Casimir's Blake

Casimir's Blake 2010 Album Released!

2010-11-12T07:19:00.000-08:00

The new Casimir's Blake album is released!

Casimir's Blake explores the fathoms of the deepest spacial sectors, places many wouldn't dare. His journey was initially laden with Global Communication-eqsue downbeat ambiences (on Kahvi Records 2009 LP release Casimir Corona and Mono211 Records 2010 LP release The Silence In Fragile Space). The pace picked up this February with the explosive 5-tracker Ejecta Nebula EP on Kahvi, revealing a far more energetic, techno-infused side to Casimir's story.

Casimir's new 2010 LP is packed with even greater diversity: eclectic exploration of space epic maximalism. Propelled by fiery, supernova synth leads and relentless percussion. An amalgam of progressive techno, melodic electronics, maximalism and psychedelic Moraz-esque solos.

Casimir's Blake is available at bandcamp FLAC and other lossless formats. Join the new space-race now!

All the tracks are previewable in full, as many times as you wish, from Bandcamp or SoundCloud.

Thanks for listening!

- Casimir's Blake.

"Insurgentes" - film clip

2010-10-26T17:09:00.000-07:00

The modern music massacre, explained in a succinct, 2-minute nutshell...

More evidence of "indie gaming" greatness

2010-08-14T04:09:00.000-07:00

One impromptu castle. (Co-built with Alke, thanks mate!) Built using Minecraft. What a wonderfully creative thing this is.

A Grooving Trio

2010-08-02T05:01:00.001-07:00

Just a small shout-out to Groove3, whom I have recently discovered. Having perused many of their sample videos, I have already come to the conclusion that they cover their subject matter (audio production) in great depth. The pacing seems about right for beginners and intermediates, and I'm willing to bet more advanced users will find much to enjoy too. I'm still waiting for a few more Ableton-centric packs, personally, but I'm very tempted by Designing Electronic Drums. (Which looks like it will cover various methods of drum creation, not only synthetic, because layering some good samples can also produce excellent results.)

In the hopes one or two people may happen upon this post looking for such material, I am rather choosy with such things: pacing is crucial, video and audio quality is paramount, but most of all, the tutor's attitude must be conducive to a learning atmosphere. Groove3 seem to have a good line in these already, but if you're looking for others, I'd also recommend Sirs Abletonians-Extraordinaires Tom Cosm and Nick Maxwell.

Finally, I took four years out of my life to dedicate to music and production courses. I would advocate this route today, because a good college or university will give you continuous goals to reach for and steadily improve your abilities. But it has to be said, if you have the time and willpower (and also if you would rather not pay course fees!), the amount of tuition material for audio production is nowadays growing fast, and is absolutely a suitable way to go. Take your time, experiment, try remixing tunes you like and competitions. Try making your own soundtracks to music videos or film trailers. Set short-term goals, and you will improve.

Thief: Still Superlative Gaming in 2010

2010-07-24T09:40:00.001-07:00

After hours of plunder, toil, sneaking, stealing, barely-avoiding guards, spiders and undead haunts; after laying a ghost to rest, and destroying dark artifacts to purge the world of an evil; after treacherous climbs and a brief skirmish (arr!) with some cursed pirate spirits, I am faced with...

I'm unnerved, and excited, to find out what lies within this delightfully forbidding, and inevitably haunted abode. And this is why I continue to play Thief!

Still sorely missed, Looking Glass Studios, I salute you. (As well as Eternauta, the talented and inspired creator of fan-campaign When Still, from which the image above was taken.)

July's Observations (part 3)

2010-07-21T02:22:00.001-07:00

It's difficult to take any computer or video game seriously nowadays, looking across the shelves of console games (any of the three major consoles!), and it's a tragic mass of manufactured shooting or sports games.

This situation is more than a little depressing in its own right, but it is made even worse having played two of the best PC games that exist: System Shock and System Shock 2. I don't really have the vocabulary to elucidate far as to how these games excite me. But simply, their brand of first-person adventuring imparts a sense of seclusion, claustrophobia, of bettering one's-self in order to progress. The whole "hacker trapped on a space station" plot is mere icing on the cake, the fact that both games have semi-persistent multi-level worlds is what makes them utterly fascinating.

Both games start you off having awoken from cryogenic sleep, with warning bells chiming in your ears as you realise you're in a place where things have gone very wrong indeed. I shan't talk about the sequel too much for now, but the first game's angular level design and near-gaudy, bright sci-fi textures give the Citadel Station a much-missed "light" tone despite the direness of your situation. If the game was released today, it'd be all dark corridors and a dumbed-down interface. But no, bright blue panelling assaults your eyes, and tiny things lay around on the floor for you to pick up - okay so the pixellation does look a touch rough nowadays - such as "power pills", weapons and PDAs. For 1994, the CD version's audio logs were a thing of wonder. And this being Looking Glass, they were well acted and written, imparting a consistent sense of desperation in the crew members as they fight the menace that is blighting it. Of course, nowadays, Aliens Vs. Predator 2010 (and others) employ them to pad out gameplay with pointless observations and soap opera acting.

You feel vulnerable at first, weak attack strength, tiny laser pistols and crowbars being the only weapons to hand. Trips to the healing pods will be regular as you engage enraged, marauding robots, gulping down adrenaline pills searching for that elusive unlock switch, passkey, or access to the next level. The slow progression through the 9 levels, knowing that - as you ascend higher - enemies will become more deadly and the challenge will continue to raise, is a simple game mechanic which has been lost to the "joys" of open-world, multi-mission games.

You can download SS1 from here, and I would recommend using the mouse-look mod with it.

There are a few fan-sites, but interest in the games seems to be waning gradually, unlike Thief's continued worship. To be fair, Thief is also a stellar game - and possibly still the finest stealth adventuring you can experience, especially if you try some fan missions such as Rocksbourg or T2X - but System Shock is simply better. With the addition of the mouse-look mod making "WSAD+mouse" play possible, and higher screen resolutions, System Shock is brought forward to the Duke Nukem 3D era at least. But that's enough. I feel that its esoteric sprite graphics, and over-bright atmosphere makes it feel far, far more unsettling, exotic and enjoyable than any selected modern sci-fi or horror game. Malba Tahan's mod merely makes it more accessible and easier to get started, which is a positive thing.

There is one negative, however. Between playing SS1 all the way through for the first time at the start of this year, and Mass Effect 2, gaming has been almost entirely ruined for me. Music has become more important, but experiencing a game like SS1 was life-changing. Yes, life-changing. Please, go and play it, but I warn you - it may ruin gaming for you if you warm to its standards. Because Looking Glass and Irrational were on top form throughout the 90s, and in System Shock 1, 2 and both Thief games, it showed.

July's Observations... (part 2)

2010-07-04T12:43:00.001-07:00

Hmm, I've come to the conclusion that PC gaming - whilst certainly not dead - isn't in the healthiest creative state right now. Currently the only "commercial" game in production that looks even vaguely interesting is the weapon-less first-person horror adventure by Penumbra bods Frictional, entitled Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

I'm convinced that Frictional are Thief fans. Good start. Shame that Thief 4 will likely be a streamlined, console-friendly shadow (ho ho) of its illustrious predecessors, and that no-one is making System Shock 3... or any other dungeon crawlers for PC, for that matter.

Oh yeah, oops, back to music...

July's Observations...

2010-07-04T02:04:00.000-07:00

Speed of Doom is an excellent collection of Doom levels, though it doesn't quite balance for UV -fast.

Currently listening to a bunch of samples from Juno, here's some brief thoughts:

Chloe - One In Other: Very dull minimal techno with hints of dub and generic vocal ahhs, croons.
Micky Milan - C'est Un Bombe: Decent 80s disco funk!
Mossa - Festine: Shuffled, funky minimal techno with a house vibe and lots of glitchery. I'm falling asleep after a few seconds... "I Am You" has a nice throbbing-synth-drone and soft hats, making for a dreamy piece. Rest of the album is the usual hut-SSS-hut-SSS nonsense though.
Patrick Pulsinger - Impassive Skies: Fairly minimal, melodic tech-house with sax, vocals, e-piano (!), later merging into more electro (A To Z) and downbeat (Cache Wash). Still falling asleep, although that might be the vaguely interesting final track which is a beatless ambient piece with soft piano set to some glitching effects.
Kagami - Better Arts: Japanese to the rescue! Mondo-techno madness, fast BPMs, disco licks, big snares, cheeky synths... and two people chatting over some of the tracks? Keeping me awake at least!
Deepchord presents Echospace - Liumin: It should be likeable, distant washy pads and synths, soft drums... you know, DUB TECHNO! Christ, aren't we done with this sound yet? Rod's a decent guy but I do wish he'd resist ploughing the same furrow, and introduce some new sounds. Sub-Marine is a fairly generic minimal-bloop-techno fest at least, rather than the usual reverb-bashing. Firefly even has a trace of melody - and is probably the best tune here - but the whole second disc is a bunch of field recordings. A certain sect of people will enjoy the living cajones off this stuff, but it aint Phylyps, let alone Enforcement! Though - thankfully - it's also not Intrusion.
OST & KJEX - Cajun Lunch: Funky nu-disco / minimal house with pretty decent vocals.
Cari Lekebusch - State Of The Art: Okay THIS is an event. One that I would normally rush out of my chair for, but it's minimal. Yeah I'd known Cari had gone minimal a couple of years back after being massively disappointed with a few EPs he'd put out. But why choose NOW, 7 years after his last LP, to put out another album? There's nothing unique about any of the tracks, they barely even sound like Cari's stamp is on them (outside of the shuffled hats, they're a Lekebusch TM). No "Urthur" punch, no "Tyrant" buildups. The ONLY reprieve is the mighty Krister Linder providing some vox on "Rising Star", and "Art of Technology" is a reasonably reasonable piece of electro. I guess. Considering this is from the guy that gave us the relentless "Det Jag Vet" 11 years ago (!), this is DEPRESSING.
Wehbba - Full Circle: More minimalistic than his previous peak hour productions, but at least it's funky and melodic. Not bad!

... and a slightly older release: Literon - Mutant: The A-side is a totally generic, dull piece of monotonous minimal with little to redeem it. The B-side, "Roll-Off" is - on the other hand - bloody fantastic. It's minimal, sure, but it doesn't rely at all on the usual blips, bloops, side-chained noise washes etc. Huge, sloppy AND crunchy snare/claps with a slightly shuffled rhythm give this that essential head-noddiness, and a slightly noisy gated bassy "pad" synth part plays a simple but melodic part underneath, as some clangy peak-time bells gradually build and build. Great tune, tremendously hypnotic, minimal done right!

Ejecta Nebula released!

2010-02-16T10:00:00.000-08:00

Looking to join the space race? UNN Braun Casimir taking it's third flight to the cosmos...

It's that time again folks! :) Nik at Kahvi has been very kind enough to release my newest piece, an EP entitled Ejecta Nebula. It's certainly more beat-centric than my previous outings, but also more melodic, and represents where I've been taking my composing over the last years. These are tracks that, like Corona and Silence, date back to 2007-2008, but are ideas I felt deserved completing and releasing. So here they are.

Ejecta Nebula is 5 tracks and about 16 minutes, and available for free over at Kahvi:
http://www.kahvi.org/releases.php?release_number=284

Be seeing you!

Mass Effect 2: A massive achievement from Bioware.

2010-01-31T06:37:00.000-08:00

I make time for games, there is no reason why this medium can't be as influential or have as much depth as any book or film. A large amount of games are childish, simplistic stories or don't aspire to anything more than being fun to play, not really looking for emotional depth. So as arts go, they can be a mixed bag at the best of times. The main issue with computer and video gaming is the interface, how interactive the game feels, and how much it makes you feel like you're in control and influencing events. It's taken a long time for someone to make a space exploration action game that can come close to Star Control 2 in any way. I'd say Mass Effect 2 finally achieves that.

It's science fiction, yes. There are a lot of sub-plots which deal with subjects that have become sci-fi tropes, such as genetic modification. Ships stranded on planets, ships stranded in space for no apparent reason. Fighting an unknown quantity in order to save humanity. Bioware have, however, nailed how to deal with this stuff with a fresh angle without making it all sound tired. Without wanting to spoil anything, the story is portrayed in such a way that the characters feel believeable, convincing, and these supposed sci-fi tropes come across like they're given a fresh lick of paint. Mostly down to the script, there's no part of the game where you will be bogged down in science, Trek-ish plot holes, or forced relationship drama. But that is for you to discover if you try the game. I wish to take a more general overview of Mass Effect 2 as an experience, so lets do that:

For starters, the effective combat mechanics. Great fun to play, Gears of War-esque action without all the machismo bullshit getting in the way. Upgrades and special powers are useful. You don't gain experience by fighting however, it's a means to progress only. This furthers the quest-based nature of the game, and stops the combat from feeling like a necessary evil just to improve your character to fight a boss that has a minimum-level cap (another illogical and frustrating JRPG-ism that Bioware thankfully avoid).

Discovering planets is never boring, nor is mining them. Just as in Star Control 2, coming across some forgotten mining base, or an outpost that the inhabitants were doing their best to hide, is always compelling. Scanning for resources is addictive, too, however the one small annoyance I have with it is that right-click to scan should be toggle, not momentary. Dragging the mouse around becomes painful after a while. A shame there is only four elements to find, and this is where the simplification seems a little overbearing, but it doesn't stop this part of the game from being compelling.

Interacting with people is simple and effective, using a "circular mouse menu", sometimes giving you the chance to act in "good" or "bad" ways. This is a simplification, but you can shape your character into something more than a paragon of humanity, or someone who's just an utter bastard. The acting is almost always excellent, or at least solid. There aren't a huge amount of side quests, but what is there is always compelling. Missions can be tackled in any order, but the missions themselves are always strictly linear. Again, simplification rears its head. The gameplay is fun, but the lack of exploration is slightly disappointing. Also, no jumping? More simplification? (you can add "for console tards" here if you must, whether that's the case or not, no jumping is a shame)

The music, well I have to mention it sooner or later. It's pretty good, Blade Runner-esque electronic ambience, with FM-bass arpeggios and Vangelis-inspired synth strings. Some great hardcore-breaks style stuff going on in the Omega club, and other similar spots, so a pat on the back to the musicians at Bioware for all this. But there's still too much generic, bombastic film-orchestral pap for my liking.

The user interface is mostly excellent, however Bioware have no excuse for being lazy with the pop-up hints: key binds should change in these hints, they don't. Further, the menus are easily navigated, but all options are changed with a distinctly consolified left-right action. On/Off buttons can't be clicked on, and you can't immediately set a volume slider to 50% by clicking in the centre.

Still a 10/10 game, and it performs well (whilst still looking fantastic) on mid-range video cards such as my Radeon 4650. Highly recommended unless you dislike science fiction.

"The Silence In Fragile Space" LP released!

2009-12-08T16:56:00.001-08:00

With many thanks to Simon "h0l" Carless for being a gent and getting this out there despite everything, I'm pleased to announce that The Silence In Fragile Space, my follow up album to Casimir Corona has been added to the mighty 14-year roster of releases over at Monotonik.

You can download it as VBR MP3s right here:
http://www.archive.org/details/mtk215

Sally Shapiro proves that dance music can have a SOUL

2009-08-21T12:40:00.000-07:00

Sally Shapiro, with producer Johan Agebjörn, released a fabulously touching and disarmingly naive collection of "Italo songs" in 2006 on an album called Disco Romance. I'd highly recommend it.

Finally, they're both back with My Guilty Pleasure and this fantastic song and video. And it is truly a beautiful, innocently charming and addictive disco-pop listen.

My faith in dance music is restored. Someone please postpone Lady Gaga's career, as soon as possible! And Cascada, while you're at it. They are no longer required, nor were they ever!

Delsin: They're pretty good, honest.

2009-08-15T07:33:00.000-07:00

Delsin Records are a fascinating techno-orientated record label, hailing from Holland. Formed in 1996 by Peel Seamus, they have a pretty impressive roster of artists. Some particular faves of mine include Vince Watson, Quince, Aardvarck, Future Beat Alliance (who have a particular penchant for synth solos - they are all over the LP "Disconnected" and make it a rare treat), and, the admittedly somewhat overrated, Newworldaquarium.

Planet Delsin was a fairly recent compilation (well, okay, from 2005!!) full of melodic numbers that were spacey, funky and rose above the usual wave of power club techno, and the then burgeoning "popular minimal techno/house" scene. A breath of fresh air.

As an aside, I do consider these chaps to be something of an influence for my music. Techno doesn't just have to be about a loop, a rhythm and mixing changes for 7 minutes - and it shouldn't just be that - and just sometimes, Delsin reach places far beyond that (Future Beat Alliance, again with the Disconnected album, impressed me hugely in this regard). Therefore, I do genuinely have an interest in the label, and follow them, often sampling their records when I'm able to, and I consider many of their artists good producers and good influences.

So, fast forward to 2009 then, and - after lots of hoo-ha, and delays - Delsin 2.0 makes it out the door (and you can even find it on CD if you're lucky... for £18~!) to much deserved applause. After all, this is Delsin, right? These guys put out quality, inspired melodic neo-Detroit techno, "metro-techno" and all sorts of other styles that have been regularly fascinating. Well, not with this compilation. I have to say, I'm massively disappointed with it. I hate to start off with a negative review, so I won't. I'll try and give some thoughts about every track - remember this is a compilation and it's primary release seems to be digital, so I am NOT advising you to skip this entirely. There are some gems in here, but as we'll see, a lot of rubbish.

Disc 1 then:

Nubian Mindz - Afrika Man: This should be a guilty pleasure. Some tribal, Detroit-ian rhythms underneath what is nothing more than a techno stab, drenched in reverb. But yeah, even the full ten minutes is worth hearing - this is where a loop can be good enough to sustain itself across that length of time, if there are enough changes, builds, breakdowns. Here it's edited to 6 minutes, and does suffer a little for it. It's still a great tune, but you'd be better off seeking out the full version.

Vince Watson - Ethereal (excerpt): Vince goes dub. The full version of this is essentially a beat and arpeggios drenched in effects and messed around with for 15+ minutes. This excerpt might be all you need to hear of it, but of course dub techno fans will want to seek out the full version. Personally, I'm verging towards cautiously liking it, but am left wondering what happened to all the pretty soloing from eMotion Sequence.

Redshape - Misc Usage: Delsin goes minimal. This sucks, sorry, but it's too long, and essentially relies on nothing for a hook for 3 minutes. It has some rolling bass over some pathetic, tinny hi-hats and thin kicks, and later on introduces a three-note acid line, and some pads for the remaining ~4 minutes. Dreadfully boring.

Quince - Contracting: The album was gold. Truly, wonderful neo-Detroit "melodic space techno", full of great arps and melodies. Unfortunately, since then, Bram has taken a somewhat more minimal route, as we can hear on this tune. It takes a couple of minutes before anything approaching a hook appears, as the melody it starts with is hardly developed at all. Three minutes in, we have some more stabs over those spiky arps, and incessant chords... it finally starts to build. Swirling pads appear here and there, but no real, solid melodies develop, and it just starts to fall away again. A Quince parody, effectively. Argh!

DJ Yoav B - Organ Satta: As you'd expect, a synth-organ riff starts and drives this piece throughout. There are some more stabs here and there - some soloing, even, although this REPEATS! what a cheat... - and two minutes in, a huge kick comes in and some reversed cyms. This repeats for another four minutes, with minor mixing changes, but the melodies go nowhere, and nothing new really appears. MEH!

Steve Rachmad - Bot: Dreadful. This starts with a blippy, rising bass that changes to a mid-octave melody, and plays over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Pepper with some minimal effects, glitchy drums, and repeat for nearly 7 minutes. To be honest, it's bloody awful. Dreadful, minimal garbage. Skip on!

Djinxx - The Foreigner: This is too long, sorry. I like what I hear, a squelchy two-note riff played a few times then rises to another three notes. This is the hook for this tune, and it's played over some soft pads, and a kinda electro-tech rhythm (the snares are subtle but utterly crucial!). Cruising through Barnard's Star, enjoying the sights, gazing at the humungous breadth of a nearby starbase, and its imposing collection of dark shapes and lights. Yeah, I'm a space techno fan. But this really doesn't need to be 7 minutes though, not without some much-needed extra melodies or "sections", which never appear.

Redshape - Steam: More minimal, quirky "purist" techno now. After 1 minute of pissing about with nothing more than a kick and a pad, a wonky four-note hook finally appears, and gradually un-filters... flanked by incessant hi-hats, the pads re-appear, as well as some effects, bursts of noise and myriad other minimal noises. And for nearly 7 bloody minutes. Skip on, skip on, it's rubbish!

Aroy Dee - All That Remains: Some lovely Detroitian, plinking melodies play over soft pads, and a simple 4/4 beat. A pleasant start, but it improves! Some new melodies appear here and there. It breaks down around 2 minutes, and some high, filtered synth lines come in... eventuall augmented with those soft pads from the start. These new synth lines give it a slightly off-kilter feel, but around 3:30 they stop (along with the kick), allowing other, softer stabs and arps take their place. This is the kind of piece I'd expect from Delsin, tbh, especially a follow-up to "Planet Delsin". And much welcomed after so many poor minimal tracks.

Quince - Sub 01: Thankfully they've included a piece from his album. And it's one of the best: an arp and a beat start, with the arp melody's filter gradually opening. The beat stops, the arp changes to another one, softer and filtered... some shuffled hi-hats come in, and then the beat comes back in. From there this "B D A C"-structured arp melody is looped, and more drums are brought in. The arp later steps back to allow some soft synth trumpet-like sounds to join in. They disappear, and later as the tune breaks down, some pads appear alongside some hypnotic percussion, and some little bell-like synth stabs at 4:30. I'll not ruin the rest, but this kind of development makes "Contracting" seem simplistic and dull, which it is, and is typical - thankfully - of the album. Excellent!

Redshape - Shaped World (Stripped): Another minimal piece by this guy? A high pad plays over some rolling kicks, and a "morse code" effect synth joins it. This is soon joined by some squelchy bass notes. This then repeats for the rest of the track. Now, yes, I can hear mixing changes, breakdowns and filter changes... but no new musical ideas are brought in, and those damn morse code notes play over and over the pad, and they don't seem to disappear. Lazy, boring, and repetitive. NEXT!

Newworldaquarium - Twenty: This is a little overlong, but I'll take it. Arps galore, and that incessant 808 percussion, joined with a simple but effective bassline, the breakdowns, the build-ups... again this is a case of a GOOD loop, which is changed around enough to stay interesting. By the fourth minute, I'm left feeling the main arp melody has repeated enough, and it probably should end a little sooner. But it's still a corking tune.

Onto Disc 2.

D5 - Run: A minimal melodic piece, despite the pleasant funky rhythm and deep basses, and even some little solos here and there... this is mostly an exercise in "dub stabs" and ultimately has no hook. A decent enough groove, but it doesn't really go anywhere.

Steve Rachmad - Rond: Okay, everyone, what happened to this guy? There's a ton of memorable melodies all over his older Sterac releases, here - oh, what a surprise - he's gone minimal. How many times do we have to hear that bloody annoying opening melody? I don't care if it has some nice FM basses, the glitchy, bubbly sounds are a cliche and this doesn't go anywhere or build into anything despite the pad chords that appear later on. Too long and insubstantial. And change that bloody melody already!

Vince Watson - Believer: Well, the one issue with this tune is that the basic rhythm never changes, but I'll quite happily run with it because it's not just the usual 4/4 - it has a real trippy edge and skipping bass drums - and there are some truly pretty melodies that prickle and sparkle above it, as well as some light, easy-going organ solos. Nice one, Vince!

Delta Funktionen - Nebula: This takes a while to get going, and even then it amounts to little more than a two-note bassline and some pad washes. Pretty, and mildly hypnotic, but it's one for dub techno fans. There's no hook in sight!

Shed - Handle With Care I: love the shuffling hi-hats, and the flowery melodies, but it repeats far far too much and the track, overall, relies a little too much on effects changes to sustain interest throughout its 6 minutes.

Newworldaquarium - Bond: Like so many techno tracks, this is essentially a loop for its duration, and its mixed, filtered etc with no "musical" change. This is my major problem with NWA, however on this track (and all of "Twenty EP") he limited the track lengths to 1-3 minutes, making them far, FAR more listenable. So I'll take this pretty, sparkly, spacy loop for a couple of minutes and thoroughly enjoy it. But why did he have to spread them out to 6-10 minutes on Dead Bears? That's too long!

DJ Yoav B - Energize: A minimal piece, relying on an essentially two-note "riff". Synth stabs, specifically, that play over and over a fairly old-school Jeff Millsian rhythm, with some nice bongos. But it doesn't do much during its duration other than the usual mixing/filtering changes and shouldn't be 4 minutes, let alone 6! The spoken word sample seems out of place, too.

Taho - Forest Of Wonders: Slightly shuffled hi-hats, and a solid kick underpin this slightly trancy piece: a huge pad (which never changes notes, mind), under some fairly generic techno stabs make this sound impressive as they build and build... but they fall away leaving me a little unsatisfied. But it 'aint bad, ya hear?

Vince Watson - A Long Way From Home: Another solid number from eMotion Sequence. So some pretty melodies over shuffled beats, again. This one tends to go for a softer, more electro rhythm with emphasis on the synth soloing and the snare drums. Lovely!

D5 - Lab Work: Well, this is still a little "dub-chord" loving for me, but it does have a nice, incessant bassline, some spiky stabs and occasionally some washed out mini-solos here and there. Far better than Run, and feels less overlong.

Chymera - Hundulu: This is a really solid melodic piece, revolving around some rolling, but slow kicks. There are buildups and breakdowns, and some nice - MUCH WELCOMED - extra melodies and harmonised synth parts here and there. However I do feel they're repeated too damn much, and it definitely shouldn't be 7 and a half minutes!

Vince Watson - Solitude: ANOTHER piece from eMotion Sequence (just buy the album). A lovely, downbeat shuffle around some jazzy piano chords, and some washy pad "solos" wander around here and there. Great tune.

Overall then, there's an equal number of solid numbers, and a few standouts, but for every one of those there's a dull minimal piece which makes me fall asleep. Not worth the £18 (!!) the 2CD set is going for in the UK, and overall a bit disappointing for this label.

Some shout-outs, kinda.

2009-07-21T02:04:00.000-07:00

I had one lone release, back in 2001 or so, on Chill Productions as "Chis". It's been a long, long time since those days. I've often regretted not pushing myself for another release, between then and now, but I must admit it's only been since the last couple of years I feel my sound is polished enough.

It's rather egocentric to admit to perfectionism, right? But it's a fools errand, particularly within art. However electronic music has become so over-produced in the last decade, it's difficult not to feel intimidated and pressured to make one's own material sound "as good".

Let me cut to the chase (sorry, old cliché): Rick Snoman's "Dance Music Manual" is an essential purchase for anyone in a similar position. It's now priced under 15 quid here in the UK so there's no excuse. That Amazon page links to the newest - second - edition, but doesn't have any proper reviews, however there are a couple for the older edition. Don't buy the latter, the newer version has extra content despite the paucity of reviews and lower price!

I've always secretly hated flicking through presets. Well, back in the days of "Chis", I rifled desperately through them in the hopes of finding sounds that would suit me. Which is why I was rarely satisfied. So thankfully now I've gone through the Dance Music Manual and bothered to sit my lazy arse down and learn to properly program my own sounds... the results speak for themselves.

The DMM doesn't mention some other essential tips though: exciters and compressors, these are essential, even with a hardware synth! I am very fortunate to have been able to cut my sound design teeth on a Waldorf Microwave XT and a Pulse. Two fabulous hardware synths that can both be had for pretty reasonable prices on Sound On Sound's readers ads or eBay if you're lucky. They're not enough as they are though, layering, "exciting" (glorified distortion, but don't use any on the mid-range!), and judicious compression are all prerequisites for modern electronica production. Having good synth sounds is just the start. But it feels a damn sight more satisfying being able to say my music uses sounds purely made by myself. Well, save for the drum samples. Overused they may be, but I've long had a love affair with 909 drums (and techno, but that's a whole 'nother story), so I'm happy to use those as a starting point.

So, yes, I suppose this little rant was entirely to say I'm happy with where I am as a producer and I'm finding it far easier to put material together that sounds good with far less effort than I required before. Once you get used to a sequencer of choice (my kingdom for an Ableton hardware equivalent - probably not this decade though), and learn some vital tricks (google about side-chaining with filters, and I don't just mean to move cut-offs!), you're no longer endlessly battling with your tools just to make a nice sound.

Phew, now I can finally finish that album! (*cough*bollocks*cough*)

-CasiB

Casimir Corona released on Kahvi records!

2009-07-21T01:57:00.000-07:00

Casimir Corona has been released on Kahvi records!

Please head to http://www.kahvi.org and check out my first net-label release! It's a long-form, epic ambient piece and Nik at Kahvi has namechecked the mighty Global Communication in describing it. I hope it goes a little ways towards living up to that, and that you enjoy it!

If you do enjoy Corona, please leave your thoughts here or over at Kahvi's forum!

I have other content and other websites:

http://www.myspace.com/casimirsblake - Myspace home, with more music to hear.
http://casimirsblake.deviantart.com - I also have many visual works posted over at DA.
http://twitter.com/casimirsblake - My twitter page.

Please do bookmark this page too, as I'll be updating it here and there with various rants. :)

Space is the place,

-Casimir's Blake