1 |
My Own Ghost |
"Remember" |
Shadow People |
I would probably distrust myself. |
2 |
Dream State |
"Taunt Me" |
single |
I love a lot of things, |
3 |
Falconshield |
"Death To The King" |
single |
and individual humans who don't love many unrelated things puzzle and sadden me, |
4 |
The Spider Accomplice |
"Fire The Sorrow" |
The Venomous Montage 6 |
but I instinctively expect authority and creativity to be diverse |
5 |
Epica |
"The Great Tribulation (feat. Fleshgod Apocalypse)" |
The Great Tribulation (feat. Fleshgod Apocalypse) +1 |
only in aggregate. |
6 |
Carpathia |
"Beloved" |
single |
My dream world, |
7 |
Victoria K |
"Raptum" |
Kore |
and in this case I mean this literally, as there is a city that recurs in my dreams |
8 |
Antonamasia |
"Kinesis" |
single |
and as best I know exists there alone, |
9 |
Eternal Frequency |
"War" |
single |
in which the subterranean layer beneath the buildings is an endless irregular labyrinth |
10 |
Carmilla |
"Hear My Voice" |
single |
of hyperspecialized food stalls: |
11 |
Defueld |
"Saints & Sinners" |
single |
makers of a single perfect burrito; |
12 |
KiaRa |
"We Are the Stardust" |
Archangel |
bakers of one otherwise-unattainable caramel-oatmeal donut; |
13 |
Molllust |
"Venus - Poems of Love" |
Venus - Poems of Love +2 |
embowlers of ramen who offer you only the choice between too much garlic and way too much garlic; |
14 |
Debler Eternia |
"Catrina" |
Perversso |
Liege waffletiers who hand you a gleaming, crackly waffle in a fold of thin velum if you get anywhere near them. |
15 |
Everfrost |
"Hacking to the Gate" |
single |
The notional corresponding nightmare, which I mercifully don't actually have, |
16 |
My Own Ghost |
"Home" |
Shadow People |
is a suburban office-park Cheesecake Factory that has run out of cheesecake, |
17 |
Eluveitie |
"Exile Of The Gods" |
Exile Of The Gods +1 |
in which every culinary precedent is reduced to a hashtag aesthetic |
18 |
E-An-Na |
"Suit în Nor" |
single |
applied to ponderous calorie overload with a willful distaste for actual culture |
19 |
Lodestar |
"Show Me A Sign" |
Wanderers 4 |
and a comprehensive style-guide of brand identity. |
20 |
Hoaxed |
"The Knowing" |
The Knowing +2 |
I recoil with a flourish from the telltale clues of audient commodification: |
21 |
Bloody Hammers |
"And Soon the Darkness" |
Washed In the Blood |
pervasive stock photography; |
22 |
Powerwolf |
"My Will Be Done" |
My Will Be Done +2 |
swellingly emotive music that sounds like somebody peeled the backing off of a real song you can't quite place, |
23 |
Dreamtale |
"Powerplay" |
Wellon 3 |
and then dropped the rest of it in the street; |
24 |
Dragonland |
"Resurrecting an Ancient Technology" |
The Power Of The Nightstar |
aspirational labeling intent on telling you the kind of person it wants you to want to be |
25 |
Freternia |
"Dark And The Light" |
single |
instead of admitting what it's selling |
26 |
Gomorra |
"Stand United" |
Stand United +1 |
or celebrating what it emits; |
27 |
Onward |
"Onward We Sail" |
Onward We Sail +1 |
carefully curated anonymity designed not only to keep you from seeking other sources, |
28 |
Induction |
"Go To Hell" |
Go To Hell +2 |
but to render "other sources" structurally suspicious. |
29 |
White Skull |
"Ad Maiora Semper" |
single |
Why do you think Amazon cheerfully buries you in endless nonsensically-named vendors you've never heard of |
30 |
Molotov Train |
"Worlds Together" |
Worlds Together 5 |
all claiming very unapologetically to be selling the same exact image |
31 |
Saltatio Mortis |
"Odins Raben" |
single |
of an uncannily compelling color-block hoodie |
32 |
U.D.O. |
"Wilder Life" |
Wilder Life +1 |
that may or may not even exist? |
33 |
Alter Bridge |
"Dead Among the Living" |
Pawns & Kings |
They have turned online shopping into a two-sided casino |
34 |
Soen |
"Snuff" |
Snuff +1 |
in which the self-employed operators of rigged games are allowed |
35 |
Astral Experience |
"Marioneta de Cristal" |
single |
to cheat themselves out of business by quantifying gamblers' gullibilities, |
36 |
Scars of Solitude |
"Cruelty has a Human Heart" |
single |
after which they can be rehired as minimum-possible-wage suppliers |
37 |
Gothminister |
"Star" |
Star +2 |
of the same thing to be re-sold under the only brand anybody is allowed to still trust. |
38 |
The Sade |
"King and Queen" |
single |
My dream food-maze is a two-sided marketplace, too, in at least some underlying sense. |
39 |
Timor et Tremor |
"Voices from the Coffin" |
single |
Somebody dream-owns the dream buildings above it. |
40 |
Gevurah |
"At the Orient of Eden" |
Gehinnom |
Each stall must be rented, dream-logistically. |
41 |
Firtan |
"Lethe" |
Marter |
Some nights, when it appears again, there are differences. |
42 |
Oferwintran |
"Prince Kelyddon" |
It Often Befalls Those |
The enchilada kiosk has been replaced with corn dogs sold over a counter shaped, |
43 |
Cornoctuan |
"Leaden Star (The Lightless, Pt. I)" |
single |
for reasons that are not immediately obvious, like a komodo dragon |
44 |
envy |
"Seimei" |
single |
in brocaded slippers. |
45 |
Lavitte |
"Orchestra" |
single |
I presume there are factors other than the proprietors' convictions, |
46 |
AIBECK |
"WANTED" |
single |
that the mania for caramel-oatmeal donuts might surge and then subside |
47 |
AliA |
"Cinderella Story" |
single |
until the proposition ceases to be viable. |
48 |
yosugala |
"escalate" |
single |
I blame myself. |
49 |
PiXMiX |
"今宵、この指とまれ!" |
single |
I didn't dream enough, |
50 |
JIEMEI |
"REALIZE" |
single |
or in my dreams I am too often too full of ramen to eat a donut. |
51 |
YURiKA |
"Crave" |
single |
Things end and other things begin, |
52 |
友希 |
"Lost" |
single |
even in imaginary utopias, |
53 |
結束バンド |
"ひとりぼっち東京" |
青春コンプレックス 4 |
but because there are more joys than we can organize at once, |
54 |
Ado |
"missing" |
single |
not to maximize infrastructural margins. |
55 |
04 Limited Sazabys |
"Glowing" |
Harvest |
The best infrastructure aspires to invisibility, |
56 |
れん |
"最低" |
single |
not identity: |
57 |
Drippin So Pretty |
"It's Over" |
single |
the unbranded air, |
58 |
44phantom |
"hurricane" |
hurricane +1 |
the pipes in the second level below the food-maze, |
59 |
Senses |
"save myself" |
single |
the wires in our walls, |
60 |
Thanks! I Hate It |
"Nobody Actually Likes The Tambourine" |
single |
the quiet, patient math that takes note of our collective will. |
61 |
Anthem for Maria |
"Vanilla" |
single |
A market is two-"sided" by definition, |
62 |
CHNDTR |
"NAMIMISS" |
single |
and you should never trust anybody trying to sell you things that can't help but exist, |
63 |
Lola Amour |
"dahan-dahan" |
dahan-dahan +1 |
tools for maximizing the inevitable, |
64 |
Leia Destruye |
"El Oleaje" |
single |
opportunities to be passively optimized. |
65 |
Paty Cantú |
"Mi Película" |
single |
We've seen this movie already, |
66 |
Temecula Road |
"Wrong Ones Do" |
single |
and know we're never in it. |
67 |
Taylor Bickett |
"QUARTER LIFE CRISIS" |
single |
That's not why we watch, |
68 |
Lizzie Cates |
"King of Hearts" |
single |
or why we listen. |
69 |
Allie Sherlock |
"This Is So Sad" |
single |
We do not take ahold of these songs to pull them out of the sky |
70 |
Dan Reeder |
"You Don't Have to Ask" |
You Don't Have to Ask +3 |
and replace them with our own. |
71 |
Noah Kahan |
"All My Love" |
Stick Season |
We grab them to lift ourselves into their infinite midst: |
72 |
PJ North |
"Did It To Yourself" |
single |
burritos and donuts and ramen, |
73 |
Betty Who |
"BIG" |
BIG! |
mythic roar and vindictive twang and redemptive whispers. |
74 |
mahina |
"Pistol" |
single |
In my sleep I wave at the two donut guys, |
75 |
Toni Romiti |
"The Old Me" |
single |
with their matching Cthulhu sleeve tattoos and Carleton class-rings, |
76 |
Killumantii |
"Get Em Girl" |
My Bad I’m Late |
who refuse to learn my name no matter how many times I put it on my Toast pickup order, |
77 |
Mariska |
"Kiva ku on kivaa" |
Mäihä |
and dart down the tunnel to the next plaza, |
78 |
Heviteemu |
"Hymyn takaa" |
single |
as if nobody but me has ever ventured from ramen and donuts |
79 |
Sub-Radio |
"Everything I Had" |
single |
to the unimagined kiosks next door: |
80 |
Kitai |
"Cometa Halley" |
single |
warmly pressed focaccia sandwiches with smoked kale and runny French cheese, |
81 |
Airbag |
"La marmota Phil" |
single |
cold Oolong dragonfruit milk teas over mounds of warm brown-sugar boba, |
82 |
Skay Beilinson |
"Yo Soy la Máquina" |
single |
vast slices of sausage-and-broccoli-rabe pizza like you could eat half and still fold the rest into Napoleon's hat. |
83 |
Say Ocean |
"Perfectas Condiciones" |
Perfectas Condiciones |
I don't just love the things I love, |
84 |
Mei Emrys |
"Bore Sul (Yn Ei Thŷ Hi)" |
single |
I love the things I know I haven't loved yet. |
85 |
Wikus Botma |
"My Nannas" |
single |
I love the songs I don't understand and might like less if I did, |
86 |
David Jones David |
"Don't Judge Me - With Beat" |
single |
and the ones that seem like they might be terrible examples of whatever they really are, |
87 |
Sdala B |
"Amaphupho" |
single |
and I give them to you in this glorious disarray, |
88 |
Indoni |
"SEKWANELE" |
Zimbili Izitha Zendoda |
not because I know more about this than you, which statistically I might, |
89 |
Sminofu |
"Iphakade" |
Gqiba I Bigger |
but because I don't know how not to. |
90 |
Fihliskhwele |
"Izulu Lenhlupheko" |
single |
I grab your hand and pull you into the next tunnel, |
91 |
Qondani Mthethwa |
"Vukani Madoda" |
Umkhuzi Wamasosha |
towards halls I've forgotten or never myself been, |
92 |
Mabe Fratti |
"Desde el Cielo" |
Se Ve Desde Aquí |
not because I'm sure you'll love guava empanadas studded with volcanic salt, |
93 |
Valentina Magaletti |
"Low Delights" |
single |
or peanut and roasted squash-seed stew eaten with quivery cubes of pounded yam, |
94 |
Ayşe Betül |
"Ölücem Burda" |
single |
or mooncakes embossed with Tibetan translations of passages from Kafka, |
95 |
Loke Rahbek |
"Summer" |
Together |
but because I want you to have this ecstatic experience of the infinite, too, |
96 |
Fire-Toolz |
"A Moon In The Morning" |
I will not use the body's eyes today. |
and as much as I know that exploration is not a path you can be pulled along, |
97 |
Andile Cele |
"Abathanda Ukuphila - Ithuluzi" |
single |
I need you to see that the world just keeps going. |
98 |
Emma Hewitt |
"COLLIDE" |
COLLIDE +3 |
I have nothing to sell you here, and if anything I defy you to follow these steps, evasive in their endlessness or vice versa. |
99 |
Vandroya |
"Heaven" |
single |
This should not be all that you want. It's not even all I want, it's just all that I've had time to integrate |
100 |
Besomorph |
"Billie Jean" |
single |
before I catch the approaching scent of next week's perfume. |
101 |
SMR LVE |
"Time After Time" |
single |
The clock ticks; confusion is always a clue or a call |
102 |
Kontrollverlust |
"Luka" |
Luka +2 |
from worlds nested almost inside of your own in which everything is dangerous or just different. |
103 |
Harakiri for the Sky |
"Mad World" |
single |
Informed enthusiasm shares more with naive glee than with studied disdain. |
104 |
The Animal In Me |
"I2I" |
single |
I don't even remember this song. I don't know what's in these dumplings. |
105 |
Sunday Friend |
"We Are Never Getting Back Together" |
Throwback - EP 4 |
I turn a corner of the maze and the girl at the chai stand is playing "Take the Money and Run" on a pink bluetooth speaker, and I love everything I have ever loved and it doesn't stop. |
106 |
Halocene |
"Unholy" |
single |
We draw arbitrary boundaries in order to make it easier, and thus safer, |
107 |
Social Repose |
"Unholy" |
single |
to transgress, |
108 |
For I Am King |
"Running Up That Hill" |
single |
and then we look at each other across them as if our positions encode choices we cannot unmake without divine intervention. |
109 |
My Own Ghost |
"Dark River" |
Shadow People |
I'm not asking for your trust. I pull you into the next world and then I let go of your hand. I don't need you to want these songs, no matter how perfect they seem to me. We too are perfect. Perfection is not scarce. I just want you to believe that and want to follow any paths that lead towards even more of it. |