«

14/08/2016

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.



13/08/2016

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.

22/05/2014

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!

07/05/2014

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