ScarKord

One week on...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:26:00 +0100

... and I'm up to #43 on the ReverbNation electronica chart for London!

Work's progressing nicely on the 'Spring EP'. I now have three of the intended five tracks finished so am hoping to release it at the end of next week, or early the week after :)

Had a productive weekend with Clear Air Turbulence too. Ran through a few of my ideas with Cosmo for taking the music live as well as playing him some of the new ScarKord stuff. I've also given him an unfinished ScarKord track 'Wobbulator' which he intends to use in his Raptronica project. Be interesting too see what he does with that!

That's all for now, SK

Exciting times!

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:29:00 +0100

It's all kicking off! The feedback on Reverbnation has been great for the 'Throwing Stones' tracks and I'm positively flying up their electronica charts. (Currently #54 in London and #999 worldwide)

On top of that, I'm off to Leeds this weekend to do a bit of recording with Cosmo of Clear Air Turbulence

But the really exciting news is that I've been in touch with a local singer/songwriter who's looking for a collaborator to help get his Electro soul act of the ground. Had a listen to some of his work and he has a FANTASTIC voice and a singing style all his own, the tunes aren't half bad either. I won't name him at this point, as I don't want to jinx it, but initial e-mail contact has been promising, he likes the ScarKord stuff and we're meeting for a music chat next week!

Anyway, I'm pretty sure one of the above three projects will result in live gigs which I'm so looking forward to finally doing.

More updates when I have them,

ScarKord

ScarKord EP's - Bonus Items

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 00:49:00 +0100

Just made a minor update to the 'Throwing Stones' EP, but hopefully one you'll like.

For anyone who buys the EP, I've included some exclusive bonus drum, synth and percussion loops taken from the EP tracks!

These can be used in your own tunes too and I'd love to hear what you do with them, so get in contact and let me have a listen :)

Assuming this proves popular, I'll look to include some loops with the 'Thud Funk' EP soon.

All the best, SK

ScarKord shop

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:55:00 +0100

You can now buy my music from the ScarKord shop. There are two new ScarKord EP's for you to listen to, "Throwing Stones" is the more techno of the two EP's whereas "Thud Funk" has more of a breakbeat edge to it. All 10 tracks are available to stream in full for free but sound much better as FLAC downloads ;)

<a rel="external" href="http://music.scarkord.com/album/throwing-stones-ep">It is Forbidden by ScarKord</a>

<a rel="external" href="http://music.scarkord.com/album/thud-funk-ep">Thud Funk by ScarKord</a>

You can expect to see a new EP every month!

Oh and if you do decide to buy the EP's or individual downloads, you can get 20% off until the end of the month by entering the voucher code 'glasshouses'.

Hope you like the new tracks! Keep a look out for more next month!

SK

Electronica EP update

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:27:00 +0100

Things are progressing nicely on the electronica EP and the first two finished tracks, "Dreams in Plastic" and "Throwing Stones", are now available on the ScarKord reverbnation site. These are veering more towards the cinematic soundtrack side but there will also be a mix of uptempo numbers on the EP to balance things out a bit. Hoping to have the finished EP ready for the new year.

On the collaboration front, Cosmo from Clear Air Turbulence is keen for us to put together a live show next year. This will likely be a mixture of C.A.T. and ScarKord material and I'm just working out the logistics at the moment and listening through C.A.T. material to get a rough running order together. We're also working on some new C.A.T. demos, with me adding additional keyboard parts and sequences to flesh things out a bit.

ScarKord at the movies...

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:25:00 +0100

Came across this rock climbing video which uses my remix of Oursvince's 'Around' as the soundtrack...

Climbing Newfoundland, Asylum from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

Oooh... look at the pretty lights!

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:39:00 +0100

Guess what the Postman delivered today? Wasn't expecting it to arrive for a least another week, but Thomann obviously got some new stock from Akai...

And here's how the APC40 will integrate with my Laptop / PadKontrol for live use...

Who would have thought...

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:13:00 +0100

... a new soundcard would give you so much joy!

I've been through quite a few soundcards since moving to a laptop and never really got along with any of them. First, I went down the USB route, using my NI Kore controller but got lots of glitches. Then a Novation XioSynth, less glitches but had to whack the latency up pretty high. Then I tried using ASIO4ALL with the onboard soundcard. Surprisingly, this gave the least glitches of all but shocking sound quality. Finally, I made the jump to Firewire via the Focusrite Saffire LE - great sound, but more glitches and flakey as hell! (e.g. Random drop outs requiring a reboot about once an hour.) To be fair, the firewire implementation on my Dell Studio is meant to be pretty crap so it's more likely to be that than the soundcard, but it was still annoying!

But then I found the Echo DJx. All I can say is WOW! Great sound, no glitches at all (!) and running drum racks in Ableton at 3ms latency! Finally, what I'm hearing from my headphones is exactly what I'm playing on the Korg PadKontrol. And being an expresscard, it fits nicely on the side of my laptop with no nasty wires or PSU's to contend with.

Now all I need is my Akai APC40 to arrive, then I can start working out how to take ScarKord live!

(Update - Dec 2009 - Since upgrading to Windows 7 and using the legacy firewire drivers, the Saffire LE is behaving itself nicely! Glad I kept it now as the pre-amps are great!)

Stuff

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:21:00 +0100

Just a quick update on what I've been working on of late. (Apart from cracking out a few remixes for AcidPlanet competitions that is!)

I've been asked to contribute a track to a forthcoming SynthVox summer compilation (not that the UK weather is anything like summery at the moment). This will be some original ScarKord material rather than a remix, I'm just trying to decide what style of track will work best. Got a nice little electronica piece I've been tinkering with, with the working title of 'Dreams in Plastic' which is the current frontrunner. Just finished adding in an oboe part (really) which I think sounds cool. Just gotta squeeze in a string part and some drum edits then I think it will be finished.

I'm also collaborating with my old friend Cosmo Valseca of Clear Air Turbulence again, contributing some keyboard overdubs to his latest demos. He's hoping to have some tracks uploaded to his Reverbnation page later this week.

[Update - 3rd Sept] The track 'Sail Instead' is now on Cosmo's Myspace page and features my keyboard parts on the chorus's.

Until next time, SK

Might Like You Better (ScarKord’s Serious Remix)

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:49:00 +0100

Just uploaded an alternative mix at a more sedate 130 bpm. But the mix is anything but sedate! Breaks, false ending, hidden acid, glitched vox and even a little nod to Kraftwerks Tour de France in there too. (Thanks to a vox loop from the rather excellent 'Electronic Point Blank' library).

To be honest, this is much more my usual sound than that drum & bass nonsense I've been dabbliing with (ha ha).

Anyway, please have a listen and leave some feedback on acidplanet if you can. Be interesting to hear whether the 'real' me is preferred to the fake one!

Might Like You Better (ScarKord's Serious Remix)