Sounds from Innerspace

Oriphiel · 01-26-2017, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by innerspaceboy

From what I've read on Wiki, the storyline is fairly well understood. Are there elements of the plot left open to interpretation?

Yes, the whole plot is completely open to interpretation. Suda51 intentionally made it so that each individual player has to decide for themselves what is real and what is symbolic in every scene. Is it the story of two immortals fighting endlessly throughout time? Is it about an assassin that is brainwashed by the government, and Harman and Kun Lan (as well as everyone else) are just elements implanted in him to control him? Is it about an old man going crazy as he sits alone waiting to die, and the whole story is a mixture of his memories and what he sees on his TV? Or is it all just a metaphor for the futility of politics and war?

There are also a whole bunch of unanswered questions throughout the game, and everyone who plays the game has to fill in the blanks for themselves. For example:

Spoiler for possible spoilers:

If you ever get the chance to play the game, I'd love to hear your thoughts. If you go hunting for a copy (or a ROM), I would recommend the version developed for the Gamecube. It's the original, and features several graphical differences from the PS2 version, as well as shorter loading times.

innerspaceboy · 01-26-2017, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Suzy Creamcheese

Yes, the whole plot is completely open to interpretation.

Sounds fascinating! Thanks for the scoop!

The Batlord · 01-26-2017, 05:43 PM

Tricking ISB into watching Pewdiepie is now my favorite thing.

innerspaceboy · 01-26-2017, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

Tricking ISB into watching Pewdiepie is now my favorite thing.

Accursed mountebank!

The Batlord · 01-26-2017, 06:28 PM

And to answer your question, no, nobody acts or talks like Pewdiepie. I have a certain place in my heart for his ludicrous antics, but he is reviled by many as an incredibly annoying twat who just puts on an act to entertain dumb 12-year-olds. He does have the highest number of subscribers on all of Youtube though, so take that for what you will.

innerspaceboy · 02-01-2017, 04:03 PM

After reading about James Joyce's last words, (deeply saddening), I wanted to revisit his final interview, published in Time Magazine, issue #19, May 9, 1939.

Unfortunately, my copy is archivally framed and I was too much of a dumbass to think to scan the interview pages before encapsulating it forever in its final fate. As I've never really had any interest in magazines, I am not a member of any of the major closed magazine trackers, and their public brethren are overrun with porn zines and offer little in the way of 1930s print.

So, against all my better judgment, I signed up for a one-time access pass to the Vault section of Time Magazine's website for $2.50 and went to work. Whoever was in charge of scanning these archival issues did a terrible job, leaving many pages askew or missing as much as half of the page. And Time doesn't exactly go out of its way to make it easy for users to save any of this content.

For a few minutes, I started logging the image source URLs for the 86-page issue and in about 30-seconds' time I successfully executed a command line script which automatically scraped all of the high-res page scans of the entire issue from the Vault, compiled them in the proper sequence, and exported the resulting file to a PDF.

There were a few hiccups, as I placed a wildcard one branch too early and inadvertently initiated a media scrape of the entire history of Time Magazine.

With the task complete, I took a moment to also extract the interview article's text and export to Google Doc, ODT, plaintext, and epub for optimal accessibility.

Flipping through the entire issue was indeed eye-opening - there was the latest news from Hitler, adverts from Martin Aircraft, "World's Standard of Skyway Supremacy", Camel ads targeting young women, adverts for the Studebaker and the Pontiac Eight, the new technology of aluminum foil, the latest foxtrot hits, and this gem from Monsanto Corporation:

Settling in presently to read the interview which set me on this little project.

The Batlord · 02-01-2017, 04:15 PM

I'm honestly curious about what 1939 thought was everyday Hitler news.

innerspaceboy · 02-01-2017, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

I'm honestly curious about what 1939 thought was everyday Hitler news.

Permit me to feed your curiosity. Adolf throws some serious shade FDR's way, bringing up such sore topics as the wars resulting from the States' rejection of the Treaty of Versailles and its treatment of the Sioux peoples.

I'm sorry I didn't extract the text while I had the access, but here are both pages of the NATIONAL AFFAIRS article.

Page 1
Page 2
Page 3

innerspaceboy · 02-14-2017, 06:37 PM

This evening, Batty kindly recommended a few tracks as an introduction to black metal.

What follows are my initial impressions of each song.

Drudkh- Wind Of The Night Forest

From the very first seconds of the first selection’s introduction, it was instantly apparent that black metal has a strong focus on atmospheric elements. This hypothesis was confirmed by each of the tracks that followed. The vocals on “Wind of the Night Forest” are primarily guttural growling, but the low-fidelity mixing blends them awash into all of the instrumentation. I enjoyed it very much.

Agalloch - In the Shadow of Our Pale Companion

I’d anticipated a faster tempo to be the norm for the genre, but as UltimateGuitar.com contributor, Morgal notes in his Basics of Black Metal feature, there is quite a range of tempo in this genre. Morgal stated that it usually ranged between 140bpm (for bands such as Mayhem, Nargaroth, and Gorgoroth) up to 200+bpm (for Satyricon, Dark Funeral, and Dimmu Borgir). Coming from a position of preference as an ambient, modern classical, and downtempo electronic listener, I found the slower, instrumental selections Batlord shared to be perfectly enjoyable. Agalloch’s “In the Shadow of Our Pale Companion” was one of my favorites from his offering. It's dark but surprisingly melodic instrumentation and extended track length served for wonderful atmospheric sonic wallpaper to my research and writing this evening.

Dødheimsgard - Ion Storm

The third track, from Dødheimsgard was noticeably faster-paced, with relentlessly hammering percussion and a few noise elements which I could not place concretely but which definitely added intrigue to the selection. Despite the noise and clamor, there are still melodic characteristics which make the track approachable and palatable even for the novice.

Deathspell Omega - Abscission

Deathspell Omega was characteristically similar to the previous track, but with more coherent growling vocals which rise above the instrumentation instead of being soaked deep inside them. There is a more dissonant element to the composition here during the verse structure, which certainly piqued my interest. It’s always refreshing to hear a melodic structure depart from the traditional fixed musical phrases so overused in the 20th century.

Blut Aus Nord - The Choir of the Dead

“The Choir of the Dead” by Blut Aus Nord was by far the most punk-inspired of Batlord’s set. The track is stripped down to an ultra dirty, low-fi mix of mud and noise. Progressions are foregone and instead replaced with a few single notes moaning up and down in pitch. The percussion is aggressive and minimalist, keeping the high-energy and speed of the track as its focused strengths. But unlike its punk brethren, Blut Aus Nord carries the track for nearly seven minutes until the listener transitions from active listening to a nearly-passive and more atmospheric perception. I can see how this might be a definitive characteristic of the genre.

Katharsis - So Nail the Hearts

Batlord saved the greatest challenge for last. There is still a punk-inspired spirit to this closing recording, particularly in the relationship between the percussion and the guitar. About a minute into the track the vocals decay into indecipherable demon-like speech, as if a mic with a heavy echo chamber was placed ten feet from the vocalist and his shouting was left to be consumed by all the instrumentation between himself and the mic. Without a focus on lyrical content, the track, however abrasive, once again takes on an atmospheric property which I found captivating. Melody is entirely forsaken. And it sounds as if the band is performing from deep within a pit and the listener is standing, gazing down into the blackness from where the reverberated howling comes forth. And clocking in at over thirteen minutes, the track certainly has an exhausting impact on the listener, most apparent when the silence of the room return as suddenly as it was broken.

Thanks, Batlord - this was a most enjoyable experience!

innerspaceboy · 02-05-2017, 02:50 PM

I took a trip out to my city's antique mall this afternoon for the first time this year. When I arrived I was surprised to find two They Might Be Giants singles featuring exclusive tracks which were only otherwise available on the 1997 oddities compilation, THEN: The Earlier Years. (The set is fantastic - an absolute essential tour of the duo's earliest recordings.)

But the greatest value of my trip was, as always, my conversation with my favorite vendor, Bob the Record Guy. He always knows what titles to pull for me. I chatted him up for his knowledge about the music scene between 1976 and 1984, particularly the better parts of new wave, essentials of no wave, post-punk, avant/art-pop, and gothic/ethereal wave classics. He was happy to make a number of recommendations and sent me home with a few albums to get me started.

I confess that many of the artists and albums listeners take it as read that I would know are entirely new to me at present. Born in '81, I was a touch too young for it all the first go-round and by the time I hit the age of history-combing musical discovery in college, the all-consuming craze was experimental electronic, ambient, and post-rock music. So while I'm well-versed in late 60s/early 70s synth music and 90s indie pop, my knowledge of that seminally developmental decade in between is limited to my memories of MTV flashback syndication and of dollar bin comp cassettes of 80s radio pop. (And damn it, I'm sick and tired of "Always Something There to Remind Me.")

Terrible cassette I purchased at a Lechmere department store in 1992.

From what Bob had immediately available, he sent me home with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's 1984 LP, Junk Culture, (with a startlingly-clearly labeled one-sided 7" single). While the band's first four LPs showcase OMD at the best, I was happy to pick up anything for starters.

But it was the next record I was given which became my favorite discovery of the day. While discussing no wave and other manic, atonal music of the 80s, Bob pulled out a copy of Lounge Lizards' Big Heart - Live in Tokyo (1986). He explained that, while the album is certainly a far cry from the aggressive dissonance of albums like No New York, that it might serve as a fitting introduction to 80s exercises in what Ornette Coleman termed, harmolodics.

For those unfamiliar, wiki says, "Harmolodics may loosely be defined as an expression of music in which harmony, movement of sound, and melody all share the same value..." resulting in music which "...achieves an immediately open expression, without being constrained by tonal limitations, rhythmic pre-determination, or harmonic rules." While I am well-acquainted with standards of free/avant-garde jazz, (I have many of the essentials in my record library), what I didn't realize was how this philosophy had been embraced by Sonny Sharrock and utilized in his composition of the theme to Adult Swim's Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Bob brought up the track as an example of harmolodics, and spun several tracks from Big Heart which sounded quite similar to the theme. While the first two selections from Big Heart fall a bit flat, those patient enough to go deeper into the record will find that it is arguably the best effort of their catalog.

Home from our outing, I'm surveying my finds of the day and looking forward to more discoveries of albums I should have listened to ages ago. Bob also recommended that I explore the cassette-only label, ROIR (Reachout International Records) founded in 1981 for more great music. Thanks, Bob!