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.
