while they both knew she was the real magic muscle and could flip him backwards, or illusorily make evryone in the room terrified, with a simple gesture.

        The sounds of preparation for those times had always been quiet, formal.  Now Caleb can hear chatter from Nott, a push from Beauregard, and the soft chime of jewelry  ---  something delicate, by the sound of it, rustling like glass windchimes and there's still a bit of glass from the Chantry in his bag and maybe he should focus on that, figure that out more but Jester, chosen infiltrator and co-conspirator for the evening, is descending the stairs of the inn and for a moment Caleb just...  blinks.  Suddenly, his own outfit  ---  a rustle-up of a few tailors had produced a deep red shirt, a brown leather vest, and the surprisingly soft folds of a side-fastened burgundy cloak, the clasp in the shape of grown wood around a piece of dark amber  ---  seems remarkably understated.  That, and his mouth goes dry.  Schiesse.

        ❝ Can you, ah  ---  promise me you will not go by Fancypants tonight, Miss Lavorre? ❞  Maybe he's teasing, maybe he is not, but the words tumble out before he can stop them and it is, after all, their last chance to use each other's true names before they step out, make the quick walk to the nobleman's house.

[mostfacinorous]

Stoki Whumptober Day 2: In the Hands of the Enemy [1]

With Loki’s hands restrained, it took surprisingly little time to fall into Hydra’s clutches. Or perhaps it was unsurprising. The Captain was predictably and reliably single minded, where his friend the Soldier was concerned.

There had been a trap, because of course there had-- Hydra had to know that the Captain would go in search of his erstwhile friend, and so they’d planted some of their more powerful operatives on Barnes’ still-warm trail, and only had to wait for Rogers and Loki to blunder into them, too distracted by their petty bickering to see that they’d been surrounded until it was much too late. 

“I expected you to double cross me at some point, but I didn’t think you’d be working with them.” The Captain did not attempt to hide his disgust, though the collar that linked to his wrists behind his back clearly made it hard for him to speak. 

“Please.” Loki sneered. “If I were working with them, they would have freed me by now.” 

They’d both been loaded into the back of a transport vehicle, and Loki knew he wasn’t the only one taking notice of how Rogers was eyeing every bit of weaponry on each of the men around them. Loki huffed out an annoyed sigh.

“Also: I doubt anyone has ever accused you of being subtle, but your obvious attention to our guards is putting them on edge. Relax and let us see what they have to say, before you make them so jumpy we end up shot before we even arrive where we’re going.” 

The Captain shot him a glare that would have gone through him, were it weaponizable. 

“That’s enough out of both of you. We’ll be there shortly. In the meantime, keep your gobs shut.” The one with the crackling electrical gauntlets snapped at them, and Loki flashed him a nearly appreciative look, and illusorily wiped his mouth clean off his face. 

The Captain, thank goodness, apparently took this for the comfort it was meant to be; Loki still had access to his seidhr. That, or he was quietly planning to murder Loki. At any rate he maintained his silence-- no doubt pouting at having been told of his transparency, but Loki would take it. He could do with a few less glares in his direction-- but he could also do with being uncuffed, and neither of those things seemed likely at present. 

It was not a long drive, as promised, and all things considered their treatment was passing polite-- they emerged into whatever base Hydra was using now without any more bruises than they’d incurred in the initial scuffle before they had been subdued. 

Again, Loki was grateful, and again he got the feeling that the Captain lacked the sense to share his gratitude. 

No matter; they’d made it this far. This, then, was the part where they would learn what their captors had in mind for them.

“Rumlow.” Rogers growled menacingly, upon being presented before the apparent leader of this outfit. Again, no surprise that at least one of them knew the man in charge. 

“Rogers. How nice to see you-- keeping fit, I see. Chasing the soldier will do that to a guy.” 

The man turned his much scarred face to Loki, and gave him an unmistakable once over. 

“Unless you’re moving up in the world? Caught yourself a magical prince, I see. And those aren’t our cuffs. Kinky. Good for you.” 

Rogers made another animalistic noise and lunged at the man, hands still bound, and head, apparently, still empty. 

“I imagine you’ve some sort of proposal for us?” Loki asked, raising his voice pointedly over the sound of Rogers being struck by their guards’ electrical prods. 

“Oh good, there’s one smart person on your team. Yeah, I have a proposal. I’m sure you know about the time stone. You get it for us, I’ll give you the soldier and his code book.”

Rumlow looked back to Rogers, apparently used to him being in charge. Rogers was panting, regaining his breath and footing after the electrical discharges had forced him to his knees.

“And what’s in it for me?” Loki asked, narrowing his eyes. 

Rumlow looked between them, and Loki wondered what he thought he saw-- they were not close, and there was no way Loki would go on this sort of wild goose chase for the Captain’s benefit alone. 

“I take it you made the same offer to him, then?” Rumlow asked, jerking his head towards Rogers. 

“It’s a deal.” The Captain interrupted. “I’ll get you the stone, you leave Bucky and I alone. Deal.” Loki couldn’t help but notice the desperation in his voice. 

“No offense, Stevie, but if it was something you could do on your own, we would already have managed.”

“I’m after the stone myself, yes. And I can’t imagine a single reason why I would want you to have access to it, let alone why I might give it to you.” 

Rumlow grinned.

“I hafta admit-- I was kinda hoping you’d say something like that.”

[nildespirandum]

A Hex of Infinite Binding - an Incubus Loki story.  Chapter one - A Good Problem is Still a Problem - is up!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/16346738/chapters/38246969

Inspired by @w-rabbitart ‘s gorgeous and unforgettable Incubus Loki.

“Well now that you have me, precious, what are you going to do with me?” the demon in her bed asked, yawning a bit.  

Actually, he - for the demon was clearly, if perhaps only illusorily, male - was on her bed rather than in it.  He had draped his massive, black fur coat across it and then draped himself on top of that.  The perfect, pale skin of his bare chest and arms almost glowed by comparison, and his long, silky hair was even darker than the fur.  The heavy ivory horns that protruded from his forehead should have been disturbing, or at least detracted from his insulting, assaulting beauty, but rather they were the perfect, crowning touch.

His brilliant green eyes were lazy and slitted, as if she and the fact that she had managed to bind him were just too boring and he was going to fall asleep if things didn’t get interesting quick.

Of course, the size of the erection that was visibly ruining the line of his very tight leather pants might have told a different story.  Might have, but Nora knew that in the case of an Incubus an almost constant priapic state was normal.

Twitching now and then.  Large, and long, and more than a little distracting, but normal…

Probably.

“Banishment,” she said, crossing her arms.  

He raised himself up on bent arms, an astonished look briefly taking the place of the boredom, and then he burst into laughter.  “Oh, really? This should be good.”

[pines-pokemon-headcanons]

There’s a harmless “fox hunt” over in anistar, where trainers and canine Pokémon hunt fox Pokémon. My zoroark, Zorro, is a part of the games, and it’s pretty much a pretty complex sharpedos and remoriads. Last time I caught my zoroark in the game, as I tackled him, he became a rapidash. That moment was magic. Pure. Magic. Your thoughts?

You’d best be careful, or else your eyebrows might be illusorily singed off.

[justthishumanheart]

The vociferous catastrophes of a general order — fires, wars, epidemics — are one single pain, illusorily multiplied in many mirrors.

— Jorge Luis Borges, A New Refutation of Time