The fortune of many humans and dogs has been known to be entangled for centuries. Nowadays, many breeds from the Canis lupus familiaris are in existence today because of the canine’s adaptability and the fluidity in their genes. You can choose from various dogs with different temperaments, colors, sizes, and shapes today, and some of this diversity has been owed through selective breeding.
However, the practice of selective breeding may have yielded unfavorable results in some offspring. Those with incompatible genes may have resulted in unfavorable genes where an increased chance of deformities, defects, and infirmities have been associated with a breed.
You may want to know the most common breeds today and the potential issues that have been plaguing them for centuries. Read more information on dog breeds – type of dogs where you can get more tips on making them healthier. With this said, here are the common types of canines that are usually associated with a specific medical condition.
Labrador Retriever
This is highly prized and one of the favorites of many pet lovers around the world. The Labrador retriever is well-known for its affectionate and intelligent nature, and they are ideal for families. Their qualities include loyalty, playfulness, and gentleness that may not be present with other breeds.
The health issues of Labrador retrievers may be few as long as this pet is getting their daily exercises. Some of the under-exercised ones may be prone to elbow or hip dysplasia. Many of the inherited diseases can include progressive retinal atrophy that can ultimately result in blindness if not treated early.
Basset Hounds
Basset hounds have endearing sad-sack eyes and droopy ears, but they are plagued with issues that are related to their adorable qualities. You can know more about basset hounds on this page. Sometimes, the droopy skin can interfere with the vision, and the floppy ears are known to get infections now and then. They require thorough cleaning and inspection.
They have a penchant for enthusiastic and constant sniffing because of their short legs. Due to this, the basset hounds are generally suffering from spine diseases and intervertebral disc conditions. If these conditions are left untreated, the dogs’ movements may become more difficult and painful in the long run.
Jack Russell Terrier
These intelligent and very energetic terriers are known for their good health, and some have notable qualities of long life. While the larger breeds like the Jack Russell can live up to 12 years, the smaller ones may suffer from inherited diseases. The ones that are closely linked to the Parson Russell Terriers may have life spans of 14 to 16 years as long as they have regular and adequate exercises. Most of the common medical conditions that owners should watch out for is the possible loss of vision for these breeds.
Irish Setter
Although many people may not generally prefer Irish setters, and their popularity may be fading, these pets are still ranking higher in the affection and playfulness categories. They are very lovable redheads, and they love their parents hard. Although these redheads are considered hardy, it’s still possible for them to have a hereditary disease. Some of the medical conditions common to Irish Setters are bloating, hip dysplasia, bone cancer, and progressive retinal atrophy.
Yorkshire Terrier
The Yorkshire terriers have their nicknames like Yorkies, and they usually come in undersized packages, but they have flounced on many owners’ hearts. They are very popular, and with their tan and silky blue coats, some think it’s just right for them to have a terrier attitude. They are considered mini divas, and they love their roles.
However, the yorkies are known to have digestive problems, and this is why owners should carefully monitor their diet. As with any other dogs, they can experience a tracheal collapse, and some of the signs can include excessive coughing.
Some of the defects may tend to decrease the optimum function of their liver, and they may have portosystemic shunt conditions where the toxins can accumulate in the blood. If they show some symptoms of medical conditions, it’s better if you’ll immediately check with their vets for a more accurate diagnosis of their possible diseases.
Dalmatians
Dalmatians are infamous because of their stint in the movie world and since they are often associated with firefighters. Learn more about dalmatians in this link: https://kids.kiddle.co/Dalmatian_(dog). They are the fictional heroes in Disney movies, and in real life, they are also hardy, gentle, and patient.
However, one of the most common hereditary defects that they may be experiencing is deafness. They are known to be reported by reputable breeders across the world, and some are working on solutions to remove this problem. Other than deafness, dalmatians may be prone to develop bladder or kidney stones that can result in a condition called urolithiasis. This often requires corrective surgery and a special diet.
Cocker Spaniel
Cocker spaniels are a favorite among dog lovers. They have supermodel tresses, flowing coats, and a regal look on them. However, they may be pricey, and their maintenance may be costly for some. They require frequent brushing and bathing, and they may need pet sitters to ensure that the hairs are free from tangles.
The cocker spaniels are susceptible to epilepsy, cataracts, glaucoma, heart diseases, and more. The ears should also be cleaned regularly to prevent them from getting infections. They may be susceptible, but it doesn’t mean that they will have these conditions when they are older. Through proper care, you may be able to prevent these canines from experiencing medical conditions that are prone to their breeds.
Despite its prevailing tendency towards nihilism, the recent post-punk revival relies just as much on moments of pure catharsis and joy. Since forming at college six years ago, Brighton five-piece Squid – Ollie Judge, Anton Pearson, Louis Borlase, Arthur Leadbetter, and Laurie Nankivell – have perfected that contrast over a series of well-received singles that leaned more heavily on nervous ecstasy than apocalyptic gloom. ‘Narrator’, the lead single off their debut album, Bright Green Field, served as the most of exhilarating display of the band’s strengths as well as their willingness to work around them: a near-9-minute epic that builds to a thunderous coda, the song features guest vocals from Martha Sky Murphy, whose lingering, powerful presence introduces new dynamics into an already explosive track. The rest of the teasers hinted at a similar direction: ‘Pamphlets’, the album’s closing track and one of the oldest songs written for the album, also spreads out over eight minutes, anchoring in a noisy, propulsive groove and bending it until it resembles some sort of release.
“Although thematically it’s not really about joy, ‘Pamphlets’ is quite a joyful track,” Pearson explained in an interview. This is partly what demarcates Squid from their contemporaries: while their lyrics can be downbeat and their performances unnerving, there’s an infectious energy to their eclectic blend of jazz, krautrock, funk, and post-rock that’s designed to retain the listener’s attention rather than make a show of their versatility. But though they’ve showcased an impressive command of space in their singles, Bright Green Field would confirm whether they could achieve the same impact in the album format. Clocking in at almost an hour, the LP not only does that, but also reveals the true scope of their ambitions: even at its most wildly experimental, the album never loses its sense of momentum, zooming out of a specific scene to paint a grander and more frightening picture.
‘Boy Racers’ most strikingly sets forth the band’s dual focus. Placed right after ‘Narrator’, the first half of the track has a rhythmic, almost pop-indebted immediacy, before segueing into an ambient section led by a siren synth and a sample of a medieval instrumental called a racket, which producer Dan Carey manipulates to haunting effect. Even then, the diversion feels like a necessary component of the band’s disorienting and unrestricted vision, as thrilling and liberating as a euphoric climax. “Are you suspended in time?/ Does anyone even know what you might look like?” Judge sings, questions that might as well concern the nature of the album.
It’s clear that Squid have structured the album based on their musical instincts rather than any thematic throughline. Though their songwriting process is entirely collaborative, Judge writes most of the album’s lyrics, which expose the trappings of modern society by drawing on a wide range of cultural influences, imagined places, and real-world environments – especially London. Most of their impact is derived from Judge’s frenzied, yelping delivery, which is far from distinctive for the genre but whose fervour always feels as sharp and intentional as the music. On ‘Paddling’, a tense, layered highlight about the pressures of consumerist culture, Judge’s vocals never settle into a single mood, mirroring the anxiety of its surroundings and the yearning to escape the cycle of conformity.
Squid can be as inventive with their lyrics as they are with their arrangements, but even as the songs here touch on interrelated subjects, they also present opportunities for improvement. Judge’s impressionistic details are clever and thought-provoking, but they don’t always feel as carefully orchestrated in the context of the album as its sonic accompaniments. This approach doesn’t detract from the intensity of the album, but it does make one wonder what a more conceptual Squid record would sound like. Bright Green Field lays out a scene both massive and claustrophobic, its characters as lost as they are connected, all – narrator included – aching to break free. For them, the release never really comes.
Music, an absolute delight and a treat to our ears, is universal and never gets old. Due to the development of technology, Songs can be streamed, uploaded, promoted through online websites and audio distribution platforms. One of such popular music-streaming websites is SoundCloud, one of the most extensive music streaming services. The company was founded in 2007 in Stockholm, Sweden. The company’s headquarters is located in Berlin, Germany, established by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss. The company reaches over 175 million monthly users worldwide and attracts people to launch their music careers every day to release their songs and get people with their songs. This article specifies many ways and tips to buy SoundCloud plays and profit through music and beats.
Five significant ways and ideas to get your music noticed on SoundCloud and gain more SoundCloud plays:
Create Great Music and Successful Marketing Plans:
The key to success is consistently producing great content of high quality. Let your artistic side out and craft some great songs. By pushing yourself further, you can improve your technical and musical talents. Keep the beats fresh and unique, and it will help you reach millions. Release tracks consistently to have a good audience.
Everybody requires a good marketing plan if they want to sell their product around the world. It must always be well planned so that nothing gets out of your control. You can start creating a strategic marketing plan that includes stating your goal, identifying the target market, and developing products that might fill the needs of the particular market by creating songs and beats that are desired by the standard population.
Always have a good relationship with your fans by maintaining good communication with them. Some ways that might help you get noticed by people and become a musician might like include
If you are just a musician who is starting up their career, you must attend shows of similar artists and visit the pages of the musicians and their fans online so that it may help you understand what exactly your target audience wants.
You can sometimes save your audience and produce music and beats that are typically preferred by many. This can help you buy SoundCloud plays and increase your fan base too.
Understand your target market and study more data about your audience:
There are many places online where you can find potential fans and turn them into your ardent followers through your music. Always try interacting with them through social media and the web, understanding what goes by trend right now, and keeping digging around for data. Tastemakers, commonly otherwise known as DJs, bloggers, and even playlist curators, are gaining more and more followers even now, and you can always reach out to them.
If you want to gain more SoundCloud Plays for your beats, you might as well start using the feature offered by SoundCloud, the Go Pro. By using this feature, you can access data through free accounts and never let artists access data. It can also help you increase your upload time and usage, along with the feature of trafficking data.
Promoting your music on social media:
There isn’t a greater reach than social media in recent times. Preparing promotional materials for influencers and fans can help you reach more people. After finding the appropriate social media platform according to your convenience, you can create profiles and post some of your songs and content online on apps like Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, and Tumblr, and many others.
Being active on social media while also being attentive on SoundCloud can help you gain more SoundCloud Plays. Though you can always buy plays and followers, keeping them genuine can take you places. You can always use social media to drive engagement, like asking questions and making polls. It also helps your audience and you to access free downloads and also helps in ways like maintaining the organic buzz through hashtags.
Permanently attach the link to your SoundCloud profile to your other social media pages and blogs so that anybody looking you up can have direct access to your songs and your SoundCloud Profile.
Work on your SoundCloud Profile and Online presence more:
While researching your niche and growing, you can also follow others and leave comments, keeping it interactive and leading the path to collaboration with artists. Please leave comments on the sounds and beats of other upcoming artists, making their fans and themselves notice you and your rhythms in return.
You can also join groups based on your preferences and requirements, which is also another way of gaining potential followers and fans, which can help you increase your SoundCloud Plays and such.
Always be active on your SoundCloud profile and be a trendsetter by uploading new and fresh content. Find out what kind of music gains the most plays and try making tracks like them with your innovation and creativity.
Taking the initiative and Being more Creative:
Always try to join SoundCloud Premier and use Promote on SoundCloud to distribute your music among the audience with ease. Use various tools available online and utilize the resources as much as possible to create fantastic ways for the audience to access your music.
Always keep your content innovative, trendy, and creative so that the beats are fresh and recognized by people of all ages and gender. Never replicate rhythms so that the listeners might never get bored. Let your individuality out and keep your fans surprised to gain more SoundCloud Plays and attract more and more valuable followers so that in a while, your songs reach billions and have a massive effect on your music, turning it into a sensation.
According to a survey taken by a US website, the best way to kickstart your music career is to launch some great songs online through music websites like SoundCloud and Spotify. By finding ways to gain more SoundCloud Followers, you can always earn more listeners and plays, making your music reach millions. Use tools to promote your songs, build your brand and find your fans to get noticed. The ways to buy SoundCloud plays are very affordable and can be done very quickly by turning your online connections up, being creative, letting your artistic side out, and turning your passion into a profitable profession.
With a range of new additions to their platform, Netflix are releasing the second part of the well-renowned series Lupin starring Omar Sy (The Intouchables, Jurassic World, Two is a Family).
As Assane’s journey for revenge against Hubert Pellegrini has ripped his family to pieces, he now has to think of a new plan with his back to the wall – even if it means putting himself in danger.
LupinPart 2 will be available on Netflix from the 11th of June.
Hailing from Billings, Montana, Hey, ily! is the brainchild of Caleb Haynes, who combines influences from “Nintendocore, Emo, Powerpop, Shoegaze, and anything else the project can get its grubby mitts on.” Though Caleb has been active in local bands including Gray Joy, Rookie Card, and The Invertebrates, the way he blends disparate styles with Hey, ily! is both incredibly unique and strangely effective – it’s no surprise their two EPs, February’s (/ _ ; ) and latest release Internet Breath, blew up online, even without the push of his 92K following on TikTok. Hey, ily!’s music might spur arbitrary discussions as to where exactly it fits in the post-genre world, but what makes it so enjoyable to listen to is that it comes from a place of unbridled creativity, pairing frenetic energy and the impulse to experiment with the pure, nostalgic rush of a catchy chorus. These sounds shouldn’t work so well together, but they do – no small feat for a project that almost disappeared before it even had a chance to be discovered.
We caught up with Hey, ily!’s Caleb Haynes for this edition of our Artist Spotlight interview series to talk about his inspiration for the project, the process of making Internet Breath, and more.
First of all, is Hey, ily! a solo project? Who exactly is in this band?
That’s debatable. I think I like to leave up the mystery of like, “Are there other people in this band?” I guess the simple answer would be sometimes. Sometimes it’s a solo project and sometimes there’s multiple people in it.
But in terms of recording and producing, you do most of it yourself?
Yeah, I do pretty much all of the recording myself. Some people will come in and perform their stuff, but all the recording is done by me.
Is there a reason behind you wanting to have a bit of mystery behind the project?
Yeah, the idea of Hey, ily! as a whole is this kind of – I wanted it to be like a mysterious internet band, like, “Oh, who is this, what’s going on, what are these people, what are their lives like?” But I also want it to be a bit more transparent than that. I don’t want to be like Death Grips where I put out my first mixtape and no one knows who or what the band is. But I do want there to be a mystery behind it.
I know you’ve played in a few other bands before, so I was wondering what the initial inspiration for starting Hey, ily! was.
I think I was really sick of being in these bands that are just emo and nothing else. I was so tired of this copy-and-paste emo sound a lot of bands, including the bands I’ve been in, are doing. And so I was like, “I’m just sick of this. I want to make something that’s familiar yet super crazy and all over the place at the same time.”
The thing that I wanted to do with this project is – basically, I wanted to impress people on Twitter. I saw people on Twitter and I was like, “Those guys are so cool, I want to make music that they’ll like.” But in order to do that, I thought that what I would have to do is create something that people haven’t really heard before, and I was like, “Here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to combine influences from emo with chiptune and shoegaze and punk and all this different stuff to try and create something new.”
In terms of influences, you’ve also cited Nintendocore, which is a term a lot of people listening to your music might not be familiar with.
I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t know what Nintendocore was before people started calling my band it. But I think what Nintendocore is is, like, music inspired by video games that isn’t directly related to video games, if that makes sense. So it takes sounds from retro old video games but combines it with a modern kind of tint to it.
When it comes to emo and shoegaze and power pop, why do you think you gravitated to those sounds early on?
I kind of started my music journey with radio rock, like I was really into Red Hot Chili Peppers and Gorillaz. And then, I don’t know exactly what happened, but as I got older and I got more like an emotional teen, I got into Joy Division and indie stuff like that. And then from that, I discovered American Football – which, you know, when you’re in high school and you discover a band like American Football and emo stuff like that, you just get totally obsessed with that sound. I was really into the way that these harsher, not as prettily sung vocals combined with these really beautiful melodies. And so bands like Los Campesinos!, Say Anything, American Football really stood out to me in that regard.
How did you start playing and making your own music?
I started playing guitar when I discovered Radiohead, because the guitarist from Radiohead is always doing crazy, weird – I was always obsessed with weird sounds, I guess. Weird bleeps and bloops. And I saw that the guitarist from Radiohead, he could make bleeps and bloops with his guitar, and I was like, “That is so cool.” Little did I know that you had to be good at guitar, to be able to do that kind of thing. But I was like, “That’s so sick, I want to do that,” and so I got a guitar and I was like, “Wow, this sucks, I can’t do anything that that guy’s doing.” But I started learning guitar and doing that kind of thing, and as what I listened to change, my playing style also changed. I know a huge one was Coheed and Cambria. I discovered those guys and I was like, “Wow, these melodies that they’re doing, they’re playing leads on guitar while also singing leads, that’s so cool.” And I think that throughout my musical journey, a huge thing that I thought was super cool was bands like Mr. Bungle who would combine all these different kinds of music. And then 100 gecs came out and they were combining all these different kinds of internet music and I was like, “That’s sick.” And so, what I really wanted to do was to make music that combined these beautiful melodies with music that you wouldn’t ever think that it would be combined with, like hyper pop or ska or black metal.
That’s something I was curious about: Do you see yourself as fitting more into the internet aesthetic of 100 gecs and hyperpop, or do you see your music as belonging to a long-standing tradition of emo and indie music?
That’s a good question. I think I kind of flip flop back and forth, because some days, I’m like, “Oh, I just want to write an emo song and just have it be emo.” But then other days, I’m like, “I want to write a song that is what it would sound like if an anime intro was completely made with computers.” But I think that if you were to look at the majority of the things I listen to you and the things that I write, I’d say that it’s more of a traditional emo kind of thing.
Something that struck me in your bio was the confidence of, “Caleb wants to inspire people all over the world.” But when it came to describing your sound, there was this hesitancy of, “referred to by some as fifth wave emo.” I know there was recently some controversy surrounding this, but do you see yourself as a part of that genre, or would you rather avoid that tag?
It’s really funny, because when I first came with this first EP, fifth wave emo wasn’t a thing. I’d never heard the term fifth wave before – or even a little bit after I came out with that EP. But people started referring to that EP as fifth wave emo and I was like, “Yeah, sure, whatever.” I mean, I’ve always wanted to be part of a wave of something, you know. I’ve always wanted to be in a new genre. So I think it’s super cool that people are calling me and other people part of this new genre.
Do you think the pandemic has played a role in pushing bands to innovate more?
I think yes and no. I think there’s always been innovators in the emo genre and genres like it, but I think that the pandemic is forcing people to stay inside and just write music and record it with all these different limitations. It’s more relatable and people are finding each other more easily now, you know, like Home Is Where, Khaki Cuffs, yours arms are my cocoon, all these bands that are doing something different with the genre are finding each other and are being like, “Hey, check out these other bands that are doing something cool and crazy and exciting.” So I think that yes, it has in part to do with a pandemic, but also the pandemic just makes it more accessible.
Before we get to Internet Breath, one moment I wanted to point out on the first EP is ‘The Sad Acoustic Song’. That outro especially is insane. When you set out to make a song, do you always start with the intention to make something both overstimulating for the listener but also challenging for you as well?
I think that most of the time I start with an idea, and I don’t really think about, Oh, how can I make this into something almost unlistenable? With that song specifically, I was like, “I’m just going to make this sad acoustic song and that’s going to be it.” And halfway through, I was like, “I’m bored of being sad and acoustic, let’s us make it super loud for no reason.”
I’m amazed that there’s this lo-fi quality to your songs, but it never gets unlistenable or overbearing. It sounds very intentional. How do you go about achieving that?
I record everything off of my phone, and I’ve been working with music on my phone ever since I started making music. I’ve always been interested in these people who are making music that I really enjoy with basically no money, like early Car Seat Headrest. And so I kind of wanted to do that, but I also didn’t want it to become a gimmick. I didn’t want like people to be like, “This is a lo-fi album,” you know, I wanted it to be emo, I wanted it to be all these different things – I didn’t want “lo-fi” to basically get in the way of that.
With Internet Breath, did you expect that it would get the reaction that it did? You said before that that was part of the intention, but why do you think it caught on?
I guess I kind of wanted it to catch on a little bit. I mean, everyone, when they make music, they’re always like, “No, I didn’t expect this huge [reaction],” but I kind of wanted it to happen. I was like, “Man, it’d be sick if all these people enjoyed it.” But no one thinks it’s going to happen. And I think that’s a real struggle when I was making Internet Breath, too, I was like, “I’m making music that I’m only going to enjoy,” because it’s so specific and so niche in what it tries to do. And so I was like, “No one’s gonna like this.” And then it kind of blew up, which is really cool. I guess it’s still kind of blowing up, and I’m really grateful for it. A part of me still wonders if it’s undeserved, because like – with this EP, I just wanted to make music that’ll scratch an itch for me, and I guess a lot more people have that itch than I imagined.
Something I didn’t notice until much later was that you also have a TikTok with a lot of followers, but you don’t really promote your music there. Is that a conscious attempt from you to keep things separate?
It kind of is, because I wanted to keep it separate. But also, part of it is like, people on TikTok have really short attention spans and I’ve tried to promote my bands on there before, and it just does not work out. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because the TikTok algorithm is broken. But people don’t really support you outside of TikTok – if you find a following on TikTok, your band might get a few extra followers, but most of the people just stay with your content on there, like people won’t try and find you on other places if even if you promote it on there.
But also, I feel like a lot of people that like my content on Tik Tok are kind of – I don’t want to sound mean or whatever, but they’re just starting to get into that kind of underground scene, and I think that they wouldn’t really like what I’m doing out there. I think maybe what I’m doing out there would be too in their face, you know. I think they’d still have to make the journey that I did.
Can you talk me through the process of making Internet Breath?
I do this thing a lot where I’ll find a project idea, whether it be with other people or with myself – I get really into this project idea, I put something out there, and then I’m like, “Wow, this project idea is really dumb.” And then I delete it and I just never think about it ever again. And that was almost going to be what Hey, ily! was – it was going to be like a one-off, just throw it up there, see what happens, and then take it down eventually. But people really liked that first EP, and I was like, “Well, I guess now I’m sticking with this.” And so the second EP was kind of made just because I wanted to give people that already liked the first EP something more to listen to.
Throughout the EP, you find so many ways to distort or push the limits of your voice, whether you’re screaming or running your voice through effects. How much of a challenge was that for you?
I kind of am not that great of a singer, and I don’t really know a lot of the inner mechanisms of how singing muscles and organs work. So I think for a long time, I’ve been just pushing my voice and distorting it a lot just because I wanted – I’m not really super confident with my vocals yet, so I wanted to disguise it in any way that I can, whether that be singing harsher or adding effects onto the vocals. I’ve been doing that for a while now, but the challenge was making it listenable too. Sometimes I’ll add too many layers or too many effects to my vocals and people will just be like, “Wow, this is garbage.” And so I think that a part of me was just trying to be like, “Let’s calm down,” but also, “Let’s not calm down.”
A connection I made has to do with the way you use your voice and the idea of the “internet breath” that you bring up on the lead single, ‘DigitalLung.exe’. Did you have a particular concept or theme in mind for this EP?
Yeah, most definitely. When I was writing this EP, I was like, “I hope people will pick up on this,” so it’s really encouraging to hear that at least you did. I really wanted this EP just to be about the pandemic and the way that has forced us to live our lives basically through the internet. We can’t really see – well, I guess now places are starting to open up – but for a while we couldn’t really see each other, so we had to rely on just texting and group chats and we had to rely on the internet for entertaining us for most of the day. So, really what I wanted most of the EP to be about which is that struggle of being forced to do everything online, whether that be communicating with your friends online or just not trying to become addicted to social media in general. And then, you know, body image in an era where all you’re doing is looking at other people and seeing other people’s success.
Were you immersed in internet culture growing up, or was it something that really changed during the pandemic?
I was exposed to the internet at an age that was probably way too young for me, so I’ve totally been on the internet for a long time. But the thing is that I would still always find a balance. But as the pandemic started to become a thing, it did start to just absorb me and kind of take over my life for a while.
Something that stood out to me about that song is how it starts with “I’m brainwashed, but I like it” and ends with “part of me wants to break free.” This obviously relates to what you’re talking about, but I was wondering if you could expand on that final sentiment of wanting to break free.
I am helplessly addicted to the internet and I’ve been for a long time. And I like being able to talk with people online, I like being able to talk to communities, I like being able to access music and art and all these things thanks to the internet, but a part of me just wishes that I could just go to a time when it wasn’t completely online, and if you wanted to have a community you had to go out and experience that, you had to be around people. A part of me just wants to be able to turn off my phone and turn off my computer and just experience life, you know, without the internet. But also, I think I enjoy the internet way too much to do that.
What are your ambitions for the project going forwards?
I finally have a full band figured out for this project, so I’m really excited for the future. I think that we’re gonna try and ride out the attention this EP is getting – more listeners for me and my label mates, everyone else in the record label, and then we’re going to try and just make something bigger and better. And it’s going to be hopefully a full-length album. It’s just going to be just everything turned up to 11 – it’s going to sound better, it’s going to be more crazy, there’s going to be a lot more different things happening in it.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
In the music video for ‘The Holding Hand’, Iceage frontman Elias Bender Rønnenfelt holds a lit candle to his face, staring at his reflection in the mirror. When the rest of his band members do the same, there is a sense of despondency and disassociation; with him, it’s as if he’s peering straight through your soul, even when his look is directed sideways or his eyes are kept shakily shut. It’s both a lucid performance and a direct confrontation, and it captures the magnetism of the Danish band’s music at its best: living in the suspended moment between a deathly stare and a deranged laugh, it’s not so much a vessel for pure darkness as much as it illuminates the dualities of the shadowy place from which it springs. When they strike the right balance, it can sound both restless and haunting, visceral yet steeped in melancholy.
But a stare can also feel hollow, and for Iceage, as their name would suggest, keeping a cold distance has always been part of the point – even if they often juxtapose their enigmatic qualities with a sense of youthful vitality and apocalyptic gloom that sets them apart. Their fifth album, Seek Shelter, is at once their most revealing project to date and one whose occasional hollowness fails to translate in any meaningful way. Take ‘Vendetta’, for example, a propulsive musical highlight that Rønnenfelt has tellingly described as “an impartial, observative song,” one that’s “not against crime, and it’s not supposed to glorify it, either.” You can almost sense the singer’s sneering look in his delivery, but it falls short of conveying anything of substance about the subject, let alone provide some sort of incisive commentary. And it doesn’t have to – but in their attempt to move further away from nihilistic despair, the song highlights their struggle to embrace something resonant in the face of it.
But Seek Shelter is far from an inaccessible album, especially by Iceage’s standards. The quintet – Rønnenfelt, Johan Surrballe Wieth, Dan Kjær Nielse, Jakob Tvilling Pless, and new guitarist Casper Morilla Fernandez – recorded the album in 12 days with producer Sonic Boom (Pete Kember of Spacemen 3) in Lisbon, marking the first time the band have worked with an outside producer. The result is their most lush-sounding and refined album to date, one that continues the trajectory that started with 2014’s Plowing Into the Field of Love with the addition of even more strings and, this time, a gospel choir. The shining example of the band’s evolution comes in the form of the album’s opener, ‘Shelter Song’, a track whose soaring, anthemic chorus projects a yearning for tenderness that’s unlike anything the band have ever done before.
The rest of Seek Shelter evokes the conflict that occurs when romanticism and a general sense of weariness grow side by side, vying for space within the same body. ‘Love Kills Slowly’ is simultaneously hopeful and bleak: “We have nothing in the end/ But love,” Rønnenfelt sings, before completing his thought in the titular refrain, one that feels both earnest and heavy as it surrenders to the inevitable passage of time. On ‘Drink Rain’, though, the protagonist’s craving for intimacy is undercut by an air of absurdity that the band normally excels at; the strangeness here is alluring, but it feels subtly out of place in the context of the record. Rønnenfelt’s typically elusive lyricism still shines on tracks like ‘Gold City’ and ‘Dear Saint Cecilia’, but their poetic nuance is lost in an obvious attempt to scale up the band’s sound.
If the band’s vision becomes somewhat muddled as the album progresses, ‘The Holding Hand’ offers a tantalizing conclusion, bringing Iceage back to that eerie yet familiar place while serving as a bridge to something greater. The track ushers in a wave of confusion and uncertainty as impenetrable and overpowering as the music itself; Rønnenfelt is surrounded by ghostly echoes of his own voice, distorted electric guitar crushing down on him like a tide. “And we row, on we go, through these murky water bodies/ Little known, little shown, just a distant call of sound,” he sings. It’s at once the album’s most claustrophobic and transcendent moment, a song of punishing turmoil and renewed clarity, and exactly where Iceage need to be.
Throughout the week, we update our Best New Songs playlist with the new releases that caught our attention the most, be it a single leading up to the release of an album or a newly unveiled deep cut. And each Monday, we round up the best new songs released over the past week (the eligibility period begins on Monday and ends Sunday night) in this segment.
On this week’s list, we have an appropriately dark and throbbing collaborative track from HEALTH and Nine Inch Nails, ‘ISN’T EVERYONE’; Laura Marling’s project with Tunng’s Mike Lindsay, LUMP, returned with ‘Animal’, the lead single off their upcoming sophomore LP, which serves as a reintroduction to the “parallel universe” of LUMP and pulses with an eerie, hypnotic energy; Madi Diaz’s latest, ‘Nervous’, is an earnest indie rock ballad with just the right amount of grit; dodie’s ‘Before the Line’ is a hauntingly dramatic closer from her debut album Build a Problem; Little Simz offered the second preview from her forthcoming LP, ‘Woman’, a celebration of female empowerment set against a mellifluous groove and featuring a sublime guest appearance from Cleo Sol; L’Rains’ ‘Blame Me’ is a gorgeously layered single from the Brooklyn experimentalist’s upcoming sophomore album; and finally, New York dance music duo Water From Your Eyes shared ‘Quotations’, the latest teaser from their newest album Strucuture, a track that warps a sunny melody into something fragmented yet entrancing.
A night in with your pals, with good food, fun, life chats, and an overall sense of rejuvenation (even if you end up staying awake far too late) can create the recipe for a perfect night. The following will explore some of the things you might want to consider when planning a night in with your friends. Of course, every friend group is different; if face masks or mudding or Skyrim are musts in your circle of friends, be sure to include these things. No one knows your friend group better than you do.
Don’t Be Married To The Plan
Before we dive in, it’s important that you don’t become glued to the idea of your plan panning out perfectly. Some of the best memories arise as a result of serendipity or random ideas followed through to the end. It’s fantastic to have a basic plan: this way, if nothing comes up or is going on, you’ve got all your bases covered. This being said, be ready to go with the flow and adjust the plan to the surprises of the evening.
Music
We all have that one friend (we’re not going to name her here), but she likes to take over the role of DJ, and the brutal secret is none of the rest of us like her tastes. Get ahead of the potential problem by creating a few playlists. Have one full of music you guys tend to listen to a lot, have a throwback playlist in case that’s the mood, and finally, throw together something with a bunch of new music you think the gang would like. This way, you’ll be ready for whatever music needs you and the group has. Of course, read the room; you don’t have to have music playing all the time if that doesn’t fit the vibe. Be ready to pivot.
Food
Food is crucial to any lengthy gathering. People get hungry, and then they get cranky, and then things stop being fun. If people are going to be drinking at this party, it’s even more important to ensure that there’s food for everyone.
A general rule of thumb is to have snacks available the whole time with a big meal at standard meal times and a smaller meal ready every four-ish hours. And, the cardinal rule is: always have more food than you think you’ll need. Someone might bring a friend. Someone else might have just gotten back together with that partner we all despise. Someone else might bring their sister. No matter how prepared you are, keep handy a few websites that deliver in case your crowd is hungrier than you expected them to be; www.swagbucks.com/shop/gopuff-coupons even offers coupons for deliveries from the 24-hour convenience store goPuff. Be sure to keep in mind when things are open for delivery and how long it will take to arrive when making your plans.
Keep Everyone Informed
Are you all planning on jumping in the lake at midnight? If so, everyone needs to bring swimming clothes or a change of clothes. Also, do you have enough towels for everyone? Will there be a bonfire in the backyard? People might want to bring bug spray, camp chairs, or a big sweater. Are people welcome to spend the night but need to bring their own pillows and blankets because you don’t have enough? Let everyone know what all the options are ahead of time so that everyone brings the right clothing for whatever comes up in the evening.
Games
There’s no such thing as too old for games. Something like Spike Ball, charades, Cards Against Humanity, sardines, or manhunt works no matter how long it’s been since you graduated. Peruse the internet and prep a few games for the group. It doesn’t matter if you don’t end up playing them or if you make your way through all of them in succession; you just want to have some fun options ready in case everyone is feeling like a game. Make sure to be aware of your group’s charades skills if you’re putting some tougher book titles into the charades hat. Start simple if you don’t know how everyone’s abilities stack up.
Movies And Video games
For many of us, there comes the point in the night where everyone needs to wind down a bit (or a point the following morning when everyone is hungover and wants to laze on the couch drinking Gatorade). Be prepared for this by keeping a list of movies and video games that might work well for the group. This way, if everyone’s too exhausted to make a decision as a group, you can just throw something up on the tv and let everyone veg out for a couple of hours.
Breakfast
The following morning everyone is going to be sleepy, sore (from sleeping funny with three people piled onto the only couch), or hungover. Be the best host in the world and sort out coffee, tea, and breakfast. Nothing gets people up and moving faster than pancakes. Nothing.
Expect Stragglers
What do we mean by stragglers? We mean that one friend who sticks around for a whole other day (or even another night after that). When we have big group gatherings, someone always is stuck without a ride or gets far too hungover to drive the next day, or sleeps until 4 pm in the basement. Be prepared for this when you have a group of friends over for the night and try to avoid needing to be out of the house by a certain time the following day.
The above tips should help you plan a memorable evening with your buddies. Again, every friend group is different, so feel free to tweak these suggestions to fit the activities you guys normally enjoy. Keep in mind that spending several hours outside tends to result in people being hungrier than usual. If you want to push the boundaries a little and experiment, why not have a “no phone rule” for the party. Everyone pops their phone into a bowl at the start of the evening, and we all have fun like it’s still the 90s.
Marfa Fedorova established her brand in 2013, betting on street fashion. The new collection, presented as part of MBFW Russia, reflects the aesthetics of urban fashion with bright colours and buzzing textures. Once again, the designer became voluminous with items of outerwear and shirts, sundresses, and trousers. The collection can safely be described as practical with raincoats, windbreakers, and dresses with sleeves large enough to hide everything you need. Moreover, the designer did not ignore the trend for collars which engraved well with the ranging colour pallet from neutral to pops of bright red and yellow.
Russian Fashion Council is inviting designers worldwide to apply for the international hybrid fashion event Global Talents Digital. The third Global Talents Digital issue is dedicated to sustainability. Designers of virtual and physical clothing, footwear and accessories are welcome to join as long as they are working with upcycling, recycling, ethical fashion, slow fashion, or zero waste.
Global Talents Digital will take place phygitally in the end of July. Entries are accepted till June 30, 2021, at https://globaltalents.digital.
The previous edition of Global Talents Digital took place in September and got over seven million views. 103 participants from 34 countries and areas united to explore the issue of sustainability. Designer collections, works of artists and virtual models in collaboration with non-profit organizations and technology startups were watched from 1,519 cities throughout the world.
Talking about the event, the president of Russian Fashion Council and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia Alexander Shumsky said: “The team of Russian Fashion Council will continue working on this sustainable event in Moscow, although the project will remain international. We invite designers working in sustainable fashion to apply so that they could share up-to-date sustainable practices with the world. Global Talents Digital is a long-term initiative that intends not to criticize but to tell the audience how billions of unwanted garments can be used, how to buy more reasonably, and how sustainable fashion philosophy can be extended beyond the professional eco agenda. This project is a place for artistic experiments and collaborations, and that is why we invite non-profit organizations, artists, and bloggers – the ones that have the sustainability concept at heart.”
