among laymen

@lilbebed2 at @roomfivetwosix for @amonglaymen EVERYTHING MUST GO!!! 8/3/2026

@patheticordinary.sg at @roomfivetwosix for @amonglaymen EVERYTHING MUST GO!!! 8/3/2026

@wheresroxie at @roomfivetwosix for @amonglaymen EVERYTHING MUST GO!!! 8/3/2026

@spider_rawkzx at @roomfivetwosix for @amonglaymen EVERYTHING MUST GO!!! 8/3/2026

LELONG LELONG 📢📢📢 🔥 FIRE SALE ‼️🔥 FIRE SALE ‼️ Among Laymen x 526 presents... EVERYTHING MUST GO!!! 🛒 Where's Roxie? 🛒 Lil Bebed 🛒 Spider 🛒 Pathetic Ordinary 8 March, doors at 7 $18 presale / $20 doors link in bio!! 🎨 : @aemior

our incredible friends at @amonglaymen produced a lil vlog goofing around at cleaning day! check out the full video - link in biology 🤓☝🏻#video #log #vlog quick reminder that our cassettes are still available via the form in our bio! the form will close/all cassettes will be shipped by the end of the year

AND THE SET TIMES ARE HEREE !! (oops a lil late) DOORS WILL OPEN AT 5.30 ON BOTH DAYS! BANDS STARTS AT 6! (IF EVERYONE COME ON TIME!) Presales are still available at ourstrayliberties.com ! Door tickets will still be sold at $25 on each day ! C'YALL TMR!

WE'RE OFFICIALLY 1 SLEEP AWAY FROM AIMS FEST '25 X ROOM 526 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW! LAST CALL FOR TIX, PRESALES END TMR AT 12PM! BUT FRET NOT, DOOR TICKETS REMAIN THE SAME PRICE AS PRESALES! NOBODY TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS! THOSE WHO NEED HELP OR WOULD APPRECIATE A DISCOUNT, DM US, LET US HELP YOU! SET TIMES WILL BE POSTED LATER AT 6PM! AIMS FEST '25 SAT - SUN, OCT 25 - 26 ROOM 526 DOORS AT 5.30PM NOISE AT 6PM! OURSTRAYLIBERTIES.COM FOR TICKETS!

Week 6: Galileo Galilei - Portal fav songs: aoi shiori  Orientalism is defined as “a way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on the Orient’s special place in European Western experience”. While I am Not European, judging an entire place just based upon preconceived notions is a very Orientalist thing to do, regardless of where you’re originally from or what you are judging. For the longest time, I always revered post-visual kei jrock bands as gospel in my listening in indie rock - till this very day Yorushika has its own little corner in my ears. It’s where I considered my exploration of my music taste to have begun outside of hip-hop and Eminem (WHEW), and this album reminded me as to one of the startpoints. The MV for Galileo Galilei's Aoi Shiori is amongst one of the most recognisable for anyone that’s ever gotten an algo rec that shifted your personal timeline (toe’s goodbye comes a close second), and of course anyone that has ever touched the anime scene has probably heard of or watched Anohana. As such, my image of jrock always stemmed from this idea of telecasters, clean sound and a very mellow blue tinted indie place of gentle summers and slowly permeating autumns; a very neutral and romanticised view if you may. and then i went to japan for the first time and realised that my worldview was so small. in essence - what i considered to be the mecca of japanese music was simply a starting point; a glimpse into the sheer breadth and elevation of emotions so far beyond general ennui that it made me wonder why did i box myself in for so long on what I thought japanese music was supposed to be. shoutout crazy blues, chakura and kudaranai1nichi for defining that trip and defined a changed path for me.  it pains me to say this but Portal is lowkey a mid album save for aoi shiori…. like there’s many better bands and artists that have featured in anime that you could start off with (ASIAN KUNGFU GENERATION, Yorushika, Minami, Sangatsu No Phantasia, Zutomayo etc) - however i would still recommend their later album Sea And The Darkness as it actually feels like the album that should’ve surrounded aoi shiori.

Week 5: camping - Never Been Camping fav tracks: clean, heel, where do we begin?  it has been yet another three weeks of soul-searching, losing the colour in life thanks to midterms - but at least it gave insight and finally helped me crack what made camping stick. finally getting a proper history education at nie has been eye-opening (shoutout Prof Prosperetti) and we’ve been tinkering with the innately flawed nature of historiography; realisations such as the objectivity myth setting history back at the highest levels (i.e. that there is a Most Correct History which ignores how historians can pick and choose sources for interpretation and the idea that the sources that exist are inherently flawed - what about oral histories that aren’t recorded in paper and are brushed off by external historians as simply being “folklore”?) to ideas about how power is entrenched in the creation of history at all levels (who decides what gets archived and what doesn’t? who decides what becomes the “official” history of a nation, an organisation, hell even a band?). but yeah. thoughts that have been swimming whilst i look at the physicals i hold and realise that the archive i’m choosing to build is also one that may be a lot more useful than just a diary of my youth.   which brings me on to this album. like how the opening track makes a nod to it, Never Been Camping feels like the afternoon sun - albeit not the nostalgic, yellow, Kodak Gold kind of sun. The many shades of green belie the energy that this album brings - the sort of 5pm, late-afternoon sun that is oddly bright, mixes in with the greenery of the trees and the Technicolour of the playground that you overlook while smoking a cig or coming back from the nearby kopitiam with an ice-cold bag of kopi-o. The sort of nostalgia that is not warm, that creeps up and attacks you when the playground gives you visions of the endless afternoons you’ve spent there playing with nameless faces from a bygone era.  shoutout to that girl who taught me how to ride a bicycle at the playground that i’ve never seen again after i stopped going to my aunt’s place once secondary school started.

The SECOND edition of AIMS Fest returns as a weekend affair with double the number of bands & in celebration of ROOM 526's 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY! 13 acts. genres spanning skramz, emo, metalcore, emocore, blackgaze, emo crust. This is a true celebration of anguish. And I Must Scream Fest 2025 Sat-Sun, 25-26 Oct ROOM 526 All Ages Weekend passes are now LIVE at or link in bio. Single day passes available from October 1st.* Individual day lineups will be announced at a later date* Presented by OurStrayLiberties Supported by ROOM 526, AndIMustScream Records, Dogswain, Raw Spirit MY, Mata Clothing, Among Laymen, 760coremedia Featuring bands: DAIGHILA, @cues.in.braille , a one-off return for BETHARI, @subconsciousband , MORDHAU, @curballcaps , @burymeinblackband , @fickleband , @fictionalcharacter2015 , @shltr.65 , @pillowheadpillow , and the debuts of @changeinjune & @daruratscreamo Poster by @jaeablaze

Week 4: slowthai - Nothing Great About Britain fav tracks: Gorgeous, Toaster, Grow Up White boys in rap often come with asterisks. Shades of Eminem might immediately pop into your head, and depending on the depth of the iceberg of hip-hop one is on you either head into the song with anticipation or sheer repulsion. slowthai has been a breath of fresh air though - like many other discoveries I first found him from a chance YouTube recommendation of the mv for Gorgeous, the 4th track off the album. Depending on perspective, it's either an extremely nostalgic or poignant interpretation of working-class Britain, but a foreign concept nonetheless for most of us who are only familiar with Tea N’ Crumpets, London chic Britain. The rest of the album takes a much more grating turn however, with slowthai being inspired by grime, which has long since defined the UK rap scene. Think tracks that embody jerky flows like Dizzie Rascal’s I Luv U, but with much smoother samples that slather on vocal lines; one would say grime’s straight up dark energy kinda mirrors memphis rap, but with jerky beats that are derived from riddim/reggae that inadvertently affect their rappers’ flows as well. As such, most of this album follows this line - slowthai’s flow paired with his unabashed accent makes for a unique listening experience that makes the lyrics included in the album insert proper useful. I ain’t complaining though; tracks like the aforementioned Gorgeous and Toaster shows how he isn’t just a one-dimensional grime artist, nor is he just another UK drill whiteboy (re: Central Cee and ArrDee) I also want to talk about the CD design of this album, because it takes the cake for the most interesting one I've seen so far this month. slowthai originally intended for this album to coincide with Brexit, and as highlighted earlier all of his social commentary on a modern reinterpretation of working-class Britain carries on further to the album design! the cover has him in a wooden pillory (very medieval England) in the middle of a council estate with hooded onlookers and Union Jacks akimbo on the balconies (very post-Thatcher England).