All By Myself

by Rasmus on December 22, 2011

Gerry Read - All By Myself

I don’t often get to write about people younger than myself. When someone noteworthy pops up, however, it becomes all the more enjoyable. Right now, that somebody happens to be Gerry Read. The 19-year old has released a bunch of EPs on Fourth Wave, yet I somehow managed to miss that until All By Myself landed in my inbox. Needless to say, this release made me curious to find out what I had been missing out on.

Turns out, Read is pretty darn excellent. There is a cheeky jazz sample, a droning layer of hi-hats, and a serious undercurrent of Chicago house running through the A-side. ‘All By Myself’ works exactly because it mixes the most likely ingredients in a surprisingly compelling cocktail. You either just entered Chicago’s edgiest jazz club or its grittiest house joint – Read isn’t going to answer that for you.

Graphic high five via creativeapplications.net

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Modern Love

by Rasmus on November 27, 2011

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Rather than trying to catch up on every single release that I missed (I imagine that would take another while), I decided to share the releases that have spent the most time in my headphones over the past months. There is no rhyme or reason to my choices here, and the only common denominator is that all of them are absolutely beautiful pieces of music, regardless of whether they commit to techno or ambient.


Andy Stott – We Stay Together (Modern Love)
There is a strange, hypnotizing quality to this EP. Had this not hit my headphones in a digital format, I would immediately have started my search for the 45 rpm button. This is rough, deep, and textured, but must importantly, it’s slowed down beyond what you could reasonably expect from a techno release. This is not the soundtrack of your weekend crusades or your euphoric blinds-open-hands-in-the-sky climax. This is the sound of a rough awakening at 5 am. You regain consciousness as the speed of time winds back up to match the pace of the world outside those heavy, heavy walls.

Stott has crafted an EP where every moment of sound is richly saturated. No gimmicks, no hooks; he does not need them. But then again, when you can create sounds tapestry this intense, who does?


Niels Frahm – Felt (Erased Tapes)
Unlike Stott, you can hardly accuse Niels Frahm of kicking in the door. Felt is so hushed and timid that you hardly notice its presence. To call the album forgettable, however, would be to underestimate Frahm’s sense of composition. On one hand, the album sounds like it was recorded with a smartphone microphone, turning the up the gain to capture every last bit of sound. On the other hand, this gives you the experience of peeking over Frahm’s shoulder and follow along as every single note comes to life.

If you allow Felt to be more than background mellowness, the album suddenly becomes an excruciating listen. Every note carries a necessity unlike anything I can recall experiencing. Considering that most of the music in my headphones is unmistakably ‘programmed,’ Frahm’s lo-fi compositions carry a simplistic charm and a refreshing honesty.


Tim Hecker – Ravedeath, 1972 (Kranky)
Back to the big brushes again, Tim Hecker’s Ravedeath, 1972 blew me away from the very first listen. To this date, I still cannot come up with an album that stretches out a single moment over an hour’s worth of music with such eloquence and lightness, especially since noise is the very premise of the genre. Hecker does that, however, in exploring that moment halfway between order and chaos, between harmony and destruction immediately before the piano drops.

Ravedeath, 1972 is a bold statement. A statement that quite literally has you shut up, sit down, and pay attention. While it is tempting to dismiss the record, have you not given drone or noise a chance before, do yourself a favor and play it out loud, in full. Hecker demands your full awareness, but rewards you with a grandiose blend of aching melancholy and absolute catharsis. Sure, he defies any kind of pop formula, relying mainly on a perpetually mutating mass of noise. At those moments when a familiar sounds transcends the inferno, however, you realize just how beautiful a painting Hecker paints from the most unlikely palette.


A Winged Victory For The Sullen – A Winged Victory For The Sullen (Erased Tapes)
This is too much. I usually write about house and techno, and now I am about to share my love for a record that falls somewhere between classical and ambient? As the perfect midpoint between Hecker and Frahm, A Winged Victory For The Sullen amplifies the intensity of the former while maintaining the honesty of the latter. Between the quiet explosions, the seemingly endless stretches of silence make the meaning of that next string swoop all the more significant.

In fact, I would go so far as to argue that silence makes this record. There is tension, drama, melody, and melancholy, but none of these would hit us as hard, were it not for the moments of reflection that separate them. This is an album that works solely on its own terms. A Winged Victory For The Sullen is not merely beautifully sad and tragically beautiful. I hope more non-classical musicians (or non-ambient, for that matter) will give this a chance, if only to learn how much you can say with very little without having to call yourself minimal.

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Everyday Alone

by Rasmus on September 21, 2011

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Solomun – See You Everyday Alone

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We need to take things less seriously.

I’m serious. It’s no use getting so wound up in whether Crosstown Rebels are the new Wolf + Lamb that you forget how fun everything was supposed to be. There is nothing exciting about Internet rants, press releases, or yet another artsy podcast.

Sampling Amerie does not necessarily solve all our problems. It does help quite a lot, though. Solomun has released nothing but gold this year, and his most recent 12″ is no exception. Splitting a release with Stimming (and his mom, but let’s not get into that), he puts out yet another piece of funky house, this time with an extra touch of pop sensation.

So, funky house, big news. But Solomun is fun. Amerie’s vocals are pitched down to the point where the clean pop sensation is a distant shadow, exposing the deeper subtleties that you never noticed when this was top 40 material. It’s a tool, yes. But then again, aren’t we all? While we’re at it, we might as well have some fun.

Graphic high five via but does it float

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Strøm 2011: Friday at Enghaveparken

by Rasmus on August 22, 2011

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At Strøm, Friday marks the end of all the meta-musical events and the beginning of the festival’s cornerstone concerts at Enghaveparken. For the always compelling price of nothing, Copenhagen’s music enthusiasts are invited to join the fun with acts like Jatoma, Egyptrixx, Space Dimension Controller, and Pional playing sets in the evening hours.

For an artist with only a few buzzed-about releases, Lone had accumulated a surprising amount of hype for his Strøm appearance. Surprising mainly because his music is vastly different from most of the other acts on the bill. But then again, there isn’t a lot of music that compares to Lone’s on any level. In true minimalist fashion, his stage presence was little more than Cutler himself, an array of equipment, and the first PC I’ve seen at a concert in a while. For me, the most striking thing about the concert was just how many layers Cutler operates with. Everything is stacked, twisted, and glued together, and while the mixing was… primal, my overall impression was definitely positive. As bass music gets increasingly sophisticated, hearing something that went straight for the guts turned out to be a welcome change.

Walking from the Grass to the Main stage afterwards meant more than just a slight change in surroundings. Where Lone was borderline chaotic, Brandt Brauer Frick was all about control. You would never guess that the three suit-clad Germans were here to play techno and not to crunch numbers, especially since they approached the task with an eye for detail most accountants would envy. Unfortunately, the sound of the Main stage did not do the trio’s music justice with a strange muddy feeling in the lower frequencies. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to say that techno without proper bass is a pretty mellow affair. On top of that, the trio relied heavily on tried and tested techniques with little room for serious variation, leaving the crowd satisfied but not exactly raving.

Back at the Grass stage, Jatoma had taken the stage. I had heard great things about the trio’s Roskilde performance earlier this summer, but had not managed to catch the group live before. With a real drummer, plenty of vocoder, bells, and a whole lot of percussion, Jatoma embarked on a set that drifted between straight up techno and esoteric, even psychedelic experiments. It may just be that my experience with Jatoma is too limited, but I found the first half of the set relatively trite with the four enjoying their own chores but rarely reaching out to tie things together. Still, the more explosive parts of the set, especially those with a minimal feel, brought out the best in the collaboration. In my humble opinion, Jatoma are best when they work towards a clear goal – An aspect of the group that we got to experience yesterday, but not to the extent that I had hoped.

Photographic high five via Emil Hougaard. Check out the rest of my coverage of Strøm 2011 on the official Strøm blog.

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Strøm 2011: The Electronic Family Tree

by Rasmus on August 18, 2011

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It didn’t strike me until I was on my way home just how ungrateful a feat compiling the history of electronic music to a 90-minute lecture is. Where to start? What to include? What to leave out? In hindsight and from the safety of the crowd, it is always easier to be wisecracking, but just thinking about the extent of that job made me glad I was not about to embark on the same journey as Ralf Christensen.

Where did he start? With the very basics, it turned out. Landmarks like the first voice recording, the first manipulatable sounds, John Cage’s experiments, reel-to-reel cut-ups, and all the other steps that allows today’s youngsters to twist knobs and look cool, to paraphrase Christensen, were duly covered. Although the importance of these events cannot be questioned, my guess is that the majority of the crowd – again of a pleasantly surprising size – were mainly interested in the tipping point where electronic music became less about the electronics and more about the music.

Christensen’s focus on the former was perhaps much needed educational input for those of us who never put much thought into those prehistoric times. As technology advanced, however, both the lecture and the musical evolution it covered became more coherent. The jumps from, say, Lee Scratch Perry to Giorgio Moroder or Larry Levan to Frankie Knuckles are, after all, easier to make. That is not to say that they are more important, but merely that they revolve around a musical landscape much closer to that of today.

Of course, this is also the point where electronic music becomes so widespread that covering every newly bred genre seems naive. Focusing on a few key elements, Christensen described how Juan Atkins grew out of Kraftwerk’s man machine and how the ensuing second summer of love fostered both a UK depression and subsequently a new and meaner genre of music as hardcore and drum’n’bass came into being. Christensen’s extensive knowledge of the scene was obvious, and the constant struggle between the limits set by technology (today, unfortunately also the instances present on stage) and the pioneers pushing them forward became crystal clear.

With words on ”bedroom scientists”, the slightly derogatory ”intelligent techno,” ”braindance,” modern dubstep (from haunted to soulful, Burial to Woon), the beauty of the accidental, and the sounds of Shangaan Electro, Christensen rounded off his presentation. I cannot say I expected a 90-minute lecture where Frankie Knuckles took over the Warehouse with 15 minutes to go. Then again, my perspective on the history of electronic music was certainly broadened, which might not be a bad thing. I wouldn’t mind sitting through another lecture with a stronger focus on more recent events, but if the goal was to go as far up as possible in the electronic family tree, Christensen succeeded.

Photographic high five via Strøm’s Flickr (Marcus McNair & Adam Garff). Read more on the Strøm blog

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Strøm 2011: Trans Metro Express

by Rasmus on August 18, 2011

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There’s a bunch of us waiting at Nørreport, cans in hands, mumbling passionately with a slight sense of secrecy. On a normal Tuesday, you might think this would be because FCK are playing the Champions League qualifiers (and will subsequently get their behinds handed to them), but that is not why. As the next Metro cart approaches and a distant rumble grows increasingly audible, there is no doubt that the Nørreport crowd is here to join this year’s Trans Metro Express. The few casual commuters look puzzled as a jam-packed train, filled to the brim with hundreds of ravers, picks us up. To be fair, squeezing in any more people is a challenge in itself, but once inside, nobody cares about the steam on the windows.

We’re crossing Copenhagen numerous times, the mood rising with each stop. Tonight, ”Skååål!” is a perfectly suitable greeting for Metro-station onlookers, some of whom look confused and either stay at a safe distance or rush in to join the festivities. Inside, we’re crammed together as I don’t know what, but nobody lets the tight squeeze get them down. Instead, the surprisingly capable Funktion One setup brings crystal clear sound even to the back of the train. It is, admittedly, hard to dance, celebrate, or even move, for that matter, but even when it comes to in-place dancing, the Trans Metro Express crowd is doing a good job.

A few people take a break from the action towards the end of the line, enjoying a couple of cool minutes in the Copenhagen night. But there’s more raving to be done. And hey, isn’t this a perfect occasion for crowd surfing? Why, yes it is. (With the unfortunate side effect of some guy ending up in the complete opposite end of the train from where his friends were. Solution? Crowdsurfing your way back). And hey, isn’t Kenton Slash Demon playing a bang-on-the-ceiling worthy set? Sure. (Again, with the unforeseen side effect of a minor torrent of black dust quickly forming around us, a subtle change in skin tone all around quickly following).

As Hvad takes over – frantically jumping around with a little help from a violin and a drumstick – the dancing fades and people seem to notice just how crazy everything is. Can you imagine explaining to your grandchildren that you were riding the Metro back in 2011 to the sound of something that sounded remotely like dubstep with an occasional ”Hvad!” (”What!”, that is) on top? They may of course be up to much cooler things, but for now, Trans Metro Express remains a fun ride.

Photographic high five via Strøm’s Flickr (Marcus McNair & Adam Garff). Read more on the Strøm blog

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Strøm 2011: Master Class

by Rasmus on August 18, 2011

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’They have free Red Bull!’ were the first words my friend said, when we met up at Culture Box yesterday. And sure enough, there was plenty of free caffeine for everybody once inside. While a solid energy boost should never be neglected, I was more interested in RBMA’s general involvement with the event. As far as I recall, we have already had a few master classes around Copenhagen hosted by the caffeine giant, but this year’s Strøm festival hosts well over a handful of master classes and workshops that borrow the traditional RBMA structure while adding a handful of both local and international acts.

Yesterday’s event saw Bjørn Svin, Troels Abrahamsen, and Tomas Barfod elaborating on everything from production techniques to distribution. The raw surroundings at Culture Box had received the cozy treatment with pillows and bean bag chairs ready to be occupied, and they did indeed get occupied when an impressive number of people showed up.

The first half of the event had Abrahamsen and Barfod discussing the electronic music landscape, touching on everything from clearing samples over approving remixes to whether vinyl is still a viable medium. Of course, the two are known to be some of the scene’s most vocal debaters in discussions about the future of the music business, which made them excellent choices for yesterday’s mix of Q&A and in-couch debate.

I would venture a guess that had you shown up for that part of the talk eager to learn all the tricks of the trade, you left somewhat disappointed. Here, the Master Class label seemed a little overblown, if only for the fact that the advice from the comfy couch seemed directed at music fans in general rather than aspiring producers in particular. As a casual listener with no production ambitions, however, I thoroughly enjoyed both the format and the topics the two touched upon. Considering how often discussions about electronic music revolve around little more than how to get the party started, hearing two of the country’s finest artists sit down and talk through their own experiences revealed just how well the scene has matured and, similarly, how the crowd’s appetite for these events has increased along with it.

If the first part left you could, chances are Bjørn Svin’s lecture gave you what you wanted. Having last delivered a similar presentation to roughly 10 people, he seemed overwhelmed by the size of the crowd, but only for the better. The second half was dedicated to the technical parts of music production, where Bjørn got to play around with and explain the intricate workings of his ”machines” (in his real and not my air quotes, that is).

Music production is of course a lot fuzzier than the music business itself, which meant that the talk often became somewhat abstract for casual listeners. After all, terms like mood, feel, and artistic quality are hard to quantify. Still, when Bjørn let the machines do the talking in explaining frequency modulation or complex drum patterns, I imagine even the non-techies in the room were following. Once again breaking with the notion that electronic music is dumb and simplistic (a sentiment that, to be fair, is far removed from everything Strøm), he showed just rich tools tone and timbre become when treated right. Even if you are not rushing out to get that several-thousand-dollar Elektron machine, I can’t help thinking that you left Culture Box slightly enlightened yesterday.

Photographic high five via Strøm’s Flickr (Marcus McNair & Adam Garff). Read more on the Strøm blog

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2011 Festival Rundown: Strøm

by Rasmus on August 16, 2011

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The following is my guide to all the wonderful events taking place during the Strøm 2011. I’ll be writing about various happenings on here as well as on the official Strøm blog, so expect a lot of crossposting (and great music!). Morten from Regnsky will cover the other half of the festival on that blog, too, so there should be plenty of exciting things happening throughout the week.

I wonder how we ever get anything done. Admittedly, it’s summertime and things are pretty quiet at the moment, but look at all those events taking place all over Copenhagen at the moment. I’ve barely digested Trailerpark and Stella Polaris is hardly over before Strøm takes over. With a week of tempting events, how could you possibly get any work done?

You most likely can’t, but that’s okay. You will not hear a single judgmental word from me. After all, who can resist a lineup like this? So, in an attempt to maintain a healthy balance between work, play, music, and boring necessities like sleep, here are my recommendations for what to see at Strøm 2011. I have kept the weekdays relatively quiet, partly to avoid tempting you too badly and partly so that you can save your energy for the weekend.

Monday: Master Class – Bjørn Svin, Troels Abrahamsen & Tomas Barfod
Where? Culture Box, Kronprinsessegade 44 When? 16:00 ? 19:00
The educational content of a master class taught by some of the Danish electronic scene’s most vocal names might just be enough to justify your going out on a Monday night. For aspiring producers and budding enthusiasts alike, tips on distribution and composition from Bjørn Svin, Abrahamsen & Barfod should be both interesting and eye-opening. Oh, and while you’re there, you might as well stick around from the Strøm Opening Reception following the class.

Tuesday: Trans Metro Express: Beastie Respond, Spelling Bee (Nabo and Aslope), Hvad, Kenton Slash Demon
Where? Vestamager Station When? 19:00 ? 21:00
I don’t care what people say; Copenhagen has great public transportation. And while something like a party in the Metro sounds terribly illegal, the authorities over here are, apparently, cool with stuff like this. For once, you want a crowded train as you’re traversing the city to a soundtrack delivered by the likes of Beastie Respond and Kenton Slash Demon. Go find some photos online of last year’s Trans Metro Express and you’ll know why you want to show up.

Wednesday: Ralf Christensen: Det Elektroniske Stamtræ
Where? Copenhagen Central Library When? 17:00 ? 18:30
Yeah, it sounds awfully highbrow when Ralf Christensen, music editor of Information and host on Danish radio station P6, invites you on a trip through the history of electronic music. But considering how rarely you get to experience a coherent journey through the sprawling history of the genre, it is worth paying attention when the opportunity arises.

Thursday: All City Showcase: Om Unit, Onra & Buddy Sativa, Eloq, Danaet of Tall Prawn
Where? Christianshavns Beboerhus When? 21:00
If you missed the first Red Bull Music Academy co-sponsored showcase on Wednesday, Thursday presents yet another chance. This time, Om Unit and Onra show what All City Records have been up to with a mix of haunted electronic vibes and ridiculously groovy disco.

Friday
And then everything goes all crazy. Following the usual Strøm setup, Friday and Saturday present a combination of free-for-all events in Enghaveparken and an array of nightclub events around Copenhagen. While I am not as hooked on the lineup in Enghaveparken as I was last year, the acts coming to the city for some solid nightclub fun are simply stunning.

To kick things off, UK bass prodigy Lone, Danish power trio Jatoma, and German trio-turned-10-piece-(!)-live-ensemble Brandt Brauer Frick are all playing at Enghaveparken. With a handful of smaller Danish acts as part of the 1st Hit Wonders initiative and visuals from Dark Matters on top of that – all at the sympathetic cost of zilch – a stop at Vesterbro is an essential part of the Strøm experience.

I feel spoiled describing the remaining events, and honestly, I have no idea how to boil all of this down to something that could resemble a schedule. At Vega, the Le Social team has brought in Actress and 2562 from the UK and the Netherlands, respectively, for a night that could end up in several different places. Dubstep? House? Techno? I guess you have to show up to find out.

Things get more predictable, albeit no less exciting, if you spend the night at Dunkel. Here, one of my favorite bass music artists, Hemlock head-honcho Untold, plays as Ottoman meets Hest/Pony. He played an eclectic set at last years festival, and I’m confident he will pull off something just as interesting this year. Meanwhile at Culture Box, Belgian techno hero Peter Van Hoesen is ready to do what he does best: deliver pounding techno rhythms at a pace and level of bass that might result in your face melting mid-set. Tough call, right?

Saturday
Saturday shares the structure of Friday with some significant musical twists. At Enghaveparken, things are slightly softer and slightly more psychedelic when Pional, Space Dimension Controller, Paxton Fettel, Averos, and a whole bunch of others take the stage. That might not be where you are heading, however, since one of the festival’s biggest scoops in terms of bookings is playing right around the corner.

Although a ticket to Aphex Twin will set you back a significant amount of cash -at least compared to Enghaveparken – well… it is Aphex Twin! Come and mess yourself up as Richard David James takes over TAP1 for a show that promises to be extraordinary in every possible way.

Of course, there are still plenty of excellent music to catch should Aphex Twin not satisfy your cravings. DJ Qu, master of everything deep house and one of the most underrated artists on the scene, is playing at Dunkel for a night with Chez Savi. If that transition is too rough for you, Chris Rawles at Culture Box is probably a better fit. But again, if you’re out and about on Saturday, it’s hard to go wrong.

Sunday: Stille Strøm
Where? Ofelia Beach When? 15:00 ? 17:00
Phew, that’s a lot of music. But Strøm is not done yet. Give your ears a gentle treat and round off a week of all sorts of festivities with an afternoon curated by legendary Danish radio show Det Elektriske Barometer. If the weather behaves, a chilled out harbor-side Sunday might be just what you need.

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Tusk

by Rasmus on August 14, 2011

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Klaus – Tusk

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You can’t accuse R&S for squandering the words on their latest release. Klaus is releasing Tusk, an EP containing Fens, Cypher, Pim, and, yes, Tusk. Brevity is bliss.

Once past those four words, however, Tusk shows more depth. I find it increasingly difficult to immerse myself in the ambient branch of dubstep offshoots that seem more concerned with their own experiments than with anybody else’s experience. At first, you may think that you have encountered yet another one of those release, and I would probably agree with you. While the mood is rich and the ambience is subtle, the EP offers little in terms of openings that will allow you to penetrate its minutely crafted surface.

Yet, listening to Tusk is hardly a waste of time. As the phoned in Burial remakes or shallow blips and blops keep piling up on various releases, playing something that shows both significant work and talent becomes even more important. The more I play this record, the harder it gets figuring out what I should do with it. If Fünf – the Ostgut Ton compilation crafted using recordings from various parts of Berghain – was the sound of the rarely seen parts of the world’s most iconic nightclub, Tusk extends and elaborates on that same approach. But instead of using untraditional tools to craft traditional music, here, both means and ends are difficult to narrow down.

Graphic high five via James Bills

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Envision

by Rasmus on August 8, 2011

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Osunlade – Envision (Ame Remix)

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There is a new Dixon remix in town, but you probably already know about that. I listened to a preview of his reworked version of Osunlade’s Envision a while back and loved what I heard. Then, I picked up the remix package yesterday. And while I still thoroughly enjoy Dixon’s remix, the Âme remix takes the cake for me.

Yes, the Dixon remix has its strengths, there probably exists one if not more perfect moments for that track, and it is, in the simplest possible way, a great piece of dark, electronic boogie. It just errs slightly on the sterile side, somewhat missing the opportunity to work with the twist of longing that lies in the vocals. This is where the Âme remix shines.

Building a simple, percussion driven groove up around those same vocals, Âme makes the track work with minimal perceived effort. Oh that slightly ravey lead synth that leads, not to the drop it begs for, but to a smooth transition back to that tingling groove. Again, it may not contain the same potential as dancefloor fuel that Dixon’s remix has. On its own, however, Âme’s version works wonders.

Graphic high five via this ffffound handle.

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