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newmusickarl · 10 months

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Top 10 EPs of 2023

As we have seen, 2023 has been a mega year for new albums with LIES being named as my Album of the Year earlier this week. You can read why I was such a fan of that record, along with more on the rest of my Top 50 picks by scrolling below or simply flicking through the New Music Weekly archives for December.

However, as many great longplayers we received in 2023, there was an equal abundance of great shortplayers too. In today’s hectic world where the demand for “snackable” (shout out Andrew Belt for my word of 2023) content has risen, the humble Extended Play has seen a big resurgence. So I’ve looked back over the last 12 months and picked out my ten favourites of the year. As always, I’ve gone for an eclectic selection that pulls from various genres including pop, rock, electronic, R&B, and indie. So depending on your taste, hopefully you’ll find something to enjoy on this list.

Here we go then, my Top 10 EPs of 2023…

Honourable mentions

Forever Means by Angel Olsen

White Magnolia by Bear’s Den

The Rest by Boygenius

Heady Metal by Divorce

Julie Byrne with Laugh Cry Laugh by Julie Byrne & Laugh Cry Laugh

Alaska Sadness by Katie Keddie

That Sweet Breath by Lowmello

My Eyes, Brother! by Opus Kink

Not The Baby by Prima Queen

See You In The Dark by Softcult

10. Modern Day by Bloxx

Kicking off the list with London-based indie quartet Bloxx, who have had a bit of a tough time recently. With multiple shows in recent memory cancelled, it was great to see them make a welcome return in 2023, with Modern Day their first new EP since 2021’s Pop Culture Radio.

Much like their output till now, it is a collection of five songs that showcases the band’s talent for writing catchy hooks and memorable riffs, with the strong opening trio of Modern Day, Television Promises and Runaway helping it secure a spot on this year’s list.

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9. Not As I by George FitzGerald

It was also a great year for synth-driven shortplayers as one of my favourite electronic musicians of recent times, George FitzGerald, released a new four track effort - Not As I.

Opener Mother is worth the price of admission alone, a beautifully ambient groove featuring American musician SYML on vocal duties. That said, the mind-melting synths of Venera, the spacey chimes of the title track and the pulsating soundscapes of All Roads make this one well worth 15 minutes of your time.

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8. More Truth by Daniel Avery

Sticking with 2023’s best electronic releases, DJ and producer Dan Avery also released a companion EP to his acclaimed 2022 album, Ultra Truth.

Featuring seven excellent new tracks that didn’t quite make the final cut originally, including trippy Georgia collaboration Going So Low and the accurately titled Bliss, it’s another absorbing collection from the Bournemouth musician who seems incapable of putting a foot wrong.

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7. Freak Show by ALT BLK ERA

As you can probably tell if you’ve made it this far onto my blog, I am a big champion of new music. On top of that, I am also a big champion of new music emerging out of my world-class local scene in Nottingham. And of all the fantastic Nottingham acts who had a breakout 2023, ALT BLK ERA are the ones leading the charge.

Word is finally getting out about this alt-rock sister duo, who fuse mind-melting electronica, heavy rock and razor-sharp bars for a sound that is entirely of their own making. This was highlighted this week when the pair received a prestigious MOBO award nomination for Best Alternative Act, nominated alongside the likes of Arlo Parks, Skindred and Young Fathers.

So, with ALT BLK ERA seemingly right on the cusp of blowing up in popularity, now is the time to get yourself acquainted with their hypnotic genre-defying sound. Debut EP Freak Show released back in August is the perfect introduction for those not already familiar, with the opening trio of I’m Normally Like This, Misfits: SOLAR and the horn-backed title track all well worth checking out, alongside fan favourite Oggy. I promise you, it’ll be unlike anything else you’ve heard in 2023.

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6. Homospace by Mickey Callisto

When I was first introduced to Liverpudlian pop sensation Mickey Callisto at Dot-to-Dot Festival earlier this year, it was obvious from the get-go he was a natural-born showman destined for big things. An enigmatic, commanding presence on stage, it was an utterly captivating performance that made for one of the highlights of the day and left me eager to see where his career would go next.

Well, this November saw Mickey releases his first EP titled Homospace and I’m pleased to say it’s a star-making debut release - in more ways than one. Here’s what I said in my review for 5-9 last month:

“Loosely inspired by Arctic Monkeys’ Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, Mickey’s debut EP sees him transport the listener into outer space for a visit to “a gay nightclub on the moon”. The sounds that welcome you upon entry are a mesmerising blend of disco, psych-rock and 80s-inspired synth-pop, with Mickey lyrically jumping between personal stories and cosmic metaphors. The result is a joyful, imaginative orbit around some ambitious planetary pop. This is a fantastic, high-concept debut EP from Mickey; one that is not just a lot of fun to experience, but also offers the perfect introduction and showcase for his talent. Offering a welcome escape into some vivid musical nebulas, once you’ve taken the trip to the outer limits, you’ll be reluctant to return back down to Earth.”

Read my full review for 5-9 here

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5. The High Life by Bloc Party

2022 was the year Bloc Party got their mojo back. Whilst the band’s 2016 album Hymns still had its moments, it very much reflected a band going through a transition. Indeed, Alpha Games was still far from a perfect record, but if you had ever been a fan of Bloc Party then there was plenty of familiar pleasures on offer. Following on from that effort then, and this year the indie icons released a new four-track EP where they sound even more rejuvenated.

It’s a fun collection, with summery indie belter High Life kicking things off, before brilliant KennyHoopla collab Keep It Rolling flourishes with that classic Bloc Party sound. Similarly Blue sees Kele finally get back in touch with his younger self, with the song presenting some of his most sincere lyrics in years. Final track The Blood Moon is then my pick of the bunch, with shades of Bigmouth Strikes Again by The Smiths early doors, before it then transforms into that vintage Bloc Party of old by the end, thanks to Russell Lissack’s signature riffing.

Even if you weren’t quite on board with Alpha Games, Bloc Party fans will find plenty of resemblance to that band they fell in love with all those years ago on Silent Alarm and Weekend In The City here on The High Life. Another positive step in the right direction for one of my all-time favourites.

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4. A Little Lost, A Little Found by Grace Carter

It can sometimes be lost on us as listeners just how derailing the pandemic was for new artists breaking out during that time. After discovering Grace Carter at Live At Leeds fest in 2018, it was evidently clear she was heading for superstardom. The following year cemented this prediction, as the London-based singer-songwriter made the BBC Sound of 2019 list and she set off supporting mainstream heavyweights like Dua Lipa and Lewis Capaldi on tour. However ever since the pandemic struck, Grace has been lost in the wilderness unable to further shine a spotlight on her evolving talent – until now.

Her incredible 2023 EP is Grace getting back to basics, releasing a collection of heartfelt pop ballads that explore identity, family, love and racial injustice. From the exquisitely produced groove of Pick Your Tears Up, the gospel-influenced Riot, the atmospheric tribal cries of Mother and the quirky vocal inflections of Hope, it is littered with moments that quickly remind us of Grace’s songwriting talent.

This is the mesmerising sound of Grace Carter finding herself again and getting things back on track – hopefully she has a clear run this time around.

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3. Welcome To My House by Yonaka

It doesn’t feel like too long ago I was stood watching Brighton rockers Yonaka perform in the 1am graveyard shift at Dot-to-Dot festival back in 2017. With a then long-haired Theresa Jarvis jumping off the stage to sing her lungs out amidst the modest, onlooking crowd, I was instantly entranced by the band’s energetic songs and performance. Fast forward to now and the band are now a prominent name within the British rock scene, with their songs constantly making their way into TV show, game and movie soundtracks. Returning in 2023 with another release packed with addictive commercial rock anthems, you get the feeling this new seven-track mini-album - which comes complete with a music video for every track - will only catapult them further up the chain of popularity.

With each song representing a feeling, memory or emotion within Theresa Jarvis, the trio blaze through each concisely constructed track, with most hovering around the two-to-three-minute mark. Propelled by anthemic choruses, polished production and Theresa’s ever-impressive vocal acrobatics, it’s another tour de force project from the band.

From rousing opener By The Time You’re Reading This to the anxiety-induced PANIC, through to the colossal confidence of Welcome To My House and the full-throttled punk of Hands Off My Money, it’s just an absolute blast from beginning to end. However, the EP’s best moment is arguably reserved for one of the band’s softest, most heartfelt songs to date – Give Me My Halo. Noticeably stripped back compared to the rest of the tracks here, it allows Theresa’s vocals to soar with her raw, passionate cries driving home the song’s uplifting message.

Across their early releases, their 2019 debut Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow, 2021 mini-album Seize The Power and now this EP, Yonaka have built themselves an arsenal of bangers that would put most other British rock bands to shame. A seismic collection of anthems that will no doubt go down a storm when they take it on tour in 2024.

Experience the visual mini-album through the music video playlist here

Listen to the EP here

2. MANHOOD by ROB GREEN

From one visual EP to another then, however you arguably couldn’t find two more different in sound.

During my first visit to Hockley Hustle festival in 2022, an all-dayer around the cultural heartbeat of Nottingham, soul-pop sensation Rob Green’s acoustic set was such an undisputed highlight, I was wondering how he could possibly top it this year. Well, he managed it.

Performing in the corner of Broadway Cinema’s café with the Rob Rosa String Quartet accompanying him, people were literally queueing at the door to catch even the smallest glimpse of his incredible thirty-minute set. And rightfully so, as the enigmatic performer proved once again his unrivalled ability to bring immeasurable positive energy to a room and leave the audience joyously radiant by the end. I always thought if he could bottle that energy and transfer it to his studio output, he would be unstoppable. Based on his MANHOOD project released at the start of November, it looks like he had the same idea.

Unlike any other shortplayer released in 2023, MANHOOD is a stunning new visual EP that explores masculinity, self-love and racial identity. Centred around his heartfelt recent singles I’ll Be Around and What Are We Waiting For, the other parts are short vignettes made up of beautiful gospel harmonies, catchy hooks, conversation recordings and deep spoken word passages. With the film version impressively shot in a single take too, it all makes for a powerful 10-minute experience.

A special project by a very special talent, MANHOOD gives the perfect insight into Rob’s unrivalled charm and heart as both an artist and performer. Due to take the project on a UK tour next year, I implore you to go out of your way to see his life-affirming live show if you can – I guarantee you’ll want to capture the positivity in the air and bring it home with you.

Watch the MANHOOD short film here

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1. Sucker by bexx

“Sometimes falling in love feels like the most important thing in the world, especially when you’re not doing it.” – bexx, 2023

For me, the very best shortplayers should be all killer no filler – with most at four to six tracks long, there really is no excuse on that front. Additionally for me though, they should also take you on a conceptual journey or tell you a story in the same way any great album would. Enter Notts-hailing, synthpop superstar bexx, with her banger-filled debut EP that guides the listener through the highs and lows of her hapless love life.

Ever since discovering bexx through a support slot for Fickle Friends at the start of 2022, she has been on a roll. From her incredible breakout single Hard To Love complete with soaring 80s-tinged guitar solo, to more recent efforts like the extremely catchy One More Night and body positive, rock anthem Prettier, bexx has shown her knack for writing addictive, resonant pop songs is as good as anybody in the genre right now. Taking her first big step forward in 2023, she finally released this her debut EP and it is just the perfect showcase for her talent.

Sucker presents five songs about the eternal search for human connection and the stumbling blocks along the way. It is an EP filled with irresistible tongue-in-cheek humour and packed wall-to-wall with cathartic, anti-love songs with which any amiable cynic can relate. This is “unserious, heartbreak pop” of the highest order and it makes for the most joyously fun EP of the year.

The opening title track is the perfect tone-setter, as bexx describes the urge to text back a former lover, with her wry lyricism firmly at the fore on lines like “I still wonder, do you wonder, how I’m doing, who I’m under – I’m not lonely, I’m just going through the motions.” It’s this light-hearted take on these common melancholic feelings that makes bexx so refreshing and the song itself is one of her most instantly gratifying yet, thanks to its hooky chorus.

Inescapably catchy single I’m Disgusting follows, where bexx describes becoming that hopelessly lovesick romantic she’s always despised (“The lovey-dovey shit belongs on the TV, I’d rather die”). However, the honeymoon period of the relationship quickly ends, as bexx then throws us listeners into the brutal break-up on excellent single, Stupid. Culminating in the frustration-fuelled refrain “I hate this song, ‘cause it’s about you”, it is tailor-made for heartbroken festival crowds to sing back with angst.

Recent single Bad For Each Other is then undoubtedly the EP’s best moment, with bexx found unravelling a toxic friends-with-benefits relationship (“Steal a kiss, 3AM, just a secret between friends – even though I don’t feel used, still a little bit confused”). Once again channelling some palpable rock energy with a guitar-driven chorus, it is mixed seamlessly with a brilliantly produced electronic beat on the quieter, almost whispered verses.

After taking this wild journey with bexx through her romantic life, navigating attraction, sex, heartbreak and all the mixed emotions found along the way, the EP’s climatic song Haha, I’m dying alone can’t help but feel brutally poignant. This is the moment where bexx finally lifts that shield of humour that she’s carried throughout just a little bit, but enough to show the vulnerability hiding underneath - acknowledging that making a joke out of these feelings is her way of coping with the strain of it all. It’s another special, brilliantly written pop song and it’ll have you reaching through your headphones to give bexx a big comforting hug at the end of it.

For a first outing, bexx really couldn’t have crafted a better shortplayer to introduce new listeners into her world. A collection that has been cohesively pulled together and is simply beaming with the catchy, singalong choruses and witty takes that have made her music such a joy to behold. She has really knocked it out of the park with this batch of songs and it is no surprise that it has held on throughout the year to remain my favourite EP of 2023.

Listen here

Thanks for reading – I’ll be back next week with final year-end awards, including my favourite live shows and Top 100 songs of 2023!

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chorusfm · 4 months

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SOLAK – “Untitled Cowboy” (Video Premiere)

Today I’m so excited to introduce everyone to a new Indie Lo-Fi artist, SOLAK, who will be releasing his debut single called “Untitled Cowboy” to all streaming services tomorrow. On this heartfelt song and video that showcases the depth of SOLAK’s sound, that fits somewhere in the realm of artists like Elliott Smith and Jack Johnson, SOLAK quickly cements himself as a key artist to watch. When speaking on his ability to write everything himself, this artist shared, “I still write on my own, and I obviously set some boundaries. But within that framework, the musicians are given the freedom to add their own personality. I enjoy that myself when I’m playing for someone else.” If you’re enjoying the new track, please consider pre-ordering his debut LP, Atlas, here. I was also able to catch up with this new artist for a brief interview below. Can you talk more about the locations you chose to showcase in the music video for “Untitled Cowboy”? Where did you actually shoot and what’s the significance of the house and museum we see featured? Great question! Actually the music video is “a day in the life” with a weird twist of story. The storyline has been written by my cousin, Victor Maillard. And my double is played by other cousin Simon Houthuys. So it became a family collaboration. On top of that we decided to shoot in the house of our grandmother. She moved out recently, and for us this house a place full of memories. We could finally be in every room (something we couldn’t do when we were kids!). I lied in her bed, and took a bath in her bathroom, a special experience for me. Knowing that it’s probably the last time we were about to be in the house. The videoclip became sort of a timestamp for our shared history. It adds an extra layer of emotion to the song for me. The percussion in “Untitled Cowboy” has the same sort of distinct/homemade sound that the percussion on a Fiona Apple track might have. How did you go about writing and producing the percussion for this track? Through the whole album actually we tried to look for the contrast between “bright” & “darkers” sounds. For me that’s often translated on a spectrum of saturation in sound. Steven (Van Gelder, the mixer) and me are a huge fan of the Latin playboys, Tchad Blake and Mitchell Froom, so I guess we went looking for that aesthetic. In the song I needed some sort of “drive”, like a small train, but it had to be light and easygoing for a longtime. When a heavy bassdrum finally arrives you are happy to hear it :) All the parts are played by Olivier Penu. We recorded everything pretty high-end, in an amazing studio in Norway. That gave us a lot of headroom to move wherever we wanted sonically. Would you explain some of the symbolism in the video for “Untitled Cowboy”? The video has an almost “Being John Malkovich” feel – both comedic and chilling. What did you want viewers to feel after watching it? The storyline was written by my cousin Victor Maillard, and he went for an extra layer of a story. It’s dreamy, and not really clear and also eternal. The video is an eternal loop of me looking for me time after time. It might not be too obvious, but we wanted that vagueness. We tried to capture the fragility of the words, and the fact that the song is based on a dream. But as you said, we wanted it to be light and funny as well, bit of a Wes Anderson world. Thanks to the beautiful colors, created by Robbe Maes. --- Please consider becoming a member so we can keep bringing you stories like this one. ◎ https://chorus.fm/features/solak-untitled-cowboy-video-premiere/

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bytheangell · 4 years

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Accidental Truths

For @thehuntersmoondiscord‘s ‘Valentine’s Day or Halloween?’ event, inspired by the moodboard below created by @miss-shiva-adler <3) (Read on AO3)

It’s only been a few months since she got her memories back, and Clary is starting to spend more and more time around the Institute, while still trying to finish out her school year. Today she’s working with Jace on some of her fighting techniques when a familiar silhouette appears in the doorway, providing the perfect distraction for a much-needed break (at least as far as Clary’s protesting muscles are concerned).

“Magnus!” she says, grinning. “I haven’t seen you in weeks. Love the hair,” she adds. On the side of his dark hair he’s sporting streaks of red and pink, likely in theme with Valentine’s Day, which is only three days away now.

“Thank you. Seemed fitting for the occasion,” Magnus smiles.

“Right, you and Alec went to that… movie thing,” Jace says, coming up behind Clary after putting the weapons away.

“Local short film showcase,” Magnus amends, and if he’s looking pointedly at Clary she can only assume it’s because he knows something like that won’t mean anything to Jace. At least, she thinks that until he adds: “Which I actually wanted to talk to Biscuit here about.” His tone is… careful? Guarded? There’s something strange to it, though the slight smirk on his face eases the immediate tension Clary felt.

“Why?” She asks cautiously.

“Because one of the more interesting features was written and directed by a film student, a Miss Thea Vaughn. Something tells me you know her?” Magnus says, watching her reaction carefully as he mentions the name. The moment she hears it, Clary freezes.

“Oh no,” she says, the color draining from her face. “Oh my god, I forgot all about that.”

“All about what?” Jace asks.

“All about a movie set around a vampire and werewolf who fall in love, against all odds. The vampire, a nerdy boy in a band that plays shows after dark, meets the werewolf bartender who just happens to have scars on her neck…” Magnus describes, and though Clary’s certain he could go on to list more familiar details it wouldn’t take a genius to know exactly who that sounds like.

Clary braces herself for Jace to freak out, or for Magnus to lecture her for not keeping tabs on any secret information she might’ve let slip during the year without her memories of the Shadow World.

Instead, Jace laughs. “You made Simon and Maia’s relationship into a movie?”

“I, uh, I may have given the story idea to a friend with some drawings as references. I thought it was just something I dreamed up, like my paintings! I didn’t know!” Clary defends. The bits and pieces of her lost memories that she dreamed about over that year felt more like fever dreams than anything that could even vaguely be actual memories. “How bad is it?” Clary asks, turning the question to Magnus and mostly praying she hadn’t given Thea Simon and Maia’s names to use.

“The names are different and the actors don’t look much like them outside of Maia’s scars. It’s all generic enough until he takes a portal to the Faerie Realm for a spell from the Queen that will allow him to walk in the daylight,” Magnus admits. “Unfortunately, there’s really no denying the influence at that point, even if that isn’t quite accurate.”

As far as Clary knows, Magnus doesn’t know how Simon became a Daylighter, even if he knows it wasn’t because of the Seelie Queen. Thankfully that seems to be one secret even her subconscious self decided to keep. Still…

“Shit. This is bad, isn’t it?” Clary asks, the tension rising again.

Magnus shrugs. “Honestly? Vampires and werewolves and Faeries are so overdone these days, I don’t think the Clave is going to worry about some indie college kid’s film that all of 300 people might see. But Alec’s smoothing things over proactively just in case,” he adds.

“Thanks,” she says. That makes her feel a little better, at least in terms of larger-scale consequences. Which only leaves the personal ones now.

“I can’t let Simon or Maia find out about this,” Clary says. “I’ll never be able to live it down.”

“Oh, it’s way too late for that,” comes Alec’s voice as he rounds the corner and walks through the doorway. The smile on his face is far too self-satisfied to mean anything good. “The first thing I did was tell Lily we’re organizing a Valentine’s Day movie night.”

“Of course you did,” Clary groans. Ever since Lily took over the local vampire clan, she and Maia have been working closely with Alec towards a lot of long-overdue changes in the Shadow World. “I don’t suppose there’s anything I can bribe you with to change your mind?”

Alec shakes his head emphatically. “Not a chance. Getting to watch Maia’s reaction to this is probably going to be the highlight of my entire year. And I’ve been going way too easy on Simon lately, for Izzy’s sake. As far as I’m concerned they’re both long overdue for something like this.”

Clary sighs and Alec reaches out to give her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “If it makes you feel better, the movie’s actually pretty good! And, more importantly, I convinced the Clave it isn’t any sort of threat.”

“...‘more importantly’ so you’re allowed to make sure everyone sees it now?” Jace asks, a smirk fully situated on his features.

“I didn’t say that,” Alec not-so-casually avoids directly answering. “Oh, look at the time, Magnus we really should be heading home.”

Clary debated arguing for a minute, wondering if maybe she could manage to look sad enough that Alec would give in but she knows Alec better than to think that would work for something relatively harmless like this. Better to save the puppy dog routine for a time when she’d really need it.

The moment Alec and Magnus were gone Clary turned to Jace. “Alright, I know we’re supposed to do another training session, but I need to make sure I know exactly what I’m getting into when the others see this. Get changed, we have a movie to catch.”

#clace #malec #shadowhunters #clary fray #jace herondale #alec lightwood #magnus bane #hmdiscord #long post #elle writes a few deadbeat lines #i never have images with things I hope I did that right and didn't stretch or ruin anything jdklsfjdlksjflksd

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happymetalgirl · 4 years

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September 2020

As quickly as I caught up, I fell behind, and I’ll explain it all later, but that’s why some of the review blurbs here are really short while others are much longer. I still tried to make the shorter ones as expressive and dense as possible, even though I personally don’t like that approach so much. Anyway, September 2020, still a hellhole.

Faidra - Six Voices Inside

Drawing very obvious influence from Burzum’s Filosofem for the ambient portion of its sound, Faidra’s atmospheric black metal debut manages to marry both the snow-hazy ambience of Norway’s second wave with today’s more full-bodied naturalistic ambient black metal in a ceremony rather respectably elegant for a debut.

7/10

Heathen - Empire of the Blind

One of the more anticipated thrash metal releases of the year, Heathen’s more intensely melodically focused and unbalanced approach only drags their lethargic Testament-sequel brand of melodic thrash down, as Empire of the Blind trades out the genre’s hallmark spitfire aggression for dull guitar leads and uninspired operatic vocal lines that leave only a desire for the former.

5/10

Oceans of Slumber - Oceans of Slumber

A demonstrably competent, but woefully soulless and bloated display of neo-classical prog metal chops, Oceans of Slumber’s self-titled fifth LP is one of many of the genre’s avatars for much of its impressive face-value and numb delivery.

5/10

Corey Taylor - CMFT

We all knew this day would come, the charismatic Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman has finally released a solo album. And you could tell from the rollout with the star-cameo-studded music video for the lead single, “CMFT Must Be Stopped”, that Corey was going to lean in on it. But honestly, for as much natural swagger Corey Taylor can wield and showcases on the track, his straightforward rock songwriting that has graced Stone Sour’s discography is astoundingly weak, and this song’s more exuberant egotistical indulgence amplifies it rather than remedying it. It’s definitely one of the worst singles I’ve heard all year, especially for a project so highly anticipated as this, and there’s really no excuse for it to be this bad. If the general goal of a solo project is to transcribe your creative DNA onto an album as authentically as possible, and if this is an honest portrait of Corey’s creative core, it really just affirms for the many people annoyed by his media omnipresence that his main talent is just being the great big mouth. It should be obvious, but I’m not saying this to disparage in any way his massive contributions to the legendary legacy of Slipknot or even the genuinely important role he’s taken up as metal’s de facto representative press secretary. It’s not unheard of, and probably more normal than the opposite, for group-embedded artists to struggle to get a strong solo venture going. Thankfully, the lead single is the lowest point this album stoops to, but with its generic 80’s hard rock and glam anthems, it frequently gets pretty damn close. And look, I can tell it’s an album that’s supposed to be more about having a good time than any of that other artist DNA shit I brought up earlier, but its only routes there are through cheap imitation of other artists’ styles, and this still wouldn’t be anywhere near my first well of songs to draw from if I were making the most drunken of tailgater playlists.

4/10

Skeletal Remains - The Entombment of Chaos

Relatively new on the wider death metal scene, the Californian four-piece show once again, on their fourth album, why there remains such an appetite for old-school death metal with effective beating sessions and shredding clinics like The Entombment of Chaos.

7/10

Messiah - Fracmont

Originally part of the movement of early intensifying that inched fast, heavy, growly metal closer and closer to, and eventually over, the line that would separate thrash from what would become the vast world of death metal before their lengthy disbandment, Switzerland’s Messiah are fortunate to return to a world still hungry for new and old flavors of death metal with the stylistically and compositionally vintage (if not rusty) but somewhat technologically updated death-thrash of Fracmont, but they will need to do more than just pick up where they left off and acclimate their approach to the modern era if they intend to stick it out in today’s harsher death metal ecosystem.

6/10

Stryper - Even the Devil Believes

The Christian glam metal outfit have really leaned into the power metal glory that their high-soaring brand was always kind of adjacent to over the past few albums, and to their benefit, and despite what their goofy striped outfit look back in the day would have led you to predict, the steadfast veteran Christian rockers have aged far better than most of their 80’s hair metal contemporaries. Nevertheless, the walking oxymorons’ cheesy, on-the-nose, and occasionally preachy lyricism remain a pesky turn-off to both the religion they espouse and the medium they evangelize through. Frontman Michael Sweet took a bit of a misdirected offense from another reviewer who pointed out exactly this about his band’s new album, taking some media time to play the insufferable persecuted god-fearing follower of Jesus that so many Christians so delusionally imagine they are as a majority religious group with more political power than any other. Now with Michael Sweet claiming that his band has it so rough because they’re openly Christian, I say it really comes down to how you present it, and he especially presents it kinda goofy. One of the songs I’ve been getting energized by a lot on my workout playlist is “Devil’s Den” by Impending Doom, an also openly Christian band. And apart from the nasty 8-string groove, the song’s central refrain “slaughter the demons that are clawing on my brother’s back, until my brothers fight back” about support through spiritual struggle against one’s vices is a thrilling lyric that frames that aspect of Christian spirituality in a much more relatable and sympathizable manner. I’m not expecting Stryper to go into gratuitous deathcore brutality to deliver their message, but they can’t be mad about receiving criticism when they haven’t evolved the 9th-grade-reading-level lyricism that was begrudgingly accepted in the 80’s. Sociopolitical stuff and frontman antics aside, Even the Devil Believes is an instrumentally solid, but exceptionally lyrically corny record full of Bible verse quotes and Sunday School rhymes. I’ll highlight the song “Do Unto Others” for beating the odds on this album with its invigorating sing-along power metal melody, but that song is perhaps the sole reason my feelings in this album are more neutral overall instead on negative, while the vast majority of this album is just begging to be instrumental or at least tuned out.

5/10

Mastodon - Medium Rarities

Mastodon really could have just saved the earth-quaking opening single for their next album or released it as a stand-alone single instead of with the other forty minutes of entirely unnecessary of instrumental versions and live cuts among the other worthwhile material to compile for an album like this.

Fallen Torches/10

Ihsahn - Pharos

The now prog-immersed enigmatic Emperor frontman put out a pretty solid EP earlier in the year, but I was still hoping that Ihsahn would come through with a more essential addition to his solo catalog, and even if it’s a small one, his second EP of 2020 is that addition. Pharos is a succinct, five-song display of proggy melodicism much more confident and infectious than the still-respectable Telemark, further bolstering Ihsahn’s prog credibility and proving to anyone skeptical that he was all esoteric experimental bark and no substantive bite that he indeed has the songwriting chops to thrive in the genre.

8/10

Uniform - Shame

The New York duo’s sardonic and noisy industrial metal neither progresses nor regresses on their fourth album, Michael Berdan’s nasty vocal delivery and the backing industrial instrumentation lose steam and effectiveness rather quickly and the numbing experience ends up being over before you know it for the wrong reasons. It has its moments, but they are brief and few in number.

6/10

Cloudkicker - Solitude

Through an eleventh album under the name of his occasionally djenty instrumental prog studio project, Ohio virtuoso Ben Sharp once again flexes his technical and compositional prowess in an entertaining rather than self-congratulatory manner.

7/10

Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos

This was a bit of a weird one, and it definitely caught me off guard for a few reasons, mostly for how it flows and for my own not hearing the title track previously when it was released as a single. The iconic 90’s boogeyman of the religious right wing in America is on his eleventh album now and (I mentioned it when I reviewed his tenth album, Heaven Upside Down, in 2011) it seems like people are finally accepting that the Antichrist Superstar’s fire-stoking strategy of blasphemous industrial metal last century was something that served its purpose for a time that has now passed. With Manson now on the more mortally introspective side of 50, the more measured rock of the latter portion of his catalog is starting to outsize what so many see as his grotesque golden age, which has seen him dip occasionally into the sounds of his beloved trilogy, but mostly dabbling in glam and indie rock sounds to find a late-career footing to sustain him. And on this album’s collaboration with country outlaw Shooter Jennings, I think the aging provocateur has found a direction that could be promising. Now I say it that way because I don’t think they gave us more than a tantalizing taste of it on this album, but I would love for Manson to further pursue what he and Jennings pull off together at the beginning of We Are Chaos. It took me a little while to warm up to the hammed up spoken word intro and industrial rock body of the opening track, “Red, Black, and Blue”, but I do think it does kick the album off well, albeit deceptively. It’s easy to forget how well Manson can hold himself on a ballad, not just on his meditation on his own aging during “Running to the Edge of the World”, but also on several cuts in his famed trilogy like “Lamb of God”, “Man That You Fear”, and “Coma White”. But after the somewhat tame fire of the intro track, Manson jumps straight into three songs of completely unexpected indie rock balladry that capture his mission to soundtrack every listener’s individual apocalypse at this time. Going through a lot of changes in life myself, I had a bit of unexpected catharsis with these songs that I think I’m going to be unable to dissociate them from with future listening. Unfortunately, Manson doesn’t re-engage ballade mode until “Broken Needle” closes the album, with the middle portion of the album having some good moments of industrial rock swagger, like “Perfume” and “Infinite Darkness”, but also some songs like “Half-Way & One Step Forward” that are just too dry on energy to be worth the time. But overall, I think the brightness in this album’s best spots make it well worth more than just a cursory listen, and I just hope that this album is a turning point for Manson and a step toward finding his groove without the flagrant heresy that built his youth.

7/10

Derek Sherinian - The Phoenix

Meandering through a generic prog rock instrumental wasteland and picking up the occasional morsel from between the dried out cracks of desert floor, The Phoenix is barely even a hearty display of the prog metal skill and street cred we all know the talented keyboardist to have.

5/10

Napalm Death - Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism

British grindcore legends Napalm Death need no introduction at this point, and with plenty of excitement behind their most lengthily-awaited LP after 2015’s well-respected Apex Predator - Easy Meat (and the sizzling appetizer the Logic Ravaged by Brute Force EP gave us), the band’s fifteenth full-length onslaught of deadly grindcore, Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism is a satisfactory dose of the band’s usual black-pilled rage against political and societal ills at most, with a few odd, to say the least, stylistic choices to say the least that beg the question of why this took so long.

6/10

Finntroll - Vredesvävd

While its adherence to the band’s boundaries within the niche genre they occupy makes it unlikely to take its established Finnish masterminds to any new heights, Vredesvävd is a professional, yet still fun serving of Finntroll’s black-metal-flavored folk metal brimming with energy and optimism.

6/10

Proscription - Conduit

Another Finnish outfit making their mark on 2020, Proscription still have some important ground to cover in ironing out and more specifically differentiating their blackened death metal sound, but Conduit is hardly a timid debut, providing a solid foundation for the four-piece to build upon.

6/10

Carnation - Where Death Lies

Not the faintest hint of a dreaded sophomore slump can be heard on the Belgians’ unflinching, merciless follow-up to their sizzlingly nasty 2018 debut album, Chapel of Abhorrence. Where Death Lies is as unyielding of a continuation as it gets, and in the best way such a straightforward trajectory can be. Nothing but skin-shredding, means-tested death metal in its most fibrant Floridian Form from front to back, Carnation showcase their skills from groove to solo in another stellar all-around display of force that provides a perhaps necessary reminder to the fans and critics annoyed by its ubiquitousness of the raw power that can come from unadulterated death metal.

8/10

Fit for a King - The Path

Fit for a King deliver perhaps the most convincing pathos yet for their more brightly melodic brand of Architects-like metalcore on their sixth album, putting on an exquisite balancing act that could sway even the most stubbornly cross-armed observer who likes the breakdowns but hates the clean singing.

7/10

Kataklysm - Unconquered

Kataklysm’s 2018 album, Meditations has ironically stuck out to me in retrospect because it was the shortest full-length review I had ever done, simply because there was so little to say about the unmemorable melodeath on that record. The band have definitely bounced back with some potent fire in their belly on the metalcore-infused Unconquered. Boasting more infectious grooves and more crushing breakdowns with a notably greater sense of urgency behind them, it’s still a pretty unambiguous and unambitious record, but it makes a far more convincing case for itself.

7/10

The Ocean Collective - Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic / Cenozoic

After a largely forgettable preceding act from all the way back in 2018, The Ocean Collective Return much more revitalized and sufficiently warmed up for a much more engaging 51 minutes of progressive metal that checks both classical and modern boxes.

7/10

Fires in the Distance - Echoes from Deep November

The debut album from the Connecticut four-piece offers a rather compositionallly directionless and standard take on the death-doom it offers. Even while taking a melodic approach very similar to that of a Khemmis or a Spirit Adrift, the attempted soulful guitar leads come off as aimlessly noodly and unplanned as the structures enclosing them, whose dynamic shifts feel more like repeated defibrillation attempts for unlively songs.

5/10

Darkcluster - Spirit of the Void

The debut album from this Canadian one-man-band studio project makes its intent to fill the sci-fi extreme thrash void that Vektor might not get to return to in the wake of the revealing David DiSanto’s domestic violence toward his girlfriend, and while Darkcluster’s mastermind clearly has the technicality down, the atrocious vocals across the rather lengthy and largely compositionally aimless project greatly hold this album back.

4/10

Swine of Dissent - An Uprising

A safer and more measured, but more successful black-metal-flavored thrash debut record, Swine of Dissent still have some work to do on the compositional floor as well, but with not as many glaring flaws, they have enough to start with and move forward with this type of thrash metal.

5/10

Gazpacho - Fireworker

The artsy Norwegian outfit returns to the more sprawling prog rock that hooked me into their music on Night for their eleventh album, but Fireworker is far from the kind tepid, nostalgic return to normal that a late-stage revisiting of older styles often suggests of other acts. Elevating their already lofty sound and massive scope to new cinematic, choral, orchestral heights with astounding ease, the soulfulness contained within the band’s clinical execution of such a daunting series of tasks makes Fireworker their most accomplished and enrapturing work yet.

9/10

Sumac - May You Be Held

While far from fatal, after the enthrallingly eccentric and humblingly heavy sludge experimentation of 2018’s Love in Shadow, the slightly tempered creativity and muddied production of May You Be Held is a mildly disappointing fourth LP simply for how high its creators have set their own bar. Nevertheless, Sumac continue to impress with a noisy, explosive, yet hypnotic approach to post-metal that thrives in the band’s love to draw outside the lines and with a deluxe box of crayons.

8/10

Obsidian Kingdom - Meat Machine

Priding themselves on their eccentricity, Obsidian Kingdom come through with one of the most stylistically diverse, genuinely experimental, and entirely entertaining sludge albums of the year, if not recent memory. Taking the thunderous sludge of Mastodon and going at it with the mindset of a band like Sumac, the quirky Catalans pack operatic vocals and even Slipknot-sequel passages into the intricate compactor that is Meat Machine, and it’s a feat they can certainly take pride in.

8/10

Deftones - Ohms

Coming from a big fan of both Gore and Koi No Yokan, Deftones’ plunge deeper into the elegant shoegaze of this later stage of their career on Ohms was bungled far too much by a lapse in the critical compositional organization that has allowed their ventures into spacey alternative metal territory to succeed.

5/10

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fayewonglibrary · 4 years

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A Cantopop Dream Girl’s First Film Reverie (2019)

By Oliver Wang

If you weren’t a devotee of the Cantopop world in the early 1990s, the casting of Faye Wong in Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express (1994) may not have caught your attention. Starring in her first major role, the singer looked much the fresh ingenue, cropped coif, tinted sunglasses, and all. Her character—also named Faye—was played with such a frenetic, awkward energy that she may well have been the blueprint for the “manic pixie dream girl” trope.

In Asia, though, Wong had already become one of the region’s biggest pop stars by 1994, and the movie premiered a month after Wong had released Random Thoughts, her eighth album in six years. To put her casting in contemporary terms: imagine a promising but still unproven art-house filmmaker convincing Ariana Grande to star in a low-budget indie film that happened to come out weeks after the release of her chart-topping Thank U, Next. For Wong Kar-wai (WKW), Chungking Express was a breakout international hit, but for Faye Wong, it was one highlight in an already meteoric career.

Landing a genuine pop star was a kind of capstone for a director whose previous films had already shown a deep love for the power of pop songs. A key scene in WKW’s debut film, As Tears Go By (1988), is built around a jukebox playing Sandy Lam’s Cantonese cover of Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away.” The mysterious, mesmerizing title scene in Days of Being Wild (1990), set amid jungle foliage, makes use of the minor 1964 instrumental hit “Always in My Heart,” by the Brazilian guitar duo Los Indios Tabajaras. One wonders if, in an alternate timeline, WKW would have made a great, taste-making DJ.

Chungking Express is WKW’s greatest “jukebox” film for many reasons, including its casting of Faye Wong and its prominent placement of pop tracks, plus the fact that the director uses not one but two different jukeboxes in pivotal scenes. The actual number of songs isn’t as extensive as in Scorsese or Tarantino films of the same era, but the four tunes used most strategically in Chungking Express are each repeated at least twice. In the film’s first half (which features a young Takeshi Kaneshiro alongside the legendary Brigitte Lin in her final film role), Dennis Brown’s somber 1973 reggae single “Things in Life” plays four times. In the second half, which focuses on the unconventional relationship between Faye Wong’s Faye and Tony Leung’s Cop 663, we hear Dinah Washington’s 1959 version of “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes” twice and the Mamas and the Papas’ iconic 1966 single “California Dreamin’” a staggering nine times.

Most of these uses are diegetic, played on jukeboxes, CD players, or stereos. As we, the audience, listen to the music, we’re also watching people on-screen listening to music. Because of this, the songs in Chungking Express don’t just enhance ambiance, they also craft character, and these two streams flow together sublimely with “Dream Lover,” the Cantopop cover of an alternative rock hit by the Cranberries from 1992, performed by none other than Faye Wong.

Born Wang Fei in mainland China, Wong moved with her family from Beijing to Hong Kong in the eighties to pursue a performing career. Her first record label, trying to avoid associations with the mainland, gave her the generic, Anglicized stage name “Shirley Wong.” Her early albums sold, but after a few years, frustrated with her lack of creative control, she took a hiatus and relocated to New York City in 1991 as a gesture of escape and self-discovery. We can only assume she was also immersing herself in the trans-Atlantic pop scene of that time.

We don’t know if Wong heard the original “Dreams” in New York, but by the time she covered the song on Random Thoughts, the Cranberries’ song had become a signature hit twice over. It was the Irish band’s debut single from the fall of 1992, but they also rereleased it in the spring of 1994, after the massive success of their follow-up single, “Linger.” My friend, music writer Ned Raggett, described it as “a brisk, charging number combining low-key tension and full-on rock,” which is to say it’s a song filled with a sense of taut control but also giddy release. It’s easy to imagine how Wong, seeking to reclaim her artistic autonomy, might have been drawn to it.

Upon returning to Hong Kong in 1992, Wong reclaimed her birth name by changing her stage name to Faye Wong, and she immediately began to score a string of best-selling albums, many featuring covers of alternative rock hits. “Dream Lover” isn’t the only example to appear on Random Thoughts; the album also includes a pair of Cocteau Twins’ covers.

Showcasing “Dream Lover” in Chungking Express so close to Random Thoughts’ release was surely a savvy marketing move, common in the Hong Kong entertainment industry. However, the use of the song—alongside Wong’s real-life stardom—also works beautifully with the narrative and logic of the movie. From the moment Faye is introduced at the start of the second half, she’s already living in a dream of sorts. When we first meet both her and Cop 663 (Tony Leung), she’s working at her cousin’s food stand and blasting “California Dreamin’” out of a kitchen stereo. It’s so loud that 663 has to awkwardly shout at Faye just to put in his order, but Faye seems unfazed by the volume. With each repeated playing of the song, we’re meant to hear it as a commentary on Faye’s dissatisfaction with the drudgery of work and her weariness of Hong Kong’s gloomy, wet climate. California—“safe and warm”—represents a fantasy to escape to, first in her imagination, later in reality.

“Dream Lover” obviously extends the same “dream” theme, but as it’s also performed by Wong the singer, in scenes featuring Faye the character, there’s a rich meta-text at play. In “Dreams,” the Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan sings of trying to grapple with her sense of fantasy and reality in the context of an existing relationship. Wong’s “Dream Lover” has different lyrics that seem to recast the song as one about a lover who may be real or may be imagined. That ambiguity echoes Faye’s infatuation with 663, which she goes out of her way to avoid making explicit. 663 may be the lover in her dreams but not one she is keen to pursue in reality. As if to stress this point, we first hear “Dream Lover” after Faye has stolen his apartment keys in order to sneak in to dust his shelves, swap labels on his pantry cans, even drug his water bottle so she can continue her clandestine cleaning while he’s passed out. (This probably seemed more quirky and charming in 1994. Today, it’d likely be cause for a restraining order and psych eval.) Faye wants to be in 663’s presence, but only indirectly. She has more of a relationship with his domicile than with him.

That first use of “Dream Lover” is played under a montage of an extended cleaning session, and cinematographer Christopher Doyle shoots Wong with a handheld camera, adding to the already off-balance feeling of the scene. My colleague Brian Hu has astutely noted in a video essay that this shooting style seems to deliberately mirror the aesthetics of Wong’s music videos of the time. Hu’s analysis posits both the movie and music videos were shot in such a way to present Wong/Faye as a “whimsical dreamer,” “a free spirit,” “inquisitive and mysterious.” Moreover, in real life, Wong left Hong Kong to “find herself” in the U.S., and that story would have been well-known to any Cantopop fan watching Chungking Express. Film Faye is so tightly interwoven with Faye Wong that one wonders, if Wong had been unavailable or uninterested in the role, would WKW have abandoned the character or storyline completely?

When I first sat in a Bay Area theater to watch Chungking Express in the mid-nineties, I knew absolutely none of Wong’s backstory, and yet I still found the song immensely affecting, especially when it returns a second time, forming a coup de grace moment during the film’s final scene.

To recap: the last chapter in Chungking Express occurs a year after Faye has decided that, rather than meet with 663 at the California Bar, she’s going to travel to the actual California instead to see if it lives up to her dream. Now a stewardess, Faye drops by her cousin’s food stand only to find 663 there, no longer a police officer but now the stand’s owner. Before, Faye was the one infatuated with “California Dreamin’,” but now it’s 663 playing the song, also loudly, on the kitchen stereo. He is surprised but clearly pleased to see her. She, however, is nervous about having her “dream lover” in front of her and begins to make excuses to leave. At this point, the will-they/won’t-they tension from earlier in the film returns, and as viewers invested in their potential pairing, we’re left anxious that this moment too will end without resolution.

But 663 then retrieves the letter Faye had left him the night she departed. It’s a hand-drawn boarding pass but rainwater has blurred out the destination, and Faye offers to write him a new one. When asked where he wants to go, 663 replies, “Wherever you want to take me,” and the last we see of the pair is Faye inking a new pass on a napkin while 663 stares with affectionate intensity. One final moment flashes back to the stereo, where “California Dreamin’” had been playing just before. This time, it’s “Dream Lover” that swells up and kicks in before the end credits flash on.

Ending with a song as robust as “Dream Lover” doesn’t just reinforce the movie’s unique, unpredictable energy, it also captures something of how we often experience dreams themselves: as intense but disjointed bursts of images and emotion that we wake from, momentarily disoriented yet filled with feeling. The exuberance of the song offers a form of musical catharsis for all the deliciously confusing tension that’s built up over the past hour. We don’t know for certain what will happen to Faye and 663 after this scene, but what the sound of “Dream Lover” offers in the moment is a rousing sense of possibility. The song’s sonic verve—with its “low-key tension” and energetic release—fuels hope that our lovers may not be so star-crossed after all, as they pursue their romantic dreams, wherever those may take them.

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SOURCE: THE CRITERION COLLECTION

#2019

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recommendedlisten · 5 years

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A lot of the types of music that defined the 2010s went missing in 2019. There were definitely event albums from pop icons and its Twitter cult heroes as well as rap egos whose fingerprints helped define the game this decade, but most of it kept on brand and didn't chance changing the shape of their own sound. Similarly, the country music scene will probably always survive for better or for worse even if it doesn't have artists like Kacey Musgraves pushing its borders outward in colorful directions. This, however, was actually the best thing that could happen to independent music as we turn the corner into the 2020s. If there is one takeaway from the artists who put their best work forward in 2019, it's that now is the time to take risks, ignore algorithms, and let your sonic truths fly, as it rendered the most intersting new sounds we've heard outside of the poptimist eyeview in quite some time. Least surprising? Leading the way among the best of them is an artist whose career has been a narrative of constant innovation and reinvention, and has used our culture climate as her canvas. The 30 Best Albums of 2019 were simply put, fascinating exporations in music.

30. Jessica Pratt - Quiet Signs [Mexican Summer]

When so much of today’s music is influenced by a constant need to improve on production methods and recording innovation, an album that comes along like Jessica Pratt’s Quiet Signs feels like the true alien in our sonic spectrum. Pratt, a bonafide Californian singer-songwriter whose voice sounds more wiser and worn than that of the 30-something odd years she’s walked this earth, has a mystical ability in crafting human folktales. When she sings among soft-strummed nylon and gentle arrangements of pianos, synthetic reverb, and flutes, it feels like you’re hearing a memory come through the airwaves at a distance of somewhere between recent history and another life light years away.To hear Pratt share reflections on memory and occurrences anew is to find yourself webbed within her cosmic plane, however, where the enigmatic nature of her voice, sound, and storytelling transcend any timeline.

29. Field Mouse - Meaning [Topshelf Records]

Part of adulting is growing to accept that we don’t have all of the answers as to why life happens as it does.Meaning is an important album that reminds us of that, but also what it represents for Field Mouse as artists and where we stand collectively at this point on the indie rock timeline. Rachel Browne alongside guitarist Andrew Futral, bassist Saysha Heinzman, and keyboardist Zoë Browne deliver what is to date their most consistent collection of subterranean rock at a moment within the independent music scene where it’s value is becoming more and more rooted in what it gives back to us emotionally rather than fleeting style statements. Though these songs are rife with self-doubt, anxiety, and personal wishes to recovery that may not be your own experiences, the album acts as a mirror for them. Channelling every inkling of ensuing emotion into hooks constructed and compressed in both whirlwind and comedowns, earthly life lessons toiled in infectious choruses, and an engaging pace showcases the Brooklyn four-piece’s strongest side at all corners.

28. American Pleasure Club - fucking bliss [Run for Cover Records]

Sam Ray would have either preferred for American Pleasure Club’s latest effort fucking bliss to have never come out at all. It’s technically not even the project’s second APC effort, as it was recorded back in 2015 just as Teen Suicide was dissolving while Ray found himself in the throes of “manic, terrified, paranoid burst of energy.” That’s very much the best way to sum up American Pleasure Club’s long-overdue rough gem of an album, though, and despite its ugly exterior and disturbing background stories referencing French writer Édouard Levé’s final book and death premonition Suicide, it prevails as being one of the most sonically astounding compositions of art Sam Ray has created in his career. Listeners sorely missing the unabashed abrasiveness since the name change have plenty to indulge in here, with ghostly pianos and vocals submerged in fog being rattled by high voltage static bursts. This constant battle between the light and dark is motif throughout the album, with moments of beauty upheld just long enough to admire for their purity before being temporarily mauled away by grizzly impressions from corners unseen.

27. CEREMONY - In the Spirit World Now [Relapse Records]

If it weren’t for change and the audacity to take creative risks, CEREMONY may not have become one of the most interesting and influential punk bands out there of this past decade. With In the Spirit World Now, their sixth studio effort, the five-piece has returned from a break charged up and more certain now than ever as to what kind of band they want to be. The listen is transcendent in both its style and energy, making for arguably one of the most fascinating punk albums released all year. The Rohnert Park band moves through the listen in a way that takes you through doors of an altered dimension without resistance. There, frontman Ross Farrar finds his voice in its digital breakdowns and short jabs of electrocution. This is no mere state of reincarnation either, as In the Spirit World Now has simply found CEREMONY venturing to a time and space where the rest of the punk world has not caught up with their shape-shifting energy yet.

26. SPELLLING - Mazy Fly [Sacred Bones Records]

Mazy Fly, SPELLLING’s sophomore effort, is Tia Cabral’s first effort being positioned toward a wider net of audiences through the dark music tastemakers of Sacred Bones. Where its debut predecessor in 2017′s Pantheon of Me served as an entry point to her supernatural electronic pop-R&B aesthetic crafted with a Berkeley bedroom fixtures, Mazy Fly is the listen where her ideas are being colored in with bolder lines and a bliss of neon to compliment the ambient waves stirring throughout. Cabral’s capacity to take us on an odyssey that passes through a multi-universe where we experience everything from hypnotic enchantment, existential mysticism, and the horrors of our own history with the same thread of magical lift carrying them through makes Mazy Fly altogether transcendental, even if a trip being full of unexpected turns are the intended direction of her sonic space ship.

25. Wicca Phase Springs Eternal - Suffer On [Run for Cover Records]

As Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, Adam McIlwee’s mopish vocals that once emoted their way through bright textures of post-hardcore riffage with an eased shrug, as the former lead singer of Tigers Jaw has discovered a seamless sweet spot in transcending that same sedated energy over 808s and a murky post-trap atmosphere that aligns with the morbid fashion statements of today’s Soundcloud rap scene. Suffer On, his proper debut full-length, finds Wicca Phase Springs Eternal ambitiously setting out to connect scenescapes from his past and the fleeting present. Vapory, synthetic beats and Wicca Phase’s macabre persona have arrived to conjure themselves within while also stirring up self-haunted ruminations using barebones guitar strums and billowing instrumentals accented by synesthesia. The listen ambitiously connects scenescapes from McIlwee’s past and the fleeting present in a way that stylistically shouldn’t add up, but cohesively does.

24. Girlpool - What Chaos Is Imaginary [ANTI-]

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

23. Jamila Woods - LEGACY! LEGACY! [Jagjaguwar Records]

Chicago’s contemporary R&B scene is shimmering thanks to the creative wisdoms being shared by Jamila Woods within her sophomore effort LEGACY! LEGACY! The songwriter, poet and activist, whose breakout debut HEAV scribed a sense of empowerment as both a woman and a member of the black community in a body of art that doubled as her tribute to her Chi-town roots and identity as well its potential, pays it forward in reverse on her masterful sophomore follow-up through songs inspired by the heroes who helped pushed boundaries in the right direction. From their vantage point, Woods acknowledges her own platform she’s been gifted due to their efforts, and fully embraces the moment to shine. Embellished by a sparkling, future-proof production crossing the live energy in its instrumental arrangements, Woods voice is the vessel for a higher power in gratitude and self-love. LEGACY! LEGACY! lifts her every being -- as well as those who came before her -- to a new level up with it.

22. Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild [Sacred Bones Records]

If this is the apocalypse, then Animated Violence Mild is the dance party on our way out of existence and into oblivion. The third studio effort from Fuck Buttons’ Benjamin John Power and his experimental electronic moniker Blanck Mass exits the grizzly decay of its predecessor World Eater and opts for celebrating the destruction of humankind by way of its ignorance in gross capitalist agendas, toxic consumer culture, and climate threats with bright, movement-based compositions that usher the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight with anticipation. From Powers’ vantage point, the countdown is akin to a New Year’s ball drop. Stardust confetti and a fully edged energy build their way towards this climactic end. Perhaps the album was intended for the Earth alone, as it rids its surface of humans once and for all, and accordingly gives good reason to rejoice in our defeat.

21. Weeping Icon - Weeping Icon [Fire Talk Records]

The self-titled debut full-length from New York City’s Weeping Icon not only avoids regurgitating past noise – It becomes its own culture-consuming meta monster, and does so in a bout of irony in turning a shattered mirror on so many of the communication errors we hold today that neutralize individuality in the Internet void. Essentially, guitarist and vocalist Sarah Fantry, drummer and vocalist Lani Combier-Kapel, bassist Sarah Reinold and now-former guitarist Sarah Lutkenahaus have weaponized their facetious cynicism in their wash of static to the effect of making the world look as twisted as it really is upon realizing how mindless we’ve become with our modes of communication and self-projection. When we are not part of the problem, Weeping Icon reminds us that we are often complicit to them as well. Solutions are available, but realistically, Weeping Icon accept that the world best lived in is the one we make in the dark.

20. Glitterer - Looking Through the Shades [ANTI-]

Ned Russin is moving on from Title Fight, and yet, even he can’t tell you what the final destination is. On his debut album Looking Through the Shades as Glitterer, the undefinable, experimental hardcore and synth-pop band from the presumed former Title Fight bassist and vocalist, no one idea of his sounds truly etched in stone yet, and often, what you hear can be subjective to the listener’s interpretation of it based around their own individual experiences as much as they’re born out of his. Russin makes it a point to make listeners second guess his intentions with a dichotomy of first person narratives and those that explore the extensions of the self. In his sonic vessel, he stylistically shifts from poppy heartbeats in Casiotone to reverb-drenched melodics that in a very faint way resemble a natural progression of where Title Fight were moving sonically on 2015′s Hyperview. Propping up Glitterer’s weirdness as far up to the surface as possible are Alex Giannascoli, b.n.a. (Sandy) Alex G, and heavy music engineer Nate Rizk (known for his work with Code Orange and Power Trip.)

19. Solange - When I Get Home [Columbia Records]

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

18. Charly Bliss - Young Enough [Barsuk Records]

The charm in Charly Bliss’ 2017 breakout debut Guppy was in how the Brooklyn band catapulted a dizzy of emotions into buoyant, bite-sized, sugar-coated electric riffs. Where those kinetic bursts ultimately landed next was part of the wonder. Young Enough, the band’s sophomore effort, provides that answer in tongue-in-cheek delivery with their sonic palette being decidedly adulted into pristine pop-rock. The blinding radiance and waxed production of alternative maximalist Joe Chiccarelli is Charly Bliss’ defense mechanism to process tough pills to swallow out there in the real world. Where Guppy was sweet even when it had its candy hearts smashed into pieces,Young Enough is a growth spurt not only for Eva Hendrick as a songwriter, but a person as well, as she steps out from behind the character sketches that preceded it, and opts to confront heavy darkness without stumbling over her own two feet. The light is there to thematically guide the LP down rocky paths of healing, and by the end, Charly Bliss find a way to the end of the tunnel using their own unconventional creative wisdom.

17. Great Grandpa - Four of Arrows [Double Double Whammy]

As the tarot attributed in the LP title suggests, a period of rest and relaxation has reinvented the dynamic of Great Grandpa, as Four of Arrows is beyond the basic guitar rock energy of the Pac-Northwest band’s debut album Plastic Cough, and instead spills over with more than enough creative risk in their newly uncovered layers that there’s no way one word can box this listen in. Guitars unspool grief and growing in picks and knots, as co-vocalists Carrie Goodwin and guitarist Alex Menne’s presence sands and softens against one another thhrough a strange teetering of raw emotion on the edge of anthemic post-rock, melancholic harmonies and spry multi-instrumentals filled with country-chorded crackles, and ruminative Sufjanisms expanding the air around them. The album is sonic justification for every human’s need to process, reinvent and evolve not just for the sake of moving forward, but to become the best version of themselves as well.

16. Boy Harsher - Careful [Nude Club]

Boy Harsher vocalist Jae Matthews has likened their sound to that of David Lynch Lost Highway, and with the arrival of their sophomore effort Careful, it’s easy to hear why: The album is the Western Mass duo’s strongest representation of a sonic thrillride through the dark of the night where reality and surrealism merge onto the same lane, each exit along the way, revelling in uncertainty through human vessel form. Boy Harsher’s collective’s strength in embodying a centripetal energy with their sound from Careful’s start to finish acts as their own highway. It was a formula they experimented with on 2017′s Country Girl EP in short story form, and is one that gets an expanded view here as we’re presented through an obscured lens in tales of passion, loss, and escapism that are vaguely autobiographical, and informed by Matthews and Gus Muller’s own personal brushes with death, illness and the decay of their own romantic partnership. Channeled across Careful’s storyboard of 10 tracks using compressed EBM currents, pulsing beats, and the bare minimum of lumens necessary to see through the pitch black and icy pavement which Boy Harsher race,

15. Jenny Lewis - On the Line [Warner Bros. Records]

On the Line confirms what we’ve already know about Jenny Lewis, and that’s how she’s a songwriter treasure beyond just the Los Angeles indie rock diamonds in the rough which her crystal powers originally were unearthed. Four albums into her second chapter as a solo musician following her years fronting Rilo Kiley, Lewis’ songwriting craft only continue to polish itself clearly in the Laurel Canyon breeze and the stony-eyed sunshine glares. As with her past journeys, On the Line is marked with travel stories of poets, romantic vagabonds, boys named Bobby, girls named Caroline, and plenty of drugs. Each comes to life vividly as if they were her own to live (perhaps they even are…) and though backed by an ensemble of rock virtuosos such as Don Was, Benmont Trench, Beck, and Ringo Starr, Lewis holds the spotlight all her own.

14. Russian Baths - Deepfake [Good Eye Records]

To be a noise rock band of today, survival is dependent on separating yourself in the dark. Though Brooklyn duo Russian Baths have breathed in every ounce of oxygen of EVOL era gore, a Loveless gaze, and channeling the unrelentless energy of Drive Like Jehu’s rome plows, their debut album Deepfake turns the page on the grizzled corners of modern “heavy” music toward a polymorphic point singed with synthesizers and elegiac pianos, scattered in a space where no other matter yet exists. Throughout the album, the duo of Jess Rees and Luke Koz toy with the pull of gravity to supply that pressure, with mixing by Ben Greenberg of Uniform incisively making every directional turn razorlike. The band’s multi-faceted approach to personifying in a discordant beauty the most internalized, self-manufactured emotions of modern human terror. Deepfake sees through this disconnect, and uses the fear it births as their instrument to create a new kind of noise.

13. Control Top - Covert Contracts [Get Better Records]

The modern post-punk landscape was in danger of becoming a reductive cliche of itself as it softened its spikes, but Philly trio Control Top are razor-sharp and full of fire in their delivery with their debut full-length Covert Contracts. It’s an extreme case of the personal, political and technologically terrifying converging at the forefront of the conversation as well as attacking your senses, with lead singer and bassist Ali Carter acting as the live wire mouthpiece with a maximalist current from drummer Alex Lichtenauer and guitarist Al Creedon downloading a surge of dark truths from their secret server. In the age of information overload, Control Top are here to tear down capitalist walls and the algorithms set up to pocket millions off of it one piece of the hate machine at a time. When it’s over, Covert Contracts has hopefully hacked a staying power in your brain as well.

12. Knocked Loose - A Different Shade of Blue [Pure Noise Records]

A Different Shade of Blue is landmark album that will define the modern metalcore scene for years to come in the same way Converge’s Jane Doe did nearly two decades ago. With an insatiable hunger to destroy and reconstruct the scene in their own shattered mirror, Knocked Loose’s sophomore breakout aspires to bring a new kind of intensity as well as raw emotion to the forefront of the latest wave of thrashers such as Code Orange and Jesus Piece who are fully feeling the futility of these times in their heaviness. Most noticeably on their greatest leap of faith into themselves is how the Kentucky five-piece are not only refining their rage, but controlling it without coarsing down its knife-like edges either. Every breakdown and growl exorcised from Bryan Garris’ throat is laid down with purpose, making their blackened and blued hues impossible to ignore.

11. FKA twigs - MAGDALENE [XL Recordings]

FKA twigs’ sophomore effort MAGDALENE sees Tahlia Barnett handedly pushing all dalliances in the dark even further out in a recorded document that captures a specifc kind of heartache with shape-shifting formation. Looking back at how far she has come as an aritst over the last half of this decade, twigs’ influence is again heard redesigning today’s experimental pop formula all the way from the underground up into the commercial pop kingdom in a way where every drop of blood, sweat and tears make their way into the canvas despite the artificial assistance. MAGDALENE does not withhold any part of Tahlia Barnett’s emotions spilling their way into its recording, and the way she merges of the most purely devastating human experiences with compounds of electricity, light and sound makes her second and best work to date something the rest of her peers now have the daunting task of aspiring to replicate in their own reflection.

10. Club Night - What Life [Tiny Engines]

These days, pop music has become synonymous with indie music, and being weird not for fashion’s sake in your style of rock couldn’t be any more refreshing. On Club Night’s debut full-length effort What Life, the Oakland experimental five-piece are joyous in that realization without needing to be as obtuse about it as some of those past gen influencers. Frontperson Josh Bertram is deep in his ruminations and uses his position for advocacy in varying degrees despite his band’s far out mix of spastic yelps, fidgeting time sigs, and hints of post-hardcore and Pac Northeast riffage compressed kinetically that could have easily gotten away with leaving an impression through vague imagery. He and Club Night strike with their intentions in lightning bolt striations from the personal to the political (or both at once, in some cases,) and to experience their art is to feel enough of a jolt of electricity moving through you in he same way it does through their music that reminds you of why you’re alive.

9. black midi - Schlagenheim [Rough Trade]

The UK four-piece black midi display a level of perfectionism in the abstract that makes it easy to hear how we could be on the verge of the next chapter of post-punk’s future. With Schlagenheim, their debut album, they give us more than an open-ended conclusion. It questions any labeling of the band whatsoever, and repeatedly challenges the notions even when you think you’ve figured at least part of it out. Their sound is beyond concrete form categorization, as it pieces together a revolving assembly of limbs made up of aforementioned post-punk influence as well as industrial, noise rock, art rock, hardcore, experimental jazz, and even country. Splattering noise across the canvas forces the listener to draw interpretations of the quartet’s merger of sensory induction and intention in gallery form. It’s on the path of the best adventures in avant rock at the turn of the millennium as heard in classics by Boredoms, Black Dice, and Lightning Bolt, and in today’s safer musical landscape, it’s exactly what’s been missing.

8. Elizabeth Colour Wheel - NOCEBO [The Flenser]

There really aren’t any concrete shapes or sounds in the heavy music world to describe what Elizabeth Colour Wheel are creating. Regardless of that, the Boston five-piece’s debut full-length NOCEBO pulls in a whirlwind onslaught of harsher elements from the post-hardcore, black metal, experimental noise, and shoegaze soundscapes, and siphons them through the tour de force that is their frontperson Lane Shi. As the album title – a nod to a medical term to describe a detrimental effect on health produced by psychological or psychosomatic factors – might suggest, Shi and her bandmates master the art of devastation through cataclysmic eruptions and momentary elegies for what’s been lost in their wake. Nothing’s left without ruin in this listen, and that could very well be the key as to why Elizabeth Colour Wheel leave no corner of the heavy music world untouched with their path of destruction.

7. Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell [Interscope Records]

It’s been a long, weird. eyebrow-raising way to the present with Lana Del Rey, but as modern times have only gotten worse, her pop shock has only proven to be a reflection of our reality. On Del Rey’s modern morbid opus Norman Fucking Rockwell, she preaches to her choir of listeners who have accepted that there is no happy ending in this lifetime.This hour-long collection of songs is not only just that, but Lana Del Rey in her most astonishing form as well. Plenty of prose-on-point Lana-ismsare woven throughout that serve to solidify her self-made mythology and give listeners a deadly, vicarious rush in their veins. Its cohesive career-peak of songwriting exists with contemporary shades of blue and fashion-forward cool built into its structure by producer Jack Antonoff as well. Together, the tandem stylistically mediate Del Rey’s elegy noir by mourning a generation who’ve never really had anything to live for, because it’s always been gone before they had a chance to hold onto it.

6. Big Thief - U.F.O.F. [4AD]

Entering the atmosphere like an unidentified flying object is Big Thief’s U.F.O.F. We’re familiar with the four-piece, of course, having given the world two ornately beautiful modern indie-folk offerings in 2016′s debut Masterpiece and their 2016 listmaking breakout Capacity, but with the Brooklyn band’s third studio effort, the four-piece of lyricist and guitarist Adrianne Lenker, guitarist Buck Meek, bassist Max Oleartchik and drummer James Krivchenia have pushed a sound, that at its foundation could be construed as “simple”, into the outer limits where strives in consideration and a risk-born hunger to evolve have redefined not just what they are, but what esoteric rock music made with fundamental instrumentation can be when it lives inside its own universe. Pay attention to the smaller wonders in Big Thief’s songcraft, and it’s really that which is hiding in plain sight that makes U.F.O.F. an awe of a listening experience, throrugh rippled arpeggio, shrill screams, and looped tape samples threading around Lenker’s character sketches. They’ve expanded the sky and widened their eyes beyond what we see before us. Big Thief simply sound like their own adventure.

5. oso oso - basking in the glow [Triple Crown Records]

A positive outlook doesn’t come natural to all people. In a world where the macro and the micro of bad things happening can whelm easily, putting into practice looking at the glass half full eats a lot of energy especially. oso oso mastermind Jade Liliitri is confronting that time in his life where he needs to do just that. With his third studio effort basking in the glow, he’s gracious of the good time while they’re here, and giving them justice just as well in a technically tight outing in emo-pop precision. Truly, there hasn’t been an album as vivid and picturesque in spite of grim realities as this since Saves the Day’s criminally underrated power-punk-pop crossover classic in 2002′s In Reverie with both its form and texture, and go big or go home personality, which in this case also serves the greater good of, er, trying to see the good out there in your life despite. The struggle to get there is real, though, as Lilitri puts it a few times, yet he knows how to twist life’s misfortune in a way that let’s both souls coexist in the same spotlight peacefully.

4. (Sandy) Alex G - House of Sugar [Domino Records]

Hodgepodging indie rock, pop, country, electronic and even noise and hardcore in some instances within his music, not knowing where (Sandy) Alex G will veer next on the course of his prolific body of art has been half of the delight of taking a dive into the unknown with the Philly songwriter. With his eighth full-length effort House of Sugar, (Sandy) Alex G formally graduates from wunderkind status to pure songwriting genius, as the collection of tracks abstracted in open barn country, warped post-R&B rhythms and his gussied up version of indie rock formalities is proof positive that there isn’t a style that doesn’t fit Giannascoli’s world of whimsical and terrifying wonder. Though his 2018′s critical breakout Rocket had no faulty parts attached to it, House of Sugar is as if you took all its best ones and decided to double down on its bittersweet and stickiness, and use that to construction what amounts to (Sandy) Alex’s most inviting collection of songs intricately designed on his vast sonic map yet.

3. Empath - Active Listening Night On Earth [Get Better Records / Fat Possum]

Empath softly wink back to a bygone noise pop era in a way that rekindles it with a different kind of magic for these times. For those who’ve no prior relationship with it, then their debut album Active Listening: Night On Earth will sound spectacularly refreshing compared to modern day standards of what indie rock and pop music has devolved into since. The Philly punk four-piece would probably reject any notion that might compare them to the past, but what makes Active Listening: NIght On Earth its own true sonic marvel is in how Empath move their version of noise pop into one that travels beyond its compressed indoor limits. Emily Shanahan and Randall Coon’s zoom through dense air with woozy keys as vocalist and guitarist Catherine Elicson and drummer Garrett Koloski batter impressionistic detail into the canvas. It’s as if the four have found a secret door to escape the natural plane altogether for some kind of after hours unknown. It’s reprieve from time’s hands in that regard where the only constant is motion and Empath’s ability to turn every physical sense inside out.

2. Angel Olsen - All Mirrors [Jagjaguwar]

Across this past decade, Angel Olsen has taken us on one of the most adventurous songwriter journeys of any kind, her nomadic origins rustling in lo-fidelity kindling in her early work before her storytelling began to flourish almost into a spiritual experience as she adorned prose and her vocal power with intricate details of synth-pop and string symphonies beyond the traditional finger-picking and electrical currents on 2017′s My Woman. Now that she’s achieved cloud status, she controls the forces of nature on a greater scale with her fifth studio effort All Mirrors. With this effort, Olsen challenges her creative being to become something greater than it already has proven of itself to be. It’s the arguably the first album for that reason where both sound and her composed fury are equally capable of pushing one another into directions far beyond where she’s been rather than the focal point of her voice being the sole bearer of carrying that weight along her travels. In short, this is the place where Angel Olsen has at least found her truest sense of self in sound.

1. Kim Gordon - No Home Record [Matador Records]

Though her influence can be heard within the work of practically every artist on this list, Kim Gordon has managed to elude putting out any music under her own name throughout her iconic career as the co-founder of Sonic Youth as well as her other projects like Body/Head, her noise-drone duo with Bill Nace, or her psychedelic freakout Free Kitten alongside Pussy Galore’s Julie Cafritz. What’s most impressive about how she finally has done so after all of these years with her debut solo effort No Home Record is through her continuous immersion of culture and feeding it back to us in a raw and conflicted form, Gordon’s timing of doing so could not have been any better. As the presentation of our current times by her hands as well as that of producer Justin Raisen (Charli XCX, Angel Olsen), Gordon captures the decay of modern pop culture in all of its prematurely decaying parts. Across the listen, the corrosion of culture is evident as each track crumbles from gloss until it is eventually left spread as particles between a growing voids of disconnect. Consumerism, technology and social conditions, for better or for worse, are fodder for Gordon’s avant pop analysis. This is not a self-portrait of Kim Gordon, but it’s very much an accurate depiction of her world as our world – That strange place that resides between chaos and complacent comfort, with her art being the disrupter in each of their patterns to reveal their intersect.

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readingwebcomics · 5 years

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Analyzing Questionable Content: Pages 1-50

And so it begins.

The very first comic of Questionable Content, posted way back in 2003 and what would eventually be Jeff Jacques’ claim to fame, the reason why everyone remembers his name and what has made him a wealthy man today.

…’s alright.

Of course, by modern standards it’s not very good. This was the early 2000s, the wild west of online artists who had nothing more than an art creation software and a dream. The Webcomic Review has a VERY good post about it right here, which explains what the landscape of webcomics were like around this time and why exactly Marten has a pet robot (tl;dr, EVERYONE had a pet robot in ye early days of webcomics because Megatokyo).

But aside from the… awkward art, this comic at least serves to set up the protagonist (as far as we’re aware right now, we’ll get into the roles of protagonists in QC later). He’s a lanky, assumedly average guy who hates where he is in life but doesn’t know what else to do or even where else to go…

…as he goes on to spell out two comics later. He’s unassuming, not really much you can say for or against him, miserable and stuck in a rut in his life that he’s too scared to escape. Sooo basically, freshly graduated college students – the exact kind of audience a RomCom like this would go after.

Oh, did I forget to mention?

Yeah, QC started off as a RomCom.

This young woman is Faye, and she immediately cuts through the bullshit with an aggressive but to-the-point introduction of herself and her intentions.

While aggressive and to-the-point, she’s also set up as someone who meshes with Marten and Steve’s interests well enough and quickly makes friends. This is probably best exemplified in the seventh page, which serves two purposes:

Purpose the First: Showcase Marten and Faye have a shared niche interest, immediately establishing chemistry between the two of them. Be it platonic or romantic, they’re quickly hitting it off and, being a RomCom, will serve as the first rope potential shippers can grasp onto.

Purpose the Second: Jeff is a MASSIVE indie music nerd and he wants the fucking world to know it.

Also Pintsize is there doing funny robot things because 2003 webcomic.

It’s not long before this initial relationship is set up that two issues serve to sew the seeds of initial conflict:

This, likewise, serves two purposes: To show where Faye works and create a believable life for her to exist in when she’s not in the story with Marten, and as previously stated to sew potential romantic conflicts in the future. Jeff employs this tactic many-a-time throughout the course of Questionable Content, beginning a conflict and letting the implications sit with the reader while life goes on in the regular comics. Is this good writing? I honestly can’t say. Is it always done well? Oh good God no, some plot beats are outright dropped or left to sit for so long the reader straight-up forgets it’s there with this method. But does Jeff make it work? It’s all on personal taste I’d say, but personally it sits well with me.

Also, for those of you wondering why it looks like the word “hump” is just pasted onto the text bubble in post… well it was. The original comic implied sexual assault much more overtly, using the R-word instead of “hump.”

*Away from mic* Wait, can-can I say [NOPE]? Better not to risk it? Alright, fair ‘nuff.

But yeah, this was pointed out by readers to be pretty fucked up and it was swiftly changed, for good reason.

Later that night, Faye asks Marten to dinner with her. Platonically, of course. And here I believe I should point out the dynamic of their relationship as it stands – Faye is the aggressor. Marten is basically a doormat. Whenever something happens, Faye is always the instigator, be it going out to dinner or tagging along with him when he’s getting shopping done. This will feed into their relationship dynamic and sets up a decent inter-personal conflict: Marten is far too passive to reach out to Faye and make the move to start something, but Faye, despite how openly and quickly she attaches herself to Marten’s life, never takes that step into making it romantic. The two clearly have the hots for each other, but their respective personalities make it so neither one crosses that threshold.

Yes I know this is basic character writing for a RomCom 101, but the fact that so much about these characters are said in 12 four-panel comics says a lot. It hooks the reader quickly and gets them on the page Jeff wants them to be, and I respect that.

And in the next page, Faye’s aggression takes on a new level, albeit extremely briefly.

This is an isolated incident of actual physical aggression rather than implications and threats in these first 50 pages, but it becomes a trend as we go along – one that feeds into Faye’s character, mind, so it’s not just physical abuse for humor’s sake – so just keep it in mind as we go along.

Also on a personal note the actual restaurant they go to is simultaneously the worst and best idea I’ve ever heard of:

This is horrible. I should not encourage this. And yet some dark part of me finds the concept utterly hilarious even though I know I’m a piece of shit for liking it.

Actually, now some part of me wants to do the exact opposite – advertise a place as a steakhouse only serve an all-vegan menu. It feels less mean but just as funny to me.

…oh right, the comic.

After sharing dinner, exchanging banter that establishes good chemistry and parting ways, we come to this comic that I’m only showing because I’m a slut for good puns and I will take any and all opportunities to share with people.

(Pintsize totally won that round with the John the Baptist zinger by the way, if I’m allowed to judge this.)

And one page later, we get the biggest shake-up in the comic thus far:

It’s established Faye herself ended up burning down the apartment because she burnt toast, but that’s not really important. I know, the fact Faye BURNT DOWN A BUILDING isn’t important sounds completely ridiculous, but follow me here – the important thing for this setup isn’t the how, but the why. “How did Faye’s apartment burn down?” isn’t the question Jeff, nor the audience, is intended to be asking, that’s merely a vessel into the situation we’re in – the answer of “Why did Faye’s apartment burn down?” which is, of course, so Marten and Faye can become roommates and facilitate future antics and further their relationship. Familiarity breeds into both affection and conflict, and the obvious case of “Well you two are already living together, aren’t you?” will serve to further the flames of their potential relationship with one another.

…granted, a better reason to create this setup would’ve been nice, and from a writing standpoint it’s ridiculous that Faye never suffers any consequences for burning an entire BUILDING down, one that had many more people than just her in it. If present-day Jeff wrote this plotline… actually. Now that I think about it, Jeff DOES re-do this plot point and make it make a lot more sense and have a lot more impact on everyone involved.

But we’ll get to that when we eventually talk about Brun…. Three thousand and something pages from now.

Either way, my point stands: This plot thread serves mostly to create the situation we’re facing now, one where Faye and Marten end up living together. This shake-up to the early comic settles us into the new status quo, one that we’ll be riding with comfortably for the foreseeable future.

Further evidence of Faye’s aggressive and troll-ish nature… one that may or may not play into future revelations about her, now that I think about it.

Remember what I said about sewing the seeds of drama? Well here we stand now – a misunderstanding, or the beginning of genuine conflict between these two?

The answer is… they talk it out like actual goddamn adults, avoiding a stupid, unnecessary fight.

Honestly? Kind of refreshing. But what makes it better is the following page:

Honestly? This moment never fails to make me laugh. The one-two punch of complete betrayal of the reader’s expectations as well as the utter dismantling and defusal of the romantic interest subplot between these two dorks – while denying some genuine romantic conflict that may force Faye into being more upfront with how she feels about the situation – is a fun denial of the kinds of RomCom clichés that one might expect to find in this story.

Sure, there are other stories that do this better, I’m not denying that. But isolated in a bubble, this stands by itself and, frankly, works well enough for the story Jeff’s telling.

Also say goodbye to Sara, once she walks out that door she goes to join the little sister from Family Matters and the big brother from Happy Days on the twisted Island of Irrelevancy, visiting the story only when she can spare the time to craft a raft out of banana leafs and... where was I going with this?

…okay, personal story time. The Walmart I’m doing contract work for this week has a CD display of new-ish albums, and honest-to-God I completely forgot music CDs were even a THING. MP3s have spoiled us, and I now feel old for some reason.

Right, getting back on track.

I wanted to show this comic to establish three things.

1) Marten is the kind of person who sits on things that bother him and lets them stew for awhile. As established in the previous image I showed with Marten and Steve at the music store, it’s been at least a day since what happened with Sara and Marten’s still thinking about it. This, for better or worse, becomes a core part of Marten’s character moving forward.

2) Faye, for all her faults, is a genuinely good friend who cares about Marten and knows when to channel her natural aggression into support rather than ribbing.

3) This is another comic that always makes me laugh whenever I read it. Yes I know that’s much less of a real reason than my other two points but let me have this dammit.

This particular page itself isn’t terribly important to the ongoing narrative but I wanted to include it because it introduces QC’s unquestionably best character, Jim. Hi Jim! I like Jim.

(He’s a minor character at best but he’s just so earnest and fun and every time Jeff brings him back he just gets better and better.)

Oh, and for those who were skeptical that the more-than-platonic interest was mutual between Marten and Faye, the next two issues serve to showcase that… yeah, both parties TOTALLY have the hots for each other.

The first of those two comics, by the way, gets called back to much later down the line. And the fact that Faye speaks in a southern accent is more than just a joke, it’s going to be touched on more later.

Jeff says in the description of this comic that this is based on personal experience, and it shows – this is the most backbone Marten displays to my memory.

And in the very next page, we’re introduced to a new character – although you wouldn’t guess it from her appearance.

That’s Raven. I like Raven. Her personality changes a ton once she’s properly introduced as a character and not a nameless employee, but for posterity’s sake: Here’s her very first appearance in the comic.

There’s only one more important comic to touch on in this batch of fifty, and it’s about both Marten and Faye’s families:

While this could be as simple as a “har-dee-har, my family drives me up the wall,” this comic serves to say a lot about both characters once we know more about their families. Both Marten and Faye actually have very good reasons why they don’t want to see their respective families or go back to their hometowns… Faye especially so. We’ll touch more on that when we get more into her backstory.

Before we wrap things up, I’d like to do a quick comparison between page 1 and 50 to see in what small, subtle ways Jeff’s artistry has improved:

There’s not a LOT of difference, but the small details really showcases just how different they look. Small changes from the placement of everything on Marten’s face, to the size of the eyes, the width of the eyebrows… It’s good shit.

Overall, what did I think of batch 1? Well… for an early 2000s webcomic, it’s engaging. The characters are likable, the plot is progressing at an enjoyable pace, and I’m already on-board to see if Marten and Faye will get together. I mean, I know the answer, but my point stands.

Also because I’m a freak or something and like data compilation I went ahead and kept track of who showed up in what comic and made some numbers for it:

Not counting the one guest comic and two non-canon pages, Marten showed up in 45/50 pages, being in 90% of the comic so far.

Faye was in 38/50 pages, taking up 76% of the comic so far.

Pintsize comes in third place being in 15/50 comics, taking up a paltry 30% of the comic thus far when compared to the screen time Marten and Faye have taken up.

Likewise, Steve has been in only 8/50 pages, making up 16% of the comic up to this point.

Sara was in 5/50 pages, making up 10% of these first 50. That percentile will grow smaller and smaller with each update, believe you me.

Jim was in 2/50 glorious pages, making up 4% of the comic up to this point. And that was the best 4% this comic had to offer, let me tell you.

Raven, although still unnamed, I’m counting – she’s in 1/50 of the first batch of pages, making up 2% of screen time.

Tune in next week as we continue onwards to pages 51-100 where we’ll be introduced to the next major character in the series, who’s mere existence will further the plot more than anyone we’ve previously met. See you then.

#Questionable Content #Analysis #Long-form analysis #Faye #Marten #Pintsize

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v-le · 6 years

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Kmusic: My artists in 4 months

Foreword: PHEW this one took a while.... but I have really had so much on my mind lately that i knew i just HAD to churn this one out asap... I also would’ve tried to include videos rather than images but it’s a pain in the butt... I guess my vids will be top secret for now hehe. But really. a true blessing, these 4 months. Ah, I still really cant believe it..

If you were to ask me how I felt about my first semester at Yonsei and simply the past 4 months in Korea, from August 21st to December 23rd, I would probably just emphasize how grateful I am. But to narrow down this deep affection for all the happenings, I would have to do so in a music context. It is such a fascinating and seemingly mundane thing to go on about: Why does my music mean what it means to me to this day? How have those values shaped my experiences in Korea so far? What does it mean for me going forward? These are questions I want to ask myself, reflect upon, and continue to explore as I await to begin another journey in Korea once again.

If I rewind to when I first started listening to Korean music, it would be when I was… I don’t even know. I was exposed to it since I was about 7 or 8 years old, when my sister was sucked into the very beginnings of OG K-pop: Wonder Girls, Big Bang, 2NE1, Super Junior, SNSD, SHINee, you name ‘em all. I’ve talked about this a lot, but during those days I was never particularly interested in that side of music. It didn’t make much sense to me and it just sounded mreh. But after several years of this exposure, I fell into my own K-pop obsession-hole starting with LEDApple, a very unassuming, catchy-music-making band. I was in it for the music. At first.

Okay, now fast forward past my kpop era: you can read all about it in my very extensive post from about a year ago here. But yes, lets leave that chunk of my life behind and think about where I stand from a “music maturation” perspective. Right here. Right now.

I cannot pinpoint the exact moment or day or time in which I fell into the “deeper” side of Korean music. I am pretty certain that it simply occurred naturally, gradually. What I know for a fact is that I owe so much of myself to my music. At any given point in my life thus far, my music has defined a large portion of my identity: it really does mean a lot to me. I am constantly listening to music. To narrow this down into my current self’s context, my music mostly consists of Roy Kim, Sam Kim, DAY6, Kim Feel, Fromm, Jung Sewoon, Eddy Kim, Kwon Jin Ah, and many many many others.

These artists, the music that they make, is not K-pop. It never will be. I don’t care what those stupid Spotify playlists call some of the songs from these musicians, but they are not and never will be K-pop. (At most DAY6 could come closest to fitting). My discovery of each and every one of these artists varies from person to person of course, but most of my sentiments remain the same all throughout. I would give my everything for these people. But I want to make it very very very clear: it is not necessarily these PEOPLE, these faces, these appearances, these artists themselves that I am oh-so enthusiastic about. It is their voice & music. That is honestly all it really comes down to at the end of day. It is and has always been about the music.

I owe my deep appreciation for my music to several various factors ranging from emotionally & mentally detached parents & family, my somewhat introverted personality, and my incessantly over-analytical mindset. However, what exactly constitutes this deep appreciation is what I want to explore. A certain fact is that I hated high school. As I grew up through the ages of 13 to 17, I completely despised the American public education system that was high school. Without getting into the complex details about my community that was the heart of Silicon Valley and the various cultural pushes, I just have to say that high school felt like a sort of mental torture for me.

And during all those times, when I needed it the most, when I felt so completely lost, when I felt like no one would listen to me, nothing could console my distressed heart and mind, I always fell back to many of those artists listed above. Particularly to Roy and Sam. I owe them SO MUCH. They literally changed my life.

Home. 영원한 건 없지만. Your Song. These three songs, my life songs. Their lyrics literally saved my life. They mean everything to me. Without these songs from Roy & Sam, I would not be where I am today.

All my artists that I mentioned make their own music. They write, compose, produce, everything. They are the true masters of their voices (see, not K-pop). And so, when I listen to them, when I absorb their voices & melodies, I can sometimes really feel their sincerity, their yearning. I am so thankful for what they have produced for this world and for my ears to hear. However, within the past 4 months, I got to see, know, understand, and FEEL these artists on a whole new level.

In chronological order, here is a list of the artists I saw live &/or in person during my time in Korea thus far:

08/31 Roy Kim & Son Seungyeon @ Picnic Concert

09/01 Monogram, Baek Yerin, Kwak Jineon, Paul Kim, Bol4, Crush, Urban Zakapa @ Someday Festival (Day 1)

09/02 Fromm, Jo Hyunah, Jung Sewoon, Roy Kim, Yong Junhyung & Yang Yoseob, K. Will @ Someday Festival (Day 2)

09/08 DAY6 @ You Made My Day Fanmeeting

09/20 Roy Kim @ SNU Fall Festival

11/02 Roy Kim & Kim Haon @ Daellim Univ. Halloween Festival

11/04 Nam Woohyun (& Jang Dongwoo, Kim Sunggyu, Lee Sungyeol) @ 식목일 (Day 3)

11/10 Fromm @ Seoul Music Forum Mini Concert & Free Fansigning

11/11 Eddy Kim @ Miles Apart Album Fansigning

11/22 Sam Kim @ "Sun And Moon" 1st Album Release Showcase

12/01 Sam Kim @ "Sun And Moon" 1st Album Fansigning

12/09 Fromm @ "Midnight Candy" Mini Album Release Concert

12/16 Roy Kim @ ROchestra Live Tour 2018 (Seoul Day 2)

12/21 Sam Kim @ Lotte Tower World Park Christmas Busking

12/22 DAY6 @ "The Present" Christmas Special Concert (Day 1)

Breakdown:

Free: 5 events

Paid Tix: 6 events

Album Purchase & Application: 4 events

🌹 Roy Kim: 5 times

🌚 Sam Kim: 3 times

🌓 Fromm: 3 times

🎸 DAY6: 2 times

As an avid fan of many of these artists for YEARS, like Infinite for 8 years, Roy for 5, Sam since his debut in Apr. 2016, DAY6 since their debut in Sept. 2015, Fromm for over 4 years, Eddy for over 5 years, etc etc. I NEVER thought I would actually get to see or hear these people live. Okay, granted I saw DAY6 live back in Oct. 2017 as well as Sam & the entire Antenna fam in Sept. 2017, both in LA. But doing 3 fansignings????? Meeting and talking with Fromm, Eddy Kim, AND Sam Kim???? Seeing Roy FIVE TIMES??????????? Three times for FREE, once at a festival, and then even being able to go his end-of-the-year solo concert???????? Y’all…. It was literally a dream come true. A stroke of luck tenfold. Twelvefold. I saw at least one treasured artist a total of fifteen times. Whether it was at a college busking event, the Someday music festival, a fansigning, a fanmeeting, or even a solo concert. I was somehow there.

Seeing Roy live was something I thought I would never ever ever in my lifetime get to do. As I explained in my 1st semester wrap-up post found here, Roy’s situation with school made my hopes seem very bleak from the get-go. But still, my luck persisted 5 times throughout. I almost, nearly, COMPLETELY failed to acquire a ticket for his ROchestra solo concert, Seoul Day 2 show. It was probably the most energy-draining, stressful, painful and TERRIBLE ticketing experience I have ever experienced. And trust me, I’ve done lots of ticketing before (unfortunately). But after 1 hour of staying glued to that PC bang computer screen, I managed. And I went. And maybe I’ll have to do a separate post for it, but Roy Kim’s concert on December 16th, 2018, was the best concert I have ever been to in my life. Easily. It was so breath-taking.

But yes, enough with Roy. Fromm is my ultimate indie goddess and she has a charm that is so indescribably perfect. She decided to release a mini album over a year since her last one, in the middle of November while I was there and I wanted to DIE. It was suchhhhh a solid release, and I even got to attend a free fansigning with her as well for her solo concert for the album release. I LOVE her cheeky personality so much. And she really is just sooooo kind. I couldn’t have much of a conversation with her due to the time constraint, but I at least got to snap a quick selfie heh (which i wont exposed bc privacy ya feel??). Her solo concert was gorgeous in every single way; I honestly would be willing to pay any price to go to it again in a heartbeat. Even though it was for her “Midnight Candy” album release, it was basically a Fromm discography concert because she sang EVERYTHING and I was THIS close to wanting to cry because I just felt so grateful & happy in those moments. I love her I really do. Ah, also, 2 out of the 3 times I saw her, I wrote to her & posted on Instagram and she liked both posts for me :”).

Sam…. My luck with Sam was out of this world honestly…. I still get goosebumps thinking about how blessed I was to see Sam 3 times, 2 times in very special instances. First off. He announced the release of his FIRST FULL album after a TWO YEAR & A HALF HIATUS. Y’all. This boy hadn’t released anything for 2.5 entire years since his debut and then suddenly WHAM he does it. Somehow right when I was in Korea. AH… I still….. I’m still screaming inside. I screamed aloud in my room for a good 5 minutes straight when I first saw the news, and yes, to this day I am still screaming. His three pre-release tracks were GORGEOUS & Sun And Moon, track 1, literally brought me to tears without even trying. I had been missing his voice and presence for so long…

And then, for the full album release, Antenna announced a post in which if you pre-order his album when it comes out & email the Antenna staff with the receipt showing proof, you will be put in a drawing to attend his live showcase on the night of its release. OHMYGOSH. I knew I had to do it. I struggled a little bit & even felt like I was doing everything so untimely, but I am SO blessed that I really was able to order & pay for it, shoot Antenna an email real quick, and then nervously await my results for like a week. That one Friday the results were to be emailed out, I remembering feeling extremely anxious all throughout the day. I desperately wanted to go…. And at 6:00PM…. I got the email!!!!! I was literally shaking, hands & knees trembling and everything. I actually got invited to the ‘Sun And Moon’ 1st Album Showcase!!! Y’all!!! It was so amazing. It was the night before I had to leave to Taiwan early in the morning so it was quite stressful, but still!!!!! I felt so honored to be there that night: the venue was extremely intimate and Sam was soooososoooo gooooddd and the tracks he sang were sooo beautiful and just… everything about it was like a dream. I was truly blessed.

A week later…. Antenna announced Sam’s first FANSIGNING & once again I was overwhelmed with this “OMG I WANT TO GO, but how, should I really, but what about….??”. It was a physical album-purchase-based application process which means I had to go to this specific bookstore in Gangnam, buy x-amount of albums, and based on that amount, my name will be put into a drawing that many times. Very basic fansigning grounds. I already pre-ordered his album for the showcase, so I honestly didn’t really need another one… but I decided to test my luck & just purchase 1 measly album & see if that ONE album will help me get chosen. And o boy. I GOT IN :”)). When I saw my name on that list in the official fancafe post, I couldn’t believe it….

On the day of the fansigning which was happening inside a mall, starting at a certain time I was able to walk in and choose a random number from 1-100 and since I arrived early, I got to choose pretty early as well. When I saw my number I literally gasped aloud: #7. I know it’s a corny & cliché favorite number but only bc infinite ok. Being #7 meant that I literally say FRONT & CENTER of the stage…not even stage. There wasn’t a stage... it was just an open area. My turn came around very quickly because I was early and let’s just say I was a fking mess, repeating thank you over and over & literally, incessantly telling him how thankful I am for his music and how grateful that after all that time he took to came back, he came right when I was in Korea and how I was at Antenna in LA & his showcase too and thank you thank you, yadda yadda. Yeah…..I suck at these things I really do. Then, at the end of it all, he took a picture with the crowd of fans and ended up sitting RIGHT NEXT TO ME LMAOOOOOOO. Okay here is a picture of maybe my biggest life accomplishment??? jk but no rly LOL.

look ma, i made it :”)

But really, the fact that I actually got to talk to Sam & just try to relay all my thanks that I have been owing to him for many years… wow… I’m still in shock and I am just so eternally thankful. I used to think to myself “damn, I wish I could talk to Sam one day” and damn…. I really did do it…

Eddy Kim was also another meeting that I could have only dreamed of before coming to Korea… His last release was 4 goddamn years ago oh my gosh… This fansign application was not a random drawing like Sam’s but just a “buy his album at this bookstore & u get in” sort of thing. To be honest I could blatantly tell that Eddy’s popularity is definitely not as comparable to the other artists that I cherish & I was quite shocked by this revelation. I knew for sure in America, who the hell would ever know him. But even in Korea, he seemed… just really not that well-known, especially from a music perspective. It was interesting and even a little disheartening to see. He was very kind & cutely impressed with my Korean skills and we literally just talked in a bunch of Konglish & once again I just kept repeating how thankful I was for his music in my life. How I waited for so long and his release literally matched up with my time there as well. Even though I never got to hear Eddy sing live, I am more than happy with the fact that I simply got to chat with him & relay my heart as best as possible.

After doing 3 full fansignings I have fully realized that as grateful for the opportunities I am, they are so difficult and stressful… To be given such a short amount of time to spill out my heart is essentially impossible for me LOL. I’d rather much LOVE to just to sit down with these artists not to fangirl or cry, but to have a real, genuine conversation about their music and why it holds so much sentiment for me. I would love to ask questions about their music and I would love to share with them how much it means me & why I am so thankful at the end of the day. That’s what I really wish I could do. Because even as I hurriedly expressed my countless thanks and probably sounded like a hot mess, I feel like I still just came off as a surface-level fan saying their thanks. But noo! In reality, I just wanted to relay how much their music means to me (I literally just typed this wow repetition is gr8). Which I feel like I really couldn’t do properly… I couldn’t get my heart across all the way ☹ but it’s okay because as I’ve been repeating, I am infinitely thankful nonetheless.

My first DAY6 event, their 3rd year anniversary 1st fanmeeting, was a bit of a flop for me simply because they talked wayyyyy to much & played stupid games & everything… and it was cute, but not what I was there for. I kinda wished I heard more of them singing, but it’s okay. In no way am I undermining this monumental day because I know it meant a lot to the boys & fans collectively. Jae could not participate due to health reasons & it definitely put a huge damper on the entire atmosphere, but the members tried their best and the entire audience even consistently sang aloud all of Jae’s parts during the songs when his voice was not there. They also sang a never-before-released track with Jae and they all just cried a bunch and me, sitting there, watching those light-wrist-band-thingies glow & beam & shine in-sync with the music, all sorts of colors, in a massive wave of lights & fanchants & music sewn together… wow it was honestly stunning & one of the most awesome spectacles I’ve ever experienced. Korean fans are really something else….

Speaking of which, attending 15 events during my 4 months there taught me many things about Korean concerts & fans that I find so extremely fascinating.

For most concerts, whether they are super hype-y & K-pop-y or a ballad one with minimal need for movement, when there are seats, fans with stay seated for the most part. In America, I feel like all fans tend to automatically stand (for basically all K-pop acts) regardless of the seating. But in Korea, at my experiences with DAY6 in particular (I also have heard that BTS in Seoul was the same), fans stayed sitting basically all throughout. The most like bodily movements they require would be the waving of their lightsticks. It was honestly pretty refreshing to see a generally calm & collected audience, at least where there was seating.

The fanchants are out of this world !!!!! Especially for the 2 times I saw DAY6, the fans were so on point with their fanchants: they were loud and clear and crisp AND THEY MATCHED WITH THE LIGHTS ON THEIR WRISTBANDS AND EVERYTHING wow was that so cool to see… The fans are super in unison & it honestly adds such a new level of energy to the experience.

SINGING !! Of course, since all these fans are Korean, they can actually sing all of these songs at concerts, unparalleled to international fans lol. One really cool moment at DAY6 that I will probably remember forever simply because this song is gorgeous & means a lot to me… but at day 1 of DAY6’s ‘The Present’ xmas concert series, Wonpil said “We’ve been on world tour for a while now and I’ve been wanting to try this out… if I play this song, can you sing for me?” and of course we all unconditionally said yes. And he started to play 그렇더라고요 on the keyboard & the ENTIRE AUDIENCE caught on immediately & we all sang the entire intro & first verse together in unison, as loud as we could, as the members joined in one by one w/ their own instruments, just watching us as we SANG FOR THEM. It was so cute & we even did it again with 장난 아닌데. This sort of stuff…. Wow…. Can only really happen at a domestic concert, which was honestly so so so beautiful. I LOVED IT!!!

No crazy, constant screaming during every part of the performance. Fans in Korea honestly only scream when necessary… ya feel? Sometimes at concerts, I feel like fans are just screaming at the top of the lungs the entire time, during every second of a song. But Korean fans chant when there is a chant, and cheer & scream when it really fits the situation. I really liked this more toned-down atmosphere from the Korean audiences.

I think that’s all I can really narrow down from my various experiences at Korean concerts compared to the ones in America… It really is quite different though, and I feel so honored to have witnessed this comparison countless times. I am really just honored to be there at those moments in general.

Which brings back around to this… upgraded level of connection towards my artists. After seeing so many of them in person and more than once for that matter, when listening to their music now… something definitely sounds different. When I listened to these artists before I saw them right in front of my eyes, their real, authentic voices blasting into my ears, I still felt moved, I still felt goosebumps, choked up, a bulging affection sometimes. And not that I have lost those feelings, no, definitely not. Now… now, when I listen to these artists through my earbuds or through my laptop… I can literally hear them in my ear. Does that even make sense? Well, duh… of course I can hear them. But like… it’s like… I can hear them on a much more intimate level than ever before. Now, I can really imagine & sense these voices in my head. I can pick up the sound of their breaths, picture their expressions, and really just HEAR their voices as if they were physically singing into my ear right there in that moment, in person. It’s such a peculiar and special and unique feeling that is honestly so hard to describe with just words…

But to be honest like… to this day I still cannot wrap my head around everything. I can barely count and keep track of all the artists I saw and when I saw them and what they sang. I feel like SO MUCH happened that my mind can barely grasp it all, as much as it wants to do so so badly… I still can barely comprehend it… years ago I would cry to Sam Kim, ponder how amazing he would be live… and then literally somehow, he sang two songs like 7 feet in front of me, and even sat right next to me. I thought Fromm was a goddess from another world: but I somehow got to talk to her & even take a selfie?? What?? I thought the world would never let me see Roy who always has his school life to manage as well…. But I got to see him live 5 times?? And even go to his solo concert?? WHAT??????? HOW????????? YOU GUYS, I could honestly go on and on and on because it still all feels like a dream…

In particular with Roy Kim… I say this to myself all the time, the irony is just… wow. Who would’ve known that after years of watching countless fancams, effortlessly memorizing his scarce yet existent fanchants, also memorizing set-lists without even trying, becoming all-too-familiar with things like the way he talks, addresses the crowd, sings specific songs, even all the way down to the way he does adlibs for certain songs… I unknowingly picked up & knew these performance aspects SO WELL through pure admiration, enthusiasm and just LOVE for every song he sings. And who would’ve known, that years later, I would have my very own fancams to cry over. After years of literally watching almost EVERY fancam of him on youtube, at all the various events he performed at, some years more frequently than others, today I can proudly say that I have my very own fancams of him, too. Ohmygosh, it’s still so hard for me to believe…

It really just….. *breathes deeply & tries to recollect self for the 24980164th time*…. It just goes to show… No, okay I don’t really know what it goes to show… But one thing is a fact: loving, cherishing, being thankful for, dedicating so much of my emotional & mental strength towards these seemingly-no-one artists has paid off tenfold. No, billionfold. I don’t even know. I just…. I just never thought I could do and see and hear and experience the things that I did. Never. These people…. These people have given me so much, and although I tucked them deep into the folds of my heart for years, I never thought I could truly open up these treasured feelings one day & TRULY support them with my very own eyes & ears & heart. IN person. I am just so so so blessed. So thankful. Really. Always.

Now, it’s time to bring myself to reality & to think about what this means for me going forward. I don’t want to believe in my passion for my music as a phase: Infinite & all things K-pop wasn’t simply a phase for me. It literally was a maturation, a self-realization, a loss of support for the things I never really knew or understood until time started to pass. I don’t think I grew out of K-pop. I think I simply grew with K-pop & got to understand more about it. And with that understanding came a change of heart. Which is literally the title of my post from years ago: “why I fell out of love with K-pop”. It’s not just “Oh, I am older now. So, I don’t want to like this seemingly childish stuff”. No, it was never about K-pop’s image or whatever. I can’t emphasize more, but it always comes down to the music for me.

Infinite has been and is a piece of my life that I will never forget. A piece of my life that has literally brought me to where I am today. I sit here, with my experiences and knowledge and feelings, in part, due to Infinite. I can guarantee anyone that much. And so, no, they really weren’t just a phase. Things change, people grow older, time flows. That’s just how it works. Does my heart ache over old K-pop like every day? Hell yeah it does LOL. But there’s nothing I can do about it. I can only thank old & 2nd-gen K-pop for the amazing memories that it has given me.

And so, with my music and my artists today, is this all a phase? Will I stop being as enthusiastic years later, like I did with Infinite? You see, with Infinite, I was always apprehensive. At the age of 12, I KNEW that time would eventually take its toll & my blatant love would not necessarily transcend the years that will drag on in the future. But that never made my appreciation for them dim: it only grew stronger as the days went by. I think I am always apprehensive. I think I always fear losing the feelings that I feel with great passion & love at this moment in time. Just as Roy says, 영원한 건 없지만. Nothing lasts forever (but...). I literally think about this all the time. It is such an important concept to me, and it is how I motivate myself to be thankful for everything and everyone and to just take things one step at a time. And so, to really answer my question: is this all just a phase?

I really, honestly, hope… No, I just think not. I really do not think so. At the age of say, 24, five years from now, will I still be loving Roy & Sam & DAY6 & Fromm & everyone else? I really honestly hope so. For as long as they can make music, I can keep loving them, right? Just as Infinite has done since I was 11, 8 years ago, up until today, I firmly believe that my artists can continue this long-lasting impression on my life. They instill a sort of magic & sentiment in my life that almost nothing else in this world can do for me. And for that, I will stay grateful for & only hope for the best.

Roy is currently back in school right now, finishing up his last semester before he finally gets to graduate! I am excited and proud and a bit sad all at the same time. But honestly, it really just comes down to the humanness of these people. When I first saw Infinite back in 2013 as a lil 14 year-old, I guess you could say I was starstruck. I was like “that’s them??!?? Those dudes ive spent countless hours watching through the computer screen?????? THEY ARE RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF ME?”. I had similar thoughts at the LA K-pop Festival in Apr. 2014 when I saw many many many of the big, og k-pop groups at that time. It was hard to believe that these people are real. I would say that my experience with the “With Antenna” in LA concert back in Sept. 2017 made me come to this important realization. That was the first concert where I actually spent the entire time sitting down and just listening. Listening to these wonderful musicians playing their instruments & singing gorgeous songs & just absorbing all that godly magic in the air at that place in time.

I really got to feel how human artists are at the end of the day. K-pop is always built up to be this larger-than-life dynamic, but real artists… No, they’re so much more different. They are simply people, like you and me, with a passion for their music & they wish to share that passion with the rest of the world. That’s it. The sincerity & genuineness that goes into my artists’ music can literally be felt from all the way across the world, just through a few audio snippets, fancams, and grainy Instagram videos. And that is seriously so beautiful. They are so amazing at what they do, they truly are.

Roy’s last two songs from 2018 were purely love song ballads, and I am not complaining or anything. As solid and classic as these tracks were, I still miss that acoustic, healing tone from him. Before he left for school again, he mentioned several times that he wants to come back with music that will console listeners. I was honestly so genuinely happy to hear this. He knows, he honestly, really does. He has even said it before, but he knows that his music can literally lift people back up from the dead. He wants to do that for them. For you and me, who struggle in life when the going gets rough, he wants to be of some sort of help, no matter how minuscule. He knows, he really does. And that is just so beautiful. I am so proud of him & I can’t wait to see what he will have in store for us in the coming months (after his grad, that is).

To all my artists that made these 4 months feel like a literal dream: Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. Sincerely. Thank you. Always.

늘 고마워요.

#korean music #roy kim #rochestra #sam kim #sun and moon #fromm #midnight candy #day6 #infinite #woohyun #eddy kim #am i missing anyone #prolly am #sigh i still cant #im so so so blessed #thank you for everything #ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

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sinceileftyoublog · 6 years

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Pitchfork Music Festival Preview: 10 Can’t Miss Non-Headliner Acts

Raphael Saadiq; Photo by Mel D. Cole

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Tame Impala haven’t released a new album since the last time we saw them three years ago. Fleet Foxes headlined Pitchfork in 2011. Ms. Lauryn Hill already played her best songs two years ago at--wait for it--Ravinia. What gives?

Okay, I’m still very excited to see all three of these headliners. But sort of like in 2016, for this year’s Pitchfork, the gems are earlier in the day. Here are 10 reasons to show up early throughout the weekend.

FRIDAY

Lucy Dacus: 2:30, Green Stage

And we thought she was good after releasing her debut! After a label bidding war, singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus has exceeded expectations with her second album Historian, released earlier this year. The songs are more lyrically and instrumentally complex and ambitious, headlined by opening album anthem “Night Shift”. Remember and shout along to this line: “In five years I hope the songs feel like covers / Dedicated to new lovers.”

Open Mike Eagle: 4:00, Blue Stage

The Chicago rapper’s latest album Brick Body Kids Still Daydream is a concept record about the Robert Taylor Holmes public housing project. Any local voice showing public housing in a positive light to the rest of the world is welcome--let alone portraying Chicago as something other than what the media illustrates. That Open Mike Eagle has serious lyrical chops and charm is just an added bonus.

Mike also plays an after-show tonight at Lincoln Hall. Fess Grandiose opens.

Syd: 6:15, Green Stage

We’ve seen Syd play with her band The Internet, who release a new album today. But this set will be largely comprised of solo material from the singer’s debut Fin, released last year to much acclaim. It combines 90′s R&B and neo soul with contemporary beats and production styles.

The Internet hosts an album release party for their new record Hive Mind tonight at East Room.

Mount Kimbie: 7:45, Blue Stage

Grey with splashes of color--that’s how I might describe Mount Kimbie’s most recent album Love What Survives. It’ll be perfect for a rainy day on the Blue Stage. The band combines live instrumentation with electronic music to create songs that vary between ambient, pop, and krautrock. While they might not have King Krule on the bill to come out for career highlight “Blue Train Lines” (surprise appearance, please?) or the other prominent vocalists they’ve collaborated with to come out for their respective songs, the band’s controlled chaos should suffice.

SATURDAY

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith: 2:45, Blue Stage

One of the headier artists on the bill this year is Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, whose Buchla synthesizer-addled songs envelop your mind more than they make your body move. Last year’s The Kid followed up Smith’s great 2016 effort Ears and a collaborative album with synth master Suzanne Ciani, and that one wasn’t too bad either. A concept album about four stages of life whose context isn’t necessary to enjoy or appreciate the music, The Kid is ultimately a showcase for Smith’s ability to weave multiple synths together and combine it with her voice to make shimmering tunes.

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith plays an after-show Sunday night at Constellation. Cool Maritime opens.

Moses Sumney; Photo by Eric Gyamfi

Moses Sumney: 4:15, Blue Stage

Moses Sumney is a once-in-a-lifetime singer. Not because he can shatter glasses or anything--though he probably could--but because he can take abstract concepts like capitalism and the hetero-normative nature of romantic love and make you feel like you’ve experienced them on a concrete level even if you haven’t, all through the sheer beauty of his voice and strumming of his guitar. The potential for quietest, most heartbreaking moment of the festival will come when he sings “Doomed” off of last year’s Aromanticism: “Am I vital / If my heart is idle? / Am I doomed?”

Raphael Saadiq: 5:15, Red Stage

The most surprising, yet welcome booking at this year’s festival is R&B master Raphael Saadiq. Pitchfork has reviewed one of his albums and has given him minimal coverage over the years despite the excellence of his 2011 album Stone Rollin’. Perhaps it was his production work on Solange’s 2016 record A Seat At The Table that landed him a spot on the bill, but I shouldn’t really ask any questions. I’ll just appreciate his unique mix of soul, funk, R&B, blues, and rock.

Kelela: 7:45, Blue Stage

After breaking out with her 2013 mixtape Cut 4 Me, Kelela finally released the brilliant, fully formed statement we’ve all waited for from her. Take Me Apart is an album about ending one relationship and going into another--territory that’s not original for an album but important because it’s immensely personal, celebratory of queer black self-love on songs like “LMK” and “Altadena”. She somehow makes dubstep and trap beats sound subdued and sexy, her ethereal voice the perfect complement to bubbling synth and bass.

SUNDAY

Japanese Breakfast: 4:00, Blue Stage

Michelle Zauner stole the show from Mitski two years ago. Now, she’s got an even better set of tunes in her repertoire. She released her second album of dream pop and spacious synth-laden shoegaze, Soft Sounds from Another Planet, last year. From epic opener “Diving Woman” to jams “Road Head” and “Boyish”, there will be plenty to love during her set. Doesn’t hurt that Zauner is funny as hell, either.

Japanese Breakfast plays an after-show tomorrow night at Thalia Hall. Mothers and Varsity open.

Noname: 5:15, Red Stage

Noname is one of the best live rappers in the world, let alone Chicago. Ever since catching her set at the inaugural House of Vans show last year, I’ve been floored by her ability to make her poetic words about growing up sound intimate and powerful and clear even in a live setting. Her debut mixtape Telefone was released two years ago, so hopefully she’s got some new songs for us at Pitchfork. She’s also collaborated with other artists on the lineup like Saba, Smino, and Ravyn Lenae, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see them join her during the set.

(Sandy) Alex G: 6:15, Blue Stage

While we loved (Sandy) Alex G’s performance at the Bottom Lounge a couple years ago (before he adopted (Sandy) as part of his moniker), it was last year’s Rocket that made this writer a believer. One of the best indie-rock albums of the decade is a little bit country, a little bit...hardcore? Okay, the latter refers to the rap-rock of one track, “Brick”, but it speaks to the diversity of his songwriting. You can hear the influences of his work with Frank Ocean in 2016 on melancholy, auto-tuned ditties like “Sportstar”, while “Poison Root” and “Bobby” swell with Americana strings and banjo. Not to mention the classic rock bounce of “Proud”.

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newmusickarl · 4 years

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2021 has been relentless with great new music so far this year, with each Friday drop bringing with it at least two or three incredible new releases worth checking out. However, that still didn’t quite prepare me for this last week which has probably been the best New Music Friday of the year so far. An avalanche of new releases, including (at least as I haven’t got round to everything yet!) five incredible albums, each offering different sounds to fit different moods. Because of this and because I can’t choose a favourite from these records yet, there is no Album of the Week – instead here are the five albums and two tracks from the last seven days that you should make the time to listen to and discover:

Album & EP Recommendations

Carnage by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis

“This morning is amazing and so are you…” – Balcony Man

Surprise! Out of nowhere, the legendary Nick Cave and his partner in crime from the Bad Seeds Warren Ellis have today dropped their lockdown collaboration album - Carnage. And although I have only managed one listen through at the time of writing, just like his last two records, this one is really something special.

If there was any artist who you would pick to really capture the mood of lockdown and turn it into something magical, it would be Nick Cave. On his last record Ghosteen, one of my Albums of the Year for 2019, Cave & Ellis continued through their journey of despair which originally begun on 2016’s Skeleton Tree, ultimately finding a glimmer of hope at the end of it all. Carnage by comparison arrives almost as a halfway house thematically of these two previous efforts, carrying the hopelessness of Skeleton Tree rooted in real life events, along with the fantastical stories and tinge of optimism displayed on Ghosteen.

Because of this, Carnage is arguably more accessible than those two records, with Cave & Ellis seemingly dancing in the melancholy of the apocalypse across the album’s eight tracks. Sonically however it is vastly different, with the understated piano-driven melodies replaced with grand, operatic instrumentation built predominantly on strings, that move effortlessly from the menacing to the stirring at the drop of a hat.

Although I still need to stew on this record a bit more, the ominous prance of Old Time, the gorgeous guitar and choral chants of the title track and the beautifully restrained closer Balcony Man are standing out as the early highlights.

Cave himself summed up Carnage perfectly in his release statement, calling it “a brutal but very beautiful record nested in a communal catastrophe.” This is Cave and Ellis waltzing majestically in amongst the chaos, taking the listener into the eye of the storm and presenting them with something quite glorious at the centre of it all.

Terra Firma by Tash Sultana

Elsewhere, Australian multi-instrumentalist Tash Sultana released her much-anticipated sophomore album this week, Terra Firma. Contrary to Cave & Ellis’ record, Sultana delivers a peaceful escape from the global situation, delivering a record that is very personal and reflective.

Soulful and richly textured, there are plenty of career-best moments here including the acoustic-driven cooing of Crop Circles, the gorgeous Josh Cashman collaboration Dream My Life Away and the record’s transcendent finale, I Am Free. However, it is the album’s centrepiece Coma that delivers arguably Sultana’s best song to date, a beautifully constructed track about letting go, that culminates in a wonderfully bluesy guitar solo.

At 60 minutes long, Terra Firma feels like a meditative experience – an album to sit and bask in to get some much needed relaxation and introspection away from the lockdown grind. This is another special album, one I’ve returned to numerous times this week and can see me continuing to do so over the course of the year too.

As Love Continues by Mogwai

At this point, ten albums and 26 years into their career, people just about know what to expect from Scottish post-rockers Mogwai, and that is soaring, grandiose instrumentals. However somehow with each new release, the band still manage to amaze, taking their instrumentals into unchartered territory and leaving listeners in wonder with their colourful, breath-taking soundscapes.

For me, As Love Continues is one of their best releases for years (with some of their best song names too). From cathartic opener To the Bin My Friend, Tonight We Vacate The Earth, the acid-drenched industrial sounds of Here We, Here We, Here We Go Forever, and the dreamy, looping guitar riff and euphoric crescendo of Pat Stains, Mogwai’s touch for forging fascinating sonic textures hasn’t missed a beat. That said, it is the one track that contains clean vocals that stands out amongst the pack, and that is the emotional gut punch of Ritchie Sacramento which sees frontman Stuart Braithwaite paying a beautiful tribute to all his musician friends that have passed over the years.

This is definitely one of my favourite recent Mogwai records, and one of my favourite releases by anybody this year so far – an essential listen.

Trauma Factory by nothing,nowhere

When you’re ready for a change of pace after indulging in the albums above, then the fantastic fourth record from American prodigy Joe Mulherin under his nothing,nowhere guise is the place to go. Mulherin has always been known for his edgy blend of hip-hop, R&B, pop punk and emo, with this crossover of genres helping him to forge a sound that feels very much his own, with many trying to replicate since and ultimately failing.

Now on Trauma Factory, Mulherin sets himself for world domination with arguably his most commercial collection of tracks to date, certainly from a melody standpoint at least if not lyrically. From ambient groove lights (4444), the laidback, slackerpop of upside down, the anthemic chorus of pretend, the infectiously catchy KennyHoopla collaboration blood, and the straight-up pop punk of nightmare, Trauma Factory feels stadium-ready, almost playing out like a nothing,nowhere greatest hits collection.

However as big and chart friendly as this one feels at times, there are still plenty of riskier moments too, such as the bold, heavy riffs and aggressive vocals of death, a track which is nicely contrasted by the vulnerability of one like real, an album highlight which sees Joe confess his own pressures and anxieties in a haunting spoken word number.

All in all, this a wonderfully eclectic album that perfectly showcases Mulherin’s growing confidence as a songwriter and artist. This was by far my most highly anticipated album heading into this week, and although I am yet to decide if this is overall Mulherin’s finest release to date, there is no doubt that this a highly enjoyable 40 minute listen, packed in with plenty of career best tracks.

Non-Fiction by Spector

And finally this week on the album front, legendary indie rockers Spector have released a new 13 track collection called Non-Fiction, a culmination of all their independent EPs and singles released since their last full length album Moth Boys in 2015 (their last to be released on Fiction records, hence the title of this one, aha!). That album was actually my Album of the Year in 2015 and, despite not being an official studio album, Non-Fiction resonates with me the same way that album did six years ago.

One of the great differentiators Spector have always had over other British guitar bands for me is enigmatic frontman Fred Macpherson, with his witty humour and razor-sharp songwriting completely unmatched by any of his peers. On Non-Fiction, his unique brand of lyricism is out in full force with this collection featuring some of the very best songs Spector have ever written. From the brilliant “We broke down on the M1, they said to call the AA but I didn’t know which one” line in opener Untitled in D, through to the “More M&S than S&M, two can dine for news at ten, voucher for my requiem, now I’m one of them” verse in album highlight When Did We Get So Normal?, Macpherson doesn’t waste a single word.

Steered by Macpherson’s astute, observational lyricism, Spector serve up huge singalong indie anthems that have no reason to be this poetic and wonderfully crafted. Again, an album that features plenty of career highs including Fine Not Fine, Wild Guess, Tenner and Half Life to name but a few, Non-Fiction, despite being independently made, feels every bit as special as its predecessor Moth Boys did. Ultimately if you’re after rousing indie anthems this week, you’ll struggle to find anything better.

Tracks of the Week

The Last Man On Earth by Wolf Alice

Onto tracks then and Wolf Alice made their triumphant return this week, debuting the first taste of their forthcoming album Blue Weekend. An unexpected first single choice, The Last Man On Earth is a haunting piano ballad built around Ellie Rowsell’s powerfully haunting vocals, which eventually erupts into a glorious haze of soaring guitars. Welcome back!

Paranoid by Keir

And my final recommendation this week is the anthemic new single from singer-songwriter Keir. Ever since the release of his song Squeeze Me years ago, Keir has been an artist I always thought should be dominating radio stations across the country. Although he’s not achieved that feat just yet, Paranoid may be the track to change all that with its instantly catchy chorus, glorious choral backing and masterful production. One of the best pop songs of the year so far.

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imadeletingmysocials · 6 years

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My scores for E3, because apparently now i’m a dumb 4channer who thinks this /v/ meme shit matters, like it’s not gonna affect sales or anything it’s pointless as all hell [this is lenghy, but hear me out ok]

EA:

4/10 - people will probably play the games regardless of how shitty this presentation was but... It felt pretty insulting.

Battlefield V is probably gonna make a lot of money regardless cuz people like war games and it seems pretty well done, the more footage they have shown seemed better than their weird advertizement that made world war 2 seem very wacky, which honestly regardless if you’re a sexist neckbeard or not, seemed like a poor advertizement move.

TinyBuild:

No one watched this lol and it was just 1 GAME and a fun cute musical that made people who aren’t strong enough to musicals die, 6/10 because it made nerds die and their song is catchy, i dont really care about their 1 game.

Microsoft:

9/10 - I'm giving this much of a high score because I would play practically almost all of these games showcased (they’ll probably be available on PC which I’m biased for cuz I have a gaming PC), no kidding, I pretty much liked everything I saw and it was fairly straight to the point. Many gamers don’t appreciate the finer details of each game and think they’re generic but that’s just fanboys who haven’t played a single game outside of their favorites.

Also my cousin uses those Xbox One netflix rip offs that gives you games so i’m happy for him. The presentation had a lot of diamonds in the rough games that will I will probably appreciate more over time (they might even become cult classics like Metro or Dying Light) than any of other games at other e3s. As for the stuff I won’t be playing: It’s mostly harmless so eh.

There was an abundance of trailers! It was like one after the other, pure goodness, it seems as if they left out all of the Sports games to EA to present and the only thing they showed that might not be anyone’s cup of tea was “Forza”, but honestly? I appreciate it, it seems like a good racing game even if I’m not one to buy racing games.... But the more you think about the number of good games presented, the less you’ll think about that, I mean they showed DEVIL MAY CRY 5!!!

...The Funko Pop game made me scream though.

Bethesda:

8.5/10 I cannot deny that these are games I will want to play regardless if they’re good or not. Sad to see nerds not enjoy the opportunity to meet ANDREW W.K. but I’m glad all of the divisions they own are making sequels to stuff I already like, so pretty much Bethesda played it safe.

Devolver Digital:

8/10 It’s like that one b-movie film your college students made and you had a laugh with creating.

Square Enix:

5/10 seriously, 30 minues of just trailers? Most of which we saw?? I guess it could be worse but who uses E3 screentime for mostly MMORPG deals! The new stuff was too vague to be excited about too.

Ubisoft:

7/10 - I liked it when they made funny quirky things and their games are probably gonna be okay like usual, Ubisoft has dedicated fans that like their collectathon games they release every year, and it’s usually that one game you play when you’re bored and got nothing else, it’s okay.

Gamers hate fun and dancing and all that stuff but I kind of find stuff like that exciting, while nerds who never went outside and who are sensitive as all hell to any representation of fun find it “cringey”. A panda dabbed, and that settles it, Ubisoft was the only E3 Brave enough to dab this year.

PC Game Conference (it was fairly long):

I know none of you watch this one cuz y’all fake as hell but listen... Fuck you LOL, these are the type of games people actually play over 400 hours and really get people’s money. Like these are games built to last that might be on the best-selling Steam front page for MONTHS, like how Frostpunk was comfirmed last year during this conference, PC Gaming has been known for sleeper hits that nobody knows about (because the attention goes to cinematic experiences on consoles most of the time) but suddently everyone’s playing it.

PC gaming has always been an alternative lifestyle and seeing as many people didn’t watch this one, that just proves the point that it still relatively alternative. Maybe it’s because everyone sounds dumb as fuck when saying “PC GAMER MASTER RACE” and acting like an elitist.

The PC Gaming conference is always more of a talk show than a regular E3 which is why I respect it every year, fuck the hyperactive gamers that just wanna see flashy trailers, this one’s more SOPHISTICATED!! It feels a lot more human and less artificial. Either way, lot’s of what you might’ve expected: Simulators and Survival games you’ll probably spend 3 years playing until they make a better minecraft clone.

Gamers like to act as if they’re tired of Battle Royale (already? It’s a new fad it still is here to stay for a little more) but the numbers and success of it doesn’t lie that it isn’t a fad that proves itself to be highly tempting to try out for developers. Go cry to valve that they didn’t release Half-Life 3 cuz you haven’t played any other FPS game without even researching that Valve pretty much fired all of it’s developers and you’re just being annoying.

I feel as if I need to comment what I saw at this e3 cuz nobody watched, they made a mod I liked from skyrim into a fully-ass game, they’re rebooting Star Control which not a single gamer today knows of, the HP Lovecraft open world detective game also seems very good. YAKUZA IS COMING TO PC!!!!!!!!! Killing Floor 2 stuff, Road Redemption stuff, SHARK RPG, cute indie games, Jeff Goldblum was there, Wall-E with a gun in VR which seems to have promissing good vr design by Insomiac games (yes the spyro people), 2 games about Taxi driving... Like sure I think it’s a good format for story telling but.

A cell-shaded art game, star citizen is still being made, and it’s gone to the point nobody really wants it anymore even if it’s... Still being made you know? So most guys are wrong that it was gonna be canceled. After that was the technical graphic card stuff which gamers don’t have enough capability to understand, stuff like 9k laptops that SELL a lot mind you. Rich people love that technical stuff.

A space defense sim game, Don’t Starve Sequel, Just Cause 4 detailed explanation of the engine, Overkill’s The Walking Dead gameplay which has been in development hell for years now now has a release date, I discovered Clementine’s voice actor is white... Go figure, a literal pixelated roguelike (not what you think it is, it’s Noita),

Theme Hospital REBOOT!!!! YES!!!!!!!!! And the doctors were cute. Probably one of the funniest games presented... Followed by REALM ROYALE HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. That harvest moon clone with a cute art style is still being made: Ooblets, no release date sadly. Anno is still going, cyanide and happiness still exists? and they’re making a battle royale? lol okay. How was Hitman 2 not announced during Square Enix?? Anyways it’s here at the end, the trailer was amazing and it’s coming out this year.

I don’t have that much strong feelings because it’s just a normal conference and not a special one you know? But I’ll give it a 8/10 or 7/10 im not sure cuz I seem to like most games and I found Frankie cute.

Sony:

Yo usually Sony makes like a huuuuuuuge thing about their conferences (like this year they didn’t even showcase indie games) but this year they started from a church for the sake of immersion?? It reminded me a little of their first E3s during the 90s, and it almost felt like a indie gathering for musicians, I swear to god, Sony is borderline experimental trying to balance out their E3 across stages. Jeb played the banjo and people just ACCEPTED it... AND THEN someone played some JAPANESE FLUTE? aRT. It might come off as a bit arrogant for some tho.

Nerds hated it and thought it was bizzare, which is why it means it’s good. HAPPY PRIDE MONTH BITCHES. Anyways could have been a little more fast-paced... But then again when it was fast-paced it was just like: Huh? What was that? I’m a big Resident Evil Fangirl, RE2 was my childhood but ignoring that for a sec: finally, Death Stranding gameplay, remins me of shadow of the colossus but post-apocalpytic, survival horrorish and abstract sci-fi.

Kind of feels more Metal Gear than MGSV did already Cuz Norman Reedus sounds like snake a lot more than the 24 hours guy, and because from what I’ve seen in the footage, someone acts like Otacon to “Sam”. I think most now can figure out the plotpoints of this game with what has been established. I might be a bit sad at the fact that this will be a PS4 exclusive just like Metal Gear Solid 4, which I still haven’t played fully because it’s PS3 exclusive and I only have a gaming PC.

Also this E3 was surprisingly entirely SINGLE PLAYER, I sorta don’t believe in the “single player doesn’t exist” myth honestly, especially now. I’m not sure if that makes Sony’s E3 better or worse, maybe it needed more variation, like I’ve commented, usually they have an indie showcase which this year did not. There were few games shown but for what it was worth, it’s still interesting... But yeah just 5 games? No Spyro? (easy picking), nothing extra? I can understand why many people felt this E3 was upsetting.

8/10.

Nintendo

Here it is, the most overhyped developer of all of E3, the source of “Nintendo wins E3 by doing nothing” memes because Nintendo fans really don’t care about anything except Nintendo and then act surprised when they only care about Nintendo when they try to be a little more open-minded (and fail) even if other E3s probably make more games built to last in comparisson, cuz we gay people only care about NINTENDO YOU KNOW? Shade asside...

I was pleasantly surprised this E3, it wasn’t just a series of okay at best releases, a strong 9/10.

tHAT WAS WHAT I WROTE IN PREPRATION....

BUT THEN???? IT WAS JUST THAT??? NO PRIME 4 NO ANYTHING LIKE JUST 3 GAMES BASICALLY? (maybe there was 5 games but eh) I mean smash is good.. It’s pretty much just an update of the last smash, every character is REALLY FUCKING GOOD BUT.... JUST THAT? jeez.. Like, the only stuff I wanted from it was Mario Party and Smash... Okay maybe that 1 Mecha game. Also I guess fornite is now on Switch but I can play that anywhere else really.

I guess a 7/10 is all I can give to just Smash, if there was a little more I’d give it a 9/10 for sure but... ehh Just Smash? jeez, fuck... i MEAN I kind of get it, Nintendo doesn’t do “e3″ normally, they usually do 1 big game at E3 and then wait a couple of months to do that little seasonal announcement thing they do across the year, ugh.. Okay. Yeah I guess i shouldn’t have expected much. Still isn’t it weird that Miyamoto was in Ubisoft’s E3 but not this one??? what!

Anyways

#e3 #i'll post that image at the end individually #long post #Sony #Nintendo #Bethesda #Microsoft

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umusicians · 3 years

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UM Interview: Wild Youth

UK Indie Pop band Wild Youth have been a constant mainstay on Irish airwaves and music charts since their debut in 2017. Made up of David Whelan, Conor O’Donohoe, Ed Porter and Callum McAdam’s, the bands signature catchy choruses and unapologetic creativity have made them an act to keep watching for. Last month the band released their new EP ‘Forever Girl’ which showcases the collective diversity and boldness of the group when it comes to sonic risk taking. Stream the EP here.

Amandah Opoku sat down with Conor of Wild Youth to talk about the band’s new EP ‘Forever Girl’ and creating music during a global pandemic.

Amandah Opoku: Wild Youth, thank you for doing this interview today! Before we kick off please tell our readers about yourself and one random fact people do not know about you. Wild Youth: Conor had a very near death experience, which in a roundabout way led to setting up Wild Youth. He was in intensive care and it was 50/50

Amandah Opoku: If you could describe your music in three words. What words would you choose and why? Wild Youth: Big, Sad, Bangers.

Amandah Opoku: You recently released your sophomore EP ‘Forever Girl’. What was the writing and recording process like for the EP? Wild Youth: Really fun, It felt super free to be allowed to do what felt right for us. So it was fun experimenting and trying lots of new things.

Amandah Opoku: What challenges did you face while you were working on the ‘Forever Girl’ EP? Wild Youth: A global pandemic haha, just meant it was a slower process . But also was nice to have something to focus and work on while being locked down

Amandah Opoku: Did any artists who inspired/influenced the sounds we hear on the EP? If so, who? Wild Youth: Ye for sure, I think a lot of hip hop and some early disco really inspired this ep. We try to dive into the feel good feeling of disco with the bad ass beats and big choruses of Hip Hop.

Amandah Opoku: What is the inspiration behind the EP’s name, ‘Forever Girl’? Wild Youth: It's basically like the ep is a journal of my life going from heartbreak and the lows of that to finding love and a girl you want to be with forever.

Amandah Opoku: The ‘Forever Girl’ EP is a follow up to your debut EP ‘The Last Goodbye’. What would you say is the biggest difference between the two EP’s? Wild Youth: I think 'Forever Girl' is riskier. A little more experimental and probably a bit more honest.

Amandah Opoku: What song would you say best represents/sums up what the ‘Forever Girl’ is about? Wild Youth: Through The Phone or Next To You

Amandah Opoku: I really love the structure of the EP and how well the tracks fit together. If you had the chance to pitch any song on the EP for any television show and/or movie, what show would you pick and why? Wild Youth: Wow this is a sick question. I always thought Weekend Rockstars and Wasted without you were quite cinematic, I could see them in a city overview shot on something like 'Power' or 'Suits' based in New York.

Amandah Opoku: What message do you want your fans to take away from ‘Forever Girl’? Wild Youth: The kind of band we are is that we always want to evolve. We also want to let them into our lives because they are family and we always wanna be open and honest lyrically.

Amandah Opoku: 2020 was an interesting year for everyone, where we had to adapt to this new “normal”. How has the pandemic affected you as a musician? What have you learned about yourself? Wild Youth: I think it affected confidence for sure. It was like what you were known for was taken away from you and there was so much uncertainty surrounding your job which you’ve invested your life into which is scary as fuck. But I learnt that no matter what comes my way or knocks me down I’m going to keep going, because music and writing and performing is my life and who we are as people.

Amandah Opoku: For new fans who come across your music, what would you like them to take away from your music? Wild Youth: I’d like them to listen to our music and for it to be fun, and relatable. That they can dance while finding similarities in the narratives to their own lives. I like to think our music can help you escape the world and everything that’s going on.

Amandah Opoku: With the ‘Forever Girl’ EP out now, what can fans expect from you next? Wild Youth: We're announcing shows which are fun, and I'm straight back into the studio working on new material already. I’m so excited and ready to start writing whatever is next, whether that’s another ep or an album who knows.

Amandah Opoku: Wild Youth, thank you for sitting down with me! Before we close this interview is there anything you want to say to your fans and our readers? Wild Youth: Thank you for everything, we love you. We can’t wait to bring you more new music and can’t wait to see you at shows

Connect with Wild Youth on the following websites: https://www.instagram.com/bandwildyouth/ https://twitter.com/bandwildyouth https://www.facebook.com/bandwildyouth https://www.tiktok.com/@bandwildyouth

#Interviews #Amandah Opoku #Amandah #Wild Youth #Featured

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esonetwork · 4 years

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Seller's Market?

New Post has been published on https://esonetwork.com/sellers-market/

Seller's Market?

First things first.

As a rule, one should avoid getting into arguments with strangers on the internet.

Having said that, a couple of weeks ago I got into an argument with a stranger on the internet. It did not go well.

I joined a Facebook group (I think someone invited me to join). I’m not going to name the group but it was a science fiction and fantasy oriented group. A member posted about buying science fiction art and he expressed his opinion that it was very difficult to buy good science fiction art. He went so far as to claim that science fiction art was a seller’s market.

Well, when someone says something so asinine I have to respond. I took the bait, disagreed, got into an argument, posted the link to my online art portfolio to prove my bona fides as a science fiction artist, immediately got criticized for doing so (and had the quality of my work insulted) and then got temporarily banned from posting by my opponent for trying to press home my point.

Yeah, that’s the other bit of advice I have for you. When you join a Facebook group, starting an argument with the group’s moderator is not to best way to introduce yourself. (In my defence, I didn’t know he was the guy who started the group.)

However, I still think that his assertion that art is a seller’s market is completely wrong.

True, the art market has big names. These are the illustration rock stars. I’m talking about huge talents like Boris Vallejo, Greg Hildebrandt and Joe Jusko. These are the rock stars of the art world and for them, it is a seller’s market. They have gotten to the point where they don’t have to sell if they don’t want to.

Eric Lofgren

But then, every profession has their rock stars. Writing, Acting and… well… rock and roll. Look, the fact is that you can’t hire Lady Gaga to sing at your event unless you are very rich or you’ve just become President of the United States. And even then, Lady Gaga is in a position to say no.

You can’t hire the artist that everybody knows because everybody knows them.

But there are many artists between that level of recognition and the lowliest beginner. There are a LOT of artists of varying quality of various styles and many of them are hustling on a daily basis to get gigs. Very few of them are in a position to say no to a job. And artists are easier to find these days then they have ever been. Deviantart, Artstation, ConceptArt, are just a few of the websites where artists go to showcase their work. Hell, even Instagram has showcases of artists of varying skill levels that will be happy to produce art for you. If you want art for your video game, the cover of your book, pre-production for your indy film project, you can go to any of those sites and pick and choose which artist’s work match your project best. It has never been easier for a buyer to find art for their project.

Does that sound like a seller’s market to you?

Erik Allan Johnson

I have been a professional illustrator since I was in my twenties. I have been an art director for several magazines and websites, culminating in a recent stint as guest art director for the upcoming issue of Amazing Stories Magazine. I have been both a seller and a buyer of science fiction and fantasy art in a professional capacity. And I state, categorically, that it is not a seller’s market. It is most certainly a buyer’s market, but with one important caveat, which I will get to in a minute.

So, really… I mean, really, really... The art market is a buyer’s market in the same way that writer’s markets are buyer’s markets. In today’s On-Demand economy everything is a buyer’s market.

Ingrid Hardy

Look, I am an artist and I know lots of other artists and I have heard a lot of them complaining that they can’t get gigs. Some of them even give away their art in exchange for *gasp* EXPOSURE! Very few artists can pick and choose the projects that they work on if they want to keep a roof over their heads. There is the old cliché about the “starving artist” and in many cases, it’s no cliché, it’s the truth!

But here comes that caveat that I warned you about.

It’s a buyer’s market if you have the money. Sure you can want great art to accompany your project and it is easier than ever to find and if you are lucky and slightly unscrupulous you can probably get something for free. But this is true of everything. As I said, you want to get Lady Gaga to sing the national anthem your initials had better be POTUS. But there’s no shortage of singers, even talented singers, to sing the anthem at your community arena before a game. But you have to be willing to pay. You could convince your sister’s cousin to do it because she sang in the choir a couple of years ago, but you’re going to get what you pay for.

MD Jackson

The point is, everything is a buyer’s market if you have money. If you have the cash the world is your oyster. Dinner at the Ritz, a Broadway show, drinks at Bar 54. But even if you don’t you can still choose between the finest fast food outlets in your area, a movie on Netflix and beer from the fridge. Nothing is denied you.

Same with art. If you have the cash it is easy to find artists of relatively high skill levels to accommodate your needs. But you don’t even need a lot of cash, because there are plenty of artists who will fit the bill and not break the bank.

I’ll even help you out (and give a plug to my friends while I’m doing it).

Eric Lofgren is a Victoria based commercial illustrator. His specialties include cover art, collectible card art and interior book illustrations. He’s a stand-up guy, he delivers and his rates are reasonable.

You like cartoons and Caricatures? Erik Johnson is your guy. He’s done work for The Salvation Army and Nickelodeon Studios.

You like Star Wars? You like horses? Ingrid Hardy specializes in sketch cards.

There’s plenty more. I’ve picked less than a handful. Then there’s me. I’m not the best artists in the world but I am reliable, my rates are reasonable and I am a delight to work with.

Here endeth the lesson. Take that, stranger on the internet!

#art #Boris Vallejo #Eric Lofgren #Erik Allan Johnson #ESO Network #Facebook #Fantasy art #Greg Hildebrandt #Ingrid Hardy #Joe Jusko #Science fiction art

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vsionvry · 4 years

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To My Sisters: Photographer Liv Latricia Habel On Her Resilient Self-Portrait Series ‘Diasporan Daughters’

Danish American photographer Liv Latricia Habel is the creator of the reflective visual diary ‘Diasporan Daughters’. It’s a moving series of self-portraits that explore her take on what it means to be a mixed Black woman, and what it is to be seen as a mixed Black woman in Denmark. Raised in Germany by her mum and currently living in Copenhagen, Liv’s series comments on her personal experiences of being one of the few brown faces in her community growing up. She also dives into her connections with America and her different relationships with religion. This interesting combination of personal lived experiences informs not only the style of her photographs but also the meanings behind them. Liv explores societal expectations, her personal views, representation and resilience through her images. I got the pleasure to sit down with her (over Zoom) and talk all things self-love, fighting spirit, sisterhood, alter egos, and the craziness that is code-switching.

RC: Hey Liv. how are you doing?

LH: I’m doing good, I’ve just moved to a new apartment.

RC: That sounds fun; you get to decorate a new space. Do you do all that feng shui stuff?

LH: I don’t really know anything about that [laughs]

RC: Neither do I! You just put what feels right wherever.

LH: Right, exactly. How are you?

RC: I’m doing good too, tired but good! I’m happy I got to hop on this call with you though, it’s a cool change of pace.

RC: So do you study film or photography or something else creative?

LH: Yeah, I study at Copenhagen Film and Photography School. It's a one year compact course and it’s ending this December. I also studied Visual Communications a few years ago.

RC: Ooh, that’s a good combo, they work together well.

LH: Right now I’m using my skills, but it's not really what I want to work with.

RC: What do you want to work with?

LH: Photography!

RC: [laughs] I like that.

LH: I like working with photography, but it’s not my main income.

RC: Sometimes you need a plan B to help your plan A.

LH: Yeah.

RC: So is the book Diasporan Daughters a project for school or a personal project?

LH: This is a personal project, my evaluation project for school is about young female and Black artists, which I’ve been photographing.

RC: That’s super relevant nowadays, it’s also nice to do a little showcasing because all this talent is there, but not a lot of people know about it.

LH: Yeah, exactly.

RC: I was wondering what made you come up with this project?

LH: [laughs] Okay the interview is starting!

I came up with it because of my own story. My mum is Danish and my dad’s Black American. I grew up in Germany with my mum who’s white and with my white family. My school and community were totally white, so I spent my childhood and adolescent life learning to look like everyone else. I couldn’t mirror myself in anyone around me, neither in my family nor my friends till I was 19 and moved to Copenhagen and found my own community and friends.

RC: Oh wow!

LH: I was 20 when I had my first Black friend and started having contact with my family in the US, so it wasn’t that many years ago. I think of it as being a chameleon sometimes since I have so many identities that frame who I am today. I guess everyone has different identities and we can code-switch when we talk and adapt. Which is just superhuman! But for me, as a mixed Black woman, it's even crazier because of the way I grew up: I have so many identities. There are the ones that I’ve been living with, but also the identities society has given to me – which are a reflection of structural racism too. So you know, when I’m walking down the street in a specific neighborhood in Copenhagen, where there’s a lot of sex workers, and I’ve dressed up, and look good: men directly ask me how much I am.

RC: Really?!

LH: Or if it’s another situation where I might be confused for someone else, only because of my skin color.

RC: I definitely felt that through the book because there were a lot of photographs of you in different settings.

LH: Some of the portraits, I can definitely see myself in, I mean one of them is my alter ego.

RC: Ah which one is that one?!

LH: The one where I’m sitting with the pink bandana.

RC: Boss lady?!

LH: Yeah, its me when I’m the best me [laughs]

RC: That’s really cool, cause it's not only different identities you’re exploring but different versions of yourself as well.

LH: Exactly. It's different versions of myself, that’s what I mean by identities actually. Some of the images aren’t me, but what society thinks of me. Like my expereinces of being mistaken as a sex worker or cleaning lady. They’re stigmatized stereotypes of a Black woman in white society.

“There are the ones that I’ve been living with, but also the identities society has given to me..”

RC: I like that! It’s an ongoing story, you can add more as you go.

RC: Why did you decide to title your series Diasporan Daughters?

LH: Hmm, being part of the Black diaspora means everything in terms of my looks to me and society. It is also such a big part of who I am, and the title refers to all the women and girls who are part of the Black diaspora. That obviously includes the African diaspora, but for me, being part of the Black diaspora means more since my African roots are pretty far away [laughs].

RC: It felt like a love letter where you said ‘I’m writing this for me, but also for you’. That’s a sweet idea I think.

LH: It is! In the beginning of the book it says “For my Sisters”.

LH: Each one of us is unique with our individual experiences, but we have a lot in common. Especially when you’re living in the diaspora. I guess it's a different experience to be a Ghanian woman living in Accra for example, where you were born and grew up surrounded by a lot of other Black women. I imagine that experience differs to mine: living as a Black woman in a white dominated society. So the book is mainly for my sisters in the diaspora.

RC: I also saw one of your images was of you standing beside the Queen Mary statue in Copenhagen. She’s a very powerful woman, why did you feel it was important to take that photo?

LH: I wanted to add this archetype of a fighting personality. And for me, this picture has connections to the Black Panther movement. At the same time, this image also connects to the Black Lives Matter movement that has been expanding worldwide in 2020 after Breonna Taylor and George Floyd's murder. For me, the only public symbol fighting the Black struggle that exists here in Denmark, is the Queen Mary statue. She means so much because she led the labour riots of former slaves and plantation workers in the then Danish colonised West Indies. So, it’s all connected for me: fighting for your liberty as a Black person since slavery till today.

RC: She’s also powerful because of the scale. The statue is a lot bigger than many others in Copenhagen, so when you get there, you have to look up. I was almost thinking, is this really here? It is one of the only public images of a Black woman – there should be more!

LH: Definitely. For me, this image is not the strongest stylistically in the book, but its content definitely says a lot more than a lot of the other pictures because it has so much more depth.

RC: You’ve spoken about people of color’s experiences, not only in Denmark, but around the world too. There was one photo where you were wearing a red scarf, I was wondering if that had anything to do with the Burqa Ban in Denmark, or if there was any connection with that?

LH: That’s a good question. No, it doesn’t actually. My dad’s family is Muslim, so I got the whole outfit from my aunt. I grew up pretty nonreligious; I only went to church on Christmas, and I had a Confirmation because of the presents and because everyone else in my class had one – so that’s been my relationship with religion. Being in Philly and celebrating Eid made me experience a different religion that’s part of me. I’ll probably never get into Islam because I disagree with parts that I think can be problematic, as a lot of other religions around the world can be. As a Black woman wearing a sign of God means so much, because if you’re walking around in the streets as a brown or Black woman wearing a hijab, you’re looked at way more than if you’re not wearing a scarf. I’ve only worn a hijab once for Eid with my family, but when I’m wearing a scarf just for a bad hair day, I can get looked at differently.

RC: Yeah, I guess you can pick it up.

LH: Yes exactly, the photo comments on that, and also for the little part of me that’s Muslim too.

RC: That’s really nice, that you recognize these different dimensions and layers to yourself. It’s not just ‘I didn’t grow up with this, so I’m going to ignore it’, I think that’s quite a powerful photo in your collection.

LH: Thank you, there's also just so much stigma connected to being a Muslim woman and wearing a headscarf, niqab or burqa I find, especially here in Denmark, politically, it’s often connected to Islamophobia.

RC: The other thing I wanted to ask about was the types of text you include in your book. You have poetry from Maya Angelou and lyrics from Cardi B’s and Megan Thee Stallion’s song WAP.

LH: I’ve known the poem from Maya Angelou for some years, and I think it’s a very beautiful poem. I actually have to look up when it was written – it was published around 25 years ago. But it expresses how important it is to have self-worth, self-esteem, show who you are, and to be proud of who you are and every bit of yourself. That’s why I chose it, and WAP, I just think it’s a hilarious song, and I think since Lil’ Kim, Missy Elliott and other female pioneers in Hip Hop have been rapping about femininity, being in control of their own sexuality, and about sex in general. WAP is just the biggest 2020 example of how women should express that part of themselves. It’s a very extroverted song, whereas the Phenomenal Women poem is very ‘You have to stand up for yourself, but you don’t have to shout it out’. WAP, on the other hand, is ‘You shout it out!’- [laughs].

RC: I think that’s pretty interesting because they both talk about the strength and resilience of a woman just in very different ways.

LH: I also added an extract from the report of the African American Policy Forum. It is a list of all the African American women who have been killed by police brutality. And that’s a list of 48 women who have been murdered or died in detention because of the color of their skin. This is only the official list you know –

RC: Somethings aren’t documented…

LH: Yeah, exactly! Where have you actually seen the book?

RC: I saw a version of it online! So I did some stalking [laughs].

LH: Ahh okay, well done! I’ve actually changed a bit of the layout of those names from the online version. I’ve put the names of the women who have died in the same year in the same paragraph. Since 2011, there's been so many murders. The rate has been increasing, but I find that we don’t talk about it as much as the Black men being murdered in the US.

RC: Is that why you felt it was important to showcase it in your book?

LH: Yes, it's definitely a different rate when we talk about the US. In my experience, we talk a lot about men, and how they are targeted more in terms of police brutality. But after George Floyd, there weren’t that many people talking about Breonna Taylor in my circles, which happened three months before. Even my mum’s friend was like ‘Who’s Breonna Taylor?' and I was like ‘Yoo, educate yourself!’ So that’s why I added them. Also, I’m a woman myself!

RC: You gotta work in your own interest –

LH: Exactly! I can't relate to the men, but I can represent us.

RC: It’s a solidarity moment. What do you hope people take away from your book?

LH: So I hope that everyone who sees and reads it can get something positive, meaningful, and forceful out of it, which they can translate into something that drives them. Secondly, when I’m a bigger photographer and if..

no, when the book gets -

RC: Yes! WHEN! You have to manifest!

LH: [laughs] Yes, when the book is out there on bookshelves, I hope I can also be a representative Black face for young mixed Black kids and girls. Now I’m also saying mixed because I’m that myself, but it'd just be good to get more representation out there. My biggest dream as a child was just to see someone who looks like me in this Western world.

RC: Do you think that would have helped you when you were younger in Germany?

LH: For sure! That said, I’m also extremely privileged because I’m light skinned. Knowing that, It’s very much like standing in between two worlds especially when I’ve only grown up with one side. I’m always thinking I’m not white enough or not Black enough and trying to find an in-between. So with the book, I wanted to acknowledge that you can be as many different parts of yourself as you want to be

RC: You don’t have to choose.

LH: Exactly, you don’t need to choose!

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