ACROSS the desert and into the jungle we go.
Sun on your back so hot your skin bubbles up.
Sand like broken glass under your feet.
Hands like claws gripping your FN FAL.
Finger on the trigger.
Get in the game.
Steal a boat.
It’s kill kill kill.
Alpha rule.

The Journey of a Drug Smuggler in 17 glorious tracks mixed for you by Salvatron.

Alt download links:
ZShare
RapidShare

Track Listing:
DJ Zinc – Take me with you (feat. Katy B)
Lynx and Maple – Shaku
2DB – Starsign
Serum – Ammo Drop
Q Project – Credit Crunch
Alix Perez – Crooklyn
Heist – Ambush
Jangala – Eastern Grove
Kjell – Climate Change
Naibu – Nami Island
Out of Order – Ghost
Taxman – Unreal
Zero Tolerance & Mosus – Run Time
Vendetta & Barber & Bad Kid – More Gun
Aphrodite – Pure Columbian
Chris SU & TC1 & Stress Le – Final Cut
Camo & Krooked – The Fear

Halloween Castle

You’ll find this new mix to be a bit more on the evil side, featuring some classic scary and creepy tunes for you to feel spooked by. If you listen to the mix, let me know what you think in the comments.

http://vodpulse.com/misc/halloween-09-mix.mp3

Enjoy. Happy Halloween! Post your costume photos in the comments as well.

A new track for Jubilee, recorded live with Christopher Grant Ward in San Francisco.  I think the final track will be arranged pretty differently, but this shows the general structure.

Mission

Plaid friends. There is a new mystery that I need your help in solving.

The story:

I got a random friend invite on the 30LBS Skunk YouTube channel the other day from a user I’ve never viewed, called Lights Over Paris.

At first glance it just looked like some bullshit spam from some ridiculously rich OC band that hasn’t released anything. The Lights Over Paris band website is just a temporary one linking to their various social media accounts.  I dismissed it immediately as spam.

But something about it struck me as being slightly off.

Upon second glance it looked like a band that could be serious contender for the biggest bunch of douchebags in the history of the music industry. I didn’t understand why these idiots wanted to be my friend. How did they even find me?

The next day I still had a remaining friend invite. Oh yeah, those bozos again.

At third glace it looked like a devilishly brilliant and unprecedentedly smooth execution of a biting satire on the creative process (rather, the lack thereof) behind manufactured pop music. I looked at all the comments on their channel and noticed a lot of people didn’t get it. Their satire is very subtle, but if you watch more than 2-3 of the videos it will start to come through. Even the Lights Over Paris Twitter feed reeks of sarcasm.

Is it really satire? Are they really this clever?

The riddle:

I want to believe. Have a look at the videos after the jump, and tell me if I’m crazy to think that a parody exists in this stuff. Or, is this some kind of viral marketing? If so, what are they pushing? Is it the studio? Are these guys actors trying to gain exposure? What’s your theory?

The first video I saw was the bio on the band’s “DJ”. Douchebag material for sure.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There was one brief moment in the clip that made me raise an eyebrow. Tell me if you recognize it.

The following video is much less subtle, and is the one that made me start to think that this is actually a satire:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Then, these next three videos will make you question how so much production value could be injected into something so asinine.

The mic stand:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The custom tour bus:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The studio tour:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ll leave you with that. I’ve you’ve made it this far, let’s crack the code. Leave your thoughts in the comments. Is this the evolution of viral marketing? Some actors with a knack for satire? Or is this a real band in the OC wonderland of riches?

Made this last week using FCP7 and Magic Bullet Colorista. Mainly I was just experimenting with Colorista. It’s pretty simplistic/versatile.

Anyhow, tried to give it that 70s vintage coloring.

Golden

I got a fresh mix for you guys, inspired by my recent trip to California where I got to see the good Dr.’s Echo Bloom & Conspicuous. 30 more minutes of some of the latest liquid funk for your ear holes. Please listen:

http://vodpulse.com/misc/dnb-mix-plaid-oct10th.mp3

Tracklisting after the jump. Comments would be wonderful. If you missed any of the previous sets, you can listen to them here.

California Mix Oct 10th, 2009

1. Zarif & Danny Byrd – Califonia – Buy It
2. Danny Breaks – Volume 1 (Logistics Remix) – Buy It
3. Enter Shikari – Juggernauts (Nero Remix) – Buy It
4. Craggz and Parallel Forces – All My Love – Buy It
5. Sub Focus – Follow the Light – Buy It
6. The Brookes Brothers – Rainman – Free Tune
7. Logistics – Transporter – Buy It
8. Mosus and Spy – Saudade – Buy It
9. Deadmau5 and Kaskade – I Remember (J Majik and Wickaman Remix) – Buy It
10. Lenzman – Sugar Hill – Buy It
11. Subwave – Dreamcatcher – Buy It
12. Sam KDC – Selfless – Buy It

Enjoy.

http://vodpulse.com/misc/dnb-mix-plaid-aug27th.mp3

Tracklisting after the jump. Please give it a listen and let me know what you think in the comments.

1. Norihiko Hibino – Metal Gear Solid Main Theme (Document Remix)
2. London Elektricity – Just One Second (Apex Remix)
3. Spectrasoul – Alibi (Break Remix)
4. Logistics – Girl From Mars
5. Apex – Emo Funk
6. Blu Mar Ten – Headhunter
7. Danny Byrd feat. The Brookes Brothers – Goldrush
8. Nu-Tone – Beatnik
9. Adele – Hometown Glory (High Contrast Vocal Mix)
10. Utah Jazz – Feeling Inside
11. Brookes Brothers – Promise
12. Bop and Dephecta – The Space Between Us

What’s good kids?  How’s your health?  ….your creative muscles?  They workin’ out good?  I’d hope so.  So here I’ve promised to finish the Heavy Weapons Guy, and I have done so.  It’s not my best, but I am proud considering I did the ENTIRE set of lineart without reference or previous sketches.  Although I’ve realized, I will probably never do it again.  I found it to be waaaaay to inefficient and I ultimately end up screwing up anatomy and great tangents that can pretty much make the image look pretty terrible.  So, lesson learned.  What I was going for with the pose in the image was the Heavy attempting to closeline some poor sap. (preferrably the Scout that stole his “Sandvich.”)

Here are the respective wallpapers at 2048 x 1152 resolution so that you may adorn your beautiful widescreen monitors with my art.  Please?  No?  That’s okay, I understand.  ::sniff::

Once again kids, If you need to shrink the image down, they should fit just fine at any 16×9 aspect ratioed resolution.

The Blu Russian.

..also in venetian!!

My brothers -

I have been woodshedding these past few weeks during my redneck riviera sojourn and have made serious headway on Jubilee. My macro approach has been more subtractive than additive, and over the past few weeks I’ve done my best to hack the haggard outlines of an album I previously introduced into something more cohesive. I think I’m moving in the right direction. Evidence:

Musical Structure

When we last visited this, I had a tangled mess of 15-some-odd fragments that were possibilities. I have whittled that down into 7 songs that (currently) will form the core the final album – representations of the elements of these pieces are above. I’m currently debating whether or not to include instrumentals (I have three) to serve as musical bridges from set of songs to set of songs. I feel pretty comfortable not making a standard LP (as standard as a 7-song LP is now – it was actually pretty common in the 60’s) but the instrumentals could break up the flow and enhance the over-arcing musical themes.

Lyrical Structure

Similar to the way I’ve been massaging the music, I’ve been slowly hacking apart lyrical fragments I’ve previously written and constituting them into new sets of pieces for each song. I’ve also been reading a lot of beat poetry looking for stylistic cues. Two old favorites that jumped out are William Carlos Williams and Allen Ginsberg. I love the way Williams piles his images on top of each other, as in this excerpt from Spring Strains:

the blinding and red-edged sun-blur—
creeping energy, concentrated
counterforce—welds sky, buds, trees,
rivets them in one puckering hold!

Ginsberg writes frequently in an ecstatic (and in reality, Benzedrine-fueled) voice, as in this excerpt from his poem Song:

The warm bodies
shine together
in the darkness,
the hand moves
to the center
of the flesh,
the skin trembles
in happiness
and the soul comes
joyful to the eye–

yes, yes,
that’s what
I wanted,
I always wanted,
I always wanted,
to return
to the body
where I was born.

I’ve got the lyrical outlines for three songs done. When I have the set of seven fully outlined I’ll complete all of them at once. Hoo-ha!

QUESTIONS

– Instrumentals or no instrumentals?
- Ecstatic poets I should be looking towards?
- Feedback on any of the song sketches in the widget?