Another photo taken whilst walking in the bush during the process of…
Anyway…
Some dry-looking, yet lush vegetation engulfing most of everything whilst large rock remains mostly uncovered.
Marvelous, or something.
I like the level of detail in this image and I also like how the vegetation is almost all-encompassing.
I hope you enjoy.
This review is available to read on Cool Try.
If you read this here, then please also go to Cool Try and check out more music-related articles.
Anyway, here’s the review.
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Stars Wept to the Sea; it is an album. The moniker for this album is Unreqvited. Stars Wept to the Sea is the second album released under the Unreqvited moniker. Album review begins after the conclusion of this introductory paragraph.
The songs on Unreqvited’s Stars Wept to the Sea sound expansive despite mostly being quite narrow. Whilst slightly sitting behind guitar, bass and drums, ambient sounds build upon and strengthen the songs, helping to drive them along. Despite the disparity between the ambient, softer and louder, harder sounds in each song usually they blend. In addition to this a soft / loud dynamic common to music of this ilk is applied. The shifts work well enough for the songs but they do little beyond the superficial.
Despite their length the songs make good use of their time. Most sounds are purposeful and the songs rarely drag. The artist knows when to end a song which helps Stars Wept to the Sea feel shorter than its length.
Almost the entirety of Stars Wept to the Sea frames the songs around one two-note pattern. Sometimes there is the inclusion of extra notes. Sometimes the songs shift slightly due to the ambient sounds. However, usually the biggest shift comes down to which two notes are applied.
The prominence of the type of two-note pattern employed may be due to allowing easy emotional expression. It makes sense as the songs focus on emotion. Unfortunately this focus is so relentless that the album spends most of its running time telling you how to feel. Due to this moments of subtlety and quiet / loud dynamics lose most purpose outside of reinforcing the emotional push. This one issue beats you hard over the head with sadness, brooding and melancholy that the songs become highly melodramatic.
This is further exacerbated by the occasional use of superfluous sounds. The piano-driven “Empyrean” works well in its minimal parts but the inclusion of dramatic strings and choir vocals is excessive. They come off as tacked on, unnecessary and almost drown out the piano, therefore clumsily obscuring the strongest element. Rather than improve the mood and sound of “Empyrean”, these make the song sound bombastic.
Black metal screams make an appearance on half of the songs. They sound tortured but serve no real purpose. The album does have a strong black metal influence but the screams come off as being there for the sake of being there.
Choices like these harm the songs. They detract from the experience and only serve to push the album into excess. In conjunction with the melodrama, instead of coming off as poetic or moving these cause Stars Wept to the Sea to come off as pretentious.
That’s not to say the whole thing is bad. “Namida” takes on a softer and more relaxed structure. The song maintains a slower pace and sticks to gentle, tender sounds. This inversely makes “Namida” stronger than the rest of the album. As it leans closer to subtlety and drops the album’s melodrama the emotional expression is more effective.
“Namida” is the only song that maintains this for its entirety. However, there are other parts of the album that display good use of subtlety and atmosphere. The piano only sections of “Empyrean” are minimal yet effective in expressing mood. “Soulscape” is melodramatic but its introduction does a good job of establishing strong atmosphere without being too forceful. The gradual shift of the second part of “White Lotus” from intense to relaxed is genuinely expansive and displays excellent use of textural layering. These moments come through, but for each one there’s at least another that weakens the album.
On one hand the sounds used for the songs mostly are appropriate. They easily come together and add depth. On the other hand the songs are quite on the nose. Too frequently they tell you what to feel. Whilst there are moments that rise above the melodrama, they are few and far between. Overall Stars Wept to the Sea shows potential, especially if the artist decides to pursue soundtracks. The better moments show an understanding of how atmosphere can work to improve a song. However, the prominence of issues let the album down.
Stars Wept to the Sea can be found here.
This was taken during the bush walk last week.
I’m not sure as to why I took this photo. I know that the scene appealed to me.
I think that the contrast between the background and the subject creates a nice contrast and I like that despite the focus sitting away from it, the river and the bushland is still quite strong in this image.
This is my entry into Leanne Cole‘s Monochrome Madness for this week.
If you are a photographer, then I recommend checking out Monochrome Madness and consider participating in the event. It’s been going for a few years now and it’s a fun way to be part of a small photography community.
I also recommend that you check out Leanne’s work outside of Monochrome Madness.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
There’s some subtle sounds playing around in my ears and of course I’m faffing about at the moment.
I just wasted a fair bit of time and just realised which then prompted me to ask “What am I doing?”.
The answer is, of course, nothing.
I’ve been doing nothing. I’ve been sitting here and refused to be productive with my time.
This keyboard is still horrible to use, by the way. Too flat. the keys are okay but it’s far too easy to miss a key and hit another as there’s just nothing to the whole thing. Flat, indistinct, and terrible.
Well, that’s my review of this keyboard on which I am banging away.
It’s fairly empty in here. I am currently the only other person sitting in this room, unless someone else has sneaked in and hidden themselves away from my perception.
Possible, but unlikely.
Still doing nothing. Still getting away with doing nothing.
Soon this nothing needs to turn into something.
I need to motivate myself into doing more right now for there is more that need to be done.
exams coming up. Need to pump up for the exams.
Need to get the work done and get there to the end of the line in some sort of dance.
Need to sit down and know the things that I need to know with some sort of challenge and glint in my eye.
Need to stop procrastinating and get to where I want to be, but there’s only so much time in the world and so much being lazy that needs to be done.
Oh yes, I shall reach the inevitable somehow in some way through some manner.
I will reach for something.
I will keep crapping on and plenty can stop me!
I think that I may be hungry. Perhaps that is my current issue and it something that I really should adders sooner rather than later.
Perhaps I’m just a lazy person in this day and age of hard work and that I want everything now and not later.
Perhaps the writing is something that keeps me going and it is not something that I want to admit.
Perhaps I’m really wasting my time and this is all of a low quality and I should settle for better instead of worse.
Something about cats.
So I’ve been sitting here doing very little and now I am wondering about how almighty the power of distraction can be. It is something that is worth consideration, I think.
Of course I think that as I am currently under the spell of distraction that I have let be cast over my being and instead of challenging the immutable depths that may be there, I have let the warm gushing arms of this spell come over me and carry me down into its infinite body and it is a journey that I don’t see myself leaving for a while.
Well, with that out of the way, it’s time for more distraction.
The time it took to write five-hundred words: 06:46:77
Eh. A bit too all over the place for what I was trying to convey.
Was I trying to convey something?
Who knows?
Written at UNSW.
This was the second thing that I saw at Vivid.
To me, the water that is being pushed up before falling looks like it’s frozen.
There’s still a distinct sense of motion, but there’s also a stillness to the subject.
I also like that the light isn’t overly bright and there’s a focus on light and shape working with each other.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
Stomping my way through the hearts of all those around me.
It’s an easy profession to take on board.
It is wet outside, but the rain has subsided.
However, there was a cry of thunder before when
I was on my way to the office that I call an office in which where I work.
I am tired. I am sleepy.
I am reaching out for something else out there.
No, wait. That is for another post on another day.
I can feel a rising in the sound that is penetrating my ear holes at the moment.
It must be a guitar that is rising above the other guitars s the other guitars play something a little more rhythmic.
However, there is no lead in this sound. It is all about the sound and no one is to take the spotlight.
Yes, it is that kind of music.
It stretches out and does not feel as long as it is and that’s not a bad thing, as far as I’m concerned.
Gravelly ground and beats that are very strong holding the structure and the house that is above this foundation is unshakable, despite the racket that is being created.
More people enter into this office and more people who have hearts in which I must stomp my way into in order to get control of the very thing that I am trying to take over.
I think that that is what I need to do this morning.
Well, I should be getting ready, but there is imagery that is being conjured in my mind due to the sound of the vibrations that are getting into the bones in my ears that are then being translated into something audible for me to understand and see if it appeals to me or not (it appeals to me).
There is a little quiet in the song, but I’m sure that once more it will become something new as a flower blooms into a new flower blooms into a new flower and so on and so forth.
Perhaps all I am doing is projecting myself and realistically this is some sort of dream.
Well, that’s not real, unless it is and there is an evil demon trying to deceive me, or something.
Perhaps the music is making me stay more awake than I thought possible and right now as I bang away and create a rhythm of my own it overlaps with the rhythm of the music and its shifting dynamics and in turn I am lead down a path that I could not previously reach.
I am turning around and turning back toward something of which I had walked away from and it engulfs me in a way that I did not think possible.
I am carried on a journey toward something that is not new, yet it is familiar and comforting and points to something else off in the distance that needs to be approached at some later stage in my life.
The time it took to write five-hundred words: 05:25:64
Kind of rambling, flows okay.
Could be better.
Written at work.
Another morning photo taken during the sunrise around the Sydney Harbour Bridge that I was out to capture a few weeks ago, but this one doesn’t show the elements of the sunrise too well. I guess that’s to be expected considering that I wasn’t facing the sunrise at the time and it was cloudy.
I’ve taken photos of this part of Sydney a few times but I haven’t done so during this time of the day.
Despite there being an obvious source of bright light somewhere outside the frame, I still think that this photo makes this part of Sydney look sleepy. It probably has a lot to do with the cloud cover.
I hope you enjoy.
If I remember correctly, it’s been a long time since I’ve cycled “early” in the morning during winter.
Actually, now that I think about it, my last cycling during winter mornings might have been a lot more recent than I realise.
With that being said I’m going to say that it has been a while as I know that, even if it is more recent than I am thinking, the last cycle during winter was a while ago.
I hopped on the bike this morning for the first time in a few weeks. My focus has been elsewhere a little too much and I used rain as an excuse, but I’m back on the bike once more.
It was a cold ride this morning.
Somewhat enjoyable, but still cold so essentially I’m going to have to get used to the cold once more.
Due to injuries I felt the cold a little more, but it wasn’t enough to deter me.
So, with my referring to a while, I’m thinking about when I started my longest run with a company which started in 2008. It’s the same one that made me redundant in 2015.
When I first started with said company I was at a different office doing customer service under a different contract. It was tech support in Pennant Hills. Within six months (and a few days after the start of 2009) I was on a new contract and at a the office working under the contract that I would see carried through until the redundancies in 2015.
Anyway, during the first part of my tenure I began cycling a bit more. I think it was within a couple of months. My starting hours became earlier which I appreciated a fair bit as it meant that I also got out of work earlier. Seven in the morning to quarter-past-three in the afternoon.
I liked to get to work about an hour early and that meant I’d be waking up either at five in the morning or about ten to fifteen minutes beforehand. Due to where I was living and the infrequency of trains to Pennant Hills I would cycle to Burwood Station.
My bike was heavier than the one that I currently have (although not heavier by much) but it didn’t bother me that much, probably due to my being in a rush to get up and get out and go to work.
I could feel the cold of the morning a lot more than I had wished and by the time I would get onto a train I didn’t have much feeling in my hands.
A few minutes after being on the train and I would feel my hands warm up. I always found the way that they would tingle as they warmed up to be a most pleasant feeling.
When I got off the train I would cycle up to work despite it being close as it saved a bit of time. Usually it was a bit warmer by this time due to it being closer to six in the morning than it being closer to five.
I’d be at work around six and I’d be able to relax before the start of my shift.
As I kept this routine going for a while the cold stopped bothering me as much.
the cold was something to put up with as it wouldn’t last long enough to be an issue, but at the start I found it to be a little problematic.
So I’m thinking about how I used to deal with the cold and now I’m a little more precious about the whole thing and I wonder as to why.
I could say it is due to being a little older and a little more injured, but I don’t think they are reasons that hold up under scrutiny as there’s still plenty of things that I (think I) do that could be seen as unwise.
Well, it wasn’t the most pleasant cycle this morning, but it could have been much worse. It was a little longer than what I had previously done during a winter morning, but it’s not enough of a deterrent at this stage.
There’s something about cycling during winter in the mnorning that really makes you feel alive, or something.
Either that or there isn’t. I should probably say something about how amazing cycling during the cold is, but in the city it’s not anything amazing. It’s not necessarily bad either. It’s just something that is.
So this should be the last shot featuring the Sydney Harbour Bridge for a while, unless I forget and start putting up more.
I like the contrast between stillness and motion, as well as how some of the lights illuminate certain areas whilst not seeming overly bright.
I think that it’s interesting how the spread of light from The Sydney Harbour Bridge seems to be contained to a defined area.
I like how different light sources contrast with each other and I like how this scene feels like a smaller area than it happens to be.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
Yet another photo of the Sydney Harbour Bridge that was recently taken.
This time during Vivid.
There will be another coming soon.
For now, this one…
I do like that not everything is illuminated and that even though this is a dark photo, you can still make out some objects that are in the frame.
I hope you enjoy.
Stupidity Hole 