I told myself that I’d read and write more this year, and it’s only February, so there’s plenty of time to go back on my word. I did pretty well in January with reading at least, before 2022 I was having a hard time getting back to reading anything without pictures, but during 2020-2022 I read a ton of comic books and manga.
I think once I got myself reading a few memoirs in the fall of last year, it helped me get started again, so I’m trying to finally read some stuff that’s been sitting on my shelf for over a decade. I figured I should just do the same thing I’ve been doing with my monthly listening, try and keep track of it in some way, so in addition to my monthly playlist here’s what I was able to get through in January:
The Chainsaw Man volumes were from my brother on Christmas, but a few of these I either have had a couple years, or in the case of “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” I’ve had since college. Here’s to hoping I can actually keep up momentum!
My listening for January started out with a ton of Yellow Magic Orchestra, which lead me to finally order the self titled, Solid State Survivor, and BGM albums on vinyl, and the day two of them arrived was the day I found out that Yukihiro Takahashi had passed away. I listened to a lot of YMO during the last few years, but the timing on it really shook me. I remember watching reruns of Soul Train on TV probably like 15 years ago and seeing their performance and being equally confused and intrigued, but I was still really late to catching onto them apparently.
I realized I never listened to any of Yukihiro Takahashi’s solo career, so I started checking some of it and listened to his “Neuromantic” album over and over for the last few weeks. My January listening was heavily dominated by YMO, but as usual, my playlist for January is all over the place.
Lastly/most massive news, yesterday I announced a split between longtime friends, The Astronaut King and Jank Hambrams, which has been tied together with phenomenal artwork by Jank Hambrams.
The two minds seemingly connecting their imaginary planets through atmospheric, thought provoking, and appropriately similar-yet-different music.
Preorder the full album from Hildsvfar Records, The Astronaut King, or Jank Hambrams!
Unless I’m forgetting something, that about wraps up January. Here’s to hoping for a good February, (PLEASE MAKE IT A GOOD ONE)!
The Unrefined Jagoff 