welcome to this week’s satellite cult dispatch. i’m so glad you’re here. i hope the artifacts i present you with will compress you from all sides, applying heat and pressure, until you become the low poly animal of your dreams.
please be aware that the void dive section below contains flashing gifs. if you’re viewing this on the website, forgive the way Substack formats some embedded media from Bandcamp.
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welcome home
this jazzy late night lo-fi by different screens draws from commercials, TV bumpers, and the soundtracks of network news, evoking 6pm in 80s households across America. originally released in 2021 on another net label, welcome home is ready to ease you into an weeknight after you come home from work and hang your jacket on the coat hook.
Kano Water
Kawsaki describes Kano Water as a “sample planet.” the purpose is to allow producers to mine the world of each track for little vaporwave and future funk gems to use in their own mixes and beats while sidestepping DMCA takedowns, and that in itself is fun——a sonic scavenger hunt of sorts——but the album is a great listen as a standalone work, mashing vaporwave, hip-hop, drum and bass, and breakcore.
Trapdoor
music from another room typically has a warm, nostalgic feel to it, but Trapdoor, a project of indomitable human spirit with the Brazilian music collective Selo Debilito, brings a more liminal and unsettling quality to the same concept, blending slushwave and synthwave into one misty, ambient soundscape.
𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐱.
dismiss you're self (aka ␡ ␡ ␡ ␡ ␡ ␡ ␡ ␡ ␡ ␡) has a new mix out on net label what explosions do to the body that initially feels fascinatingly reminiscent of the rising action in melodic black metal songs. there is something a little darker here (or perhaps more somber) before it brightens up, eventually transitioning into something that feels like it’s fighting to keep the world afloat.
under.net compilation vol.1
under.net, a collective made up of artists who exist across the hypertrance—nightcore—sextrance—dariacore continuum, has released its first compilation. including tracks by beansclub, phosphorrgirl, Aero-Ji, and more, the whole experience is intense, raw, optimistic, and anxious all at once.
there’s also an excellent visual mix to accompany it.
tumblr user {}
Tumblr (and WordPress) caused some panic this week after its parent company, Automattic, announced it would begin selling user data to OpenAI and Midjourney. Automattic’s CEO Matt Mullenweg not only frequently speaks about Tumblr users as if they’re sheep he can heard into whatever pasture he chooses, but also recently had a Twitter meltdown while addressing user concerns about transphobic content moderation.
this whole thing has got me reflecting on how the platform users have affectionately called a “hellsite” for over a decade has one of the most specific and dedicated communities on the web. even as the site has declined in quality, with more (and weirder) ads, features no one asked for, and stricter censorship policies, many of us have been there since the early hipster days, survived through the fandom and SJW-eras, and stuck it out even after the porn ban. why? because even as you trudge through layer after layer of shit, it truly is a space unlike any other online.
anyway. here are some fun Tumblr finds from this week.
Tumblr user 53v3nfrn5 has collected and posted stationary from the Animal Crossing games in case you want to send your friends silly little notes from your silly little desktop:
Tumblr user forgottenflickr, as the name suggests, archives old photos from (presumably) abandoned Flickr accounts, and posted these recently:
enrichment for your enclosure
this week also brought some wild news for aggressively online queer leftists. ContraPoints uploaded a new video to YouTube——her first since April 2023. it’s three hours long, and about Twilight.
speaking of Tumblr, this week Tumblr user bjiru (on a second account dedicated to ASCII art) introduced a video he originally uploaded to YouTube back in November, which details the history of emoticons:
VOID DIVE
We Are Here Now (e tem Guaraná) by sabatobox
interior with window by merchant_coppola
this week, i’ll leave you with a forgotten video: