Here is a metal mix I made in 2009. Not much to say about this, other than I think it rocks (obviously), so here is the tracklisting! :

Fear Factory – Resurrection
American Head Charge – Just So You Know
Killswitch Engage – My Last Serenade
Slipknot – (SIC)
Nine Inch Nails – We’re In This Together Now
White Zombie – Electric Head Pt 1
Strapping Young Lad – Home Nucleonics
Eluveitie – Bloodstained Ground
Satyricon – K.I.N.G.
Opeth – The Lotus Eater
Tool – Third Eye
Carcass – Inpropagation
Kreator – War Curse
Slayer – War Ensemble
Tankard – The Horde
Lamb Of God – Requiem
Pantera – The Great Southern Trend Kill

Enjoy

Ok so, there is nothing significant to this phrase other than I was asked to put it on my blog to sign up to a “get paid to review our products on your blog” service.

I will see if i can do something like this on my site to make some money, ONLY if I dont have to put horrid adverts everywhere…

To be continued…

I’ve always been a big fan of Devin Townsend’s work, and Storm (From the album Accelerated Evolution) is no exception. Covering a Devy track is no easy job, there is absolutly no point in doing a straight cover, as the original is as near to perfect as it will ever be. No, so I wanted to pay tribute by looking at this song from a slightly different angle. There is a certain irony to an acoustic and gentle cover of storm which is not lost on me. But I really found the lyrics to this particular song quite relevant to my own personal life situations right now. So here is version 1 of this cover. This particular recording is meant as a sketch, for me to later re-visit and develop some more. As it stands right now, its just two guitars, one is finger picking harmonics on the 12th fret (which I used for keeping time), and the other is finger picking the song chords.
I actually cheated with the guitars, as I didnt know how many times it needed to go round. So i recorded them once, edited, and looped. Heheh! The vocals were done ultra falestto because my parents were asleep, so I couldnt do them properly without waking them up. Whilst they are a bit flat in places (falsetto isnt my forté), there is a certain fragility to them which I do like. Perhaps when I have another go at paying tribute to this song, I’ll get them down better. As it stands now, there is 4 vocal tracks. 2 of each octave hard panned to each side.

Anyway… have a listen to this, then go listen to the Devin Townsend Band version, and see how it is MEANT to be done!

Peace!

This track I’m really happy with. It is just a stones throw from 18 minutes long, and I have an idea yet to add to it (which will be quite difficult to add because this track was not recorded to a click beat due to the irregular time signature). So far there is no lyrics written, but I plan to do this in the future. About the title, I asked on a forum for someone to come up with a name for the song, and my friend jef came up with this suggestion which I immediatly loved (cheers Zel!).

Update : Lyrics written!

Why don’t we ever know what lies ahead, awaiting?
Why can’t we ever do what we need to do to avoid it?
These are the questions we ask ourselves in hindsight…
These are the answers we seek to know… were we right?

Why is it we are judged by our decisions?
Surely we should be judged by our regrets!
How can we not respond to our feelings?
At quarter to guilt, we all know how we felt…

Bad, Mad, Sad…
Or were we glad?

It’s all about me, in my chemistry, can’t you see?
Didn’t know what to do, I couldn’t see it through…
And now it’s done, so many things went wrong…
And I still don’t know what to do, I still can’t think it through…

Cos I feel bad, mad, sad…
You feel bad, mad, sad…

Previous Version :

[See post to listen to audio]

Version 1 – Guitars only
Version 2 – Vocals added
Version 2.1 – Slightly more pleasant mix, nothing new added.
Future versions requires keyboards, ,more lyrics, vocal harmonies and general awesomeness…

Here is a work in progress mix done using Mixmeister and some MP3s.

Chasing Shadows – ILL (Original Mix)
Pendulum – Showdown (Excision Remix)
Stagga – Face Gets Splat
Ultrablack – The Naughty One
The Prodigy – Take Me To The Hospital (Rusko Remix)
Rusko – Woo Boost
Rob Sparx – Sour Grapes
DZ – Bless Up
Reso – If Ya Can’t Beat Em (Original Mix)
Rob Sparx – Attack Of The Wobble (Original Mix)
16 Bit – Can You Show Me What Head Is
Bjork – Dull Flame Of Desire (Modeselektor’s Remix For Boys)
Datsik – Nuke ‘Em
Sukh Knight – Diesel Not Petrol
Trolley Snatcha – The Future
Fissure Price – King Koopah
Orbatek – Machete
Nero – This way
Cadenza – Punks
Excision – Calypso Ft. Datsik

This is just a sketch of an idea which will eventually be a massive sounding song. I want to make it longer if i re-record it, and make it build and build, re-arranging the theme which I’ve written here. As with my last couple of tracks, this is written in open C tuning, which I’m finding real fun to play with. I like how this one is going.

Older Versions

[See post to listen to audio]

Version 1 – Guitars and Percussion only.

Version 2 – Added Keyboards and Vocals

Version 3 – Added Lead Guitar

Here is a new track I been working on recently, Its still in its embryonic stage. It was written and recorded on acoustic guitar in open C tuning (thanks Devin Townsend for the inspiration!). I got nothing to say about the lyrics, they say it all…

Older versions

[See post to listen to audio]

Version 1 – Guitars and Vocals only.

Version 2 – Added Keyboards and extra Guitars.

Version 3 – Added some Percussion.

The track title of this song was inspired by living in a flat which had absolutly no heating available. I was freeeeezing in my flat whilst making this track, and I really could see my own breath. The song kind of sounds cold and desolate too. It fits, I think!

The song title for this track is inspired by the toothache I had during the making of this track. The ambient crowd noise was randomly recorded in my old flat when i had a lot of people around chilling and socialising. I really like this song.

Another title which was inspired by living in a noisy house! The music itself though is quite chilled. I like this track. It kinda reminds me of Shpongle in a way, although it was accidental. Check it out!

This is another track I worked on with Robbie Morris, who is Rhubarb as well as RiUvEn. Robbie did a lot of cutting of samples using Audacity, making the cool scratch effects and also he did the vocals. I did the music bits with Sony Acid. This was another session made because of having no internet in the house we lived in! I like this one. Check it!

Doing vocals in Pete’s flat

Doing vocals in Pete’s flat

What can we sing? I don’t know…

What can I sing now? I don’t know…

Giz a toke on the spliff!

On the spliff!

Thankyou Pete!

Thankyou Pete!

Ahh ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Ahh ha ha ha ha!

This mix is my personal fave I think. I wanted to do a mix with Spongle’s Divine moments of truth on it, and that kinda shaped what the other tracks would be. I can’t remember the complete tracklist though, but I know it contains Erik Satie remix, Shpongle, Fly Agaric, Bamboo Forest, Underworld, some music from the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Crying Freeman OST’s, samples from The Matrix, Fifth Element, The Shining plus more. Anyway, enjoy!

I made this mix quite a while ago, so it lacks a lot of the later tracks from them, but features some of the best moments on the first 4 Infected Mushroom albums. The first song in this mix is definatly NOT Infected Mushroom, it was my mistake when i made this mix! I used Mixmeister (version 3 I think) to make this mix, so it’s not a “Live” mix, its totally premeditated! Enjoy!

Back when I lived in a flat in Liverpool, I lived underneath a guy called Robbie who was a musical talent in himself. He managed to get quite famous on the internet with his music under the name of “RiUvEn“. One night there was no internet throughout the house, so Robbie and I sat down and chilled out making this song. Robbie put some hilarious rapping over some beats I threw together on acid, and this song was the result. I don’t know if non Liverpool people will understand all the lyrics, but they are really funny! Robbie actually took the lyrics from some of his other tracks I think. Ive definatly heard them used elsewhere! Enjoy!

[See post to listen to audio]

I fell in love with this track when I first heard it on the game “Fallout 3″ (An awesome game, by the way!) and immediatly wanted to learn how to play it on the guitar. Of course, the song originally was not played on the guitar, but it didn’t matter much to me. When I recorded this, it was much slower and without any effects, but technology today allows me to manipulate this, so the track was sped up (without changing the pitch) and made slightly more rocky. I like it, but I still prefer the original version more! This version took me 10 minutes to make. It was done just for fun.

[See post to listen to audio]

This track is my favourate from all the Protracker mods I made, and took the longest to code (I think I spent a few months on this one). Originally it was made as 2 parts due to the limitations of my Amiga’s memory and floppy disk space, however, the 2 parts are joined together here. I always wanted to one day make this track with real instruments, because I like the melodies and progession and I can see some potential with it (although I never got the time to actually do this). Listen, enjoy it or hate it, I dont really mind which!

[See post to listen to audio]

I don’t really know what to say about  this track. I didnt really have anything in mind when I made it, I just had this idea on the guitar which i really liked which was kicking around in my brain for a while. I was over in Austria, in Innsbruck at my girlfriend’s flat when I recorded the original version which is below this post (The noise you hear right at the very beginning of the recording is the sound of my girlfriend putting some pans in the cupboard). When I had finished recording it, I knew I liked it, but it wasnt complete enough. So when I got back to the UK, I started recording a new version (which is at the top of this post). Its slower, has a different feeling, and also different parts in it. I must admit, the vocals were made up on the spot (thats how the track got its name) as I dont find it easy to write lyrics. One day, ill write more lyrics for it, and change the song a bit more.  For now, its an embryonic idea, waiting for the day when it blooms into something great.

Silence (Original Version)

[See post to listen to audio]

[See post to listen to audio]

I don’t feel the need to openly talk about what (or who) this song is about, it matters not anymore. But I will say that it was part of a healing process which I went through. This song has also had a few versions. Unfortunatly I cant seem to find version 1 anymore, (which was an incredibly short version with no guitars). I suppose I could recreate it, but there is little point. Below are 2 other versions of this track, both of which have different guitar recordings to this more recent version at the top. Also, one of these earlier versions has no bass guitar on it. This track seems to have a few different styles of music on it. Suffice to say, I think this track sounds like 3 different songs pushed together to make one song. That wasn’t the intention, it just ended up that way. The most recent version is version 4, I think.

You Make Me Hate You So Much (Early Versions)

[See post to listen to audio]

[See post to listen to audio]

This track “Chaotic Landscape” is probably my favourate that I have made so far, infusing a mix of electronic beats and guitars. It is also a track that has been altered many times during its development, and to this day I still consider it to be unfinished. Below, I will also show versions of this track as it was during early stages of development. If i make a new version of this track, it will go at the top of the page here, and the version it replaces will join the other versions below. So far it seems that the most recent version of Chaotic Landscape is at version 8.

Chaotic Landscape (Older versions)

[See post to listen to audio]

As you can see, apart from the first two versions of this song which are actually very different recordings, the other versions are very similar to the most recent version. The only diffences between them are very slight (for example an extra part was added on each version, or the version got extended slightly).

I hope you enjoy!