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Musings

Jesper and Johnny’s neoclassical meme journey through ’90s trance

 

Prologue: Boyfriends & Dolphins 

Once upon a time there was a cat called JesperL and a porpoise called JohnnyoftheWell. It was springtime and anything was possible. Johnny introduced Jesper to Guangzhou’s finest emo indie biscuiteers yourboyfriendsucks! (Qiii Snacks Records) and all was well because they could both dig that band and look very earnestly dapper for it.

But it was not enough. All things must end, and then begin once more. New digs must be found.

In this case, the dig was the Japanese ‘90s acid trance/techno act Dream Dolphin, who boasts many great qualities including the best artist name of all time and the recently resurfaced cult classic Tsuki no Iyashi, Umi no Mahou (1998). Subsequent discourse went as follows:

Johnny: Let’s dig Dream Dolphin!

Jesper: It has been dug. will maybe listen to it

Johnny: it is um believe it or not better than yourboyfriendsucks 

Jesper: split ep when

Johnny: are we ready for emotrance to be a thing

Jesper: tbh that actually sounds very tiktok ready.  get some la dispute ass lines before a sick vibedrop

Johnny: omg you hexed it – the moment you said tiktok this came on

Screenshot 2022-09-12 at 14.18.04

Jesper: okok fine i will listen

Johnny: king park nightcore mashup with this when

Jesper: lmao kinda slaps

Johnny: around 1:30 onwards is fire

Jesper: ok yes banger will

The Seer

Release Date: August 28, 2012

Anniversary: 10 years

Genre: Noise/Post-Rock

The vast majority of the time, I don’t actually know if an album is going to leave a lasting impression when I first hear it (despite the many insta-5’s). There are LPs that seem immediate and others that feel like they’ll end up growing, but no matter how I feel about them initially, time is the only real measuring stick when it comes to determining a classic. With that said, there have been very, very few records (in fact, only two come to mind) that were so towering and so unique that the second I laid ears upon them, I just knew. Sufjan Stevens’ Carrie & Lowell was the first, and Swans’ The Seer was the second. In The Seer‘s case, it had such an impact on me because I’d literally never heard anything even remotely close to it in style or breadth. It demolished me upon first listen, leaving goosebumps on my skin and my jaw upon the floor. The second, third, and fourth listens yielded the same results. Now, ten years and countless listens later, my reaction to The Seer hasn’t changed one bit.

This is an unsettling experience that makes you feel like you’re living in an eerie post-apocalyptic realm: there’s witch incantations (‘Lunacy’), weird quiet laments (‘The Wolf’), sprawling 32-minute drone tracks (‘The Seer’), creepy-as-all-fuck borderline-industrial rockers (‘The Seer Returns’), the aching, creaking, churning wheels of hell (’93 Ave. B Blues’)…and that’s all before…

Yellowcard - Southern Air - Amazon.com Music

Release Date: August 14, 2012

Anniversary: 10 years

Genre: Pop-Punk

The best music appeals to us emotionally, which leads to future feelings of nostalgia. I’m not going to pretend that every album I’ve enjoyed has had this effect; Kid A, while indisputably and objectively better than any Yellowcard album, provides me no rose-tinted glimpses of the past even though I consider it to be one of the most groundbreaking records to come out in my lifetime. Perhaps that’s because it’s an inherently cold record, or maybe it’s because I was barely in middle school when it dropped. Musical nostalgia at its very best requires a precise blend of intangibles; where you are in your life, what kind of music you’re listening to, what happens to get released at that exact moment, and whether or not you encounter it. The stars must align perfectly. For me, only a few albums have struck such a chord – and among those, Yellowcard’s Southern Air tops them all.

As Southern Air turns ten years old today, I’m amazed by its ability to instantly transport me back to the most turbulent, yet amazing, year of my life. 2012 began as no picnic: my heart was left in shambles by a girlfriend who moved out of state with a fiance she never told me she had; my “career” had stalled at a dangerous and low-paying entry level position; my roommate and I were gradually drifting apart; my…

Sputnik Roundtable #1: Music Assessment

All discussion prompts submitted by the user nightbringer.

So far this year, we have implemented a handful of new, different ideas of our website’s staff blog — while some have predictably flamed out, others have endured and seem primed for a bright future. About four months ago, I surveyed our collective userbase for additional concepts, and this latest one came to us from nightbringer, who suggested all seven of the below discussion topics. We organized a small committee of writers (granitenotebook, JesperL, JohnnyoftheWell, and myself) to answer as we saw fit. In this first installment of what will hopefully be many, we observe the nature of music critique: from “what makes a classic” to how album art influences our perception of the music we hear. If you have questions you’d like to submit for future Sputnik Roundtable installments, please submit them here. Thanks, and we hope you enjoy the article!

Free Question Marks on Paper Crafts Stock Photo

(1) What are music reviews for?

Sowing: A music review is really just a persuasive argument.  Yes, we critique the art based upon its objective merits as well as its subjective implications, but there’s a reason we don’t merely assign it a number and move on. The objective is to sell that opinion to the consumer and convince them that your take is the correct one. Why else would someone be reading – or thanks to YouTube – watching a music review? Outside…

Shoegaze is a big genre and this is a big fucking post.

Cut out 10-15 minutes for yourself, and away we go…

shoegaz

Intro

I feel that practically everyone listens to shoegaze in some form or another, but what landmarks or band-families this entails varies surprisingly wildly depending on who you ask. Shoegaze is old and it’s big: 30+ years is easily enough time for successive generations of bed-headed indie fucks and aesthete space cadets to carve out their own fuzzy atmospheres and dish them into the proximity of every single other genre that looks good in mood lighting (and a few that don’t). Back in its ‘90s heyday, shoegaze was panned for being homogenous and turgid, guitar music’s version of an overused slow-motion effect, but it grown so many variants across so many styles that these remarks’ failure to pick up on its creative potential is case-closed moot. 

All of which amounts to quite a lot. How do you navigate it? Who’s the next step if you never made it past My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive? What’s your ticket to mothership if your main exposure is from mayfly albums on the fringes of Bandcamp? What if you’re up to your arse in Deftones and Beach House and still aren’t sure whether real shoegaze is worth the money? Aren’t there any acts who’ve done something surprising or exciting with the genre? Why gaze in the first place?

If only through its sheer size,

KILL or KEEP Vol.7

Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You

Big Thief are a nu-hipster indie band from Brooklyn. They make mostly folk musics that many people enjoy but no-one really gets. If you get it, you’re out: house rules. As part of the Big Thief tradition of doing oblique things with tangential glimmers of Meaning that deepen more mystique than they open windows, the band have released a twenty-track single album entitled Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You. Everyone including you is already talking about it. Everyone has wildly different song rankings and all of them are fucking wrong.

We at KILL or KEEP HQ wondered whether there was something #deeper to explore, and so we assembled with a big question mark. We are ianbJesperL, johnnyoftheWell, Pheromone and Sinternet. We hope you have fun. 

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You - Album by Big Thief | Spotify

Rules

Every song must either be KILLed or KEEPed.

If a contestant fails to KILL at least four songs, they will themselves be KILLed!

Special rule: Who Is The Big Thief?

If a contestant KILLs a song, they must accuse a celebrity of being the big thief.

If they KEEP a song, they are the big thief. They must reveal what they stole, and from whom.

First Impressions

Ian: so is this an album i can commit mass larceny to or no? because i set fire to 17 orphanages in the rural American south in preparation for

KILL or KEEP Vol.6

Tavito Nanao – Heavenly Punk Adagio

Hello and welcome back to KILL or KEEP. It has been a while since we partied – sorry! What you’re about to read put a solid four-month roadblock in our way, for reasons that will make sense shortly. It was what the squares and the stooges call a really stupid idea; we at KILL or KEEP HQ do not typically pay this kind of bogwash any mind, but this time around we were victims of our own bravery. Such has always been our fate. Dare you share it? We believe that the following conversation(s) have significant artistic and that you should read them. Please also enjoy them.

The story of our long story is a short one: on a snivellous November day, JesperL (TMZ: late night) and johnnyoftheWell (TMZ: earlyish morning) were laughing about an obscure Japanese indietronica megalodon uncovered on RYM. The album was none other than Heavenly Punk Adagio by Tavito Nanao, a man who begets no introduction because we still know shit all about him.

The genre tags read Indietronica, Singer/Songwriter, Art Pop, Dream Pop, Psychedelic Pop, IDM, Neo-Psychedelia.

The runtime is 153 minutes over 35 tracks.

It isn’t in the Sputnik database and likely never will be.

BaselineOOO has listened to it more than once on Last.fm.

We said “Okay???”

None of us knew shit about this album, but suddenly neekafat was online and has time to kill before an appointment at his local…

Hello, and welcome to the second installment in a series of articles observing all things related to the musical past. If you have a suggestion for something you want to see covered in this series, feel free to drop it here.


Video games were always a fun part of my childhood. I remember when I got my first console (the original Nintendo NES) for Christmas sometime in the early 90s, and it was easily one of my favorite presents that I ever received. My family was by no small exaggeration poor, so even as a six year old I knew to temper my expectations when it came to what Santa could fit inside of his bag. Needless to say, the fact that I actually got one blew my mind at the time. Some of my favorite games were Super Mario (1-3), Donkey Kong, and Crystalis (think pre-Zelda for a quick reference to the overall gameplay).

At that age I didn’t think about the music behind the games; it was sort of just there. Now, that classic 8-bit sound is the fastest portal that I can find back to my childhood. It’s a funny feeling listening to songs I have not heard in 25+ years and still knowing them like the back of my hand. Because of the hundreds of hours I spent playing these games, they’re ingrained in my mind, and the music is like a key that unlocks doors to memories I didn’t even know…

Hello, and welcome to the first installment in a series of articles observing all things related to the musical past. If you have a suggestion for something you want to see covered in this series, feel free to drop it here.

–Clears throat obnoxiously, unwraps hard candy, and pushes glasses up from tip of nose —

I grew up a 90s kid, which means that most of my music-consuming life has been centered around the compact disc (CD). It’s strange for me to think that there are full grown adults today who have never owned one, but with streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Prime Music offering a nearly endless selection of songs – along with the emergence of numerous high quality digital file types – I can’t really claim that they’re missing out on much. In fact, listening to music is arguably easier and a better experience than it was at any other point in history. Technology has put the world at our fingertips, and that world includes a lot of music.

However, the experience of listening to music is wildly different than it used to be. In 2005, I remember waking up on a Tuesday (which is when new albums used to be released, particularly in the United States) and rushing out to buy Thrice’s Vheissu.  I didn’t have my own car,so I had to bum a ride off my friend who was eager to…

ind

When you look at industrial as a genre, I don’t think it has an equal in terms of just how broad, vague and elusive it can be.  On the one hand, the sounds pertaining to industrial are tangible, distinct, and inimitable; on the other hand, the genre has fragmented and infected so many other styles of music over the years, it gets to the point now where you wonder what prerequisites are required to even make an “authentic” industrial record anymore – if there is such a thing. I recently gave Skinny Puppy’s magnum opus Last Rights a spin; the jam had such a lasting felicity, it made me want to go through some of my favourite industrial albums again. After all, as some of you may well know, the genre is somewhat of a staple of mine, albeit one I tend to overlook these days – which is a shame, because in recent years, incidental or otherwise, industrial has been getting a resurgence that’s creeping back into the stratosphere (mainstream or otherwise) again. Bands and artists from all walks of life are implementing industrial’s cold, sterile drum snaps and dystopian electronic backdrops into their own styles of music – styles of music as far-reaching as pop, or the deepest crevasses of metal’s underbelly. So, if you’re new to this genre and you want some of my essential recommendations (for whatever they’re worth), grab a coffee and dive into the disparate world of industrial with the Doctor.…

a2852255336_10

Kayo Dot – Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike


 

Kayo Dot’s 10th LP, Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike, is one more proof that Toby Driver’s genius is, fortunately, still with us. His borderless brand of experimental and progressive metal invites 80s synth music and post-punk/gothic vibes this time in this uniquely brilliant record. Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike is a sonic voyage that reflects upon the pagan mind’s cyclic vision of the world with great charisma and emotion. For this task Toby recruited all the original members from his previous project, Maudlin of the Well, which is fantastic news for all of us who held Maudlin of the Well close to our hearts. Sound wise this album sees Kayo Dot expanding their late synth-driven brand of prog metal/rock as they incorporate some new elements from 80s post-punk and gothic rock that endow the music with a unique, reflective tone that feels very fresh yet very reminiscent of the 80s rock and dark music. Imagine Rush’s Power Windows era meeting Joy Division and then add Type O Negative’s dark vibes and Ulver’s experimental approach to the mix to get an idea of what you should expect here.

Compositionally the album is very interesting. Although at first glance it may look simple, the songwriting is actually intricate and very thoughtful (as is always the case with Kayo Dot) – getting full use out of the synth as a background atmospheric…

trophy-scars-astral-pariah-Cover-Art


 

Trophy Scars – Astral Pariah

A man had a dream where he nibbled at glory. The years went by and the man lived that glory but then left the known world. Eventually the man returned and had the wisdom of another reality. The man was rejected by his once fellow man for he had become unrecognizable to the brainwashed majority. One hundred knives met with cold direction. – Storm In A Teacup

KILL or KEEP Vol.5

Nightwish– Once

Welcome to the KILL or KEEP milestone instalment, Vol.5. What a moment this is. We have gone from powers of 2 to powers of 5. We have transcended the snottiness of bashing mediocre bands like the Smashing Pumpkins and Nine Inch Nails and reached such heights that we can make up whatever bollocks we so please and potentially tackle a legitimately “good” artist one day. What a giddy moment.

There was (probably) going to be a celebration of this belletristic triumph, but before it got organised, Sputnik MVP Staffer Dewinged (legeeend) spontaneously declared that he was going to listen to a Nightwish album with one hour’s notice, and a different kind of gravity asserted itself.

The album in question turned out to be Once, the 2004 opus among opuses viewed by many as the group’s symphonic peak – this being the most significant Nightwish album that JohnnyoftheWell (lol loser) had not heard, a glitzy pact was formed on the spot. Dewi got to take the next steps on his Epic journey with added style; Johnny got to go back in time and cover his tracks. What’s not to love?

Unfortunately, these motivations were both ultimately selfish, hardly reflective of KILL or KEEP‘s deeper imperative for critical justice and practical public advice. To remedy this and save the whole affair from corrupt SputStaff-exclusive sticky-pokey, we invited the unmodified unmastered vox pop microdeity LeddSledd into the fray (baaased). With not partisan attachments past, present or (likely) future, he…

Colors-II-Between-The-Buried-And-Me


Between the Buried and Me – Colors II

We live in a time where sequels and call-backs are done to death. Take your artistic medium of choice and witness the litany of hackneyed cash-grabs attempting to tug on your nostalgic heartstrings. On the boldly stated Colors II, Between the Buried and Me buck the trend and deliver on the promise of following up an all-time classic. As a standalone, this album is a gigantic, progressive gymnastics routine packed to the absolute gills with instrumental mastery and compositional/genre fuckery, the likes of which we’ve rarely seen. Taken as another rainbow block of molded clay to be affixed onto their 2007 construction, what we have here is a balls-to-the-white-walls two-part epic that reframes their entire sprawling discography. No matter where you lie along the prog metal appreciation spectrum – this deserves your ears, if only as a reference point for what’s possible. – Inoculaeted

There are few albums in recent memory that have been quite so divisive as Donda. Kanye West’s long-teased 10th LP has gone through many iterations and titles, and finally dropped yesterday as a 27-track, almost 2 hour behemoth. Length alone should never be a detractor to one’s critical reception of art – but in this case, the album simply fails to uphold the quality of its strongest moments for that entire duration. That’s really okay, because two hours of superb music is nearly impossible to pull off. In forming a critical analysis of Donda, however, one must take all moments into account – not just its finer cuts – and the results are middling. At its core though, Donda had the potential to be nearly perfect and go toe to toe with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as West’s best and most ambitious work. I’m sure this will be done a thousand different ways over the coming weeks, but below is my re-imagined and condensed version of Donda – an iteration that I almost certainly would have hailed as superb or a classic.

I left ‘Jail’ as the opener (we’re not counting ‘Donda Chant’ in this case) because I think it is the ideal adrenaline pumping scene-setter. I’ve heard some complaints already about ‘God Breathed’s early placement with that long outro, but I’m okay with it – it cements Donda as the imaginative and ambitious piece that it is. Most of this re-imagining was just me trimming…

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