April 6th - April 12th 2026

Music:

• Bansaka | Tuki. - The only Japanese song I’ve heard that really gives the acoustic, somber vibes I hear in so much early 00’s alternative music. Fav song of this week.
• Mirror’s Edge (Original Videogame Score | Solar Fields - [Aftermath.site did an interview with the composer behind Marathon’s double-LP soundtrack(https://aftermath.site/marathon-bungie-soundtrack-ryan-lott/) and in that interview, Ryan Lott lists a few of his inspirations, and this is one of them. It’s a really good listen, especially for background noise while listening or just for getting into this particular vibe. It’s less dark and heavy, and also simpler, which makes it a nice complement imo.
• Yousagi | Marutake Ebisue - This was an accidental find. I was trying to translate a song in an Instagram caption and found this instead. The whole album is actually quite good too! It’s nothing crazy, but it has the rock-ish heart with more somber vocals, which is hitting really nice for me rn.
• Be bright the color of the rainbow | NELKE - This was the Instagram song haha! This very much has an anime feel to it. More rocker/alt vibes, with very good femme, higher pitched vocals. And hear that piano come in to complement the guitar? Lovely!

Books/Manga:

• Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment | Jason Schreier - So the first thing anyone says is to acknowledge the author, who is a big deal in the games journalism space. His writing leaves much to be desired if this was a pop-culture book, it def follows the investigative journalism conservatism - not politically, just in not editorializing. So, don’t come for “good” writing, but you have to acknowledge the scale of interview work (300+) to wrangle together this timeline. I have a full review ready for posting, so I will leave this as a recommend if you like games history or have been affected (and likely disappointed) by Blizzard over the years.
• Cyberpunk 2077: No_Coincidence | Rafat Kosik - My God, the first thing I have to say is just how terrible the writing is. I haven’t read a book that so clearly is “tell, don’t show” through and through. Which, this is a book, I feel like there are few other mediums where telling the reader/viewer will piss you off more. Every time you, as a reader, have a thought based on some exposition or character behavior that helps paint the world you are being brought into, the author interrupts and talks to you like you’re a baby. Or, as if these additional sentences are flavor text that should be hidden in a screenplay to inform or influence accompanying visuals. I’m about 100 pages in and the plot feels like the failed marriage of the anime adaptation and every heist movie I have ever seen. It’s painful. I love Cyperpunk as a genre, absolutely adore the anime adaptation, and was hungry for more Cyberpunk 2077 content and this just fails in every way. Over 100 pages in and characters feel about as one-dimensional as they did in the opening pages. I’m not sure if the author or translator, or more than likely the editor, are to blame, but wow. I know these franchise books are often bottom of the barrel and authors don’t spend the requisite time with other lore materials, but this seems particularly egregious, especially compared to other franchise books (i.e. Halo or World of Warcrafy) that I have read. Also, the author is frequently contradicting himself. It will be written that a character bought a gun a few days old and then paragraphs later the gun is years old. At this point I am in a full hate read, so looking forward to finishing it any day now.

Podcasts:

• “Noah and the Flood in Western Thought,” Philip C Almond | New Books in Critical Theory - A pretty weak entry in the New Books in Critical Theory, but important nonetheless. This episode has my favorite host, which is a plus, and the trajectory of Christian and broader Abrahamic interpretation of this particular story has only continued to be really impactful. This podcast goes over what the story is, how it has changed in interpretation, and what means of proof have been advocated for and resisted over that time.

News/Essays:

• ‘We Needed To Do Something That Would Subvert Expectations’: An Interview With Ryan Lott And Chase Combs About Marathon’s Incredible Soundtrack | Aftermath.site, Luke Plunkett - A pretty cool, if light and relatively standard interview. I recommend the video covering Ryan Lott’s process to accompany it! If you love the soundtrack, you gotta read this, and I’ve been listening to the other soundtrack/score inspirations as well.
• Big, BIG Buildings | Aftermath.site, Luke Plunkett - I had never heard of Paul Chadeisson until now, and this cinematic, which is only a spare few minutes, was so high quality and polished. Just give it a watch, it’s meant to be provocative and a conversation starter.