Here’s a photo of We Lost The Sea’s bass player.
I think this photo could’ve been much better had I zoomed out a little, but I like how it turned out. Not sure why, but there’s something about this image that appeals to me.
I hope you enjoy.
This was taken at The Brickpit at Sydney Olympic Park.
There was a good deal of water not covered by the green stuff (could be vegetation; could be algae) when I took this photo and that was really nice. Maybe there’s a bit of work going into its removal. I imagine there is, but it’s likely a slow process. Maybe.
Anyway, I like this photo as it looks like something disintegrating and falling away at an edge. There’s a sense of depth to it, but at the same time (to me) the whole image looks like a flat impression of that description.
This is my submission into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness” for this week. Participating is pretty straightforward and something I recommend. If you do, then include the tag “monochrome-madness” in your post.
If not participating, then at the least check out Leanne’s photography as well as what other people submit.
A lot of what people are submitting will likely end up here.
I hope you enjoy.
I started this in December, I think. It may have been late February, but I’m pretty sure it was December, toward the end of the month. Regardless, I finished editing the review today. I started editing it last week and finished a few minutes ago. It was handled in small parts due to being really tired whilst going through the process. I ended up cutting out a fair bit whilst also rewriting a good portion of what remained, but it was a pretty smooth process overall. Didn’t feel smooth, however.
This doesn’t say enough about the album and it’s not a good bit of writing. I felt I was at a point where I had to get this out of the way as I’d sat on it for far too long and now it’s published so… yeah.
Most of my interview and review work now appears on Culture Eater.
My colleague and I set up a Patreon to further develop Culture Eater as a source of good quality arts coverage from both ourselves and our contributors.
We’re looking at what we can give to supporters as we don’t want to set up a one way relationship, so suggestions are welcome. Podcast Eater is one of the things we’ve got going and (aside from the next few weeks) new episodes are available through there first.
Please consider supporting, or at least sharing the Patreon page with others. Please also check out what our wonderful contributors are contributing.
I hope you enjoy.
—
In 2021 Goth-Ick/Unscene and Tigersquawk Records released Putting the Stars Right – An album to benefit the Lovecraft Arts & Sciences Council. Among the songs from various artists is Final’s “I Am the Dirt Under Your Fingernails”, a throbbing and vaguely dreamy bit of music. It’d not be difficult to think that I Am the Dirt Under Your Fingernails (henceforth IATDUYF) would continue in the same vein, but the tracks here feel less electronic and perhaps less aggressive. Maybe it is a continuation of that song in some manner. Maybe it is not.
IATDUYF opens with low and muted noise. It’s a relaxing start and remains as such when something akin to guitar makes its own gentle steps. From there the album moves through different, yet connected stages. Sometimes it sounds like it’s stretching whilst remaining unchanging. Sometimes there’s more of a sense of gentler flow and change. However, throughout a strong focus on expressiveness remains constant.
Throughout IATDUYF mood shifts and gradually captures, and perhaps that’s borne from the album not necessarily trying to be immediate. In a way it says “Here is what this is about”, but it takes time to allow each piece to sink in. All the calm, frustration, reflection, anger, contemplation and sadness permeates with ease. It’s music that hits hard without the attack; It hangs heavy without dragging you down.
A few pieces feature silence, or at least an implication of silence at their end. Maybe it has something to do with an idea of rest or reflection, or maybe it’s to let the pieces linger beyond their fading out. Maybe it ties into the title somehow; maybe it doesn’t.
Speaking of, the phrase “I Am the Dirt Under Your Fingernails” could mean a lot of things. It could refer to what has come before and what that provides. Maybe the album’s expressiveness ties into the title to say that you can let emotions guide your actions more than you think they do.
Maybe the title and silences don’t mean anything at all.
In a way IATDUYF fits with Expect Nothing… and It Comes to us All. There’s familiarity in sound and form between the three, but beyond that this one works well enough on its own. You can focus on what is happening; you can let it engulf you without it smothering. You can just as easily put it on in the background and let it move over you that way. The album is an atmospheric release that expresses effectively, regardless of if you’re listening to it actively or passively.
I Am The Dirt Under Your Fingernails is available here.
I wrote this over two listens and the writing didn’t quite pan out.
This is one where I thought too much about what I was writing. The result here is that I didn’t cover enough and kind of drifted around. Some of the song is covered, but not in a way that does it justice, I think.
Hiroshi Yamaguchi’s (山口裕史) “Ōkami Shiranui” (“大神 白野威”) is from Ōkami Original Soundtrack, the soundtrack for Clover Studios’ Ōkami.
I hope you enjoy.
—
A voice is joined by other voices and something that sparkles as it rings out, and then a gentle strike reveals a greater space of sound. The voices carry gentle and float as strings underscore and carry all to a dramatic space.
Slow and flowing and more percussion comes in, and motion is precise and all continues on as a dire moment is turned around. The sounds are revealing and certain, and they are supportive. They are reverent.
The sounds rise and fall, and continue their flow onward and around and they continue on as all fades out and the song ends.
What a dull afternoon.
Now to be fair, there is a lot I could be doing right now and now that I’m starting to do things, I guess that counts as doing something but right now it’s a really dull afternoon and that is due to my waiting for some files to move from one location to another so then I can move some other files to the first location, then move them to the second location and move the original set of files to the first location.
As I’m writing this I’m realising that this would be going a lot faster had I used one of my external hard drives to do this, but alas, I did not do that and now I’m waiting for something to finish that could’ve finished a few hours ago.
Alas.
So I sat here and I churned out a draft script for something that may happen but likely won’t and that was time well spent, but now I’ve no idea what else to do… other than the things that I am about to do, of course.
I am here in this space of nothingness and I can see the next thing approaching but I don’t know what to do now and that bothers me as, usually, I’d spent the time procrastinating due to not knowing what to do, and yet here I am not knowing what to do and procrastinating and not knowing what to do about it as something is approaching and I will be doing that, but for now it’s not here and so I am stuck here twiddling my thumbs in the hope that something just approaches and tells me that it is what I am meant to be doing.
Maybe instead of hoping I need to seize the opportunity by the horns and lead it to water so that it can have a bit of a sip. That way then I am doing something and then something else will approach and I’ll ride off into the sunset which will actually be the sunrise, but upside down.
It’s a tricky balance, all these things but I’m sure that it can be struck somehow, but in this space I wait for the next thing to arrive. I feel like I should be doing something and I am not doing anything and that’s not the best thing in the world, but I wait and I wait and hopefully whatever it is that comes next arrives soon as I can see it but it is taking its time and I don’t like this taking of the time as I want to do things now. I want things to happen now but it’s not happening and so I don’t know what to do other than twiddle my thumbs and sit here with a blank expression in the hopes that time speeds up, then slows down as I’ve a dull afternoon happening and maybe that is actually a good thing.
It’s probably a good thing.
The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:01:14
Pretty fast and mostly coherent which is surprising, I think.
Written at home.
One listen for this one.
I threw myself into it, just started and got rolling and I feel that the writing, whilst not exactly as lively as the song, is smoother and tighter than other recent bits of writing I’ve churned out. It gets the song across well, I think.
Gecko&Tokage Parade’s “little wisdom tooth” is from Next Border.
I hope you enjoy.
—
Bit of a funky bass and a slight guitar creak hover there in space. Percussion comes along for the ride with a bit of a flick and a bit of a steadiness. More guitar and it rings out and frays a little, and then the percussion pulls away.
Something beeps and signals out as all else fades out. Then a pause. Suddenly all roar into life. The percussion is lively, the bass remains funky but starts moving more. The guitar rumbles raggedly and keys keep a gentle interplay until they start crashing as all starts colliding.
Rhythm remains and it’s a controlled chaos but it’s a fun noise. There’s liveliness and it’s almost a party; a celebration, but perhaps there’s something akin to a trickster here. Before anything is fully revealed, however, a few strikes signal the beginning of silence and the song ends.
Getting a good photo of a percussionist is something I often find a challenge due to their usual positioning in a live setting, or at least the positioning they’re in that I’ve mostly had to work with thus far. They’re often in a darker part of the stage and partially obscured by their instruments; they’ll have other musicians you need to get around, and there’s also having to work with stage height. Challenge is often a good thing and I need to work with it more often so my percussionist photos are less static, but I digress.
Here’s a photo of Dahm Majuri Cipolla as seen during MONO’s recent performance in Sydney. Much like the previous photos I’ve shared of Dahm this one has a lot of dark in it, though there’s a lot more in this one. It might have to do with The Manning’s stage size, though it likely has more to do with light positioning.
I think this photo feels quite still. Still and maybe a little menacing. Not sure.
This is my submission into the two hundred-and-forty-third Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The theme for this one is “It’s Tricky“.
The host of the Lens-Artists challenges cycles weekly between the following people:
Week 1 – Tina
Week 2 – Patti
Week 3 – Ann-Christine aka Leya
Week 4 – Amy
Week 5 – John Steiner
Week 6 – Sofia Alves
Week 7 – Anne Sandler
Week 8 – Donna
Week 9 – Guest host
Donna is curating this one. The next one is guest-curated by Siobhan of Bend Branches.
I recommend participating in the challenges. They’re open enough to allow for a fair bit of thinking about approach and closed enough to keep focus on meeting the theme of each one. If you don’t participate, you should still check out what others of the Lens-Artists community are submitting.
I hope you enjoy.
One listen for this one.
I fell behind a little as I was focusing on the wrong thing here. I think I was trying to cover all the sounds in the song and it ended up affecting the overall quality as I suddenly had to catch up but slowed down again and… yeah.
Spencer Nilsen’s “Motion E” is from “Ecco: Songs Of Time“, an album compiling re-recorded songs from the first two Ecco the Dolphin games.
I hope you enjoy.
—
Something akin to whale song carries from a distance, and soon strings draw long whilst a gentle percussive sound marks itself out, almost counting and logging. Something that might be dolphin is briefly heard but all that is taken over by the strings as they grow in sound.
There’s soon an extra plinking that could be guitar and it’s not long after that that the strings grow full and synth reveals itself more openly, and it’s as though all is spreading outward and revealing something grand and majestic.
There is space found once more and the synth moves and weaves its way around the space, and it seems a deep darkness keeps vision focused on the main sounds. Once more the strings rise and everything spreads out, and perhaps there is a longing here. Perhaps there is a sadness, but there could also be a happiness. There could be a joy and a relief.
Once more there grows the quiet and once more there is space and seemingly a shift in sound, though once more most remain as was and keep their pattern and flow going. Once more all spreads out and the synth is higher in its pitch, and it seems to be calling out to the sounds that started this all off, but there is no response and it all grows quiet as the song ends.
I’ve opened this and I need to get moving on the writing but it’s cold so my hands aren’t working as well as perhaps they should, but that’s the way of things when the way of things go that way… of things…
So anyway there is rain and I’m here inside and isn’t it interesting as to how I’m dry inside but if I were to go outside into the rain as I currently am, then there’d be a good chance that I’d get wet? Isn’t that interesting?
What’s even more interesting is that I can look up at the ceiling which just so happens to be above me right now and I can see a pattern and that pattern is formed with shapes and lines and so you end up with a pattern.
I think that I need to work out the truth of what is interesting as not all of this is interesting. In fact, I’d suggest that most of this is not interesting at all but it must be stated as being interesting. If there is no statement then there is no… something that follows a statement.
Where am I going with this?
I should’ve spent my lunch break reading. Instead I spent it [procrastinating. I spent it spending the time that I had but that’s okay as sometimes you must expend time in order to do things. If you’re not expending time, then what are you expending anyway?
Maybe there is no expenditure and all this is is an illusion brought on by a Toyota Camry and its powers of summoning illusions in the most sardonic and heinous of manners, leading us to a grand deception that we all buy into in ways we cannot even comprehend and so now we are stuck wrapped around its fingers as it holds us exactly where it wants to hold us.
We need to break free from this menace and whilst it is difficult it is possible, but I need to see if I can find a way to go outside and not deal with the saturation of clothing. As far as I’m aware there is no method of doing this and so, unless I find a way then I am stuck inside as I don’t feel like getting wet. Would rather be comfortable than fight against something that we should all fight against.
Well, this really is a conundrum. There is no forward and there is no back and it’s all just a stationary life that I inhibit and slowly the terror of being controlled by a car creeps up and I don’t welcome it at any stage, but what choice do I have? I don’t want to get wet so I can’t fight and the rain is predicted to last for a good few days, so I’m here and I’m stuck and I can’t go outside so I’ve got to wait a while, however long that may be.
Maybe I’ll just work on warming my hands instead.
The time it took to write five-hundred words: 07:04:75
I wrote this a bit earlier today and I was just trying to write. Still rather tired from recent elongated events, but needing to just write something. Not a good result; could be much better. Rough, messy and lacking focus.
Written at home.
From what I remember I knocked out a first draft of this pretty quickly, then sat on finishing it for a few weeks (at minimum) which may have helped approach editing without too much of a sense of attachment to the draft, but affected the overall flow in a detrimental manner.
Most of my interview and review work now appears on Culture Eater.
My colleague and I set up a Patreon to further develop Culture Eater as a source of good quality arts coverage from both ourselves and our contributors.
We’re looking at what we can give to supporters as we don’t want to set up a one way relationship, so suggestions are welcome. Podcast Eater is one of the things we’ve got going and (aside from the next few weeks) new episodes are available through there first.
Please consider supporting, or at least sharing the Patreon page with others. Please also check out what our wonderful contributors are contributing.
I hope you enjoy.
—
Milton Man Gogh exist. Coincidentally enough The Great Reset also exists.
The Great Reset starts with “3 Action Formula” which starts in murkiness and gradually builds in energy. It almost seems like the group just threw whatever they could together but it’s a controlled mess. The group play it all smooth and strike out with a joyous cacophony when they can warrant doing so. However, it remains serous (and groovy) music.
The following song “Youth is Wasted on the Young” is much more tame… at first. Milton Man Gogh throw a few oddities in here and there, but otherwise it feels relatively regular. Gradually space, squeaking and perhaps an implied sense of indecision come forward as percussion rolls, crashes and flickers about whilst the sax keeps on noodling away. Bass comes and goes, moving in a way that both slots in and slides away from the main rhythm. Eventually all align and a big push toward a big crash commences. Before complete release, however, the trio pull back and return to something closer to the start. It’s as though something made out to be bigger than it was.
“See You Round the Traps” is a really gentle song. It keeps things slow and relatively simple which abets a significant weight. There’s a large amount of space and so there’s more time to hear and feel each sound and note. Toward the end there’s a bit more of a sense of going big. but even so Milton Man Gogh don’t overstep. They hold back and let the mood continue to permeate; doing so paid off in spades.
It’s almost as though “See You Round the Traps” is of mourning of an ending era, or of remembrance of a past long gone; It’s difficult to say, but there is a strong undercurrent that lies somewhere near those things.
The Great Reset‘s “The Great Reset” comes in two parts. The first starts slow and kind of spaced, and feels distant and stark. There’s a sense of tension that comes forward, though it remains subtle. It’s lurking and creeping about, not willing to reveal itself. However, at the end things start picking up in intensity which then leads into the second part.
Here Milton Man Gogh keeps things heavy but there’s now a sense of tension in a groove that comes forward. Space remains and soon saxophone reaches out as though trails of smoke. The song eventually shifts into what almost is a call and response and the group ride on through a menace and drama that speaks as loudly as it does quiet.
Of course not willing to beleaguer the point, eventually Milton Man Gogh shift and take on more space. Bass and percussion play around and slowly warp and shift, unable to settle, much like The Great Reset as a whole. Soon things seem to shatter but the trio keep on playing until the call and response returns. Things get filthier in sound at this point and it nears the end but it doesn’t feel like a climax, and it’s not and a lot of energy just starts pouring out. Soon Milton Man Gogh bring things back a little and play with a stronger sense of climax and so they just go big. Then the song ends suddenly.
Maybe The Great Reset loops back to the start. Considering the conceptual and narrative feel to the whole thing, could make sense. However, it’s not exactly a perfect loop and so it’s possible that Milton Man Gogh are just having a bit of fun with the whole idea. Maybe they’re trying to set up a suggestion of clues where there are none; I don’t know. What I do know is that they make the most of the time they’ve afforded themselves here. At times there’s a lot going on; at others very little, but the music changes as required. It never feels pointless or random, despite what the surface suggests.
Milton Man Gogh are a highly talented group but what they do is not about technical wizardry. They’re taking what they know and using it to make something that is theirs. It’s something they share and, much like with prior releases, The Great Reset shows that what they do is worth experiencing.
The Great Reset is available here.
Stupidity Hole 