Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this quarter:

• Lusaint: “Wicked Game” (2021)
• The Smile: “Zero Sum” (2024)
• Foxing: Foxing (2024)
• Jhariah: Trust Ceremony (2024)
• Godspeed You! Black Emperor: No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead (2024)
• Xiu Xiu: 13″ Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips (2024)
• Colin Stetson: The Love It Took to Leave You (2024)
• Ekaterina Shelehova: “Earth Melodies” (2021), “Awakening” (2023), “Savage Daughter” (2023), “My Mother Told Me” (2024)
• Time is a Mountain: III (2021)
• Crystal Antlers: EP (2008), Tentacles (2009)
• Patricia Brennan: Breaking Stretch (2024)
• SML: Small Medium Large (2024)
• ØKSE: ØKSE (2024)
• Ches Smith: Laugh Ash (2024)
• Joey Duran: “The Meteorologist” (2024)

Rediscovered or revisited, and really liked:¹

• Arcade Fire: Funeral (2004), Neon Bible (2007), The Suburbs (2010), Reflektor (2013)
• Islands: Return to the Sea (2006)
• Electrelane: Rock It to the Moon (2001)
• 65daysofstatic: The Fall of Math (2004)
• Fuck Buttons: Street Horrrsing (2008), Tarot Sport (2009), Slow Focus (2013)
• Blanck Mass: “Cruel Sport” (2015), World Eater (2017), “Death Drop” (2019)
• Vessels: White Fields & Open Devices (2008)
• Magyar Posse: Kings of Time (2004), “European Lover / Random Avenger” & “Intercontinental Hustle” (2006)
• Jacaszek: “Dare-Gale” and “As Each Tucked String Tells” (2011)
• Menomena: I Am the Fun Blame Monster! (2003), Under an Hour (2006), Friend and Foe (2007)
• The Mars Volta: Tremulant (2002), Deloused in the Comatorium (2003), Frances the Mute (2005), The Bedlam in Goliath (2008)
• Far Corner: Far Corner (2004), Endangered (2007)
• By the End of Tonight: Fireworks on Ice (2004), “Uncontrollable Like a Teenage Daughter” (2006), A Tribute to Tigers (2007)
• Mono: “Com” (2002)
• Mew: Frengers (2003)
• Apparat: Multifunktionsebene (2001), Duplex (2003)
• Hauschka: Salon des Amateurs (2011), Silfra (2012), Abandoned City (2014), What If (2017)
• Blues Traveler: “Hook” (1994)
• White Flight: White Flight (2006), White Ark (2009)
• Tape: Rideau (2005)
• Ben Frost: “Theory of Machines” (2007), “Peter Venkman Pt. 1” & “Peter Venkman Pt. 2” (2022)
• Simian Mobile Disco: “Sleep Deprivation” (2007)
• Hot Chip: “Over and Over” (2006), “Flutes” (2012)
• The Killers: Hot Fuss (2004)
• Ratatat: Ratatat (2004), Classics (2006), LP3 (2008), LP4 (2010)
• LCD Soundsystem: LCD Soundsystem (2005), Sound of Silver (2007), 45:33 (2007), American Dream (2017)
• MGMT: Oracular Spectacular (2007)
• Lindstrom: “Fast & Delirious” (2006), “Where I Go You Go Too” (2008)
• Vitalic: OK Cowboy (2005)
• Justice: Cross (2007), “Civilization” (2011)
• !!!: The Dis-Ease / The Funky Branca (1998), “Instinct” (1999), !!! (2000), Louden Up Now (2004), Myth Takes (2007)
• Field: “Looping State of Mind” (2011)
• James Holden: “Lump” & “Idiot” (2006), The Inheritors (2013), The Animal Spirits (2017), Imagine This Is a High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities (2023)
• Andy Stott: Luxury Problems (2012)
• Jon Hopkins: Immunity (2013)
• The Fiery Furnaces: Blueberry Boat (2004)
• Earthless: Sonic Prayer (2005), Rhythms from a Cosmic Sky (2007), “From the Ages” (2013)
• Between the Buried and Me: “Ants of the Sky” (2007)
• Dale Cooper Quartet: Parole de Navarre (2007), Quatorze pièces de menace (2013)
• Tank: “Gunnar” (1997)
• Alcest: Souvenirs d’un autre monde (2007), Écailles de lune (2010), Kodama (2016), Spiritual Instinct (2019), Les Chants de l’aurore (2024)
• Parallel Mind: Colossus ADEA (2005)
• Torche: “Triumph of Venus” (2008)

Movies/TV

Ones I “really liked” (no star), or “loved” (star):

• Various, Shogun (2024)
• Various, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, season 13 (2018)

Games

All games I finished or decided to stop playing:

• Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora: I played this ~1yr ago but only recently decided I wouldn’t be going back to it. I enjoyed it quite a lot. Like many people, the main thing I want from an Avatar video game is to wander around in its incredibly lush world, interact with its beautiful plants and animals, fly on ikran, etc. And this game delivered that fantasy. The rest of the game is moderately modified Far Cry, which was fine by me. I think I played about 50% of the way through, which was enough for me given how little of my time budget is devoted to video games these days.
• God of War Ragnarok: A generally excellent sequel, though of course not as innovative as its predecessor. I made it to the boss fight with Heimdall, but found that fight too annoying to complete. I suppose if the world and level design here was as good as FromSoft then I would have ground my way through or spent a bunch of time finding a workable cheese, like I do when I hit an annoying boss fight in FromSoft games.

Books

I post book ratings and reviews to my Goodreads account instead of here.

My only five-star read this quarter was Red Country. Some books I previously rated 5 stars were downgraded because I decided to change where my thresholds are.

It’s unfortunate that I consume fiction during generally low-attention time, in audiobook, and that I have such particular tastes about writing style. There are many great stories that I’m DNF’ing or only half-liking as a result, and I’d enjoy them more if I had a more flexible reading appetite like I do with music and film/TV. Fortunately, this factor is somewhat compensated for by the fact that there are far more excellent books than there are excellent films / TV shows.

1. I think I hadn’t heard some of the classical pieces before, but I’m not sure which ones. [↩]