New album....ASCENSION!

Im proud to announce ASCENSION is out now!
Please give it a listen, share it if you like it, buy it if you really like it, tell me what you think, and most of all enjoy!
https://occamslaser.bandcamp.com/album/ascension

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Ascension is the last in my trilogy of albums dedicated to Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem the Divine Comedy (the other two albums are ‘Nine Circles’ and ‘Purgatory’).
This album focuses on the heavenly bodies and the final journey to Paradise. The names of each of the tracks refers to levels and chapters of Paradise.
No remixes, no collaborations, no record label, no filler, just 10 high octane tracks oozing with power.
#Darksynth #Darkwave #Synthwave #Ascension #Bandcamp

Im proud to announce FLAGELLATION is out now!
Please give it a listen, share it if you like it, buy it if you really like it, tell me what you think, and most of all enjoy!

Flagellation is a 6 track EP, thematically based on the darker practices of religious punishment.
Continuing down the dark-synth path; this EP is another step closer to evil. Packing heavy distorted synthesizers and blood-lusting energy.

https://occamslaser.bandcamp.com/album/flagellation
#Darksynth #Darkwave #Synthwave #Music #Flagellation

New Album!

Finally, its time to POWER UP!
My new 11 track album has just launched!
Full of uncomprisingly high energy, gritty, powerful and fast paced retro-futuristic sounds!
Please have a listen, maybe a purchase and even a good old re-share :)
https://occamslaser.bandcamp.com/album/power-up

The Glamorous EP

The Glamorous EP
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Three remixes of the Fergalicious track by the token woman from the Black Eyed Peas; Fergie!
The original track is from Fergie’s first album ‘The Duchess’. Featuring additional vocals by Ludacris (Luda to his mum).

Un-satisfied with the lack of synthesizers, side-chaining and general 80s’ness of the original; three men ventured into the creative wilds to form three new angles of sound.
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Support the artists on this EP by using the links below;

Absinth3
soundcloud.com/absinth3official
twitter.com/Absinth3Music
absinth3.bandcamp.com

Occams Laser
soundcloud.com/occams-laser
twitter.com/occams_laser_
occamslaser.bandcamp.com

The Encounter
soundcloud.com/theencounter
twitter.com/nigelxd
theencounter.bandcamp.com

credits

released 05 October 2015

Today Mad Max: Fury Road comes out on Blu-Ray/DVD etc...
So as a gesture of good will for all those scavenging the wastelands for 'guzzoline'; there is 50% off my Mad Max themed album with the code 'fury' at the checkout -

https://occamslaser.bandcamp.com/album/the-road-to-fury

Why Music Is Important

Cliche topic?
Of course it is!
But none the less it is still a worthy topic to talk about.

Music nowadays has become a commercialized product; where for most artists the be all and end all is the sales figures at the end of the month. Now of course music is a product, and the effort which (most) musicians and producers put into each of their creations is more than worth the price.
But at the heart of all the great and revolutionary music makers you will find one common attribute.....none of them chased the cash flow.

The slow burning, creative thinking, barrier breaking artists who create new genres, try new techniques and break the mold of 'modern' music are the ones who will continue being the ones to focus on.

Music is a form of art (obviously) and to many the art of a civilization can tell you much more than the written word. Paintings, operas, orchestral pieces of work, statues, monuments; all of these have out-lasted the people who wrote them/created them/worked on them.

If there is a meaning to life, surely an obvious one would be to leave your mark on the world, proving your existence long after you're gone.

I can only hope that i can follow this path and make something worth remembering one day. Till then i'd better get back to creating!



Tom / Occams Laser

Better Late Than Never!

Iv'e finally got round to posting my back-catalog of music onto Youtube.
Starting with my first ever EP - 1989

So here are the 4 tracks;

So today i have just reached 100,000 Soundcloud song plays! 
A massive thanks to everyone who has helped me reach this Milestone.
Its not much but theres 50% off any of my music on bandcamp with the code 'Milestone' at the checkout; http://occamslaser.bandcamp.com/

Stay tuned today also for some remix related tom-foolery!

One of my favorite tracks i've written in the last 6 months; THE ROAD WARRIOR

When i first set out on making my Mad Max themed album 'The Road to Fury'; i had no idea how well it would be received! It was purely just a project that i personally wanted to see if i could complete.

I started and finished the album within 8 days, and that included getting it sent off and published on iTunes and a few other digital distribution sites.

One of the first tracks to be completed and also one which helped guide the whole sound and style of the album was the track 'The Road Warrior'. The track is of course a direct homage to the classic Mad Max films of the 80s.

A funny thing about my album is that i didn't get to properly listen to the album on monitor speakers until a few weeks after it was published, and the final adjustments i had to make using my bog standard iPhone headphones; so hearing it back now i am so glad it sounds as it does!

So although the album was launched back on the 1st of May, it could possibly be my favorite album ive created so far!

You can grab the album here; BANDCAMP

and please have a listen to my favorite track; The Road Warrior

Anger and music writing

The people who know me best know that i'm a rather happy chappy! It's hard for anything to negatively affect my mood in a negative way.

However...

There will always be one thing (one girl) that can instantly transport me to a place where my entire body slowly fills back with uncontrollable hate. Even a slight glimpse of a picture or even the mention of their name can take me back to one specific hate filled moment.

Funnily enough though this is something i have been known to activate on purpose. And that purpose is when i need some music writing inspiration!

I found a long time ago that i can truly funnel these pure emotive feelings and turn them into powerful and emotive tracks. Writing music is usually meant to be a fun and happy thing to do, but if in doubt GET MAD :)

Oh yes, that's right; NEW ALBUM PLANS

As I've mentioned before in the past; my plan for this year was to try and release an album or EP every month for the entire year. Its the 9th month of the year and I've released 3 albums and 4 EP's, so although i haven't quite hit that target, i still think that I've been prolific enough :)

A few other side projects and smaller ventures have accidentally taken priority recently which meant i have had to step back from my usual music making. HOWEVER, i am happy to be back fully into music mode and i'm aiming to release another full album very soon.

I've decided to fully listen to fan response from all of my previous releases which has led to the decision to make a new full power Outrun album, with heavy dark tones, tonnes of energy and a more EDM feel to some of the tracks. The 80s flavor is still the main focus of course but i know that what people react to best is meatier songs with some real balls!

The album title as of right now is going to be.....WITNESS ME.
Some of the tracks that i can release the names of include;
-Rise
-Witness Me
-Valhalla

More will be added to this list very soon and i would hope for a minimum 10 tracks before i let it loose into the wild.

Thanks again for all of your continued support.

Tom / Occams Laser

More new stuff!!!

I haven't released a music video in a while, so to rectify this; here is a nice 80s-style-lyric-based -music-video that i knocked together this afternoon for my track 'Look Into Your Eyes' from the 'Take Your Time' LP which you can purchase here; BANDCAMP

Straight outta somewhere!

My new album has been out for a few days now, four out of the eleven tracks are available to check out on Soundcloud right now;









and of course the album itself is available here; BANDCAMP

Its Discount time!

Happy Saturday!
As a token of good will; there is 50% off my new album with the code 'cheapskate' at the checkout https://occamslaser.bandcamp.com/album/take-your-time

Th new album has been released into the wild!! Hopefully it wont be shot by a Dentist :P

Take Your Time is a 13 track future-funk album, with a vocal-heavy style combined with a tonne of signature synthesizers, designed to get your foot tapping and your juices flowing! 

Many of the tracks revolve around the themes of love, relationships and break-ups. These started as accidental themes that mirrored my feelings at the time of writing the album. 

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In the addition to the 8 original tracks there are three remixes by Volt Age, EAR and STEREOSPREAD who all made amazing tracks that i am proud to have feature on the album. 

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A huge thanks to Drive Radio who got the original single of 'Take Your Time' noticed, which then inspired me to push that concept further and create a full album of funkier tracks. 

Vocals by Tom ‘Occams Laser’ Stuart, with the addition of Jona Raischi (Volt Age) and Sara Snyder (STEREOSPREAD) on their versions of my track ‘Take Your Time’. 

Check out Volt Age here; 
soundcloud.com/ageofvolt 

Check out EAR here; 
soundcloud.com/ear-music 

Check out STEREOSPREAD here; 
soundcloud.com/stereospread 

A big thanks to Synthetix Sunday and the whole RPG Crew who continue to make the best radio shows our synth addled brains can handle, as well as Nigel Silva, Matt Canon, Mike Mendoza, Renz Wilde and to everyone who has been supportive of my music, and everyone that I have had the pleasure of working with recently! You all continue to make this the best job I could ever ask for.

The flattery of piracy!

Today i found that my album 'The Road to Fury' is available on multiple torrent sites, uploaded by a few different people. Now you would assume that this would annoy me; however, i could not think of a better compliment!
The fact that i have made something that people deem worth pirating means that i must be doing something right.
There have always been milestones that i wanted to breach with my music, the first was to be listed on iTunes, the second was to make a noticeable profit, and finally to be pirated!
Now it seems i need to set a few more and carry on enjoying the ride!


-Just in case you might wonder why i am fine with my album being pirated, i shall elaborate;

Piracy has become a strange thing for the music and film industry, many big companies use the stats from torrent sites to gauge popularity of products/films/music/etc.
For instance; Netflix uses the stats from sites such as the Pirate Bay to gauge which films and tv shows they should host through their service. The amount of seeders and leechers of a pirate file acts as a very realistic measure of how popular something is. No more surveys, or focus groups.

One of my favorite artists and musicians; Trent Reznor, openly suggested pirating his albums due to the high cost of them in certain countries. These high costs were set by his record label.
Other artists in the past have even sent out blank cd's to fans so they could burn their albums.
Metallica famously released an album with some of the songs being lower quality than the copies ripped from the sound libraries of Guitar Hero!

Nature finds a way, but piracy finds it faster!

rant over :)

Occams Laser over and out!

Happy Independence Day America!

Happy Independence Day to all you Yanks and Yankettes!
As a gesture of good will from Britain, all of my music till 7/7 will be 50% off with the code 'independence' at the checkout smile emoticon Obviously this gesture is open for anyone and not just the U.S. 
Now go any enjoy yourselves, you filthy animals! 

BANDCAMP!

New Occams Laser EP - Judgment Day!

Judgement Day is a collection of 6 no holds barred synthesized electronic monsters!!
The EP has an overall dark powerful vibe with of a twist of fun in the mix. All instruments, effects and vst’s used to create the tracks were designed to have an 80s feel to them but with a modern edge.

The lyrics for ‘Judgment Day’ are heavily influenced by the story of the first two classic Terminator movies. This track was a fun concept idea that became too good not to complete. If you thought a power ballad about the Terminator was impossible then prepare for mind to be blown!

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All music was written, produced, performed and released by Tom from Occams Laser.
Artwork created by Occams Laser.
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A big thanks to everyone who has shown support for my Occams Laser project recently.

A few specific shout outs go to; Renz Wilde, Mike George from 30th Floor Records, Drive Radio, Marko Maric from Synthetix Sunday as well as the whole Synthetix crew, Stereospread, Daniel Kibadachi –Karate King, Volt Age, Lapses, Luigi Donatello, Maniac Synth as well as so many other amazing people and artists in the Synthwave/Retrowave scene!

credits