8 tracks (30 minutes) of psych/goth/dreampop. Tracked, edited, mixed, and mastered at Big Name. This was the final client session to take place at the Olympia location before my move to Colorado.
City of Industry – American Habits Are Hard to Break
City of Industry – American Habits Are Hard to Break
10 tracks (12 minutes) of crusty powerviolence. Drums tracked by Lorenzo Luna and Scott Asher at an unnamed studio. Guitars, bass, vocals, and samples tracked later at Big Name, where the EP was then edited and mixed. Mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege.
Morrow – The Weight of These Feathers
Morrow – The Weight of These Feathers
I engineered this album for Seattle’s Morrow. Midway through the recording process, I was asked to write and record my own basslines as well. They had a bass player when we first began tracking, but he dropped out of the project right before he was supposed to record his parts. As a result, I was asked to step in. I was given full creative freedom with my bass contributions.
The band spent three years composing and demoing these songs, and then one year in the studio with me recording the real deal. Being able to add my own spin to this album was a pleasure and I look forward to seeing what these guys go on to create in the future.
For people who enjoy melodic/progressive/atmospheric black metal.
No Clean Singing Exclusive Premiere: Morrow – The Weight of These Feathers
AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MORROW — “THE WEIGHT OF THESE FEATHERS”
Another review, this time accompanied by the full album stream. In case you haven’t seen the last two posts, I produced this recording and played bass on it. The album officially releases on July 21st.
Can This Even Be Called Music Exclusive Premiere: Morrow – Hiraeth
A second song from The Weight of These Feathers has been released with an exclusive stream, this time thanks to Can This Even Be Called Music?. As mentioned in the previous post, I produced this album and played bass on it. The full album releases on July 21st.
Heavy Blog Is Heavy Exclusive Premiere: Morrow – Elysium I
EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE: Enter Paradise With Morrow’s “Elysium I”
This was a nice surprise to find today. I produced this recording and played bass on it for my friends in Morrow. We worked on it throughout the entire last year.
As a side note, I’ve finished my work on 7 recordings since moving to Colorado in March and so far only one has seen its full release. So I have a slew of new stuff on the way. This one comes out July 21st and I’m super proud of it and excited to see it get out into the world.
Entresol – need(s)
9 tracks (35 minutes) of singer-songwriter noise crossover. Cassette noise, ambient sounds, and field recordings tracked by Entresol at The Urgus in Eugene, Oregon. Analog synth and programmed sound on Raindrops on Windowpanes tracked by Bushel in Eugene, Oregon. Vocals, violin, guitar, and additional noise tracked at Big Name. Edited, mixed, and mastered at Big Name.
Vague Wolf – Peekaboo
6 songs (13 minutes) of alternative rock/dream pop. Tracked, edited, mixed, and mastered at Big Name.
In addition to producing the recording, I had the pleasure of being asked to write and play both bass and drums for this album as a session musician.
No Clean Singing Review: Retail Monkey – ADD/Nihilism
Forever Playing Catch-Up (Part 1): Retail Monkey, Increate, Escher
“In spite of what the naysayers will tell you, I’m of the opinion that there’s an absolutely ridiculous amount of good metal releases coming out all the time, many of them coming from new groups or independent groups that we’re just now catching onto for the first time.
This lengthy round-up has been in the works for awhile, but I kept adding more and more to the list of what I wanted to cover, and that delayed it until now. The focus here is on releases that dropped in 2017 that haven’t been covered at NCS yet. We’ll run through a boatload of harsh and unorthodox black metal, mountains of mathcore, death metal of all stripes, a few technical grindcore acts, a ton of different prog-metal bands, some sick instrumental metal jams, and a whole lot more. Hopefully you will find something new you enjoy in each installment.
Once again, I have the fine folks at Mathcore Index to thank for showing me another band I felt compelled to cover, and this time it’s Retail Monkey.
While the name may be a tongue-in-cheek reference to feeling like a purposeless wage slave, I assure you the music is deadly serious and with a fierce brain-scrambling purpose to it, no less. Manic and unpredictable mathcore-fueled grind is the band’s preferred medium throughout ADD/Nihilism, though they also dabble in noisy moments, quirky synth flourishes, and oddball interludes, and they lace the songs with the occasional death metal and black metal influenced riff or black metal vocal part.
The story the band lay out on their Bandcamp regarding the writing and release of ADD/Nihilism is fascinating as well. The music found here was written by its members through tab-based MIDI software between 2004 and 2006, enabling them to “write whatever the hell we wanted with no limitations based on how ridiculous or unplayable it seemed to us”. “We never figured real, recorded versions would exist. After spending another decade making music, it was within reach.”
That batshit insane and frenetic vibe the band wrote so many years back shines through in the density of these songs in a way that, even now, feels fresh and new. Right now, ADD/Nihilism is certainly going to be one of my absolute favorite grind releases this year. Don’t miss out on this gem.
Bandcamp:
https://retailmonkey.bandcamp.com/album/add-nihilism ”
[read the rest of the article here!]
Thanks for the kind words, NCS!
City of Industry – EP
7 songs (6 minutes) of powerviolence/crust. Drums tracked by Lorenzo Luna and Scott Asher at an unnamed studio. Guitars, bass, vocals, and samples tracked later at Big Name, where the EP was then edited and mixed. Mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege.