SpookyVanguard64 [he/him]

  • 93 Posts
  • 57 Comments
Joined 4 years ago
Cake day: July 26th, 2020
  • SpookyVanguard64 [he/him]@hexbear.nettomusic@hexbear.net•The Winstons - Amen BrotherEnglish
    1·
    1 month ago

    Sometime last year or earlier this year, someone in the Jungle subreddit posted a section of a 1992/93 1993 issue of some underground rave music magazine from the UK, specifically a section that contained an interview with Pascal & Sponge (who were producing Breakbeat Hardcore/Jungle songs together as Johnny Jungle at the time). The interview was pretty short and not that interesting in the grand scheme of things, but the one thing that stuck with me from it was a brief line from Pascal complaining that the Amen Break was overused lol.

    Which is pretty incredible when you consider the historical context. IIRC the first breakbeat to be sampled & used in a song was the Apache Break all the way back in 1980. By contrast, the Amen break wasn’t first used until 1986, and only 6-7 years later it had exploded in popularity to the point that some people were already starting to get tired of it. And in the 30 years since then, it’s continued to grow in popularity to the point that most casual fans of Breakbeat, old skool Hip-Hop, Jungle, DnB, Breakcore, IDM, etc. are at least somewhat familiar with it & it’s history. The Apache Break is still easily within the top 5 when it comes to most sampled breakbeats of all time, and it has nowhere near the same level of casual recognition. Even second most sampled breakbeat, the Think Break, doesn’t come close to the Amen on that front.

    Edit: Here’s the interview, and the relevant quote:

    Q: Do you prefer the music of today or the stuff that was around a year ago and what do you see as the future of rave music?

    A: I do prefer the music of today. I’m not sure about what the way ahead is though. I do think that everyone should stop using that Amen break because if anything is going to kill hardcore it will be that. People are going to get very tired of it. There are loads of breaks out there, it’s just that most people are too lazy to look and find them. Havibg [sic] said that I do think that the Amen breakbeat is the same for Hardcore as the bass drum is to House.

  • SpookyVanguard64 [he/him]@hexbear.netOPtomusic@hexbear.net•[OC] Best of Jungle 2023 Part 1English
    4·
    5 months ago

    The inclusion of the “Close Encounters” samples is kinda funny tbh, 'cause the whole reason I even had them was to make a bootleg remix of Siamese Minds - Killer Instinct. I started working on that bootleg around 3-4 weeks before I started on Cyberia '94, but haven’t finished it yet. Then when working on Cyberia '94, I had completed the two sections before & after the ambient section with the Closer Encounters samples, but transitioning directly between them didn’t sound right.

    So that whole section came about just 'cause I decided to bridge those two sections by switching into something completely different for a bit. And the thing I decided to switch into is basically just a rough recreation of a section of the intro for the Killer Instinct bootleg I’m working on (minus the drums & bass), which worked surprisingly well lol.

  • SpookyVanguard64 [he/him]@hexbear.netMtoneurodiverse@hexbear.net•first ever neurodiversity end-of-year discussion thread and hangout 2023English
    11·
    6 months ago

    Don’t have any ideas/feedback for the comm, but I figured I’d take the opportunity to talk about something I’ve had to deal with recently since I don’t know where else to talk about it:

    [TW: Surgery, open wound that's gross but not too serious]

    Had surgery on December 1st to repair a small hole in my left eardrum that I’ve had for most of my life. Surgery itself went well, and it seems like the hole in the eardrum hasn’t reopened, which is nice. It was a pretty major disruption my normal schedule though, due to temporary hearing loss & nausea, not taking my meds for a few days afterward, and not really getting any physical activity due to heavy lifting being off the table for the time being (cardio is fine, though I’ve barely done any outside of walking around at stores). Basically, it feels like my ADHD has been noticeably worse the past few weeks, though it’s been getting better as I’ve recovered.

    More recently though, I had a problem with one of the incisions from the surgery opening back up. During the surgery, the method they used meant that almost everything could be done through the ear canal, but they had to make two incisions on the outside. One on the back of my ear to get a piece of cartilage, and one on the scalp just above & behind the ear to get a bit of muscle fiber, both of which were used to help repair the eardrum. Those incisions were both sealed up with dissolve-able stitches that were supposed to last for around 5 weeks iirc. And the ones on the back of my ear are still holding up fine, but the ones on my scalp came undone.

    Not entirely sure why they came undone, though I caught a cold a couple weeks ago that’s been causing me to cough more than normal, so that’s the most likely reason. Regardless, I realized it had opened back up at the beginning of last week. Wasn’t too concerning at first 'cause it was covered by a scab, but that slowly fell out and I was basically left with a gaping wound by Christmas Eve (about 1 inch long, and about 1/8 of an inch wide & deep). Fortunately it didn’t get infected, it wasn’t really bleeding/discharging in any noticeable amount, I still have plenty of the the antibiotic ointment they gave me to put on it after the surgery, and it seems like it was starting to slowly close itself back up over the past couple days. So it honestly wasn’t that bad aside from the general grossness of it.

    I did get it checked out at an urgent care facility on Christmas Eve, and the Nurse Practitioner there gave me some oral antibiotics but said that it’d be risky to try and stitch it back up due to possible abscess build up. Today I was finally able to go back in for an appointment with the ear specialists (though not with the surgeon herself unfortunately), and they decided it was best to go ahead and stitch it back up, this time with regular stitches instead of the dissolve-able ones. Not going to declare my problems with it to be over yet, but hopefully it’ll continue to remain uninfected and heal better/faster now.

    Other than that, I’m actually doing pretty okay all things considered, just bit more tired & stressed out than usual. Also been working on my music more lately, probably mostly out of boredom tbh, but I’ve at least managed to make some pretty cool ideas. Was able to turn one of them into an almost fully complete track in under 24 hours, and a few others are half complete in a similar amount of time, which is more than I’m usually able to do lol.

  • SpookyVanguard64 [he/him]@hexbear.netOPtomusic@hexbear.net•Siamese Minds - Killer Instinct [Jungle] (1995)English
    2·
    6 months ago

    Someone else had actually uploaded this track to YT a while back. Then about 4-5 years ago it just disappeared for some reason and no one re-uploaded it until this channel did 6 months ago (which tbf, it’s a vinyl only release from 1995, so you can basically only get it through discogs nowadays). Don’t remember how many views the original upload had, but judging by similarly old Jungle videos, I think it would probably be closer to 10k at this point if it hadn’t been taken down.

  • SpookyVanguard64 [he/him]@hexbear.nettonews@hexbear.net•Pumpkins and Ooze Discussion for October 30th to November 5th, 2023 - The International Ghouls-Based Order - COTW: LebanonEnglish
    26·
    8 months ago

    Hezbollah definitely has spies deep enough within the Israeli government to at least be able to get an idea of what Israel’s planning to do.

    The recruitment of espionage agents in Israel for Hezbollah is associated mainly with the Arab population in Israel, including former Member of Knesset Azmi Bishara, who was suspected of supplying various intelligence information to Hezbollah during the Second Lebanon War in 2006; an IDF officer of Bedouin origin at the rank of lieutenant colonel who supplied intelligence information to Hezbollah early in the 2000s; and ordinary residents in various areas of Israel (Kulick, 2009). However, there are not only agents from minority Arab or Bedouin groups, but also Jewish agents who have supplied intelligence information to Hezbollah as part of drug deals (see below, Criminal case 36/03 State of Israel vs. Said ben Jamil Kahmouz).

    The information that the agents in Israel have supplied to Hezbollah is diverse, including the location of critical civilian and military infrastructure, orders of battle, border points, and information on IDF weapons. In addition, Hezbollah has sought to gather social information on diverse issues, including political rivalries, government systems, social struggles, social trends, and more, in order to identify strengths and weaknesses of Israeli society, military vulnerabilities, and future targets, and even in order to understand the mood in the country (Zeitoun et al., 2021; Kulick, 2009). The Israeli agents were recruited into Hezbollah service based on various motivations, including ideological and economic reasons (Kulick, 2009).

    https://www.inss.org.il/strategic_assessment/intelligence-agents-in-israel-hezbollahs-modus-operandi/

    Also IIRC, a few years back they posted a photo they took of Benjamin Netanyahu in his office (from the outside looking in, probably from an adjacent building), with the message basically being that they’re deep enough inside to potentially assassinate him while he’s at work.

  • SpookyVanguard64 [he/him]@hexbear.nettonews@hexbear.net•Pumpkins and Ooze Discussion for October 30th to November 5th, 2023 - The International Ghouls-Based Order - COTW: LebanonEnglish
    56·
    8 months ago

    Was made aware today that Israel has been working on a new Merkava model, the Merkava Mk.5 “Barak,” which at a glance seems to best be described by an overconfidence & over-reliance on technology.

    Article: https://www.edrmagazine.eu/israel-starts-delivering-the-5th-gen-merkava-barak-tank-to-its-armoured-units

    A first major improvement came from sights; the commander got a new panoramic sight while the gunner’s sight is also brand new, Idan Tavor underlining that these are one or even more generation ahead of previous ones. Improvements came in electro-optic performances, which provide better imaging, “but the main step forward is that they have integrated AI into those sight that have now autonomous behaviours, and are capable to identify targets and objects by themselves.”

    I seriously doubt that current AI technology is going to be better at identifying targets than a well trained crew working in conjunction with infantry support who can function as additional eyes for the tank (granted Israel’s target acquisition only need be as sophisticated as to be able to determine whether someone is Palestinian or not). Best case scenario, it occasionally manages to pick out threats faster than the crew can, but I imagine the average experience using AI target acquisition is going to sifting though a lot of false positives.

    The Fire Control System (FCS) has also been entirely upgraded. “The new version is faster and has better performances,” we were told, adding that the Merkava Barak is able to shoot on the move, day and night, with increased accuracy.

    Being able to accurately fire on the move at both day & night has already been standard for most tanks made in the past few decades, so while it is probably an improvement over current FCS systems, I’m willing to bet it’s not significant enough to really be notable.

    Human-machine interface has also be completely reviews, adapting it to the young conscripts experience, multi-touchscreens with smartphone-like interface being now adopted. “We worked on it pretty hard for the last two years in order to make it very approachable for young soldiers who are used to their cell phones and playstations and now need to fight in a tank and we developed for them a very nice and new HMI.”

    soypoint-1 It’s like a vibeo game!!!

    But seriously, what’s the obsession with making everything touch screens nowadays? Especially in a military context where you’d think it’d be useful to have tactile controls that can be operated on muscle memory during high stress situations.

    There’s probably more stuff to pick apart, but overall it just feels like they’re trying to use technology to compensate for the fact that they’re frequently having to use their tanks in situations that tanks really shouldn’t be used in, namely that they’re being operated by under-trained conscripts to fight in urban guerilla warfare.

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