Music

Hahaha that's awesome

Melodic metal... well, I know you weren't so into the power metal stuff I showed you a while ago (understandable), but here are a few tracks that remind me of that Malmsteen track, at least:

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Galneryus are pretty much the best dudes out there doing this "neoclassical metal" thing, IMO. Probably the closest thing to Rising Force you can find today. I like their singer, too.

(this is not the track I originally wanted to show you, but I couldn't find that one on youchoob)



Angra is a similar band that's been around for a while. They incorporate elements of traditional Brazilian music into a lot of their songs, which is cool. They even got Milton Nascimento to guest on a track!



Stratovarius is another band in the same vein that's pretty popular... I've never liked them quite as much to be honest, but they're not bad.



Steve Vai isn't strictly power metal, but he's another over-the-top wanky guitar hero who got popular around the same time as Malmsteen. I'm not a huge fan of his stuff but this track is nice. Fun fact: he got his start with Frank Zappa!

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't post this again:

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Those portamento chords :E

Yessssssssssss

Burp are you into demoscene stuff?

Not that much, but being a programmer by trade, I have a healthy respect for the demoscener habit of accomplishing the impossible and teaming up with the strangest people you’ve ever met just to make it happen. Often they went for aesthetics that, yeah that’s a pretty neat effect, and I don’t know how you got that system to run it, but I don’t care for the ugly-ass 80s/90s BBS-style pr0n/D&D/black metal art. Reaaal classy. Or sometimes it’s just the same amazing effect for like 10 minutes, and at that point I run into the same issue I have with things like visual kei music videos... go somewhere with this video, dagnabbit!

It’s mostly a matter of not really looking that deep into things; there is only so much stuff you can have experience with, and while I was vaguely aware of “the scene” thanks to some crossover with other forms of software, I never got a chance to see very much of that stuff until people started putting it on YouTube.

(and to counterbalance posting a decades-old demo famous enough for a Wikipedia article, I’ll post one soundtrack for a recent demo for NES that like nobody knows—warning, the other two vids feature glitched-up FDS ecchi)

Yeah, most early demoscene productions aren't especially enjoyable to watch - they're more impressive as feats of programming than as music videos. And yeah, the art ranges from charmingly bad to trashy.

I love the music, though. I listen to old tracker tunes all the time.


Oh! Also, Supes, check out Racer X. I forgot about them last night.

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I feel like every song these guys make could be on the soundtrack to F-Zero

It's difficult to find other bands like this from the 80s because Rising Force was one of the first, but Racer X is similar.

The early 80s are when metal got to be really popular/diversified, yeah. I'm just saying that "neoclassical" metal bands a la Rising Force only began to emerge around the mid/late 80s.

It's all gonna be camp, I'm afraid. 80s metal was not about subtlety haha

The history of metal is interesting! To me, at least. Check out the Map of Metal sometime - it's basically Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music for metal.

I dunno how exactly metal and disco competed, if at all - I can't imagine there's much of a demographic overlap there? The unfortunate truth is that metal has overwhelmingly been a genre made by and for angry young white dudes. There are exceptions, of course, and the community has gotten more diverse/accepting in recent years, but it can still be pretty obnoxious.

I still don't know what Rage - Perfect Man is! I ... I like Helloween, though.

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Should I be ashamed y/n

Germany did something right, apparently. Mostly I go for this melodic, pop-style of songwriting with heavy metal production on it. This is what I like. What else can you recommend that sounds like this? Rage and Helloween have both been on Noise International ... so I guess I need to peruse their back catalog.

both y and n

It sounds like you're into very early power metal/NWOBHM. I know you weren't into Iron Maiden when I suggested them before, but I would urge you to check them out again. If you're into that Helloween track I'm sure you'll like at least some of their stuff.

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Other bands in the same vein:

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I know I've posted at least some of these bands before but there should be some new (to you) stuff here too.

It sounds like you like the earlier, rawer style of power metal - stuff that's more like melodic thrash. It's difficult to find power metal bands that aren't slickly produced these days, but I think you should like at least a couple of these tracks.

THE AYECE OF SPAYEDES

That's Motorhead ya goof

Anyway, it seems like metal vacillates between the two extremes of being super-camp and taking itself way too seriously. You gotta build up a tolerance for it, definitely. (I'd imagine it's like disco in that respect)

I sort of eased into metal by listening to nerdy progressive stuff, and gradually crossed over into the more campy/weird/over-the-top genres. But that's just me and you're coming from a very different place musically than I did.

Man no I don't think those two tracks are comparable at all! I may not know a whole lot about disco but I can at least appreciate the variety of it. What I'm trying to say is that metal and disco are both genres that people may be initially turned off by because of a negative social stigma and/or their frequently over-the-top nature. Great "serious" music can be found in both, as well as fun campy stuff, but most people aren't willing to get past their negative first reactions to give either a chance.

I think disco's status as a punchline in the US is dumb, for what it's worth. I get on my dad for that a lot because plenty of the music he listens to is very close to disco and it seems like he's drawing an arbitrary line between Socially Acceptable Black Music and Not.

Related: have you read Greil Marcus's essay on "rocksim"

I like the guitar/violin part in that second song a lot. S'cool.

Re: social stigmas: yeah, okay, it is a little disingenuous to compare them in that way

Re: dad: No yeah that's why it bugs me

Also, it actually wasn't Greil Marcus who wrote the "rockism" article I had in mind - it was a dude named Kelefah Sanneh. Check it out, I think you'll like it. I don't agree with it 100% but I think it's interesting.

Most high-profile "top albums" lists are some bullshit

I try to listen to most if not all of the stuff you post but I don't always comment. Sorry! I will try to add something constructive tomorrow when I'm not really tired.

(it's not just you)

Ableton looks like it was drawn up in Flash in 2004. It's less ugly than FL Studio, at least.

FL Studio's design is okay, but having used it a lot I might just have gotten used to it. It's ridic hard to learn, I know that.

K-Def released a new EP yesterday. It's good. Mellow, jazzy. K-Def is a good producer. This is a K-Def post. Reverse chronological, watch him get less mellow and jazzy.

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He made an album last year.










There is no copy of this song on the internet that does not have a skip going into the third verse. It's infuriating.

WHY ARE ALL THE GREAT JAZZ PIANISTS DYING D:

If nothing else, it is well made, if perhaps not well designed.

Pretty much my thoughts on Live in a nutshell

Diggin' that mix by the way

It's bizarrely interesting. It's like a vanity press for music! The only entertaining part of whole Rebecca Black debacle is that we got a glimpse into this whole weird cottage industry that would otherwise be relatively unknown.

Also Patrice Rushen owns

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Absolutely tearing it up here. She's one of the few bop pianists who successfully transitioned to an R&B career (the only others I can think of being George Duke and Herbie Hancock, sorta)



She also played on one of my favorite JLP records!

holy crap that first one is bad enough but the second one is the most execrable, baffling thing I have seen in a while. It's like the Shaggs 2013. I could not make it through more than a minute.

New theory: "Patrice Wilson" is actually a music-generating computer program a la Microsoft Songsmith

L- let's get back to a much better Patrice

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Love this bassline

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Did you see the Thanksgiving one where they tried to recreate the viral hit by doing basically a line-by-line remake of Friday?

and now I have to watch all of them too dammit

time to close my door and carefully edit my youtube watch history afterward

patrice wilson's writing method seems to think of one of two lines and them repeat them ad naseum. with the exception of that Dolph Lundgren line, which is just- i- what

that makes me curious about how the whole thing works. do rich WASPy parents contact Wilson like "MAKE MY DARLING JAYDEN A SONG" and then he grabs a premade track, pencils the the kid in for a recording session, and then sighs and pulls heavily from a fifth of Jack? or do the kids actually write the songs? because if it's the latter it would explain a lot about their quality.

that British one is physically painful. wilson's rapping reminds me of pitbull, except somehow worse.

apparently "post-apocalpytic" means "slightly grubby" now. also wilson does the accent in the last one as well, which makes me think he might actually be South African or something*? i dunno.

i'm tired and confused and i'm going to bed

*edit: Nigerian

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I love this game

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Here is a pretty Italian rock song:

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I love Italian prog rock. It's pretty much a genre unto itself.


ed: also I'm not familiar with the original tune but I'm digging that Katamari Damacy chiptune

Karaoke on Friday night was super-fun, but figuring out what songs are available is a bit of a logistical nightmare and they didn't have this one

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I like that track, Supes! I'm going to have to check out the Katamari Damacy soundtrack now. I've heard Katamari On The Rocks, but who hasn't.

Also that Santana mashup rules haha

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Is it sad that I got excited when the full version of the Attack on Titan theme came out