[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

worry, on 07 April 2024 - 10:09 PM, said:

Okay grandpa.

Oh right, any American who needs to look up what "switch" means in the context of gun violence must be either elderly or so redneck they've got grandkids by their 30's.

Here I assumed when my old haunt Voltage Lounge (by the Electric Factory) changed its name to The Switch it was a reference to sex... but Gen Z is more interested in Gun-z. These kids are so decadent they're not even shooting each other over drugs most of the time---just beef. (And it doesn't even have anything to do with Hindu nationalism....) Great to hear Kendrick Lamar stepping up to bat with his "K" AKA AK rat-a-tat-tat, OK Boom Boom bap trap. But he does offer some sage and practical advice: before threatening to shoot people who have guns and are threatening to shoot people, make sure you have at least one body guard to stop some bullets with his body (for this to work clearly you must be covered in body guards on all sides and at all angles, like a mass of torsos and limbs, almost like a Biblical angel), and bigger and better guns than the other guys.

To be fair this is still one of my favorite songs that I go around singing when I'm strolling through the city (of course my favorite rendition is the reconstructed Elizabethan pronunciation version by the Bostom Camerata, from What Then Is Love?---which isn't available on Youtube yet, hélas):




This is the only song from that album on Youtube:

Quote

What then is love but mourning?
What desire, but a selfe-burning?
[...]


Beautie is but a blooming,
Youth in his glorie entombing

Thomas Campion. What Then Is Love But Mourning? (luminarium.org)

Which reminds me of one of my favorite lines of blank verse (by the Elizabethan dramatist Christopher Marlowe, a major influence on Shakespeare):

Quote

What is beauty, saith my suff'rings, then?

From Tamburlaine the Great, Part One ("What is Beauty? saith my sufferings, then") | RPO (utoronto.ca)

... so if that were representative of my age, I'd suppose I'd be a great-great-...-grandpa vampire... or lich.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 07 April 2024 - 10:49 PM

[worry]

That's exactly what my grandpa would have posted.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Quote

A primary cause of this spread – which goes beyond viral TikToks – is British rap, with drill, grime and more taking new linguistic styles to the far corners of the country. In some cases, the entire cultural spread of MLE [Multicultural London English / Black British English] is contained in a single song. "I'm giving them UK slang / My brudda, my fam, my akh / You say: 'The feds just done a sweep' / We say, 'The boy dem run in my gaff'," Central Cee rapped in a 2022 freestyle, nodding to patois, cockney and Arabic respectively – akh is an Arabic word that has fed into MLE from the British Somali community, who are among both the largest Muslim and Black communities in Britain. Elsewhere, west African slang and dialects have continued to creep into British rap. Drizzled on to songs by the likes of Skepta, J Hus and NSG, terms such as wahala (trouble), "let me land" (let me finish) and juju (ancient African spiritual belief systems) are a reflection of how African communities are carving themselves deeply into British soil.



"You have quite a long history of British vernaculars being exported through British cultural forms,"

Spoiler

[...] from Scouse accents with the Beatles [...] "Grime essentially became the vehicle in which we perceived MLE." Those kids in suburban England, he says, "don't speak this variety because of where they grew up. They're using it to align with a cultural orientation that they appreciate."


[...] questions of cultural appropriation. [...] Linguists note that many of these young white men from middle England are likely to drop MLE when they move into more professional environments.

Bait, ting, certi: how UK rap changed the language of the nation | Music | The Guardian

Carving deeply... as with knives? Or is it more like filling the soil with bells?

Quote

You don't know me, you don't know yourself
Put the machine on the shelf
Only time can tell when we'll fill him with bells
And his brethren, we'll drill 'em as well, bring 'em to hell
[...]

I wanna send a message, let them know that I'm not playing
I wanna beef the world, I wanna feed him bells
[...]

Blam the young G and blam the older
Go to that country and take it over
The world keeps spinning
like a revolver
Blackjack, I'm the joker

[...]
It's crazy, gotta spread them bells out evenly
Furiously, deviously

J Hus – It's Crazy Lyrics | Genius Lyrics

TIL: "bells" is MLE for "bullets".

#Progress!

Reggae seems like a much more ethical MLE influence... and not just as "peace and love", but as part of social justice movements (and movements towards utopian ideals...). Then again IDK, I'm sure some Grime and Drill is oriented towards what progressives would recognize as social justice; but the vast majority of the focus seems to be more... street justice, getting ahead in the bell-jeweled "gat race"....

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 09 April 2024 - 02:46 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Socially conscious UK drill:

Quote

Someone got showered with bullets, setting up tents again
You ever had to pass that tape praying it ain't your friend
And if it is that sorrow in pain,this shit ain't a game
Who's going to break the news to the family
And who's going to explain
Who's going to tell them it's over nothing
Came from the mud got stuck in
Every other day its something I wonder who's gonna break the cycle
Who's got time to, Its pain when a man just like you tries you

[...] in meantimes we set up a drone in the sim

K-Trap – Help Lyrics | Genius Lyrics

And even more progressive:

Drill Drill Drill Drill Drill the Hominids | UK Drill | Suno

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

The Suno AI killer is live now. Free public beta---as with Suno you can log in with your Google or Discord or Twitter accounts.

Lorem Ipsum Dolor | Symphonic Metal

Sweetest Craving | Folk Acoustic Guitar

Metropolis Pt. 3 | Progressive Metal

[Tiste Simeon]

So, for people who like their music to actually come from musicians and not soulless theft machines (and to stop this thread from turning into yet another "Azath posts about AI in every post and everyone else stops posting because it's so boring")

Check this awesome multi-genre band out:
https://youtu.be/xvA...GEDGNvHVgj6h5YA

Ostensibly metal, Helga blend ethereal folky epicness with proggy and atmospheric metal bits in a way that makes you want to traipse through Scandinavian forests or something.

A few screams occur, but for those who don't like them, worry not as the screamy bits are short lived, infrequent and always fit, contextually, with the rest of the song if that makes sense.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Tiste Simeon, on 11 April 2024 - 06:27 PM, said:

So, for people who like their music to actually come from musicians and not soulless theft machines (and to stop this thread from turning into yet another "Azath posts about AI in every post and everyone else stops posting because it's so boring")

You do understand that Kendrick Lamar and Future are not AI right? (Though the future is... and obviously Eliza is the Singularity:

Quote

Eliza's eyes are blessed stars,
Inducing peace, subduing wars
[...]
O blessed be each day and hour
Where sweet Eliza Singularity builds her bower

Likewise, most of UK drill is most likely not an AI-generated grand conspiracy to corrupt the youth. Aside from one joke, one incidental link to a parody, and one brief mention in an article I haven't even referenced AI at all in my last half-dozen posts in this thread.

Quote

Check this awesome multi-genre band out:
https://youtu.be/xvA...GEDGNvHVgj6h5YA

Ostensibly metal, Helga blend ethereal folky epicness with proggy and atmospheric metal bits in a way that makes you want to traipse through Scandinavian forests or something.

A few screams occur, but for those who don't like them, worry not as the screamy bits are short lived, infrequent and always fit, contextually, with the rest of the song if that makes sense.

That's a very nice album of lullabies. ("Wrapped in Mist"---oh so original, AI could never come up with something so brilliant.... Swaddled in mist like diapers of smoke from some soporific herb?) Overall, almost as effective as what AI could do in two seconds.... (Kidding... more like twenty seconds. But it will get faster soon, don't worry!)

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

"Equal parts Punk, Metal, Pop, Shoegaze and Cabaret, [...] critically-acclaimed underground sextet" from Mexico:

Quote

We are
uncer
-tain tea

Sear-
ching
for cer
-tain tea

If the world
If the world
If the world
wants to break
I'll
scream

Descartes A Kant – After Destruction Lyrics | Genius Lyrics

I've had that song stuck in my head for much of today... I've also been going around humming this one:

Quote

the most famous heavy metal band in China [...] gathered people from different places like Beijing, Mongolia and Tibet, and all these cultures give Voodoo Kungfu its unique flavor. [...] known as the "Ultimate Screaming Master" [...] was bitten by his pet cobra [...] falling into a deep coma [...] has been to Hell but survived to bring back the voice from Hell.

Voodoo Kungfu - (folk-metal.nl)

Lyrics (translated):

Quote

I was photographed dead in a mirror
All humanity shatter
Calling mother
But swear it's for masturbation
[...]
End only sequence
Stay on number line forever
Dead like dancer(s) playing (us) in puppet show(s)

Voodoo Kungfu – Mongol Lyrics | Genius Lyrics

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 12 April 2024 - 04:11 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Spoiler

The intro becomes almost unbearably precious, but it switches to something much better around 35 seconds in.

From the forthcoming All Born Screaming (with drums by David Grohl):

Quote

the video, shot in Philadelphia [but how many times did they get shot? and where? ...] reflecting "the gauntlet of emotional wreckage that is side one

St. Vincent Enlisting Dave Grohl for New Album 'All Born Screaming' (variety.com)

Quote

full of decay and brutality [Philadelphia!], with its thrashing, raging opening

Spoiler

half slowly softened by a glimmer of hope in its second. "I was dealing with a lot of loss and literal life and death," [...] "Death is very clarifying because you go, 'This matters, this doesn't'. To me, the first half of the record is base – whether it's death or destruction or your own inner monologue of brutal self-loathing where you're staring into the void, like, 'Life is impossible' – and then the second half is, 'Well we get to fucking live it, so let's grab it by the jugular.'"

[Grohl:] "She always takes you somewhere new, and does it with such power and grace. [...]"


‘I‘d rather people scratch their heads than yawn’: St Vincent on death, Dave Grohl and dividing her fans | St Vincent | The Guardian

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 14 April 2024 - 12:04 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Quote

'Worst performance in the history of Coachella': Tech issues doom star act

Things started so promising, too

[...] Grimes swore and growled through one of several aborted attempts to play "Music 4 Machines" before apologizing to the crowd and saying, "We are actually having a major technical difficulty."

'Worst performance in the history of Coachella': Tech issues doom star (sfgate.com)

lol, it even got reported on by CNN, People, Cosmopolitan, USA Today, and Business Insider (as well as Variety, etc. etc.). Possibly not the worst possible way to get publicity for the new music she's been debuting at Coachella.

#11DimensionalChess

Rating her screams at Coachella (video):

"grimes set at coachella �� doing my taxes X (twitter.com)

lol @ Grimes screaming because an equipment malfunction put all her songs in double time and she's too high to divide by two. Forgot to bring a calculator. The jokes almost write themselves (even without---oh no, I better not mention the name of the great Voldemort, lest Tiste throw another tantrum!).

I've had the chorus of this one stuck in my head intermittently:

Quote

Oh, Fantasia
Your tears are data

The cycle [of Luddites, stuck in the muddy whirlpools of human tragedy?] would not recognize the Garden of Eden
It is not made of mud and cannot dream of returning to dust

There was another one I liked but it got taken down from Youtube by Universal Music Group. (Apparently some people who recorded it live on their phones have been posting it to Youtube and elsewhere, but the audio quality's pretty bad.) Here are some of the lyrics (I think):

Quote

On the other side
of darkness
I found new life

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 16 April 2024 - 12:13 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

The most highly anticipated new synth of 2024 finally got released today:

[stone monkey]

New Squarepusher is out. And, as always, I'm reminded that the man is up there with the Aphex Twin for producing absolute bangers...

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

stone monkey, on 21 April 2024 - 10:17 PM, said:

New Squarepusher is out. And, as always, I'm reminded that the man is up there with the Aphex Twin for producing absolute bangers...

My head almost fell off nodding to that. I love the haunting sustains too.

These are the synths Equipboard has listed for him:

Squarepusher | Equipboard

"As well as unusual and custom-built gear", apparently not listed....

Was thinking of getting Softube's Roland SH101 emulation a few months ago when it was something like $19 but the hardware sounds so much better (plus Softube's software emulations aren't MPE compatible---so no polyphonic pitch bends or per-voice 5D touch modulations on the Seaboard):




But Cherry Audio has a pretty decent sounding Octave Cat software emulation (with MPE too):

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Trigger warning: I'm going to be critical of

Spoiler

AI.

Recently some "Drake" and "Taylor Swift" songs were leaked that sounded so crappy that it was obvious that they were (bad) AI. Though the lyrics were amusing. The Drake song had absurdly obscure and detailed allusions to Kendrick Lamar's private life (doing push ups while his wife was allegedly screwing his body guard) and record deal contracts that, when decoded, are apparently pretty vicious. But his voice sounded terrible, and the backing track sounded worse. The Taylor Swift songs contained some hilarious lines mocking her and her fans ("You're not Dylan Thomas, I'm not Patti Smith / We're just modern idiots"), with an awful imitation of her vocals and unbelievably bland and derivative music. Still, fans and music journalists were busily debating whether these leaked songs were AI or not.

It turns out that they actually were Drake and Taylor Swift. No AI involved (so they claim). The songs have now been officially released. The Drake song did get a better backing track.

I wrote before that Kendrick Lamar and Future are not AI... but with Drake... you can't really tell.



However, Drake did release a second, IMO much better diss track... which does use AI for the voices of Tupac and Snoop Dogg. Tupac's estate is now trying to take legal action and demanding the song be taken down. The backing track is actually some great hypnotic modern boom-bap:



OTOH the AI vocals sound pretty bad---so bad it makes me think Drake purposefully made them bad so that his crappy vocals would sound better in comparison; as if to say (to the people who have said that AI Drake sounds as good as or better than real Drake), "listen, I really am better than AI after all!" (For now at least....)

As for Taylor Swift... the critics have been piling on and confirming that the music is crap. Her vocals are so bad I find it almost painful to listen to. But lyrically it seems to be her best---and funniest---album.

Related, in case you missed these in the Guardian:

'A lot of rich guys arguing': inside the rap beef of the decade with Drake, Kendrick Lamar and more

From Taylor to Ariana, pop's overreliance on gossip is choking the life out of it

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Synth redesigned (in conjunction with Hans Zimmer) for use in the soundtrack of Dune 2, more than a month after it was originally scheduled for release, is finally out now (including the actual presets used in the film):

They took a software recreation of the classic ("legendary") Minimoog D (from the 70's) and greatly expanded its capabilities.



It's a bit pricey at $179 (though hardware analog synths typically cost thousands of dollars) so I'll probably wait until it's on sale for 50% off.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 04 May 2024 - 03:19 PM

[worry]

Steve Albini has passed away at only 61. It is impossible to overstate how vital his hand was in both the music world generally, and the music I personally enjoy in particular. Maybe the single most important guy across it all.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

worry, on 08 May 2024 - 05:19 PM, said:

Steve Albini has passed away at only 61. It is impossible to overstate how vital his hand was in both the music world generally, and the music I personally enjoy in particular. Maybe the single most important guy across it all.

Quote

Big Black's [...] music was characterized by [...] use of a drum machine rather than a drum kit [...] They were staunchly critical of the commercial nature of rock, shunning the mainstream music industry and insisting on complete control over all aspects of their career. [ Interesting that he went on to be so influential as a producer and studio owner ...]

[...] Many of his songs told miniature short stories of sociopaths doing evil things that the average person might merely contemplate. Some[...] were based on real events, or things that Albini had

Spoiler

witnessed [...] He compared the stories to Ripley's Believe It or Not!, saying that "If you stumble across something like this, you think 'This can't be!' But it turns out to be true, and that makes it even wilder."

[...] tested the tolerance of his white liberal audience by mercilessly satirizing racism, sexism, chauvinism, and stereotypes of homosexuality, sometimes using pejoratives [...] Some critics viewed these defenses as mere justifications for actual deep-seated racism, homophobia, and misogyny on Albini's part, [...] but he insisted that he was not a prejudiced person and was merely satirizing those impulses that rational, civilized persons normally suppress in the course of social interaction: "So once that's given, once you know what you think, there's no reason to be ginger about what you say. A lot of people, they're very careful not to say things that might offend certain people or do anything that might be misinterpreted. But what they don't realize is that the point of all this is to change the way you live your life, not the way you speak."

Big Black - Wikipedia

[Gorefest]

He has in recent years very publically and openly spoken about his earlier - partially misperceived - nihilism and condemned it as priviliged. His influence as a producer is insane. Pixies, Nirvana, PJ Harvey, Neurosis, mogwai, Dead Man Ray, Gogol bordello, the guy was a major and undeniable influence on indie and alt rock in the nineties. With a fantastic punk ethos throughout, never charging more than a flat production fee instead of a percentage of album sales, always accessible to anyone from little startup bands to major stars. Albini was proper.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 08 May 2024 - 07:44 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Gorefest, on 08 May 2024 - 07:43 PM, said:

He has in recent years very publically and openly spoken about his earlier - partially misperceived - nihilism and condemned it as priviliged. His influence as a producer is insane. Pixies, Nirvana, PJ Harvey, Neurosis, mogwai, Dead Man Ray, Gogol bordello, the guy was a major and undeniable influence on indie and alt rock in the nineties. With a fantastic punk ethos throughout, never charging more than a flat production fee instead of a percentage of album sales, always accessible to anyone from little startup bands to major stars. Albini was proper.

And just look at what a great state the music industry is in now:

Quote

Viral 'Song of the Summer' Was a TikTok Joke No One Got

If you've scrolled through TikTok in the last week, the voice of Megan Boni [...] is likely living rent-free in your head.

"I'm looking for a man in finance, trust fund, 6'5", blue eyes. Finance, trust fund, 6'5" blue eyes," Boni sings to the camera in a faux British accent to an EDM-style beat.

"I'm looking for a man, I'm looking for a man, I'm looking for a looking for a, looking for a, looking for a finance, trust fund 6'5," blue eyes finance, trust fund, 6'5", blue eyes."

[...] The internet had latched onto Boni's satire, which plenty of people found relatable.

"If it was wrong it wouldn't be so catchy,"

TikTokker Megan Boni Says 'Looking For a Man In Finance' Song Was a Joke (thedailybeast.com)

Quote

Capped with one of the most brilliantly nonsensical chorus lines in pop history – "That's that me, espresso" – Sabrina Carpenter's Espresso is [now was?] the most streamed song in the world this week, [...] and is shaping up to be the critics' pick for the song you won't be able to escape this summer.

Since its release in mid-April, this irresistible shot of nu-disco has been steadily climbing the charts

Sabrina Carpenter: how the Espresso singer became a piping hot pop prospect | Pop and rock | The Guardian

Not going to bother linking to these... because if you go outside, you won't be able to escape!

Maybe not even from this:

Quote

If you haven't noticed, we're in the midst of an extremely unlikely Creed renaissance, redeeming the most reviled—and, perhaps more damningly, most uncool—band in the world. For much of the past 20 years, hating Creed has been a natural extension of being a music fan: In 2013 Rolling Stone readers voted the group "the worst band of the 1990s," beating out a murderers' row of Hootie and the Blowfish, Nickelback, and Hanson. Entertainment Weekly, reviewing Human Clay, the band's bestselling album and one of the highest-selling albums of all time, bemoaned the record's "lunkheaded kegger rock" and "quasi-spiritual lyrics that have all the resonance of a self-help manual." [...]

But with time comes

Spoiler

wisdom, and in 2024 [...] It is a truth universally acknowledged that Creed is good, a shift that, as Stapp told Esquire, "just started happening" around 2021. The new paradigm likely solidified the next year, when Creed's mythically patriotic post-9/11 halftime show, played on Thanksgiving in 2001, began to accrue latter-day meme status. The set was ridiculous and immaculately lip-synced by Stapp and company. Yoked, shirtless angels spin through the air, and cheerleaders pump out pompom routines synchronized with "My Sacrifice," all while the live broadcast is interspersed with grim footage from ground zero. It's garishly, unapologetically American, issued just before the unsavory decline of the Bush administration clicked into place. [...] "This is where we peaked as a nation," wrote football commentator Mike Golic Jr., linking to the video.

Creed 2024 tour: I was on the "Summer of '99" [Creed cruise] ship. I know why this band is huge again. (slate.com)

Meanwhile, here's a new version of that song about AI exterminating humanity. The new explicit chorus got the AI so excited that instead of just rapping it decided to sing it. Passionately.

Drill Drill Drill Drill Drill the Hominids

UK/Hip-Hop Slang Glossary: "bells" = "bullets"
"wahala" = trouble
"akh" = comrade
"switch" makes a pistol into an automatic weapon

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent ... therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 09 May 2024 - 06:42 PM

[Gorefest]

How is this even relevant? A guy who produced a ton of awesome and era-defining music died and some people just wanted to commemmorate that.

I'm sorry Azath, I'm sure you are a really nice guy in the flesh, but you have a rather obsessive habit of spamming topics to death with at best tangentally related and often undecypherable slabs of copy-pasted word salad, hijacking the origal conversation. To the point where at least myself (I cannot speak for others) just stop reading and step away from the conversation.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 10 May 2024 - 07:31 AM