Summary of activities

Many things are on the go, maybe too much.

• On Garageband still no reviews, seems like in august most of reviewers are on the beach. Meanwhile, I continue in doin' mine to earn another contest entry.

• I'm a little stuck with Maya 3D. The usual wall of complexity at 25% of self-instruction, mostly based on the great number of new info (brain refuse to fill in further, it's "bored"). I need it for my job and next videos. Anyway I learnt basics in modeling and rigging, which is the most important thing. I've seen I can re-use my old bevelling basic solids Lightwave tecnique, and add new sculpting features to a defined shape. I prefer to go into deep with these two parts then start with FX (liquids, sparkles, fluids, mass scenes management and so on).

• I have to do a Clash cover (Complete Control from first record) for Apskaft, we're doin' a compilation based on Rolling Stones top 500. As usual we random assigned tracks, I had to choose among Who's Baba O'Riley, Clash's Complete Control and a song by Springsteen. I eliminated Springsteen immediately :-D, so I was uncertain between clash and one of the very few songs by Who I like, but Clash was nearest to me, I listened a lot to that record (and to London Calling or Sandinista!)

• Collaborations. I'm keeping contact with various musicians to make a team-up record in the next future, but I'm too busy to start anything. Good luck they are all calm, pacific and patient people :-D

• I found a NING group pretty interesting, Progrock.ning, and joined immediately. After a half dozen NINGs by electronic musicians, I can talk about avant & prog with a few nice people. They inserted three songs of mine (intro, Behind the Curtain and Møre og Romsdal) in the main playlist, and we started to exchange info and opinions via forum or shoutbox. Friendly, and freaky as prog deserves. Well I'm passing most of the NING-time :-D there.
  

Updates: new record, new band

I made a song for a cover album by Apskaft. We decided to remake "Spice" by Spice Girls (plus a couple of bonus tracks), and we random assigned tracks to 12 bands. My song was Mama, and I made an industrial-goin'-to-japanese-naive-and-back avant-rock (almost unrecognizable) track.

Record is called Apskaft presents: Spice and is uploaded at Last.FM, plus I enclosed it in ./root: the singles compilation of singles by Hox Vox.

Meanwhile I started new sessions for Étoile, my new record.
This time I'll have a couple of bandmates side by side, they're Gert Breitenkamp (long-experienced drummer) and Sami Hotakainen (whose electronic solo project is Hotsam). We're starting to exchange tracks and refine the scheme I made 'til now.

We are trying to see if we work well together: if the experience will be positive (I think so) we join as a trio, so Hox Vox will be my solo side project and the main activity will be in this band.

Back on net

My ADSL works again, so let's summarize what's happened meanwhile.

Endlessly looking for a job in a very hard recession, I'm recording my last record. It's composed of five pieces: first four tracks are almost finished, now I'm working on last one. It's very complex and twisted, so I wonder as usual if I'm goin' too baroque or - worst - quite wanky.
(I don't want to say titles as I can change them on the go, or even 5 minutes before upload; so better be vague)

I already made album's cover, so I only need to finish last song, go back to final arrangments on first four songs, and make last maniac analysis before upload and see if there's feedback.
I think I'll subscribe last song of record to Garageband experimental rock contest if the result will be what I got in my mind. Can't say "exactly" because the track as I said up here is quite zigzagging so it's difficult to imagine all the details in an overall view. This could result in a drastic simplification, but I take this option as very far.

Slowly LaGuardia climb up the charts in Garageband, got a 3.2 score now and it's about at half way in all-times progressive charts (#1,015 of 2,167), but sadly it's only #50 on 66 in active Prog Contest. Still I think it was better subscribe it on Experimental rock contest, but I was a newbie and didn't get the situation.

Future plans

I took a long rest after Thar desert videoclip: I was really overhelmed after three videos in one month - and without a break, I started to work on clips right after Outskirt's end.
In these vacation days I still was thinking to music, some new songs came in my mind, and forgot as well (except one, which will be the first I'll work on). I think what I forgot was not so impressive, resulting in kind of filter for bad material. I mean, thinking this way it's at least conforting.

This time I would make a less eclectic record.
For many reasons:

• few people can listen to a whole record if it's made of mazurkas, death metal, classical, pop, funky, electronics, punk, general absurdities... the average listener likes one or two... maybe three (not very) different genres.
• having more than a musical identity result in a vague global identity. People can't remember You, it's the same dynamics in advertising, unfocused=forgettable.
  
• I could say I don't care about the previous two points, as I play for my pleasure so if You don't like it, listen to another musician :-D. But I myself want to make a record more compact, and go into deep in a single genre.

It's hard to decide what genre. I think I'll finish to split my ideas on smaller units, like Eight-Bit Deboned which is less than 18 minutes.