There lives an inherent, inescapable, existential nightmare inside an endless-runner, a disarming feeling, only heightened when it additionally masks itself as a rhythm-game. Violent hits of industrial noise bang on my ear drums in unpredictable time signatures, till I am overwhelmed by a metallic taste in my mouth, then they tag-team up with skyscraping, iridescent exoskeletons to lift the ground from below and crush me with it.
When I was still letting top-shelf Zaza disrupt my circadian rhythm to an ungodly amount, a friend of mine would always want to play Thumper whenever he came over and toked Viennese Woppy Goldberg Furrbuger Deluxe Skunk Baba Kush with me. Back then, I caught myself having to find an excuse to play another game instead of outright telling him that I silently hid my panic attacks the last few times we smoked and played this.
Thumper can be a hell lot of fun. Weed can also be a hell lot of fun, your head just needs to be in the right place and Thumper always seemed to push my head, who wasn't in the right place to begin with, through the gates and away from "fun" part of that saying.
This thing achieved its mission to be the the first ever Rhythm-Violence-Game. It made me feel like I was dying when I stared down its barrel and saw a cloud of smoke in front of it.
I am teaching that friend the guitar and had to explain his ass, I don't know how many times, that there are four beats in a mesure (in most of western hemisphere music at least). It is really hard for him to follow the pattern my bass and a drum sample split time into. (His atmospheric playing is dope tho)
Despite, maybe even because all of that he rips my ass at this game, as the rhythm's primary conduct appears visually. He is just better at that and more comfortable with getting lost in the underworld orchestrating it.
I just couldn't. I couldn't let myself surrender to the flow of play with this Video Game. I was kind of afraid of it for some reason. Afraid of letting myself go. Afraid to offer myself into grip of its claws.
Even after stopping with the Scooby-doo dick, Thumper is still hitting some parts of abstract primal fear inside of my brain. Just like Yume Nikki it reminds me of Nightmares I had as a kid and it might sound kinda fucked up, but now I can actually appreciate it for this.
One thing responsible for the auditory dissonance in Thumpers harmonies is the simple fact that the levels came before the instrumentation. The game is a seven+ year collaborative effort from a small indie team, a "Drool" dripping from the corner of Brian Gibson's and Marc Flury's mouths. Gibson also pours one half of it's sweat and blood into a tsunami of noise struck by a "Lightning Bolt". My love for this two-piece band and his unconventional Bass playing in it were the main reason Thumper peaked my interest. The dude plays with a fucking cello tuning, two low bass strings and guitar or banjo strings for the highs, to really stab through the wall of sound, drummed up by the powerhouse Brian Chippendale. Before that he worked for Guitar Hero's and Rockband's "Harmonix" as the lead artist for over a decade. That man is probably in the Top 3 of the coolest MFer's in the entire industry. Although I can't think of anyone sharing that podium tbh, but I wanna leave space due to my Ignorance.
I don't know if my needlessly word playing style of writing way too long sentences, frontacted by trauma dumps pretenting to actually be about Video Games appeals to anyone other than my need to call my therapist again. I kinda like to vent in flowery ways to random gamers I will never actually know, while maybe trying to reach a single person who might relate to any of it or some shit.
Don't smoke as an ecape from your problems, especially not the ones inside. And fucking share with someone when you experience panic attacks, or just when you feel like fucking shit. Even more so when there is a friend right in front of you.(by now I tell that friend all that shit and listen to his)
Hit me up if you ever feel like you need one.
And if you are a stoner who thought about quitting, this Mark Fisher K-Punk Blog Post helped me to genuinely want to change myself.
Anyhow, here is a certified hood-classic Lightning Bolt live performance that encapsulates my panic attacks and eventuall panic-attack-surfing while playing this game.
When I first played Thumper my brain was the security guards, now it's Chippendale.
And neither would have been possible without Gibson.
I hate that I love you so much, it is bad for me.
Thumper is a decent nightmare to haunt your dreams with. If you are up for that or just a kinda half-baked, audio-visually abstract 'rhythm-game' give it a go. But don't touch it if you are already on a tipping point while also dangerously high.
When I was still letting top-shelf Zaza disrupt my circadian rhythm to an ungodly amount, a friend of mine would always want to play Thumper whenever he came over and toked Viennese Woppy Goldberg Furrbuger Deluxe Skunk Baba Kush with me. Back then, I caught myself having to find an excuse to play another game instead of outright telling him that I silently hid my panic attacks the last few times we smoked and played this.
Thumper can be a hell lot of fun. Weed can also be a hell lot of fun, your head just needs to be in the right place and Thumper always seemed to push my head, who wasn't in the right place to begin with, through the gates and away from "fun" part of that saying.
This thing achieved its mission to be the the first ever Rhythm-Violence-Game. It made me feel like I was dying when I stared down its barrel and saw a cloud of smoke in front of it.
I am teaching that friend the guitar and had to explain his ass, I don't know how many times, that there are four beats in a mesure (in most of western hemisphere music at least). It is really hard for him to follow the pattern my bass and a drum sample split time into. (His atmospheric playing is dope tho)
Despite, maybe even because all of that he rips my ass at this game, as the rhythm's primary conduct appears visually. He is just better at that and more comfortable with getting lost in the underworld orchestrating it.
I just couldn't. I couldn't let myself surrender to the flow of play with this Video Game. I was kind of afraid of it for some reason. Afraid of letting myself go. Afraid to offer myself into grip of its claws.
Even after stopping with the Scooby-doo dick, Thumper is still hitting some parts of abstract primal fear inside of my brain. Just like Yume Nikki it reminds me of Nightmares I had as a kid and it might sound kinda fucked up, but now I can actually appreciate it for this.
One thing responsible for the auditory dissonance in Thumpers harmonies is the simple fact that the levels came before the instrumentation. The game is a seven+ year collaborative effort from a small indie team, a "Drool" dripping from the corner of Brian Gibson's and Marc Flury's mouths. Gibson also pours one half of it's sweat and blood into a tsunami of noise struck by a "Lightning Bolt". My love for this two-piece band and his unconventional Bass playing in it were the main reason Thumper peaked my interest. The dude plays with a fucking cello tuning, two low bass strings and guitar or banjo strings for the highs, to really stab through the wall of sound, drummed up by the powerhouse Brian Chippendale. Before that he worked for Guitar Hero's and Rockband's "Harmonix" as the lead artist for over a decade. That man is probably in the Top 3 of the coolest MFer's in the entire industry. Although I can't think of anyone sharing that podium tbh, but I wanna leave space due to my Ignorance.
I don't know if my needlessly word playing style of writing way too long sentences, frontacted by trauma dumps pretenting to actually be about Video Games appeals to anyone other than my need to call my therapist again. I kinda like to vent in flowery ways to random gamers I will never actually know, while maybe trying to reach a single person who might relate to any of it or some shit.
Don't smoke as an ecape from your problems, especially not the ones inside. And fucking share with someone when you experience panic attacks, or just when you feel like fucking shit. Even more so when there is a friend right in front of you.(by now I tell that friend all that shit and listen to his)
Hit me up if you ever feel like you need one.
And if you are a stoner who thought about quitting, this Mark Fisher K-Punk Blog Post helped me to genuinely want to change myself.
Anyhow, here is a certified hood-classic Lightning Bolt live performance that encapsulates my panic attacks and eventuall panic-attack-surfing while playing this game.
When I first played Thumper my brain was the security guards, now it's Chippendale.
And neither would have been possible without Gibson.
I hate that I love you so much, it is bad for me.
Thumper is a decent nightmare to haunt your dreams with. If you are up for that or just a kinda half-baked, audio-visually abstract 'rhythm-game' give it a go. But don't touch it if you are already on a tipping point while also dangerously high.
fancyynancyy
8 months ago
See you in the dawn
See you in the daylight
And in the beyond