Entry 1166 - Oblique Occasions - Terminally Online

Style: vaporwave, barber beats

Primary Emotions/Themes: Barber beats that focus' around a familiar theme

Thoughts: I swear I've heard a lot of this album before. There are songs here that have music from other games and series that are just slightly altered so that I can't quite put my finger on them... but man they feel like deja vu every time I listen.

The whole thing has a jazz theme to it. I find myself enjoying this entry in Oblique Occasions discography more than most because of that. Again though the melodies sound so damn familiar all the time. I know this is vaporwave and its sampled from some other source... but normally it's not as familiar as this. It drives me close to insane more often than I want to admit.

Oblique Occasions has a huge discography. I only have a few records of theirs, and I'm content with the ones I do have. Every once in a while I'll plop one onto the record player and it ends up staying there for quite a while due to how easy it is to digest. Terminally Online is no different. Fascinating and frustrating all at the same time.

Entry 1165 - Oblique Occasions - Don't Look at Me

Style: vaporwave, barber beats

Primary Emotions/Themes: a bass driven drive into the barber beats realm

Thoughts: As much as barber beats is a cohesive genre, there are small differences from album to album. Don't Look at Me for instance has a much deeper focus on bass and percussion than the average album does. If I have it up too high it ends up shaking the whole house. 

Like most if not all barber beats though the album does have a wonderful groove to it. The extra bass makes it reverberate through my whole body as I'm swaying with it. There's also this muddiness to the production that gives is a bit of a radio audio quality... something you may hear out of the mid 50's or on AM radio.

As the album progresses so does the allure it has over me. Something about the way that Oblique Occasions makes their music makes me want to finish an album as soon as I've put it on. Great music to chill out and reset to.

Entry 1164 - Oblique Occasions - Sable Covenant

Style: barber beats, vaporwave

Primary Emotions/Themes: guitar driven barber beats that has a heavenly quality to it

Thoughts: It's been a busy day. I need an album to sit down and chill out to. A proverbial deep breath as I wind down and try to let the stress leave my body. Luckily it's time for Sable Covenant to hit the turntable tonight. This is exactly what I need.

Much like the roses and spices in the plague doctors beak, this album serves as a musical palate cleanser for a day. The smooth beats and flow of the music are guided by guitars, pianos and trumpets. All of which do an outstanding job at luring the stress from the day to leave my body. 

Like most barber beats, there isn't much variety here. Really though, that's ok. I don't listen to music like this for musical intrigue. This is in my collection to chill me out, and it does so with excellence. 

Entry 1163 - Obijuan and Philanthrope - Konoha

Style: hip hop

Primary Emotions/Themes: this is music to lay back to and enjoy life, relaxing to say the least

Thoughts: I've enjoyed Obijuan's music in the past, I've also enjoyed Philanthrope's music in the past. I had no idea that they created a collab album. When I heard of this album's existence I picked it up without even listening. I knew it was going to be good.

Needless to say Konoha did not disappoint. The album has this effect where it fades in and out over beats and Obijuan's vocals. It's surreal and oddly relaxing. It lures me in deeper and before I know it my entire body is swaying back and fourth to the beat and sway of the music. 

Side A of the release is the vocal side, side B is the instrumentals. It's great to play them back to back as they are quite different experiences. I don't know what side I prefer... they both are excellent in their own rights. Either way though, this is the type of hip hop that makes me want to explore the genre more and more.

Entry 1162 - Obkatiekat

Style: Brutal death metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: Instrumental death metal from an unlikely source 

Thoughts: I never thought I would have a vtuber album in my collection. Virtual youtubers are anime girls with a real life person animating them through motion capture software. Normally you can expect anime covers and jpop from their musical excursions. So when someone says that there is a death metal album coming out from a vtuber, you can understand why I was skeptical. But I'll be damned if Katie's album isn't brutal as all fuck.

After a short piano intro, we're introduced to the album proper: melodic leads over heavy seven string riffs and drums to match. Faded was way heavier than anything I would have ever expected with it's opening riffs, but I was floored when the melody slipped into the background and a proper death metal riff came out of my speakers, complete with blast beats. 

This is not deathcore, this is not melodeath, this is not nu metal... this is straight up death metal with heavy leanings into the brutal death metal realm with the monstrous breakdowns. The further the album progressed the more I found myself truly enjoying it. This wasn't something that was just out of shock value... no this is a great instrumental metal album. Shows that great music can come from unexpected places.

Entry 1161 - Nortfalke - Moonjeie

Style: Dungeon synth, ambient

Primary Emotions/Themes: The light of the moon trickles through the forest, illuminating the world with it's pale glow

Thoughts: Nortfalke's music has not changed much over the years at it's core. It's essentially slow moving melodies played over atmospheric keyboards. One of those descriptions that sounds incredibly boring in theory, however in practice it is anything but.

The reality of things is that the music contained on the disc is haunting. It's a frozen landscape of musical notes. The cover of the album is nearly perfect, the moon light is the overall ambience and the trees provide the individual notes. It's majestic and it sends chills down my spine.

As with all Nortfalke releases this one stays on the turntable for a long time. They are among my favorite dungeon synth artists active today, and have yet to release an album I did not like. Best enjoyed in darkness and with the night sky in full view.

Entry 1160 - Nortfalke - Atmosfeer

Style: ambient, dungeon synth

Primary Emotions/Themes: Long compositions that hypnotize me into a frozen trance

Thoughts: I don't quite understand my fascination with Nortfalke. By every measure their music is rather standard dungeon synth with a huge touch of ambient music splashed in. Every time I listen to it though I'm swept away into distant realms and far away places.

Slow repeating melodies that are backed by multiple layers of keyboards is the basis of what is heard on Atmosfeer. It's essentially the same song the entirety of each song... and that's around ten minutes of run time for each one. It should be boring. It should be an easy skip... but it's not.

Instead it draws me deeper and deeper into it's clutches. I'm enthralled by the layers, the simplicity of it all. It draws me in further every time I listen. Even now I have a deep urge to flip the record one more time so that I can listen to the whole thing over again. Putting this record on my turntable is a dangerous proposition.

Entry 1159 - Noby Noby Boy

Style: Video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: One of the most bizarre albums in my collection

Thoughts: A tuba and drums playing a simple melody. This is how Noby Noby Boy starts... this quickly goes into the next track where the same instruments are joined by a choir of... things... saying nobi nobi nobi nobi... and it only get's stranger from there.

Folk acoustic guitar that is beautiful enough to move even the coldest heart. A banjo tribute to the game done in full bluegrass fashion. Ragtime. Conga. Classical suites. Industrial. All of this is here, it all adds to the chaos and strangeness of Nobi Nobi Boy. 

This is from the creator of Katamari Damacy... and honestly no one else could create something like this. It's so incredibly strange, so bizarre that my mind overloads eventually and just goes with it. Highly recommended for people who like off kilter music. 

Entry 1158 - Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks

Style: Industrial, rock, pop, multiple genres

Primary Emotions/Themes: An exploration of melodies and soundscapes within and out of a pop song structure, an album of contradictions 

Thoughts: I heard from several people that Reznor wanted this album to be a revisiting of the Downward Spiral sound. After listening to it more than a few times, I don't think that this is accurate in the slightest outside of the cover (who is made by the same artist as Downward Spiral).

The music here is very different from the past works of Nine Inch Nails,  while still sounding immediately like the band. This is simpler in it's execution, there's less going on here than in pervious releases...  yet that works in its favor. Most of the music is rhythmic by nature with Trent's voice being the main focus. Drums, a pulse and vocals... that's what we get for most of Hesitation Marks, and I'll be damned if it doesn't work.

The album is stronger in its first half than the second, but that's hardly a knock on the album. Considering how varied and diverse NIN's discography it's crazy to me that he continues to innovate as he has for decades now. Probably one of the more creative minds to ever hit the mainstream music scene in my lifetime.

Entry 1157 - Nine Inch Nails - Quake

Style: Industrial, ambient, video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: Trent Reznor takes his experimental version of industrial into the video game realm

Thoughts: What if you took the ideals that Nine Inch Nails had explored earlier in the decade, removed all the melodies, stripped down all the complexity? In its place you put layer upon layer of pulses, dark brooding soundscapes, industrial noises, and a general unease that simply will not go away. This is Quake.

Quake's soundtrack is something that I genuinely did not like upon first listen. I was excited for the game, and while the game itself turned out great, the soundtrack I thought was lacking... everything. It had no definition, it had no melody, it had nothing that gripped me... it was just there. As I aged and matured though this is exactly what draws me back to this soundtrack.

Where I once heard noises, now I hear suspense. Where I thought things were lacking I hear layer upon layer of details for me to dig into. When I used to think that this was trash, now I consider this as one of the better dark ambient albums in my collection. I've come around 180 degrees on this, and now consider this an indispensable part of my Nine Inch Nails collection. 

Entry 1156 - Nightwish - Wishmaster

Style: Operatic power metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: Everything that was started on Oceanborn is amped up even further on this album

Thoughts: To relive the glory days. I know a lot of times I say that "the old material is better," and for some bands I say that with more confidence than others. Here though I say it with urgency.

Wishmaster is perhaps the bands finest output. There is an urgency to the riffs that is not present anywhere else in their music. It is active, it is full of energy. Even in the follow up, the music is slower and more lethargic than it is here. It's this life to the music that makes me prefer this to any other album (except maybe Oceanborn). 

Sure there are additional songs here and there in the bands discography that share a similar energy, but here its everywhere. It's bustling with life. The band fully leaned into complex riffs, interactions between the keyboards and guitar leads. Classical songwriting without the orchestra. The band did the playing of the melodies, not the full symphony of the later albums. It's stripped down, and it's better music for it.

Entry 1155 - Nightwish - Oceanborn

Style: Operatic power metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: Neoclassical power metal with operatic vocals and amazing keyboard work

Thoughts: Every band starts somewhere, even bands that are larger than life. From the very beginning Nightwish showed potential. Though Angels Fall First was not a fantastic album it showed that the band was on to something. 

With Oceanborn that potential was realized. The songs have more life, Tarja has more confidence and fits in with the band better. The songwriting is much improved. The interplay between the keyboards and guitar is fantastic. It all just came together here. 

Listening to this now and listening to the bands current output I'm saddened. They had such a wonderful sound in their early works and it just got more and more streamlined as the years went on. At the very least however we have this and it's follow up as the true potential that the band could reach.

Entry 1154 - Night Tempo - 集中 Concentration

Style: lofi hip hop

Primary Emotions/Themes: A nice change from the typical future funk, a relaxed take on the lofi hip hop genre

Thoughts: I was pretty excited when I first heard this album. I had heard Night Tempo before and lets just say I'm not a future funk fan. I did acknowledge that the music was well put together, and I always wondered what it would sound like if they put out music in another genre... well this album is the answer to that.

集中 Concentration is a short album, just over thirty minutes long. What is contained in those 30 minutes though is pure bliss. The songs are short, and explore a lot of different ideas. These ideas are what keeps me coming back: a string quartet, chilled lounge music, traditional Japanese and other far east Asian instrumentals, etc. 

The album keeps flowing and with every track I get lost in it's groove. Easily one of the best lofi hip hop albums in my collection.

Entry 1153 - Night Runner - Thunderbird

Style: Synthwave

Primary Emotions/Themes: A synthwave album that knows what it is and doesn't try to hide it

Thoughts: There are a lot of synthwave artists out there who want to mix the genre with others to create something new and different. Not Night Runner. No, this album knows exactly what it is and doesn't shy away from it.

Even the "acoustic guitar" that starts the album off is synths. Everything in this album is synths, and I love that it embraces it so completely. The whole thing screams 80's and doubles down on that fact with every opportunity. 

This is the perfect music to drive on a highway with. The perfect album to pretend I'm Night Rider. As with most synthwave I don't put this album on much anymore, but when I do it puts a smile on my face.

Entry 1152 - Nightcrawler - Visionary

Style: Darksynth

Primary Emotions/Themes: Darksynth by the numbers except when it's not

Thoughts: Nithcrawler has had a mixed relationship with me in the past. I found much of their music to be lackluster... that was until I found Visionary. 

Visionary is a more focused and outright better representation of what Nightcrawler is capable of. The grooves are more driving and hit that primitive part of my brain a bit better. The music is more diverse, ranging between slower tracks and the more hard driving tracks. It's like he's cut all the fat of his previously released albums and put out a shorter yet more intense offering.

I don't get the urge for darksynth very often anymore, but when I do this one hits all the notes in just over half an hour. The perfect amount of time to scratch that itch.

Entry - 1151 - Nevermore - The Politics of Ecstasy

Style: Post-thrash, groove, American power metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: A venomous critique of the United States justice system, both lyrically and musically

Thoughts: Wow, what a pissed off album. There is anger, there is vitriol, then there is Nevermore. What a change from the debut as well - a rather bland groove metal album that showed potential... but not THIS. These riffs are h e a v y. The vocals are filled with spite and cynicism that it changes the entire character of the album.

Starting out with a critique of Christianity and the intellectual destruction that occurs within that mind frame the band lets the listener know that this is going to be a very different affair than anything they had recorded previously. This continues as the band begins to systematically pick apart the US government, justice system, China's response to resistance, and even AI. An album well ahead of it's time. 

While a lot of Nevermore's discography is angry, this album is the peak of that anger... and it's not a generalized anger, this is pointed at very specific instances that are described in detail throughout the album. One of the best albums that ever came out of the US metal scene. 

Entry 1150 - Neurosis - Given to the Rising

Style: Post-hardcore, ambient, post-metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: A slow and deliberate bludgeoning with heavy guitars and obscure atmospheres

Thoughts: Time is a strange thing. It can distort memories and thoughts, it can change you, and it can make you forget. Time is a healer, time is a murderer, time is time and we as mortals have nothing we can do against it. It is the great equalizer, we will all be born and we will all end up in the grave. Time does not care, it does not judge, all are equal before time.

Time can also change views, as is the case with Neurosis' Given to the Rising. When I first heard this album I did not like it. I thought it was a big step down from their previous releases, and their post-hardcore tribal sound was starting to get a bit old with me. But that was nearly 20 years ago, and this is now.

Given to the Rising is the quintessential Neurosis album. It has everything that a fan of the band would want: huge, larger than life riffs, ambient sections that are both calming and disconcerting at the same time, tribal drumming from Noah, and dynamics like only Neurosis can create. It's not my favorite album of theirs by any means, but it certainly is better than I remembered it when it first came out. There is no other band creating music like this, so the fact that this is par for the course for Neurosis still puts it miles ahead of the average metal or hardcore band.

Entry 1149 - Negura Bunget - Virstele Pamintului

Style: Black metal, ambient, folk 

Primary Emotions/Themes: A primitive and highly atmospheric trip into the Romanian forests

Thoughts: Negura Bunget is one of the best bands to ever come out of black metal, I will die on this hill. Not every album is incredible, however the ones that show what the band is truly capable of are elite... this is one of those albums.

While this album does not contain Sol Faur or Hupogrammos, Negru and company still create an album worthy of the Negura Bunget name. While not nearly as complex or as chaotic as the trio's albums, Virstele manages to replicate the atmosphere that the earlier albums have, and even expand on it. 

Starting out with a six minute ambient introduction is a bold move, but it works perfectly with what the rest of the album has to offer. A vast majority of the album is more subdued than anything else the band has put out in the past, with the metal almost taking a back seat to the ambient and folk elements. There are multiple moments on the album where there is no metal for minutes on end, where the music takes a more primitive turn. It relies on percussion and keyboards to bring out the intended results. 

Negura Bunget will always be one of my favorite bands. They didn't always produce amazing material, but when they did it goes to say that I hold that music in the highest regard. RIP Negru. 

Entry 1148 - Negura Bunget - N Crugu Bradului

Style: folk inspired black metal, experimental black metal, ambient

Primary Emotions/Themes: Odd song structures, time signatures, and influence come together to create an album that sounds odd  yet entirely compelling at the same time

Thoughts: The first five minutes of N Crugu Bradului are a perfect snap shot for the whole album. The first minute is nothing but ambient pads and nature sounds. It transitions slowly into two guitars strumming single notes over each other, slowly, delicately. Then by two minutes we have the whole band coming in and playing a riff that sounds completely different out of the right speaker than it does the left. When the vocals finally do come in, the whole band seems to be doing their own thing. The bass is off playing unrelated notes, the guitars both have their own speaker, and the drums are just trying to do something that makes it all hang together by a thread.

Then 3:30 seconds comes in. This is where everyone stops their individual noodling and the band formulates one of the single most powerful riffs I've heard in a long time. It is laser focused and everyone in the band is doing exactly what they need to to make the music sound good and cohesive. It's such a huge change from everything else that came before it that it still takes me aback after all these years of listening.

The remainder of the album follows this formula to various degrees. The band largely does whatever they want, with moments where it all comes together. It shouldn't sound good, yet somehow it does. This is Ulcerate's riffing style before Ulcerate was even a thing. A masterwork of a record.

Entry 1147 - Necrosphere

Style: video game music 

Primary Emotions/Themes: A modern uncompressed take at 8 bit video game soundtracks

Thoughts: I think one of my biggest issues with getting into really old school video game music is the compression that is used to get the blips and bloops on the cartridge. I find that a vast majority of the time I'm put off by the limitations of the hardware, and it takes a really special soundtrack to get me beyond that. 

Now when a soundtrack uses the same instruments as those of yesteryear but does not put them through the same compression, I'm curious at the very least. Necrosphere does just that. It takes the same bleeps and bloops you would find in the 1980's video game soundtracks and creates an uncompressed soundtrack. The resultant music not only sounds like video game music, but it also gives a very specific atmosphere that no other genre of music can match.

These bleeps and bloops manage to create an atmosphere that is somewhere in between retro video games and a creepy ambient composition. The music is more subtle than the scores of yesteryear and that is what draws my curiosity into outright attention. After having listened to this for some time now, I can confidently say that Necrosphere is a great album on it's own. Even outside the context of the game itself.