Jay Som – the project of Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter and producer Melina Duterte – has announced her first new album in over six years, Belong. The Anak Ko follow-up is set to land on October 10 on Lucky Number. It finds Duterte enlisting guest vocalists for the first time on one of her solo records, including Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Jim Adkins (of Jimmy Eat World), and Lexi Vega (of Mini Trees). Adkins features on the soaring new single ‘Float’, which is out today along with the more contemplative ‘A Million Reasons Why’. Take a listen and find the album cover and tracklist below.
“This song is about desperately trying to hold on to past versions of yourself for self-preservation,” Duterte said of ‘Float’. “The fear of the unknown is so overwhelming that sometimes the best solution is to sit with it instead of fighting or running from it.”
Adkins added, “Melina is an absolute professional in all aspects of music creation. I am honoured she had space in her vision for me to contribute. And it was a lot of fun to work on. Great song!”
Duterte wrote, composed, performed, produced, engineered, and mixed Belong, which also features contributions from Joao Gonzalez (of Soft Glas), Mal Hauser, and Steph Marziano. “When you try something for the first time, you’re always going to hold some type of fear, but I had to come to terms with the fact that I had to let go of some control,” Duterte explained. “This record is essentially still me, but a lot of choices were made by friends who helped me, because I trusted them.”
Since releasing Anak Ko, Duterte has released music with Palehound as Bachelor, joined boygenius as a touring band member, and collaborated alongside the likes of Troye Sivan, Living Hour, Fashion Club, and more.
Belong Cover Artwork:
Belong Tracklist:
1. Cards On The Table
2. Float [feat. Jim Adkins]
3. What You Need
4. Appointments
5. Drop A
6. Past Lives [feat. Hayley Williams]
7. D.H.
8. Casino Stars
9. Meander/Sprouting Wings
10. A Million Reasons Why
11. Want It All
Is art created in a state of suspension, on the threshold between possibility and uncertainty? It may be in this space that lens-based practices begin to develop. This in-between zone becomes a point of intersection for different ways of seeing, where relationships form between individuals and collectives, humans and nature, the inner self and expression.
Guided by the exhibition title Half Cadence, I became attuned to the rhythm of the visuals. The interplay between color and monochrome, presence and pause, raises questions about how personal expression can operate within a shared visual language and how situated perspectives might be seen. This aligns with Vilém Flusser’s reflection on photography as an act of coding and decoding the world through technical apparatuses and cultural programs. Photography, then, becomes a system of signs, shaped by the photographer’s choices to make the image legible.
Zhou Zhang’s portrayal of intimacy frames the male body as landscape. The juxtaposition of two naked male bodies disrupts the “familiar” gaze shaped by representations of female nudity. From the bedroom we enter Xuan Feng’s poetic space of relational intimacy—a private fantasy nestled within public space, where breath and memory linger in the air.
Yizhou Li departs from documentary approaches, using black-and-white darkroom printing to reveal images embedded in past times and places. Here, the darkroom process becomes a site of spatial construction. Landscapes emerge as projections of inner states, while reprinting allows even unintended images become reconstructions of memory.
Xinyuan Yan’s use of fabric and projected videos challenges the static nature of traditional imagery. It compresses perceptions of time and space, holding memory within the tension between the tangible and the ephemeral. By manipulating Google Street View, she blurs the boundary between external dialogues and internal reflections.
In Yuxuan Zhang’s work, situated in modern Chinese society where black hair is the norm, dyeing and bleaching hair in unconventional colors becomes a distinctive expression of individuality. Young women, connected by luminous colors, form bonds through hair and carve out their own space within nature. Dyeing hair shifts from an aesthetic choice to a political act.
In the politics of seeing and being seen, Yan Yang’s photographs of the zoo during the pandemic portray a condition between gaze and counter-gaze, between the caged and the free. During lockdown, the distance between humans and animals seemed to vanish. This recalls Hiroshi Sugimoto’s series ‘Dioramas’, where the line between the real and the fabricated is blurred. One starts to question the nature of photographic truth.
These moments of mediated looking invite a deeper reflection on what is visible and invisible in photography. What remains unseen often forms the connective tissue of meaning. This elastic and relational field is what holds the fragments together.
How can we create space that exists outside the framework of societal norms? True visibility may only arrive when the space no longer requires comparison, justification, or special attention— when what exists at the periphery no longer needs to be named as such. When the anonymous and the seen are held in the same frame, the face no longer needs to be foregrounded.
Nothing reaches closure in half cadence. What photography offers here is not the certainty of fixed meaning, but a space where new temporalities and spatialities can unfold.
Curated by Sara Chyan—a jewellery designer, artist, alchemist of volatile materials, and coach on the Innovation programme at the Royal College of Art—the group exhibition Echoes of Presence was presented as part of London Craft Week 2025. Sara has long worked with thermally unstable metals like bismuth and gallium, cultivating an intuition for rupture and transformation. Within this thematically charged context, Lin Dong, working under the name Cloudslin, enters the scene not with declarations, but with hesitation. His triptych, Homing the Celestial Unseen, doesn’t depict a memory so much as it stages a crisis in return.
The structure of Cloudslin’s work suggests a familiarity we cannot quite place. A window. A mirror. A pigeon mid-flight. These aren’t metaphors, nor narrative cues. They’re residue—what remains when context collapses. The mirrored surfaces don’t reflect; they interrupt. They withhold. The viewer doesn’t encounter a story—they stumble into a delay. A refusal. In Lacanian terms, what appears to mirror is in fact a fissure. You don’t see yourself. You see where the image used to be—before the self was asked to perform.
Fig. 2 – Exhibition view at Blackdot Gallery, LCW 2025. Courtesy of the artist.
This triptych finds its roots in Lin’s years in Paris, where pigeons—messengers of the sky—drifted quietly through daily life. More than incidental, they became stand-ins for human presence: familiar yet distant, communal yet estranged. They populate the panels not as symbols but as interruptions—echoes of a shared yet unstable reality. The first iteration of the work was executed in watercolor, interweaving Dunhuang-inspired motifs and Miao textile palettes with washes of color that bleed and settle. Reimagined later in oil, each bird now emerges from a shadowy, ambiguous field. A curved band of blue arcs across the triptych, evoking a cosmic pull—part memory, part longing—for what remains out of reach.
Anchoring the work is its frame: a meticulously 3D-printed construction modeled after the gilded mirrors and windows of Lin’s Paris apartment, where reflection—both literal and emotional—was woven into daily life. This is no decorative border; it’s structural thought. On the back, a mirrored surface folds the viewer into the act of looking, blurring observer and image. The object becomes recursive: shaped by private domestic memory, inscribed with Chinese antiquity ornamental language, and built around a conceptual architecture of rupture and self-inspection. When unfolded, the triptych doesn’t narrate—it suspends. It opens not outward, but inward, like a portal carved inside the habitual.
Fig. 3– Initial watercolor sketch (2021). Courtesy of the artist.
The initial draft was rendered in watercolor, blending traditional Chinese ethnic motifs, including patterns from Dunhuang murals and Miao textile palettes. These forms were later reimagined in oil paint on canvas, where the background palette subtly channels a longing for distant family and a quiet confrontation with the unknown cosmos. The work does not recall memory as narrative—it compresses memory as form, layering displacement into surface tension.
The central panel, a dense black void, doesn’t mourn. It absorbs. A curved incision cuts across the dark, echoing Francis Bacon’s spatial violences—yet where Bacon wounded flesh, Lin incises awareness.
From this scar emerge pigeons, their bodies assembled not from abstraction, but from lived repetition. They aren’t symbols of peace. They’re interruptions of certainty. Sketched from life and repeatedly revised, they hover between becoming and undoing.
Color in Lin’s work functions like memory: layered, compressed, occasionally eruptive. Pigments drawn from Dunhuang murals and Miao textiles don’t appear as citation—they pulse through the surface as sedimented time. His practice doesn’t remember in the narrative sense; it compresses, folds, thickens. These are not paintings of culture. They are painted through culture—through exile, exposure, adaptation. The images drift. They don’t claim ground. Instead, they generate it.
Fig. 4 – Detail view of side panel.Courtesy of the artist.
What Lin builds, above all, is a space of refusal. The triptych doesn’t unfold in sequence. It disorients. There is no horizon to stabilize the gaze—only interferences. Movement becomes recursive. Time slips. Every panel performs a break, a pause, a vertigo. Diaspora, here, is not background. It’s architecture. The paintings are structured by displacement itself, and thus demand not empathy but instability. The viewer is never safely outside the image. They’re folded into its disturbance.
The mirror, usually a promise of recognition, becomes a betrayal. Instead of likeness, it delivers fracture. Instead of continuity, it multiplies interruption. Lin doesn’t theorize this process—he enacts it. The paintings behave as mirrors misaligned, catching the viewer not in reflection, but in suspense. Every surface delays. Every form reconsiders the terms of visibility. The image doesn’t stabilize—it resists completion.
Homing the Celestial Unseen is not a painting. It’s an event—of seeing, undoing, disorienting. The viewer is not invited to understand, but to endure. Meaning flickers, then disperses. In that dispersion, Cloudslin doesn’t offer revelation. He holds us inside the question.
Big Thief have released ‘All Night All Day’, the second preview of their sixth studio album, Double Infinity. It’s extremely easy on the ears, delighting in Adrianne Lenker’s unique language of devotion: “Swallow poison swallow sugar/ Sometimes they taste the same/ But I know your love is neither/ And love is just a name/ It’s a thing we say for what pulls through/ ‘Til we come together.” Give it a listen below.
For fans of streaming, movies, and TV series, Soaper TV surely rings a bell. It was a popular streaming destination. But it hasn’t been the most stable — just like many unofficial platforms. Whether the issue is a temporary downtime or a full-blown shutdown, it’s always nice to have a backup website. So, viewers are also looking for solid Soaper TV alternatives.
This article lists streaming options that are worth checking out. Also, it tackles the latest on mirrors and Reddit communities.
Five Recommended Soaper TV Alternatives
The Roku Channel
The Roku Channel is an ad-supported streaming service. So, that means it’s free. At the same time, it shows that the site is legal. The platform also offers a wide selection of content. From movies to TV shows and originals, Roku has it all.
YouTube
YouTube also offers movies and TV shows. Yes, it’s not only for vlogs, tutorials, and reviews. Believe it or not, this famous platform has some of the best movies, series, and soap operas. Likewise, most producers and film owners now upload their work to maintain relevance. Also, they do this to introduce their projects to modern audiences.
UWatchFree
UWatchFree is a movie streaming website that delivers content to online audiences for free. Similarly, users can find films and shows in full high-definition. But viewers should expect pop-up ads. So, it’s best to install an ad-blocker.
TwoMovies
TwoMovies works as a streaming platform that is flexible for users. Specifically, it allows users to stream many movies and TV episodes easily. At the same time, its content ranges from classic to modern releases. It’s a great addition to the list of Soaper TV alternatives.
HydraHD
HydraHD is another reliable streaming option. Although it’s not that popular, it does provide thousands of movies and TV series. Also, users can access its collection of content without registration. Plus, it updates regularly. That means you can expect the trending titles here.
Available Mirror Sites for Soaper TV
Most streaming platforms have duplicates that appear whenever the main site is down. If the original link is unavailable, try to visit the following mirror sites:
Threads like r/Piracy on Reddit revolve around the same concern. Most users are asking about the status of Soaper TV. For sure, you can relate to some of their comments — like this one:
UnluckyShamrock_: “I’d been using this for like 2 years, and it’s finally down. What can I use alternatively?”
Final Notes
For users who love Soaper TV, there is no need to be sad. There are still several streaming alternatives to explore. You can always continue your movie and series marathon. But be mindful of where you stream. Unofficial sites can expose you to pop-ups, malware, and copyright issues.
The global popularity of anime streaming continues to surge. Similarly, platforms like Aniwave have built dedicated fan bases. But the problem with sites like this is they operate in gray areas. For that reason, takedowns are becoming more common. So, viewers usually scramble for better alternatives whenever Aniwave goes down. With that said, anime fans are searching for solid options to turn to.
This article explores some standout alternatives to Aniwave, with mirror sites info and Reddit news.
Five Recommended Aniwave Alternatives
Crunchyroll
Crunchyroll is for those who want paid and legal streaming sessions. Particularly, its premium plans start at $7.99. At this price point, users can already watch over 1,000 anime titles. Some plans also include early simulcasts. Try its free trial to see what awaits you!
Anime Freak
Anime Freak ensures free streaming of anime content. Also, fans can expect to find titles of shows and series in high-definition quality. Plus, each content has subbed and dubbed options. Viewers can also choose from titles across different genres. While it can be ad-heavy, it is known for updating regularly.
KissAssAnime
KissAssAnime is one of the best Aniwave alternatives when it comes to anime streaming. It’s a website where users can stream English-subbed anime shows. Similarly, the site has a library of high-quality content. Specifically, it offers both current titles and classic series.
AnimeZ
AnimeZ caters to anime fans who want smooth performance and minimal pop-up ads. However, it still does not have that much anime content. As of now, it focuses on newer anime titles. But it compensates for its shortcomings with a sleek interface.
AnimeOwl
AnimeOwl is one of those underrated anime-streaming gems. It mixes a clean user interface with regularly updated content. At the same time, it provides both dubbed and subbed titles in high-definition. On top of that, it delivers a streaming service with fast loading speeds.
Available Mirror Sites for Aniwave
When the original site goes down, proxy sites often pop up. While these are not official, they can provide temporary access. With that said, the working domains for Aniwave are https://www.aniwave.se/ and https://aniwave.com.pl/.
Reddit News About Aniwave
Communities on Reddit like r/animepiracy and r/aniwavebutdead share constant updates on working domains and safety tips. With the current situation of the website, it seems that most users have the same question — take a look:
ElijahChahine:“Do you guys think there will ever be another site as perfect as Aniwave…?”
unfunnysaim: “Is aniwave down for good?”
Final Notes
Aniwave may be gone or unstable. But anime fans are surely not left hanging. With exciting options, streaming anime content lives on. Just remember to be cautious where you watch because unofficial sites come with risks.
There’s so much music coming out all the time that it’s hard to keep track. On those days when the influx of new tracks is particularly overwhelming, we sift through the noise to bring you a curated list of the most interesting new releases (the best of which will be added to our Best New Songs playlist). Below, check out our track roundup for Tuesday, July 8, 2025.
Geese – ‘Taxes’
Geese are back with news of their next album, Getting Killed. The follow-up to 2023’s 3D Country is set for release on September 26. Lead single ‘Taxes’, produced by Kenny Beats, is eerie and rattling before turning radiant. If Cameron Winter’s solo LP Heavy Metal won you over, this might be up your alley, too.
Neko Case – ‘Wreck’
Neko Case has announced a new album, Neon Grey Midnight Green, her first since 2018’s Hell-On. The self-produced record is led by the delightfully orchestral ‘Wreck’. “There are so few producers who are women, nonbinary, or trans,” Case commented. “People don’t think of us as an option. I’m proud to say I produced this record. It is my vision. It is my veto power. It is my taste.”
Hot Chip – ‘Devotion’
Hot Chip have announced their first greatest hits album, Joy in Repetition, arriving September 5 via Domino. To accompany to news, they’ve shared a resplendent single called ‘Devotion’, which is true to its title. The band’s Alexis Taylor calls it “a celebration of the devotion to doing this project together,” adding, “I think of Joe [Goddard] as being like Brian Wilson, with this huge dedication to finding how to make the most amazing pop music.”
Danny L Harle – ‘Starlight’ [feat. PinkPantheress]
“’Starlight’ reaches for a kind of euphoric melancholy — a guiding light in all of my music,” Danny L Harle said of his new single, a balance perfectly struck by guest vocalist PinkPantheress. “It’s shaped by my love of the melancholic songwriting traditions of Europe from composers like Monteverdi and John Dowland, all the way to 90s Eurodance and the uplifting trance of the 2000s — artists like Gigi D’Agostino and Alice Deejay. PinkPantheress is the dream collaborator for this song, her love for ornamental melodies and hypnotic lyricism fit perfectly into my sound world.”
La Dispute – ‘Self-Portrait Backwards’, ‘The Field’, ‘Sibling Fistfight at Mom’s Fiftieth / The Un-Sound’, ‘Landlord Calls The Sheriff In’, and ‘Steve’
We recently named La Dispute’s nine-minute track ‘Environmental Catastrophe Film’, which serves as the second act of their new album No One Was Driving the Car, as one of the best songs of June. Today, the entirety of Act II is out, featuring five new songs. Frontman Jordan Dreyer expounded:
the next act encompasses in more focused detail the narrator’s look backwards down the path, beginning at their shared home in the present day, where the dissociation introduced in act one as almost entirely a self-inclosed thing trickles outward and troubles the comfort outlined in the last section of the song preceding it. he examines his own life through imagined self-portraits, in various sequences of time (fractions of days first, then weeks, months, years), and through multiple specific events. from there, four critically influential events from his earlier life are detailed in four songs:
first, a story from his early teenage years, where he and his brother—up north hunting with their father in the area where he and his own brother (the boys’ uncle, who has long lived far away elsewhere), and their father (who died when they were young)—stumble upon what they believe to be an abandoned paramilitary compound. in the middle of the field beside it they come to a hole dug in the ground full of deer carcasses. the narrator becomes fixated on the bodies below, unable to break his gaze from them, while the brother continues on toward the compound, a metaphor both for their diverging paths and for the obsessions/explanations that motivated them to take which ones they did.
the second song happens a few years later, at their mother’s fiftieth birthday party, where several siblings—drunk and airing internal grievances—fight on the basement staircase while their mother contemplates what role her own actions as a parent played in their arrival at that moment and in the conflicted history that led up to it. in the second half of the song, the siblings are gathered at the parents’ house again, years after the fight, for a quarterly group birthday celebration for several of their own children.
the third song occurs years on from there, with a pitch made to the partner of the narrator—working through undergrad at the time—from purveyors of a multi-level marketing company central to the history of grand rapids, and in some ways inextricably entwined with the christian reformed church mentioned earlier on the record (somewhat importantly, the rapture is invoked at the very end of the song, in a section discussing extraordinary wealth).
the final song centers around the friend whose funeral appeared earlier in act two, and is presented as reflections of their shared experiences together in youth, chiefly a snowy night drifting in a car together across an empty church parking lot, and the crash that occurred when the car spun on ice to slide sidelong into a curb and embankment. the end of the song harkens back heavily to the second section of act two (the song “Environmental Catastrophe Film”) and represents a full-circle consideration of the control dictated to him via exposure to calvinist teachings in childhood.
NewDad – ‘Roobosh’
Irish rock band NewDad have announced their second album, Altar, with the propulsive ‘Roobosh’. The song “is just about being fed up,” frontwoman Julie Dawson explained. “I wanted to write one song for the album that allowed me to shout, to get out all my frustration. Women get angry and we are expected to contain our rage but on this song I just allowed myself to go there. I wanted a song where I could moan and scream cause we all need to do that every once in a while and honestly it was just a bit of fun, letting myself get angry when I never allow myself to.”
Hand Habits – ‘Jasmine Blossoms’ and ‘Dead Rat’
Hand Habits has unveiled two gorgeous, meticulously crafted songs from their forthcoming album Blue Reminder. “This song really conjures for me the room and the time that I wrote it in—I was living in Mount Washington in LA, which is just such a beautiful, lush neighborhood,” Meg Duffy said of ‘Jasmine Blossoms’. “And there were (and are) these sort of unthinkable contradictions, between the beauty of the flowers and the trees and the birds around me, and then just being blasted with so much horrifying information and footage of war, death, and greed on the news and social media. This song is definitely not an answer to how to integrate those things, but I just wanted to try to sort of depict that experience, that one reality doesn’t negate the other. I come from a family where we don’t typically talk about the tragic or dysfunctional, which I think partly led to me being a songwriter who talks about pain and grief a lot, and at the same time, to being a person who tries to cultivate some joy, while everything falls apart.”
Of the more wistful ‘Dead Rat’, Duffy added: “There was an actual dead rat rotting in my wall. It was disgusting and I was living with the smell and couldn’t get to it, so there was truly nothing I could do but wait it out. It just became this metaphor for me on a number of levels: There are definitely things that I’ve done or been through that a part of me would rather put behind the wall and never think about again… but that’s not the way the psyche or healing works, and things will find their way out, whether it’s through a wretched smell or through acceptance or an open window, or all three.”
Hannah Frances – ‘Falling From and Further’
Hannah Frances has released a piercing new single, which serves as “a door into my next musical chapter, achieving the poignant vulnerability, grounded whimsy, and measured experimentalism that I strive for in my work,” according to the artist. “This song was a breakthrough for me in contending with the roots of my relational past, and holding space for the fragmented parts of me that are learning to trust through fear of abandonment.”
Shame – ‘Quiet Life’
Shame have previewed their upcoming album Cutthroat with the rockabilly-inspired track ‘Quiet Life’, which is “about someone in a shitty relationship,” according to vocalist Charlie Steen. “It’s about the judgment they receive and the struggle that they have to go through, trying to understand the conflict they face, of wanting a better life… but being stuck.”
Sex Week – ‘Lone Wolf’
Sex Week’s latest single, taken from their forthcoming Upper Mezzanine EP, is spooky yet vulnerable. “‘Lone Wolf’ is about communication and testing the limits of a relationship,” the duo of Pearl Dickson and Richard Orofino commented.
Marissa Nadler – ‘Hatchet Man’
Marissa Nadler has unveiled a stark, doomful new single from her self-produced LP New Radiations. “’Hatchet Man’ is about a sinister character bringing a woman home — not for romance, but to murder her –while the narrator, his partner, is made to witness it unfold,” she explained. “Ultimately, the storyteller escapes, adrenaline flooding her veins. The sweet, lilting melody of the chorus offers a stark contrast to the verses, where much of the tale is told. I enjoy twisting narratives, subverting tropes, and playing with perspective in my songs. The rest of the details are all in the song.”
mei ehara – ‘Kanashii Untenshu (Sad Driver)’
Tokyo-based artist mei ehara has announced a new album, All About McGuffin, due September 12 via KAKUBARHYTHM. It’s led by the slinky and hypnotic single ‘Kanashii Untenshu (Sad Driver)’ and keeps her music relatively stripped-down. “Even if I felt uneasy about whether it was enough, or whether people might say it wasn’t enough,” ehara remarked, “I was aware that I didn’t have to add anything. It was like I was naked.”
Google Earth – ‘meow meow’
Google Earth – the duo of songwriter and producer John Vanderslice and his longtime collaborator James Riotto – have announced a new album, Mac OS X 10.11, to follow up last year’s Street View. It’s out August 29. Gimmicky as it may sound, lead single ‘meow meow’ is sincerely vulnerable and wonderfully atmospheric. “I think Jamie and I are better now at the typical Google Earth process of starting with nothing and ending with something but who knows how that translates in the end,” Vanderslice shared. “GE seems to be good at confounding us, I still find the journey to be difficult and unsettling. It’s easier when you’re just writing a song with a verse/chorus.”
Michael Hurley – ‘Fava’
A posthumous album from the outsider folk legend Michael Hurley has been announced: Broken Homes and Gardens is out September 12 via No Quarter. Today, we get to hear one of its 11 tracks, the delightful ‘Fava’.
Indigo De Souza – ‘Be Like the Water’
I highly recommend you dive into ‘Be Like the Water’, the anthemic new offering from Indigo De Souza’s upcoming LP. “It’s about listening to your inner self and respecting your gut instinct,” De Souza explained. “My favorite lyric in the song is ‘you can leave if you want to, and you don’t have to say why.’ Whether it’s leaving the room, leaving the conversation, or leaving a toxic relationship, you have the power to make a change and life is too precious to waste your spirit.”
Legss – ‘909’
London outfit Legss have announced their debut album Unreal – out September 12 – and shared ‘909’, which is appropriately uneasy. “‘909’ has existed in various forms for a few years now,” the band explained. “There’s a 10-minute disco version somewhere. It’s a song that has developed with us and been rewritten at every stage, and now it’s in its final form: a stark, cubist, bass-driven day in the life of a nine-to-fiver addicted to radio podcasts.”
Higher Elevation Studio, a newly completed media facility on Nova Scotia’s South Shore, is now open following a few years of construction that began during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The multi-room studio offers a professional environment for audio recording, video production, and post-production, with a design shaped by veteran engineers and local tradespeople.
The project began in 2020, led by Royce Harris and Eileen Richardson, CEO of DiaDan Holdings Ltd. Richardson brought in longtime collaborators Kevin Hughes of Design Technik in Texas and James Salter of California, both of whom worked with her in Los Angeles at The Evergreen Stage. Their combined experience in studio design, along with Richardson’s network in the American music and film industries, guided the development of the facility.
“There was no playbook for building something like this during a pandemic,” said Richardson. “We worked through lockdowns, supply chain breakdowns, and global uncertainty. The decision to move forward was grounded in long-term vision.”
The original structure on the property required significant structural improvements. One of the first major steps was removing the damaged wooden roof and installing a new steel roof with trusses and a skylight. Once the building was secured, the team focused on interior work, following custom plans developed by Hughes and Salter.
Higher Elevation Studio now includes three primary production rooms. Studio A, located on the main level, is a recording suite with vocal and instrument isolation booths. Studio B functions as a television studio, equipped with a permanent interview set. Studio C, on the lower level, was designed for informal jam sessions, teaching sessions, and small group recording.
The facility also includes a lounge, a full kitchen, and a guest suite on the top floor. Visiting producers or artists can access a self-contained area that includes a bathroom, kitchen, and conference room.
Throughout the construction process, a team of local master craftsmen executed the build. Working from detailed plans and adapting to site-specific needs, they completed millwork, acoustic treatments, and structural elements. According to those involved in the project, the craftsmanship met the standards of major city studios.
“The tradespeople who worked on this studio brought a very high level of detail to every part of the project. This facility wouldn’t exist without their consistency and professionalism,” says Richardson.
The equipment inside Higher Elevation Studio reflects Richardson’s decades-long involvement with the Los Angeles studio circuit. The facility includes a vintage Custom Gretsch drum kit, a Wurlitzer A-200, a Hammond B3 organ, and several acoustic and electric guitars. The studio also houses large diaphragm microphones and an original Telefunken U47 tube mic. Additional vintage microphones round out the collection.
Much of the analog and tube-based gear was sourced with assistance from EveAnna Manley, owner of California’s Manley Laboratories Inc., who has maintained a working relationship with Richardson and Salter for years.
“We wanted to build a space that had the warmth and character of analog equipment. Artists who come here are working with gear with a strong history in professional recording,” says Richardson.
Studio C doubles as a teaching facility. Musicians and producers have used the space for masterclasses, training sessions, and music education programming. The intention behind its layout was to accommodate both production and instruction without compromising sound isolation or equipment quality.
The studio’s geographic location offers a level of quiet and privacy not often found near large urban centers. This quality has attracted visiting musicians, sound engineers, and film professionals seeking focused work sessions away from city environments.
Richardson said the surrounding environment played a role in the design process. “The land here formed the pace of the build. We weren’t rushing. We wanted the space to reflect the calm and clarity of the region itself.”
Today, Higher Elevation Studio is a completed facility equipped for full-spectrum media production. Backed by DianDan Holdings and guided by Richardson’s leadership, its development through a period of global disruption reflects the persistence of the team and the direction set by its founders.
On the first song of their self-titled debut album, Wet Leg were feeling uninspired, beaten down, and zoned out, equating it all to the same oddly desirable state: ‘Being in Love’. Three years later, the Isle of Wright five-piece – helmed by Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers – open their sophomore album by reevaluating: being in love isn’t a thing you “kinda like.” It’s an emergency. It makes you sound ravenous, maniacal, silly, and melodramatic, all adjectives that describe moisturizer even as Wet Leg maintain their deadpan humour and off-beat aesthetic. Yet the record, once again produced by Dan Carey, softens into and soaks up its pleasures and contradictions, the way it can appear fantastical even as the sobering reality kicks in. What ‘Being in Love’ describes as “some kind of fucked up trip” is just “happy comatose,” which isn’t a bad slogan for moisturizer. Apply gently; it just might do you good.
1. CPR
You expect the serpentine riffs, the chunky bass, the driving drums, but hearing that Swarmatron synth (an instrument producer Dan Carey has used cannily enough to land him in the Wikipedia page for it) blasting like a siren all over the chorus? That’s a pretty bold signal that Wet Leg have found themselves in unexpected territory. Rhian Teasdale will proclaim that she’s deep in love later on the album, but in this earlier stage, it comes off both infatuated and slyly accusatory: “I’m in love/ And you’re to blame.” Though she describes getting lost in someone’s eyes as just a tendency, she’s not shy about the intensity of the situation, which blurs love into suicide. The ride’s only just begun.
2. liquidize
Uncertainty creeps in between the shadows of moisturizer’s two confident singles, with the band leaning into dream-pop to capture the haze of wondering if you’re worth the love that’s being directed right at you. Teasdale is just as convincing in this melancholy mode, cutting through despite the silliness of phrases like “marshmallow worm.” (Complimentary.)
3. catch these fists
While it still holds up as an excellent first single, recapturing the magic of Wet Leg’s earliest outings, it’s more of a tonal outlier on the album. It’s battle-ready in a way that directly contrasts ‘liquidize’, juxtaposing the refrain “Lovestruck/ Me down” with the way snarkier “Man down/ Level up.” Sometimes, an old move is all you need to pick yourself back up.
4. davina mccall
If ‘liquidize’ wasn’t enough, those quick to judge moisturizer as an imitation of its predecessor are offered ‘davina mccall’, where the singer relaxes into the euphoria of a good relationship. Love works in references: “Sipping on Ribena/ Fuck like Coca-Cola.” When Shakira’s ‘Whenever, Wherever’ comes on, you can relate without making a fuss, just laying back and smiling. It’s the twangiest Wet Leg have sounded, and while no longer allergic to the saccharine nature of it, Teasdale evades completing the melody when singing “you’re like the sun,” yet means it all the same. Like an extension of its mood, the song gets a little lazy at the end, but you just know there’ll be another switch-up.
5. jennifer’s body
Getting deeper into the wormhole, the band punches up the dreaminess of ‘liquidize’ for what almost resembles a shoegaze track. Wet Leg don’t sound like trend-chasers, but the arrangement feels oddly flat, and there’s barely a word sung that doesn’t go without saying (“Can’t you see I’m obsessed with you?”). It’s fittingly hypnotic – the interplay between Teasdale and Chambers particularly enchanting – but you wish it’d stretch itself out for a bigger impact.
6. mangetout
The group is back in shrugging, strutting top form. “I gave you magic beans,” Teasdale sings, nailing the pronunciation of the title before making its double entendre clear: “Get lost forever!” It’s full of biting remarks, the kind that gets under your skin even if you need Google to even get it. I’ll save you a search: RNLI is the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Not that there’s any saving grace for this type of guy.
7. pokemon
“I don’t wanna take it slow,” Teasdale affirms, and while the song isn’t slow-paced, its graceful yearning for escape – adorned with heavenly synths and all – does mellow things out.
8. pond song
More firmly balanced than ‘CPR’, less insecure than ‘liquidize’, and catchier than ‘jennifer’s body’, ‘pond song’ hits us with another slew of references that didn’t make it onto ‘davina mccall’. But first, we get the setup of a story: “I was a small town girl/ Tryna make it big.” The beloved is no longer like the sun, and this small town girl? Well, she’s the flower. It’s all well and good until the story creeps back into view: “You’re hoping I won’t disappear/ When we cross that ocean.” The girl’s made it big, and it’s harder to make promises.
9. pillow talk
“You’re so sweet even when you’re sour,” Teasdale sang romantically on the previous song, which turns ripe with tension on the raunchy ‘pillow talk’: “You’re sweet/ You’re sour.” Carey leans into his gothiest tendencies as a producer, while Ellis Durand and Henry Holmes’ rhythm section blows the song open. “To sleep/ To dream/ To fuck/ To feel.” Is it Shakespeare or pillow talk? Love or suicide? Is that the Swarmatron I hear?
10. don’t speak
With Chambers taking on lead vocals and a sweet guitar solo from Mobaraki, Wet Leg soften up on ‘don’t speak’, a better attempt at a shoegazey track. There’s no Princess Bride references here; just “You’re the rock to my roll.” There’s a darkness hidden in the vulnerability, but she asks her lover to “burden the bad.” As a whole, moisturizer makes it sound possible.
11. 11:21
Wet Leg had slower cuts, but no ballad quite like ‘11:21’. There’s irony in the band timestamping a song about time passing by yet feeling “the same way about you since the day we first met,” a feeling that persists even as the metaphors start to fall apart. Mobaraki’s keys and Chambers on the tin whistle help evoke a nocturnal atmosphere, over which Teasdale delivers her most mesmerizing performance, stretching the words “met” and “tonight” like they really are tantamount to forever.
12. u and me at home
There aren’t enough anthems about the sweet relief of returning home with a loved one, happily comatosing. moisturizer’s closer delivers on that front yet also scans as a communal sigh from a band that’s been touring non-stop for the last few years, yet somehow find time to write a full album of songs seemingly disconnected from life on the road – until ‘u and me at home’, that is. Again, not much of a story here, yet the plot thickens. “Maybe we could start a band/ As some kinda joke,” Teasdale reminisces, as she has, indeed, in several interviews. “Now we been stretched across the world/ Over land and sea/ And there’s this big elastic band that pulls you back to me.” Meta wordplay is Wet Leg’s bread and butter, but you wouldn’t expect it to be quite so moving.
Ever log in to Final Fantasy XIV, glance at that shiny new Dawntrail job sitting at level 1, and feel the dread of a hundred empty EXP bars? You’re not alone. Between the Main Scenario Quest, roulettes, tribe dailies, deep dungeons, and a dozen other side hustles, figuring out the smartest way to level up fast in FFXIV can feel tougher than any savage raid. The good news? You don’t need to grind mind-numbing mobs for hours or sacrifice your entire weekend. You just need a game plan that stacks every hidden bonus, picks the right activities for each level bracket, and squeezes extra XP out of moments you’d usually spend waiting in queue. Whether you’re a fresh sprout racing to the level-100 cap or a longtime vet power-leveling yet another alt, this guide breaks down the cleanest routes, sneakiest tricks, and time-saving hacks that the speed-runners and boosting services use every day—so you can hit max level, gear up, and jump into the real fun while everyone else is still clearing their duty list.
How Simpleboost can help you to get everything you want!
Imagine logging into Eorzea after a long day, craving a fresh set of crafted gear, only to find your coin purse emptier than a freshly farmed Hunt zone; that’s where our convenient FFXIV gil for option steps in, offering a brief description: a quick, safe, in-game delivery of Gil; here’s how it works: you place the order through your account dashboard, choose a hand-to-hand trade or market-board transfer, and a seasoned courier meets you at the agreed time to drop the full amount in seconds; the snag most Warriors of Light face is that earning the same sum on their own is surprisingly tough, because rare-loot prices swing wildly, competition for lucrative nodes is fierce, and real-world obligations rarely leave room for marathon farming sessions; the reward for skipping that grind is huge—you stride into dungeons wearing best-in-slot gear, craft high-tier consumables for raid night, and still have plenty left over for housing décor and glamour plates; our service solves the problem by shouldering the tedious gathering, shielding you from market-board stress, and letting you focus on the real reason you log in: tackling epic quests with friends, forging memories in savage raids, and enjoying every corner of Eorzea without counting every last Gil.
Why Speed-Leveling Matters in Dawntrail
Dawntrail raised the level cap to 100 and added sprawling new zones, dungeons, and Hunts. Finishing the Main Scenario Quest (MSQ) still unlocks everything important, but pushing multiple jobs to cap quickly means earlier access to raid gear, tribe quests, and lucrative Hunt trains. Producer Naoki Yoshida has even hinted that the team is re-thinking vertical progression after 100, so the faster you finish now, the sooner you can start banking the next system’s rewards.
Stack Every Passive EXP Bonus First
Bonus
% Gain
How to Activate
Notes
Armory Bonus
+100 % below your highest-level combat job
Have at least one job above the job you’re leveling
Biggest boost for alt jobs
Rested
+50 % on mobs, gathering, crafting
Log out in a Sanctuary (city-state, inn, or major outpost)
Banks up to 1.5 levels
Food
+3 % all sources
Eat any food item (even a 5-gil Boiled Egg)
Refresh to keep 60-min uptime
Free Company Action – Heat of Battle III
+10 % kills
Join an FC that rotates buffs daily
FC buffs stack with all others
Preferred World (Road to 90)
+100 % to Lv. 90 for 90 days
Create or transfer to a Preferred world
Great for fresh characters
Pro tip: Pop all of these before you queue—especially useful if you’re paying for a power leveling service, because time = money.
The Golden Rule: Ride the MSQ, Then Supplement
The MSQ alone will carry a first-time character to each expansion’s entry dungeon. Always finish story quests first, then fill the gaps with the activities below.
Levels 1-30 – Turbo-Start Options
Guildhest & Leveling Roulettes (Daily) – The payout is front-loaded XP. Do them once per day.
Palace of the Dead (PotD) floors 1-50 – Opens at Lv 17 and ignores gear. Great during long DPS queues.
Challenge Log – Unlock “Rising to the Challenge” at Lv 15; complete 3 Dungeons, 5 FATEs, etc., for a giant weekly burst.
Levels 30-60 – Heavensward Sprint
Dungeon Spam With Duty Support – Tanks/Healers get insta-queues; DPS can run PotD 51-60 if queues drag.
Daily Hunts (ARR & HW) – Each mark is quick and pays gil plus XP; you also stock Allied Seals for glamour.
Wondrous Tails Prep – Grab the book at Lv 60, fill nine stickers, but hold the hand-in until your next job hits Lv 60 for a free half-level or more.
Levels 60-70 – Stormblood Sky-rocket
Heaven-on-High (HoH) floors 21-30 – Queue, clear, reset; about 8–10 runs to span the bracket.
Clan Hunts & Stormblood FATEs – Chain in Yanxia and Azim Steppe while waiting on HoH pops.
Daily Roulettes – Leveling, Trials, Alliance Raid; the “Main Story” roulette is huge if available.
Levels 70-80 – Shadowbringers Glide
Shared FATE Farming in the First – Each FATE pays gemstones and roughly 500 k XP at these levels.
Trust System Alt-Runs – If you’re new to tanking, take NPCs to avoid human judgment while learning pulls.
Pixie Daily Tribe Quests – 4 mil XP for 10 minutes’ work.
Levels 80-90 – Endwalker Launchpad
Bozjan Southern Front & Zadnor – Critical Engagement chains remain top-tier, especially for DPS
Arkasodara Tribe Quests – Another painless daily 4 mil XP source.
Levels 90-100 – Dawntrail Power Climb
Activity
Avg. XP (approx.)
Why It’s Good
First-time Story Dungeons
One-third level each
MSQ gear rewards
Duty Roulette : Leveling & Expert
2–4 mil + tomes
Queue as Tank/Healer for instant pops
Tuliyollal Daily Hunts (Dawn Hunts)
~7 mil per day (10 marks)
Also gives 45 nuts for materia
Shared FATEs in Kozama’uka
~500 k per minute during trains
Double-dip gemstones for glams
Wondrous Tails Turn-In
3.6 mil + at 9 seals
Bank in advance; hand in on Lv 99 job for the surge
MSQ Side-Quest Trick: Many blue-marker quests at Lv 90 reward 200-300 k XP. Knock out a handful each time you port to a new settlement; you’ll fill bars passively.
Weekly & Daily Burst Mechanics
Wondrous Tails – 9 seals = ~50 % of a level; two lines add extra loot; cash out on your lowest job.
Series Malmstones (PvP) – Crystalline Conflict Season XP is decent and awards glam tokens.
Occult Crescent (Field Operation) – Not for job XP, but its Knowledge currency feeds relic progression and supplements tomestones.
Deep Dungeons vs. Traditional Dungeons
Mode
Pros
Cons
Palace/HoH/Orthos
Solo-friendly, no gear checks, scaled EXP
Repetitive layout, limited loot
Duty Finder Dungeons
Highest EXP/hr with FC buffs, social
Gear upkeep, queue times for DPS
Paid Power-Leveling Services
Zero personal time investment
Real-money cost; vet providers carefully to avoid TOS risks
If you plan to buy FFXIV boosting or power leveling, compare hourly rates to your server’s gil value, check reviews, and insist on live tracking. Reputable sites like Onlyfarms advertise Bozja clears and Hunt trains specifically for Dawntrail.
Micro-Efficiency Hacks
Log out in the inn every night to top up Rested.
Queue roulette at 23:55 server time, then again after reset — double daily bonuses.
Sync FATE trains with dungeon queues; you’ll earn XP instead of staring at the duty window.
Use squadron manuals (Grand Company) for an extra +15 % kill XP if you’re solo farming.
Carry 99 cheap foods so the +3 % buff never drops mid-pull.
Keep Gear Current (But Don’t Over-Spend)
Swap to the highest item-level quest or dungeon drop each tier; Poetics sets at Mor Dhona (Lv 50), Idyllshire (60), Rhalgr’s Reach (70), Eulmore (80) and Radz-at-Han (90) keep you raid-ready for zero gil.
Putting It All Together – A One-Day 0-to-100 Roadmap
Morning: MSQ until Lv 20 → unlock PotD, run 1-50 while queuing Leveling roulette.
Afternoon: MSQ to Ishgard → spam Leveling +duty support dungeons, finish first Wondrous Tails book.
Evening: Unlock HoH → run 21-30 loops to Lv 71 → Shadowbringers zones FATE train to 80.
Day 2: Finish Endwalker MSQ → Alternate Bozja CE chains and roulettes to 90.
Days 3-4: Dawntrail story + daily Hunts + roulettes → 100; bank extra Wondrous Tails to power your next alt.
Time-investment estimate: 20-24 active hours if you’re motivated, or half that by hiring a FFXIV power leveling service for the repetitive grinds.
Final Thoughts
Leveling fast in Final Fantasy XIV is less about grinding 24/7 and more about layering bonuses, timing dailies, and choosing the right content for each level band. Follow the playbook above and you’ll cap your main—and any alts you fancy—long before the next relic step or savage tier drops. And if life gets busy, that’s what reputable boosting options are for.
Now go grab your Hunt bills, pop a Boiled Egg, and queue that Leveling roulette—see you at 100!
