YoshiBlade

omg. My bad Anorax, I completely forgot to make an update. Yes I did receive the package, It came on the 23rd of December so it was a fun after party when Christmas was done. I have always played this game but never actually had my own. Thx a bunch
http://puu.sh/mmyoj/74547a8dc2.jpg

To my fellow remixers: On behalf of me and the underrated game that is Castlevania 64...Enough talk, you miserable little piles of secrets. Have at you!

Don't forget Resident Evil, Metal Slug and of course the game that brought platforming games in to the third dimension and changed our lives, Bubsy 3D.

ok...I feel very exposed posting this, it rambles a bit, but here goes...
 
 
So a friend of mine, ran a VGM radio show out of WRUW Case-Westeren Reserve, back in 2009 and every Sunday I would drive to my Dad’s house and stay till 3/4am and drink coffee and play video games, I was about to go to Basic Training and I wanted to spend as much time with my dad as possible. I loved every it of playing those game and I loved playing them with my dad even more. Well, One night I was heading back home and I usually left the radio off ( comm’on it’s 3am on a monday well the hell are you gonna find?)……**This next scene hold fast in my memory as clear as crystal**….I was really wired and went was flipping throughout the radio stations, and I heard..(Chip,Bit,Pop, Bleep) and I said that sounds like a Mario game, but it’s….different…My hand went to  change the dial, but it couldn’t move…it’s rare in life that we can consciously remember moments that will shift the courses of our lives in such huge magnitudes, but if I would have changed that Dial….I don’t know where I would be….I really don’t where. So the Radio host came on and confirmed my suspicions that this was a VGM,VGM remix, Bitpop, and Chiptune radio show. He would regularly play OCR music and the name never rally resonated with me…it was just good music. So it came to pass every Sunday I would drive to my Dad’s play video games near all night and then drive home and listen to “Power Up” Hosted by Vince Torre. So I would listen each week and one week I decide to call in and request a song, SotC- A Power Revived, He played it and we got to talking and each week I would call in and talk for a good portion of the show while he spun all VGM related music. I’ve always loved VGM music and spent a good amount of time listing to them on YouTube (SupraDarky, silvagunner anyone?) So, my time as a civilian was running down and it was time for me to head out to Lakeland Air Force Base. I was subject to all the anxieties and fears one might feel, but I said I gotta do this. Well I spare the details, but my 3rd night at Basic, they woke me up and took me into and office and looked me in the eye and said "Theres no easy way I can say this so I’m just going to…your father is dead” I lost it. I just lost every semblance or control and I just lost it…they sent me home…I was over…I lost my chance to go to Japan, I lost my hope of being solider, I lost the chance to help my Dad and I lost my dad…I lost it
            So I was sent back home and I am a mess, I didn’t eat, I didn’t leave my room, I didn’t sleep( and when I did I’d have horrible dreams about seeing my dad and it all being a mistake), I looked for anything that was something I could stand on…nothing. I needed something to grab hold of or this was going to be the end of me…it was the lowest point thus far in my life…and it was a gif that saved me. I saw a GIF with someone named Brian Peppers, the person isn’t important, but that music that was played was “Burn! Bobonga!” I remembered how much I loved playing games with my dad, but he was gone…but I also remembered how much I really did love VGM and I started listening to Power-Up again and talking to Vince. Then that word Overclocked Remix came up again…I went to see what it was, people talk about love at first sight and I always felt that was a copout, but seeing a place where you were asked to stand and deliver excellence, where you could discuss something as esoteric as a game character's name, I was in love. It kept me busy, it enveloped me with all the music I heard from games I loved. It was about then I resolved to be a contributor, I had no idea how to remix or even what to do…I’d played guitar from around 14, but I hadn’t played in about 2-3 years, but I set out and started just trying anything and everything, just kept going, don’t stop to think about anything that seeks to pull you back downwards, forward only. So it was 2013 that I became a member and started using the workshop 2014 after I drove to MAGfest and met some of the remixers in person ( Thank you for the encouragement BliNd!) and that when I kicked it into high gear, culminated with a Post after 2 years of membership and 1 year of diligent remixing. Do I spend too much time on the OCR? Probably. Does it interfere with some of my obligations? Occasionally.For me OCR is more than a website, it's a place where I meet people from all walks of life…I strive to be what many remixers here are, true Superheroes with secret identities, by day students, programmers, office workers, cooks with names and different lives…by night they’re KingTiger, timaeus222, Jorito and many others. I worked hard to earn my place and even though it’s not a degree or trophy, to me it’s a place of refugee, a place where sanctuary was given from the forces that sought to end me. I’ve worked hard at to hone my skill and I hope I never cease to sharpen my skills, though they may never play the bills. On the OCR I am a part of something bigger than myself, a community that has survived and thrived for 16 years, because people were willing to offer up time, effort, energy, money you name it for something larger than themselves…and now I’ve contributed something as small as one track, but for me it feels like one drop of rain joining with a great flowing river with unyielding energy…and it feels good. Thank You OCR...

Don't forget Resident Evil, Metal Slug and of course the game that brought platforming games in to the third dimension and changed our lives, Bubsy 3D.

Not that I at all share his position that they somehow nullify a game's status as art, but I think there's a difference between those rules and the ones Outlaw was talking about. The rules in a game (touching the spikes kills you, cherries give you 600 points, jumping on the flagpole takes you to the next level) aren't the same as the understood rules of playing a game (hold the controller, look at the screen, don't fall asleep). The latter generally applies to all games in the same way keeping your peanut butter away from the piano applies to most all performances, but the former is a creative element of the game (arguably the central one). The pianist didn't create the rules, s/he just followed them. So I wouldn't say they're an aspect of the performance itself. But Nintendo did decide that pits cause instant death and that's part of their final product.
EDIT: Well damn. I was literally hovering over the submit button when the notification ding went off.
 

Here's my own opinion:
I personally feel like "art games" on their own are not actually assisting the bigger picture. They show that games can be art if done in very specific ways (that often ignore entertainment value or involved game design). Essentially these games have a central concept of simple interactivity and immersion in a world, like an experimental film you can walk around in. These are your Gone Homes, your Everybody's Gone to the Raptures. You're supposed to think, and feel, while you play, but mechanically considered, there isn't really anything to them (not a bad thing, I'm just telling how it is). These games are artistic. But they kind of leave everything else behind if we only look to them.
I think looking at game design itself as the artform has more substance to it. I think games like Undertale, games like Dark Souls, are extremely powerful examples of video games as an artform. Because these games are not just about the intellectual experience, and they are also not intellectual experiences with arcade gameplay thrown in. These are games where the game mechanics and play directly correspond to the expression and emotion the developers want to give the player. Within the confines of game design, the standards of "challenge, exit points, rewards, risks" etc. So the art isn't simply about what it means to make interesting things that now you can walk around in, but what it means when the developer(s) have this dialogue with the player, to manipulate how he feels through gameplay (considering very concrete things like how a player dies, or how hard it is for him to have agency and choices, or how the difficulty is designed), and how that gameplay affects and is affected by the narrative or central concept of the game itself.
Spoiler example, when you kill the illusory goddess in Anor Londo in Dark Souls, the entire area loses its sun and it becomes cast in permanent twilight, and your bonfire keeper turns against you. When you kill her, the bonfire is put out, not allowing you to teleport there, or rest there. Additionally, being killed in Anor Londo makes you spawn there (so you can die and lose everything and also have no safe place to fall back on), so basically the game fucks you ever. It's a permanent consequence that actually frustrates the player because it's an irreversible difficulty increase (a bit of an absurd, unprecedented one at this point in the game) for playing the game impulsively. It's not just a sad or "sucks" story, it makes you frustrated in real life because it's manipulating your ability to play the game. It also reduces the sense of elation and power you get after beating Ornstein and Smough. It changes how you feel about yourself, whether you're powerful or powerless. I think that's artistic, and that's the expression I personally look for when looking at games as art.
Maybe that's too heavy-handed, though, because if you look at it that way, that kind of makes art games not really have anything to them, since their game designs are fairly minimal. You have walking, you have a goal. That's... really it? If we talk about how the experience and/or narrative should be expressed through game design, aren't they actually kind of saying you can't really do that when your most popular ones are in fact what people would call "walking simulators"? Tales of Tales basically outright said this in their manifesto. They wanted to stop making "games" and wanted to start making interactive experiences. I think the line there is appropriate, because I don't think it is appropriate to remove the word "game" from its grounding in game theory.
For popular example, I think Journey fits as an art game, but is also genuinely a video game as art too. It's fun to play because the movement is satisfying and there's clear gameplay, even if it's simple. You fly (well, glide, slide) around, collect scarves and light symbols, clear the stages. But the collecting is actually meaningful, it's a show of your building up (literally in the Hero's Journey) which is then dismantled later when you find out that you can actually take damage and lose part of your scarf in the lower cave. It's not just narrative there, that's narrative expressed through gameplay. So in my eyes, Journey shows that games are art. It's a simple game, but it is good, and fun, and it's a particular artistic one to boot.

Hey, so this has been on my mind a little while, I want people's opinions on it.
Ahem.
There's been this great big push in the last few years for video games to be recognized as an artform, a method of expression for the developers and a way for people to explore experiences and worlds to be emotionally affected instead of simply having entertainment value. I pose these inquiries:
Are the emergence of "art games" (walking simulators, introspective/immersive experiences, experimental stories) what we actually mean and want when we say games are art? Are older, arcade-y games valueless by comparison? Or, should we be looking at game design itself as an art, complete with all of the facets (mechanics, reward, risk, choices, challenges, exit points, first order strategies, etc.)? Are "art games" valueless by comparison? Or, do both kinds have separate value? Or, games have to be both to have value? Or, neither? (Please leave. :P) Use examples from games you've played to support why you think that way.

The Damned returns with the most fire gift of 2015.

You better fucking like those gifts. I had to sift through your Steam account, your post history on OCR, and then finally I asked Darkesword for hints. Took me three days of (kinda-sorta) detective work to figure out what you wanted.
Seriously, people: the form on the first page, where you fill out your address, also has this big section for a wishlist.
FILL IT OUT NEXT YEAR, GUYS.
Also, crack those babies open and let's see some action poses, Arrow!

I got my present from my Secret Santa a while ago but just opened it the other day. It was a black OCR shirt! Definitely always wanted to have one. Thanks, Secret Santa!

Obligatory "Oh you should! It'll be fun and______ is gonna be there.."

THE DAMNED KNOWS WHAT'S UP, YO
(super stoked to get this, and straight from a Japanese seller even; thanks man!)

These two little figures (not the coffee cup which was bought at a past London Gaming Con) came through the mail today, and they look so adorable!  And I was worried that with the lead up to the holiday, the OCR SS would be another delayed asset on top of everything else that had happened in the run-up to this event.
Still, I am thankful they both came!  Once I do some winter cleaning they'll have a nice, chilled home in my room.
I had a look at the gift notes from the package and it also said something about download codes for some of their music.  If they're anywhere, they weren't in the box; wonder if they ended up somewhere that I hadn't looked yet.
Considering what the SS set out to do, I have a feeling there may be more that had gone under my radar, but we'll see. Nevertheless, thanks so much Garpocalypse!

Obligatory "I'd love to participate, but.." reply. But hey, I'll try to listen & vote!

Well....I mean....I've been kicking around the idea of joining, but I want to be sure I can commit........(a moment of pensive reflection)........OK mark me down as in and if I can do it, great! If i can't well then that a victory for the other mixer. 

"YoshiBlade" a new comer to the OCR brings us a his rendition of SMW Castle Theme mixed with Castlevania. I suppose he thinks himself pretty clever with his write up? Using words not doubt gleaned from his Webster's word of the day calendar, throw about with the same grace as a dog who's gotten hold of a dictionary tearing it to shreds! But on to the music, if it can even be called that. We start with a simple expansive pad, almost certainly purchased from a reputable musician, ( I find it rather dubious this young man is capable of that kind of synth design), before we're introduced to a obnoxiously repetitive bass and a small sample of The Castle Center Theme from Castlevania...I bet he seems to think he can hide his hobbled musicianship by playing a small snippet of actual music, rather than utilizing MIDI flies to hide his naked failure as even the most amateur pianist. The voices are actually sampled quite well...were it 1994. As to his use of lead instrument, I'm curious if here is even aware of the difference between a square wave or a sine wave? Or to the proper use of either one?! Then he introduces some more glitchy aspects, though I am having a hard time determining if this is intentional or a product of his total lack of understanding of even the most basic production techniques...Upon hearing these I was granted a small amount of relief, as I thought I received a corrupted copy and thus would have a reason to NOT review this utter swill, however it seems these glitchy aspects are intentional. Or I'm sure he likes to think. I may seem like I'm droning on, but not nearly as droning as his choice of loop, an obvious loop as even the most basic beat structure is as foreign to his ears, this track is to decent taste ...I wonder Mr. YoshiBlade, how much did you spend to on loops to prop up your obvious failings as a musician and human being, hmm? and then we approach a vocal sample Oh-Ho, Yes indeed Mr.YoshiBlade you know how to sample a voice, bravo, Im sure you sat smugly at your computer when you made this, no doubt stroking your overblown ego, with your own brand of praise. Pray Tell, was it difficult to press record than play? Or perhaps you kept forgetting which in which order to do so,hmm? I shan't even waste my time with his piddling ending, no doubt a portent of his career on the OCR short, lackluster and lazy! Let us hope this is the last we hear of this Mr. YoshiBlade. I return to my warm Bree and Burgundian Chablis, disgusted with the depth at which Video Game Remixes have stooped to!

Well. I can definitely say I have been surprised.

You sir for the record blew me away. Now if i can only find a controller for the big one. 
 
Mine is nowhere near as impressive to my recipent. But it worked well last year, so i'm ready to try it again. =)

Package came in the mail today. Got some guitar strings I've never tried before from whoever my secret santa is.  Thanks!  They will definitely be used!  
 
and yes, I tried to use the receipt to figure out who you are but to no avail.  :/

Oh, wow, what a warning label!
 
Glad you like it! Part 2 should be en-route, as I mailed it off earlier this week.  Really hoping you don't already own a copy, though...
 
Got another notification just the other day on another package arriving. Either I'm ordering things and promptly forgetting about it, or more stuff from my Secret Santa is arriving, and I won't get to see what it is yet...

ok...I feel very exposed posting this, it rambles a bit, but here goes...
 
 
So a friend of mine, ran a VGM radio show out of WRUW Case-Westeren Reserve, back in 2009 and every Sunday I would drive to my Dad’s house and stay till 3/4am and drink coffee and play video games, I was about to go to Basic Training and I wanted to spend as much time with my dad as possible. I loved every it of playing those game and I loved playing them with my dad even more. Well, One night I was heading back home and I usually left the radio off ( comm’on it’s 3am on a monday well the hell are you gonna find?)……**This next scene hold fast in my memory as clear as crystal**….I was really wired and went was flipping throughout the radio stations, and I heard..(Chip,Bit,Pop, Bleep) and I said that sounds like a Mario game, but it’s….different…My hand went to  change the dial, but it couldn’t move…it’s rare in life that we can consciously remember moments that will shift the courses of our lives in such huge magnitudes, but if I would have changed that Dial….I don’t know where I would be….I really don’t where. So the Radio host came on and confirmed my suspicions that this was a VGM,VGM remix, Bitpop, and Chiptune radio show. He would regularly play OCR music and the name never rally resonated with me…it was just good music. So it came to pass every Sunday I would drive to my Dad’s play video games near all night and then drive home and listen to “Power Up” Hosted by Vince Torre. So I would listen each week and one week I decide to call in and request a song, SotC- A Power Revived, He played it and we got to talking and each week I would call in and talk for a good portion of the show while he spun all VGM related music. I’ve always loved VGM music and spent a good amount of time listing to them on YouTube (SupraDarky, silvagunner anyone?) So, my time as a civilian was running down and it was time for me to head out to Lakeland Air Force Base. I was subject to all the anxieties and fears one might feel, but I said I gotta do this. Well I spare the details, but my 3rd night at Basic, they woke me up and took me into and office and looked me in the eye and said "Theres no easy way I can say this so I’m just going to…your father is dead” I lost it. I just lost every semblance or control and I just lost it…they sent me home…I was over…I lost my chance to go to Japan, I lost my hope of being solider, I lost the chance to help my Dad and I lost my dad…I lost it
            So I was sent back home and I am a mess, I didn’t eat, I didn’t leave my room, I didn’t sleep( and when I did I’d have horrible dreams about seeing my dad and it all being a mistake), I looked for anything that was something I could stand on…nothing. I needed something to grab hold of or this was going to be the end of me…it was the lowest point thus far in my life…and it was a gif that saved me. I saw a GIF with someone named Brian Peppers, the person isn’t important, but that music that was played was “Burn! Bobonga!” I remembered how much I loved playing games with my dad, but he was gone…but I also remembered how much I really did love VGM and I started listening to Power-Up again and talking to Vince. Then that word Overclocked Remix came up again…I went to see what it was, people talk about love at first sight and I always felt that was a copout, but seeing a place where you were asked to stand and deliver excellence, where you could discuss something as esoteric as a game character's name, I was in love. It kept me busy, it enveloped me with all the music I heard from games I loved. It was about then I resolved to be a contributor, I had no idea how to remix or even what to do…I’d played guitar from around 14, but I hadn’t played in about 2-3 years, but I set out and started just trying anything and everything, just kept going, don’t stop to think about anything that seeks to pull you back downwards, forward only. So it was 2013 that I became a member and started using the workshop 2014 after I drove to MAGfest and met some of the remixers in person ( Thank you for the encouragement BliNd!) and that when I kicked it into high gear, culminated with a Post after 2 years of membership and 1 year of diligent remixing. Do I spend too much time on the OCR? Probably. Does it interfere with some of my obligations? Occasionally.For me OCR is more than a website, it's a place where I meet people from all walks of life…I strive to be what many remixers here are, true Superheroes with secret identities, by day students, programmers, office workers, cooks with names and different lives…by night they’re KingTiger, timaeus222, Jorito and many others. I worked hard to earn my place and even though it’s not a degree or trophy, to me it’s a place of refugee, a place where sanctuary was given from the forces that sought to end me. I’ve worked hard at to hone my skill and I hope I never cease to sharpen my skills, though they may never play the bills. On the OCR I am a part of something bigger than myself, a community that has survived and thrived for 16 years, because people were willing to offer up time, effort, energy, money you name it for something larger than themselves…and now I’ve contributed something as small as one track, but for me it feels like one drop of rain joining with a great flowing river with unyielding energy…and it feels good. Thank You OCR...

ok...I feel very exposed posting this, it rambles a bit, but here goes...
 
 
So a friend of mine, ran a VGM radio show out of WRUW Case-Westeren Reserve, back in 2009 and every Sunday I would drive to my Dad’s house and stay till 3/4am and drink coffee and play video games, I was about to go to Basic Training and I wanted to spend as much time with my dad as possible. I loved every it of playing those game and I loved playing them with my dad even more. Well, One night I was heading back home and I usually left the radio off ( comm’on it’s 3am on a monday well the hell are you gonna find?)……**This next scene hold fast in my memory as clear as crystal**….I was really wired and went was flipping throughout the radio stations, and I heard..(Chip,Bit,Pop, Bleep) and I said that sounds like a Mario game, but it’s….different…My hand went to  change the dial, but it couldn’t move…it’s rare in life that we can consciously remember moments that will shift the courses of our lives in such huge magnitudes, but if I would have changed that Dial….I don’t know where I would be….I really don’t where. So the Radio host came on and confirmed my suspicions that this was a VGM,VGM remix, Bitpop, and Chiptune radio show. He would regularly play OCR music and the name never rally resonated with me…it was just good music. So it came to pass every Sunday I would drive to my Dad’s play video games near all night and then drive home and listen to “Power Up” Hosted by Vince Torre. So I would listen each week and one week I decide to call in and request a song, SotC- A Power Revived, He played it and we got to talking and each week I would call in and talk for a good portion of the show while he spun all VGM related music. I’ve always loved VGM music and spent a good amount of time listing to them on YouTube (SupraDarky, silvagunner anyone?) So, my time as a civilian was running down and it was time for me to head out to Lakeland Air Force Base. I was subject to all the anxieties and fears one might feel, but I said I gotta do this. Well I spare the details, but my 3rd night at Basic, they woke me up and took me into and office and looked me in the eye and said "Theres no easy way I can say this so I’m just going to…your father is dead” I lost it. I just lost every semblance or control and I just lost it…they sent me home…I was over…I lost my chance to go to Japan, I lost my hope of being solider, I lost the chance to help my Dad and I lost my dad…I lost it
            So I was sent back home and I am a mess, I didn’t eat, I didn’t leave my room, I didn’t sleep( and when I did I’d have horrible dreams about seeing my dad and it all being a mistake), I looked for anything that was something I could stand on…nothing. I needed something to grab hold of or this was going to be the end of me…it was the lowest point thus far in my life…and it was a gif that saved me. I saw a GIF with someone named Brian Peppers, the person isn’t important, but that music that was played was “Burn! Bobonga!” I remembered how much I loved playing games with my dad, but he was gone…but I also remembered how much I really did love VGM and I started listening to Power-Up again and talking to Vince. Then that word Overclocked Remix came up again…I went to see what it was, people talk about love at first sight and I always felt that was a copout, but seeing a place where you were asked to stand and deliver excellence, where you could discuss something as esoteric as a game character's name, I was in love. It kept me busy, it enveloped me with all the music I heard from games I loved. It was about then I resolved to be a contributor, I had no idea how to remix or even what to do…I’d played guitar from around 14, but I hadn’t played in about 2-3 years, but I set out and started just trying anything and everything, just kept going, don’t stop to think about anything that seeks to pull you back downwards, forward only. So it was 2013 that I became a member and started using the workshop 2014 after I drove to MAGfest and met some of the remixers in person ( Thank you for the encouragement BliNd!) and that when I kicked it into high gear, culminated with a Post after 2 years of membership and 1 year of diligent remixing. Do I spend too much time on the OCR? Probably. Does it interfere with some of my obligations? Occasionally.For me OCR is more than a website, it's a place where I meet people from all walks of life…I strive to be what many remixers here are, true Superheroes with secret identities, by day students, programmers, office workers, cooks with names and different lives…by night they’re KingTiger, timaeus222, Jorito and many others. I worked hard to earn my place and even though it’s not a degree or trophy, to me it’s a place of refugee, a place where sanctuary was given from the forces that sought to end me. I’ve worked hard at to hone my skill and I hope I never cease to sharpen my skills, though they may never play the bills. On the OCR I am a part of something bigger than myself, a community that has survived and thrived for 16 years, because people were willing to offer up time, effort, energy, money you name it for something larger than themselves…and now I’ve contributed something as small as one track, but for me it feels like one drop of rain joining with a great flowing river with unyielding energy…and it feels good. Thank You OCR...

Got this package a while ago, but was away atm. Now I'm here to open Up this package From my Secret Santa Anorax! 
For My initial reactions, I had laughed pretty hard twice  and here's why:
     1) Something tells me he's giving me that look for a reason... As if he know he was trapped in that package for a week, just chilling in my room unopened like a mint condition action figure. XD
http://puu.sh/lZJai/c31019c546.jpg
     2)Then there's this reason...Who the hell, that is 15 years old...Just chokes on this. XD
http://puu.sh/lZJbp/1e5f447fab.jpg
 
Thx again Anorax for this cool gift! The Anticipation for the upcoming goodies is killing me. 

hey, this was me! =D i'm so happy you're into it. you did say you wanted my favorite album on lp and interesting soda or chocolate, so there you go =)
 
for those who don't know:
1. cheerwine is a primarily SC/NC-based pop company that's actually one of the oldest (if not the oldest) family-owned fountain drink maker in the country. they make what's basically the best black-cherry pop in existence. it's also very reasonable as an add-on item from amazon, and (best of all!) should be available everywhere in the states in grocery stores by 2017 or so. i'm surprised you've tried it before, flex, i checked and didn't see you'd lived in the carolinas area. i only had it once or twice and absolutely loved it.
2. mexican hot chocolate is really good, and the stuff made the old-style artisanal way is the best...stone-ground chocolate that's a bit gritty in a pleasant way. fantastic for sitting around and listening to...excellent bluegrass on lp! speaking of which...
3. nickel creek (and, by extension, mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile) is one of my favorite musical groups, and 'why let the fire die?' is easily my favorite album of theirs. i was super nervous you'd be like "ew bluegrass" so i'm really happy you're into it! they play extremely progressive music, stuff that does a lot of mixing of styles including jazz, folk, and rock. it's pretty involved stuff, has some excellent lyrics, and is a real musical journey. i have been more influenced in my own music by this group than any other. i wasn't super excited to see that the lp changes the order of the tracks, but it's still a fantastic experience. if you like this, flex, check out Thile's new albums under Punch Brothers. their newest album, Phosphorescent Blues, is even more on the progressive side, about as much folk as kid a is rock. really, really experimental in an awesome way. the first track (familiarity) blew my mind with how imaginative it was.