peripheral phenomena

Albums I want to revisit this month

Swans - The Gate still house plants - s/t (a 10/10) The Books - The Lemon of Pink (revisiting after ~5-6 years) Arthur Russell - Another Thought (Happy Pride Month) Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee (Happy Pride Month) Magdalena Bay - mini mix vol. 3 (EP) Pan Sonic - Kesto

Albums I want to try from artists I'm familiar with this month

Disco Inferno - Technicolor Ø (Mika Vainio) - Olento Cameron Picton - 44m50s Lucy Dacus - Historian (Happy Pride Month) Graham Lambkin / Jason Lescalleet - Photographs

New albums I want to listen to this month

Moonshake - Eva Luna Staubitz and Waterhouse - Common Metals Water From Your Eyes - It's a Beautiful Place (Happy Pride Month) Mal Blum - The Villain (Happy Pride Month) bloodthirsty butchers - Birdy Kim Petras - Detour (Happy Pride Month) Des Rocs - Dream Machine VENUS-426 - songs of post-apocalyptic yearnings Maral - Mahur Club Beagle Vortex - Through the Ages username - God Bless

things i want to read this month

Ursula K. Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness (Happy Pride Month)

Things I want to watch this month

Soli City - PARADOXE

Disco Inferno - Summer's Last Sound

Meaningful Stone - If I Grow Up

I have a deep affection for shoegaze and dream pop coming into close contact with electronic music a la ambient techno, idm, or whatever else. The end result is almost always relaxing and comforting.

Some essential listening from this eclectic mishmash:

Seefeel - Spangle

Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy

Doss - Strawberry

--- After the 2010s shoegaze revival this take on shoegaze and electronic is not so rare. Strawberry by Doss is maybe my favourite modern track that does this.

Caroline Polachek's 2023 album plays with a lot of visual imagery that continously harkens back to the same underlying lyrical themes to create extremely cohesive motifs. One that I noticed shortly after listening to the album and viewing the promotional artwork were the ants and what they might mean.

And! although featured less prominently, they also show up on the album cover itself on the bottom right, crawling beside Caroline's hand.

It's easy to miss :)

But what do the ants mean? It doesn't seem like there's anything online that can be easily found explaining this, either from Polachek herself or fans.

r/Carolinepolachek - "WHAT'S UP WITH THE ANTS!?"

Like countless others, the poor user replying months later is "still wondering". These small insects are some sort of recondite symbolism that Caroline cared enough to repeatedly sprinkle in, after all.

My personal interpretation is that the ants connect to one of the central themes of the album, that of dreaming, hallucinations, and mirages. Seeing insects crawling on your skin (much like what's happening to Caroline in the second image I posted) is a known visual hallucination that many people have reported experiencing.

And in case you're not aware, this is extremely relevant for the lyrical themes on Desire. The "Island" in Welcome to my Island almost certainly an ephemeral and dreamlike concept if not straight up an allusion to a mirage itself. Just watch the accompanying MV. Hopedrunk Everasking references "(star)light in a tunnel" on its very first verse. Pretty In Possible is abundant with hazy, angelic vocalisations - a song that Polachek commented "finds me at street level, daydreaming". I Believe is all about the concept of an afterlife, which although not explicitly a "halluination" definitely fits the bill. Other tracks are far more perspicuous (explaining "It's just smoke" or the majority of Butterfly Net's lyrics is about as helpful as just reading them, I feel).