Even though we are a full week into 2022, I couldn't let 2021 slip away without pulling a few more worthy recommendations from its vast embarrassment of sonic riches. It was a good year for music. No argument there. It was pretty awful in just about every other conceivable way, but the tunes were good. Consider it consolation for living through another year of social upheaval and an unstoppable, global pandemic.
Because I don't rank albums and find the concept of Best of/AOTY lists foul, I've elected to send off 2021 with what I am calling an "Invitational." This is a list of solidly enjoyable or intriguing releases that I encountered over the past year but didn't have the chance to write about anywhere else. They are presented in no particular order other than the order that I elected to include them in.
My hope for this list, as with all of my reviews, is to introduce you to something you haven't heard before but might like... or encourage you to give an album that's been on your radar the chance that it deserves. This is just one music enthusiast to another, talking about stuff they thought was cool- a profound interaction that can be relished with ease.
Now, without further ado, presented for your consideration...
Native Soul - Teenage Dream
Native Soul are producers Zakhele Mhlanga and Kgothatso Tshabalala, whose take on a South African style of house music has found a surprising level of purchase in both the US and UK. I can't speculate as to what other writers enjoy about their rendition of amapiano on their latest album Teenage Dream (and frankly, I do not care), but for me, their beautifully articulated collage of sparing percussion and jutting, immediate synth patterns exhibit a kind of spryness and alluring simplicity that is thoroughly democratic in the way that house music was always meant to be. I dig the hell out of it. The duo demonstrates a connatural sense of rhythm, which permits them to thread disparate sounds together in a constellation of interlacing splendor. You don't have to share a language or a country, or have any special training or discrete, fine-tuned understanding of the origins of these sounds in order to receive Native Soul's message and decipher its codas for yourself. All you need is the will to move. And embracing this will- this thing inside you that should not be repressed- you just may find yourself in a state of transnational coordination and communication with others whose hearts have syncopated to the same rhythm and desire.
Sara Bug - S/T
Country music is often treated as a stagnant bastion of traditionalism. I beg to differ. The popular impression of the genre yo-yos between stadium-filling cowboys sponsored by manufacturers of pickup trucks and skinny busker types who perform in urban saloons and pine for the age prior to their own when Hank Williams still topped the charts. Sara Bug is a break from both of these tired cliches on her self-titled debut released earlier this year. The album combines folky flair with bedroom pop and indie rock in a way that reminds of '60s chamber pop and the early '00s, Jenny Lewis-style roots rock in a way that feels wholly fresh and organic. The more entrancing aspect of her music is probably Sara's voice, which is arrestingly soft as it escapes from between her lips as if she were transposing her essence into the form of a small furry animal with a care package in its mouth, a gift addressed from the burrow in her throat to the heart-shaped letterbox in your chest. A truly inspiring debut and introduction to her unique style of songwriting and performance.
Martha Sky Murphy - Concrete Triptych
Martha Sky Murphy's latest release is a collaboration with producer Ethan P. Flynn, a highly visual, three suite exchange of ideas which she has titled Concrete. The album is named after its lead single, an ostentatious collaboration with NYC duo LEYA and Cocteau Twins's Simon Raymonde. The entire project was meant to be taken in as a part of a choreographed performance, but it works well enough on its own as a kind of eerie meditation on the confining nature of ambiguity and the liberating effects of certainty and, for lack of a better word, concreteness. Flexibility and permeability seem like the watchwords for boundary-pushing art right now, but Martha Sky Murphy reminds us here, that it is sometimes our encounters with the harshness of a clear, unmoving reality that we experience our most intense feelings of freedom and clarity of purpose.
EL/NeUe - Krank
EL/NeUe is the project of Norwegian musicians and satirists Håkon Johnson and Askild Hagen. They've been working together since at least the mid-'80s and their latest album Krank sounds like it could have been recorded and released in 1987, but I'm glad that it wasn't- it is much more original and evocative sounding in comparison with today's pop and dance music than it would have been thirty years ago. Krank, as you might expect, has a stoic, sharply critical tone to its gothic serenades and stern, mechanical rhythms. It's an album with a lot on its mind, a burden which it begrudgingly unpacks for you. Each and every labored measure moans with existential woe as it shuffles into the dark to make room for its successor, their lamenting orations rattling like an iron clasp containing the receipts of your recorded sins and transgressions. Despite its weight and pretense, Krank is surprisingly easy to listen to, and I find myself turning it on often when I need to clear my head to think. It might not be obvious that something this stark and dower would aid in one's contemplation, but I'm not about to argue with my own direct experience of it either.
Cots - Disturbing Body
I feel like there is a tendency now for pop records to overembellish their scores. It's one of the reasons I appreciate Cot's debut LP Disturbing Body- it's clean, uncomplicated, and self-assured. This is an album that is primarily about a girl, her guitar, and a whole lot of feelings, and what works about it is that it has the confidence just to be what it needs to be. Of course, the bossa nova influence on singer and songwriter Steph Yates's guitar playing helps keep things interesting and lends to the project a tranquil and even distribution of energy. The sense of open-space on this release is really heady, drawing out the slow, waltzing quality of Steph's vocals and inviting encounters with the finite furl of each dry and incisive verse. Despite its sparseness, Disturbing Body feels lush and elegant, and listening to it feels like being buried up to your neck in rose petals.
TDA - Ascète
TDA is the solo project of Quebec percussionist Samuel Gougoux. His latest album Ascète is an attempt to capture the uninterrupted timbre of communication between trees and other plants, and the disorientation one can experience when alone at night amongst them. The inspiration for the album came from Samuel's time spent in the deep woods near his hometown of Bas-St-Laurent, where he attempted to come to terms with his feelings of estrangement from this wild setting and the sense of danger which dense foliage triggers in the primordial recesses of his mind. We're told that time spent communing with nature is good for us as it simulates us with sensory information that is otherwise absent in our modern, urbanized lives. But it also seems true that nature can activate still existent parts of our brains that recall a time when we were not the lords and masters of the Earth. When we were simply another menu item for larger predators, cowering in the dark, digging for shelter and security below the roots of great trees- beings who were demonstrably indifferent to our fate. Guided by a quivering sense of dread- like a rabbit attempting to hastily avoid the detection by a roaming fox- the blunt, smeary post-punk of Ascète rekindles the fear that we thought we left behind when we encased ourselves in high rising burrows of glass and concrete away from the fangs and claws of our natural adversaries.
Booker Stardrum - Crater
DAWN - Second Line
BRUIT ≤ - The Machine is burning and now everyone knows it could happen again
Blu Anxxiety - Plaay Dead
Kurtiss - The Curtis Vodka EP
This is out via Mutual Intentions.
Apollo Brown & Stalley - Blacklight
Booker Stardrum - Crater
Producer Booker Stardrum's third LP Crater is a wet and ebullient filtration of thoughts through the funnel of free jazz and electronica, contorting orchestral gestures into non-lexiconical proofs and electronic ephemera into steely fasteners of bold sonic architecture. The album sounds like an impassioned public dispute between a desalination system and the hot-water heater over which has the more essential role in keeping humanity hydrated and hygienic. Of course, the argument can be settled pretty easily by pointing out the essentialness and cooperative nature of each apparatus, a parallel that I would apply to every flowing, rhythmically dense curve and volley of Crater, as essential to keeping the juices in your brain in a productive flow, as well as slacking your thirst for novelty.
Dawn Richard's music has always felt epic, but it's seemed to take a while for the mass of critics to catch on and recognize this fact. Her band Danity Kane hasn't really been active since 2014, but it's somehow taken six solo albums to get people talking again about this powerhouse performer. But they are talking again, and that's a good thing. If Second Line is your introduction to Dawn's work, you're in for a treat. The album combines a number of New Orlean jazz and folk styles into a parade of open-concept interchanges with deep house, '70s soul, and '90s R'nB. Despite pulling inspiration from established traditions and by-gone eras, the album still manages to sound highly futuristic and progressive. Which I think is the point. Your past is just where you came from and the place you needed to be in order to get to the place you're going. What I love about Second Line is that it's not afraid to look back on the lessons it's learned and the roots it's laid down as it effortlessly pushes forward.
French post-rock band BRUIT ≤ have made one of the more arresting ambient albums of the year with The Machine is burning and now everyone knows it could happen again- a poetic neoclassical interrogation of natural rhythms juxtaposed with the limits on our experience of freedom as imposed by society. Its long-form compositions and heavy atmosphere challenge our acquiescence to the ways in which we find ourselves superfluous in relation to machines and how our time is devalued by those who own these devices- an insult to our dignity, and therefore, also your personhood. The album is meant to compel the listener to contemplate such injuries and encourage them in their desire to recapture their temporal autonomy. In this way, it's one of the few, genuinely revolutionary albums I've heard this year, both in terms of sheer intent, and the music the album presents these themes through. A true renaissance of aesthetics in the fruition of form and subtle insurgency.
This is a very fucked up time to be alive and Blu Anxxiety knows it. Led by New York native Chi Orengo, the group released their debut LP Plaay Dead earlier this year, a refreshing blend of hardcore hip hop, bracing jungle, aggressive post-punk and shocking freestyle- enhanced by an attitude anchored in a raging zeal for freedom and an orientation that is against all authority, and whatever else you've got. Their spooky, sardonic, morbid style is about as frenetic as hip-hop gets while still remaining accessible to a partygoing crowd- delivering a wry smirk and a mocking cackle as a defense against the realities of an uncaring society that seems to be slowly degenerating into a psychopath factor- where politics take on the tenor of reality TV, and the spectacle of media and entertainment becomes the confining borders of your lived reality. The only thing that can break the hypnotizing gaze of the black mirrors that surround us is a dose of knuckle-dusting street-culture, and Blu Anxxiety have stepped up to deliver just such a knock-out blow.
The Curtis Vodka EP is more or less the debut EP of Alaska-based DJ and producer Kurtis Toivonen as Kurtiss- which is about as straightforward of an attribution as you are likely to see from the illusive beat-smith. So why is it on this list? Well, because it bops like a mother-fucker! This is essentially a tribute to the by-gone era of '80s and '90s acid house, taking the classic strategy of building a track out of a bodacious bassline and proving that this style is still capable of putting anatomies in motion when formulated with true adoration and understanding of the form. No tricks or trifles, and no bells or buffooneries. Just fat, body-busting bass and the shoe-shredding shuffle of star-charting beats. If you're not taking a hit of The Curtis Vodka, you're on the wrong trip.
Apollo Brown and Maybach Music Group signee Stalley have teamed up to put the focus back on what matters most in both hip-hop and life, good tunes and the indomitable will to survive. Apollo Brown's production work is, as always, distinguished and classic-sounding. I loved his pulp-cannon work with Ghostface and spent many hours lost in the hard-knock troubadourship of his collaboration with Che' Noir last year, but I'm really glad to see him break it all down and give it to us straight on Blacklight. This is my first introduction to Shalley as a marquee name on an album, and I'm impressed with his consistent ability to willfully bend my ear and fill it with the lessons of his life. This is one of the more no-nonsense and earnest hip-hop releases I've heard this year and I feel like the less I try and sell you on it, the more likely you're going to be able to get something out of it. Why? Because this is hip-hop made for the love of the genre's inherent capacity to deliver timeless truths- raw, real, and without reservations. You won't need a blacklight to see what this album has going for it. It's all right there, waving at the tip of your nose. All you have to do is turn out the lights and open your eyes.
Fishdoll - Moonsense / 月感
Mega Ran - Live '95
Chinese producer and composer (two increasingly overlapping categories around the world) Yuyu Feng premiered her second orchestral soul album in 2021 with her project Fishdoll. The album was called Moonsense and is a sequel of sorts to her debut Noonsense. Where the former was about the power of artistic expression and the utility of absurdity, her latest effort is an exploration of love and how we share it with others. While soul music often uses orchestral accompaniments or samples to produce a sense of grandeur and uplift, I have never encountered a collection of soul songs that uses an orchestra in quite the way Yuyu does here. The performances are variegated and fully integrated with cool, smooth house beats and textures in a way that makes it impossible to separate the strings and saxes from those sounds which Yuyu produces with the aid of studio magic. There is also a sense of humility, communion, and groundedness that only serves to maintain the balance of Yuyu's personality with the grand, splendor of these compositions. A truly lovely and unique listening experience with few parallels this year.
Bunny X - Young & In Love
NYC pop duo Bunny X is Abigail Gordon and Mary Hanley, and on their debut LP Young & In Love, these two ladies are bringing back their love of past hitmakers to the future fans of the same. Literally. The title track of the album features the line, "Fast forward to the past / We just knew it would last / Forever," and the accompanying retro instrumentation successfully perpetuates the '80s as an eternal state of mind. This album will scratch that teenage itch that is still freaking out over Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven Is A Place On Earth." However, the group is doing more than simply borrowing a few synth tones and aiming high when it comes to the vocal melodies, in a Carly Rae Jepsen sort of way. No, Young & In Love really sounds like it could have been neck and neck with Kim Wilde Select had it had the good fortune of having been released around the same time. Bunny X proves that you're never too old to fall in love, and that you should never stop loving the things that make you feel young.
Arizona MC Mega Ran shows us a different side of himself on Live '95. He's an artist who is known for his futuristic, digitized beats and video game tie-ins, but this year he showed us a love for another game entirely, NBA basketball. Mega Ran discovered rap, hoops, and video games all during the '80s and they have been amongst the many constants in his life since. Especially basketball, which served as the cement for many friendships, as well as an anchor point for his relationship with his father. Live '95 (which is named for franchise title developed by Hitman Productions and published by EA) is his most classic-sounding album yet, powered by golden-era-esque samples with a mix of live instrumentation that polishes up its uncut, hard-driving panache. Mega Ran uses the subject of basketball to lay down some powerfully autobiographical and relatable bars, as well as comment on issues of poverty and racial inequality that besiege families in America, as much today as they did nearly thirty years ago. I feel like every song on this album is a low-key heatseeker, but especially "Tractor Beam," a jubilant and spacy soul number, underwritten by the familiar ping of a Game Boy soundcard, and produced by Mega Ran himself. It doesn't seem possible for such a warm, more kind-hearted, and earnest rap album to be possible in today's cynical world, and yet here one is, ready to go one-on-one with the pessimism of our age.
Lolina - Fast Fashion
Fast Fashion is out via Deathbomb Arc.
Dream Unending - Tide Turns Eternal
Pink Siifu - GUMBO'!
Rapasa Nyatrapasa Otieno - KWEChE
The UK-based DJ Lolina's fifth LP Fast Fashion feels like it is taking a step beyond the realm of normal abstraction to be found in her solo work, and pressing farther into the recesses of how sound and narrative are processed in the human psyche. Her albums have always been confounding to a degree, problematizing certain interpretations of art and the larger meanings that can be extrapolated from them, but Fast Fashion appears poised to deconstruct the assumptions of these modes of analysis entirely. The album is comprised of mostly intimate voice samples and vertically integrated strata of sound lifted from the commons of public street life, interwoven in a way that intersperses and exchanges the personal for the pedestrian and transforms the confidential into an effluvium of a drainage spiraling embarrassment. One of the reasons that I think this mutilating process is aimed at the enthusiasts for the instrumentality of narrative disruption is the track "Mark Ronson's TED Talk Intro (Using Computer Remix)." Here she takes a stab at the "co-option" of identity that can transpire in post-modernity through self-gratifying sampling methods justified on the basis of disruptions and facile challenges to power. Lolina ruthlessly masticates and intravenously resorts the sequential events of Mark Ronson's 2014 TED Talk on the power of sampling, revealing through the track the incoherent and masturbatory character of the presenter and the ideas that propel his "art." It's a provocative album for sure, but I think Fast Fashion has something to say about the state of art and criticism in the 21st century that needs to be heard.
Dream Unending - Tide Turns Eternal
Dream Unending is the latest project of contemporary death metal titans Derrick Vella and Justin DeTore of Tomb Mold and Innumerable Forms, respectively. Their first album with the project, Tide Turns Eternal, is definitely one of the more sonically intriguing death-doom albums of the year. Written primarily on a twelve-string guitar, the project takes extravagant cues from the Cocteau Twins and The Cure to compose an incredibly heavy but pristine-sounding form of atmospheric death metal that impregnates every corner and crease of the mix with sifting forms and layered epiphany. Listening to the album is like embarking on a fatalistic vision quest, one where you visit the site of your own grave and find yourself reborn a strange and twisted vessel, filed to the brim with overpowering grief and a yearning to return to the void. A discordant, existential odyssey waits on Tide Turns Eternal.
Save Face - Another Kill For The Highlight Reel
New Jersey's Save Face brings us back to the emotionally-charged and hyper-effusive drama of early to mid-'00s pop-punk and post-hardcore with their debut LP Another Kill For The Highlight Reel. The album plays out like an English language and theatrical adaptation of a terebi drama, set at a school that regularly culls its students in a fashion akin to a popularity contest crossover with Battle Royal or The Belko Experiment. Blood and tears flow like wine and you either claw your way to the pinnacle of the social food chain or end up as lunch for someone more ruthless and cunning than yourself. Another Kill For The Highlight Reel is a gory and savage fantasy of teenage lust, power and intrigue, that I thoroughly enjoyed, despite (or maybe even because of) all of the PTSD flashbacks it gave to my own experience as an adolescent. Uncord this battle hymn of angst and let the drama drain out over the top of your head like a nauseating, crimson shower.
Pink Siifu's GUMBO'! is a tribute to his heroes in the Dungeon Family, but also kind of a celebration of himself his unflappable take on Southern rap. There is no way that this should be seen as the height of hubris, as it takes the form of a cool hang-out rather than a cloying award ceremony. It's pretty chill and he's hoping everyone has a good time. He's dressed like a marching band conductor on the album's cover after all. He's playing the master of ceremony and you're invited to the block party. If you're down and willing to ease into the frame of mind that this record has, then Pink is going to load you up with party favors, pass you some herb, and introduce you to someone cute, who you are going to be talking to until sunrise. Like I said, it might be his party, but that doesn't mean he's the only one having the time of his life.
Kenyan nyatiti player and folk singer Rapasa Nyatrapasa Otieno moved to England in 2020 in order to seek new opportunities and expand the audience for his music. Unfortunately, he arrived just before the pandemic started, which meant that he ended up spending a lot of time by himself and away from friends, family, and potential supporters. Not to sound derivative, but I can't help but think that his latest album Kweche is a reflection on this period. His brisk playing style is particularly diverting, especially when combined with the stoic, covert sweep of his vocal delivery, prudent and carefully cultivated measures that merge to produce intricately layered grooves that roll with a powerful and assured presence of mind. Kweche translated to taboo in Dholuo, with the album serving as a reflection on how family ties and tradition guide one through narrow passages and aid in avoiding the hazards and snags that populate the river of one's life. Rapasa must have spent a lot of time thinking about the distance between his family and questioning his decisions while writing this record. The uncertainty of the future can often be a source of dread, but hopefully Rapasa's wrestling with the demons of doubt that have taken up board in his own mind will inspire you to tackle the tensions and fears that ceases you as well as you are swept into a New Year. You can't stop time and you can't pause chance, all you can do is decide what you are going to do as you are propelled through them.
The latest release from 鬼 (a character that basically means "Ghost") and his solo project Unreqvited is an unwavering exploration of love and fealty. Beautiful Ghosts successfully integrates elements of depressive-suicidal black metal into a spectral chamber of post-rock informed sentimentality in a way that is both frightening and undeniably alluring. The guitar tones and atmosphere are generally soft in texture and pliant in form, but tend to solidify quickly into cascades of bone-rattling blast beats and frost-kissed tremolos. It's pretty exciting to see how 鬼 expands on traditional metal and para-natural themes in a way that is complex and inspired, but also inviting and nurturing. Beautiful Ghosts is an ambitious and gorgeous album, without a hint of pretense or insularity. If only all black metal could be so bold.
Enji - Ursgal
Mongolian singer and songwriter Enji's second LP Ursgal is also her first comprised of almost all original songs. Accompanied by an acoustic guitar, sax, and double bass, she takes an unconventional approach to the jazz singer idiom, with liberating embellishments and nods to pop standards (including a cover of Jimmy Dorsey and Paul Madeira's "I'm Glad There Is You." I really haven't heard anyone attempt this style of folk and soul in such a captivating way, and her flowing melodies take me back to when I would borrow records by Ella Fitzgerald and Doris Day from older relatives back in high school. It's mostly sung in Mongolian, but the melody is universal, and Enji is very adept at communicating her feelings despite the language barrier. A pristine gem of nostalgia and beauty, focused by the steady sigh of Enji's skillful orations.
Gilt - In Windows, Through Mirrors
Jacksonville's Gilt feels like they are borrowing inspiration from a lot of the same places as a band like Save Face, but are doing so with the exact opposite intent. The emotional turmoil that they extrapolate on in their music, especially on their latest EP In Windows, Through Mirrors, is in no way revealing in the exaggerated and theatrical drama of interpretations of teen angst- the emotions they grapple with and the pain they express is entirely sincere. They tackle issues of gender, isolation, insecurity, and mental illness in a way that reveals a steadfast resolve to work through these issues, and realize a healthier, more centered version of themselves. It's a worthy goal that motivates them to unleash some enormous sounding and irresistible emo rockers, with their persistence offering payoffs of both the emotional and aesthetic variety. In Windows, Through Mirrors is a short, but very satisfying release.
As a music writers (and hell, as a fan) you get hit with a lot of rhetoric about how "guitar music" is dead. I never know what people are talking about when they say that sort of thing, but if they truly believe what they are saying, then I have to conclude that they have never given Yasmin Williams's Urban Driftwood a chance. The record is her second LP and a gorgeous reflection on the year that proceeded its release (2020) and her own sense of place in the world, exhibited through incredibly lyrical and melodically complex acoustic fingerpicking. The album is mostly just Yasmin. That is, her and her guitar- and yet she never sounds like she is alone. The spirit of the music is lively and her energy is infectious throughout. One part of her biography that I genuinely appreciate is the fact that she started performing guitar in a lap-tapping style because it allowed her to manipulate the instrument in a way that was familiar to her from playing Guitar Hero ( a game she apparently excelled at). This is not only a charming origin story but helps to explain the spry enthusiasm of her distinctive playing style. Urban Driftwood is an exceptional solo recital, capable of displacing your mind from your daily routine and setting it adrift on a cloud of passion and an inquisitive sojourn of imagination.
Run's Deep - Evidence Collection
The Chicago-based Run's Deep is a very new enterprise as far as I can tell. The project's oldest release is from April of this year, but I would expect interest in it to ramp up fairly quickly. In short, they just get the vibe right. It is helmed by a person who refers to themself as 2%/2music2, and they perform in a harsh, aleatoric ambient, and industrial electronic style that sounds like it was made by one of the residents of the Blue Creek Apartments in Silent Hill 2 as they attempt to process the compounded psychological trauma of a recent run-in with Pyramid Head. Its music makes you feel justified in fearing every creak in the hall at night or scraping sound that filters down from the roof. It propagates a profile of sound that distorted the familiar with hints of hidden dangers and reveals the predatory nature of the ordinary and every day. Evidence Collection is Run's Deep's most recent EP, but it wouldn't surprise me if they had another on the way as of this writing. Run's Deep is relentless. Relentless as fear itself.
R̷̡̹̗̻̦̻͕͙̯̳̳͍̩͊̉̈́͜é̷̗̳̻̖̓̑̚͘͝ͅļ̵̢̨̥̱̥̯͉̬͇͓̙̪̓͗̊̂̉̈́͐̂̒̉̀͑̚͠ͅͅe̶̩̩̞̿̈́̏͋̀̔̿̔͗̓̿͐̅͆̕ͅń̸̡̨̘̠̲̝͓͓̪̹̲̯́͂̓͑́͗̿̈́̚͜ṭ̶͉͈͙͈̬̣̲̦̱̬̜͍̬̓́̓͆̔̇l̵̢̦̯͍̭̖̦̈́̀̾̍́͋̽̚e̷̢̛͇͕͈͚͍̿̿̈́̒̋͆̓̔̎͐̓̂͘͘s̵͎̦̥̥̭̩̹̜̞̣̹̤̓̅̃̽̿͗͆̎̂̋̈́̍̆͗͠s̴͇͍̲̣͕̲̳̺͍̼̳͇̈́͜͝ ̵̧̣̫͗̈̊ͅa̸͖͈̒̆͠s̸̪̮͇̎̓̍͗̕͠ ̵̜̻̆̈́̈́̽̿̀̚͝f̶̦̪̊̄͗̑̓͘͜ͅe̵̻̮̹͖̙̿́̂͊̾͆̈̉̔̓ͅǎ̷̧̱͇̯̭̦̈́̃̾̾̽̆͝r̴̮̫͔͙̰͌̏́͒̐̄͌̂̓́̍̔͝ ̴̛̱̫̿̓̈̾́́̀̕͝i̵̳̼̟͕̯̼̬̹̪̥̦͆̇͜͜͠t̷̳̞͔͙̦͖̺̹͉̑̿̅͗̌̇͗̀̃̕̚͝͝ͅs̵̺̭͙͇̳̦̩̙̙̝̗̗̫̀̎̈̐̐̒̌̀e̶̠͎̤̱̜̋̏̇̅̈́l̵̛̛͔͖͓̗̟̀̈́̒̽̓͜f̵̨̧̢̣͎̱͗̔̈͒̊͒̈́̚͠
R̶̢̟̻̪̘̻̮̲̮̳͉̪͇̜͖͓̰̬̣̞͍̭̂͑̃̀̀͋̓̃̋͂̊͋͂̓̄̌͊̆̏̈́̕͜͠͝͠ͅę̸̨̺͔̻̝̹͚̙̙̭̠̌̀͆̒́͋͠ĺ̵̛̹̫́͂̏̑̏͝é̷͉̲̪͔̟̳͓͖͔̦̼͉̈́̄̊̆͂̃͂́͌͒̆̑̽͗̈́̽̍̎͒̔̓̎͜͝͝͠n̸̢̮̗̯͈̺̰̬̆̈̀̉̊̄̉̎̏̋t̷̖̗̺̼̂͐̇̊̃̑̑̋̓̈́̒̎̊̈́̋͑̿͋͊̀́̔̎̆̚̕̕͜l̵̨͕͔̫͂̔́̏ě̷̡̡̧̹͔̗̦̜͖̲͎̦̯̻̣̰̥̘̟̭̞͓͇͍̆̂͛̐̄̃̓͊͌̾̏͂̍̓̍̇͌̚͝͝ͅͅs̴̨̨̢̘͕̻̘̯̼͔͕͇̰̪̟̱͑̒͆̓̋͑̈́͋̉͘͘̕̕͠͝ş̴̥͓̞͚̳̣̟̤͔̟̠̰̰̮̹̯̻̻̾͗̉́͒͛͌͜͝͠ ̴̡̦̦̣̉͝ą̶̧̨̞̝͍̻̝͎̱̥͇͍͇̮̭̪̘̝̖̱̖͌̔̈́̈́̀͗͋̔̈̈̀̇̂̎͐͗͆̆͆͗̽͘͝͠͝͠s̸̛̼̳̥̪̣̻̠̝̫̬̮̈́̓̏́̑̋̆̚ͅ ̶̡͉͙̖͉̜͍̹̺̲͉̬͈̬̙̘̈͌͗̄͛̍̐͜f̵̛̯͕̳̮͉͔̳̭̰͍̠̰̹̤͇̯̹̓̑͂̍̓͑̅̾̇͋͑̾̀̒̃͐̾̔̔̚͝͝͝e̷̖͙̝͔̻͉͔̞̣̱̱͛̄͗̓́̒̈́̀̇̌͆̓̾̆͒͋͑͘͝ă̶̘͖̌̚r̵̨̡̰̭͈̩͎̦̞̤̗̠̞͔͓̍͗̃̿̈́͂͛̽̋̀͂͒́͆̀̈̕͝͠ ̷̛̺͓̯̤̺͓̞̹̦̻̭̼̹̥̞̑͌͋̿̒̌̊̒̔͊̒́͛͒̑̌̕͜͝͝͠ͅï̵̛̫̟̹̮͊̀̎̅͋̑͛̀͛̏̈̄̀̉͋̾̉̿́͂̏̕̕͠t̴͖͇̠̝̫̦̝̽̓̀͗̀͊͋͊̾͗̔̇̚̕͘̚͝͠ͅs̵̢͙̳̯͙̜͖̤̦̬̳̳̮̥̤̙̀̀̊͒͗̒̓̉̎̆̓͛̓̚͠ͅę̷̡͚͇̗͇̣͖̘̼͍̰̩̪̮̀̈́̈́͐̒̓̒̑̑̃ļ̶̪̥̺̗̮̖͍͈͓̲͎̩̲̮̤̎̏̂̔̚̕͝f̵̡̘̯̖͍̘̠̫͇̂̏̊̌̌̃̍̎̅̏̇̂̄̑̊̈́̑́̓̃̕
Ṟ̵̢̢̧̢̨̢̢̖̤͔̱̝͙̠̩̤͙̞͚̖̖̦̟̼̘̩̮̘͔̤͈̟̻̩̭̫̼̻͋͌͊̊̾̈̔͋͒̈́̈́̆̀̚͜ͅȅ̴̜̺̫̜͔͉̹̭̹̫̪̣̬̻͚̻̪̂̓̈́̏̆͐̅̃̍̑̎̓̓͆̉̾̆̃̒̈́̉̓̕͜l̸̨͉͚̙͇̠̺͎͍̣͍͓̠͚̈̉̈́́̈̽̈̊͛̾͐͒͋̃̍͑͂̉̒̅̌̋͋̀͊̑͗̐́́̃̓̊͒͑͘̕̕̚͠͠è̸̡̡̧̛̖̼̦̱͉͓͉̮͔̳̘̈́̇̓̓̀̒͗͋̅̂̈̈́̇̋̎̄̇̂̍̏̈͆̓͑̐͂̌̐́́̓́̎̚͜͠͠ͅn̶̡̐̿͒̄͋͑͌͑̐̂̈́́̃͛̏̇̑͗t̷̡̡̛̬̤̭͖̰̤͓̠̣̲̳͔̜͇̭͙̮͓̥̺͉̭̩͉͓̘̳̰̫̋̇̅̏̿̾̈́͛̇̄̾̀̏̍̂͛̓͑́̅͘̚̕͘̕͜͜͠͝ͅͅl̵̡̡̢̜̦͈̘̙̠̰̪͖̰͔̮͍̜̠̠͈̤̠̖̗̭̜̩͕̯̳̭͍̯̺̞̓̑͛̑̐̎́̒̅̇̈̉̿̍̐̚͜͝͝ͅę̴̡͚̯̹̼͎̼͙̣͖͈̤̘̱̳̜̪͇̘̠̙̼̞̹̞̘͙̳̳̗̠̥̗̯͕̣̼̹̞͖̘̔̽̇̆͑̒̂͐͊̎̊̈́̒͐̇̈̓͊̀̎̀̿̐̑̏̀͘͘͝͝͝͝ͅs̷̨̡̢͍̱̖͕̰͙̳̘̩̤̤͖̝͇̹̗̻̞͎̣̰̖̆͗̇͆̆̚ş̵̭̥̘̣̫̥̪̄̍͂̏͊͂̿̀͌͆̈́́͛͒̽͒͗̑͒̌̆́̿̌̌̂̒͘̚̚͠͝͠͝ ̴̧͔̜̤̍́̇͒̈͋̌̋̎̈̄͊̉̓͗͊̋̈́̑̌̚̚̚ą̷̛̺̼̹͉̱̰͍͇̲̟͚͎͕̬̲̮̣̪͙̰͚̀̒̏̃̌̊͊͛͆͂̑̔͛͐͆̽͗̿̋̾̒̓̈́̌͊̄͋̒͂̀͠͠s̴̢̧͇͔͓̼͇̤̳̝̭̦͎̘̗̜͕̻̟͖̗̗̰̣̻͙̺͍͚̗̩̗͇͇̉͌̇̊̽́̒̍̐͊͌͌̓̋̔̔͋͌̓̚͜͠͝͠ ̶̛̦̩̗͕͕̘̘̈́̀͌̈́̿̃̏̓̾͒̎̐̏͌̿͐͛̐͊̋͛̉̀͛̋͒͗͌̚͘̕̚͘͠ͅf̸̧̧̛̻̥̰̔͛́̃̾̄͂̈́̃̎̊̀͌͋̽̍̔̑̀̿̋͋̂̅͝͝ͅȩ̸̨̨̨̢̧̭̘̰̲̖̪̹̟͍͕̲͕̭̘̫̜͎̜̝̪̩̯͎͐̇̆̄͑̋̆͊̀̈̐̽̇͐̓̈́́́̽͑̚̕͜a̴̛̝̦̯̺̣͓͈̔̽̀͂̈́̀̉̏́̌͋͊̂̋̾̾̓̒̅͆͆͑̏̋̎̐̀́̎̄̚͘͜͝͝r̸̛̦̝̪̘̣͇͕̲̲̖̗͇̤͕̦͊̈́͊̆̽̍̿͗́̇̔͒̏̉̍̐̌͋͆̅̾̎́̓̑̚̚̚͘͝͠͝͝ ̵̡̢̨̳͙̤̝͓̺̳̹̼̫͇̱̖̫̯̺̦̲̝̥̩͉̻̏͂͗̈́̂͌̎͆̐̏͂̋̋̿̓͘̕͜͝i̵̧̼̻̼̱̰̲̪͈͉̥̯̮͖̙͍͕̮̩̤͔̪͈̼̠̟̯͋̉͘͜ẗ̴̢̨̡̨̮̩͍͓͖̝̥̫̮̩̯͇̮̻͈̪̹̣̰͇̣̺͑́̑͐̔̀̓͑͘̕͜ͅș̶̡̨̨̛̣̦̗̗̣͔͎̩̤̞͎̞̳͉͎͉͍͈͍̦̟̹̼͖̤̝̩̅̎̇̀̒̈́̇͛̋̎͑̐͒́̊͋̋͛̔̂̑̕̕̚͜ͅẹ̸̡̨̢̗͕͈̮̝̰̞͖̺͔͔̜̙̖͈̫̰͇̖͙̹̥̟̯̹̳̖̣͚̜̩͙̌̾̂͂͜ͅͅͅͅḻ̴̨̡̨̲̦̫̠͇̹̖͚͇͓͖̠̯̪̞̝̝̞̣̲͇̲̳̙̞͈́͐̀̍͛f̵̧̧̛͉̜͖͚̹̤̟͍̳̝͚̤̫̭̫͚̻͆́́̽
