There might not be a lot of evidence for it on this blog, but as far as real-world business goes, this was a good year for me on the whole. It progressed fairly slowly, but I had some very good breakthroughs and accomplishments in the world of my hobbies as well.
My big 1ccs this year were only three in number, but I put a lot of effort into them.
ティンクルスタースプライツ (1996) - ADK
2021/01/29: 0,946,750 [ストーリーモード]
Twinkle Star Sprites (1996) - ADK
2021/01/29: 0,946,750 [Story Mode]
I've never been an enormous fan of Phantasmagoria of Flower View, at least in comparison to other Touhou games. The whole versus nature of it just wasn't my jam since I normally like playing shmups as quality alone-time. However, the irresistibly cute and charming aesthetic of this game and its obvious status as a classic kept me coming back to this, and it ended up really growing on me. The story mode was fun to power through to some extent, but like PoFV, I never felt the need to go back to it after I was done. Rather, I kept playing matches with friends off and on over the course of the year. These matches are really where the quality of the game shows. The rounds in this game are brutal, balls-to-the-wall tennis matches and often end far more quickly than PoFV, but that's also the beauty of it. They never last too long for comfort. I don't think this kind of game is something I'll ever become intensely dedicated to, but I absolutely enjoyed the time I put into multiplayer off and on this year. And of course story mode was a necessary evil to get there, even if it had its pleasures along the way.
虫姫さま (2004) - ケイブ
2021/02/02: 42,803,492 [S-Power, マニアック]
Mushihimesama (2004) - Cave
2021/02/02: 42,803,492 [S-Power, Maniac]
This is an amazing game with only one real flaw in my eyes: The lack of a truly interesting scoring system. Don't get me wrong, I ultimately chose to play this just to bang out a 1cc. But when I'm grinding for a 1cc, I always like to have a scoring system that I can use to refine my early gameplay so the early game doesn't become braindead. That said, with Mushi there are many different game modes and difficulties, which is always a good way to add depth to a game even if it's highly survival-oriented. Aside from that, though, this is a stunningly beautiful game that is always a joy to look at and play. The level design is pure genius. Maybe someday I'll go back for Ultra...
怒首領蜂大往生 ブラックラベル (2002) - ケイブ
2021/07/16: 66,075,020 [B-S, 2-1, 600]
DoDonPachi DaiOuJou Black Label (2002) - Cave
2021/07/16: 66,075,020 [B-S, 2-1, 600]
Just the 1-ALL for this took me months... not very proud of that! But to be fair I was playing a lot of other stuff on the side. My problem with this game is somewhat similar to Mushihimesama. Though it's not that there isn't a scoring system to this; obviously there is one. It's just that chaining isn't very interesting to me so for the most part I chose not to try to chain. I don't like the kind of pure mechanical memorization of most chaining-based games... I prefer to have at least a little flexibility in scoring. There are some other games like Mountain of Faith where I enjoy the chaining more, but the DDP style isn't really for me. Some sections of the early stages were fun to try not to break chain during, but most of the time the chaining stuff requires too much study and practice that feels divorced from intuitive gameplay to be my thing.
But with all that said, there is still a game underneath all that chaining and what a game it is! I thought the first two DDP games were decent games that were more interesting as historical artifacts than things I'd want to play on a daily basis. But this game? Absolute monster. Even if you don't give a shit about the chaining, these stages are incredible! Gorgeous visuals, badass music, and fascinating, memorable boss fights. The weaving and streaming back and forth you're forced to do while speedkilling the big ugly motherfuckers who want to make your life a nightmare by spamming huge bullet clouds is pure Cave! I'd like to try the second loop sometime and maybe eventually go for a 2-ALL but I don't think this is a game I'd ever want to really score on a higher level. But that doesn't mean that I can't recognize what a fantastic game this really is. This was a tough journey, but it was fun and rewarding the whole way through.
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002) - Blizzard Entertainment
2021/06/11: Campaign
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (2003) - Blizzard Entertainment
2021/07/25: Campaign
Near the end of 2020 I finally got a mouse for my laptop to go along with the mechanical keyboard I'd been using. Hopefully next year I'll be settled enough to invest in a good desktop. Until then I've had to continue my relatively nomadic existence. But since I have a mouse and mechanical keyboard, I decided it was finally time to betray a bit of my weeb origins and turn my eye to the western basement neckbeard PC games I've been ignoring for so long. Would most western fantasy PC strategy games be better if there were cute lolis in them? Without a doubt. But it won't stop me from playing them. And after all, sometimes you can't appreciate how great games full of cute lolis are until you play something with big ugly orcs and trolls instead. Near the end of 2020 I bought a bunch of mouse-heavy western PC games so I could finally decide for myself. And I played a lot of them throughout 2021. Many of them I'm still chipping away at, like Heroes of Might and Magic III: Complete. But the defining strategy game of 2021 for me was undoubtedly Warcraft III.
Now, to address the elephant in the room, I had to make a deal with the devil and give some cash to Activision (the copper-scented skinwalker who now shambles behind the skin-husk of Blizzard). It felt kinda slimy to have to, but oh well, you have to make these concessions at times in your life. And I pretty much never buy triple-A games with all their hideousness, so I felt I deserved at least one, even if it is possibly the worst company of them all. Seeing them fail and flounder this year with scandal after scandal is the karmic punishment those greedy fucks deserve for pissing all over Warcraft III! The good news is that as long as you select oldschool graphics, the game is substantially little different from how it was before the Reforging. Even if they were just menus and not that important in the grand scheme of things, it sucks that the soulful old menus are gone now and replaced with generic corporate-friendly bullshit though... apparently the old menus are still there on NetEase but I got rivercrabbed out of access when I tried to create a NetEase account...
With all that out of the way, I never actually played any Blizzard games back in the day, because I was not a gamer as a kid. My friends played Diablo and World of Warcraft (and probably this game and StarCraft too, but I don't remember ever seeing those) though so I do have a lot of second-hand nostalgia for the glory days of Blizzard. As my first official toe-dip into the Blizzard catalog, I played through the campaigns of both Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne during the first half of the year. As a total beginner to the RTS genre, I greatly enjoyed them. The story is little more than fantasy fluff, but the well-designed graphics and genuinely impressive voice-acting made it engaging and even somewhat moving. It's the perfect mix of earnestness, drama, and camp. Truly something you only see in these old PC games...
In the second half of the year, I've been trying my hand at the multiplayer aspect and enjoying the 1v1 scene, but my god is it hard for a beginner. I play fighting games though, so I'm used to the idea of having to fail and fail and fail for a long time before achieving any kind of competence. All the races have their own charm and I like playing random on Battle.net to give them all a go. The race I'm personally most drawn to is Night Elf. I like the versatility and reliance on tavern heroes, and I just think their units are super cool and interesting to use. My second favorite is probably Undead and I might even have an easier time if I tried to main Undead, but I dunno, Night Elf just appeals to me aesthetically. I'm a big hippie at heart and love the idea of living in the forest and being one with the land and the forest spirits! The experience is humbling and I still have a long, long way to go, but I'm finding the game deeply fascinating and fun.
I also have been playing through the campaign of StarCraft and plan to continue through it and Brood War. My preference was for Warcraft III so I was very slow on it throughout the year. I'm nearing the end of the StarCraft Zerg campaign now... After Warcraft III it takes a very different headspace to adapt to the weird, buggy old controls and totally fucked pathing of StarCraft. But man oh man is this game just dripping with soul! I really don't know if I could play this on multiplayer though... the pathing is just so fucked. I suppose there's always StarCraft II as an option, but the first game is just so much more appealing on a visual level. The Zerg don't look nearly gross and creepy enough in II! One thing that StarCraft has over Warcraft III is the music though... the music in Warcraft III is mostly inoffensive but just kinda sinks into the background. The music in StarCraft though is on another level. That Zerg theme is so creepy and awesome.
As for other games that I played through to the end, there were some definite standouts.
Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel (2012) - [erka:es]
2021/02/20: フロイディア・ノイヴァール
2021/02/20: Freudia Neuwahl
I played the first game some time ago and thought it was excellent, and this sequel is even better in almost every way (the continue screens weren't quite as funny I guess? that's the only flaw I can find). Cute girls in a chuuni-as-fuck medieval setting is just straight up my thing, and it helps that I think these games have stage design that curb-stomps all over the original Rockman games. Fantastic game that more than lives up to its charming visuals.
Within a Deep Forest (2006) - nifflas
2021/04/01: Normal
I played through this once, then again to show it to a friend, then again to record a let's play (that I had to scrap because all the footage turned out to be unusable), then a fourth time to get footage for a video I made on it! (well, the last time I technically stopped before finishing the final stage). Each time it got easier and easier and yet also more fun to try to optimize my play and do it quickly. I almost never got the appeal of RTA for most games, but I totally see it with this one. The movement is so satisfying and cool that it just begs you to try to do it more quickly, optimally, and cleanly every time. With all the respawn points, this game reminds me of if I Wanna Be the Guy was actually good and had a nice cohesive aesthetic instead of just being a cheap "lol hard" game. I made a whole video about how this game is great and how more Japanese people should play it (in Japanese): watch here.
塊魂 (2004) - ナムコ
Katamari Damacy (2004) - Namco
2021/05/04: 689m6cm4mm
An absolute classic. Everyone should know and love it. I rarely ever listen to soundtracks for games before I've played them. I consider the soundtrack to be the privilege and right of those who have played the game in a way, and even if I don't, it just seems kinda weird to me. Usually soundtracks are better because you have visuals and mood from the game to associate with them. But this was a big exception. I had known and loved the soundtrack for this game for years before, and why not? It's an absolute gem of music. Actually playing the game though... that kicked the soundtrack into absolute masterpiece territory for me. The game itself was wonderfully surreal and goofy in a typically Japanese way. Few games are as joyful and exuberant as this. Hearing the main theme kick in on the final level where you roll up the moon is just breathtaking. Honestly my only complaint is that the game was a bit too easy. I felt like right when the challenge was really starting, the game was over. But I do realize that there is plenty of completionist content to strive for as well as RTA stuff, so perhaps the game is only easy if I consider the closing credits as "the end."
The Ultimate Doom (1995) - id Software
2021/09/27: Story Mode [Hurt Me Plenty]
Fun fact: This was the first FPS I ever played! I jumped in a few rounds of Halo and Call of Duty with friends in high school but never even really realized what I was doing... With a proper mouse and mechanical keyboard, it was time to set the record straight. I played on the middle difficulty because I was such a noob, and though I savescummed at many points in the later episodes, I found this to be extremely rewarding and fun. The music, the enemies, the mood... it's as classic as a game like this gets. It made me want to re-evoke my metalhead origins! Right now I'm playing Doom II: Hell on Earth and I upped the difficulty to Ultra-Violence and am trying to hold off from savescumming for as long as I can (doubt I'll be able to do it the whole game but we'll see). I already feel like Doom II is the superior game in many ways just because it has more weapons, more enemies, etc. So in many ways this just felt like the prep for Doom II, but it was really really fun prep.
Dungeon Keeper (1997) - Bullfrog Productions
2021/11/19: Campaign
This game isn't particularly hard, but it has some really weirdly-designed levels that I had to look up strategies for. I guess a lot of these maps are closer to puzzle-solving than pure RTS. Well, I guess a lot of individual maps in the Blizzard RTS campaigns are kind of like puzzles too, but there's much more agency there in terms of micromanagement. This game isn't particularly deep or anything, at least not the maps on the main campaign, other than some obtuse and bizarrely-designed levels on occasion. But it's hard not to love. It just feels great being a bad guy and languishing in the decadence of your own evil. The enemies are creative and humorous, the music is memorable and catchy, the visuals are suitably grimy and murky in a way that is never annoying, and there is interesting strategy even if it's far from hardcore in that respect. There's a lot of touches in here that show how much love the game was made with. Take for example the way the possession spell lets you go into first-person view of one of your creatures. The hell hounds see in black and white, the flies see with distorted fisheye-like lenses (I guess segmented would have been too confusing), and so on. Little touches like that. I'm playing the sequel now and while the early-generation 3D models look a little more awkward and weird than the refined 2D of this game, they are charming to me as someone who loves this era of games.
As far as anime went, I watched some classics that I'd never seen before, or at least seen all the way through.
銀河英雄伝説 (1988-1997) アートランド、マジックバス - 全110話 [OVA]
Legend of the Galactic Heroes (1988-1997) Artland, Magic Bus - 110 episodes [OVA]
"Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto"
Epic, magisterial, immense... there are a lot of words I could use to capture the large scale and scrupulous world-building going on here. But most of the moments that stick out in my memory from this series are not huge space battles (as impressive as many of them are), but tender moments between small groups of people. This is a series that is deeply human. Behind all wars, all government institutions, all political systems, there are human actors, and this series is based above all on a deep understanding of what it means to be human.
DEATH NOTE (2006-2007) マッドハウス - 全37話
DEATH NOTE (2006-2007) Madhouse - 37 episodes
The first half was pretty strong. The atmosphere is wonderful and the story is genuinely intriguing and fun enough that the ALL ACCORDING TO KEIKAKU shit never feels like a stretch. However, the second half was awful. I think this is common knowledge. Overall though? It felt good to at
least have that bit of cultural knowledge more firmly implanted. It took
me back to browsing Newgrounds and 4chan in 2006 if nothing else...
カウボーイビバップ (1998-1999) サンライズ - 全26話
Cowboy Bebop (1998-1999) Sunrise - 26 episodes
Look beyond the massive cultural phenomenon that this was to a generation of American weebs (and, to a lesser extent, Japanese otaku) and you'll find a show that is very strong. I like the chilled out, cynical, jaded vibe to this show and ultimately think that that's what sets it apart from a bunch of other sci-fi shows from around the same time. I don't think it's one of the greatest anime of all time, but I'd be lying if I tried to deny its quality. I just love this era of anime in general so it's hard for me to hate anything from this turn of the millennium era and look.
妄想代理人 (2004) マッドハウス - 全13話
Paranoia Agent (2004) マッドハウス - 13 episodes
I'm not as taken with this as some other people have been but my god if this isn't one of the best OPs ever. The story is pretty good but I felt it never went as far as it could into surreal stuff. Still, I enjoyed it.
アルプスの少女ハイジ (1974) 日本アニメーション - 全52話
Heidi, Girl of the Alps (1974) Nippon Animation - 52 episodes
It's no Akage no Anne. But few anime are. It was always cozy and adorable to watch and made me feel warm inside, which is all I really wanted. I think the story-line progressed a little too slowly, which was its biggest flaw. But I still always felt pleased while watching.
モンスター (2004-2005) マッドハウス - 全74話
Monster (2004-2005) Madhouse - 74 episodes
To me, this is the rich man's Death Note. Amazing pacing, subtle and intricate storytelling, and an oppressive, dark mood that is palpable and intoxicating. The bits of lightness and humor that come in are like the sun shining briefly behind dark clouds, so they always feel welcome and reasonable. I loved this show and was deeply invested the whole way through.
I also watched a ton of random OVAs. Watching obscure, questionable OVAs is always fun and nothing is better normalfag repellent than cheap, weird, tacky 90s anime.
I don't watch movies on my own very often these days unless they're particularly important to me. I feel like I've seen enough movies for a lifetime and so prefer to enjoy movies as a social hobby these days. But it just so happens that there were some movies that were very important for me to watch this year! Mostly some stuff that wasn't available before coming to light on KG...
Pneuma (1983) Nathaniel Dorsky - 27分
Alaya (1987) Nathaniel Dorsky - 28分
Variations (1998) Nathaniel Dorsky - 24分
Compline (2009) Nathaniel Dorsky - 19分
Aubade (2010) Nathaniel Dorsky - 12分
Pastourelle (2010) Nathaniel Dorsky - 17分
I had only seen Dorsky's Threnody on 16mm before this. I remember hearing that Dorsky's films are generally screened at something like 18 fps to give them a very slow, delicate quality and for that reason they're difficult to port. But the KG copy of Threnody looked about how I remembered it. None of the rest of these were as good as Threnody in my opinion but Alaya was profound and clever and Aubade was stunningly gorgeous. I hope Winter becomes available soon...
What's Out Tonight Is Lost (1983) Phil Solomon - 8分
Clepsydra (1992) Phil Solomon - 14分
Psalm I: The Lateness of the Hour (1999) Phil Solomon - 10分
Nocturne (1980) Phil Solomon - 10分
The Exquisite Hour (1989) Phil Solomon - 14分
The Snowman (1995) Phil Solomon - 8分
Psalm II: Walking Distance (1999) Phil Solomon - 23分
I've waited a long time for these! Almost 10 years in fact. All of them were great. Psalms I and II are comparable with Psalm III: Night of the Meek which has been available for a long time, if perhaps very slightly weaker. The Snowman was probably my favorite though. The idea of it is so simple, but so beautiful and effective. All of these have a quality of delicacy and slowness that separates them from a lot of Brakhage films for me, which have something more frenetic to them.
RIP Phil Solomon. I got to see him speak at a screening in 2012 and I feel deeply grateful for the opportunity. I wasn't a big fan of how he spent most of his last years being a Facebook boomer but he was a master avant-garde filmmaker.
A Child's Garden and the Serious Sea (1991) Stan Brakhage - 73分
Well, it's a Brakhage feature. What more could you want? It evokes childhood nostalgia and that sense of adventure and vagueness. The poetry and genius speaks even through poor VHS quality.
The Adventures of the Exquisite Corpse Part IV: Charmed Particles (1979) Andrew Noren - 78分
The Adventures of the Exquisite Corpse Part III: Imaginary Light (1994) Andrew Noren - 31分
The OCD part of me hates not being able to see every part of this series, but let's be honest, they aren't that connected at the end of the day. I'd wanted to see Charmed Particles for years and it was excellent, though very different from what I expected. Much more still, static, and slow with much less swirly, chaotic turbulence. I guess the name made me think it might be a chemical film like Jürgen Reble?
Materia Obscura (2009) Jürgen Reble - 99分
Speaking of Reble, I also saw this. I owned a BluRay of it for years but could never figure out how to make that play in VLC. There was some really weird stuff going on in this. It seems like there was some digital processing to the decay? Like maybe using digital processes to distort and crumple the film? I normally like my experimental films to be highly analog, but this was hypnotic and gorgeous all the way through. I love it!
Trauma (1993) Dario Argento - 106分
I
love Argento's 70s and 80s films to death, but I've never seen anything
he made in the 90s. This was a step down, yes, but a step down from
Argento's typical quality is still a wonderful film. Beautiful
cinematography as expected. The story-line wasn't one of his strongest
but I was still entertained from its beginning to its very
quintessentially Argento-esque end.
用心棒 (1961) 黒澤明 - 110分
Youjinbou (1961) 黒澤明 - 110分
椿三十郎 (1962) 黒澤明 - 96分
Tsubaki Sanjuurou (1962) 黒澤明 - 96分
I don't think I'll ever love Kurosawa as much as Yasujirou Ozu or Mikio Naruse, but I do think I have well and truly shed all my contrarian pretensions at this point and can recognize good films when I see them. These aren't my favorite Kurosawa films, but they were an important piece of foundational education that I was missing. This is archetypal samurai action, told neatly and beautifully without any frills. I watched them without subtitles and so a lot of the particulars were difficult to pick out, but I don't think it hampered me much.
Vitalina Varela (2019) Pedro Costa - 124分
In the wake of many contemplative filmmakers seeming to veer towards mainstream appeal, it is refreshing as usual to see Costa continue to make no concessions to anyone. This is every bit as strong as any other Fontainhas film and little has substantially changed in style. As with life, a new generation is emerging. It appears we have a new "colossal youth" arising in Fontainhas as Ventura is aging, and like the film of that name, this is a colossal work of freshness. I stole that saying from Sarajevo aka Renaud... old poster on The Life Cinematic. Renaud went on to be a chef and I doubt he will ever read this but he was, no joke, one of the most influential people to me in my life. I will forever be in debt to him.
I also got to watch Yumurta by Semih Kaplanoğlu in a theater this year which was awesome. It is most definitely still a masterful film. After being somewhat disappointed with Süt, I've been too scared to follow up on his filmography... but Yumurta will always be a very special film to me. I kind of forgot how small-scale the "time" that the film takes place across is. It seemed in some ways a lot more "grounded" and "rooted" in place than some other contemplative films I tended to lump it in with. I dunno what it is about the new phrase "slow cinema" but I don't think I'll ever get used to it. I still prefer calling it "contemplative cinema."
I didn't have a ton of time for casual reading, but I did read a few things worth mentioning.
中論 (200) 龍樹 - 373ページ [訳: Jay L. Garfield]
Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (200) Nāgārjuna - 373 p. [translation: Jay L. Garfield]
I can never leave this work alone. It is maddening, fascinating, and probably the closest to true enlightenment I've felt reading philosophy outside of perhaps Wittgenstein. I never read the original text all the way through, and this translation has very helpful notes. I'm already back to another book about Nāgārjuna as I continue to try to crack the nut of this philosophy and understand it in its full splendor. As much as I want to read more from the followers of Nāgārjuna in China and Tibet, I always feel a paucity of understanding of the main text itself that draws me back to it. There might be some issues with the reasoning in parts of it, but I can't help but feel that there is always more to it than meets the eye.
The Life of Tymon of Athens (1605) William Shakespeare - 304 p.
The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus (1594) William Shakespeare - 268 p.
You can't go wrong with the classics. And these are perhaps the most benighted of the classics. I think that Timon is perhaps my favorite of Shakespeare's plays, however, with only King Lear being a real competitor. Some of the most thoughtful, penetrating, and memorable monologues in Shakespeare are in this play.
Titus Andronicus is a far different beast. To be honest? It's not the best written play in the world. But there's one thing that makes this play awesome and that's all the fucking gore!! The body count and violence in this play is insane! I don't think most grindhouse movies have this much killing. I also like the setting of late imperial Rome being besieged by the Goths. It's a great period of history that's always ignored for the purity and sanctity of the Augustan age, and that's a shame. But let's be honest, this isn't a play where the setting matters that much. It's just an excuse to see some heads get chopped off. I love it.
Adolf Hitler – mein Jugendfreund (1953) Alfred Kubizek - 264ページ [訳: Geoffrey Brooks]
The Young Hitler I Knew (1953) Alfred Kubizek - 264 p. [Translation: Geoffrey Brooks]
This book is what you think it is: a biography of someone who was friends and flatmates with Hitler during the early 1900s in their teen years. I've had sort of a morbid fascination with WWII and dictators this year and am currently very slowly making my way through Ian Kershaw's massive two-tome Hitler biography. According to him, there are reasons to doubt some of the recollections of Kubizek. And I suppose that goes without saying in a work like this based solely on his memory. But the picture it sketches seems accurate. It's a very informative and interesting read. Hitler was a master of obscuring the rather unimpressive early life he had, and it's important to remember that he basically spent his early adulthood living off of NEETbux and drowning in his own prejudices. If 4chan existed in the early 1900s, he would have definitely been posting on /r9k/ and /pol/. I hope to finish up the Kershaw book eventually and then maybe read the massive Stalin biography by Stephen Kotkin as a nice parallel.
Lastly, I listened to a lot of music this year, mostly while grinding in shmups and other games. Over the last few years, I was mostly only listening to game soundtracks while playing games and my music listening habits slowed down a lot. This year I've tried to make up for lost time and especially right now I'm really hitting it hard. I didn't listen to a ton of albums from 2021 proper, but I can still whip up something of a top ten:
1. Rainbow Bridge 3 by Sematary
Label: Haunted Mound
Genre: Horrorcore, Experimental Hip Hop, Trap Metal
I've been addicted to this all year. It's a sound that mixes so many different things I love. In short it's drill/crunk-inspired, super trashy ignorant hip hop of a kind with Satanic aesthetics and production reminiscent of blown-out, basement black metal with huge walls of fuzz surrounding everything and super-staticy vocals. The mix works so much better than I could have ever imagined. The idea of someone who loves both hip hop and black metal often inspires a bit of doubt and dread on my part because I think that that artist must be full of too much irony and deluded hipster bullshit for his own good (and I'm aware that it is deeply hypocritical for me to think that considering that I love both hip hop and black metal!). But this release proves that the two can come together in a deeply organic, heartfelt way devoid of all gimmickry. Every song on here is super catchy, super brutal, and makes me want to burn a crucifix in a Wal-Mart parking lot. The only downside is that a lot of the lyrics are really cringe-inducing in a 2015-Tumblr-broswing zoomer way, but whatever. You won't understand most of them in the first place.
2. Pulse of Defiance by 林良憲
Label: Smalltown Supersound
Genre: Breakbeat, IDM
I used to listen to a ton of IDM and stuff like this, but recently I've been focusing on more physical, dance-centric EDM instead of this brainy material. But I still like this kind of stuff a lot. This is very devoid of glitchy beeps and fizzes, with a much more smooth and mellow sound. It's not necessarily where my headspace is right now, but I can recognize quality when I hear it.
3. The Raging River by Cult of Luna
Label: n/a
Genre: Atmospheric Sludge Metal
I really respect how consistent Cult of Luna are. They're one of the few bands from the post-metal heyday that I still see new releases from in the same general style, and they've always been particularly good at it. Cult of Luna are great at not letting their instrumental sections get too noodly and wandering and keeping their tracks very focused and well-paced. They never evoke that "enough of this post-rock with downtuned guitars, get back to the brutal vocal drops!!" response that a lot of post-metal does for me. I think the one track here with clean vocals goes on a little long but otherwise this is solid.
4. Bubbling Inside by De Schuurman
Label: Nyege Nyege Tapes
Genre: Bubbling, Bubbling House
I guess this is technically a compilation? Whatever, I'll include it here. I'd never heard of "Bubbling" and will admit that curiosity over that style was the main reason I grabbed this. I guess it kind of reminds me of hardstyle without the heaviness? Is that possible? "Lightstyle?" Gabber with really slow beats? It's an interesting style and I find that it really gets my head nodding.
5. Yakusugi by Stones Taro
Label: Breaks 'n' Pieces
Genre: Jungle
This is not breaking new ground. Far from it; you could have told me this came out in 1998 and I would probably believe you. But I never dock points against music for not fixing what isn't broken. Energetic vocal samples drowned out in mellow soundscapes, echo-ey washes of ambience, rattly beats... it's everything I could want from a record like this.
6. 時間 by betcover!!
Label: n/a
Genre: Art Rock, Alternative Rock
Man, this came out of nowhere. I heard someone make a comparison to Portishead and I think it's kind of accurate as far as the general melancholy mood and heaviness of the background sound goes, but the vocals are what really carry a lot of this record. What it reminds me of more than anything is a very modernized version of old enka or 70s Japanese folk. The bluesy vocal performance has a ton of passion, smoothly moving from its generally gentle whispering to impassioned guttural stuff. I might have to listen to this more.
7. Kristallgeist by BrainΦΠΦTemple
Label: n/a
Genre: Berlin School
My friend made this! With that in mind I have a bit of trouble rating it in relation to others since obviously I'm coming at it with very different background. But I can easily say that I like it a ton. It's pure Berlin School, obviously influenced by Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, and other greats. The music here has a very ominous sound to it that kind of reminds me of Dario Argento or John Carpenter. But it very definitely has a mechanistic, sci-fi feeling. It feels like the kind of music you'd hear in an evil alien spaceship, staring out at the stars and planets as you cruise through distant areas of the universe. I really think it's great music, and I know that isn't just bias from it being made by a friend.
8. Mesopotamia by 是巨人
Label: 磨崖仏
Genre: Math Rock, Brutal Prog
I hate to admit it, but I do have to say that when it comes to most guitar-based genres (rock, metal, punk, etc.), I have a bias against instrumental stuff. There are exceptions: a lot of heavy Japanese psych stuff like Fushitsusha, Mainliner, Suishou no fune, etc. has so much power and complexity that many songs don't necessarily feel incomplete without vocals. Some old 70s prog stuff survives without vocals for the same reason. But given the choice between that stuff having no vocals and having at least some sections with vocals (it doesn't have to even be a lot of vocals), I'll almost always pick the latter. Perhaps for that reason, Korekyojinn has never stuck with me as much as Tatsuya Yoshida's other projects. But it's still Tatsuya Yoshida after all. While a lot of math rock is just too unmemorable for me and goes in one ear and out the other without having anything to sink my teeth into, Korekyojinn has a lot of melody to what they do that makes these songs interesting and cool.
9. Slitherman Activated by RXK Nephew
Label: Towhead
Genre: Trap, Gangsta Rap, Experimental Hip Hop, East Coast Hip Hop
The
big appeal of this is the MC, who has a kind of Ol' Dirty Bastard
stream-of-consciousness thing and often stumbles into some really
hilarious lines and unhinged, aggressive delivery. And while this is inconsistent, more often than not I really enjoy the lyrics. The production and beats are also appropriately unsettling and eclectic. A lot of it sounds like 90s dnb or jungle and it's generally pretty chilled out and dark vibes. It's pretty unique stuff and provides an interesting contrast to the incoherent, rambling, schizophrenic vocal performance.
Also: "With a bootlegger, bitch you know I'm a Henny man / I don't give a damn about ya ass bitch, I'm a titty man!"
A true patrician intellectual in a sea of low-IQ shit-worshippers.
10. Wickipedia by Shawny Binladen
Label: n/a
Genre: Gangsta Rap, Drill, East Coast Hip Hop
I used to listen to a lot of Trap Rap and stuff like that. I still like a lot of that music, but I kind of grew out of it when it felt like all of it went very mainstream and poppy around 2016 or so. I haven't followed the hip hop world very much since that. The whole scene felt so mainstream that it lost a lot of the edge that I liked about it. But I can recognize good music when I hear it. I like the general sound of this music. The vocal delivery has a ton of bite to it even if it's all in a kind of disaffected, disinterested whisper. And the production and beats are super icy and cold the whole way through which is very different from a lot of the party-centric trap music that I've heard so much of. The one thing I really dislike about it is that so many of these tracks are so short. You can tell they're meant for consumption by a Twitter/TikTok-addicted generation and I think that kind of sucks. I'd like more songs that are a good 3 minutes or so at least. But overall it's still a good album.
As far as the albums I listened to this year overall, this is a preliminary top 30 that is very unstable:
1. Kagura: Japanese Shinto Ritual Music (1990) by Various Artists
Label: Hungaroton
Genre: 神楽 [Kagura]
2. Gagaku: "Gems From Foreign Lands" (2002) by 多忠輝 / 東京楽所
Label: Celestial Harmonies
Genre: 雅楽 [Gagaku]
3. Yonderdome Decade -10 Years of DJ Sharpnel- (2011) by DJ Sharpnel
Label: Sharpnelsound
Genre: J-core, Nerdcore Techno
4. Tribal Zone (2012) by Vasilisk
Label: Steinklang
Genre: Tribal Ambient, Ritual Ambient
5. Aurora (1994) by 平沢進
Label: Polydor
Genre: Art Pop, Ambient Pop
6. Fucking Sick & Menacing (1997) by DJ Tron
Label: Pure Acid
Genre: Terrorcore, Speedcore
7. Gyer Ro (2017) by Пхурпа
Label: Cyclic Law
Genre: Throat Singing, Tibetan Music
8. 蓄音臺灣 / Taiwan Good Old Days: 日本統治時代の台湾音楽 (1917-1943) (2020) by Various Artists
Label: n/a
Genre: 時代曲 [Shidaiqu], Indigenous Taiwanese Music
9. Tibetan Buddhism: The Ritual Orchestra and Chants (1976) by Various Artists
Label: Nonesuch Explorer
Genre: Tibetan Music
10. Baser Apes (1993) by Rupture
Label: Slap a Ham
Genre: Hardcore Punk
11. Sound of Mukkuri: Jew's Harp and Vocal Music of the Ainu - ムックリの響き：アイヌ民族の口琴と歌 (2001) by Mukkuri Hawehe
Label: n/a
Genre: Ainu Folk Music
12. Wulfband (2014) by Wulfband
Label: Progress
Genre: EBM, Synth Punk
13. Ordo Virtutum (1998) by Sequentia [Hildegard von Bingen]
Label: Deutsche Harmonia Mundi
Genre: Gregorian Chant, Medieval Classical Music
14. 普化的傳明暗流尺八 (1970) by 源雲界
Label: n/a
Genre: 本曲 [Honkyoku]
15. 1.3.8. (2000) by Devourment
Label: Corpse Gristle
Genre: Slam Death Metal
16. 瞑響・壁画洞窟: 旧石器時代のクロマニョン・サウンズ (2008) by 土取利行
Label: Victor [JPN]
Genre: Prehistoric Music, Field Recordings
17. Defender of the Crown (2004) by Brocas Helm
Label: n/a
Genre: Heavy Metal, US Power Metal
18. Монгол хөөмийн аялгуу (2015) by Taravjav Ganbold
Label: Hi-Fi
Genre: Mongolian Throat Singing
19. Vampires of Black Imperial Blood (1995) by Mütiilation
Label: Drakkar
Genre: Black Metal
20. All Hell's Martyrs (2014) by Dread Sovereign
Label: Ván
Genre: Doom Metal, Traditional Doom Metal, Epic Doom Metal
21. Unkind Mind Grind (1996) by Delta 9
Label: Pure Acid
Genre: Gabber, Industrial Hardcore
22. Gnome (1995) by Gnome
Label: n/a
Genre: Black Metal
23. D.D.D.H. – Doomed to Death, Damned in Hell (2007) by Anatomia / Grudge / Coffins
Label: Grindmind
Genre: Death Doom Metal, Death Metal
24. Expression of Pain (1996) by Excruciating Terror
Label: Theologian
Genre: Grindcore
25. Land of Lurches (2003) by Kevin Drumm
Label: Hanson
Genre: Harsh Noise
26. Landscapes (1994) by 旬
Label: DIW
Genre: Ambient, Progressive Electronic
27. INRI (2005) by Psyclon Nine
Label: Metropolis
Genre: Aggrotech
28. Inferno (2002) by Black Tribe
Label: Eternal Blackness
Genre: Black Metal
29. Kaccheri (1971) by Ramnad Krishnan
Label: Nonesuch Explorer
Genre: Carnatic Classical Music
30. Tibetan Buddhism: Shedur - A Ghost Exorcism Ritual (1978) by Various Artists
Label: Nonesuch Explorer
Genre: Tibetan Music
In the next year, I'd like to read more visual novels and play more Arcana Heart. Other than that, I'm fairly happy with how this year went. I hope everyone had a good 2021 and here's hoping that 2022 will be even better. I think that making a post like this at the end of the year is a good practice and I hope to continue it.
よいお年を！
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