Lost Signals [10th Anniversary Edition]

After almost a decade of silence, I bring upon thee a new album at last! This here is an early-access compilation of unreleased works from various projects brought to light with the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the 22nd of May. All unmastered, captured in their current incomplete form with missing sections and instruments, only a brief pre-render pass to bring everything up to gain. Nevertheless, they amass the main bulk of my most finished work and may very well be the last you see of them for a very long while.

Full album available now on Bandcamp. Should pop up on stores and streaming services over the next month.

Liquify

Originally from Level UP Book II, this fun trancey track is by far my most finished unreleased work, and for a long time my proudest.

This edit from 2017 is found midway through the mastering process.

Vicissitude

After discussing Liquify with the amazing producer and DJ Tarvali, I used all her advice to make Vicissitude. The idea behind it was to create a modern psytrance track following all the unspoken rules of the industry, whilst still keeping a hint of my own twist on it.

This preview from 2023 is missing hats, effects, and vocals.

Prison Point And Matter

The entire track is based around minute-long spacey arp section, the intent being to create complexity through a non-repeating progression of notes and capture a classic 90s psytrance feel. Name comes from a weird dream I had once.

This preview from 2021 contains the very basic layout of the track with a handful of supporting instruments and placeholder sections filling in the progression leading up to the main arp.

Conflicting Resolutions

Stemming from a quick note progression made to test out an instrument for HC6, this evolved into a chill downtempo housey track that oddly reminds me of the Undertaker making his entrance into the ring

This edit from 2023 is missing a section before the break replaced here by a looped one, and has yet to have effects and smoothed out transitions between sections.

Interlude

Continuing the trend of derivating tracks from other derivative tracks, Interlude expands on instrument experiments created during the making of Conflicting Resolutions. To bluntly copy my notes attached to it, the intent is to make a simple ‘one wave of a song, just the rise and ends there, 1–2 minutes long, boom, done, nice vibes, one take, no frills and verses and drops, just one nice lovely sweep through its story.’

This preview from 2022 is literally just one instrument, strong enough to stand on its own.

Pulsar

Started as a trance project that evolved into Glitch-Hop. The idea is to revolve the track around a bassline pulsating between super low subs and high mids, literally splitting frequencies. The intro makes me envision the landing sequence coming into Noveria in the original Mass Effect.

This preview from 2021 is a snapshot from midway through building up the drums layer, which is why it drizzles out a third of the way through the track. It still has a long way to go, missing even the main bass layer.

Black

Look, I love it, but it’s gone through so many reworks. This is one of the original ideas from 2013 made in Soundation. The trap bassline that started it has been entirely cut out because it didn’t fit at all anymore, but there is still a hint of the old drums and, of course, the iconic distorted wub. The third final drop was created after Rameses B released his Fallout 4 track, and a few years later I also changed the first drop to match the much heavier feel of it.

This edit from 2023 is equally finished as it is completely lost about its own identity. The second drop is a complete mystery still, and no one knows what happened to the idea of mixing trap into melodic chillstep.

tNce

This is the snapshot of the tNce Remaster that was played during the New Year 2016 Stream, not actually fully mastered yet. Original track released in 2013 as part of my debut album Live Your Life, which you can read more about here. The reimagined drop takes inspiration from Benson’s remix of Take Me Over by Peking Duk.

Confluence

It’s liquid DnB innit. There’s no wanky backstory for once, I just wanted to have some fun. Also wanted to include something like the sweeping effects from the Sounddodger track Distant Stars by Sonic, which I ended up doing using modified Factorio sound effects.

This edit from 2017 is captured just before the mixing and mastering process.

Rawr

So, hear me out. Complextro drumstep in double time at 198bpm. Right? Like just imagine the sheer absurdity of how that would sound, it would effectively be four times the complexity speed of normal complextro. The planned progression goes like this: dubstep buildup, complextro drop, drumstep drop, orchestral break, drum & bass bridge, dubstep buildup, double complextro drop. I always joked that this would likely be the final track I finish on my death bed.

This preview from 2021 is completely missing the orchestral section during the break and huge chunks of the complextro drops, replaced by extending portions of the other sections over them. A lot of work needs to be done on the entire track to make it sound decent, and even more work to make it hit hard. None Like Joshua may also need to be contacted in the future to feature on it.

The Ace

Originally meant to feature Veela after realising it sounds similar to her early works. Here’s a portion of the email I sent her after I went ‘fuck it’ one day: ‘I came up with the idea for it early on in coming to terms with being asexual and figuring out my gender identity, and I wanted to portray that journey in this song. In particular, I wanted to channel the energy of 90s clubs and a freedom of queer expression, but in a more eerie way, through the perspective of an aromantic walking through this world, enjoying the culture and being a part of it, but at the same time feeling distanced as everything is experienced in a whole different way and with different reasons.’

This edit from 2016 is basically finished, captured midway through the mastering process. Specifically, the project opened on the kickdrums.

First Run

The oldest track on this album made almost entirely in Soundation at the end of 2013, and updated through 2014 and 2015 when I realised the reason why it sounded odd was that I accidentally wrote it in 7/4 time signature while thinking in 4/4. The oddity was kept, after all it is a DnB track at 164bpm that sounds straight out of a weird Tomb Raider level inside Lara’s nightmares. The name comes from the yet-to-be-added effect of—let me grab my notes again—‘someone running getting closer then coming to a full stop next to mic, breathing heavier leading to 2nd part.’

This edit from 2015 is captured before mixing and mastering, also missing the story elements. May include a subbass from a short revisit in 2017.

Yore

So Vicissitude up at the start of this album, that wasn’t just one track. It was the first of three in an EP about the music industry. Started in 2018, it was supposed to be the album released today, on the 10th anniversary of 22nd of May. First the necessary evil ‘Vicissitude,’ second the showoff super complex IDM ‘Remember Me,’ and third the silly old school eurodance ‘As I Was.’ Well this track is none of those. But it is birthed from it. It started as an offspring of the jazzy musical section of Remember Me, intended to be a quick one-day project that would get released before the EP, or at the very worst take its place. But alas, it didn’t take a day, and I got lost trying to compose the supporting instruments.

This preview from 2022 contains a few of the ideas for the full band accompanying the main portion of the piano piece. Very unfinished, but felt worth including in the album.

Last Time

Cinematic orchestral wank made before realising that what makes orchestral pieces great is the diversity in roles that each instrument plays.

This edit from 2016 is probably finished, but hasn’t made it past the vibe check to start the mixing and mastering process.

Back to Safety

There was an ad. Well, no, a promo? I made a video about eSafety for my college and it needed background music to cover up the terrible mic quality, so distorted guitars made sense. Consider this a bonus track to close the album. Felt a bit too repetitive and simple to keep in the middle.

This edit from 2016 is the actual track used in the video, sound effects included as it’s the only complexity it has. Not much to master but still unmastered because I am considering doing more with it in the future.

Work Overview - 22nd of May 10-Year Anniversary

Blogs are for keeping logs online, right?

So a few years ago I had the idea to post a monthly log of everything I work on. Inevitably I forgot about that before I was even done with the first one. But since I’ve found some drafts now, I thought I’d compile them in one post and publish it when I find it again some years later. If you see this, here’s a count of how many times I’ve looked at this draft: 11.

2nd of October 2016

Back in September I got a bit bored of mastering and trying to finish songs, so I did the most sensible thing a person with about 100 unfinished songs could do and started an entire new album. A Glitch-Hop album. And 2006 style Dubstep. And DnB from around that age as well. So this is new. I didn't think I'd ever work with these styles, but you know how it is, it all starts with a trance arp that sounds better in a Glitch-Hop track, and then there's the fact that I started listening to Dubstep again, and things just spiral from there. Know what I'm saying?

9th of June 2019

Fuck CGI. I said that back in February, but now I’ve got it in the log. I spent the entire winter (well, two or ten actual working days) editing the second part of the KSP machinima, which led to the terrible idea of adding CGI to it. It’s probably released by the time this post goes live, so isn’t that reentry effect just lovely? Oh, and the sparks and explosions and stuff! And you can’t even see the world glitching out in half of the frames anymore, wow! I just hope I didn’t decide to add waves to the ocean, that would be editing hell.

I’m also writing a Star Trek series, set way into the future and out of the way of everything so I don’t have to deal with canon conflicts. So far I’ve spent most of my time fixing scenes that contradict canon. Seriously, how did this show spend so much time in other galaxies and timelines? It’s impossible to avoid fucking with some plot at this point.

I suppose that late night drawing is also new for this post. *link* The thing I learnt from that is, it really doesn’t matter what you draw, as long as you draw anything, it will improve your drawing. The difference between this and my first attempt at a portrait—if you can call a square with eyes a portrait—is massive, and all I drew between the two of them were a bunch of random shapeless doodles. Seriously, if you want to learn to draw, just draw anything, a lot. It’s the best way to improve, and the skill will apply to anything you may wish to draw.

Also, I changed my quotes and apostrophes from straight to fancy curvy ones since last time, I just noticed. Yes, it’s all part of my writing wannabe career. I’ve also got a million dashes on one key, and a bunch of other custom changes to my keyboard layout, because who doesn’t want to make their keyboard a mystery to strangers while rendering themselves incapable of using any random keyboard?

In other news, I beat the Factorio 90–minute train challenge! Well, just about, but I’m still chuffed with myself. You can see the video *here*. It also features me replying to bots in the comments. As for the sound quality during gameplay, let’s just say I forgot my mic behind me, facing a fan. No amount of filtering can fix that.

Oh and also something about music. I kinda forgot about music lately. Still made a few adjustments and additions to old projects, but I’ve mostly been focusing on other stuff.

...and did I mention I built and programmed an actual working robot? This was back in 2017. It was a piece of shit, but it worked! Mostly! Well, it was moving all its movable bits. But it somehow got 1st place in the city, so yay!

(it’s the 027)

18th of Nineteenth 2020

With an entire pandemic of free time to go, you would’ve thought one would spend more time on personal projects, innit? You’d really fucking think so. I’ll be honest, I’m quite amazed how quickly the last two years zoomed by despite constantly feeling like they’ve lasted a decade. Still, could’ve been worse. Well, I’ve blinked and two years have passed, and ADHD has never been happier running wild and free, but we survived. Some of us.

and maybe it might even end.

some day

So I got a proper job, eh? I’m an actual published writer now! Well, ghostwriter. For academic papers. An actual hired published writer! ...for about five months before the pandemic put a stop to everything. Quite nice, it was. 10/10 would do again. I’ve even gotten back into making music now, after I got my jabs. I’ve realised I’ve quite lost my touch on music theory and playing instruments. But I gained superpowers from Pfizer and figured out everything about black holes and photons, so that was worth it. Nevermind the timeskip. Intfics kept us going through the worst of it, I suppose, and we got so lost in our twitter stories that we didn’t even notice we’ve skipped across the years like Discovery on mushrooms. Now all we need is a red angel to take us out of 2020 already, cause we’ve reached the 19th month and I’m starting to doubt this groundhog year has an end.

But Bo Burnham’s Inside was great tho, innit? Ahh! Ahh. Ah...

4th of Thirtieth 2020

It has been. Thirty months since this shit started. We are beyond the beyond at this point. But never mind the past, time is no longer. So I found an article I wrote last year about a rail modelling event from 2018. I said never mind the past. But it’s going out tomorrow. (check it!) Cause fuck it, eh? If I extend this mindset to my main projects y’all are boutta get dozens of half-finished music albums. I probably won’t though, and they’ll still be another thirty years in the making. Until the soonest one, at least.

I’ve got a song, actually. Nice swanky jazzy one. As a sort of one-day project. Yeah you guessed it, that’s not happening either, it’s been sitting there for months now. Maybe, idk, time is no longer. But it’s there. And I no longer have any idea how to do it after the initial bout of having the entire full picture, that ofc is no longer looking like an immediately achievable goal. Did I mention the EP before that, with three tracks in it? I mean one’s almost done, just some vocals left. The second is stuck in the far-too-complex-to-figure-out loop. The third is not even started, might swap it around with another track from Level UP Book II, which I eventually went ‘fuck it’ with and sent to Veela just to check if that’s even gonna be a possibility. It was, but not happening yet. That one’s literally finished, just abandoned mid-mastering. So yeah. I got a full-time job now too.

As a game tester. So that’s eating away my entire life and non-existent energy right now. Ooh-wee. This year has really rotten my being hasn‘t it xD. Oh well. Heh, I actually claimed just a few weeks before getting the job that ‘I don’t think I actually like games anymore.’ It wasn’t such a bad timing after all though. Helps that I’m not working on any games I would actually like, this job literally ruins any game with how broken of a state they’re in. And, you know, it being a reptitive mundane job. Quite good at it though, so that’s a thing. Yeah. Anyway. Time is no longer. Something something the birds work for the bourgeaussioussies or whatever the cunts are up to these days. Fallouts and shit, it seems. Time is no longer, see you on the Fiftieth. Probably. I’ll go deliriously and ravenously plunge into desperate art-making instead of sleeping between work shifts cause jesus christ I need the juice. Ta-ra.

11th of Thirty-sixth 2020

So Fallout innit! Idk, I just read what I wrote before. Actually been playing some Fallout 4 recently. Or, months ago. God even knows anymore. I think I got a new PC since last time, finally that upgrade I’ve been raving on about since 2013. Didn’t even take a decade. So yeah, Zora’s lovely. Goes by no pronouns, just like Sasha. Runs Windows 10 so that ended up biting my arse a lot. Seriously, this fucking OS is an absolute menace. It’s amazing the contrast between how chirpy Zora sounds and how absolutely dreadful and stubborn Win10 is to customise. Yes of course I allow my computers to develop a personality on their own, why else would we have machine learning?

So Fallout was fun. Not really tho, actually, cause I kept fucking with mods. I just wanted to enjoy some TARDIS adventures, you know? My favourite part about Fallout New Vegas was flying around in the TARDIS and just ending up in the middle of quests, basically working them out backwards. It’s super fun and interesting how they work, and honestly that was the most Doctor Who experience in any game. So naturally I tried that with Fallout 4 too, and Survival mode on top of it cause that will surely work great with the TARDIS providing everything, right? Actually give a reason to having a mobile base, right? ...righ—eh. Right. Fuck Survival. I spent the first ten hours randomly losing half of my HP every twenty seconds cause of fucking diseases and no way to cure them, as I was looking for the cocking TARDIS only to realise it didn’t actually spawn in, and then spent two whole 24h days troubleshooting why only to realise it wasn’t even the fault of my fucking mods not gelling well together, it was literally just pure random chance and timing of how you grab the initial item that unlocks the mod, cause if you leave the basement too early or too late or open the pipboy wrong or god knows what else, the quest just doesn’t start, and you have to reload the save to grab the item again. I was ten hours past that. And ofc copying the character’s appearance with another mod between saves, breaks those saves too, so ugh.

Got it working eventually. Yay. The TARDIS isn’t complete and requires you to go through high level areas to slowly grab parts. Right. This isn’t a mod to start the game with, it’s for after you finished the game. Cool. Saints Row best fucking game.

Like, the new one.

No genuinely! It’s fucking wonderful. It’s almost as good as Saints Row 2. Almost. Wait no where are you leaving!—

Like obviously it’s missing a lot. You can’t grab random objects. Or, people, or whatever else you could grab in SR2, basically anything that fits within the span of your arms. There’s virtually no building interiors, bar for those godawful 2D ones that make rooms look like they begin 50 metres underground and shoot up into the sky. Stores barely have the one room, nothing interactable. Obviously it’s a buggy mess that crashes randomly every two hours, except no it doesn’t even do that because you have to reboot the game manually yourself if you want NPCs to reappear and quests to trigger or customisation menus to close cause you scrolled a *bit* too much and now every button is stuck. Just, ok, it has many problems. Like a fuckload. Mainly things just ceasing to load. Like all things, even UI. But you know what? I fucking love it. It’s the best fucking game. I love the characters, I love the gameplay mechanics, I love the city, I love that it’s literally the most non-binary trans-inclusive AAA title to ever exist, everyone calls you ‘they’ and you can look literally however the fuck you want, like—actually you know what, I’ll copy a message here, I’ll share with you something I literally told my friend on release, hang on:

It's literally the Sims and Saints Row thing of, it's less work and more inclusive to just not bother coding in gender restrictions, so why would anyone
Literally, the fact that in 2006 SR2 was the queerest fucking game
Like somehow did even better than the Sims for transness
Like I'm pretty sure it was the first big title to go 'what if we just don't put gender at all in the character customisation?'
'like just fuck it here's a slider for shoulders, here's a slider for chest, here's a slider for waist, here's one for hips, and here's one for crotch bulge, fuck it, have fun doing whatever body shape you want'
And I wouldn't be surprised if even the very first Saints Row had that
'outfits? What fucking outfits? One model fits all, wear whatever the cunt you want!'
'voice? Yes, fuck it, why not, here's eight fun voices with different accents, mix em up any way you like. Oh and here's shiny chrome and drippy green goo as skin tones too cause who the fuck gives a shit, have the whole rgb selector on literally everything, you don't even have to be human'
'wanna play as a literal toilet seat or a tornado? Go the fuck right ahead no one's gonna stop you!'
Yes it's a shooty shooty bang bang sandbox about gang wars that's secretly a story about friendship, but you know what? That just makes the whole thing even more amazing and impressive that it exists in the first place this fucking queerly

Yes I fucking know people who worked on it, but everyone hated it, that’s definitely not gonna influence me here. I’m like the only fucking cunt on this planet who loves this new one and I’m perfectly aware of it, no need to be bribed into giving positive reviews. Also who would believe being on holiday actually helps with not feeling dead anymore. Still no time though, it’s been four weeks and I only put on my Vive about twice and added like one extra note to a few songs. Yeah I’m completely crumbling away into the concept of time and my doctor said my bones are floppy, but at least I’m having fun whilst doing it. Life is good. Work is never getting finished. I can’t wait for the ten year anniversary of the 22nd of May to come around and surprise me. Also I got into fragrances now. After a lifetime of hating perfumes. Actually found some I love. Super weird ones, but I’m feeling way more feminine. Now how dolled up do I need to get before some cunt just assumes ‘she’ when referring to me? Oh and don’t even get me fucking started on how the VST industry fucked me off, I ranted enough on Twitter about that earlier last month. And something about getting hacked, that was fun, considering all my over-the-top security practices. Oh and TIDAL is really good, please support your favourite artists by streaming their music there. Or, you know, just straight up buying it. Anyway, yes, I’m rushing to mention everything at the end here. Whatever. Happy Thirty-sixth, I hope you’re all having a blast. Okay byyeeeee

28th of Thirty-sixth 2020

I have slept 4 hours this week. In total. It is currently a Wednesday night. If you’re wondering how well my transition back from holiday to work is going.

Anecdotally, I like how this post is full of just loads of little big changes going on in the background that I completely miss cause they’re already constants in my life at the point of writing. And just overall me getting more and more gender as these go on.

8th of Thirty-ninth 2020

So women's day it is then. I wasn't expecting to be so seen today. I especially wasn't expecting anything cause I didn't even know it's today, the leads just spawned in front of me handing a flower and chocolate to every woman in the office. And then they got upset at HR when they found out that they completely glossed over me cause all they know about me is legally registered data. I knew everyone accepts me, I didn't realise they all confidently know and see me as a woman. I cried, it was lovely, I didn't know I needed this.

16th of Fourty-first 2020

I’m boutta release a dozen half-finished music albums and the final remains of the EPG project. That is all. Enjoy.

Pre-order Lost Signals now on Bandcamp, officially out on the 22nd of May 2023, or wait for streaming services to get it live in like a month. I’ll go resume my 30-hour art-making workdays for the ensuing two weeks of vacation and be super gender in the meanwhile. 2020 is finally coming to a fucking end, lick my cocking clit you bollocky cunt muncher of a year!

*whenever*

*whatever*

Tile Cities Translated to Romanian

The game was made and released by Ukrainian developer Yevheniy in an attempt to maintain some sanity while fleeing the Russian invasion. It is a wonderful little puzzle city builder, so when the dev asked on Twitter if anyone wants to volunteer with translations in their language, I just had to offer my contribution. Starting with update 1.0.4.0, you can play in Romanian among many other languages!

I strongly recommend giving the game a go yourself, I guarante you will love it! And as a great bonus, all proceeds go towards helping Ukraine!

https://tilecitiesgame.com

The time undid the time and now the time's untimed the time.

Nothing is going to happen. It's all happened already. It's the past, taking control of the future. Nothing that will ever has and everything that was has already been. Makes sense? Had.

Right, so what am I going on about? Time travel bullshit. Basically I fucked with time, and now it's all turning against me. This year? 2017? 4 years after 2013. May 22nd. The day that has and always will. The day it all began. And where it ended. Or was going to. But time fucked itself. Like a wormhole. But in time. Without space. Or worms. Like Groundhog Day without the day. The day of 22nd of May.

The effects my experiments had on time weren't obvious at the time. But now the two timelines are colliding. I can see my past continuing in the future. I'm finally realising what I had done. I froze an entire temporal dimension relative to this timeline, and now it's melting. The past is now future. And this future will never be past. It's always running ahead. It's trying to escape the present. Or it was.

I fucked with time. And now it's my time to face time. I fucked up, and this time it's fixed in time. I've entirely forgotten about the things I was supposed to do, and now my past went ahead of me and did its thing before there was a thing to do. Time's fucked, and there's no way to escape it now. We're past the end's end, and now the end is never. The end is never the end. Or to put it simply:

The time undid the time and now the time's untimed the time. But this time the Poliwhirl evolved into Politoed. And he's way worse than Poliwrath. 

Gaming Mix 2016

After that lengthy post yesterday, I wanted to make one that will hopefully not represent the last thing I publish in a long while, but also give it the chance to be that if I genuinely stop here.

So, there was a gaming event. For most of today. And yesterday. Held by and for the Approaching Nirvana community. And it just so happened that I was one of the people asked to do a 2-hour set to be played in the background. So after trying genres I wouldn't normally work with for the past two years, I decided it's finally time I go back to my comfort zone. Trance. And a bit of electro, europop, dubstep, you know, things like that. But mostly trance. And to make this clear from the beginning, I start with my favourite trance track, Carte Blanche. And I hope everyone finds it at least half as wonderful as I do. There's also a lot of PPK, a Russian trance band I absolutely love.

So yes, please love this. I put a lot more work into it than usual, and for once I actually used all the knobs on the mixer. This is when I realised DJing is hard. Beat matching, pitch matching, equalizing, levelling, and all of that on the go. There are still two transitions I didn't manage to figure out though, and both on the same song. I'm looking at you, 2.99, with your irregular drum patterns and funky time base. I feel sorry for the DJs back in the days.

Still alive somehow

...I promise.

So, it's been a while. I haven't released an album since 2014, and the last time I tried to release a DJ set... well, it was a livestream, and it stopped after the pre-show. That was the first time I tried using Twitch, and it suspended the stream like 4 minutes after TVU's opening set started. And when you think that I only used Twitch because I thought it would be easier...

But yes, letting my definitely last livestream ever, no I'm not going to do that ever again, I'm absolutely positively sure – aside, uhm... yes, I was trying to get back to releasing more stuff. Now, I know this might sound like a cliché thing to say, but bear with me. I have a lot of stuff that's practically finished, but I never published, and I'm not really sure why. Of course, after years of collecting dust, I just can't release them in their current state. I have to polish them, at least a bit. And I presume that will take a while. A very long while. But I have a plan.

First, all of those cancelled, abandoned mid-stream, postponed to eternity, finished without a release date, never started with a long-passed release date, forgotten about DJ sets, will be released in a bundle on 22nd of May. Which one? Hopefully 2017, but I'm scared of making promises anymore. Then there are the 6 albums I'm working on—the rest of Level UP with its 16 unfinished songs, the 24-song cinematic LP started in 2014 (yes, it has a very well defined story; no, I came up with the idea before Λ→И), the space-themed long EP started in 2015, the Eä-inspired EP imagined in 2013, the metal LP started in 2014, and a collection of my mostly unfinished/barely-started remixes intended for 22.05.2015—which will be released individually across the next 10 years.

Then there are the many videos, mostly machinimas, started all the way back in 2011, those will probably still take many years to be edited. I have recorded a small amount of them years ago, and most of the scripts are close to finished, but editing is a thing that I just can't motivate myself to do. Talking about editing, would anyone want to help me with mixing and mastering songs? It seems to be the part that delays the release several years. Also, some help with the production wouldn't be bad either. Actually, I need a band. Things get finished faster in a band. And chances are, if you're still reading, you might just be the person I'm looking for. A PR guy would be nice as well. I'm too bored by social stuff to be capable of doing that job, which is most definitely slowing my audience growth quite a lot. An entire film crew would be nice too. I wrote several shows in the past years, and I'd quite like at least some of them to be made. Also, does anyone remember those game/music awards I said I'm doing a few years ago?

And then there are the things I never make time for. Like game developing. Or painting. Or rail modelling. That blog hasn't seen something new since 2012. And surprisingly, it still manages to get 500-1000 views monthly. Like, I can remember celebrating when I reached 1000 views after about 3 years, and now that's a monthly amount for a long period of silence. I wonder if any of those people know what I'm doing over here. I should have tried a bit harder to send my readers to my other work back when I had them. But then again, I had practically nothing released at that time.

So yeah, this was a post I wanted to write for forever, something to remind myself of what I'm doing and why, but lacked the motivation for. I always said the time is the problem, and even though that was true 4 years ago, it's now just a cover for not working. But no, not anymore. I'm sick of saying that I still don't have anything done. I miss creating. All those nights spent working on something that needed the entire 24 hours of a day to be finished before the deadline; yes, that wasn't a healthy way to motivate myself, but it seems it's the only way. Though I do need to do that without a fixed deadline, so I don't limit the quality. Take Level UP I, for example. I was working on 30 songs at the same time, until I realised I had 2 months left. I rushed the 6 songs that had the basic structure finished, and they ended up quite nicely, until I massively lowered the quality during the final week left for mastering. Silently suffered the most from that, since it went through many re-mastering sessions, all layered on top of eachother. I'm not even sure I have the raw instruments anymore, but I will definitely remaster it if I find them. Or rather, do the club mix after I finish an orchestral remake, which is where I wanted to point the track initially.

Right, I'll leave this off here. Hopefully this post will turn up to be a useful source of information for anyone who wants to know everything about me in the future. And to complete that wiki, this post was indeed created after this wonderful song was released.

Konkai Remix

Finally, after 9 months, my Konkai remix is done! When I started it I wanted to do something that I wasn't able to at that time, so I left it for later. Now that I learned a lot I managed to do what I wanted, but it ended up completly diffrent from my initial idea. So, the metal with trance influences remix ended up as a trance with a djenstep bass during the rap part. And I love it.

Download: http://bit.ly/konkai-remix
Pay with a tweet: http://bit.ly/konkai-pay-with-a-tweet
Watch on YouTube: http://youtu.be/j-HrSIq_6YI
Listen on Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/1jYnpbo

1 Year Of Music — The Story of My Life

This is one of the most important days in my life. I know it could seem unimportant for others, but this literally changed my life. And made 2013 the best year of my life so far. So, why is the 22nd of May so important? Well, it's actually a whole week, but anyway. Let's start everything from the begining — some of you may want to skip the next paragraph(s). Or the entire post.

So, at the begining of time...
...around 19 Dec 2012 I was searching for Trainz Simulator 13 (which, btw, doesn't exist) and I found a ''Plays...'' video for Train Simulator 2013 which made me instantly subscibe to this guy. This is the first and only gaming channel I liked, and is still one of my favourite channels. Now I know I went a little too back in time, but I try to tell everything in the shortest way possible. :D His theme song is made by Dan Bull, who's music I discovered a few months later. He's a rapper who wants to make a song for every video game ever created. His music is kinda cool but it isn't really something that I would normally listen to.

Dan made a few videos with Dave Brown before, but I only said ''Fuck it, I'll subscibe to this guy and see later what he does'' on the 9th of May, when Dan posted a Lyric Or Satiric video with Dave. I haven't watch any of his videos before I saw one in my feed on 22, but that one was the begining of the most important week for me. It was the Pop song made in a day (still better than most pop songs these days). When I saw Veela in that video I tought she was just like any other mainstream female singer, but after I red the comments I tought I'll give her a chance. And I'm so glad I did! I literally liked, favourited and subscribed within the first 30 seconds of the first song I heard, which I think was Majesty. After that I just listened to all of her songs. It was the first time I ever heard good modern music! Before that I was only listening to Michael J. Jackson (still love his music) and some other '70s artists, thinking that good modern music was a dream.

I discovered a lot of Internet musicians and I started listening to EDM because of Veela. It literally changed me and my life, and that's one of the reasons I love her — I let you interpret this in any way you want.
I remember the first time I heard Dubstep. 1-3 days after Veela I dicovered NLJ. I didn't really like his stuff at the begining, but after a week or two I got so used to that stuff that I was already naming the hard head-mashing songs ''nice chill music''. Good ol' times...

The first Approaching Nirvana song I heard was 2nd Flight feat. Veela, but I only subscribed to them after she posted the video for Elite on the 7th of June — later discovered that this was the day Group 12 Remasters & Instrumentals was released — and started listening to their music only after the 21st of June livestream, when they started playing songs from their upcoming album Not Even Once. Since then I'm an Λ→Иimal for life. And actually, I think I listened to their older stuff only after NEO was released. But this might be the wrongest thing I said.

So, that was it! The story of my life, in the shortest way possible. In case someone got this far, don't forget to come to the stream! http://www.mixify.com/ice-trance/event/22nd-of-may-special It will be an awesome 3-hour-long live DJ set in wich I'll try and implement the story of my life using songs!

22nd of May Special Stream

22 May 2013 is one of the most important days in my life, and today I'm happy to announce a special stream dedicated to it! But because 22 is in a Thursday this year, the stream will be on the 24th.
So, this will be diffrent from what I'd normally do. The mix will be more artist focused in the first hour, so hope you like what I used to listen to in 2013 :D After this I will return to something closer to my normal. Also, I might do some giveaways. Maybe. I'll decide that during the stream.
The stream will be at 7 PM BST and it will be around 2-3 hours long, I still don't know as the setlist isn't finished. It could end up being 4 hours long, I don't know, but I'll try to keep it under 3 hours. Anyway, see you there!
I'll post a detailed story later for that crazy guy who will read it, maybe on 22.

RSVP here: http://www.mixify.com/ice-trance/event/22nd-of-may-special

DJ set 2

Mix 2 (collab with TCABxl) by Ice Trance on Mixcloud

Live DJ Set — Collab With TCABxl

Hello everybody! Those two people who are reading this...
So, I'm doing the first DJ set for the TCABxl streams. He started a project to help small DJs to be known. Anybody can do a mix and send it to him, with only 2 rules:

• must be 1 hour long (+/- 2 minutes)
• must be EDM (simillar genres accepted)

The stream will be on February 15th, Saturday, 9pm GTM, at http://thetcabxl.accudio.com/. See you there!

I'll upload my mix on Mixcloud after the stream, so if you miss it go to ''Music'' and search for the Mixcloud link or just click here.

Live Your Life

   So, here's the album! With an unfinished song, an accidentally deleted one (probably the best), 4 new songs (2 of them are remixes) and 4 older ones... That's definitely not how I thought it will be.

   Anyway, the album! It was a lot of hard work! And my PC made it even harder. I've had enough of doing everything 2-5 times slower. And the best thing, I had to finish 5 big school projects 'till the begining of this month. But I managed to finish everything in time! Somehow...

   I think I should stop talking about my problems and say something about the album. I'll put a player below, if you want to listen to it while reading this.

   Loncé, probally my favourite song from the album. Soft, calming, with a simple 4-chords ambiental synth, some background drums, acompanied by a synth/piano and some bass notes, everything at a low volume. It could be edited better, but I didn't realize that with only one channel on. (if I play more channels at the same time my PC crashes)

  ''Classic'' is... "classical". The classic result of the first song, made just for fun. When I opened the studio I wanted to do some Drumstep. I ended up with a Cello line and a "Mottown Guitar" sample, then I recorded some piano notes and automatized the volumes. I literally didn't put any effort in it, just 3 hours playing the piano and 2 other hours of arranging the samples and automatization.

   tNce was the first song made entirely by myself, no loops, no preset MIDIs. It's inspired by Λ→И's Tracer. I wanted to do something progressive and that was the only style I could think of after making the first part.

It's interesting that I composed that song but never noticed something before. I'm listenig to tNce while typing this and it starts to sound diffrent. It could be just because it's 3am, but I hear something in the synth that gives me the feeling of an Ambient song.

   Take a Risk is the first song I actually put effort into. I wanted to start working with +Shahid Munawar and I did an instrumental for one of his songs, "Song For the People". It was in the times when I didn't really know how to produce music and I was still using samples for the parts I didn't have ideas for. So I did the song that now is named "Take a Risk" and, I don't know if just because of the bass — that I was thinking of replacing with something darker but I never told him that, don't know why — he said that it wasn't what he was hoping for and everything ended then. Another problem with this collaboration would've been to find someone to sing the lyrics. So, yeah. Well, I hope we will work togheter sometime. I always like to read his posts, even though I didn't have time in the last months. You should definitely check his blog, Views Of A Depressed Soul.

   Enjoy Your Life, a repetitive Funk song made entirely with loops. It's... I just wanted to do something funky. The hard guitar parts were just for making the song diffrent and weird. Yep, that's the way I was thinking about my music when I started. But it does not sound that bad. It could actually be a good song, and I will surely make a remix of it in the future.

   So here I am, at 5am, finishing the last thing for the release of my first album. It could be a lot better, but I'm just at the beginning. For the first time in the last month I have some free time. I have to find something that I'll do instead of sleeping. Now where's my bed?

"Live Your Life, the rising of new producer, from the first shitty song to the somewhat better ones made at the end of 2013."
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