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Image Courtesy Veela (check out veelabeats on YouTube)

One thing that has become more apparent of late is the infusion of new music into cyberspace. Not only has this new music increased in quantity, but the access to high-quality music production and distribution resources has improved seven-fold. One of the major players in this armada of audio would have to be Soundcloud.com. Soundcloud has been used by many new and established artists to get their work not only distributed, but it allows for instantaneous and “second-specific” feedback on musical works.

An artist named, “Veela” who shares her works on Soundcloud at “Veelabeets” is absolutely astounding. Not only is her singing and speaking voice clear and beautiful, but the music and beats that comes out of her solo and ensemble projects are joys to the ear.

I found out about Veela when surfing YouTube. There were a few songs made by independent trance producers that made their way to my favorites list. Then a song by Veela popped into the “related videos” list and it blew me away.

A common occurrence with artists who share their work online is that one or two songs jump out as good and the rest fade to the background. But this is definitely not the case with Veela. After just listening to about 6 of her works, 4 of the 6 stand out as radio-quality or better. And some of them stir the soul.

Here’s a link to Veela’s YouTube Page called, “Veelabeats” it’s a great place to start.

One of Veela’s songs that she is featured on is called, “Ghost” which was made in collaboration with the artist, “Maduk.” It is a high-energy and aurally enjoyable track. The tempo is up-beat but the swells and relaxing parts add a sense of momentum which is in line with the subject matter of the lyrics.

If you click HERE you can download the song from Soundcloud for free. As an artist, it is encouraging to find talented people sharing their work online. The quality is excellent and the production value is top notch, yet there is a download link. This makes it clear that Veela cares about sharing her music with the world. And I tip my hat to her.

Below is a YouTube embedded video of Veela’s song, “Ghost” but don’t stop there. She has many other great songs like, “An Apology” and “Go Back Home” which vary in styles and rock the airwaves!

-Tyler

The Sometime Boys: Ice and Blood - New Album coming soon! Click the picture to visit their Facebook page for details!

The Sometime Boys are at it again with their latest album, Ice and Blood which will be available soon in CD format everywhere. Having been a longtime friend of Sarah Mucho whom is one of the superstars of the ensemble, I was able to get a sneek peek into this jovial and sometimes haunting 11-Track masterpiece.

This album has more variety over its predecessor, Any Day Now which had primarily folk energy flowing throughout the tracks. Ice and Blood takes the listener on a more emotional roller coaster and truly gets your heart moving.

The entire album is excellent but I’d like to take some time to discuss my favorite songs on Ice and Blood. The songs, “The Good People of Brooklyn” and “Brother Can You Spare a Dime” are both soulful and thought provoking. Mucho’s vocals on Brother Can you Spare a Dime gives the listener a flashback to a time in our nation’s history when times were very tough…not unlike today, where the only certainty for tomorrow is the fact that no one can predict what will happen next. Times may be tough, but music like this makes us think about what is most important. The connections people have with each other and also the strength to admit when things are getting bad are evoked by this music. It’s phenomenal.

The second half of Ice and Blood emits different styles and emotions with each track. “Drop by Drop” is a song which shares a refrain that has no bounds. The mix of spiritual organ chords and relaxed drums gives the perfect setting for a beautiful reminiscence.

Without a doubt, the song, “Teardrop” takes the listener on a grounding and slamming mind-expanding voyage. The combination of soulful piano chords and unrelenting guitar licks quite literally rock the insides of the listener. These instruments set the stage for two complimentary voices. By combining male and female vocal parts into “Teardrop” the band manages to create an epic track which is something one would expect to hear in a blockbuster film or high-quality television series like, “Firefly.”

Ice and Blood is a full-length album of 48 minutes and 36 seconds. The two covers on the album which I identified are, “Brother Can You Spare a Dime” and “Mother Nature’s Son.” It doesn’t matter if you are a fan of the Beatles version of “Mother Nature’s Son” or if you like the Gryphon version. The Sometime Boys do a sensual job on the number and it is aurally enlightening to say the least.

As an audiophile I was impressed and enchanted by the audio-production quality and mastering of the album. It sounds darn good. I’m listening to it on my studio monitors right now and the spread and depth simply rocks. This music sounds different from what what you’re listening to right now because it’s both original and full of vitality.

Check out The Sometime Boys on Facebook by clicking HERE!

Or go directly to their preview of the album, Ice and Blood on Soundcloud by clicking HERE.

-Tyler

Tago Mago - Monster Movie - and Future Days album art

There is absolutely no reason to even consider doing a play by play of the work by Can. The entire albums of Monster Movie, Tago Mago and Future Days are solid gold. They have this strange quality to them where the albums can be used for both meditation, relaxation and working on the computer interchangeably. I’ve literally purchased Tago Mago by Can four times! I once bought it and then gave it to someone because he said, “Cool Music, man!” That was very altruistic, but the fact is that I still wanted the album so I needed to buy it again. I don’t even know what happened to it the second and third times. The fourth time I bought the album, the sender was out of stock and so I got my money back. Tago Mago is an album that is so good that there are certain things in the middle of the album that reminded me of when my mom brought home a tape of a man chanting inside a cave. The man recorded his spiritual singing and it was life changing to say the least. I remembered wanting to hear the singing again years later but I didn’t know what happened to her tape. Well, Tago Mago has a track that seriously sounds like that, except there is other sparse orchestration happening at the same time.

I remember talking to my friend about the album Monster Movie, he said, “It’s pretty raw right?” And I totally agreed. It was raw but it sounded so sincere. There is complete ego destruction happening on these albums. This is the kind of music that being able to listen to a complete album of it, an actual life goal. In comfortable clothes and wearing headphone either reclining in my chair or on the bed has been some of the best music listens in my life.

Part of why I’ve been able to just relax and enjoy the music during the day lately, is because I finally finished school. I’ve spent so much of my life stressed about getting to a certain point, or concerned about something not happening, that I would always listen to the best music very late at night. This is because night time felt like it belonged to me. I wasn’t using the borrowed time of the day.

In the film, “Star Trek: Generations” Kirk and Scotty are talking about how Sulu had a daughter. And Kirk was completely astonished that Sulu had found the time to have a family. And Scotty said something like, “…You always said, ‘We make the time for what is important.'” Well you know what? I’m making time during the day for my Can music.

The music easily increased my productivity. I took the dog for a walk early in the morning and was tired. So I meditated in my chair to Tago Mago. Then I was energized and I read a lot of a great book on Ancient Sumerian grammar. I never knew that the Sumerians were so prefix and suffix heavy in their words. This book is one of the few in my collection that actually has symbols, translations, grammar guides and a lexicon all in one. The only drawback is that the book centers on only 30 tablets but it is the perfect setting to learn the language. It was so hilarious when I was reading the back of the book and then cutting back to Section Two and reading line by line of a business receipt for cattle sales. The concept of being able to decipher a document written over 4,000 years ago made me laugh out loud.

Just like uncovering an ancient text, Future Days is a album that opens with beauty and tranquility. The title track has such style and demeanor that I was considering using it to write tonight. But the album is so good I decided against listening to any music for the time being so I have virgin ears for the album later tonight. I’m going to make today a triple Can.

A lot of bands have great vocals or great drums or excellent bass. But Can is one of the ones that stick out in my mind that has such skill and passion for the groove, that it doesn’t even need imitation. The recordings from Can seem to have completed that sonic aspect in my mind that does not need any substitute.

A friend once said that music does things to our minds that we are not even conscious of. I completely agree with that because after being dead tired, and listening to a complete Can album like Monster Movie, I felt totally energized. It was as if I took a three hour nap and jogged for 10 minutes. That was the kind of energy I had before going out and taking care of some stuff.

All I can say, is that the friends who introduced me to this kind of music have seriously made a tremendously positive impact on my life. And I feel honored to have even heard these monumental albums once, let alone have them in my possession during one time or another.

-Tyler

Zircon - Above Reason

There are beat downs. And there are serious beat downs. Let it be known that Zircon and tefnek in their remix of the song, “Under Logic (Stage 4-1 Theme)” by Yuzo Koshiro for the game Streets of Rage 2 has it all. Their remix is called, “Above Reason” and it is a triple entendre form of wordplay. To clarify, the obvious double meaning is how the title is Above Reason when the original song is Under Logic. So that is pretty obvious. But the triple entendre comes from how the song was programmed entirely in the music software program called, FL Studio. And FL Studio is a great program that many people use to make excellent music. But I believe the creator of this remix, Zircon, prefers to use FL Studio over another great computer program called Reason. What is even more funny is that Logic is a music creation program as well. So by naming the song, “Above Reason” there is a whole bunch of comedic wordplay happening at once.

…And we haven’t even gotten to discussing the actual song yet! The song swerves in with some juicy and rumbly bass sounds. Then the bass sound gets even louder while the more rhythmic bass keeps the pace.  At 36 seconds the long really gets started and the true nature reveals itself.

The song is timed to the actual Genesis gameplay of, “Streets of Rage 2.” So there is some good combos being used and the occasional special effects keeps the tempo. I was extra impressed to see Skate doing his handywork!

As, Above Reason progresses, there are several breakdowns and even jam-like solos that add a tremendous amount of character to the work. The amount of instrumentation and automation involved must have taken forever. It is a true work of musical art that surprised me how it was all done on FL Studio.