Stuck in a bubble of Twitter chatter
Angry at things that hardly matter
Guard against drama and distraction
Uninvited guests don’t need a reaction

It’s sometimes said that life is a precious gift but I wonder if that’s the best metaphor. Is it better to understand one’s life as a loan? A loan that can be called in at any time, sometimes with no warning at all.

David Loy

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that today the sun has picked up my spirit slightly after the grey old day yesterday. The cold and rain was nice but give me sunshine any day.

Accidents In Too Large Field – New Buildings

I knew this was going to be a challenging listen. Accidents In Too Large Field are a Japanese band and this release is on Less Than TV, run by Yukari’s (Limited Express (has gone?)) husband, Taniguchi, and this disc is one of a handful I received from them after sending them some money and telling them to send me whatever they thought I might like. Everything they sent was interesting but I also remembered that none of them was music that could just be put on in the background and you could do other things. They demanded attention.

A week or two ago I had a listen-through and my recollections were correct. The difficulty with this music is that the guitar is incredibly clean and trebly. As with Limited Express (has gone?) they were self-defined as ‘new rock’, taking post-punk rhythms, punk rock energy and that clean guitar sound and meshing them together in what can be imagined to be a highly entertaining live show if you were ever lucky enough to see them.

Sometimes it’s difficult to catch the threads of the song, to make sense of the melodies and the relentless assault on the ears has to be penetrated deeply with attention. That listen-through was enjoyable. Trying but enjoyable. This is actually the kind of music I like a lot. Right up my proverbial.

So, the sun’s back out and the rain probably won’t be back for three months. Let’s give this a blast.

Introduction

Sounds like a crowded market, overblown and forcing me to turn the volume down immediately. Hints of a tribal rhythm develop and promise. Adjusts made to bass and treble settings. It’s got a nice rhythm that recalls Big A little a.

Pigeon at Belvedere

So, the rhythm maintains into this first tune for real. The guitar squall is intense, with a funk of the Pop Group. It’s dance music for folks who cannot dance, like me. It feels like the guitar is used as rhythm rather than a tune, the bass seems to carry that along. Even more intensity as the song proceeds and disintegrates into a kinda prog breakdown and disappears into a fuzzed-out echo delay.

ノンフィクション落下

A twisted ska guitar, backed by bass and drums all seemingly playing in different time signatures. I think this is why I like this kind of music. Things that shouldn’t make sense, making sense (at least in my nonsensical mind). The bridge twists the song into some normality for a moment. The heavily affected vocals give way to some wild piano bashing as the drums go off into punk jazz spasms.

Diagonal

The barrage is constant. Sharp guitar, funky bass, tribal beat, screaming vocals. This requires study, would be intense in a live situation. Diagonal struggles to stay still, twitching from riff to riff, some Agata-style skronk over-riding the funk. A favourite so far.

Stair

The screaming pace picks up at the start of this track before settling back down into a frantic funk. The guitar and bass are highlighted and clear whilst the drums tend to be spread across the sonic spectrum. When they finally reappear the vocals are buried and operate almost as pure sound. And then an abrupt implosion finishes everything off. Excellent funking funk.

Beat Freezing

Some dynamics break up the relentlessness through this short track. A different vocal style, a monotone, doubled. A sweet guitar plinks through the second half before crazy to a quick finale. So short I have to listen again to comment.

イエストゼロ

Fuck, this intro is magnificent. Super fast delicious bass, deep and melty. The drop breaks things up nicely without slowing down any momentum. The bass tone is incredible, reminding me of Germany’s Megakronkel. Actually, this is a way more intense version of them, perhaps with a little less tempo variety. I guess there’s also some comparison with compatriots Melt Banana but purely in the guitar and bass tones and interactions. Their songs are only similar in speed, brevity and intensity.

August Out

Static, wild soloing chainsaw guitar, rumbling bass, ear-splitting, brain-melting. I’m glad I’m not listening on headphones. There are probably some nice stereo effects happening if you choose to attempt a headphone listen. This makes me realise I don’t own any decent headphones these days. This feels like the wind-down final track. Plodding yet still relentless. This would be ideally placed at the end of side one on a vinyl release but also makes sense on this relatively short CD. The instruments give up and give way to the noise and finally, ear-ringing silence.

I’m glad to have given this a couple of listens and let it earworm somewhat into my headbone though there are no real hummable tunes here. This is more likely to make its way back to my CD player than previously. Stellar, killer and other ars and ers. I feel cleansed and renewed though perhaps in need of a more gentle ear massage. Maybe some Nick Drake. What a way to work towards a Sunday afternoon.

Yesterday’s rain kept temperatures beautifully bearable today and a podcast-listening walk to and from Utopia got me quickly to 9.30 and a thoroughly pleasant day of reading, writing and watching got me to sundown to enjoy more music, a softness in the air, no air con since Friday night feels like an achievement. I would definitely receive an achievement award if my life was an app. Am I some ‘other’s’ sim in their game of life?

Is boredom a quirk of youth? I feel like I haven’t been bored in years now, though I’m sure, looking back, I could find instances; though (to go even deeper) those times of boredom were probably just anxiety. Boredom is a great and annoying inspiration in youth. A bored group of kids will not be bored for long. ‘Why did you do it, son?’, ‘cos I wuz bored, officer.’

Despite this holiday, I was compelled to go off investigating new classwork ideas for next semester. The Xbox beckons but somehow that feels like wasting time. The next step of the technological entertainment systems should provide real-world learning in the guise of games. In games now, all you really learn is the game. At the end of it, you can just say, ‘I’m good at that game’; you don’t come out the other side thinking, ‘now I know how to be a better human.’ Work out a way to combine real-world skills in some engrossing entertainment, as opposed to just having fun for the sake of it.