Some good music.

Xprimentyl

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It's a shame, there are some really, really good early techno artists from America on American labels and I was probably finding them more easily and paying less for them in the music exchange in Camden than you would have been able to in the US.
For sure, I found a lot of "local" talent back then for the standard price of an album ($13-$14,) but my tastes still leant across the pond, so I frequently paid double if not triple to get music from smaller, lesser-known foreign artists. Hole-in-the-wall record shops hipped me to a lot I could get at reasonable prices, but the best stuff still came (comes) from Europe. Streaming services have made my search easier by orders of magnitude.

I've shared this story here before, but after several years of collecting, I had a CD wallet with nearly 300 CDs in it. I kept it in my car, and one day, while I was in class at university, someone broke in and stole it. I was pissed for two reasons: 1.) hundreds of dollars of my purchases were gone, but most hurtful, 2.) they probably didn't even like the music they stole. My CDs (sans cases and covers, so no re-sale value) probably ended up in the trash somewhere, or tossed in the corner of some stoner's derelict living room next to a soiled mattress. I'm over it now, but man, for a kid in his teens and '20s who worked hard to collect all that great music, it was pretty devastating.
 

Zykon TheLich

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For sure, I found a lot of "local" talent back then for the standard price of an album ($13-$14,) but my tastes still leant across the pond, so I frequently paid double if not triple to get music from smaller, lesser-known foreign artists. Hole-in-the-wall record shops hipped me to a lot I could get at reasonable prices, but the best stuff still came (comes) from Europe. Streaming services have made my search easier by orders of magnitude.

I've shared this story here before, but after several years of collecting, I had a CD wallet with nearly 300 CDs in it. I kept it in my car, and one day, while I was in class at university, someone broke in and stole it. I was pissed for two reasons: 1.) hundreds of dollars of my purchases were gone, but most hurtful, 2.) they probably didn't even like the music they stole. My CDs (sans cases and covers, so no re-sale value) probably ended up in the trash somewhere, or tossed in the corner of some stoner's derelict living room next to a soiled mattress. I'm over it now, but man, for a kid in his teens and '20s who worked hard to collect all that great music, it was pretty devastating.
Makes me realise how good we had it for vinyl and electronic music, the were places you could walk past 3 or 4 record shops on one street, get new releases at some, probably pick them up a few months later at the record exchange for half the price, and there was a huge one on Berwick street in Soho that you could get a huge range of weird and eclectic stuff super cheap, got whole vinyl albums for less than a fiver sometimes. And of course all the smaller techno shops would have all the flyers for parties and club nights and you'd bump into some interesting people. I suppose the internet has made it easier on some way but I do miss the abundance physical stores.

That really sucks, I would have been pretty pissed off with that, I imagine it would be pretty hard to find it again in pre-torrenting days. Physical copies tend to have sentimental value too.
 
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Gordon_4

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I don't think Pokemon would have been nearly as popular if the music hadn't been so good. It's kind of funny. You are fighting a little kid with, like, a single caterpie or something, and the music comes out roaring like this is a tremendous battle to the death against a powerful opponent. It feels so intense. Imagine how dull it would be if the game was playing appropriate music for each match. Considering most trainers suck and you can beat the game pretty much by mashing B with your starter pokemon, it'd be pretty boring.
I think it would still be very popular. But you’re right that the music is a tremendous part of giving the games their scope and feel and the overall experience would be poorer without it.
 
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Absent

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The boring one
Some kids sitting outside were headbanging on some familiar tune from their radio.

- Pacific Rim ?
- Yes.
- (y)

Made me happy. Say what you want about the film, but
 

Xprimentyl

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Indian Wells is someone I just discovered via this song in a Mercedes Benz EV commercial. Can't wait to see where this rabbit hole leads me as their catalog on Spotify is pretty extensive.

 

Xprimentyl

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Up until about 8 or so years ago, I'd avoided Funckarma because their name suggested something Pop/Dance oriented. Boy, was I mistaken. I put them up there with Autechre, Aphex Twin, Bola, Ruxpin, Kettel, etc. as some of the most intricate and intelligently designed Electronic music out there. I think I chewed through their entire discography in a couple of work days favoriting at least 30 tracks on Spotify.


One of my sincerest dreams is that there was a bar or club that centered around music like this. In Texas (well, in the States in general,) you can find Country bars, Hip Hop clubs, Rock and Roll dives, and nevermind that Pop basically dominates the nightclub scene, but nowhere can I find a chill bar that stimulates me aurally with actually interesting music. Were I wealthy and an entrepreneur, I'd risk a healthy sum to start up something like that. Even if I failed, at least I'd try. And if nothing else, I'd have a bar to myself with full control of the jukebox. As it stands, the closest I can come is taking my new headphones to an existing bar, ordering a drink, and shooting pool with the ambient noise and music drowned out in glorious fashion.
 
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Baffle

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Rediscovering Earth Vs the Wildhearts.

Pop punk before it was really poppy.
 

Terminal Blue

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I'm finally attempting to actually finish my thesis after having a breakdown over it a few years ago. As a result I'm basically held together by various drugs at this point, including some anti-psychotics which I probably shouldn't be on but are amazingly helpful right now. As a result most of the music I end up listening to is just whatever is going to most reliably send my mind to the ADHD overstimulation void, which at the moment just means witch house and wave..





When I'm actually working though it's just an In Death It Ends marathon. Actually, a significant chunk of my thesis was written with IDIE in the background. I think it's just association at this point.

 
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Terminal Blue

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Out of interest, (though you've probably mentioned this somewhere in the past), what is your thesis about?
At risk of making myself extremely easy to find (not that I care at this point) it's about the history of the concept of masculinity, and in particular the idea of a "crisis" of masculinity. I argue that gender studies has kind of overlooked that concept because it tends to be expressed in material terms (that men are suffering or struggling in some way) which is not really true. Materially men are better off than at basically any point in history. But basically, I argue that we are living in a kind of perpetual crisis of meaning and authority caused by the downfall of the patriarchal gender order, and while it's not a bad thing the result is a kind of permanent conflict between irreconcilable moral positions regarding the role gender should play in society.

I'm glossing over a lot and it probably sounds kind of arbitrary, but I think I've mostly got it into a state where it makes sense. It just sucks at this point because it's so constant. Being medicated makes it bearable, but there isn't a waking moment where it's out of my head.

Ask me about it again in a couple of months and I'll have way more energy to explain it properly.
 

Xprimentyl

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Not exceptional songs, but a couple from the '90s/early 2000s that perfectly capture the vibe of a nameless club where you just drink, dance, a melt away without all the contrivances of catering to popularity.

 

Zykon TheLich

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I'm finally attempting to actually finish my thesis after having a breakdown over it a few years ago. As a result I'm basically held together by various drugs at this point, including some anti-psychotics which I probably shouldn't be on but are amazingly helpful right now. As a result most of the music I end up listening to is just whatever is going to most reliably send my mind to the ADHD overstimulation void, which at the moment just means witch house and wave..





When I'm actually working though it's just an In Death It Ends marathon. Actually, a significant chunk of my thesis was written with IDIE in the background. I think it's just association at this point.

I'm not very well versed in witch house but there's a couple of albums I got on bandcamp a few years ago you might like


 

Drathnoxis

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Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare (GBC) contender for very best battle music ever to appear in a video game?!

Gets me pumped!
 

Cicada 5

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Strangely, I didn't really care for this song when it came out during my teen years but I appreciate it a lot more now.