Board 8 > Raetsel's B8 Music Ranking Topic! [Rankings]

(+) Yeah! (+)

one more thing: what (if anything) do you think of aphex twin? he seems like an artist you would be into.
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I'll try looking at some of Rob Hubbard's work later tonight.

I'll definitely look at spider at some point (may save it to use a break next time I get a little burned out on an album) and make a note about them being multiple people.

I feel like I've heard of Aphex Twin, but none of the song titles seem familiar... I'll add them to the list.
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Raetsel_Lapin posted...

I feel like I've heard of Aphex Twin, but none of the song titles seem familiar... I'll add them to the list.

nice. i'll note that within the electronic music genre he's a very diverse artist - his music ranges from rather abrasive glitchy music to very easy-on-the-ears ambient music.
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Raetsel_Lapin posted...

55:

Song Name: Leaving the City
Song Origin: Joanna Newsom
Song Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keke7BGzJPI" data-time="
Nominator: kateee (4/13)

I don't like how high-pitched her voice is and whatever this genre is (folk metal is what I'm calling it)

actual folk metal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBBtwPTy0fo" data-time="

I definitely think you'll enjoy Aphex Twin, and you might like some of Venetian Snares' stuff too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfyR4pnTXjo" data-time="

edit: well, i only gave spider third place in that particular week so perhaps it wasn't "one of my favorite song of the week finds." still a great tune, though!

Is that stuff archived somewhere? Because I'd really like to back through some of the tracks I've forgotten the names of

Seginustemple posted...

Is that stuff archived somewhere? Because I'd really like to back through some of the tracks I've forgotten the names of

they might be on GMUN's site: www.l ogfaqs.com - remove the space

the site is structured kind of confusingly with the different databases, though, so it might take some effort to find them. and it doesn't have every single topic saved, so i'm not 100% sure all the song of the week topics are even on there.

also, i have most of the topics saved in a notepad file that i could send you.

i have to leave soon but i'll get back to you tomorrow on this.

as for venetian snares, i'm not sure if raetsel would be into him as raetsel dislikes classical music and a lot of venetian snares' stuff obviously has classical elements. i might be wrong, though.

surprised you didn't recommend autechre!
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yeah man send that sucker on over whenever you're free

you're probably right about venetian snares with the classical elements, even the one I just linked is very counterpoint/fugue in structure despite the chiptunes sound palette so it may not work

autechre are the lords of artificial sounds afaic but so much of their stuff is on the long side, it's tough to tell which 6-10 minute slab of alien chatter is going to be enjoyable or just punishing. Although to TC's credit they seem pretty open-minded to anything

Didn't get around to listening to too much today, but a few minor updates:



I apparently really liked "Ranunculus" actually, having gone back to it multiple times the past few days.

Also gone back to Scatman John's "Everybody Jam!" a few times; while the initial watch was slightly painful from triggering flashbacks to so many different points in time--a song created in the 90s, by an artist that I first heard in the 00s, which is about a different artist I first heard in the 80s, who died in the 70s, which I'm hearing for the first time in the 10s... that did a pretty good job frying my mind--it's actually quite nice now that I've had time to adjust to it.

"I Am The Wooden Doors" was interesting, though I feel the singer's voice was a bit wasted on it. It's a great metal voice, don't get me wrong, managing a good inhuman growl while still being easy enough to understand... I just wish it was used on a gimmick like Nekrogoblin. His voice and a nonhuman gimmick may hit greatest of all time status.

"... And The Great Cold Death Of The Earth" fared much better for me. I lucked out with that YouTube being the first suggestion for another song by that band; nice atmospheric music, very good lyrics that deal with a mythology that I have no experience with, that voice being used to tell a mythological story about the end of the world just works so perfectly... I've gone back and listened to it three times today alone. I definitely owe you for pointing this band out to me, thank you!

Mr Lasastryke posted...

nice. i'll note that within the electronic music genre he's a very diverse artist - his music ranges from rather abrasive glitchy music to very easy-on-the-ears ambient music.

You definitely were not kidding on that point. Scrolling through YouTube links at random, the first song I hit was some nice ambient background music... not amazing, but I could see it being nice to have on when I was working on something, can't recall the song's name.

I wanted to find something louder and YouTube/Google suggested "Come To Daddy", so I felt compelled to click it. ...I can't complain as that was literally what I asked for, but a bizarre horror metal parody thing was unexpected and I have no idea how I feel about it.

Switched over to Spotify which suggested Avril 14th, putting us back into the ambient background music category.

Clicked an album and song at random and hit "Come On You Slags". It was weird and different, and basically what I was looking for when I started searching... though the fact that it samples porn makes it a bit awkward? Sorta? I haven't decided how I feel about that song either, though it's unique enough that I'd probably categorize the feelings as "generally positive-ish"?

Will probably click more songs on a different day. Considering how different the few songs I've heard are, I feel like I can just pick something of theirs at random whenever I'm in the mood for something really different.



After that, I spent the rest of my dedicated music time just listening to older songs from the ranking itself that I wanted to hear again (Sorrow, Real World, Hrafntinna for the sake of comparing it to that Death of the Earth song I mentioned earlier, Ranunculus which wasn't part of the ranking but was posted before the ranking ended so I'm counting it anyway...). More tomorrow and what not.
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Raetsel_Lapin posted...

I apparently really liked "Ranunculus" actually, having gone back to it multiple times the past few days.

Yesss haha.
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Raetsel_Lapin posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXUVQfleU0o" data-time="

How would you describe the music starting at around the 50 second mark? The only word that comes to my mind is "industrial", but I'm not entirely sure I'm using that correctly.

art pop? i don't know, that part doesn't have characteristics that immediately makes me think of a particular genre.

cool song, btw. makes me want to check out more by this band (though according to you their other stuff sounds nothing like this so perhaps i'll think their other stuff sucks but oh well).
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for seg (and others who might be interested), here are the song of the week topics. again, remove the space on all of these:

0 - https://l ogfaqs.com/topic.php?id=75759045&db=1
1 - https://l ogfaqs.com/topic.php?id=75764050&db=2
2 - https://l ogfaqs.com/topic.php?id=75788285&db=2
3 - https://l ogfaqs.com/topic.php?id=75812915&db=2
4 - https://l ogfaqs.com/topic.php?id=75836985&db=2
5 - https://l ogfaqs.com/topic.php?id=75862175&db=2
6 - https://l ogfaqs.com/topic.php?id=75886149&db=2
7 - https://l ogfaqs.com/topic.php?id=75914509&db=2
8 - https://l ogfaqs.com/topic.php?id=75988381&db=2
9 - https://l ogfaqs.com/topic.php?id=76040699&db=2
10 - https://l ogfaqs.com/topic.php?id=76066790&db=2
11 - https://l ogfaqs.com/topic.php?id=76114337&db=2
12 - https://l ogfaqs.com/topic.php?id=76164415&db=2
13 - https://l ogfaqs.com/topic.php?id=76210630&db=2
14 - https://l ogfaqs.com/topic.php?id=76263279&db=3
15 - https://l ogfaqs.com/topic.php?id=76344531&db=3

but as you can see, topic 14 only has the last post archived for some reason. here are the songs that were nominated for that edition:

Bane_Of_Despair: Everytime I Die - We'rewolf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si_GuxdPu7U" data-time="

Snake5555555555: La Dispute - Woman (In Mirror)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR7USljBVWE" data-time="

jcgamer107: Crash Kings - Dressed to the 9's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPYcsl352VU" data-time="

VeryInsane: Primus - Spegetti Western
...whoops, this was removed from youtube, apparently :-/

mcflubbin: My Twin Sister - Blush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk4P03R3Hts" data-time="

Mr Lasastryke: Frank Zappa - Night School

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3b-rZDZLbg" data-time="

Seginustemple: Boy Pablo - Everytime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzi7ljJiLJQ" data-time="

GildedFool: Joanovarc - White Trash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZBj6qUUVec" data-time="

Shaduln: Set It Off - The Haunting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0hqEjoQikg" data-time="

Steiner: Rise Against - Halway There

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy4Z9a08w3I" data-time="

Giggsalot: Sturgill Simpson - Welcome to Earth (Pollywog)
https://vimeo.com/188578366
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Ooh, an entire topic series of mystery songs! I may poke around those eventually...

Minor Updates

Wanted to listen to a normal album as a palette cleanser after yesterday's experimentation with Aphex Twin & ...whatever that folk metal band I liked was called, I'm realizing neither of us ever actually said their name?

*checks*

Agalloch. Reminds me of Fraggle Rock, but let's not go down that train of thought at the moment. Point is, wanted an album more traditional than that.

Not many really normal albums on ZA'LIST, so I went with "Rainier Fog" ; I'd actually clicked a second song from that album at random back on Day 1 of the nominations since I liked So Far Under so much, so I figured I basically knew what I was in for.

...and I did! Album was basically exactly what I expected it to be.

Highly enjoyed "The One You Know", feel that competes with "So Far Under" for best track on the album. Also very pleased by the Wikipedia article for that first song, as one of the band gave an almost perfect response when questioned on what it meant:

.It's always really difficult for me to lay out what it is. Cause I'd rather you tell me and not even tell me, it be whatever it is to you. And I'm also a little selfish too, I like to keep what it is for me as well. The cool part of songwriting, I think, and the challenge of it is taking something personal that is internal and making it universally translatable to everybody.

See! This guy gets it!



The title track, Rainier Fog, was also pretty good though I don't particularly wish to discuss it.

Red Giant is also good, though it's kinda...like..."oh hey, it's the fifth or sixth best song on this album, yay?".

Chunk of songs in the middle, blah blah blah.

Never Fade was the previously mentioned random song I'd already heard, which is obviously not bad--if it were, I wouldn't have bothered committing to listening to the rest of the album, much less going for two albums.

All I Am joins The One You Know & So Far Under as the best songs on the album.

"So Far Under" = "All I Am" = "The One You Know" > "Rainier Fog" > Never Fade > Red Giant > Others? On a casual first listen for most of those songs anyway.



Also went through a variety of Rob Hubbard songs. I liked Ace 2 and Flash Gordon, but his best work has to be Mega Apocalypse:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNOUu4txdlQ" data-time="

It's rather long going on for well over seven minutes, but there's enough variety in the music itself that it never feels like it's dragging on or becoming dull. It's quite impressive.
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turns out topic 14 of song of the week was archived after all! i just needed to change the url slightly for it to show up.

https://l ogfaqs.com/topic.php?id=76263279&db=2

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

Also went through a variety of Rob Hubbard songs. I liked Ace 2 and Flash Gordon, but his best work has to be Mega Apocalypse:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNOUu4txdlQ" data-time="

It's rather long going on for well over seven minutes, but there's enough variety in the music itself that it never feels like it's dragging on or becoming dull. It's quite impressive.

cool song.

alice in chains is a good band. interesting how wikipedia describes them (among other things) as "sludge metal," which i always think of as one of the bad kinds of metal. guess it isn't necessarily bad after all!
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In light of tonight's announcement that Roman Reigns is suffering from leukemia, my earlier post about hating him is now in rather bad taste. I would like to clarify that I did not, and do not, wish any harm on Reigns himself and truly hope he can make a recovery.

Mr Lasastryke posted...

alice in chains is a good band. interesting how wikipedia describes them (among other things) as "sludge metal," which i always think of as one of the bad kinds of metal. guess it isn't necessarily bad after all!

I don't think I've ever heard of sludge metal before this post. </.<



Song Updates

I was in the mood for something heavier and non-happy, and Wikipedia's description of "Dirt" told me that's what I was going to be getting. Death, the Vietnam war, a lotta heroin, and "the sickest, darkest, most fucked up and heaviest thing Cantrell could write."

...Well those aren't usually my sorta topics, but today seemed to be an exception, so I figured I'd get that album out of the way now.

I like "Them Bones", "Rooster", and "Would?". I also appreciated the album giving a better idea of who Layne Staley was--there was a lot of talk about Rainier Fog's title track with people believing that at least some of the lyrics were dealing with his death, and since I didn't know anything about him, that didn't really mean a lot at the time... this album went a long way towards explaining things.

Quite a heavy album though, don't really feel energized to listen to any other songs after it or talk about the songs at any kinda length, kinda just want to rest a bit.



I did tell YouTube to randomly select one song from Mycro's playlist though, it picked Brain Wash from Pulseman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GE3jR6x03k" data-time="

Definitely interesting and I feel it's exactly what I wanted to listen to at the moment, coincidentally enough.
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Minor update:

Jazz From Hell

Best album I've heard since starting this phase of the topic. The first track, Night School, was oddly soothing and something I definitely want to keep on hand--it joins Aqua Man Theme (Mega Man 8), Credits (Mega Man 8), and Beneath the Mask (Persona 5) as one of my favorite songs to relax to.

Nothing else on the album reached that high of a level, but I enjoyed the experience from start to finish. I could definitely see myself throwing the album on whenever I want to listen to something different for a half hour or so. Great album.

...So good, in fact, that I'm considering listening to the "Civilization Phaze III" album at some point. That one's almost two hours long, so I doubt I'll go through it all in one sitting, but... well the possibility of finding another song as good as Night School is rather irresistible, ya know?
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yay! it's certainly not the most accessible of albums so i'm glad you had such a positive response to this.

i'd definitely recommend civilization phaze iii. normally it's not a zappa album i would recommend to anyone. it's more experimental and out there than jazz from hell, and more bloated (obviously it's way longer). given that you liked jazz from hell so much you should definitely check it out, though. i think it's mycro's favorite zappa synclavier album (and i'd guess it's therefore his favorite zappa album period, given how much he likes the synclavier stuff as well). personally i don't think anything on it is as good as night school but that's a high bar to reach - i'd say that's one of zappa's best works on the synclavier.

in case you were wondering, the "phaze iii" part of the title refers to the fact that conceptually it's more or less a sequel to the earlier zappa albums we're only in it for the money and lumpy gravy (especially lumpy gravy). it's not necessary to have heard those albums to enjoy this one, though.

as far as zappa goes, i'd also recommend feeding the monkies at ma maison and dance me this. they're also synclavier albums.
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i love beneath the mask too btw.
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getting back to the european VGM composers thing, a guy in the chat of a twitch stream i was watching was just raving about the soundtrack for last ninja 2 for the commodore 64. it was composed by matt gray, who i assume is european (last ninja 2 was made by system 3, a british company). i'm not familiar with him but he might be worth checking out!
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yeah, civ phaze iii clearly seems like the more "mycro" album to me compared to jazz from hell. surprised you're even struggling with deciding which one you prefer! then again, i'd say FTMAMM and dance me this are more "mycro" than JFH too.
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oh, i'm just now realizing that civ phaze iii is decidedly modern classical too which MIGHT be a turnoff for raetsel?!? perhaps check out those other two first and if you're not turned off by them move on to this one.
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for the record, the album is called civilization phaze iii >.>
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Mr Lasastryke posted...

oh, i'm just now realizing that civ phaze iii is decidedly modern classical too which MIGHT be a turnoff for raetsel?!?

Jupiter, Bringer of Jolility got into the top 70, so it's not like the entire genre is doomed to be last place fodder.

Minor Updates

Threw Civilization Phaze III on for background music while I was working on things today. Not the best way to experience it, I know, but I needed something and figured it would work well enough. Didn't get through all of it, but from what I heard, the album seems pleasant enough.

"Get A Life" was so good that I had to drop everything I was doing and devote my full attention to the song; everything else was fine, there was never a point of "I don't want to listen to this", but also nothing else so amazing that it actively distracted me from my work.

I do plan on giving it a more...detailed listen eventually, along with the other Zappa works mentioned, though I'll be busy for at least a few days.



"Number City" has been getting a lot of play from me the past few days. Probably had that ranked a bit too low, should have had it somewhere in the top 10.

Consider anything related to Kevin Barnes and his band, of Montreal, off the list. I'm done with him and actively wish to not discuss that topic any further. The nice part about being done with someone is not having to waste the energy.

Stuffed into blocks so I don't have to scroll past his name each time I come to this topic.

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wow, nice. get a life isn't one of my favorite zappa tracks but i'm glad you got so much enjoyment out of it!

also, nice to see you had a positive response to what you've heard of the album in general.
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Still didn't listen to much; between trying to follow all the rankings over at Flamander/Glacier's VGM topic, working on other things, and listening to unrelated songs my time spent on ZA'LIST has been rather low.

Minor Updates

Decided to Google "Avant Garde Metal" and see what I hit. Didn't find much; Diablo Swing Orchestra is still unique and interesting, but everything else I hit seemed to just be Black Metal under a different name. Even Arcturus, which had a truly great song nominated, seemed to be just generic metal growling on every song I hit. I tried to two or three other random bands and can't even remember their names.

...in retrospect, I should have tried searching for best Avant Garde Metal Bands and looking for an actual list judged by people who knew what they were talking about instead of clicking results at random.

*tries that, running into "Land Animal by Bent Knee"*

Well that's at least different. I don't think I'm a fan, but it's unique and experimental and not at all growl-yelling, so it's more what I had in mind.



Played some random DM DOKURO remixes. Actually listened to the full ten minutes of the Wrong Number Song to see if anything happened in it... not the best use of my time, I suppose.

The most interesting one, to me, is that he did a NiGHTS remix--original Saturn game, not the Wii sequel that I try not to remember.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ul3vQniHvM" data-time="



I hadn't realized just how strongly memories of that soundtrack would hit me. Back in the day, I used to do speedruns of NiGHTS & Sonic R; All S-Ranks for NiGHTS, All Chaos Emeralds & All Characters Unlocked & First Place All Courses runs for Sonic R. Not on any sort of serious level, never even actually timing myself, just running through the games on a nightly basis.

I still listen to Sonic R music on a regular basis, but the only NiGHTS song I still keep around is the end credits theme (both Kids & Adult versions), so I don't think I've heard much of the soundtrack in quite some time... that was more emotional than I had expected, though considering how many times I finished that game, I really shouldn't have been surprised.



I wonder if would be in bad form to @ Bane and ask if he could think of any other Coheed and Cambria songs as experimental as Number City? I'm becoming increasingly obsessed with that song this past week, listening to it multiple times per day... it truly is quite wonderful and unique. Just everything about it: The heavily computerized voice sample, the awkward shift in tempo and music style at the end, the crying baby, the counting, just everything--it stands out so well as being a unique experience and while it's just one part of a larger story, it feels rather complete unto itself.

As I mentioned, the follow-up song (Gravity's Union, IIRC, which I may not) felt...far too normal in comparison. Certainly not bad, of course, but it doesn't live up to the expectations set by Number City. I should do the research myself, but combing through their entire discography in search of unique experiences feels a bit beyond what I can commit to at the moment.
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I doubt Bane would mind. All Coheed fans, myself included, love talking about Coheed. For what it's worth, I can't think of any more of their songs that are as experimental as Number City off the top of my head, though.
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Well, I suppose it's worth asking then while we still have some posts before this locks.

@Bane_Of_Despair

Do you have any suggestions for songs even vaguely similar to Number City? Either by Coheed and Cambria or a different band, I'm open to trying just about anything at this point. It's just so unique and experimental that I wouldn't know where to start looking.

It's also rough because I have a hard time putting what I like about it into words, though I guess I'll give it another shot... in no particular order:



1: It just feels experimental, like the song is playing with things I wouldn't expect. The very retro computerized voice, the crying, the genre shift at the end of the song; it gives the track a very unique feel and kept me guessing as to where the song was going to go next.

2: As unique as it is, some of the reviews of the album classify it as being a pop song... which doesn't feel right to me, but the singer does have a very nice mainstream type of voice. It makes the song very...approachable, even for those who might not be as into the experimental nature of the song?

3: There's a certain edge to the way he sings "Go on and tear it out of me" ; like a very...controlled anger? It's not really angry, per say, but there's just this hint of harshness to the line that I find very appealing.



And probably some other stuff, but I've already spent over an hour trying to figure out how to word that much. I wouldn't really expect any other song to hit all three of those points, but if you could think of any song that covers any of it? Like something else experimental, or something else with a hint of anger that never devolves into generic yelling, or anything you just feel like you'd nominate now that you know Number City was my favorite of your nominations?

You don't need to, obviously, and I figure it's a bit of a longshot... but since you're the one who nominated the song in question to begin with, I thought you might be the best person to ask. At the very least, summoning you here gives me a chance to properly thank you for nominating Number City and tell you how much I've come to love the song this past week.

...also it doesn't matter now, but I think I'd probably raise Number City to 5th place if I had to rerank things. I'm liking it more and more each day, even if it's far too late for that to be particularly relevant.
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forgot this was ocean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bCZnv6rarU" data-time="
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Whoops I meant to respond and then totally forgot

Hmmmm I dunno if Coheed have quite anything like Number City, it was very unique and fresh for them. I'd have to sit down and think. That's awesome that it's grown on you so much, that's the best feeling I could have in sharing music I like with people
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Yeah, after Iceman couldn't think of anything, I thought it was a long shot. Still, open to listening to just about anything you'd want to suggest, if anything comes to mind.

NFUN posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bCZnv6rarU" data-time="

Very good song! I would have responded right away, but I was hoping to save the next post for a bigger update... but then I've been so caught up on other things that I really haven't listened to anything other than this song. Sorry bout that..
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Forgot to mention why I didn't get anything done on Sunday: I watched Evolution, the WWE's women's PPV & the House Hardy Halloween Special. I know I shouldn't support the company, but I like Kairi and didn't want to miss the chance to see her in a PPV match.

...yes I know I could try to research her pre-WWE career, but that requires more effort.

I also highly enjoy the goofier side of wrestling. It's virtually impossible for something to be to weird or ridiculous for me when it comes to pro wrestling--at the Mega Man song topic I declared that I'd much rather watch a "Buff Bagwell's mother on a forklift match" than a five star classic. Broken Matt is definitely on the odder side of things, so the company was quite literally giving me exactly what I wanted.

Enjoyed both of them, but it didn't leave much time for music.



Music Update

Decided to listen to "I, Phantom" today for a change in musical genre. It was interesting, but the story tried to cover so much ground that I didn't really connect with much of it. I enjoyed "Live From the Plantation" and "Iron Helix", and of course "New Man Theme" is still good. Not as crazy about everything else on the album, but none of it was bad.
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Most of Kairi's pre-WWE career is for Wonder Wrestling Stardom, there're a few one/two offs outside of it, but it's honestly fairly simple to find her pre-E career.

https://www.stardom-world.com/

Their official website, costs about $6.25-7.50 per month (depending on the exchange rate at the time). I'd wait until *tomorrow*, if ya wanted to try it out, though. Far as I know, they tend to simplify the 'when do I renew' matter by charging on the 1st of each month regardless of when you sign up. ...Far as I know, could be entirely wrong. ^_^'
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Sorry, will work on stuff tomorrow; took two days off from everything to obsessively binge Deltarune and read everyone's theories.
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Listened to the entire Imaginos album. It was as confusing and impossible to understand as I hoped so I enjoyed my time with the album, but it was so...unusual that I have no real comments after only one trip through.

Will try listening to it again someday in the future, when I can better research theories and what not.
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Finished the rest of Phaze III and threw in "Feeding the Monkies at Ma Maison"; though I listened to that on Spotify and it didn't have Worms from Hell or Samba Funk. I'll have to go find those later.

Fun, though the length of the title track of Feeding makes it difficult to listen to without setting aside a lot of time specifically for it. I did highly appreciate the chance to listen to the different versions of Buffalo Voice, that was an unexpected surprise.
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Raetsel_Lapin posted...

Finished the rest of Phaze III and threw in "Feeding the Monkies at Ma Maison"; though I listened to that on Spotify and it didn't have Worms from Hell or Samba Funk. I'll have to go find those later.

Fun, though the length of the title track of Feeding makes it difficult to listen to without setting aside a lot of time specifically for it.

glad you liked them! the backstory behind FTMAMM is that it was an album frank finished but never released before his death that originally did NOT contain worms from hell and samba funk - those are just "bonus tracks" his widow added when she finally released the album in 2011. frank recorded these tracks during the same period he made FTMAMM. so the version of the album on spotify is the version frank intended it to be. not sure what the best way to listen to samba funk is (i just bought the CD to hear the full album) but you can listen to worms from hell here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MFxm2z2R3Q" data-time="

I did highly appreciate the chance to listen to the different versions of Buffalo Voice, that was an unexpected surprise.

and the different versions of secular humanism!

fun fact: though the FTMAMM versions of buffalo voice and secular humanism were released later than the ones on civ phaze iii, they were recorded earlier. civ phaze iii was actually one of the very last projects frank finished before he died.
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Mr Lasastryke posted...

you can listen to worms from hell here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MFxm2z2R3Q" data-time="

That was interesting. Certainly lived up to its name with its creepy and unsettling nature. Found Samba Funk on YouTube last night, though I didn't have any particular reaction to it.

I hoped to get through "Dance Me This" tonight before posting an update, but I'm not feeling too well right now (nothing serious, should be cleared up in a day)--made it through the first two songs before deciding that I really wanted something more relaxing than that album was going to be.

...not a knock against the album or the music, mind you, just not what I'm looking for tonight.
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fair enough!

i think the title track is actually pretty relaxing but the rest of the album, uh, isn't. when a track is based on calculus algorithms it's probably not going to be very ambient >.>
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another name to add to the "european VGM composers" list: david whittaker. he's british.

i've seen someone describe his spider-man: return of the sinister six soundtrack as "follinesque." personally i don't think that soundtrack is of follin brothers-level quality, but it's good.
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Updates

Listened to all of R Plus Seven. That was great; I think my favorites were Cryo & Chrome Country, though I enjoyed it the whole way through.

"Dance Me This" had the misfortune of being the album I listened to immediately after that; not bad, but I don't think I'm a fan of throat singing and didn't really connect with any of the rest--though Wolf Harbor 3 was interesting.

Also tried to listen to a lot of David Whittaker songs; my favorite was Terminator 2 Game Boy theme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch94J_rxWLQ" data-time="

I also had fun with some of his covers of movie themes. The Back to the Future theme on the Spectrum was really nifty, but I had the most amusement from his desperate attempt to play the Superman theme on a computer that could never even dream of playing such a song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awTcyPX7Sp8" data-time="



Don't get me wrong, he did better with it than anyone else could have, I just had a very hard time not laughing when the song came on. Of course, I like laughing, so I've listened to it three times already. </.<



Now going to gather everything else that I said I was going to try to listen to, since it's been a long time since I edited ZA'LIST.

...hey, I forgot that I actually did listen to that one Venetian Snares song when it was posted and kinda liked it! My brain was just so fried after listening to Aphex Twin that they just got kinda lost in the shuffle... all the more reason I need to update this thing.

SPECIFIC ARTISTS

Alice Cooper

The Mars Volta

Kindo

Vektroid

Childish Gambino

Pain of Salvation

The Dillinger Escape Plan

Spock's Beard

Oi Va Voi

Sufjan Stevens

Snarky Puppy [particularly the song "Binky" which I still haven't gotten to yet]

Venetian Snares



ALBUMS



dear future self ( https://inpuj.bandcamp.com/album/dear-future-self )

cinnamon fried modulation ( https://inpuj.bandcamp.com/album/cinnamon-fried-modulation )

Huge Chrome Cylinder Box Unfolding ( https://venetiansnares.bandcamp.com/album/huge-chrome-cylinder-box-unfolding )

...I'm sure I probably forgot something, but that's still a lot.
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I see you've got a ton already, but if you're enjoying yourself and still looking for more, I'm gonna post a song I meant to nominate originally and then forgot about. Curious to know where it would've finished. You can move it to the bottom of the list if you want, though, I'm in no rush!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0vNrUc5DCA" data-time="
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The longer it gets from when the ranking was finalized, the harder it is to guess where anything might have wound up; it's been over a month. </.<

First Impressions

This song reminds me of Graves due to the somewhat long nature of the song (not that eight and a half minutes is terribly long, but longer than the average nominated song, shall we say?) and of "Fair to Midland" in general, in that like their songs, I understand absolutely nothing. "Rainband pendant deadlight grew"?

You made the right choice picking this version with the instrumental opening; I appreciate the existence of the music video that cuts directly to the singing, but it feels like its missing something without Arrival added in.

I liked the song enough to look up the music video and compare them, which is a good sign; and this version held up much better than the alternative version, unlike that poor Jagged, Gorgeous Winter song. Still kinda regret not just ranking the version of that song that I liked instead of the nominated one... not that that's terribly relevant to this particular write-up.



It does a lot of things that I like. I like the mysterious nature of the lyrics and that a brief Google search for the lyrics did not give any relevant information, leaving everything open to interpretation.

I like the distorted spoken word portion at around the six minute mark.

I like the instrumental opening, it has a sort-of...alien, UFO type quality to it.

Bonus points for the birds at the transition between the instrumental and main part of the song (and a bit later in the song). Truthfully, I am drawn to any song that even briefly reminds me of an empty beach--seagulls, waves... it's hardly a coincidence that Maclir relied heavily on that sort of aesthetic and came in first place.

Good performance by both singers and the band.



On the negative side , the song hits a bit of a repetitive mark at around 4:30. I'm sure they don't repeat "She seems to be on my mind through armagnac" as often as it felt like they did, but once it hits that mark, it's a while before the song really does anything different musically or lyrically.

Song also ends abruptly; I'm currently unsure if this is due to YouTube's tendency to just cut songs off, a problem with the person uploading it, or if it's intended to seamlessly transition to whatever song is next on the album.



Great song, easily makes it into the Clump of Songs that were rankings #18 through #37... unsure if it could get any higher; it's complicated because I feel Road Head and Number City (especially Number City) were ranked too low... and theorizing about how things would have gone if I shuffled the top 17 around is a bit beyond what I'd like to do at this moment. We're getting too hypothetical at that point.



EDIT: Though with only four posts left, this raises a question... should I post a brief continuation topic to finish listening and commenting to posted songs or just wrap this up here and listen to everything on my own time? I don't really want to get into a whole other topic right now, but I'm not entirely ready for this one to close to either. </.<
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Raetsel_Lapin posted...

"Dance Me This" had the misfortune of being the album I listened to immediately after that; not bad, but I don't think I'm a fan of throat singing and didn't really connect with any of the rest--though Wolf Harbor 3 was interesting.

that's too bad. i'm not super crazy about dance me this either, to be honest - i only recommended it because you enjoyed jazz from hell so much. i love the title track and i think the five wolf harbor tracks are good (and i think calculus is interesting, knowing how the track was made), but as a whole the album fails to be another jazz from hell.

anyway, very nice that you listened to all four of the zappa synclavier albums! i wouldn't be surprised if i never manage to get anyone else to listen to all of these albums for the rest of my life, so the fact that you did so is pretty special to me!

edit: oh yeah, i'm very much in favor of a new topic. i'd like to see more of your comments on music.
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Binky - Snarky Puppy

We're just a couple hours away from it being exactly one month since it was suggested that I listen to this song. Truthfully, I had completely forgotten about it until I tried updating that list earlier. Sorry about that.

...unfortunately, I wasn't much of a fan. There is one stretch of the song, starting at the five minute mark, that I loved: I think I have a thing for aquatic VGMs, which I'm actually just noticing now. Explains a lot, actually. My favorite Mega Man song was Aqua Man's stage theme, my scoring system gave Bubble Man's theme first place at that Mega Man Song Ranking topic, I routinely use the Super Mario 64 Secret Aquarium stage for MUGEN just to listen to the music, I wanted to listen to more of Ocean's soundtracks because that Unused Theme from The Flintstones sounded like aquatic music...

...wait, Ocean Games? That's...kinda unsettling actually...

*blinks*

Right, right, what I started trying to say: The 30 seconds starting at the five minute mark somehow reminds me of Aqua Man's theme and I get really into it, but that feeling is gone completely by the six minute mark. The rest of the song is technically impressive, but doesn't really appeal to me much.



Huge Chrome Cylinder Box Unfolding

Fun! Though when I binge an entire album of instrumental music, it becomes hard to remember specifics about most of the tracks... if I don't make an effort to force myself to remember track names, the memories all blur together really quickly.

"Li2Co3" was my favorite track. The opening of the song is very soothing and I love the effect created by having that soothing music continue playing in the background, able to be clearly heard even as the more chaotic instrumentation feels like it should overpower it. I feel there's some spiritual wisdom in that and it is quite beautiful.

"Ion Divvy" was also really good, though in a different way. I've mentioned liking synthesized voices and distorted voices and this track definitely has that. It's a very "yes, this is the literal definition of what I was looking for" type song.

The only low point for me was "Aaron"; I can't really explain why, but I had a very bad reaction to that song... I can't place why, but it feels like death. It just creeps me out on a level so deep that it was difficult to listen to the entire thing--I got through it and the rest of the album, but quite frankly, I don't plan on going back to that song anytime soon.

I am curious about more of their work, especially the more orchestral stuff that everyone was worried I would hate. Now that I've heard this and loved two of the tracks, I'm more open to trying something different.
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forgot dm dokuro
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