#was going for a maximalist sorta vibe

[pixelddump]

[virtuacore]

Knock (노크) 못참겠네 (Moschamgess-ne; I Can't Stand It) (1997) periodical old kpop power hour of power (POKPHOP) 1집

what better way to start off this series than with my favorite song from this era ever. the obscurant one-and-done group Knock's "못참겠네" (Moschamgess-ne; I Can't Stand It) is a profoundly strange, groovy banger that's like... you ever hear something and then never stop thinking about it for like, two-plus years? yeah, this is that. it's riding a crazy, pointillistic disco-house flow somewhere between Deavid Soul and Akufen, Cassius trading their vinyl for ROMplers, maximalist microhouse: as skeletal as it is stuffed with little details, spangles and accents, filter sweeps and microsamples. it's things like the molecular reduction of "That's the Way (I Like It)" in the intro, the track snapping into a nocturnal, jazzy hustle, the thumping kick and its accompanying squirrely bassline bending itself into a möbius strip, multiple hard-panned samples jumping out of the mix at the same time, or the digi-horns, space drums, pulses, beeps, whirls, pagers and phones all going off in parallel, and god knows what else (there's a lot more!). and the trio dovetail with and riff on all this racket perfectly, ooh-la-la harmonies colliding with angular co-ed rap geometry, sweetened sing-song into a perfect hook as sassy as it is yearning. and the breakdown after the first chorus is pure madness, a couple bars at a jagged clip and then "it's about that time I put you back on track!" in the center channel and "it's disco time, baby!" out of the left before devolving into gang chants and scream-raps. then it gets itself together and locks back on to that hellacious groove. totally devious.

it's a small thing, too, but I greatly appreciate this song knowing how good its hook is and beating the hell out of it as such. so many hits (and not-hits) of the time just sorta end, you know? here they drop the drums a second, bring them back and then hammer the hook into your brain over and over, layering the intro rap and a bunch more of those laser pulses on top. anyway... this song fuckin' rules so hard. what also fuckin' rules? this song's video!

the MV is so, so, sooooo good. a low-budget urban daydream of 90s street scenes (shout out to Freetel!), passing trains, underpass dance rituals and rain-slicked parking lots, all lit by colorful strobes and fogged-out flood lights, absolutely killer fashion (and at least two killer wigs), crazy fresh dance moves, just a bunch of grooving and messing about with friends on the street corner with a tinge of X-Files and Jet Set Radio, all linked together by an unimpeachable sense of cool. the image of the group just vibing on top of those cars while shrouded in fog and light? simply iconic. the video's mysterious nocturnal energy and heady, kinetic rhythm is the perfect match for the music, and the combination is a revelation.

the rest of Knock's sole album also rules, even if none of the other songs quite rise to the level of revelation that the title track does. every song is a keeper, whether the off-axis G-funk of "YAMMA" and "Bad Girl", the cartoonish lilt of "오리", or the infectious duo of "Miss Miss" and "너 친구맞니?!", which both utilize the structure of a four-on-the-floor hook juxtaposed with a funky syncopated rhythm for the verses. "연습게임" is mystical and subterranean, and even the requisite album-closing ballad "I feel in your eyes" is a jammer: slow-and-low, spare yet lush, unpretentious and memorable. the whole record's united by the same off-kilter soundworld that animates the title track—the same ROMpler full of samples bouncing every which way, instruments all over the place, bits and pieces of voice and sound accenting everything, almost like a fourth vocalist. it's full of hooks, microhooks and grooves, all anchored to a mad sense of rhythm and space. all these joints have been stuck in my head for ages, basically! it's always it's the weirdest, galaxy-brain tunes that go nowhere and are doomed to obscurity, ain't it.

download in FLAC or V0 (ripped from my CD... scanned, too!)

bonus fun fact #1: the female rapper with the buzz-cut is named Z-E (지이)—after Knock fizzled out, she linked up with a rapper by the name of Turtleman to form the trio Turtles (거북이), who scored hit after hit until Turtleman's tragic passing in 2008. Turtles were a universally beloved trio, and deservedly so—they also absolutely rule.

bonus fun fact #2 and #3: "못참겠네" (plus "YAMMA" and "Bad Girl") was arranged by one Jegal Min (제갈민), one of the unsung heroes (see also: Shin Young-sub (신영섭)) of the original 1992-1994 "rap dance" craze that was dominated by Seo Taiji, Hyun Jin-young, DEUX and others. like many a failed pop star, he then found far more success in production and management. one of his backup dancers, Kim Jung-nam, later found stardom as half of the legendary Turbo (터보).

bonus fun fact #4: future entries in this series will absolutely not go on this long. i just really love this song, yeah?

tumblr exclusive bonus fun fact #5: periodical old kpop power hour of power (POKPHOP) is a series i've started on my cohost page but to a certain extent this tumblr has been on a POKPHOP for seven whole years now

hat tip: Old Kpop추억의뮤비 and 58RNA3QD

[finsterhund]

The day before the party, thoughts, updates, rambling, etc.

I got a package from Will and Paula. I will share its contents in its own post but I am so excited and happy. Thanks to them I was able to get Cazza a rare toy that I wasn’t sure I would have been able to get for her before, you know. I’m feeling a lot of relief. (She loves it by the way)

The heat is starting to get really bad. I am struggling super hard not to overheat and I know that it’s only going to get worse. Currently doing an experiment to see if putting a car window shade (what I did last year) has a better effect than just opening the window as wide as I can. I think the window shade is going to win. I am also debating whether I should bring out my last fan. The one I don’t use anymore. Will it make any difference? (I already have four running in my room lol) Climate change is deadly for me. Hate the heat. I miss winter so bad. I wish we could have winter with more sun. Winter but it doesn’t snow. Winter but it’s green. Cazza has almost completely shed. I have been collecting as much as I can.

Fishy sent some goodies my way and I have just been trying to relax between chores and eat them. I found out macadamia nuts are toxic to dogs so sad I can’t share. But I always love getting the Hawaiian candy ever since he first sent me some and I became addicted to the chocolate covered macadamia nuts lol. It’s like crack to me I have to put other things on top of the box so I don’t go at them all in one go. (And this is why the pandemic made me gain weight)

For my birthday I got Cazza some fancy treats that she really likes. I wish we could have a pool party. That we had a backyard and all my friends could come over and play in the pool (with Cazza) and that we had sprinklers (like the Spot sprinkler) and a slip n slide. The one big thing I got growing up was a massive (unkempt but lol that makes it more fun) backyard. Summer would be easier to deal with if I could just spend 12 hours a day sitting in a wading pool but the closest I can come to that is the bathtub until my roommate gets mad at me.

All things considered I think this is going to be a relaxing birthday. And good because my friends care about me and because Cazza is here. Fishy also sent me a card (and one for Cazza) and I tried setting up some doofy little clothespin line thing to hook them up by my bed. It’s very much still a work in progress but I’ll try to share soon. I love decorating my room in a maximalist sorta vibe with little treasures hanging off of every surface.

Not mental health meds so less of a pressing issue but there’s something wrong with my disability assistance because I went to the pharmacy and they wanted an extra $150 dollars after I switched from the name brand so I gotta talk to my doctor about why the fuck that’s happening.

The meds are to fix my hormone imbalance so it’s not life or death but still very annoying. I’m due for a checkup anyways but I have to do bloodwork in july and this is going to give me a bad score in blood.

I am waiting until this week is over to worry about it. Because I have my birthday and then I have Cazza’s next appointment and then I want to rest. I want to rest and rest and rest.

Andy very sleepy tired and weak.

I’m positive it’s just a misunderstanding and I won’t have to pay but it’s still so annoying that this is happening in Canada when healthcare is supposed to be free even though it very obviously isn’t. They won’t let you die but other than that pay up motherfucker.

(I say that but I know everything is a whole lot cheaper on average than it is in the US but it’s still pretty frustrating)

I missed Will and Paula’s art stream today because they did it early and it was before I woke up which I’m kinda upset about but it’s not the end of the world. Living in timezones sucks. Illinois is so far away that “noon” to them is still finsterhund sleepytime. Granted I don’t get up these days before noon and our “morning” walk but same thing. It’s usually in the afternoon on my end so I’m more likely to make it.

I’ve seen a few stores, more than last year, have pride collections and while I’m happy that being LGBTQ is being more normalized even if it’s consumerism I do wish that some of the stuff was more gender neutral because so much stuff is femme and I’m never gonna be one of those guys who expresses in a femme way. Had a phase as a teen that was tainted by a significantly older partner trying to push the femboy aesthetic on me and just never wanted to again afterwards. Maybe with age my masculinity won’t be super fragile but can’t say at the present. it’s weird because part of me does want to wear sparkly rainbow bead bracelets and such and it’s not that I’m closeted I’m very out lmfao but idk. Religious trauma and stuff really damages your brain. That’s the sort of stuff I give to my stuffed animals and Cazza. Cazza’s collar literally looks like a flag. I call it the Cazza pride flag and I made a fake flag moc up of it that maybe I can find somewhere in my files.

This year I’ve been struggling with labels again and after reading several resources that say being asexual isn’t because of trauma I’m no longer identifying as being under the asexual spectrum. I have no real way of separating if I’m “asexual” exclusively because of abuse and trauma and I don’t think I will until I actually start healing through therapy (it is a long journey) so I think I’ll just be open that despite being gay I’m sex repulsed due to child abuse. If I think too hard about it me being aromantic may be influenced by my childhood trauma as well but I wasn’t really abused in a way that would affect “romantic relationships” (I think?) so I’m more comfortable saying that I’m aromantic still. It’s hard to tell if I experienced romantic interest or if I just thought it was normal and mirrored it. Like I had a crush on another boy I was close friends with in third grade but I’m very conflicted about how I process relationships and how much of the romantic aspect at the time was actually romantic. If that makes sense. So much of my identity is interwoven with my trauma and it makes everything very difficult to unpack. Shout out to my birth father for not being able to cure my queerness but absolutely making me more confused about my own identity anyways.

All I can really say for sure is that I am gay and a childhood trauma survivor. You can’t really slap childhood trauma on a pride flag though.

Gonna go for evening walkies now and settle in for the night. Talk to you later. Maybe there will be birthday shennanigans tomorrow.

Cazza loves you.

[queenofdenest]

I hope I'm allowed to choose more than 1 number. I choose 12, 20 and 36 for DenEst. You don't need to answer all the questions ^^

I absolutely adore questions and I adore talking about DenEst so never, ever worry about sending more than one! They’re my darlings so I’ll answer any and everything about them! And thank you, anon, for sending some in - giving me the chance to share headcanons!

Let’s go onto the answers:

Q: 12. Is there a wedding? What was the proposal like? Any kind of honeymoon?

A: Personally, I don't think there would be. It's been my personal headcanon for a while now that Est is not fond of the idea of marriage - his country has had lower marriage rates than most other countries in the e.u, and tho it seems this is mostly because the average age that people are getting married in Est’s country is actually older than most in said union; graphs and statistical analysis does show that there's a bit of a decline in marriages (sources: 1. 2) and while I’m sure Den has definitely proposed, I think it just sits comfortably between them without needing to be accepted or rejected - though I will state, I do think that if Den has proposed, it’s been accepted and that’s why S1 Est wears a ring.

If they ever do marry - which could definitely happen and I am absolutely open to writing it someday - I see it as one that includes several traditions from each other’s cultures (I absolutely adore the Est tradition of people setting up little challenges along the way to the reception, and then Den’s traditions of the kissing; like your guest stomping their feet mean you have to kiss under the table?), that is very personal with not a lot of the others (excluding like the nb8, ofc they’re there) around, with a honeymoon that is quite literally just two weeks in Est’s countryside, and two weeks in Den’s, and is then just there

Q: 20. What does their home look like? Their room?

A: So personally I do believe they have a house in each other’s country, or more specifically, I feel like once their relationship took off, they started y’know doing that thing in relationships where you sorta move in by bringing your belongings and I feel like it took some time for each other to realize that there was more than just a clothing drawer the other has, it’s like half the house! but if they were to buy a new place for themselves, I feel like it would need to be comfortable - sorta cozy and, well not maximalist but not minimalist either, just like a happy middle of lived in with knickknacks but not cluttered to the high heavens with past mementos? I definitely see like a house with a fireplace, a mish mash of modern and “antique” items, wooden floors and cream colored walls, surrounded in nature. 

I think their room would be a very much in the same vein; light walls, rustic floors, but I think this is where a majority of their personal items would sit. Like pictures of each other, mementos from previous decades, furniture pieces that don’t fit the overall “aesthetic” of the rest of the house. Honestly, just good vibes in that house, always smells of home cooking, always feels warm and full of love; the silences are always comfortable, the blankets always soft, and it’s all just cozy.

Q: 36. What’s their greatest strength as a couple? Their weakness?

A: Have you ever heard the song, The Bones by Maren Morris? Because that's pretty much them and their strength - they're a couple that has been through so many problems and separations because of what they are and yet, they are more than strong enough to survive it all because they're willing to stand with the other (even if only metaphorically? I think is the word, like they might not be able to be with the other physically, but they're always there for the other (via letters!)). They respect each other’s bad days, cherish the good days, comfort each other when things go bad, celebrate when things go good; they’re just in love and though it’s been a hard fight to get to where they can actually be together, it’s a fight that was worth it. 

Their weakness is that they have two different love languages and it causes many issues - Den has these big displays of affections and declarations and wanting to cuddle or make out *wink wink* ala words of affirmation & physical touch whereas Est is more quality time and acts of service ala making breakfast and eating it in bed while just planning a day of going hiking or just spending time together do nothing - and while they understand that the other has a different way of showing love, it still grates on the other's nerves about it because lets be real that's sometimes true of the people you love and they're not always willing to talk about it because Est doesn't want to start a fight (because is there anyway to point out someone's behaviour bugging you in a way that doesn't start a fight?) and Den is worried about starting a fight with Est (due to the whole everything the other went through) and so they go around a very stupid merry go round.

Eventually they do speak to the other about it, and more often than not there is no fight, but nations are traumatized hindsight is 20/20. I do think though that they are consistently working on their communication skills and nowadays when the other does things that bug them, they have like a conversation to at least bring it to the table even if they can’t solve it right away, but for a while there was some poor miscommunication going on.

                    Send me a ship and a number and I'll tell you

[wordsoflittlewisdom]

I loooove the Birds of Prey at the airport!!! Could u maybe do BoP proposing?? Thx!!❤️

So I’m going to use s/o for “significant other” and then you can decide who they’re proposing to (x reader, canon characters, ocs, whatever your vibe is)

Harley: She isn’t really one for getting married, but if she were to propose it wouldn’t really be premeditated. Her and her s/o just blew something up, or just managed to lose their pursurers after doing something illegal, and she would swing her arm around her s/o’s shoulders and be like “we should get married.” She didn’t have a ring so she just pulled off one of the ones she was wearing and was like “take this.” Absolutely nothing changes about their relationship. They still live together in a cluttered, maximalist flat. They never actually got *legally* married but one of the wedding gifts was a forged marriage certificate.

Helena: I could maybe see her getting proposed to, but if she was the proposer: Watched romance movies to prepare. Read a bunch of Buzzfeed lists about the perfect proposal. Bought a nice, classic ring. Practiced her proposal in the mirror. Wrote her proposal on her arm so she wouldn’t forget it. Washed her proposal off her arm so her s/o wouldn’t notice. she didn’t kneel when she proposed, she just sorta was like “hey I have something for you” and handed the ring in the box to her s/o who opened it and was like “is this...” and Helena was like “yea it’s a wedding ring.” They struggled with getting legally married, because according to the government refuses to believe Helena is alive. 

Dinah: Went to an antique shop for a lamp, came out with a ring. And also the lamp. She’s responsible like that. She wound up carrying the ring around for a few weeks because the moment kept not feeling totally right, or something would come up. Anyway, her s/o was like “let’s go out to dinner” and Dinah was like “I am going to propose @ this dinner. I must.” They get there and Dinah’s s/o proposes to her. And Dinah’s like. What. How. Dinah pulls out her ring and does her proposal too, and her and her s/o then proceed to enjoy a lovely dinner together. The double proposal becomes one of their running in-jokes.

Renee: She isn’t really a romantic, but she’s willing to give it a try. I could see her doing some sort of living together arrangement without marriage? She has a ring that’s been in her family, and she’s going to do something nice and fancy for her s/o, but she realizes that isn’t really for either of them, and she winds up doing her proposal while they both eat alcoholic ice cream in pool chairs one hot summer day.

Asks are open! An ask is all I ask for!