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!
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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
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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...
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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!
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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.
The Low Budget crew stopped thru Subsoniq almost a year after Kev Brown & Kaimbr’s modern classic The Alexander Green Project dropped to discuss the latest crew happenings AND even brought along LB O.G. Early Reed, who schooled us all on some Washington, D.C. music history! Download, listen & spread the music…
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This is the Hitman game i been waiting for since Contracts as the 360 one (Blood Money), was NOT that next-gen step-up for the franchise the fans wanted! But this right here… yes! Now all we need is a NEW Tenchu and my life is complete, lol.
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The “Twin Famicom” system?!? Wow. Didn’t even know this existed! (Taken with Instagram at No Brand Con)
I can’t wait for this game! The demo they had looping looked amazing. (Taken with Instagram at PAX East 2k12)
So i grabbed RAGE last November amidst the slew of other BIG games that dropped- Uncharted 3, Batman: Arkham City, Skyrim, Gears Of War 3… you get the picture; Basically, Fall of 2k11 was gamer’s paradise and definitely a productivity FAIL for someone like me as no matter how old i get & how much work i gotta do, <in P. Diddy vox> i can’t stop… won’t stop gaming! LOL! Anyway, RAGE was probably overshadowed a bit by all the aforementioned titles, but after finally getting around to playing it last week, i enjoyed it! The game reminds me of Borderlands so much, and already had me craving that sequel this year. The graphics are top notch and very detailed, as every facet of the “Wasteland” is unique though compared to the “Wastelands” in other post-apocalyptic games like Fallout or Borderlands, its not very expansive ;( The game overall is short but sweet, and though the ending wasn’t too fulfilling (and neither was the story for that matter), the fun in RAGE definitelydwells in its’ gameplay. You get an arsenal of unique guns & gadgets (that you will use) throughout the campaign and the controls for them are very solid, which makes blasting waves of “muties” very fun… though annoying as (most) enemies don’t just run at you mindlessly, they’ll actually take cover and attack angles! The part i loved the most were the mini-games like the card game or the race track, which is very addictive as i haven’t had that much fun played a racing game since SEGA Rally ;) Overall, i don’t think RAGE is worth owning as its’ replay value isn’t very high, BUT if u got 15-20 hours to burn, check it out via Gamefly!
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I’m slacking! i heard Highschool Of The Dead is the shit though, added to my Netflix queue! Gotta get back on check out some anime as i prep for iMANGANAtion Vol. 2… ;)
Saw this last night. Basically imagine watching all the cinematic cut scenes that tell the story in Call of Duty or Battlefield together for 2 hours… BONG- Act of Valor! Though i respect the “attempts” at acting by the seals involved, it was clear that this movie was all about the action… and serving as a feature length commercial for the US military ;) I dug it though!
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Just got this in from Gamefly and after playing it for an hour, sent it back! The story is actually cool and unique, BUT the gameplay is a pretty bad; Shooting in this FPS is tedious and i just wasn’t compelled enough to want to keep playing when every 5 minutes, there’s a cinematic moment. I mainly got this to help knock the dust off my Xbox 360 because aside from Gears of War 3, it really hasn’t gotten much play the last year ;( Personally, i feel PS3 is just a better system and though Xbox Live definitely outshines PSN, its all about the games for me- particularly exclusives and Sony has been winning that battle the last 2 years! But back to Metro 2033, just not for me but many dig it i guess as i read recently they’re working on a sequel.
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I was a big fan of the Saw movies… shit i guess i gotta be to endure playing through the games made by Konami. Saw 1 was mediocre, but i accepted it as is because the ratio of GOOD move-based games is pretty low after all these years; However the game Saw II, which i rented from Gamefly, is pretty damn bad. Graphically it looks like a last generation PS2 game, and the sound design pales in comparison to the great ambience of other survival-horror game franchises like Dead Space or Silent Hill. Again, from playing #1 i knew what to expect but i can’t tell u how frustrating the puzzles can be- there were some i passed thru pure luck due to them being totally random, and i love a good challenge so don’t think i’m mad at them for causing me to think BUT, ironically, the hidden “Billy the puppet” challenges were the easiest! One puzzle in particular, that recurs throughout the game, involving turning light switches on & off was virtually impossible and was one of the aforementioned ones where luck was thankfully on my side the 25th time i attempted it! The ending was even more frustrating, but i won’t spoil it as Jigsaw’s attempt at an M. Knight Shyamalan “twist” made me so mad as i blew almost 10 hours for nada!! While it’s definitely not the worst game i’ve ever played, let’s just say after “completing” the game i lost all respect for the Saw series and am pretty glad the movies and game franchises seem to be both dead! So no Jigsaw, “I DON’T wanna play a game!” Fuck you! ;)
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Is this an early April fools joke? LOL! I can’t even judge it as the teaser gives no clues as to what the hell this movie is even about, but props for a catchy title. I may have to check it as I’m a BIG Tim Burton fan, but this is just weird right?
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I been like the legendary Kenshiro from Fist Of The North Star since the new year began on these beats; No heads exploding or gratuitous blood allowed in my studio though! I may try one of the movie’s signature lines next beat battle, just walk away from my maschine after playing a banging beat, then say nonchalantly “you’re already dead!” Explosion… fade to black… game blouses! ;)
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This movie was BADASS! As i have gotten older i have come to become a BIG fan of Denzel Washington, and 2k10’s The Book Of Eli really cemented that as it’s my favorite movie staring him- and thats saying something after: Glory, Malcolm X, Ricohet,Training Day, Man on Fire, American Gangster and so on… you get the gist, the man is official! But surprisingly, Ryan Reynolds held his own in the film too, albeit i still can’t shake him off as anything but a fast talking douche at times a la Deadpool, but he really got my attention in the movie Buried which was also pretty awesome! Anyway, though i can’t say much about Safe House as far as the plot (as it isn’t anything too new), i can rave about the action which is non-stop, the acting which is top-notch and overall one of the movies you appreciate seeing in a theater as the sound & cinematography was excellent! Plus, Denzel manages to do his patented “strut” and keep it so so gangsta without cheesin’ it up… too much ;) So far Safe House is my favorite movie of 2k12… hands-down! Tobin Frost snitches!!!!!
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Shouts to my Panacea brethren Raw Poetic & Damu The Fudgemunk for this joint which is off the their upcoming collaborative release Kilawatt 1.5, dropping 2.28 on ReDefinition Records- Pre-Order HERE! Vintage Damu production with Raw P sounding as RAW as ever ;) Support DOPE, indie & progressive hip-hop!
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Indeed DC loves Dilla, and i think the DMV area puts on one of the set tribute shows around honoring the late James “Jay Dee” Yancey; I’ve had the pleasure to be involved with the planning and recording of this event in the past and every year it gets bigger & better! Check out this recorded audio of last summer’s tribute show at the famed 9.30 club in DC, featuring the group that introduced many to Dilla’s sounds- The Pharcyde, courtesy of your #1 source for progressive hip-hop… Subsoniq ;) R.I.P. J Dilla!
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