It’s been a while since my last post! I’ve been busy with music and second-guessing myself (more on that later,) but I’m happy to announce the upcoming release of a new album, “Internal Reflection.”
In some ways I feel like it’s an iteration or refinement of many of the themes I began on “Metamorph,” trying to keep things fresh, unique and loose by intentionally choosing different techniques in the ideation process. Overall, it’s been an effective method for me. But I also found it leads to new decisions about where to draw the line in letting the natural strengths of the tools guide the music itself; at what point does my voice get lost in the endeavor to keep things creatively fresh? When it comes to creativity, I’m generally of the opinion that the artist should guide the tools, not the other way around. So in that regard I did try to find a balance, and I hope it comes across for my long-time listeners.
Despite my confidence in technique, I ran into a lot of hesitation and second-guessing myself with this album. Listening to tracks over and over, looking for improvements to make or trying with futility to reevaluate them with an objective ear, which ultimately only serves to entrench them further into my mind as immutable blocks.
For some time, I considered releasing two separate albums to deal with the disparity between the frustration-fueled high energy noise of tracks like “Crystallovore” and “Disinformation Filter,” and the calmer, equanimous tracks like “Decoherence” or “Chromatic Dispersion,” inspired both by the geometric and physical interactions of light and my explorations in mindfulness meditation. In between those extremes are tracks like “Five Constellations” or “Faceted Multidimensional,” which I feel ride the line between the two and are clear candidates for inclusion, but perhaps not enough on their own, or would come off as tiresome and homogenous with a similar energy level for an hour+ listening experience.
When I finished “Metamorph” I had a loose goal of forming a tighter sound for my next release – something more conceptual and unified, centered around a predefined theme. While “Internal Reflection” eventually coalesced into something vaguely representing that, it still feels more like a collage of thoughts, ideas, dreams and emotions I’ve made attempts to express musically over the last couple of years. While in a sense my personal metric for evaluating my own work is centered upon my enjoyment of it, I sincerely hope there are aspects that are effectively communicated through such an ephemeral medium and resonate with you as well.
“Internal Reflection” will release on Bandcamp, Spotify, Soundcloud and other streaming services on 6/7/22.
In the meantime, I’ll also share some other iterations of the album art I put together before arriving at the final. These were created using 3ds max, Arnold Render, TyFlow, Photoshop and Processing. I tried to find a balance between busy detailed chaos and negative space, emphasizing colorful reflections in synthetic structures, while also being mindful of the overall composition and the fact that most listeners will only see it as a tiny, compressed thumbnail.
Josh Barnett 
(putting this part first so i dont totally freak you out) anyway. not like my following jabberwockey has much to do with the new record really. uh. the first song sounds nice. several songs have that (aerith?) final fantasy vibe. theres even a funk track! the sound is still the overall darkhalo themes. so its not incredibly innovative. not that my ears pick up much of your effort.
hey. you know who. except changing my name more times than fatboy slim, i also change the genders of the names (or no gender at all). anyway, lying sucks. i only listened a lot to your music, for maybe.. 5 years? after that, i got a proper record collection (finding / listening to varied music online all day – even on ones own computer, is sort of impossible). i tried to listening to your music recently, but id listened so much, so i moved on to liquid dnb mixes on youtube, like, non-stop.
your new songs sound like theyre devoid of emotion, starting with allure (where i only really liked L2U). i cant really put my finger on why. i guess i got spoiled with your early style. i also ruined my ears so long ago, that except for some choice years, ive only really listened with the laptops built-in speakers (how ive produced music too, my early records some dude called “i like bad music” listened to, and not many else). so i guess i lose out on 90% of the sound / detail. and back in the days, it was some cheap soundblasters.
i tried loading up screamtracker once, and you basically have to be an engineer to use it. how you made songs with that, i just dont understand. anyway, thanks for introducing me to dnb. i cant really relate to time though. as for effort vs AI. just look at digital cameras. you can point it at something, and get an amazing image, especially if you HDR process the images, which can largely be done automatically.
oh and, luckely enough, i lost my ableton live email address / password. so ive been downloading trials over and over. and the sounds it produces nowadays is just amazing, even without tweaking anything (“it sounds like vinyl!”). to this day, i still havent found any quality ableton music. no idea where it hides. youve heard grimes i suppose? shes like your old style, but with lyrics. so been listening lots to that. phase shift was good. i mean, spending most of the time on a banger, while the rest of the record being ambient, was an original idea. one day, on a public computer, i listened to the first track, well.. all day.
something odd, really odd. last year, my missus left me, giving me a really strong dmt psychosis in the process. your previous record for awhile was called metamorphosis, and it was so detailed. then i made the review, and stupidly called it “metamorph”, and then your whole record changed. im not even sure youre aware of this. i guess you are though. but i dunno. i mainly just hang out at bitchute all day now. i guess youve taken the jab? i mean, what cyberpunk wouldnt want to? you made art about that in the 00s already. maybe you have a better chip, even.
oh and im not really that big of a fan. of all youve written, about music you like and all, i never really read it. just copied/pasted to the fansite. i hated reading before. i mostly just prefer writing, all day. have given up music and photoshop. it just makes me so mentally drained, its not worth it. all i wanted was for someone to appretiate me, and i had that for awhile finally, then i got bored of creativity.
oh. with that song “a spiral of loneliness and desire”, i wondered in my delerium if you really have a family. i also got this vision some year ago, which was you, and your bestie. you were like 5 years, and one of you had a gun. well, it was only 1 image which flashed by quickly. maybe it wasnt you. didnt seem like something youd want to remember though. i mean, not even immortal technique hasnt rapped about something like that. he was 13 when dance with the devil happened, after all. so youre more hardcore than him, and, uhm.. so am i. unfortunately. the most angelic being ive ever seen, was some ladyfolk, talking short and to the point about mk ultra – so shed obviously been through that treatment. bummer it has to be like that.
i know for a fact, from all bitchute info, that the first vaccine i got closely after being born, made me autistic. my new bestie, said that she wondered what it was like in the old ages. i mean, not like conservatives, wanting how it was in the 1800s. but more like.. the stone ages. all this evolution is an illusion. i know this one woman, who downloaded my entire akashic library records into her conciousness. no tech needed.
anyway. its neat you still make music and art, to this day. and that you didnt sell out. although dnb has. with au5’s “pop and bass”. sigh..
for generative art, you should zoom out too, to see that it still looks good that way. i did an experiment that way, in the old days, with different sized noise on several layers with random opacity maps. you can, uh.. get lost.. in the.. details.. uh, nevermind! ^_^
as for the final art.. which one is it? the first and last looks like a cybernetic turtle. cool! and id loved a mix between 2 and 3, like a heart thats breaking apart. or, has broken apart, and healed / still beats. and the first ones “turtle arms” reminds of snes star fox art style. neat! having a (slow) animation in that style for the entire album length would have been cool. i guess its a lot of work though. it would start with just particles, then slowly change to a diamond thats beating, then maybe go back to the beginning. i like it like that. harmony. minimum emotion. except for.. calm. and slow thoughts, slowly unravelling in spacetime (or the energy continuum that existed before the big bang). stay enlightened! keep crystalizing your conciousness!
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