Man, I geek out hard to this stuff! It’s like we’re catching up with Jetson’s like technology in music. Check out the new touchscreen Digital Guitar by Misa Digital :

Here’s a video of it being used live in action. WOW!

“Guitars by their very nature have limitations. To create sound you need to hit a string, so that the sound at its most intense point is always the beginning of the pluck. The left hand controls what notes to play, and the right hand controls when to play these notes and the intensity of the notes. Effects can be inserted into the signal chain, but they are usually foot pedals which makes the experience of controlling effects disjointed from what your hands are doing. Plus, you can only really make use of one pedal at a time. Even in the (rare) case that controls are mounted on the guitar, the hand needs to switch between strings and controls. This may be okay if you only use effects occasionally, but when every note you play needs the controls set differently – good luck with that.

Electronic music cannot be played effectively with such constraints. In electronic music, the timbre (or colour) of the sound can be morphed in an infinite number of ways. For a guitar to accommodate this, the right hand needs more control than just plucking strings. You need to be able to control elements of the sound, such as sustain, pitch, filter cutoffs, contour or any other synthesizer parameter, in a way that has no physical constraints.

This was my thought process when designing the Misa digital guitar. There are no strings on this instrument. The right hand doesn’t pluck strings, it controls sound. So don’t compare Misa digital guitars to acoustic guitars or electric guitars. Those are different instruments, for different artforms, for different music. This is electronic music.”

Pulse Magazine profiled me in their “Up and Comers” section:

http://www.thepulsemag.com/wordpress/2009/12/0110-up-comers

It’s the January “People to Watch” issue. Not too shabby!

Whatup fam,

I’m back at it after a little hiatus through the holidays. Had my shoulder operated on so I can go back to MMA training and hoops, and the meds had me vegged for a while. Still lots of love coming on for “INSOMNIADDICT” and I definitely appreciate that. I’ve been coming across a lot of random people who have “Empty” up as songs on their webpages and profiles. I’m pretty surprised by that seeing how that song  leaned heavy on the spoken word side, but I’m glad people find something in it that they relate to. (my homegirl Cyn said it should be on Afro Samurai!?)

That being the case here’s that track for download incase you don’t have my CD:

Direct MP3 Link: EMPTY

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

If you’re wondering; I’m already back in the lab doing new music. Real introspective stuff is coming out of the sessions. Expect a new Nytmare project late 2010.

peace

music is my big bang theory,
my rage encaged inside a pinpoint ready to blow…

Direct MP3 Link: ANTIDOTE

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

All of the sick artwork you’ve seen for INSOMNIADDICT was done by my buddy Derek Ring of Abnormalbrain.com. The dude is incredibly talented with a very unique dark, satiracle, comic book type style. Here’s a blog post he put up recently on his thought process for the monstrous release party poster he did along with an animation of the drawing process ( AWESOME!)

As many people know, I work digitally and take screengrabs as I work. Click here to see the latest animation, for last weeks’ Nytmare poster.

Couple things to notice. I originally had the hero fearlessly jumping at the monster, but that wasn’t really working for me. So he came forward and got entangled in the muck. I saw this picture of this roman sculpt when I was little and it’s always stuck with me. Something so calm and cool about all three of them: ‘Stupid serpents of evil, we’re trying to talk here!’

Also, there was going to be a chick in the image as well, but as I was drawing her, I just couldn’t wrap my head around the narrative. Too complicated without actually being interesting. Same thing with those roots. Too much.

Also, during the build, you’ll see the text turn on and off. I dropped in the text early, knowing that I wanted the composition to be 50/50 text/image, but kept it shut off (hidden) most of the time because of the gritty complex fonts. They tend to choke Illustrator. I like that program because it really moves at the speed of thought, so it’s just an efficiency thing.

Have a pleasant weekend.
d

Here’s the finished poster and the animation.

Incredibly ill!

So I’m CRAZY late with this, but hey…  that’s what happens when things get hectic!

The release party at the Lucky Dog was real dope, and a great night on many counts. The crowd got thick early -  which was awesome to see the city come out to support. I got about 150 CD’s off at the show and that’s with some people forgetting to grab it or couples taking just one. Having the different genres perform paid dividends as each brought something live and different, and throughout the night fans kept talking about being impressed and cross pollinating. Much love to Spit Supreme, Cocaine Robots, Shane Hall and Evince Ethos for sharing the stage with me. I brought my A-Game for the show for sure, but following these acts who thoroughly impressed the crowd had me dig deep for even more.

About 12:45AM we finally took the stage to a wilding ovation. I mean serious loud, after every song. I was definately humbled by the love. A quick intro to shatter pre-concieved notions (“This is not what you think it is …”) and we set it off. The crowd was ravenously hype and pushed up to the stage surrounding me. I emphatically let em know what time it was running through sharp raw aggression with REIGN DROPS, BRUISED UP and ASHES TO ASHES. Bouncing around on stage, passionately laying down verse I had the crowd throwing hands at me and finishing my lines and “bringing it to me RAW”. When I jumped, they jumped. When I nodded, they nodded. They heard their part in the music and called back at me ( “..cuz Lakeside’s crazy… “ I see you!). The music was like a whip I was cracking and the crowd responded to every word. You could FEEL the energy in the room and it was really awe inspiring to me and pushed me to give even more in the performance.

Things really got frenzied with SYCAMORE (“I’m INSANE when I’m boxed in!”). If you check the pics the sweat is pouring off of me from the crazy lighting effects and jumping around and pulling my hair out. Perfect time to induce some cerebral head-nodding with SINISTER and SEX IS A WEAPON. ( this song is so vicious I almost felt bad performing infront of some family that was at the show… ALMOST …. ) Nuz took a break from hype vocals and we mixed it up with Nay’s female vocalist rendition of NOWADAYS, BETRAYAL and the infamous electronica collab I did with GANG LU, TEAR.  The singing was mint as usual.

Nuz took his mic back and we had a little fun with the crowd making them sing I WISH I KNEW. Then we finally brought it home with the fav RESONATE, bouncing through the lyrics with the crowd throwing hands and finishing the hook for us yelling “musta been something ya said!”. DOPE! Huge applause at the end, many thanks at the end and it was a wrap. Many daps and props later….  many comments on how they normally don’t like hip-hop but loved the show … I was ready to collapse. I had given my all.

I know I was putting my LP out there, but it ended up being about what was given to me. The energy and love of that crowd was unreal and the greatest gift of all. It was truly something special to be a part of and I will never, ever forget it.

Thank You

[View with PicLens]

So it’s like 2:30AM the night before the CD release and I can’t sleep. I would call it release day “eve” but really it’s the morning of…  so the semantics are tricky. You know, all kinds of bullshit goes down on the business and politics side of music and it can be really draining on you. Leading upto today there were times when things had kind of wore me down but a random IM changed all of that. A fan I never talked to added me on Facebook, messeged to say what’s up, and asked for an old song of mine that he couldn’t find. It was a song I haven’t had anywhere in well over 5 years. Turns out he got it on a promo sampler I had handed out after smuggling a handful of home made, sharpie written, burned CDR’s into a concert and passed out to random heads in like 2001. Dude told me that the particular song was his shit, he loved it and had been looking for it for years.  Damn…

What were the odds that my random needle in a haystack CD-R I passed out would resonate with some one to the point where they would still love a song they had lost 7 years later? Now that is love. That is music. That is what it’s all about. That is what makes all of the work and effort worth it.  I don’t give a fuck if there is just 1 person in the crowd Saturday. If it means that much to that person, then it means that much to me; and they deserve 110%.

I am beyond amped to rock this show tonight.

We’re officially one week out from the release, sick show lined up, boxes of CDs infront of me … I’m ready!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 10, 2009

NYTMARE’S INSOMNIADDICT CD RELEASE PARTY SCHEDULED FOR OCTOBER 10 @ THE LUCKY DOG

WORCESTER, MA – Worcester hip hop artist Nytmare has announced that his CD Release Party for his first full length CD, Insomniaddict, will be held on Saturday, October 10 at The Lucky Dog Music Hall, 89 Green Street, beginning at 9 PM.

After more than 10 years on the Worcester music scene, Nytmare says it’s about time that he shared his music beyond the scope of a live performance. “I’ve had tons of music finished for years,” he explains. “I just went through my archives, and took some of my favorites that I wanted to put out there and encapsulate.”

Featuring 15 tracks written between 1999 and 2009, Insomniaddict covers vast musical grounds, from underground to industrial and everything in between. It personifies Nytmare’s journey through 10 years of life, documenting raw emotion unapologetically and unabashedly. One moment, you’re caught in clever, and sometimes lewd, wordplay. The next, you’re in deep, philosophical thought over political metaphors. Insomniaddict’s only consistency is its ability to keep transforming into something else. It’s just not what you think it is.

“To me, these songs are Polaroids, thoughts, feelings and ideas from a specific time and place,” he adds. “For me, through music, I can genuinely capture a snapshot of a moment in time.”

Scheduled for the night of Saturday, October 10, the Insomniaddict Release Party guarantees any patron who walks in the doors of The Lucky Dog a copy of Nytmare’s first CD. “This night is about people who appreciate music that resonates and means something after all is said and done,” says Nytmare of the show’s lineup, which will feature musical acts across many genres. “It’s about crossing boundaries.”

The evening will open with a set by Spit Supreme, a homegrown solo MC known for his smooth flow and sharp lyricism, followed by the high energy hip hop duo Cocaine Robots, who never disappoint with great throwback tracks and satirical lyrics. Next up will be Shane Hall & The TickleBomb Orchestra, an eclectic and experimental collective fusing the sounds of folk, rock, and hip hop, then a performance by Evince Ethos, a symphonic metal band led by a captivating female vocalist. Nytmare hits the scene last, closing the night with a set arsenal sampling music from Insomniaddict as well as unreleased tracks from his archives.

“I’m looking forward to unveiling Insomniaddict and celebrating with old and new fans alike,” noted Nytmare. “I’m also excited to be involved in a show that really highlights the diversity that exists in the Worcester music scene.”

For more information about Nytmare, visit: www.nytmare.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/nytmare508
MySpace: www.myspace.com/nytmare508
Twitter: www.twitter.com/nytmare
Email: nytmare508@gmail.com

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