8 Released

Thought I might as well post this here too -- after all, the title does say "And some of my stuff too". Well, a few weeks ago I released my third album, a sprawling double disc of Creative Commons goodness, minimally titled 8. It can be downloaded in lossless, Vorbis and various mp3 formats here. Everything is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, including very high resolution cover art and a solid two hours of lossless music. (The break between discs is after "Stages Of Finality" and before "Sight Of Heart".)

I try to refrain from tooting my own horn too much, so I'm not going to attempt to describe the music found on the discs much -- suffice it to say it's varied and mostly danceable, often fun, sometimes serious, and always electronically produced even if it doesn't sound it. Please, also take some time to read the Attribution file -- this work would be frankly impossible without the many samples and contributions contained within. Enjoy!

VBR MP3s: Rainclouds, Stages Of Finality

Review: Variations by Synthetic

Steve Engler, also known as Synthetic, has developed a significant reputation for creating lovely ambient and experimental remixes and original songs. His compositions transcend conventional means and methods, instead relying upon time stretching software, Steve Reich techniques and unusual samples. Variations is in essence a single. Only one of the songs is the original, the rest are remixes of it.

"Old man in a teahouse," the original version, is an almost chaotic blend of samples taken from many places, pinned down by ambient chords and a strong, dance-y beat. There are a lot of disparate elements, but somehow it is never disconnected. The flow is always quick and constant, with guitars and other instruments and voices popping in and out. It should be a complete mess, but it is not. This is my favorite song off the single.

Next up we have the "Semi-dub." This strips away the frenetic blend of samples in order to create an ambient composition that is more subtle and slow. It also showcases some beautiful cello playing from Wisconsonite Heather Anderson. I think this version would have benefited from a few more samples here and there, but it is still exceptional.

And now we get into the long, long tracks.

"Weightless" is nearly nine minutes long. The ambient chords from the original play over and over until they are lost into a haze of echoes. Odd backward sounds play in the background. After fading out, the ambient chords return with more clarity and definition. Blips and bloops slowly overwhelm the track.
I feel that this version suffers from being too long with too few ideas to carry it to the eight minute mark. It's good background music, but it can be tedious to listen to.

"You Know?" begins with those ambient chords again, which are growing somewhat irritating after fifteen minutes. Some strong beats, fast plucked instruments and the cello again make this mix much more worthwhile than "Weightless," though I still feel that it does not contain enough elements to fill its six minutes.

"Del Fiume Po," the final track, is somewhat more energetic and makes extensive use of the cello. It's nice, but after four tracks with the same melody it feels a bit rehashed.

Conclusion: The original song is the best track on this single, but some of the others are also worthy of you attention. Excellent cello playing and use of samples, but needs more variety overall. Half an hour is too long to be playing the same chords and loops.

Rating: 4/5

Variations at OUIM.net - Synthetic

VBR MP3: Synthetic Norbert Croonenberg - Old man in a teahouse

Manifesto

For my first post here I thought I'd explain the purpose for this site.

I'm going to collect the best free music on the internet and post it here. This is going to include a healthy dose of my own music, which you can find in the sidebar to the right.

I'll try to make clear the license under which any music I post has been released - that is, whether it is permitted for you to redistribute it, remix it or use it in a mash-up, or in any other way create derivative works. Most of the stuff I post here will be under the Creative Commons, meaning you can legally share it.

I'm very strongly anti-copyright, but I won't be sharing anything illegal on this blog. If you want copyrighted material, you probably know where to look for it.