For the past eight years I've been slowly but surely producing music. Although the drive has for the most part left me and time is in short supply nowadays, still I'll probably continue to 'waste' some time by being a little creative this way.
In fact, my highschool graduation party was also the 'formal' release party of my first (and only) CD, never published or anything but I'm still proud of it. The CD, called Active-8, contains work made with a really cool little DOS-based program called Impulse Tracker (still freely available here, a Windows-proof version is called Schism Tracker available here). The songs were inspired by early heroes in the online community of other producers using the same program, such as Kom'ah, Jay, Sonic, Sturm and Freejack. In those days, I of course also needed a so-called moniker and after switching numerous times ended up calling myself Aphelion, a name from astronomy which sounded cool. Started by imitating others with rave, hardcore and some club-trance tracks, I soon found that break-beat oriented songs lacking any clear genre classification were much more interesting to make. And since the sound quality wasn't up to par anyway, I stopped caring about the commercial possibilities.
A couple of years ago I've switched over to Buzztracker (freely available here), which expands the possibilities of sound control to professional levels. People from that community nowadays make amazing music on netlabels such as Thinner and Rohformat, which are personal favourites of mine. Who knows, maybe I'll try and release future work through such channels.
For now, I'm releasing the tracks from Active-8 under a Creative Commons Music Sharing License on this website, so enjoy!
01. Liquid crystal world (3.52)
Drum and bass with some cheesy sound samples and an overall religious/epic vibe. The breakbeat was poorly mastered unfortunately and since it was a 'given' sample the variation in breaks is low. Still, it sets the tone.
With a title straight from X-files, a breakbeat inspired by Tricky and Massive attack and a shaky mixdown, the genre-bending could not be greater. There exists a 'pt.2', basically the same track but darker, from which one of my best tracks 'Apathic concepts' evolved. This last track has been lying around for four years and it's about time I should finish it. Still, it's pre- pre-cursor is now online.
Had more potential, suffered from a strange coming together from various parts but still, somehow the final acid riffs remind me of Photek somehow and let me tell you, that was before I even knew Photek!
Hard-acid, violent. I liked the acid part of it, don't like the mixdown at all though. This was before I learned what mastering is all about (never did learn to actually master anything, though).
Lowpoint of the CD, together with the next track. The middle section was designed to be harder and this track was just finished when the CD came together, should've been more critical. But then again, I won't leave it out since they all go together now.
Weird intro leading into a pumping hard-trance track. I've lost control of this song somewhere along the way, but I do like the relentless barrage on the senses.
A clubby track with a grooving bass-line. Put together with some effect, but the noisiness of the samples inspired the title, nuff said.
So is it all bad you might wonder? Well, The harshness of the previous comments were deliberately tuned so that you might appreciate this tune. It's soothing and vibrant with a light drum and bass, ending in a nature-inspired breakdown complete with thunder and lightning. It ends on a serene note, with a rather cool melancholic piano loop. Downside is that the chords from beginning and end don't match, but this just goes to show that a complete lack of formal training doesn't prevent me from making what I like to hear.
Masterpiece, if you will, of this album. It's hypnotic, out-of-the-box, breaks which I don't pretend to comprehend myself, and of course far from perfect in every way. Still, it's my personal favourite, especially the epic feel from the heavy middle parts and the repetitive ending.
10. Rhythm 'n Riffs (featuring Aprognise) (4.03)
The 'hidden' track (that concept does loose it's meaning on-line doesn't it). Made together with partner-in-crime Aprognise, a former class-mate. It's senseless pounding with light melody. Still, it's more complex than any of Peaches' tracks, and oddly reminiscent of them too... or is that just me?
This music is free to share under a Creative Commons Music Sharing License.