#old school sampler

[mcmansionhell]

2007-core nostalgia extravaganza

Quick PSA: someone on Facebook is apparently impersonating me using an account called "McMansion Hell 2.0" -- If you see it, please report! Thanks!

Howdy folks! I hope if you were born between 1995 and 2001 you're ready for some indelible pre-recession vibes because I think this entire house, including the photos have not been touched since that time.

This Wake County, NC house, built in 2007, currently boasts a price tag of 1.7 million smackaroos. Its buxom 4 bedrooms and 4.5 baths brings the total size to a completely reasonable and not at all housing-bubble-spurred 5,000 square feet.

I know everyone (at least on TikTok) thinks 2007 and goes immediately to the Tuscan theming trend that was super popular at the time (along with lots of other pseudo-euro looks, e.g. "french country" "tudor" etc). In reality, a lot of decor wasn't particularly themed at all but more "transitional" which is to say, neither contemporary nor super traditional. This can be pulled off (in fact, it's where the old-school Joanna Gaines excelled) but it's usually, well, bland. Overwhelmingly neutral. Still, these interiors stir up fond memories of the last few months before mommy was on the phone with the bank crying.

I think I've seen these red/navy/beige rugs in literally every mid-2000s time capsule house. I want to know where they came from first and how they came to be everywhere. My mom got one from Kirkland's Home back in the day. I guess the 2010s equivalent would be those fake distressed overdyed rugs.

I hate the kitchen bench trend. Literally the most uncomfortable seating imaginable for the house's most sociable room. You are not at a 19th century soda fountain!!! You are a salesforce employee in Ohio!!!

You could take every window treatment in this house and create a sampler. A field guide to dust traps.

Before I demanded privacy, my parents had a completely beige spare bedroom. Truly random stuff on the walls. An oversized Monet poster they should have kept tbh. Also putting the rug on the beige carpet here is diabolical.

FYI the term "Global Village Coffeehouse" originates with the design historian Evan Collins whose work with the Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute!!!!

This photo smells like a Yankee Candle.

Ok, now onto the last usable photo in the set:

No but WHY is the house a different COLOR??????? WHAT?????

Alright, I hope you enjoyed this special trip down memory lane! Happy (American) Labor Day Weekend! (Don't forget that labor is entitled to all it creates!)

If you like this post and want more like it, support McMansion Hell on Patreon for as little as $1/month for access to great bonus content including a discord server, extra posts, and livestreams.

Not into recurring payments? Try the tip jar! Student loans just started back up!

[petermorwood]

Once there was a bookshop.

Its name was "Dark They Were And Golden Eyed", the title of a Ray Bradbury short story.

I'd seen it advertised in the back of my "Conan The Barbarian" comics, black-and-white UK reprints of the US originals which came out on the same day - Thursday, I think - as a two-hour first period history lesson (9AM-11AM).

So I bought my weekly Conan on the way to school as a pleasant back-of-the-class distraction from such A-Level delights as "Metternich and the Congress of Vienna" or "Bismarck and the origins of the Franco-Prussian War" or "Causes and Consequences of the French Revolution".

I was getting into fantasy at that time because British publishers were bringing it out like there was no tomorrow - Robert E. Howard "Conan" stories from Sphere, Clark Ashton Smith "Zothique" stories from Panther, and the Michael Moorcock book-of-the-month club from Mayflower.

Dark They Were was a sort of holy grail, because London wasn’t exactly round the corner or even a mere long train ride away as Dublin might have been, and my parents weren't willing to let me make a trip like that all alone. (I also suspect Dad had checked a map and found that Dark They Were was in the heart of Soho, a place with Other Kinds Of Bookshop.)

*****

I finally went to London after getting A-levels good enough for Uni, despite my History result not being what it might have been (no idea how that happened). :-P

Dad was right about the Other Kinds Of Bookshop, a couple of which I duly investigated and found to be educational, although not in the way intended. Even though the places I ate and drank and the books and records I bought on that same trip are long forgotten, I can still remember it.

Despite having at least my usual allowance of critical-faculty-blunting late teen hormones, the shops outweighed it with their air of furtive sleaze, like the carpet in a seedy bar that sticks to your shoes - except this was an all-body experience. They certainly filled me with desire, but that desire was for a long, hot shower.

So much for the main attraction of late-'70s Soho...

*****

Far more attractive was my discovery, just a short walk round the corner from DTW, of 58 Dean Street Records, which specialised in soundtrack albums.

I'd been buying soundtrack LPs for years, so what with DTW and 58, I was well laden on my way home, and none of those purchases needed hidden from the parents, either... :->

Despite that, Forever People in Bristol was an even more important SF bookshop, at least to me. For one thing it was easier to reach, less than an hour away when visiting an old school friend who at that time lived in Cardiff.

For another thing, I'd become a keen fan of fantasy anthologies, which were like samplers or tasting menus for different writers - you could call them selection boxes,and Irish / UK readers will know what I mean by that.

FP was where I found imports like Offutt's "Swords Against Darkness" series and DAW's "Year's Best Fantasy" series. I'd already got the first two in Carter's "Flashing Swords" series as UK imprints...

...so the instant I saw the US-import Number 5 I nabbed it.

A bit later, back in Belfast, I found a novel by one of those writers in Queen’s University Bookshop.

It was set in the same world as the short story and though the cover was, er, a less than accurate summation of the contents, those contents made for a fascinating read.

I met that writer twice, at SF conventions in 1985.

Then at a couple more in 1986.

After that came Boskone in 1987...

And the rest is history.

(Pedantic writer note: this has two typos. There's no apostrophe on Authors' - unless it's short for Authors Have A Wedding and I doubt that - and there's an extra O where I don't need it, a first but far from last instance of having my name misspelled in print...)

Happy soon-to-be-38th Anniversary, loved!

[candyfloss-kittens]

22 years….

I've known of the trio for… as long as I can remember, given my dad would watch them way back when they were still on Top Gear. I don't know when Top Gear first aired on TV in New Zealand, I guess when the show first started to get popular world wide? I don't know…. Though, I do have some very vague recollections of seeing news reports about Hammond's big crash back in 2006 when I was 8, but I really don't know. I might've just heard of it back then, not necessarily seen anything about it.

Now, while I had watched bits of Top Gear over the years, and back in primary school, I'd tend to hang more around boys at school rather than girls (I do recall at one point with the desk layouts I was the only girl in one group alongside five other boys), and if I recall correctly, a lot of them would talk about Top Gear. I think I might've even watched some of Top Gear with one of my closest childhood friends many years ago, we might've even watched the Botswana special together when it first aired in NZ, though I genuinely can't remember if that actually happened or not (my memory is… not great). But given me and him did do a lot of things together, and we were both interested in most of the same things, it's possible (I've not seen that old friend in years now, though. Last I heard, he's got three kids…).

I do remember back in 2015 hearing about Jeremy essentially being fired from the BBC, and James and Richard leaving alongside him. Though, I cannot remember what my thoughts on that while situation was, given I at the time I didn't care about them.

It wasn't until late 2021 that I actually started getting into Clarkson, Hammond, and May. I think right as the Grand Tour's Carnage A Trois released. Pretty sure it was a result of some YouTube compilation of the trio popping up on my YouTube feed. At like 1:30am in the morning after i had gotten home from working night shift at my previous job at a mussel factory (that has unfortunately, and frustratingly, now closed down). How, when I've never been interested in cars at all, I have no idea. Then I started mostly just watching YouTube compilation videos of them after work before getting to bed. Then, I had ended up finding a copy of one of the sampler DVDs that came with the Top Gear magazines, the Supercars one, at one of the op shops near me for $2. I kind of just… fell head first into the trio after that. Buying every book and DVD of theirs that I could find, which was a lot easier than I had thought. Found many of my TG books and DVDs at the op shops near me (still had to get a few online, though, because some weren't easy to find, like May's Cars of the People).

Then at one point, I got curious about if there was fanfic written about them. I'm no stranger to rpf fanfic, so while I was surprised to find that there is, I sort of expected there to be? Because if it exists, there's bound to be fanfic for it. What was a surprise though, is just how into writing fanfic of the trio I got. Especially considering at the time I was trying to move away from writing rpf. So, thanks for that, guys.

I still find myself curious whether or not the guys know that there's fanfic about them, and what their thoughts are on it, though. I'd like to think that they just don't give a fuck, because surely if they had a problem with it (if they're aware of it), then they would've said something about it by now.

So… yeah. Known of them since forever, but never really cared much for them until late 2021 at 23. And now in 2024, at 26, I'm still very much into them, despite not really caring about cars (with the exception of collecting die-cast cars, and putting together model kit cars). I don't even have my driver's license.

While I definitely got into the fandom late, it's been very fun. And in terms of my Ao3 fics for the trio, I still have many more ideas to come, so even though the Grand Tour has now ended, I'm not going to be stopping writing fic for them anytime soon. And definitely won't stop me from finishing off my collection of all their books and DVDs they've released over the years.

[verse-osmo]

Can you name these Cartoon characters?

Them old school cartoons tho 🙌🏽💎🔥👑

#reloopdj #reloopspin #scratchdj #akaimpc #boombapbeats #lofihiphop #makingbeats #90shiphop #turntable #vinylrecord #rolandsp #sampler #beatmachine #drummachine #howtomakebeats #oldcartoons #oldschoolhiphop #hiphopculture

[scotianostra]

On December 5th 2015 the Scottish author William McIlvanney died in Glasgow.

Born in Kilmarnock on November 25th 1936 McIlvanney went to the town’s Academy and then on to Glasgow University, studying English, he went on to teach at Greenwood Academy in his native Ayrshire where he rose to the position of assistant head before leaving to take up full time writing.

His first novel, Remedy is None, won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in 1966 and his follow up A Gift from Nessus also won an award, although both were recognised and well received neither was a commercial success. After a long gap Docherty was published in 1977 the gritty story of a miner in the depression it again won a prize, The Whitbread Novel Award but still the job in the school paid the bills.

My favourite genre is the detective novel and it wasn’t until McIlvanney wrote about a Glasgow cop called Laidlaw that the tide was to turn, it was a hit in the best sellers and won him a fourth writers reward, Silver Daggers from the Crime Writers’ Association. By now he had given up teaching but it wasn’t until 1983 that he followed up with the second in the trilogy The Papers of Tony Veitch which repeated the success of the first in the series, Strange Loyalties the third came in 1991 and was actually the first of the three I have read, it won the Glasgow Herald’s People’s Prize.

Other books came in between 83 and 91, the best in my opinion was The Big Man. about a Glasgow prize fighter, was made into a film starring Liam Neeson and Billy Connolly.

The Kiln, a successor to Docherty, featuring the grandson of the original then a ten year gap till Weekend, McIlvanney was not what you would call a prolific writer like Ian Rankin or Val McDermid or Christopher Brookmyre, all who have been credited with continuing his “Tartan Noir” style, he filled out the years with newspaper columns and TV appearances presenter of a BBC books programme being one, he also did a number of voice overs, he had what I would describe as a rich Scottish brogue but very easy to understand, very much like his older brother Hugh, the sports journalist.

McIlvanney was working on a manuscript when he passed away and the book was released this year after Ian Rankin was asked to finish the book, Rankin has said it was an "incredible honour" to be asked to finish, he commented "There were two or three books in there which he was contemplating but one of them he had actually made a good start on, which was The Dark Remains."

My favouties, of the books I have read by William McIlvanney are the Laidlaw trilogy, when I imagine them and the author himself the first pic, of an old style bar an ashtray and a whisky springs to mind.

Bless this House: A Sampler for Glasgow Bedsits William McIlvanney

Bless this house, wherever it is, This house and this and this and this, Pitched shaky as small nomad tents Within Victorian permanence, Where no names stay long, no families meet In Observatory Road and Clouston Street, Where Harry and Sally who want to be ‘free’ And Morag who works in the BBC And Andy the Artist and Mhairi and Fran (Whose father will never understand) And John from Kilmarnock and Jean from the Isles And Michael who jogs every day for miles And Elspeth are passing through this year: Bless them the short time they are here. Bless the cup left for a month or more On the dust of the window-ledge, the door That won’t quite shut, the broken fan, The snowscape of fat in the frying pan. Bless each burnt chop, each unseen smile That they may nourish their hopes a while. Bless the persistence of their faith, The gentle incense of their breath. Bless the wild dreams that are seeded here, The lover to come, the amazing career. Bless such small truths as they may find By the lonely night-light of the mind. Bless these who camp out in the loss of the past And scavenge their own from what others have lost, Who have courage to reach for what they cannot see And have gambled what was for what may never be. So turn up the Hi Fi, Michael and John. What is to come may be already gone. And pull up the covers, Jean and Mhairi. The island is far and you’ve missed the ferry.

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Do You See 2000 IDM / Electro

Alright, back on some electronic shit for today. Here we have a 12-inch sampler from a little, short-lived label out of the UK called deFocus, which was run by Clair Poulton, a woman who first cut her teeth at Aphex Twin's own Rephlex label before launching a label of her own called Clear; and then after Clear closed up shop, she started up this one.

Do You See represents the first of two 12-inch releases that showcased the type of music that deFocus' roster was cooking up at the time at the turn of the millennium, which happened to be mostly different shades of IDM. Some of it was fused with an old school electro vibe too though, like "Touched," which was by a group called Aphelion, and "Mystery One," which was by Mystery, whose own identity (or identities) appears to've indeed been a mystery! Both of these tracks come with pretty standard electro backbeats, but their respective vibes seem to be diametrically opposed to one another—"Touched" has a chemically icy whimsiness to it and "Mystery One" seems to be more interested in plumbing the depths of hell 👹. (And for more Aphelion, you can also check them out as Replicant on the breathtakingly chill, 10-plus-minute beaut' from 1996 that is "Analiz.")

But while those are certainly both two pretty sweet tunes, I don't think that they really hold a candle to another type of IDM that's on here: the more emotive kind that likes to surround all those pecky and glinty, rhythmic IDM bits with captivatingly fluffy clouds of melody and lush synth pads. Plus One's "Mayday," which was written by Plus One himself, but actually produced by the one and only legendary IDM duo of Plaid, is one such example, as it first supplies old and dramatic, cinematic string work, but progressively floods the remainder of its track with a beautiful blend of electronic, intertwining synths that sound significantly much more sci-fi-modern. You think that this song's hitting its creative peak at about a third of the way through when it adds its first new synth to pair with all these strings, but it actually has multiple more levels to ascend through, which is definitely gratifying, but doesn't even seem all that necessary, given that it's already achieved its status as a chief highlight of this record once that first new synth is poured in in the earlier going! 😌

And then for a song that appears to mix some of the electro vibe with that lush and lovely synth work, we have the pretty sublime "Commuter Love" by CiM to close us out. It's not nearly long enough, but in a similar way to Mystery's "Mystery One," it too has a bit of a sinister underlying synth to it, but in this song's case, the light of the trancey twinkling stabs that arrive soon afterwards seem to do a lot to neutralize much of that darkness.

So every track's a highlight on this one as deFocus puts forth an IDM statement here that looks back on the past with a deliberate eye on elements of electro, but seems to have its other eye trained on the future too. And when you have a pair of eyes that appear to be looking in completely opposite directions from one another, then I guess what you can say is that their combined eyesight is definitely, well...deFocused (<_>).

Check out my post from earlier this year on Two You See too, which also has an alternative hip hop track by Jon Tejada on it that features abstract rap veteran Divine Styler.

Highlights:

Lackluster - "Starcell UK" Aphelion - "Touched" Plus One - "Mayday" Mystery - "Mystery One" CiM - "Commuter Love"

[secretlythepits]

I felt like a mom.

Yesterday I made so many cookies. The boys’ aviation classes are tight knit so they have parties like elementary school classes. It is also our homeschool group’s Christmas party, so yesterday I made chocolate sugar cookies with crushed candy cane sprinkles, apricot and raspberry jam thumbprints, and ginger molasses cookies. I sent samplers to all the parties.

It reminded me of kindergarten and first grade. That glorious time of making holidays special for little ones. That’s a part of life when I really shined! I had a subscription to Martha Stewart Living for a decade before I got married and had kids. I was chomping at the bit to do these things, and to be honest, I really blossomed in motherhood. Everyone said so and I just felt different in a better way.

I always say I found myself in motherhood and then I lost myself in motherhood.

It became too much. Mom died. We started homeschooling. Brain infection. Husband’s cancer. When I finally returned to group activities after a few years of crippling brian injury, other moms with younger kids were rocking the parties. I decided to let them have their moment. It didn’t make sense to make such efforts and I sometimes didn’t bring anything (we always have an excess).

My kids are teens now and a lot of the fun magical things we used to do they find pointless, and I get it. At first they didn’t even want me to contribute to their class parties. I told them, dudes, your friends are teenage boys. They want you to bring good food. The teachers encouraged it and they happily accepted my efforts.

It just felt fun in the kitchen yesterday. A dance with the old me from one of the best times of my life. Of course, I didn’t need to make so many cookies or such a variety, but joy propelled me. How rare is that these days? If I find a glimmer, I loop a lasso and hold on for dear life.

I love homemaking but I’m also a feminist who was raised in a matriarchy. The dailyness of it is what grinds me down, but the special moments can’t be lumped in with that drudgery. I’m at a point in life where I question what my life would have been like if I had focused more on my career. But the truth is: this was my dream: being a mom. I really, really wanted it and it took me a decade and a half to get there. I wanted to be present for every moment and I will always be grateful that I was. Those years feel very away right now. I miss them, though I would want to repeat them. But, God I’m glad I had them.

And the truth is, my career was taking off right when Mom got sick. I was going to have more balance pursuing my personal ambitions and taking care of my kids. Caregiving and grief knocked me down. Then a brain injury. If those events hadn’t happened, I’d be in a much different place, career-wise. Trauma, the great life interruptor.

Anyway, I am going to spend the afternoon at the park in a green dress with a green fascinator and wearing a red Santa apron, laughing with my friends and sharing the cookies I baked. Tomorrow I will complete the final edit (ha! does that even exist?) of my curriculum and then I will to switch mode to marketing.

I am finding myself again:

Past and Present.

[mybeingthere]

Sampler, 1786, by Nabby Martin (11 years old) highlighting Brown University's relationship with downtown Providence, and including an early depiction of the first President's House (Photography by Erik Gould, courtesy of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence).

[locirodrawsstuff]

2 Inventory WIPs! Ghibli sampler plate and a bunch of old school-ish Pokemon items. Colors not final, still lil torn on the Pokémon one.

[tariah23]

Someone posted a pic of the books that they had at their schools (they’re a teacher and were so happy to see the selection at the scholastic’s fair…) book fair and they had jump magazines 😭…? I was so lost since I could’ve sworn they stopped releasing them years ago but apparently, these “jump packs,” (what they’re called) aren’t the same as your traditional jump magazine from back in the day and were specifically used as samplers for book fairs and the like… never knew about them at all. I still have all of my old af jump magazine from 2004-2012 or so? From what I’m remembering, jump stopped releasing physical copies in NA in favor of digital release but that was fucking stupid since why would you expect ppl to still pay for manga online when they could just pirate it with ease. Manga is literally one of the easiest forms of media to pirate… I know that ppl still pay to read the new chapters of manga on the jump app now but not me lol. The only time I’d ever pay to read a manga is if I buy it physically.

[fossilknits]

linocut time babey!!!

yeah so this was supposed to be a fiber arts blog, but i ended up thrifting some speedy-carve last month (shoutout to the adorable little thrift store in my bf's hometown), and there is so much cool linocut stuff on my dash, so i am very excited to share

i did a linocut project in middle school art class many years ago (why did they give 12 year olds sharp objects? i cut my hands so many times), so i sorta understand the basics of this art form, but none of the muscle memory is left. so i put together this little sampler block to practice using the different carving tips and cutting out different shapes and stuff

(the crow, die, fish, and planet were transfers; I freehanded the rest to fill in space)

it was hard! but i had a lot of fun! getting the ink rolled out was the toughest part. i think tomorrow i'll cut out more of the background and try to get a cleaner print

after that i do want to try carving something larger/more complex, but i can't come up with a good idea right now :/ i'm not usually a visual artist and i'm not good at drawing, so putting together something like this might be beyond me. i'm hoping a good idea will come to me lol

thanks for reading!

[emotionalhxc]

Strawberry Hospital Q&A transcribed <3 PART 3

Q: whats your favourite metal song if you have one N: "favourite metal song of all time is impossible to choose but only recently I have been obsessed with this since I heart it earlier this month"

Q: holoparasite is my favorite songs and I was wondering what inspired you to make it N: "simple repetitive gloomy looped music like the yume nikki soundtrack! I wrote it in like an hour which basically never happens for Strawberry Hospital tracks" Q: wat is cherish about :l? love ur music btw<3 N: "desperate attempts at avoiding abandonment and going as far altering your own identity to be what somebody else might prefer... (pro tip do not do this ^^) I wanted the cute electropop instrumentation to contrast the somewhat hopeless subject matter" Q: R u ever doing a show in Houston again? I loved seeing u live! N: "without a doubt I will be back! my favorite photo of that performance is currently my bandcamp banner actually" Q: What synthesizer, sampler, etc. do you dream of having? Old/new, common/rare... N: "need a full rack of ROMplers, then I will die happy. I already have my beloved SC-88 but would adore an Akai or Yamaha module in addition ! somehow I do not own a physical microKorg either?" Q: also do you watch sailor moon and if so whos your favorite character<3 N: "when I was 4 years old I begged my mother to purhacse a VHS copy of one of the episodes judging only from the cover art style, I haven't seen much since then but that probably caused me to develop an adoration for the magical girl genre long term... wait is this question because my name is Neptune...!" Q: azure is literally my favorite song ever😭is there a reason u made the song??/meaning? N: "awe I'm overjoyed that you appreciate Azure! there were countless musical influences that were poured into this one like cyrbergrind and darkstep and glitch pop, etc. I wanted harsh instrumentation layered with dense sweet melodies and harmonies lyrically, the song is a metaphor for drowning in an abyssal river of your own tears, and imagining a single angelic individual saving you or at least accompanying you in your demise it's also about grief, mutual forgiveness, and is dedicated to someone specific" Q: Hihi! Your wonderful music has brought so much comfort to me. :3 what are your favourite anime series? N: "ah!! thank you very much... I received a few instances of this question so I'll consolidate them into one response current top 5 favorites (excluding feature length animated films): - Kaiba - Madoka Magica - Haibane Renmei - Alien 9 - Princess Tutu"

Q: I really loved I miss you so long, can you tell more in depth of it pls N: "an older favorite! that one is primarily written about lethargy, escapism, and being a self depricating NEET after high school graduation (I'm reformed now as that was many years ago lol)" Q: have you ever seen the covers of the songs like Memento? (Examples: velvet by lilac) N: "yes I have mixed feelings about that specific cover. that said, I have enjoyed many of lilac's original productions and I have listened to most other covers of my songs from other musicians. it is a deeply flattering gesture" THAT'S ALL. I hope you all enjoyed reading this, I'm a huge fan of Neptune's music and I really wanted to do this to keep a log of strawberry hospital's Q&A in a somewhat more permanent way/digital archive way. Lots of love to you all xo emotionalhxc signing out :3

[dustedmagazine]

Carl Stone — Electronic Music from 1972-2022 (Unseen Worlds)

Electronic Music from 1972-2022 by Carl Stone

Unseen Worlds brings us their third installment of Carl Stone archival releases. Following "Electronic Music from the Seventies and Eighties" and "Electronic Music from the Eighties and Nineties," "Electronic Music from 1972-2022" makes a stab at filling in some of the gaps from Stone's sizable list of works. Presumably by the time this review gets published Stone will have added another release to his vast discography from the last 50 years.

"Electronic Music from 1972-2022" offers an until now unheard documentation of Stone's very earliest work in the two compositions "Three Confusongs" and "Ryouund Thygizunz," both realized in 1972 at CalArts, where Stone was studying with the composers Morton Subotnick and James Tenney. The voice of Carl's old friend and band mate, the late Z'ev (at this time still known as Stefan Weisser) was used on both these pieces. In stark contrast to the other tracks on this compilation, "Three Confusongs" and "Ryouund Thygizunz" develop slowly with heavy use of delays and resonance. Yet similarly to Stone's later works' extensive use of sampling, recordings of the voice of Z'ev reading his concrete poems provide the basic working material that launches in motion these haunting and mysterious pieces.

It was also while studying at CalArts that Stone's sampling practice found its future direction. Working as an archivist in the school's library, Stone got saddled with the job of transferring thousands of vinyl records to tape. This saturated Stone's ears with a vast and seemingly incongruous selection of music that included classical repertoire, electronic composition, world music and jazz, just to name a few. Stone had to transfer multiple discs at the same time, thus creating incorrigibly random collisions from this wealth of archival material. Through this process Stone began to see the juxtaposition and repetition of musical soundbytes as the modus operandi for his compositional practice.

Working in a vein with much in common to the use of sampling in hip hop, Stone has never shied away from plumbing the depths of popular music in a fearless and unabashed disregard for any notions of what might be regarded as good taste. It is perhaps this attitude, as much as the actual samples themselves, that imbues much of Stone's work with a heavy dose of humor and playful confrontation. The composition "Vim"  from 1987 provides a good case in point, with samples from The Beach Boys' "Fun Fun Fun" being looped and chopped nearly beyond all recognition while still creating this nagging feeling of "Where have I heard this before?" Only towards the very end of the piece does it become apparent what one has just been subjected to in the form of this insidious earworm.

Stone's work can also be eminently danceable, often employing samples of drums and percussion in a process of accretion that can lead to dizzying heights of tension and release, not far in essence from Derrick May's work, such as the seminal "Strings of Life" from1987. Stone adds to this his experience from the trippy sixties, notching up the density and movement of his compositions till they take on a distinctly psychedelic feel. One can imagine whirling dervishes, The Master Musicians of Joujouka or your favorite neighborhood rave where ecstasy meets a discombobulated vortex of looping samples and very grooving beats.

Parallel to a summary of Stone's work during this fifty years, "Electronic Music from 1972-2022" also gives an overview of the development in electronic music technology which, as much as any conceptual preoccupations, often seems to have provided the impetus for much of the development in Stone's compositions. From working with Buchla synthesizers at CalArts to early samplers and Apple computers, each advancement in all this musical hard- and software has enabled Stone to dig deeper into his proclivity for iteration and sonic disorientation.

Track eight, the 2007 piece "L'os a Moelle," is a good example of this. Developed during a residency at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales studios in Paris, Stone devised a way of injecting new musical material into the shell of another piece of music. In the case of "L'os a Moelle,"  this involves using a brazenly strutting sixties rock riff as the shell and injecting a cavalcade of disparate and confusing samples, all following the tonal and rhythmic form of the original riff, which by the end of the piece has become completely subsumed by the injection of sampled material. If this description sounds confusing, then wait until you hear the track.

Three pieces from 2022 close out this compilation and in a way encapsulate all the ideas and techniques from the preceding tracks. For long-standing fans or listeners just discovering Stone's work, "Electronic Music from 1972-2022"  will provide a fascinating look back over this composer's output from the last 50 years, straddling that fine line between rigorous experimentation and hilarious irreverence.

Jason Kahn

[roppongi-division]

"Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again."

Timeline

Age 0:

He is born the second child to his musician parents in New York City, New York.

Age 2:

His father sadly passes away due to heart failure.

His mother, unable to cope with his loss, begins drinking.

Age 3:

Fewer and fewer companies and organizations begin hiring her due to her alcoholism and erratic behavior.

Age 5:

His mom begins teaching Kai how to sing opera.

He has great skill, but has no love or interest in learning how to sing.

His mother often has to bribe or force him to practice.

Age 7:

He performs his first recital in front of a large crowd at New York City Auditorium.

Though he messes up one of the cords at first, his performance goes well.

His mother, however, lectures him on his mistake, upsetting him.

Age 8:

He continues to practice and perform more recitals.

Eventually, singing becomes second nature to him.

Age 14:

He starts high school.

His mother pulls some strings and manages to get the main singer in the group's orchestra and theatre.

While walking around his neighborhood, he comes across a block party where a DJ is performing.

He becomes fascinated with the sounds he hears and wants to find out more.

He researches DJ music and becomes enthralled with it.

He resolves to save up to buy himself a sampler.

He starts doing odd jobs around his neighborhood.

Age 15:

His hard work pays off, and he manages to buy himself a cheap music sampler.

He begins using it to experiment with different forms of music.

Age 16:

He and his friends plan a late-night party in the city park. He works as the DJ.

The police arrive a couple of hours later, shutting down the party.

His mother is not happy, especially when she finds out he has been playing with his sampler instead of practicing his opera.

He argues with her, telling her he is giving up opera music to become a DJ.

Shocked at his statement, she, in a fit of rage, destroys his sampler.

This causes a large rift between the two, and he refuses to speak to her.

Age 17:

He graduates high school and begins attending NYU (New York University).

He takes many music classes, wanting to further his knowledge on DJing.

As an elective, he also takes a class on Japanese culture, wanting to find out more about his father.

He finds himself very interested in the class, and promises to visit Japan someday.

Age 18:

To further his DJ experience, he begins interning at a New York radio station.

He becomes interested in everything that has to do with radio, and thinks about becoming a radio DJ.

He begins working part-time at an old vinyl store where he finds old hip-hop music records.

Purchasing them and an old record player, he falls in love with the flow of music and the rhymes of the rappers.

He tries his hand at writing his own rhymes and raps in his spare time.

Age 19:

He enters the DMC World DJ Championships.

He calls himself 'DJ Veenyle', after the word 'vinyl'.

He listens to all of the DJs participating, and jots down notes, while listening to their techniques.

He, unfortunately, doesn't win, but the competition helps to get his name out there.

Age 20:

He graduates NYU with a bachelor's in music theory and audio engineering.

His internship at the radio station ends, and he gets a job there as a personality.

Unfortunately, he has trouble dealing with management due to having no say-so in what gets played.

Also, he is frequently overlooked by the other DJs due to his skin color and ethnicity.

He ultimately quits after a couple of months.

Age 21:

He offers his services to various nightclubs and radio stations, but he is still overlooked.

He begins to grow frustrated and disillusioned due to no one giving him a chance.

His mother, seeing him struggling, scoffs at him at, telling him this is to be expected when he quit opera music. He pays her no mind.

His sister advises he take a break and get his head right before making any drastic decisions.

He takes her advice and just practices DJing in his bedroom.

He gets hired to perform at block parties, weddings and street fairs, though the pay isn't anything to scream about.

Age 22:

He eventually gets noticed by a producer who wants to sign him on as a traveling DJ around the U.S.

Kai accepts without a second thought, bidding his sister, his mother, and his city farewell for now.

He travels to various cities, seeing new sights.

He eventually arrives in Las Vegas to do a show at a tavern with bargirls.

One of the bargirls catches his eye, and he admires her as she moves and dances to the music. Her stage name is 'Gypsy Queen'.

He meets with her after the show, and she introduces herself as 'Mireya Moto'.

Kai asks her out on a date, and she accepts.

The two spend several days getting to know each other until it is time for Kai to leave.

He bids her farewell, promising to come back again.

Age 24:

After a couple of years of traveling, Kai remembers the promise he made to himself to visit his father's homeland of Japan.

As he is about to leave, he remembers the bargirl he met years ago in Las Vegas.

He makes one last trip back to Sin City at the bar she worked at.

He finds out she quit after being hired by some "movie studio".

He tracks her down, and finds that the "movie studio" is owned by the local mob to make porn movies.

After pulling some strings and exchanging a lot of money, he manages to rescue Mireya from the mob.

He cares for her while she is recovering from her drug use.

After several months, she is deemed fit and healthy.

The two date for several more months until Kai finally asks her to be his wife. She agrees.

His mother doesn't accept Mireya as her daughter-in-law and does all she can to make her feel unwelcome.

Kai threatens his mother, telling her to cease it before he bans her from his wedding. She doesn't attend.

Age 25:

The two are wed in New York City.

His sister, though she can't be present, sends her brother a brand-new car as a wedding gift.

They have their honeymoon in Tokyo, Japan, where Kai was planning on going.

The country is nothing like Kai expected it to be, and he is marveled at the sights and sounds of it all.

He asks Mireya if she wants to stay with him in Japan. She agrees.

They both renounce their American citizenship and become Japanese citizens in accordance with the law.

He begins getting his name out by offering his DJ skills.

Age 26:

Though the two try to have a child together, they are unable to.

It is found out that Mireya is diagnosed with hyperprolactinemia, meaning she is infertile and unable to have kids.

It is a depressing and traumatic experience for her, but Kai helps her through it.

Age 27:

While wandering around Tokyo, he meets a young teen who is performing dangerous and risky tricks for money.

When it is over, he asks the teen if he wants some lunch. The teen agrees.

They talk and the teen introduces himself as 'Zakari Hiroya'.

They continue to meet sparingly and get along pretty well.

Kai eventually introduces Zakari to Mireya.

After almost a year of talks, Kai asks Zakari if he wants to join his family. Zakari, though surprised, eventually accepts.

Age 29:

Mireya, after a night of working in a nightclub, makes the decision to open her own.

Kai, though skeptical, helps her.

The two find a suitable place in the party district of Roppongi in Minato and take out a loan to have the nightclub built.

While it is being built, Kai starts an Internet podcast.

He adopts a new persona called, 'Wolf of Shadows', dressing up as a sort of lycanthrope, giving him an image.

He also starts working as a musical ghostwriter and producer, creating songs for several famous bands and artists.

Age 30:

Within a year, the couple's nightclub is finished.

Though Mireya wants to jointly own it with her husband, Kai refuses, letting his wife be firmly in charge.

She calls it 'Gypsy's Palace'.

He begins playing exclusively at the nightclub, boosting its popularity.

Because of his skill and speed at DJing, he is called "The Multi-Armed DJ".

His music is widely known for being able to "brainwash" anyone who hears it, though Kai does not know he is doing this subconsciously.

Age 31:

As his Internet podcast increases in popularity, he slowly changes it into an online radio station, becoming a radio personality once more.

He calls the station, 'Real Music Radio', and cites his fanbase as 'The Wolfpac'.

Although he enjoys it, he feels a bit dispirited due to the number of people asking for "rudimentary music".

He starts contemplating what the essence of real music is all about.

Age 32:

He meets the legendary rap group, 'TDD', and their manager 'Sayaka Miyuki'.

He often performs as a DJ at their shows.

Age 33:

The H-Era officially starts, and the Party of Words takes control of the Japanese government.

Though Kai tries to keep the group from splintering, due to internal conflict, TDD sadly breaks up.

Age 34:

Present.

Chuohku, fascinated with Kai's ability to put anyone who hears his music in a trance, seeks to obtain this ability for themselves.

To that end, they force him to join the Division Rap Battle to witness his ability firsthand.

Though he doesn't want to get his family involved, they decide to join him.

He forms the Roppongi Division rap battle team, Private Party, alongside Mireya Quinlan and Zakari Hiroya.

Schedule

12 a.m. - 1 a.m.: Performing at nightclub

1 a.m. - 1:30 a.m.: Returns home

1:30 a.m. - 9 a.m.: Asleep

9 a.m. - 11 a.m.: Freshens up

11 a.m. - 12 p.m.: Has brunch

12 p.m. - 4 p.m.: Performs on online radio station

4 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.: Snack/Evening break

4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.: DJs in his bedroom

6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.: Freshens up and prepares for gig at nightclub

8:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.: Walks to nightclub

9 p.m. - 12 a.m.: Performing at nightclub

Character Hashtags

Regular Hashtags

#Wolf of Shadows

#Grateful for my family

#No music, no life

Trauma Hashtags

#Broken music sampler

#Mother didn't want me to change

#Give life back to music

Other Info

Hobby: Writing Music

Weakness: Very Competitive

Trauma: "My mother couldn't accept that I didn't want to be like her."

Twitter: @TheWolfofShadows

Drinks: Yes

Smokes: Yes

Special Skill: "Besides DJing, I'm also adept at producing and writing music."

Intro Quote: "Music... it is an essential part of my life."

Trauma Quote: "...Why? Why did you do that?! This was my treasure! You... you bitch! Damn you!!"

Ending Quote: "Music is a lot like people. Some of it speaks the truth, and some of it... it just makes senseless noise."

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Acid House Disco 1988 House / Acid House

First of all, can we just marvel at and appreciate how amazing the art for this release is here? It's not everyday that you come across a comp with illustrations that are this cool, and regardless of the music that may or may not sit on this record itself, this has to be one of the greatest front-and-back covers that I've ever seen in my life 😍. I tried to scan the liner notes to see who might be responsible for them, but I couldn't find anything, so hats off to you, whoever you are!

And now for the music. Acid House Disco is a comp that was released in 1988 on Warlock Records, a New York-based label that ended up being a pretty important old school rap entity, but also put out dance releases as well, and ended up serving as a vital launching pad for house legend Todd Terry too. In fact, probably the greatest piece of 80s hip-house that was ever made was a product of Warlock's own synergy, when the best of their dance and hip hop wings teamed up to create The Jungle Brothers' "I'll House You"—produced by Terry himself.

But this ephemeral record, unfortunately, doesn't have any Todd Terry on it. What this appears to be instead is a mix of different things: one, it's partially a sampler that includes tunes from the catalog of Warlock's own sublabel, Idlers; two, it has a few exclusives on it; and three, it appears that it licensed some tracks from Gee Street as well, a similarly situated label in London that also released both hip hop and dance music.

And there's some sweet goodies on it, folks! A couple of which were made by notable people who were just operating under obscure aliases and group names. For example, the release's penultimate track, "I Love You," which really hits its stride when it finally drops in its speedy Latin piano riff, is by a duo called Drum and Bass, who only ever put out one release together. But guess who made up half of that group? Youth, aka Martin Glover, the bassist from the famous UK post-punk band Killing Joke! 😯

And the final track on the album, which is hands-down the best one, is by someone who went by Nebula. But Nebula was just a one-off alias that was used by a guy named DJ Cesare, who was in super successful UK rap group Stereo MC's back then too. And his track, "Deep Space," is the only one that comes close to matching the futuristic dance aesthetic that's painted on this album's back cover. A full and thick house tune with satisfying string pads and a constant, acid-zapped lead melody 😌. Terrific late 80s banger right there.

So, all in all, a pretty decent house comp here. There's definitely a good deal of disposability to it, but there's a few tracks that end up saving it from having its beautiful artwork wasted on something that might've been so lackluster. And some of its best tunes come courtesy of people that you might not expect, like Youth!

Highlights:

Zizi - "Give and Take" Drum and Bass - "I Love You" Nebula - "Deep Space"

[sonicenvy]

a solid 80-90% of my coolest craft/art/writing/making ideas come to me at the most inconvenient of times:

late at night when i am trying to sleep

in the shower

at work while im helping someone out with a thing

while i am biking or driving

when i am on a train car or bus having to stand instead of sit

tonight's inconvenient idea was for a new, different embroidery hoop that wasn't the pattern i downloaded and printed onto my dissolvable stabilizer, stuck onto fabric and mounted into a hoop (and then bought the thread for) and started on.

This idea was to do some of the images from the book of kells. I am especially fond of the very famous folio 27v which is from the gospel of matthew and depicts the symbols of the four evangelists (matthew, mark, luke and john as the man, the wingèd lion, the wingèd calf and the eagle). The one that seemed to be the least technically difficult to stitch in my mind was the wingèd calf (luke) so I cut the image out of the page in photoshop, enlarged it and printed it out. Once printed out I made a (clumsy) tracing of it onto another paper, which I'll have to refine and ink later. For now, I'd call that proof of concept.

After inking, ill probably scan it back into the computer and make a vector of it and print that vector out on the water dissovlable stabilizer to attach to my fabric. I decided to go about this route because, frankly, I'm shite at tracing things digitally with my ancient wacom tablet (and my ipad is too old to do apple pencil + procreate which would probably be better. Plus, like, I have a light box, why not use it?

As a side note I cannot draw AT ALL, but I am passable at tracing because of embroidery and because I traced stuff all the time for assignments back in primary school that we were supposed to draw stuff for if I couldn't get away with doing layer collages cut out with my x-acto knife for the project instead. (yes i was a single digit age child with an x-acto knife. my dad had an a+ parenting moment when I was like, maybe 5 and taught me how to cut out things (mostly my paper dolls) with an x-acto knife. I didn't even know how to use scissors at the time lmaooooooo. because x-actoing shit out is soooo much better, as I result i still stink at scissor cutting things.)

anyways. in case you were wondering about what the little guy im planning to embroidery looks like.... boom!

he's just a little guy! medieval monks drew all kinds of fun and funky creatures and frankly, dear old irish/scottish medieval monks, im obsessed. y'all dont get me started on medieval art and illuminate manuscripts or ill be here for 100000 years. my bones will be telling you about medieval art.

the other embroidery projects that are totally still going to happen:

the sea shell pattern i downloaded. good thing i didn't have to pay for it....

a blue morpho or a paper kite butterfly.

some kind of stitch sampler

other fiber art projects:

that crocheted shawl i downloaded a pattern for a kajillion years ago

the giant blue crocheted scarf that I got about 60% of the way through making from that pound o' love yarn skein.

mending. so. much. mending.