Thoughts from Bl00 on the problem of needing to somehow provide social training to awkward weirdos in order to separate them from genuine assholes.
We’ve started telling people how they are expected to act. That’s a phenomenal start. We’ve started making it clear that there are paths to justice, in the case that those expectations are not met. Also great. But I don’t feel like it’s enough. Often, issues are forced into a boolean framing, with only a boolean response. Either something is dismissible, or scorched earth. And so many things go unaddressed, and the few things that aren’t are either viewed as “how did we wait so long?!” or “that seems like overkill.” The former continues to vilify the perpetrator, and the later vilifies the person(s) on the receiving end.
If we simply kick out anyone who messes up, we end up with empty communities, and that’s not a new future.
If we don’t hold people accountable for being abusive, we end up with rooms filled only with those who love their pre-existing power, and that’s not a new future.
League of Legends is the best example I know of how to deal with this properly, or at least better than usual. If you are an asshole to someone, you go to Tribunal. They do this because there are rarely “problem players,” but most incidents are “players having a bad day.” And if you got rid of all those players, you wouldn’t have anyone left. If you put a bad mark on “problem players” or some other permanent thing, people simply recreate accounts, and are pissed off while they play in the beginner brackets, and then you have a toxic environment for the newcomers, only the toxic stick around, and then the whole place sucks.
Let’s bring this to issues of gender and sexual advances specific to our geek communities. It cannot be fun for most of the people who are causing these problems. Just think – you try to make a pass, it either isn’t well received or seems to be but then later it turns out wasn’t, and no one is telling you what is actually expected. Except sometimes that you’ve done something wrong. Of course yes to consent! Yes to enthusiastic consent! But women especially are also socialized to give what is seemed to be desired. For safety. For society. Etc. And so consent is the first essential step along a path, but is not the end-all-be-all.
What I’m proposing is this: if someone violates a safe space agreement, or continually makes people in the community feel squicked, or whatever else… we need to have a path laid for them to get better. And if they’re not willing to take that path, we know they’re doing it because they’re an asshole, and not because they’re socially awkward. Awkwardness can be because of a commitment to consent, and is no excuse for many of these issues. Just ask someone I’ve dated. I am not smooth.
So what are those paths? Restorative justice seems to be a useful alternative for urban communities with generations disappearing into the legal system, but which has been co-opted by the privileged to avoid accountability. I’ve asked around about programs for people who are abusive to “get better,” with little luck. Are there paths already out there? Do we need to create them? Please do comment here, let’s have a discussion.
I continue to be ridiculously impressed by the art talent within the staff over there.
Happy Monday, friends! We hope you had an incredible weekend. We’re here to brighten up those Monday Blues with Monday Matchup!
This week we’ve paired the classy and sophisticated Platinum Balance fountain pen in Blue with De Atramentis Ferdinand von Zeppelin fountain pen ink. This pair is a very traditional match that'd be perfect for the office. The navy color has more flair than the typical black, but is still modest enough to use in professional environments. This makes it perfect go-to choice for a daily-carry pair.
A portrait of Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin was done by Joe O. to show off the De Atramentis ink.
I am sad to leave again, like a lot of us are when we go from where we came from. I hope that my family times give you a chuckle, and that your family is well. I hope to heaven that your family doesn’t talk about butts as much as mine does.
These are tremendous fun, and great playing, too. via Laszlo Tenki.
Here’s two amazing videos of musicians realizing the air pressure from their faulty plumbing makes for a great music. The violinist from the first video us from the Altra Volta Quartet in Poland, and the video of the guitarist appears to be uncredited. If you like this, also check out Diego Stocco’s Music from a Dry Cleaner. (via The Awesomer)
Tom has been playing around the edges of this market for a while.
Bespoke Savile Row tailoring is our business. We’ve been telling you the truth about this craft for ten years and now we want to offer the Savile Row experience to everyone.
Our bespoke service is a specialised product and we’re fully aware the cost is out of reach for many people. We have been looking for a way to offer a suit that has the best hallmarks of English tailoring. After a long search and nearly two years in the planning, we feel we have something very special for you. An English Cut suit averaging $700 (£415).
Approaching this from the same angle we approach everything, making quality our priority. We are offering suits made to order, using only fine worsted fabrics from England. After searching everywhere for a maker that would tailor to our exact standards, we are confident that we have found the best people to tailor for you. Whilst maintaining our soft comfortable style with high armholes for movement. The very essence of an English suit.
There are a lot of companies offering a suit around this price point. But ask yourself, how many of these are actual tailors with a proven background? Do they have a heritage in the trade and know what is most important in a suit?
We look forward to welcoming new clients in to our craft.
This week’s Monday Matchup is somewhat unconventional, but a unique and fun pairing all the same. One of our newest pen additions, the Sheaffer Sagaris in Gloss Wine, is paired with Pelikan Brilliant Red ink. Although the Sagaris we chose is burgundy in color, we wanted to showcase a different red ink that was unique and would hopefully surprise you.
All the below work was done by Joe O. Joe didn’t use the Sagaris to create these images, but he had it in mind as he worked with the ink and decided they’d make a good pair.
Lately Joe has been experimenting with a syringe, making ink droplets on paper. Joe was more methodical about how he watered it down the ink. He created a scale of 9 values to work with, ranging from pure ink at the high end of the scale and a nearly clear mixture of water and ink on the lowest end.
Here's a little time-lapse video of Joe creating his ink droplets:
As for the image of Bill Murray below, Joe was reminded of the psychomagnothermic ooze or "mood slime" that flowed beneath the streets of New York in the movie, 'Ghost Busters II'. So with the syringe, the scaled ink, some correction fluid, and an image of the great Bill Murray, he went to work.
I got a chance to visit two craft distillers in the Northeast last week: Berkshire Mountain Distillers and Catskill Distilling. I took a day off and drove up to Boston for the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Boston Beer Company (the brewers of Samuel Adams), and realized I could easily stop in to see some whiskey being made on my way back. It was a gorgeous day, and after I’d cleared the Boston traffic, a great drive west out the Mass Pike, past lakes, marshes, and forests, then into the rolling folds of the Berkshires. I got off the Pike, headed south, and watched as the roads my mapping app directed me onto got smaller and smaller, until finally the arrow pointed down a long gravel driveway through a meadow.
Bucolic setting of Berkshire Mountain
Nice work, mapping app: that’s where I found Berkshire Mountain Distillers and founder Chris Weld. Things were, as he put it, “a tad crazy,” as they prepared to move to a new building in nearby Sheffield, Mass. The grassy area around the barn where the distillery has been for seven years was littered with tanks, “totes” (the heavy plastic, roughly 1,000 liter container cubes this industry seems to run on), and a malfunctioning auger, all waiting to be moved or salvaged. It was also crazy because while they were mashing in for a run of bourbon, they were eagerly anticipating the first run of their new bottled gin-and-tonic product, due to be done at the new plant in mid-August. (I got a chilled sip: deliciously refreshing and dangerously drinkable at 26 proof!)
Berkshire’s still; columns are up to the right.
Berkshire runs on a pot still salvaged from Brown-Forman, an odd, capsule-shaped device with internal copper. The new make ages in a variety of barrel sizes; like many craft distillers, Weld is moving away from tiny 10-gallon barrels to larger ones. Too woody, too fast in the smaller ones, he acknowledged. That’s some of the reason they’re moving: more room for barrels. Another reason is that long gravel driveway and the barn. It’s hard for trucks to get back here, and once they’re here…Weld told me a hair-raising story about a parked truck starting to slide, wheels locked, down the snow-covered driveway toward his cottage. They managed to get it stopped, but started looking for another location.
Berkshire has done some interesting collaborations with brewers. I’d actually tasted one the night before at the Samuel Adams event; a whiskey made by distilling Samuel Adams Boston Lager and aging it in bourbon barrels. It was at barrel proof, and only two years old, but with a bit of water it opened right up and gave the floral, spicy hop nose the Lager is known for, without the bitterness in the mouth. It’s still young, and hot; in a couple years, it might be an interesting whiskey indeed. They did another one with Samuel Adams Cinder Bock, a smoked beer, which was aged in barrels that had held Samuel Adams Utopias. I tasted that at the distillery, and didn’t really get much of the smoke; the rich vinous wood of the barrel was more evident.
They’ve also done a series of small bottlings of their bourbon, finished in barrels used by other brewers to age their beers. I review the Samuel Adams Utopias edition in the upcoming Fall issue; Chris gave me a sample bottle of the Terrapin Brewing project at the distillery; there will be ten bottlings altogether. I found the Utopias bottling to be a richer, rounder version of the standard Berkshire Mountain bourbon bottling, and look forward to trying the Terrapin.
Chris had to run at this point, so I thanked him, and headed back down that gravel driveway and west toward the Hudson River. I crossed at Poughkeepsie, had lunch at a brewpub in New Paltz, and headed into another incredibly scenic drive, up over the Shawangunk escarpment and into the Catskills. After 50 minutes of roller coaster-like thrill driving on more two-lane roads, I found myself stuck in a solid mile of backed-up traffic…a mile from Catskill Distilling! What the heck was going on, a run on the tasting room?
My single-mindedness had betrayed me. I didn’t know that Catskill Distilling was just a couple hundred yards up the road from the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, a performing space on the site of the 1969 Woodstock festival…and Jimmy Buffett was playing there that night. Don’t mess with the Parrotheads! I did finally get to turn off at the Dancing Cat Saloon and Catskill Distilling Company, where I was quickly greeted by the gregarious and friendly Monte Sachs, DVM.
Hardware at Catskill
That’s right; the owner is a large animal veterinarian. He made his money caring for racehorses in the Hudson Valley and at the track at Monticello, just down the road. I asked him how he got hooked on distilling, and he told me a great story about an Italian girlfriend who took him back to the family vineyard, where he decided to learn winemaking to impress the parents. “But after six months, I learned that winemaking is a lot of work!” he laughed. “What I really liked and wanted to do was make grappa.” The distillation of this Italian spirit fascinated him, and he decided he would make grappa. Someday.
Eventually the opportunity came along when New York passed a farm distillery law in 2008. Sachs jumped on it. He put in a Carl still setup, and got some valuable consulting help from industry legend Lincoln Henderson. (I first heard of Monte and Catskill from Lincoln, who told me that, among other things, he’d told Monte to “keep the place clean and open a gift shop; people want to buy things.” I can report that Monte definitely took that advice; the place was spotless, and there was plenty of merchandise.) Henderson advised him on his aging building, a former horse stable behind the distillery.
This little barrel house is heavily insulated, without windows, and when Monte opened the door for me, I could see it was stuffed with barrels. It was also eye-stingingly heavy with boozy aromas; the angels have to fight for their share of this whiskey! There was a concrete slab beside the building; another aging house is going in soon, and should be up by October.
Monte needs that barrel house, and new tanks, and more barrels (he says he’s got good barrel supply, but has to order in large lots to get it). Not only is the current barrel house chockfull, he’s ramping up production. Through a chance meeting at a spirits expo, he connected with a high-powered consultant with years of experience in major spirits companies who had just retired and was looking for interesting products to work with. Monte sent him his product line and, just as I did in this summer’s Rye Issue, he picked out the Buckwheat whiskey as the most interesting, the most different. There are plans to make the Buckwheat the forefront of the portfolio, and there may be a lot more investment coming in to make it happen.
He’s also doing a collaboration with a brewery, by the way. He connected with Brewery Ommegang, over in Cooperstown, N.Y., and they made a batch of ale for him that’s been distilled and is aging in the barrel house now, with the rampant Ommegang lion stenciled on the barrel head. Exciting times in the Catskills.
And the grappa? He’s still making it. “You see those bottles? They’re all hand-blown, which means they’re all a different size, so I have to measure the spirit going in at precisely 375 ml, and I have to use a tapered cork because all the necks are different, and then I have to wax the corks to keep them in. And it’s not a big seller.” He shrugged, and grinned. “I’m still going to make it! I really love the stuff.”
I don’t like grappa. I’ve tried it, repeatedly, and I don’t like it, or the similar slivovitz or pisco (though I do like marc; go figure). But I told Monte I’d try his, because he’d been so friendly, and because that Buckwheat was so interesting. You know? I liked the grappa (words I’ve never said before, or ever thought I would). It had much more to it than just hot rocket fuel character; it was subtle, intriguing, delicate. It was an interesting insight into how distilling is done here; each product clearly shows its origin grains or grapes, packed with flavor before it comes anywhere near wood.
I left Catskill Distilling, cut back half a mile to elude the Parrotheads, and two-laned it home, managing to make it a hat trick of pretty little mountain chains by driving through the Poconos during a gorgeous sunset. There aren’t any craft distillers in the Poconos yet, but who knows what might happen in a few years?
(Do you like the video? Do you want to see more? Or is it just annoying?)
This is a good articulation of why nobody wins in this situation.
Update 5:12 PM (CST): Global edit, Hatchette->Hachette. Because apparently I thought the publisher was actually named after an axe.
Updated 5:18 PM (CST), 11 August: Someone popular linked to this and site traffic is crazy. Load times are slow. Apologies. Also, see the addendum at the end.
I hoped I’d be able to stay out of this whole Hachette/Amazon mess. It should be easy: I’m not a recognized authority on publishing, after all, and my soapbox isn’t really pointed in that direction. But as it happens, no one in this argument is saying what I want them to say, so I’m going to have to say it myself, and leaving comments on other people’s blogs just isn’t going to cut it for me.
The Short Version
This is a horrible fight. No matter who wins we’re probably screwed. Hachette isn’t the hero, and Amazon isn’t the hero either.
The Long Version
Looking at this fight all by itself, without any context at all, Amazon probably deserves to win--and honestly, I think it probably will win whether it deserves to or not. There’s no legitimate reason an ebook should cost the same as a paperback. “Well we really want to” is not a legitimate reason. “Because we can get away with it” is only legitimate from a business perspective if you can actually get away with it, and the current fight between Amazon and Hachette suggests that they can’t.
As reader of books I want ebooks to be cheaper than paperbacks because a) they’re obviously cheaper to make and b) when I “buy” an ebook I have fewer rights to do what I want with it than I do when I buy a paperback, so please don’t try to pretend it’s the same thing. If the first sale doctrine doesn’t apply to an ebook purchase, or doesn’t apply as completely, then it better be cheaper. So strictly within the boundaries of the current argument between a publisher that wants to charge stupid prices for their product and a retailer that wants to sell a product at less-stupid prices, regardless of their actual motives, as someone who buys ebooks I gotta hand Amazon the win.
That said: an Amazon win is probably not in anyone’s long-term interests.
Here is the secret to understanding my take on Amazon: they’re not part of the publishing industry, although the things they do certainly affect it. They’re not a service and retail company, though that is the way they make all their money. At its core, Amazon is and always has been part of the computer industry, and if you view them from that perspective their business practices should scare the shit out of you.
I celebrate my own strength because nobody knows how I’ve far I’ve come better than me. My path to happiness did not come without hiccups, but at least it was my choice. I am happy to finally live a life that is my choice.
Happy Monday, pen lovers of the world! This week’s Monday Matchup up is brought to you by Caran d’Ache Delicate Green fountain pen ink and the Monteverde Intima in Neon Green. Sometimes you just need something bright and vibrant to liven up your Monday. The piece that Joe O. created with this matchup is beyond impressive. We gave him artistic freedom to be inspired from the ink, and while he technically didn't use the Monteverde pen to create his artwork, we still wanted to showcase it as a great complementary color match for this ink.
When Joe researched the name 'Caran D'Ache', he discovered that it's a pseudonym for a Russian-born French satirist/cartoonist, Emmanuel Poire. Caran D'Ache is a modified form of the Russian word karandash, meaning pencil. One daring cartoonist popped into Joe's mind immediately — an American cartoonist named Bill Mauldin. Mauldin’s characters, Willie and Joe, drudge through the often frustrating, yet, surprisingly funny, reality of life as grunts in WWII.
Since Bill Mauldin was such an effective purveyor of "grit" in both his images and in the nature of his characters, Joe chose to make his portrait in his own messy way using a 5mL syringe instead of a pen or brush. The unpredictable nature of the syringe allowed for unexpected results. Too much pressure on the plunger would cause a gush of ink to pool on the page. But just enough pressure would turn the syringe into a make-shift fountain pen. There was no preliminary drawing for this portrait, so the likeness is off a bit — a result from wanting to build the image with marks rather than using something predetermined.
Joe really had a blast making this portrait of Bill Mauldin. Ever since he received his book Up Front from his father when Joe was deployed overseas, Joe has been fascinated by how skillfully Mauldin was able to capture the distinctive soldier's brand of levity that manifests itself in the face of armed conflict.
For another take on this pen and ink combination, we also invite you to check out this pen review and ink review by our friend Ana at The Well-Appointed Desk blog.
Hope you enjoy this Monday’s Matchup as much as we do! :)
Vukari is the smoothest, mellowest "black metal" I think I've heard to date.
Happy goddamned Saturday to one and all. I’m in the middle of a mini-vacation with family and friends, which means I’ve spent more time over the last 24 hours making lists of new music to check out than actually listening or writing. But I hate to let a day go by without posting something at NCS (that’s happened on a grand total of 3 days since we started this site in November 2009), so here are a few quick things I’d like to recommend. With luck, I’ll have a few more to bring your way tomorrow.
BLOOD OF KINGU
As previously reported here, the Ukrainian black metal band Blood of Kingu (started by Roman Sayenko of Drudkh) will be releasing their third album via Season of Mist on September 2 in North America (and August 29 everywhere else). The title is Dark Star on the Right Horn of the Crescent Moon. Last month Terrorizer premiered the first advance track from the album — “Enshrined in the Nethermost Lairs Beneath the Oceans” — and a few days ago Metal Underground premiered a second track.
The new song is “The Bringer of Pestilence”. Like the first advance track, this one kicks open the door immediately and storms through it like a ravening beast. Swarming, corrosive riffs; blasting, thundering percussion; hollow bestial vocals; and extraterrestrial tremolo-picked guitar leads — together they unleash a black/death monstrosity that may surprise you, because you may find its slithering melody hanging around your head after the song ends.
If you haven’t heard the first song, go HERE to listen. The new song is streaming HERE. Blood of Kingu have a Facebook page at this location.
TOURISM: GIGAN, PYRRHON, ARTIFICIAL BRAIN
Two days ago Metal Sucks announced a North American tour by three out-of-the-ordinary death metal bands — Gigan (Chicago), Pyrrhon (NYC), and Artificial Brain (NY). Not surprisingly, the tour is named The Interstellar Intellect North American Tour 2014. Thankfully, the tour incorporates a West Coast swing that will include Seattle. I know this will make you happy because it makes me happy.
9/11 – Cleveland, OH @ Now That’s Class
9/12 – Toronto, ON @ Rancho Relaxo
9/13 – Montreal, QU @ L’alizé
9/14 – Quebec City, QU @ Salle Unisson
9/15 – TBA
9/16 – Providence, RI @ Dusk
9/17 – Albany, NY @ Bogies w/ Fit For An Autopsy
9/18 – Holyoke, MA @ The Waterfront Tavern
9/19 – Brooklyn, NY @ Saint Vitus Bar
9/20 – Clementon, NJ @ Harper’s
9/21 – Baltimore, MD @ The Sidebar (Psychodeathia Fest)
9/22 – Raleigh, NC @ The Maywood
9/24 – Covington, KY T@ he Backstage
9/25 – Atlanta, GA @ Swayze’s
9/26 – Pensacola, FL @ The Handle Bar
9/27 – Austin, TX @ The Lost Well
9/28 – Fort Worth,TX @ Tomcats West
9/30 – Denver, CO @ 3 Kings
10/3 – Glendale, CA @ The Complex
10/4 – San Diego, CA @ Til Two Club
10/6 – San Francisco, CA @ Elbo Room
10/8 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon Lounge
10/9 – Vancouver, BC @ Funky Winkerbeans
10/11 – Bozeman, MT @ The Complex
VUKARI
Yesterday, Panopticon posted a Facebook link to a new EP (En To Pan) by this Chicago band, along with some enthusiastic words of recommendation. I needed no further motivation to check it out. I’m sorry to say that at this writing (because of my vacation) I haven’t made my way through the EP as a whole, even once. But the first two songs are captivating.
“Din of Consciousness” is a shimmering aurora borealis of atmospheric black metal and post rock, with a beautiful central melody, beautiful rippling lead guitar accents, a beautiful interplay of bass and drums, and beautifully roaring vocals. Basically, it’s beautiful.
The second song, “Riddled With Fear and Doubt”, is quickly off to the races, yet although more hard-driving and headbanging than “Din”, it also shines with a similarly heart-swelling melody.
As soon as I finish pecking out these words, I’m going to give the whole EP a proper listen — and you should, too. It’s available on Bandcamp (as is the band’s debut album Matriarch), and I’m embedding the player below.
P.S. One of Vukari’s guitarists is Johan Becker, whose amazing violin playing can be heard on the new Panopticon album, as well as Kentucky and Social Disservices.
octopus4 is a pretty fun record, and "Fearful Shepherds" is interesting, though I feel a desire for bellowing on it.
(We’re veering off our usual beaten paths in this post, as DGR reviews the latest releases from The Algorithm and The Luna Sequence.)
We don’t generally cover techno/electronica/dj acts here at No Clean Singing, and I know that my presence has largely been the reason we might have in the past. You’ll likely never see the more straightforward of such acts here, but I will wholly admit to being drawn to the hybrid monsters — the ones that have combined their music with heavy metal and over time have morphed into some strange creatures. Those have been a huge draw for me, and when it comes to artists who I think are doing it particularly well, then you’ll see that I’ll make some continuing attempts to cover them. However, I understand that taking up the front page when there is so much more traditional metal news out there might irk some folks, so I’ve combined two of the more recent works into one huge mega-review article.
Both of these names, The Algorithm and The Luna Sequence, should be familiar to a bunch of you more regular readers, as I have made efforts in the past to share their work, which I’ve quite enjoyed over the years. It just so happens that both artists managed to have new albums, Octopus4 and Fearful Shepherds Hunt Their Sheep respectively, hit around the same time. And thus we find ourselves in a huge review where you can witness me talk out of my ass about electronica music — of which I know between fuck-all and absolute zero — and heavy metal, about which I’ve made writing a huge hobby. Below, you can watch me thrash about between the two moods while I try my best to articulate why exactly I’ve found myself enjoying the hell out of both The Algorithm and The Luna Sequence releases in recent months.
THE ALGORITHM
In all honesty, I don’t think we’ve gotten the chance to cover The Algorithm too much in my time here at NCS. I know, from time to time, Islander has highlighted some of the band’s more recent activities since he knows that I love this project — but as far as a full in-depth review, I can’t remember if we’ve done one or not on this site, outside of a small shout-out to Polymorphic Code in one of my first year-ender bibles. A quick introduction is probably required then; because even though this project is popular, I imagine that the Venn Diagram for those who read NCS and those who regularly listen to The Algorithm probably consists of about ten people. We cater to the heavier side of the metal spectrum, but that doesn’t mean that on occasion we won’t reach beyond our usual sphere and cover something we think you’ll enjoy.
photo by Ben Davies
The Algorithm is a project belonging to French musician Rémi Gallego that is currently signed to Basick Records. It is in large part an electronica project that has sought to hybridize a bunch of heavy metal influences — including a pretty undeniable helping of djent/tech-metal/whatever-label-it-goes-by these days — to create a pretty intense style of music. It is at times very aggressive, but also includes a bunch of moments where it is entirely electronic, with Rémi using whatever tools he has at his disposal to create music that could actually be heavy metal were it played entirely on instruments and not through a series of drum programs and various dj loops. He’s also kept a bunch of guitars in the mix as well, to interchange between the two at the drop of a hat. One of the things The Algorithm has done especially well is creating analogues between instruments and the various drum programmings and synth work heard in the music.
I stumbled onto this project via Last.fm, which decided to play pretty much all of his Critical. Error, Identity, and Doppler Effect releases to me over the span of a week or so. Naturally, it spoke to me and I’ve been following the project ever since, including his Basick Records debut Polymorphic Code – a disc so absolutely willing to throw everything and the kitchen sink into one song that it became joyous in its excess. I have a lot of love for Polymorphic Code, especially the madness that is “Access Granted”, though that album as a whole has gotten a tremendous number of spins on this end. Which means, of course I was watching for the new release, Octopus4, like a hawk. Some time has passed since the disc hit, but I’ve had the album since day one; like Polymorphic Code, there’s a lot to take in, but in a different sense. Octopus4 is a very different album, one that sees The Algorithm going more toward the electronica side of its musical spectrum, as well as attempting tell a story.
For a significant portion of its runtime, Octopus4 consists of music that is in sharp contrast to the sounds that made up Polymorphic Code. It’s actually pretty conservative in its musical aspirations for much of the album, up until the last few tracks where things get more familiar to those who embrace the joyous excess and ‘fuck everything’ sensibility of the electronica that made up the last album. Up until the song sensibly titled “Will_Smith”, Octopus4 is an exercise in the varying degrees of techno and electronica, including the song “_MOS”, which is a fun, catchy tune that sounds like it is made up of SNES-era samples of various squid-like creatures and fauna from games. It has that bouncy, inky sound that seemed to be the motif for that sort of character or enemy in that era of videogames. However, Octopus4 progresses from the more conservative and electronica side of music to the one with which fans are more familiar, toward the end of the album. It’s all part of the story, though I have no idea what that story is.
[Editor's Intrusion: Per a press release lodged in my in-box, "The album is named after a Commodore 64 computer virus with a vicious love of Will Smith and tells the story of OCTOPUS4 escaping in an alternate universe and changing the face of the world forever."]
The turn starts around the aforementioned “Will_Smith”, but really kicks into gear ‘long about the time you hit “Synthesiz3r” and its polyrhythmic-flavored breakdowns and beats. It’s also one of the first where the synth really starts to step into place as an analogue for the guitar, although the prior track “Pythagoras” has a legitimate guitar throughout much of the music. After those songs, the album lines up more for people who loved Polymorphic Code and it bounces all over the place — including a real strange tangent into what I believe is French rap (it’s on the inoffensive side, providing an interesting color to the section afterward, which is one of my favorite moments on the disc). It’s a super-heavy descent into an almost metal-core esque breakdown, though there are no instruments — just a wall of bass, some intense drum programming, and heavy synth work.
Octopus4 has its merits, for sure. It will probably turn off a bunch of the people who may be inclined to the dent-via-electronica sound that has made up a huge body of The Algorithm’s work — but it is still an enjoyable disc. Since it is an album that feels distinctly bi-polar in its movements, it speaks to two different sides of my own musical enjoyment. There’s the side that willingly and frequently submits itself to the more brainless and less challenging electronica, techno, edm, and various other shades of computer-powered music out there, the side that finds itself really enjoying the first half of Octopus4; and then, as the sound blends, my mind switches to the side that was drawn to this project in the first place, the side that enjoyed the heavy metal by way of differing dj techniques and sounds, the approach that really defined The Algorithm’s earlier work. It’s a different disc than Polymorphic Code for sure, an album that really sees the two ends of The Algorithm’s formula pulling at each other in a brutal tug of war, but that still has a lot of playability to it. Also, the way this album ends is just grand.
The Luna Sequence is another project — like The Algorithm above — that I came to because, although the music that makes up the majority of it is electronically based throughout its varied genres and spectra, it too uses rock and metal as its foundations. However, The Luna Sequence has seemingly gone in the opposite direction from the last band because it has only gotten heavier on the metal side, including an increased focus on adding hammering guitar and thrash to death-metal-influenced drumming to break things up.
The Luna Sequence belongs to musician Kaia Young, who has had an eventful year, including a pretty big relocation to the best goddamn State in this wonderful union known as California, and more specifically to the Bay Area. It has seen The Luna Sequence working super-hard to get music going in the midst of the usual rigamarole that a big move may involve. Unlike The Algorithm, though, I know we’ve covered this project many times before, which is why the name may seem more familiar to the more constant NCS readers. It’s also why I couldn’t pass up the chance to do another review when The Luna Sequence returned with its newest album in June, Fearful Shepherds Hunt Their Sheep. You’d never know guess that anything had happened with this project other than time spent between The Day The Curse Grew Stronger and this disc listening to a bunch of heavy metal, because for a pretty good chunk of its runtime, Fearful Shepherds Hunt Their Sheep contains some of the most consistently and authentically heavy music that The Luna Sequence has put out yet.
The core of The Luna Sequence still remains the same as it has been over the last few discs, which means that the closest you’ll come to any sort of vocalist the use of keyboards to provide some sort of lead or orchestral backing to the more epic sections of the music. Usually, you’ll find that these leads tend to be sustained notes, which could as easily be sung as played on a guitar, but it’s as close to a vocal melody amidst this hybrid of electronica and rock/metal that you’ll find. Alongside that, The Luna Sequence has gotten really good at taking the differing varieties of electronica, from its more bass-heavy leanings to the DnB varieties, and making them into analogues for metal tunes.
A few of the songs flip everything on their heads and are just full-blown metal songs that feel like an electronica artist is trying to invade them, and what you essentially get as the final product is the war between the two. The switch is often flipped flawlessly, meaning that when the two aren’t combining into what makes The Luna Sequence what it is, then the trip to the opposite hemispheres often happens without any sort of jarring, ‘Oh, now we’re in the synth heavy section…’ transitions. Case in point: the closing track “From Unrest To Atrophy”, while at its core being a heavy as hell metal tune, shifts from the thunderous drumming and guitar chord desecration to the more calming and ambient piano with about the same effort it takes most folks to breathe.
Unlike The Day The Curse Grew Stronger, which was probably the most metrically heavy album this project has produced, with songs like “Visions” and “Lacerate” for instance, Fearful Shepherds Hunt Their Sheep spreads it out through the whole CD, with the result that the album is a more consistent experience rather than one in which these awesome, concentrated blasts of heavy metal have been packed into a smattering of really good electronica/rock hybrids. That doesn’t mean that Fearful Shepherds doesn’t have its moments of blasting fury though; it’s just that it is more blended into the overall sound now, which means that the heavier songs on the disc are backed by just-as-angry electronics works as well. Even the more synth-and-drum-loop-focused songs find themselves taking on a sinister air at lends itself well to headbanging.
Of course, The Luna Sequence is still filling a very difficult niche; combining the two genres can often lead to people becoming opposed to them like polarized magnets. It seems that the people who embrace this project have a very special and odd bit of musical combination going on in their minds, myself included, with a heavy history of industrial music alongside my requisite Satan worship and circle head banging. Yet it’s hard to deny that The Luna Sequence has a serious draw if you meet those requirements. Every release so far has been enjoyable, and the current tangent into the heavy metal side of this, from This Is Bloodlust to The Day The Curse Grew Stronger, to the current Fearful Shepherds release, has been a lot of fun to hear. It’s music that loans itself well not only to deep listening, but also to just providing a good background, especially to a marathon video game session.
So yes, Fearful Shepherds appeals to an odd Venn diagram of listeners, but if you manage to fall right into that intersection, then the experiences it offers are fantastic. The album’s potential crossover appeal is also tremendous, and I hope people have found themselves traveling from one side of the aisle to the other as they find different elements of each song that they may like. The project may be an odd bridge, but it is one built to be incredibly solid and one that is currently getting really, really good at writing heavy as hell metal songs.
The authors use of "Post-Constitutional America" is a bit much, but otherwise interesting piece.
Yves here. This post on the Administration's efforts to justify its official policy of murder by drone shows how due process is dead in America. That may seem a bit far afield of Naked Capitalism's beat. But the systematic assault on the Constitution is another, even more troubling, manifestation of what we see operating in the financial sphere: that hard-won protections for ordinary citizens are being stripped away, so that those who have access to resources (whether via personal wealth or institutional authority) can operate unfettered, to increase their power and ability to plunder even more.
I got a chance to visit two craft distillers in the Northeast last week: Berkshire Mountain Distillers and Catskill Distilling. I took a day off and drove up to Boston for the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Boston Beer Company (the brewers of Samuel Adams), and realized I could easily stop in to see some whiskey being made on my way back. It was a gorgeous day, and after I’d cleared the Boston traffic, a great drive west out the Mass Pike, past lakes, marshes, and forests, then into the rolling folds of the Berkshires. I got off the Pike, headed south, and watched as the roads my mapping app directed me onto got smaller and smaller, until finally the arrow pointed down a long gravel driveway through a meadow.
The turn starts around the aforementioned “Will_Smith”, but really kicks into gear ‘long about the time you hit “Synthesiz3r” and its polyrhythmic-flavored breakdowns and beats. It’s also one of the first where the synth really starts to step into place as an analogue for the guitar, although the prior track “Pythagoras” has a legitimate guitar throughout much of the music. After those songs, the album lines up more for people who loved Polymorphic Code and it bounces all over the place — including a real strange tangent into what I believe is French rap (it’s on the inoffensive side, providing an interesting color to the section afterward, which is one of my favorite moments on the disc). It’s a super-heavy descent into an almost metal-core esque breakdown, though there are no instruments — just a wall of bass, some intense drum programming, and heavy synth work.
