Jeph Jacques's Blog, page 15

ardenttomatostudio:Fanart: Alice Grove - AliceAlice Grove is...

ardenttomatostudio:

Fanart: Alice Grove - Alice

Alice Grove is by Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content. It’s just getting started, so now is a really good time to start reading it.

yesssssss

Alice you’re getting creepy

Alice you’re getting creepy

This is the song of the month over on my Patreon, and for the...

This is the song of the month over on my Patreon, and for the holidays I thought I’d share it with the rest of you.

love and kisses,

jeph

uh

uh 

ಠ‿ಠ

ಠ‿ಠ

My 10 Favorite Albums of 2014

It’s that time again, time to talk about my very favorite music that came out this year!

10.

Christian Loeffler- Young Alaska

Young Alaska is Loeffler’s strongest effort to date, featuring carefully crafted, detail-oriented techno that is equal parts Four Tet, Pantha Du Prince, and a slowly melting glacier. If the album reflects Alaska, it’s Alaska on a sunny day with the temperature just above freezing.

9.

Lone- Reality Testing

There are few producers as instantly recognizable as Lone. his shimmering, technicolor synths and penchant for lively, house-inflected melodies sets him apart from much of today’s grim, soot-blackened dance music. Hit single and album standout “Airglow Fires” is a perfect encapsulation of the Lone sound.

8.

This Will Destroy You- Another Language

After the radical shift towards drone-based experimentation on 2011’s Tunnel Blanket, TWDY make a return to their more accessible guitar and keyboard driven post-rock, but with a new emphasis on songwriting craft. Another Language shows marked maturation, full of inventive key changes and improved musicianship, particularly from drummer Alex Bhore. TWDY have released consistently good albums for the majority of their career, and their continuing upward trajectory marks them as one of post-rock’s premier bands.

7.

Ben Frost- A U R O R A

A U R O R A is punishing. From the opening screech of album opener “Flex” to the closing Venetian Snares-meets-Aphex Twin freakout “A Single Point of Blinding Light,” Ben Frost has crafted a record that can be overwhelming, practically exhausting to listen to, but also transcendent in its blasts of full-spectrum noise and distorted grandeur.

6.

Rustie- Green Language

Rustie really wants to be a hip-hop producer. That much is clear on his followup to the incomparable Glass Swords, one of my all-time favorite albums. The album opens with a double fakeout, two glistening tracks that both feel like intros and indicate that we’re onto something different this time around. Then “Raptor” comes in, the bass drops, and everything goes crazy. Green Language sounds miles ahead of Rustie’s earlier work in terms of sound quality- the songs move and breathe like nothing he’s done before, the musical equivalent of 4K TV versus an old tube set. There may not be many rappers willing to tackle Rustie’s exuberant music, but Danny Brown absolutely slays on “Attak,” the single that perhaps best demonstrates what Rustie was aiming for with this album.

5.

Kangding Ray- Solens Arc

Solens Arc begins with the crackling stomp of “Serendipity March,” taking you down a flight of rusted stairs to a sub-sub-basement rave lit only by blacklights and smartphones- Neuromancer techno. I haven’t heard another album this year as cohesive as Solens Arc, whose dedication to exploring rhythmic darkness stands as a singular achievement.

4.

Animals As Leaders- The Joy of Motion

Prog metal isn’t cool. It’s indulgent, and stuffy, and inaccessible to anybody who hasn’t fantasized about working at a guitar store at some point in their lives. But AAL virtuoso Tosin Abasi is cool. His breathtaking skill and innovative technique are inarguable, but what really sets him and his band apart from their peers are their ability to take even the most treacherous riffs and song structures and turn them into something you can nod your head to. Abasi’s taste as a musician has taken a step forward, focusing on more melodic, lyrical soloing as opposed to the sheer flash of his earlier work. And new drummer Matt Garstka breathes  life into the band, the push and pull of his drumming both supporting the guitars and demanding attention, and awe, of its own. Album standout “Lippincott” features some of the coolest guitar playing you’ll hear this year.

3.

Machinedrum- Vapor City Archives

I’ve seen Vapor City Archives described as merely a collection of outtakes from his previous album, or simply more of the same, a vein continuing to be mined to diminishing returns. Its place on my list should indicate how strongly I disagree with these sentiments. If anything, it’s better paced than its predecessor, and album standouts “Boxoff” and particularly “2 B Luvd” are some of the best tracks Machinedrum has produced yet.

2.

Aphex Twin- Syro

It’s new Aphex Twin. That alone should be enough to sell this album, but the fact that it’s solid, gorgeous, and surprisingly accessible make it perhaps the most essential listen of 2014. A triumphant return and a reminder that nobody does it like Richard D. James.

1.

Andy Stott- Faith In Strangers

This marks the second year Andy Stott has topped my favorite-album lists, and it’s with good reason. Faith In Strangers is a breathtaking left turn. It begins with the dolorous horns of “Time Away,” and segues into the heartwrenching, earthshaking “Violence” (which has perhaps the greatest and most ironic exhortation to “clap your hands, clap your hands” in music history). From there we get the gorgeous chorus-in-a-factory “On Oath,” and the propulsive beauty of “Science And Industry.” “No Surrender” is all aggression, and “How It Was” channels Stott’s knack for decayed sound into a surprisingly spry, danceable number. “Damage” is a, well, damaged take on the hip-hop inflected post-dubstep Rustie tacked in Green Language. “Faith In Strangers” is far and away the most surprising track on the album, a straightforward new/no-wave song composed of little else but vocals, live bass, and drum machine. It’s shocking to hear Stott write a pop song. The album closes with “Missing,” a cavernous reduction of Faith In Strangers’ totality, and a fitting end to my favorite record of 2014.

2014 Holiday Ordering Deadlines

2014 Holiday Ordering Deadlines:

topatoco:

At TopatoCo, we are not a billion-dollar corporation with hundreds of thousands of underpaid workers on the precipice of uprising. We’re just a few reasonably happy people that get paid okay and try real hard! We have no drones, no box-folding robots, no conveyor belts and no “corporate…

jupebox:claire honey you are killing me. stop it. stop being...

jupebox:

claire honey you are killing me. stop it. stop being so cute.

:3

ephilog:I guess the logical thing to do would have been to end...

ephilog:

I guess the logical thing to do would have been to end INKtober with something Halloween-y. I don’t care about your pumpkin holiday, all I wanted to do was draw Claire fanart!!

so cuuuuuuuute

littlefroggies:2 $5 request stream sketches of Questionable...

littlefroggies:

2 $5 request stream sketches of Questionable Content characters, Faye and Claire. It’s always fun when you get money to draw something you wanted to draw anyway.

omg