I've been working pretty hard on refining my tech/house chops.  Making some tight-yet-deep sounding drum patches, synths, and nailing down the mastering chains to apply to what I can best describe as tech-house and chill-house genres.  The house music is fun to make, but as I was reminded the other day, I'm still being tugged on by my love of trip-hop/downtempo work.

A collection of such songs, is still  on the stove.  With a number of lyrics written down in my notebook, and only when I have time after taking care of some uber-important personal matters, I'm ready to knock out 3 of the vocal tracks.  I've resisted EVERY urge in my body to post the instrumental mix-downs on Soundcloud, as the impact of hearing the music with the vocals will express the true emotions and depth of the work. It just wouldn't be the same without the vocals!

I'm not sure where the house and tech music is going. Some of the tracks from November of 2009 and onward I very much enjoy, and I suspect they will end up on a few different releases (some free, some not).  I do hope to have some stuff be published by interested record labels in 2010, but that remains to be seen.

Spring is going to have such a dramatically positive effect on my creativity level. I can already tell that I am in a more positive mind set now that we have had some sunny days here in Seattle. The past weekend was incredible, but I wasn't able to schedule any studio time to work on music.  I still gain the inspiration and positivity for use at a later date, however, so I'm not put off when I'm unable to work on music when I want to

Hmm.. let's do a "project recap". This is taken off the top of my head since I'm not in the studio right now. This doesn't include a number of tracks that are being re-visited, completed, and prepped for release (stuff from 2007-2009 that began to collect dust!).

Trip-Hop & Downtempo

• This Modern Depression - lyrics written, music 90%, needs additional guitar work.
• Torch - lyrics written, 1st cut done, music written. Needs mastering and final vocal recording.
• Grace - lyrics written, music written. Needs re-mastering from original release ("For the Cure 2008")
• Conversation with the Passing - lyrics in progress, music 80%
• Forward - lyrics needed, music is at 95%, needs EQ/mastering
• Aces High - lyrics in progress, music is at 90%, possible guitar work needed.
• Envisioning the West - lyrics in progress, music is at 90%.

House (all flavors) & Tech

• Caramel (house) - music complete
• Sunday Afternoon at the Teahouse (chill house) - complete
• Clouds at Night (chill house) - complete
• Long Drive Back (prog house) - needs EQ work
• After the Storm (prog house)  - complete
• Human Afterall (prog house?) - Needs EQ work
• Sensor Blind (Original Mix) - complete
• Sensor Blind (Ambient-scape Mix) - in progress
• unamed project (chill house) - in progress
• another unamed proejct (chill house again!) - in progress
• Like a Bad Habit (tech, vocal) - music complete, needs EQ/mastering, lyrics
• Orbiting Over Seattle (tech) - Complete
• Vapors (tech) - music 70% done
• Welcome Back the Warmth (tech, vocal) - lyrics partially written, music complete.

D&B

• This World - 95%, some minor EQ/mastering adjustments. Slight FX adjustment on vocal hook.

This is a chill house track that really grooves. Ambient stabs and texture a-plenty with a good rolling bassline along with a breakdown that throws in some subtle piano makes for a perfect lazy day track!

unsigned, unreleased.
Sunday Afternoon at the Teahouse by  sliptide

I figured I'd also post a photo that I took there which I like very much.

Enjoy!

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In this edition:

• The Newsletter Post
• Well of Souls & City Shadows - Still only $5 for Digital Download!
• Tiesto Remix Contest Results
• New Music
• Other Music Available

The Newsletter Post

This newsletter is actually tied directly to a post on my website. If you are reading this in your email but wish to explore the multimedia content contained within this newsletter, then I recommend visiting my website and viewing the post at the following link:

The February 2010 Newsletter post on Sliptide.com

Well of Souls & City Shadows - Still Only $5 for Digital Download!

During the month of November, 2009, I had put my two albums on sale for $5 from CDBaby. I went ahead and continued that deal through the new year!  They will remain on special for $5 per album until the physical discs are printed and available for purchase.

Grab them here:

Well of Souls

City Shadows

Please note that this only applies to buying the digital downloads from CDBaby.com (sorry, Amazon and iTunes don't let me dynamically change the pricing of my albums!).

Tiesto Remix Contest Results

Thanks to everyone who voted for my remix in the Beatportal.com Tiesto Remix contest! The results are STILL not in, though I have not been contacted by Beatportal or Ultra, so I would say chances are slim that I made the cut this time around. As soon as official word is out on who the winners are, I may decide to perform the remix in one of my sets. The bootleg would be available via sliptide.com.

It was a lot of fun and I appreciate the support that everyone has offered me and my music!

New Music

(If you're reading this in your email, you may need to view The February 2010 Newsletter post on Sliptide.com in order view the streaming content)

Here are some clips of new music that is in progress! I have taken some of the house elements, melded them with my love of trance, added some of the Sliptide 'chill', and am serving a great sound this year in 2010.

Now on Soundcloud are some streaming versions of house music I have been working on from the end of 2009. While these songs take a more simple approach, I enjoyed working on these quite a bit and hope to bring some of them to a live audience this year. It has taught me quite a few things to add to my production and song writing tool belt.

Mit Freunden by  sliptide

Cold Hands, Warm Body by  sliptide

Dig Out Your Heart by  sliptide

Other Music Available

Here is a down and dirty list of other music made available in the recent months:

We Move Together EP | progressive house | Sliptide.com FREE DOWNLOAD
While My Lover Sleeps | progressive house | SoundCloud, streaming only
We've Been On Our Way | indie electronic | SoundCloud, streaming only
Aces High (Instrumental) | trip-hop | SoundCloud, streaming only

What frustrates me about the word, is that I am able to dabble in so many different styles and genres of music that I often find myself lost in the sea of house, trance, downtempo, hip-hop, indie, acoustic, ambient, chillout. Add the word "progressive" in front of any genre and you have a qualifier that adds another dimension of depth and connotation in the minds of electronic music fans everywhere.

Where do I fit in? What do I do best? Where should I be taking the Sliptide name? What should I aim to play to a live audience? Which music should I really focus on distribution and promotion? Should I target a niche and try to dominate it like so many articles, tips, and advice columns on the topic suggest?

Sometimes... I say.. 'Eff it.

A few key points that I have taken to heart and thought at great length about from 2009:

Jeff, my accomplice in Silver Standard, let a nugget of truth slip from his mouth that certainly applies to my habits in the studio: I produce in the styles I have been listening to most at the time. If I've been listening to a lot of house music, I end up producing house-influenced music (like the past 3 months since November). If I've been listening to a ton of downtempo and trip-hop, then I produce a number of those styled tracks (akin to the project work I'm trying to wrap up).  If I've had a balanced diet of music, I tend to pull from everything and make some genre blending styles that retain some charm of the "Sliptide" sound (chilled, technological, and flowing).

I hate to admit it, but I am mostly a chameleon when it comes to music production.  The only things that really force me to step outside of the flavors in my mouth are things like remix contests or collaborations with other musicians.

The other key piece of information spoken to me was that, "Music is its own reward."  It is something that took me by surprise because it happened to vocalize something I've felt for a very long time.  I often say, "I make music for the sake of making music." Which means that I make the music so that it exists and is available for everyone on the planet to hear if they discover it, seek it out, stumble upon it, etc. I don't make it for glory. I don't make it for money. I don't make it for fame. I make it because I enjoy making it and it is very much a part of my life. It is consistently rewarding to produce music that is pleasing to me, friends, family, and fans who have decided to continue listening to my productions in this lifetime. Such it is that, "music is its own reward".

Where does that lead us today? Why am I writing this long blog post about all of this? Frankly, I think I've come to a very beautiful realization about my production methods and my life as an artist (and future entertainer as I begin to play live shows).

The genre, or label, applied to my music is nothing more than a category that gives some loose feelings and concepts to my music before ears have truly listened to it. It's my job to let the world hear it and take my music for what it is. Whether they enjoy the genre I'm working in at the time or not, I have so much music inside of me that I appeal to so many different fans that will have to filter out the styles and sounds of mine they wish to incorporate into their listening diet.

Such it is that I will be releasing 1 album of a number of tracks that reach back into my catalog of productions from 2006 through 2009. The title is picked out, with 5 solid songs already completed and needing a round of mastering polish. The rest will be selections that round out the texture and emotion of the album. From house, to chillout, to downtempo, and veins of experimental (for me), I now feel obligated to show the world my cards. All of them.

It's also worthy to note I am back on track and actively thinking, writing, and working on music for the yester-year mentioned album containing a large number of trip-hop and downtempo works. More lyrics have been started, some completed, and a lot of the songs are coming together nicely. A teaser is in the works with 2 of the heavy-hitting tracks that will make their way in teaser form to SoundCloud.

Finally, the house music that has invaded my mind of the last part of 2009 and this first month of 2010 is going to trickle out in one way or another. I'm definitely shopping some of these songs around for any labels that are interested in releasing them as 1-offs on Beatport, Juno, or even vinyl release (which would be really flippin' cool!)

...and there you have it! That's what's up in my brain right now with music and what have you.  I hope to have some time carved out this weekend to get started on some of the demos and teaser tracks I want to post online.

2010 is going to kick major ass.

I don't have a lot of the new fancy equipment that is out there to help with taking Live! and mapping its controls to handy button grids, knobs, and faders. I'm doing this largely through a lot of personal configuration and applying knowledge I've learned myself and by reading or watching tutorials on the internet.

I really don't like the idea of having to swap MIDI channels on my knob/fader board because my knobs are bound to a 0-128 (I can't twist them forever).  I certainly need an out-of-studio upgrade to improve the usefulness of hardware.

The padKontrol is going to be an awkward beast while I am on Windows 7. The editor librarian still doesn't let me configure the device appropriately so I must boot into XP soon and re-do my configurations so that I can use the buttons. I don't mind changing channels on that devices in the middle of a performance. I think I will use it as a sample play/stop pad along with some 1-shot sample execution.

My keyboard is going unused at this point since I am taking my house tracks that I've produced in Reason and cutting them up into a bunch of samples I can play/stop and apply effects to in real time.  The first iteration of my live shows will be a lot of 'mixing' my own sounds together and knob-twisting effects into the mix. A hybrid-DJ set that is beat mixing my own music together.

I was pleased with a very early dry-run between two new house songs I recently produced. The flow of the tracks and the quality of sound was working well for me. There are a few things I need to iron out quality-wise (routing the mixes to the appropriate channels since I use a lot of ducking in these projects).

Once I get the template down, the sample packs set up per-song, and a good idea of what I'm going to do during these live shows (song progression, remixing, effects, additional samples), I am going to start doing some ustream/youtube recorded performances! I'm super excited.

I've been surprised by what I've heard by going through my project files, exporting things to Mp3, and listening to them on the go on my phone (I don't have an iPod or easy-to-manage mp3 player, but my Android phone rocks my socks for a music player!)

First up is a set of songs that I've had on my plate for entirely too long. They pre-date some of the work I've been doing for my next trip-hop and downtempo adventure.

"Breaking Horizons"
"Space & Time"
"Project 2"
"The Deep Trips"

All of those have appeared in some way, shape, or form in the project clips I had posted awhile back. There's even a YouTube video of me making the first bits of "Breaking Horizons".

These tracks are great and about 90% complete! I would *like* to see if anyone out there is interested in releasing them on a label, but if nothing comes of that after I shop around an EP, I will put them up on Sliptide.com and Soundcloud for listening enjoyment.

Then we come to the collection of tracks making their way on to "This Modern Depression", an album I've been working on for awhile. I still have a lot of writing and vocal work to do for this project, but I've found new inspiration and am very excited to continue working on these songs.

So far we have:

"Torch" - An anthem piece that carries a bit of emotion through it much like a Massive Attack track would.
"Grace" - originally appeared on my For the Cure 2008 breast cancer benefit album. The song will be deliciously re-mastered.
"Aces High" - Trip hop goodness with some organic instrumentation.
"Envisioning the West" - A shorter song with some dark overtones.. it's almost interlude-like, but stands on its own quite well.
" Conversation with the Passing" - A breakbeat styled track that has a lot of trip-hop influence a'la Sneaker Pimps, with a crazy glitch synth that I put together with manual warping on the x-y of the padKontrol.
"This Modern Depression" - Lyrics almost complete, and I'm very excited to knock this one out. It's dark, it's drippy, and it kicks major ass.
"You're Surrounded" - Thick beat and synth, has a bit of a hip-hop flair.
"Forward" - A direct cue from Massive Attack. I made this track awhile ago and have been fiddling with the EQ and mix-down to make it sound right. Some great trip-hop percussion and bass.
"Great Start 1" - Unnamed yet and still needs a lot of work, but more of an indie-styled track that I love in its awkwardness. It sounds kinda funky but has a charm to it that I want to share with everyone.
"1" - Then there's another project also needs a name, but the sounds are great! More downtempo and trip-hop goodness here to round out a great song list so far.

That makes 10 tracks. I don't know if there will be more than 10 songs on the album, but that's what I have going so far. There's a lot of work to be done, but I'm gaining ground and will post more tidbits and updates here on the website.

Lastly.. Here's the official count and word on the house music I've been making. I've sent 2 tracks via Soundcloud to a local label to see if they might be interested in working with me or having my music published through them-- I will probably solicit some additional labels once I get a proper press kit put together for this project.

"Mit Freunden"
"Tunnels"
"While My Lover Sleeps"
"Cold Hands, Warm Body"
"Ninety West"
"Bank Shot"
"Twelve Twelve"
"Moon Drop"
"Dig Out Your Heart"
"Constrictor"

Well the GOOD news is that I'm a few clicks away from nabbing the first set of short run CDs of the new Silver Standard self-titled LP. The disc contains the songs from "The Silver Standard EP" along with a few new tracks that our small group of fans should enjoy quite a bit.

There isn't really any BAD news, as might have been indicated by starting with the GOOD news.  I'm somewhat indecisive about how to progress with releasing some of my materials from the past 2 years.  /sigh

In the Sliptide world, I've had the continual battle in my head-space for those precious cycles that may be applied to music production: Do I make more house and techno styled stuff? Do I dive headlong into more experimental meets traditional production values? Where do I take my live sets?

One thing is for sure: I have 10 solid house (tech and progressive) songs that are sure to please most casual house fans. There is definitely a grain of "Sliptide" sound in there along with the 4 on the floor beats and 4 or 8 bar progressions.  The sounds are all programmed, and from what I've been hearing in the past years, sound fairly unique in their application to dance music. I'm thinking of this collection of songs, which deviates from what I've been doing in the past 5 years, as "a study of house music".

I'm going to open up here and admit that sometimes I feel cheapened by having been so excited and satisfied by making these tunes.  The progressions and arrangements are very distilled and simplified, but something has attracted me to them for some reason or another, so I must continue to remind myself that I'm not making this music in vain. It simply taps into a different area of techno/electronic music that I have always enjoyed since I was introduced to all things electronic as a kid.

It was pointed out to me that perhaps I'm making the house and trance music because it is in my comfort zone.  This is very likely.  The stuff makes me happy and is fun to 'throw together', so maybe I need to sit back down and really start hammering on some new-to-me sounds and styles, 'eh?

In other news, I've been casually posting photos to my Flickr account again. I caught up on some highlights throughout the past, erm, I want to say 2 or 3 years? Check them out and feel free to connect with me on Flickr if you want!

That's all for now. Have a wonderful week, everybody!

I'm an admirer of architecture, especially that of cities and urban environments.  I decided that I wanted to try my hand at a series of photos, and here is the first one that made the cut.  Taking these uprising photos from the bottom of tall buildings, regardless of the limitations of my camera (which was a point and shoot Pentax Optio A10), was pretty gratifying and enjoyable.

The second photo was taken a few months later in downtown Seattle.  Amy and I, if I'm remembering correctly, were walking about the city towards Platinum Records and found a great alleyway with a lot going on.

You can really see the distortion of my camera here, but I honestly enjoy the slight bend in the lower part of the photo since it does a great job drawing my eye upward yet forcing me to inspect the character of the window.