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Sunday 21 December 2014

General update; similar to Liutenant review :)

Its been a busy year!
Since the conception of 'Occams Laser' only 9 months ago i feel that things are finally taking off!

Recently Hifi Brown released his EP 'Do They Know It's Last Christmas?' which included my remix of his track Lucky Glitter. This was a great project which i completed for him a while back, so my style has changed a little bit since then.

Before that i made a remix for Preqwal which featured on the 'Gold EP'. His original was already fantastic, and it was a nice change to get to work using some vocals.

There is also another remix waiting to be released with Doreen & Emerald called 'Last Dream' by The Sweeps; which is due for release very soon.

But the biggest news for me is that my first album is nearly finished! And i am very happy that both Renz Wilde and Citizen Kannot have made such awesome remixes which will feature on the album.

Due to a distinct lack of faith in using a record label; i have decided to release & promote the album myself. It will primarily be distributed solely through bandcamp but will later be on spotify ad itunes. It has turned into one hell of a dark ominous beast! A mildly 80s horror vibe combined with a flutter of Miami Vice and just a smidgen of Moroder!.Currently the track list consists of 10 tracks, but i might accidentally create an extra track in the remaining time. There may even be a guest appearance of my good friend and tv presenter Tina Edwards. Watch this space!

Also...
Thanks, to the readers, listeners, fans, collaborators, friends, and synthwave community!


Wednesday 10 December 2014

The EP evolved into the album...MIDNIGHT ESCAPE

The EP which i was going to release, will now be an album...MIDNIGHT ESCAPE! Iv'e had a mad four days and created 4 new tracks, which i cant leave out, so the track total is now 9! And of those 9 tracks; i am happy to say Renz Wilde - Muzik has created an awesome remix!
The fun isn't over quite yet though as there will be other names adding to the list very soon!

Of course im still trying to sort out mastering and who to distribute through so labels/people/fans/animals - get in touch if you have any insider intel!
Here is a little concept art i whipped up to wet your whistle;


  

Friday 5 December 2014

30,000...ERMGRDDD THANK YOU!

So today my soundcloud hit 30,000 plays from you amazing people who have supported/listened. 
Each song-play makes writing my 80s cheese so much sweeter!

Yesterday I also finished another track for my next EP which brings the total to 5 tracks with one or two possibly before the beast is released! 

I'm still contemplating getting other Synthwave artists to remix one of the tracks on the EP; so if you're reading this and you'd like to - send me a message on soundcloud and we can start the process! 

I've sometimes wondered why I created this blog, and it makes more sense the more I write. The reason is so just perchance the people who have helped me to get where I am will read this and understand what they've created :)

Now go and buy my music you filthy animals.


Friday 28 November 2014

The EP Decision

This week i decided that some of my older tracks needed to be bundled together.

I've umm'd and aaa'd about whether to collect enough tracks to make a full album release but then realised that over that time my style has completely changed and putting all the songs together would sound odd. So here they are, released finally into the wild in the body of a digitally downloadable four-track EP titled 1989 and all yours for the princely sum of £1 (or more).




Saturday 22 November 2014

Neon Vice!

About 9 months ago, i took my music in a new direction; Synthwave. At around the same time i got in contact with a website called 'Neon Vice' (www.neonvice.com) a site ''dedicated to helping 80's, synth, retro, and dreamwave musicians promote their sounds.''
As i had only just got into the genre i asked them a few basic questions and advice. I didn't expect much of a response as i'd asked similar questions to other sites and forums with little feedback. But to my surprise they gave me a bucket load of tips, advice and generally guided me towards the path i have now firmly stuck to. This response came from Axel Ricks (the head honcho) who started the site back in 2013. Since then their website has grown, and so has the synthwave community. I hope that this all keeps happening and that their site gets the spotlight that it deserves.

Simply put - i would not be where i am today without the guiding nudge from Axel and his amazing team!

So go and please check out www.neonvice.com






Friday 14 November 2014

80s Retro-Electro Synthwave at last!!!

Its been 8 months now since my first track released under 'Occams Laser' and over these 8 months a lot has changed. The Synthwave genre has been getting better each day and with that i am even more grateful that i get to take part in this progression.

For a long time the tracks that i made were purely experimentation, and without much thought i published unfinished and very basic tracks. When i look back at my early tracks on my soundcloud page; i barely recognize what i must have been doing!

At last i feel that i have found my own sound and know exactly what style music i want to make. Although it has always been synthwave at its heart i think i was being naive when i first started calling my tracks 'synthwave'. The last few tracks that i have finished such as Miami Beach (PT 1&2) are actually the exact 80s style retro-electro Synthwave that i have been trying to make all this time.

I'm fully aware that there is a sense of irony attached to trying so hard to make a sound that sounded out of date almost as soon as it came out, but what can i say...I love those 80s synthesizer sounds! The simplicity of 80s tracks are also a nice change to modern style compositions which seem to be dependent on a derivative of dubstep or some sort of grimey rap...

With the music industry generally there are cycles of styles, and i would say the 80s are about to be re-injected into the modern music scene. I hope that it works in the way i want it to and that all the amazing Synthwave and 80s style electronic music producers all get more recognition for all the hard work and great musical creations they have made!

"There's no fate but what we make for ourselves."

Saturday 8 November 2014

Take a trip to...MIAMI BEACH

This week i made a significant purchase...my first synthesizer. Up until this point i have been clicking each note into place with a mouse and hoping for the best when it comes to my compositions. Now i have the new Alesis V49 at my disposal; which already has steered me in a new direction for my latest track...MIAMI BEACH.

As the name hopefully suggests; Miami Beach is a happy 80s summer style track, taking obvious inspiration from Miami Vice and other american 80s beach based cop/drama tv shows.

With regards to the composition of the track, i tried a new approach and actually used a bit of theory before starting. The basis of the track is based upon a five black key Pentatonic scale (common in Asian music) with a few tranposed white keys for a bit of diversity.

Have a listen and feel free to let me know what you think;



Wednesday 29 October 2014

The impossibility of withholding tracks to release!

Because i haven't released any sound goodness for a couple of weeks now; i thought i would release another track pre the release of my debut EP as i find it ridiculous to withhold information of this synthesized caliber!

The track was made in 2 hours using a huge array of 80s vst's and a pack of paracetamol due to having half of the muscles in my neck ripped to shreds (a tree related injury...dont ask)

Enjoy!



Wednesday 15 October 2014

Extra projects

Its been a busy month, and at the end of last week Preqwal released 'The Gold EP' which includes a remix of his track 'You Got What i Want' created by me :) so check it out;


Monday 6 October 2014

upcoming EP update

So recently i have decided to take this music malarkey a bit more seriously. This was after a few offers from record labels and some great artists wanting to collaborate with me. So due to this i disappeared into my log cabin (literally) to write my debut EP!

In my previous post i talked about the track 'Hannah' which i decided to release early as a taster of the style and also to test if anybody liked it!

Another track which i am re-editing and then re-releasing with the EP is the track '1989' which was one of my favorite projects in the last few months.

The remaining tracks to add to the final track listing are still being worked on, as well as the song names themselves. One track that is fully finished and named is 'Neon Knife' and could possibly be the title of the EP.
Here is a bit of concept art which i might use as the album backing or as a track-listing sheet. Some of the possibly track names are on here;

Friday 19 September 2014

Early track release from upcoming EP......HANNAH!

So because this track brings a smile to my face and will hopefully be one of many when i finally release my first EP; i thought i would release it early just to give a taste of the synthesized sound meal i will be unleashing into the wild soon!
Oh and you can buy this track with the link below (top right shopping basket)

'Hannah is a futuristic love-instrumental, a robotic ballad! Keeping the feel of the track simple and clean it pays homage to the romantic side of the 80's style b-movie.'




Or listen/watch on Youtube;

Thursday 4 September 2014

...1989

A new 80s synthwave track to inject you with retrospective nostalgia!
This track is a culmination of a bunch of styles, effects, vsts, synthesizers and generally ways to make things sound 80's-tastic! So i hope you enjoy this nostalgic neon-noir funky brass and saw based beast!
Thanks to Darcaedus, ROBOTER, V.2follwers, SYNTHCAPETOWN, LUSH! & SnowmanΛGΗΔ for their helpful comments which turned this from a very basic track into its final form;

Friday 22 August 2014

Neon-Noir; A synthwave story

Over the past week i have released 3 separate tracks, however they have all been around the same style and theme and accidentally have become a neon-noir post-apocalyptic story!

So here is each track and the bit of back-story for each one;

THE WALL
The ruins of a once vibrant city, surrounded by the only defense from the toxic out-lands. The Wall.






CATHEDRAL
Arriving in the town ablaze with violence and gunshot, our protagonist takes refuse in a run down Cathedral. Little does he know that this is the source of the mayhem, and now he has to fight to survive.





LIZA
Our Neon-noir protagonist; an soldier of fortune who returns home to rescue his ex-girlfriend who has been kidnapped by the leader of a biker gang. Nothing can hold them apart.




Saturday 2 August 2014

Is this real life or am i 'Tangerine Dream'ing??

Tangerine Dream are one of the founding artists of Synthwave and so as a homage to them i have created a remix of their track 'Canyon Voices'. My version is completely different to the original and what i have tried to do is give it a beefed up heavier/darker vibe complete with a few retrospective 80s synthesizers.

So here is the link to the track on Soundcloud;



And here is the link to a simple music video i have knocked together to go with the remix;




Let me know if you liked the track and stay tuned for more Synthwave creations soon!
 Tom / Occams Laser


Saturday 12 July 2014

Deadmau5 & Kaskade vs OCCAMS LASER

So i thought it was about time i stopped procrastinating and actually finished off my remix of 'I Remember' by Kaskade & Deadmau5. I tried to keep the original sound as well as adding my own 80s vibe, this was great fun to remix and a perfect challenge to remake from the ground up without cheating and using samples.

Wednesday 9 July 2014

New remix; 'Hideaway' by Kiesza

Somebody asked if i could make my own version of this a while back, and its taken me a while to figure out a few parts but finally here it is in its cheesy glory;

Sunday 6 July 2014

ITS OVER 10,000!!

So today marks a small for many but large for most milestone of 10,000 song plays on Soundcloud!
Again this is all down to everyone who has (obviously) listened to my tracks over the last 4 months.
The 80s lives on :)

So here is to the next 10,000 plays!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tom / Occams Laser

Monday 23 June 2014

My Synthwave Setup

A lot of people have asked what i use to create music, so here is a little look at my setup;

My basic everyday (having a mess around) setup consists of:
-my beloved Lenovo Z580 i5 running Windows 8 (in dark red because im cool like that)
-FL Studios 11.2 (with a few customization's)
-Nexus VST with all the extra sound packages
-SQL8 VST

80% of my tracks are made with these 4 things all working nicely together.


Other additions to my arsenal are:
-my custom Vestax VCI100 SE-Arcade edition
-my iPad Air which i make all my band art with and sometimes use as a mobile synth.
-my Dell Inspiron 6400 backup laptop which i use as a server for my Vestax as well as running Traktor for slight time shifting and editing of tracks.
-my dredded Fatar Studio 900 master keyboard (which weighs 20kg and is no fun to move)


Here are a few random pictures of the assorted musical electronics listed above;

Sunday 22 June 2014

OCCAMS LASER (the blog) is BORN!


Occams Laser (the blog) is born!!!


I thought it was about time i started talking about and updating people on my recent electronic 80s inspired musical en-devour; OCCAMS LASER.

Back at the end of 2013 i quit my job, moved away from Brighton and basically had to start again from my home back on the Isle of Wight. Dwelling in self pity and completely scouring Youtube and the rest of the internet for entertainment led me back to a musical genre that to me had been sadly forgotten; Synthwave.

At the begining of March 2014 i started toying with a few VST's and synthesizers trying to find a few with the distinctive 80s retro feel. Two that i now use prolifically are 'Nexus' and 'SQL8. As always the base program i use for all my music is FL Studio (11.2) and i will faithfully stick with it as it has stuck by me!

My first track i released under 'Occams Laser' which was an 8-bit style version of 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams got me a surprising great deal of attention, it led to the band Straktobeam asking me if i would like to remix one of their tracks which they had just released, of course i jumped at the chance! Till this day both the 'Happy' remix and the remix for Straktobeam have been my most highly listened to tracks.

Around the same time as the remix for Straktobeam i contacted a great site called 'NeonVice.com' and they gave me some great advice for how to start growing my audience and keeping them interested. This is still the best advice i have been given and i make sure to stick by it. Also the fact that they helped me out for nothing in return really cemented the fact that the synthwave community is a friendly and passionate group.

After the first few tracks that i released i found a steady flow of new followers and this gave me more reason to try and create and publish a new track (or at least aim to) once a week.

Other moments which have stuck out so far would be;
-Remixing a track for 'HIFI Brown' (Ep to be released summer 2014)

-TheZombiUnicorn using one of my remixes in one of her uber-cool Youtube videos

-Neon Vice posting one of my remixes on their website.


In a few short months i am proud to have gained so many great fans and been able to join the very small niche group of synthwave/outrun producers. If i ever make it to the level of Mitch Murder or Com Truise i will be one happy synthesized bunny.

Stay tuned and i will try and keep this blog up to date with all the future news on Occams Laser.

Tom / Occams Laser