The Cultural Decay

 The Cultural Decay - Eight Ways to Start a Day

 

An album that tied my night of reading Brave New World analysis and scribbling down ideas on my journal perfectly. I felt almost immediately at home within the discordant vocals and the ever swaying melodies that feel like an easy current and a dance between punches, a drunken stroll and a blissful swim across oceans of strobe lights, a whimsical violence at times poking at times stabbing, a timeless cold wave post punk atmosphere I could fall back into. In 1981 they released their 7" single with the songs Brave New World and End of The Corridor. In 1982 their 12" ep with Business Business/Fragile Object and Song of Joy. Then, in 2009, they release the album "Eight Ways to Start a Day" which essentially compiles everything (singles, demos) a bit more info can be found on their bandcamp! I think the last few songs, and how this collage of an album blends together in a stream of more disarray leaves quite a finish, an after taste of punk overbearing..somehow feels like staring at a well endlessly for hours. I wonder if anyone's uploaded the booklet online, haven't checked yet.

YURUFUWA GANG

JUST FOUND OUT ABOUT THEIR COOL WEBSITE: https://yurufuwagang.com, Japanese rap duo with AMAZING swag. Nene, Ishida Ryugo and their producer Automatic have a wonderfully fun and cynical sound accentuated by their laidback personalities, love for fashion and sick visuals. Their website has Nene's tattooed hand for a cursor. 

The song “See You!” off of their album Journey was what got me hooked with the music video being on replay. With some social commentary interlaced within the themes of their songs, they front authenticity at the core of their music and each song is a new way to embrace every “weird” thing about them. Flaunting the weird and embracing it. Their beats reflect it effortlessly, their raps blend into that and impose a subliminal message of just … taking it easy.

 Yurufuwa gang - See You! mv

Their album Journey sounds like traveling into space and landing on brand new civilizations in different galaxies but seamlessly co-existing with that and make the journey your own. Psychedelic, playful and careless. The melody they sing in the chorus of “See You!” Tugs the rest of the song into place and genuinely stuck in my head because it feels like a bratty child explaining to you why they're right and you're most definitely wrong as they pick up their toys and play away from you with a newfound joy. Another music video that comes to mind is for their song "On The Ground" dancing in egypt with the pyramids as their background talking about smoking hashish, I mean like yeah what else are you going to do in egypt.

Nene also has a solo career with a bunch of cool music videos that show off her personal style more. Yurufuwa Gang have some dope tattoos as well, one of my favorites is the one Nene has on her torso and I can’t exactly remember what she said about how she got it but she is the type of person to act instinctively and collect the stones to her path as she struts along. (Found the video where she talked about it !)

 

A Word on Rising Against

I am proud I saw a part of me I so confidentially knew I had sheathed was able to come out. A physiological "disturbance", a consistent turbulence, my legs planted, the blood my witness. This blooming of a new form of expression left it's effect reverberating. I could feel it day by day with every word that shook its way out, an awakening, a guide put to light that painted my being, wrapped and unwrapped it, pushed and pulled it to show it how to stand still. I am proud of that change within me, waiting happily, released. I am also grateful to have been amongst friends with solid principles. I feel a new wind wafting in, like an excitement of a different kind coursing through me.

I found Gerald Keaney's little talk on youtube titled "Why punk philosophy? Why now?" to be kind of reminiscent of thoughts i had swimming around my head: (also the slideshow of his outfits throughout the years was pretty sick)

-Philosophy as a means of asking questions outside of specialized inquiries, to break free from the strains put upon it by academia and an integrity tarnished by  institutions constant need to push profit-making to any extents reachable (and imaginable...). Philosophy as a part of change rather than just a way of viewing the world. "Foot note" philosophy as in nitpicking too much to the point where it becomes about imposing some sort of fictitious intellectual superiority and praising

-De-favor profits by encouraging rebellion hence the silencing of any seeds that plant a thought standing in the way of that. A certain monstrous complacency that feeds a vicious cycle stemming from power hungry profiteers.

I also found his linked blog post on DIY a nice read too, as someone who is constantly trying to find outlets to create and to just PUSH myself to create no matter the means or condition, to express and see a part of me OUT, and see it's effect on both myself as a bounce back ping pong effect and the world around me..then to learn from that and keep finding new ways. I feel this with this blog, I'm a bit bad at making things "pretty" or "tidy" so I just do them and allow them to take the form they need to take for now. I like letting things change and develop (or if they won't then they won't and so be it!) so long as I give them a start. "Focusing on creativity over immediate practicality." -Ne plus ultra: the highest point attainable.

JANUARY START/TOMMY AIRLINE AT THE AIRPORT AND ENDING WINTER BREAK

Well, 2 weeks at my grandma’s house went by faster than I could remember how it started. This winter break was dominated by DRAMAtical murder as it was my first time playing it and holy shit nothing could have prepared me for the grip it has on me , i mean besides Aoba’s life-altering twink pose (“blue guy with headphones on bed” as previously referred to by me…) I went into this game completely blind! Entranced by the extremely 2012 yaoi realness of it, it took me back to a beautiful time of growing up with unrestricted internet access. Not only that but it was just truly. Good. An enjoyable ass game. Sci-fi, mind control, an evil organization promising utopia, a funky world with both old fashioned gangs and yakuza, and the emergence of an extremely advanced cyber game that happens in this virtual inter-psyche world…all in this same universe. I mean I could go on forever so this should be a separate post but whats fresh off my brain right now, after completing all the endings is definitely the seamless incorporation of what i decided to call selfcest with a twist??? Sure, its a form of self acceptance for Aoba but yeah why not fuck your dog robot that carries a part of your own self THAT originated from some genetic modification you had as a tube baby..originally serving to protect you from the THIRD part of yourself that is more or less out of control OKAY YEAH needs its own post. It’s good. And fun. Virus and Trip should have kissed. Anyway! My cousin made some great pancakes and I can still taste them in my mouth although she’s, as of now, gatekeeping the recipe. Will update soon.

 

This weather, definitely not as cold as it should be…Not enough gloomy skies and dreamy rains but it still inspires listening to 13 minute wonderfully mind-numbing doom metal songs, Windhand being my favorite example in mind. 

Windhand - Grey Garden 

Note: I started writing this a while ago before boarding the plane to get back home, I'm finally getting to finishing this a few days later ^__^  and yes i gave Tommy february6's album "Tommy Airline" a first listen back then and enjoyed it, I had heard her music before since I watched Paradise Kiss so I knew what to expect but I specially enjoyed how it felt like a fashion show in Nimbasa City from Pokemon black/white version. It packs a specific charm, it's upbeat, it's sweet and melancholic but fun like it could change your world in a dressing room but it could also hold your hand falling from a ferris wheel (permitting myself another Nimbasa City reference..and speaking of ferris wheels tommy's music also feels like that part of Sputnik Sweetheart by Murakami where Sumire's stuck in the gondola of one but instead of watching her apartment window in dread, she's watching a lively heartwarming house party and yearning to be there.) Another atmosphere that comes to mind is like heisei era realness if Tarozan's concept music has taught me anything.

Tommy february6 - Tommy Airline  [dl]

Disappear - Tarozan 

Not Like Them - Tarozan

Nimbasa City 

Sputnik Sweetheart epub 

I've actually been leaning towards those kinds of sounds this week, that paint a flashy, colorful image with this tightly rolled core of overcoming the superficial by invoking the superficial and pushing it down to a new level then just enjoying things as they are...I'm definitely shining a light on Tarozan's projects; they bring this fresh liveliness to the genre, he's creating this new solid persona revolving around an atmosphere and every little bit he adds to his music/image serves to pull me further into that fun feel-good world. It also feels to me like a reminder to stay authentic in terms of self expression. He also does some sick mixes under kiraTV!

 KiraTV mix 

 (leaving the Love Exposure talk for another time but #tarozan_energy)

 

I've been mostly trying to compensate for the terrible sleep I had back at my grandma's house this week!! I'd say I succeeded at about 70%. On another note, my bursts of background wandering thoughts have come back and my latest topic was how words are only the meaning we intend for them to have, the meaning we imbue in them, how a conversation only forms through the guiding of our own beliefs into a string of nothing, now something. The same could be said about everything we touch I suppose. This is getting a bit longer than I intended so I'll cut it here !! I'm probably gonna use this blog as an outlet of all forms honestly and post more about music and media in general and speak on whatever inspiration i get from them <3