A Long Time Away, And a Format Change.

So, I've been absent for quite a long time. And I have to say, it's a bit strange to be back. But I'm not here to remark on how I feel strange about my homecoming. I kinda started this blog to be kinda professional and be about actual writing and essays and stuff, and it still will, but now I kinda have to revamp what this site is. It's still gonna be about professional essays, critique and all that jazz, but I feel like I need to kinda change things up a bit. I'm thinking of adding in personal stuff too, kinda like a public diary. But it's not gonna be like...all drama and angst now, just a bit more personal. If that turns some people off, whatever, I get it. Emotional disclosure is messy and not fun to read, but I feel almost compelled to do just that. Because if not here, then where? Real life? That's no fun, especially when I can get all artsy fartsy with how I express my feelings in blog format. I think this will be an interesting new development. Besides, this helps me grow as a writer. So yeah, that's what's new about the blog now. Hope this works.

Holy Shit, Das Racist is awesome. I'll talk more later.

Seriously, smart hip-hop that deconstructs the genre is awesome. I mean the way they play with words is reminiscent of George Carlin. Shut Up Dude is amazing. Talk more later, but they are awesome, go listen.

The Psychotic Sound of the New Underground

So yeah, new post in what seems like forever. And I'm going to use it to totally wank and talk about the greatest genre you've never heard about(at least in my mind). Breakcore is possibly one of the greatest advances in electronic music ever. It's brought back those frenetic old skool jungle beats, butched up DnB, brought some digital hardcore into the mix, then tossed in some IDM just to fuck with people, and added a dose or two of metal, depending on the artist. And most songs are different from eachother too. Sure some have similarities, but when you look at an album, no two songs are exactly alike. I mean, the albums are usually pretty cohesive in their sound, but each song is pretty unique. For example, the artist Eraplee Noisewall Orchestra has this one album called "The Statement" and every song on it is part of the statement of the album. The statement is one of nihilism and a rejection of mainstream society and all it's trappings(and I just realized that I'm gonna sound like a total intellectual prick from here on out). In his song "Desperation Speaks" he has a rant by an anti-television person, underscored by frantic old skool Jungle beats and touches of balls out metal. Later in the album we have "Animal Groove", which is more standard jungle/breakbeat fare. But it's not without that distinct flair that makes breakcore what it is. It's got these great little drum trills in the background and all these shambling ancillary beats coupled with a slightly glitchy thing hanging around waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay towards the back of the soundscape. But not all of E.N.O's stuff is strictly hardcore jungle/DnB flavored breakcore. "Urban Jungle Victims" has this great mellow groove to it, all the while with a jittery drum line in the back and some glitchy shit going on there too. The centerpiece of this song is a monologue by a woman talking about her idea of an ideal lover. As she says in the song "Imagine such a perfect understanding someone who can reflect your image back to you, something beautiful and pure." The song should by all rights be a mellow song, but there is this constant menace of violence that is brought to bear in the rather dissonant melody, and the implied threat of "Yeah this shit is calm for now, but just you fucking wait, I could fucking wreck your shit right here and now with some balls out hardcore beats right now." "Osho" continues this trend, but it keeps this wonderful jittery drum line all through the song, and the glitches are nigh on constant and are a part of the implied threat. That's something that I really kinda like about ENO's music. You are never truly safe with it, there is always this implied threat that at any moment, shit will go down and he'll whip out some really nasty tracks like his fucking fantastic "Life for Science". "Life for Science" is him at his most brutal in the whole album, with a rather vicious metal attack with a furious blaze of beats behind it, making it all the more...........I dunno, hardcore? I wanna give it more credit than that, but that's all I can really say. Anything else I could say would just make me sound like more of a wanker that I am gonna sound like at the end of this post. Needless to say, I will be posting the song to show you what I mean, hell I might even post the link to his page on Jamendo, where he has all of his shit, for free. Anyway, so yeah, he's fucking awesome, check his shit out. Also he has a more dubstep/mellow album too, called "The Gloomy Side of Noisewall". It's less breakcore, but awesome. So yeah, enough about him. I wanna talk about Igorrr.

Igorrr is a fucking genius. He's like ENO except that whilst ENO gives off a Sour Kraut vibe, Igorrr is a total Mad Frenchman, and being a quarter French, I enjoy that. He's apparently not as breakcore as I thought, some people terming him drill n bass, but fuck that shit, he's a brilliant breakcore artist. His style is a bit different than Eraplee, his samples are more diverse. I'd say that Eraplee's music is kinda like a really fucked up city, whilst Igorrr's is more like a Baroque castle that has been taken over by the doctor from The Human Centipede(except he's French instead of German. And no, I have not seen that movie nor will I ever see it. Fuck that movie, fuck that director. Or better yet, don't. Besides, I wonder what the fuck sorta messed up sex that guy likes to have. ANYWAY, moving right along....). And this doctor invites you in, and instead of fucked up surgeries on people, he's done that thing to songs. Oh and I'm bored now, gonna go swim. Post later.

Stuff that was removed(or was it?) and other things.

So yeah, other stuff was here, but now it's gone. Because fuck that post. Also now talking about other stuff. Like metal. But first, I need to talk to some indie bands about something which has really been pissing me off for a while now. C'mere for a second indie bands, I promise I won't bite. See? No biting! Now put your collective ears to my mouth so I can whisper a secret in your ear. Whats that you say? "Dorian, this is a blog, people read blogs!" Oh silly indie bands, I can do really tiny print that'll be sure to piss of my one reader, which may not be a good idea, but this is a secret so I'll have to piss off my reader to so that. Ready for it? Here it comes, the big secret thing that I want indie bands to know.












STOP FUCKING IMITATING SIGUR ROS!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, why do indie bands keep trying to do that falsetto shit? It's obnoxious and really only Ben Gibbard can do it right. Also Sigur Ros sucks. The Album Leaf is much better and you'd have to have your head stuck so far up your own ass that you can accurately describe the contents of your own stomach if you think that Sigur Ros is better. I mean, The Album Leaf is like.....one of the best downtempo bands ever. And Sigur Ros are only a crappy indie pop band. Let me demonstrate why The Album Leaf is awesome for all the poor saps who have never heard of them.

I mean, check that shit out! It's all mellow and shit! Also awesome. I mean, I can't say enough nice things about this band and this song. It makes my top 100 Greatest Songs of All Time (which is actually really hard to do) easily. Anyway, now that I've gotten that nasty bit of business off my chest, time to talk about the greatest nu metal band you have never heard of. And I'm gonna do it in another paragraph, fucking crazy isn't it? Well mostly I'm doing it so my Senior English Teacher Mr. Isackson doesn't want to drag my sorry ass back to his class if he ever catches sight of this blog.

Anyway the name of this awesome band is Maximum the Hormone, and..........................well what more can I say other than they are probably one of the greatest metal bands in Japan (well, them and the ever awesome Gallhammer) and probably the entire gorram world (Gallhammer too in fact). I hate to label them as nu metal, because they are so much better than that label. But it fits, in that they are a bass heavy metal band with a screaming/singing dynamic. They don't take themselves seriously though, I mean, songs like Kuso Breakin Nō Breakin Lily are just so, well, kinda silly just bright and light(even though there is a dude screaming his throat out for one of the vocals on the song). So yeah, go look em up. I gotta go do stuff. I'll talk about the band more later.

Totally Nothing. Move Along!

Totally nothing here. Nothing was ever here. Move along.

Stuff

Well, tomorrow I'll be starting my first Psychology course, which of course means that I'll know how the whole world works by the end of the first class. Just you wait, I'll start going off on know-it-all rants about how things work and all that jazz(so not much different from what happens on here anyway!). Prepare for my know-it-all bullshit. It's gonna be obnoxious. Trust me.

Great OPs in Anime(Part the First)

Like many people on the Information Super Highway, I love anime. And like many people who watch anime, I watch the opening title sequence. First to see what song plays before the show, and secondly to get a sorta general vibe about the show. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with anime, what usually happens is that the anime studios and the writers approach bands or their managers for a song. Or the studio contacts a record label and they pick a band and one of their singles. And there are a couple of other ways that OPs(opening songs), but explaining how that happens is boring, and I'm not too sure all the ways songs get there anyway.

Anyway, most OPs are usually either okay, inoffensive, kinda lame, or good. Once in a while, an anime will have a really top shelf OP song. Like, so good  that you hunt down that OP through any means necessary. A great OP can change an anime too, it can colour your experience of the show. Great OPs can make a good show great, a great show a classic, or a bad show tolerable. This is a post devoted to such OPs, along with an explanation of which anime the OP is from and a bit about the anime in question.

First off is the OP from the absolutely amazing Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Second Gig.

The song here is called Rise, it's performed by Origa, a Russian pop singer. The programming and instrumentation is all done by the show's composer Yoko Kano. Now, this OP really fits the theme of the show, because the show is about a group of SWAT-esque police officers in the near future. And yeah, I know that sounds silly, but trust me, this show is really great. But watching the original 1995 movie and the first season of Stand Alone Complex(Second Gig being the second season). A link to the show's wikipedia page, for a better explanation of the show

Next we have the rather over-the-top, balls out metal OP from the equally over-the-top anime Needless

The song is written and performed by GRANRODEO, and the song is called Modern Strange Cowboy. And if I may say, this song should go with everything. I mean, like, everything. Car commercials, skin-care ads, McDonald's Happy Meal ads, depression medication ads, you name it. Anyway, Needless is a parody of almost every action anime ever, it's very much the Stephen Colbert of anime. Not as subtle, but still. Where you can watch this amazingly awesome show

And now for a show which Needless probably parodied, but which has a bitchin' OP, 11eyes.

This piece of bitching music is written and performed by Ayane(whose name is Japanese for sound design). The song is entitled Arrival of Tears. Now, 11eyes was well.....................................okay. It's not a great anime, it's just a kinda goodish anime. My reveiw of the anime says it all. In fact I'll just post a link to the show page and you can read the reveiw for yourself. I'm Elicoor13 on there too.



Making up for the lame show preceding it comes Durarara!! A rather well done, Tarantino-esque anime.

Now, this song really kinda encapsulates the series and the attitude so well. I dunno the lyrics, but the music and the way it's sung really kinda give a sense of what kind of anime it is. It's actually very similar to another FUCKING AMAZING show called Baccano!(the exclamation point is in the title by the way). Watch Durarara!! here. And totally go check out Baccano, seriously. But give it a few episodes, things may not make sense at first. Actually, think of Baccano kinda like Pulp Fiction. It'll help, trust me.

And last but certainly not least comes one of the greatest anime ever, Serial Experiments Lain.

This OP is one of the few OPs that is actually done in English, and was written by an English band. Which is actually really unheard of. And it really does make sense that the OP would be so unique, because this is a very unique show. The show is very unique and is not for everyone. Hell, most people really don't like this show because it's pretty confusing. But if you roll with it and actually think about the show while watching, you will be rewarded by one of the most profound anime shows to ever come out of Japan. If you're up to it, watch Serial Experiments Lain here. Good luck, and I don't blame you for not watching the show all the way through.


 Well, that was fun. I'll definitely do more of these sometime later. Also if the videos don't work on Sky7, make a user account and click the broken link button. One of the amazing linkers will go and find another mirror.