Taylor Swift

Published on Feb 1, 2016 Kevin Polzer "OP-12 OP-14 OP-16" Teenage Engineering on eBay | Teenage Engineering on Amazon

Achewood strip for Friday, January 15, 2016

Veteran game developer John Romero took to Twitter today to spread the word that he's made a new Doom level, E1M8B, something he says he hasn't done in over twenty years. ...

And Josh mentions Exposé’s most obscure top ten.

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[7.00]

Moses Kim: Mirrors “I Feel You” in several ways: the ’80s throwback concept for an aging Korean girl group, the title, the way the first four measures of each take time to announce themselves. But where “I Feel You” reveled in the smooth, sensual pleasure of desire, “Someone Like U” oozes with a joyful contempt instead, from the tongue-in-cheek name-drop of Brave Sound to Rap Kween $erri’s squawk of “HEY GO-MEET SOMEONE STUPID LIKE YOU.” The cowbell has no qualms about announcing itself; the horns sound like they’re being blasted out of a cereal box; the vocals move from chanting the chorus in a stadium-ready middle eight to slinking across the dance floor in the final moments, tossed off rhythmically but a little pitched, as if you’re yelling across the room to your friend about how little you care about it all. It’s all a bit garish, a bit oversaturated, but catchy as hell and in my early running for “best songs of 2016 to walk to in a huffy-puffy manner.”
[9]

Madeleine Lee: The elements are great: the use of the “Think (About It)” break for the intro, the little horn and vocal riffs scattered throughout, and of course that chorus — which is the only part of this song that I can reliably summon up from memory, and the rest of it turns into “I Feel You.” I don’t know what it is that makes these great sounds evaporate when they’re not directly in my ears, if it’s the flatness of the non-chorus melodies or the sheen that Brave Brothers puts over everything blending it out, but given the general enthusiasm I’ve seen this song receive otherwise, I’m willing to say the problem is me.
[6]

Jessica Doyle: That first verse is terrific. The last 45 seconds or so, when the singers drop back to ooh-ing and aah-ing us out, is catnip to those of us whose impressionable minds were too firmly molded by horns back in the actual 1980s. The middle is where the overstuffed cake collapses on itself. (Make the second verse either fast and squeaky or conventional, but not both; and if you’re going to give Subin half the chorus, make it the first half and let her build up; coming in at top speed following Woohee, she sounds strained.) Blame Brave Brothers, and bless Dal*Shabet: they don’t have the name recognition or Big-3 backing of Wonder Girls, but this has three times the energy of “I Feel You,” the substance where the earlier pastiche just offered form.
[6]

Cassy Gress: One of the best late ’80s pastiches in a while and a surprisingly vicious kiss-off song. Serri’s rap is sharp as hell; the male voice doubling hers lurks menacingly.  And her voice just explodes on “ije jinjeoriga na! I don’t freakin’ need you, ni geojinmare soreumi na!” I almost feel bad for whatever I did to piss her off.
[8]

Josh Langhoff: One Saturday morning, shortly after I’d started listening to current pop radio, Shadoe Stevens played Exposé’s “Tell Me Why” on his countdown and everything about it — the collisions of all those voices and synth lines and thwap! beats in syncopated patterns, locking and unlocking, daring me to guess their next moves, thrilling me when I guessed wrong — took over my body and sent me bounding across my bedroom. I know this couldn’t have physically happened, but I have a clear memory of running up my wall and sticking out from it, all perpendicular-like. This song is like that song. Only faster.
[9]

Alfred Soto: Many times in the last decade I’ve resisted eighties sounds because I don’t wanna be Jann Wenner with his beloved sixties. The horn and beat syncopation sure is punchy in that 1987 freestyle-influenced way, no question, but unrelenting too: it never lands.
[6]

Anthony Easton: This moves quickly; even the spaces that are supposed to be rests are unrelenting. Ending with a cymbal crash is punctuation to a specific, ordered excess. 
[6]

Thomas Inskeep: Cover Girls divided by JJ Fad equals further evidence that K-pop is killing it right now. Max Martin ain’t got nothin’ on this.
[8]

Leonel Manzanares: The similarities between this and anything on REBOOT are enough for me to realize how much ahead of the game the Wonder Girls are. Still, the unusual vocal harmonies (particularly, the processed, slightly dissonant voices in the pre-chorus and the low-key male voice accents) are splendid, and the synth-brass lines are nice (although i still believe real brass would work much better here). Other than that, “Someone Like U” doesn’t offer much, but that semi-rap at the beginning of the second verse will get this one an extra point. It was quite a pleasant surprise. 
[5]

Brad Shoup: Disney party disco, with the whiny rises and pitched-down vocals of current chart pop. Can’t say the latter would ever improve on the former.
[6]

Maxwell Cavaseno: When the Amen Break kicks in at the beginning, I’m not necessarily prepared for Debbie Gibson bops. Nonetheless, the production here by Brave Brothers (a crew whose work on singles I’ve never been fond of save for Sistar’s “Ma Boy“) is consistently leaving little earworms, whether cowbells, drum breaks or cavernous backing vocals. A straightforward track, notable for the retro-feel and the persistent energy, but in being so streamlined Dal Shabet manage to have a significantly solid pop roller that holds more than a few surprises.
[8]

Really, really needed something to cleanse my pallet right about now and thank gods Will turned me on to MACULA DOG. Queens based, releasers of a tape on HAORD RECORDS in 2015; above be pleased to find a video for their tune “Purchase Power Station.” Somewhere in the DEVO, NUCLEAR POWER PANTS, U.V. PROTECTION, NEON HUNK, NEED NEW BODY range; this is beat heavy obscuro new wave/ synth pop/ noise that leaves norms paralyzed in its wake (excursions into zones of modern composition may interest you as well). That thermometer deal is pure red and bulging at the top and just about exploding as I listen to “Purchase Power Station” and the rest of the insane, undulating tracks off this s/t MACULA DOGS tape.

Sloppy, dripping, filled with aural non-sequitors, and satisfying! Highly enjoyable. Make a beeline (bees fly straight my friends) for Boston please.

Here's something you don't see every day: Deep Silver Volition, developers of the Saints Row franchise, have released a downloadable file of an unreleased game in the franchise to the wild. ...

pannenkoek2012's dedication to turning Mario 64 inside-out demonstrates just how educational games can be (however unintentionally).

RIP  

So long as two generations of fans keep attending Sunday at the park events Frankie Beverly and Maze needn’t worry about the lack of critical appreciation. 1978’s “Golden Time of Day” is a favorite, its mesh of wah-wah guitar and organ washes assuming a hymnal quality.

Let’s consider a hypothetical. What if Bernie Sanders became president? It’s hardly impossible. If he wins in Iowa and New Hampshire and then either in South Carolina or Nevada, he could well be the nominee with the momentum that would create. If Donald Trump or Ted Cruz is the Republican nominee, which seems likely, then given the utter detestability of the Republican ticket, Sanders could win.

So then what? What does a Sanders presidency look like? I doubt it looks all the great. I have two primary concerns. First, what is the most important thing a president does? Is it leadership? Is it giving speeches? Is it proposing legislation? No, it is none of these things. The most important thing a president does is make appointments to offices and judgeships. That’s because a) appointments are really important and b) presidents are highly constrained by Congress so their personal agenda has only a limited ability to be implemented. That’s less true for foreign policy, but then foreign affairs is not Sanders’ strong suit. As many have said, what Sanders says he will immediately change, he really can’t. The president simply does not control economic policy to this extent. I don’t get the sense yet that Sanders is really thinking about what a Sanders presidency would look like. The Obama administration made a big mistake in taking too much time to get appointments made in the first year and he had prime-time political operatives working for him. So this is a concern. Or I guess a cluster of concerns about Sanders’ ability to govern and prioritizing where he actually move toward the changes he wants to see.

But I think my bigger concern about a Sanders presidency is that his base would almost certainly abandon him within a year. The left has learned nothing since 2008. In that year, the left looked at Obama as its savior. This was ridiculous if you looked at his record, which was of course much more slim than Bernie Sanders in 2016. But Obama spoke inspiring words about hope and change that people very much wanted to hear. His campaign became not just another campaign but a social movement. The left believed Obama would bring about radical change in all phases of the government. Remember the hopes that maybe Obama would name Michael Pollan as Secretary of Agriculture and he would fix our food system? Those were heady times!

Of course once Senator Obama became President Obama and he had to compromise with his own cranky caucus, not to mention racebaiting Republicans, he was almost immediately abandoned by the left. By the summer of 2009, many on the left had given up on Obama. We saw what happened in the 2010 midterms. By that point, Obama was just another sellout mainstream corporate Democrat. Which might even be true to some extent, but a mainstream Democrat is all he ever was. Even on his mainstream positions though, he had to engage in deep compromises. Yet that still created the ACA, a very real policy achievement that makes Obama the most successful liberal president since Lyndon Johnson.

But the abandonment of Obama is not the only relevant example here. Because look what has happened with Bill DeBlasio. As I have discussed before, overall, DeBlasio has put together a pretty impressive record in his first two years of mayor. Not perfect, but not bad. And yet wide swaths of the New York left think DeBlasio is a massive sellout! I know that picking a random Huffington Post piece is shooting fish in a barrel, but this is actually a relatively mild condemnation of DeBlasio’s term.

Quite frankly, I am flabbergasted that de Blasio is delusional enough to start fund raising now (to dismal success) for reelection. Mr. Mayor, with all due respect, you need to actually accomplish something in your first term, and get the people to view you as a leader before you start aiming for the brass ring again. Your time is running out to actually make any kind of an impact… and we don’t find using your mayoral time to fund raise, relentlessly chase press, and strategize all day long about how you’re going to take down your opponent very amusing.

Do you realize how much could get accomplished if these politicians spent more time actually working for the people, and less time trying to take each other down, plant “blind source” items, and go dirty dancing for donor dollars all day long?

Here’s another example:

A racist police commissioner. Bloombergian gentrification. Failure to eradicate horse-drawn carriages.

The grievances were scattershot for the several dozen protesters circling outside the first fundraiser of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s re-election campaign tonight, but they were plenty furious. A loose confederation of liberal animal rights, anti-police brutality and pro-Palestinian activists united at the Sheraton near Times Square to send a single message: we do not want Mr. de Blasio, who won a 2013 election as a proud liberal, as our mayor anymore.

“Bill de Blasio is a sell-out. Bill de Blasio is a fake progressive and we want to make sure he doesn’t even have a chance of being able to continue to do the things he’s been doing here,” said Josmar Trujillo, the leader of a group that aggressively opposes Mr. de Blasio’s police commissioner, Bill Bratton.

“Whether it’s the addition of extra cops at taxpayer money, whether it’s privatization of NYCHA [New York City Housing Authority] land, whether it’s his real estate-friendly rezoning plans that are being opposed in community board after community board–all these things are basically reiterations of Bloomberg and Giuliani and he’s doing it under progressive cover and we’re here to call it out,” he added.

At one point several activists, including Mr. Trujillo, stormed into the Sheraton’s ornate lobby shouting “hell no with the status quo, Bill de Blasio’s got to go.” Police officers eventually forced them out.

For the activists, there was a sense of betrayal and disillusionment with a Democratic mayor who promised a break from the Bloomberg era, which shunned liberal rhetoric. The activists attacked the mayor for his plan to sell off public housing land to developers, his decision to hire 1,000 new cops and stand staunchly behind Mr. Bratton, whose “broken windows” theory of policing overtly targets nonwhites, according to some progressive critics.

I could go on.

There is no way the same thing is not going to happen to Bernie Sanders. His “revolution” won’t happen overnight. People will become disillusioned. And then they will start looking for the Next Progressive Hope who will save them through inspiring rhetoric that will cower the opposition. I mean, all DeBlasio had to deal with was the open revolt of the New York Police Department near the beginning of his administration. If only he had just gone the distance and abolished policing instead of compromised in order to save his ability to govern to New York, all progressive goals would be accomplished!

None of this is of course to say that the left shouldn’t criticize Obama or DeBlasio or Sanders or anyone else. But a Sanders presidency is going to be under attack from the start, even if Democrats regain a narrow Senate majority that, even outside of the filibuster, gives someone like Heidi Heitkamp or Joe Manchin tremendous power as the 50th vote. If Sanders’ allies turn on him for the inevitable compromising he will have to make on his goals, his presidency will truly be doomed.

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Haruhi is a 14-year-old student – wearing sunglasses and a mostly black and white outfit – who we met in Harajuku.

Her geometric sweatshirt – with cutout shoulders and arms – is from the Harajuku boutique Never Mind the XU, paired with a pleated mini skirt from Bubbles Harajuku and fishnet stockings. She is also wearing a tattoo necklace choker, purple backpack (decorated with various pins include BTS) and Yosuke shoes.

Haruhi likes shopping at Never Mind the XU and listening to K-pop. You can find her on Twitter for more information.

Click on any photo to enlarge it.

Else Marie Pade died on 18 January, aged 91

Danish electronic composer Else Marie Pade died on 18 January, reported the Politikan. She was 91 years old. A student of Pierre Schaeffer, Pade also worked with the likes of Stockhausen and Boulez. Though she pioneered electronic music in Denmark, her work received relatively little attention until a radio documentary about her was broadcast in 2001. A number of record releases has since bought Pade some long overdue recognition.

Pade was born in 1924 in Aarhus. Ill health forced her to spend much of her childhood in isolation from her peers. “I have been searching for sounds all my life,” Pade explained to Anne Hilde Neset in The Wire 354. “In my childhood I was sick with a recurring kidney infection [...] I lay in bed for so long, but I could lie and listen to the sounds outside.” In a 2001 Danish Radio feature, she had elaborated on the theme: “It might be the sound of children playing in the garden or the sound of my mother’s friends visiting. When they were all talking at the same time in the next room, it sounded exactly like a large aviary with cackling birds… Early in my life, I got a very close relationship to radio plays and their special way of using sounds.”

During the Second World War Pade was an active member of the Danish resistance until 1944, when she was detained by occupying German troops and imprisoned in Frøslev prison camp. After the war ended, she took up piano studies at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen. Inspired by a radio programme about musique concrète and Pierre Schaeffer, Pade travelled to Paris in 1952 to learn more about the subject. Her research brought her into contact with Schaeffer, who took her on as a student. In 1955 Pade premiered her first concrète composition En Dag På Dyrehavsbakken (A Day At The Fair), which she made for a TV documentary. The work led to further commissions to sonically illustrate a radio play and a selection of children's stories, including Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. In 1958 her Syv Cirkler (Seven Circles) became the first electronic piece in Denmark to be performed on the radio.

In 2013 Pade released Svævninger in collaboration with Jacob Kirkegaard on Important Records. Anne Hilde Neset interviewed Else Marie Pade for The Wire 354. You can read the feature over at Exact Editions.

In which Gesu no Kiwami Otome don’t quite clear the bar they previously set (though few songs here can)…

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Alfred Soto: This crew loves jamming: there are more time changes, unexpected instrumental runs (that piano!), and harmonies than I’ve heard since last year’s glorious “Watashi Igai Watashi ja Nai no.” This one boasts a frantic polysyllabic rush over synths reminiscent of prime Stereolab and a distorted guitar solo worthy of early Roxy Music. In short, this act continues to resist categorization.
[7]

Iain Mew: This lacks quite the same element of surprise as last time, but makes up for it by being just as overflowing while fitting in its tricks a little more smoothly. The threatened and half-enacted rock-out gives a slightly harder edge to begin with too, although they abandon it for rhythms swaying like they’re at sea and extraterrestrial transmission solos, because they’re just that kind of band.
[7]

Leonel Manzanares: It’s brilliant how this song never leaves its 4/4 time signature, yet still feels like the proggiest, most mathematic show of instrumental strengths. The main riff with the heavy guitar is quite powerful, and the piano-driven breakdown in the second verse is superb, and although there’s no big, heart-melting chorus (like in previous singles), the vibrant arrangements and the killer bass lines still astound me. 
[7]

Thomas Inskeep: Perky piano-based pop/rock, now with 200% more King Crimson influence. Those guitars! This is what prog-pop should sound like but pretty much never does. 
[8]

Maxwell Cavaseno: I wanna believe that these folks can balance their need for the prog with the songwriting chops, but they just did not provide that here.
[4]

Patrick St. Michel: Japanese rock bands climb up the national ladder all the time, but Gesu No Kiwami Otome’s catapult up last year was different, and not just because they achieved it through YouTube in a country where the music industry remains hesitant of the site. Gesu gleefully let their songs zip off in all sorts of directions, dropping in classical piano interludes and sudden jazz-bass workouts into otherwise serviceable pop songs. The main verses and chorus of “Ryouseibai de Ii ja Nai” are good but nothing special (well, unless you like reading into lyrics, as a song about “two guilty parties” mirrors current events weirdly well), but when Gesu split off into wonky instrumental bridges or let the female vocals overpower the song, it gets memorable and highlights just what makes them stand out.
[7]

Brad Shoup: When they bear down, it’s great. Otherwise, I have no taste for their pop-emo vocal construction, or the funk bass, or the demonstration piano. But I have to give it up for the drummer: even if the hi-hat seems sloppy, she sounds like she’s playing twin kits.
[6]

Will Adams: “Each successive second sounds like it’ll be the one where the song just careens off the rails and into a ditch, making merely listening a captivating experience,” I wrote last time. That I could say essentially the same for “Ryouseibai de Ii ja Nai” (though the tempo has calmed down a bit) is either a positive or negative. I’m feeling generous today.
[7]

COVER STORY: We wrap up our Brave Wave profile with this conversation with one of the label's biggest draws: Mega Man and Shovel Knight composer Manami Matsumae.

"However depressing January is mooted to be... I'm crashed out on my couch, feasting on the resolutions of other, younger, more-inspired people. In short, I spend the first week of each year hooked on Awesome Games Done Quick." ...

COVER STORY: The artist behind Ninja Gaiden's NES soundtrack opens up about returning to composing, and his future plans.

"a racing game inspired by the visuals, music, games and cars from the late 80s and early 90s." - Author's description

Download demo on itch.io (Windows, Mac, Linux)

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great personal comics on dating terrible dudes  

18-year-old Natsuki’s fun colorful street style caught our eye in Harajuku.

Natsuki’s look includes a blue beret, glasses, a Spider-Man print top from Forever21 with a pleated cheerleader skirt from Bubbles Harajuku, rainbow socks, and WEGO platform shoes. Accessories include pink spiral earrings and a Spider-Man backpack.

Follow Natsuki on Twitter for daily pictures and updates.

Click on any photo to enlarge it.

Thanking this man for the music, the weirdness, the laughs and bringing the sleazy vibes far into his twilight years. There will be no all-star Carnegie Hall salute for Blowfly, no middle-of-the-night downtown Austin street sign changes (though David Blowfly Street does have a certain ring to it), heads of state will not mourn his passing. So do it yourself. Ring the bell ten times. Pour one (or several) out. Crank up “Shitting On The Dock Of The Bay” or “Who Did I Eat Last Night?”, “Electronic Pussy Sucker” or “The Vampire That Ate Miami” and pay homage to the late, great Clarence Reid.

North Carolina's Moogfest 2016 announce line up

Square Enix is giving away free copies of Omikron: The Nomad Soul to commemorate the tragic passing of Ziggy Stardust himself, David Bowie - who makes two cameos in the game. ...

Flier by Zach & Dan Shea

One of the rewards for donating to our Indiegogo campaign this past year was having a show booked just for you. Saturday, January 16, it’s a Hassle Fest ‘Book Your Own Show’ Show for Krista Olson for her generous donation. Join us to see Home Body, (Western MA), Blk Bx, Full Color, Joanna Boole at Out of the Blue Too Art Gallery & More. The show will be 18+ as we’ll be serving alcohol. Bring an ID. 
HOME BODY: https://home-body.bandcamp.com/album/guts?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
Blk Bx: https://m.soundcloud.com/blk_bx?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
Full Color: https://fullcolorcolor.bandcamp.com/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
JOSS: https://soundcloud.com/jossbordelon?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
Joanna Boole
Doors at 8pm, 18+ BRING YOUR ID, alcohol will be served, $5-$10 sliding scale.
Please be respectful of those around you! We strive to be a safer space so any offensive behavior or language including racism, sexism, ablism, body shaming, transphobia, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. is unwelcome. 
*A Boston Hassle Effort*

"This time we're going to zoom out a bit and talk about enemy design at large. And by 'at large' I mean we're going to examine every single enemy present in the game." ...

Kat picks some of the best RPGs to play on the now relatively inexpensive PlayStation TV.

Essential listening and reading from Cultures Of Soul this deluxe overview of Boston's creative Jazz scene is released on January 22nd in as a double LP set, packaged in a deluxe box with each piece of vinyl housed in its own Euro-style glossy jacket or as a CD set. Also included is an 80 page book documenting the rich history of the music with in-depth analyses and photos.
Very highly recommended.

In the 1970s Boston was a fertile ground for a very creative jazz scene. Small, independent venues ranging from lofts to churches to clubs opened up to support this thriving backdrop while jazz musicians set up their own labels. One man was there through it all, playing music and documenting the musical landscape. His name was Mark Harvey and here is his story....
Mark Harvey and Deano Sounds pulled together the most comprehensive package of Boston Jazz released to date. The album has been assembled as a deluxe package that includes, in addition to the music, an 80-page book documenting the rich history of this music scene with in-depth analyses and photos of the jazz musicians involved.
The music on this album is culled from rare private press Jazz LPs that were pressed in small quantities of a few hundred for members of the band and the local jazz community at the time. The music here runs the gamut of funky jazz from Arnie Cheatham's "Thing" to the deep free jazz of the Phill Musra Group or the spoken word brilliance of Worlds, to the complex metric structures of Stanton Davis' "Play Sleep." This is a collection of very rare eccentric jazz pieces for your enjoyment!

Rizuna is an 18-year-old Bunka Fashion College student who we met on the street in Harajuku near the popular Kinsella vintage boutique.

Rizuna’s look features a cute twin buns hairstyle, oversized glasses, a yellow cropped houndstooth jacket from the Harajuku resale shop Kinji over a white button up shirt, a black and yellow pleated skirt from Kinji Harajuku, white tights, and YRU platform sandals. Accessories include several earrings and a leather chain purse.

Rizuna’s favorite shop is the Harajuku vintage boutique Hug. Find her on Instagram for more pictures.

Click on any photo to enlarge it.