Ok so let's try something a little different - the roulette format will be mostly standard, as my other attempts have been quite flawed tbh, but each round will have a loose theme for you folks to follow.
Format and rules- 8 themed rounds
- 2 songs per round: the first song will follow the round's theme, and the second song will be its opposite, or complementary if you will. For example, a track about celebrating life and seizing the day, and another one about the inevitability of death and the passage of time. Or a metal song and a ballad. Be creative.
- Maximum length for each song is suggested at 10 mins, and a combined length of 20 mins. Please don't take this as a goal of how much music to fit in that time, but as a warning. These days I prefer songs in the 5-7 mins range.
- Both tunes can be from the same artist or different ones
- I prefer Spotify links, but Youtube is fine as well
- Send your submissions through DMs
- Once results are up, I'd like to have every entry within 48 hs
- I'm aiming to have results every week, and the typical games to entertain us
- I'll probably take a break after round 4 for the holidays and that stuff. Maybe a bit before if I see activity diminishes on the forum
- Scoring out of 5
Round themesUseful linksTastesI've had some breakthroughs on my own self these last few years, and in consequence, gained a bit more insight in what I like and not in music. To me it's very important to see myself reflected, on some level, on what I listen to. It's a matter of identity and emotional connection - that's why I frequently used words like "I admire this but I don't connect with it" in previous roulettes, to the desperation of everybody
.
So, what is Sacul music? It's a little tricky to define, as it's very obvious to me, but not to you, even those that have known me for some time here. But I'll try. Please try to think of these things as a spectrum rather than a black and white thing.
Some core aspects that are important to me are
dynamics,
personality, and
liminality.
With
dynamics I mean the opposite of monotone, one-dimensionality, and to a certain extent, predictability. A good example of a band that does this well is Deftones imo, most of their songs and albums have a great balance between harsh sounds and more mellow passages, the direct sound of guitar riffs, and the quiet ambience of Chino's whispers. This also explains why I'm quite bored with a lot of death and black metal - it's mostly blast beats and harsh vocals nonstop. When everything is intense, then nothing really is. Albums like Converge's Jane Doe are at the very limit of my patience for this, and as such, can only listen to them very sparingly, or a few songs at a time. Ambient music is also very tricky for me, as lacking enough dynamics it can become wallpaper music, but when the right balance strikes, I love it. This is also the reason why I'm not into Leprous - Einar just dominates the whole thing, and I'm not even that fan of that singing style.
Sometimes a lack of dynamics can be somewhat compensated with a strong
personality, but of course my favorite music is a blend of both. What I mean by this aspect is the opposite of generic or run-of-the-mill. For instance, Devin Townsend or Anathema have very recognizable styles that sets them apart, even if their influences can be a bit obvious at times. That's why sending me generic prog metal is gonna tank here, sorry
.
The last aspect,
liminality, is a bit harder to define, but I see it as a sort of duality or multiplicity of things (like this roulette!). A sense of being in a place of transition, sometimes neither here not there, but somewhere else. Sometimes it's both - I really enjoy genre blending, and many of my favorite artists have been pretty successful at doing so and reinventing themselves. Steven Wilson might be my single favorite music artist for this very thing - he's done pop, ambient, weird shit, atmospheric rock, a bit of metal, prog, electronic, and more. His last album combined all of these aspects and that's why I loved it so much. And also why I prefer the first GYBE! albums to what came afterwards, as they kinda started playing it safe and become just "post-rock" instead of something else.
I often use music as catharsis, a way to sort of force myself to connect with my emotions deeply, and come out better. For instance, listening to sad music when I'm feeling blue actually helps confront those feelings, and I end up calmer afterwards. This also applies to angsty music, like Nine Inch Nails or even Porcupine Tree at their heavier moments, they help release the tension. So yeah, strong emotions are definitely something I crave for.
My tastes tend to skew towards modernity, that is, most of my favorite albums are from the mid 90s til the mid 2010s, with a large concentration in the 2000s. Older music I've been slowly getting into, but it can be pretty hit or miss. I'm also very open to any vocal style, unless it's extremely high pitched and feeling like a cat screaming. I'm also open to pretty much any music style out there (even harsh noise and experimental shit), but with time I've recognized some that I just don't vibe with:
- Old school funk and soul
- Trap
- Reggaeton
- Most punk music for some reason
- Thrash and heavy metal
- Grindcore
- Most black/death metal
Lately I've been really enjoying 70s prog again, and slowly warming up to 80s Pop and New Wave, all from my home country, Argentina. I also used to be quite obsessed with Trip Hop and Downtempo electronic music.
And finally, an updated list with my favorite artists, roughly ordered, and my favorite song from each of them:
Anathema (The storm before the calm)
Porcupine Tree (Anesthetize)
Nine Inch Nails (The day the world went away)
Deftones (Change (in the house of flies))
Ulver (EOS)
Luis Alberto Spinetta (Cantata de puentes amarillos)
Steven Wilson (Deform to form a star)
Massive Attack (Risingson)
Sufjan Stevens (4th of july)
Gustavo Cerati (Bocanada)
Akira Yamaoka (Letter - from the lost days)
Charly García (Los dinosaurios)
Nicolas Jaar (No)
Fishmans (Walking in the rhythm)
Burial (Loner)
Kashiwa Daisuke (Sons)
Portishead (Roads)
Talk Talk (Living in another world)
Radiohead (Exit music (for a film))
Godspeed You! Black Emperor (The dead flag blues)
Nils Frahm (For - peter - toilet brushes - more)
Pink Floyd (Us and them)
Riverside (Hybrid times)
Neutral Milk Hotel (King of carrot flowers pt. 1)
Sigur rós (Starálfur)
Darren Korb (Paper boats)
Dream Theater (Repentance)
Have a nice life (Earthmover)
Rage against the machine (Born of a broken man)
David Bowie (Lazarus)
Banned list- Artists that get a 4 or more, are banned from the rest of the roulette
- Every artist on my rateyourmusic that has a release with a 4 or more, is banned
- For every artist that is not banned from the previous rule, but has a release I've rated, all songs from said release are banned. Both live and studio versions from other releases too.
Players- Crow
- Buddyhunter1
- Lizzo
- ariich
- Indiscipline
- HOF
- King Puppies and the Acid Guppies
- Vmadera00
- twosuitsluke
- soupytwist
- faizoff
- romdrums
- Shadow Ninja 2.0
- ReaperKK
- Elite
Scoreboardtwosuitsluke 39
Indiscipline 38.5
Buddyhunter1 38.25
ariich 38
King Puppies and the Acid Guppies 38
Crow 37.75
-----
HOF 37.75
Lizzo 35.5
Shadow Ninja 2.0 29
romdrums 27.5
Elite 19.5
faizoff 18.75
ReaperKK 13.25
Vmadera00 12.25
soupytwist 11.75