| Upcoming Releases.......... |
[18 Aug 2003|03:22pm] |
Some updates on the music front:
New releases in the pipeline that you should see this fall if the labels stay on schedule and
the psytrance record industries doesn't completely implode upon itself between now and then:
V/A The Encroachment {TimeCode} (South Africa) :: Ghreg On Earth - Output Device
V/A ZooB2 {USTA} (Israel) :: Ghreg On Earth - Afterburn
V/A TBA {InnerSound} (Italy) :: Ghreg On Earth - MoonStone Avatar
V/A NightTide {Spectral Concepts} (US) :: Ghreg On Earth - Karmageddon
Buy them when they come out if you can afford to.
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| As One |
[23 Jul 2003|03:53pm] |
I'll be spinning @ the As One Festival near Eugene Oregon Thursday Night/Friday Morning @ 3am.
Expect some freshness from South Africa and a new batches of tracks from the studio including a remix of "Midnight Fire".
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| Storming the Gates of Eden..... |
[25 Jun 2003|01:37am] |
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music |
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Public Image Ltd. - The Order of Death |
] |
http://www.oxytocin.org
"...our genetically-enriched descendants are likely to view us as little better than psychopaths. For the role of key receptor sub-types of the 'civilising neurotransmitter' serotonin, the 'hormone of love' and 'cuddle chemical', oxytocin, and the 'chocolate amphetamine' phenylethylamine, needs to be radically enhanced. When naturally loved-up and blissed-out on a richer cocktail of biochemicals than today, our post-human successors will be able, not just to love everyone, but to be perpetually in love with everyone as well...."
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| Nexus Quandry |
[03 Jun 2003|02:54am] |
I haven't really been updating this thing for awhile. Not sure I will be updating for awhile either....but here is what's up:
1. Mixing up songs for Thump:
http://www.thumpradio.com
2. Writing lot's of new tracks....
3. Licensing a bunch of tracks.
4. Compiling next release for Spectral Concepts.
5. Messing about with Friendster.
6. Probably moving in the next few months.
7. Djing a few parties....Seattle at the end of June.
8. Randomly chilling with friends I haven't seen in years.
9. Going on long extended walks through the back alleys of San Francisco and getting nice and sunburnt.
10. Various top secret projects I can't talk about.
oh yeah: The Penta Album is out: Go get it now:
http://www.spectralconcepts.net/releases/sc003.html
Until Whenever. Bom!
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| Remixes........ |
[06 Feb 2003|06:38am] |
......oh yeah related to that last posts on the music updates....
I am also working on a remix for Mark 27 (Dead Language, Sunshine Blind).
So far it is turning out to be quite interesting.
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| Spectral Concepts Update..... |
[06 Feb 2003|06:18am] |
I met with Nikita (Penta) and Jeremiah (OS, label manager) this last weekend for
quick little label meeting.
Looks like we are pretty much on schedule. The Oxygen compilation
was sent off to the European distributors this week. So we should
start to get feedback and reviews soon. I'm still in the midst of sending
out promo's so if you are supposed to get one, and you haven't, you
should see one soon.
The Penta album is just about complete and it sounds amazing. It has a
really epic DayTime/Morning Full-On sound from the tracks I heard
(got to the meeting late). The production is incredible as always. For those
who haven't heard his material before it quite distinctive. There are always
a lot of unpredictable twists and turns, very psychedelic. But there is also
a real sense of musicality to it. Unique chord progressions that create very
memorable and emotionally charged stuff while staying totally ripping the
dance floor up.
Also just committed to the first track for the NightTide compilation from
James (Deeper in Zen). A very sublime piece called "Peircing the Illusion".
Dark atmospheric, powerful night time music....which is what we are going
for, for this one.
James also has picked up a track I did called "Elliptic Patterns" for release on
his label Soular records.
Should be meeting with Nikka (Biodegradable) later this week to see if he
is interested in doing a track for NightTide. He is also in the middle of completing
an album for Spirit Zone.
All in all things are heating up for the music production being generated here in
the bay area. Summer is promising to be a wild ride as all this music will hopefully
make it out into the world, either through releases or the artists here getting some
good bookings at festivals and the such.
Speaking of which.......has anyone seen the theme for Burning Man this year?
http://www.phosphene.org/stuff/burn2003.jpg
http://www.burningman.com/themecamps_installations/bm03_theme.html
I'm really looking forward to it this year. On top of what promises to be an incredible
year of visionary art, we also have verbal confirmation of some really amazing international
djs and artists who will be coming to share their music on the playa. There is also some
amazing things planned for "Trance Village".
OK I've got to buy my ticket soon.
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| Early Summer 2oo3 |
[06 Feb 2003|05:55am] |
I'm starting to plan a trip in the May/June time frame for
the Western half of the US. The trip agenda falls out
like so:
1. Some DJ dates promoting the new Penta and NightTide albums.
(http://www.spectralconcepts.net)
2. Visiting the family in Texas and Oklahoma.
3. Some hiking in Neveda, Arizona and Yosemite.
Let's see what MapQuest has to say about all this.
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[21 Jan 2003|12:50am] |
Very busy lately and I haven't been updating Live Journal for awhile so I thought I would do just that.
So what I have I been up to????
The label has just released the Oxygen compilation.
You can purchase it through either SpectralPsy or TranceTrax.
We also have launched the label website: http://www.spectralconcepts.net
There's bios and release information up there for the label.
That's the big stuff really. I'm also in the middle of compiling a night time psy compilation.
It is to be called NightTide. This is ongoing for the next few months so, producers out there
take notice.....get in touch if you have tracks in the night time psy vein.
I just got back from hanging out with Mark 27 and Matt tonight. It looks like I will be remixing a track for Dead Language
in the not too distant future......that is if we can get Mac Logic to talk to PC Logic.
There was also a failed attempt at rallying all of the friends to do a renegade style beach party for the
Full Moon post peace protest......but alas Mercury Retrograde shat all over that idea.
Mercury Retrograde = Terram Orgy Reducer
or so says Mr. Anagram.
The Peace Protest was way cool though. I helped my friend John pass out stickers for his new website:
http://www.irevolt.org --
The website is essentially a porthole for media sources that aren't bought out by Monolithic MegaCorporations (tm).
It seems to me, Peace Rallies should happen at least once a month. If for no other reason than for Urban Folk to
meet together in minus all of the emotional armor that seems grow like mold on 3 week old bread on city dwellers.
It was a beautiful and powerful day......'nuf said.
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| Scales, Chords and the Such.... |
[09 Dec 2002|07:09am] |
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music |
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Etnoscope - Spaceless |
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Does any know where to find reference or cheat sheets to pitch scales that shows how they are played on a keyboard. Particularly I am looking for reference to non-western and unorthodox pitch scales not just your vanilla tempered scales. Something with a C D E....type of reference or with references to a keyboard are good, but no notation references.
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| To the ends of the World. |
[20 Nov 2002|05:32pm] |
Interesting. Israel comes up as Isle of Man and Sweden comes up as something altogether weird on the US Post Office computer database.
I saw this when I went to mail off 7 new Phosphene tracks for licensing to labels spread across the world (well, ok just europe and isreal) today. Let us see if we get some interest from the labels this time. The last time I sent music out for licensing it was a bit of a luke warm response. Granted, that was only four labels, and it was the first time I had made a serious attempt to get some of my material out to the world at large.
Mark, from Xenomorph, came over last night and we hung out and talked shop. After the end of the night it seemed to be pretty clear in my mind just how much we are coming from similar places musically. We both feel, it seems, somewhat fustrated with the current state of psychdelic trance. Especially, with all of the imitation that is going on with the emerging artist. We both also seemed to share the dilemma of not knowing where to send our tracks to. There does not seem to be any labels who are focusing on these sorts of very devoloped atmospheric nighttime sounds.
It was a real pleasure getting his feedback. He seemed to have good things to say about the tracks and that he had been playing my tracks at some parties (costa rica and portugal) with good responses. He did say that my music seem to better suited for an industrial crowd, which I found surprising. We both come from industrial/ebm/metal (he does production work for a lot of german metal bands on the side) roots from the late 80s/early 90s. I got really burned out on that whole scene at some point though, because it seemed that the majority of people, at the time, were very resistant to exposure to new music/styles/sounds. Mark seemed to indicate, that to some degree, he finds the inverse is true these days. The psytrance crowd just wants the same interchangable Astrix/GMS/Absolum clone and the industrial side being well beyond its life cycle, so to speak, has rebirthed itself from the fire and is a more open and hospitable environment for cutting edge musics. Hmm...one could hope, at least!
At any rate, there are possiblilities of Mark releasing some of my material on his new label, Gnostic. Good news, but nothing definite.
I also stayed up really late monday night and worked on the promotional contact list for Spectral Concepts. I think we are up to 60 contacts now, including a big chunk of US college radio stations that report ot CMJ and that have specialty electronic music shows. With any luck (and lots of stamp licking), we should get some good coverage with upcoming releases. This is good because it still seems like very few people are very aware of our first release.
Ok I have to go home now. I'm still at work and it's past 5. That's a sin in my religion.
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| News from Spectral Concepts...... |
[15 Nov 2002|12:53am] |
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mood |
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Content / Sleepy |
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music |
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Pete Namlook - Faith |
] |
**Spectral Concepts Newsletter 11.02**
First off we're excited to announce the release of our next compilation,
OXYGEN! This is our newest series of progressive psychedelic dancefloor sounds.
.. Oxygen ..
SCCD02
Neum ˆ Wormhole
Operating System ˆ Super High
Aircrash ˆ Myanmar
Phosphene ˆ Paraty
Etnoscope ˆ AN1Xit
Neum ˆ Meet You at the Milk Bar
IndiaDrop ˆ Moonraker
Eels & Escalators ˆ Animal Kingdom
Wormfood ˆ Lull
worldwide release: December 2002
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
San Francisco Bay Area label, Spectral Concepts, returns with a breath of fresh air. After much success and interest around the world with their debut compilation, American Rotation, Spectral Concepts is proud to present, Oxygen ˆ a deep inhalation of progressive modern psychedelic dance floor sounds. As we are experiencing even more today, the sound we have once defined as Trance is becoming cross-bred with many influences, moods, and genres. Oxygen is a reflection of this movement: nine tracks from American & Northern European Trance artists. The air starts flowing with Neum, an artist from Philadelphia who is already shaking dance floors around the world with his smooth, yet pumping progressive style. His music has already been released on many labels globally, such as Spiral Trax Intl., Flow, and Medium Records. We are proud to debut two excellent tracks from this cutting edge producer. Next we introduce a new and promising act to the Spectral Concepts artist poo!
l, Operating System. A very unique project between two brothers who have shared a lifetime of music together, Jeremiah Menez (Minimlaniml) & Peter Menez (DJ Ima). Both are DJs who had their dance floor roots sprout from their love for House music and then were later exposed to psychedelic/Trance flavors.... in turn creating a nice blend of progressive sounds that reflects bits and pieces of their musical past. Hailing from Sweden, we are excited to present two artists from the MPDQX label group, Aircrash (Baluns Records) & Etnoscope (Digital Structures), both artists well known and always representing a fresh and innovative sound. Next we have another important artist from our own pool, Phosphene. Our A&R, DJ Ghreg on Earth always brings his unique sonic visions to the dance floor. After a well received DJ set at this year‚s Ypy Poty Festival in Brazil, Phosphene gives you a deep progressive morning gem, inspired by one of Brazil‚s most beautiful coastal towns, „Paraty!
.‰ IndiaDrop, another American artist to have an impact on the global
groover taken from his debut album, „Backwards into Chaos‰, which was released worldwide on his own label, Galactica Records, in October 2002. Next we‚d like to introduce another new project to the Spectral Concepts artist pool, Eels & Escalators. This is a collaboration project between two good friends, Jeremiah Menez & Ed Roppo (Tendril), mixing their individual styles with a gallon of funk and intoxicating rhythms. Last but certainly not least, one of our top artists-and an up and coming one to watch out for-Wormfood-entices the dance floor with a more minimal progressive approach than what we are used to hearing from him, yet spawns a whole new direction in his musical production. All track are superbly mastered by Sebastian Mullaert (Son Kite, Minilogue, Ooze) & Marcus Henriksson (Son Kite, Minilogue) at High-Hat Studios, Malmoe, Sweden. Enjoy this new breath of life!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Spectral Concepts Release Schedule:
December 2002 ˆ Oxygen (SCCD02) -new progressive compilation concept
February 2003 ˆ Penta ˆ TBA (SCCD03) ˆdebut album from Penta
April 2003 ˆ Night Tide (SCCD04) -new nighttime compilation concept
We are also happy to announce that we have just signed contracts for our artists, Phosphene, Wormfood, & Operating System, who will be releasing exclusive tracks on the USTA recording label from Israel. Also our artist Penta will be releasing 2 tracks on the forth coming Ketuh Records (Portugal) compilation as well as 1 track on Goa Gil‚s newest mixed CD set.
We hope you enjoy!
All the best,
-the Spectral Concepts family
www.spectralconcepts.net
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| New Forms of Disco Feng Shui..... |
[06 Nov 2002|12:47am] |
There was a post last night about deco and wallhangings being pretty played out at psy trance parties, here was my response:
------
Well, when wallhangings are done well they are quite amazing.
The unfortunate part is that most of the time there is a total lack of thematic continuity with the deco. It seems like a very haphazard affair with little thought or intention towards creating an environment, with few exceptions.
It would be nice to see more promoters take more care in creating a quality atmosphere and feng shui. Booking deco artist such as NOS, Organix, or Tina Z just like you would book the GMS or Nueromotor. Is the visual world of art less important than its audio counter part?
One need not go far to find this type of psychedelic art for new environs....we are one of the closest cities to burning man after all, its just a question of how to integrate new art into the old and stale goa party model.
The Alex Gray party seemed to touch on something to this point and it seemed like a great idea to me. To have parties is to create a space for visionary art in many different mediums and it seems to me that is what is truly needed to restore and recreate the ecstatic experience that we all look for by attending these disco rituals.
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| Islands in the Astral Matrix |
[24 Oct 2002|12:38pm] |
Interesting post in regards to buying an island, from another mailing list I'm on:
"I like the australian island for many reasons.
it seems to have the capacity for agriculture and soil building. this is the current justification for sovereign land use. for example when the english came to australia they claimed the aboriginals did not "use" the land because they could not see any evidence of agriculture. therefore they did not have a right to the land and they didn't really even bother to write up a treaty. compare this to when the english landed in new zealand and maori were practicing agricultural. this was the ostensible basis for the treat of Rarotonga, which acknowledged the maori's right to the land. now yes this treaty was still broken, and i personally do not agree with this limited criteria in principle, and yet i still think we can use this precedent to establish our own sovereign claim.
in australia we could consult aboriginal peoples and if possible gain their blessing. i am willing to bet that they have visited this island in the past. if this is true then the island is a part of their dreamtime matrix. to borrow a phrase, there is superimposed upon the physical landscape, an "invisible landscape" in which there is an "ecology of souls." this "invisible lanscape" is accessible in the transpersonal space that is through one of the many "techniques of ecstasy," to borrow another phrase. an island is much easier to "enchant" than a piece of land marked by artificial boundaries:
first-determine the center of the island and mark the space. this is central hub of the matrix of energy which surrounds the island. from here emanates the energy and intention, spiralling radially outward.
second- divide the island into twelve equal portions and assign particular qualities to them, such as color, sound, smell, etc..
third-have each of the twelve portions meet regularly in the center. thereby demonstrating the "harmony of the parts" like using notes to create music, and colors to create a painting. this intentional harmony then spirals outward across the island.
this is a basic structure for creating a "matrix of souls" in which it is safe for out-of-body travel. the out-of-body traveller then can fly about the island in a safe space, whilst he or she gains experience. the enchanted matrix of the island then serves as a sort of shamanic training ground, protected and providing "training-wheels" for those new and interested. It could be a sort of training ground for travelling in the vast realm of the Gaian Matrix, a sometimes foreboding place."
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| Cool! A Greg Egan book I haven't read yet. |
[23 Oct 2002|04:33pm] |
note to self -- pick this up.
Greg Egan - Schild's Ladder
"It's very difficult to write a science fiction novel that's both good fiction and good science, especially for us social sciences and humanities types. Physicists usually don't make good novelists, and vice versa. But there are exceptions and Egan is one of them. His latest is set some 20,000 years in our future, a universe in which death is only "local" because everyone backs themselves up regularly, in which you might or might not choose to have a body, in which gender has ceased to have any meaningful role in human affairs. Most people still prefer to remain on whatever planet they were born on, but some become travelers, and Tchicaya is one of those -- 4,000+ years old, rootless, a generalist. Six hundred years before, a "quantum graph" experiment went awry and a region of peculiar vacuum was created that has been expanding at half-light-speed ever since, swallowing up solar systems whose inhabitants have had to evacuate. But there's a ship filled with scientists staying just a little ahead of the expanding front, studying the novo-vacuum's effect and looking for a way to control it. Tchicaya joins the company on the ship, who have divided into two political-philosophical groups; he's part of the group called Yielders, who want to continue to study the novo-vacuum, as opposed to the Preservationists, who want to destroy it to prevent it from continuing to destroy them. And then a small radical faction takes action on its own. You'd think choosing sides in such a dichotomy would be a no-brainer, but Egan makes an excellent case for a truly civilized approach to the universe. The science and math is thick and sometimes heavy, but he manages not only to make it palatable but also enthralling." - some random amazon reviewer
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| Top 10 for October |
[21 Oct 2002|02:55am] |
I finally got off my ass and did a Top 10 list for October.....so without further a due:
1. Wizzy Noise - Process (Agitato)
2. Wormfood - 700 Cops (Spectral Concepts unr.)
3. Etnoscope - An1xit (Spectral Concepts unr.)
4. Phosphene - Hydragina (unr.)
5. Cameleon - Clear Vision (Turbo Trance)
6. Shift - Demon Twist (Timecode)
7. Morphem - Ambrosia [Midimilliz Mix] (ZMA)
8. Eels and Escalators - Animal Kingdom (Spectral Concepts unr.)
9. Phosphene - Levity (unr.)
10. Altom - YOur Ambition... (Trama)
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| Stuck in a Razor of Love |
[21 Oct 2002|02:53am] |
Just got back from seeing Underworld @ the Warfield. Pretty cool show. Not quite as cool as when I saw them in Seattle, when they were supporting their Beau coup Fish album, but then again there weren't as many chemical enhancers this time (in fact, it was only a sugar crash from too much Hagan Daz). They didn't really play much new material. Maybe only two or three tracks, if that, were off their new album. I was a little bummed about this because I was hoping to get an impression from the live show as to whether I should go buy the new album.
It was good hearing all of those oldies but goodies, though (It's hard to believe DubNoBass came out about a decade ago! perhaps I *should* feel old).
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| EVOC 20 |
[20 Oct 2002|06:22am] |
So I broke down and got the evoc 20 for Logic and I've been writing this new track with it. But I'm not really sure how I feel about it. The vocoder parts definitely seem wacky.
Here is a clip.
It's been a really busy week, with work and various technical issues with the home dial-up connection. This week looks to be even busier with the Xenomorph / Alien Project party coming up in just under two weeks. Underworld Sunday, as well as, Burning Man Decompression. SQL server 7 upgrades at the day job and all of the promotional groundwork for the upcoming releases for the label.
If I have some time tomorrow, or maybe later this week, I'll post a full update on what's been going on with the label.
Oh yeah, the ofoto link below isn't working. I think Marian took her pics and posted them somewhere else. Not sure where. Here is a pic of me feeling much better on our very last day at the festival.
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