Spiraling through space…

Freefalling…

Feeling that this morning, for sure. I slept long enough to dream, and the dreams that came were vivid and not quite so strange (though strange enough) that it wasn’t obvious that I was dreaming. It was all news related and there were a few stories I’m going to need to check to make sure it wasn’t just a recap of items read right before sleeping. Yes, the president was moved to Walter Reed Hospital. Were the reports of his condition as dire as my dreams? Is he having trouble breathing. Is he on a respirator? It would be a tremendous irony after his continually dismissive rhetoric over the last 8 months, but not necessarily a good thing. No sleep would be lost if he were truly that ill, or even if it took him, but it wouldn’t be such a good thing. More on that another time.

The sounds in this mix are nostalgic in a way, or feel nostalgic. There’s nothing familiar but the sound itself. None of the artists were on my radar prior to 2020. There are no songs specifically that I remember, but the sound familiar and somehow comforting. Music is one of the few contexts where nostalgia is a good thing. Memory is a funny thing and emotional memory is tricky. Folks tend to remember things as they would prefer to rather than how they actually happened. Never trust a person (and particularly a politician) who talks about how wonderful it would be to restore things to how they used to be. Utopia is a future idea and very rarely relates to any point in history, and even if it did, it’s unlikely that anyone could recreate all the conditions that contributed to how things were anyway. Nostalgia is generally a cocktail of delusional memory and emotion. Take it for anything warm and fuzzy that it makes you feel and move on. You’ve got now and next. That’s all.

Feelings aren’t facts, sayeth The Crocodiles.

And despite all that I’m sitting here on a crisp autumn morning feeling nostalgic for a time that never happened. Not with me in it anyway. It’s funny how that happens. This compilation is definitely more shoegaze than post-rock. It all floats somewhere just below pop accessibility but all the pop elements are there, most particularly the sort of keening, anxious vocals ad power chords… the teen factors. Is that what’s resonating with me? Is it that teenage desperate and waiting for something to happen feeling? I don’t know. I know what works. I know what feels good but often not why it does. That’s okay. Let’s leave it with the tracklist:

• (00:00) 宇宙ネコ子 – Virgin Suicide
• (03:00) Luminous Orange – Drop Your Vivid Colours
• (07:30) 東京酒吐座 – Just Alright
• (11:15) Number Girl – ダッチ
• (16:12) ART-SCHOOL – Siva
• (19:23) MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS – You
• (22:27) 3nd – Clockwork
• (27:09) OGRE YOU ASSHOLE – また明日
• (30:21) Spangle call Lilli line – rara
• (34:33) Spangle call Lilli line – B.P.
• (40:16) OGRE YOU ASSHOLE – White House (
• 42:03) Lemon’s Chair – vibgyor