Quick Update

Hey.

I'm trying to round some more support for the YouTube account, but it's slow at the moment. As you know I've got the Skyline collection up there, two Mix Sessions tracks and I'm currently rendering a Mix Session track into a video now to upload.

I'm going to spend tonight working on a new song idea, and remastering the two Mix Sessions tunes, plus I might do some remixes of the Skyline stuff later in the week. But, at the moment I'm a little ill, and I feel a little deflated to tell you the truth. I'm running out of ideas of how to promote Akuma Music in a more solid way. I really want to attract more musicians but it's just not happening.

I might look for some other electronica musicians on YouTube and approach them directly to do some collab work. Not exactly the way I wanted it to happen, but I'm getting tired of writing tunes by myself now, and I'm finding myself writing them the same way (structurally) every time. The only one that differs from the rest is the one I'm rendering now, "Nerve Gas". It's a remix of a track I wrote a while back called "Room 9016", which a horror based piece. Anyway, I threw some more samples in, a punchy but steady drum n' bass beatline and some synth. It sounds okay, and definately retains its horror feel.

But you know what? I'm still not happy with it.

Anyway, it should be on the YouTube account within the next 30 minutes.

Bye.

The Mix Sessions

Project #2

Hey guys, take a looky at the new project logo, The Mix Sessions. :) Snazzy, eh? Not bad for a five minute scratch-up in Photoshop with a stock photo. So what does it mean?

"The Mix Sessions" is the new Akuma Music Project. Here's what I want to achieve: a collection of 30 songs of any length, style or genre. I really want people to get involved with this one, the whole point is that I don't do everything myself :P

My friend Mat, who I ran Slayer City with said he may have some guitar/vocal material for me to work with sometime in the near future. Which I'm really excited about since my own guitar/vocal recording equipment is currently... out of use. I will be fixing that in the new year though!

So, to kick start this new collection off, I've submitted a new song to the Akuma Music YouTube account entitled, "Do the Mix". So check it out!

Like I've said before, get involved by emailing me at bradley.smith1990@gmail.com

I may make an Akuma specific e-mail address thinking about it... update on that when I can!

Right, hidy-how!

Trancy, Trance

Hey. I spent like eight hours yesterday until about 4am listening to music on YouTube. Mostly industral and some "PsyTrance". I've got to say the PsyTrance stuff is pretty trippy, especially Gataka and Time in Motion.

A good industrial band to get your ears into is Wumpscut, cheers Neil for that one :) There is so much good music about and people either don't realise it, or are too lazy to go looking for it. Behind the scenes, in the underground, there's some top-noch, untouched by commercialism music going on and it doesn't take much searching to find, especially with YouTube and the many music forums around the web.

I thought about posting a list of Artists and songs, collabs, ect... But, I thought why? Half the fun was actually in the looking for the music. So, I challenge you. Go out and find the craziest, weirdest shit you can and then simply enjoy.

On a more Akuma related note I've been doing some Trance style songs. Punchy kicks and Acid synths all over the place. Couple of tracks coming out nicely and the sounds are mixing together really well.

I'll have something to post up to YouTube within the next day or so, and I'm going to be introducing a video blog soon, either here or on the YouTube. I can then have a dabble at my video skills, which are the moment are quite limited :P

Nothing a few online tutorials can't sort out.

So, go take a look for some weird music and enjoy!

Toodle-pip.

Going live, people

Hi again. How are you? I'm good thanks. Oh, did I mention? Akuma's Skyline is going live right now on YouTube! Really? Yeah!

I finally got off my arse and I'm currently rendering the tracks into very boring looking videos, which consist of the music and a low quality image of the album front cover. But the music quality ain't bad, and I'm getting the files down to less than 8mb which is brill.

So, by the end of tonight the full Skyline collection will be available for your unlimited viewing pleasure at

this <- link! I also wrote some stuff about offering constructive comments, blah blah blah, but Blogger spazzed out at the use of my less than sign and cut a load of my text out. So yeah, be nice :)

The trolls are out there! I know who you are! I'm pretty thick skinned though, so I welcome your trollyness to laugh at your amusing yet immature comments. Lets see you try and knock me down!

Anyway, enough #ing and !ing, I need to get to rendering the rest of the videos.

Oh yeah, and on a side note, if you would like Hi-Quality MP3's, please email me at bradley.smith1990@gmail.com <- I'm sure we can work something out :)

Toodles!

Update: "The Planet"

Update #2: All nine songs are now live for listening on YouTube! Click here now!

It be finished!

Right, it's done. Well, I'm done doing it.

MP3's rendered. Front and back cover design completed. But, remember my original spec idea for the collection? Ten short, ten long, ect... Something like that anyway. Well, that went way out of the window, I mean completely vanished into the void.

I got a little bit carried away messing around in FL, and then I liked what I was creating so I just carried on. In the end I came up with a collection of pieces that I was happy with and thought: "What the heck? Don't fix what's not broken".

Though, in light of the finished collection there are some points that I'm not happy with. Hell, I'll do a little mini self review here (probably in alphabetic order, and not album order since that's the order in which they show up in nautilus):

1. A Dark Place - While it is a trancey, trippy, get high and listen to track, it's quite repetitive. The beat is pretty old school, which I like, but it does lack any catch lines. However, something about it just makes my brain trip a little, so I kept it in.
2. Alone - It's taken me a really long time to finally get piece sounding good with a strong piano line in it. It's got some nice build ups and gives a very chillout feeling. I'd have liked the percussion to have been a little more prominent but the melody definitely carries it through.
3. Avoid the Daylight - A weird one for me. It's like some kind of Ibiza rave, but with a twist. I probably could have mixed the drums in with the synth a little better, but I like little imperfections.
4. Blueberry Jam - A little bit of Drum n' Bass mixed in with some old school sounds and synths. It's a happy go lucky one. I can imagine it being played at some American basketball game. The chances are that it never will. Bit of a random one I'd say.
   
5. Depthwalker - My favourite! It's got a real sci-fi sound to it. I'm yet to listen to it while I play Timesplitters, since that's what I was thinking of the whole way through creating this one.
6. Look to the Sky - Interesting sounds and drum lines. Again, very trippy style synths and some nice oscillating bass in there as well. It's all gone a bit Ibiza trance again.
7. Skyline - The original piece. Chilled. Repetitive (in a good way). A little creepy. Sums up the feeling I want to get out of my music right now. I must say though, that this did slowly creepy down my favourites list the more I wrote.
8. The Planet - Timesplitters galore! This would go right next to Depthwalker on my "Songs to listen to while playing Timesplitters 2". Beautiful buildup to the start, spacey sounds and a driving drum line that doesn't interfere too much, but keeps the pace going nice and quick. Only thing is that it takes over a minute and a half before it really kicks in, probably the reason it's the opening track on the album.
9. Unleash the Slayer - Tribute to the Slayer City roleplaying game. I don't like this one but when it sneaked into my playlist on holiday in Greece my best mate told me he really liked it. So I kind of tagged it in on the end... I know it's bad.

There we have it, less than half of what I'd promised. I now have some crazy new ideas that will undoubtedly lead to my next collection. I refuse to them albums, don't ask me why I just don't see them as "albums".

So, now you're either thinking: "Shut up and let me listen to them!" or "That sounds like shite! Bye, bye".

Either way, I will compress and upload them to a friendly file-sharing server when I can. I'll post again then, see you soon!

Bye!

Moving On

Righty. I've done one more track, which is the once I said I was going to do for Slayer City. I did it in about an hour and a half this morning, kind of got my head right into it.

As with all my other tracks it's still rough, but it's not bad as it stands at the moment. It's a little creepy and a little weird, which is exactly how I wanted it to be.

As for the other two ideas I had for the weekend, well we'll see. I'm kind of enjoying the time to myself sitting round, drinking coffee and eating pizza. Plus I'm hooked posting on the Slayer forums. Me and Mat are locked into quite a good RP at the moment.

I'll upload the Slayer City track "Unleash the Slayer" tonight while I'm at work. I'm using my phones internet connection for my laptop while I'm at the house, we don't have a broadband connection here which is the only downside really. Plus there's no shop and the pub doesn't open 'till six.

Well, here's to another 45 minute bike ride into town at 7oclock. Expect the upload by 4am. :)

Slowness :)

Well, work's been busy this week so I've had no time whatsoever to work on the Skyline project. Bah. I know, I know. But I'm working nights this weekend, which means I have the house to myself in sunny old Wales and all the time in the world to work on some tracks... when I'm not sleeping.

I'm hoping to bang out three tracks, covering three ideas including one as a tribute to the Slayer City RP forum. I know the guy who runs the site, Mat, will hate me for it but I'll post it up there with a big cheesy grin anyway.

Fun!

Anyway, linky to Slayer City. Pop your head in. If forum RPs are your thing then it's a great one for you to get your teeth into!

Byebye for now :)

Skyline

Well folks, as it stands I have two completed pieces for "Skyline" now, including the title piece. I'll probably end up re-jigging every single song before the final release, so whatever teasers I'm releasing here now aren't going to be the best indication of how the whole thing will end up sounding. But, it shall give you a good idea. :)

So far I have completed the title piece, "Skyline" and another, more retro-darkwave sounding song called "A Dark Place". Both are still majorly unfinished, and are just rough examples of where I'm going.

I have uploaded "Skyline" to Newgrounds, but since I have a new account they're putting my first upload through some kind of approval process, which seems to be taking forever, they've had my submission for about 16 hours now, and I'm starting to wonder if they forgot about me. Anywho, I just want to see what the random people of the world will slate about it, in it's unfinished form.

People can be so mean :D

Anyway. Impatience. Never good. I signed up for a MediaFire account, where I have uploaded the rough mix of Skyline in which you may download at your own will. Hell, shove it on animations/videos. Do whatever. Just try and credit me, and don't distribute it as if you were the creator.

fAg0ts.

There I got the nasty, bad internet lingo out of the way. *Shivers*. I might need a shower after that.

Anway, here's Skyline's rough mix:

Track Name: Skyline

Contributors: Brad Smith

Mix: Rough

Collaboration Time: 3 hours

Comments: None.

Linky: Here.

Intro, Hello!

Hi guys, welcome to the Akuma blog, my name is Brad.

In case you are wondering what exactly Akuma is, here's a brief explanation. Akuma is an electronic music project. Basically, I spend my free time writing and creating electronic music whenever I can under the name Akuma (like the current "Skyline" collection). But, I want Akuma to become and achieve much more as a collective projects of different artists.

As time goes on, and when I am near the end of my Skyline collection, I have a few YouTube video artists that I want to approach about doing some audio-visual sychronisational type stuff.

The "Skyline" Collection

In 2009 I started and almost finished a collection called "Blackprint", unfortunately Linux and Windows don't like each other, causing my computer to give up. I didn't create a backup of my files (like an idiot) and lost around about 6 months of work.

Since the disasterous loss of Blackprint I have rebuilt my software collection from scratch and have left it lying there, collecting moss and dust for about 2 months. Finally getting off my fat ass, I started messing about with FL, after three hours of engrossment I have a start of a new collection. The first peice is itself called "Skyline".

The reason I have decided to create a whole collection around this song is because once I felt myself getting pulled into it as I created more and more of the song, I found myself being captured by the feel of the music I was creating. It has a really underground, creepy feel and I think reflects my current mood perfectly.

The Skyline song is nearly finished, and I'll probably post that as a teaser when it is finished. I'm going to release work-in-progress versions of the collection artwork as I go along, but at the moment I haven't even thought about what I want the artwork to look like.

My aim for this collection is to do 20 pieces, ten at 4 minutes or more and 10 at 3 minutes or less. The problem with previous collections and pieces were that myself and other artists I was working with (more specifically Lewis) weren't giving ourselves a specification on each piece. We'd just create and see what happened, well that worked well for 20% that came out right. But the other 80% was wasted time.

For example, the centre piece of Blackprint was supposed to be a piece called "False Sense of Security", which started out perfectly, but the longer and bigger the piece grew the messier it got, and eventually it crumbled and fell on its backside. So, to give myself limits to work around, and decide what I want to tackle in each piece before I start it seems a good idea.

Start as you mean to go on. Right, I'm off to find somewhere to host my music files so that you can stream "Skyline", when it's finished.

Over and out, Brad.