oh hey i forgot abt this again but heres the finale of the cladogram series (for now teehee). The rest can be found HERE

The Radapillupods represent the final major group of Radiathopods. And hold some of the most derived orders of species seen on Irou. Everything from pattern-changing browsers, to titanic filter feeders, to multi-locomotive hunters, Before concluding on Irou's second emergence of sapience.

The way things are going, they will keep dropping eyeshadow palettes even when it seems none of the cities can fall any further into dust. And at some point, between tommorow and the end of the post-plus-Anthropocene, they run out of names for the colors. A committee of the worlds greatest thinkers puts their heads together for many years and finally comes up with a solution: abandon the standard 1-3 word naming practice, and allow for 1. longer names and 2. names do not have to be made of words. In response, Makeup companies start hiring artists, writers, and people with vocational specialties that adorn their minds with rare lexicons—farmers and their words for plants, doctors and their words for the body, construction workers and their words for materials and tools and techniques, and so on. bug infested cubicles made of sludge metal and singed, rot-softened wooden plank fill up with some of the best paid employees, all working to name and describe the latest palettes. Some of the names are paragraphs of dense theory, some are plays, some are grocery lists. Some are written with words, some as musical notation, and some others are just pebbles, pieces of petrified McDonalds toy, and shriveled slices of dried worm taped under the shade where the name would be. However, the conditions of this world that were so conducive to the overwhelming success its New Neo-Economy of Names are not as conducive to human life. It is indeed a dreary existence. the few who get enough to eat cannot say much for the quality or nutritional substance of that which was grown in or fed in a place so ubiquitously and deeply penetrated by rancid vibes. But every “shot in the dark” (found on the Urban Decay x Marvel Studios Tankie Toddlers Limited Edition Mini Eyeshadow Palette) is also “a shooting star” (found on the Sephora Collection Unleaded Canned Food Rations Contour Palette) 💫 🖤 The industry is booming and beloved by all, use is no longer confined to makeup. After all, this society is the most progressive and advanced in all of history! The palettes may also be left on the ground in homes as mosaics, which gets dusted and decorated with the colored powders as residents tread over them; or the pigments are scraped out and eaten, or poured over graves to pay respects. But that is all extraneous. The crux of all meaning, in life, death, and art, is this Satisfaction Guaranteed Dogma: Each new palette is more expensive and more beautiful than the last, and each carries on the same message, a promise, a torch in the dark of the unpainted cave: Look. We have not run out of colors to name.

As a not-so-modest suggestion, Hart proposes a new perennialism in that great neo-Platonic tradition from Marsilio Ficino to Aldous Huxley, so that “the only way your kind can hope to find its way back to the theophanic cosmos” is to see the various faiths, “whether it’s Christianity or Hinduism or Australian Aboriginal spirituality or Sioux or Yoruba visionary wisdom” as being deeply and fundamentally true, “to believe all of it.” The most crucial virtue for an intellectual pugilist is to clearly know who his — and our — enemies happen to be. Roland explains that if we’re to survive the Anthropocene, we must break the “hold of these counterfeit forms of faith […] these shriveled positivisms and prejudices camouflaged as true belief.” The first of these two idols is the error which took the idea of mechanization — initially a conceit for the smooth operation of the stupendously successful empiricism of the scientific method — for a totalizing metaphysic, with the result being the cold materialism that reduces the soul to the brain, human beings to commodities, and nature to exploitable resources.

Response to Ursula Le Guin's The Word for World Is Forest (1972) Part 2

Historical Context and Relevance

Le Guin's work ranges from children's books to poetry, and within her many works The Word of World is forest is part of the Hainish Cycle Series within the Sci-fi genre (Savi, 2021: 3). She reflects environmental and ecological issues from the late 60s (Hovanec, 1989: 87) that Le Guin began to write the novella. The uprising awareness of environmental rights of nature and native people created a mass following of a militant environmentalist movement which was against the western neo-colonialism (Latham, 2007: 116). This was guided by the increased ethic of responsibility and sustainability (Latham, 2007: 116), and this romanticism of nature led to continuation of ecological effects on nature such as Earth Day (Latham, 2007: 117). As the issues raised were being addressed more openly and examined in the 70s (Savi, 2021: 5), Rachel Carson's Silent spring (1962) initiated the awareness of how destructive man has become against nature. The book highlighted the frail balance of nature from the heavy use of chemicals and machinery used by farmers (and humans in general), and helped launch the American Environmental Movement a few years later (Savi, 2021: 5).

Among the environmental issues that were occurring during the time Le Guin was writing The Word of World is Forest, there were humanitarian issues through deforestation, genocide and war that is reflected in the novella: Le Guin opposed the American military interventions during the Vietnam war, and used the novella and the peace movement as an outlet to voice her political views (Savi, 2021: 4). Through out the story, there is an explicit analogy between the Terran's conduct on the Athsheans and the American intervention in Vietnam (Watson 1975: 231). Despite the Vietnam war analogy, it can apply to multiple other genocides: genocide of the Guayaki Indians is Paraguay, genocide and deforestation along the Trans-Amazon highway in Brazil (Latham, 2007: 115; Watson, 1975: 231). It is also an analogy for the multiple deforestation throughout the world such as Costa Rica, the Congo and Indonesia (Watson, 1975: 231).

However, the American attitudes towards nature and the natives Le Guin criticises is also the attitude of early explorers from the 'Golden Age' of exploration to present day (Hovanec, 1989: 85-86). When the early European and English colonist arrived to the Americas they described it as a "second Eden" and spoke positively of the natives (Hovanec, 1989: 86). However, the paradise description of the new land was shattered by the opposing descriptions from the Puritans who tried to control what they deemed as a hostile and evil environment in North America (Hovanec, 1989: 86). Roderick Nash stated how if a paradise was early man's greatest good, then the wilderness, which meant North America, was "man's greatest evil" (Hovanec, 1989: 86). The enmity towards nature from the Puritans continued until the Romanticism period (late 18th-early 19th century) (Hovanec, 1989: 86), which can be argued that they were the earliest movement to side with environment over man due to their appreciation of the qualities of nature.

An interesting aspect relating to the context of the novella is the term 'Anthropocene' that was established in 2000 (Savi, 2021: 6). Anthropocene describes the effect human activities, such as colonialisation, poaching and deforestation, has had on the earth's surface; on earth's systems and pervading marks of industrial action on the strata (Savi, 2021: 6). In 2009, Pipesh Chakrabarty thought of an explanation as to why humanity in general have had a general disregard to nature, and only sees nature as having materialistic value to the leisures of man. Chakrabarty explained hoe humans are not used to see themselves as geological agents, like nature, but superior as they are biological beings (Savi, 2021: 7). However, Chakrabarty has stated that is it not 'mankind' that has caused the extravagant effects on the earth's surface, but 'manking'. When he talks about 'manking' he is referring to the western capitalism that being the largest factor to the destruction of the planet and not mankind as a whole (Savi, 2021: 7). He also stated that the the concept of the end of the world is a world without us (us being the western world) as it doesn't provide the lifestyle of the privileged western society (Savi, 2021: 7). It suggests that it humanity and nature cannot co-habit together.

Cry Of Dawn - Anthropocene

Release Date: 19 May 2023

The melodic rock/AOR project Cry Of Dawn released a new album entitled ‘Anthropocene’ earlier this month.

Fronted by go-to Swedish lead vocalist Göran Edman, Cry Of Dawn's self-titled debut album was well received back in 2016, but this new release sees the talented singer sounding positively inspired.

Göran has worked in numerous genres since making his recording debut in 1984, including neo-classical metal and progressive rock, as well as AOR. His vocal stylings can be heard on records by John Norum, Yngwie Malmsteen, Brazen Abbot and Glory, among others.

Partnered with compatriot Tommy Denander, whose songwriting, production and guitar skills have been heard on records by numerous musical icons over the years, the duo have crafted a classic sounding record that recalls the glory years of the AOR genre, with Göran Edman's enthusiasm for this musical style shining through.

A video for the first single from the album, the song 'Devil's Highway' is available online.

Lineup Göran Edman - vocals Tommy Denander - guitars, bass, keyboards Fredrik Blomgren - drums

#Blog 23: Research

2023.4.8

Anthropocene

The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, anthropogenic climate change.

It was coined in the 1980s, then popularised in 2000 by atmospheric chemist Paul J Crutzen and diatom researcher Eugene F Stoermer. 

It is widely accepted that our species, Homo sapiens, has had such a significant impact on Earth and its inhabitants that we will have a lasting - and potentially irreversible - influence on its systems, environment, processes and biodiversity.

/ A Neo-felicious Past, Cheng Guo

Artist Cheng Guo created a piece of land with an area of 1 square meter, a complete cube, a clean cube through excavation-screening-clearing-backfilling on a piece of land reclaimed after World War II in the northwest of Amsterdam. Any human information penetrates the "no human trace" land in the Anthropocene strata, forming a time capsule "without" human information, a kind of intervention in the Anthropocene strata.

/ This Land, David Opdyke

After hundreds of years of blindness to the collateral damage of capitalism run amok, the system needs a full reset. It must be dismantled, redesigned, and rebuilt. The antique postcards that make up This Land celebrate a world which was built by that system. We still live in that world, and fixing it is on us.

/ Clearcut #1, Palm Oil Plantation, Borneo, Malaysia 2016, Edward Burtynsky

Oil palms yield more oil per acre than other crops, however soaring demand for the world’s most popular vegetable oil has led to extensive deforestation and loss of wildlife in Indonesia and Malaysia, the biggest producers. 86 per- cent of deforestation in Malaysia from 1995-2000 was for oil palm plantations. Several studies have found an 80-90% reduction in biological diversity follow- ing forest conversion to oil palm plantation.

/ Thierry Oussou, La Poésie

This is an installation consisting of tree branches that redesigned especial- ly for each new presentation, based on locally found branches. The artist is aiming to write with wood. To Oussou, poetry is not something you can only write with pen and paper, but poetry is all around us in natural forms. You just have to see it and take it indoors.

Anthropocentrism

Anthropocentrism is the belief that human beings are the central or most important entity in the universe. The term can be used interchangeably with humanocentrism, and some refer to the concept as human supremacy or human exceptionalism. From an anthropocentric perspective, humankind is seen as separate from nature and superior to it, and other entities (animals, plants, minerals, etc.) are viewed as resources for humans to use.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Crutzen, P., 2002. Geology of Mankind. Macmillan, (415).

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1960, No Author, The Relationship of Man and Nature (Vol 41 No. 4)

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L. Jackson, 2003, The relationship of urban design to human health and condition. Laura E. Jackson 2002. L.E. Jackson / Landscape and Urban Planning.

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 Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) Directed by Hayao Miyazaki.

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At the end of the world

A lone Ikleud explorer arriving at his destination, the South pole of her homeworld. A journey many of her culture take for self fulfillment, for a rite of passage, or simply to find purpose in life. The last of which is the reason he goes on this journey for. This and the north pole are the only 2 places on Irou where the rings can't be seen. Also a flock of small Radinguins approach her as they've never seen an Ikleud like him before.

1000 Albums, 2020: The Big Lists

Hey folks, I’ve written up my top albums and my top tracks of 2020, but there’s so much music released in a year, and restricting myself to just 30 albums, and 50 tracks is a difficult task.

As a result, I’ve compiled a longer list of my top tracks and albums (without write-ups), for your perusal. This is obviously more for the sake of completeness, but are here in case you’re interested in finding out if I at all rated something you liked this year (or, if you’re Sam, if you want to actually do a detailed comparison).

Want playlists? I’ve got playlists for you too:

My Top 50 Countdown - which I posted yesterday. This provides a sorted countdown of my top tracks from #1 to #50. (50 tracks)

My Top Tracks - a longer list of all the tracks I really rated highly this year. This accounts for a much larger number of artists, and includes most of the tracks I’ve listed below. (169 tracks)

My Top Tracks & Albums - a playlist containing all my top tracks, plus selections from all of my favourite albums of the year. (216 tracks)

My Top Tracks, Albums + Much, Much More - Are you game? Contains a huge, varied collection of music that we listened to this year. I really enjoyed all these tracks, and they provide a much broader collection of albums, artists and genres. (1,014 tracks)

Anyway, without further ado here’s my Top 200 Tracks, and Top 100 Albums:

Top Albums of 2020

100. Winnetka Bowling League - Congratulations (power pop)

99. Locate S, 1 - Personalia (art pop)

98. Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia (pop)

97. LukHash - Transient Offworld (synthwave)

96. The Drowns - Under Tension (street punk)

95. The Mystic Underground - Wrapped in Riddles (electro disco)

94. Jonathan Wilson - Dixie Blur (Americana noir folk)

93. Mighty Oaks - All Things Go (indie folk rock)

92. Kiesza - Crave (synthpop)

91. Dance Gavin Dance - Afterburner (post hardcore)

90. The O’Reillys and the Paddyhats - Dogs on the Leash (Celtic punk)

89. Warm Digits - Flight of Ideas (krautrock)

88. Dandelion Wine - Le Cœur (Australio dreamfolktronica)

87. Marc Scibilia - Seed of Joy (indie singer-songwriter)

86. Biffy Clyro - A Celebration of Endings (Scottish indie rock)

85. Savant - Void (complextro)

84. Cordovas - Destiny Hotel (Americana folk)

83. TTRRUUCES - TTRRUUCES (wonky pop)

82. The Claudettes - High Times in the Dark (Chicago piano blues)

81. Dustbowl Revival - Is It You, Is It Me (post country)

80. Sea Wolf - Through a Dark Wood (indie folk rock)

79. Cory Wong - The Striped Album (funk rock)

78. Someone - ORBIT II (psych pop)

77. Days N’ Daze - Show Me The Blueprints (H-town thrashgrass)

76. Blossoms - Foolish Loving Spaces (indie pop)

75. Kyros - Celexa Dreams (prog synth rock)

74. Dub Pistols - Addict (dub)

73. Grimes - Miss Anthropocene (dreampop)

72. The Hanging Stars - A New Kind of Sky (psychedelic folk)

71. Neon Trees - I Can Feel You Forgetting Me (indie pop)

70. The Corner Laughers - Temescal Telegraph (folk pop)

69. 3D Stas - Eleven (soiltronica)

68. Pantayo - Pantayo (kulingtang gong pop)

67. The National Parks - Wildflower (folk rock)

66. Pigeon John - Gotta Good Feeling (underground rap)

65. Novo Amor - Cannot Be, Whatsover (indie folk rock)

64. The Explorers Club - The Explorers Club (sunshine pop)

63. Poppy - I Disagree (bubblegum metal)

62. Overcoats - The Fight (indie pop)

61. Chemtrails - The Peculiar Smell of the Inevitable (psychedelic garage pop)

60. Joywave - Possession (indie pop)

59. Heart Bones - Hot Dish (indie pop)

58. Mitochondrial Sun - Mitochondrial Sun (darktronica)

57. L.A. Salami - The Cause of Doubt & A Reason To Have Faith (post blues)

56. Car Seat Headrest - Making a Door Less Open (alt rock)

55. Tunng - Dead Club (folktronica)

54. Butch Walker - American Love Story (glam rock)

53. Polly Scattergood - In This Moment (experimental pop)

52. The Beautiful Fear - The Waltz of the Moonshine Blind (prog rock)

51. The Altogether - Silo (acoustic pop rock)

50. KES - We Home (Trinidadian soca)

49. Man Man - Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between (experimental rock)

48. Creeper - Sex, Death & The Infinite Void (horror punk)

47. Darlingside - Fish Pond Fish (indie folk)

46. Enter Shikari - Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible (electronicore)

45. Trixie Mattel - Barbara (drag country)

44. City Mouth - Coping Machine (indie pop rock)

43. Bright Eyes - Down In The Weeds Where The World Once Was (indie rock)

42. The Texas Gentlemen - Floor It!!! (heartland rock)

41. Will Wood - The Normal Album (cabaret rock)

40. Maeve Gilchrist - The Harpweaver (harp folk)

39. rook&nomie - me&you (experimental pop)

38. Steep Canyon Rangers & Asheville Symphony - Be Still Moses (orchestral bluegrass)

37. Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters (art pop)

36. Sea Girls - Open Up Your Head (indie pop rock)

35. Michael Franti & Spearhead - Work Hard & Be Nice (reggae fusion)

34. Oneohtrix Point Never - Magic Oneohtrix Point Never (experimental electronica)

33. Ultrahappyalarm - Critical Daydream (happy hardcore)

32. The Living Tombstone - zero_one (Israeli electro rock)

31. The Flaming Lips - American Head (psychedelic rock)

30. Saint Saviour - Tomorrow Again (experimental folk)

29. Post Animal - Forward Motion Godyssey (psychedelic rock)

28. The Jerry Cans - Echoes (Inuit neo-folk)

27. Aloud - Sprezzaturra (blues rock)

26. The Phenomenal Handclap Band - PHB (psychedelic soul)

25. Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - Reunions (alt country)

24. Badly Drawn Boy - Banana Skin Shoes

23. MOBS - Cinema Paradiso (80s pastiche pop)

22. Jason Wilson - Sumach Roots (eclectic folk)

21. DMA’s - The Glow (Australio indie rock)

20. Cornershop - England Is A Garden (chamber psych)

19. Igorrr - Spirituality and Distortion (baroque breakcore)

18. Eleventyseven - Basic Glitches (synthpunk)

17. Kate Rusby - Hand Me Down (indie folk)

16. Indigo Girls - Look Long (folk rock)

15. Another Sky - I Slept On The Floor (indie rock)

14. Courteeners - More. Again. Forever (post britpop)

13. Dutty Moonshine Big Band - City of Sin (jazztronica)

12. Nelson Kempf - Family Dollar (art folk)

11. Beans on Toast - The Inevitable Train Wreck (drunken folk rock)

10. Joe Wong - Nite Creatures (baroque pop)

9. Luis Pestana - Rosa Pano (experimental electronica)

8. Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension (art pop)

7. MisterWives - Superbloom (indie pop)

6. Lola Marsh - Someday Tomorrow Maybe (Israeli noir pop)

5. Dyble Longdon - Between a Breath and a Breath (chamber folk)

4. Hugo Kant - Far From Home (downtempo nu-jazz)

3. The Lemon Twigs - Songs For The General Public (alt rock)

2. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - K.G. (microtonal psychedelic rock)

1. Ada Rook - 2,020 Knives (electropop concrète)

Top Tracks of 2020

200. Sea Wolf - Forever Nevermore (indie rock) 199. Steep Canyon Rangers & The Asheville Symphony - Easy to Love (orchestral bluegrass) 198. Dandelion Wine - Too Late She Cried (experimental pop) 197. Aloud - Oh Danny (blues rock) 196. Car Seat Headrest - Weightlifters (anti-folk) 195. Michael Franti & Spearhead - I Can Still Feel You (reggae fusion) 194. Dance Gavin Dance - Lyrics Lie (post hardcore) 193. Post Animal - Post Animal (psychedelic rock) 192. La Oreja de Van Gogh - Menos Tú (Spanish indie folk) 191. The Hanging Stars - Heavy Blue (cosmic country) 190. Oneohtrix Point Never - Long Road Home (experimental electronica) 189. Will Wood - I / Me / Myself (cabaret rock) 188. Butch Walker - You Gotta Be Just Who You Are (glam rock) 187. Brothers Osborne - Muskrat Greene (country) 186. Tycho - Easy (downtempo IDM) 185. The Altogether - Brown of Gold (acoustic pop rock) 184. Dua Lipa - Cool (pop) 183. Circa Waves - Jacqueline (indie dance rock) 182. Sangatsu No Phantasia - Rendezvous (Japanese pop rock) 181. Moonchild Sanelly - Bashiri (South African future ghetto punk) 180. Needshes - Love (Uzbek indie pop) 179. The Explorers Club - Ruby (sunshine pop) 178. Osi & the Jupiter - Appalachia (pagan folk) 177. Thievery Corporation - The Forgotten People (Symphonik Version) (orchestral world triphop) 176. Enter Shikari - Marionettes (I. The Discover of Strings) (electronicore) 175. Zuzu - How It Feels (pop rock) 174. Los Mocosos - Viva Los Mocosos (latin funk) 173. DJ Plead - Going For It (mahraganat) 172. Igorrr - Camel Dancefloor (baroque breakcore) 171. Someone - Pull It Together (psych pop) 170. Dizzee Rascal - You Don’t Know (grime) 169. The Corner Laughers - The Accepted Time (power pop) 168. The Claudettes - 24/5 (rock and/or roll) 167. The Ballroom Thieves - Tenebrist (neo Americana) 166. Joe Wong - Day After Day (baroque pop) 165. Porter Robinson - Something Comforting (complextro) 164. Jason Wilson - Happy Little Sisyphus (indie folk) 163. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit - Be Afraid (alt country) 162. Hayley Williams - Dead Horse (indie pop) 161. Badly Drawn Boy - I Need Somebody to Trust (indie pop rock) 160. Bleached - Stupid Boys (bubblegrunge) 159. Man Man - Lonely Beuys (experimental rock) 158. Dustbowl Revival - Dreaming (neo Americana) 157. The Texas Gentlemen - Easy St. (neo Americana) 156. Maeve Gilchrist - The Storm (harp folk) 155. The Drowns - Them Rats (street punk) 154. Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer - Frolicholic (chap hop) 153. Zutomayo - Obenkyou Shitoiteyo (Japanese jazz rock) 152. Jonathan Wilson feat. Mark O’Connor - ‘69 Corvette (Americana noir folk) 151. Dub Pistols feat. Natty Campbell - Sound Sweet (dub DnB) 150. Cordovas - I’ma Be Me (Americana folk) 149. The Birthday Massacre - Enter (gothic darkwave) 148. KIDS - The Mourn (indie rock) 147. Kyros - Rumour (prog synth rock) 146. Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott - A Good Day Is Hard To Find (pop rock) 145. The O’Reillys and the Paddyhats - James Brian (Celtic punk) 144. The Fizz - The World We Left Behind (MOR pop) 143. Beans on Toast - World Gone Crazy (indie folk) 142. Liraz - Shab Gerye (arab groove) 141. 47 Soul feat. Shadia Mansour & Fedzilla - Border Ctrl (Palestinian shamstep) 140. 3D Stas - Dislocated Minds (soiltronica) 139. Bright Eyes - Tilt-A-Whirl (indie folk rock) 138. Darlingside - Ocean Bed (indie folk) 137. Once and Future Band - Freaks (psych pop) 136. Prizm - We Were Young (synthpop) 135. Z Berg - To Forget You (dreamfolk) 134. L.A. Salami - Things Ain’t Changed (post blues) 133. Kero Kero Bonito - It’s Bugsnax! (hyperpop) 132. Days N’ Daze - Addvice (thrashgrass) 131. Sufjan Stevens - Tell Me You Love Me (art pop) 130. Fiona Apple - Shameika (art rock) 129. Dutty Moonshine Big Band feat. HypeMan Sage - Big Band Fam (jazztronica) 128. Five Finger Death Punch - Leave It All Behind (nu metal) 127. Sundara Karma - Artifice (art pop) 126. TTRRUUCES - Lost Boy (wonky pop) 125. Theory of a Deadman - Ted Bundy (post grunge) 124. The National Parks - I Can Feel It (folk pop) 123. The Innocence Mission - John As Well (ambient folk) 122. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - The Hungry Wolf of Fate (microtonal indie rock) 121. The Jerry Cans - Atauttikkut (Inuit folk rock) 120. Sufjan Stevens - Lamentations (art pop) 119. Pigeon John - They Don’t Make Em Like Me (jazz hip hop) 118. Michael Franti & Spearhead - Lay It All Down (reggae fusion) 117. ARASHI - Party Starters (J-pop) 116. Neon Trees - Used To Like (indie pop) 115. Savant feat. Jahari Medina - Zealot (complextro) 114. Alestorm - Tortuga (pirate metal) 113. MisterWives - Valentine’s Day (indie pop) 112. Alex the Astronaut - Happy Song (indie folk pop) 111. Big Freedia feat. Kesha - Chasing Rainbows (bounce) 110. Cory Wong feat. The Hornheads - Click Bait (instrumental funk) 109. Suzzy Roche & Lucy Wainwright Roche - I Think I Am a Soul (neo Americana) 108. Victoria Anthony - Temporary Tattoo (synthpop) 107. Novo Amor - I Feel Better (indie folk rock) 106. Harper Bloom - Walk My Way (indie folk pop) 105. Badly Drawn Boy - Is This a Dream? (indie pop rock) 104. Bywater Call - Arizona (blues rock) 103. Mitochondrial Sun - Chronotopes (voidgaze) 102. Kronkel Dom - Giftig (Deutsch rap house) 101. The Phenomenal Handclap Band - Riot (nu disco) 100. Woodlock - Collateral (indie folk rock) 99. SKIES - It’s Alright (pop rock) 98. Pinguini Tattici Nucleari - Ringo Starr (Italian indie pop) 97. Warm Digits - False Positive (neo-krautrock) 96. Winnetka Bowling League - Come To The Beach (power pop) 95. ViVii - Whistle (folk pop) 94. Fame on Fire - Roxanne (post-screamo) 93. Tunng - Death Is The New Sex (folktronica) 92. Feuerschwanz feat. Melissa Bonny - Ding (neue Deutsche härte) 91. Jamie Cullum - Don’t Give Up On Me (jazz pop) 90. The Living Tombstone - What I Want (Israeli electro rock) 89. Walk Off The Earth - What’s Love Got To Do With It? (indie pop cover) 88. Hildegard von Blingin’ & Cornelius Link feat. Friar Funk - Pumped Up Kicks (bardcore) 87. Loma - Don’t Shy Away (ambient rock) 86. Pantayo - Heto Na (kulingang gong pop) 85. Gin Wigmore - H B I C (indie rock) 84. Dyble Longdon - Crossbones (chamber folk) 83. DMA’s - Never Before (Australian indie rock) 82. Mighty Oaks - Tell Me What You’re Thinking (indie folk rock) 81. Circles Around the Sun - Landline Memories (instrumental prog rock) 80. Blossoms - Your Girlfriend (indie pop rock) 79. Grimes - 4ÆM (industrial pop) 78. Ada Rook - 2,020 Knives (electropop concrète) 77. Walk Off The Earth - Oh What A Feeling (indie pop) 76. AWOLNATION - Radical (stomp pop) 75. Little Big Town - Bluebird (alt country) 74. Dutty Moonshine Big Band feat. HypeMan Sage - Outlaws (jazztronica) 73. Hugo Kant - Everything Is Transformed (downtempo nu-jazz) 72. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Intrasport (microtonal indie pop) 71. Stuck On Planet Earth - Higher Than The Drugs (dance rock) 70. Kesha - Potato Song (Cuz I Want To) (pop) 69. joan - want u back (indie pop) 68. MisterWives - Love Me True (indie pop) 67. Butch Walker - Fuck It (I Don’t Like Love) (glam rock) 66. Heart Bones - This Time It’s Different (indie pop) 65. Anamanaguchi feat. meesh - Pop It (glitchhop) 64. Poppy - Concrete (bubblegum metal) 63. Creeper - Cyanide (alt rock) 62. The Lemon Twigs - Only a Fool (alt rock) 61. Purity Ring - stardew (dreampop) 60. Curt Cannabis - Falling Sensation (indie rock) 59. Custard - Funky Again (Bluey’s dad rock) 58. Ryan Hamilton and the Harlequin Ghosts - Newcastle Charm (power pop) 57. Indigo Girls - Howl at the Moon (ectofolk) 56. Cornershop - Highly Amplified (chamber psych) 55. ShockOne - Follow Me (drum n bass) 54. Yelle - Karaté (French hip hop) 53. Ultrahappyalarm - Wanna Cam??? (hyperpop) 52. Biffy Clyro - Tiny Indoor Fireworks (Scottish alt rock) 51. Heaven Pegasus feat. rook&nomie - Nomi (pop rock) 50. L.E.J. - Pas Peur (French chamber folk) 49. Avec Sans - Altitude (vapor pop) 48. Trixie Mattel - Malibu (pop rock) 47. Beans on Toast - Logic Bomb (jazz folk) 46. Nelson Kempf - Family Dollar (art folk) 45. Marcelyn - Guilloteens (experimental folk rock) 44. Little Big - Hypnodancer (funeral rave) 43. Walk Off The Earth feat. Harm & Ease - Toxic (eclectic pop cover) 42. Stormzy feat. Aitch - Pop Boy (grime) 41. The Fratellis - Six Days in June (pop rock) 40. MOBS - Big World (80s pastiche pop) 39. The Lemon Twigs - The One (alt rock) 38. The Cuckoos - Weekend Lover (glam rock) 37. MisterWives - It’s My Turn (indie pop) 36. Sammy Brue - Pendulum Thieves (alt country) 35. TheFatRat feat. Laura Brehm - We’ll Meet Again (pop EDM) 34. Starbenders - Holy Mother (glam rock) 33. Minh Beta - Let’s Fight COVID! (Vietnamese coronavirus pop) 32. Kiesza feat. Lick Drop, Cocanina & Shan Vincent De Paul - Dance With Your Best Friend (pop) 31. Ultrahappyalarm - Messy Gyaru (happy hardcore) 30. Saint Saviour - Taurus (chamber folk) 29. Kate Rusby - Love of the Common People (indie folk cover) 28. Seazoo - Honey Bee (indie pop rock) 27. City Mouth - Sanity For Summer (indie pop rock) 26. Cory Wong & Chris Thile - Bluebird (jazz-bluegrass crossover) 25. rook&nomie - soft atrocity (hyperpop) 24. Will Joseph Cook - Something To Feel Good About (indie pop) 23. Courteeners - Better Man (britpop) 22. MOBS - School’s Out (80s pastiche pop) 21. Luis Pestana - Sangra (experimental electronica) 20. Hugo Kant - High Gravity (downtempo nu-jazz) 19. The Flaming Lips - Mother I’ve Taken LSD (psychedelic rock) 18. eleventyseven - Battlecats (synthpop punk) 17. Igorrr - Lost in Introspection (baroque breakcore) 16. Polly Scattergood - In This Moment (spoken word triphop) 15. Dent May - Hotel Stationery (indie fuzzpop) 14. Another Sky - Fell In Love With The City (indie prog rock) 13. Lola Marsh - Like In The Movies (Israeli pop rock) 12. Ada Rook - Reverie (JH Ligation Experiment 1) (breakbeat electropop) 11. Trixie Mattel - Video Games (country folk cover) 10. KES - Na let go / (when ah) Jamdong / (with d) Boss Lady (soca) 9. Emerson Hart - Lucky One (heartland rock) 8. Uncanny Valley - Beautiful the World (AI dance pop) 7. Villagers - Did You Know? (indie folk) 6. Chemtrails - Uncanny Valley (psychedelic garage pop) 5. Andy Shauf - Try Again (indie pop) 4. Lola Marsh - Echoes (Israeli pop rock) 3. Sea Girls - Do You Really Want To Know? (indie pop rock) 2. Kishi Bashi - Never Ending Dream (indie pop) 1. Dyble Longdon - Obedience (chamber folk)

ruined futures--2018

We are faced with the collective failure to deal with the looming  cataclysmic  and catastrophic consequences of climate heating. The world’s most powerful nations,  the biggest carbon footprint countries, adopt the ‘politics of the armed lifeboat’ explicitly or otherwise. These countries, still in the grip of neo-liberalism’s let the rigged market rule, remain  fully committed  to the growth-without-end paradigm.

A central challenge of the Anthropocene: is  how can we learn to recognize that different forms of disaster (from a freak tornado in Delhi to an especially deep drought in California, bush fires in Australia) are manifestations of our deranged relationship with the natural environment?

Such recognition is especially difficult because it too easily looks credulous and fantastical—climate change, in short, requires an imposition of improbable events on an otherwise realistic narrative.

Anglo-American photography in late modernity has  been centred on the human, on human subjectivity, on individual identity,  on the avant-garde, rather than the non-human.  Modernism’s presentation of the world as so much psychological flux and affect was in   a period that coincided with an accelerating human imprint on planetary ecosystems. Climate heating’s  uncanny aspect--its extremes of superstorms, droughts, floods, sea level rise—is  on the limits of  the conceptual grasp and visual rhetoric of contemporary  photography that  wrestles with it.

What is put into question is the idea of modernity. This  term assumes  that humans emerge from the primordial darkness, as independent entities living and acting on a separate physical world, a world we plough up, mine, build on and move over but which nevertheless has an independent existence and destiny. Modernity connotes the ideas of individualism and freedom, the questioning of tradition, the notion of linear time going toward increased progress, a sense of the novelty of the future, and a rupture with the past.

Not to be modern is to be old-fashioned, backward, barbaric, uncivilized. Yet the direction in which we thought we were going has now been denied to us,  as we have reached the point in history where we must face up to the tragic consequences of modernity.

Rolleiflex TLR, Zeiss 75mm Planar f.2.8,  Kodak Portra 400ASA, handheld

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hi maybe you’ve written about this before but i’m working for someone who is part of the ecological landscape alliance and we’ve been having big talks about the concept of “invasive” species vs “native” plants and how the concept is rooted in xenophobia, and also talking about how maybe invasive plants aren’t that bad?? this goes against everything i’ve ever heard anyone talk about invasive species but i really don’t know all that much about it. sounds silly maybe coming from a farmer but i really don’t have a super firm ecological understanding, most of my plant knowledge is agricultural based and im really curious to learn more and was hoping you could point me in the right direction?

Yes, I definitely run into this disk horse all the time. Especially the “maybe invasive plants aren’t that bad” discussion. It seems the native/alien stuff is most often mentioned in disk horse about the Anthropocene. Basically, you’ll sometimes see statements like: “Is anything really natural in the Anthropocene?” I have also seen, and spent a lot of time contemplating, how belief in the categories of “natural” and “alien/invasive” in discussion of ecology might be rooted in or at least inadvertently support racism/xenophobia.

But I am still wary of the “native vs alien” and “no creature or landscape is really natural, not any more” disk horse, at least as explored by some white/settler-colonial academics, for exactly the same reasons: because it might be rooted in or support racism/xenophobia. Because the proposal that “nothing is native, nothing is invasive” itself can actually engage in a sort of “settler absolution” that obscures how there really is a contrast between imperial and Indigenous peoples, and the “nothing is natural, nothing is invasive” proposal could excuse the colonial/imperial introduction and expansion of monoculture by accepting the spread of industry/agriculture/non-native species as an inevitability. And these concepts can actually work to generalize conditions of ecological degradation and apocalypse, as if to say that “all humans now live in such a damaged world, we’re all victims” (even though many non-white, especially Indigenous, people actually bear most of the violence and burden of living in “post-apocalyptic” ecologies.)

But actually, I don’t think I can be too helpful here.

I still have a lot of contemplating to do, about how categories of natural/invasive in ecology might support the violence of categorizing people as natural/invasive. Don’t really know where I stand yet, y’know? So I don’t want to be too quick to come to a conclusion. I don’t even really want to offer opinions here. That said, I am very sensitive to language, and the language that I use. So I do appreciate that there is an effort to interrogate the negative consequences of describing things with words like “alien”. Also, the categorizing of lifeforms is and always has been a mess.

I don’t have many reading recommendations. The “native vs alien” and “nothing is really native, actually” proposals are concepts that I brush up against but don’t read too deeply into, even though this disk horse has been popular-ish in dark ecology and academic ecology/environmental studies circles for at least 10 years or more by now.

I guess, for my thoughts on native vs alien, what counts as “natural”, invasive species, and how the disk horse can excuse settler-colonial/imperial racism, I would point to this post I made about Pablo Escobar’s feral hippopotamuses in Colombia.

One introduction to the concept, which I think is an enjoyable read (though I don’t necessarily agree with all of his implications), is this essay by Hugo Reinert about the category of “natural” and the “purity” of a species: “Requiem for a Junk-Bird: Violence, Purity and the Wild.” Cultural Studies Review. 2019.

Anna Boswell’s very famous article about stoats and non-native species in Aotearoa kind of dances around this same issue of naturalness: “Settler Sanctuaries and the Stoat-Free State.” Animal Studies Journal. 2017.

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Generally, I agree with the implication that there is no “remote” or untouched corner of the planet where ecology has escaped human influence.

On that aspect, here’s a post I made about “planetary urbanization”.

But the native/alien disk horse can be extended to problematique degrees, with proposals that sometimes remind me of sci-fi goofiness, like fans of dark ecology or weird fiction or Mieville/Van der Meer got a little too excited about “the boundary between human and other-than-human has become so blurred that there may as well no longer be distinctions between native species and invasive species”, like they got a little too drunk on theory and just decided that “everything is in flux!”. Criticisms, then, of the “nothing is native” disk horse include how this oversimiplifies ecology and might enable/excuse settler-colonial invasion.

A lot of the “invasive plants are good, actually!” disk horse I’ve seen shows up in Australian literature written by settler scholars, which might be pretty telling.

Basically, it seems some scholars will take Alfred Crosby’s “neo-Europe” and “ecological imperialism” concepts, and then say something like “look, the damage is done, so much of Earth’s soils/landscapes are altered by introduced plants that we may as well accept it as the new baseline/normal ecology, and work from there.” As if to point at how North America has been entirely overrun by non-native earthworms and then to say “well, the worms are going to inevitably destroy hardwoods forests, soils of the Great Lakes region, the boreal-temperate transition zone, and maple trees which supply place-based maple syrup foodsheds, so we may as well accept that we live in a damaged world.”

I don’t know if I’m entirely satisfied with this.

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Other related concepts brought up in the same  discussion of “nothing is really native” might include “invasion biology” and “assisted migration.” I see these concepts brought up in academic writing from the University of California system, Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand, and “environmental humanities” generally. Basically, these writers/scholars will point to the past ten thousand-ish years of the Holocene, and how humans have had such profound influence on global ecology that “introduction of non-native species” and “mass-scale anthropogenic climate/ecological change” are not just recent developments since Industrial Revolution or Indus/Yellow/Mesopotamian statecraft, but even older. For example, I’ve talked a lot about how, in the Late Pleistocene or early Holocene, the Asiatic steppes and parts of the Great Plains could have apparently been more like intermittent woodlands before humans engaged in deliberate fire-setting to better target megafauna herds, meaning that the human role in creation of vast “naturally-occurring” grassland regions may be underestimated. This dove-tails with the better-established fact that the forests of Central America and eastern North America in the early Holocene were/are actually more like cultivated food forests managed by Indigenous people.

The argument, then, may also point to yams, sweet potato, and coconut as examples of creatures with what now appear to be “old” and “established” widespread transoceanic distribution ranges which actually may have been introduced via assisted migration by humans.

The argument, basically, says: Well, let’s say hypothetically that humans didn’t play a role in spreading sweet potato or coconut. By chance, if ocean currents “naturally” introduced these species, if these plants “naturally” colonized whatever lands they were swept off towards, doesn’t this mean they could essentially be “natural” to anywhere they might arrive and successfully establish themselves? Therefore, does it really matter if humans helped them get there?

This seems to be related to the “no plants are actually invasive” proposal. As if to say: “If English pasture grasses have successfully reproduced themselves in Patagonia, Aotearoa, South Africa, the Canadian prairies, etc., what does it mean that their migration was assisted by humans?”

But this is where I have reservations: It wasn’t just any humans that “assisted the migration” of monoculture grasses from Europe to the prairies of Turtle Island. It was specific humans, with deliberate intent, upholding specific institutions, protecting their own well-being at the expense of other humans and lifeforms, enacting specific violence against specific victims.

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Another aspect of this which I see mentioned often is how early human/Polynesian settlement in Oceania and the South Pacific is an example of how mass anthropogenic ecological change doesn’t always involve statecraft, mass mono/agriculture, and imperialism. Aside from the famous decline of creatures like the moa, Polynesian islands were also home to relict species of large land turtles and ancient terrestrial/semi-arboreal crocodiles until human arrival in recent millennia. Writers will also point to human settlement in the Caribbean, where human arrival coincided with extinction of remnant populations of endemic Pleistocene ground sloths. (This also happened on Mediterranean islands, which hosted endemic species of hippopotamus and goats until recent millennia.)

Again, though, this is where white/settler-colonial academics advocating “nothing is natural” can kind of obscure settler-colonial violence, by pointing to history of anthropogenic environmental change and saying “see, all humans provoke extinction.”

Thus, you’ll see these scholars invoke Anna Tsing or Donna Harraway, referencing the “arts of living on a damaged planet” or “living in post-capitalist ruins.” Essentially, advocates of “nothing is native, any more” might say “we all live in a post-apocalyptic world now, so we should get used to it.”

This, coming from white/settler-colonial academics, sometimes rubs me the wrong way, as if it’s sort of like wish-fulfillment, or “an adventure” for comfortable white academics to engage in low-stakes thought experiments about extinction, naturalness, and apocalypse from which they’re actually largely insulated, at least compared to the poor, non-white, non-academic people who cope with the worst of environmental racism and ecological collapse.

This, again coming from white/settler-colonial academics, is also of course more than a little grating, since it kind of co-opts or culturally appropriates the “Indigenous/Native people actually live in a post-apocalyptic world” concept proposed by Indigenous scholars. It kind of takes from Indigenous/non-white people, and then generalizes the apocalypse as something that all humans now live with in seemingly equal measure, obscuring the fact that many people are actually forced to cope and/or live with more-serious-of-an-apocalypse than others.

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At the end of the day: Sure, kudzu or English pasture grasses or coconuts or European earthworms or domesticated cattle might be generalist species which can successfully inhabit landscapes across the planet. So whether humans introduce them via agriculture, or whether they "naturally" expand by some accident or by drifting across ocean currents, they might exist in this strange ontological space between "native" and "alien" which confounds human conceptions of what "belongs"? And this is worth considering! This is good to think about! But there are still, and always have been, those "small" landscapes, those isolated pockets, those relicts and remnants in shaded stream corridors, where small populations of endemic species teeter on the verge, with highly-specialized adaptations to highly-specific microhabitats. You're not going to "assist the migration" of or "accidentally introduce" a cave-obligate salamander from a limestone cavern or a temperate rainforest-dwelling land-slug to a desert biome.

But, again, I still think it is good to stop and ask ourselves whether categories of “natural” and “alien/invasive” in ecology make sense, are outdated, or if they reinforce racism/xenophobia. And, again, I haven’t read enough -- I haven’t grappled with these questions enough -- to have an opinion which I’m comfortable sharing, so I don’t want to discourage this disk horse too much.

Anyway, hope some of this is interesting. Sorry. Again, I don’t really have any good recommendations.

My Favorite Albums of 2020 So Far

Here is my list of my favorite albums half-way through 2020

You can find my list of my favorite albums of 2019 here And my list of my favorite EPs of 2019 here

My Monthly top albums lists from 2020: January, February, March, April, May

Keep in mind I didn’t include albums released after June 12th on this list

Honorable Mention:

Blanche - EMPIRE Genre: Indie Pop

Proof: Empire / Till We Collide

Caroline Rose - Superstar Genre: Synth-Pop

Proof: Nothing’s Impossible / Someone New

Deante’ Hitchcock - BETTER Genre: Hip Hop

Proof: I Remember / I Got Money Now (Feat. J.I.D.)

dvsn - A Muse In Her Feelings Genre: R&B / neo-Soul

Proof: Dangerous City (Feat. Ty Dolla $ign & Buju Banton) / A Muse

Grimes - Miss Anthropocene Genre: Synth Pop / Electronic

Proof: Violence (w/ i_o) / idoru // Bonus: We Appreciate Power (BloodPop Remix) Feat. HANA

Halsey - Manic Genre: alt-R&B / Pop

Proof: You should be sad / Without Me // Bonus: Marshmello & Halsey - Be Kind / You should be sad (Tiësto Remix) / Graveyard (Axwell Remix) / Without Me (ILLENIUM Remix)

Illenium - ASCEND (Remixes) Genre: Electronic / Dance

Proof: Good Things Fall Apart (3LAU Remix) w/ Jon Bellion / In Your Arms (Alan Walker Remix) w/ X Ambassadors

Jason Ross - 1000 Faces //   1000 Faces (Remixes) Genre: Electronic / Dance

Proof: One That Got Away (w/ Dabin & Dylan Matthew) / 1000 Faces (w/ Dia Frampton) //  Known You Before (Trivecta Remix) Feat. Emilie Brandt / Shelter (No Mana Remix) Feat. Melanie Fontana

KAYTRANADA - BUBBA Genre: alt-R&B / House

Proof: 10% (Feat. Kali Uchis) / Need It (Feat. Masego)

Lady Gaga - Chromatica Genre: Pop / Dance

Proof: Stupid Love / Replay

Låpsley - Through Water Genre: Indie Pop / Electronic

Proof: Ligne 3 / Womxn

Loote - heart eyes EP Genre: Indie Pop

Proof: This is How U Feel / All The Fucking Time // Bonus: teamwork., Loote & John K - Wasted Summer

Matoma - RYTME EP Genre: Electronic / House / Dance

Proof: Don’t Stop The Rhythm (Feat. Bryn Christopher) / Beside You (w/ Captain Cuts Feat. Georgia Ku) // Bonus: The Bender (The Him Remix) (w/ Brando) / Time To Go

Seven Lions - Find Another Way EP Genre: Electronic / Dance / Trance

Proof: Only Now (Feat. Tyler Graves) / Another Way (w/ April Bender) // Bonus: 3LAU - Tokyo (Seven Lions Remix) Feat. XIRA / Abaxis , Dimibo & Seven Lions - Half Of It

The Strokes - The New Abnormal Genre: Alternative / Rock

Proof: Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus / Not The Same Anymore

Tchami - Born Again / Buenos Aires EP Genre: Electronic / House / Dance

Proof: Buenos Aires / Proud (Feat. Daecolm) // Bonus: Proud (Steffan City Remix) Feat. Daecolm / Ghosts (Vowed Remix) Feat. Hana

We Are The City - RIP Genre: Rock / Alternative

Proof: Killer B-Side Music / Saint Peter

The List:

15. Alina Baraz - It Was Divine Genre: R&B / Soul

Proof: Morocco (Feat. 6LACK) / Endlessly / Off The Grid (Feat. Khalid) / More Than Enough

14. Harry Styles - Fine Line Genre: Alternative / Indie Pop

Proof: Watermelon Sugar / Adore You / Lights Up / Fine Line

13. Krewella - zer0 // zer0 (The Remixes Pt. 1) EP // zer0 (The Remixes Pt. 2) EP Genre: Electronic / Synth-Pop / Dance

Proof: Good On You (Feat. Nucleya) / Anxiety (Feat. Arrested Youth) / Ghost / Greenlights // Good On You (MOTi Remix) Feat. Nucleya / Greenlights (MADGRRL Remix) // Anxiety (Prince Fox Remix) Feat. Arrested Youth / Like We (BEAUZ Remix) Feat. Yung Baby & Alaya

12. iamnotshane - iamnotshane EP Genre: alt-R&B / Electronic

Proof: Afterlife / Security / Perfect / Right Now // Bonus: Afterlife (Michael Calfan Remix) / Perfect (Thomas Gold Remix) / Right Now (jackLNDN Remix)

11. Jack Garrett - Love, Death & Dancing Genre: R&B / Pop / Electronic

Proof: Time / Return Them To The One / Better / Circles

10. Charli XCX - how i’m feeling now Genre: Synth Pop / Dance

Proof: forever / enemy / i finally understand / anthems // Bonus: claws (Whethan Remix)

9. Buscabulla - Regresa Genre: Latin / Pop / Dance

Proof: Vàmono / El Aproeto / Mío / NTE

8. Purity Ring - WOMB Genre: Synth Pop

Proof: pink lightening / i like the devil / vehemence / stardew

7. Run The Jewels - RTJ4 Genre: Hip Hop

Proof: yankee and the brave (ep. 4) / JU$T (Feat. Pharrell WIlliams & Zach de la Rocha) / the ground below / a few words from the firing squad (radiation)

6. Shallou - Magical Thinking Genre: Electronic / Future Bass

Proof: Forget / Mutual Love (Feat. Zachary Knowles) / Older (Feat. Daya) / Good Together (Feat. Ashe) // Bonus: Older (Felix Cartel Remix) Feat. Daya / I Leave Again (w/ Petit Biscuit) / Jeremy Zucker & Chelsea Cutler - you were good to me (Shallou Remix)

5. The Weeknd - After Hours //  After Hours (Remixes) EP Genre: alt-R&B

Proof: Heartless / Blinding Lights / In Your Eyes / After Hours // Blinding Lights (Chromatics Remix) Feat. Johnny Jewel / After Hours (The Blaze Remix) // Bonus: Blinding Lights (Major Lazer Remix)

4. Jonah Mutono - GERG Genre: alt-R&B / Soul

Proof: Shoulders / If You Mean It / The Low / Circulation

3. Phantogram - Ceremony Genre: Synth-Pop

Proof: Dear God / In A Spiral / Pedestal / Let Me Down

2. Childish Gambino - 3.15.20 Genre: Hip Hop / alt-R&B

Proof: Alogrhythm / Time (Feat. Ariana Grande) / 19.10 / 42.26

1. Tame Impala - The Slow Rush Genre: Synth-Pop / Alternative

Proof: Borderline / Breathe Deeper / Lost in Yesterday / It Might Be Time // Bonus: It Might Be Time (Louis The Child Bootleg)

Others:

Good: A Boogie wit da Hoodie - Artist 2.0, AceMoMa - A New Dawn [HOA007], Ada Lea - woman, here EP, Adrian Younge & Ali Shaeed Muhammad - Jazz Is Dead 001, Active Child - In Another Life, Aesop Rock - Freedom Finger [Music from the Game], Agnes Obel - Myopia, Alec Benjamin - These Two Windows, Alexandra Savior - The Archer, Allan Kingdom - Iddtfm EP, Allan Rayman - Christian, Allie X - Cape God, ALMA - Have You Seen Her?, Amber Liu - Rogue Rogue EP, Amber Liu - X EP, Andy Shauf - The Neon Skyline, Anna Burch - If You’re Dreaming, Anna Calvi - Hunted EP, Ant Saunders - BUBBLE EP, April - New Conditions EP, Ari Lennox - Shea Butter Baby (Remix EP), Arin Ray - Phases II EP, Atmosphere - Whenever, Audrey Mika - 5 A.M. EP, AWOLNATION - Angel Miners & the Lightning Riders, Bad Bunny - LAS QUE NO IBAN A SALIR, Baril - One More Rush EP, Baths - Pop Music / False B-Sides II, Banoffee - Look at Us Now Dad, Beach Bunny - Honeymoon, Becca Stevens - Wonderbloom, Best Coast - Always Tomorrow, Big Gigantic - Free Your Mind, Bishop Nehru - Nehruvian Tuesdays: Vol, 1, Bombay Bicycle Club - Everything Else Has Gone Wrong, Bongeziwe Mabandla - iimini, Boniface - Boniface, BOSCO - Some Day This Will All Make Sense EP, Brandon Banks - STATIC EP, Brent Faiyaz - Fuck The World, Bring Me the Horizon - Music to Listen to~Dance to~Blaze to~Pray to~Feed to~Sleep to~Talk to~Grind to~Trip to~Breathe to~Help to~Hurt to~Scroll to~Roll to~Love to~Hate to~Learn Too~Plot to~Play to~Be to~Feel to~Breed to~Sweat to~Dream to~Hide to~Live to~Die to~Go To EP, Buddy & Kent Jamz - Janktape Vol. 1, Calvin Harris - Love Regenerator 1 EP, Calvin Harris - Love Regenerator 2 EP, Calvin Harris - Love Regenerator 3 EP, Calvin Harris & Eli Brown - Moving EP, Cam’ron - Purple Haze 2, Caribou - Suddenly, Carly Rae Jepsen - Dedicated Side B, Car Seat Headrest - Making a Door Less Open, Charlotte de Witte - Return to Nowhere EP, Chelsea Cutler - How To Be Human, Chloe x Halle - Ungodly Hour, Christian Paul - Christian Paul EP, Christine and the Queens - La vita nuova EP, Chromeo - Quarantine Casanova EP, Clap! Clap! - Liquid Portraits, Cleo Sol - Rose in the Dark, Conor Matthews - Balloons EP, D Smoke - Bad Habits, DaBaby - BLAME IT ON BABY, Daecolm - Figur£$, Dan Deacon - Mystic Familiar, Day Wave - Crush EP, Delacey - Black Coffee, Delta Heavy - Only in Dreams (Remixes), Denzel Curry - UNLOCKED [Mixtape], Destroyer - How We Met, Diana Gordon - Wasted Youth, Dijon - How Do You Feel About Getting Married? EP, Diplo - Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley Chapter 1: Snake Oil, Dirty Projectors - Windows Open EP, Disclosure - Ecstasy EP, DJ BORING - Like Water EP, dj poolboi - it’s good to hear your voice, DJ Snake - Carte Blanche (Deluxe), Drake - Dark Lane Demo Tapes, DRAMA - Dance Without Me, Dreamville - Revenge of the Dreamers III : Director’s Cut, Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia, Dua Saleh - Rosetta EP, Duke Dumont - Duality, Ebenezer - Bad Romantic II EP, Echosmith - Lonely Generation, EDEN - no future, Ekali - A World Away, Elah Hale - Room 206 EP, Ellie Winter - Yeah, No. EP, Empress Of - I’m Your Empress Of, Eric Bellinger - Hor D’oeuvres, Ethan Gruska - En Garde, Everything Is Recorded - FRIDAY FOREVER, Example - Some Nights Last For Days, Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters, Flatbush Zombies - now, more than ever EP, flora cash - Baby, It’s Okay, Four Tet - Sixteen Oceans, Fractures - EP III, Fred again.. - Actual Life EP, Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist - Alfredo, Free Nationals - Free Nationals, Gabrielle Aplin - Dear Happy, Galantis - Church, Gengahr - Sanctuary, Georgia - Seeking Thrills, Gil Scott-Heron & Makaya McCraven - We’re New Again: A Reimagine by Makaya McCraven, Giveon - TAKE TIME, The Glitch Mob - Chemicals EP, GRiZ - bangers[5].zip EP, Grouplove - The Healer, GUM - Out In The World, Half Waif - The Caretaker, Hailee Steinfeld - Half Written Story EP, HAWA - the ONE, Hayley Kiyoko - I’m Too Sensitive For This Shit EP, Hayley Williams - Petals for Armor, Hayley Williams - Petals For Armor I EP, Hinds - The Prettiest Curse, HMLTD - West of Eden, Icarus - Unfold, Incubus - Trust Falls (Side B) EP, i_o - NRG 444 EP, Isaia Huron - Libbie, iyla - OTHER WAYS TO VENT, J Balvin - Colores, Jack Garrett - Love, Death & Dancing (Vol. 1) EP, Jack Garrett - Love, Death & Dancing (Vol. 2) EP,  JACKBOYS & Travis Scott - JACKBOYS EP, Jacob Latimore - C3, Jadakiss - Ignatius, Jade Novah - Stages, James Smith - An EP, Japan, Man - Cautious EP, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Reunions, Jauz - Dangerous Waters EP, Jay Electronica - A Written Testimony, Jeremy Zucker - love is not dying, Jessie Reyez - BEFORE LOVE CAME TO KILL US, Jhené Aiko - Chilombo, Jody Wisteernoff - Story of Light EP, JoJo - good to know, Joyner Lucas - ADHD, JOYRYDE - Brave, JP Saxe - Hold It Together EP, Justin Bieber - Changes, Kali Uchis - TO FEEL ALIVE EP, Kamaiyah - Got It Made, Kaskade - Redux 004 EP, Katie Gately - Loom, K CAMP - Kiss 5, Kehlani - It Was Good Until It Wasn’t, Kevin Ross - Audacity, Vol 1 EP, Kiana Ledé - KIKI, Kid Krow - Conan Gray, King Princess - Cheap Queen (Deluxe), Khushi - Strange Seasons, Khruangbin & Leon Bridges - Texas Sun EP, KIRBY - Sis. EP, K. Michelle - All Monsters Are Human, Knxwledge - 1998, Kodaline - One Day at a Time, Kygo - Golden Hour, Lane 8 - Brightest Lights, LA Priest - GENE, La Roux - Supervision, Laura Marling - Song For Our Daughter, Lauren Auder - two caves in EP, Lauv - ~how i’m feeling~, Lil Wayne - Funeral, Little Dragon - New Me, Same Us, Little Simz - Drop 6 EP, LL Cool J - Authentic, Long Beach Dub Allstars - Long Beach Dub Allstars, Lonr. - Land of Nothing Real, LOONY - JOYRiDE EP, Loud Luxury - Nights Like This EP, Louis Tomlinson - Walls, Lucky Daye - Painted (Deluxe Edition), Luke James - to feel love/d, Lupe Fiasco - Chill Spotlight EP, Mac Miller - Circles, Mahalia - Isolation Tapes EP, MAITA - Best Wishes, Major Lazer - Soca Storm EP, Mala Rodriguez - MALA, Manatee Commune - Crescent Lake EP, Mason Maynard - Lookin’ At Me EP, Medasin - RIPPLS, Megan Thee Stallion - Suga, Mick Jenkins - The Circus EP, Midwife - Forever, Mija - Desert Trash, MILCK - Into Gold EP, Moaning - Uneasy Laughter, Model Man - Beta Songs EP, Moses Sumner - græ, Mourning [A] BLKstar - The Cycle, Mura Masa - R.Y.C., mxmtoon - dawn, Nada Surf - Never Not Together, Naeem - Startisha,  Nap Eyes - Snapshot of a Beginner, Nathaniel Rateliff - And It’s Still Alright, NNAMDÏ - BRAT, Noah Cyrus - THE END OF EVERYTHING EP, No Mana - Secret Level, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds - Blue Moon Rising EP, Norah Jones - Pick Me Up off the Floor, Ohmme - Fantasize Your Ghost, Oh Wonder - No One Else Can Wear The Crown, Okay Kaya - Watch This Liquid Pour Itself, Omar S - You Want, Orion Sun - Hold Space For Me, The Overcoats - The Fight, PARTYNEXTDOOR - PARTYMOBILE, Perfume Genius - Set My Heart on Fire Immediately, Pet Shop Boys - Hotspot, Photay - Waking Hours, Pictish Trail - Thumb World, POLIÇA - When We Stay Alive, Poppy - I Disagree, Poolside - Low Season, Porches - Ricky Music, Post Animal - Forward Motion Godyssey, The Professionals (Madlib & Oh No) - The Professionals, Princess Nokia - Everything Is Beautiful, Princess Nokia - Everything Sucks, Pure X - Pure X, RAC - BOY, Ratboys - Printer’s Devil, Raveena - Moonstone EP, Real Estate - The Main Thing, Recondite - Dwell, renforshort - teenage angst EP, Ric Wilson & Terrace Martin - They Call Me Disco EP, Rileyy Lanez - Beautiful Mistakes EP, Rina Sawayama - SAWAYAMA, Riz Ahmed - The Long Goodbye, RJD2 - The Fun Ones, Robinson - Watching You EP, Ro James - MANTIC, Royce da 5’9” - The Allegory, Roy Woods - Dem Times EP, rum.gold - aiMless EP, Russ - SHAKE THE SNOW GLOBE, Ryan Beatty - Dreaming of David, Sam Lee - Oh Wow, San Fermin - The Cormorant I & II, SAYGRACE - The Defining Moments of SAYGRACE: Girlhood, Fuckboys & Situationlists, Sea Wolf - Through A Dark Wood, Selena Gomez - Rare, Sérgio Mendez - In the Key of Joy, Shabazz Palaces - The Don of Diamond Dreams, Shakey Graves - Look Alive EP, Ship Wrek - Mirror Mirror EP, Shoffy - Flash, Shopping - All or Nothing, Sleepy Hallow - Sleepy Hallow Presents: Sleepy For President, Slowly Slowly - Race Car Blues, Smino - She Already Decided [Mixtape], Soccer Mommy - Color Theory, Son Little - Aloha, Sorry - 925, Spacey Jane - Sunlight, Spencer Brown - Stream of Consciousness, Steve Aoki - Neon Future IV, Steve Spacek - House, Stormzy - Heavy Is The Head, STRFKR - Future Past Life, Striking Matches - Night EP, Subtronics - Scream Saver EP, Surfaces - Horizons, $uicideboy$ - Stop Staring at the Shadows, Sweaton Klank - Good Days, Sweet Whirl - How Much Works, Swing Ting - 100 Dances, Tank - While You Wait EP, Tate McRae - all the things i never said EP, TOKiMONSTA - Oasis Nocturno, Tom Misch & Yussef Dayes - What Kinda Music, TOPS - I Feel Alive, TORRES - Silver Tongue, Tory Lanez - The New Toronto 3, TeaMarr - Before I Spill Myself, Tech N9ne - Enterfear, Tech N9ne - ENTERFEAR Level 2 EP, Tennis - Swimmer, Tiësto - The London Sessions, Tink - Hopeless Romantic, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down - Temple, The-Dream - SXTPA, Theophilus London - Bebay, Thundercat - It Is What It Is, Tokio Myers - BLACK DAWN EP , Tourist - Wild (Remixes) EP, Trivecta - Everyday EP, T.R.U. & 2 Chainz - No Face No Chase, Two Feet - Pink, Tycho - Simulcast, T3 - Mr. Fantastic EP, Various Artists - Bad Boys For Life Soundtrack, Various Artists - Birds is Pray: The Album, Various Artists - Ophelia Presents: Advent Volume 1, Various Artists - The Turning (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), Varsity - Fine Forever, Vistas - Everything Changes in the End, Vundabar - Either Light, Vybz Kartel - To Tanesha, Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud, WENS - Lemoncholy EP, William Black - Pages (The Remixes), Wiz Khalifa - The Saga of Wiz Khalifa, Wolf Parade - Thin Mind, X Ambassador - Belong EP, xylø - The Ganglands of My Heart EP, Yaeji - WHAT WE DREW 우리가 그려왔던, Yellow Claw - Never Dies, Yo Gotti - Untrapped, Youngr - Memories, Yumi Zouma - Truth or Consequences, Yves Tumor - Heaven To a Tortured Mind, Zeds Dead - We Are Deadbeats (Vol. 4), Zsela - Ache of Victory EP, 070 Shake - Modus Vivendi, The 1975 - Notes On A Conditional Form, 5 Seconds of Summer - CALM

Meh: ARTHUR - Hair of the Dog, The Black Lips - Sing in a World That’s Falling Apart,  Bruno Major - To Let A Good Thing Die, Don Toliver - Heaven Or Hell, Eminem - Music To Be Murdered By, Frances Quinlan - Likewise, Future - High On Life, iann dior - I’m Gone, Jaunt - All In One, Jeezy - Twenty/20 Pyrex Vision EP, Lil Baby - My Turn, Lil Uzi Vert - Eternal Atake, Lil Uzi Vert - LUV vs. The World 2, Liquid Stranger - Ascension EP, Masiwei & Higher Brothers - Prince Charming, MHYSA - Navaeh, Nicolas Jaar - Cenizas, Rich The Kid - BOSS MAN, Social Club Misfits - MOOD // DOOM

Mini lectures

Anthropocene

Anthropocene defines Earth’s most recent geologic time period as being human-influenced, or anthropogenic, based on overwhelming global evidence that atmospheric, geologic, hydrologic, biospheric and other earth system processes are now altered by humans.

Anthropocene has become an environmental buzzword ever since the atmospheric chemist and Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen popularized it in 2000. 

We are altering the world with factory farming meat, mining fossil fuels, non-recyclable plastics, destroying rainforests, air travel, factories burning fossil fuels, dumping waste into oceans. Researchers have listed a set of ‘tipping points’ we are in danger of passing in a near future. Even small human induced climate changes could push these vital parts of the planet over the edge. These tipping elements are Arctic Summer Sea-Ice, Greenland Ice Sheet, West Antarctic Ice Sheet, Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation, El Nino Southern Oscillation, Indian Summer Monsoon, Sahal/West Africa Monsoon, Amazon Rainforest, Boreal Forest.

Contemporary art in Anthropocene

Production Line – Made in China and Made in Taiwan, 2014,  work by  Po-Chih Huang examination of cheap garment-making.

The Deluge – Noah’s Ark, 2014, work by Hung-Chih Peng about ecological crisis and extreme weather.

This Is The End, 2014, Chen Wang, series of drawings, sculptural installations and a fictional fragment imagining post-apocalyptic life-forms.

The lecure was eye opening on problems we are facing. It’s important to address these isssues and show the shocking truths. The question on what faces us in the future depends on technological progress and the 50/50 chance on it saving us or destroying us.

Black Lives Matter

The Black Lives Matter Global Network is a chapter-based, member-led organization whose mission is to build local power and to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.

In 2013, three radical Black organizers—Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi—created a Black-centered political will and movement building project called #BlackLivesMatter. It was in response to the Trayvon Martin’s murderer, George Zimmerman. 

Especially because some of us have white privlege, it’s important not to be ignorant about movements that concern us all. It’s an ongoing issue and it’s important to know our history and not make statements based on our unresearched opinions.

One of the artists that makes work on BLM is Sondra Perry that was our group’s glossary of terms. Sondra Perry is an interdisciplinary artist who works with video, computer- based media and performance to explore the digital abstraction of identity. 

Typhoon Coming On is artist’s first major European exhibition is a reckoning of dehumanized black identity, as asset and digital phantasm. The show’s title is taken from J. M.W. Turner’s painting of the British slave ship Zong, Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying – Typhoon Coming On (1840). Sharing the title of the exhibition, a digitally modified 2018 video of Turner’s sea is projected onto the outer walls of the gallery interior. The video switches periodically to a CGI animation of purple waves, rebooting the Zong massacre for the present day.

Feminism

Feminism is a range of political movements, ideologies, and social movements that share a common goal: to define, establish, and achieve political, economic, personal, and social equality of sexes. 

Feminism at its core is about equality of men and women, not “sameness.” So many people offer up the argument that women are not the “same” as men so there can’t be equality. In other words, because their bodies are different (many say “weaker” and smaller), and because men and women have different physical capabilities, these physical differences mean equality is not possible.

Throughout most of Western history, women were confined to the domestic sphere, while public life was reserved for men. In medieval Europe, women were denied the right to own property, to study, or to participate in public life.

The lecture gave me a deeper understanding on issue of equality. But the big problem with it is the hate of the term feminism that overshades it’s purpose. The mainstream media has made feminism seem like a bunch of angry women that want to control the world and put men down. 

Post-Capitalism

Post-capitalism includes a number of proposals for a new economic system to replace capitalism, examine more advanced forms, or otherwise speculate on the fate of the current form of the social order. According to some classical Marxist and some social evolutionary theories, post-capitalist societies may come about as a result of spontaneous evolution as capitalism becomes obsolete. Others propose models to intentionally replace capitalism. The most notable among them are socialism and anarchism.

A book on Postcapitalism by Paul Mason argues that we are on the brink of a change so big and so profound that this time capitalism itself, the immensely complex system within which entire societies function, will mutate into something wholly new.

In the lecture we learned about Karl Marx, The Russian Revolution, Neo-Liberalizm, free zones, Hauntology, acid communism, decapitalism and took a look at different artists. 

79 field reports by natural scientists, social scientists, humanists and artists

Conceptual field

Patchiness of the Anthropocene

Reading room

Feral Atlas as a method for studying the Anthropocene

Brass key > Super Index

Meta-essays

Risky business

Ecological patch as a unit

Scott Frickel brownfield research

Multiple kinds of time: Detonator time (political-economic programs), Systems time (tippers, tipping point) and nonhuman histories

Political-economic programs (Anthropocene detonators): Multispecies invasions, Terraforming governance, Industrial capitalism and The Great Acceleration

What are the Anthropocene stories in Hong Kong (former twice-colony, neo-colonised by developers, capitalist and terraforming government, etc.)?

'Pasture grasses are barriers to forest regeneration in Latin America' — Rosa E. Ficek. Similar to the bocage at the ZAD, and maybe the "green belt" in Wang Chau...

Multispecies invasion (invasive species). The lanternfly in the US

Tippers (verbs): Burn, Grid, Take, Pipe, Crowd, Dump, and Smooth and Speed

Feral Qualities as patterns, of what humans have been up to as 'dangerous collaborators'

Superpowers such as Omicron and mosquitoes in slave ships

Kudzu and its spookiness