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Monday, September 30, 2019

Some Recent Bandcamp Purchases - Apples In Stereo Re-Issue; Boys Age Cassette; plus Digital Releases from Tara Andrea & Maboud and Graham Domain

And so, to try and get myself into the habit of posting regularly again, here's another post.

I bought Age of Decadence on Steam a while ago and it's a great (and slightly depressing) top-down RPG. It's deal is that combat is really tough, so with that in mind I've played mostly non-combat characters (drifter, grifter, loremaster), since it kind of seems you have to talk your way out of just about everything. But each one of those wound up in the body heap, so I tried a merc last night and she also wound up dead with a relative quickness. Still super-fun, I played a little more tonight with a drifter. It has a neat post-apocalyptic after the fall of Rome-like setting. There doesn't seem to be any magic involved except as backstory, I dunno if that changes since I haven't gotten past the first few quests in the game without dying. Recommended if you're into isometric RPGs like Baldur's Gate, Pillars of Eternity, Shadowrun, etc. Those types of games are my favorite, aside from Civ, Fallout 4 and Skyrim.

I flipped over to Bandcamp and on the Bandcamp Daily it's "The Best Punk on Bandcamp, September 2019," and the byline reads "queercore, righteous feminist anger, and Finnish hardcore," which is basically what I've been sharing here on CNQ since 2012. So once again I'm like, if they're doing this now, then what the heck purpose do I serve?

I took down my Sony record player that hooked into my computer to share obscure vinyl, but have been thinking of hooking it back up. I just need a little extra space is all for the turntable, as I've moved my desk around and have various knick-knacks up on the desk that I like and don't want to move now.

Anyway, yes, all so fascinating. Blog identity-crisis and not enough space on desk for a Fallout 4 Pip Boy statue and a turntable.

Let's rock a few recent purchases from Bandcamp.

From Chunklet Industries, "a painstakingly recreated re-issue" of the first Apples in Stereo 7" from 1993. The songs are great, the re-issue looks boss, the yellow vinyl is limited to 100 copies, you get some stickers and a poster, it's a win:

Through Midwest Collective, I got this Boys Age cassette, Initiate - Very Best of Boys Age Vol​.​2 (Bonus Edition), limited to 100 copies as well. Boys Age is from Japan and just such a treasure. I'm still not sure what language he's singing in, and it doesn't matter because his bedroom mash of lo-fi shoegaze pop absolutely transcends and becomes a pure joy.

I've thought about doing interviews for the blog and I would love to do an interview with Boys Age.

I purchased this digital release back in May, and have been enjoying it ever since. Devotional music from Santa Fe. From the Bandcamp page, this is what they have to say about this track:

"Here we harmonize with the potential reality that we are satiated with the vast bounty of Creation. There is an inexhaustible and mysterious quality of abundance here that can fill us, inspire us and overflow from our being into the world. We feel into the incredible unlimited outpouring of the cornucopia of Nature, of the Cosmos and know we are a part of this, that it is our birth right as manifested beings of Creation."

Super-groovy. Most of the songs on Prisms of Wholeness are around 10 minutes, give or take. It's a pleasant journey of an album and certainly worth a listen.

Finally, from Metal Postcard Records, a 5 song digital release by Graham Domain, from Manchester. After that Mike Patton/Jean-Claude Vannier release (Corpse Flower) I've been interested in Leonard Cohen and Serge Gainsbourg type stuff. This is certainly in that wheelhouse and I dig it: