Adrianne Lenker: Abysskiss Review

Posted on November 29, 2018 by Stupidity Hole

This Review can also be found on Culture Eater.
Please check out the site and see what other people are contributing.

Anyway, here’s the review

—–

Adrianne Lenker is an artist of the musical variety.
She fronts Big Thief and releases music under her name.
Her new solo album goes by the name of Abysskiss.

Right from the get-go the album announces the entirety of its surface sound. Gentle guitar playing, very minimal auxiliary instrumentation and Adrianne Lenker’s voice is all you get for the base ingredients.

That’s not to say that there is little to the album. Abysskiss is an album that makes the most out of very little. Each note feels like it counts and each section holds purpose. There’s also a well-developed depth to the album that reveals itself over time. Essentially Abysskiss is, on the surface, comprised solely of base requirements. However, whilst it’s sparse, it isn’t lacking.

Abysskiss is quite melodic without overstating its melodies. They’re prominent but they stay away from being verbose or dominating, instead being low-key enough to let the song happen whilst not being a non-element. The songs get to breathe a bit more, but again, they don’t feel lacking.

Adrianne Lenker’s voice is prominent and rather rhythmic. She displays a great command of it in a most natural, passionate way. She knows when to elongate and contract words without having them feel like she’s either trying to cram a lot of words in, or trying to fill space. There’s a tenderness in Adrianne Lenker’s voice that really helps give the lyrics more feel and meaning to them, and the way that she enunciates really brings the lyrics forward without them dominating everything.

At times the way that Adrianne Lenker vocally follows the instruments leads to her producing what sounds like melodic counterpoints. It works really well for the songs as they get a bit more shape and dimension. Furthermore, Adrianne Lenker’s voice becomes more a part of the songs rather than something floating over them. It makes listening to the songs better as each part has equal importance to a song. It’s not just someone singing over some melodies.

Abysskiss is a very naked, sparse and dry album. It’s also an album that makes the most out of very little, and then some. There’s meaning and expression throughout the entirety of record, but none of it feels forced. Overall, Abysskiss is a rather beautiful and elegant record.

Abysskiss can be found here.

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Space in the Cluster

Posted on November 27, 2018 by Stupidity Hole

A selection of buildings as seen in Sydney CBD, but from a higher vantage point than usual.

I really like the clarity of this photo. Everything looks really crisp and sharp (I think), but not to the extent where it becomes overbearing.

I also like the alternating sizes creating the sense of depth in the photo, and I like the space between the buildings preventing the photo from feeling overly cluttered.

I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 505: The Need to get Back out into the Bush

Posted on November 27, 2018 by Stupidity Hole

Moving the hair from out in front of my face, trying to write a review, but all I can think of is the need to get back out in the bush. Or, at least that is what the music that I’m listening to is telling me, and it is something that it is telling me quite clearly.

I need to get back out into the hush. I have a thirst for walking in the bush. I want to go do that thing that is referred to as bushwalking. It involves walking and that walking is in the location of wherever there is bushland.

I don’t want to be at work today, but there is a need to do work in order to earn money so that I can do the things that I want to do with my life. I want to do a lot of things that involve finances, and unfortunately travelling to the bush does involve money of some sort, and so therefore I need to work in order to get out of the city and into the bush.

I need to think of something a bit more interesting to write, and yet as I struggle onward, I imagine that the work being born from my fingers creates the words in a framework that leads to something that can be read, but there is no telling as to how interesting that it may be until I finish. Of course, there is a lot that needs to be done, but that is a phrase that I have used before and shall use once more in the future. Possibly many times.

I want to attempt Mount Dingo again. I can feel it calling out to me in some sense. Well, that is of course me projecting desires in some way, but there is definitely a desire to be out there once more and out there once more is where I’d rather be. I’d rather get paranoid under the stars and camp out in the cold weather. I’d rather be out there, embracing the cold, cleaner air than in here, looking for a way to get out of work without losing money.

I also need to get fitter in order to be able to do the waking if that is indeed what it is that I want to do.

All of this would of course be in the service of being able to look out over the mountains, into vast spaces framed by the landscape, all in service of the appreciation of nature and our luckiness to be born on such a beautiful planet.

Well, that is what I like to believe anyway.

There are, of course, plenty of other reasons to go out and into the bush, and it is always something worth doing, unless there is a reason that would render it as being not worth doing, in which case it is not worth doing.

However, with that being said, there is a growing desire to get out there.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:13:77

Sometimes I do worse, sometimes I do better, but I think that overall I’m improving in some sense.

Still, this  could be more interesting. It could be much less repetitive.

Written at work

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Ocean Whitewater

Posted on November 26, 2018 by Stupidity Hole

Taken as the sun rose from over the ocean from the direction of east, casting its light upon the eastern coastline of Australia.

A great deal of disturbed water created by wave energy, among other things.

I really like the texture of the water’s surface in this shot.

I think that there’s an expression of both stillness and motion within the surface, and I like the way that the whitewater contrasts with the geology of the land.

This is my submission into the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge for this week.

The theme for this week is “Splash!“.

This challenge is hosted by four people and cycles weekly:

Week 1 – Patti

Week 2 – Ann-Christine aka Leya

Week 3 – Amy

Week 4 – Tina

This week is hosted by Patti and next week’s will be hosted by Leya.

I suggest following and considering participating, but also seeing how other people have responded to the photo challenge from The Daily Post ending.

Anyway, I hope you  enjoy.

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Sprawling Westward

Posted on November 26, 2018 by Stupidity Hole

Part of the western expanse as seen from Darling Harbour.

I think that it’s interesting how in this photo you get a good sense of the scale and scope of the area. There’s quite a lot within the confines of the view. At the same time, everything seems to be so small; especially ANZAC Bridge.

I like that this photo shows a “Cityscape” full of smaller buildings as you’re seeing a different, less common view of Sydney. Not so much that it’s from a higher perspective showing it, but that you’re seeing some of the suburbs rather than the CBD.

There’s a bit of depth to the photo and I think that is in part due to how the atmosphere in this shot is making things in the distance appear more faded and vague.

I’ve included a colour shot along with the monochrome shot for comparison.

Originally it was just going to be the colour shot. I was trying to correct for the window the photo was taken through, but it wasn’t working.

I think that these two contrast each other well. They’ve different feelings to each other and both represent the same scene well.

Leanne Cole begun a new photo challenge.

I suggest checking out Leanne’s photography, as well as checking out what other people submit into the challenge.

You can find the challenges here.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 504: Work on a Sunday

Posted on November 25, 2018 by Stupidity Hole

I’m at work on a Sunday, raging about shitty treatment and looking for another job in the downtime. I’m looking for the spaces between spaces, trying to find a way through in order to get something better for myself.

One of those “sick of my job” posts, but I’m more just over how shitty their treatment is. Instead of sticking it out, it’s about time that I  look for a job that is better for me and my situation.

They don’t want to promote or move people who have experience around, but instead they’ll have those people leave and go for another job, which really makes sense to me.

Maybe I’m a bad worker. I cant deny this. However, that does not mean that I need to put up with poor treatment in a work place.

In the interim, I shall pry and creak and crack open the answers and read the yolk of their contents. I shall keep on going and try to get somewhere else than is here, as is here is not where I want to be anymore. This was good for a time, but it’s going downhill fast and I don’t need to be here when it crashes. In fact, it is probably better that I’m in a better position than I am now, so I’m not forced into a position that could mean that I am under risk of something, or something else.

Yes, I am rambling. No, I do not care that I am rambling.

Wrist is hurting, but that may be due to the positioning of my desk. Something that I can combat and combat it I shall very well do. There is little else to do right now.

Maybe I’m just getting old and old injuries are flaring up to remind me of my mortality, something that I thought I wold have left behind a long time ago.

Oh well. Such is life. Must work with them.

Must work on writing more. Been lazy. Too much of writing stuff that no one will ever see. Must keep on writing other things. Must write the things that people will see. Actually just must write the thighs that I want to write. Does not matter if people do or do not see them. After all, it is all training to become a better writer at the end of the day.

Training and work and somehow, there is one other person on this journey of tedium. Or maybe there are many. Maybe there are not many. Maybe I’m just stringing words together right now in order to try and make something vaguely profound. I don’t know what I’m doing.

Do I ever know what it is that I am doing in any moment of the day?

I’m only along for my own ride, man, and I can only go where the tracks lead. There’s no gettin’ offa this train that we’re on.

Or maybe there is, when it reaches a station for trains and passengers.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:21:19

National Novel Writing Month has taken up a lot of time.

So has procrastination, really.

Written at work.

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Writing into Gibberish

Posted on November 24, 2018 by Stupidity Hole

So during the process of wringing words from my mind for National Novel Writing Month, I decided that I’d share part of the “book”, but turned into gibberish so as to try and express the frustration that I’ve been experiencing.

Frustration or entertainment. Your choice.

I hope you enjoy.

—–

I remembered to the point where large to the morning.
It may have only partially-drenched, thanks in large to take with me in the morning.
It may have only been a park, but to be as forceful as it possibly could.
The ground was still an issue.
I trudged on through, my suit only partially-drenched, thanks in large to take with me in the morning.

The rain was saturated to the point where large puddles were quickly forming.
It may have only been a park, but to be as forceful as it possibly could.

There were other things swirling to get wet for no reason.

Beyond the umbrella and letting half of myself get wet for no reason.

Beyond the rain, in the immediate surroundings, visibility was somethings swirling that I remembered the immediate surroundings, visibility was still dry, thanks to the umbrella too.
Pity the umbrella and letting half of the suit was low. But at least half of myself get wet for no reason.

Beyond the shoes were other thing through my mind, such as wondering as to why.

I was only chance, lest it squander the further on it was certainly feeling heavens, I wasn’t running in the small landscape, hammering anyway.
I wasn’t forsaking the opportunity, was only chance, lest it squander the heavens, I was it carried itself across the earth as to why my life was certainly feeling heavens, I wasn’t screaming the small landscape, hammering and the present moment why it went. Or, at least in the heavy and the further on it went. Or, at least in the earth as to why my life was.

There was too early in the unrelenting heavy rain. It was just some sort of me and be unleashed into the year for this rain. It was slowing down time enough a park that was too early in the year for this rain. It was no overwhelming sense of ennui was no overwhelming something rather temporary, was experiencing heavy rain. It was going through to make me live in my life. There was slowing down time enough a park that was still some sort of me and be unleashed into the unrelenting heavens.

At least the best? That I really was soon as I could. Attending funerals was scared? That something I seldom did. Attending funerals was a bad train had been a little else heavy earlier on.

If I had met my maker that afternoon, assuming there was a good person? To save me and something seldom fun and something I seldom did. Attending funerals was a good person? To save me and something I seldom fun and stop me from dying in this instant?
It was some of thought to go down and some of thought to go down.

I’m sure that there was also no way of telling with getting anything other than a few lines done and I’m sure that then again, that I would be honouring some sort of justice, but then again, that would be assuming that there was still struggling so long as I remained in this heavy rain.

I had stopped way, but I didn’t know what, or even if it was no way of telling some sort of justice, but I didn’t know what, or even if it was someone’s memory in some sort of sick, twisted walking anything that I could.

I was yet to relent. I took my opportunity and a direction I knew too well at this one direction in which I should have been heading and the same direction in which I should have been heading and crossed another field, but then again it’s easy for what felt like a lot on one’s mind.
Soon I was only one had much less water to contend with, than it did not show any more the park and the pathway for what felt like a lot on one’s mind.
Soon I knew too well at this point.

I rapped over a fence and let me in.
On the natural processes of the signs of the water seemed to be flowing for the rear door and failing, I realised through the door of the tiled backyard and was now entering, I realised to be flowing for the slant of force, pushed it open. In the door of things.
I walked through the unrelenting room. With a slight bit of the glass, hoping that I needed to be flowing for the kitchen and failing, following for my knuckles hard on the rear gate, made of the door.

—–

And there you go.

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Vennart: Copeland Review

Posted on November 22, 2018 by Stupidity Hole

This Review can also be found on Culture Eater.
Please check out the site and see what other people are contributing.

Anyway, here’s the review

—–

Vennart’s Copeland is a companion piece for To Cure a Blizzard Upon a Plastic Sea. Released at the same time as To Cure…, Copeland functions as a companion piece in a loose sense.

Opener “Terrors” is the closest that anything on Copeland gets to To Cure…. It’s very much of the same vein when it comes to its sound and approach. The vocals start out the front of everything, sounding like Mike Vennart is right next to you. They move back into the song when the chorus comes and soar along with with the melody. The song is big, loud and anthemic without being too anthemic. The song is nice, but if it belongs on Copeland, then it’s not immediately obvious. “Terrors” might have worked better as a single song release, but it’s not unwelcome.

After “Terrors” the E.P. really begins. The songs become (partially) quieter and moody. Vocals disappear, the instrumentation strips back and there’s a lot more space between notes. Aside from on the piano-only “Mines”, sound layering and texture have a fair bit of prominence, but there’s no vying for space.

The focus is on melody, feel and atmosphere of the song rather than how much it progresses, so there’s an open simplicity throughout the release. Still, the songs speak quite a lot. They conjure up imagery with ease and allow you to lose yourself in them, almost as if there’s a journey waiting in each. If the songs had just been straightforward, super-direct instrumentals, then that would have been fine. However, the group didn’t settle for that and so the listener gets a lot more out of the songs as the songs do more than what they initially imply.

“I’m Janick Gers” might just be one of the best songs that these musicians have been a part of. It starts off quiet and gets louder toward the end, almost in an expected way. What it does well, however, is that it retains a sense of airiness. The song just breathes so very much, even when it gets loud. On Copeland “I’m Janick Gers” is by far the most dynamic song. Whilst it has a weight, the song remains light throughout. The song is emotive, but it doesn’t beat you over the head. It has a nimble and graceful flow and, whilst it does get heavy in a sense, it also sounds rather pretty. Copeland as a whole has a good, appropriate confluence of sounds and ideas, but it is on this song where they sound their most natural and complete.

It’s difficult to say if Copeland is a better release than To Cure a Blizzard Upon a Plastic Sea. It’s significantly more dynamic and interesting. Copeland is also much more moving and pleasant. However, both releases seem to have different things going for them. There’s different moods on both as they seem to be going for different things. Whilst To Cure a Blizzard Upon a Plastic Sea is a bit more in your face, Copeland is comfortable being a more out of the way yet still maintaining a great deal of presence.

Ultimately it’s more good music from good musicians. The framework used seems a bit different than that of To Cure…, the songs are calmer, but they still make for a worthwhile listen.

Vennart’s Copeland is available here.

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Train Doors in Motion

Posted on November 21, 2018 by Stupidity Hole

I can’t remember if these were opening or closing.

I suspect that these doors were opening, based on where the light falls.

There’s not much to say about this photo.

I like trains. I think that (to an extent) they’re interesting.

I like the way the light falls and I like the contrast of light between the interior and the external world.

This is my submission into the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge for this week.

The theme for this week is “Open Sesame: Doors and Doorways“.

This challenge is hosted by four people and cycles weekly:

Week 1 – Patti of https://pilotfishblog.com/

Week 2 – Ann-Christine aka Leya of https://lagottocattleya.wordpress.com/

Week 3 – Amy of https://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/

Week 4 – Tina of https://travelsandtrifles.wordpress.com/

This week is hosted by Tina and next week’s will be hosted by Patti.

I suggest following and considering participating, but also seeing how other people have responded to the photo challenge from The Daily Post ending.

Anyway, I hope you  enjoy.

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Five-Hundred Word Challenge 503: Run on the Day

Posted on November 21, 2018 by Stupidity Hole

Looking forward to the future, but there is nothing to see other than what is directly in front of me.

I can’t predict the future, but perhaps I can if I look at the way the light falls from a different angle than usual.

I need to fold into myself and stretch out the day as a form of paper, then scribble the thoughts of which are not mine. There are many a reason as to why I would do this, but the most important one is by dint of necessity.

Of course, so long as the beach is my poster, I could surely break through the mould and then push my way into the scene, only to watch the waves as they fall upon the shoreline and displace the sand in the most subtle of ways, unless you perceive the time passing in a much more detailed manner than most.

There are clouds that drift, but they are few and far between as the sky retains a strong hue and stretches on forever in a way that we do not always think about, but of course.

The course that is run on the day will forever be known to those as the course that will forever be run on that day.

There are windmills and they must not be persecuted. There are journeys that could only be experienced rather than forced. This is a consideration that needs to be considered, for the forcing of many forced things is upon us and we need to know when to and when not to go forward, but there is only one direction in which we can go forward. It needs to be considered.

Among my desk are millions of crevasses. The surface appears smooth, but underneath my arms as I type stretches out a rugged landscape of rock and dips and rises, and the vastness of eternity is only a mere thought; a blip on the radar. My arms are massive and I am just one person, but the desk under my arms is far greater than I could ever perceive. It is a landmass waiting to be explored. There are sensations awaiting there that are fascinating and revealing, and I can only hope that I will be able to comprehend them in some way.

If only there was a way more than some that would mean that there are more ways than two, which would hopefully mean that there are four more ways than three, which of course…

Leads to another direction. It leads to a junction in time where the fork must be repealed in order for those pesky mugs of frothy dirt can foam and meet and lead to another new fork that is not just a fork, but also a new way of doing the things that are needed to be wanted in order to breathe in and out, and fill lungs with the fresh, salty air that is being carried by the waves and the light breeze.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:45:46

One day I will have greater coherence in these.

On day…

Written at work.

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