Hello and welcome to the future of Sputnik’s recently rebooted, charm offending, hernia cleansing, fool hunting, wokeshopping mania avenue for the brave and brainless. Staff Wars is back! This is where we stick members of the Staff team against the wall and interview them within an inch of their lives. Steel yourself as impossible questions are posed and the Staffers you’d never had the courage to approach before surpass your wildest expectations.
Today’s subject is an adorable young bean of Good Sput Stock, so fresh-faced that I originally misremembered the number of years he has been on Staff by a factor of 0.5 (this has been edited and I have been shamed). His penmanship is pointy, his reverence is zany and his charm is a gosh darned weapon. Please welcome: AsleepintheBack!
AsleepintheBack hi. What day/time is it and how is your day?
I am somewhere in France on a Wednesday evening after a most adequate day thanking you I hope you are swell.
What are you jamming at this moment?
The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble – Here Be Dragons (thank you MoM).
Hmm. Let’s break some ice: what can humans learn from birds?
How to fall with style (penguins exempted).
Love penguins. Which problematic historical figure do you find most attractive?
I’d bang Stalin tbh (he can Soviet my Union, wink wink etc.).
Yikes hot, great! Now, the question on everyone’s lips: why are you named after an Elbow album?
God knows lol. My dad likes Elbow. I like my dad. There was probably some further reasoning between those two…
Is it evening yet? Or is the morning? Um…setting aside your schedule of busy Sputnikmusic comment posting and left click debauchery to get to the nitty gritty of “how to review music”, hacks, roms and workarounds. In this segment we’ll be cross checking different staffers’ approaches to putting words together. Maybe you’re a budding reviewer, on the cusp of greatness (how ’bout that?), searching for that piece of the puzzle lost on the floor or maybe your mum just logged you on to the household’s singular trusty laptop and you don’t know what to do with your fifteen-minute screen allowance before the older sibling demands the computer for…research? Either way, you’ve come to the right place!
Welcome to Part. 1! Today (or sometime this week more likely) we have…Jesper!!
First off. Who are you and how did you get here?
Hi! I’m Jesper and I probably got here in like 2015 while trying to find a review for Knuckle Puck or Brand New or something. Pop punk being part of your origin story is rarely a good sign.
How many reviews do you have on this site? No, disregard that. How many reviews are you truly proud of? Now you can circle back. How many reviews do you have?
Eh, out of my 155 reviews I might be truly proud of a few of them. I honestly don’t know because I never/rarely reread my own reviews after they’re up (mostly because I’ll have proofread them like 24 times…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of March 31st, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: March 31st, 2023 –
Ad Infinitum: Chapter III: Downfall
Genre: Metal / Symphonic Metal Label: Napalm
Boygenius: The Record
Genre: Indie Folk / Indie Rock Label: Interscope Records
Bury Tomorrow: The Seventh Son
Genre: Metalcore Label: Music For Nations
Chloe: In Pieces
Genre: Singer / Songwriter Label: Columbia
The Classic Crime: Grim Age
Genre: Alternative Rock Label: Tooth & Nail Records
Damien Jurado: Sometimes You Hurt The Ones You Hate
Genre: Indie Folk / Psychedelic Label: Maraqopa Records
They say you were something in those formative years…
For many, our love of music begins with the influence of our family and friends. I can remember my mom blasting Hendrix so loud the windows shook and I could feel it through the stool I was sitting on. Or hunched by the kitchen window watching the spread of milky coldness on the glass while my father cooked with Paul Simon singing “Mother and Child Reunion”. Still later, I would remember my brother buying Bon Jovi patches for his denim jacket.
There does come a time when something we hear goes beyond our inheritance. When I consciously chose an artist that no-one else championed, it changed what music did for me — it became an expression of my personality. Musical taste, to me anyway, is sometimes an instinctual compass that unlocks a part of who we are. These are some stories about those moments, as told by our contributor team. –fog
U2
It’s 2005. 2006? The exact year doesn’t matter. I’m 9, maybe 10 years old, and clearly don’t know much about how the world works, but I harbor an unquenchable need — as the oldest child in my family, as the son of a teacher and a preacher, as someone with all the love and support you could ask for, Maslow’s first three needs safely met — to present…
Sugar World, Yung Lean’s new album released under his jonatan leandoer96 moniker, might be the sweetest he’s sounded. Not vocally, mind you–his crooning is as tuneless as ever–but he’s as charming and earnest as he looks on the cover. Sugar World is primarily a collection of ballads adorned with lush pop-rock instrumentation, and it’s a new direction for Lean, even under this name. His versatility is impressive, and this new album demonstrates that he isn’t afraid in the slightest of experimenting or branching out into new territory.
The music backing Yung Lean is glossy and easy-going, providing a wonderful juxtaposition with Yung Lean’s aforementioned vocal performance. Critics have decried his vocals as unpalatable throughout his career, so there’s nothing really new here on that front; yet others, whether they be long-time fans or curious newcomers, will appreciate the romance and quirkiness in his voice. Lyrically, nearly every song touches on affection and intimacy in some form, and it’s hard not to find Lean delightful and alluring as he sings about blue feelings, amusement parks, and remote-controlled love. In fact, this may be his strongest set of lyrics to date. It may be nothing extraordinary, but the combination of melancholy, wistful instrumentals and lovesick rhymes is evergreen. With the added layer of Yung Lean’s monotone vocal delivery, there’s a number of competing and compelling dimensions here that make repeated listens rewarding.
Perhaps no song exemplifies this better than “Rivers of Another Town,” a piano-backed jaunt that wouldn’t…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of March 24th, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: March 24, 2023 –
Acid King: Beyond Vision
Genre: Stoner Doom Label: Blues Funeral
August Burns Red: Death Below
Genre: Metalcore Label: SharpTone
Autumn Tears: Guardian Of The Pale
Genre: Darkwave / Neoclassical Label: The Circle Music
Here’s a list of notable new releases for the week of March 17th, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of March 10, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
I was stoked at the opportunity to catch Kayo Dot playing Choirs of the Eye in its entirety for the 20th anniversary. The band was invited to play the Complexity Festival in The Netherlands and also a gig in London as far as I remember. Thankfully, a number of other stops were added, one being in Belgrade, Serbia at the Elektropionir Club where I traveled to see them. Quite a low key tour for a release which has influenced multiple bands and brought something new and unique to the table when released. However, Kayo Dot have always preferred taking the independent route, despite all the inconveniences it caused along the way. The main one would be a lack of agressive publicity amid an insane time for touring. Bands struggle to find open slots in clubs now that playing live is an option again everywhere and I am sure mastermind Toby Driver has had a hard time booking even these 9 gigs. He openly discussed the hardships faced as an independent musician, but this has been a key to remaining true to himself over the years. His music constantly pushes boundaries and for the better of it, there are too many safe musicians trying to capture the mainstream with standard, safe stuff.
For the 20th anniversary of Choirs of the Eye, Toby assembled a seven piece band that includes the Maudlin of the Well members too. This was reportedly the bare minimum required to present the album as close as possible to…
Hello and welcome to the futureof Sputnik’s recently rebooted, charm offending, hernia cleansing, fool hunting, wokeshopping mania avenue for the brave and brainless. Staff Wars is back! This is where we stick members of the Staff team against the wall and interview them within an inch of their lives. Steel yourself as impossible questions are posed and the Staffers you’d never had the courage to approach before surpass your wildest expectations.
Today is dedex. No fancy introductions, for you know him, for he is Sputnik. What is Sputnik, this Sputnik, this Sputnik you speak of? It is dedex (you fool)! dedex is the still-in-his-prime mentor figure they put in the tutorial level so you have an idea of the character the game narrative wants you to level up to. The game is Sputnik (and you, uh, win or you die); he is the mascot and you can talk to him and learn from him, but can you be him? Hell no! And now he is Staff! Let’s go:
dedex HELLO! Welcome to SputStaff 2023! How do you feel?
First of all HELLO!!
Well I feel good because I’m staff lol. In all seriousness, life is hectic but in a good way, which is basically the best way to live, right?? Or not, I’m tired.
Is there anything I can do for you before this interview starts?
Please be a good boi!
Okay – psych?!!? – I’m just nervous full of giggles because this is both the first Staff Wars in a year and the first nu-Staffer interview I’ve…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of March 3rd, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: March 3rd, 2023 –
Carma: Ossadas
Genre: Black Metal / Doom Label: Monumental Rex
Earth Groans: Tongue Tied
Genre: Metalcore Label: Solid State Records
Enslaved: Heimdal
Genre: Progressive / Black Metal / Folk Label: Nuclear Blast
Entheos: Time Will Take Us All
Genre: Technical Death Metal Label: Metal Blade Records
Full of Hell + Primative Man: Suffocating Hallucination
Genre: Hardcore / Sludge Label: Closed Casket Activities
Haken: Fauna
Genre: Progressive Metal Label: Inside Out
Kate NV: WOW
Genre: Electronic / Pop Label: RVNG
Morgan Wallen: One Thing at a Time
Genre: Country Label: Republic
Ocean of Grief: Pale Existence
Genre: Doom / Death Metal Label: Personal Records
Phantom Fire: Eminente Lucifer Libertad
Genre: Black Metal Label: Edged Circle Productions
Ron Gallo: Foreground Music
Genre: Alternative Label: Kill Rock Stars
Here we are having already closed the books on January, a month more tied to dearth than plenitude: dearth of sunlight, dearth of warmth, and somehow, usually, a dearth of halfway decent music, as the big consumption season of the holidays spends itself into a kind of productive dormancy. The year so far seems to be belying that notion, as an uncommon number of quality releases are being dug up from the frozen ground and passed around as sustenance through the hard months. The most conspicuous fruit of this early-year gleaning is also, paradoxically, among the most minimalist, and, to be frank, the most musically unremarkable, while still remaining one of its creator’s great artistic statements.
12 is easy to pigeonhole as a mere collection of etudes for piano and synthesizer, a soothing, lukewarm, ambient bath recalling the melancholic tranquility of Satie and Eno, always lovely, but sometimes minimalist to the point of being threadbare in execution. It takes a bit of a deeper reading of the thing for it to open up to the listener, a bit of reflection on what exactly this austere approach is revealing. Ryuichi Sakamoto’s 12 was recorded in the winter of last year, and its threadbare qualities often reflect that; the austerity of its titles, its art, and its music are, in a way, those of the bare clinging on and enduring that life can seem to be during this season. But of…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of February 24th, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: February 24, 2023 –
Adam Lambert: High Drama
Genre: Pop Label: BMG
Air Raid: Fatal Encounter
Genre: Heavy Metal Label: High Roller
Algiers: Shook
Genre: Post Punk / Experimental Label: Matador
Begonia: Powder Blue
Genre: Indie Pop Label: Birthday Cake
Big | Brave: Nature Morte
Genre: Sludge Label: Thrill Jockey
Bodyfarm: Ultimate Abomination
Genre: Death Metal Label: Edged Circle Productions
The Church: The Hypnogogue
Genre: New Wave / Psychedelia / Alt Rock Label: Communicating Vessels
Hello and welcome to the futureof Sputnik’s recently rebooted, charm offending, hernia cleansing, fool hunting, wokeshopping mania avenue for the brave and brainless. Staff Wars is back! This is where we stick members of the Staff team against the wall and interview them within an inch of their lives. Steel yourself as impossible questions are posed and the Staffers you’d never had the courage to approach before surpass your wildest expectations.
Today we catch up with a Staffer who should have long since been on here! Both uninterested in all things rock and metal, and in near-invariable alignment with the powers of logic and common sense, it bears no overstatement to call granitenotebook one of Sputnik’s most valuable, talented and frequently overlooked writers. No more of that! No time to waste! In we delve:
granitenotebook, hello! How are you?
i’m doing good! just finished some homework so now I’m on to more important tasks like watching The X-Files
What day of the week are you responding from, and what bearing does this have on your overall state of being?
it’s saturday afternoon, so i’m relaxing and trying my best not to worry about all of the things i know i would benefit from just getting done already.
I’ve always thought your username was a great image! Could you explain the inspiration behind it?
thanks! ultimately I’ll have to keep that a secret, but it’s definitely not a random series of words that i put together becauseiI thought they sounded cool when i needed a new social media username, i…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of February 17, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: February 17, 2023 –
The Abby: Word of Sin
Genre: Doom Rock Label: Season Of Mist
All My Shadows: Eerie Monsters
Genre: Power Metal Label: Nuclear Blast
Anna B Savage: In | Flux
Genre: Psychedelic Folk Label: City Slang
Avatar: Dance Devil Dance
Genre: Melodic Death Metal / Heavy Metal Label: Thirty Tigers
