Month Three of The Sagasu Review
it’s time for another submission about the site and how it’s been, where it’s going. interestingly i feel like i was able to squeeze and incredible amount of words and coding into the site in August, whereas September has been unusually short in feel and production. but maybe that’s just a feeling. looking back the site has come even further into identity. i would say its currently in Version 2.0 verging into 3.0 (not 3.33 ahem). i been digging further into bespoke coding for areas across the site. Squarespace give a nice collection of building blocks to assemble a site, but the flexibility of these building blocks leaves much to be desired beyond a vanilla site. if V1 was learning to build with these block, V2 was coming into proficiency with them. however as i delve deeper into bespoke code i find the site can go far beyond what i am shackled to insofar as Squarespace’s realm. working on this will put the site in a comfortable V3 which should feel even more personal and unique in site identity… or maybe it will feel like a bunch of external thumbtacks, screws and hotwheels taped and glued to the original thing. still, i’m looking forward to seeing how the site evolves next. my core foundational concept is simple, clean, readable, user interface with colorful accents. so this idea keeps the scope constrained.
this month changes have been:
the reviews’ pages. i subtly modified the layout so it feels less building blocks and more authored feel. it’s not huge, but i think it makes a world of difference. review pages should be simple to read. information:review:final information. when you go to “Pitchfork.com” for instance, it makes my brain hurt. i know the company has been sold many times over, but damn. a single review page is littered and fractured by ad-spaces. like you can’t even read a review anymore. it’s sad really. but i think that just helps our reviews look so much more easy to access. it’s an internet ocean of ads and selling! for now it’s nice the pages feel so clean. i do feel like it’s missing some things still… oh and i added a way to click an artist name at the top of a review to see their other pieces covered on the site.
Discover! this is an interesting addition. i want it to be a way for newcomers to the site and the music to be able to navigate better. there is a lot of music out there and even reviews here too. so having a discover page means others can ease into the pool. or even just get to know the site and writers better. that page will take work, and i think its value will grow as the site grows. the more reviews the more music the site covers, the more it covers the more it can recommend. these recs can be a bedrock of the site. “Discover. Engage.”
the site is transitioning from a “⏪︎ rewind” focused site to a more up-to-date “albums” review structure. which has always been the idea. rewind is a better chance to look back at albums that excite the staff. “albums” is for music coming out today. that keeps the site in the modern view and makes “⏪︎ rewind” a more special occasion. which i like. i want the site to work at covering music in both directions (past and present) but it most benefits from covering music out today. to stay current. to become a place for others to find material on current releases. the reason i build this site. that said, i am happy to see a growing amount of reviews in the “albums” side. and sometimes they get a bit sketchy. Chance’s review of Yours Sincerely by Haruomi Hosono shows that a top release album in Japan might not work well here. at the very least it is a bit too avant-garde for wider enjoyment. and my review of Lux by Suichu Spica was a pleasant surprise to find something i never would have otherwise. great music in mysterious forms.
i’ve added chat! like an old school early 2000’s style chatroom. how exciting!! a website “gendou.com” was one i used to surf all day every day in my high school years. it was a low-rent place to find new anime music and to post on forums and chat boards. in that vein, i found a ton of engagement and conversation and inclusion to a sphere i wanted to be included in. the site is still up, but it barely hanging on these days. “gendou.com” is a MASSIVE MASSIVE part of what got me interested in this sphere of music. seriously. so in that way, i thought a chat room would be a nice nod to that history, and maybe we are going back to this way as a people any way. time will tell. maybe it will be a defunct feature in a year, but i thought there might be a hint of something special in it. so i opened on up. it needs some polishing, but it works in totality. 7 hours of coding later and we have something real! for me at least, it’s very exciting. but it was an important nod to a site that is important to me. just wanted to put that out there.
Chance now has an email. email him!
otherwise the site is future looking. look out for an autumn based special edition, and something big for the end of the year!
it’s funny looking back after just a handful of months. but the site has changed drastically! in visual identity and scope. like damn, even how the front page looks from day one to now is beyond huge. i was even hoping to hit 100 reviews in a single year, but already we are close to 50 in just a few months. impressive! there is still so much to tweak, learn, accomplish and explore. even if i had 10 more people working under me, good things take the time they need. the site is already a year ahead of schedule (truly!) and i couldn’t be anymore proud of the efforts. September was a bit of a quiet month, but sometimes that is necessary to not completely burn out. i just wanted to thank Chance Aguilar for all the hard work and writing, it helps me take a step back from full-time reviews and think long and hard about what the site might become. even if changes haven’t happened in broad strokes this month, i’m always thinking, always learning, always considering where to take it next. thank you to my one precious writer, and thank you to any and all the readers of the site.
just wait. it’s gonna get a-whole-lot better!
sincerely,
Marcus Landeros
Editor-in-Chief, The Sagasu Review
currently listening: Hitsujibungaku — Keep Walking
