#never able to play it but was always interested- IMPOSSIBLE to find a lp that didnt have jabroni player murdering all the civvies | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

abstractanalogue · 4 years

Text

Capratone, The Asteroids & The Metronoids (for Beginners)

Tracks & Traces #13: I’ve been planning to write about the music of Capratone, The Asteroids and The Metronoids for sometime and have finally gotten around to it (somehow its been almost 3 years since the last T&T). The link between these bands is Andrew Lyster (now living in Brussels) and as I will explain, he kindly answered some of my questions for this hybrid Tracks & Traces. Since originally publishing this piece Richie Kelly of Capratone has also similarly added valuable information I would never have been able to share otherwise. Usually I just depend on my memory, the records, press cuttings and any surviving notes I took from the times but as I got deeper into the story there were too many question marks about line-ups (pre-Capratone), the issue of a possible ‘lost’ Capratone album and don’t even get me started about The Metronoids! At time of writing most of this music is hard if not impossible to find streaming online and I couldn’t even locate any band photos or videos either. Which is all the more reason to write a piece to mark their existence and hopefully spark a revival of interest. When I was putting the finishing touches to the article I did discover there is now at least some music from The Asteroids on YouTube. Not long after I originally shared this piece, Joss Moorkens of Capratone sent me two band photos, the first line-up (L-R: Fiachra, Joss, Andrew) and as a four piece with Richie Kelly (below).

I first saw Andrew Lyster play (vocals/guitar) when I caught The World of Pugh in a venue I only went to once, Dillinger’s. Like many things from those days it’s long gone but it was a bar with a small stage (up some stairs?) somewhere off Dublin’s Capel St. (18/3/94). As I totally forgot who was in the rest of the band I’ll let Andrew take up the story.

“The World of Pugh was the first group where I wrote songs. I think it started around 1993. Originally it was Keith Swan on drums and a fellow called Brian McEleney on bass. Then in 1994 I brought some songs in and Brian took off to be replaced by Niall Brown (who was also the singer and guitar player for The Moustaches). Niall played bass for World of Pugh in the form where we had songs and did gigs.”

I’m sure someone like Joss Moorkens (then drumming with Tucker Suite) had told me about TWOP and the name had struck me (there was a very cool hand drawn flyer for the gig). They played bottom of the bill with Tucker Suite, Budge and Schroeder’s Cat, all part of a very exciting little scene at the time. Less than two weeks later I happened to see TWOP again on a bill with The Moustaches at a house party on Middle Abbey Street. The Moustaches, who sadly never released anything, were also part of this same scene (in my mind anyway). As I recall, this latter show was on the second or third floor of a semi derelict space in which a friend of both bands was living as a caretaker. Andrew has now told me that he and Keith Swan actually lived there and it was where TWOP rehearsed. I remember sitting on an old mattress and really enjoying the atmosphere (a cymbal was tied to a rafter). I do remember that TWOP had a real sense of humour on stage with some crowd involvement going on. They never had any releases but might well have recorded something (I’ve also heard tell of an unreleased album by The Moustaches!). This would be the last time I saw them play, perhaps it was even their last show? It would be another year before I would see Andrew onstage again.

While researching this piece I did find an Irish band family tree which shows that Andrew, Joss, Fiachra Lennon and Brian Gough were in a band called Mudshark (1991-92), which was not actually their first band. Again, Andrew gave me some more information which I thought was worth sharing and clarifying about these early days.

“Brian Gough (later in Mexican Pets) had been in an even earlier band than Mudshark with me called The Foots. This band only played one gig in a pub in Dun Laoghaire in 1991. Our friends had to listen to the music from the street because they were too young to get in. After The Foots broke up I think Brian went on to another group called Harvey, and then Tucker Suite with Greg Barrett (later in Joan of Arse) on bass initially. Greg then did Schnorbitz with Joss, and had a cool band called Giraffe Running.”

Andrew’s next band would be Capratone (vocals/guitar) along with Joss on Drums and Fiachra on bass. Regarding song-writing Andrew told me, “For the most part I would write the songs and we would try to make them better by all writing our own parts through rehearsals. One or two were group written from stuff that happened in rehearsal.” I first saw them in another venue off Capel St. supporting Schroeder’s Cat at Behan’s Bar (previously The Fox & Pheasant) (3/4/95) and again just ten days later at The Plough with (surprise surprise) The Moustaches and Schroeder’s Cat. I would get to see this line-up play quite often on local bills until Sept ‘97 (more on this later). I recall they also played a short tour around Ireland with US band The Make-Up (April ‘97).

In early ‘96 they tried to record an album with producer Marc Carolan. Andrew told me it was to be called, “Le Plus Roll, because we felt our music was more Roll than Rock. I can’t pin down the exact date of the recording, but my guess is that it was in 1996. We had 2 days in a studio somewhere in Rathgar. It was a 24 track ADAT studio. I think it had a Soundcraft desk. The highlight equipment-wise was an incredible Ampeg bass stack that belonged to some professional band. Its sound was so authoritative and great that by the end of the long first day’s recording, when I had crawled into bed, I was woken up a couple of times by LOUD auditory hallucinations of Fiachra’s P Bass blasting through that thing. Marc, and the three of us all worked really hard for the two days, we did manage to record and mix all the songs we came in with, but I think the short time-frame worked against us capturing the right aesthetic. The means of production were expensive to rent and we couldn’t afford to record even in a project studio like that for more than a day or two.”

Luckily, one of the songs, ‘Homeward’, ended up on the Irish band compilation album, Zip Up Your Boots For The Showbands (1996). I always loved this intricate and explosive song and a whole album like this would have been quite something. The only place online you can hear it now is on a radio show I made for Dublin Digital Radio about bands that played in Dublin’s Attic venue. I must point out the musicianship of Capratone, it may not have been so obvious in the more noisy Tucker Suite but Joss was such an amazing and distinct drummer and both Fiachra and he so easily locked together. They created a lot of space for Andrew’s vocals and guitar for these catchy and very inventive songs to really flow.

At some point in late 1996 Richie Kelly joined (on right in pic) on guitar and they played as a four piece. At some other point Andrew left but as the band continued things must have been going really well musically. According to my notes the last two times I saw Capratone play was at the start of September ‘97, supporting The Sewing Room and Luggage at Dublin’s Mean Fiddler and then a headline show in The Funnel venue at the end of the same month. This doesn’t mean they stopped playing of course but for whatever reasons I didn’t see them again. Things don’t stay static, I did get really into electronic dance music and clubbing the following year but continued to see guitar bands as well but gigs would clash, allegiances, circumstances and tastes change, choices have to be made.

At some point this second line-up hooked up with Dublin label Folkrum Records (run by Dan Watson) and they recorded a mini album, The Art of Go, which was released in early 2000 (CD only) and produced by Simon Kenny aka Si Schroeder. At that stage Joss and Fiachra were still in the line-up with Richie and Eric Sexton (on guitar). I wasn’t sure if any of Andrew’s songs survived after his time with the band (on the Capratone page of the old Folkrum website he only gets thanked for the name) so I needed to ask him about it, “I didn’t write anything on the LP called The Art of Go. There was a strange overlapping series of line-ups in Capratone but when I left I think Richie Kelly (who was a recently arrived guitar player joining the original 3 piece) took on the song-writing job. As far as I know those Art Of Go tunes were all of his making. Richie went on to make a few attempts at recording subsequent line-ups of Capratone.” According to Joss’ short biog of the band on Last.fm, by the end of Capratone the line-up had changed completely from the original one.

Since I published this piece Richie Kelly has been in touch and has kindly provided more detail about joining the band and how his role and the line-up evolved. “I saw Capratone in 1996 and was blown away. Even before the show ended, I wanted to join but that seemed unlikely. It turned out that Andrew’s song-writing was taking a new direction and he had decided to add a second guitarist. We were connected through an extended friend group and apparently word had gotten to him that I was as enamoured with The Beach Boys as he was. We bumped into each other and started talking music and I must have auditioned and joined the band shortly thereafter. At some point I brought a song to the band and we added it to our set (with my vocals). I started contributing more so when Andrew decided to stop playing, we just continued. We added Eric Sexton, a friend and former bandmate. The Art of Go was recorded by Simon Kenny with basic tracking done over a weekend at a large room in Joss’ father’s business. Simon and I continued vocals and overdubs at his flat in Donnybrook.”

Surprisingly none of this music has made it onto YouTube or anywhere else online that I could find. It can be bought on Discogs, which is how I got my hands on it about two years ago. In my opinion it works really well as an EP, with a few really engaging tracks but with some filler too. The best for me would be ‘Clozer’ which sounds like a lost classic and musically is a more full bodied version of the band heard on ‘Homeward’. ‘Free Jazz’ is pleasingly upbeat and cruises along on Beach Boy vibes. They do sound quite American (Pavement and bands of that ilk) at times (as did Capratone mark 1) but this was very much the sound and influence of the times, everything still comes down to the quality of the song-writing. The band broke up a good while later, sometime in 2003 without anymore releases. At some stage Richie Kelly moved to Brooklyn, New York and started a similar sounding band there but with more brass, Sport of Kings. He even re-recorded ‘Free Jazz’ and made a video for it. The influence of Brian Wilson is clear on this song in particular, they cleverly re-use The Beach Boy’s ‘Cool, cool water” line in the song (also present in the original version). Apart from some positive reviews of their only EP, Logic House (2011), there is little sign of the band online either but at least you can check out their excellent video for ‘Free Jazz’ (see below). I did find just one image of Capratone at this time on the Folkrum website, which I have enlarged below. Richie is the golf club carrying member.

In my original piece I wasn’t sure what happened to Capratone next so Richie can take up the story, “The Art of Go attracted the interest of Shifty Disco, who released all of the Elephant 6 stuff in the UK. We set about making a full length for them which we were calling Aviation High. Simon Kenny was initially set to record but was so busy with other projects, I asked Andrew to do it and he agreed. Drum and bass tracking took place in a studio in Dublin. Andrew and I indulged our love of tinkering at his family home while recording my parts and mixing. The result is a pretty high fidelity Capratone record. Shifty Disco preferred the super compressed Capratone of the previous record and passed. We trudged along with some line-up changes after that. The most stable line-up though was myself, Cian Synnot on drums, Fiachra McCarthy on guitar and Michael Stevens (of Groom and many other excellent bands) on bass. As Joss said, no original members were left by the end of Capratone. I believe we kept the name simply because we couldn’t come up with a new one, apparently I have a problem naming things. When I ended up opening music studios and practice spaces in Brooklyn after moving there, I asked Joss if I could use the name of his label Scientific Laboratories because I loved it so much and couldn't think of an alternative.”

youtube

I think it’s well worth including here what happened with Richie’s next band Sport of Kings. “My love of fidelity only increased as the years continued except my focus switched from The Beach Boys to Steely Dan. I because obsessed with doing an indie rock version of their music and Sport of Kings took that direction. The initial line-up was drums, bass guitars and Fender Rhodes and then we added a horn section and a drummer from NYU’s Jazz Program who were incredible and took things to a whole different level.”

“After our Logic House EP, we made a full record (15 songs to be called Queer Theorem) with Michael Leonhart of Steely Dan as producer and occasional synth/horns/vocals contributor. This was essentially a dream come true for me. Initial tracking was done by me at a studio in Brooklyn and painstaking overdubbing, vocals and mixing was done by myself and Michael at his mixing room in the city. Ironically, we recorded yet another version of ‘Free Jazz’ with Michael. I’m not sure why I keep rerecording it but it might have something to do with Andrew and I finding out Brian Wilson used to record ‘Proud Mary’ every time he went into a new studio to check the sonics. I think I now have 4 completed versions!”

“I put an enormous amount of effort into Queer Theorem but it took so long that by the time it was ready, many band members were so in demand by big artists that they had little time to give. Keeping a 7-piece band of amazing musicians afloat proved too difficult and I disbanded the group rather than trying to recruit new musicians. I had also taken that level of fidelity to its conclusion and I returned to looser music after moving to Portland, OR.”

youtube

The next ‘band’ Andrew founded was solo project The Asteroids. I don’t think he ever presented it live but there was just one release, an exquisite three track 10″/CD, Moonlight Music For Beginners, which was released on Joss Moorkens’ Scientific Laboratories label in 2000 (the same year as The Art of Go). You can listen to what has to be my favourite song, ‘Nine Lives’ at link below (the other two songs can helpfully be found on the same channel and I’ve linked them here). According to the sleeve notes it took two years to record, with I assume Andrew playing all the instruments and doing the programming etc. I was sure to pick this up on vinyl at the time and have cherished it since. The amazing paintings on front and back were by the artist Niamh McGrath.

‘Nine Lives’ is so laid back, rich in instrumentation but for me it’s all about Andrew’s vocals (Alan Kelly of The Last Post also provides additional backing vocals). The lyrics prove to be the real earworm for me, “Who is the man, who has done this to you?” with an unexpected lyrical twist at the end. The song has somehow burrowed its way into my consciousness and over the past 20 years has been liable to play in my head at any time. ‘Return Of The Moonlightman’ is more sparse and based again around the vocal arrangement, a second deeper voice (John Parkinson) enters the fray about halfway and it goes to another level with a lovely gradual close. ‘The Great Escape’ is dominated by a really warm organ sound that pulls you along. This one in particular reminds me of Brian Wilson, one of Andrew’s touchstone influences. It’s one of those releases which has dated really well in my opinion and is pretty much unknown I think (I don’t know how many were pressed or sold). There was so much promised with this release and frankly it’s something of a shame it was not followed up at the time. If Andrew had been signed or whatever then things might have happened differently but like all of the bands I’ve written about in this series, we’re lucky to have what we have and the music will last forever. You can still find it for sale on Discogs and it can be played and purchased on iTunes and Tidal. There was one other song from this period, ‘Lunar Doo Wop’, released on a compilation CD included free with the first Foggy Notions magazine. I vaguely remember it but can no longer find my copy (the title tells us all we need to know!).

Sometime in 2005 or later I bumped into Andrew and he gave me a CD from his latest group The Metronoids. It was a two track disc in a plastic wallet (no cover artwork or personnel details) called Petroleum. Today this doesn’t even exist on Discogs never mind anywhere else! Until I asked Andrew about it I wasn’t sure if this had simply been a promo but he told me there was artwork etc. The reason I probably never saw it for sale is that I left Dublin in 2005. For a bit more information I had to dig into the data on the CD itself and found that the track names are simply ‘Petroleum 1 & 2′ and for what it’s worth the genre on iTunes comes up as Blues (not sure how this gets assigned). It’s a pleasant listen (the more spirited second track is my favourite) but it surprised me very much to find it was all drums/percussion and obviously nothing like what he’d done before. This would be the only release under the name, which I imagine is pretty rare to come across.

I obviously had to get Andrew to explain The Metronoids to me, “This was a project I really enjoyed. Done in 2004/5 with Joss and Marc Hayes (drummer from The Moustaches, Boxes). It was always a real pleasure to be in a room with those two guys. I think we did a handful of rehearsals and one recording session. The idea was drum improv within premeditated structures. All three of us played drums. I think I got the notion to do a project that required a different kind of listening from my love of the CD called Guitar Solo by Annette Krebs.”

I wasn’t aware of this at the time but Andrew, Joss and Fiachra briefly reunited as The Lamps in 2005 but as far as I know while there were some live gigs there were no releases. Since then Andrew has told me he is currently working on two new music projects, “One with Fiachra Lennon is called Fig/Astro, it started in 2018, we should be finished an LP this year. He wrote a bunch of instrumental tracks and sent them to me. At his request I turned the instrumentals into songs, and the productions are evolving from there with both of us working on it via WeTransfer. He is a real natural musician so the songs have a very solid foundation. It was refreshing to write songs this way from track to song, rather than from song to track as I had always done previously. My own LP has been in the pipeline since 2009 when I wrote a load of songs and set out to record them in-the-box. Some of the songs went through over 20 productions. Working on a finite group of productions over a long period, under the microscope of Digital Audio Workstation has really allowed me to discover how to do my own thing. The work on this solo album takes a lot of focus.”

After Capratone Joss would go on to play with Joan of Arse and The Dudley Corporation and guest on many other releases, most of these can be found on his impressive Discogs entry. When I was doing my research for this piece I was excited to find an old Souncloud page for The Asteroids I never knew existed, it has two unreleased tracks which date from about 2014 but Andrew said the music since then has been become more abstract. Fiachra meanwhile has a bulging Soundcloud page full of his own demos that is very worth exploring too. Both of them are also on Twitter, The Asteroids and Fiachra. It will have been a long time coming but I’m looking forward to the next new releases from both these artists.

Sometimes the best things take time.

Stephen Rennicks

#capratone #the asteroids #the metronoids #andrew lyster #fiachra lennon #joss moorkens #richie kelly #folkrum records #the art of go #moonlight music for beginners #sport of kings #the world of pugh #dublin #music #1990s #2000s

3 notes · View notes

anarchist-caravan · 5 years

Text

(My) TOP Discovered Albums of the year 2019 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Here again, for the fourth year in a row! Ready to go through the list of discovered music that I have found this year. It has been quite a long year. The thing that is different from the other years is that I have felt a little bit more stressed about the list. I don’ t know why. Just is. And that is a good judgement of what my year has been about. Stress. Angst. Hardships. Fatigue. And Surprises.

I always think I won’t be able to find any new music each year. But I am always mistaken. Thousands of albums down the road. And ain’t that the best thing. Amidst the times.

And thus, a lot of the music I found this year, that has been put on this list is of the more chill side. Not anything too harsh. Just.... a stream of consciousness.

As Usual, Albums I have encountered throughout the year are listed below -with only the last five in a true top order:

40.

Mad Doctor X - Picnic with the Greys (1997)

A picnic we should all attend, -don’t forget the Oui’d!

39.

Tomb Mold ‎– Planetary Clairvoyance (2019)

Dang, that’s death metal done well.

38.

Moor Mother - Analog Fluids Of Sonic Black Holes (2019)

Self-explanatory.

37.

Darzamat - In the Opium of Black Veil (1999)

Good AF black metal.

36.

karl sanders - saurian meditation (2004)

Darker than you think. Hypnosis.

35.

The Dolphin Brothers - Catch the Fall (1987)

Richard Barbieri and Steve Jansen plays wonderous synth-pop akin to something... I cannot remember right now. But they are good nonetheless.

34.

Reiko Kudo - Rice Field Silently Riping In The Night (2019)

(Dis)harmonious multi-instrumental live-recording’easque music with singing and (soft) noise.

33.

Michael Stearns - M'Ocean

Michael Stearns makes the most chill music in the universe. Except for maybe that one U.F.O. trip album that can be chill in the scary cold sense.

32.

Henryk Górecki - Kleines Requiem-Lerchenmusik

Classical album of the year. Górecki always delivers.

31.

VOIGHT KAMPFF - MORE HUMAN THAN HUMAN (2012)

Fast techno-trash metal band.

30.

Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble Of Shadows - Death And Flamingos (2019)

Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble Of Shadows is a band that will always have a special space in my heart. Their music got me through the most part of high school. The dark ambivalent songs. Yet, never forgetting the ironic twinkle in the eye.

29.

Earl Slick - Zig Zag (2003)

That edge of the seat feel of rock; next stage to come, just: SLICK.

28.

Kooba Tercu - Kharrub (2019)

You will be grateful I rec’d this jammin’ piece of fast jumping action of absurdity and happiness. :)

27.

Red Snapper - Making Bones (1998)

Trip Hop Album of The year. Seeing to what trip-hop releases there were around the time of this album’s release, I am so fucking surprised I had never heard of these before. They are just as brilliant as the all too famous Portishead, if not with an upper edge in a lot of cases.

26.

Supercar - Three Out Changes!! (1998)

Shoegaze of the year. Lovely. CHILL. Summer evening breathe’

25.

Anna Domino - East & West (1984)

Timeless synth-pop with rich textures of dreamy lyrics that ensnares you into a downtempo that.... goes up.

24.

Troy Gregory - XAVIERA (2018)

Monumental Prog.

23.

shit & shine - bad vibes (2018)

It is What it Says. Yeah I am on Acid’

22.

Datarock ‎- Face The Brutality (2018)

Norwegian indie masters. I love Datarock very, very much. I’ve listened to them since the 2007 release Red and I don’t know a band with as much coercive pop in each track. This album was a surprise find, since I was convinced they were out of the loop.

21.

HIZAKI grace project - Curse Of Virgo (2008)

Symphonic Metal. Hizaki is a master of the guitar. Such Riffs. If you need to drain your brain to metal and feel energized but still mesmerized, this is it.

20.

Institut Für Feinmotorik ‎- Abgegriffen (2011)

Coolest Experimental Band of the year. Go check them out on youtube. The making of the music here is truly an Experience.

19.

Deafkids ‎- Metaprogramação (2019)

D-beat, Raw Punk, Downtempo ... band from Volta Redonda, Rio De Janeiro - Brazil. NOISE.

18.

WipEout Omega Collection OST (2017)

The wipeout games are and will forever be my favorite way of anti-gravity racing. The music to Wipeout Omega Collection is as stellar as ever, a great list of electro and techno musicians.

17.

Hammer Bros. - Police Story (1997)

Imagine being at an underground hardcore noise rave party in 1997. Imagine the beat blasts. The speed. The energy. Just the grinding shouts, the beat, and you. Ready to dive. BURN. WATER. REPEAT.

16.

AFCGT ‎– Square Microphone Tapes

Noise rock galore. Glory. Wonderful. Gnarly. Intelligent. Different. Moody.

15.

Future Of The Left ‎– Human Death (2013)

Great leftist lyrics. Another one of RIk’s rec’s. Just Awesome. Good Music. Hate on capitalism and its endless bringer of deaths.

14.

Molchat Doma* ‎– Etazhi (2018)

Youtube rec of the year. Darkwave energies en masse!

13.

3.2 - The Rules Have Changed (2018)

The follow up to the infamous To The Power Of Three album from 1986 by Emerson, Lake and Berry. The first record was hated on by many, but I love it. And this very late follow up is a huge accomplishment and honoring to the late people involved. A record my dad would have liked. I just love prog music. Sigh.

12.

Saori Kobayashi - Terra Magica (2016)

Ethereal Game Music is not easy to make. Yet somehow, Saori manages it. No wonder really. She was behind Panzer Dragoon. Masterpiece album for what a tribute it is.

“Terra Magica is a love letter from Saori Kobayashi to her fans. Featuring the same rich, melodic tones that defined the iconic soundtracks of Panzer Dragoon Saga and Panzer Dragoon Orta, Kobayashi invites listeners to enter the world she has created, while encouraging them to create their very own story to match the progression of the music.“

11.

ENTROPY CREATED CONSCIOUSNESS - Impressions of the Morning Star (2018)

Symphonic Doom Metal of the year

10.

Sleaford Mods - Divide and Exit (2014)

Rec of the year by @planetsedge - Rik has served several discs on this list this year.

Mobile Suit Z Gundam BGM Collection (Vol.1 - Vol.3) (1985)

The title track to this animé, sung by Mami Ayukawa, and its subsequent soundtrack is probably one of the best I have heard. 80′s animé has the best soundtracks, mostly.

K2 - Iron Kulture 7' (1996)

Noise artist of the year.

Klaus Dinger + Japandorf (2013)

Surprise find of the year in the sense of knowing the artist in other bands (NEU! and Kraftwerk) but totally missing this somehow. Late late find. Total love. Electronic mists will seep into your ears listening to this.

Beak - >>>

Pop-like krautrock. Laid back, but with thought behind it. Allé Sauvage is my fave track. Just the perfect amount of mystery and rhythm and synths. First list find of the year.

The Muffs - Alert Today Alive Tomorrow

20 years ago The Muffs released this album, and I wish... the years had been kinder. This album helped me a lot though when I found it. A lot of nostalgia will arise listening to this.

Damned if you feel alright ~

BIG STICK - LP (2019)

EARWORM OF THE YEAR!!! Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co ButterCalamari Co Co Butttttttttttttttteeeeerrrrr.

In the bodega.

Jesca Hoop - Stonechild (2019)

Indie folk niceties. Chill, interesting blend of rock and singing elements. Not mystical, but still with mysteries. Got third place because I kept remembering it so much. It penetrated my skull.

Doji Morita - A Boy (1977)

This album was an early find and should be my album of the year. Morita’s voice is amongst the softest and kindest I have ever heard. And she has all the wonderful aesthetics to boot! Acoustics with accompanying strings and pianos in most of the tracks. It isn’t, because the N’1 is such an explosion of a surprise.

The third track, ふるえているネ (One who is trembling) is my favorite. I do tremble at the very thoughts expressed in this track. The bird wings at the end... yeah. Every track on this album is a masterpiece.

Music as pulling one’ s strings of the heart. That is what this album is about.

I will keep it at that with the words. No more has to be said. Just listen, you will understand.

Kagami - Star Arts (2002)

Explosive, Happy, Creative, Constantly Changing Originality.

Techno. Disco. TeSco.

Toshiyasu Kagami was a genius in his genre. I’ve heard a lot of techno mixes and textures in my life, but not anything like this before.

Each track slaps you in the head and forces you to the rhythm, only for you to go.... HMMMMMMMMmmmMmmMmMMmmMMM MMMMMMMMMMMMM when the flow enters its synergies of musical delight. What else is there to say when your ears are filled with such pleasant sounds. Just when you think it won’t change up, it will change up. Impossible to predict. Dancefloor killer. Intelligent Mixes.

No philosophical analysis, only my body moving to the most energetic beat EVER.

Concrete Masterpiece. My album of the year in 2019.

#Moi #Music #Top #Top Albums #Discovered #Albums #Personal

11 notes · View notes

ohtheseskaters · 6 years

Photo

Here’s Evegnia Medvedeva’s interview from here that I translated.

Zhenya, did you and your mom manage to find an apartment?

Yes, of course, online. How can you come to another country not having a place to live in?

So the owner of this apartment will meet you in the airport?

No, Jason Brown will. He’ll bring mom and I to our new home. And starting June 18th I have a detailed training schedule.

For almost 3 years you were competing and winning almost everything. Now you’re starting from scratch: new coach, new life circumstances, no clear point of how long will it take to adapt and what the result will be. Are you worried about possible losses?

You know, I’m a realist. I’ll be sad about my result when I realize that could’ve done better but didn’t do it. I can confess to myself in unpleasant things. If I realize that yes, it’s my limit and I cannot do better at the moment, then I say to myself I got the place I deserve.

I clearly understand now that a new life is starting for me now. I never lived abroad, was never trained by foreign coaches, never ate unusual food longer than 2-3 weeks. So everything’s changing, it’s a new page for me.

Is it scary?

No, I cannot wait for it. Honestly, right now I don’t even want to think I may lose to someone. I’m trying to look a couple of years ahead. First of all, it’s important to stay healthy. This is my main goal. But this goal shouldn’t interfere with the result – I need to find the right balance in exercise, nutrition, mental state, physical shape.

Before Pyeongchang your life was limited by ice rink borders – you either trained, slept, or prepared to train.

Yes, that’s how it was for all these years!

Now it’s obvious that you sort of let yourself go in a way some time ago. You had free time, you had an opportunity to try a new life and not come to the rink every day after leaving your coach. How did you feel about that new life?

I didn’t really let myself go. I opened my eyes and look around. Yes, I had the goal – the Olympics. I was working for it, only caring about competing there and nothing else. I basically had no friends, no interests even though I think if myself as a many-sided person. I didn’t meet new people, or didn’t keep in touch because of the lack of time and sometimes desire. There were just practices. But I guess something kept growing inside me.

This winter, when I was injured and couldn’t skate, I thought: will I finish my skating career not having friends, other skills personal life – anything? So when after the Olympics I opened my eyes, so to speak, my life changed, became fuller, like a stream that became a river. I got friends, a lot of new interests, even pre-requisites for a future change of profession that I might like or might change 150 times.

Can you say no to this life? Limit yourself again, train again, be motivated by a new goal? Do you even want to do it?

I do want to. I think I can leave absolutely everything behind for a goal. The main thing is to be realistic, don’t do anything that might hurt you or your family. I often think that my mom and grandma sacrificed a lot so I could fulfill myself as a skater. So if I feel I don’t meet their expectations… I don’t want to feel that.

So sometimes you feel guilty in regards to your family?

Very seldom. My parents are also realistic and they know the main thing is to keep working. No result – keep working. Good result? Great – keep working. But if I for some reason don’t perform my duties, then I feel guilty.

How long did it take to recover after the Olympics?

It’d been a long process. Actually my body and my mind allow me to recover quickly, but after the Olympics it took time. I can’t even say I mentally recovered by now.

I heard the version you wanted to go to Canada not to train and keep competing but to have new opportunities for performing in shows.

I’ll tell you a secret: I have no shortage of invitations to perform in shows.

Was Brian Orser your only candidature for a coach?

Yes.

Why him?

Because of Yu-na Kim. That was my first thought when I started thinking of switching coaches: Yu-na won the OGM at 19, and at 23 became 2nd in Sochi. At Beijing Olympics I’ll be 22. It’s not only about her, of course, Orser had a lot of athletes who competed at more than 1 OG and had long careers.

Are you bothered by the fact that Brian Orser accepted many new athletes this summer?

Not at all. All my life I’ve been growing and training with many rivals, so I’m not bothered. Besides, first of all, majority of Orser’s group is boys. And second of all, Orser has an individual approach to every skater, he talks about it himself. So he has time and attention for everybody. And I like to train among many top-level athletes, it can give me more than I had before.

How did you manage to keep in shape without a place to train [after the Olympics]?

The shape I had during the Olympics is impossible to maintain, and there’s no need to. I was pretty washed out at the OG – was preparing myself to peak in the LP. So I had the minimum weight and maximum morale. That’s why the recovery took a long time.

I gained weight but not much. I have an exerciser at home that helps me keep muscles in shape. As for a functional state, no athletes can maintain it without regular full-time training. That’s why I’m going to Canada.

Did Orser express any wishes [for a training process before coming to Canada]?

No. I think when we spoke in Korea he understood I’d be training due to my opportunities. If I have ice in Moscow – I’ll train on ice (I didn’t). Couple of hours before going to Japan for shows we got an opportunity to skate so I worked on some jumps. Been wanting to do it for a while.

Haven’t jumped for a while?

Yes. I felt very satisfied when they came back.

I always wanted to know, by the way: do you have time to think about something during the jump?

About everything! A thousand things come to mind. And I can see everything that’s going on around. I try to control everything.

Did you discuss new programs?

Not yet, I want to hear different opinions about it. Not just Brian’s, but Tracy Wilson’s, David Wilson’s who’ll be my choreographer.

Do you know them?

I know David, Tracy – not so much. I know their students much better – Yuzuru, Javi, Jason.

And what do you want yourself?

If we’re talking about the season, I’m not going to miss any starts. No open test skates in Russia, no GPs. I’d like to change my style – I changed as a person so I can’t stay the same on the ice. I view life and the world differently now.

I’m sure when I come to Canada everything in my head will be upside down again. I’d like to try a new image on ice. There are many I haven’t tried.

What jumps do you want to perform?

I have thoughts about it but don’t want to talk about it now.

In this regard you probably have to be ‘inspired’ by the new changes in rules that limit the number of jumps in the 2nd part of the program.

These changes became the base for my work, let’s say that. If we were told we had to do all jumps in the 2nd part of the program, I’d go and do it without saying a word.

Did you like all your competitive programs?

I loved my first senior program where I portrayed a deaf girl. I liked ‘Karenina’ very much. But that program I won my second Worlds with – I didn’t like it at all at first. Only by the end I got into it. I skated it well, I broke the world record with it, and I liked it as a tool that helps you to achieve what you want. But with ‘Karenina’ I was head over hills in love. Especially after those ‘January stars’ where there was only a nice dress [that first LP they scrapped]. I was all into ‘Karenina’.

Oksana Baiul’s coach once said if an athlete goes into the triple jump too much in character, he lands the jump on his back. Do what degree do you allow yourself to break character for elements?

“Karenina” allowed me not to do it. When I skated it at the Olympics, I just let my body do the work and stayed in character completely. I didn’t even try to interrupt myself or visualize like you sometimes do when you skate a LP in practice. I had a maddening inner freedom. If you only knew what was going through my mind when the step sequence started.

And what was that?

I was asking myself: ‘Do you realize it’s the Olympics? That millions of people are looking at you now (maybe even a billion)? And that if you do a smallest mistake now everything will go to hell?’ And I replied to myself: ‘Yeah, I get it’. ‘Is it cool?’ – ‘Yeah, it is. Let’s keep enjoying it’. And there was no pressure at all.

Did you ever ask yourself why almost all previous Olympic women champions didn’t want to or didn’t manage to go to the 2nd Oympics? Baiul, Lipinski, Sotnikova?

Most likely it’s because of fear of losing everything you’ve been working on for years. The desire to keep skating is always there, I think, it’s just you get an opportunity to try a new life and you get sucked in. Not everyone gets to understand that sport and normal life aren’t always combinable.

I knew a wrestler who after winning the OG at 23 retired, saying ‘I don’t want to miss my life while I practice’. Do you know this feeling?

No, I don’t. I had a normal childhood .I played games – not on the street but in the gym, but I had fun. I don’t think I’m missing my life now. I finished school, got into university.

When did you learn English?

I didn’t learn it purposefully; I just knew I didn’t have a choice.

What do you mean?

I saw athletes my age from other countries chat between competitions all the time, and I was thinking: I’d love to talk to you but I don’t know how. So I tried once, then I tried again.

During one trip I learnt 3 words, during the other – 5. Read somewhere on the internet how to build a phrase, learnt some slang. And didn’t even notice how I became able not just to speak but to give interviews. It’s not perfect, I sometimes stumble and sometimes use the grammar wrong. But I’m understood, and people understand me.

Is it difficult for you to admit you don’t know something?

Not at all! I don’t know many things, I can’t do many things. I’m not ashamed to admit it because it’s true.

How long can you stay without skating till it gets uncomfortable?

Not long at all. I can’t sit still, motionless – my muscles start to hurt and I even get physically uncomfortable. When you don’t skate for a while, you feel the same, your legs hurt. Also when I have a free day and have no ice, I get a headache! There’s probably something in the ice I can’t live without. Besides, it’s emotionally difficult for me to just stay in place.

How fast the skills get lost when you’re not practicing.

Very fast. You stop feeling the blades. You skate and it feels in your head like you’re doing everything automatically but your legs don’t cooperate with your brain. You want one thing but you end up in entirely different place. All the most ridiculous falls happened to me because of it.

Coming back to your move to Canada: you couldn’t not think about the funds your new life will require.

My mom was thinking about it. It was her task to think whether we’re ready for it.

And when your mom said you’re ready…

I realized it’s time to grab my skates and go to Canada.

Did anyone try to talk you out of it?

Honestly? Didn’t even try.

#link #ladies #evgenia medvedeva

585 notes · View notes

pharaohsparklefists · 6 years

Text

Episode 111, part II!!!1!1!!

(enjoy recaps? be a part of the magic by joining my patreon, it is literally the only reason these recaps are able to happen and it would be absolutely amazing to hit my next patreon goal!)

Kaiba fucks off to brood, leaving the Nerd Herd to deal with...

FIVE CORPORATE EXECUTIVES ALL WEARING THEIR FRIEND’S BODY AT ONCE LIKE A HORSE COSTUME (they get to take turns being the metaphorical “front half” of the horse)

And we get to watch ANOTHER DUEL wow

The member of the Big Five who “won” Honda’s body (while still losing the duel) is pissed off that these other, slightly more losery losers are here to share his loser-prize

This wouldn’t be happening if you hadn’t made such terrible choices in literally every aspect of your adult life to this point, just sayin

Yugi bows out to Yami, and Yami’s like, sure, whatever, I’ll fight you all, bring it

And then Jou is like WAIT A MINUTE

Jou: “Five on one??”

Big Five: “No we’re all just playing, like, as one person who keeps switching”

Jou: “Not fair, I’ll play too, then it’ll be five on TWO”

Big Five: “But then you’ll have two decks and two sets of lifepoints and we’ll only have one! If you each get 4000 LP, we should get 8000!”

Jou: “Fine!”

Yami: “Um Jounouchi? YOU’RE the handicap.”

Me:

Yami is actually pleased to duel with Jounouchi, because Yami possesses infinitely more patience than I do. Honestly, I wouldn’t duel these fuckers at ALL, but then I guess Honda would be sad...

otoh Honda is a grade-A creep, a grade-B idiot, and a grade-D cheerleader at best and how many cheerleaders do we really need for these CARD GAMES anyway....?

Actually Jounouchi is more or less on the same page as me re: Honda being barely worth saving, as he flashes back to the ahem ACTUAL PLOT and the person who’s in danger for reasons that are not her own stupid fault...

It makes total sense that Jou is thinking about Mai and I’m glad we’re making an effort to remember her, but god, splicing in the real, actually interesting plot in the middle of the Big Five bickering about their STUPID fucking virtual reality kidnapping jape just throws into sharp relief just how low-quality this filler arc is and how it’s really just coasting on the actually interesting shit from Kaiba’s backstory.

Just how low-quality am I talking?

BOOM knockoff Yami figurine and his Black Magician who IS the shape of a skinny, muscular man in a pointy hat but casts a shadow in the shape of an airplane wing for some reason

Jou chooses Flame Swordsman for his Deck Master, just to make doubly sure this rehash duel dueling the same fucking losers over again is as boringly same-y as possible.

What about the Big Five?

oooooooof course you will (seriously why did Yami and Jou agree to this??)

So (and sorrynotsorry I do not retain any of the Big Five’s names reliably) The Artist Formerly Known As Seamonkey Fashionmodel goes first and plays Big Fuckin Wave Floods The Whole Area field magic card

He also plays Legendary Fisherman and I can’t decide if I’m annoyed they just play cards we already know, which is BORING, or if I’m relieved the terminally uncreative writing team didn’t try coming up with new cards here, because they would definitely be half-assed to hell

Then...

Okay so Seamonkey Fashionmodel has like, half a personality trait (he sometimes, but not always, alludes to historical tactics, that’s like, barely a quirk). Penguinfucker has SO MANY quirks, but lest we forget, one of them is introducing everyone by full name and age!!!

And another one is SEXISM

THIS! IS! NOT! FUN! THIS! IS! NOT! FUNNY! THIS! IS! NOT! NECESSARY! I! AM! SO! FUCKING! TIRED! OF! FINDING! NEW! WAYS! TO! COMPLAIN! ABOUT! THE! CREEPTASTIC! AND! UNNECESSTACULAR! AND! SEXISTABULOUS! FOCUS! ON! TEENAGE! GIRLS’! BREASTS!

So this sexist creepy shithead is like “Now I will defeat YUGI MUTOU!!! and co I guess” and unexpectedly, Jounouchi snaps

... well he IS the King of Games and the reigning champion and shit, like, damn son, being overlooked is what you get for entering the same competitive sport as your incredibly gifted friend...

Jounouchi vows to defeat them, which Honda is very much in favour of. Shizuka has graciously granted him the ability to speak again (via the button on the back of his head that he never uses except accidentally?), but his speech is slipping...

This is pretty hilarious to me because they keep using “ooh” in the subtitles but actually the monkey noises he’s making are like “kiki” (Monkeys in Japanese are descibed as saying uki uki / ウキウキ or kiki / キキー)

Jounouchi draws Harpy Lady and Harpy’s Feather Duster and uses them to clear the field of the fucking entire ocean (look at how much water there is in that previous screenshot!!)

“Who knews that the professional duelist with the well-balanced deck would have such great cards?? These cards are way better than the random gambling cards I rely on! There’s probably a lesson here... Nah.”

Drunk on the heady overconfidence of a single decent move, Jounouchi lunges in for an attack on a face-down card

says YOU Mr Oh Look A Trap I Better Trigger It To Find Out What It Is

Sure enough, the face down card allows Penguinfucker to return Flood Everything Lol to his hand, and Jounouchi is suitably chastised...

Yami: “No fucking shit.”

Penguinfucker takes this opportunity to gloat and the writers take their own opportunity to underline that yes, Penguinfucker does know what age these teenagers are and does acknowledge that they are yet children, so all his creepery on the girls is 100% knowing. He says children like them...

idk buddy if you’re really such an intelligent adult how come you don’t have a physical form to inhabit that’s adulting 101 right there

Anyway, Yami isn’t having any of it...

whaaaaat

WHAAAAAAT

THE TENSION. SHE IS UNBELIEVABLE. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO BELIEVE HOW TENSE THIS CARD GAME IS. DO YOU KNOW WHY?? WHY DOES OTOGI BELIEVE THAT THE TENSION IS BEYOND BELIEF???

because no one has lost a single fucking life point yet.

#how long is this duel going to take?#goodness gracious #Yu-Gi-Oh!#sparklefists watches ygo #episode 111 #yami yugi #yami #Jounouchi Katsuya #Anzu Mazaki #shizuka #Ryugi Otogi #Hiroto Honda #robot honda #the big five

39 notes · View notes

ressarioth · 7 years

Text

@nakamatoo requested:

how about a modern Au of ereannie where annie's the delinquent badgirl and Eren is the normal classmate that is drawn to her and gradually gets close to her?

This completely got away from me and I ended up with more ideas for it than I could fit in. As such there's a lot left to be explored, but I needed to stop somewhere because at about 8.8k words this exceeded the maximum of anything I had in mind when opening requests. I'll leave certain things up for everyone's imagination/interpretation for now. I hope you enjoy it.

If Annie got one buck for every time someone looks at her with contempt she'd probably be able to ditch her part-time job and still help her father pay for their expenses. To everyone at school she's the girl that broke a senior's arm last year and that pretty much got her branded as the school's "bad girl". It doesn't matter that she was only defending herself — he was the popular student and excelled at playing the victim so she was the one that got suspended for a week. On top of that two of her teachers deliberately had her fail their classes so she's forced to repeat the grade. One additional year stuck in this hellhole.

Annie always had a feeling that growing up in a small town was the worst that could happen to someone who doesn't fit the social expectations of the people living there. But she learned early on that getting her father to move to a big city is an impossible task — he's a stubborn man who turned into more of a recluse as she grew older and now he won't even head to the grocery store anymore. So she has resigned herself to her fate of living in this place until she graduates. She likes to dream of moving away for university sometimes — though if she's being realistic she doesn't know if she can leave her father to his own devices in his condition.

Her only solace is the small record store in a back alley leading away from the main street where she works after school. It's a hub for all the outsiders who don't fall in line with the town's mentality — not that Annie would associate with them, she prefers to keep to herself. But there she doesn't have to bear anyone's scrutiny, if anything she sticks out for how plain she looks in her jeans and hoodie that aren't made to convey some kind of statement.

At first Annie earned some skeptical looks from the denizen's for how ordinary she looks compared to her co-workers. After a couple of weeks however she got accepted as the quiet girl who stands behind the counter during the afternoon and serves everyone without a smile. Nobody bothers her with small talk or asking if a specific LP is in stock and that serves her just right.

Well, usually nobody bothers her.

There are always exceptions to the rule and those exceptions tend to come in the form of one-time customers who get lost on their quest to buy new music. That's at least Annie's conclusions and she wouldn't mind these stray people if they didn't have a tendency to approach her with any questions they have just because she's sitting behind the register.

"Hey, I'm looking for a CD."

Without taking her eyes off the book she's reading, Annie notes: "CDs are right behind you. Vinyls and tapes are along the left wall — actually, it's the right wall for you."

"Okay, but I was thinking of something specific," the person insists — most likely a guy, judging by the voice, but she is learning not to assume these things.

Annie sighs at the persistence. "Then start looking or ask my boss who actually knows about stuff like this."

"And why can't you help me with this, since you're right here in front of me? Too busy reading your book?"

Giving up on trying to read the same two sentences a third time, Annie puts down her reading material and meets the pestering customer with a glare — only to be given pause from attempting to murder whoever is standing in front of her with her eyes. The face she finds herself looking at is familiar. The brown hair and the green eyes which are prominent compared to his tan skin belong to nobody else but her classmate: Eren Jaeger.

Annie's surprise seems nothing compared to his. She could have sworn he took a step back when recognising her and there's unease in his eyes. Whatever attitude he displayed before has drained out of him now. He comes off positively shy when he adds: "I mean, erm, could you help me please?"

This has got to be the worst situation Annie finds herself in since having to listen to the principal preach about how morally reprehensible it is to hurt another student. As if it wasn't bad enough that she has to bear with her new classmates during lessons, now one of them has to show up in this small store which has become her only refuge aside from her room.

Maintaining eye contact Annie explains: "Even if I were inclined to help you — which I'm not — I couldn't because I know jack shit about any of the music we sell here."

As she reaches for her book, she catches Eren giving her a puzzled look. "Then why do you work at a record store?"

"Because it pays money." Annie doesn't feel like having this conversation, but she still indulges him with an answer while she's flipping through the pages to find where she left off.

Eren leans in and lowers his voice to ask. "And what are they paying you to do here exactly?"

"To take your money from you, because these records aren't for free," Annie tells him, staring him down over the edge of her book. He backs away again.

"Oh," Eren notes, ever the intelligent remark on his lips. "I guess I'll come back once I found my CD."

Finally he gets it. Pleased, Annie returns her attention to her pastime and she was never as happy as she is now to read about someone getting stabbed.

When Eren returns to the counter he puts down a CD with a blonde woman wearing a crown and holding a bouquet on the cover. Annie only gives it a brief look as she picks it up to check the price. She doesn't bother reading the label as it wouldn't mean anything to her anyway.

"It's a present," Eren feels compelled to share.

"I didn't ask." Annie types the price into the register and announces: "5.50."

"Right…" Eren hands her the money and she goes through the motions of checking the value and giving out the change. Without any particular interest she watches as he slips the CD into his bag. Once he's done he looks at Annie again and it's like he's waiting for something. She stares back without a word until he averts his eyes and mumbles: "See you at school tomorrow."

Annie doesn't respond. She doesn't like how this is turning out. She doesn't want her school life and her work life to intersect, yet Eren acted friendly with her towards the end as if they somehow became buddies through this one encounter. He better not expect her to acknowledge him in school from now on or this could turn unpleasant for her. Trying to rid herself from this terrible thought she dives back into the horror and tragedy of her book.

As if to fulfil her fears, Eren approaches Annie during break the next day by dragging a free chair over to her table and slumping into it.

"So, Battle Royale," he says and looks at her expectantly as if she should know what he's talking about.

Annie blinks in her initial surprise and then glares at him like he's an unwanted alien. In a way he is, considering he's invading her personal space and trying to strike up a conversation when she has come to a silent agreement with everyone since joining the class that they will leave her the fuck alone. But not Eren, not anymore. She wonders if he's the kind of guy who would mistake a polite smile from a girl as an indicator of her having to be in love with him — which isn't the reason Annie doesn't walk around smiling at people but hopefully beneficial side-effect of it.

Still, the statement catches her off guard enough that she reflexively questions: "What?"

"The book you were reading yesterday," Eren explains. "I didn't catch a good look at the title so it took me a bit to figure it out. I thought about reading it as well, I've only seen the film so far."

The fact that he spent time thinking about anything remotely related to their encounter yesterday is concerning and Annie would rather not dwell on it. She shouldn't encourage the idea in his head that they're somehow on talking terms now. But maybe words are the necessary means it takes to convey how thoroughly unimpressed she is by him since he's proving himself resistant to any nonverbal cue to leave her be. "Oh, so you're one of the edgy kids who watches R rated movies even though you're not allowed to yet."

Eren gives an amused huff. "You're one to talk, the book can hardly be any better. I'd even wager it's more explicit. Or—" he leans in and lowers his voice as if he's sharing a secret and she wonders if that's a habit of his— "are you trying to say that visual depictions of violence are worse than any verbal description of it?"

Though Annie could argue the point she doesn't feel like it's worth it. At least he has the decency to retreat out of her personal space without having to be prompted, but she doesn't like the way he's grinning. To test his boundaries (and ideally unsettle him enough to leave her be) she notes: "It's stress relief, to keep me from doing the real thing."

Having a reputation as a delinquent has its benefits sometimes. There is a hint of unease crossing Eren's face — enough to make Annie almost rejoice in having succeeded. However he regains his composure faster than yesterday when she first met his gaze. Unfortunate.

"I never see you reading it at school though, don't bring it with you?" he comments as if she hadn't just revealed a willingness to commit murder. Maybe it was too much of a bluff even for her well known record. She decides not to dwell on it.

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Annie almost snorts. "You think I'd let any of the teachers catch me with that? They'd probably kick me out for real."

The moment Annie closes her mouth she knows that she said too much. That's not the kind of information she wanted to share with a classmate whom she's trying to get rid off. She's going to regret this.

"Huh…" Eren seems thoughtful and she braces herself. "I didn't think you cared."

Oh, Annie cares. If she wants to get a good enough job to support herself and her father, she's going to have to graduate from high school at the very least. But that's personal information, nothing meant for Eren's ears. She already told him more than she wanted to.

"What would I do with my life if it wasn't for this shit dump with self-important teachers and obnoxious classmates pestering me," Annie tries to distract from the truth with sarcasm. "It would be so boring."

"You always look like you're bored anyway."

They both pause. Annie could've easily dismissed the comment if it wasn't for that "always" sticking out like a neon coloured warning sign. It sounds like Eren has been paying attention to her even before their encounter yesterday. She doesn't know how to respond and the way he avoids her gaze fills her with the uneasy feeling that her suspicion is right.

"Anyway, I brought you something," Eren changes the topic and places his phone on the table in front of her.

Welcoming the distraction, Annie goes along with the prompt, though she gives the device a skeptical look. It seems he has the habit of dropping fragments of a conversation without giving a clue about the context. It's unnerving. "This better not be a setup to exchange numbers or I'll have to damage your property."

Eren stops rummaging in his pocket and looks at her with wide eyes. "What? No. I've never even heard of that one before."

"You'll have to pay me to get to use it then," Annie decrees. "Though I wouldn't recommend you try this on any girl."

"Didn't even cross my mind," Eren assures her and there's an air about him that she — for lack of a better word — would describe as innocent. It seems he isn't here to hit on her which would be one disaster averted. That still leaves her with the general issue of him trying to interact with her — and at this point she's afraid she let herself get roped in too far to pull out of the conversation. (How did he manage this? How did she let it happen?)

Finally Eren seems to have found what he was looking for, because he's producing a set of tangled up headphones from his pocket. As he's working on straightening out the cable, Annie furrows her brows together. "You…brought me your phone and a headset?"

"Music," Eren declares as he plugs in the headphones. "I brought you a song to listen to."

"Why?" The word is over Annie's lips as soon as it pops into her head.

"Because I like this song and—" He presents her with an earbud, but she doesn't move to take it from him. "Come on, what's the deal?"

Annie hesitates to answer. She never gave it much thought, but suddenly she feels a little uneasy to admit: "I don't really listen to music."

It's one of those things she knows must make her odd to her peers. She grew up in a home without media that has audio. There's no TV or stereo; the old laptop she owns is only meant for school assignments and it was hard enough to convince her father of its necessity. He has been sound sensitive for as long as she can remember, and it only got worse since his discharge from the military. He taught her how to fight and take care of herself, he even encouraged her reading, but music is something she never learned to enjoy.

"Oh, I see." Eren lets his hand sink and seems disappointed. "You…don't like it? At all?"

"I guess I never bothered to get into it." Because by the time she was old enough to maybe save up for a CD player, headphones and some CDs, it didn't seem worth the effort. The music she hears playing in stores or blasting from a passing car's open window is nothing but background noise to her. Besides, she wouldn't have known where to start anyway.

"Would you want to try changing that?" Eren sounds tentative as if he wants to avoid being pushy while still trying to convince her to do it. "At least give it a shot."

Annie holds back a sigh. This unwanted conversation has taken an unpredictable turn. At this point she feels like she should just get it over with and listen to his damn song. It's just a couple of minutes and then she can tell him that she isn't interested in any further audio samples and maybe he'll leave her alone for good. "Whatever."

"Okay…" To her surprise Eren puts away his phone, but if he misinterpreted her response as a no and can actually take it she isn't going to clear up the misunderstanding. "I'll have to give this some thought before I pick the songs to introduce you to first."

"What was that?" Now this sounds like the exact opposite of what Annie wanted.

Eren gives her a smile. "I can't start you off on just anything. What if you don't like it and then I get stressed and forget all the other good songs I could show you instead? I wouldn't want that to happen."

Annie wants to tell him him not to bother but she's speechless. He's getting carried away with the idea and his dedication is impressive as much as his persistence is annoying. She tries to think of a witty remark to shut him down, but maybe she's too hung up on wanting to be clever about it that she doesn't get to turn him down at all.

"Give me…a day or two and I should have a nice selection prepared for you," Eren announces and somehow that is what he finally takes as his cue to leave her to it — after the damage is already done.

Bewildered, Annie can only stare after him as he returns to his own seat. Crap.

Suggesting that it may take him two days must have been an attempt to seem casual, because Eren has a giddy air about him when he catches up with Annie during lunch break the next day. She hoped to avoid this by hiding away from him once the morning lessons end, but he seems to have just waited for this moment and his long legs give him an edge over her unless she wanted to make her escape attempt obvious and started running.

"Hey Annie, are you free?" Eren greets her, though it seems more of a formality because he answers his own question in her stead. "Well, from what I can tell you're always free during breaks."

Though he's right, Annie doesn't like the idea of him making assumptions about her. "Actually, I was just about to sneak off for a smoke in the girl's bathroom."

"Yeah, right." Eren snorts. "As if you'd be dumb enough to do that in the bathroom when there are more suitable places for it."

Damn, he's better than she thought.

Before Annie can come up with another story to put him off, Eren holds up his phone and announces: "I think I have a good selection from various genres for you to find at least one song you like."

Annie looks away, wondering how she got herself in this mess. Her eyes land on Mikasa who is standing next to the classroom door and glaring at her. Though they had some minor clashes during a few matches in PE lessons, she didn't think Mikasa's dislike for her was this bad. Though she's getting the feeling that it might be related to Eren talking to her. There are some rumours she couldn't avoid hearing about…

"Let's go," Eren declares, unaware of their witness and grabs Annie's hand.

She didn't expect him to be this forward so she gets dragged along for a couple of steps before she starts to resist. His strength and obliviousness make it difficult for her to slip her hand out of his grip, so when telling him to let her go doesn't do the trick, she decides to fall back on more drastic measures. Taking advantage of him having his guard down, she starts twisting his arm until he stops in his tracks and releases her hand.

"Ouch!" Eren rubs his arm and gives her a shocked look. "Damn, Annie, what was that for?"

"I told you to let me go," Annie informs him, unfazed by his pain.

He averts his eyes with a sigh, his hand coming to rest on his upper arm. "Sorry, I got carried away. I won't do it again."

That surprises Annie. She figured he'd be more standoffish and make an argument about how her measures were uncalled for, but he just accepts it. It's hard for her to tell if he has less backbone than she thought or if this is his way of acknowledging that he overstepped her boundaries. In case of the former she would be disappointed, in case of the latter she would be appeased and maybe a little impressed.

As it stands she doesn't know how to react so she considers to just walk away. Yet when she turns around debating her options, she realises they still can be seen from the classroom and Mikasa is now regarding her with open hostility. Suddenly she's looking forward to returning for afternoon classes even less than usual.

Heading back in that direction is out of the question now so Annie faces Eren and remarks: "Looks like your girlfriend officially hates me."

She makes it sound as if the thought didn't unsettle her at least a little. Mikasa may be a grade A student, but that doesn't mean she's beyond giving Annie a hard time. If her spikes are anything to go by she's a heavy hitter and Annie would prefer to avoid a confrontation.

"My what now?"

Not wanting to draw Eren's attention towards the classroom in a way that could be noticed, Annie decides it's simpler to just spell it out for him: "I mean Mikasa."

"She's my sister," Eren corrects and if the disgusted look on his face is anything to go by, he doesn't like her suggestion at all.

Annie doesn't drop the topic nor does she apologise. It may be petty of her, but she still hasn't given up on trying to get him to leave her be. If she makes him regret associating with her in the first place he might move on from this silly idea of getting her to listen to music. So what if it hurts him a little or she ends up offending him? It's a price she's willing to pay. "Didn't you hear the rumour about the two step siblings in our grade who are dating? It's all over the school."

Without waiting for a reply, Annie starts walking. At this point she doesn't care she's walking in the same direction in which Eren originally dragged her and that it might come off as if she's complying with his plans. She doesn't want to give people anymore reason to stare than they already are, she doesn't want to make a scene out of this. If she's moving the odds of someone listening in are at least lower.

Once again, Eren has no difficulty catching up with her. While matching her pace with ease, he clarifies: "First, Mikasa is adopted; second, I didn't think you'd care about stuff like that."

"If I had my way I never would've heard about it, trust me, but it's hard to blend out when Hitch is gossiping in the seat next to me."

The fact that he doesn't outright deny it is curious to Annie and yet she doesn't comment on it. Something about dredging up this whole rumour business doesn't sit right with her and the longer it stays a topic the less willing she is to use it for her agenda to get rid of him.

"Still your choice if you believe everything you hear," Eren points out and he has her there. The thing is that she doesn't believe it — she knows better than to buy into unfounded gossip making its rounds. He could leave it at that and she would drop the topic, because she feels bad already for bringing it up, but it he has to up the ante. "I, for my part, don't believe that Willy Tybur was just minding his own business when you decided to break his arm."

That's it, the nail in her coffin, Annie lost this fight. No one doubted Willy's statement and all her father wanted to know about the matter was how she handled herself. As if her using the skills he taught her to defend herself was all that mattered, as if it was irrelevant that she shouldn't have needed to defend herself in the first place. Yet here is Eren, a boy she's been in a class with for maybe three weeks who is turning out to be obnoxiously persistent about talking to her and didn't even know her at the time — and despite the official account of the incident he doubts that she acted without good cause.

Annie doesn't know how to respond. A lump is forming in her throat. It reminds her of all the reprimanding and stigma she endured in silence to appear as if it didn't matter to her and now there's someone who believes in her. She isn't used to such kindness, yet breaking out of her stoic character now might have greater consequences than she can anticipate — she won't risk it. She's bearing a heavy burden and she didn't ask for help, so she can offer no gratitude.

"Why does Mikasa cling to you then?" To distract herself from her inner turmoil, Annie brings up a question that fits the topic at hand. The way Mikasa sticks around Eren whenever possible was was one of the first things she noticed while observing her new classmates. It struck her as unusual and she couldn't help but wonder about it.

"She's protective," Eren admits. "She lost her parents in a horrible way and— It's complicated."

That's not the kind of explanation Annie would have expected — it's not much of an explanation at all — but she isn't going to pry. Her individual issues with Mikasa aside, this sounds like the kind of personal matter she has neither a right to know about nor is it her place to judge. Eren already told her more than he should have.

"Alright," Annie offers and with that the topic is done for good.

There's a sense of awkwardness in the silence that unfolds between them — or maybe Annie is just imagining things. She let herself get dragged into a verbal exchange with Eren thrice by now and it feels weird when there is nothing to say. She can hurl cutting or abrasive remarks at him, but when she doesn't have that she realises she doesn't know how to be around him.

As they're strolling across the schoolyard Annie finds herself scanning it for a quiet spot where they can listen to music without getting disturbed. She resigned herself to that fate somewhere between trying to get rid of him and backing off on the topic of Mikasa. Eren is one step ahead of her however, because he guides her around a few corners to one of the most remote areas of the school grounds. The irony of cigarette buds being scattered on the ground from the students who are daring enough to come here for a smoke isn't lost on her.

"Do you really smoke?" Eren asks as he brushes off one of the benches standing around — a symbolic gesture considering that the wood is showing the first signs of decay and small patches of moss are growing here and there. Having little concern about dirtying her pants, Annie follows suit as he takes a seat.

"No," she answers honestly. "But I have an image to maintain."

"What? You like being considered a delinquent?"

"It keeps people away which suits me just fine." That's only half the truth but she told him too much already.

"It doesn't suit you, you're far too sincere for it," Eren notes as he's pulling his phone out of his pocket and places it on his thigh.

Annie doesn't like how he acts as if he knows her. "You sure have a high opinion of me for no fucking reason."

"I wouldn't say it's for no reason," he counters while trying to untangle the cable of his headphones. The annoyed glare she shoots him is lost on him.

"Keep telling yourself that if you want but don't blame me if you end up disappointed," she notes in a dismissive tone, doing her best to hold in her anger. She hates it when people act like they have her all figured out — especially if it's after such a short time. To distract from the feelings swelling inside of her she changes the topic. "Now what about that music? We don't have all day."

"Here you go." Eren presents Annie with one earbud and a smile. She nearly rips it out of his hand and then berates herself for it because it infringes on the impassive facade she's trying to project.

Considering how rarely Annie slips up like that, the frequency of it happened over the past three days is concerning. The suspicion is forming in the back of her head that it has something to do with Eren specifically, but she's pushing it aside for now. She cannot afford to start pondering the effect he may have on her while she's with him. Terrible timing.

Luckily for her, Eren is eager to jump into things. He starts out with something mellow Annie is sure she heard in passing before, but soon dives into the guitar heavier sounds once he's made sure that she doesn't mind it. Out of a sense of pride, she's reserved about giving feedback, but she finds herself liking the music far more than she would have expected.

Before each track Eren gives a little introduction for it by sharing something about the artist, the release, or what he likes about it. Annie isn't particularly interested in all the exposition and the artist and song names don't stick with her, but she finds herself listening to him regardless. It gives the whole thing a bit of a personal touch and she can appreciate that (though she would never admit it).

Yet after a few songs Eren still hasn't mentioned the track that started this all. Annie expected him to bring it up by now, so she asks: "What about the song you wanted to show me the other day?"

"Oh that." Eren begins navigating the music player on his phone. "It's something I discovered recently. Just figured I'd give you some time before we got to it."

"Don't hold back now, you brought it up so you're obliged to show me."

"Alright, I'll play it to you."

Eren seems to have found it, because his thumb comes to a rest. However he doesn't press start yet, since he doesn't like talking over the music — that much Annie has picked up on by now. "The song is called Breaking The Habit and is originally by the band Linkin Park, but I wanted to show you the cover version by Affiance; I found it's good to vent some frustration."

Once again Annie doesn't point out that she's going to keep exactly none of those names, but just waits quietly for him to play the song. As the music sets in she realises that this is the most personal thing he shared with her up until now, not because of the track in particular — she wouldn't go as far as to read anything into the lyrics — but because he hinted at having the need to release some negative feelings.

They way she sees him interact with others and smile a lot, Annie considered him to be carefree and easygoing with his temperament sometimes getting the better of him. Yet she may have misjudged the difficulty of his life. She doesn't show her troubles to the world either, maybe they have just different ways of hiding these things.

Annie makes a mental note of it and focuses on the song. From what she can tell, the lyrics tend to be as important to Eren as the music itself, though she hasn't quite figured out the pattern yet. As she listens to words being sung she isn't sure how close they hit home for him. But in general she can see what he meant about the track being good for venting frustration. She wonders what else there is to him which she would never have suspected until hearing him talk about his favourite music.

Once her curiosity is woken, Annie finds herself willing to spend more time with Eren. It becomes a habit for him to approach her with new tracks to listen to and for her to go along with it. He will tell her about how or when he discovered it and she will take it all in — it's part of the ritual. When she likes a song in particular she will let him know and he will introduce her to more of the same artist. That's how they end up listening to most of the discography of Arctic Monkeys and Foals (both names she commits to memory due to the increased exposure).

As far as Annie is concerned, things can stay like this. She finds herself enjoying the company more than she initially thought, but there's also no forced commitment or pressure for her to lay herself bare. Most of the time they talk about music and whatever else comes up is only as personal as she allows it to become. She doesn't have to talk about her father and how she feels so stuck in this hellhole of a town. Neither does Eren share much beyond little anecdotes related to some songs and though she is intrigued to see more of what's beneath the surface it isn't like her to pry.

But a couple of weeks into their arrangement, Eren changes up the game by inviting Annie over to his home. He says he bought a new CD he wants to play to her and though he cannot give her a proper answer to why he doesn't just load it onto his phone like all the other music he shares with her, she ends up agreeing. She isn't sure why she did and she has two whole days to ponder it. By the time Eren picks her up after work the next Friday she still doesn't have her answer however.

The area Eren lives in seems less cramped than Annie's neighbourhood, the two story houses lining the road creating a different atmosphere from the rundown tenement blocks she is used to. When she realises that his family seems to be able to afford their own house a sense of intimidation creeps up on her. It's like she doesn't belong in a place where families might interact in a different way from what she's used to from her father. She isn't prepared. What if Eren's parents are the type that want to meet whomever he brings home with him? It didn't occur to Annie before so she didn't ask, but now she's getting worried and a little nervous.

While Eren digs for the key in his bag, Annie remains a few feet away from the door. As if he could guess her concerns, Eren looks over his shoulder and notes: "I don't think anyone's home. Mikasa should be at therapy and my dad is abroad."

"What about your mum?" Annie asks and strolls closer. Knowing that she doesn't risk running into Eren's adoptive sister is already a load off her chest since she's still on Mikasa's bad side.

Eren has found his keys and unlocks the door. "Hasn't been around in years."

The way he says it Annie isn't sure if his mother is dead or just left them. She doesn't dare to ask. "Oh. I'm sorry."

"Yeah...don't worry about it," Eren tells her as he pushes the door open. Though he's facing away from her, she catches a glimpse of the grimace on his face as he turns on the light inside. By the time he steps back and holds the door open, he has already caught himself however and gives her a smile. "So anyway, we've got the whole place to ourselves."

Following a spontaneous inspiration, Annie tilts her head at him. "Isn't that when all the indecent stuff happens?"

"What?" Eren looks perplexed, either because he doesn't catch her drift or because what she's suggesting never occurred to him.

As she walks up to the door she suppresses a smile. "At least that's what my grandma always told me."

"Well, I don't know about your grandma, but I think you can handle yourself either way," he comments and lets her cross the threshold and walk past him into the hallway.

"And here I was worried you didn't get what I meant."

"Of course I got what you meant, but— it was never my intention—" Eren shuts the door and turns towards her. He seems a little flustered. "Did you...expect it to turn out like that?"

The idea seems to have thrown him off balance and Annie feels a little sorry she brought it up. But his reaction is way more amusing than expected and she cannot hold in a soft laugh. "I was just teasing, no need to stumble all over your words."

Eren stares at her, dumbstruck. It makes Annie worry that she may have crossed a line or something. Becoming unsure about her joke and also a little self-conscious from being blatantly looked at, she prompts him: "What?"

"You...laughed."

"Yeah, so?"

"It's just—" Eren shakes his head as if he has to pull himself out of a stupor— "I've never seen you do that."

"And you'll never see it again if you're gonna make such a big deal out of it."

"Sorry. It was just...unexpected. And nice."

"Will you shut up already?" Annie glares at him.

Though he looks as if he's about to say more, Eren closes his mouth and complies. He moves past her through the hallway — which is smaller than Annie would have guessed from the outside — and gets onto the stairs, signalling her to follow him. Since he doesn't take off his shoes or jacket, she doesn't bother either though it makes her feel rude.

As she walks after Eren down the hallway of the second floor, Annie notices all but one door standing open. It seems odd to her, considering that it's almost winter. Her father is strict about keeping all doors in the flat closed so the warmth from the rooms won't escape into the cold hallway and drive up the bills. But maybe Eren's family is rich enough to not worry about saving heating costs.

Eren's room is at the end of the hallway and looks like something that Annie would describe as organised chaos: worn clothes are piling up on a chair, messily folded laundry takes up most of the space on a small couch, and the shelves are cluttered with things she doesn't bother to identify. It's like everything has its place but isn't put there in an orderly fashion.

"You can sit on the bed," Eren offers and throws his coat on top of the chair that's already overflowing with clothes. He holds out his hand in her direction and Annie takes it as her cue to slip out of her own jacket and hand it over to him. As expected he puts it on top of the pile.

Not used to wearing street shoes in the bedroom and thus feeling bad about it, Annie takes off her sneakers and leaves them standing at the foot of the bed. Once again she notices Eren's eyes on her and she shoots him a dark look to make him stop.

"You've got better manners than you let on," Eren points out, though he still averts his gaze.

Annie leaves it uncommented. By now she knows she cannot stop him from taking in her supposedly good qualities. It's like he made it his task to take note whenever she does something that doesn't fit into her image as a delinquent. She has given up on trying to contradict him.

As suggested, Annie sits down on the bed and waits for Eren to turn on the stereo — because of course he has one of those — and put in the CD.

"I discovered this band recently and they make really nice music," he explains and picks up the remote control from the shelf. Then he takes off his boots and leaves them lying on the floor by his desk before he comes over to the bed and lets himself drop onto the mattress beside her. Only then does he bother to press play as if it was impossible for him to do all those little things while the first song was already on.

Annie is a little surprised that this is all the introduction she gets. After all Eren had her come over to his place just to listen to it — she expected things to be a little grander. But as the first tunes can be heard she realises that maybe this isn't the kind of music that needs a lot of exposition. It's mellow and relaxing and seems to speak for itself.

Beside her, Eren has draped his arm over his eyes as if covering his own field of vision helped him hear better. It occurs to Annie that this is the first time they're hanging out together that he isn't paying her at least some degree of attention. For once it's her who gets to have a closer look at him.

Annie lies down next to him, because the music sounds like it's best enjoyed that way and because it allows her to better take Eren in. The upper half of his face is hidden from her view by his hand, but what she can make out of his features appears unusually soft. It's different from when his lips curve upwards in a smile or he frowns when deep in thought. Instead it's almost as if he's asleep and leaving himself completely unguarded.

It feels strange and intimate. Annie isn't sure whether Eren would be bothered if he noticed she was watching him or whether he wouldn't care. Yet she cannot shake the thought that she's being intrusive simply because she wouldn't want anyone to look at her like this either. So she averts her eyes and tries to focus on the music.

Judging by the lyrics, the first few tracks could be considered love songs, though maybe not in the typical sense. The word "love" isn't dropped once, but Annie knows there are other ways to get the message across. She isn't sure how she feels about the topic, but the sound sure sets the mood for lying on the bed in a dimly lit room while it's dark outside. She just wishes she wasn't hyper-aware of Eren's presence, because for some reasons it's putting her on edge.

"This is the first single," Eren notes at the beginning of the fourth track and Annie is surprised that he would talk over the music. "I heard it on the radio and then decided to buy the whole album."

When Annie rolls onto her side to better look at him, she finds that he has taken his hand from his eyes and is facing her. She thinks she should pay particular attention to this song since Eren commented on it, but she cannot. There's a question that was forming inside of her mind ever since he asked her to come to his house and it has only become more pressing since she arrived. "Why did you ask me to come over for this."

"I don't know." Eren shrugs, the movement a little obstructed from lying on his back. "You know those stories from the last century where the characters listen to LPs together in a bedroom? I kinda wanted to do that for once."

Annie is familiar with the concept, she came across it in a book or two. Still, it feels like such a random reason to her — she doesn't know if she should be disappointed or relieved. After all it means that he could have asked anyone and this isn't about her. She isn't anyone special to him and she doesn't understand why a part of her wanted to be when attachment is something she always dreaded because of the expectations tied to it. Talk about being illogical.

"Besides," Eren adds, "I wanted us to discover something together."

There's a dull feeling in her stomach and for a moment Annie's brain blanks. The part of her that wanted this to have some kind of meaning rejoices, the rest of her seems to sink into some kind of muted panic. She isn't sure what to make of this — and less so of her reaction. It's uncharacteristic for her.

On the outside she continues to uphold the calm front, though she cannot take her eyes off of Eren. She wonders if her staring is becoming obvious, though he's holding her gaze just as consequently. It's like they entered some kind of contest: whoever is the first to look away loses.

"You're strange," Annie notes to dispel the tension she feels rising inside of her. "I don't know what to make of you."

That last part got away from her without her wanting to say it. It seems like too much of an admission and she's glad when Eren doesn't address it.

"Strange, huh?" A thoughtful expression spreads across his face and his eyes trail away from her. "Never had anyone call me that before."

For the second time tonight Annie worries that she crossed a line. Words can be hurtful and she's far from the best person when it comes to using them. But while in general she doesn't care how what she says affects other people, this time she does. With Eren it's different in so many ways — because she spent time with him and he turned out to have way more to offer than a few obnoxious comments — so she wants to apologise, but for some reason her tongue is tied.

"Still, it might be closer to the truth than anything else people concluded about me," Eren muses and Annie knows even less what to say now. Is he hurt or is he unaffected — she cannot figure it out.

Eren rolls onto his side and now they're face to face, less than an arm length apart. He seems so much closer than before. "Why did you choose to be on the outside, Annie?"

"What?" The question came out of the blue, leaving Annie perplexed. She cannot tell what he's getting at.

"I'm hanging out with people and fit in just fine, they think I'm just like them but—" Eren breaks off and his eyes fall onto pattern on the duvet which he starts tracing with his finger. "Something always feels a little off, like I'm just a bit out of sync with the world around me. There's so much I don't share, because I think that they won't get it. Not even Mikasa gets it and we're supposed to be in this together."

Annie looks at him, stunned. There is the revelation she has been waiting for, a part of Eren that she was curious about peeking through the cracks of his carefree facade. It's not what she expected — though she didn't know what to expect at all — and now that it's coming out into the open, she isn't sure how to respond. There's definitely some context she's missing, but it feels too intrusive to ask.

"I'm just wondering if you made the better decision by staying on the sidelines," Eren continues and looks over to her again, his eyes drawing her in like they're emitting some kind of magnetic force. "I'm wondering if it's more honest."

"It's not," Annie retorts and rolls onto her back. She needs to break away from the pull she feels towards him. "What I'm doing isn't about honesty."

"But maybe about being true to yourself."

"You're making assumptions again."

"That's all you're leaving me with, because you show so little of yourself."

"That's the idea." Annie sits up. She is tired of lying around and her hair is bothering her, so she undoes the bun on the back of her head to retie it.

"There ain't no way to know me…," Eren mumbles and she doesn't want to give him the pleasure of responding. But she also wants to know what he's on about, so she shoots him a questioning look as she brushes through blonde tresses with her fingers. "It's a line from a Mando Diao song. You reminded me of it."

"Mando...Diao? What does that mean?" Annie questions, glossing over the fact that he just hit the nail on the head with a hammer and got so close to driving it in.

"It doesn't mean anything, just some made up words from a dream of one of the band members I think." Eren pushes himself up into a sitting position. He sounds tired all of a sudden — or maybe resigned. "I'll play them to you another time, you might like them."

Annie finishes tying up her hair and regards him for a while, the way he's hunched over and leaves his shoulders hanging. "Are you disappointed?"

"No?" Eren drags out the word, but that only makes it less convincing. "I get it, there are things about yourself you don't want others to see — a lot of things. I have that, too. I just thought...we were going in a direction where we could maybe open up to each other a little.

"So you are disappointed."

"Maybe a little?"

Annie sighs. This is what she's been fearing and — up until now — successfully avoiding. She should have known better than to let it come this far. She should have said no when Eren invited her over — even sooner, she should never have let Eren playing music to her become a habit. Yet didn't she, too, grow curious about him the way he's interested in her?

She got her wish — whether she wants to admit it or not — but she's aware that it takes two to build mutual trust. How can she expect Eren to open up when she isn't willing to do the same? She knows it and yet— The reality of revealing these parts of herself that she kept well hidden for so long is frightening.

"It's...not so simple," Annie admits and pulls her legs closer.

"I know." Eren ruffles his hair. "Sorry for pressuring you. ...I guess I just want us to be friends."

Friends. Annie never thought of them along the lines of that term. But then again she didn't think much about the type of relationship they were building and it's coming back to bite her. She tries to instigate a compromise without having to commit too much. "We're hanging out, isn't that what friends do?"

"I mean real friends," Eren clarifies. "The kind that share personal things with each other like—"

He breaks off, appearing to draw a blank when trying to think of an example, so Annie does him the courtesy of filling in: "...like how we feel that we don't really fit in with everyone else."

"For example," Eren confirms. When Annie doesn't respond he adds more tentatively: "We can take it slow."

There's a lot Annie wants to say, like how she doesn't know if she's cut out for forming friendships and how to her the concept of it is filled with so much pressure. It was easier when they were just listening to music without trying to put a label on it. As much as she's growing to like Eren, that's the part that has her worried the most. There's a lot she wants to say, but the words don't make it to her mouth. She doesn't know if it's concern over how he might take it or something else she cannot quite pinpoint.

"And next time I come on too strong you get to punch me," Eren offers and it chases away some of the tension that has taken hold of her. The idea is quite amusing, she even lets a rare smile spread on her lips.

"You know I could hand your ass to you."

"I don't doubt that." Eren chuckles and then holds out his hand to her. "Friends?"

Annie considers his outstretched hand, working to overcome her doubts. When she wraps her fingers around it she still leaves herself some leeway in the agreement by saying: "We'll see how it goes."

Apparently pleased with the outcome, Eren gives a smile and releases his grip. He uses his hands and feet to push himself backwards on the mattress until his back is leaning against the wall. "Seems like we got distracted from the music."

It's true, Annie has no idea for how many songs they talked or how any of them sounded. She regrets having missed out on them, because the beginning of the album sounded really nice, so she decides to do something about it. Leaning over Eren's cocked up legs, she grabs the remote from the pillow and settles down beside him, her back comfortably supported by the wall.

"Guess we have to backtrack a little bit," she suggests and starts pressing the back button in search for the last song she paid attention to.

"Are you sure you have that much time left?" Eren questions with concern.

Annie peeks at her watch and determines that it's 8 o'clock — enough time to wrap this upon even if they listen to the whole CD from the start. "Relax. I have to be home at 10, so we still have one and a half hours, that's plenty."

#nakamatoo #writing requests #annie leonhardt #eren yeager #ereannie #ereani #shingeki no kyojin #annie x eren #writing tag #text heavy #profanity #-i wrote this in the course of a week while also working on the kuroizu request and i think i need a little break-#-one request left after this *cracks knuckles*-#-also i was undecided about which country to set it in so i was as vague as possible about it haha-#-this better show up in the tags unlike the last post *squints at tumblr*-

47 notes · View notes

spamzineglasgow · 4 years

Text

(HOT TAKE) Notes on a Conditional Form by The 1975, part 2

In the second instalment of a two part HOT TAKE (read part one here) on The 1975′s latest LP, Notes on a Conditional Form (Dirty Hit, 2020), Scott Morrison ponders the tricksterish art of writing about music, before riffing on the history of the album as form, questions around genre, nostalgia and a sense of the contemporary, not to mention that saxophone solo and why Stravinsky would love this album.

Dear Maria,

> How pleasant it feels to begin a review with a note to a friend.

> Shoutout/cc:/@FrankO’Hara – I always liked his idea to write a poem like it’s addressed to just one other person. It strikes me as interesting to begin a piece of criticism in the same way. So, this is the mode I will try to inhabit throughout.

> As I read your words, and pondered, and learned, I was caught in the twin state of delighting each time you hit upon something already identified in my own thoughts – some of which I will expand upon here - and equally delighted every time you wrote something I could or would not. Such is the joy of conversation.

> I suppose in this preamble between speakers, which keeps up the pretence of our characters conversing - which will, inevitably, lapse as the form of this review gives way to a longer, more oneiristic, probably, onanistic, possibly, enquiry into the album (an act impossible in real conversation, by the way, imagine, imagine someone actually speaking for this long, how boring and alienating that would be, and yet that is usually what criticism is). Anyway, before all that, to help set the scene, I should mention a few ‘real world’ details. All of which happened either online, of course, or in isolation, because that, as you mention, is the real world now, during the violent interlude of Covid-19.

> I was delighted – that word again, repetitions and patterns begin anew already – to be asked to write this review. Firstly, because, like you say, I am a fan of The 1975. But also, because I am a writer and I am a musician and I am trying just now to forge a new mode of writing about music, one that can be both analytical (technically, socially, historically) and expressive (personally, lyrically, emotionally). And, most of all because I have always been, at best, suspicious, and, at worst, dismissive, of album reviews.

> I wrote, in our Messenger chat, ‘I usually find music reviews unhelpful’, which makes me sound like a bit of a dick, really. But what I meant is, what I meant is.

> There’s a saying I think about a lot, as the aforementioned writer and musician who writes about music: ‘writing about music is like dancing about architecture’ (Martin Mull, Frank Zappa, or Elvis Costello, or any of the other people that sharp quote is blurrily misattributed to.)

> Incidentally, I would love to see a dance about architecture. But sometimes I think the sentiment of the statement is true. Will writing about music always be missing the point? Will it, through words, ever really be able to get to the essentially wordless essence of music? But I am a writer. And I am a musician. And I like writing about music. (Incidentally, I like making music about writing less). Yet I do feel there is some truth to the saying, I guess. Twists and turns. Try again. Here is another way of saying what I am trying to say.

> Music reviews make me hate adjectives. And I love adjectives. But often commercial reviews – for dozens of reasons, many of them valid, most of them related to that capital prefix – become attempts to describe a sound, invariably an artist’s ‘new sound’, again related to that capital prefix. Often, the goal is to generate press, to entice people to listen – or not – and so feed the music industry and the market. And to describe these new sounds, adjectives are piled-up like car crashes. Trying to describe a sound at any great length is, I think, ultimately fated to fail. Adjectives, up to a point, can provide greater and ever-more strident clarity. But, after a certain point – that appears very quickly in most pop reviews - saturation point is reached, and the clarity disappears, and we are left very far away from the music we were originally trying to pile word upon word to reach. ‘Nothing Revealed / Everything Denied’, you might say, if you were into foreshadowing. Which I am (obviously).

> So, I suppose, to continue thinking out loud (in silence, at my keyboard) I am interested in writing around music. Not describing the sounds (‘Let sounds be themselves’, says John Cage, whispering in my memory’s ear), but I am interested in writing that can tease out some of the ideas in and around the music and extend them in new directions. That, I think, is a different and interesting kind of dance worth attempting.

> We understand a review, then, as this kind of dance: as a record of the reviewer’s experience of listening to a record, which will accept that it will largely take as its subject the listening, and not the record. Even better if it’s a dialogue between two. So, here’s what I think about the album.

> Ok, before I talk about the album, actually, I would like to talk about a book. I hope that’s alright. There is no objective correlation between the album and the book except the proximity in time in which I experienced them. Let’s get that out of the way at the very beginning. The book has nothing to do with the album. But it does have something to do with how I heard it.

> The book is called An Experiment with Time. I mentioned this to you once already over Zoom. It was written in 1927. My copy belonged to my grandfather, in fact, and his writing – and so his pen and then his hand and then his whole vanished being – appeared occasionally at marginal or pivotal points throughout the text. That was part of what I liked about it, I guess.

> The book – which I allowed Wikipedia to tell me only after I had pushed my way through it – is regarded as an imaginative curiosity, but one which science has never taken seriously. That’s fine for me, because I am far more familiar, fluid and fluent in the language and implications of the imagination that I am of science.

> The book, broadly in two halves, sets out in its first strange span experiences of premonitions in dreams. That will give you the idea of the kind of science book it is. The second half is an attempt at a logical, philosophical, and occasionally mathematical explanation of Time that can account for these premonitory fissures.

> It posits that, in addition to the three dimensions of space (height, breadth and depth, I suppose), that time is a fourth dimension in our universe. I’ve heard that said, but I never really got it before. I do now, and it is very beautiful, because it begins to make me imagine, how, like a sculptor, I can ply, fold and shape with this new dimension. You can imagine how this might be useful to a musician, music being an art that can only exist through time.

> Anyway, the book then goes on to posit that a fourth dimension in which something can be observed to travel (our consciousness), must necessarily imply an observer in a fifth dimension to observe that travel, and then one in a sixth dimension, and so on, ad inifitum, infinite regress, serial time.

> I confess this somewhat surpassed the boundaries of my metaphysics (and/or silently slipped over my head), but the image of the infinite regress has stayed with me, the clickanddrag of old Windows windows ossified and pulled to leave twisting, spiralling trails; the gold-tipped rhythm of tenement window embrasures, repeating, far off, clickanddragged up a hill (hints and twists of Escher), on my daily walks.

> Wikipedia later told me that an infinite regress is a shaky ground on which to base a philosophical proof. Again, this is fine for me: I am a bad philosopher, because I am not competitive, and so this does not bother me very much.

> The infinite regress is a beautiful image, with lots of possibility in it for further imaginings, and it entrances me. So, keep this idea of serial observers and the limitless extension it implies close, please (foreshadowing again, you’re welcome).

> I will switch now, briefly, too briefly, from critic to fanboy (I contain multitudes, etc.).

> Notes on a Conditional Form as an album title made me smile a smile that was very close to a wince or wink. Classic Matty, was probably the thought that came next. You have already summarised dastardly, dear, endearing, calamitous Matty, so I will move on assuming that, Matty Healy, yeah, I know.

> Back to the critic. The conditional form, in this review has already been (drumroll, eyeroll) music reviews themselves. See part one.

> Now I would like to take the album as the form in question – not this album, but albums generally, as this album is an exploration of the album form. The Album, capitalised.

> Albums have become normalised. But let’s play dumb for a moment – one of the cleverest things we can do - and we’ll see that albums are anything but inevitable, especially in the boundless age of streaming.

> Before this, albums used to be defined as collections with physical bounds. The capacity of a CD; before that, a length of magnetic tape; before that, the edge of a vinyl, a shellac, a wax cylinder. That about takes us back to the start of recorded audio media, I think.

> After Edison’s initial, waxy curiosities, albums began - like most things we love and hate - as a product. The form of the album was a circle. The music was a line. The edge of the line was the end of time. Marcel Duchamp’s Rotoreliefs, as a fun aside. And, as another, did you know that there’s a funny B-plot in all of this to do with Beethoven. (It’s always to do with fucking Beethoven.) Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony became the arbitrary marker for the desired length of the CD. It had never before been possible to fit the symphony onto a single, uninterrupted piece of media. And so, the B-plot goes, this is why the standard CD holds the amount of time that it does.

> Anyway, regardless of who shaped them, physical recorded media have, since their staggered births, profoundly shaped culture. Pop songs, especially singles, are still 3 and a half minutes long because that was the maximum amount of time that could be squeezed onto a 78, in the shellac days. Time was short and simple then, seemingly.

> Notes on a Conditional Form is 81 minutes long. It had 8 singles leading up to it, released over a span of ten months. Clearly, physical boundaries and marketing timelines, are not being treated in the usual way. You could just release singles forever now. But the fact this ended up as an album shows some belief in the concept beyond the physical and, yes, the commercial. Let’s press on, look elsewhere.

> Since we’ve started talking about classical music – ok, since I started talking about classical music – I’d like to dwell there for a moment, because there are foreshadows of The Album, conceptually speaking (and this album specifically) several layers up, several parenthesis ago, criticism as serial digression, in classical music.

> Collecting songs as albums was a favourite pastime of the Romantics, early emos. @FranzSchubert, @ClaraSchumann, @JohannesBrahms – there’s another B-plot in that trio if you want to look it up, by the way. Also, Clara Schumann is overlooked, like all female composers, because the classical music world is deeply patriarchal. It’s important to say that whenever we can.

> Anyway, the Romantics did not develop the album as a physical form – the only available recording medium at that time was sheet music, which they did sell in a big way, actually. But really, they helped develop the album as a conceptual form. They collected a group of shorter songs to make a larger statement – Schubert especially. In the 19th century, this was known as a song cycle, a lovely phrase, that makes me think of cycling through meadows, which I have done more than usual recently, as part of my state-sanctioned exercises, though the meadow was in fact an overgrown golf course, and no less lovely for it.

> Schubert’s Die Winterreise is a classic example of the song cycle – and another example of the emo-Romantic - a cycle of poems set to music that take the listener on a journey over time. Sound familiar? Albums. Song cycles. Song spokes. Meadows. Grasses and wildflowers. Meandering journeys.

> Anyway, here we finally return to Notes on a Conditional Form. Collecting songs together allows for an exploration of ideas that can evolve or expand over time – a Brief Inquiry, you might say. Art as a tool of investigation. Process. And this album certainly does that. You already touched on some of the ideas in the album: the climate crisis, the Anthropocene, digital communication, social unrest, calls to action, my favourite lyric on that theme, while we’re here:

Wake up, wake up, wake up, we are appalling

And we need to stop just watching shit in bed

And I know it sounds boring and we like things that are funny

But we need to get this in our fucking heads-

> You explore these ideas well so I will not pursue them more for now. Thank you!

> The other effect of collecting songs – or anything together – is that it gives birth to form. (Gasp, he said the title of the movie!)

> Yes, collecting things together as an album is what creates the form in all senses of the word – physical, commercial, conceptual. Form, pure form, is not the things, or the arrangement of the things, but the relationship between the arranged things. Glimpsing this is like getting a delicious glimpse of time as a fourth dimension. As I may have already let slip, I am very interested in time. And so, I am naturally interested in musical forms, which can only be apprehended through time, with time, thanks to time – thank you, time. We don’t often say that.

> This is where I will, at last - god, imagine I had been speaking at you this whole time - this is where I will at last get into the main topic of this review. The remarkable form of this album.

> Wait, sorry, one more thing before I do. A really quick one. As well as time, musical form also needs contrast. For sections to appear as distinct, and thus for us to clearly apprehend the difference between them, and thus get a glimpse of Form, they must contrast with one another, for how else would we apprehend change, notice borders, know we are somewhere else. (An interesting digression here is process music, which I love dearly, and which has an entirely different relationship with form. Look it up, if you like.)

> Anyway, for our purposes now, musical form requires contrast. This could be achieved in many ways: traditionally, it was done with different melodies or harmonies; but it could be done with volume, instrumentation, tempo, texture etc. etc.

> The main way that this album delineates its striking – and, to my mind, for what it’s worth, unique and new – form, how it creates its contrast, is using all of the above tricks, but, even more so, by contrasting styles/genres. This was immediately what struck me and thrilled me about this album, and it’s kind of funny – for me as the annoying writer, perhaps less so for you, the reader, I mean listener – that it’s taken me 2,534 words to mention it. This I think is the brilliance of this record. This is why we can call it not just contemporary, but new.

> The 1975 have always been shifting, but never like this. This album contains, sometimes literally right next to each other: punk, orchestral music, UK garage, Americana, shoegaze, folk, dancehall, 80s power ballads – and, of course, pop, whatever that means. Stravinsky became famous for sharp juxtapositions of distinct musical blocks. He would fucking love this.

> I messaged you, after my first listen, to say that the album reminded me of one of Sophia Coppola’s soundtracks. That was an instinctive, emotional response, but, having thought about it, I can now demonstrate the reason for the similarity. The stylistically varied end products are similar to one another because the methodology is similar: soundtracks select music practically to achieve emotional affects. Soundtrack albums use music as a tool to heighten ideas that lie elsewhere, in their case, in the filmed scenes they accompany. If you believe Matty Healy, this is also what The 1975 do. They use beauty, in whatever style or genre they find it:

‘Beauty is the sharpest tool that we have - if you want someone to pay attention, make it beautiful’.

> What do you make of that, @Keats? No, really, I would love to know.

> I think this is a remarkable musical strategy, that requires flexibility, knowledge and skill. That there is such a high level of all these things in the band is what allows it the strategy to be successful.

> I would like to pause here and consider the implications of this strategy on a personal, social and cultural level.

> Musical genre and personal identity have been as fused for as long as pop music has existed. This could be a trick of the market, or it could be a need of the individual psyche, or both. I think there is some truth in theory that in the increasingly widespread absence of God – by which I mean organised religion – people need to find both a guide for their metaphysics and morals, and a structure for their community, as these are some of the most effective tools we have discovered for constructing our Selves, making sense of our lives and the world. Art can provide the guide for many people. It also provides community. These communities, collections – albums? - of political, moral and aesthetic views, then become subcultures.

> Until very recently, subcultures were fixed. ‘Hardcore till I die’, ageing ravers, old punks. Interestingly one never really sees ageing emos. But that’s a subject for another essay.

> This, I think, is perhaps what is so striking here: musical genres are normally culminations (or roots, depending on how you look at it) of lived sub or counter cultures. These usually result from a fixed viewpoint about life and society, shared by the individuals that comprise them. The individuals identify with what the music says, how it is presented and how it looks as much – or perhaps even more - than how it sounds.

> Before now, it would have been shocking to imagine a band switching effortlessly from one style to another – this occasionally happens over the course of a career, between albums, but almost never in the same album itself - because it would feel like a betrayal, if we accept that bands and styles represent fixed ways of life and viewpoints and that neither lives nor viewpoints can change. Which, obviously they can. And which, obviously, they do, nowadays, with increasing speed, @Coronavirus.

> Matty’s appearance is a perfect demonstration of this. Minging Matty, Hearthrob Matty, Matty in vintage jeans, in a skirt, in a pinstripe suit. If we accept the old association of musical style/subculture and the clothing/uniform each produces, what would the ideal garb of a The 1975 listener be? A screen. A real, working search engine, fused with their body.

> Previously, the model was that bands had ‘influences’ which they ‘blended’ to create a ‘new’ sound. Here, The 1975 don’t really focus on blending sounds at the level of individual songs: the blend, boldly, happens at the level of the album. If the album is like a soundtrack, it is the soundtrack to the algorithmic age of effortless consumption of media.

> And I would like an examination of that idea to be the final track on this album. I mean, review. I mean conversation.

> The 1975 are inseparable from recorded media. Not just their own, but recorded media from the past. They are not able to invoke and inhabit this startling panoply of styles, to my knowledge, because they have studied in individual places or with masters of each craft or tradition – they are able to do it because they, like us, are able to consume recordings of these styles, and they, like us, have done so all their lives.

> When The 1975 invoke these styles, they are not evoking a tradition, or a way of doing things, or even seeing things. They are invoking personal memories of experiencing recordings, encountering media. We can take a look at a few examples of this.

> Let’s start with the classical stuff. The orchestral interludes do not sound like they are written by classical composers, or even composers of film soundtracks - the use of orchestration is different. It sounds, to my ear, like acoustic instruments playing what were originally MIDI parts. Which, I imagine, is what happened. That would usually be called bad orchestration. I am not interested in saying that. I am slightly interested in the effect of getting classical musicians, with their classical training, to play music written by people without classical training on a computer. What are the implications of writing for the flute as a soundfont, rather than a person, instrument or tradition?

> And what is the significance of placing an orchestra, playing instrumental compositions, on a pop record. These are not backing arrangements in an existing pop song, as we commonly encounter; nor are they classical arrangements of a pop song (see Hacienda Classical et al).

> These are standalone orchestral compositions on a record that also includes shoegaze, UK garage, two-step, Americana, punk. What, then, is the significance of this? The instruments, I believe, are being chosen less for their own sonic timbres, and more for their social or cultural timbres. I will try to explain this thought.

> Matty has often spoken about ‘Disneyfication’; he said he wanted ‘The Man Who Married a Robot / Love Theme’ on A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships to sound like a Disney movie. What does that mean? It means, I think, he wants it to sound like old movies, childhood, nostalgia. The orchestra is a sinecure for the ‘symphonic’, the cinematic, the dramatic; the orchestra is used like a banjo, which is, elsewhere on the album, used to conjure the exoticism of Americana as heard by someone listening to it in the UK, to paraphrase Matty’s words.

> The stylistic references in the album are as much references to media as much as they are to music. Disney: orchestral sounds, likely filtered and wobbled through VHS cassettes. The orchestra, already made symbolic by its association with movies, made a double symbol, a reflection of a shadow, being invoked through the original sound not really for this sound but for our associations with it. The banjo invoked as both an instrument of yesteryear and over there. The music constructs frames of otherness to facilitate wistfulness, longing, memory.

> The chart success of ‘If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)’ is that it’s a modern bop that sounds like 80s bangers. Its artistic success is that it contrasts the feeling of halcyon safety created by its imitation of 80s bangers (experienced for millennials usually as triumphant climaxes in movies, jubilant moments on oldies stations), and rubs this up against some of the disturbing parts of the present: the angst of online relationships, nudity with people you don’t know and have not and may never meet. This is a simple but highly effective juxtaposition.

> ‘Bagsy Not In Net’ does this too: a quotidian, painful experience of childhood (not wanting to play in goal in a football game), expressed as a yearning and grand orchestral statement. This is true, too, of ‘Streaming’. This is pop music Pop Art: the contemporary quotidian expressed in the language of an old tradition and invested with the significance of an Art it simultaneously questions the power and validity of.

> And, to linger on ‘If You’re Too Shy’ for just a little longer, what is the meaning of a saxophone solo in pop music in 2020? It is symbolic: a shortcut, practically a meme. Saxophone solos exist in a present in contemporary jazz - they are a living history making new futures. But saxophone solos almost always only exist in pop music as ghosts (careless whispers) of the past. This particular sax solo is so euphoric to us less because of its musical content and more because of the emotions we have learned to associate with sax solos through other media.

> The final, most perfect example of this, of everything I have been getting at, really, is the UK garage references. These are themselves references to artists like The Streets, and Burial, who, themselves, were referencing the primary records of UK garage which they (The Streets and Burial) never experienced in clubs, but as recordings. And The 1975 experienced these recordings of recordings. Layers and layers of reference. And here, abruptly, we find ourselves back at the opening image of the infinite regress.

> At times, this album wants to express the present moment back at itself, and so prompt reflection and action. The fright of the zeitgeist. In this we can include Greta Thunberg, ‘People’, and the overtly socio-political statements on the album. I hope these tracks will be successful. In the future, they will take on the significance of historic artefacts: preserved truths from a vanished time, fixed and rich, like amber.

> But there are long swathes of the album, that do not have this intent, and which will, I believe, have a different longevity. These are the (often wordless) lyrical sections: the abstract, the vague, the instrumental sections – in all senses of the word. Records of the individual imagination listening to another individual imagination listening to another individual imagination. What will these tracks become in time, in Time?

> There is something ethereally delicious about the thought of people in the future coming across people in the past’s nostalgia of another past, now three links distant to their present, compoundly insubstantial, glittering, compelling. Fifth, sixth, seventh dimensions - serial nostalgias.

Notes on a Conditional Form is out now and available to order.

Text: Scott Morrison

Published: 26/6/20

#review #reviews #album review #music criticism #music review #Scott Morrison #The 1975 #Maria Sledmere #Matty Healy

0 notes

musicmapglobal · 7 years

Text

Mikala

Born in Copenhagen with a mixed Danish and Italian background, Mikala is the latest exciting pop/soul practitioner to emerge from the Nordics. With a sound that radiates pure sunshine, Mikala’s first two singles both hit the sweet spot between slinky R&B and beat-driven pop.

We decided to get in at the ground floor and find out a bit more about Mikala’s story. She was kind enough to tell us about growing up with gospel, getting inspiration from Italy, and finding the best places to chill in Copenhagen. Read on…

MusicMap: What sort of music were you exposed to when you were growing up?

Mikala: My dad is a guitarist, so growing up I was always exposed to so much different music. Whether it was live or different records in the house, or just my dad playing at home. But a very heavy influence growing up was definitely the Beatles, all the greatest guitar players such as B.B King, Lee Ritenour, Jimi Hendrix etc., but my dad had this huge collection of LP’s that I would dive into and get lost in. That’s where I found my first and biggest inspirations like: Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Micheal Jackson, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin etc.

I could probably go on forever about the different types of music I was exposed to as a kid. I remember when I was about 7 or 8 years old and I was on tour with my dad. He was playing with this gospel singer from America, Bob Bailey, and that was the first time I was ever exposed to gospel music. I still credit him for really sparking my passion for singing. I started singing in a gospel choir later that year and ever since gospel has been a huge influence for me as a singer and in my music as well.

When did you start making your own music and what was it like?

I think the first song I ever wrote was when I was about 9 years. I was reading this bedtime story to my brother and started singing the words and wrote a lullaby for him. My dad came in the room and put some chords to it. He actually took me to the studio and had me record it. I still have the CD somewhere…

But I think it was about 13-14 years old when I started really getting into poetry and writing a lot. When I started getting more serious on the piano and guitar I started recording in my room by myself. I had this old microphone and just recorded straight into the laptop and taught myself the basics on GarageBand. I was always extremely hard on myself and would never let anyone hear anything for a long time, but I am very grateful now, cause that was my time to practice and better my skills as a songwriter and actually grow into being an artist.

What equipment do you use now?

Now I am lucky to have one of the best producers and sound engineers, David Mørup, that I work very closely with, so fortunately I don’t have to think that much about the equipment that we use. I’d rather focus on the creative part, but I do know we use a Telefunken 251e, which I know Michael Jackson also used to record with.

Where would be the perfect place to listen to your music?

I think the answer to that question is up to whoever’s listening to it and what song they’re listening to, but I hope to make music that fits different occasions and situations in life. On your way to your job, at a house party, while doing laundry, crying over a breakup etc.

What fuels your creativity?

As a creative person I think that can actually vary a lot from time to time, depending on the state of mind / where you are in life at that time, but mostly I think it’s the need to reflect what you see and feel in life through music. And subconsciously there’s probably also a part of the ego that fuels my creativity and makes me strive to always better myself.

I also hope to make the people that listen to my music feel the way I felt when I heard certain songs that I really connected and related to. I think it’s one of the most beautiful and important parts of making music, to actually be able to move the people that are listening and make a connection or maybe even a difference that way.

What do you think the future of music is going to be like?

I think certain areas of music are definitely moving towards a more organic approach. If you look at some really big albums that were released this last year from artists like Solange, Chance the Rapper, Anderson.Paak, Beyoncé and Adele, the sound of real instruments and just well written songs and a more eclectic collection of songs is something that I think is more and more acceptable. Especially because genres are being fused more and more. Maybe that is just me hoping and wishing for that, but I think a lot of listeners are ready for something they can feel more.

Does your local area influence the music you make?

The answer to that would definitely be no haha. I live in Denmark and most of the time the weather here is really really depressing. To find inspiration or to be influenced by my surroundings I travel. I love to go and visit my family in Italy where the nature is amazing. That inspires me! The beautiful scenery there is breathtaking. I am really influenced by different cultures, great weather and nature too. I think travelling, meeting new people and being exposed to different environments, languages and cultures are actually some of the things that spark my creativity the most.

Your heritage is Danish/Italian, are there any artists from those countries you’d consider a musical influence, past and/or present?

A really big influence actually is an Italian artist called Pino Daniele. He was one of the biggest singer/songwriters in Italy. He was from Naples and the music from there is very interesting and inspiring to me. It’s a blend of the traditional music from Naples, but he also has some blues and Arabic influences in some of his songs. Medina and Non Calpestare i Fiori Nel Deserto are two albums that were major soundtracks to my childhood. When I first started writing songs in my room by myself I actually wrote some songs in Italian. Laura Pausini was also one of my favourite pop singers when I was a kid.

youtube

What are the top things you’d suggest visitors to Copenhagen should go and see/do?

First off I would definitely make sure they were coming in spring or summer and experience the long summer nights we have, where the sun almost never sets and it’s pretty much light all summer long. The Red Square and that area on Nørrebro is really cool %%%, there’s a really big blend of different cultures and a lot of different restaurants. Christiania is obviously a big tourist attraction and is really pretty and chill in spring and summer time.

But generally I think Copenhagen is just a really cool city to walk around and chill in especially in summer. The sunny days are rare in Denmark, so whenever the sun is out all squares, parks and cafes are always flooded with people just hanging out enjoying the sun, especially during festivals like Distortion and the Jazz Festival. Distortion is a three-day street party with stages in three different parts of the city, blocking major streets and it’s pretty much the biggest and most fun outdoor party of the year. That’s when I love Copenhagen the most.

Why do you think Scandinavians have been so successful when it comes to modern pop music?

I think especially in Sweden, there is a really great culture of well crafted songwriting. If you look at examples like ABBA and Max Martin the thing they have in common is excellent songwriting, which most people respond to. Same goes for Lukas Graham and Mø who’s the only one from Denmark who’s been able to achieve that kind of success overseas. I think there is a unique sound that most Scandinavian artists have that can seem ‘exotic’ or interesting to a lot of people. Also there is a certain mystery when it comes to Scandinavia.

What’s the biggest challenge facing musicians in Denmark right now?

I think the challenge is probably the same as it’s always been. The fact that Denmark is a small country makes it harder to get noticed out in the world. Of course we’ve had amazing ambassadors like Mø and Lukas Graham, opening doors and putting Denmark on the map for the rest of the world to see, but it’s up to the ones following to bring something new and of quality. I would love to see even more variety and diversity in Danish artists making it in the rest of world. Also to break the stereotypes of how a Danish/Scandinavian artist sounds and looks like.

What are the best music venues and record shops in Copenhagen?

Vega is for sure one of my favourite venues. It’s not too big and not too small. I think that’s a venue most upcoming artists from Denmark would like to perform at. When it comes to more intimate shows and live music I really love Jazz House and Operaen at Christiania. They have a really nice intimate atmosphere and are venues that have been there forever in Copenhagen.

Another thing I love in the summer is going to the different festivals. There’s a festival called Green Concert, it lasts two weekends and tours the biggest cities in the country. The last one is always in a big park in Copenhagen, it’s for sure one of my favourites!

Where in the world would you most like to perform?

The dream would be to perform pretty much everywhere around the world, but I think a big one would be Madison Square Garden and for some reason I have always thought the Colosseum in Rome would be a really magical place to perform. Another weird dream of mine would be to perform in the small town where my family lives in Italy.

What’s your favourite album of all time?

This is probably the hardest question to answer ever!!! It’s pretty much impossible for me to only pick one album. I’m gonna cheat and put my top 3. Which are the 3 albums that have probably influenced me the most and that I’ve listened the most to:

Abbey Road – The Beatles, Songs in the Key of Life – Stevie Wonder, History – Michael Jackson.

What’s your favourite track of 2017 so far?

This one was really really hard for me. Most of the music that I’ve really been loving was released last year, but I think I’m gonna have to give it up for one of my really good friends who’s in my music family too, Mattis. His first single ‘Loverboy’ is for sure a really exciting sound for the future of pop in Denmark.

#anderson paak #Beyoncé #Chance the Rapper #Copenhagen #David Mørup #Denmark #gospel #italy #Laura Pausini #Lukas Graham #Mattis #max martin #michael jackson #Mikala #Mø #Pino Daniele #pop #R&B #Solange

0 notes