Horse Jumper of Love have shared a new song called ‘Singing by the Sink’. It’s taken from their upcoming mini-album Heartbreak Rules, which is out this Friday (via Run for Cover) and has already been previewed by the title track. Give it a listen below.
“I was inspired by my grandmother singing old Greek folk songs in her kitchen,” vocalist/guitarist Dimitri Giannopoulos explained in a statement. “Singing by the sink represents a comfort and simplicity in life to me. It means happiness. The song was meant as an answer to an insatiable pursuit for meaning in the world beyond comfort. The scenes in the song take place outside the kitchen window as she is singing. All separate little worlds going on at the same time.”
Horse Jumper of Love’s latest LP, Natural Part, arrived last year.
Mandy, Indiana is a Manchester-based experimental quartet composed of vocalist and lyricist Valentine Caulfield, guitarist and producer Scott Fair, synth player Simon Catling, and drummer Alex MacDougall. Following a series of early recordings in 2019, the group released their first EP, …, in 2021. Treading the line between the playful and violent, the collection balanced militaristic grooves with formless, visceral experimentation, paving the way for the band’s debut full-length, i’ve seen a way, out this Friday on Fire Talk. They recorded parts of the album in bizarre, unconventional locales – screaming vocals in a shopping centre, live drums in a cave in the West Country. One session even took place in a Gothic crypt while a yoga class was underway just above them, a sort of literal manifestation of their disruptive, even combative approach to creating dissonance. But the real battle is happening within the music, as Caulfield, singing in her native French, infuses the amorphous chaos that buzzes through the record with fiery intent. In marrying the unrelenting fury of post-punk with the intoxicating pulse of electronic music, Mandy, Indiana fashion a world of discomfort that pulls you further in the more you try to turn away, all while ensuring the view they project is no more grim than galvanizing.
We caught up with Mandy, Indiana’s Scott Fair for the latest edition of our Artist Spotlight series to talk about the origins of the project, the process of recording i’ve seen a way, its conflicting dynamics, and more.
If not a message, is there a driving force behind Mandy, Indiana’s music that you want people to be able to pin down? I think part of it is communicated through Valentine’s lyrics, but there’s obviously a language barrier if you don’t know French, and even then it’s pretty elusive.
There’s a lot going on, I’m not gonna lie. Maybe there isn’t a clear message, because I think the music and the lyrics sometimes come from very different places. We think it’s a strength of our music is that it is messy and it doesn’t quite fit together. We’re much more interested in exploring the unfamiliar and the unknown and stuff that doesn’t feel comfortable, so that was kind of the driving force behind the creative process, just trying to get out of our comfort zone and do something that felt challenging. In terms of the lyrics, there are definitely strong opinions about the state of the world, about inequality, but that very much comes from the personal experience of Valentine, so I can’t really speak too much to that. The lyrics always come second, so Valentine doesn’t write anything in preparation for the music. It’s always as a reaction to the music, so that’s the thread that pulls those things together.
The music that I’ve written in the past before I met Valentine was always very much focused on myself and wasn’t especially collaborative, so what I find really exciting about Mandy, Indiana is that process of allowing somebody the freedom to co-create. That’s much easier to do when it works well, and I think that’s the thing, is that Valentine and I work well. Maybe it’s just chance, I don’t know how it happened really. It just started working, and then we were like, “Let’s explore this further and deeper.”
I know you were playing in different bands before you met, but what struck you about Valentine’s approach to music and performance, and what do you think she saw in what you were doing?
It was that first show where we met each other. She was playing in a band called Maelk. They weren’t doing anything that was especially experimental – they were a good band, but the thing that struck me was that she kind of looked like she was just in her living room, relaxing; she would just sit down on the stage occasionally and she didn’t look like she was in a venue at all, and then she’d just get up and casually walk around the stage. It didn’t really make sense with the band that she was playing with, to be honest, and I think that’s why it stood out to me. One of the later tracks that they did in the set was Valentine singing in French – the rest of it was English – and that’s the moment where I went, “Wow, this is really cool and interesting. I should go and talk to her.” I don’t even know if I did talk to her, actually, but my band was playing as well, and that was a two-piece. It was sort of a precursor to Mandy, Indiana – that was when I was getting a lot of these ideas and listening to music that was informing my taste at that time. So I think she saw that band and was like, “This is really weird and interesting.” And that was it. It’s just noticing something about somebody else, I guess, and having the desire to actually reach out to them afterwards.
What excited you about the possibilities of how that collaboration could play out?
I’d never really had a project where it was super collaborative. I think other musicians used to get involved with me because I wrote everything and I was singing everything and I was the driving force behind the band. So other musicians would be like, “Cool, this guy is kind of doing everything, we’ll just come and do our thing.” With Valentine, it really was a new experience for me because I’d never worked with anybody in that way before. It was like, “I’ve written this song, what do you think? Could you do something with it?” And then she’d be like, “Yeah, maybe,” and then go away for weeks and weeks and I wouldn’t hear anything from her, and then I’d kind of prod her and go, “Did you do anything?” And she was like, “Oh, no, I’ll do it now,” and then like an hour later she would send me an idea, and it’s fucking amazing. [laughs] So when I heard it back, it wasn’t like any experiences that I’d had before of writing my own music where I was like, “Is it any good?” I was just like, “She’s added her thing to this, and it’s made it amazing.” I love what she’s done to it, so I’m a fan of it. It’s a lot harder to do that if it’s just you because you get inside your own head and psych yourself out about things.
The possibilities seemed limitless, and the fact that she was singing in French, which is her native language, sort of gave me permission to be slightly more obtuse. We only thought we would ever play shows in Manchester as well, we didn’t have any ambitions to play beyond that. We were like, if we can play a festival in Manchester, then we’ll have done it, we’ve done what we set out to do. People in Manchester, most of them don’t speak French and they’re probably not going to understand this, so maybe it doesn’t matter if they don’t understand the music, either. So let’s just make the music as weird as we can – and it’s still not very weird, it’s still very much informed by popular music. But I guess it gave me agency to go, we can be weird with this, because it’s already sort of atypical.
Even with how limitless the possibilities seemed, were you surprised at all at the direction you ended up taking creatively?
All I could say is that I was surprised by how strong the album is. I didn’t know that we could make something that I would love as much as I do. I was thinking, “I’m never going to like this, I’m too close to it.” Because the EP was, I feel, very much focused in one particular area of what we do, whereas the album embraced things that we were just starting to become interested in when we did the EP. There were seeds that were being planted along the way that really flourished on the album in a surprising way. I think the stuff in the album is always trying to look forwards instead of looking back too much. There’s definitely some older influences on there, but we’ve always tried to take that and and put it alongside something new and different. I was like, “This easily could have been a bad mess. But it’s a good mess. [laughs] A fun mess.”
We spent a lot of the budget for the album on recording in these slightly unconventional recording spaces, and I think for a debut album, it was a big swing. It could easily have backfired and resulted in a bit of a disaster. But I always think, if your intentions are right, then the idea is the best thing. It kind of doesn’t matter as much what it turns out like if the idea is good.
How much of an impact do you think recording in these environments actually ended up having on the final product?
It has had a tremendous impact on the record as a whole, because we weren’t even done writing it at the time that we went to record some of these sessions. Things that happened directly influenced decisions that were made when we were mixing it and producing it and writing the parts of it. I mean, going into a cave, or specifically the cave that we went into, felt like going on to another planet. It was this weird sort of Martian landscape, there was all this orange sand, then the walls around us had this weird, purplish tint to them. It was so alien, and like with the other things that we’re talking about before, it gives you permission to go hard. [laughs] It gives you permission to just throw caution to the wind and be experimental and enjoy it. There’s a lot of silly qualities to the band members and the influences that we draw from, and the record is not just aggressive – there is a lot of that, but there is a lot of fun in it as well.
This didn’t necessarily influence the decisions, but I remember reading about Animal Collective and how they made records. They would take, like, paddling pools and have these projections of dinosaurs and things on the studio walls. It’s just like what kids would do. Having a little field trip to a cave to go and record is just a fun little trip, you know, so that was really liberating. I mean, it was nerve-racking that day in the cave because we couldn’t hear anything that we’re recording because the reflections were so loud. Even if we had headphones on, we couldn’t hear while it was being tracked, and we had such little time that we didn’t have time to listen back to what we recording either. I think it was like an eight-hour day, and five or six hours were loading in and loading out. So we had probably about two hours to record in there, which is not a lot of time at all. By the time we got out, it’s very late, so we weren’t going back anywhere to listen to what we had recorded. It’s the next day when we listened back, and we were all exhausted. We’re like, “Oh, thank god, it sounds amazing.” [laughs] That really buoyed us for the rest of the journey.
There was even a cave diver that came up through this pool in the cave while we were recording and was like, “What the fuck is going on?” The first track on the album, ‘Love Theme’, that has this sort of filtered moment where it’s kind of like passing through water, and that was inspired by this guy coming up and discovering this drum kit. I mean, it was so loud in there. You hit the snare, and it’d just be like ear-splitting levels of volume, so I can only imagine the terror that this cave diver must have felt as he came up through the water and was hearing this cacophony. I really wanted to imitate that experience in a fairly sort of obvious way.
Do you have any other favorite memories from those field trips that are more on the silly side?
The clearest one that jumped straight to her mind is, we were in a crypt underneath this church, and I was basically given free rein with this loudspeaker and this microphone – I had my ear defenders in my ears as well that I use when we’re playing live, so I could still hear everything perfectly well, it was just the volume was reduced. So we just cranked this speaker as loud as we could, and I would walk around in this space with the microphone just pointing at the speaker and then moving it off axes and getting all these different reflections, and it was amazing. I did that for probably about 15 to 20 minutes, just wandering around doing this experiment and getting different sounds and rhythms with it. And when we finally stopped, there’s this massive banging off the door. I was like, “Holy shit, who’s that?” We went to open the door, and Isaac, this guy that was recording with us, he was like, “Guys, I just had a complaint from upstairs, because apparently they’re doing a yoga and meditation class up there.” [laughs] So we’re like, “Oh shit, that’s hilarious.” But we didn’t do any more. We were very respectful.
There’s something about having music at those sorts of volumes – it does something to your body. It’s too loud to listen to for too long, so you have to have ear defenders on or something to save your ears. But having that level of noise, it just moves you in a weird way. Some people might not call it music, but I think it’s very musical. There’s something really affecting about just the sound of feedback and the rhythms that emerge from it. I was having a great time. I’d love to just do a performance of that –everybody comes in, and it’s like, “Just so you know, you might want to wear ear defenders for this,” and then it’s just loudspeakers, microphone. I mean, people have been doing that shit for years, it’s nothing new. But that was a fun “I’ve been let off the leash” kind of memory.
There’s a kind of conflicting dynamic between Valentine’s vocals and the noise that you’re talking about. It’s almost like they’re in opposition, which is interesting because there’s this revolutionary bent to a lot of the lyrics. For you as a producer, the way the music is staged, do you see the voice resisting against the chaos of the music, or is it almost amplified by it? How do you see that relationship?
I think that’s a really nice observation, that they’re in opposition with each other; Valentine’s voice, the defiance of it, comes from its attempt to try and drown out the music, or to rise above the noise. It’s not something that I considered, really, when we were we were producing it. But a lot of it was just going off that desire to make something that felt unfamiliar. There wasn’t necessarily a lot of thought if there was that kind of dynamic. I guess when you’re mixing something, if you’re doing a pop record, then it’s all about balancing the elements so that you know you can hear the vocal and that it cuts through. And with this it was like, we don’t have to worry about any of that. The voice can be drowned out, can be drenched in reverb, or distorted, and it doesn’t matter because it’s just another element. Maybe it feels like there’s a battle sometimes because it was treated when mixing like it was another instrument.
Sometimes when you’re listening to a track, certain things pull focus – often a voice can do that because of the dynamics of it, but sometimes you listen into a track and all of a sudden you’re like, “Oh shit, listen to that snare.” Something jumps out from the mix, and sometimes things are just in the background because you’re focusing on something else. But in our music, it can be anything; it could be the vocal, it could be the drums, it could be a sample.
Does that desire for the unfamiliar ever clash with your sense of precision or attention to craft, which I feel are also important elements in your music?
I’ve always been uncertain about my skills as a producer. But I also couldn’t really let anybody else get too involved in it, because I’m so picky and the things that I’m aiming for – often when you do involve with people, they bring in things from their own experience, and this is an experiment in trying to deliberately go against what we all know collectively, or what we’re all influenced by. It’s trying to just tread its own path, I suppose. But with this, there did come a time where I was like, “I know these things need more attention and more craft, and I can’t do it myself.” So that’s when I started getting other people involved. We got Robin Stewart from Giant Swan involved to mix some of the tracks that were maybe a bit more electronic leaning, and Daniel Fox from Gilla Band to do stuff that was maybe a bit more in the experimental and guitar-based world. And that was really amazing. Some of the album I felt sort of comfortable doing myself, but some of it was like, “I don’t necessarily possess the skills right now to make the thing that I’m hearing in my head.” So it’s really about getting somebody that I knew could and talking to them.
Certainly for this, I was so much about, “Let’s embrace the chaos, let’s embrace the raw nature of things, let’s not overproduce and not overthink and not spend too much time.” But then I started spending too much time, and I was like, “I’m too close to this, I need to move away from it. Let’s get somebody else involved.” So there was a bit of a battle between embracing the chaos, but also having that level of completion that it felt like it needed. You can work on something and really hone it and craft it without it becoming overproduced. But it can be difficult, especially once you get other people involved, to maintain that level of rawness.
I think that dynamic intensifies at the very heart of the album with ‘Mosaick’ and ‘The Driving Rain (18)’, which seem to offer different interpretations of Valentine’s words about order and beauty. How did you conceptualize that middle portion of the record?
My favorite albums are the ones that work hard to draw you in, so there was always going to be repetition of themes and motifs, maybe more akin to something like a score or a soundtrack. It’s supposed to call back to things and remind you of things. And the more time you spend with the record, the more you notice that connective tissue that pieces things together. We use structure occasionally, we use melody occasionally, we use more obvious rhythms because that makes the chaotic moments more impactful. If the record was all noise, it might be fatiguing – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, there are great noise records are completely devoid of melody, that don’t have structure or form, and they’re amazing. But we wanted to pull elements of that and contrast them with elements of melody, stillness, calmness, because we wanted the more aggressive moments to have that much more weight because of it. We’ve tried to make a dynamic record that leads you on a bit of a journey – as cheesy as that sounds, that kind of is the point.
Because of that cinematic quality and the sense of momentum that builds, I’m curious whether ‘Sensitivity Training’ is a song you were tempted to stretch out for the finale.
I think it’s supposed to be abrupt, really, and it’s supposed to be primal. A lot of the tracks come from the a place that’s more feeling than anything else, and that feels like a very defiant note to end on. There is a certain darkness and doom in the album, but we wanted it to finish on a note that felt optimistic and sort of galvanizing. So that’s why you’ve got this, it could be like a march, or it could be anything that unites people and gives them hope and gives them a driving force. That’s probably the one that maybe speaks most to the lyrical themes that appear throughout the record. It’s like, “Let’s not end this album rocking back and forth in the corner of a dark room.” I think there’s like 10 guitar tracks on that – we didn’t do that anywhere else on the record. I don’t know how we’re going to do that live, or if we’ll be able to. There wouldn’t be any point doing it, unless you could get loads of drummers and loads of guitarists all doing it together. Maybe one day. But that’s what it’s supposed to be – it’s not just a four-piece band anymore, it’s loads of musicians.
Weirdly, that track was somewhat influenced by – I don’t know if you’ve seen Moana, the Disney film. There’s a few sounds on that soundtrack – there’s a call, and that’s right at the start of Moana. That was sort of what influenced this kind of tribal call that happens while Valentine’s singing in the background. It’s not referencing any sort of particular culture or tribe, it’s just a primal shout. It’s not a word, it’s not in any language. I think it’s an optimistic track, but it’s still very grounded-feeling. It’s like, if you want those moments where that really amp people up, you have reference things that maybe aren’t all smiles and sunshine. So there’s like a shout influenced by Moana, but there are also dark melodies that are influenced by an artist like Coil. Again, it’s a clashing of things, it’s a coming together of things that maybe shouldn’t work, and maybe don’t work. But maybe it’s okay that they don’t work.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Beverly Glenn-Copeland has announced The Ones Ahead, his first new album in almost 20 years. The follow-up to 2004’s Primal Prayer is set for release on July 28 via Transgressive. Along with the announcement, Glenn-Copeland has shared the lead single ‘Africa Calling’, which you can check out below.
“In the ‘80s I had the honour of performing with an incredible artist named Dido, a master of the drums indigenous to West Africa,” Glenn-Copeland said of the new track in a statement. “The beauty of this drumming tradition is explored in ‘Africa Calling’. Over the years, in many conversations, I have come to understand that I share an undefinable, unnamed feeling – a calling – with many other members of the African diaspora, a bone-deep need to explore and express our heritage. Alongside the grief, there is a longing to know our roots, hidden from us as family lines were torn apart in the terrible days of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In a world still caught in the ties of colonialism, I know I am not alone in needing to heed the call of this generations-old longing.”
Glenn-Copeland made The Ones Ahead with producer John Herbermann and Indigo Rising, the band who joined him on his inaugural European tour. It was recorded at a remote studio in Nova Scotia in late 2021 and completed in 2022.
In 2021, Glenn-Copeland released Keyboard Fantasies Reimagined, a remix album featuring reimagined versions of songs from his 1986 LP by artists such as Arca, Blood Orange, Julia Holter, and Kelsey Lu. More recently, the xx’s Romy sampled Glenn-Copeland on her new single ‘Enjoy Your Life’.
The Ones Ahead Cover Artwork:
The Ones Ahead Tracklist:
1. Africa Calling
2. Harbour (Song For Elizabeth)
3. Love Takes All
4. People Of The Loon
5. Stand Anthem
6. The Ones Ahead
7. Prince Caspian’s Dream
8. Lakeland Angel
9. No Other
London-based trio bar italia have unveiled ‘changer’, the final advance single ahead of the release of their debut LP, Tracey Denim, out this Friday via Matador. It follows previous cuts ‘Nurse!’ and ‘punkt’, the latter of which made our Best New Songs playlist. Take a listen below.
Being a portrait photographer is no easy feat; it takes a lot of time, patience, and skill to create a style that fits your vision and the client’s needs. In this post, we’ll look at five presets for Adobe Lightroom and why you should get them for your portrait photography.
Cinematic Essentials
The golden egg of all preset packs is the Cinematic Essentials preset pack by Resource Moon. It contains 32 majestic presets that cover all the essential areas when it comes to taking portraits. From jungle-esque moody blue tone presets to the classic black and white, from wedding to family photography shoots. You can be confident that you will receive complete coverage.
While primarily focusing on landscape photography, the Landscape 500 preset is an iconic single preset that utilises vivid colours, bringing out a great look even in the dullest photos. From phone camera photos to professional photos, this preset will have you covered in portrait and landscape photography, giving you a top-notch range for your vision.
If you’re branching into weddings, another splendid preset is the Wedding 500. This one is rich in warmth and colour, making the special day much brighter. It works brilliantly on various backgrounds and can be considered an all-rounder when it comes to presets. Also, like other presets on the list, it is available for mobile and desktop Adobe Lightroom applications.
Photography is a marathon and certainly not a sprint. But when it comes to presets that make your work speedy and worthwhile, Football 500 by Resource Moon scores the goal. This filmic preset can be used for sporting events and those looking to bring a more pro to feel to their amateur photography. It certainly is a great starter preset.
From New York Fashion Week to your close friend’s clothing brand, Fashionista 300 tailors for the fashion lovers of this world. The preset contains a single powerful preset that will transform your work within seconds. Some great things you can use this preset for are lookbooks, Instagram photo shoots, baby photos, family photos, dog photos, product photos, and even scenic landscape pieces.
Is Lightroom better than Photoshop for editing portraits?
Lightroom is a trusted piece of software specifically made for photography purposes. While Photoshop is technically more advanced, Lightroom is much more user friendly for larger collections of photos. As a result, if you are shooting portrait photos in large quantities, you should use Lightroom and Photoshop for additional touch-ups or object removals.
How do I edit raw portrait in Lightroom?
If you’re editing a raw photo in Lightroom then you’re in luck. With so much data, RAW images are superior to simple condensed photos from the internet or other sources. Lightroom allows you full control of colour, light, masking and other editing tools to make your portrait photos great.
How do I remove the background from a portrait in Lightroom?
Sadly, Lightroom by Adobe does not allow the removal of backgrounds as an overall treatment of a photo. However, this can be done in Photoshop with a magic eraser tool.
Telling you what to start a user who has decided to try to play slots at online casinos. Slots online casino or, simply, “slots” call our usual slot machines. It is this type of gambling continues to be one of the main sources of casino profits.
What are slots
In order to play the slots game, one must understand its basic principle: as you spin the machine, random symbols appear on a screen that is divided into numerous columns and rows. Through this method, the symbols can align and create a winning pattern or simply fall into a straight line.
In general, slot machines have a payout rate of around 95%, implying that eventually, the players are given back, in the form of several small prizes and a handful of jackpots, roughly 95% of the bets they’ve placed. The other 5% is kept by the casino as profit.
Day after day, countless people participate in fulfilling the obligatory 5% earnings of betting conglomerates with the expectation of striking fortune’s favor. The pervasive appeal of this sort of amusement has given rise to a growing abundance of internet slot machines that offer boundless opportunities, courtesy of sophisticated programming and varied wagering scenarios.
Legal online casinos have capitalized on the opportunity to provide an extensive selection of slot game variations.
If you’re a newbie looking to try your hand at slot machines, it’s crucial to keep some important tips in mind.
Find a legal online casino
A vital element of a successful game is ensuring that the payout is guaranteed. Unfortunately, some illicit gambling establishments exploit slot machines that provide payouts under 95%. Consequently, most of the players’ wagers result in losses.
Legal online casinos feature a page dedicated to rules and legal particulars. This page must furnish data on the software providers, payment systems supported by the operator, and other relevant details.
Prior to engaging in gameplay, inquire about the rules governing the payout of winning sums. Typically, virtual gambling establishments require a substantial discrepancy between the aggregate values of wins and bets before authorizing withdrawals.
One can experiment with the features of a slot game without spending money by accessing the demo version on reliable platforms.
Choose a slot that suits you
Once you have sampled a variety of free online slot options, it’s important to take a moment to determine which one suits your preferences best.
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Games that offer intricate slot machines featuring numerous pay lines, the ability to bet on every column, and limitless symbol combinations can result in frequent wins. However, the highest possible payouts are not as substantial.
Players who intend to make only a limited number of bets should avoid slots that don’t yield winning combinations often because these games are more suitable for those who are, instead, seeking a larger payoff.
When it comes to choosing slots, starter bonuses play a crucial role. Online casinos frequently offer freespins for specific slot games or multiply your deposit to encourage you to play. Such bonuses enable you to place more bets than your bankroll permits.
Make sure to monitor the payout process when it comes to instances like these since the ability to withdraw bonus funds is only possible if your overall earnings exceed them by multiplication.
Experiment with tactics
The distribution of guaranteed winnings to all players is a fundamental aspect of the slot’s operation, and it relies on specific algorithms.
Players attempt to outsmart the algorithms by experimenting with various spinning strategies when using slot machines.
One can improve their chances of winning in a slot game by adopting various strategies such as adjusting their bets at a specific point during the game, increasing their bets during bonus rounds, switching to different types of slots after a certain number of spins, and altering their bets after a win or loss.
It’s difficult to succeed with any strategy in slot machines since their software allocates winnings in a largely random manner. To secure the full 95% payout, the most straightforward approach is to place as many wagers as possible using the lowest denomination available.
A single player would need to invest an excessive amount of time to conduct such an experiment.
Allocate money to the game
To ensure the game of slots remains an enjoyable experience and does not escalate into frustration or addictive behavior, it is advisable to set a specific betting budget.
Indulging in some gambling, being pampered, and experiencing the thrill of even the slightest wins – these are the perfect ways to unwind temporarily with friends during the holidays following a long week of hard work.
The chances of a player meeting a disastrous end is high if they rely on gambling as their source of income.
Before indulging in slots, consider if you are willing to splurge a certain sum on it or if you prefer allocating the funds for other leisure activities like purchasing tokens for air hockey or hitting the shooting range.
Instead of just focusing on winning, take advantage of this particular form of entertainment to its fullest potential.
Choose the right time to play
Online casinos, like any other form of entertainment, have specific schedules and bonus days, which make it absolutely plausible that the supreme slots game may occur on weekends.
On weekends, when individuals tend to gamble the most during their free time, they frequently coincide with bonus days.
On bonus days, players have the chance to increase jackpots and win more symbol combinations. Casinos also provide additional opportunities for free gambling such as freespins.
The sole objective behind this is to offer the player an opportunity to win more and retain them on the website for as long as feasible.
Exploring various types of slot games can be a fun way to entertain yourself, providing that winning is not your sole focus.
There isn’t a single person on the globe who wouldn’t like to have all their clothes, shoes, bags, and accessories tucked away neatly in the most stylish and high-end wardrobe. A walk-in wardrobe is a best possible solution for any bedroom that has space for it for organizing your clothes with sleek wire hangers, drawers, and cupboards. Anybody who has the space and budget for it, ought to consider incorporating some of these luxurious walk-in wardrobe design ideas and see what a great investment and practicality they truly are.
Opt for plenty of stylish storage solutions
Walk-in wardrobes offer more than sleek simplicity, they maximally widen the bathroom area and enable you to meticulously store your clothes. By having a separate space for all your closed used for multiple occasions, you need to ideally organize them either by usage or occasion. The key is to use customized shelving design, and slanted shelves, with a plethora of drawers for watches, lingerie or ties, practical storage components, and cupboards as well as open areas with hanging rods for coats, jackets, and dresses. Add either a dark-tined slide door or a classical wooden one to separate the walk-in wardrobe.
Sleek functionality
To get the most out of this spare but utterly useful new room, you need t create it to be safe, stable, and long-lasting. Wardrobes do require some air flow to prevent the collection of mildew, mold, or mustiness and have it ruin your clothes or make them smell stale or musty. The first thing to do is to place insulation when building your walk-in closet. Get only the top quality materials such as those you can find here, and insulate the wardrobe to allow the moisture to flow through, not to mention that you would have a perfect soundproof space and an Eco-conscious area. If you were to insulate your walk-in wardrobe, you won’t need to have doors and the walls and cabinets would let air flow smoothly which would enable clothes to remain fresh and smelly nice.
Add eclectic lighting sources
One of the most important features is having exquisite but bright lighting in your walk-in wardrobe. The walk-in wardrobe should exude functionality, however, when it comes to lighting the atmosphere should be comfortable and timid. Walk-in wardrobes are usually small spaces, thus warm lighting would give out great elegance. Install warm built-in dimmers from the inside of the storage components and drawers, if possible make them light up upon opening. For an even sleeker effect, you can place a sophisticated chandelier.
Mirror, mirror
A walk-in wardrobe won’t be completed with a luxurious top-to-bottom mirror. In order to make the space appear bigger, wider, and more luxurious, you can build a mirror barrier, install mirrored sliding doors, or simply place a large vintage and elegantly embellished mirror. It would be far simpler to have a large full-length mirror in situ, not to mention that it would give you extra room to roam around the wardrobe. When you at least have one large free-standing floor mirror or maybe a mirror shutter on the wardrobe, you would easily extend the room and see yourself from head to toe.
Upscale your artistic flair
Consider your new walk-in wardrobe as a special room, and besides filling it up with mere clothes and other apparel, why not decorate it according to your tastes? First, make sure you paint the walls with some vivacious wall hue, then hang some extravagant and top-class artwork, or place hand-made accents such as glorious bull-skull ornament. However you opt to decorate your wardrobe, just aim to create a place that you will love above all.
Creating a luxurious walk-in wardrobe in your bedroom signalizes creating a practical and clutter-free space that would help you stay organized, time-efficient, and stress-free. Create a customized walk-in wardrobe of your dreams by following this step-by-step guide.
Going to the movies has been a pastime for over a hundred years, as heroes of the big screen become household names. Recent years have led to technology providing the same entertainment delivered to the home by video, superseded by the digital age, as downloading a film and watching it conveniently is the modern way.
All sorts of genres capture the attention of those wanting to be entertained whether it be action, romance, comedy, or thrillers among others. Here we concentrate on 6 classic blokes’ movies that are highly recommended that will capture the imagination.
The Italian Job. Forget the 2003 remake, a poor imitation of an absolute classic. Michael Caine and the boys in an all-star cast plan a gold heist from in front of the noses of the mafia and authorities in Turin, as mayhem ensues including the best car chases ever filmed. Chuck in music from Quincy Jones and appearances from Noël Coward and Benny Hill plus plenty of added sex appeal and you’ve got the lot.
The Shawshank Redemption. High up on the lists of all-time favourites of many shrewd observers, this drama set in prison sees Tim Robbins play the part of someone wrongly jailed for murder. He cleverly plans his escape while befriending a fellow felon played by Morgan Freeman and using his jail work before dropping the baddy governor right in it as justice is done.
Slap Shot. An American backwater industrial city and its no-hope ice hockey team feature in this laugh-along movie as Paul Newman tries to stop the owners from selling the club to another franchise. It’s a story of human struggle and relationships, beefed up by the signing of three crazy violent brothers who prefer Scalextric to sex toys back in their room.
Trainspotting. A movie directed by Danny Boyle, based on the book by Irvine Welsh, following a group of friends and heroin addicts in an economically depressed area of Edinburgh and the struggles that then ensue, with more than a little black comedy and a superb soundtrack. Clinically acclaimed as one of the best movies of the 90s.
The Great Escape. Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough are among the stars in this tale of Allied prisoners in a German Prisoner of War Camp who wants to escape and draw the Nazi forces away from their battle as well to search for them. They force their escape by digging a tunnel before the story intensifies.
Pulp Fiction. The work of director Quentin Tarantino at his best as this movie charts the stories of a couple of mob hitmen, a gangster and wife, and a boxer as tales of violence and redemption take place. Featuring John Travolta, Samuel L Jackson, Tim Roth, Bruce Willis, and Uma Thurman.
Many more classics could have been included with Snatch, Escape to Victory, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, among them. In the meantime, catch up with these 6 classics and enjoy a nice night in.
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 best new music segment.
This week’s list includes ‘Lipstick Lover’, the languid, sensual, and confident new single from Janelle Monáe; Christine and the Queens’ strikingly resonant new song ‘Tears can be so soft’; feeble little horse’s playfully endearing yet relatably unnerving ‘Pocket’, lifted from their new album Girl with Fish; Gouge Away’s intense, slow-burning new single ‘Idealized’; Decisive Pink’s ‘Dopamine’, a satirical take on consumerism that’s driven by an infectious beat; ’Sword’, the eerily intoxicating lead single from DJ Python and Ana Roxanne’s new project, Natural Wonder Beauty Concept; Youth Lagoon’s beautifully devastating ‘The Sling’, which gives his upcoming LP Heaven Is a Junkyard its name; and yeule’s ‘sulky baby’, which reflects on an old, all-consuming passion with tenderness and light.
Yasujiro Ozu (1903-1963) was one of those rare directors who seemed incapable of making a truly awful film. Granted, a sizable portion of his early career in the 1920s and ‘30s has been lost—swept away by the cataclysms that wiped out an estimated 96% of Japanese silent cinema1—so we have no access to Wife Lost (1928) and Beauty’s Sorrows (1931), critically maligned films that even their creator deemed substandard. But of Ozu’s many extant works, the majority range between fair and excellent, with masterpieces (1949’s Late Spring, 1953’s Tokyo Story, 1958’s Equinox Flower, etc.) that rank with cinema’s most profound achievements. Even lesser efforts (1934’s A Mother Should Be Loved, 1948’s A Hen in the Wind) feature enough good moments and solid craftsmanship to warrant occasional viewings. Such is also the case of the lesser-known The Munekata Sisters.2
Based on the novel by Jiro Osaragi and released in August 1950, The Munekata Sisters marked the first of three instances where Ozu directed for a studio other than Shochiku.3 In spring three years earlier, employees at rival company Toho became frustrated with their labor union’s rules and creative interferences, and thus formed an alternate union to represent themselves. Called the Society of the Flag of Ten, they were allowed to work in a previously vacant set of soundstages and were christened Toho Second Production Branch. Alas, tensions between the Society and the previous union continued, the former eventually breaking off to form a subsidiary called Shin Toho (“New Toho”).4 Shin Toho initially received distribution and financial backing from its parent company—in exchange for twenty-five percent of all profits—but in March 1950 defected to operate on its own. Their output included debut films by up-and-comers like Kon Ichikawa as well as freelance jobs from established moviemakers. Akira Kurosawa’s Stray Dog (1949) was one such film, the Ozu picture under discussion being another.
Making The Munekata Sisters proved somewhat frustrating for Ozu, as the front office not only dictated casting but picked the source material.5 “To be frank, I find it difficult to make a film out of a novel,” he recalled in a 1958 interview with Kinema Junpo magazine. “You’re forced into reworking the imagination of the author, and then have to select someone to play a role already created. When I write, I always write with an actor in mind from the beginning, and this helps create the role in the film.”6 Working from what he described as a “very heavy” script,7 he also found himself quarreling with star Kinuyo Tanaka, with whom he’d worked numerous times before but who’d recently returned from three months in Hollywood and consequently had new ideas regarding film acting. Ozu, accustomed to dictating performances down to the tiniest movement (“You are not supposed to feel, you are supposed to do,” he once told an actress), was even overheard grumbling about his leading lady.8 Nonetheless, he remembered the shoot being an easy one and addressed the story predicament by directing the “heavy” script “very lightly.”9
The Munekata Sisters begins with one of the titular siblings, Setsuko (Kinuyo Tanaka), visiting the former capital of Kyoto, where she learns her father (Chishu Ryu) is terminally ill with stomach cancer. A very “traditional” Japanese woman, she spends much of her time touring the city’s famous temples—much to the boredom of her younger, “modern” sister Mariko (Hideko Takamine). Infused with contemporary ways of thinking, Mariko’s likewise frustrated with the path her sibling’s chosen: Setsuko tolerates an unemployed husband, Mimura (So Yamamura), despite lasting love for Hiroshi (Ken Uehara), a man she knew before the war. Mimura learns of his wife’s feelings, turns against both siblings, opposes Setsuko seeking financial assistance from Hiroshi to save her bar, and physically strikes her after suggesting they divorce.
At this point, the film goes comically off the rails. The husband’s subsequent death of a heart attack leads to a nauseating denouement wherein his widow refuses to marry Hiroshi for fear of being haunted by the past. (The subdued writing and acting in the resultant breakup scene feels out of place amid overheated melodrama.) But the problems begin even before that, with contrivances and the tired cliché of interrupted intimacy. On the verge of divorcing her husband, Setsuko rendezvouses with Hiroshi at an inn to discuss the future. The two are slowly leaning in for a kiss when they hear someone stepping into the room; as they step apart, Ichiro Saito’s music comes to a halt, accentuating what is already an awkwardly staged scene. Ozu professed throughout his life to have been uninterested in romance,10 and nowhere is this more evident than here. Additional problems stem from the father and his inconsequential illness subplot: as written, his only narrative function is to proffer advice to his daughters.
Before Act Three, however, The Munekata Sisters fares as a modest entry in Ozu’s oeuvre, thanks in great part to Hideko Takamine. A major star since age five, Takamine appeared in over a hundred pictures as a child—including one directed by Ozu, 1933’s Tokyo Chorus—before transferring to Toho in her adolescent years. Clinging to popularity after the war, she’d been one of the founders of the Society of the Flag of Ten and thus accompanied them to Shin Toho. In The Munekata Sisters, Takamine plays a tomboy (“She looks like a lady but acts like a child,” says her father) prone to humorous tics (sticking out her tongue, scrunching her face, describing others’ lives with a theatrical tone of faux-profundity). Most interestingly, though, her character Mariko is a byproduct of occupation-era (read: westernized) Japan, frequently at odds with her sister, whom she deems “old-fashioned.”
At its core, The Munekata Sisters is about the clash of lifestyles between its two protagonists. Whereas Setsuko dons kimonos, Mariko struts about in Occidental dresses; while the former’s content roaming the temple of Kyoto, the latter’s happier in cosmopolitan cities such as Kobe and Tokyo; Mariko enjoys being spoken to in English and, at one point, kicks her slippers at a displayed set of samurai armor, something her sister would never do. In the movie’s best scene, the siblings square off against each other and their respective ways of life. (“Things that are really new never get old. What does ‘new’ mean to you? Short skirts? Stylish nail polish color?” “You and I are totally different. We were raised in different times.”) The film never chooses a side, though the siblings’ father, while assuring Mariko to find her way, cautions her that “being fashion-conscious is boring.” By drama’s end, the sisters stroll together through Kyoto, clinging to their world views—Setsuko still in kimono, Mariko still in western clothing.
Continuing on the topic of modernization: The Munekata Sisters is retroactively fun as a glimpse into the later years of Japan’s postwar occupation. While no foreigners appear, their influence is plainly visible: an office building rife with English signs for Time, Life, and Bible House; a café with a Coca Cola sign prominently hung from the ceiling. Meantime, the characters reminisce about the war and prewar years: a bartender character is a former pilot, and Mariko attended junior high in Manchuria, the Chinese demographic infamously annexed by Japan in 1931.
And there’s a pleasure consistent across all surviving Ozu works: the exquisite sense of design, the natural flow of images. Together with cinematographer Joji Ohara, the director gets creative with weather, at one point staging an interior scene during a thunderstorm, achieving light effects through the shadow of raindrops streaming down windows. Images that no doubt look spectacular in the film’s new restoration. I haven’t seen the print in question (it’s to make its debut at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival) but hope it eventually makes its way to home media markets there and elsewhere. For even minor Ozu films such as this are worth the attention of serious film lovers around the world.
Works cited and further reading:
Russell, Catherine. The Cinema of Naruse Mikio: Women and Japanese Modernity. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008, p. 52
A disclaimer on the film’s title. Per a Japanese correspondent of mine, the proper pronunciation of the sisters’ surname is “Munakata.” However, I recently attended an Ozu exhibit at the Kanagawa Museum of Modern Literature in Yokohama, Japan; and the plaque related to materials for the film under discussion spelled the English title as “The Munekata Sisters.” This appears to be the official English spelling per the film’s copyright holders; and so, for the sake of representation, this is the spelling I’ve used in this article.
The other two instances are 1959’s Floating Weeds, shot for Daiei, and 1961’s The End of Summer, shot for the Toho subsidiary Takarazuka Eiga.
Anderson, Joseph L. and Donald Richie. The Japanese Film: Art and Industry (Expanded Edition). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982, pp. 167-8
Bordwell, David. Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988, pp. 311-2
Richie, Donald. Ozu: His Life and Films. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977, p. 236
Bordwell, p. 313
Richie, pp. 144; 236
Bordwell, p. 313
Richie, Donald. “The Later Films of Yasujiro Ozu.” Film Quarterly 13, no. 1. Autumn 1959, p. 21
Wedding 500
