Tool Of God

Many years ago, the first verse and chorus of this song popped into my head. I sang it to myself for over a decade before finally finishing it. I don't use any Final Fantasy samples, but I did create a "chocobo call" in a software synth to get the wark/kweh sound. Anyway, I had a bit of fun with it, and I hope you do to.

I finally finished this project, a year in the making. Each song on the album is only two tracks; one guitar, one ukulele. I had fun writing with this limitation. If any of you enjoy the ukulele and acoustic music, you can stream the album here. mahaloha https://soundcloud.com/orion-c-williams/sets/deer-and-flea-tropical-jazz

I found myself increasingly excited for the upcoming Xbox game Screamride, so I wrote a song inspired by it. As with my other "Unofficial Theme Songs" it's meant to embody the nature of the game that it is based on. In this case, the mood is outlandish craziness surrounding a dangerous theme partk

I did a reggae track (my first one) for my Yes.Mustache video game inspired music project. It's silly and all in good fun, but I would gladly take input on production, quality of reggae music, whatever else comes to mind when you see the vid or listen to the tune. The song is about why certain video game elements (enemies, objects) are better left untouched. It references Goombas (from Mario universe), the bomb guys from Serious Sam, lasers in general (but the video shows Spartan Lasers), saw blades (generally a one hit kill), and headcrabs from the Half-Life universe.

I was inspired by real life events to write this song for my Yes.Mustache project, which is itself inspired by video games and gaming culture. If you have a friend or family member that seems to be unable to put your game discs away properly, play this for them.

I haven't heard the original, but this was really relaxing and had a great vibe.

Fantastic sounds across the board! I enjoyed the spastic nature of the drums in Boys in Space. However, Fever Genesis scared the crap out of me. I realize it's meant to sound dirty, but it sounded like the whole song was clipping in the worst way, so it continued to terrify me until the end. Writer's Block was mostly a winner, it's just when a note has an element far from center of pitch that I can only handle so much of. I really liked the song structure though. Nightmarathon is a great title and has a great background rhythm that moves into chillout, and then loses me. Fantastic use of delay in that one, though. You create some great sounds. Many will likely dig what you are doing. Your production is largely perfect. I think it may be a bit too 'experimental' for me though. Still, great work. I'd be excited to hear the next project.

Whether your drums are programmed or played on a live kit has nothing to do with the aggressiveness of the sound. There is nothing wrong with your 'beat', but if you want it to sound punchier, you need to incorporate different sounds. It sounds like you are using a synth "shaker" instead of a high hat. A partially open high hat will add more sizzle to your steady rhythm. Big crashes on the down beat help to add excitement and energy. Your snare is so subtle it sounds like a variation of the kick. If you want it to have a lot of energy, you could compress the peak of the snare and turn it up to make it 'hold' a little bit, but you will probably want more snare in there instead of just a pop. Also, add some mids boost to the snare to distinguish it from the kick more.

I'm glad I could be a backboard for some discussion. This place isn't as lively as I hoped it would be when I signed up. I imagined a community of people making music and giving feedback and supporting each other. Instead, it's mostly a ghost town. I look forward to hearing your new project.

There doesn't appear to be a link.

Not that you should be trying to make music for me, Ki, but I really enjoy your Nebula EP. Expert Chill. To me, when you want to chill, you don't want a police siren going off, or a record to start skipping out of sync. These are just a couple made up examples, but I use them to illustrate the purpose of the music. With each of my music projects, I try to analyze "who is my audience, and how do I want them to feel?" My Yes.Mustache project has an audience of gamers with a sense of humor (ideally). I want them to laugh and occasionally get energized by a track (like my Sunset Overdrive Unofficial Theme). So you are obviously a skilled musician and producer. You can create a range of emotions and sounds across multiple genres. You can bend genres and it's good to do that. But the main question you should ask is, "who is this music for?" I am just not sure there is an audience for chillout + glitch noise. There may be, and if you enjoy it, then there is probably someone else that does to. Again, please let my comments be read without any negativity in its tone. It can get dicey when discussing art on a critical level.

Bless you for that. My niche audience.

I listened through several of the tracks and wanted to give some feedback, since you invited it. I am not an expert on any of the sub-genres you tagged this album. I only produced one track of downbeat before focusing on my latest project. If you'd like to hear it for reference, here it is. http://vimeo.com/97090371 Since I come from a music background where melody is a primary tool in song composition, I am not the best resource for critiquing music in styles where melody takes a backseat to strange sounds. I do however have a pretty open mind when it comes to music appreciation, so I will tell you what I hear on the tunes on this record. Your understanding of rhythm is great, which is funny, being that chillout music tends to not rely on solid beats for conveying its energy. However, your use of rhythms on the instruments gives an overall weight to the song's rhythm, making it more pleasing. Unfortunately, I don't "get" strange bloops and beeps and off pitch vocals and such. So that stuff detracts from the pleasing composition in your music. I will have to accept that others enjoy the ambient sounds, otherwise why would you put them in your songs. I must say that I listened longer than I would normally to music with so many quirky sounds, mostly because I was curious what you were going to do next. And you did evolve your songs, which was nice. I hope I was able to convey my thoughts without sounding offensive. Take care.

Nice job, Athoz. That pumped me up. Would you mind sharing what drums/synth tools you are using. Great sound.

I don't know what the fugue a fugue is, but that was pretty cool. I enjoyed where your ear took the melody (quite unique). I am curious though, did you play it in free time or quantized? It sounded free, but that is some great playing if so.