IVOLVE

Catching Up: Here Are a Couple of New Ones from IVOLVE

/ Homicidol Maniac

All right, let’s get the first couple of these suckers out of the way. I pre-warn you — I’m not even going to pretend to be contributing meaningful thoughts to any of these posts, just quick observations; the important thing is the music.

So, IVOLVE! It’s been a while, and probably for a good reason, as they were also hewing closer to normal idol fare even in their more interesting options, but they’re part of idol’s enduring it’s-actually-like-half-a-degree-of-separation legacy, and I have a legit soft spot for them. There are two new tracks from them in my Soundcloud feed, and this first one had me thinking Weekender —

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Whole Lotta IVOLVE? Sure

/ Homicidol Maniac

And speaking of Soundcloud being where a lot of idol is happening anymore, along comes IVOLVE with a couple of tracks in addition to their fine previous work in that regard. And you know, partly for its regularity and partly for its potential, it’s a notification that I’m glad to see, when they post anew — a lot of the groups that still exist from when this site got started are legacy projects, living on inertia or with essentially a fixed membership, whereas groups like IVOLVE, which are themselves somewhat established and boast membership from that earlier era and still have a bright future ahead, they feel like a bridge between eras. And idol eras, as we’ve learned, aren’t exactly long-term things!

Anyway, you’re here for the stuff, not the Maniac:

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Oh Hell, Why Not Just Keep Doing IVOLVE?

/ Homicidol Maniac

From the time that IVOLVE was launched to the first time that I felt moved enough to write anything about them was literal months, I think; months again passed after that moment before they again appeared in this feed. It was a two-fold problem, I think: They didn’t have a blow-out kind of debut, and they weren’t explicitly a loud unit of any particular stripe, either.

On the latter, that still holds true, but the last few months have proven to be good and cool and active ones for IVOLVE, and I had to curb my own worst impulses* to hit the play button when these showed up on Soundcloud the other day. The thing is, I’ve been doing a lot of IVOLVE, and Homicidols Dot Com likes to cast wide nets for all but the most momentous of idol happenings, so would I really want to do more IVOLVE when there are other things on like heavy rotation at the moment?

Absolutely!

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I’m Really Late to IVOLVE’s MV But Wanted You to Have It

/ Homicidol Maniac

Yeah, welcome back to another edition of Posts Maniac Meant to Quickly Write During His Break, and this is one that I actually responded to in real time as opposed to setting it up ahead of time. But after I was completely all-in on what IVOLVE was giving with their new song that doesn’t have anything to do with this single release, I felt like it was only right to follow up with the single itself, or I guess the second song from it because we already trod this ground:

And holy crap, it’s a nanoCUNE number. Continue reading →

The New IVOLVE MV Is Giving Me Flashbacks

/ Homicidol Maniac

True story, or true to my knowledge: An old friend of mine had spent the majority of his young adult years in the military, posted abroad in that era when the United States wasn’t at war with like eight countries at once. He was bored a lot, and so tended to get into local drug cultures wherever he was. By the time I met him, there was very little in this world that he hadn’t tried; or, more accurately, probably more that he was actively avoiding for the rest of his life than he hadn’t tried previously, if that makes sense, and his brain was somewhat addled. Think of a literal man-child — he had the body and intelligence of an adult, but the personality of a wound-up adolescent. Kind of amazing.

Anyway, the one thing that my friend avoided more than any other was red wine. Why? I’ll never understand the hows and whys, but his attested reason was that he’d spent the better part of an extended stop in Spain taking a lifetime’s worth of acid and drinking Spanish reds, and though he also vowed to never do acid again, he’d found that even the crappy pink box wine that sometimes showed up at parties was enough to give him acid flashbacks. And just specifically red wine! He had no trouble with white, fruit wines, stuff like that. Just red.

What does this have to do with IVOLVE? Absolutely nothing, save for the fact that I heard “Wannabe” here and got back a feeling that I used to get — and love — in an earlier era of idol coverage, and enjoyed it, and decided to write about feeling flashbacks and was reminded of my friend. This is why you shouldn’t let people like me have websites! Continue reading →

I’m Here for This New IVOLVE Song

/ Homicidol Maniac

A funny moment on Saturday: Within a few hours’ time of saying not-great things about IVOLVE’s new MV, I fumbled around with Soundcloud while looking for a good soundtrack for a bunch of housework and boom, right there at the top of the feed, a fresh track from … the same IVOLVE that I’d just kind of dismissed. Funny!

It doesn’t appear on the new single, but was instead announced at their one-man the other night, from which they’ve also released a ton of live video: Continue reading →

IVOLVE Made It Better

/ Homicidol Maniac

Some idols get boring after a while, to the loss of us all; others keep getting more and more interesting, and it’s a neat journey to go along with.

IVOLVE, who are normally just the sort of idol that’s worth following for occasional updates, are making cool and good positive growth moves, and that warms me right the hell up.

For instance, their second single, releasing next week:

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In Which It’s Time to Look at IVOLVE

/ Homicidol Maniac

It has accidentally become Honor Mad Magazine-related Idols on Christmas Eve Weekened as I pivot toward a piece that I was putting together a few days ago, until HOLIDAY MADNESS arrived and ruined all of my plans. But! To directly tie this to the aforementioned accidental subject matter, I refer to Ayami ex of nanoCUNE/Rider, who landed on her feet (as talented idols are wont to do) after being disbanded and hooked up* with the same agency as Party Rockets GT, Devil ANTHEM and others to form IVOLVE, who are not new at this point, but I’m just finally getting around to them on account of their having added a mess of new stuff to Soundcloud:

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