#I've only just started a relisten after not listening in a while | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sparky-is-spiders · 9 months

Text

If I may be weird and petty for a moment, I don't get AUs where Martin is the Archivist when Melanie and Sasha are right there?? I mean I get why: roleswaps are popular AUs and martin is a popular character. And maybe its just my specific headcanons re: archivist requirements but I feel like the other two would be so much better?

Yes, Martin reads statements and yes, he gets marked, but I really don't think those are the Only Requirements to do the big ritual? Cause at that point Elias could've chosen any web-marked dude off the street, especially if they have the mark of another entity as well already.

Melanie and Sasha shared several important traits with Jon, most notably a burning curiosity, a willingness to put themselves in trouble for information, and (in Melanie's case (and Sasha's too, arguably) an ability to antagonize extremely dangerous fear avatars. Sasha's whole statement is her putting herself in a dangerous situation without telling anyone or acquiring any help (remind you of any main characters?) and running face first into supernatural dangers (sometimes to protect her friends, sometimes out of curiosity). Useful for collecting marks, but also useful for collecting information and developing her own powers as the Archivist. Considering her seemingly unrepentant willingness to look through her friends' and coworkers' personal files via accessing their accounts, I'd argue that her curiosity and boundary crossing could easily get stronger when investigating supernatural entities. Obviously, this never happened because of how early on she died, but I think you could make a strong case for Sasha's strong curiosity making some avatars incredibly mad. Not to mention how incredibly Beholding it is of her. None of this is criticism btw, I think Sasha should have access to whatever personal info she wants and I love it when characters are so obviously Eye-aligned. I know "Sasha wasn't promoted because she'd solve all the problems and find a way to kill Jonah" is also a popular headcanon but please think for a MOMENT about her appearances in podcast. There weren't many, but there's a very obvious through-line in almost all of them. She's curious, she takes risks in the face of the supernatural, she wants to Know. It's literally what caused the circumstances of her statement. Those traits are arguably the ones that got her KILLED. I'm sorry this went off on a tangent. I just love Sasha very much and I'm constantly filled with Thoughts of Sasha.

Melanie also has curiosity about the supernatural AND a much more obviously antagonistic personality!! Her first appearance is being a total asshole to Jon, mocking him, the place he works at, the equipment they use, and what they do. But she also dedicated basically her entire career into uncovering the supernatural? She ran a Youtube channel about it, and when she discovered that everyone was sticking to the same "safe" sites, she started looking off the beaten path for the real stuff. And she found it! She went looking for ghosts of war and violence and even without access to statements, probably working alone and sifting through bunk on the internet, she found them! She got stabbed by a ghost and instead of trying to avoid ghosts in the future, she decided to look for more violent ghosts. The slaughter tendencies might be a drawback for her becoming the Archivist, yes, but by that point Jon had already survived multiple marks and was developing his powers. If he failed by that point, Elias might've wanted an Archivist who'd be better able to defend themselves. By S4 Melanie was probably far enough gone to the Slaughter (and hated the Eye enough) that she was probably off the table as a candidate. By that point, however, Jon was expected to fully Become and only needed a few more marks.

I understand that Sasha was approved for a transfer to the Archives because Elias let Jon choose who take with him and Jon chose Sasha. And Melanie was almost certainly chosen to keep Jon in close proximity of a Slaughter-aligned person who'd be likely to mark him but unlikely to kill him. But I think that they served a secondary purpose of being backup Archivists in case something happened to Jon.

Obviously this is more headcanon than theory (not to mention it relies on other headcanons to fully stand) but I'm very fond of it. I guess I think that, even if Elias wasn't really looking for another Archivist when Jon seems like the perfect candidate in every way (and I'm not saying this JUST because I love him), I think that if something did happen to Jon, they'd be Elias' next candidates.

#I hope this makes sense?#I've been rotating this idea for a while but I'm not sure if its fully baked yet #might need more time in the oven #if you're wondering why I opened with petty complaints about martin being the archivist #it's because I am Filled With Spite and I Do Not Like Him #and I think he'd be a bad candidate #which is its own post #anyway my Sasha opinions are almost as high as my Jon opinions #my Melanie opinions are... mixed leaning negative #but I think she has archivist potential #I think its important for the archivist to be curious #and for a majority of the marks to stem from active choices they made #to interact with the supernatural #anyway not maintagging this #I've only just started a relisten after not listening in a while #so let me know if I've forgotten something important #or missed a line that invalidates all my headcanon-crafting #I know I post a lot of jonship stuff but I PROMISE I care about other aspects of the show #I got some meta stuff thats been percolating in the brain soup so you can possibly expect more of that in the next couple days #anyway I gotta go now #goodbye

16 notes · View notes

johannesviii · 4 months

Text

Top 10 Personal Favorite Hit Songs from 2023

What a weird year for pop music, full of strange trends, confusing garbage and unexpected hits. Once again, even if the charts don’t always reflect it, music as a whole is currently very interesting to follow closely.

Disclaimers / Rules:

I’m using both the year-end top 100 lists from the US and from France while making these lists. There’s songs that charted in my country way higher than they did in the US, or even earlier or later, so that might get surprising at times.

No song that I already put on a previous list is elligible.

No old hit song that is re-charting due to a holiday or a trend is elligible either.

Of course there will probably be stuff in French somewhere on this post. We suck. I know. It’s my list. Deal with it.

My musical tastes have always been terrible.

I have sound-to-color synesthesia which justifies nothing but might explain why I have trouble describing some songs in other terms than visual ones.

A lot of bad stuff happened to me this year (several accidents in a row, and also my cat died) but some good stuff too, thank goodness. I only went to two concerts this year (Bloodywood and BMTH), but they were both absolutely amazing. Pretty sure the Bring Me The Horizon one was the best concert I ever went to, actually, and there's a lot of competition considering all the great ones I went to in 2022. I'm just sad 100 gecs had to cancel theirs, I was really looking forward to it. Oh well.

Let’s start with the good or interesting albums that came out in 2023, and oh my, that's a long list already.

Albums

Starting as usual with stuff that disappointed me: Depeche Mode's Memento Mori was... actually it was all right, but I miss the days when I could get excited about a new Depeche Mode album, I really do.

Pink Tape by Lil Uzi Vert was a giant fucking mess. There's some absolute bangers on it, and then you get to the next track and it's the worst thing you've ever heard. Which makes for an interesting listening experience, for sure, but one I'm in no hurry to repeat. At least it's never boring.

After the Magic by Parannoul isn't exactly my cup of tea, but you should definitely listen to it once, I think. It's something special. It might grow on me, though, because I only listened to it for the first time last month.

On the other hand, I listened to Scaring the hoes by Jpegmafia and Danny Brown a while ago, and while this one is definitely not my cup of tea, it's also a ton of fun and I don't feel like a single second of my time was wasted on it. You should listen to it for the samples alone, and just out of sheer curiosity if nothing else.

A kiss for the whole world by Enter Shikari is a weird beast, because the singles are absolutely incredible, but then the rest is a big pile of nothing (at least in my opinion). But the singles, man. I really don't know how to judge it as a whole, the quality is on a rollercoaster.

Kind of the same thing happened with Electric Sun by VNV Nation, one of my favorite bands of all times if not my favorite, if you recall. Some tracks completely floored me, the rest was meh. Oh well. Noire was so incredibly good that I can live with an average VNV album dropping after it.

Fanfare by Dorian Electra was full of absolute bangers but... I don't know, there's some of the madness of the previous record missing. And yes, I'm saying the album containing the minion line (you know the one) is more serious than My Agenda. Go figure. But it's still very good!

Two different friends told me to listen to 4D by Blank Banshee, so I did, obviously. Great electro album. Send tweet

I'm not entirely sure what to think of Atta by Sigur Rós. I cried several times while listening to it for the first time and it's a genuinely impressive series of tracks, but it's also so devastating I've only relistened to it twice since then.

I only discovered Svalbard a couple of years ago, and this year they dropped The weight of the mask, which might be even better than their previous album. It's mostly about depression and trying to fake normality while being depressed. Not a very pleasant topic, and yet this is full of energy and... hope? Everything sounds unbearably bright and between the screams, you feel like everything will be better eventually. Great stuff.

Speaking of depression, there's also No joy by Spanish Love Songs. If you recall their previous album was my album of the year a few lists ago. Their sound changed slightly, and at times it almost sounds like The Killers, but not in a bad way. There's a couple of tracks I don't like very much, but the writing is still on point, and some tracks are among my faves I put in the "unelligible songs" part.

Census Designated by Jane Remover, on the other hand, came out of nowhere just to kick me in the face. I don't even know what to say about that one. Go listen to it.

I found Gunship almost by accident a few months ago, and they immediately dropped a new album, called Unicorn. It's just a huge pile of great synthpop through and through - if you don't mind a couple of really stupid lines (godddd that third track is full of them). The other downside is that it's way too long (more than an hour), and if it was up to me, I'd remove at least four tracks from it. Unlike...

...10000 gecs by, who else, 100 gecs. It's less than half an hour long and it's so fun and so varied in its sounds and so stupid while still being incredibly well produced. For the longest time I couldn't decide which one of the last five albums on this list was my favorite, and then I relistened to all of them in a row and felt compelled to play this one a second time after I was done. Definitely worth the wait.

Unelligible Songs

This is kind of a non-hits rec list of sorts, but you know the drill. I also have to mention that two songs from previous lists (The Magic Key by One-T and Dernière Danse by Kyo 2003 represents) recharted this year for some unfathomable reason.

Gonna start with my fave tracks on some of the albums I already mentioned. Because why not.

The only song I consider great on the Depeche Mode album was People are good which sounds like character development considering People are people also exists

Speaking of Depeche Mode, one band arguably out-depeche-moded them this year so let me introduce you to ††† (Crosses) with Ghost ride, Invisible hand and Holier

Lil Uzi Vert is next with Suicide doors and its deranged intro immediately followed by FUCK YOU, AND FUCK YOUR BITCH then Uzi following that by stating they're the Crow. Yes, really. Also there's Werewolf, literally a Bring Me The Horizon song with Lil Uzi Vert on it, and if I had a nickel every time that happened this year I'd have two nickels, which isn't much but-

Wait let me interrupt this list with another song called Werewolf which I've listened to WAY too much this year. It's the kind of song you listen to ironically at first but after the tenth time that happens you realise it's no longer ironic and you love it for real. Seeing Motionless In White live kinda helped, not gonna lie, but still

For Enter Shikari, we have A kiss for the whole world, Bloodshot, and especially [pls] set me on fire, which might be one of my most listened to tracks of 2023, actually

VNV Nation had Wait, Invictus, and Artifice, which are all absolute bangers in my opinion. Ronan is angry and we love to hear it

By the way this year Pink released an extremely VNV-like song called Trustfall and it's very good but also uncanny

Kylie Minogue is also doing something vaguely similar with Hold on to now but in a more mainstream normal way btw

And then for something completely different, we have Dorian Electra singing about obsessive fans on Symphony, fame on Wanna be a star, and most importantly writing anon hate and immediately deleting it on anon

Run is the first track of the Blank Banshee album I rec'd and it's only one minute long so listen to it maybe

Technically I can recommend Gold if you want some taste of the Sigur Rós album but you need to listen to the entire album to get the full crushing effect

Svalbard isn't going to lighten up the mood with How to Swim Down and Faking it

Neither is Spanish Long Songs with Clean-up crew, Marvel, Here you are and Lifers, the last one being notable for having what's possibly my fave bridge of the entire year, and all of them for being endlessly quotable. Stay alive out of spite everyone

Also not lightening up the mood is Jane Remover with Census Designated on the album also called Census Designated

But what's this? It's Gunship with a steel chair trying to punch some joy into this list with Holographic heart, Nuclear Date Night, Taste like venom and Monster in paradise!!

And the gecs with a second steel ch- wait no it's a plastic chair shaped like a frog. Anyway here's Dumbest girl alive and Hollywood baby, and both of them go wayyy harder than they have any rights to

ok that was a lot of songs already. Here's Everything goes on by Porter Robinson as a palate cleanser

Also the first reggaeton song to ever end on one of my playlists, Sci-fi by Tainy and Rauw Alejandro

Also I'm gonna put a gif here otherwise Tumblr won't let me post something with such a long uninterrupted list in it

Ok back to the list of recs

Let's get the humiliation out of the way and say that this year I listened to Raining blood but it's super emo more than I ever listened to Raining blood in all my years combined

Oh yeah and Linkin Park released some old (finished and unfinished) tracks from the Meteora era and I'm kinda pissed off cause Lost missed the year end list. Fighting myself is excellent too, and if you want a really heartwrenching unfinished track, Resolution has a giant Chester-shaped hole where its chorus should be and the lyrics make it even worse. You're welcome

Possibly the most mainstream song on this entire rec list but I'm also pissed off Bad Idea right? by Olivia Rodrigo didn't chart enough to count for my top ten hit songs

I can offer you Eat the acid by Kesha if you want an awesome but mildly disturbing listening experience

For some electro/future pop here's Head over heels by Solitary Experiments

Wait there's also Bring the noise by Neuroticfish

Over is there if you need some Chvrches doing some Chvrching

Justice for Gladiator by Jann

Pointing at Even Jesus got the blues by Gabe Lee and saying I would listen to more country if it sounded half as good as that song, not like anyone cares

Holding on to nothing by Sierra. Send tweet

Northwind + Sky-colored dream by Strawberry Hospital and Parasite Heart is just seven minutes of cool pastel screams

And for an absolute goth banger everyone collectively decided to ignore here's Train to Harlem by Korine

I can't get enough of Nosebleeder by Lil Lotus and that's probably mildly embarrassing at my age but I've decided to stay mildly embarrassing forever

kisses by Slowdive if you want vibes and vibes only

Blood and sugar by Boys Like Girls if, like me, you want something that sounds exactly like The 1975

Choose your fighter by Ava Max if you want something that sounds exactly like Barbie Girl

I really wish I could explain what my feelings are every time I listen to The King by Anjimile but the only thing I'm sure about is that I'm feeling something a LOT and that it's terrifying

On a lighter note here's Mall rat by Durry, a very upbeat pop punk song about mall goth teenagers having fun and it's extremely good, listen to it immediately if you're having a bad day

And as some of you might have expected because of that previous gif, we're gonna finish with some Bring Me The Horizon, who have joined my list of favorite bands alarmingly quickly (that new album can't drop soon enough), and let's just say LosT and especially AmEN! were some of my absolute fave non-hit songs this year. Seriously. What the fuck was that.

And now, some elligible hits that didn't make the list.

Honorable Mentions

Tiki Taka (Vacra) - Afrobeats is the best thing that happened to the charts in recent years.

Shining Light (Aime Simone) - I wish I liked that artist more.

Unholy (Sam Smith & Kim Petras) - At first I didn't like this one, and then I headcanoned Kim Petras as a girl in a confessional and Sam Smith as the priest on the other side looking concerned but also weirdly into it, and suddenly it was a really funny song.

Dance the night away (Dua Lipa) - I'm pretty sure that's the song Chained to the Rhythm by Katy Perry is talking about

Casanova (Soolking) - This is a borderline guilty pleasure, and also it sounds like Magic System. Which is a bonus, by the way.

Calm Down (Rema) - Afrobeats is the best thing that happened to the charts in recent years 2: the sequel

Rush (Ayra Starr) - Afrobeats is the best thing that happened to the charts in recent years 3: the sequel to the sequel

Strangers (Kenya Grace) - Very good low-key track to play when you're driving at night

Bloody Mary (Lady Gaga) - What can I say. It's Lady Gaga. It's good.

I remember everything (Zach Bryan) - And for "songs that would be on the list if I had good taste-"

Going going gone (Luke Combs) - The last cut from the list. Great earworm, good writing.

THE ACTUAL TOP TEN LIST

This is a very solid list, actually. All of these things are still on some of my playlists to this day.

10 - Bad Habit (Steve Lacy)

US: #39 / FR: Not on the list

This was the last cut from my 2022 top 10 and it was a painful one, so imagine my joy when I saw it was elligible for this year's list too! Welcome back, Steve Lacy, your little song is still an earworm and a half even after all this time.

9 - Cruel Summer (Taylor Swift)

US: #18 / FR: Not on the list

I have no idea how a song that rhymes "oh woah oh" with "summer" can sound so good. Well played, madam. Well played.

8 - Star Walkin' (Lil Nas X)

US: Not on the list / FR: #67

Not the best Lil Nas X song by a mile, and still quite good! It plays a lot at the gym for some reason. The hype is real, even after hearing it pretty much every hour on the hour. And despite that weird, weird line about his dad.

Very surprised it's not on the US year-end list, by the way.

7 - Vois sur ton chemin (Bennett)

US: Not on the list / FR: #69

If you're creeped out by the AI-generated kids in the music video, I think that's kind of the point, which is why I can tolerate it for once.

Anyway, this is a remix of a choir song about lost kids, originally from a retro movie called Les Choristes which came out back when I was a teenager. And now it's been turned into a somewhat creepy techno remix of itself, and you know what's bad about that? Not a single thing actually. Play it again.

6 - Fast Car (covered by Luke Combs)

US: #8 / FR: Not on the list

If you remember correctly, Fast Car was the number one song of the very first list I made in this series (1988). And since this cover is so similar to the original song, I considered making it non-elligible for this list. I counted it in the end but put it kinda low compared to the original. It's only fair.

5 - Anti-hero (Taylor Swift)

US: #4 / FR: Not on the list

I was pretty indifferent to this one at the beginning of the year, but it slowly but surely grew on me. Everything has already been said about this song. So yeah, it's very good. I like it. It's on the list.

Moving on!

4 - Substitution (Purple Disco Machine x Kungs)

US: Not on the list / FR: #56

Some songs just make you want to move every single time you hear them, without fail. The thing is, this one plays a LOT on the radio in public settings, so catch me dancing in the aisles of the local supermarket every time it's on. It's like some memetic SCP bullshit.

At this point, it should be possible to make a great playlist with all the best retro-sounding hits we got in the past five years or so - and yeah, put this one on it too, for sure.

3 - Miracle (Ellie Goulding, Calvin Harris)

US: Not on the list / FR: #51

At some point this was my number one, and can you really blame me? An Ellie Goulding song with a drop that sounds exactly like a Robert Miles track? Really?

Then I realised I loved Robert Miles' tracks because of that dreamy piano/synth melody they all have, and that this song only had a drop/musical chorus that sounded like that, so something was missing. Oh well. Still a fantastic dance track, though.

2 - Escapism (Raye)

US: #48 / FR: Not on the list

Welcome to the other side of most of The Weeknd songs, I guess, but that's also what makes this track so compelling. The intro sounds like anxiety, and even when the song gets more pleasant to listen to it just never goes completely away - just like in the lyrics, in fact. Well written, well produced, everything is on point and if I had better taste it would probably be number one on this list.

Alas, I am what I am.

1 - Just wanna rock (Lil Uzi Vert)

US: #28 / FR: Not on the list

At some point, this was the third song on the list. Why shouldn't it be? It's so brainless compared to Escapism, and laughably short compared to Miracle. It's just a fragment of a song. It sounds like the intro of a track that will never start.

It's also by far my most replayed hit song on this entire top ten list and I can't justify that in any way. So yeah, putting anything else here felt like lying to myself. The fact it never really starts also means the hype never really ends. Going "daaaaaaaaaaaamn" along with Uzi's distorted vocals is so satisfying.

I just wanna rock, man. What a vibe. See you next year!

#Johannes’ bad not good pretty terrible music lists #music #flashing lights tw #eye contact tw #god that one took ages

13 notes · View notes

rox-and-prose · 10 months

Note

7 and 22 of the audio asks 💚

7. What’s your favourite piece of music from any show?

I think for distinct piece of music that I know the name of I'd say Forest Overture by Yehezkel Raz. It's the opening music for Hello From the Hallowoods ( @hellofromthehallowoods ) and it's very well matched to the feeling of the narration. Hearing those first tones immediately helps me feel more comfortable. It's a good choice and I applaud Mx Wellman for it. The ending narration music that I forget the name of right now is also very good and helps the podcast feel like it is indeed coming to a close.

For original music made for a podcast (I think?) I'd have to select the music from The Tower (i couldnt find a specific tumblr to tag there but i believe @tincanaudio is on here). It's scored by David Devereux and it's just great. When they returned after a while away hearing that music was like coming home.

22. Which episode of any audio drama do you think you’ve listened to most?

Tough question. I've listened to a number of episodes multiple times but it's generally only because I was either showing them to someone else or relistening to make sure I'm up to speed before starting a new season. I'm not sure that there are many that I can honestly say I've gone back and listened to more than any others though. I think if I had to pick, I'm pretty sure I've listened to at least the first few episodes of The Far Meridian (who I think is @thefarmeridian on here?) Because I've shown it to people and then relistened once or twice.

#roxy answers #jensteed

21 notes · View notes

thelaurenshippen · 8 months

Note

JABXKAKAKALA HELLO HI I hope you're doing well!! I just wanted to start off by saying that I saw your response to the email you received on Instagram and I love how you handled it so so much as a fellow queer person that loves creating and writing!! Thank you so much for everything that you have done!

AND SECONDLY I've been listening to audio drama podcasts for around four years now, and I'd only stumbled upon The Bright Sessions last year (after my friend recommended it to me over and over again!), which is pretty recent! And I just wanted to say that the amount of emotions and inspiration I received from listening to the podcast has just about changed my life 😭

I started listening to it avidly (on the daily JDNJAA on my walks to and from school and work) and just grew so so attached to the characters. The way you write their narratives is absolutely beautiful and brings me to tears if I think about it long enough😭 The way Sam is so full of love and care while struggling to do so for herself and that turmoil visibly affecting her relationships with other people?? OW OW OW it hurts so good every time?? AND JOAN OH MAn I love how Joan is written SO MUCH I think she actually changed my brain chemistry genuinely?? she is so layered and so full of emotion (it's safe to say that safe house ii absolutely DESTROYED me for that 😭❤️) and her dynamics with others ?? the amount of research put into writing her?? beautiful so beautiful HDBSJAHA and I could go on about every single character but that would take YEARS but I just want to say that the writing is so layered and authentic because these characters /aren't/ perfect, but they're still so lovable in every way, there's still some way to emphasize (I love Caleb) with them (COUGHS LOUDLY DAMIEN) even when they seem like the most unlikable (COUGHS LOUDER DAMIEN WADSWORTH HELEN) characters ever (I love how they're written so much I think it has actually changed my brain chemistry). ALSO the voice acting?? is absolutely BEAUTIFUL?? the amount of soul and found family vibes that go into this is just absolutely incredible I cannot stress it enough. Sam's panic attacks were written perfectly along with Mark's hidden anxieties and Agent Green's own guilt and hurt and oh man I COULD GO INTO HEAVY DETAIL ABOUT ALL OF THIS but oh man this is just incredible😭😭 also super random but the soundtrack makes me so emotional WHICH LEADS ME TO MY NEXT POINT AJDBAJ

I started listening to this in my freshman year of highschool (uh oh) so a lot of things were really stressful for me during this time! The Bright Sessions was something that despite causing me emotional pain, provided me healing just as much JSBXKAJAKDJSJKSD AND LIKE OKAY OKAY I would listen to this on my walks to and from school (I was walking back from school once and was zoning out until I heard Caleb beating the shit out of Damien and had to stop on the sidewalk to take in what just happened) and during art (I heard the part with Mark and Damien in the van and had to sit down when I heard Damien's backstory) and after I got my eyes dilated and couldn't look at much (I listed to agent Green's goodbye and actually cried until I couldn't breathe) and listened to the college tapes while studying for my unit circles test and just thank you thank you for the road trips and room cleaning memories and for being the best story to listen to while painting and going on runs. I struggled a lot with mental health and accepting myself as queer, and SO many of the narratives throughout the story also helped me figure out who I was, so thank you so so much for everything 😭 I still relisten to several of the episodes and still get that giddy feeling in my stomach when I hear the am archives soundtrack get a little darker, or literally want to lie down every time I hear an interaction with Frank and Chloe, but just overall thank you so much😭❤️🫂🫂

RAHHH AGAIN I'm so sorry this was so long but truly thank you so much for everything that you do!! your writing is absolutely incredible and your voice acting and the way you handle difficulties is so inspirational!! the rest of the cast and the art and community and soundtrack just,,, chefs kiss. thank you so much for being an incredible role model and inspiration for so many people!!!

HI WOW OH MY GOD THIS MESSAGE IS SO AMAZING THANK YOU!!!!!

I'm so glad the instagram video resonated with you (if anyone's curious, this is the video)! and I'm sO glad you found The Bright Sessions!! it means so much to me that you love the characters the way you do, that you see their imperfections and their complexities and you care about them because of and in spite of them!!

I'm so happy that the show could be a part of your life in such a real way - listening to it in so many places, and having it there in difficult times. that it helped you with healing and figuring stuff out is the highest praise that you could possibly give! I poured my heart and soul into this show - as did all of our amazing cast and crew - so it's incredible to hear that it touched you in the way that it did.

also, hearing that you love the TAMA score is so amazing - I love that score, Evan did such an incredible job!!

thank you so so SO much for this wonderful message and for loving my characters and my world and for telling me about it!! I'm so grateful to you!!!

#answered #the bright sessions #reggies-eyeliner

14 notes · View notes

humanmorph · 9 months

Text

C/W (01-05) thoughts

Finished the first C/W arc + first faction game (which really took me a while. I'm blaming PALISADE and also the bad weather and ALSO getting obsessed with finishing a bigass drawing in 2 weeks)!

I've said this in a different post already when I had just started listening, but I had like, way lower expectations on this, which seems silly in hindsight. I think I just have a tougher time relistening to podcasts (it's not an issue with rereading books or rewatching movies, really), and often stop about halfway... But it's just really fun to look at C/W again having listened to the rest of the Divine Cycle (and also the other seasons, because it's fun to look at the different player characters throughout). And like. They've gotten better at this over the years so by comparison C/W is 'worse' but it's still fucking good. When it hits it hits, and it honestly hasn't even really started hitting yet (though there's some good moments already for sure. Mako buying a bunch of robots was exactly as funny as I remembered it being)! I'm pretty much just excited for everything, but the Kingdom Game expecially. Something else I'm enjoying (and he'll always continue to do this, but it's so Present in C/W) is how Austin describes scenes. He uses film making language SO much (Counter/WEIGHT is an anime, right)! It's good stuff. I'm trying to not get too used to the system because I know they'll switch. I know WHY they switched and stuff & agree with that decision but I still think it's a cool system & am enjoying the time with it, even if some scenes do drag on quite a bit (which isn't only because of the system, but it also isn't helping).

Some character stuff, I guess: AuDy: They were my favourite at the start last time I listened and I think that pretty much holds up. They're just good. They don't even do that much in this first arc (although dropping from the ceiling as a distraction is pretty fucking great), & I think most of the really good AuDy moments are still coming up, so it speaks to the fact that it's just a good concept for a character that I immediately enjoy. I'm pretty sure they continued to be my favourite pretty much until September? I guess l'll can talk more on it when I get there, though.

Mako: I'm gonna be honest I remembered Mako as way more annoying than he is. At least in this beginning arc. He's literally fine. His whole fogging robots deal is kind of weird to listen to now, since it's something they'd either not do now or actively adress in the story since it's a kind of way to take away agency that's pretty uncomfortable when you look at it longer. I wonder if there's a way that'll come up in the first Chime mission mini-arc? Their hands are a bit tied there since it's a prequel I guess, but there's probably a way to do it. Anyways, Mako ends up as my favourite by the end of the season, and I actually don't quite remember how he got there? But same with AuDy, I'll talk more on it when I get to September (it's possible it was the clone reveal. I love those).

Cass & Aria: They have to share a paragraph because I don't have an extremely strong opinion on them either from my last listen at this point in the story, nor do I now. I'm excited for Aria stuff expecially though. I've mentioned this before, but I'm definitly better at listening and actually processing information now, and it's extremely possible that I just missed things about both Aria and Cass that were just kind of mentioned in a sentence but are actually very important to their characters. (Looking back, I listened to C/W right after I had covid, so some sort of brainfog might also be at fault.) Expecially because Ali isn't very. I can't think of the right word now. But she's just quieter in play (not audio! that's Art.). It's nice seeing everyone get better at this, but for Ali expecially I'm super excited to see her go back to Aria for that mini-arc.

Re: the faction game - it's really good that I know that they cut back on factions later / consolidate them because it is. Not overwhelming necessarily but it's easy to get confused? I feel like I need to take notes on what factions do or like, also have a list of all of them to check to keep track. It's probably a good idea to check out the summaries on the wiki after I listen to these & see if I missed anything. (I keep zoning out because I'm thinking about different, later Counter/WEIGHT stuff, usually related to something they just mentioned.)

All that aside: with the scenes and also just ideas generally they are pretty much immediately crushing it. Like oh my god that first Snowtrak scene just rules so much. That's critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, and fun interaction between good friends right there.

I definitly didn't draw fanart when I was listening in 2020, and I don't know if I will now, but I'm at least in more of a mindset to even want to do it. (& actually, there is ONE scene I was extremely wanting to draw even back then, I just thought I couldn't do it. I do think I can do it now! And I will at the very least try.) But speaking of art, here's a Hudson Thorne for your troubles if you read to the end:

#i should take more notes while listening im so sure i forgot something i was thinking about mentioning. whatever itll come back to me.#or not #counterweightposting

7 notes · View notes

i--antimony · 1 year

Text

tuesday!

listening: like everyone and their mother i listened to the new hozier songs this week. they're fine! i dont have any particularly strong feelings about them either way yet, i think i need to relisten to them a few times for it to really get processed, but they were good enough that i'll certainly listen again. i also went and relistened to wasteland, baby because of it and that album still slaps. also, this cherry wine cover:

is very good. i also relistened to the staves' album dead & born & grown because i realized i have windows facing west hehe. what else...my partner's citypop playlist was my music for driving home from the airport on sunday? i wont link that one i'm not sure if it's public or not. and then gym playlist this week was just one of the spotify-made mixes that kinda slams tbh, very early-00s to 10s metal/emo music lol

i've also gotten back into twilight mirage after a bajillion years. it's good! none of the characters really stick in my head besides tender sky and fourteen fifteen unfortunately but hopefully as i listen more they'll become more distinct entities in my head.

reading: i finished the birthday of the world while i was visiting my grandma for spring break!

"solitude": hmmm. this one was interesting. it left me with a lot of questions but i think that might have been the point. 6/10.

"old music and the slave woman": i think i might have benefited from more background, i was mostly able to piece together the factions but i definitely had to puzzle over it a bit. apparently there are a lot of links to stories in another collection, four ways to forgiveness, and i'm thinking that i might have wanted to read those first. 4/10.

"the birthday of the world": title story! felt very different from all the other stories in the book, probably because this one and the following novella are the only two set outside of the hainish universe. i liked it. no strong feelings in any particular direction, i don't think. 5/10.

"paradises lost": the novella! i LOVED this one. i dont know if i was somehow exposed to it as a kid, or i learned about generation ships as a story concept from somewhere else, but i often thought about writing a short story about what religion on a generation ship would look like and turns out what i was envisioning already exists. the concept of the cult of bliss felt very realistic and almost obvious in hindsight as something that was bound to happen. i know it's left open on purpose but i reallllly want to know what happened to the ship after it left. i really loved the themes of this one. 9/10.

watching: i watched an episode of the mystery show 'vera' with my grandma when i was visiting lol. it was cute! very kitschy, genre fodder! i liked it! i was very confused because the closing quip/shot seemed to be about the titular character...shoplifting a jacket or something???? like she asked her coworker if she looked any different and he was like ? and she was like ok great and the final shot is her sitting in her car seat and annoyedly ripping the tag off her jacket, so like, ???? not sure if that's a Thing that people know just from watching a lot of it but shrug.

making: iiiiii did not work on my knitting project at all LOL but i did make my neocities site! here she is! still very in progress but hey :D

misc: trip to visit grandma/s and family went fine! everyone is doing well. back to the grind this week.

oh so the gift from my SO: he likes metalworking and similar things so he made me this necklace!

it is, apparently, titanium with embedded sapphire ball bearings! the ball bearings glow in the dark after UV exposure and they're the prettiest shade of teal, it's also a very satisfying fidget texture-wise. he asked me a few months ago what my favorite constellation is and i went "......cassiopeia i guess?? why???" "oh no reason" this was the reason. it's very nice i love it so much

finally, ive started noting down my workout stuff on my dreamwidth page as well! i thought it could be cool to keep track of what weights i'm using over time, what exercises i like and don't like, etc. so that's on there tagged as gains. huzzah

#tuesdayposting #Spotify

9 notes · View notes

bratty-telepath · 1 year

Text

Moments That Flash By

(A David & Darlin fic)

Yo, this is Laveau stopping in to say:

Hi! what you're about to read is David & Darlin fic that touches slightly on Darlin's past w the pack while referencing fics such as "Shattered Glass Makes a Good Weapon" and "Another Night, Out on Another Road" which refer to their bite and leaving of Dahlia. Additionally, I must tell you that this includes a good bit of swearing, aggressive language, a threat or two and mentions of Quinn, de*d p*rents and their general issues involving their social standing in the pack.

Aside from that, Darlin goes by he/they in this fic and is named Darren! With that out the way, enjoy some light angst/comfort :)

"It's been a while since I've seen you pick up a camera."

Darren's eyes were instantly drawn to the voice behind him, quickly turning around to face the speaker of the moment, only to meet David leaning on a nearby wall as he kept his arms crossed. The shifter's first instinct was to take a step back, something David quickly took note of if the change of his expression's hardness to a soft calm was anything to go by.

"You're not in trouble." He sighed. "I just wanted to check on you."

Darren calmed himself slightly after hearing that, the wolf choosing to let his guard down slightly as his stance shifted into ease while he removed his grip from the sides of the camera hanging from his neck.

"Dad would've been glad to see you picking up your old habits again." The alpha mused.

Despite the current picture of David leaning against a brick wall as his upper body was layered in shadow and his more gaunt musculature was set in display of the light, he seemed at peace. His face relaxed and his features gentle as his warm brown eyes kept its steady focus on the younger shifter.

"...sure."

The alpha shrugged. "I assume you're out here for work?"

"Is it your business?" Darren growled.

"No, but I would like for you to tell me."

They took a minute but then shrugged as the shifter shoved their hands into their pockets. "...I'm just destressing."

David's eyes scanned the area. "Weird place to de-stress."

They huffed in response as they took their camera in hand again and turned back to the scene ahead, an empty skating park.

High in the sky, the afternoon sun sat as it bathed the area in a bright, warm glow. The murals and doodles made by teenagers from long ago were given life as their colors became emboldened under the light's touch while faint memories sprang to life in their mind's eye. The wind picked up and Darren could almost hear laughter echo from around them as they brought their camera to their face and started drafting the park for a potential shot.

Surprisingly, David remained quiet throughout the process. If he said something, it wasn't detectable by any standard because Darren could only attest that he heard nothing come from the alpha's lips. For all intensive purposes, it seemed as though he just watched as the photographer did his thing. That wasn't to say Darren wasn't glad to be undisturbed but it did make things feel…off.

Finally the shifter found what they were looking for, a decent setup for a picture. The scene visualizes a set of stairs with an angle looking downward at the flight of steps as though to capture the sun casting shadows that had perfectly overlapped in the form of a X above a sprayed on layout of childish doodles.

The camera clicked and David finally spoke again.

"I just remembered where we were." He remarked.

"What gave it away?" Darren huffed. "The ramps?"

"No, the stairs. That's where we all used to sit back then."

They didn't reply to that.

"You and Asher would be skating." He started. "Milo would be listening and relistening to his playlist on his nearly-dead iPod, and I'd just watch you two while I was next to him."

"Yeah, like a creep." The wolf replied. "Even as a teen, you somehow managed to scare everyone around you with a look."

"I was the oldest so I had to look tough enough so that no one would pick on you while we were out alone."

"Asher and I were getting into more fights than you could count back then, we were more than capable of going by ourselves."

"I had to be there for supervision reasons."

Darren inhaled. "Did you come here to disturb me with your usual shit or was there a point to this?"

David's expression slightly hardened again and he expected to hear the alpha let loose some sign of exasperation but found himself surprised when he got nothing instead but the sight of the other taking a breath.

"I want to talk, Tank. It's been a while."

"Why?" They turned to actually face him, a challenging stare shooting his way as unwavering attention met them again.

"I just said why."

"No, you said you wanted to check on me. Why?"

"It's my job as–"

Darren rolled his eyes. "Forget it."

"What?"

"Forget. It."

David growled. "Fine."

They crossed their arms and waited for something from him–anything of particular interest that showed he was at the very least considerate of his time with them today. Still he said nothing, but he waited. On what? The other couldn't tell but it burnt at his core to have David look at him in silence rather than just say something.

"What? What do you want?" Darren groaned. "Why are you here? What could be so important that you refuse to leave after I metaphorically bite and tell you to fuck off?"

David hesitated to answer–uncharacteristically so.

Darren knew David for a long time since they entered the pack, and they knew he didn't falter when it came to anything he had to say, which only facilitated the questions and assumptions that flooded his mind as he tried to comprehend the circumstances surrounding his appearance through their own frustration.

With a lack of an answer being provided, they continued.

"I'm literally not built for this guessing game shit, David. So fucking tell me exactly what you want or leave me the fuck alone and wait til the next pack meeting when I actually have to put up with you."

"Why are you so pissed at me?" He growled.

"Because you're wasting my time with this mind game of yours as per usual! I didn't learn telepathic magic, I can't read your fucking mind and yet you insist I somehow translate this cryptic shit of yours like I have the capacity to." They let out a harsh breath in their need for oxygen before continuing. "You did it when we were in highschool, in this park. You did it when I got back, at my apartment. Now, you're doing it again, so–"

"I wanted to know that you're ok."

"Why?" Darren questioned.

"You know why."

"No. Tell me why. You don't get to pussy foot your way out of this."

"Because I care about you!"

The defiance in their eyes hadn't died as they studied him, in fact Darren could feel it having grown with more;

Anger.

Anger in this case needed to be tempered. He'd learned enough from being around Sam that he let his temper get the best of him and sought to do better, especially after he had the poorest track record in doing that beforehand. They'd been more prone in the past to get aggressive, and with Quinn that meant being physically violent. Now they'd managed it enough that they would rely on their words before they would use their fists, or claws…or teeth. In this instance, he'd have to do what Logan, the Solaire prince's partner, advised him to do.

They took a breath. "And?"

"And, it's because I care about you that I want to know how you're doing."

Another breath in, another out, and they were able to calmly continue. "I'm fine. I haven't stirred up any more trouble than Quinn since I came back from Washington."

"That's not what I meant."

Deep breaths went out the window as Darren let out a low growl from their throat. "What do you mean?"

"You've been throwing yourself at everything. I've hardly seen you take a moment to rest every time I've seen back at the den, and save today, I hardly hear from you. I want to know you're okay and if you need help."

"I don't want the pack's help."

"You're not answering me."

"Now you see how I feel."

David's face shifted in some sort of realization before he pressed again, this time with more bewildered distraught laced in his face. "I just want to help. You need help."

"The 'help', you're referring to, can shove itself up your ass with the stick you lodged up there."

The alpha sighed. "You've been coming at me for being cryptic and yet here you are! You won't answer me straight, you won't tell me anything about how you're actually doing. All I've seen you do is hunt Quinn at every turn for some revenge quest!"

"You wouldn't know shit about why I'm hunting that fucker down because you don't know shit about me, David! So I suggest you shut your fucking mouth before I slam it shut against the concrete."

A threat. Those never flew well and Darren knew if he told the rest of the pack, they'd call for him to get kicked out–whether David would finalize that or not was something he was uncertain of, but he did know that this was heading down a bad direction. Still, they didn't care. They were mad and they had thrown managing it out the window to let themselves finally go at him.

"I see what you're doing. I've done what you're doing." David took a step forward and Darren took one back, something the larger man took notice of before he stopped and spoke again. "You don't have to carry your problems alone. I did after–", he paused, very likely to process the brief flashes of that day if Darren was correct, "–I learned that I didn't have to do that with mine."

They scowled. "You think you had problems after your dad died? Boo-fucking-hoo!"

That got something to break the stale calm he was holding in his face and deep in Darren's core, they knew a nerve was struck but pressed on even as he continued to approach, stepping back with each move he took forward. Even if it meant he may have been angry, it was at least more of a reaction than the cold, empty stoicism he proudly strutted around with as David the emotionally repressed pack alpha.

"I had no one while everyone tried to help you! You put everyone at a distance, while I actually wanted help and no one gave it to me."

"Tank–"

He was moving faster, getting closer, and Darren's instincts were telling him to be ready for a fight, to gain distance and strike if he made any suspicious movement. Already he could feel his body shift itself for such an occasion as his teeth and nails started to pronounce themselves more under his magic's influence.

"I was alone and you had the chance to get help from everyone, I didn't–"

One step forward, one step back, just like some twisted tango between the two as emotions screamed within Darren and clouded his mind. Unspoken threats buzzed in Darren's head, his lack of care to read whatever David was feeling being pushed further by the urge to hurt in some way.

"–so excuse me when I don't take you seriously for trying to care about me when this pack's 'care' has left me with a goddamn vampire bite and restless nights wondering when exactly I'm going to wake up and find him on top of me again, with his teeth in my neck–"

"Darren!"

His feet hit an edge and Darren realized quickly that they'd run out of space to walk as the floor dipped into a bowl ramp. The next thing they knew now was that they were about to fall. The wolf braced for impact with the ground but quickly found himself in a tight hug as he remained somewhat suspended from falling.

"I'm sorry."

Darren's eyes widened. A part of him doubted he'd actually heard that so naturally his next response was, "what?"

"I'm sorry for leaving you like I did."

The shifter could now confirm he wasn't actually making up what he heard. David had apologized.

David. Had. Apologized.

Something in him said to push away, take the damage from the fall, run and never look back, because nothing here was right. This wasn't normal, none of this was. In all he'd remembered David to be, he knew that he would've lashed out, grabbed him for talking about Gabe, thrown him around for making threats–or, was that what he'd told himself?

"I was caught up in trying to close myself off in order to be the leader that I thought the pack needed, that I neglected the people in the pack that needed me most, and I'm sorry."

Darren froze. Then he started to cry. He didn't mean to, he wasn't trying to, but suddenly everything came at once and he couldn't stop himself from crying into David's arms. He was sobbing and as he felt himself find footing on solid ground again with the larger man's assistance, he reached for closer contact as his arms stretched behind David's back to keep a hold of him.

It was almost humiliating for them to be doing this, disgusting even. Yet they didn't stop doing it. They kept holding onto David and crying as their fingers grabbed tight to his jacket like he'd disappear if they let go, and David let them. He was actually letting them keep him like this, just like every other time they would before;

Just like the nights they couldn't sleep after their parents died, or the times when the pack felt like more than they could handle, or after a hard day back at high school when everything felt set against them. It felt like the good parts of everything that they had before David pushed them back, and Darren half-expected him to do so again, but he didn't.

Instead, he hugged tighter. He rubbed circles into their back with his hand, leaned closer into them and wrapped around them like a large shield to keep them away from the rest of the world.

"I'm sorry for not protecting like I should've."

They stayed like that for a couple of minutes (or however long that was, time hadn't seemed to matter then). Darren stopped crying some time ago and let himself stay there as safety reacquainted itself with him.

Then a click sounded off and the two jumped back in unison, not breaking proximity but quickly searching the area before the smaller shifter looked at his camera and sighed.

In the emotion, one of them hand accidently set the camera off to take a pic. The wolf almost had a mind to delete the photo but stopped when he took a second to look over the image. Somehow the camera angled itself right between the two as they were hugging, their bodies dark against the background of the dying, orange afternoon light above them as the picture looked up from a worm's eye view, like witnessing two greater beings find peace in one another's company away from an all too overwhelming world.

"The camera accidentally went off?" David asked

"Yeah. Wasn't watching my hands." They quickly saved the image, set the camera off and covered its lens with a cap.

"It's ok."

Darren finally took notice of the area around them again and quickly realized it was getting darker, Sam would be up and around soon and he'd worry his ass off if Darren came back later than he said he would've been. Still, the sunset against the city set a gorgeous picture before him as a breeze swept through the old skate park and hit the shifter's face, prompting him to wipe whatever wetness had been leftover from his tears.

"... I don't blame you for leaving." David said.

"...I do." They admitted.

"You did what you had to."

"I ran, David. I didn't have to do that."

"You–" The alpha sought to make a counterpoint to that but stopped as his eyes fell to the other's choker. "You made your choice, and I understand it."

"Right…" Darren huffed. "I'm sorry for what I said."

"I know. I remember your temper. You didn't mean it."

"No, that doesn't make it ok. I shouldn't have said that."

"I've said worse before."

"Yeah…I don't entirely blame you for what you did. I know you wanted to do what you thought was right, and I get that."

"It wasn't right. Not for the pack, not even for me, or you."

"Hm." Darren rose to his feet and offered David a hand, one that he took as the smaller wolf helped him find his standing. "I need to get going."

"Right. Sam?"

The shifter smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"I would like you to tell me." He smiled.

"...Next time." They turned on their feet and started walking. "Maybe at the next pack meeting?"

"Or next Friday?" Darren turned slightly to find David standing with both hands in his jacket. "Asher and Milo wanted to get everyone together to play halo."

"Halo?"

"Yeah."

"That shit game we played the last time that kept glitching?"

"The exact one."

Darren shrugged. "Sure."

"You can meet me by the den and I'll pick you up."

"Or I could just follow your scent?" He tapped his nose. "Wolf, remember?"

"Or, you could stop being a little shit and let me carry you, tough guy."

Darren shook his head and smiled as he kept walking towards the exit of the park. "Fine, I'll see you next Friday."

17 notes · View notes

declanlikesmusic · 9 months

Text

Today's Listens: Episode 006

August 11th & 12th, 2023

I'm sure you might be aware that my last episode was a delayed bummer by the end of it, so I'm really just gonna start writing these episodes on the days once again to hope for a better outcome with them. My days without work are already over as soon as they began and because of work yesterday and a knockout bout of hayfever today, I'm gonna have to turn this into another double episode because I've hardly listened to enough on both days. Still though, let's have fun with these

We got some more content warnings on this one, albeit they're minor in comparison: Do watch out for a short but immediate mention of suicide as well as a reference to sk*nning that even I can barely tolerate most of the time.

ℍUM♥ℕIGHTM♥RE – 宇宙の認識 (2016)

Do pardon the unicode that comes packaged with this artist's name, but this is HUMANIGHTMARE, a once young & up-and-coming vaporwave producer who tragically lost to suicide in 2020. I caught ear of this particular album during a commemoration livestream on Vapor Memory and it allured me enough to want to seek out and check it out back then. I thought it was a very good album at the time and to this day, I still think the same way, though it leans very much into greatness at a good handful of points. This was a super meditative take on the growing slushwave sound of the time along with some hypnagogic drift tunes and I think the results should not go overlooked by fans of those genres. Tracks like the opener 宇宙の誕生 as well as 脳の網 are absolutely gorgeous, while the track that hooked me in the first place, 宇宙との関係、is so captivatingly strange to me in a way that I can only adore and fascinate about. If you're already deep into vaporwave, I highly recommend this one.

7.5 / 10

Highlights: 宇宙の誕生、宇宙の盛り、宇宙との関係、宇宙の夢、脳の網、復活

SURFING – Emotion (2019)

Up next on the trans agenda is the third and most recent album by vapor & chillwave duo SURFING. Their 2012 debut is one of the most iconic works of the genre and rightfully so, because it perfectly blends original instrumentation & singing with dense, hazy and deeply nostalgic vaporwave samples. So I have no idea what brought in them the need to forgo that entirely, as 2018's Incubo was still sample-based but nowhere near as dreamy and this one fully submerges into the stylings of chillwave & indie rock with none of what made them so excellent before. That said, with that expectation in mind, while this is still their least good album, it was at least better than what I was anticipating after the first couple of tracks. Visions is the song everybody turns to and for good reason, because it does bring a newfound energy to the band, but my favourite moments were still where they leaned back into their dreamy & hazy sonic roots. It's still a good album and if you're a fan of dream pop, I'd give it a shot. Just don't expect anything particularly dense.

6.9 / 10

Highlights: Visions, Crazy, Hearts, Enough, Give You Up.

Chat Pile – Remove Your **** Please (2019)

I'm going to say it now, this is among the worst EP titles I have ever read. I know that this band was deadset on making intensely dark & grim stories through noise rock & sludge metal, but if it wasn't for me keeping an open mind, I would've steered clear of this record entirely even despite the loving reception this got back then and even now. Which is a complete shame because I ended up enjoying this one more than any other Chat Pile record so far, even God's Country (which warrants a relisten at this point). I even found my current favourite Chat Pile song through this record in the form of Davis, weirdly enough. The drums just sounded much better on this record than I had previously heard, sounding way less blurrier and more burrowing, though that might just be attributed to my headphones being replaced months ago. Couple that with the noise, the energy, the vocals and especially Davis's melodies and despite the horrible name, I'd recommend this one to fans of dreadful rock music. I still don't love them as a band, but this gives me hope that whatever they cook next, I might be able to start clicking with them.

7.2 / 10

Highlights: Mask, Davis

netbooks.WRLD – loosies '19-22 (2022)

Speaking of EPs, I don't know how many y'all heard this up-and-coming talent named netbooks.WRLD? Dude's pretty local in the online vaporwave & electronic music communities and his discography is about as fresh as the next lemon you will ever buy, but real talk? I think he's by far one of the most promising artists to pay attention to! I was initially a dumb stupid dumb skeptic back when his debut album ENDLESS STAIRCASE popped up in 2021, but upon the last couple of months, revisiting that album, tuning in to his brand new single, checking out his Skylive performance and now coming over to this EP of loose cuts, I have fully turned into a believer! The dude makes some downright excellent post-industrial plunderphonics and vaporwave tunes all over his catalogue and I think I found some of my favourite tracks he's ever made through this EP. Sure, they were mostly featured in other places and that's counting the bonus tracks, but god, I've been hooked to them completely in the 24 hours since hearing this. My only sticking points against it are the volume of the high frequencies being a little too harsh for my personal headphones, but I know that's by design considering his aesthetic. Other than that, holy shit, go check out ENDLESS STAIRCASE and this EP at your earliest convenience.

8.3 / 10

Highlights: pipes song, shook shook, RAGDOLLS

Vįr+üål Åįrßñß – ▚ ▛ ▜ ▟ ▞ (2021)

It's the second day and one of the best discoveries I've made last year was this random but completely ethereal-looking and unpronouncable album by a young Virtual AirBnB and I thought to relisten to it for the morning. Spoiler alert: This might just be one of my favourite vaporwave albums. This record is compact, but it is so gorgeous and stunning! It flawlessly blends together elements of mallsoft, new age music, I believe sophisti-pop R&B vocal samples and just overall aesthetics of beauty, nature and the future. Almost every single cut here is downright heavenly. Listening to them all from front to back is one of the most soothing, relaxing, beautiful and often transcendent experience I've personally had with the genre and it's so criminal how overlooked this album is so far. High recommendation to the absolute heavens. Just put your headphones on and let the rivers drift you away.

9.3 / 10

Highlights: ⿴ ༄ ℣ ₪ ℣ ༄ ⿴, ••• ❒︎ ❒︎ ᵒ ᴼ ᵒ ▫ 𐊔 ▫, | ⟗ ☱ ☲ ☳ ☵ ⟗ |

サイバー '98 – RENDERED FANTASY

Saiba '98 is an enigma to me. I don't think, even in the vaporwave scene, this short-lived alias got any of the credit it honestly deserves. The music's not excellent, but for a vaportrap artist, this guy managed to craft some of the unique, jarring and abstract material in this form. Upon relistening to DIGITAL FOREST for instance, I found it absolutely fascinating in how the tempos are sporadic and unformed, the beat instrumentaion is basic and minimal and the backing ambient atmospheres are ghostly and dark. This culminates into his last album under the project, RENDERED FANTASY, and while I can't tell you in good conscious that I love it or that it's completely great, this is honestly the best release of the few still publicly available. More than any other album I've heard from them, this album is glitchier, darker, more ominous, eerie and experimental than ever before. I almost completely admire the way he was seeing through his vision on this one. If you're curious, I can't guarentee you'll love it, but if you're a fan of vaportrap or experimental music, I'd give it a fair shake.

7.3 / 10

Highlights: b e n z a i t e n , Love Translator (self care), Hospital Flower, Kingdom_$lave, Life is a Constant Double Helix

crt paralysis – "Slideshow" (2022)

I'm about neck deep with vaporwave again these past couple of days, so next I threw on this project that got me very curious. Known for making some great vaporwave & DnB as dotnds, CRT Paralysis is a broken transmission side-project of theirs that I'm not fully enamoured with but still greatly appreciative of, especially with their Winter Paralysis series of albums. This "Slideshow" caught my eye though as it looked to center completely around the nostalgia of 2000s office computers and Windows 95 styled corporatism. However, not exactly in the way that I viewed it as a child, which is a little disappointing, but I still found this to be a very good time. The presentation was what drove this home to me the most, it's pretty off-kilter, even for Bandcamp standards. If you're curious for some late 2000s vaporwave nostalgia in a format that I could see INTERNET CLUB doing back in the day, I'd recommend this one.

7.0 / 10

Highlights: "Newlife" 2008/04/02, "Screenshot" 2006/08/17, "Evening" 2008/07/03, "Email" 2008/07/04, "Lounge2" 2008/07/09

RAWINTHEVOID – Alphalord (2018)

How do I go about this one? This was the third album from a then very young RAWINTHEVOID. RAW is a talent in post-vaporwave & plunderphonics that I've been looking forward to seeing his growth for a few good years now. His two latest albums MD (Manifest Destiny) and NOTINTHEMOOD are especially great and, even with some very rough patches, they still shine in comparison to his very, very humble beginnings. I've been going through his catalogue backwards and it's fascinating to see how rudimentary & borderline regressive their sample-based works were back in the day. Even on Alphalord, currently my least favourite of theirs (but only barely behind Double Couple), I still found a wealth of fascinating ideas for its alphabet-long tracklist. For example, I would've never thought that speeding up a whole ass noise rock album down to less than six minutes in a song would've sounded any good. To spoil you, it doesn't sound good, but I'm glad someone tried it anyways. I don't recommend this one. If you're curious, go through his latest albums and his live sets, but don't go digging through the back catalogue. Trust me.

4.4 / 10

Highlights: c3, m13, o15, q17

VHS Head – Persistence of Vision (2014)

To close off this post, I went with the sophomore album from one of the most "Dude, how come you've never heard of this guy" artists in the realm of electronic music. VHS Head is a producer of IDM & Glitch Hop beats that are constantly punchy, sporadic and memorable, all thanks to his incredibly persistent sampling of found VHS tapes. He's growing a cult following overtime but it's not exactly helped by his sparse release schedule. This album came out less than five years after his first and he only thought to put out a followup just a few months ago. I can't wait to try that out, but I would shoot myself in the foot if I didn't go for this album first and I'm very glad that I did. I guess when I heard it, I was a little unenthusiastic in a way? But only the way that still made me love this album in the end, like my thought process was "Of course this album is great." The beats are still punchy, the constantly shifting sample flips are more memorable this time around, I think it's even better and more consistent than his debut! Highly recommend this one, with no doubt.

7.9 / 10

Highlights: Enter the Devil, Don't Look in the Closet, Camera Eyes, Red Ocean Apocalypse, Dead to Morrow, Frozen, Body Magic, Angels Never Sleep

Finally, another episode in the books! You'll notice I'm committing to these a little less and less, but I'm honestly not sure if I can keep doing these daily. I'll keep 'em up for as long as I like, but I think it's time to finally admit that I might skip days proper. I'll find a way to still make them work though, because no doubt, every day, I find something new that I want to talk about. Maybe I could make it more of a highlights thing than an outright journel, but we'll see how that shapes up. Until then, I'll see you next time!

4 notes · View notes

maxellminidisc · 1 year

Text

Thanks to @robotpussy for tagging me to ask what 4 albums I've been listening to as of late:

1) Kim Kwang-Seok 4th by Kim Kwang-Seok (I just love a folk singer, also something about his voice caught my attention the first time I heard him, theres something incredibly warm and homey about it. The song on this album that caught me was "나무 아픈 사랑은 사랑이 아니었음을" on a friends playlist. The rest of this album is such a feast of well crafted ballads and folk songs carried by an incredibly emotive voice.)

2) Die 4 Ur Love- Tei Shi (I find this a really perfect EP for when you're like in one of those weird lost moods where you could like bite somebody instead of just be sad and you want to just indulge in your own attitude even if it's not great. A lot of reviewers called this a weak EP but fuck them, this was fun. I've had "OK crazy" on a loop for weeks lol)

3) Heaven To A Tortured Mind- Yves Tumor (I'm giving their work a thorough relisten as a whole to gear up for the new album in a few days! But god this is really one of the best albums of the decade to me. The mixing and production on "Gospel For A New Century" (specifically the way the multiple horn samplings were so masterfully spliced to create such a stunning instrumental and mood) was such a smart choice to open the album with, because it only goes up from there to blow your fucking mind. Tumor's use of dissonance and sometimes overstimulating landscapes of sounds is so sick.)

4) Circle: the 1st Album- Onew (I could've been stupidly biased and put the March kpop release that's been eating my attention span the MOST right now (looking at you Kai), but I think Onew deserves just as much hype for this excellent album. Another fucking stellar example of how to open your album with a song that both embodies your concept but also serves as the end and the sonic rebirth of an ouroborus-esque album as it ends and starts again. The entire album delivers stunning clean and playful pop production, theres a real confidence in Onew's delivery here that just cant be ignored . What I will say, the commonality I find in both this album and Rover by Kai is that both artists are delivering a sort of renewedness about them that I appreciate so much: Onew in that he's stepping into his unique sense of artistry that's paying off in the album itself, while Kai is delivering a more challenging and exploratory EP in comparison to his first two. They both made my March!)

I tag: @kelvintimeline @bagofbonesmp3 @afro-elf (god I'd love to hear your thoughts on the new Hozier after I give it a listen!) And anybody else who sees this and wants to try.

7 notes · View notes

numetalpuppygirl · 2 years

Text

what i'm listening to 10/5/2022 (song notes under cut)

spot. link//yt link

Laura Les - Haunted: haunted. by laura les

Nirvana - Something In The Way (Live at the BBC): when listening through last month's album ranking, this performance caught me. something in the way is one of the more underrated tracks from nevermind (or at least it was before the new batman movie lol). truthfully there's nothing too out of the ordinary with this performance but i like how kurt's voice sounds on the chorus especially <3

Umphrey's McGee - National Loser Anthem: i LOVE mashups that are actually recorded by someone else instead of sticking the tracks together (both kinds are good but this type is underappreciated). this is the opener to this album and it introduces the mastercraft on display so well...

Papa Roach - Scars: i don't even have anything nice to say about this song other than that it's super catchy. i actually got it in my head bc i had been listening to the laura les remix lol

Europe - The Final Countdown: okay everyone SHUT UP. i know this is a fucking sports stadium anthem but i dont give a shit about that!! when i was 11 years old and only just starting to listen to music, this was one of the only songs i knew. everyone only knows the chorus (which is really good) but if you actually listen to the lyrics it's this heartwrenching power pop track about leaving earth and dealing with the complicated emotions that would come with that...... you wouldn't get it................

Luscious Jackson - Naked Eye: heard it on the radio. struck me as a very genre-bending band, with rock and hip hop and a bunch of other shit mixed in. cool stuff! apparently the drummer was the original drummer for the beastie boys?? crazy

Vanilla Ice - Hooked-Live/1991: i've been writing a ranking of all of vanilla's albums, which led me to relisten to some significant tracks. hooked was one of the stronger tracks from his debut album (the original release of which was even named after it) but it always fell a little short for me. the live version, on the other hand, has a lot more energy and hype

They Might Be Giants - Hide Away Folk Family: tmbg was one of the first bands i ever listened to (explains a lot tbh) but i only knew a little bit of their stuff from like the 90s and 00s, so i wanted to go back and check out some old school material. i liked this album a lot, and the chorus to HAFF stuck in my head big time

Jethro Tull - Aqualung: i've been getting into some more prog rock recently for no. particular... reason...... and i already kinda knew i would like this album. my dad had recommended "up to me" a while back, which i really liked, so i had high hopes. they were met! good fucking album! the title track is really only a standout bc of my love for opening tracks

ANGEL_TECH - whats up with u??: new angel_tech album out now!! once again, the opening track thing is big for me. i love an album that makes a good first impression. it was unfortunate that i couldn't make the release party but oh freaking well!

Huey Lewis & The News - I Want A New Drug: i think i've properly memed myself into enjoying huey lewis lmaooo i found sports in those old cassettes i mentioned i've been going through and was like "lol i should listen to this bc funney american psycho reference" and then an hour later i was adding a bunch of huey songs to my playlist...

Mind-Body Problem - Flesh and Blood (Ephesians 6:12): found this band through their hand crushed by a mallet cover, but honestly i think i might like this original track better. metalcore and hardcore and all that are severely lacking some fresh faces and new takes on the genre, so i'll be keeping an eye on what else this band has to offer!

August is Falling - August Is Falling: really great new ep from an absolute classic pop punk emo band. definitely not tied to any kind of internet inside joke bullshit. remember seeing them on warped tour

Girls Rituals - Idiot punk tetratogenic perma-decline (at the end of your bed): i've been enjoying all devi's new singles but this one's the one i keep coming back to. nothing much more to say it's just good tunes

Spin Doctors - Little Miss Can't Be Wrong: i've been just ever so slightly abnormal about these guys since the trainwreckords episode, but this one is not really that interesting? it's just a really good pop song 👍

Cry Baby - Singing For You: y2k throwback pop rock recommended by skatune network. i've become such a pop girlie and this one has a big catchy chorus. great stuff :)

#im so tired but by god i will get this out while its still the 5th #*char noises*#talking pop

3 notes · View notes

navree · 5 days

Note

Tell us about your journey through The Magnus Archives!

The year, 2020. The month, May. Springtime in Boston, which means that it's already ten million degrees and humid and I, already intimately aware that working on a political campaign means that you're either gonna be making phone calls or entering data (so much fucking data) am using my limited free time, given that Circumstances meant I was in my apartment at all times, to watch shows and whatnot while on break. I finish my rewatch of seasons 1-3 of The Originals (given that they're some of the best television the CW ever put out and seasons 4 and 5 suck ass anyway) and am looking for new content.

Meanwhile, my friend has been listening to The Magnus Archives, mostly just to send me clips of Gerry and Gertrude (makes sense, they were a big RomanGerri during season two of Succession) and, given that this friend already has a track record of getting me to watch shows that they like, I decide, why not? Why not give it a shot? After all, I like supernatural stuff, and I like workplace vibes, and I even heard that there was some boss dude a lot of people like to talk about in various different ways, based on the little amount of content I've seen on Tumblr. So, I listen to one episode, remember that I am a giant scaredy-cat who currently lives alone with all my family across the whole country, and decide not to listen to this show once it got dark out (Anglerfish freaked me out, OK?) . This didn't necessarily last, one because once the time change happens in MA it stays light pretty late, and two, because honestly after the first few episodes the show stopped being scary and I didn't mind listening to it in the nighttime.

So anyway I finished season 1 and 2 in literally one single week. I'm not even kidding. I started the show May 1, got to Elias killing Leitner on May 7. And granted my primary thoughts were mostly "I like Elias" and "season 2 Jon is a fucking nightmare" with a sprinkling of "I wanna know more about the Lukas family" (anyone who knows me knows this isn't a surprise), but I'm still really surprised I was plowing through it that fast. And then i completely stopped listening to it, because the campaign was ramping up in the summer months and it slipped away from me.

It's now January of 2021, I'm living at home with my parents for a couple months before school starts back up and honestly a bit bored out of my skull because my parents' primary residence at the time was in Carmel, CA and my GOD is there nothing to do there except for the aquarium (I love it there but it's true). And I decide to give TMA another shot since the final season is winding down anyway. Plow through the first two seasons again, most thoughts still the same, get to season 3 and start liking it, meet Peter Lukas and decide he's immediately the best character, which is still true, season 4 only reinforces that fact, and then slowly make my way through season 5 because I, uh, did not care for it. Also, true story, I've never actually listened to episode 200, cuz when it came out I was at the salon, so I just read the episode transcript on my phone (it was Fine).

I still work on political campaigns, by the by, and I honestly put on early season TMA when I have to do data entry (getting through season 2 is always a bit of a struggle because I love Jon but my God is he such a fucking nightmare that season, I just wanna shake him). Also, to be completely honest, any time I relisten to season 4, I just skip and skip until I get to the Peter scenes, since again, best character and the only one I really care about in that season.

#personal #answered #anonymous #if i don't get some sort of peter content in tmagp i will riot and that's a promise

0 notes

bahamutgames · 5 months

Text

AFTERTHOUGHTS - ROUNDUP ROUND 8

October - November 2023

Hello again!! Soon December will be upon us (or maybe it already is by the time I finish this lol. We'll see) and before you know it, 2023 will already be over. Sheesh. But we still have a few days of November and some big things in December to go through so let's take it one step at a time, okay?

Had an interesting time during October as I was finishing some RPGs and fell into a bit of a funk / gamer block after some junk. But thankfully I managed to pull myself out of it and I'm happily chipping away at my next RPG as we speak! I ended up playing a good amount of shorter stuff these past 2 months, so let's go ahead and talk about some of it!

Per the norm, these aren't reviews. Just my thoughts I'm slapping up here. You should play everything I talk about regardless of what I say and form your own opinion. Cool, let's begin!

Pikuniku (January 24, 2019) - Xbox One

As I said earlier, I fell into a bit of depressed slump for a little. And I decided that replaying Pikuniku would fix me. I played this back around the time covid started, so it had been a long while since I played it. And, yeah, it's still REALLY good! Cute visuals, one of my favorite OSTs ever probably, super charming script and story. It's such a good time honestly even if can be a little rough at points. If you haven't played this game before, I've played it twice now and it 100% gets my seal of approval.

Hatsune Miku Project DIVA F 2nd (March 27, 2014) - Playstation Vita

But... Pikuniku, despite how much I adore it. Didn't fix me. No, sadly, I was still in a bit of a slump and not sure what to play next after being drained of my gamer energy. Then I dug through my games to fetch a console for my sister, and happened to accidentally find out my other sister owned a Miku game on vita. I had no idea we had this! And I've been getting more into vocaloid lately. So what the heck? Why not play it?

I used to hate rhythm games but lately I like them a lot more and, yeah, I had a great time with this! Staying up late in bed playing it late at night was a ton of fun. I discovered a lot of new vocaloid songs I hadn't heard before (off the top of my head I really liked Melt and the spooky themed one but I'll have to relisten to them all to say which were favorites). The game is super cute, I think it looks great, I LOVE that there's a lot of costumes for each of the 6 characters, I liked all the music, and honestly yeah this game really made me feel a lot better.

Only things I can say against it is that easy is WAY too easy, not even asking you to use most buttons of the system. While normal was just WAY too brutal, I couldn't even beat Melt on Normal. Maybe I just suck though. Also I think it can be a little difficult to figure out how to equip costumes but it's not that big of a deal. I like the magician miku outfit a lot, fun game :)

Paratopic (September 6, 2018) - Nintendo Switch

Hey! Here's a game you probably would NOT expect me to play because I avoid horror like the plague lmao. But my brother bought this a long while back, and I saw it sitting there unplayed. And it's like, less than an hour long. So I figured, what the heck? And gave it a shot (shoutouts to my siblings owning random games I guess lol).

Paratopic is interesting because it's meant to be played in one go, with no saving at any point. There's not really any losing either, so it's kind of like an interactive movie. It's told out of order and is also not super in your face about the plot which could be a drawback but it's very clearly the intention so I think it does it very well. Graphics were nice, story is odd and interesting, it's a very unnerving game. I couldn't even relisten to the OST while writing this cause I was too scared (still listening to miku). But again there's no major scares as far as I recall? It's similar to Fatum Batula in art, odd themes, and the fact that it's probably a good horror game for people who hate horror. Not my thing but happy I played through it!

SLUDGE LIFE : The BIG MUD Sessions (August 2, 2023) - PC

DID YOU KNOW I'M A SLUDGE LIFE FAN!? DID YOU KNOW THAT? DID YOU KNOW I 100% COMPLETED THE FIRST GAME THE DAY I STARTED IT AND I OWN A CIGGY TSHIRT CAUSE I LOVE IT SO MUCH!?

Well anyway, I do. And somehow I missed out on the fact that there was a Sludge Life 2 demo that was free to play and had its own plot! So, naturally, I had to sit down and play it! Not a lot to say because it is a small story, taking place only in one building rather than a big city. But I thought it was a great way to get back into the swing of things with Sludge Life, and I had a blast completing this bite sized story! I even completed the full Gato Mago demo present in the game lol. If you're not sure if you'd like the games, I might honestly recommend playing this to give it a shot since it's easy to complete but has everything present in the main 2 games.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass (March 18, 2022) - Nintendo Switch

I talked about the end of the Booster Course Pass a little bit on twitter. But just in case you missed it, I wanted to talk about it here. It's finally done, and honestly I had a blast with it. While this DLC was kinda rough at first, being pricey for some admittedly low quality tracks (at least in terms of graphics) I really think by the end they pulled it together and made this a very worthwhile package with LOTS of new tracks and even new characters that they didn't have to do! I really appreciated it!

This final set of stages was nice, DK Mountain is a classic and it's great to have it back. Rosalina's Ice World was a pleasant surprise! Bowser's Castle 3 seemed like it was gonna be the most boring one but I LOVED it! And Rainbow Road Wii was such a nice send off! Great remake of a great track!

For new tracks, Piranha Plant Cove stood out to me the most. I adored it, as it was brand new to me since I don't play Tour (my younger sister does and she hates this track lmao). But I thought it was gorgeous, has a great aesthetic with the beach/jungle ruins at night, and has great music. It felt like something out of a JRPG which love, and the music particularly reminded me of Sea of Stars a bit!

New characters were great too! Overall while there's still some characters and tracks I wish returned (Wario Stadium, ROB, stuff like that) I do think overall this DLC made MK8DX such a complete package and was totally worth the price of entry I payed however long ago. They brought back some of my all time favorite MK stuff such as Choco Mountain and Petey Piranha.

And honestly, it's looking like MK8 might finally be done. We might actually be moving onto Mario Kart 9 soon which feels crazy to me. MK8 is finished, Tour is done getting new content. I really truly think the next MK thing we see will probably be 9. And I wanted that for YEARS! When they announced the booster pass it rubbed me the wrong was cause I just wanted 9 already. But now that it's here? I'm gonna miss 8 a LOT. It's my favorite one next to DS probably. And it's been the latest Mario Kart for SO long. I remember going to gamestop the day it launched on Wii U to pick it up in 2014 (THAT'S 9 YEARS AGO, BTW. 9 YEARS OF MK8). I've gone through major life changes during the course of MK8's existence. Graduation, learning to drive, moving out (multiple times), presenting in public for the first time. Mario Kart 8 has oddly been a consistent part of my life for a while now. And I'm honestly a little emotional to let it go.

However, I'm very excited to see what comes next from this series. I'm waiting with baited breath for 9, and I'm sure that regardless of what the next game is like, I'll probably love it. It's hard to say goodbye, but I do really love MK8 more the more I think about it and reflect on my time with it. Late night playing with my sister, playing online with friends, playing with randos, driving around the tracks slowly to see all the little details. Thanks for all the good times Mario Kart 8. I'll always be using tilt controls :')

Super Kiwi 64 (December 2, 2022) - PC

Wow that last one got a little emotional, huh? Let's move onto something I haven't spent a large formative part of my adulthood playing. Siactro is a small indie dev I have become fiercely loyal to, playing just about everything they put out since I first played the original Toree! So when I saw they were making a new 3D Collectathon, I was VERY excited!

And this game lived up! It's great! Some GORGEOUS worlds that look so breath taking with these N64 styled graphics. Some fantastic music to accompany you. It feels WONDERFUL to play, I genuinely am OBSESSED with Kiwi's moveset. Gliding, dashing, stabbing into walls to climb up them. It might make exploring a little easy but exploring is absolutely the focus more than platforming is. And I think these tools make that goal very easy and EXTREMELY fun. In fact, it's so good I'm actually sad it isn't longer. There's only 8 worlds and they're all 100% completed rather quickly. Which is fine, Siactro games tend to be short. But this one was just SO good, I wanted more! That's a positive though I promise!

My only real negatives are that the game doesn't explain the plot too well, you have to play Beeny to understand what's happening. Which is fine for me, but it's odd they did that. I also think it's odd that there's NO ENEMIES! I don't think I took a single hit of damage through the game. I think some cute (CUTE NOT HORRIFYING) enemies would really elevate the game and make it a little tougher. Likewise, I know there's only 5-6 main collectables in each world, but I do think some way to keep track of them would be huge. Even just a hint list so you know what you're looking for. Regardless, super fun game, another banger from Siactro and if you're looking for a shorter 3D collectathon, do give it a look!

He Fucked the Girl Out of Me (July 24, 2023) - PC

I'm not sure it's appropriate for me to discuss this in this format as this is a deeply personal game for the creator that tackles real life serious subjects about their past. However, it is still a game and it's a game that's VERY good and I think everyone should play!

He Fucked the Girl Out of Me is a visual novel about the creator's life as a transwoman, and their time as a sex worker. It's a very sad game but that's exactly how it should be and it does end well. But I think it's a really interesting game just by the nature of it being an autobiographical game. That's something I've been interested in for a while and this game does it very well. Really putting you into the head of the creator as they take you through the story.

The graphics are nice, looking like a gameboy title. The story is told very well and did honestly make me cry a bit (I'm particularly sensitive though I cry a lot aha). It's a short game but I would love to see more games that tell people's experiences like this, I think getting to play it can give you a look into their life that a book or movie just can't do the same way. I really loved the scenes where you could pick snacks and see her thoughts on them, and I thought the scene where you see what people message you in this line of work was very well done. There's isn't a ton to say about the gameplay side of things, but I think that's fine since again, it is autobiographical and it manages to tell that story very well through a more VN styled approach.

The game tackles topics about shame, and hiding your trauma due to fear of getting in trouble and the trauma that fear adds on top of the shame. It's a something I think a lot of people can relate to even if you don't go through something as traumatic as what the creator of the game went through. It's an important message and I'll absolutely be keeping an eye on this developer going forward. If you've got the time, give this game a shot.

SLUDGE LIFE 2 (June 27, 2023) - PC

And here we are, Sludge Life 2! As a huge fan of the first, I couldn't resist anymore. I'm a little late but I just HAD to play SL2!! This game picks up RIGHT where The Big Mud Sessions ends off. Big Mud has gone missing after recording, and it's up to Ghost to track him down! All while tagging, making some new friends, and taking pictures of stupid stuff along the way.

It's very similar to the first, but now with the added Ciggy City attached the main town from the first game so there's a LOT more to explore now! Just like the first one it's a ton of fun to run around and platform about while tagging stuff and making friends with random taggers. A lot of them are new this time but there's some familiar faces too. It's still a blast, there's still lots to do, I like that the plot covers some more serious topics, it's very funny, it has great music, I love the graphics. Overall it's a blast! There's a fully uncensored penis in it which is awesome! This is random but I think more games should be allowed to have full uncensored nudity without getting an AO rating.

However, I personally didn't prefer it over SL1 or the Big Mud Sessions. It is fun. But like, I think it wasn't as fun. And it felt like they were leading up to something a little cooler than how it plays out. The death mold felt like it should have been a big thing leading to a big finale. But it's just the bad ending and it's quick and not addressed much, which is how the bomb worked in the first game. But the bomb wasn't teased and didn't feel like it may have been a big deal if that makes sense? I thought Ciggy City could be a little annoying to navigate at times, I don't like Gato Mago as much as the game in the first, I feel like they didn't improve some issues such as it being REALLY hard to find tag spots when you're near 100, I couldn't figure out how to spit in that guy's food! It is still good and I had a great time playing through it, but it just didn't feel as amazing as I was hoping a sequel would feel.

Regardless, I still recommend this series, and I hope we get a Sludge Life 3 that can maybe make good on some of its plot teasing? I am interested to see how the Death Mold will tie into a potential 3rd game as well seeing more uprising against the corruption in the world and the clops. I also would like to see a boss fight, because I really thought the health bar in the trailer meant there was gonna be a boss fight. Doesn't need combat or anything, I think the moveset present in these games could already make for an interesting boss.

Hello My Name is (Val)iant Or Val's Guide To Having A Broken Vag (June 1, 2023) - PC

Another short visual novel about sex and body stuff! This was also a game I randomly discovered a few weeks ago and had a great time playing through it! This game is more lighthearted than He Fucked the Girl Out of Me, but is still a great time and still has important things to say. You play as Val, a transman who has lived with extreme vaginal pain their whole life. And you see the struggles that comes from doctor negligence and trying to find love with that problem.

This one has some more gameplay like scenes, mainly 2 minigames you play twice. But the way they're handled is VERY interesting! I won't spoil it but there's a Tetris minigame used for talking to doctors, and a Rhythm minigame used for having sex. And the way it contrasts the feelings between 2 different experiences in both situations using these minigames is REALLY well done.

It's not autobiographical I don't think, but is more autobiographical in the sense that it capture's the dev team's past issues with doctors ignoring you, medical racism, and the lack of help and care for people with vagina's comfort in sex and just in their bodies in general. I'm not kidding when I tell you this game taught me more about vaginas than my entire life of sex ed in school. Drop out and play video games, kids. You'll learn more.

Great graphics, great music. I know I shouldn't compare it to HFTGOOM so much but I liked both of these a lot! I would love to see more games about real topics that affect real people in the future, and especially ones that maybe tackle more genres than just Visual Novel (though I understand it is the best medium for this)

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode I (January 19, 2012) - PC

It's time... to talk about Sonic 4... I want to preface this by saying I LOVE SONIC, and I genuinely feel kinda bad whenever I trash on something Sonic related because the series gets so much undeserved hate. And I know I recently had some negative opinions on the Final Horizons DLC but oh my god... Sonic 4 made me appreciate that so much more. Guys, this game sucks. I'm not joking when I say this is probably the worst Sonic game I've ever played.

This game feels so absolutely soulless in a way no other Sonic game can even come close to imitating. It's trying so hard to be like a Classic Sonic game by copying its level themes, concepts, and music style. But it copies absolutely none of the charm in any way. The music just isn't very good (kind of a sin for a Sonic game?). The graphics are REALLY bad imo. It's trying to make all the 3D models look like 2D sprites but it fails MISERABLY. The effect only works on the final boss. I really can't explain it, you'll just have to see the final boss for yourself, it's clearly trying to look like a 2D sprite. The game plays like GARBAGE! Sonic is so slow, takes forever to reach any meaningful speed, and the homing attack doesn't work 99% of the time. It's truly baffling to me.

Speaking of the final boss, that sucks too. The bosses in this game are all rehashes of earlier bosses, but less fun! Big surprise! This game ends with the Death Egg Robot again but unlike the Generations fight with it which is cool. This fight is like, a massive slog that takes FOREVER to kill. I seriously think it may take like 10 minutes to get through if you do perfectly? And it certainly took me about an hour with all my deaths. And the story being like, just the Sonic 1 story is so boring, no one talks, the animations don't look that good. This game just SUCKS. And that's just the game, not even considering the fact it's uploaded to Steam with an error that makes it so you can't launch it without a fan made launcher!

I think what bothers me so much about this game is that people ALWAYS like to flame on the usual suspects when it comes to Sonic. 06, Shadow, stuff like that. But I will die on this hill, those games, while maybe not being GREAT and certainly lacking polish, are FUN and full of heart and soul. Why is this game NEVER brought up? It has barely any, if any, redeeming qualities. I know this was made for youtube reviewers who hated Sonic having friends and stories but I genuinely cannot believe that even they would enjoy just playing Sonic 1 but worse and shorter? Truly a game for no one. Let's move on.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode II (May 15, 2012) - PC

So right out of the gate, this game is SO much better than the first it's actually jarring. I still don't think it's great. But it's more just, eh, rather than being terrible like Episode I. For improvements, they drop the art style which is a big help. I feel like the music, while still trying to sound like Genesis music, actually works this time and sounds pleasant and fun. And while Sonic is still REALLY slow and the homing attack still doesn't really work, it just feels better to play. And the addition of new content instead of just rehashing old stuff is VERY welcome. Sonic 4 Episode 2 opens with a brand new, gorgeous castle stage. Has Tails who is used for team up moves, and features ACTUALLY NEW BOSSES! Wow!

Overall it is a massive improvement over the first. But it still has a lot of issues. For one, the levels are SO long. Like, they just do not end ever. And they do kind of start to copy other games in the second half . The Tornado level is a SLOG and just not fun. I hate the stupid half pipes (does anyone really like these?) And the bosses are even worse, they're not BAD but they're SO long and all end on this big hit you have to land that can be a chore to get right (the trash golem boss). And the final boss, while it is WAY cooler, lasts SO long!! You have to walk through a not super short level to get to it, watch a not short cutscene, then watch a cutscene after EVERY PHASE. Unskippable, do this upon EVERY DEATH. Not every Game Over, EVERY DEATH!

Whatever, again, it is a LOT better than the first. It's not offensively bad like that one was. But still, kind of an odd game. The boss themes are great though.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode Metal (May 15, 2012) - PC

I probably don't have to discuss this as it's just Episode I backwards. But I do have to give some props to this one cause it is kinda neat. And probably the most interesting idea of Sonic 4. Letting you play as Metal is cool, I'm a sucker for stuff like this where you revisit worlds in a different context (you start at the final world and work your way back to the starting world.) It's neat! And even though it's pretty much identical to Sonic 4 Episode 1. It's way shorter, with no bosses. So it's more fun.

Overall I'm happy I tried Sonic 4. But these games just sucked man. If you wanna play one, just play Episode 2 don't even bother with Episode 1. I genuinely get a bit of happiness knowing there was never an Episode 3 I have to suffer through. 2D Sonic still has a place nowadays. But everything offered here is done better in LITERALLY EVERY OTHER ATTEMPT AT A NEW 2D SONIC!

Want classic gameplay with nice classic pixel art? Sonic Mania is there. Want classic gameplay with the modern designs? Sonic Advance Trilogy is better. Want 2D Sonic with homing attacks and boosting and stuff? Sonic Rush games are better. Oh but you can't play as Metal? YOU FOOL!! SONIC RIVALS 1&2 ARE BOTH BETTER AND ALSO HAVE SHADOW AND EVEN ROUGE IS IN THE SECOND ONE!

And when do these games take place? Is it trying to imply this ACTUALLY takes place between Sonic 3 and Adventure? Like is this supposed to be saying Metal is only in heroes BECAUSE of this game? That's nuts right? That sounds insane right?

Again, truly a game for no one. Go play Sonic Rivals.

Portal (October 10, 2007) - PC

Ah, Portal! You may be surprised to learn I've never beaten this game! And more surprised to learn I've NEVER beaten a Valve game prior to this! I started this game when I was young but got stuck during one of the puzzles (the only where you have to launch yourself across the barrier you can't shoot through?) and dropped it. But I own it again on steam and thought I should give it another go. And I'm glad I did!

This game was SUPER fun! It's short but every level is genuinely cool to try and figure out how to use the portals to their fullest. Which, in of itself, feels very impressive to me. I can't help but feel like programming and making those portals work must have been a NIGHTMARE! But it payed off because again, it's SUPER fun! GLaDOS is really funny during the whole thing, the credits song is of course fantastic, and the creepy parts where you see outside of the experiments were VERY scary and I had to mute the game during them cause they unnerved me so much lmao.

But without a doubt, the best part of this game was the final boss. I thought it was SUPER interesting trying to get the portals lined up to blast GLaDOS. And the context of the fight, with GLaDOS being obsessed with flooding the facility with toxic gas was very funny.

The only real drawback I can say the game has considering it's so short is that the final escape sequence is a little long. But GLaDOS taunting you during it and trying to sound like she's in control of the situation was fun and I did like the part where you have to fight a bunch of the turrets at once.

But yeah! Fun game! Glad I finally beat it! I still hold firm that Chell is the best choice for a Valve character in Smash Bros. cause I'd be SO interested in seeing them make the portals work in that game!

#2023 #thoughts #roundup

0 notes