Needles & Grooves AotM /// Vol. 27 - September 2021 /// Jneiro Jarel - After a Thousand Years

Chris is a California-based composer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist... he's quite talented and does a lot of jazzy and folk-style albums, either as a solo artist or with his collective Psychic Temple. He did the soundtrack to one of my favorite indie games, Dropsy, back in 2015 and more recently teamed up with video game programmer Jay Tholen to contribute music for another critically acclaimed game, Hypnospace Outlaw:


There is a Hypnospace Outlaw soundtrack available for pre-order right now but this is a bit different. In the game, you can find numerous fan pages for a fictitious "cosmic music" Scandanavian jazz-rock band named Klyfta. In actuality, it's Psychic Temple just having fun and indulging in some epic instrumental prog rock.
i played hypnospace (also funny due to one comment i posted here.. gap will get it)... and its a pretty fun game.... has some humorous fake music genres like "coolpunk", a nice 90s internet aesthetic.. as well as a ton of meme songs by resident memer and youtuber hot dad
 

FREE ALBUM DRAWING!​


First I wanna thank everyone for all the guesses -- both serious and otherwise -- and for taking some time to try and figure out what sort of weird-ass music was I planning to unleash on you all. I had a lot of fun, and I hope you did too. In many ways, you're all winners.

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But in a more accurate way, @ThePakoBuelna is the winner.

Congrats! We shall hash out the details over DMs!


Wut wut! Thank you so much, didn't even remembered I made a guess! 😂
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Looking forward to hearing this on vinyl 💜🤘
 
i played hypnospace (also funny due to one comment i posted here.. gap will get it)... and its a pretty fun game.... has some humorous fake music genres like "coolpunk", a nice 90s internet aesthetic.. as well as a ton of meme songs by resident memer and youtuber hot dad

It's definitely one of the more unique games out there and it totally nails that 1990s early Internet aesthetic. I love how fleshed out they made the history of a fake band. Like I said, the music is great on its own, whether or not someone's played Hypnospace.

Also I'm glad you're liking what you've heard from After A Thousand Years. For me it was one of those albums that really grows on you with repeated listens. Just a lot of vibes emanating from start to finish.
 
It's definitely one of the more unique games out there and it totally nails that 1990s early Internet aesthetic. I love how fleshed out they made the history of a fake band. Like I said, the music is great on its own, whether or not someone's played Hypnospace.
tbh i love that they fleshed out the fake genres as well

though i do recommend playing the game.. though i was around the TAIL end of the AOL era and other "early internet" simulators like the emily is away series and secret little haven hit me more personally (i had a video about them on as an idea for someone to take since i cant speak out loud), hypnospace had a nice fun absurdity
 
But if you only watched the preview video with Shazam at your side, you'd have come up with a much smaller pool of artists...

I didn't do this when the clue first came up, and may have guessed it sooner had I done so, but definitely did just this the night I solved this thing. In fact, it was my first time ever using Shazam. And I'll probably do so again as I foolishly didn't keep detailed notes of all the other great stuff you had playing throughout!

I've now listened to this album a handful of times - at home, in the car and, this morning, at work. I love it. I'd say it's one of my favourite AotMs so far in that it almost feels deliberately fine tuned to check a bunch of boxes for my personal tastes. This is no slight to the other AotMs - I have yet to try one out that I haven't liked, and am grateful for all the musical discovery they bring. Had I actually listened to this album last year it would very easily have been in my top 10 at year's end, so thank you again @NewsFedora for such a great selection. I'm really hoping this will still be relatively easy to find a few months down the line as I'm on a not entirely voluntary (but entirely necessary) record buying fast for the foreseeable next few months - but this will be staying downloaded on my phone for many streams to come in the meanwhile!

And I look forward to checking out those swaptions sometime soon.
 
I didn't do this when the clue first came up, and may have guessed it sooner had I done so, but definitely did just this the night I solved this thing. In fact, it was my first time ever using Shazam. And I'll probably do so again as I foolishly didn't keep detailed notes of all the other great stuff you had playing throughout!

I've now listened to this album a handful of times - at home, in the car and, this morning, at work. I love it. I'd say it's one of my favourite AotMs so far in that it almost feels deliberately fine tuned to check a bunch of boxes for my personal tastes. This is no slight to the other AotMs - I have yet to try one out that I haven't liked, and am grateful for all the musical discovery they bring. Had I actually listened to this album last year it would very easily have been in my top 10 at year's end, so thank you again @NewsFedora for such a great selection. I'm really hoping this will still be relatively easy to find a few months down the line as I'm on a not entirely voluntary (but entirely necessary) record buying fast for the foreseeable next few months - but this will be staying downloaded on my phone for many streams to come in the meanwhile!

And I look forward to checking out those swaptions sometime soon.
Really glad you like it and yeah, based on your guesses I could tell we're on the same wavelength, music-wise. I'm cautiously optimistic that the album will be reasonably easy to find for at least the next several months, although I did forget to check Canada-specific retailers when I was compiling my list.

I ordered a record
Awesome, thanks so much!
 
although I did forget to check Canada-specific retailers when I was compiling my list.

Honestly, I'm learning that if I'm ordering from anywhere other than my local, or having a friend pick something up for me in Vancouver and bring it to the island when they come over next, it's usually cheaper to order from England, France or Poland than from my own country! 🤣
 
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This is super cool @NewsFedora! I am really digging this album.
🍻

I also posted this over in the monthly challenge thread for two days, one for awesome artwork, and the other day for most recently purchased.
 
Glad you're digging the album @cul8er and I hope you like it as well, @duke86fan! I was a little nervous the album might have been a bit... out there but I hope everyone gives it a chance. Jneiro's albums are often growers for me, where I fall in love with them after repeated listens. That was the case for this album, and also for my personal favorite JJ album, 2010's Fauna.

Also as a reminder, especially for folks in the UK who might want to pick it up, it is indeed available on the label's website after previously being listed as sold out. They're running a 20% off sale that goes on until tomorrow (August 31), just use "SUMMER21" at checkout. I don't think it works on the Bandcamp page though, unfortunately.
 
Oops I totally forgot that today was Bandcamp Friday. So you still have a couple of hours left if you wanna grab the album from there. And if you're curious, check out his other stuff available on his page, although I think they're all digital-only releases. Some of my personal favorites: his debut album "Three Piece Puzzle," his Brazilian-fused "Fauna," and the aptly named mixtape "Timeless Vol. 1." The first two did have vinyl releases at one point although they're now out of print. You might find them at reasonable prices on Discogs.

Also a reminder that one of my swaptions is also on Bandcamp, if you want some epic instrumental rock in your vinyl collection. Portugal. The Man isn't on Bandcamp however, but I'm sure they've got plenty of money anyways.
 
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