What’s up, peeps? (个_个)｡゜
Fancy the website? To spare you of all the technical doohickeys, it has been mostly a structural change. Pages load much faster now, HTML/CSS has been largely optimized, and the website is much, much better on mobile. Not to toot my own horn, but I’m even willing to call it functional this time!
The biggest change in this update is that I ported everything to Astro along with my pal t-sc t-sc t-sc. This significantly makes my life easier, as I don’t have to do much spaghetti code anymore. For example, recurring elements like the sidebar are now just a single file that I share across pages, and these blogposts are stored on .md files instead of plain HTML, which makes formatting much cleaner.
I want to thank t-sc as he has been of immense help and consultation since I started this thing and deserves much of the accolades. Also taking the opportunity to shoutout my amigos DinoCelestial and ERROR IN PROGRESS for the opinions and asset contributions. I’ll be looking for a way to credit them in a more solid manner soon.
I actually have most, if not all of the big update after this one planned – I’m just taking my time to prepare the necessary assets and stuff. But that’s mostly it for zona.plankton news!
ᵒotieno@J0N0HH
For today’s recommendation, I would like to show you an artist that I really admire.
Visually, their linework and composition feel incredibly typographical, though beyond most structural limitations in text, I can read these drawings from any angle and distance, always within the intended focus – it’s endlessly expressive magic. The faint dotted backdrop (what I’m assuming is a leftover from the pages that the original sketches come from) in a lot of these illustrations reinforces this graphical element difference and it makes for a such a pretty contrast, it’s like playing with never-tangling headphones．．．
In a nutty synesthetic way, Nobukazu Takemura has a near 13 minute song called “Anemometer” that sorta reminds me of this art style. The entire thing is built on this electric piano line that repeats itself over the course of the track, while more and more layers creep in. None of it ever blends with each other more than it has to, so the song gives you the freedom of exploring all these tiny sound relationships. Though, as far as companion pieces go, it’s hard to imagine what could be better than their own music!!
To me, these SoundCloud tunes are inseparable from the artwork. The flow and structure seem to be very much intentionally shared across media. As simple as these underlying melodies can be, the syncopation of synths and the way delay is used makes for a very moiré way of composing. It reminds me of waking up to the radio in the palest sky, listening to ever-moving Doppler lullabies in cars. Close your eyes for a little bit, and give it some space．．．
Please check it out!（＾⊆＾）b
ᵗˢ ᶜᵗˢ ᶜᵗ囧 - ghost equip
Another recommendation for today: my friend t-sc from earlier released his first album a few weeks ago, and I actually did the cover for it! :0
I’m well aware of the back-against-the-wall situation that this puts me in as far as the topic of bias goes, so I’m here to preemptively guarantee to you that 1. he really is just that cool, and 2. if you wiped my brain into an amnesiac, spotless, crease-less blob and showed me this record, I would still love it as much as I do.
I’ve been listening to t-sc for more or less 5 years now. Even after all this time, it’s hard to describe his music in a direct manner as I’ve still never heard anything quite like it. There is such a monumental amount of creativity in his output that these songs can’t help but burst open and gift it to you every time you listen. For every one of these 13 tracks, just about every layer of the process feels deliberate.
There’s no fancy way to put it, really: this album rocks. Nevertheless, my last compromise to you will be to deliver some stream-of-consciousness slogans:
ghost equip is: a bird-song odyssey; sine-wave specter; new way to read cartography; your favorite lost & canceled game; Ico’s version of a pop album. Please listen!!!
***
PS: If you like it, here are some codes you can use:
rs9l-eypj
u78f-wvb5
x5nx-w8df
j85p-hrxa
fn78-5dmb
Go on this link to redeem it, it will display in your Bandcamp collection!
Anyways! I’m probably going to go count sheep now. I can hear “Elvis on The Radio, Steel Guitar In My Soul” playing at the back of my head, which is usually a sign I should be headed to bed, though sometimes it means I want to watch Barnyard again. Speaking of farm-related kids movies, you know, when I was younger I used to think the ending of Chicken Run was incredibly eerie. Nevermind the fact that the movie itself was already nightmarish, that sanctuary they end up in was for some reason one of the only times as a kid I was keenly aware of the fact that it was just a movie, and that people had to work on it. That matte painting in the background is a vivid reminder of skyboxes and out-of-bound areas in videogames; I guess that’s what the kids call Liminal, huh? Pfff．．． (I am 19 years old).
Beyond all derailing topics, thank you for reading. This month has been fantastic, so I’m really excited for February!
I’ll see ya soon,
Have a good night!
Signed, with love,
noo.dll__〆(￣ー￣ )
see ya!