• 05/31/2009 - 18 More Social Sites Added to SocialNetwork.in
• 05/25/2009 - Run Your Own Remix or Music Project at ArtistServer.com
• 05/22/2009 - AudioBoo.fm and YouNoodle.com Added to SocialNetwork.in
• 05/06/2009 - mp3tunes.com - no option to close your account
• 03/17/2009 - How to run a Remix Project
• 09/28/2008 - My Lovely Wife Lou is Pregnant
• 12/14/2007 - ArtistServer News and a new site: FreeMusicLicensing.com
• 09/18/2007 - AritstServer and ToneThis Serve Up Indie Ringtones
• 09/11/2007 - Running LightTPD and PHP on Windows
• 09/06/2007 - Compete.com -vs- Alexa.com - Comparing Website Rank

The video has received a lot of responses, replies, parodies, and remixes of both the video and the song.

Tay was kind and smart enough to release the vocal track of the song and allow others to create their own remixes.

Once you hear his low and distinct sounding voice, you'll get an idea as to why it's getting attention.

Being one who enjoys the art of remixing, I downloaded the vocals, and recorded a thick and gooey funk version of the song.

You can visit my music site and hear the song at the top of the page: Chocolate Rain - Sonic Remix / Sonic Wallpaper

Or stream/download the mp3 from these links: Download - Stream

Enjoy! 

I recently uploaded a new song to ArtistServer.com, and realized that it had been a long time since I posted about my music. While I enjoy talking and thinking about artist and music promotion, I tend to not promote my own works, and spend all that time and energy working on the site or recording more music.

The last post I made about new songs was back in May, 2006, where I had two new songs to share. The list of songs you see below, were recorded between July 2006 to January 6, 2006 (listed oldest to newest).

If you have a favorite, let me know - or, sign into ArtistServer.com and post a review!

Enjoy the music :)

• Breaks For Jah
  Genre - Reggae/Dub/Breakbeat
  Song Description - a blending of breaks and reggae with an upbeat tempo. Get up and move!
  Song Page - Stream - Download
  
  
• Speculatus
  Genre - Minimal Experimental/Dub
  Song Description - This piece can be described in three words: minimal glitch dub. It's built from glitch noises, a virtual synth, and a few drum samples drenched in reverb with some delay effects here and there. The piece doesn't have much to the structure, it's more of a texture with slight changes. This piece was inspired by the music of "Pole" which I just started listening to in earlier 2006.
  Song Page - Stream - Download
  
  
• Whipass Ray and the Stay Strongs
  Genre - Drill n' Bass
  Song Description - the vocal portion of this track was uploaded to he Web and has been passed around - Ze Frank www.zefrank.com/theshow asked people to remix it, and now they are looking for Ray to give him the remixes (and they found him). definately not one of my best tracks - it was just for fun.
  Song Page - Stream - Download
  
  
• Scratchin The Funk
  Genre - Funk/Breakbeat
  Song Description - This track started out going in a completely different direction - it had a very loud, dark sound. After a few listens, I deleted everything in the song but the drums and started over. Brillman, who hangs out on our forums, asked me where my funk went, which triggered the starting over from scratch, and this was the answer :)
  Song Page - Stream - Download
  
  
• Down Here, Over There
  Genre - DownTempo
  Song Description - This song is structured around a guitar recording I made, where I detuned the guitar until I found a nice and low, yet playable tuning - which ended up in the key of Bflat. From there, I built out the drums to support the changes, then learned the progression on my bass.
  Song Page - Stream - Download
  
  
• Arpegallegiance
  Genre - Ambient
  Song Description - a set of notes run through an arpeggiator which were then tweaked using the sound source's settings and several effects to give it a well saturated sound.
  Song Page - Stream - Download
  
  
• That Scat Song
  Genre - Psychedelic/Funk
  Song Description - This is one of those songs that sat around unfinished for more than a year. Every few months, I'd pull it out, make some edits, record some new parts, then save it away. Finally... it's here for you to check out... OMG... yes, it's true, it's "That Scat Song" - the song you've been waiting for. Click it on, sing along, it's That Scat Song. [note: scat as in, singing!!!]
  Song Page - Stream - Download

I'm currently in musical bliss :)

I love it when my eMusic subscription refreshes and I get to pick out 65 new mp3s to download!  

As you can see by the dates, most of this music is a few years old - but man... these are great tracks!  I broke them down by genre with hopes that some of you might check out some of these artists.

It seems as of late, my mind has floated into a Trip Hop and Dub state. I just can't get enough of either type of music.  I hope that some of it rubs off and I'll be able to put together a track of my own that blends both Trip Hop and Dub - both of which are styles of music I've yet to be able to create.  When you listen to an 'average' Trip Hop or Dub song, it seems like they are simple in structure, that you only need a few standard elements to be able to pull it off.  My experience, is that it's even more difficult to pull off - unless you are looking to create something generic. I see both of these genres as very soulful - with feeling and space. All three of those elements are difficult to create in a track, which is where the magic of these musical styles comes from.

It's refreshing as an artist to feel a connection and passion about your art form. It was 18 years ago that I first picked up an instrument and said to myself that I was going to create my own music. While I've never grown into a well known artist, I have to say that I feel successful with my music - and the reason I say that, is because I still retain a relationship with music that feels as fresh as it did so many years ago. 

If you are deeply into music, and you haven't checked out www.eMusic.com - email me - I believe I can send out 'invites' that will give you 25 free downloads as a trail. Just hit http://www.MarkenMedia.com - and use the contact form.

Trip Hop/DownTempo
=============================
A Forest Mighty Black
Mellowdramatic (1998)

Saru
Downtempo Dojo (2001)

Electronic Dub/Middle Eastern
=============================
Badawi
Jerusalem Under Fire (1997)

Dub Trees
Nature Never Did Betray The Heart That Loved Her (2000)

IDM
=============================
Phoenecia
Brownout (2001)

Ambient
=============================
Craig Padilla
Vostok (2002)

Electronic/Space Music
=============================
Bill Laswell / Pete Namlook
Psychonavigation (1994)

The following are screenshots of the two UT2004 game maps I just released and posted about in the previous blog post.

If your RSS reader doesn't show the images, just vist my blog at: http://www.gideonmarken.com

The Flag Chamber:

Liquid Space: sorry the screenshots are so dark - the environment is in space and isn't lit for a perspective above the map like this:

While I tend to write about development, programming, the Web, and about running a media site, My roots and original passion are in creating media. I enjoy dabbling in all things digital, but my focus has always been on music. Over the years, music has always served as an excellent context for improvising and exploring creativity. But... as my computer gained more speed, and my mind wandered around the Web, I found that my music could take on new concepts and directions if I started working with visual mediums.

Unfortunately, I've yet to move very far into video as I'd like to. If you don't have all the skills and knowlege, you do have to invest a lot of time in learning how to present a good flow of imagery. Depending on what style you are going for, you also need a fair amount of time to plan your shots, take the shots, edit them, add transitions, etc. Because of my increased interest in video, I've started watching more video on the Web. And... well... this big wave of 'user generated content' that is apparently going to change the face of media... it's not so slick, it's a bit raw, and it seems true video producers haven't joined the party as much as we need them. With that said, I can tell you that the videos I'll link below are not that great, and all but 1 was actually generated using software that generates the 'cuts' based on the music you give it http://www.MuVee.com .

While I haven't gone very far in teaching myself video editing, I have made a more progress with game maps using the Unreal Tournament game engine. Certainly, my mapping skills are novice, but I've successfully pulled together two maps, one of which took over 100hrs - most of which was time spent learning.  Game design is a job I'd love to have if I had more time. I bought a few books on the subject two years ago and even considered moving into that field. There's so much potential in games - espeically now with such 3D realism, advanced AI, fast hardware, and top notch video cards.  Why more people don't play around with the Unreal game engine boggles my mind. I'm sure it's because it's a 'game engine' and people aren't considering it for anything but games. What I hope to start using this technology for, is building 3d interactive art installations. For example, why not create some type of largescale musical instrument which is played by having characters jumping on pads, or having massive syncronized structures which chime out tones as certain parts of the structure come within a distance of other parts. Or a room with balls that bounce around and trigger sounds and animations that are associated to squares on the walls. Or... make a movie, as in "Machinima" - which is the making of movies within game engines.

Ok - enough talk - Here's the links and info on all the music, video and game maps I've released recently. The videos are all a year or more old, I just never put them out or announced them.

Songs

Song Page: http://www.ArtistServer.com/artist/song.cfm/a/0/TID/14062

A downtempo IDM track built from a loop of from my friend Todd and I clapping. Lots of sub bass in the mix. This piece seems to have a sad emotional feel, yet it projects an uplifting, positive sense across the track through the skittery melody.

Stranger Danger

Song Page: http://www.ArtistServer.com/artist/song.cfm/a/0/TID/14063

An electro breaks track that has a bit of that 'spy theme' feel to it, but a more experimental approach. The track was built from drum loops, drum samples, and a few runs of my guitar through a Tone Port by Line6 to generate the synth parts and guitar jabs.

Selfprovisation 1

Song Page: http://www.ArtistServer.com/artist/song.cfm/a/0/TID/14330

An improvised piece of music done in 4 passes. First, I recorded the main guitar part (distortion, heavy reverb, delay). Next, I recorded the second guitar part (sample+hold effect and dynamic filter), which noodles around the main guitar. Then, I plugged in a bass, layed down a track, and let it sit for a few days. I realized it needed something else, so I set up a mic and recorded the percussion parts. Influence: 'Dark Star'

Video

http://www.veoh.com/users/Sonic%20Wallpaper

The Flag Chamber
Read about it and watch: http://www.artistserver.com/artist/pages.cfm/a/9/pg/167/SonicWallpaper
(note: Veoh.com has recompressed the video so it looks a bit pixeled now - if you download the video, you'll have a better quality version).  The song 'The Flag Chamber' is a rocking breakbeat track with lots of energy.

Smokey Velvet
http://www.veoh.com/videoDetails.html?v=e62901ezY6dmBd&
This video was created by taking footage from a trip to Arizona and ran it though a piece of software called MuVee. The video features a 'shoe tree' - where people have tossed and hung around 100 shoes in a tree. The song 'Smokey Velvet' sounds like a space age lounge.

Serenus Maximus
http://www.veoh.com/videoDetails.html?v=e63005f6ZAKzPn&
the video features the burnt remains of a Manzanita grove that burnt down just East of San Diego, CA. Again, the video was generated by running video segments through MuVee.
The song 'Serenus Maximus' is an abstract ambient piece - the mid section has some great moments of silence.

There's Not Much Space
http://www.veoh.com/videoDetails.html?v=e60179CNpjCEkb
This video was created from several small video clips found on the Web mixed w/ effects, still photos and a few home captured clips. Just like the song, the video serves more as a collage of elements rather than telling you a story or idea.

Music For Wormholes
http://www.veoh.com/videoDetails.html?v=e60280AgQ3zJHq
A video of a trip to Yosemite that's been heavily chopped up and processed to a Ambient Drum-n-Bass track called: Music For Wormholes. Again, the video was generated by running video segments through MuVee.

Game - Maps for Unreal Tournament 2004 (UT2004)

My Maps can be found here: http://www.unrealplayground.com/mapper.php?id=11993

VCTF - The Flag Chamber - a vehicle Capture the Flag map

An underground arena carved from a large asteroid which was then launched into a 6 year orbit around the sun. This map provides a well balanced game with plenty of space for action on the ground, in a vehicle or on foot. Some highlights:
* viewports off each team's base, showing a view of space and the outside landscape
* a crack in the ceiling that drips water down into a pool that has formed on the terrain
* each team's base has screens showing the front entrance of each base
* includes an original song recorded for this map
* bot support

DM - Liquid Space - a Deathmatch map

A low gravity map based on an array of platforms which are being held in place by a celestial formation called Liquid Space. With nowhere to hide, and muliple levels of platforms to jump between, this map offers a fast paced game that's won with aggression and laughter. :) Full bot support.

Enjoy the music, videos - and if you don't own a copy of UT2004, pick one up - get the DVD version and you'll also get a 2nd disc filled with video tutorials covering how to develop in Unreal.