Salutations party people and a belated "Happy New Year"! I been pretty dormant on my production blog, and even my production in 2k11... was so busy touring with the home Random that i had my lowest beat output in 10 years! So that was my #1 new year's resolution in terms of music- make LOTS of new beats, which subsequently means MORE projects! Already, I'm off to a nice start and felt like i should share with you loyal fans what exactly you can expect from me & Neosonic Productions in 2012, so here we go...
Hey guys & gals, here's the latest episode of SS Instros... hopefully i can try and get back on track with an episode EVERY month in 2k12... fingers crossed ;)
I'M BACK!!! Actually been back for a few weeks and trying to catch up after 8 weeks away is a mutha!@#$%, but one thing that happened while i was out on the road was my Soundcloud inbox was overflowing with new music! So naturally in an effort to "catch-up' on episodes, i am planning 3 more for the remainder of the year including this November one! As usual, you download the episode from the Subsoniq website HERE!
One cool way myself and fellow beatsmiths DN3 & Lost Perception kept sharp production-wise while on the road recently was via the competition Random dubbed "The Beat-Off"... PAUSE! lol. Basically, Ran picked out a sample, in this case it was the lesser known instro track "Let's Get Away" from the classic Beach Boys' album Pet Sounds and each of us went to work creating our own beat out of it. The time limit was 24 hours, which sometimes is not enough for me as i'm very meticulous in my production- to the point i can spend hours just milling over whether to use ONE particular sound! But i guess pressure can be a good thing as this is what i turned out...
This track came out so good, that Raw Poetic is penning a new Panacea song to it as we speak! Stay tuned for that and the other songs created using Lost & DN3's respective tracks; Those will be available when myself & Ran present the official release for "The Beat Off" Vol. 1 ;) Make sure to subscribe to The Neosonic News Feed to find out when it drops!
K
Back after a month hiatus with the latest in instrumental hip-hop! Apologies on the delay, was overseas in the UK touring for 2 weeks in July and managed to thankfully get out before the riots broke out! Anyway, i think this may be my best show yet and thanx to all the artists who submitted music; As i stated in this episode, i dont have the time anymore to post individual albums up on Strictly Beats, SO please consider whatever i include in the mix as a co-sign as i don't play it if i don't like it! ;)
Enjoy & keep the beats comin' to: soundcloud.com/Neosonix/dropbox
K
Been crazy busy finishing production & mixes for my forthcoming EP The Ronin as well as the 2nd DLC installment for Forever Famicom, but the thing that's most kept me away from blogging the last couple weeks is the complete overhaul i did on my company's website! And when i say i did it, i mean I DID IT myself using this very dope site called Virb.com. i dont know squat about designing anythign but sound, yet somehow it came out pretty fly... at leats to me ;)
Been on the road the last week so i been slacking on posting any new productions up, but i got a joint i wanna share that was too befitting for this beautiful Saturday here in Florida- where i currently am doing shows with the homie Random.
Sorry for the delay on posting about this yall, been beyond busy finishing mixes for future projects, preparing for some touring with Mega Ran and completing the major & (hopefully the final) update of the Neosonic Productions website! Even with all that going on, i had to make sure i got the latest episode of SS Instros up for you all to check out if you haven't already! This month i featured the homie Bob42jh's recent compilation Fallen Skies, which you can download for FREE here! Enjoy the show & spread the word...
K
So myself & Random have once again launched a Kickstarter campaign, this time with the goal to raise funds to go perform at the UK's biggest anime convention- The London Anime Con. We soft-launched the campaign last Friday and when i woke up Saturday morning after a show with Ran, to my surprise/delight, we had, via the graciousness of a backer named "Beaker" who copped our ULTIMATE FAN PACKAGE, reached our goal! However, the plan is to take an entourage of fellow artists, namely producers of Random, to the UK and thus I'm here to tell you all about one of the really cool levels of backing available which involves 1 lucky fan receiving my very own Akai MPC 2000XL!
It only took me 2 months to edit all the footage myself & Random accrued while on the road earlier this year, but i managed to put together a cool little music video for our song "Thank You For Listening". This marks my video directorial debut, lol, and overall i'm happy with the product and actually amped to collect more footage so i can do another one soon! I'd be remiss not to shout out the following people: Storyville aka the short dude with the headphones who is a dope producer/emcee/engineer in his own right; Larry aka "The Count" for handling the camera work and being an awesome tour manager; And of course all the people we met and kicked it with in Austin @ SxSW & Chicago @ C2E2... as well as all our fans around the world... thank YOU for listening. Enjoy!
K
So before thoughts of doing Forever Famicom with Mega Ran emerged, my first real foray into taking video game music and re-mixing/purposing it as hip-hop songs was on The American Gamer album.
So this year marks the 5 year anniversary of Panacea's first commercial release Ink is My Drink and due to the amount of requests we got over the years from fans about the album's availability on CD, i have decided to take it upon my myself and repress the record on CD but as a special "Producer's Cut" version.
I love ninjas… and i love video games about ninjas… so its no question that i love me some Ninja Gaiden! Part 3 looks dope, and i’m just glad they finally added stealth kills- kinda ridiculous that Ryu is so much of an aggressor in most combat situations, since the ninja arts preach acting passive and stealthily most times!?! But regardless, the franchise has always been one of my favorites based on the fabled “shadow warriors”; Thus this game is indeed a “must cop situation” for me! I just wish From Software would make a new Tenchu ;)
K
Shouts to the homie Chris Flocco for doing this amazing art design for my latest solo project- Hero Muzik Vol. 1; Basically, i took Nobuo Uematsu’s themes of the 14 heroes from my personal favorite of the Final Fantasy franchise, part 6, and remixed them “neosonic” style ;) In an effort to pay homage to the game’s character designer, Yoshitaka Amano, Chris used his art as a reference but naturally adapted it to fit the theme of my project… and viola- came out too dope! If you want to actually hear the music this art was used for, go HERE!
K
New Resident Evil trailer for part 6 ! I feel old, as the first one dropped 15 years back while i was in high school; I remember playing it with one of my best friends and both geeking out when the cinematic of the first zombie munching on some brains appears! As long as Capcom doesn’t bring back the Hunters in this one, i’m good!
K
I’m late getting hip to this, but saw it on IGN’s list of “Most Anticipated Games” for PS3 this year, and was floored by the video! First off, I’m a big fan of Hayao Miyazaki & his Studio Ghibli films; 2ndly, i totally respect what Level 5 has done in their past JRPGs, so them together may just help revive the dying genre since Western role-playing games seem to have taken over and rightfully so, as they have gotten really good the last few years! Anyway, though the game looks kiddy a la some Nintendo Wii ish, i hope the story is good with the aforementioned parties involved, plus the art & animation look so dope that i’ll definitely have to throw it in the Gamefly que when it drops;)
Agent 47 in New Vegas: Closest I could get to his signature black suit, but no red tie :( (Taken with instagram)
Btw- through he may not look the part, the weaponry is spot on… Trust.
K
Assassins Creed’s Ezio Auditore in Skyrim? Oh yeah! (Taken with instagram) I’m obsessed with creating known characters in my playthroughs of games like Fallout & The Elder Scrolls so I’ll post pics of my builds up here ;)
K
The homie Mega Ran called this a “productivity killer” and boy he’s right, been playing this Abobo’s Big Adventure game the last hour and am addicted! What great nod to classic NES & 8-bit gaming; Plus- a great way to reinvent one of the cheapest bosses in gaming history, lol. If you like the trailer, go to site HERE and get nostalgic!
K
Akai debuts #2 of their 3 new MPC products and this one looks more like direct competition to new Native Instruments’ Maschine. I need to wait ti ll i see more of these new controllers i nation at NAMM but again as an avid MPC user for over 10 years, I’m happy to see Akai back in the game Anyone else thinking about copping?
K
I’m workin’ on this new instrumental series called Hero Muzik where i take the themes from the protagonists of my favorite RPGs and flip them! Vol. 1 had to be my favorite of the Final Fantasy series (thus far)- FF 6, which was titled #3 here stateside. The reason why i chose this game for the first installment of my new series was mainly for the reason it’s my fave of the FF universe- it had mad playable characters, 14 to be exact, and they all had gr8 stories OR were just cool- i.e. GoGo the Mimic! Anyway, I’m thorough on my research so i had to fire up my old Super Nintendo emulator and play a bit of the game… always loved this opening scene- so cinematic!
K
Free download featuring myself & the rest of the Subsoniq crew’s (KB, DQ & Gangsta Mittens) picks for what we think were the best albums 2011 had to offer! Peep the playlist below & please spread the word…
K
Subsoniq – Best Albums of 2011 – Play List **album names in asterisks**
Uh-Oh.. they’re BAAACCCKKKK! I’m so geeked to find out more and actually get my hands on these pads as though i love my Native Instruments Maschine, my MPC 2000xl held me down and got me where i am at as a producer for over 10 years! Bout time Akai gets back in the competition as they originated this game; I was getting nervous they had thrown in the towel and were satisfied just selling rehashes of Korg’s midi controllers ;)
K
From one of my favorite episodes of Robot Chicken on Adult Swim spoofing one of my favorite directors- M. Knight Shymalan… well, he used to be until he made that movie with the cheapest special fx in movie history, u know the one where “nature” attacked!?! He also ruined one of my favorite cartoon series with his film adaptation of The Last Airbender, but he’s still twisting… i mean trying ;)
K
Was in the mood to play some games- retro games, so I fired up the SNES emulator app on my Mac and found one i hadn’t seen/played in almost 20 years- Rushing Beat! I can’t believe i thought this game was actually dope at one point, its a blatant rip-off the classic side scrolling beat-em-ups like Final Fight & Streets Of Rage…or at least Jaleco’s failed attempt at making one of those games. Sporting horrible hit-detection, repetitious thugs to the Nth degree & a cast of characters that look like the Village People… this game was a sureshot FAIL! ROM = delete… SPAK!
K
Tell me this doesn’t look like a bunch of Final Fantasy characters escaped out a game and made a music video! Even with Kanye West on production & a featured verse, i just can’t successfully bridge the gap between east & west on this one! Plus the video really doesn’t make any since compared to the song’s subject matter… i mean what the hell are they doing, summoning an esper through interpretative dance? LOL!!!!!!
K
My girl’s parents got this for me for Xmas ;) Definitely going in the studio! (Taken with instagram)
Check this out… its pretty dope! Shouts to my lil’ bro Damu for making one of my favorite remixes ever.. and it just so happens to be for my group Panacea ;)
K
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance details, screens
Konami has now outlined the direction the upcoming action title Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and is detailing those behind it.