My Album - The Black Flash

Hey HitFilm, it's your old buddy Aculag, back with another post about music for some reason!

A while back, I posted a few songs in the hobbies thread here, and some of those songs ended up being good enough to include on my solo album, which I've titled The Black Flash. It's some kind of rock with progressive, jazz, indie, and metal influences, all written and recorded by me (except for track 4, which features a friend on piano, and track 7, which is a White Stripes cover.) You can download the album by clicking on this image:



It's free to download!

Here are some samples for you to check out before you decide to download!

2. De-Elevated
6. Combustion Stains
10. Donna

Additionally, I've made a CD version of the album for those who are into CDs still. It's $10 on bandcamp, but if you want one, let me know in here, or send me a message, and I'll give it to you for $5. It looks like this:




Anyway, the goal here is just to get people to hear it. I know this board is pretty slow-moving sometimes, but if you listen to it, post here to let me know! I'd love to hear your thoughts on it if you have any, and I hope you enjoy it!

Sweet one! So how many different instruments do you actually play on the album? Its nicely performed and recorded, although the music isn't entirely my style. I wasn't crazy about De-Elevated, as the odd time signature felt a bit awkward to me (that's probably more me than you though), but I enjoyed the other two a bit. Although its not music I would listen to regularly, that's due to my personal preferences, and not a negative reflection on the music itself. I'm still considering buying a copy though, just to show my support.

Did you do the mixing as well, or did you have it professionally mixed and mastered?

Thanks for checking it out, Axel! I appreciate it! The "real" instruments are bass, guitar, and vocals. Everything else is virtual instruments that I played with my MIDI keyboard.

I did the mixing myself, and it was mastered professionally. Mixing is still one of my weak points, as I've only been doing this on my own since late 2010, but this has been a good learning experience.

Yeah, I was curious about the other instruments, as some of them I didn't peg as MIDI straight away, they sound pretty good. I've found mixing to be a bit simpler when working with electronic instruments. Mixing real drums vs. electronic drums, for example, is a bit trickier, but I did appreciate that the drums that were in there weren't just some loops you programmed up and filled the song with, but that they were appropriately edited to fit the changes in the song and maintain interest. I'm still working on my mixing skills as well, but I often find it useful to get input from someone who wasn't a performer, but has some degree of musical knowledge. The mix sounded decent to me though, so well done I say!

Sounded good to me haha. I don't understand much about music production, but I thought I'd let you know I listened to it and did enjoy it.

Only had time to listen to the first few tracks so far but I REALLY like it. Will definitely download and listen to properly at home and give you some proper feedback.

I love the CD artwork, looks lovely. Almost makes me wish I still did physical media.

We really have to work together on a film score one of these days.

Thanks, guys! Yeah, Simon, I kinda wish I had considered that most people probably have no use for CDs these days. The packaging is soo nice though, so it was worth it just for my own benefit, and to say, "Yeah, I have a CD. *smug*"

Also, you just let me know when you've got something that needs scoring, and I'll try to make it happen. As long as it isn't EPIC and ORCHESTRAL, that is.

I agree with the album design. Love it. I enjoy the music too - nice to here a good mix that sounds so pleasing to the ears.

I just played 'A Kiss Afros Mary' by Presh in the car today. I update all my devices to include that album once I get something new.

Gave it a listen and think its really good, strongly thematic, and has an interesting hopeful-bordering-remorseful tone to it. I really like Ordinary Schedule the best. The vibe feels very alight Club-y to me for some reason, but it's definitely a positive.

Do you have any instrumentals of any of the album? I'd really really love to use the more brooding, eerie, almost sad bits for this short I'm currently working on. I think it's pretty solid of a match, and I'm happy to buy the album regardless of that outcome- because it's really good stuff.

As I've always said, I think you're very musically paclined and talented. No idea why you haven't pursued it further- I really think you could go somewhere.

Do you have any instrumentals of any of the album? I'd really really love to use the more brooding, eerie, almost sad bits for this short I'm currently working on. I think it's pretty solid of a match, and I'm happy to buy the album regardless of that outcome- because it's really good stuff.

Yeah, I was wondering about instrumental versions as well. Not because there's anything wrong with Jordan's voice but because a lot of it would work really well for accompanying music.

As I've always said, I think you're very musically paclined and talented. No idea why you haven't pursued it further- I really think you could go somewhere.

It's a good question. I've also always really enjoyed Aculag's comedy films and the more sort-of-serious shorts. Basically: Aculag, you keep doing cool things but then always seem to take a break for years before doing any more. Can you be more prolific, please?

I agree with the album design. Love it. I enjoy the music too - nice to here a good mix that sounds so pleasing to the ears.

Thanks! The album artwork was designed by a good friend of mine in New York. He also did my old band's album covers.

As I've always said, I think you're very musically paclined and talented. No idea why you haven't pursued it further- I really think you could go somewhere.

Well, from my perspective, I'm constantly pursuing it. Even though I haven't talked much about it around here, music has been my life for like the last five years at least. I moved to a new state to start a band with my old guitarist (whom I had played with for a few years already), played with that band for a couple of years before that guitarist quit. Then we tried to find a new guitarist, but didn't have any luck, so I moved back to my hometown and started teaching myself how to play various things. This is the result of that.

Next month I'm moving back to Oregon to re-form the band, and either go back to school for music production/theory, or get an internship at a studio somewhere. I still consider myself a novice when it comes to writing/recording music, and this is certainly not the last you've heard from my musical side. Film was a major passion of mine for a long time, until I realized that I can't rely on other people to help with my film visions, and music is a lot easier to do on my own. It's what I want to do with my life, whether I'm playing my own music, or recording and mixing it for others. Either way, it's what I love doing, and I'm getting pretty good at it for only having really been at it on my own for a short time.

Regarding your other query, I can put together an instrumental version of the album for you guys no problem. It might take me a few days to get around to it, but I'll post the link in here, or send you messages about it.

On another note, I hope to get back into filmmaking soon as well. But I always say that.

Ps. I just switched the download option to be free without having to enter a $0 amount. It's just a straight up free download now.