eyechoirs's recent activity
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Comment on The second Tildes Short Story Exchange is now open to submissions! (June-July 2025 edition) in ~creative
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Comment on The second Tildes Short Story Exchange is now open to submissions! (June-July 2025 edition) in ~creative
eyechoirs (edited )LinkTitle: 'Tonight's Guest' Author: eyechoirs Word count: 3233 Genre(s): Literary Fiction; Satire Expected feedback: Any general/big picture feedback. Should your story be on the EPUB? Yes Additional...Title: 'Tonight's Guest'
Author: eyechoirs
Word count: 3233
Genre(s): Literary Fiction; Satire
Expected feedback: Any general/big picture feedback.
Should your story be on the EPUB? Yes
Additional note to community: I wrote this a few years ago and got around to a 'final cut' edit a few months ago. So I probably won't edit any further, at this point, but I am curious about whether the story has its intended impact.
Links: PDF or EPUB -
Comment on Removed Reddit post: "ChatGPT drove my friends wife into psychosis, tore family apart... now I'm seeing hundreds of people participating in the same activity. " in ~tech
eyechoirs Link ParentThis reminds me of a Nietzsche quote - 'Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.' I think there's a big difference between...I truly hope you are right. Personally, I just don't think it's normal that a convict can manage to become president if most of the people who voted for him are sane. That's just one item in the endless stream of things that in my mind should not have happened / be happening if most of the people approving of it are sane.
This reminds me of a Nietzsche quote - 'Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.' I think there's a big difference between individual, organic, psychotic insanity, and the collective insanity of a society burdened by misinformation and all sorts of other 'perverse incentive'-type problems. It's important to remember that this latter type of insanity comprises individuals who are not strictly insane. They might be foolish, corrupt, intellectually lazy, whatever - but to call them insane absolves them of responsibility to a certain degree, and more importantly tends to make it seem impossible to dissuade them from their technically-delusional beliefs.
I think the Gaza genocide is an interesting example. Certainly, misinformation that leads to false beliefs is a common and perhaps necessary component of getting society to approve a genocide (as happened during the Holocaust, and is currently happening in Gaza). But is delusion actually necessary to be racist, to hate a group of people so much you want to kill them?
I think if you asked one of these racists, they'd first give you some false statements to prove their beliefs. But if you argue well enough, I think you'll drill down to the fundamental, underlying motivation - they just don't like those people. There's no reason for it; it can't be delusional because it's not based on belief. Human beings are hard-wired to hate, we've been having vicious tribal battles for as long as our species has existed. Hell, even chimpanzees commit mass slaughter against rival tribes. The concept of delusion comes into play only as we try to reconcile these feelings with our modern concept of morality, and we are forced to use false beliefs in order to justify hate and murder. But you have to understand that this step of the process is not automatic, organic, inevitable, the way that insanity is. It's something we can shine a spotlight on and prevent, using good ol' human reason. Society is making it hard to accomplish this, but it's fundamentally different from insanity the way most people conceptualize it.
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Comment on What is a non-problematic word that you avoid using? in ~talk
eyechoirs Link'Nauseous'. Originally, the word actually meant 'causing nausea', not 'feeling nausea' - for instance, you might have encountered 'a nauseous smell' as you enter a public restroom. I think this...'Nauseous'.
Originally, the word actually meant 'causing nausea', not 'feeling nausea' - for instance, you might have encountered 'a nauseous smell' as you enter a public restroom. I think this meaning is more fitting for a word which, to me, sounds particularly nauseous, with its sickly-soft post-alveolar fricative 'sh' sound. It's even more nauseous when certain people pronounce this as a voiced fricative, 'zh'.
I'll still use 'nauseous' to convey its original meaning, which more or less amounts to avoiding it - it's much more common for me to use the word 'nauseated', which is what people who use the word 'nauseous' typically ought to be using. It's such a useful distinction, and I'm sad English speakers no longer tend to observe it.
Also, fun fact, the etymology of 'nausea' comes from the Greek word 'naus' meaning ship, on which one might feel nauseated due to seasickness. This makes 'nausea' and 'nautical' a linguistic doublet.
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Comment on Removed Reddit post: "ChatGPT drove my friends wife into psychosis, tore family apart... now I'm seeing hundreds of people participating in the same activity. " in ~tech
eyechoirs Link ParentWhere did you get 'half the population' from? Only 25% of the US population voted for Trump (it seems like this is the benchmark for delusional thinking that we're both using, anyway), but a big...I mean, if half of the population is in this state, who is going to have the time and patience to help each of them out of it? Will the other half need to become professional therapists? I agree that it isn't as bad as clinical psychosis but from what I've seen, it's still really, really bad. Bad enough to mess up the world economy in a matter of months.
Where did you get 'half the population' from? Only 25% of the US population voted for Trump (it seems like this is the benchmark for delusional thinking that we're both using, anyway), but a big proportion of these people aren't slavish Trump devotees, but rather disaffected, mostly apolitical midwits, who unthinkingly subscribe to the vague notion that Republicans are supposed to be good for the economy. Is that a delusion? Technically yes, but I hope you can agree that these people don't need professional or pseudo-professional therapy. If anything, they need to see Trump fuck up the US economy badly over the next couple of years. No amount of misinformation, LLM or otherwise, will be able to paper over that issue for this mostly-sane subset of people.
You disagree that so many people could be affected but I see people every day on r/ChatGPT who speak of their LLM having emotions, being their friend, being a better therapist than any human therapist could ever be, feeling connected to it, etc. Some say it's clearly conscious and get very worked up about the fact that saying so goes against the current rules (GPT will not entertain the user saying that to it). There are a lot of these people and they behave similarly to those on r/Conservative when called into question. Not equally aggressive, yet, but this phenomenon is very new still so they probably have some degree of social shame holding them back, for now.
Couple of counterpoints here - 'seeing people every day' may ultimately be a tiny but vocal minority in the grand scheme of things. The actual loonies have a tendency to seem more prevalent than they actually are.
Second, some amount of personification is probably inevitable, but may not indicate psychosis. I refer to my laptop as 'complaining about video rendering' but that doesn't mean I actually think it's capable of complaining in the true sense of that word. Likewise, even if people believe abstractly that LLMs are conscious - betraying a poor understanding of consciousness, admittedly a complex subject - it does not necessarily mean they are willing to swallow more obviously spurious technobabble like you'd see in these purported cases of LLM induced psychosis.
I also kind of doubt shame holds any of these people back on their true beliefs. There isn't exactly a lot of shame on the anonymous internet. I feel like you may be exaggerating the extent of delusional thinking at play there.
I don't know if mass delusion on this scale is just the acceptable new normal for Americans now, but I'm over here in Europe watching this, and I'm still as bothered by it as I have ever been.
Mass delusion in the manner it's occuring here has always been normal throughout human history. Religion has typically taken on that role (regardless of your personal views on specific religions, they can't all be true). But aside from the small minority of the truly mentally ill, people can always be reasoned with, though sometimes it takes the real and painful consequences of socially-acceptable delusions to provide a helping hand. I'm not saying all this isn't a problem. It may even be a big problem. But the doomer attitude that it's a sea change beyond all prior reckoning gets in the way of the one thing that will obviously help - connecting with those around us and trying to re-establish a consensus reality.
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Comment on Google's new AI video tool floods internet with real-looking clips in ~tech
eyechoirs LinkI don't know that much about image generation AI, but the other day I was trying to think through how you would confirm the authenticity of video if AI video tools like this become widespread......I don't know that much about image generation AI, but the other day I was trying to think through how you would confirm the authenticity of video if AI video tools like this become widespread...
One idea I had for recording confirmably authentic video of something would be to set up multiple cameras at different angles. I think it would be pretty immediately apparent if two videos of, say, a person talking and gesturing, didn't match each other - spatial perception of human bodies and faces is something that humans are particularly good at. And it strikes me as a difficult task to not just generate a realistic video but multiple realistic videos of the same event that are all spatially coherent with each other.
But like I said, I'm not an expert on the topic and maybe someone who is could weigh in on this.
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Comment on Removed Reddit post: "ChatGPT drove my friends wife into psychosis, tore family apart... now I'm seeing hundreds of people participating in the same activity. " in ~tech
eyechoirs Link ParentI agree it is concerning, but since the new, LLM-associated phenomena are on a continuum with the prior human-only dynamic, I think that we can at least build off the strategies we have for...I agree it is concerning, but since the new, LLM-associated phenomena are on a continuum with the prior human-only dynamic, I think that we can at least build off the strategies we have for combating misinformation, and for cases of actual psychosis, doing psychiatric interventions.
I also strongly disagree that LLM-induced psychosis would affect an "equally large demographic" as people affected by right-wing misinformation. It seems like the phenomenon reported in the original Reddit post was a case of true, organic psychosis, not a societally-driven conspiracy theory-type of delusion - the quasi-spiritual 'nature of true reality' theme, as well as the person's all-consuming obsession with it are the most salient indicators, though I guess we don't know the whole story... In any case, the lifetime prevalence of psychosis is only 3%, so I feel there's probably a hard limit on how many people could be affected by LLM in this way. It can certainly trigger psychosis in susceptible individuals, but someone who is susceptible to psychosis is very likely to be triggered by some event over the course of their entire lives.
Misinformation driven delusions are still a problem, and I agree with you about the scope of that problem. But these people are not psychotic, they are still generally in touch with reality, which should be a heartening notion. You can't argue someone out of a psychosis, but with time, patience, and the right attitude you can argue someone out of misinformed, conspiratorial beliefs. I have personally managed to accomplish that with someone; it's not easy, and it's a tall order to do it on the scale of our whole society, but it's at least possible.
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Comment on Removed Reddit post: "ChatGPT drove my friends wife into psychosis, tore family apart... now I'm seeing hundreds of people participating in the same activity. " in ~tech
eyechoirs LinkThis is definitely creepy, and the people who develop LLMs, as well as society at large, insofar as we are constantly readjusting to the presence of LLMs in our daily lives, will probably need to...This is definitely creepy, and the people who develop LLMs, as well as society at large, insofar as we are constantly readjusting to the presence of LLMs in our daily lives, will probably need to take this type of dynamic into account. But there's one thing that tempers my concerns - this dynamic is not new; people have been reinforcing each other's delusions in a very similar way, especially since the advent of the internet.
A few people have already brought up conspiracy theories as an example of widespread, self-reinforcing delusions. There's something to this, though I would argue that conspiracy theories don't meet the criteria for psychosis - conspiracy theorists sound insane when they're discussing conspiracies, but if you change the topic of conversation to baseball or cooking or music or something, most of them will re-enter consensus reality. Obviously not every psychosis presents the same way, but in general it results in a global deficit in cognition, as well as a range of other symptoms such as disorganized speech, apathy, lack of emotion, etc.
So, the etiology of conspiracy theories is probably more societal than biological (though biology likely plays a role in susceptibility to this type of thinking). The DSM even exempts delusions from the diagnostic picture of psychosis if they are "widely accepted within a cultural or subcultural context". The greater concern here, with these LLM-induced psychoses, is that they are not merely societal but true biological psychoses that happen to be triggered by LLMs.
But there's another example I want to mention - the phenomenon of "gang stalking". I'd assert that most people who get wrapped up in this delusion truly are psychotic - it's something that consumes their entire lives; no matter where they go, what they do, who they talk to, the events are their lives are liable to relate to this primary paranoid delusion about being harassed by unknown assailants. The Wikipedia page cites a 2016 NYT article which claims that more than 10,000 people are involved in online communities about gang stalking - you can see for yourself the subreddit for gang stalking far exceeds that number, and it would be kind of fascinating to read into some of these people's delusions, if it weren't so tragic.
But the critical thing is that mutual reinforcement of delusions is happening here without the need for LLMs at all. It's a completely organic, human-only phenomenon that has been happening for decades. Certainly LLMs may trigger or reinforce a new range of delusions among the psychotic, and may increase the magnitude of the problem, but what helps me sleep at night is that these are all a matter of degree. The particular dynamic underlying LLM-induced psychosis is not a truly new phenomenon.
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Comment on Removed Reddit post: "ChatGPT drove my friends wife into psychosis, tore family apart... now I'm seeing hundreds of people participating in the same activity. " in ~tech
eyechoirs Link ParentWhat about if someone uses a LLM to learn about climate change (let's assume that the LLM delivers truly factual information about on this topic), then gets depressed about the future suffering of...What about if someone uses a LLM to learn about climate change (let's assume that the LLM delivers truly factual information about on this topic), then gets depressed about the future suffering of the human race and kills themself as a result? I think this clearly meets your "any reason at all to believe the LLM contributed to their demise" criterion - but only to the same extent that reading about climate change from an authoritative human source would. Seems kind of unfair.
And regulatory fairness is actually pretty important here. You state that the end goal of this kind of regulation would be to incentivize the development of more responsible models, but onerous regulation only incentivizes the use of open source or black market LLMs, which are far less amenable to regulation anyway. The extreme edge case of the "onerous" approach would be banning LLMs outright, and it should hopefully be clear why that would fail.
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Comment on uKanDanZ - War Pigs (2025) in ~music
eyechoirs Link ParentI think the reason for labeling this 'jazz' becomes more apparent when you consider the route that Ethiopian music came to influence Western music in general - some of the first examples were...I think the reason for labeling this 'jazz' becomes more apparent when you consider the route that Ethiopian music came to influence Western music in general - some of the first examples were people like Mulatu Astatke, Hailu Mergia, etc., who during the early 1970s fused Ethiopian folk music with jazz (especially latin jazz), a style aptly known as 'Ethio jazz'. The particular sound of Ethiopian music - its use of unusual pentatonic scales, for instance - became associated with jazz, and as the genre spread, the jazz label stuck even if the music it influenced lost some of the qualities which originally defined it as jazz.
I've heard that there are 3 main qualities which define jazz - 1) a focus on improvisation and mutuality, where the players actively listen and acknowledge each other through the music; 2) swing rhythm; and 3) complex harmony that is often (but not exclusively) rooted in dominant chord tensions. Music that has all three of these qualities is definitely jazz - your standard stuff like John Coltrane, Bill Evans, pre-fusion Miles Davis, etc. Music that has two of these three qualities I think is also pretty clearly jazz, though usually there's a clear influence from other musical forms. Fusion jazz often does not have a swing rhythm, being more influenced by rock or funk, but still has the improvisation/mutuality and complex harmony. Then there's jazz subgenres that don't have much improvisation - stuff like pre-arranged big band swing jazz, or 'chamber jazz' compositions in the third stream style. But they keep the complex harmony and rhythmic looseness. And of course if you look at something like free jazz, it usually maintains the swing and improvisation of jazz, but the harmony might get into really atonal or otherwise unconventional stuff that breaks from the jazz paradigm.
Ethio jazz in its original form is much like latin jazz, which often substitutes the more rigid Afro-Cuban type of rhythmic architecture for swing - this should be apparent if you listen to some of Mulatu Astatke's hits. But there's still plenty of jazz harmonies and improvisation, and indeed there's plenty of modern Ethio jazz that follows this format. But I think the compatibility of this style with things like funk rock or psych rock eventually lead to a degradation of the music's harmonic elements. If you listen to uKanDanZ's usual stuff, it pretty much avoids jazz harmony in favor of simple rock chords alongside the usual Ethiopian pentatonic stuff, though improvisation is still a vital aspect. So, 1 out of 3 isn't really jazz, though you could probably still call it 'jazz adjacent'.
This distance from the original Ethio jazz is exacerbated in the linked song, which is a cover, so there's also no improvisation. But that's language for ya - meanings shift over time and no one is the wiser, and all of the sudden we're calling this jazz.
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Comment on Observation: Video links go unwatched in ~tech
eyechoirs Link Parenthttps://www.youtube.com/@ThePopDescriptivist/ Some of the videos will probably be intelligible to you without a theory background, but a lot of the ones where I start talking about functional...https://www.youtube.com/@ThePopDescriptivist/
Some of the videos will probably be intelligible to you without a theory background, but a lot of the ones where I start talking about functional harmony, well so help you god. I do recommend learning about functional harmony from the basics though, from some other resource; it's probably the most useful aspect of music theory for improvising, composing, etc.
And clarsach, huh? That's pretty unique. I've only seen one in person once... though I suppose it's popular in some places, just not where I've been, haha.
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Comment on Observation: Video links go unwatched in ~tech
eyechoirs Link ParentYeah, that's a big part of it. I think being able to listen to chords or melody as they're explained helps those lessons resonate. And separately, I think chord function charts are easier to...Yeah, that's a big part of it. I think being able to listen to chords or melody as they're explained helps those lessons resonate. And separately, I think chord function charts are easier to understand if they're (visually) built up one piece at a time, in tandem with the explanation, instead of the completed chart being shown from the start, which is typically how an essay/research paper would show that kind of thing.
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Comment on Observation: Video links go unwatched in ~tech
eyechoirs LinkI recently started making long-form (>10 min) videos on music theory for my YouTube channel, so I'm in a unique position to theorize about this trend. It's definitely true that some video content...I recently started making long-form (>10 min) videos on music theory for my YouTube channel, so I'm in a unique position to theorize about this trend.
It's definitely true that some video content niches are disappearing, but you'd have to expect that as technology, society, etc. evolve there would be some changes. As others have pointed out, short-form meme videos for low attention spans are ascendant right now, but I think there's also a growing niche for long-form, podcast-style videos. A lot of these are just '3 dudes in a room chatting' style content, which might reflect growing parasocial tendencies, but also I've seen some video essay deep dives on a particular subject (even those >1 hr in length) perform pretty well. Though perhaps some of this reflects my own viewing biases rather than broader trends.
With my own content, I'm trying to buck some of the ostensive issues people have with long-form content, especially that this type of video is boring/repetitive due to being padded out to meet a more monetizable length. My videos are generally 15-35 minutes long, but I pack them with as much content as possible. I talk as fast as I can, and rarely repeat myself for the sake of being didactic. I figure it is easier for people who can't keep up with fast-paced content to pause the video as needed, than for people who get bored with slow-paced content to somehow compensate for that.
I also take a no-frills, 'education, not entertainment' approach, which is probably bad for metrics, but is more in line with my personal values. You won't be able to get anything out of my videos unless you are willing to pay close attention. As video content migrates towards memes and other low-attention material, I feel like going the opposite direction might be able to find a small but consistent fanbase of people who are interesting in learning something instead of just passively wasting time. The topic of music theory is already geared towards learning, in some ways, so I try to make content that demands the viewer work to understand the subject, something incisive enough that it won't just be forgotten hours later.
Between the subject of music theory in general, and my particular approach to it, this is a small niche, but I am heartened by comments on some of my videos that express profound gratitude and fascination. But also I get comments (surprisingly often) that essentially say 'I don't understand any of this but I watched the whole video', and those are the best ones. I think there's a vitalizing effect to exploring content that is far, far beyond your level of understanding of a subject. Seeing how complex the whole thing is, which hopefully inspires you to make a real attempt to start understanding the basics, so that you can get to the expert stuff one day.
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Comment on I'm thinking of starting a business making basically gatorade-type powder. Seeking advice. in ~hobbies
eyechoirs Link ParentFormulation chemistry is indeed cool. You're right that shelf stability is also major topic - I didn't bring it up here because most electrolyte ingredients are stable and not likely to interact...Formulation chemistry is indeed cool. You're right that shelf stability is also major topic - I didn't bring it up here because most electrolyte ingredients are stable and not likely to interact (flavor might, but degradation of flavor is not critical for a hobby business, I'd imagine). But if you look at pharmaceutical formulations, there are often challenges with stability, meaning you might need to change the excipients, pH, process parameters like temperature, or other aspects of the dosage form to keep the active ingredient from degrading.
And you'd bet your ass that baby formula gets tested in every conceivable way before being packaged up and shipped off to the local babies. People always wonder why things like baby formula or electrolytes are so expensive since the ingredients seem like they'd be cheap, but a lot of cost goes into manufacturing controls and quality assurance.
From a formulation standpoint, meal replacement stuff is pretty neat. Usually, the potential problems in a formulation exponentiate as you add ingredients, but most of the ingredients in meal replacements already coexist in food naturally, so there's a degree of safety in that - experience tells us that fats and proteins and such don't have any unexpected interactions, and any degradation products are probably already well-characterized by the food chemists. Really the product seems like it would lean more towards food chemistry than formulation chemistry, though they are adjacent fields. My expertise is more with pharmaceuticals and OTC stuff.
I have bachelor's degree in chemistry, though I didn't get into formulation until after graduating. There are folks who specialize into it during grad school, but I kind of fell into it accidentally and just ended up liking it (for many of the same reasons I enjoy cooking, ultimately). In my experience, most formulation chemists work in-house with a company that sells those formulations, though in some cases there's a 'private label'-type deal going on, where CVS pharmacy for instance pays company X to design a 'CVS brand' deodorant or headache powder or whatever.
Testing samples for active ingredients etc. is more the purview of analytical chemists, and while they often work closely with formulators as part of an in-house team, once the validation of a formulation is finished, it's often handled at the manufacturing site by a different team. If the company is using a contract manufacturer, then it won't even be strictly in-house anymore. And for some companies whose product is made without much chemistry (off the top of my head, I'm thinking cannabis products, for instance, which are grown from the soil, and/or then baked into a cookie, neither of which processes really require much chemistry knowledge), they probably contract the whole QA testing thing to an outside company even from the start.
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Comment on I'm thinking of starting a business making basically gatorade-type powder. Seeking advice. in ~hobbies
eyechoirs LinkIt's a nice idea, but how much do you know about formulation chemistry? Milling and mixing powders is actually a fairly complex process, and there are a bunch of potential difficulties or even...- Exemplary
It's a nice idea, but how much do you know about formulation chemistry? Milling and mixing powders is actually a fairly complex process, and there are a bunch of potential difficulties or even dangers even in making relatively simple formulations like this.
For instance, different particle sizes will tend to segregate when agitated, with larger particles moving towards the top. If your ingredients have different average particle sizes, this can create a situation where there is varying concentrations of each within the overall batch. Now, if you're simply doing a mixture of sodium chloride, potassium chloride, and flavor (for instance), then a single serving of the product is not likely to be all that dangerous, since even a 'finished product serving weight' of any of these ingredients alone (the theoretical worst case scenario) is still probably going to be within the RDA.
But adding caffeine would potentially be sort of risky. To illustrate: I use an electrolyte powder which has a serving size of 1 tsp (5 mL). If it contained caffeine, and the ingredients got segregated in a worst case scenario I could be dosing myself with 5 g of caffeine (~1g/mL), which is an absurdly high amount - equivalent to 50 cups of coffee. Now, the worst case scenario is rather unlikely, but if the intended dose in a serving is 100 mg, then it's far from unthinkable that segregation could lead to there being, say 3x as much - 300 mg - which is a dose that for a casual caffeine user, sans-tolerance, could certainly lead to a bad time. In my experience, powdered caffeine tends to have a very fine particle size, whereas a lot of off-the-shelf sodium or potassium is pretty chunky/crystally, which makes this sort of powder mixture problem all the more likely.
Companies that make products like this will specifically test to make sure a formulation does not segregate during transport and consumer use. Then, in production, they use carefully designed and validated mixing processes, and perform batch uniformity testing on the finished product. You should be prepared to do something similar to ensure product consistency if you're serious about this plan.
One way around this might be to package individual servings of the product, with the ingredients weighed out on a per serving basis. The downsides of this are increased packaging costs, as well as the inconvenience of not being able to make everything in a big batch.
I used to work as a formulation chemist, so if you have any questions about this topic, feel free to ask... as long as I get a cut of the profits (just kidding).
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Comment on Igorrr - ADHD (2025) in ~music
eyechoirs Link ParentVSnares is great! I probably should have mentioned Rossz Csillag Alatt Született (which might be my favorite album of his) due to the heavy use of classical music samples, which I guess is...VSnares is great! I probably should have mentioned Rossz Csillag Alatt Született (which might be my favorite album of his) due to the heavy use of classical music samples, which I guess is adjacent to Igorrr.
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Comment on Igorrr - ADHD (2025) in ~music
eyechoirs Link Parentrubs hands gleefully Okay, let's see... It's hard to find anything exactly the same as Igorrr due to how unique his approach is. But what you've labeled an 'Igorrr itch' might more generally be...rubs hands gleefully
Okay, let's see... It's hard to find anything exactly the same as Igorrr due to how unique his approach is. But what you've labeled an 'Igorrr itch' might more generally be for music that 1) blends lots of styles, focusing especially on electronic/breakbeat and metal, 2) is really fast and complicated, with so many ideas rushing at you so quickly that it's hard to keep up, though if you manage to, the feeling is exhilarating, and 3) has a sense of humor, plays 'musical jokes' on you.
Items 2) and 3) are actually more related than you might think. The essence of comedy is the unexpected, and the more syncopated and faster music is, the harder it is to expect the next note. Yet well-written music may also have the overarching logical structure necessary for humor (what in jokes often boils down to double meanings). I often find myself laughing at fast, clever music - I remember hearing Archspire's 'Relentless Mutation' for the first time with some friends, and we were all cracking up (that might actually be a good recommendation, come to think of it, though it's more purely metal than Igorrr). I also remember a few people laughing at a show for Squarepusher's live band, Shobaleader One, for more or less the same reasons, I imagine.
And indeed, Squarepusher might scratch this itch pretty well, but he has a big, diverse discography, so selection is important. His early releases may have the requisite speed and complexity, but by today's standards they're kind of conventional, and the timbral palette is probably not diverse enough. I think the first really 'way out there' Squarepusher album, and my personal favorite, is 'Ultravisitor'. Certain tracks might scratch the itch, but there might be too many slow, almost ambient ones in between. So maybe a better suggestion is 'Ufabulum', which is more uniformly high-intensity, but maintains a really sophisticated and experimental timbral approach. It's purely electronic, though I feel like certain tracks have a metal-ish vibe to them. 'Damogen Furies' might also be a good pick - quite similar to 'Ufabulum', perhaps even more intense, though also less nuanced.
Okay, on to other recommendations - check out 'Power Tools' by Big Lad. It's a fusion of grindy powerviolence style hardcore and breakcore or gabber electronic elements. Super fun, and has a way of, just when it feels like its intensity is peaking, getting more intense. No vocals though. A similar pick to this might be drumcorps, who has a bunch of great EPs, my favorite being 'Better Days' - a mathcore/metalcore/breakcore fusion with digitally fucked-with harsh vocals - lots of over-the-top fun. And then there is Machine Girl, who uses a lot more synths than these other two, and whose songwriting is a little more straightforward, but still brings a lot of metal tropes and is a great, somewhat irreverent vocalist imo. 'U-Void Synthesizer' is my favorite of theirs.
There are also quite a few electronic artists who don't have much of a metal influence, but still have intense, fast, and inventive songwriting, along with stylistic diversity, which I think could fit the bill. Iglooghost's latest releases have been a bit milder, but their breakout album 'Neo Wax Bloom' is a great piece of future bass/IDM with tons of energy and overflowing creativity. Lynyn is the solo project of the guitarist from the band Monobody, and his album 'lexicon' is really good, very textural in a way that's reminiscent of Squarepusher but also more modern. A left-field pick might be Gazelle Twin, whose album 'Pastoral' is really incredible - a mix of British folk music, creepy dark electronica, and aggressive noise. It's definitely way less intense than Igorrr on the whole, but might make up for it with sheer weirdness and, at times, dark humor.
Oh, and I almost forgot MIRAR's 'Ascension' - this just came out and I'm still digesting it, but it's this very unusual mixture of sludge metal riffs, dubstep's screechy noises and paced out rhythms, a little drum 'n' bass, flavor and then an out-of-nowhere dose of classical music. I think maybe on paper this might be the closest to Igorrr, but I'm not quite sure it meets the mark quality-wise, at least compared to my personal opinions on the rest of these releases.
Really, nothing's going to compare exactly to Igorrr, but hopefully you find something you enjoy here. Let me know what you think! If you like something in particular I might be able to provide more targeted recommendations.
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Comment on Igorrr - ADHD (2025) in ~music
eyechoirs Link ParentBetter than S&D, but not quite as good as 'Sinusoid'. I suspect his first couple of releases were a process of trying to figure out how to fit everything together - which is hard when 'everything'...Better than S&D, but not quite as good as 'Sinusoid'. I suspect his first couple of releases were a process of trying to figure out how to fit everything together - which is hard when 'everything' consists of black metal, breakcore, classical music, French folk music, up to and including the proverbial kitchen sink. 'Hallelujah' has a few really great tracks but a lot of it still sounds slightly arbitrary, like it's asking 'what could I put here' as opposed to 'what should I put here'.
Sinusoid, on the other hand, feels more in touch with the structural or even 'music theoretical' aspects of each of its parts, so that even though on the surface they may seem arbitrary (chiptune synths over blast beats?) there is a deeper connection that creates a surprisingly consistent aesthetic. Actually, I feel like S&D does about as well as Sinusoid in this respect, but at the same time it was more restrained or even formulaic with its approach. And fundamentally, I'd rather an album take big swings (even if they're not all winners) than play it safe - though of course with Igorrr, 'safe' is a relative word.
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Comment on Igorrr - ADHD (2025) in ~music
eyechoirs LinkIgorrr! Love him. I'm indifferent to the video portion of this, but the music is great, makes me think the new album will be quite promising. 'Savage Sinusoid' is one of my all-time favorite...Igorrr! Love him. I'm indifferent to the video portion of this, but the music is great, makes me think the new album will be quite promising. 'Savage Sinusoid' is one of my all-time favorite albums, but I felt 'Spirituality and Distortion' was a weaker effort. I hope this new one leans into the Squarepusher-y breakbeat type of stuff that dominates the first half of this song.
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Comment on Confess your food crimes in ~food
eyechoirs Link ParentNo binding ingredient necessary - the consistency is a bit stickier than your standard mashed potato, so it stays together pretty well when fried.No binding ingredient necessary - the consistency is a bit stickier than your standard mashed potato, so it stays together pretty well when fried.
My bad, should be fixed now.