Numbers

I guess a couple people might be interested.

Sun Jan 05 2020

Guild Of Lore, Storm Haven

I know! I completely forgot to write about this album! I had no clue which category to put it in and then in the rush to keep posting a piece per day it slipped my mind. From what I gather, this belongs under the “dungeon synth” heading; that’s one of the seventeen tags on their bandcamp page, anyway. I find this absolutely captivating and I’m excited to explore this type of music more, except I’ve definitely ventured into dungeon synth before and not found anything remotely as to-my-liking as this. Not sure what the deal is but do check this out if you think you might enjoy a medieval-sounding folky but synthesized soothing experience that could probably be the perfect soundtrack to a Zelda or Final Fantasy-type video game, based on my imaginary version of what those games are actually like.

Paula Temple, Edge Of Everything
Drahla, Useless Coordinates
Across Tundras, The Rugged Ranges of Curbs & Broken Minds
Thom Yorke, Anima

I know! I was planning on putting him in the Pop piece and then totally spaced it. I even wrote something up but I’m not sure it makes any damn sense; should I put it in here anyway? Okay but you’ll have to pretend that this next part is indented because I can’t figure out how to do that on this platform without indiscriminately italicizing the whole thing and that’s even worse.

I can’t deny that it probably helps if you’ve watched Thom dance, so you can envision him as this album begins. There may be some commonality between the way he dances and the way I dance, though; it might be a useless exercise for you. Since The Eraser in 2006 his solo output had become increasingly blurry; then came Suspiria, or more specifically, the song “Suspirium” itself, which for me was a hard reset. Seeing him live before Anima came out, it was one of those experiences I wish I could have back, because these songs require a couple spins to digest, and when I say “a couple” I mean two. Hearing this album— hearing a bunch of these songs a second time—was such a weird delight; I was shocked at how much they felt like old friends even though I couldn’t have named them as they appeared. You’re gonna remember this some day Says my crotchety shadow Somebody reached you like a disease All these years he still had hold Finally did pull one out In the miracle of mourning An echo of an awakening Along comes something Spirits aligning Signifying no Thing Now they wash over me like what it must feel like on the TNG episode “The Game”, a part of that Thom lexicon, that vast web of compositional gossamer I’m forever a guest in, the web of my everlasting perplexion as to how anyone could not feel this. As it eventually trails off goofily, force yourself to imagine Thom dancing again; if you read the beginning of this then you already have done this at least once.

See?

Billie Eilish, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Ghosteen
Inter Arma, Sulphur English
Sharon Van Etten, Remind Me Tomorrow
Tyler, The Creator, IGOR
Tinashe, Songs For You
Elbow, Giants Of All Sizes
The Great Old Ones, Cosmicism
Raphael Saadiq, Jimmy Lee
Nils Frahm, All Encores
Amanda Palmer, There Will Be No Intermission
Rapsody, Eve
White Ward, Love Exchange Failure
The Caretaker, Everywhere At The End Of Time – Stage 6

Yeah this is unforgivable and shows how defective my brain gets during list season. I wrote about this too, but what can I say, December was an insane month and I got very disorganized with bits of writing scattered in different files, and okay I’ll shut up now. Here’s what I wrote; again, pretend it is indented:

Let me tell you a story about me and The Caretaker. My friend Alisa put a previous volume of this series on her top-whatever list last year (I think?). I said, hell, I’ll start from the beginning. Having never heard of this artist before, I dove into Everywhere At The End Of Time. While listening to the first couple tracks, I read the descriptions of the “stages” on the bandcamp page. I can’t say I necessarily recommend doing this; it depends on what kind of experience you want to have, what you can handle, purely musical or the complete conceptual agony of it. I listened at work, not uninterrupted, but steadily enough over two days that by the time I got to Stage 4 I was profoundly sad, and I had to stop partway through Stage 5, unable to shake the feeling for a couple of days. I don’t think I ever finished Stage 5. I think some day I’ll feel brave enough to go back through the whole ordeal, but it is an ordeal. I have a desperate fear of this subject matter and I don’t think about it much but it was unavoidable while listening to this. I can’t say what Stage 6 might mean to you if you try to approach it with no background, or not having heard the rest. I wonder if it would distort time itself for you as it did for me. I can say that with some time in between stages, some distance, the memories of the first several stages having receded somewhat, Stage 6 is endurable. Forgetting having forgotten. Still jarringly horrifying, and in the long term, suffocating. And presumably, I’ve now returned to waking life as usual.