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dustedmagazine · 2 years

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John Bischoff — Bitplicity (Artifact Recordings)

Bitplicity (ART 3012, 2021) by John Bischoff

Perhaps known better for his previous work with the electronic music ensembles The League of Automatic Composers and The Hub, composer John Bischoff's new CD Bitplicity offers a close-up glimpse into his own work, combining hands-on analog circuitry with digital synthesis. Coming of musical age in 1970s California and having studied composition with James Tenney, Robert Ashley and Robert Moran, Bischoff soon gravitated to the Bay Area world of hacked electronics and networked musical collaboration. The League of Automatic Composers’ work at times sounds like an ensemble of computer modems interacting with one of Steve Wozniak's early blue boxes. The music was fractious, dense and more often than not chaotic, focusing as much on the concepts of process and interrelation as with the ensuing sounds and structures. On Bitplicity Bischoff distills the modus operandi of his earlier projects into four compositions that continue his exploration of indeterminacy and performer-computer interaction.

The League of Automatic Composers’ compositions existed not on paper but in the hardwired networking of their hacked Kim computers. Bischoff's next group, The Hub, abandoned hardwired computer systems for network data as a means of connecting the players, creating telematic performances and paving the way for later network collaborations. The Hub's work retained the sense of unpredictability and impending chaos of the earlier League of Automatic Composers recordings, but opted for a more refined sound palette. The Hub’s work opened the way for additional network bands, many of which covered The League of Automatic Composers’ works.

Taking a cue from Nicolas Collins' Handmade Electronic Music, pulse-wave oscillator circuits built by Bischoff form the starting point for all the music on Bitplicity. Bischoff is able to short the circuits of the oscillators by pressing coins that are sandwiched around foam against steel rails built into the top of the circuit box. Squeezing the foam varies the pitch of the oscillators and brings a further gestural element into the music. Bischoff's computer analyzes the pitches being generated from his real-time circuit bending, which in turn triggers further digital synthesis. The process creates something like a circular network between Bischoff and his computer, the latter listening and reacting to both the input sent and the resulting sounds being amplified through the speaker system.

Fans of David Tudor or Gordon Mumma will find much to enjoy on Bitplicity. Room recordings made at the Littlefield Concert Hall at Mills College, where Bischoff taught as a professor of music, give the music a distinctly warm and organic feel. A sense of suspended time pervades all these recordings. For the most part, the music unfolds at a gradual pace, leaving ample space for the process and the sounds themselves to enter into the listening experience. Musical events spread across the stereo field sometimes seem like the operation of a severed brain, the right side completely autonomous from the left. And indeed, the music itself at times feels completely disassociated from any human input, sounding more like some alien organism crawling across a martian landscape, a rain forest filled with chirping birds or a malfunctioning church organ. And sometimes all of the above at once.

The music's unpredictability draws the listener in as structures collapse and reappear in a constantly evolving flux of shapes and forms. At times the compositions seem on the verge of disappearing, then suddenly roar back with an avalanche of sound. Yet none of this ever sounds contrived or forced. As the final piece of the CD trails away, with what could be the last gasps of HAL 9000, one is left with a sense of remembering the sound of a future that never happened, something anachronistic yet utterly modern.

Jason Kahn

#dusted magazine #album review #jason kahn #john bischoff #bitplicity #electronic music #league of automatic composers #the hub

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sage-nebula · 3 years

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Thanks for the explanation! I've been a JRPG fan since the 90s and the changes made to the Let's Go games don't sound as though they'd be my thing either. Do you have a review of Gen 8 anywhere on here? I'd be curious to see what you think of Sword and Shield.

I don’t think I ever did a formal review of Sword / Shield because I wasn’t writing up game reviews at the time, but I’d be happy to give an impromptu one here!

Overall Score: 8.5/10

The Pros:

— Gameplay was a vast improvement from the previous gen. Dynamaxing is a much more fun battle mechanic than a one-time-per-battle use Z-Move; the Wild Area is FANTASTIC, especially with the wild pokémon roaming around; the bike came back without annoying music to accompany it; the post-game Battle Tower provided actual challenge, and so on. I actually had fun playing these games, particularly with so much space to explore and things to find. I’m not someone who says that story is never important in games—I’m far from that person, actually—but gameplay will always be the most important component of a video game because it’s how the audience engages with it. The Alola games were not fun for me to play; the Galar games were, and that was automatically such a relief after a gen that felt like a chore to get through.

— The characters are all fantastic! Aside from postgame characters Shieldbert and Swordward, I didn’t dislike a single character in the games. The rivals were great, the Gym Leaders were memorable and involved for the first time since Gen V, and Sonia has one of my favorite arcs of any Pokémon character ever given how relatable her story was. (Having one of the main characters be someone in her twenties trying to figure out what she’s going to do with her life is almost like Game Freak was trying to speak to the young adult audience who grew up with these games, tbh.) I didn’t like the characters in the Kalos games aside from one, and the Alola games were a massive disappointment, but Galar really came through and shone with all of its characters. The fact that they’ve only managed to get even more spotlight and depth in things like the League Card bios and the post-game Galarian Stars Tournament only makes things even better.

— The music was excellent. While there were a few tracks that weren’t especially memorable (such as the standard trainer battle music), there were many more that were absolute bangers (the Gym Leader battle music, the Battle Tower music composed by Toby Fox himself, Marnie’s Battle Theme, etc). I especially love the music for the northern part of the wild area, with how the bagpipes come into full crescendo. Absolutely spectacular.

— There was so much to explore! One of my primary complaints with the Alola games is that they were so small; only four tiny islands, without being able to explore the sea. Galar made up for that, though, with more towns, a huge wild area, and to cap it all off, extra locations added with DLC that allowed you to fully explore the ocean and many other areas. There were so many little hidden things around and I LOVED discovering everything, ignoring the plot while I did so. That was my jam.

— Speaking of the DLC, I cannot speak highly enough about Game Freak’s decision to release DLC with new areas / content rather than just releasing a slightly modified third version with different postgame (coughUSUMcough). Yes, the DLC still cost money, but it was half the price that a third game would have been, and honestly the DLC stories adding to the postgame (though you can do them at any time and the levels scale) added to the richness, depth, and overall playtime that the Galar games offered. I really, really can’t express how much I hope that this is the business model Game Freak takes with future releases. Please give us new stories via DLC rather than making us shell out for a slightly modified third version.

— Honestly, this is an unpopular opinion, but I really liked the way the story was handled. I LOVED the model for the Gym Challenge being a regional tournament that you have to be sponsored to enter, how the “gyms” were stadiums full of people, how it’s something that really affected the region and encompassed everything you did, story-wise. I loved, too, how the adults in the game ACTUALLY DID SOMETHING FOR ONCE instead of wanting to rely on literal children to solve their problems for them. Sure, it means we missed some instances of disaster, but honestly, I’ve been cleaning up the PokéWorld’s messes since 1998. I’m tired. I want to just have fun gallivanting off into the wilderness in-between doing a fun Gym Challenge. That’s all I want. So while some didn’t like the fact that the story wasn’t super deep, I liked it, especially since if the Kalos and Alola games taught us everything, it’s that Game Freak fails spectacularly at handling tough topics, to the point I’d really rather they not try at all.

The Cons:

— I’m still disappointed about the Dex cut. I’ve accepted it at this point, we won’t get the full Dex back unless Game Freak somehow gets more time to develop the games, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t find it disappointing. I think all pokémon should be included in the games at least once the main campaign is over, and it’s disappointing that they aren’t.

— I don’t know if it’s a fault of the game or thanks to my internet connection, but I experience severe lag when wifi is turned on in the wild area, which is again disappointing since it was promoted how you could interact freely with other players this way.

— I MISS MEGA EVOLUTION. My Charizard was bred and trained specifically to mega evolve into X. I really hope we get Mega Evolution back at some point because I’m angry that it’s gone.

— While I was glad to see following pokémon back in the DLC, it really wasn’t implemented well. They can’t keep pace properly at all. Again, I wonder if this is tied to the time constraints that went into development, and if it is, I hope they can smooth it out in the future.

— I was kind of disappointed in the way Rose ended up being depicted as the game’s Big Bad, because of the role they gave him in the game. In the game, he’s the CEO of a mega corporation that controls all energy throughout the Galar region. Given that we currently live in a world where CEOs of mega corporations who control everything are actively destroying the planet and don’t care that they’re doing it, it fell a bit flat for me for the games to be like, “no, it’s fine he controls everything that everyone’s lives depend on, the real problem is he summoned a legendary pokémon he couldn’t control.” Like, my dislike of Rose is far less about what he does versus what he is, and I feel like Game Freak chickened out of criticizing what actually needed to be criticized.

But yeah, that’s all I’ve got! I really enjoyed Sword and Shield; they gave me some hope for the direction the games might be taking in the future.

#pokemon #pokemon swsh #Anonymous

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pkmn-fangamer · 5 years

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Pokémon Solar Light & Lunar Dark Review

Intro:

The game starts in Soltree Town in the players room. The player is sitting in front of his/her TV and is watching a battle between two Pokémon trainers. Your mother comes in and tells you that your best friend, Rodney, is waiting for you downstairs to get your first Pokemon from Prof. Pinewood. You walk to the lab with Rodney and the Professor lets you choose one of three Pokemon. After choosing your starter, Rodney runs out of the lab. The Professor tells you about a young girl named Keira, who is getting the last Pokémon, but it seems that she has forgotten it. After finding Keira in Mossy Town her mother tells you to go back to your house, because your mother has a gift for you. Back in Soltree Town you receive the PokéCom and the Running Shoes from your parents.

From then on, the player will set off on adventures through the Rikoto region. Along the way, the player, Rodney, and Keira will battle eight Gym Leaders, while trying to complete the Pokédex. After managing to obtain all eight Badges, the player will head to the Pokémon League to battle the Elite Four and the Champion.

How to Play:

Download and extract this file to the folder of your choice. If you don’t have a program to unzip files, I recommend Peazip, which is safe and works well. Once extracted, double “Game.exe” to play.

Story:

The story progresses like a main series game’s plot. It’s notably most similar to RSE/ORAS, because there are two evil teams present: Team Solar and Team Lunar. They’re racing to find specific stones to revive and control their respective legendary of interest. Unfortunately, the climax of their role in the story is pretty disappointing to me, but I won’t say any further so not to spoil you. Aside from the villains, you have your usual tree-based professor, a few rivals, and your eight gym leaders. There’s also a mega evolution specialist, who battles in her castle, and is portrayed as unofficial gym leader. I especially liked this detail.

The characters are just okay, and dialogue can be a little jumbled at time. I like that you have three rivals rather than one, but they’re not very well fleshed out. Each has a gimmick, but not much personality past that. The gym leaders were also okay, but not overly memorable. The only honorable mention is Jax of the Elite Four, who I believe should have been the champion of the game.

There are some adult themes present in the story, but I don’t mean this in an explicit sort of way. Rather, the game addresses adult issues you’d find in the real world. For example, to use the taxi service in Rustbolt City, you need to battle their boss to convince him to pay his workers more, as they’re on strike at the time. You are also asked to steal for a robber at one point during a quest, which is pretty neat.

Overall, the plot and characters weren’t too impressive, but they weren’t terrible, either. There was a good foundation for both that was lost along the way, it seems. However, the story and characters are still serviceable and fulfill their overarching role.

Score: 7/10

Pokemon:

In this game, there are Fakemon instead of Pokemon, and this can be seen as either good or a bad. While the sprite work for the Fakemon grew on me, some are heavily based on already existing Pokemon. Also, some Pokemon don’t have the highest design quality. Lastly, many of the better Fakemon don’t evolve until they’re pretty high leveled, anywhere from the high 30s to the low 50s, kind of like in Gen 5. This can be seen either as a good or a bad thing, I suppose.

Luckily, there’s a lot of good things about the Fakemon too. First is the sheer amount of them: there are 358 Fakemon to choose from, which is more original Pokemon than have ever been put into a new game at once. This gives you a huge selection to choose from, so no two people will ever have the same team. The downside of this is it’s hard to keep track of them all. However, there are some great ones to choose from, whose movepools and abilities have been handpicked with care.

The original moves made for this game are also a nice touch. One that stood out to me is Thunder Strike, which is a nice middling electric move that’s more powerful than Thunder Shock, but less powerful than Thunderbolt.

I also absolutely love that your first party Pokemon walks with you. This is a feature that really should be brought back in main series games, and the fact that they took the time to draw all 358 original Fakemon (and each shiny form!) as walking companions is very impressive.

Score: 8/10

Gameplay:

In terms of difficulty, this game is very middling. It’s not too easy or hard. If you battle all the trainers and a good portion of wild Pokemon during your journey, gym leaders won’t be overly difficult. However, grinding in this game can be difficult without the presence of the speed button, so keep this in mind when you use a repel or skipping trainer battles.

One of my favorite attributes in a fan game is a lack of HMs, and I was pleasantly surprised that this game replaced HMs with key items. This opens up a fifth slot in your party; no HM slaves needed!

The gameplay in SLLD (Solar Light & Lunar Dark) is brought to life through its attention to detail in many areas. I’d say you can spend up to two hours in almost every town and its surrounding area, just doing quests, finding hidden items, and talking to NPCs without getting bored. There are so many places to explore, each with a completely different set of Pokemon.

My biggest grip in this area is the length of space between towns. The worst example of this is the journey between Waytide City and Coralite Town. In the space between them, there is Route 9, then Goopool Swamp, then Route 10A, then Rainbow Reef, then Route 10B, then finally Coralite Town. There is one single player to heal your Pokemon in this entire stretch, and if you don’t bring a ton of healing items and repels, there’s no way you’ll make it the whole way continuously. There’s also a ton of trainers on every route, too many in my opinion, and if you don’t battle them all, you’re destined to be underleveled for gym battles.

Score: 8.5/10

Art/Music:

The overworld art is well done, mostly in Gen 5 style. I haven’t seen art like this in another fan game yet, so props for that.

Original music can be found in about 80% of the game, and is generally well-composed. I rarely found myself listening to other music while playing the game. It’s very electronic, and comparable to Gen 5, but I actually like this soundtrack better than the Unova one. This brought me to wonder: why is such a common track, the wild battle music, from Sinnoh when almost all other music is original? This also goes for the Pokemon Center and a few other themes. My best guess is that composing those tracks would have taken a lot of time.

In terms of character art, most of it is solid. However, the female player character is obviously heavily inspired by Lyra from HGSS. The sprite isn’t bad per say, but it is very obvious. On the other hand, the male player character looks very original.

There are a few visual/sound errors that I would fix. First, the selection highlight isn’t apparent enough. This may seem minor, but this can be the difference between winning a battle or losing if you accidentally switch in the wrong Pokemon. Additionally, both the sound for stat rising and falling is the same- it always sounds like your stat is going up. There are also a couple of Pokemon missing their cries when sent into battle.

Score: 8.5/10

Misc:

The fan content for this game is pretty great. There’s a very active discord channel, and a pretty up-to-date, accurate wiki.

Overall:

One stand-out quality of this game is the sheer amount of content it contains. Before I mentioned the amount of Pokemon created, and this goes for the size of the map as well. There are more towns and areas of interest in this game than any individual region, and as a result you can get in a huge amount of playtime. I ended my run-through with almost 30 hours. However, the downside to inserting a massive amount of content into anything can make the issue of quality control. While the quality of most things in this game is above average, some things did suffer a bit. For example, there are so many routes and areas, it probably was impossible to compose music for all of them. As a result, the Surf and Bike theme are both the cheesy Pokemon Essentials themes.

On the topic of glitches: unfortunately, there are a handful of them. Most aren’t game breaking, but the one that stood out to me is the fishing contest one. When you are warped to the fishing contest, you’re trapped inside the building’s roof instead of in front of the building. As a result, you have to open your menu and quit the contest, automatically putting you in last place. Another is in the Subhail Icecaps towards the end of the game. The game can barely handle surfing in this area, and constantly stalls, almost crashing whenever you surf.

Overall, I would recommend this game to almost any Pokemon lover. I’d especially recommend this one for Unova lovers, as this game is a fresh new adventure quite reminiscent of that region. If you’re looking for a traditional Pokemon game with Fakemon in it, this game should be a winner for you.

Final Score: 8.5/10

#pokemon solar light and lunar dark #pokemon #fakemon #pokemon review #review #slldcommentary #slldreview

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eurosong · 5 years

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Undo my ESC ‘19 (semi-final two)

Good morning, folks, and welcome to part two of Undo my ESC, the feature where I look at the year’s songs and make a change – as small as altering a minor detail like a lyric or a small staging decision, or as big as going for a completely different national final song! Again, it’s just my opinion and is often delivered in jest. Generally speaking, there are fewer things that need drastic changing in this semi-final, but there are always exceptions...

Armenia: When I first heard this song, I was a bit non-plussed. Cut to a few days later, and there was a constant stream of “walking out, aooooo” in my head. I fear that it’s a song that takes a while to win people over – and that it doesn’t help matters that it’s difficult to completely understand what Srbuk is singing. I’d be tempted to shift the verses into Armenian.

Ireland: I was underwhelmed initially by this effort, but it ended up charming me with its low-key nostalgia. It seems like Björkman has done his level best to kill of Ireland’s chances, and RTÉ have done the rest with the garish, Liechtenstein comics meet 50s Americana staging. I’d change this to something a bit more low-key and elegant.

Moldova: As if to detox from 2 years of crazy staging and outlandish songs, Moldova have sent something incredibly dull and beige, which now they’re trying to cover up by using a decade-old Ukrainian gimmick. There were better songs in their national final, particularly “Sub pămint,” a rocky-folky effort with a lot more to hold my interest than “Stay.”

Switzerland: The Swiss were another country to abandon their national final – no real surprise after the years of mediocre entries it produced. I’d take Stones, Apollo and even Last of our kind over the cringeworthy, self-satisfied Justin Timberlake meets Despacito meets Fuego infernal blend that was “She got me.” I’m going to have a laugh with this one and have it so that Switzerland accept “Sister”, which would have been a passable Swiss entry, instead of rejecting it and having it end up in Germany where it screwed a perfectly good national final.

Latvia: Latvia, like its northern neighbour, Estonia, have gone from having one of the most promising and avant-garde national finals to one that has lost its shine, albeit not só much as Eesti Laul did. Credit where credit is due, they picked by far the best of a lacklustre bunch for me – a lovely, understated, saudadic effort. I wouldn’t change much about it at all.

Romania: Whilst it seemed that almost everybody and their mongoose wanted either the creepy poperatics of Laura “No to marriage equality” Bretan or fueclone #382 from Bella Santiago, by far the song that intrigued me the most was “On a Sunday.” I’m glad this delectable and dark tune won and couldn’t be happier for Ester, who was such a lovely person when we met. What I would change, if I could, would be the bizarre voting system that led to her victory – I’d have had her win by a clear margin in the public vote so as not to be the unfair recipient of hate for the way her song was elected winner. I’d also ensure the oddities on stage with her, pretending to play instruments, were relegated far out of view!

Denmark: Speaking of unpopular opinions, I also didn’t think much of “League of light”, a song so dull that the fact that it incorporated Greenlandic still didn’t quit its beigeness. I found the nicest song of the night to have been “Love is forever”, though I would replace the song’s English lyrics with Danish ones, teach Leonora how not to stare into the viewer’s soul and cause an existential crisis, and trim some of the tweeest excesses away such as the sashaying on the top of that massive chair.

Sweden: Another year, another edition of Melodifestivalen where the all-powerful juries have a real fear of anyone without the Y chromosone representing Sweden. “Too late for love”, at least, breaks the chain of self-satisfied boys singing empty pop songs. Instead, we have a barely soulful soul song sung by a more mature man. I would have gone for “Torn” or “Not with me” any day, though.

Austria: Austria’s labyrinthine internal selection came up with a little-known electro artist and I didn’t have the highest expectations, but I was intrigued. It ended up being an unexpected highlight, a true pearl of emotion and exquisite vocals. I don’t know what PÆNDA’s staging will be, but at the minute, I wouldn’t change anything except for her pronunciation of you as “Hugh/hue”!

Croatia: Oh, Croatia. Returning to a national final after Serbia and Montenegro did last year, and having enjoyed Beovizija and Montevizija respectively, I had hopes. Maybe not high hopes, but medium hopes. It was a collection of dated songs, bizarre songs, and then the eventual winner was both bizarre and dated: a screaming angel shrieking out a maudlin ballad that would have been dated even in the early 90s. I don’t have much of a horse in this race – I think my personal favourite was “Tebi pripadam”, which was harmless but pleasant, but I might go for the colourful “Brutalero” as the most likely to make an impact in Tel Aviv.

Malta: Malta bringing something interesting to ESC is one of the Four Horsemen of the Europocalypse, but before the other three come, I’m living for it. I worry how well a young balladeer with static performances will adapt to the sass and sizzle of Chameleon, but for the moment, I wouldn’t change anything other than remove the letters that overshadow the wild and colourful MV.

Lithuania: Lithuania’s NF is another for which life is too short to follow, especially since it takes the best part of 3 months to come up with – well, songs like this. One wonders how something can be both weird and dull, but this is, in turns. As pretty much the majority of folk rewriting this, I guess I would opt for “Light on” instead, though I’d be tempted by the quirky fun of “Mažulė.”

Russia: I can’t begrudge Sergej’s return to try to win after he found himself losing at the juries’ hand in 2016. I won’t even join those criticising him for not bringing another “banger” and instead returning with something a bit more solemn and musically complex. It’s not in my favourites but there’s not much I’d change, other than make the tune a little less repetitive.

Albania: Albania had another good Festival i Këngës – one of my favourite NFs in keeping an orchestra and maintaining national language throughout. My pick of all the songs to win was Ktheju tokës, and I wouldn’t change a thing about this powerful cri de cœur, except, perhaps, change it so that the second verse had different lyrics and was not just a repeat of the initial verse.

Norway: One of the absolute scandals of the season for me. In the red corner, we had one of the best composers to have represented Norway in the past 20 years with a sweeping, moving, classical tune, “En livredd mann”. In the blooo corner, we had a “what if Aqua moved to the woods, discovered they had animal spirits, thought they could joik and created this forgotten b-side in 1998?” Somehow, the latter won, but I feel the former really ought to have.

Netherlands: Though I cannot understand the fuss about this compared to other downtempo songs that I see being forgotten at best, slated at worst, it’s a decent track. I’d change the video so that it didn’t hinge so dramatically on gratuitous nudity, so that we could see who’s praising this for the music and who’s just in for a good looking lad’s bare arse.

Macedonia: It’s a nice, sincere effort from Macedonia – it feels a bit of a step back from me from the experimentation in the past two entries, but at the same time, I think it has a better chance of doing well than them. Not sure what I would change, other than the video. It’s very melodramatic and reminds me of an even more extra version of Bebe’s “Ella”; no small achievement given how extra that is.

Azerbaijan: I’m no great fan of AZ at this contest, but for the second time in 3 years (let’s try to forget the disaster that was “Delete my heart”), they’ve brought a decent song with some local character. My change would be to forget about the overproduced official music track and go instead for the delightfully understated unplugged performance, where Çingiz’ voice and the poignancy of the text come to the fore.

And the automatic qualifiers of this semi:

Germany: Because of my mischievious change for Switzerland, Germany would be free of the non-sisters perversely called Sisters and would have dodged the hole that they keep falling into – including unexperienced wild card artists in the national final that folk vote for out of sympathy, landing them in or near the bottom for several years, except last year, the one time they didn’t. There were plenty of good songs in the German national final, making the choice of S!!$Ŧ4ZZZ! even more perverse. I really enjoyed “The day I loved you most”, but, despite a somewhat dodgy live, I’d have to give the nod instead to the atmospheric, brooding “Surprise.”

Italy: This song and its artist are utter perfection to me. I wouldn’t change a single second. Unfortunately, Eurovision’s rather arbitrary 3 minute rule means that I would have to excise several seconds from the original. Mahmood’s actual solution seems to have been getting rid of the repetition of “[sai già] come va, come va, come va”, which for me sounds odd and wrecks the flow. I’d instead probably remove the “non ho tempo per chiarire, perché solo ora so cosa sei” line. It’d still be a change I wouldn’t ideally make, but I feel it’d be a bit less abrupt.

UK: The UK came onto the scene this year with a massive fanfare about a new format where YOU DECIDE in song duels which version of a song was better. Except, as it transpired, You the Punter didn’t decide – a dubiously qualified trio of “““experts””” did instead. The whole element of intrigue of the new format – finding out which version of a song is best – was taken away from the viewer and in doing so, all they got to decide between was 3 songs, 1 version of each. In the process, they eliminated the best version of “Bigger than us” – opting for the bombastic, X factor winner version by Michael Rice instead of the low-key but likeable country version by Holly Tandy. I’d have picked that instead. I’d have also not gone for that stupid format and instead tried to find at least 6 decent songs instead of 2 versions of 3 mediocre ones.

BONUS ROUND!

Ukraine: When I was doing SF1, I forgot that another country should have entered that semi who were under my imaginary purview. I’m talking Ukraine, of course, whose broadcasters instigated the scandal of the year by humiliating its artists with political questions on live TV, and then basically forced the winner to nót represent Ukraine by giving her a scandalous contact that didn’t offer any help with the financial burden of going to Israel and putting on a show, would shackle her to patently unreasonable terms, forbade her from speaking out of turn or improvising on stage, and threatened her with massive fines for the slightest unauthorised change. Part of me really wants to say that I’d deal with the mess by ensuring that Tayanna (who should have won in 2018 with Lelja) wouldn’t withdraw, thus leading to the inclusion of Maruv at the last minute who ended up winning. But no – a bigger wrong must be righted and, even though her bizarre burlesque is not to my taste, I would have undone poor Maruv’s poor treatment and let her go to ESC with “Siren song” like the majority of voters wanted.

#eurovision #esc 2019 #eurovision song contest #opinion #esc #eurovision 2019

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pupartan-blog · 7 years

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kerstiny367642-blog · 5 years

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Microsoft’s Most up-to-date Microsoft window Phone Update Extends Cortana To Much More Countries.

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thephilosopheroftheboudoir · 6 years

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The League of Automatic Music Composers

Oakland Two

#league of automatic music composers #experimental music

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doomedandstoned · 3 years

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Austrian Doomers TarLung Construct Grand 3rd Album, ‘Architect’

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

Review by Billy Goate

Photos by Marcin Pawłowski/rockmetal.pl

Album Art by Alex Eckman-Lawn

Looking back at their discography, it seems I've been a fan of Austrian doomers TARLUNG from the beginning. I listed them in The Sludge Lover's Alphabet shortly after they shook our world with their colossal self-titled in 2014. I heaped high praises upon their EP, 'Void' (2016) following this, but it was 'Beyond The Black Pyramid' (2017) when the Austrian stoner-sludge trio really came into their own, and I've played selections from it many times on The Doomed & Stoned Show (including one very doomy episode based on Logan's Run).

We enter TarLung's third LP, 'Architect' (2021), with "Infinity," which greets us with a bright, familiar groove right from the start. Heads are bobbing as guitars and drums establish a pleasing stoner rhythm. No bass to be found here, folks, just two axemen and a percussionist, and that's been quite enough for the band for almost a decade now. When vocals converge with this bouncy tempo, it's not to sing about taking the sweetheart out for a Saturday night drive 'neath the setting sun. No, we've got the immensity of time, space, matter (and antimatter!) on the brain tonight, baby.

"Infinity" ends on a slow, three-note cadence, but if you weren't paying attention to the tracklist, you'd never know from this seamless transition that its successor, "Widow's Bane," was fully in play. This is a gloomier number, with guitars throttling menacingly like an approaching storm front. Grey clouds gather, becoming darker and distinctly ominous as frontman Philipp Seiler (aka "Five") adds his grim narrative. Marian Waibl's drums pummel like hail against a building, making you doubt for a moment whether the foundation can withstand this unorthodox pounding. Guitars strum the theme in unison, and crystal clarity to end the piece.

Marian's skins are back to announce "Weight of Gravity," beneath a rabbeting riff that establishes a morose and searching theme. Five adds a layer of raspy growling to the session and before we know it we're halfway through the song and it's really picking up emotional momentum, with Clemens (aka "Rotten") engaged in melodic development on guitar, concluding the song in serious fashion with a wobbling kind of effect between three distinct notes that pleased these jaded ears of mine.

We're deep into doom country at this juncture on the record and if any of you clean vocal devotees are still with us, I'd be surprised if you aren't at least a tiny bit swayed by Five's gravelly approach. I learned this a long time ago, when I took the leap from Metallica to Lamb of God: The key to appreciating (or at least tolerating) a dirtier singing style is to release your mind to listen to what the music is saying to you on the whole -- guitars, bass, drums, everything -- organically. Once you can appreciate the bigger picture, any song becomes accessible. With doom, the material is simple enough to follow, yet in deft hands it can be quite artistic, even moving. We get some of that here, as the guitars take on different roles, one expressed with great sensitivity to become almost a voice of its own.

By "Horses of Plague" we are squarely in Black Cobra, 71TonMan, and HeavyDeath territory with guitars that are both rhythmic and capable of interesting hooks and leads -- at times even soaring above the morass of thick, foggy gloom, made even more dire by beastly vox and murky drums.

If you're wondering how this slyphan journey will end, it is on a particularly hopeful note with guitars introducing a warm theme for the album's namesake track "Architect." Its sentiment is similar in tone to High on Fire's "Sons of Thunder," though by comparison its stay is all too short. Its noble sentiment is interrupted by sawing, Sleepesque riffage and stony percussion, which establishes a flinty second musical theme. You can hear scraps of the first subject re-emerging as the song capers on, at first playing nice with its dour counterpart, until a skirmish breaks out between them, delivering a solemn, but pleasing end.

We are fortunate today to bestow upon our readers a first listen to these spry six tracks before Architect formally emerges this weekend to the general public, but Doomers & Stoners are about to hear it all right here, right now. And if you dig it, you can pre-order the record in digital and vinyl formats at this location. Don't miss Silvi's interview with TarLung below, a great read as you soak in these dank, downtuned vibes.

Give ear...

Architect by TarLung

Meeting TarLung

Interview by Silvi Pearl

Keep good music close to you, I say. TarLung grew on me immediately when I discovered them on Bandcamp, not just because of their name, but owing especially to the weight of their sound. The fact that they were also from my native Österreich made my heart beat that much stronger.

One can describe TarLung's sound as generally gloomy and slow, with riffs that are heavy, mangy, and distorted, drums with deep resonance, and vocals that are hefty, but discreet. Dark souls will find themselves almost magically attracted to the three-piece gespann, which has existed as a band since 2013.

With their new album, 'Architect' (2021) releasing on June 11th, TarLung join the league of greats. Here they have ventured out of their style a bit, skillfully combining sludgy doom with playful riffs.

Those that like their metal slow, abyssal, heavy, and so very evil, will be more than rewarded here. Distorted guitars and deep drum tones paired with Five's grueling vocals is the recipe for the hellishly good sonance of this record.

Five (guitar, vox), Rotten (guitar), and Marian (drums) call Austria home, where the mountains have much to say, but the three bandmates don't exactly live close to each other, making collaboration interesting in terms of rehearsing and recording. Rotten is even a medical doctor in real life, so I affectionately call him "Dr. Doom." Despite the distance, they succeed in maintaining this boulder of a band, with a rare harmony that was evident on their last album, Beyond The Black Pyramid, but now takes their vision to expansive new places on Architect.

One can pick up on late-'70s and early-'80s influences, in addition later doom references, in the multi-part guitar passages, well-appointed rhythms, and discreet vocalizations. Five's coarse crooning reminds me very much of Amorphis and their Tales from the Thousand Lakes.

Just recently, I had the honor of interviewing the guys and riddling them with questions about TarLung's origins, the new record, and a whole lot more!

Take us back to the TarLung's roots. How did you guys meet?

Rotten and I were flatmates when we were studying in Vienna and because of the same interests we decided to jam. In the beginning it was just us with two guitars, but within a short time we already had some ideas and even self-composed song structures at hand. We quickly noticed that slowly, but surely, our style had crystallized. At the beginning, we were still looking for a bass player, but decided to let it stay. For the perfect combo, we were looking for a suitable drummer. Marian was the first and also immediately the perfect match. Classically through an ad on the internet, we were able to welcome him as our third member.

Fortunately, there was also any amount of musical intersections of favorite bands between us, from the most diverse genres of somewhat harder music, too. Already the first rehearsals worked very well and were a lot of fun. Within a few sessions and only six months later, we had already transformed our first recordings into audible material. Of course, we thought about how the vocals should sound and decided to take them from classic death metal, which strongly influenced all three of us, as our credo to top TarLung's music. We knew that such a way of singing could be off-putting, but it definitely belongs to the special kind of artistic expression and therefore we decided against classic, clean vocals.

TarLung - Architect (music video)

I would be interested in knowing why, although your influences come from often faster black and death metal bands, you chose slow 'n' low riffs for your sound?

We noticed that we are more and more into doomy and slow riffs. Bands like Electric Wizard, for example, have never been completely foreign to us, despite our affection for death metal. It has something fascinating, these fast guitar riffs. However, it wears out a bit after a while. With some bands it fits well, but we felt increasingly attracted to dragging and heavy sounds – while as twentysomethings we were still into death metal all the way. With the passing of years, however, one automatically expands his musical horizon. We can say now that there are few genres of rock and metal (and even music beyond that) which we do not like.

How was the decision process regarding the gear and tone? Did you guys agree on that quickly?

Basically, we play four semitones lower and since we don't have a bass player, we split the signals through the PA. So we kind of thicken the sound and provide a crutch to bring in more bass. However, in the studio itself, i.e. for the recording albums, we do record with a real bass. This worked very well in the record we share here.

The basis for our original sound was always there and with the technology available, we could let different gear flow in and out freely. However, it is important for us that whatever gear we use sounds massive and brutal. In studio recordings especially, it should sound super fuzzy, wide, and powerful, just as on stage.

My personal favorite song of the new record is "Infinity." It starts cheerful, but gradually the mood changes and your usual gloomy sound appears. I also like the different drum breaks and, of course, that it sounds so deep. In fact, I couldn't imagine better vocals than those groggy ones of yours! How did 'Architect' come about?

This time we dared to try new things and still stay true to our roots. This includes bringing across different moods musically. Yes, some breaks may be surprising, but we let each song write its own story. It should sound organic, but individual breaks are desired and what is just as important to us is the song structure itself, as well as the lyrics. The fact is, for us it was especially important to evolve on this album.

Speaking of lyrics, what topics do you focus on here?

We write lyrics that fit like a glove, but basically they are a bit ambivalent. The exact idea is up to the ear of the listener, but classically there are themes like existential problems, apocalyptic events, death and destruction, but also the play with clichés. In the end, they make sense to perform something that makes no sense. We will be sharing the lyrics digitally on our Bandcamp page.

I'm personally looking forward to receiving my copy of the vinyl edition! For the cover of 'Architect' you again turned to Alex Eckman-Lawn, who was already creatively responsible for the artwork, together with Marian, on 'Beyond The Black Pyramid.'

Yes, we wanted the musical material to match the cover art, so we commissioned it. We definitely wanted to move away from the desert and cliché artwork, so it was natural to turn to Alex Eckman-Lawn, who is known for his collages. We gave him a free hand here, but input on what we wanted it to generally look like. This makes it feel more personal, broken, with its ups and downs -- so more intimate. It should inspire listeners to enjoy the detail of the artwork.

Beyond The Black Pyramid by TarLung

Would you call yourselves a live band or a studio band? Touring was not possible until now, but I hope that the situation will improve and we will see more live shows soon. Is there already something planned?

We definitely see ourselves as a live band and are looking forward to playing in front of an audience again. Various single gigs could possibly still take place. It's about time!

I would like to ask you one more question: why is the band called TarLung. When I hear it, I immediately think of cigar-treaded consumption and the dirt that settles in the lungs.

Yes, we are aware that the name is polarizing, however our tendency is more towards non-smoking. The name itself definitely has an uncomfortable closeness to real life, theoretically, as well as abstractly.

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#D&S Interviews #TarLung #Vienna #Austria #doom metal #sludge #Silvi Pearl #Doomed and Stoned

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componentplanet · 4 years

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Warcraft 3: Reforged Is Generating More Anger Than Acclaim

When Blizzard announced and launched Starcraft Remastered, the fan and critical response was excellent. People were pleased with the product and quality of the remaster and Blizzard was commended for the work it did. When the company announced Warcraft 3: Reforged, it gave fans plenty to look forward to, including more dynamic cutscenes, significant art upgrades, and some lore tweaks to bring WC3 and TFT more into line with later lore established by World of Warcraft.

It was, in short, a very different type of project than what Blizzard had announced with Starcraft, but it seemed like the team had some really good ideas for how to modernize an 18-year-old game.

But Blizzard ultimately didn’t go that route. Instead, the company opted for a minimal facelift on the original game. To see the difference, check out the original trailer released for The Culling, a critical scene in Warcraft 3:

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Now, check out the video that’s actually in the game.

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The dynamism of the camera is a fraction of what it was, and the overall level of improvement in the scene seems lower. The visual updates aren’t bad, Kotaku reports, tbut they really don’t matter much when you’re practically zoomed out the way you need to be to play the game. Unit animations also still apparently run at 30fps, regardless of game frame rate.

Image by Kotaku

The lack of any real “update” to what was originally billed as a more dramatic overhaul is only part of the problem. With Reforged, Blizzard decided to fuse the clients for Reforged and Warcraft 3 Classic. As a result, a heck of a lot of fundamental functionality just got removed from WC3, even for players who don’t even own Reforged. You can switch between Classic and Reforged graphics in the options menu, but since they use the same client, WC3 owners can’t access the other functions they used to have.

This is a bit like a WoW expansion in reverse. When Blizzard updates WoW for another expansion, everyone gets the same changes, including people who don’t buy the new content. Warcraft 3 Classic had competitive ladders. Reforged doesn’t. So now, WC3 doesn’t have ladders, either.

If you want to submit a map to Battle.net, you’re now required to give all rights to Blizzard in order to do so. The company’s new rights policy regarding custom games states:

Custom Games are and shall remain the sole and exclusive property of Blizzard. Without limiting the foregoing, you hereby assign to Blizzard all of your rights, title, and interest in and to all Custom Games, including but not limited to any copyrights in the content of any Custom Games.

This is to prevent another DOTA 2 from slipping out from under its grasp. Both League of Legends and DOTA 2 descend from Warcraft 3 and its Defense of the Ancients map. Imagine if that custom map had automatically been Blizzard IP from the beginning. (Blizzard certainly has). Blizzard can’t copyright the general concept of a game, but they can claim ownership over all characters, art, lore, and the name of the title. This is entirely different from how the Warcraft 3 Classic community worked.

There are a lot of things people are currently unhappy about, and various people are unhappy about all of them. I don’t blame them. Neither Kotaku nor PC Gamer was overly thrilled with the title as a whole: Kotaku says it “isn’t much of an upgrade,” and PC Gamer notes that in WC3: Reforged, “it’s still 2002.”

I think the difference in fan response comes down to three things: The removal of capabilities in WC3 Classic, effectively breaking that game for a bunch of people who hadn’t decided whether they wanted Reforged, the modding copyright grab, and anger over the changes Blizzard has made to graphics design. There’s a feeling that Blizzard really phoned in the upgrade work after showing off something far more impressive with The Culling back at the beginning of the process. Having established fan expectations that WC3: Reforged would be something new, Blizzard has to deal with having shipped a game that fails to meet expectations in multiple ways while penalizing people who didn’t even buy it. That last point is hard to ignore — a commercially purchased game isn’t supposed to lose major functionality just because a company launches a new iteration of the title.

As for the Battle.net upload policies, I don’t agree with them and never have. I don’t think Blizzard ought to have the legal right to claim complete ownership over a product created with their worldbuilder, any more than I think the authors of rendering and music-authoring software ought to be allowed to claim ownership of the music or 3D art composed inside their product.

I love modding. I’ve written about it on this website more than once. It’s why I’m a PC gamer, first and foremost, and I’ve worked on and led a multi-person modding project that significantly overhauled the balance and difficulty curve of Diablo II early in its life cycle (pre-LoD) in a way I would argue was true to the spirit and design of the title while offering a much more balanced endgame experience.

I am a modder and a Blizzard gamer. When I say I hope the Warcraft III modding scene dies as a result of this land grab, I am being completely and 100 percent sincere. Blizzard can’t assert copyright over the general gameplay/concept of a title, but they can assert copyright claims over the art, name, characters, lore, and art created for a custom mod. They’ve now asserted a unilateral right to do so. The proper response from the modding community, in my personal view, is to completely refuse to engage with Blizzard’s landgrab and to take their talents elsewhere. I’d rather see WC3 modding die than see its IP forcefully “granted” to Blizzard like this.

I don’t like the company Blizzard is becoming. I don’t like it at all.

Now Read:

Warcraft III: Reforged Launches on January 28, 2020

Blizzard Drops New Warcraft III Patch, Tourney, as Rumors of a Remaster Spread

Blizzard Lowers Penalty on Hong Kong Streamer, Says China Uninvolved in Censorship

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/305518-warcraft-3-reforged-is-generating-more-anger-than-acclaim from Blogger http://componentplanet.blogspot.com/2020/01/warcraft-3-reforged-is-generating-more.html

#Warcraft 3: Reforged Is Generating More Anger Than Acclaim

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jmgiovine · 5 years

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Top 10 Movie Themes- Part 2.

5-. Back to the Future- Alan Silvestri.

An escalating theme that offers the whimsical and adventure-like feel of time travel, as only the 80s in all their glory could’ve offered. Silvestri is well known for these sort of scores, but his definitive one needs to be the eternally beloved Back to the Future theme. Little by little the music is elevating the grandiosity and epicness of the film itself, may I dare say it wouldn’t have been as effective withot the symbiotic soundtrack, and I know for sure, not in my future I plan on stop whistling at the automatic play in my head.

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4-. Jurassic Park- John Williams

Oh, John Williams, you just can’t stop being fantastically whimsical and cheesy, right? Why your corny-themes are so epic and so memorable? Everyone knows his work, and certaintly, part of the majesty of Spielberg’s classic is due to Williams score. The sense of wonder and discovery, and the introduction to this terrifying but fascinating world that defies nature... yes, from the beautiful piano-balade from the orchestra-extravaganza, this theme will be forever remembered for when Dinosaurs ruled the Earth.

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3-. Batman- Danny Elfman.

You question how good is this score for the dark knight? The frigging animatied series used it for its intro. Yeah, that’s how good Elfman did to the world greatest detective. Tim Burton needed to redefine the image of the cape crusader, and boy did he accomplished it, but it also included his best main theme till date. The gothic and dark atmosphere complements the mystery and heroic terror of the character as no other composer has managed to recapture. Even Elfman himself re-used this theme in 2017 Justice League. That’s how influential this is, and the definitive superhero music score ever (sorry, Superman).

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2-. Tears in the Rain- Vangelis.

The only sci-fi theme that has ever got me into tears... EVERY SINGLE TIME! No matter how many times I watch Blade Runner, Vangelis will always move me, and my absolute favorite scene (and one of my favorites from movies ,of all time) is Roy Batty’s dead at the very end. This piano, oh my frigging God, this piano wakes emotions in me I didn’t even know I have them. This theme is my favorite emotional tear-jerker and a masterpiece by Vangelis in all his splendor. Even Denis Villeneuve brought it back for Blade Runner 2049, and I’ll always be thankful for it.

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1-. Star Wars- John Williams.

As obvious as it was obligatory. THE score by excellence. Star Wars is one of the biggest franchises of all time, no wonder the best movie-score is attached to it. Gigantic, this march defined the saga even before its success, and space will always be accompanied by Williams drums, trumpets and escalating tempo. Epic in al musical sense, Star Wars without it wouldn’t just be the same. From the most famous title sequence of all times, to the most exciting as end credits could be, this is a score everyone, everyone knows and, specially, knows where it belongs. The crown jule of Williams, and the absolute proof that consolidates him as the best movie-composer of all times. May the Force be with you, always.

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#movie #movies #composer #soundtrack #scores #topten

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goarticletec-blog · 5 years

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2019 Toyota Corolla Hatchback review: Good looks, driving demeanor, and tech

New Post has been published on https://www.articletec.com/2019-toyota-corolla-hatchback-review-good-looks-driving-demeanor-and-tech-2/

2019 Toyota Corolla Hatchback review: Good looks, driving demeanor, and tech

I only ever used to recommend the Toyota Corolla to people who didn’t care about cars. If they wanted a car that was the equivalent of elevator music — something that just kind of… exists in the background — the Corolla was always my number one suggestion. It’s not that the car was bad by any measure, it just lacked excitement in literally every way.

But I can’t do that anymore. The 2019 Corolla Hatchback (née Corolla iM Hatchback, née Scion iM) gives the Corolla lineup something it hasn’t had in years: character.

Stylin’

It’s not exactly ready for Initial D, but the new Corolla Hatchback proves Toyota’s designers are capable of making a good-looking car now and then. The automaker’s corporate nose is much more subtle than it is on the current-generation Corolla sedan, the headlights and taillights are the right kind of thin and there’s a heapin’ helpin’ of character on the sides. My XSE tester, the sportier trim of the two, has upsized 18-inch alloy wheels a surprisingly large (but not annoying) wing atop the hatch.

The interior also uses more expressive design, though it’s a bit safer. There’s a nice bit of layering between the top of the dash and the bottom, with some simulated stitching to give it a more premium feel. Everything is within plain view, and there are plenty of real buttons for the infotainment system and climate control. On the XSE trim, the seats are covered in both fabric and leather, the front row gets heating and the driver’s seat is eight-way power adjustable.

One thing the Corolla Hatchback should have taken from its sedan sibling is rear legroom. The current Corolla sedan has exceptional rear legroom. Things are much tighter for my 6-foot frame in the back of the ‘Back, which has surprisingly narrow door openings but, thankfully, ample headroom. Forward visibility is ample, but the rear hatch glass is a little small for my taste. The side mirrors are big enough to cover my blind spots without requiring a twist o’ the neck.

The Corolla Hatchback’s rear wing looks fitting from some angles, but a bit garish from others.

Andrew Krok/Roadshow

Tech-rich, but with a notable omission

If safety is your jam, the Corolla Hatchback will delight. Both continuously variable transmission and six-speed manual variants get a number of standard safety systems, including automatic emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, lane-keep assist and adaptive cruise control.

Adaptive cruise control works well on my manual tester. It even permits clutch use for upshifts and downshifts, which I haven’t experienced on any other cruise-control-equipped manual, adaptive or otherwise. The lane-keep system is a hands-on-at-all-times affair, but it holds the lane well, not ping-ponging between lines and generally staying dead center if you yourself are incapable of doing so.

On the XSE trim, I have not one, but two screens — a 7-inch screen in the gauge cluster, and an 8-inch screen handling infotainment duties. The gauge screen offers two different styles, really only changing how you want the speedometer displayed. The center of the screen can swap between fuel economy, safety, music and other pertinent information using easily accessible switches on the steering wheel.

As far as infotainment goes, Toyota’s Entune system is fine. The graphics are a bit behind the times, but the system performs its jobs quickly. Neither the base SE nor uprated XSE get standard embedded navigation — that’s part of a $1,600 package on XSE alone. And while offering Scout navigation via Toyota’s app is a fine stopgap, I suppose, I still get mad that I have to offload part of my $23,000 car’s job to an app. Thankfully, I have Apple CarPlay at my disposal, but Android users are plumb out of luck — a surprising omission in 2018.

Like them or not, “floating” infotainment screens are here to stay.

Andrew Krok/Roadshow

Not a driver’s car, but way better than before

Toyota’s new 2.0-liter I4 puts out 168 horsepower and 151 pound-feet of torque. While that seems fine on paper, it’s a naturally aspirated engine and peak torque is all the way up at 4,800 rpm, which means you’ll be jamming the gas for even the slightest improvement in forward motion, especially at highway speeds. Toyota needs to get with the times and embrace a turbo engine with a lower torque band, especially on a trim like the XSE that bills itself as being a little sportier.

My tester has a six-speed manual, which feels solid enough as it snicks through well-defined gates, although the throw is on the long side. The clutch pedal is a letdown, though, with zero feel that makes finding the bite point a constant guessing exercise. One flip of the “iMT” button engages rev-matching downshifts and adjusts engine speed for smoother upshifts, both of which work very well. It’s a shame it defaults to turned-off with every press of the start button, though.

Around Detroit’s iffy-at-best roads, the Corolla Hatchback is cool as a cucumber. The ride is composed, even with the XSE’s thinner 225/40R18 Yokohama Avid GT all-season tires, and a great deal of outside noise is kept where it belongs. At highway speeds, there’s a bit of wind noise but it’s otherwise a comfortable, quiet affair. There’s a lot of give in the suspension, which sort of ruins the driving dynamics when things get twisty, but it’s still leagues better than any previous Corolla I’ve driven.

As for fuel economy, it’s hit or miss. The EPA rates the manual Corolla Hatchback at 28 miles per gallon city and 37 highway, but the CVT variant achieves 30 city and 38 mpg highway. Even small changes in speed are major determining factors in my fuel economy — between a steady 55 and 70 mph, I see close to 40 mpg highway, but anything north of 75 mph returns no better than 30-32 mpg, which is actually the same figure I saw in the city.

How I’d spec it

The Corolla XSE has a definite desirable advantage over the SE in the looks department, despite its fuel economy deficit. That puts me at $22,990 with a six-speed manual (no CVT for me, thanks). I would add the $1,600 option that includes embedded navigation, wireless phone charging and an 800-watt audio system. That puts me at $24,590, or $25,510 after the $920 destination charge.

Down to brass tacks

The 2019 Toyota Corolla Hatchback has some very solid competition, including the Honda Civic Hatchback, Hyundai Elantra GT and Mazda3 hatchback. All three are superior driver’s cars — heck, you can get the 201-horsepower Elantra GT Sport for about the same price. The Corolla has the Civic beat on tech (minus its lack of Android Auto), as well as the Mazda, but Hyundai’s tech offerings are hard to top in this segment.

Toyota’s new Corolla Hatchback is fun to look at, comfortable to drive and its tech is no longer five years behind the competition. I can only hope that this is the start of something interesting in the Corolla lineup, rather than a one-off that won’t translate to a redesigned sedan. Here’s hoping.

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stormyrecords-blog · 6 years

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oct 12th new arrivals

stormy records13306 michigan avedearborn, mi 48126 313-581-9322 we are selling tickets for the Detroit A Go Go fest in late october. this is a festival celebrating the soul music of detroit, with all kinds of live performances and dj events. tickets are $35 for each night, or you can get a 4 night pass for $100. dates are Oct 25, 26, 28, and 28. performances held at BERT'S WAREHOUSE THEATREmore info at http://www.detroitagogo.com/ please remember all tickets are cash only so many amazing used lps in right now!!! we have clash london calling $40, sandinista $35 jesus and mary chain psychocandy first american pressing $40from beyond soundtrack, stooges raw power second pressing from 1973 beautiful condition $70, germs what we do is secret first pressing $75, miles davis tribute to jack johnson 1970 sealed original $100dead kennedys - all originals, frankenchrist $40, plastic surgery disasters $30, bedtime for democracy $40, live lp called skate board party from 1982 $30jerry garcia solo live show 1987 $30kiss double platinum $30zappa weasels ripped my flesh $20, apostrophe $17all the kiss solo lps - originals with no posters $16.99 eachfirst 4 yngwie j malmsteem lps and 2 alcatrazz lpsbowie - diamond dogs $17, aladin sane $18, young americans $19, station to station $19, space oddity $25 in on friday KURT VILE - Bottle It Incd $14.99double lp in gatefold sleeve $27.99, limited blue vinylUsing past albums as points of departure, Bottle It In heads off in new directions, pushing at the edges of the map into unexplored territory: Here be monster jams. He revels in the minutiae of the music—not simply incorporating new instruments but emphasizing how they interact with his guitar and voice, how the glockenspiel evokes cirrocumulus clouds on “Hysteria,” how Kim Gordon’s “acoustic guitar distortion” (her term) engulfs everything at the end of “Mutinies,” how the banjo curls around his guitar lines and backing vocals from Lucius to lend a high-lonesome aura to “Come Again.” THE FALL - I Am Curious Oranj gatefold sleeve, orange vinyl $23.99According to Mark E. Smith in his book, Renegade, “We adapted the title from a Swedish porno film--I am Curious, Yellow. I was trying to make the point that we all share some kind of common knowledge that’s within ourselves; that comes out in all sorts of things. Some people call it a gene pool. It’s as if you already know subconsciously about historical incidents. You don’t have to have been taught it. It’s in-built. At the time I wanted to put this across, basically as a loose explanation of what was happening in Belfast: it’s in the head and bones and there’s nothing you can do about it. I was on a roll at the time. I’m rarely short of ideas, and I’m not into preserving them much, either. If it’s in your head and you’ve got the right people around you then there’s no better time to tell the story.” *Contains replica of original ballet program from the performance at Sader Wells Theatre PIXIES - Come On Pilgrim It's Surfer Rosa30th anniversary edition $43.99Three LP edition out on September 28th 2018 with new artwork reimagined by original designer Vaughan Oliver and the bonus disc, Live From The Fallout Shelter - one of the earliest recordings of the band, a radio concert that first aired in late 1986 on WJUL-FM in Lowell, MA. Three CD package will be released October 26th. Tim Blake: Blake's New Jerusalem $39.99 LP"Mastered & cut at Abbey Road studios. Fully restored artwork and liner notes withexclusive interview. Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the release of a newly re-mastered 180 gram vinyl lp edition of the classic 1978 ambient masterpiece Blake's New Jerusalem by Tim Blake. Tim first came to prominence as a member of Gong, where his synthesiser experimentation and mastery was demonstrated on albums such as Flying Teapot, Angel's Egg and You. He would also join Hawkwind from 1979 - 1980 and from November 2007. After departing Gong in 1975 he teamed up with French lighting designer Patrice Warrener to form Crystal Machine, pioneering the use of lasers and synthesisers in a live setting. Blake's debut solo album, Crystal Machine, was originally released in 1977 on the French experimental label Egg. Tim followed this with arguably his finest work, Blake's New Jerusalem in 1978. Unlike his previous work, the album featured songs and the lengthy title-track would dominate the album's second side. New Jerusalem also featured the guest appearance of Jean-Philippe Rykiel on mini-moog. Tim Blake would later perform both 'Lighthouse' and 'New Jerusalem' as a member of Hawkwind when he joined the band the following year. Now regarded as a truly pioneering work, Blake's New Jerusalem has been newly re-mastered and cut at Abbey Road studios for this first ever 180 gram vinyl LP reissue, which is a facsimile of the original 1978 Egg LP release." AYLER TRIO, ALBERTSpiritual Unity LP $27.992018 repress. LP version. 180 gram virgin vinyl. Pressed in the United States with original artwork restored. Spiritual Unity, recorded on July 10, 1964, is the album that made Albert Ayler and ESP-Disk' famous (or, in some people's eyes/ears, infamous). Mr. Ayler had already recorded in Europe and, in February '64, in New York, but this was the first album on which neither he nor his collaborators held back. It was also ESP's first jazz recording. Spiritual Unity presented a new improvisation paradigm: looser structure, less regard for standard pitch, and no obligation to present a regular beat. Ayler's sound was unprecedented, much rawer than any other jazz of the time. Sometimes it was expressed in squalls of untempered sound, sometimes in outbursts of poignant spontaneous melody. Meanwhile, under and around the leader's unfettered self-expressions, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray reinvented the roles of their instruments. Marcos Valle - Nova Bossa Nova CD $15.99Up until Nova Bossa Nova, Marcos Valle's first release for Far Out Recordings originally released in 1997, Marcos Valle hadn't released an album for well over a decade. After 1983, he resented the way the music industry had changed with commercialization and new demands curtailing his creative freedom. This was until 1994 when Marcos met Far Out Recordings boss Joe Davis and they recorded a track for Far Out's first Friends From Rio album. This new collaborative partnership resulted in a new solo album, which commenced recording in 1996. Nova Bossa Nova brought Marcos bouncing back into the '90s, slotting nicely in place alongside the acid jazz movement as well as a voracious new demand for Brazilian music on dancefloors from London to Tokyo. It was witnessing the London club scene's growing appetite for Brazilian music, as well as a lack of new sounds coming out of Brazil at the time, that a young Joe Davis put in a proposal to record a new album with one of his musical idols. Joe wanted to facilitate an album which would combine the latest technologies and production techniques, with live to analog tape recording: a Marcos Valle album tailor-made for London's clubs. Always open to modern influences and possibilities, Marcos agreed to the project, and Joe and his production partner Roc Hunter flew to Rio in '96. The record wasn't released until '98, as the original ½ inch tapes were stolen from Far Out's London studio, meaning parts of the album had to be re-recorded. Nova Bossa Nova was unveiled at the peak of the of the Brazilian movement, the record would also prove to be something of a revolution, inspiring a new generation of artists like Bebel Gilberto, Sabrina Malheiros, Da Lata, and Bossacucanova, who continued to fuse Brazilian influences with modern electronic sounds. The album takes a panoramic view of Valle's career, which was so fundamental in defining the standard of bossa back in the sixties and continues to do so to this day. "Nova Bossa Nova", the album's title track is an update on Marcos's trademark style, developing a more modern, funkier sound. Other gems include the dancefloor ready re-work of his 1970 hit "Freio Aerodynamico", and the smooth instrumentals "Bar Ingles", a jazz fusion looper, and the sun-soaked samba "Nordeste". Doris Norton - Artificial Intelligence LP $25.99Artificial Intelligence (1985). Apple's first music "endorsement" (Norton was also later a consultant for IBM) and early Roland affiliate, Doris Norton is one of the most important women pioneer in the use of synths and in the early electro/computer music. While the beat-oriented style of Norton's music aligns her with such global fellow-travelers as Yellow Magic Orchestra and Kraftwerk, her championing of the personal computer as a tool for self-sufficient musical creativity also connects her to musicians such as Pietro Grossi, Laurie Spiegel, and the League of Automatic Music Composers. Norton's predilection for the bright, glossy timbres of early digital instruments also recalls Hubert Bognermayr and Harald Zuschrader's bizarre Erdenklang (1982). A year on from Personal Computer (MNQ 120LP, 2018), Norton released Artificial Intelligence in 1985, setting a step up in her deep electronic music research and innovation. "The whole album was composed and programmed only with the alphanumerical keyboard of the computer. The total of the notes and coded events takes to the number 124,648: of these 123,827 were coded with 'step time' procedure and the rest with real-time procedure. Having reduced the keyboard, Norton used only a hexaphonic JX.8P with memory processed by her and interfaced to the computer. No drums were used, neither electronic nor much less acoustic. All the rhythms were obtained by A.D.A. conversions and processing of wave ranges with the use of expanders with a very special handling of envelopes, frequency, resonance, and noise. Doris Norton fed the computer the parameters of vowels and consonants of her own voice, like A, O, U, E, D, and N, through an A.D.A conversion card. By processing these values and assembling them in phonemes in hundreds of different combination, at various compressed resolutions she was able to make the computer sing a complete song in a totally human way (with the voice of Doris). Many other synth sounds resulting from A.D.A. conversions are present in Artificial Intelligence, amongst these: pipe organ, plate, electric discharge, iron beat, birds, dog, harp, and woods, all sampled and handled by the computer. Artificial Intelligence is a perfect example of how human intelligence can bend the coded 'artificial intelligence' to its own will." --ComputerMusik, 1985. VA: She Devil OST CD $19.99"28 tracks forming the rambunctious soundtrack for this cult movie featuring angst-ridden girls with guns in an exceedingly hokey plot line. With dialogue snippets and a host of brash confrontational juvenile delinquent anthems - all taken from the wild and exotic side of the Cramps' crazy collection - it's an epic B-movie. With a cavalcade of tunes about killers, mean women, everyday madness, tongue-tied tantrums, motorcycle mayhem, peroxide-sporting vagabonds and a hopped-up Model Ford. Including cuts from Jerry Lee Lewis, Jackie Dee, Sonny Burgess, Sparkle Moore, Gene Simmons, Marie Knight and a whole host more. Remastered from the original sound sources with sleevenotes by MOJO magazine's Dave Henderson." Joy Division: Peel Session LP $19.99One of post-punks most important and influential groups, Joy Division is captured here in their purest form, performing live in a BBC studio for legendary rock & roll broadcaster John Peel. Recorded over the course of three sessions between January -- November 1979, with the band performing both fan favorites and introducing several yet-to-be-released new songs, the intimacy and immediacy of the recordings is nothing short of stunning." Parliament: Osmium LP $19.99This is the one that started it all, the 1970 debut disk by George Clinton's groundbreaking funk racketeers Parliament. All of the extravagant, idiosyncratic elements are in place here -- lysergic-dosed soul, wild guitars, deep grooves, over-arching experimentation -- combining to create an altogether unprecedented collection of typically free thinking, almost unhinged workouts. A funk milestone of epic proportions." Loren ConnorsUnaccompanied Acoustic Guitar Improvisations Vol. 10 LP $32.99Before the spectral, romantic electric guitar miniatures for which he is celebrated today, Loren Connors recorded a string of nine solo acoustic guitar improvisations under the name of Loren Mazzacane between 1979 and 1980. The records feature Loren's contorted impressions of Delta and country blues, persistently kneaded into sidelong guitar excursions entangled with wordless, mournful vocal utterances, hummed and moaned in imitation of the dogs that often howled outside his window. Originally released on Loren's own Daggett Records (named after the street he lived on in New Haven), these LPs slipped into obscurity after Daggett's distributor went bankrupt, forcing the guitarist, who didn't have a car, to dispose of their unsold stock rather than drag the records home without transportation. Now, thanks to a recording found by Unseen Worlds's Tommy McCutchon in the archives of Columbia University, Blank Forms presents the tenth volume of the series. Recorded in Woodstock, in front of a live audience at the Creative Music Studio (the improvised music nonprofit founded by Karl Berger, Ornette Coleman, and Ingrid Sertso), Unaccompanied Acoustic Guitar Improvisations Vol. 10 provides a welcome addition to the canon of Loren's early solo releases and is the first contemporary vinyl publication of material from his Daggett Street period. As with the original Daggett records, the LP is issued in handmade covers with paste-on art featuring a replica of a recent drawing included in Loren's October 2018 art exhibition Wild Weeds, presented by Blank Forms. One of the world's most singular guitarists, Connors is among few living musicians whose prolific body of work can be said to be wholly justified in its plenitude. On more than 100 records across almost four decades on labels like Table of the Elements, Drag City, Ecstatic Yod, and his own Daggett Records, Connors has wrung distinctive shades of ephemeral blues from his guitar, its sound ever-shifting while remaining unmistakably his own. From his early, splintered take on the Delta bottleneck style through his song-based albums with Suzanne Langille and on to the painterly abstraction that defines his current work, Connors has earned the admiration of many, leading to collaborations with the likes of John Fahey, Jim O'Rourke, Keiji Haino, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Alan Licht, and Jandek. Creative Music Studio is an ongoing organization that engages musicians and listeners from all backgrounds to deepen and broaden their musical sensitivity, expression, and understanding through workshops, recordings, and concerts worldwide. VA: Graveyard Tramps Eat 2x10" $27.99In the late '80s, a now legendary LP by the name of Forbidden City Dogfood was unleashed on an unsuspecting public. What few folks knew was that Forbidden City Dogfood was actually less than half of the compilation made by Cramps frontman Lux Interior. Here, for the very first time, the entire recording is now available. Fully complete and weighing in at well over an hour of crazy, whacky sounds from the Maestro of Mad himself. Remastered from the original source, these obscure rockabilly, surf, and R&B tracks will wow you now as they did then -- interspersed with B-movie trailer clips and wigged-out voice-overs, you just know it's better than good! Features J Buck & The Blazers, The Kingpins, Florence Pepper, Jack Costanzo, Rick McGuire, Homer Denison Jr., Rod McKuen, The Dynamos, The Phantoms, The Sliders, Wes Dakus & The Rebels, The Rivingtons, The Sparkles, The Merced Blue Notes, Grady O'Neal, Andre Williams, The Crystals, Kenny Henkle's Friends, The Invictas, Buddy Miller, and J.J. Jackson. 2x10" in an edition of 1,000. UPCOMING EVENTS AT TRINOSOPHES Hey folks! An unexpected broken foot set back our re-opening this week, but we will resume regular hours on Tuesday, with new fall hours being announced soon. For now, we are open 9am to 4 pm Tuesday through Saturday. Of corse, with the Detroit Art Book fair happening this weekend, we will be open 10-6 Saturday and 11-4 Sunday. UPCOMING EVENTS AT TRINOSOPHES Friday, October 12: Kuzu (Dave Rempis, Tyler Damon and Tashi Dorji) with Spectrum 3 KUZU is a hard-charging but patient trio that came together in the fall of 2017, after saxophonist Dave Rempis, a stalwart of the Chicago improvised music scene, worked with both Tashi Dorji (guitar) and Tyler Damon (drums) individually as part of a lengthy solo tour of the U.S. that he undertook in the spring of that year. Dorji and Damon’s work as a guitar/percussion duo has become well-known, a highly refined and specific language developed through relentless touring and recording over the last few years, with a sound that straddles improvised music, rock, and any number of as-yet-undefined territories. These two provide an incredibly fresh take on the possibilities inherent to spontaneous composition. Superimposing Rempis into this mix was a logical next step after the relationships they’d forged individually. The trio’s forthcoming debut record Hiljaisuus (“silence” in Finnish…) is slated for release on the well-known Astral Spirits label in summer 2018, to be followed by two separate tours of the United States in late summer and fall. Musically, these three create a highly focused pallet of sounds. At times, spacious gestures carve up the canvas with the austerity of a calligrapher, while at others those sparse gestures build into an unstoppable tsunami of energy. Those waves are never impulsive or impetuous though, they ebb and flow logically and patiently out of simple and clearly defined sources. This trio pursues every gesture with tenacity, passing them back and forth until they’ve explored every facet of an idea.Opening the show is Detroit's own Spectrum 3 (Shelton, Peterson, Baljo). Doors at 8pm$10-20 admission Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 13 & 14: Ditto Ditto presents The Detroit Art Book Fair One of the biggest annual events that we host, Ditto Ditto's Detroit Art Book Fair is two days of dozens of vendors selling rare and small-press publications, artist and poetry chap-books and art books of all kinds. It runs from noon until 6pm Saturday and Sunday. Free! Monday, October 15: Sessa (São Paulo, Brazil), DJ Scott Z, Electric Otto's Funk FactorySergio Sayeg (AKA Sessa) is a long-time fixture of Afro-Brazillian music scenes in both North America and Brazil – working as a collaborator with New York guitar legend Yonatan Gat or as co-founder of São Paulo psych-funk combo Garotas Suecas, as just a few examples. Now at long last, Sessa is debuting his work as a solo artist that evidences his deep connection to styles like Tropicalia and samba. Sessa’s songs are sung in the vain of Caetano Veloso with melodic flourishes not unlike those of Arthur Verocai and Tom Jobim, however, the music gets a deliberately minimalist treatment rarely found in contemporary Brazilian music. Sessa performs solely with female background vocalists and Afro-Brazilian percussionists. While the songs often deal with subjects such as the sensual body in times of digital excess, the music points to new, more subtle directions for Brazilian pop in 2018 – a deep, minimalist, understated, almost insinuated use of the endlessly rich textures and rhythms that defined the songwriting history of Brazil – one which Sessa now joins as one of the most promising new voices.Doors 8 pm$12 admission COMING SOON11/25: The Bridge (France/Chicago) 12/1 Chris Tysh book launch12/13: Doug Hammond solo!12/15: Doug Hammond! With John Dana, Rod Williams and Marcus Elliot R ELATED 10/17: 6 pm Detroiter set inaugurates Edgefest at Kerrytown Concerthouse (Piotr Michalowski, Abby Alwin, Joel Peterson, Ken Kozora, Kenn Thomas, Mike Khoury, Dave Hurley) EL CLUB TICKETS!!! El Club tickets for sale!! cash only, no service charges!! sun ra arkestra wed oct 17th $30lil ugly mane sat oct 20th $20particle, tropidelic sun oct 21st $15prof tue oct 23rd 8pm $15evidence, oddisee thurs oct 25th $25gus dapperton sat oct 27th $15porches, girlpool sun oct 28th $18 low mon nov 5th 8pm $20roky erickson tues nov 6th $20wild nothing sat nov 10th 8pm $20har mar superstar sun nov 25th 8pm $18 ryley walker thurs dec 6th 8pm $13hablot brown sun dec 16th $8 julia holter wed feb 27th $17

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noiseartists · 6 years

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STELLA DIANA: Italogaze craftsmen

As the band say themselves on their Bandcamp page, Stella Diana is "Hailing from a city more known for pizza and opera than Shoegaze and new wave addicts, and possess not only the spirit of late 80s/early 90s British bands like Ride, but also the dark wave seeds of Joy Division and the stylistic underpinnings of new wave artists like Psychedelic Furs and The Chameleons, all of whom number among the band's influences. Others include Pale Saints, Lush, Catherine Wheel, The Stone Roses, Codeine, Christian Death, and Talk Talk. Since their inception in 1998, Stella Diana has gradually become recognized by the Italian press as one of the best Shoegaze bands in the country with their intricate, brooding and textured mix of Shoegaze, Post-Punk, Dream-Pop and new wave. They have managed to grow a sizeable international following despite singing entirely in Italian – an unprecedented achievement for an Italian indie band in these respective genres. "

It is true. Stella Diana is a band that has evolved, progressed and their latest album, Nitocris, is a jewel. In this article, we will explore that band and their music, in a very collaborative piece. We hope you enjoy.

THE BAND

"The band was born in 1998, but settled in 2002 and the name comes from the title of an ancient Neapolitan song. this is the only link we wanted to emphasize with our city, a place where music has a historical tradition.

In fact, all the music of the 1700s passed through Naples with composers such as Cimarosa, Paisiello, Scarlatti or Pergolesi, so it seemed right to note this. About the rest, music-wise, we are as anti-Italian as can be.

Stella Diana are:

Dario, voice and guitar,

Giacomo, bass,

Giulio on drums.

In all these years we have made, I think, more than two hundred concerts and played in half of Europe and our music is more appreciated in Europe then in Italy.

We always had a problem with the drummers. we had at least a dozen and now, we hope that with giulio everything is fine because we are also very good friends. Giacomo and me, have known each other for over twenty years and we have our way of composing and communicating in an automatic and profitable way.

In fact we spend little time in the rehearsal room. Just once a week for two hours. Because we know what to do and how to get it.

We have our well defined sound and this is a great thing. usually we improvise on a bass line, then we create the melody and eventually I add the melody of the voice and the words.

I never bring a complete song in the rehearsal room, it would make no sense cause working together it's what we love.

After all these years, we have reached almost 250 concerts between Italy and Europe and we hope to play a lot more even in other continents.

However we are not only interested in playing: we created our own records label, Vipchoyo sound factory, focused exclusively on Shoegaze and New Wave and we hope to release a lot of new albums from talented new bands.

At the same time, from our own recording studio, every Monday I'm the DJ with a radio that we have created ourselves, Shoegazing your waves radio, with interviews and bands from all over the world and some even better-known names."

THEIR MUSIC

WHAT is their music about

"It's hard to explain. there is no real direction or a message. basically what we try to do is to communicate feelings, emotions and try to, how can I say, paint colors. Yes. We use this imaginary canvas and put colors on it, often a little in the dark shades. I wish our music was like an impetuous sea: Simply, a pure sound in which you can lose yourself."

WHY we love them

They have evolved. Unlike some bands who are a one trick pony, Stella Diana have thrived to improve their music, to find their sound. It's obvious when you listen to their musical work in chronological order. Their sound is better, their composing and arranging is better. Fair play to them.

The bass player and the drummer. When you listen to Nitocris, you can hear the experience of the rhythm section. On every song, they bring something different (rhythm, melodies, textures) that make this album so rich. And the change in drummer shows in the last 2 LP (Nitocris and 57) in a very good way.

The variety. Shoegaze, Pop, Psych, Italian, English, Raw, complicated ... the band have released so much material with so many different genres' influences. Not an easy thing to do.

Their music. Dario's composing is superb and did thrive over time. He is getting better all the time.

Their musical tastes: their covers include Kula Shaker's Govinda and Ride's Leave them all behind, 2 of my all-time favorite songs. Tasteful.

The comparison game

It is a difficult one. As described in the previous section, the band has thrived in composing using many different influences. As such, there would be many comparisons possible.

So instead of comparing their music, I thought that it was better comparing the spirit in which they are doing it. As a result 2 bands jump into mind:

Inspirative

My Favourite Things

Both are very talented songwriters with a passion for details, and whose writing has evolved over time. Stella Diana is in the same league.

Their musical work

"Even if I love everything I've done, I don't like to talk about all the albums, apart from the last one: Nitocris. Simply because they are all sung in Italian, a beautiful and ancient language, but not always suitable for Shoegaze or Post-Punk."

Supporto colore (2007) & Gemini (2010), Albums

As explained by the band, these albums may not represent what Stella Diana are now. As such, they decided not to put them on streaming and social media, apart from Gemini, that can be found on Spotify.

41 61 93, Album, February 2014

"41 61 93 is the first album recorded and produced by ourselves in our studio and I am very proud of this. Musically it's beautiful, but I can't hear it for a long time because of language.

I love the use we done in songs like Navarre or Motel Sagrera with the saxophone of our friend Giuseppe Colucci, a great napolitan jazz musician, and also the voice of Annalisa, another beloved special guest. There are some great songs, but it's a transition album."

This Album is indeed a step in Nitocris' direction, arrangement wise and composition wise. Their sound on some of the songs would benefit to have the same production quality that their latest production, though are still very well done.

Here are 3 of our favourites.

1. Isabeau 03:17

This song bounces beautifully, delivering a superb Noise Pop song. The round bass on one side, and the crafty vocals from Dario on the other create an hypnotic texture. Take it and have it remixed by Mark Joy and you have an indie hit.

2. Navarre 07:34

Dark and menacing at the beginning, the band brings us in a land of despair and pessimism. When the break happens, around mid song, the music transform itself in an optimistic post-rock part, telling the listener that there is a sliver lining. The saxophone that helps concluding the song adds to this effect very nicely, with bright notes of mad optimism.

4. Edward teach 03:41

Big bass sound as an introduction to the song, later joined by a tweeting guitar that carries it all to the end. The female vocals (only occurrence I have heard in their music) suit the song very well.

Alhena, EP, December 2015

"Alhena was a sort of “the best of” with the production of Mark Joy a producer and sound engineer who worked with oasis and primal scream."

It shows,. The sound quality and mixing have improved and build the foundation for Nitocris, their next LP.

1. Shohet 03:13

Big sound straight away with the theme song

4. Mira 03:58

An efficient Noise Pop song. The work on the guitar sound is both obvious and really well done. They give a Ride-like colour to the song that suits it well.

5. Govinda (kula shaker cover) 04:26

I was lucky to see Kula Shaker in concert a couple of years ago. Their rendition of Govinda was exceptional and the (small) crowd was ecstatic, chanting along hands in the air. A magic moment with one of my favorite songs. Stella Diana did an excellent job in this cover, with a modified but always big bass line. A must listen for all cover aficionados.

This EP was mixed and mastered by Marc Joy of Ferndale Productions, except track 5, which was mixed and mastered by Alexander Kretov at Ummagma Studio.

Nitocris, Album, April 2016

"Workings with Mark Joy, producer and sound engineer who worked with Oasis and Primal Scream was for us was a big honor and a great opportunity. if I have to say it all, I think that Nitocris is, for now, the best musical expression of Stella Diana. A perfect balance of post-punk, dark and Shoegaze. Bass lines always in the foreground, a reverberated voice, guitar melodies with warm and sharp sounds and a cold and pulsating drums.

All of these things are the perfect idea of a new modern Shoegaze for me. Songs like Orionis or M9 or also Psychedelic Furs explain perfectly what we have in mind."

This album is excellent. The production that Mark Joy put Stella Diana's music through brings it to another level. Also, the band shows their experience in each doing a brilliant job in their parts (melodies, textures, dynamics). When all come together the result is remarkable. The change of drummer seems to have also benefited the band.

There is no surprise that the band is proud of this album. They deserve to be.

1. Sofia 05:14

For me, this a perfect slow song. A soft caressing loop with Dario's dreamy voice. Drums and Bass are kept at their simplest, just sustaining the simple reverb guitar.

The intensity increases when the distortion hits with a melodic guitar line that harmonises with the vocals. And the song continues to unfold, flawless... Just superb.

2. M. 9 02:32

"It's all about the bass" on this short song. Round, playful, Giacomo's CocteauTwins sounding bass is just amazing. The other instruments and vocals are really there for company (excellent one too).

3. F.u. Orionis 04:33

This song really shows how the band has evolved from previous albums. The song itself is very similar to previous work in its composition. Nevertheless, the sound and arrangements are better crafted making the song shine.

Darioforceful voice really enhances the piece, giving is a forceful power that is then joined by the other instruments that unfold their rhythmic and melodic lines halfway through the song. It gives a great end, that would be excellent in a live situation. The closing cello adds a nice touch.

4. Sulphur 03:34

This is a progression song, starting slowly and building momentum. The dynamics work well and all instruments participate.

The regression is also very well done at the end. "I see you through Sulphur" sings Dario. Nice way to colour your life in Yellow.

5. Aphrodia 03:54

An outstanding bass line from Giacomo that brings the song to a higher level. The Giulio bouncy drums are the perfect complement as are the soft vocals from Dario.

Everything works to perfection in this song. I could go on for a while, but the best thing is for you to listen.

6. Psychedelic Furs 03:33

What I like in this song is very personal: the recurring crystal clear guitar arpeggios. They are so similar to the arpeggios in one of my favourite songs, Winesomeness, from one of my favourite bands, The Sigh. They were the best Shoegaze I heard in France in the 90s. Our bands played together several times and their music is second to none. Were they playing in England, their fame could have been on par with some of the good bands from the time.

Well apart from that, it is a great song.

7. Dedu'n 04:05

A small detour in reverb-drenched altrock with this song.

8. Aya Ray 02:33

Starts with a hypnotic bass line, soon joined by its comrades drums and guitars. While the loop stays the same, there is a change in texture and sound from the instruments that make the second part of the song more intense and dramatic. This work on the dynamic of the song is really good and works perfectly.

9. J. Carpenter 03:59

This song closes this superb album. The work on dynamics is just excellent.

The guitar work in the background is moving, by its intensity and by the dramatic texture it brings to the song. The progression from bass and drums is slow and builds up slowly.

This is a song that could go on forever, building more and more momentum, adding distortion and so on, a classic Post-Rock progression. But cleverly the band decided to go against this need to immerse yourself in the loop, in the sound again and again. And they kept is relatively short, leaving the listener with the need for more, creating a withdrawal symptom. Clever indeed.

57, Album, May 2018

"The title is short as our tradition. The number 57 means a lot of things, but above all, it's easy to remember. In this new album, every song has been composed in total freedom, without pressure, and without schemes, simply supporting our dream pop side.

We wanted to be more direct and create a more dreamlike, delicate and unreal sound. Dreamlike as the lyrics, more hermetic texts, used only as an extra colour in each song, even if, in general, what they describe is always the loneliness and the lack of communication between people.

As in the past, even 57 was recorded, produced and mixed by Giacomo Salzano, the bass player, and the whole band, in our recording studio, Vipchoyo Sound Factory based in Naples. This allows us to have complete control over our music.

The obsession with simplicity is present in the cover art. A blood-red number on a black canvas, but a number that is not immediately clear, seems almost a sign, a graffiti or something ancient."

I was one of the lucky one to ear the album before its release. The album is indeed more dreamy, slower, but with the same quality of sound and arrangements than Nitocris.

The album's single is Der Sandmann. Dreamy, lo-fi, with a cello joining Dario vocals, it is like a dream, like floating in your headspace. It builds a bit in intensity for a little while before subsiding, like waking up and having the dream escaping from your mind, unable to remember what it was about.

And also

Stella Diana did several covers, most of them being for tbtci's great compilations.

Ride

Boo Radleys

Lush

Tamaryn

Tell us about the artists you have worked with

"Just last year we had the great honour to meet (and play together ) Patrick Duff, the frontman of Strangelove a cult band I love so much.

He came to Italy for some acoustic concerts alone, with his guitar and we were the support band. Patrick is a sweet and humble person and you can imagine how I felt when he asked us to play on stage a Strangelove song.

We did “freak” and I tried to not to pass out for the excitement."

WHERE to find their work

They are on all the music platforms:

Bandcamp

Soundcloud

Spotify

Youtube

And on social media:

Facebook

Instagram

Some good videos to watch

"I suggest: Sulphur, and Shohet from our Youtube channel":

What other have said

"Perhaps the most interesting shoegaze phenomenon emerging from Italy. Unique in the world of Italian shoegaze… nothing short of fabulous" -- The Record Stache "Walls of Sounds from Naples. Get lost in this cool wave of noise" -- 50thirdand3rd (NYC) "Stella Diana possess not only the spirit of late 80s/early 90s British bands like Catherine Wheel and Ride, but also the dark wave seeds of Joy Division and the stylistic underpinnings of new wave artists like Psychedelic Furs" -- Tribe4mian wordpress blog "I have found my new sonic nirvana in the audio that is Stella Diana. What I find fascinating is that this is an Italian band and not a group formed on the streets of London or even NYC beautiful words" -- Jammerzine

Other bands they recommend

"There are a lot of bands we love so much: Whimsical, High Violets, The Morelings, Ummagma, Wozniak, Stellarscope, Blankenberge, and many more from the rest of the world.

Not to mention at least thirty of them, I wanna mention just these Italian bands:

Rev rev rev, very psychedelic and noisy,

Clustersun (also on Noise Artists), they are absolutely cool and do a real wall of sound,

Kimono Lights, Shoegaze and also very pop,

Electric Floor, first band from our label. Check their first work: Fader, a great summary of new wave, synth pop and gaze guitars.

Then I mention In her Eye from Milan together with Mystic Morning and Novanta, all of them are cool projects.

The “Italogaze” scene is so full of talented bands: Umbrella Burning Festival (soon on the blog, Sara, their bass player is also a regular collaborator of Noise Artists), My Invisible friend, Tomorrow Forever, and many more. But I can't forget our fellow Neapolitans: Mary's restless dream, a young and talented band from Naples."

Thanks to

"First of all thank you so much for this opportunity. Then, we want to thank our press office, Shameless Promotion, our booking agency, elephant Booking, and all those who support and love us and our music around the world."

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