I've decided to make my new EP titled "Exit Strategy" available for free download exclusively from Last FM once again. There's a few reasons for me doing these as free downloads right now, firstly I enjoy using the Last FM site and can appreciate how the set up there can be very beneficial for independent artists and labels. Secondly though, it's more than apparent that the traditional model of distribution is rapidly changing and will inevitably soon be gone forever. I will return to doing commercial (not free) releases in the future. But for the time being, I'm just enjoying doing music again without the worries that come with releasing albums through the traditional channels.
The "Exit Strategy" EP features Jash on Delusions Outermind and The Hidden Persuader on Destruct Science.
Tracklist 1. Delusions Outermind (Feat. Jash) 2. Destruct Science (Feat. The Hidden Persuader) 3. Exit Strategy 4. Freedom Run
here's some photos I've taken recently. These were created by manipulating film footage with contrast and various effects and then exporting the individual frames as JPGs. I then took photos of the print outs of the JPGs at very close range, in the dark with the flash on. Sadly, blogspot has changed the dimensions of the images and I can't be bothered fixing them!
Here's 2 new videos i've done recently. The first one is for a track by Mosca called Another Winter Spent In Hibernation and the second is for a Kingbastard track called Buildings.
Here's the new video I did for my Bastardism track that features Kingbastard. We're going to be working on some new material together in 2008, so I'll keep you posted on the developments.
Here's a couple of videos I done recently for Kingbastard.
[Luctisonousman]
[Inthemiddleofnowhereyouarestillsomewhere]
He never makes things easy for me with his titles but you need to live and let live! If you haven't heard Kingbastard's stuff before, go check it out on the link above, it's excellent.
The Organicism Special Edition EP is now available for free download exclusively from Last FM
Tracklist 1. Warm Breeze Video 2. Bastardism (Feat. Kingbastard) 3. Dew 4. Crabs 5. At The Beach 2007 Re-Master Video 6. Organicism Video 7. Flying 2007 Re-Master Video
This EP is still available at Beatport and other download sites in high quality .wav and 320kbps MP3 format. The free version is at 128kbps MP3.
I've posted a new video on youtube for the solipsism track, Warm Breeze. The Mandelbrot Set animation was provided by a generous youtuber called FlyByPC.
for those of you that know me, you'll be aware that I'm a massive fan of Frank Zappa's music and have been since I was a teenager. It's hard to desribe accurately the effect his music and overall philosophy has had and continues to have on my life to this day.
Quite a few people have said to me in the past, that they can't see where his influence is in my music. The same thing has been cited when I've said that Pink Floyd influenced me too. For me though, I would never try and sound like someone who influenced me, that's not being influenced by, that's copying in my book and there's no way I could ever copy Zappa!
I have been heavily influenced by his ideals, his belief in experimentation, his belief in fusing adverse styles and for the way he stuck two fingers up to the establishment and did things for himself. He was an extremely single-minded person with visionary, groundbreaking music and studio skills that were second to none in his day.
Anyway back to the point of the post. Tomorrow, December 4th ( he was 17 days short of his 53rd birthday) is the anniversary of his death. I felt cheated when he died so young, which is probably an incredibly selfish thing as I never knew him obviously but considering the fact he released 70+ albums before he died, it's easy to rationalise that there was plenty music left in him yet. He was the most complete composer of the 20th century in my opinion and his influence will reverberate for many, many years.
As well as being a brilliant musician and composer, he was also a great satirist and his quick wit in interviews always gave him the ability to outsmart his detractors and make them look incredibly stupid. Here's a clip of one of my favourite Zappa interviews, it's from the time of the PMRC hearings in America, when Tipper Gore campaigned to have parental control labels printed on the front of albums that had been deemed offensive. Amazingly, not one of Zappa's albums were listed by the PMRC despite the numerous "obscenities" and politically senstitive topics. Listen out in the video for Zappa's prediction that America was heading towards a "Fascist Theocracy", remember this was 1986 and ask yourself if you think he was right.
I listen to zappa every day of my life as my last FM stats will show. It's amazing how I've never grown tired of it, but that only speaks volumes for the content and weight these albums have.
My Top 5 Must Have Zappa Albums
It's really hard choosing a top 5 from 70+ albums as you can imagine and there will be times that other zappa albums get more spins. However, these 5 are always there or there abouts. Each of these albums are heavily inspired by jazz and that's the sort of Zappa material I've always loved the most.
Thanks for the great music Frank and I hope you're happy wherever you are!
here's some stats for my listening habits on last fm. Certainly won't be everyone's cup of tea, but that suits me perfectly :)
It took me a while to get into Last FM, I'd posted some music on it a few years back and I was disappointed with the playback quality, upload process and a few other things. So I decided to pull my music off. I was pleasantly surprised however when I went back a few months ago and decided to post some music again. They've addressed many of the issues that used to make it unstable and unattractive to serious musicians. The playback still isn't what it should be, but it is much better and the upload process has been simplified so that you can upload one track at a time, instead of the full album. There was nothing worse than when you uploaded a full album, only to find their system had rejected it because one track was tagged incorrectly.
It still has niggly issues like being unable to differentiate between artists/bands with the same track names and artist names, but they're definitely getting there. So even though solipsism is tagged as Metal From Puerto Rico on last FM, I can assure you it isn't :) I believe though there is some death metal band from puerto rico called "solipsismo", so it's probably down to them! I have nothing against Death Metal guys, but I do think you should change your name :)
I've changed a couple of the tracks on the weird fields Myspace page. The two tracks i've put up are, 2 from the Destruct Science EP that goes out soon on Magnanimous Records and Smash Light, a heavier ambient drone track.
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