2024.10.17
7038634357 - 191022
released October 19th, 2022
[Ambient, Drone, Noise]
Barry White's Tell Me Who Do You Love is evaporated, decimated, and sublimated in every possibly manner
in an hour long venture through all manners of ambient-adjacent plunderphonia. I've heard people call it
a DJ mix, but it's more like putting the song through a series of specialized chemical equipment in an
empty, sterile lab somewhere to rarify it to it's utmost essence, breaking it into it's pure molecular
constituents. Purified, filtered, reduced, elevated.
2024.10.16
zxjkcblhchjbsd - sincerity
released October 7th, 2024
[Drone, Noise]
Sounds like:
- The clattering of a train, riding through rough terrain (and everything left behind)
- The crashing noise of the seaside, heard mutely from under a dock (and quaint memories of what it used to represent)
- Being inside during a rainstorm (and who you wish was there with you)
It's rare, maybe a first, that a noise release wrenches up in me the feelings usually associated with bittersweet twee quaintness,
but somehow the droning organ and implacable, distant clattering and roaring somehow does. (And part of me asks, would I have gotten
all of this out of it without that cover and title? But if the cover was a random found image I would have taken it as a deep-internet-ish
piece of sonder, or if it was gore or some such xeroxed edginess it would be a lament, but still with much the same overtones, I think.
The weather might change but the world within will remain the same, and for me it's a sweet mirror of dandelion wishes and regret.)
2024.10.15
Autumn's Grey Solace - Within the Depths of a Darkened Forest
released October 9th, 2002
[Etherial Wave, Dream Pop]
A changeling's mourning.
Falling asleep in a dream.
Haze in the mountains.
Slow motion wandering through ruins.
2024.10.14
yayazizi's shortwave recordings
[Radio broadcast recordings]
Small world, I stumbled across yayazizi and thought they were cool, but buried in their site is a link to Catland.
Funny how it all comes full circle.
WebSDRs are one of my favorite online phenomena ever. It's an absolutely endless abyss of everything from normal
radio stations, hobbyist broadcasters, military data systems, number stations, and any number of unidentified signals
echoing through the atmosphere from god knows where. yayazizi's harvested a nice collection that covers most of these
and more, great work.
2024.10.13
Internet Story
released October 17th, 2011
Movie time today!
Digital mysteries are my specialty, and primary interest in life if I'm being honest. The fae folk are definitely
still with us, but moved home due to further human encroachment on natural lands and now reside as metaphenomena
lurking at the edges of a network nobody will ever fully map or understand.
Fiction as it is, the slow collapse of the situation here, buried in the midst of early 2010s YouTube and allegedly
undiscovered by anyone but the faceless narrator, is a prime example of what I'm talking about.
2024.10.12
The Carousel - Sorrow Is The Way To Love
released 1990
[English Folk, Twee Pop]
Traditional folk elements, melded with a more 80s/90s twee ethos.
Polyphonic, almost lilting, and borderline angelic. Heavenly choir of collapsing love; bittersweetness embodied.
I heard someone describe "Scarborough Fair" as too pretty for it's own good, and I can't imagine what
they'd say about this.
2024.10.11
Emperor X - 10,000-Year Earworm to Discourage Settlement Near Nuclear Waste Repositories
released May 12, 2014
[Indie Folk, Sound Art, Technical]
"A ray cat is a proposed kind of cat that would be genetically engineered to change appearance in the presence of nuclear radiation."
- Wikipedia
The (very oversimplified) problem with nuclear waste is that it's probably gonna be around longer than
we will and remain dangerous for most of that time. If the situation hits the fan and we send ourselves
back to the stone age, how do we make sure our descendants steer clear of our nuclear deposits and don't
contaminate themselves (and humanity's future survival) with radiation damage? Luckily many people have
thought of how we would create universal messages, and these ideas have included:
- Covering dangerous areas with giant ominous spikes (generally considered bad vibes regardless of culture)
- Giant skull statues and symbols (also pretty universal)
- The creation of legends as to why the gods / spirits / whatnot don't want us in specific areas
- Landforms specifically designed to make forboding droning noises in the presence of wind
- Glowing cats
This release includes a folk song designed to assist in the ray cat concept if it is ever implemented,
as well as simulations of an aeolian hellscape droning, and a shrill-noise generation to repel any would-be
inhabitants.
If any of this sounds interesting, I highly encourage you to read the notes that come with it. Every track
is explained, and while a good tune and an enjoyable listen overall, it's very much a functional, utilitatian
release (if currently only hypothetical,) more like an accompiment to a scientific study or Human Interference
Task Force report than a usual album.
2024.10.10
PHUCKED
recorded 2001-2006(?)
Unusual entry today, since we don't actually have Phucked (as far as I know,) just bits and pieces of it
on YouTube. It was a self-produced, self-released DVD with maybe a 20 dollar budget made in the mid-00's
by a bunch of doofuses from Maryland, and seems to be a masterpiece of teenage idiocy. Maybe I'm just
sheltered, but I feel like most of these stunts could have just as well ended up on Liveleak if anything
went slightly wrong, and while there does seem to be some crime-themed plot spliced in between the clips
of people jumping off roofs into cardboard boxes or flinging themselves downhill on office furniture,
it's probably improvised anyway. I certainly hope it turns up in full one day, talk about a time capsule.
PHUKED Trailer
PHUKED DVD Menu Video
Scissor Shock video
They also did a music video for Scissor Shock, an absolutely nutty, borderline outsider experimental music
project that's probably is to music, whatever Phucked is to movies. No-fi, no budget surrealistic teenage
nihilism spazzouts, occassional moments of beauty shining through an intricate nest of collapsing art that
exists less so by itself and more as a byproduct of a life lived with zero fucks given where smashing a car's
windows and putting yourself in serious bodily danger is on par with buying junk from yard sales and making
videos with your friends.
2024.10.09
Augustus - Thank You Stephanie
released June 2nd, 2014
[Bitpop, Twee Pop]
An absolutely adorable track from a member of Kero Kero Bonito, dedicated to a random internet user
who helped him translate a source for his paper. It's incredibly wholesome, is probably on par with
the best KKB from that era, and actually reminds me a ton of Rocketship?
The organ-sounding synths, his voice, the style of melody, it's seriously reminiscent of them,
like if they continues their 90s tweegaze style into the sounds of the 2010s. His voice is genuinely
as good as Sarah's. Feels like a sunbeam on a cold day, or a cool breeze in the middle of summer.
2024.10.08
Styles & Breeze - You're My Angel
released 14 September 2005
[UK Hardcore, Hands Up]
A couple days ago I mentioned how beautiful and even tragic some happy hardcore manages to sound
while still being 100% dancefloor compatible, and I think this epitomizes that. Who decided
"You're the only sunshine in my life" was a good lyric for a hands up track? Don't get me wrong,
it totally works, but still. It feels like there should be a happy/sad dichotomy, but there isn't,
there's no difference at all between the two here. I guess that's how love is, the having and the longing.
No real difference, ultimately.
Track goes incredibly hard too, the emphasis on melody works beautifully and it sacrifices no level of
rave-ready energy. 19 years old and still shines unchanged.
2024.10.07
lunaht_ - faux-emotional maturity
released October 7, 2024
[Mashcore, breakcore]
Very reminiscent of DJ Sailor Moon's multi-hour albums, appropriating and stealing sample after sample into an
amen-blasted idiosycratic mashed-up emotional wreck. The longer, 9+ minute track is particularly interesting, but
I can't really comment on anything too much. It's like trying to review someone's diary entry.
I definitely enjoyed it, but take care of yourself, luna. I don't think there's anything I can say to make things better,
but I wish you the best for whatever words are worth. <3
Fuan No Tane
2024.10.06
That is not the cover of a limited to 20 power electronics tape, just a cropped photo used in favorite manga of all time.
Granted I haven't read too much in the way of manga, but it's place is uncontested and unlikely to ever change.
Subtle, surreal horror - the unexplainable veering into our lives, moments left without any context or
elaboration, tiny and almost invisible creacks in reality - has been a fascination of mine my entire life and Fuan no Tane
(不安の種, lit. "Seeds of Anxiety") epitomizes everything about it I love.
I don't believe in the kind of paranormal things that can be quantified, explained, understood. I know beyond doubt
there's things in the world beyond science or normality, but they're quiet, surreal glimpses into things we'll never begin
to understand, gone before you know it, or cut off like a dream before any kind of conclusion can be reached.
There are things man was not meant to know.
Fuan No Tane - Volume 1
Fuan No Tane - Volume 2
Fuan No Tane - Volume 3
2024.10.05
Dying Adolescence - in their feelings
released January 9, 2015
[Indie rock, bedroom pop, emo]
I can't get enough of self-indulgent angsty indie rock. I'm a verifible addict.
This one in particular reminds me a ton of sodaboy64 in style, teen suicide in the instruments,
and Car Seat Headrest with the vocals sometimes, so basically my holy trinity in one succinct bundle.
The lyrics are sometimes a bit awkward and I can't help but wonder if English is his first language,
but I'm definitely not complaining, it almost adds to the general atmophere.
Bedroom pop softness with a more energetic slacker rock basis. Cool stuff.
2024.10.04
file transfer kiss - doll sitting on a dusty shelf
released July 12, 2024
[Drone, ambient, lo-fi, plunderphonics]
Little else I've ever heard has been able to so perfectly capture
forgotten, worn out spaces filled with dust and dirt and moths.
Deer taking refuge from storm in abandoned house.
Carpet littered with dead ladybugs.
Creaking warped floorboards, water-damaged bookshelf.
2024.10.03
Dune - Expedicion
released July 12, 2024
[Happy hardcore, breakbeat hardcore]
I cannot believe that this isn't widely considered one of the cornerstone albums
of happy hardcore. I mean, it is well-remembered and Dune certainly is still somewhat
legendary, but I still feel it deserves to have more than 77 RYM ratings.
It's also a peak example of just how emotional this genre can get. "Rainbow to the Stars"
is almost tearjerking, and "So Beautiful" is completely self-descriptive. I can't remember
the name, but I feel like there was a happy hardcore music video with a lot of Alice in
Wonderland imagery and that's exactly what I'm picking up here. This kind of completely
idealistic, gorgeous music is like one of those Escher illusions where it could be both
concave or convex and keeps on changing as you look at it. Almost tragic. Wonderful either way.
2024.10.02
Cory Arcangel - Arnold Schoenberg, op. 11 - III - Cute Kittens
released July 6th, 2009
[Modern classical, sound collage, found sound]
An attempt at reconstructing Arnold Schoenberg's, Drei Klavierstücke, op. 11- III, exclusively using footage of cats
walking across pianos, sourced from 2009 YouTube. I'm just glad this many videos of cats on pianos exist.
Distinct contender for greatest music video ever, both cuteness-wise and concept-wise.
Peak net art, and this border of intentional music creation with things that just happen (on both the part of the cats and the camerapeople,)
and the curation thereof, is very interesting.
Just who is the musician here? Arnold Schoenberg? The cats? The men and women behind the cameras? Cory Arcangel? You, witnessing and appreciating this?
It's like the way the act of field recording almost makes someone a performer or artist in their own right, just with all the boundaries blurred beyond recognition.
Plus it's just very cute. Can never go wrong with cats doing cat things.
2024.10.01
burial garden - natural history
released September 12th, 2024
[Harsh noise (audio) & Documentary (visual)]
A live harsh noise accompaniment for a slow and largely silent structural documentary. Visually, the film used here is
one of my favorites ever (after this introduced me to it.) These quiet back rooms filled with shelves and shelves of taxidermied
animals, boxes of specimens, preserved and carefully dissected, walls of books that almost seem to be sleeping, concrete floors and walls.
This side of austere academia fascinates me immensely. The life and death of organisms, data, and some hiberation of a complex and nameless
phenomena that exists between the two. Hearing a crew of 7 talented noise artists performing in ensemble (over Discord) to soundtrack it
in real time, glacially changing their wallish textures as it goes from room to room and unmoving focus to unmoving focus is just fitting.
It could very easily be just the amplified noise of the space, or distorted recordings from contact mics attached to the camera.
In the open spaces I can so easily hear the noise of a crowd of students, pulling books from shelves and whispering amongst themselves,
or the sound of AC units and grey machinery of unclear purpose in the footage of concrete hallways, or even vaguely animal calls in the
scenes of taxidermied rabbits, staring into space. Gorgeous work, my commendations to everyone involved.
2024.09.30
Realfake Newsource & Pattern Noticer
Personally I'm quite a conspiracy theorist, but even if you aren't I think there's still something of great aesthetic or artistic value
in the concept of a real-world twilight zone that may or may not exist depending on who you ask, the outlines of which are sketched out
by redacted government reports, drone footage of restricted locations, and connections drawn between far-flung fragments of media somewhere
in the underbelly of the satitized internet. Real or not, there's something fascinating about these concepts (precisely what I had in mind
when I made my conspiracy study page,) and it seems I'm not the only one merging serious paranoiac thought and art.
Realfake Newsource is about as idiosyncratic as artists get, splicing newsreels, buried interviews, found footage, and word salad surrealism
into an (almost beautiful, in a fucked up sense) simulacra of the bleeding edge of cultural thought. HOW TO DISARM A DOMESTIC MONSTER - PART 1 ties with the video linked above
as my favorite of his works, but it was a tad too spicy for YouTube and thus got relegated to the abyss of Bitchute.
Pattern Noticer is less prolific, but the mind-boggling depths to which they go, finding connections nobody else even suspected, more than
accounts for it. Either this is a form of outsider art reflecting the inner experience of schizophrenic thinking, or something that might make
you question the nature of the narrative we're being sold. There's things we don't understand, I can say that much for sure, and that there's
people in closed rooms who know more than we do.
2024.09.29
chris††† - Social Justice Whatever
released 1 June 2017
[Vaporwave, sound collage, YTPMV]
There's a quote from a net artist I love that I think about every time chris††† comes to mind:
The collage is an attempt to capture the overflowing, hysterical emotions of adolescents in their now private-public bedrooms.
The supposedly entertaining activity of playing games is here linked to disturbing feelings of sadness, violence and depression.
But it also mirrors the frustration we can all feel about life amidst so many networked devices and so much data.
- https://0100101110101101.org/my-generation/
Depending on who you ask it's a god-tier shitpost, a genuinely nostalgic venture through 000s / early 2010s internet memories,
or something between the two. It's very Negativland-esque; finding a surprising humanity and beauty in a memetic wasteland.
The same way most vaporwave takes tropes and motifs from the deteriorating cultural sludge of the 80s and 90s and repurposes them
into something of genuine human emotion, turning empty corporate promises into utopian dream visions or cyberian advertising
into the blissed-out haze of a late night lit by a CRT or endless masses of forgotten televised media into something simply beyond
words, this does the same to it's source decade and culture. Very much a product of it's time, both 2009, 2017, and now.
2024.09.28
angel kiss - silk fingers
released September 16, 2024
[Drone, ambient, noise]
One of the most beautiful noise albums you will ever listen to, I promise you that.
Genuinely like burning up while ascending to heaven. Blissful evisceration.
"one more mile to the sky," title and song, hits me somewhere deep.
Lamo, you're a beautiful soul.
2024.09.27
Boyd Rice and Friends - Music, Martinis, and Misanthropy
released 1990
[Neofolk, spoken word]
I was at Keegan's house trying to beat this new-age meditation game that uses your heartrate and bioelectricity
from little clasps on your hand and ear but absolutely sucked at it. No matter what I did or how relaxed I tried to be,
it was barely registering me as doing anything, until Keegan put this album on just to try to mess me up even more, at
which point it immediately spiked to much better levels. We kept on filling every inch of the screen with PNGs of Boyd
and it kept on fucking getting better? I hit the 97th percentile of whatever metric the game uses to judge
concentration / mindfulness and the rest was basically a breeze. It might've been that my heartrate is usually oddly low
and us laughing at the swarm of Boyds enveloping the screen was enough to raise it to what the game wanted, but it was
still one of the best hour-long streches of my life. Every time my performance dipped Keegan would yell at me to think
about Boyd Rice going to Disneyland or something and it went right back up. Surreal night.
If you're reading this Keegan I apologize for the butchered retelling, but I felt compelled.
Also this image exists now, I guess.
2024.09.26
Hookman (2004)
found December 7th, 2023
[Pure cinema]
screen recording is a browser beat (vaporwave subgenre produced entirely by in-browser YouTube skipping and chopping) alias of
plunderphonics master chris†††, but also serves as an outlet for him to reupload footage found on thrift store DVDs, blank
taped-over VHS tapes, and the contents of secondhand SD cards. The whole channel is more than worth a perusal at least.
You KNOW a movie is good when it credits the entire crew in the opening for "writing it as they went along."
Truly one of the films of all time.
2024.09.25
MGMT - In the Afternoon
released 11 December 2019
[Neo-Psychedelia, gothic rock, jangle pop, darkwave]
Immense thanks to meowboy for introducing me to this song, which became one of my top 10 favorites in less than a day
after first hearing it. The only thing I can compare it too offhand is Strawberry Switchblade, of all things; few other things fit the
description of "gothic twee."
Life is too important to take seriously. The flower children know the way.
2024.09.24
heroin party - summer made me blue; summer gave me sky
released October 29th, 2012
[Ambient, drone, field recordings, tape music]
My entire life I've wanted to exist in a quiet, rainy place where I can be alone forever.
Worn blankets and autumn trees verging on winter against grey skies.
This album feels like home.
2024.09.23
Super Famicom - P.S. if the answer is no, then try to forget I ever asked
released December 2003
[Indie Folk, emo]
That's not the actual cover art, but I can't find the actual cover and I like this one and it's my site anyways.
In a perfect world this would be remembered as a gem of early bedroom pop or acoustic emo or DIY teenager music or something,
but instead it seems to have been entirely buried and forgotten. I found it on Soulseek looking for something else, liked
the title, and found the audio equivalent of a box of abandoned love letters.
Possibly the cutest album I've ever heard.
2024.09.22
frail / BROKEN_CANYON - frail / BROKEN_CANYON
released September 6, 2024
[Drone, ambient]
01. that is the prettiest cover i've ever heard
02. these are some of the prettiest sounds i've ever heard
sounds like being alone in an industrial space grown over by nature. nothing else exists
2024.09.21
Linkin Park - In The End (J. Ka Ching Tycoon Remix)
Released December 27th, 2018
[Bubblegum Bass?]
Yesterday's post was more a mental bookmark than anything, something of potential note.
This one has earned a place in my heart years ago, though.
Bubblgum bass, at it's best, is so jam-packed full of ideas that can listen to it dozens of times
and still notice new flourishes buried in there; essentially all the best of top 40s dancefloor
electropop, and all the best of post-everything avant-garde maximalism. This classifies. It's not
as absurdly dense as some A. G. Cook stuff, but it's a gem of non-PC Music bubblegum bass, and the
fact that it's a fucking Linkin Park remix is the icing on the cake.
2024.09.20
Syzy - The weight of the world
released June 28th, 2024
[Future Riddim, Brostep, Bubblegum Bass]
Aggressive brostep usually is not my thing, but the production on this, very bubblegum bass-inspired and sparkly
without relenting on it's bass attacks, caught my eye. Time will tell if it earns a permanent place in my music library
or not, but if dubstep or adjacent genres are more your thing, it's definitely worth a listen.
2024.09.19
my little pont is jesus god is me :3 - 6 songs like in nature
released June 29, 2024
[Acoustic emo, lo-fi]
Acoustic emo rips me up inside like nothing else.
I feel like low audio quality instantly improves most music for me; it takes things from songs and albums to environments.
The 32 kbps audio quality and wind and whatnot just twists the knife. Don't we all just want to be loved?
2024.09.18
one wheat mark fan - untitled
released June 12, 2024
[Drone, ambient, field recordings, lowercase]
I'm not sure who this is (if it's a side project) or anything about the comic it's dedicated to, but it's an interesting addition to the
fandom-based experimental bandcamp underground with the likes of ES: Volume 3 and whatnot. Context aside, it's a piece of sparse experimental
ambient. Reminds me of grey concrete bunkers and industrial complexes, but comfier than that description would typically imply.
2024.09.17
flowersfightforsunshine - flowersfightforsunshine
released January 16, 2024
[Emoviolence, screamo, noisecore]
How far into no-fi rawness and sloppy extremity can you push emo until it becomes noisecore? flowersfightforsunshine wants to find out.
Emoviolence usually isn't my thing, but the dedication and passion shines through. There's releases and then there's artifacts, normal
music and idiosycratic things that exist simply as a byproduce of the creator's unique needs. I think this is the latter.
The ambient interludes are lovely, too.
2024.09.16
a rainy day in 2012 - i don't wanna think about it
released August 19, 2019
[Lo-fi, emo, dead animal songs]
Have you heard of my little pony is jesus, god is me :3? if not, they're an interesting and highly idiosyncratic final-wave emo project active
for the last couple years, but i did some digging found like 5 more aliases and obscure early projects, including this one, which has the
best project name I've ever heard. Tape-recorded rainy day pop in the vein of teen suicide. Also, I don't know where the Last.FM profile picture
is from, but it touched my heart.
2024.09.15
Nails Ov Christ - The Lord Loves Holocausts
released Unknown (1990s?)
[Power electronics, death industrial]
My cousin and I somehow stumbled across this album when looking for something else totally unrelated on Discogs, had a good laugh at it's sheer
edginess, put it on, and accidently randomly jumped to the interlude in the middle that samples peaceful choir music (reversed.) It was a surreal
moment of emotional whiplash and I went to check it out later. The rest of it is obviously supposed to be punishing harsh noise and power electronics,
but the sheer low fidelity makes it almost just blankets of howling sound, like high winds on a winter night. It's basically just harsh ambient.
Added to my personal list of comfy noise, even if I feel like it was supposed to be anything bt
