Wenceslaus

Here's a remix I did of the traditional Christmas Carol "Good King Wenceslas."

Wenceslaus

Review: BT's These Hopeful Machines

Yeah yeah I know. This album came out in February 2010. Well, I wasn't doing this when it came out, so that's why this review may seem untimely.

However, These Hopeful Machines is an incredible sonic journey, so I need to talk about it. But first, a bit of background.

Back in 2003 (when MusicMatch was still the best streaming audio site around), I stumbled on a track by BT called Tripping the Light Fantastic. I was just starting to more deeply explore the electronic music scene at the time, and I really liked this track, so I bought it and listened to it quite a bit.

Fast forward to January 2010. I'm a huge fan of Above & Beyond (I'll review their upcoming Group Therapy album, and also their last artist release Tri-State in other posts) and I listen to their Trance Around The World broadcast here. In Episode 305 they played a track by BT (remixed by Mr Sam) called Suddenly. Of the two hours of great music, this one definitely caught my attention and as I usually do I started searching for where I could buy it. As it turns out the track was from his at-the-time-yet-to-be-released album These Hopeful Machines.

I waited impatiently for the release, and grabbed it when it dropped in February.

One word. WOW.

From the first song Suddenly to the last (The Ghost In You) of this 2-disc album, These Hopeful Machines is an absolute pleasure to listen to.

While I expected what I would call a straight-up EDM album, each song is to my mind quite different. I'm not all that well-versed yet in all the Electronic Music/EDM genres and sub-genres, but this album has an incredibly diverse feel to it.

BT collaborates with artists any EDM fan would recognize: Christian Burns, Andrew Bayer, Jes (of Motorcycle/When the Rush Comes fame), Boom Jinx, and Ulrich Schnauss to name a few. But the coolest guest artist on this album is BT's daughter Kaia singing the chorus of Forget Me.

All of the tracks on this album are ones I can listen to over and over, but my favorites are The Emergency, Every Other Way, and Forget Me.

BT was nominated for the Best Electronic/Dance Album Grammy in 2010.

I highly recommend this album. It does not disappoint, even after many multiple listens. Go get it.

Remix of Mannheim Steamroller's Toccata

Just finished this remix and associated video.

(Mixed and mastered at NoiseFloor9 Studio, Mapleton, Utah)

The Best Way To Ruin A Good Song...

...is to swear in it. I mean really. There are a handful of said words that ruin a song, but the worst by far is the bomb, the mother of all swear words. You know, that one that seems to be used by the unintelligent or uninspired lyricist (and equally unintelligent English speakers) as a noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, appositive, conjunction, interjection...(did I miss any?)

My momma used to say "Cussing is a sign of a dull mind." I must agree. Apparently the English language, according to the Oxford Dictionary, has more than 220,000 words (words that are currently in use, obsolete, and derivatives). Plenty of other words to fit the bill out there. Let's use 'em.

I've also noticed that non-native English speakers seem to feel that they are not properly "speaking the lingo" if they don't throw that word in multiple places in every sentence they utter. Important speaking tip: if you really want to sound fluent (and intelligent too), don't use that word. It just makes you sound like you're trying too hard and that your vocabulary is severely stunted.

Oh, and if you're swearing because you wanna be "different" or "fly" or whatever, guess what? Unfortunately, that's not gonna do it for you. Too many people use inappropriate speech nowadays. You wanna be your own person? Expand your vocabulary. Stay away from those "common" words. Especially that one common word. You know which one I mean....

NoiseFloor9

I'm doing all of my final mix/mastering at the NoiseFloor9 studio, with Randy Graves at the producer helm. He's been absolutely fantastic to work with. Not only are the masters spot on, he's also been educating me in the art and science of music production, which has definitely improved my music writing and production skills.

NoiseFloor9 has a section on it's website dedicated to my current project. You can check it out here (Noisefloor9-M31Music). While you're there also check out the other services the studio offers.

Wisdom from Steve Aoki: Rebecca Black Lessons

Just ran across this post on Steve Aoki's website here.

A most interesting analysis of the Rebecca Black phenomenon (oh, and she really can sing, btw), and an interesting and spot-on analysis of art, fame, celebrity, the media, and the current state of the music industry.

Review: ATB's Distant Earth

I'm listening to this album as I'm doing some work on our elementary school's yearbook and year-end slideshow. I've not followed ATB much until now, but I'm extremely impressed with his versatility.

ATB (Andre Tanneberger) is most widely recognized as one of the top DJs in the world, with the likes of Tiesto and Armin Van Buuren. But the first track I heard of his was the ATB mix of William Orbit's Adagio for Strings. I credit this track (and by extension Orbit's work as producer on Madonna's Ray of Light album in 1998) as the stuff that pushed me toward my love of EDM (Electronic Dance Music). (Mannheim Steamroller played a huge role also, but more on that later).

Distant Earth is a 2-disc album. Disc 1 contains fist-pumping Trance while disc 2 has relaxing Chillout. ATB deftly handles both the upbeat Trance and the Downtempo/Chill genres with passion and grace. Rockers Apollo Road, One More (feat. Christina Soto), and Where You Are (feat. Kate Louise Smith), to name just three of 14 outstanding Trance tracks, are from beginning to end bass/kick-thumping pieces of sonic awesomeness (IMHO). Chill tracks Vice Versa (with Armin Van Buuren), Moving Backwards (feat. Kate Louise Smith), and Trinity (again to name 3 of 11 Chillout tracks), are just what I'm looking for to relax and unwind.

ATB collaborates with several different vocalists on this album, none of which I had ever heard before. It appears that the tracks were written for each vocalist, as their singing styles seem to dovetail perfectly with the songs.

But I must say far and away my hands-down favorite track from both discs is Trinity. I can tangibly feel the emotion with which this piece was written flowing from the speakers. An absolutely fantastic experience.

5 stars from me. A fantastic album well worth the purchase. I only hope that I can attend one of ATB's performances of this album.

You Can Help in Japan

As you all know, on March 11 2011, an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter Scale hit Northern Japan. Thirty minutes later, a tsunami hit, destroying cities and towns all along the northeastern coast.

25 years ago I spent two years in Northern Japan on an LDS mission, in many of the areas affected by the earthquake and the tsunami. After watching the complete devastation and heart-wrenching suffering, I felt I needed to try to do as much as I possibly could to help. I have donated what I could, but I knew there was more I could do. I wanted desperately to go there and assist in the search and rescue, but that was impractical. The only real skill I have that I could employ to assist in some way was perhaps a song that I could give to people who felt like I did and wanted to help.

It's  been almost a month since the disaster, but help is still desperately needed. You can help the recovery effort in Japan and get Andromeda's debut track Rising Sun. I will donate all proceeds from this song to the Japanese Red Cross. Many of you may have already contributed to relief efforts, and that's awesome. If you contribute .99 again by buying this track, that's even awesomer ;-)

You can buy it from CDBaby, iTunes, and Amazon. Again, in all cases, the proceeds received from each will be donated directly to the Japanese Red Cross.

Thank you, and God Bless.

I Heart Pandora

I love Pandora. If the record companies and artists are smart, they will never oppose this type of audio streaming. Here's why:

One of the cool things I get to do is teach the 8th Grade Technology class at John Hancock Charter School. They all get to be on the yearbook staff. Once all the instruction is completed for such topics as photography, graphic design, typography, Photoshop, and Indesign, the class starts designing the yearbook pages. When they do that, we listen to Pandora.

The other day we were listening to my "Psy Trance" station (I seeded the station with Shpongle). A song called Worlds Collide by Apocalyptica came on. K. Way awesome track. So awesome in fact that I went to Amazon and bought it on the spot.

I've done this with a vast majority of my music collection. In fact, that's how I first heard Above & Beyond and Vargo. Because of that, I've purchased just about everything Above & Beyond does (artist releases, remix albums, etc.) and two of Vargo's albums. I heard BT for the first time on the now-defunct MusicMatch (R.I.P. -- Yahoo Music doesn't hold a candle....), and from that service I bought one of his tracks 8 years ago. When BT's album These Hopeful Machines came out in 2010, I bought it, all because I heard and liked one of his tracks on a music streaming service.

And I can't be the only one that does this. I don't have any numbers to hand, but it seems to me services like Pandora would actually drive online music purchases.

Anyway, just another way that technology is affecting music -- and there are so many ways!

Phantastic (or, Sarah Brightman is much better than I thought....)

Okay...we've been on Phantom of the Opera overload for the last two months. Not that that's a bad thing.

At the beginning of February, my daughter was in her high school's production of the aforementioned work (playing violin in the pit orchestra). The first thing to mention about this is that the music was the *original* music from the Broadway production; it wasn't 'dumbed down.' And this is very hard music. Go listen to Masquerade in particular and pay attention to the violin runs. Wow.

The second thing to say is that the Pleasant Grove High School drama and music departments put on a fantastic (or should I say phantastic) show. I have never seen such a good high school production in my many years of life. The singing was amazing, the pit orchestra awesome, the staging, sets, etc. were jaw-dropping. A hearty congratulations to the entire cast, crew, and orchestra.

Last Saturday we took said daughter (who turned 18 on that day...yikes), one of her friends, and our other daughter to see Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian in Las Vegas. 4th row seats. Very cool. The opening scene with the flying chandelier never fails to blow my socks off, and I've seen it ten times at least.

You're probably wondering by now what this has to do with Sarah Brightman. Well, I'll tell you.

I've always thought it odd that she was chosen to play the part of Christine Daae in Phantom of the Opera. Despite her impressive vocal range and precise control over her singing, I've always wondered why it was that her tone sounded like she'd dined on large quantities of milk and cookies before performing, particularly in the London cast recording of the soundtrack. Seriously. Go listen to the soundtrack and tell me it doesn't sound like she's got something in her throat.

Earlier that Saturday we went to the Bellagio to check out the singing fountain, and the song we happened to be there for was one called Time to Say Goodbye. I didn't know who the female vocalist was (Charlotte Church? Celine Dion?), but she was superb. Andrea Bocelli was unmistakable though, and was also superb.

Later on I looked up the song to see who the female vocalist was, and MUCH to my surprise, it was Sarah Brightman. In the twenty-odd years since her debut as Christine Daae, she has, in my opinion, improved a hundred fold. Her tone was heavenly.

Anyway, musically, the whole weekend was, as I said, Phantastic.