#copiedfromshitposting

[ultrasynth]

k i n g  o f  i c e  a n d  d a r k n e s s

Today I’d like to talk a little bit about an absolute fave of mine and also give y’all a few Netflix film recommendations. This aforementioned favorite Mewtwo, specifically Ice Mewtwo, is the ultimate Pokemon BAE.

:icecream: :mewtwo: :icecream:

Yes, Mewtwo with Ice Beam is mechanically fairly strong; this pleases me but otherwise has virtually nothing to do with this segment. I like Mewtwo as an adversary, as a monster, and as a force of darkness. I’ve always enjoyed ice as one of the “evil” elements in terms of the arsenals of enemies in RPGs. An old-school norm was to give undead foes and necromancers cold resistance and ice magic; the Lich King in World of Warcraft is a more common incarnation of this idea. Though I don’t view Mewtwo as evil (my favorite Mewtwo incarnation is from the Deoxys arc of Pokemon Adventures; strong recommendation!) I like him being equipped with Ice Beam or Shadow Ball in keeping with Final Boss trappings.

More to the point, Mewtwo is a fairly canonical example within a modern myth cycle. Medieval myths of the mischievous fey have more recently been modernized into Alien Abduction and Cryptid stories, the fear of the thick European woods replaces with a similar fear of the wilds of New England as well as those of the Nevada Desert. A strong connection between these new and old stories is the changeling myth and, its more modern interpretation, Alien Hybridization. Mewtwo isn’t exactly an alien but, as an altered and aberrant clone of the primordial Mew, I don’t think inclusion within this cycle isn’t too much of a stretch. More than just hybridization, bizarre genetic experiments are certainly a prominent fixture of this genre which Mewtwo utterly epitomizes. (Disclaimer: anyone not having watched through the X-Files needs to do so and soon; aside from being a delightful watch, its profound effect on all television and horror media since is unquestionable).

A commonality between this myth cycle and the transhumanism genre is an areligious and horrific interpretation of life after death. Within transhumanism this technological immortality is primarily consists of the transfer of minds between bodies, but the world of alien weird science affords similar opportunities. Sometimes we see stories like Frankenstein or one of the films I suggest below where magical pseudoscience allows for resurrection of the dead, other times some sort of alien hybridization endows the hybrids with godlike abilities and enhanced lifespans. In the works of Lovecraft and contemporaries, hidden within the woods of New England are the Mi-Go, extra-dimensional alien travelers who extract and preserve the brains of those who wander too far into the woods in order to transport them back to their homeworld. Mewtwo, a psionic man-made deity, certainly shares these transhuman roots as well.

I think that there have recently been a number of fairly middling but enjoyable films made quite recently which embrace many of these ideas; I think we should support them as best we can. Though book recommendations are a hard sell, I think reading through Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and The Jewel of the Seven Stars, Edgar Allen Poe’s Ligeia, works within the Lovecraft Mythos concerning the Mi-Go (as well as generally), and the far more contemporary No One Gets Out Alive by Adam Nevill are recommendations I’d deem essential. My far more approachable recommendations, easily streamable films, are as follows:

The Endless (Netflix)

Man Vs. (Netflix)

Hungerford (Netflix)

The Veil (Netflix)

The Lazarus Effect (Netflix)

Otherlife (Netflix)

The Ritual (Netflix)

The above list is a little long; if you only watch one I’d say The Endless is my principle suggestion. Further, this genre of film seems to be in a bit of a resurgence right now too; both of Amazon Prime and Shudder have a number of additional choices. A Shudder exclusive I will mention explicitly is Beyond the Black Rainbow; it lives entirely within the myth-world described above and is, for all intents and purposes, simultaneously a 90 minute Synthwave music video; I recommend it rather strongly.

t r a n s c e n d  f l e s h

#ultrasynth

Note: 7:30 is also 6:90, if you think about it.

[ultrasynth]

F O R T Y  E I G H T

We have a lot of good material upcoming simply obtained by showcasing different albums from artists we’ve already seen. That being said, an album per day does go through material fairly quickly, so naturally I’m looking to constantly expand my horizons. A great way to do this, within the electronic world at least, is with mixes; not only do you get to find a bunch of things you might like at once, but mixes exist as musical pieces in their own right. DJs get a lot of hate for “just pressing play” which is wildly undeserved; carving up albums and song into their component pieces and stitching them back together is quite a difficult thing to do properly but can be quite something to behold.

I’m gonna share mixes more regularly henceforth, covering various niches and genera, but today I have a very special one for you. Before his Worlds days but after transitioning out of being a primarily Dubstep artist, Porter Robinson made the following short DJ set at Beatport which features Language which may well be his masterpiece. Especially notable about this set is that, despite an almost laughably broad mix of types of music chosen, the mix comes together beautifully as a cohesive whole. Give it a listen; you’ll enjoy it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEEWXho7OaM

p r a y  f o r  s i n g u l a r i t y

[ultrasynth]

F O R T Y  S E V E N

I have something a lot less spooky for you today; I need to save some spookiness for next week ya know! For now, we’re going to listen to a rather special album within the Chiptune genre. This album is both a love letter to early video games, essentially the same as those I myself enjoyed in my early youth, as well as being a curious example of outsider art. “Outsider Art” is just what it says on the tin: it refers to art created by someone outside of the relevant artistic milieu. Because of this distance from the established norms, outsider art can be quite unique and evocative, and I definitely think this album is a delightful example of this phenomenon. 

Leon, a somewhat well-known twitter personality, decided to set out to create a soundtrack to a game that never was; something which simultaneously evoked his childhood nostalgia but nonetheless exists as a unique, self-supporting work of art. Notably, it is certainly not a piece of “fan art”, nor is it directly derivative of other game soundtracks. If you wanna support Leon and buy the album you also get an adorable manual for the game full of rudimentary but nonetheless charming artwork of sweet little bird people. Please enjoy the jovial and retronostalgic pixelscape that is Bird World by Leon!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS9LM6ooFrw

p r a y  f o r  s i n g u l a r i t y

[ultrasynth]

F O U R T Y  S I X

As we approach Halloween, and since next week is another Ascertainment mega-segment, maybe we should lean even further into some spooky music this week. Moreover, what’s spookier than exploring the torch-lit darkness of a fetid cave or dank, somber catacombs. I am, of course, referring to the subject matter of the Dungeon Synth genre. I should really sit down and re-listen to a lot of these albums; I absolutely love them but haven’t listened to them enough. Today, let’s go with I by Spectral Kingdom and all have spooky fun listening to it together.

https://spectralkingdom.bandcamp.com/album/i

p r a y  f o r  s i n g u l a r i t y

[ultrasynth]

F O U R T Y  F I V E

Oof, unlucky number, and we’re in the midst of the ghost/dark event with Giratina having shown up to boot. I think it’s an excellent day for something dark and spooky, so that’s exactly what I’ll share. We’ve seen this artist, Occams Laser, before, albeit with a bright and exploratory Tron-themed tribute album. This is something quite a bit darker: an electronic synth-heavy album which takes substantial influence from the musical scores of horror films. It is meant to evoke the demonic, in the sense of Christian supernatural evil, and I think it does so superbly. Please light a candle or two and take a listen to Ascension by Occams Laser.

https://occamslaser.bandcamp.com/album/ascension

p r a y  f o r  s i n g u l a r i t y

[ultrasynth]

F O U R T Y  F O U R

Today I want to share another album of Cool Teens with you. It’s fun and bouncy and something I like to listen to both when I’m working or when I’m doing something passive like sitting in the car or doing dishes. The Nightcore genre applied to the songs Cool Teens samples gives an interesting mix of the old and new with a simultaneity of retro nostalgia and modern EDM stylings. Please enjoy Tampopo Summer by Cool Teens! Again, we gotta go to Soundcloud for this one.

https://soundcloud.com/coolteens/sets/cool-teens-tampopo-summer-ep

p r a y  f o r  s i n g u l a r i t y

[ultrasynth]

F O U R T Y  T H R E E

I plan to have the new updated show intro as well as the official playlist live starting a week from today, which will also begin our second Ascertainment week. The show intro update will reflect our occasional “thematics-over-genre” policy and the purpose of the playlist will be to reinforce the ideas, musically and thematically, which underpin the show.

Despite this show largely extending beyond the boundary of simply being about Vaporwave, I adore it and it indeed is central to all of our themes. We’ve skipped over a couple of canonical and defining Vaporwave works thus far and today we’re going to partially remedy this. Please enjoy the proto-Vaporwave album, excellent in its own right but also which was been instrumental (ha!) in defining the genre, Far Side Virtual by James Ferraro.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd-uSm8ittU&frags=pl%2Cwn

p r a y  f o r  s i n g u l a r i t y

[ultrasynth]

Audacity 2

Welcome to

U L T R A S Y N T H

The official Vaporwave, Synthwave, and Darkwave radio show of the UMN PoGo Discord! Hosted by yours truly, the one and only @ - - AUTHENTICATION ERROR - - 

> C A N N O T  A U T H E N T I C A T E  U S E R

> R E B O O T I N G

> . . . 

> . . .

W E L C O M E  T O  Audacity

The official replacement for the official Vaporwave, Synthwave, and Darkwave radio show of the UMN PoGo Discord! Daniel is off for a conference today, so I’ve hacked Mainframe, and with the help of Megabyte, Hexadecimal, and Dæmon, your favourite hard softcore player, @Keyfur (Christopher) will be taking over the 4:20 slot! Strap yourselves in and enjoy whatever bullshit music or audio drama I’m on this week!

Episode Two: Beyond Ultrasynth

Not every episode of Audacity will be as deep into my demons as the previous episode; but ideally for me, what I enjoy academically and personally is also what I enjoy recreationally. And above arguments of genre, deconstruction, metatextuality, and purported intellectual superiority: I really just enjoy irreverent storytelling; storytelling with or without purpose, meant for joyous consumption. 

I use ‘consumption’ here judiciously. I absolutely do not intend consumption in any necessarily capitalist meaning, that is consumption to create capital for business and people. Joyous consumption should be read as storytelling made simply to engage and entertain an audience first and foremost; a ‘classic’ definition of how we usually use the word ‘art’.(edited)

What I’ve really enjoyed about Ultrasynth thus far is that Daniel’s thesis intersects with this as well. Which is why I wanted to make this second episode touch on Ultrasynth’s goal: to “enjoy the chillest jams an idealized, stylized, half-remembered-dream version of the 80s and 90s has to offer”.

This episode is focused on a podcast called NeoScum. NeoScum is an actual-play podcast based in the tabletop RPG Shadowrun. Actual-play podcasts are just what they sound like: a bunch of nerds playing tabletop games and recording it for the internet.  It takes place in the kind of cyberpunk, unidealized future of the 2070s that could only have been born in the late 1980s, early 1990s.  But I didn’t choose NeoScum because I think its the exemplar of the podcast format (I do). I chose it because it succeeds in being exactly the kind of storytelling that I enjoy, meeting with Ultrasynth’s message.

Each episode of NeoScum, halfway through, interrupts at a narrative break, with a 5-15 minute section with the cast talking casually to, about, and with the audience. They read tweets, reviews, and even fan fiction that listeners write, and they do it with humour and a clear joy for what they are managing to do. It doesn’t feel forced or professionally cleaned up or staged.

NeoScum is ongoing with allegedly a story, but focuses on the goofy antics of friends just fooling around and having fun; and bringing that fun to others to be a part of. It specifically works to feel interactive and joyous; and virtuously NEVER punches down. 

As a connoisseur of audio drama (less so of podcasts), I could not recommend it more highly; doubly if you enjoy camp, never-serious farce. Especially if the grungy cyberpunk setting of Ultrasynth has at all resonated with you. We don’t get enough stories of pure joy, and when we do they can feel laundered by people whose heart isn’t in it. But NeoScum is definitely heart, hearty, and heartfelt. 

https://neoscum.com/episodes/

NeoScum

NeoScum

The full feed of episodes

i n t e n t  d o e s n ‘ t  m a t t e r 

> logging off message: 

(While of course NeoScum should be listened to from episode 1, if it doesn’t grab you, I definitely recommend episode 12 if you can accept not understanding all character interactions immediately).