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

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!

Attack the (writers) Block

I'm not the first and i will surely not be the last to experience it; writers block is the bane of many creatives in the search for creating new exciting things.

For me this all feels really strange. For the last year i have been rather prolific in creating new songs, EP's, and Albums! Maybe i've been burning the candles at both ends and in the words of Blade Runner; 'The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long.'

A few things that i know effect the way i work is the pressure of social media, and also the need for the 'perfect scenario' for working. When i say perfect scenario, i mean the right conditions such as being in the right mood, not being tired etc.
Back to social media; i feel a lot of pressure to respond to people on Facebook and read all my tweets on Twitter etc, and this although sounding trivial can still add a lot of unnecessary pressure. Perhaps i may just have to start being a bit ruthless and ignoring people.

Why is it that the people you have never met, and only talk to via computers; can actually stress you out! Its mad how affected we've become by modern technology, perhaps i need to do a tech cleanse :P


ramblings over

OL out

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

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!

Poster design and new logo

Today marks a whole year of my Occams Laser logo's creation!
So to honor how well it has served me i am upgrading it and also have made a movie poster to accompany a new era of Occams Laser!

The design was made purely on my iPad using the brushes3 app. No fancy filters, no magical template, just good old fashioned paint skills and a bit of time.

The tagline 'Dubstep is a disease. Meet the cure.' is a homage to the similar tagline from the film 'Cobra'.

This may also be used as a promo for my next EP/Album.

June - update!!

Damn its been a busy month!

- hitting 70,000 plays on Soundcloud
- 28,000 followers on twitter
- Appearing on two themed compilation albums.
- Being interviewed on Synthetix Sundays by Marko Maric.
and now im just finishing off another album!

But until my next album is ready; howabout some true retrospective music :)
i present the awesome new Street fighter themed album by 30th Floor records called....
SYNTH FIGHTERS!

And guess who got the chance to be on the album and cover one of my favorite tracks?
ME :D i got my hands on the M. Bison theme, and hopefully it does the trick.

So go listen to the full album and also you can get it for FREE!
(also it would be swell if you supported the other artists on here too, they all did a great job!)