There Will Be Many Obstacles To Overcome

[image alt text: Screenshot from NES game Bayou Billy. Gordon is holding a knife to Annabelle's throat. He has a speech bubble that says "there will be many obstacles to overcome."]

I haven't been writing much. I moved last month, and I feel like I still haven't had time to recover. The ever-escalating heat hasn't been good for my health. I've been sick. Words are hard to find in the fog. I've still got a big IV bruise on my arm from my last visit to the emergency room.

Anyway. Still. Music is a lifeline for me. It's always been that way. So I figure maybe there's value in sharing what I've been listening to, even if I don't have a whole lot to say about it.

Rilla - Yugeki / 遊撃 EP
"[S]trategies are able to produce, tabulate, and impose these spaces, when those operations take place, whereas tactics can only use, manipulate, and divert these spaces." —Michel de Certeau (The Practice of Everyday Life, trans. Steven Rendall)

Shanghai based  label/collective SVBKVLT keeps putting out groundbreaking electronic music, and this is one of my favorites from this year. I keep coming back to it. It's so heavy but so calm. Like a mountain. Like the ocean at night. Like katabasis.

Zvrra - Had to Leave
I've been recommending Zvrra to everyone I know. Techno is a machine that opens a door, and that door fucking goes places. Zvrra gets it. Pay attention.

Nobuki Nishiyama - residue
I saw Nobuki Nishiyama live on a K/A/T/O Massacre stream and was blown away. Sometimes a drone is just a drone and sometimes it's more than that. Like there's vibes and then there's vibes. This is vibes.

cruel hunnies - Testing
Great synth music. I felt like I was gonna faint while I was listening to this and I had to lie down on the floor and it felt like I was in a movie where I got abducted by aliens.

Chloe Hotline - Kinnfolk
This record should be huge right now. It should be blowing up. Everybody I know should be talking about it.

ISA - //beat.tape//
Industry Standard Audio at the height of her power. Loops and loops and loops. I put this on when I want to feel good.

twofold - THE LOST MECHA TOOLS
Mecha. I was listening to this while working on gunpla (a HG MS-07B-3 Gouf Custom) and it was unexpectedly relaxing. I've got a HG Gundam EZ8 I need to start on when I'm feeling a little better.

Rafael de Toledo Pedroso - Coração de Pássaro
Bittersweet. I listen to this one a lot.

I Am Gqom - Griffit Vigo
Griffit Vigo made Gqom click for me in a way it hadn't before. This record is like a key.

Dani Lee Pearce - Spider Mountain
Nobody writes songs quite like Dani. Her work is a world and that world is a treasure.

There's so much more I've been listening to and so much more I want to share, but I'm tired. I need to lie down. I hope you'll check out some of these records and I hope you hear something that takes you somewhere new and good.