monkey-and-bear's recent activity
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
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Concepts in music you’re easily impressed by?
Whenever I try to find new albums, I find myself skipping through the entire record fairly quickly in order to find out if they’re good enough to warrant a full listen. Sometimes I’ll find an...
Whenever I try to find new albums, I find myself skipping through the entire record fairly quickly in order to find out if they’re good enough to warrant a full listen. Sometimes I’ll find an album that sounds impressive to me for very simple reasons, e.g. the sound of the bass guitar or frequent use of a pleasant synth sound. In my case, Oneohtrix Point Never is the perfect example. I enjoy virtually every single kind of sound in his discography, even most of the random sound effects. That’s why I began wondering if I’d overrate his future albums if he kept using the same synths, effects, etc. without actually bringing anything new to the table.
Is there anything similar that will always make you more likely to enjoy an album regardless of many other aspects that contribute to its actual quality?
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Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
monkey-and-bear LinkAutechre - Amber This is an ambient/techno/IDM classic that I somehow never gave a listen until last week. I think it’s important to use good headphones for Amber. The textures of the different...Autechre - Amber
This is an ambient/techno/IDM classic that I somehow never gave a listen until last week. I think it’s important to use good headphones for Amber. The textures of the different sounds are absolutely fascinating. I’ve never had so much fun imagining different landscapes, buildings, and random objects before - I felt like Amber was made specifically for that purpose. The soundscapes Autechre created here feel absolutely alien and surreal, in the best way possible.
Ruins - Hyderomastgroningem
I got a CD copy of this album a few months ago and kind of forgot about it recently. I don’t have a specific album that I’d call my favorite, but if someone forced me to choose one, it would be Hyderomastgroningem. It’s full of fascinatingly weird ideas, it feels like an absolute mess after the first listen, but after a few more times it feels like everything fits together perfectly. The entirety of this album is made up of weird vocals in a made-up language, a very angry sounding bass guitar, a few weird sound effects and, of course, Tatsuya Yoshida’s excellent drumming. You can find new exciting elements/details in every single track here.
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Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
monkey-and-bear Link ParentMainly the Mitski and Sufjan Stevens records, also Destroyer’s Kaputt and the Kishi Bashi album, someone recommended it to me on /mu/ a few months ago and I remembered it now.Mainly the Mitski and Sufjan Stevens records, also Destroyer’s Kaputt and the Kishi Bashi album, someone recommended it to me on /mu/ a few months ago and I remembered it now.
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Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
monkey-and-bear Link ParentThanks! I think GoD might be OPN’s best work overall, truly an impressive album. Also, I like the list you linked, I saw some albums on there I wanted to listen to but forgot about for some reason.Thanks! I think GoD might be OPN’s best work overall, truly an impressive album.
Also, I like the list you linked, I saw some albums on there I wanted to listen to but forgot about for some reason. -
Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
monkey-and-bear LinkI’ve been obsessed with the better part of Oneohtrix Point Never’s discography in the last few weeks, especially Russian Mind and Age Of. The latter might be his most underrated album. It’s...I’ve been obsessed with the better part of Oneohtrix Point Never’s discography in the last few weeks, especially Russian Mind and Age Of. The latter might be his most underrated album. It’s admittedly a bit of a mess, which luckily didn’t ruin the album experience for me personally. Apparently, the live show for the album he did back in 2018 made the album make more sense. Age Of is still a great album without it in my opinion.
Also, I finally have Joanna Newsom’s four studio albums on CD now (very nice and creative packaging, btw.) and Have One On Me quickly became one of my favorite albums of the decade.
The last one I want to mention is the debut album by the Mountain Goats, Zopilote Machine. I thought it was decent, my biggest problem with it were the inconsistencies (some songs felt like pure fillers) and the fact that several songs didn’t really work with the extreme lo-fi aesthetic as well as others did. It would have been an easy 10/10 for me if everything on the album were as great as the first two tracks. I feel like I could listen to the opening riff of Alpha Incipiens for hours. I’m definitely going to listen to more of their early albums.
David Foster Wallace’s essay collections. I’m absolutely enjoying the writing, the informative footnotes, and the high number of fairly obscure terms/expressions. Some of the essays, like “Authority and American Usage”, seem to be flawed - apparently, DFW didn’t get everything right about the more complicated topics he wrote about. Many of them are still great, though.