#with the track record he has of slightly molding himself and mimicking others | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

shiikiyun · 3 months

Text

I think something i don't often see in discussions about Futa's character is how, if you really take a second, he's kind of a people pleaser

He isn't so in a way like what Mikoto got going on, he does want to be around people of the same interests as him, and you wouldn't think he'd care about anything but authenticity if you stayed with the way he behaves on milgram. It is only when you think about him -in- those social circles he manages to get into that you can see him tweaking lol

I think the closest to see this that we have in milgram itself is that one interaction with Kotoko in which she attempts to debate how prisons respect human rights. Any other time he expressed his opinion/stance on things he was aggressive and maybe condescending to the rest because they disagreed with him, but the second someone agreed? Whole demeanor changed. Suddenly he didn't have much to say anymore and he just parroted Kotoko's words back at her. Why. If he has such a strong personality and mindset, why was someone validating his point enough to shut down his otherwise very firm attitude?

Futa doesn't go as far as to manufacture his every word for it to cause a positive reaction on others from the get go, but he does seek validation all the same. He braces himself for rejection by being loud and obnoxious and harsh until he sees a positive reaction and then is when he does a complete 180 to keep the other person in that place of validation. He is simultaneously completely bad at it though, but I never said he was good at people pleasing. Which connects back to what i've said before about his inability to fit in. Even when he thinks he's doing it right and he sees himself getting validation by people he cares about (in the case of his crime, by mimicking his friendgroup's method of "bringing justice" by calling out someone online, that same friendgroup following along and reinforcing the idea that he was doing it right), he ultimately fails anyway and loses it all over again.

In the end, he's just extremely socially awkward and anxious. It isn't in his nature to reach anyone else's expectations even if he genuinely wants to, so he'll either do what he can within his parameters (mold himself for his friendgroup of people he deems similar to him) or he'll avoid trying altogether because he knows he'll fail (what we see in milgram!)

It also shows how his yearn for a support system (t2 qna + mu's birthday timeline convo) isn't particularly new from his current circumstances, or why the only person he could think of when asked who he would want to see right now was his mom (who left so long ago he barely remembers her). He has just never truly had people that genuinely cared for him no matter what he tried to do to make himself likeable.

#and having this in mind i think i understand why he seems to be “giving in” to amane's beliefs #it isnt solely because of his current vulnerability #it isnt even just to find solace in religion #it is because amane offered him help. in a way shes validating him #and if believing in bullshit like salvation and god will make at least the elementary schooler talk to him sometimes #against being left alone with his thoughts and the voices in the walls #with the track record he has of slightly molding himself and mimicking others #yeahh #and honestly that only means itll backfire even worse! on Him!#in his own words #it is what it isSorry #but no yeah hes fucked. i dont think his religious arc is gonna make shit complicated for anyone else but him #but itll be AWFUL on him #milgram #fuuta kajiyama #fuuta milgram #character analysis #sorta kinda #as always

175 notes · View notes

firefield · 3 years

Text

Metrobolist (2020)

Nine Songs By David Bowie

Remixed by Tony Visconti

The Width Of A Circle is an epic track - a track you might find used as a centerpiece rather than a leadoff, and I think part if it’s power is the decision to put it right at the front and see if it can swallow the listener whole. If it succeeds, you will probably love the record in its entirety. Tony’s approach to this new from-the-ground-up mix of TWOAC feels very Led Zeppelin to me, the snare drum has a wicked snap to it, the toms are rolling and kinetic, the cymbals are wider-panned and shimmery. Ronson’s left channel guitar gets an amplitude boost and some added crunch - you get a better sense of the amp and the electricity he’s pushing. You get a better feel for the acoustic right channel guitar too. The soundstage seems left pretty well intact, which tells me this remix project will be generally faithful to the original mix. Aww man. That transition at 4 and a half minutes in is swirly-sweet. You can tell a lot of work went into the drums and cymbals mixdown, and this is proving to be a pattern with TV’s remix work - Space Oddity and especially Lodger. Well, that was a sampling of thunder. Like his remix of Space Oddity, this new mix feels very “of it’s time” so far and I’m really glad for that. I didn’t expect Tony to strangle 1970 out of it - but it’s still really satisfying to hear his maturity and resistance to 2020 studio gimmickry. I’d bet a mortgage payment TV and DB discussed this extensively before David passed.

All The Madmen

Whoa. I’m so used to hearing that distant acoustic guitar slowly pan from left to right that it’s wild to hear it announce the song so resolutely. All the guitars sound *really* good here. I’m still getting a better sense of Ronno’s guitar tone than in the original mix and it’s awesome. Nice reversed reverb trick there. Interesting - overall there is less abrupt panning changes - things are more locked into place... the Moog strings aren’t stabbing into the left channel and a little less “twisted carnival,” and the closing band vocal coda doesn’t snap from Right-To-Middle-To-Left. It’s nice to hear this more “traditional” mix, sonically speaking, of such a deep and personal track.

Black Country Rock is thick. The guitars are better defined and snakelike. Wonderful detail and separation in all the guitar parts. Bowie’s lead vocal and all layers are a definite improvement over the original mix down. The ending coda is a bit more manic with DB doing some atypical ad-libbing and Tony channeling a future Mike Garson with some piano pounding.

After All on Metrobolist is not a new mix and uses the 2015 remaster - there was some confusion about that. At first we heard there may be missing tapes, and then we heard he didn’t want to touch it and felt it sat nicely on Metrobolist as is. Turns out it does sit well, as the vocal treatment has a similarity to All The Madmen, a delicate and intimate feel to it.

Running Gun Blues

Whoa! Okay then. Gone is the folksy, dude strumming 8 feet behind you sound of the acoustic guitar and here it is, confident and noticeably louder... and WHAT? Gone is the cavernous drum hit and... it’s almost like a gunshot/bomb explosion traveling across a flat landscape... LOL and wow again - the Moog synth’s amplitude is pumped into alien movie B-roll territory mimicking a Theramin-in-your-face... this is going to be wild. Arguably one of DB’s most openly violent songs, this has hints of Tony’s remix work on the harder rocks tracks of Space Oddity. Hell, the drum work sounds fantastic, these guitars... very well done. Fatter, more wall-of-soundish. Again with that mimicking of shots or bombs. Excellent remix.

Savior Machine

Holy shit. That was incredible. I couldn’t even write anything down as I was so captivated by what I heard. This remix is absolutely incredible, and the song itself is elevated because of it. This is the most “aggressive” remix I’ve heard so far on Metrobolist, and amazingly it feels the most true to the tone and feel of the Man Who Sold The World. It attacks at you more, evangelistic in its delivery. Comparing directly to the 1970 mix, the original feels sedate, even slightly unsure of itself. Good Lordy. I love hearing work like this from talented audio engineers. It’s like TV found the tiger at the core of Saviour Machine and let it out to show you it’s teeth in your blank, dumb face. Ronno was a damn brilliant guitarist and this piled-on, urgent ending of this track could go on forever as far as I am concerned. Fucking marvelous.

“I need you flying, and I’ll show that dying

Is living beyond reason, sacred dimension of time

I perceive every sign, I can steal every mind.”

She Shook Me Cold

Well now I am *amped* to hear how Tony treats this odd song after that train blew through. Hello Jimi Hendrix. Heavy as lead. Soundstage is wider with a cavernous middle that Bowie haunts almost alone, to grab the golden hair of virgins, head smashing, brains blowing, merciless crushing of... things. The drums have a lot of motion around the perimeter, cymbals swirl... the band feels like they are giving the singer a wide berth to have this violent encounter , and that disassociated center feels appropriately menacing. I love that moment at about 2:48 where Tony and his bass just say fuckit and fall right off the cliff and let the drums and guitar tangle in the dirt without him. Excellent, skillful audio engineering from Tony here.

The Man Who Sold The World

Another jolt - gone is the extreme panning of the guitars, washboard percussion is toned down, and very noticeable changes in the drum sound and the drum arrangement itself. Some nice added vocal delays in the chorus, but tasteful. I have to say, unlike these other tracks, this *is* actually a more modern mix and doesn’t feel (to me) to be “rooted in 1970.” Ahhh... really nice clarity of the backing vocal layers in the coda. Yeah, so I enjoyed that. It does stand out a bit from the tone of the rest of the record - similar to how TV’s remix of the Space Oddity track itself has a bit more of a modern feel than the rest of the remixed Space Oddity record. It sort of reaches a bit into the future... you can almost hear 90’s David performing this song in this way. This mix could divide opinion.

The Supermen

Well by now, it’s pretty clear the dark place Tony will place this great album closer based on all we’ve heard so far. This was one I was very excited to hear because there is so much to work with, and you can place your bets heavily towards the drums getting a lot of attention. Quick aside; how unique is Bowie as a vocalist? This is unreal. “A chance to die, to turn to mold.” I can hear entire genres of music that will be “created” in about 10 to 15 years fueled by performances like this. Well that was jaw-dropping. I love the original mix - it’s wide channel separation just feels perfectly *odd* but mixing choices like that can result in a loss of midrange raw power. Listen to how Visconti handles the guitars as they slam into “and gloomy browed with superfear” - extraordinary. And as expected, this drum mix is just unreal. A beautiful choice of reverb and EQ. And we even get a David Bowie chuckle at the end of all that intensity to remind that he really was a bit of a goofball at heart.

Another success overall in my opinion. Tony is proving himself absolutely faithful to the spirit of these tracks - not an easy thing to do with all that possibility laid out in sound before you as you recreate such an iconic work. This remix falls in the middle as far as “differences” go; with Maslin’s Station To Station and Scott’s Ziggy at the more subtle, academic end, and TV’s Space Oddity and Lodger at the other. It serves to shine a brighter light on the individual performances and how they all interlock together, as well as celebrating Bowie’s extraordinary gift of songwriting. A good remix can make the very, very familiar feel exhilarating and at the same time comfortable to hear. Tony Visconti has done it once again and David and Ronno would have *loved* this work too.

0 notes