Fire-Toolz

Mentioned in various threads but kinda think they need their own thread by now. I absolutely love how their put-everything-into-a-blender always seems to not work for half a second and then ends up making perfect sense. New album just out:

https://fire-toolz.bandcamp.com/album/i-am-upset-because-i-see-something-that-is-not-there

Thank you, Ned! Fire-Toolz definitely deserving of their own thread, but I hope this can also be a place to discuss Angel Marcloid’s other projects, which imo are often just as compelling. On top of all that they do professional mixing/mastering. Total polymath genius.

I especially dig Nonlocal Forecast (Weather Channel music gone ultra-proggy):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBaWYCTQt6k

…and Mindspring Memories (the only slushwave that can hold a candle to the best of Telepath):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRGhC56Y1eQ

New album is definitely a major moment, glad Marcloid has gotten the blessing of her own thread

2023: the year vaporwave broke

Anyway I like her MM stuff better. I can share recs if there’s interest

awwww my friend did a video for this band!

wait which friend

I think the track is "The Great Allower"

I only heard of this band because he posted the video

Thought so. That video + song is absolutely sick as hell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqdqbT8xnHk

does it make you want to bop around?

it makes me want to Transcend Reality but also Relax

there is a top bloke at the University associated with our m8, scaruffi, about whom we joke about ... because this bloke said once that he likes to "bop around to a bit of E-40"

okay fine yes I do wish to bop around to this too, just in a very cosmically satisfied way

cheers m8!

https://mindspringmemories.bandcamp.com/album/e-a-r-l-y-t-r-a-n-c-e

I've liked everything I've heard from them, the sound is always interesting. But the new album seems like their masterpiece, and is the first one I love.

ok so the guitar solo from "novaturient wave-form collapse" is one of the more sublime musical moments in recent memory

I like this new track by Danish artist GNOM co-written by Fire-Toolz, with them singing and playing guitar as well. And they mastered the entire album, though I don't really know what difference that is supposed to make.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktOUevztFKw

She has an audio mastering business so

…she’d probably argue that it means quite a bit

been listening to her off and on since "drip mental", i should probably spend more time checking out her stuff!

avoiding running reports so i'm watching this interview with angel marcloid and i'm finding it really cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atWif5ttKNo

the mastering part of her work is one of the things that definitely stands out to me... i don't know what to compare it to other than, like, bob drake, just that kind of approach to sound reminds me of marcloid.

I don't know it's interesting hearing her talk about the pandemic and all those things. It seems like a long time ago but I was just thinking about it earlier today. Like, how at the beginning of the pandemic everybody put up all these signs and we were all optimistic and cheerful about "WE CAN DO THIS TOGETHER!", and then by the time of this interview in October... I was a mess, that was my first intensive outpatient program of the pandemic. I was just falling apart.

And now I don't feel all that weight, all that stress and tension, all that feeling like wanting to rip into everybody I see, around the pandemic. But, like, when Angel talks about the pandemic affecting her she talks about not being able to go to a friend's wedding in Alabama. And I don't know, if it wasn't for the pandemic maybe in two thousand twenty she could have done that and it would have been fine. My friend 46 went to visit Alabama earlier this year and it wasn't fine.

fire-toolz mastered this record - she co-writes and does lead vox on "pelagia"

https://unifactor.bandcamp.com/album/children-of-cimmeria

i've been listening to her remixes today, i think that's her doing the guitar solo on her remix of CVN's "ruggedness"? sounds kinda like her style. whoever it is, that guitar solo is fucking _fire_

Do you have a favorite mindspring album?

I'll be honest she has like twelve billion records and I've heard maybe three. But I like those three! I guess I'll check out the latest, a collab with "desert sand feels warm at night". I'm on the mailing list, I don't do a lot of mailing lists but with Bandcamp, you know, you never know what'll happen.

Latest thing is this surprisingly faithful cover of the Rush song "Tai Shan" with her wife on vox, part of a comp of cover songs. I love cover songs, so I'm absolutely checking that one out. Even if "Song to the Siren" is listed as a This Mortal Coil cover.

https://faderlabel.bandcamp.com/album/fader-friends-volume-1

Oh neat, didn't know about the desert sand feels warm at night collab - I like some of their stuff

ymmv but I think that desert sand collab is pretty weak

What has Angel done now omfg :D

https://angelwingsmarmalade.bandcamp.com/album/kill-me-in-my-man-cave

This is BONKERS

What has Angel done now omfg :D

https://angelwingsmarmalade.bandcamp.com/album/kill-me-in-my-man-cave

― imago, Friday, January 26, 2024 2:49 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is BONKERS

― imago, Friday, January 26, 2024 2:50 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

It's interesting because it shows a completely different side of her work from _I Am Upset Because I See Something That Is Not There_. It's very much a... I've seen interviews, she's talked about having BPD, so I'm not reading my own experience into her work here, I don't think. Even though that's something I have a tendency to do. It's a common human behavior, really, it just stands out when I do it because my experience is different from other people's experience.

I've tried to put my hurt, my negative feelings, my trauma, into creative work, but it's not necessarily productive for me. I hope it's productive for her. I feel like you can get away with a lot more if you do it as "art". There's this sort of layer of abstraction to it. It's just never...

I was talking to some folks on a writing server about the difficulty I have writing, and I mentioned that my characters hate me. I have a lot of guilt about writing fiction because of the things I put my characters through. And they're like, you know, maybe you have dissociative identity disorder? And I have to take something like that seriously. I don't really view it that way, but sometimes, you know, people when they're teenagers write stories and they submit them for class and their teachers get really concerned and call your parents. And what comes out of that? Nothing comes out of that. You just learn not to talk about this stuff.

I guess my reaction to the album is "I hope she's doing OK." Which isn't a fair response to art. And maybe has a lot more to do with me _not_ doing OK right now than with her. But I really do hope she's doing OK.

In this interview: https://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks/a-guide-to-angel-marcloid-s-back-catalogue she talks about Angelwings Marmalade mostly being weird collages, but I think this sounds a lot more worked over than that? It's pretty great, though also a tough listen...

I've been on a Fire-Toolz binge the last few weeks. She's very good from the beginning, but I'd still say 'I am upset because I see something that is not there' is next level.

i thought i found this on this thread but maybe it was just recommended to me by youtube... anyway this is a fun watch so far. idk if i should link it because there is DOXXING going on tho :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGLEq40oJSY

terrible, horrible doxxing

isn't she cool! what a cool one

new full-length coming

https://fire-toolz.bandcamp.com/album/breeze

get hyped

hyped? I've already bought the damn coffee mug lol

but not the trucker hat?

i gotta admit that trucker hat looks tempting

kinda tangential, angel mastered this, but i'd definitely categorize this as RIYL nonlocal forecast

https://jtholen.bandcamp.com/album/new-active-object