Preview: Ascension

Happy New Year all!

I just wanted to take a moment to share a tune I started back in December.

Ascension (clip) by Snug

You might call this a sort of tribute to ASC (hence the name), if only because I'm using several samples from his sample pack (check it out!)

Thursday Throwback - December 8, 2011

Well here it is. The last throwback. I had wanted to put together a mix of all (or most) of the tracks that I had "thrown back" over the last year, but I'm out of town and the hotel wifi is so brutally slow that it probably would have taken 12 hours just to download the tracks to my laptop. I'll save this for another day.
Instead I've summoned my inner nerd (the same as my outer nerd, but slightly nerdier) to perform some data entry and mining. Here is a breakdown of throwbacks by genre:

Here's the same thing in a word cloud:

acid breakbeat demo downtempo drum & bass house pop rock scene techno tv vgm

Overall I think this is pretty indicative of where my musical interests lie, or at least did if you were to take a cross-section of what I listened to up until 2007 (the youngest throwback), with some bias towards to the latter part of this period.
Notable exceptions include metal and punk. While I did listen to these in my youth, they never really stuck with me, so I guess I felt less inclined to throw them back.
Other interesting but ultimately useless statistics:

• Average throwback age: 13 years
• Estimated percentage of throwbacks written in my underpants: 79
• Throwbacks that I didn't feel like writing but did anyways because I felt an obligation: 5

So there you have it. If this whole exercise serves no other purpose at least Google now knows what kind of music I like (as if they didn't already). You're welcome, internet...

Thursday Throwback - December 1, 2011

Happy December folks (though you wouldn't know it if you're on the East Coast - the mercury was well above zero today).

I spent the day in Centre-of-nowhere-ville again and was listening to techno and house pretty much the whole way there and back. It's been a while since I had a good listening session and it totally jogged my memory about one of my - if not my all-time - favourite deep house tracks.

When I first discovered this track I went overboard and "over"-listened to it, hence why I had totally forgotten about it until now, but I think I'm ready to start including it in my semi-regular rotation once again!

I would go so far as to call this a masterpiece of deep house. It's masterfully arranged and has pretty much everything I want to hear in a deep house track: a funky bassline, lots of space and texture, subtle rhythms, smooth transitions and a gradual build up to an excellent hook.

For me it's right up there with one of my other all-time favourites, "Deep Breath" by Nick Curly c. 2007 (perhaps a bit too new to throw-back, however).

"Le Champagne" by Trentemøller c. 2003. Enjoy!



P.S. next week is the last official throwback. I hope to prepare something special, time permitting, although I just found out I'm going to be in Tennessee for the better part of the week! Fingers crossed I can find the time.

Thursday Throwback - November 24, 2011

This week's throwback goes out to my Mario Kart crew - the many adversaries I've faced off with in the original SNES Mario Kart battle mode since it was released in 1992. Just off the top of my head: Chris P, Mike P, Jordan L, Anne B, Amanda, Keri, Sasha L, Denis T, Bruno C, James B, Jamie R, James S, and many more I'm sure I'm forgetting. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing: keep on kartin', yo!

I have no idea how many hours I've listened to this track. It's gotta be in the hundreds. The great thing about the original Mario Kart soundtrack is that synth bass sample... bow bow buh-buh-buh bow... that never gets old!

Mario Kart (SNES) - battle mode, c. 1992:



And now for a sad announcement: December 9th marks the the 1 year anniversary of Thursday Throwback. It will also mark the last.

I originally started doing this as a promotional tool to increase readership on my blog and ultimately get the word out about my music. From that perspective it's been largely unsuccessful. Perhaps I've not been doing enough to promote it - I am often guilty of that.

Regardless, I've enjoyed chronicling the music of my past and will continue to post old tracks as they pop into my head, just not necessarily on Thursdays.

Enter Arcadia

It is with great excitement that I announce my newest project, Arcadia:

Arcadia is the brain-child of Adam McLellan (Snug) and James Spray (The WAX). Fueled by a common love of sci-fi, video games and new music the two started collaborating in 2011. Their ideas explore the collision of electronic music with the more conventional genres of rock and pop, resulting in volatile musical experimentation that is as gritty as it is easy to listen to. Watch for their debut EP in early 2012.

We’ve been exploring a lot of interesting ideas - often pushing one another to venture outside of our comfort zones which is always a good way to foster creativity.


Our debut show (as it stands) is March 22nd @ The Capital in Fredericton, NB, but we’ll likely make a debut in Halifax sometime over the Winter if we can find an appropriate venue.


We actually have enough for an EP now but want to let the material mature a little bit before releasing it officially. In the meantime you can find a couple demos on our SoundCloud page and we'll be posting more over the next couple of months.

Latest tracks by Arcadia Sound

If you like what you hear then please click the “Like” button over on our Facebook page.

Thursday Throwback - November 17, 2011

When I was in grade 4 or 5 I wrote a rap song about being abducted by aliens. I guess you could say it was the first song I ever wrote.


There was no music per se, only a drum beat and a little spaceship-esque sound, both courtesy of my Yamaha PSS-280. Unfortunately I can't remember the last little bit so you'll just have to make something up on the fly.

I really wanted to make a music video for this but it never materialized - I simply can't imagine the amount of success and fame I would have seen if it had!

Young me, approx 1990 (imagine spaceship sounds wherever you see "..."):

I was walking one day, to get to the mall
When I looked up in the sky and saw something small
It came down low and it began to grow
And to my surprise it was a U.F.O.
U... F... O...

That night when it was all over
I went to my friend’s for a sleep-over
I saw it again that very night
It was so bright, I almost lost my sight
U... F... O...

A man came out ???
???
He gave me a tag and shoved me in a bag
And took me away to outer space
U... F... O...

If you come up with something clever for the end do let me know.

Thursday Throwback - November 10, 2011

Going to explore some new territory this week with a TV throwback. If you don't know this one you must have been in hibernation between the years of 1988 and 1995, when this theme song was on the air. (The show itself is still on but they've changed the theme. Blasphemy!)

As far as creepy theme songs this one destroys them all, hands down. I mean this makes the X-Files theme sound like a leisurely stroll with a loved one on a brisk Fall evening. It makes the Tales The Crypt theme sound like some kind of crazy, but enjoyable, medieval circus.

As a musical piece I think this thing is just brilliant. Sure the sounds may be dated but if you can look at past that I'm sure you'll agree. I imagine this is the sort of things zombies would play if they threw parties (... who says they don't?)

To be honest I had completely forgotten about this tune until just last week. I was working on an arrangement with Mr. James Spray of The WAX and he was describing this sound that went "waaaanh eeennh", and I was like "that's so totally the sound in the Unsolved Mysteries theme song!" (and also the sound my cat just made at me)