They have been released ...

... and the official release date is 13th March 2017.

First here are the full album streams at youtube for both the main product (Scumfusion) and the so-called sideproduct (Chipfusion) :

You can find the Scumfusion album also from CDbaby and from Bandcamp and it's coming soon to places like Spotify etc. You can stream it also from Mikseri. The same goes for Chipfusion's release, as it's already available at CDbaby and likewise at Bandcamp and it's coming to Spotify etc, too. And it's available for streaming at Mikseri.

Enjoy! I sure enjoyed creating these releases, especially the Scumfusion one. I think it contains some of the best blasters by Scumfusion so far. Which makes me very happy indeed. :)

I'll be putting the lyrics here into this blog later for Scumfusion release. Bandcamp's album package contains massive graphical lyrics set in PDF format as bonus item.

Tracklists & cover artworks

I've spent pretty much all this weekend finalizing the details and some media I've decided to craft - like full album video with visualised lyrics. Actually I just got the massive video edited and it's being rendered. Might be able to get it to youtube still tonight. I didn't have time to put this information here yesterday, but now is the time.

Here's the tracklist and song lengths for the 'Latemogelian infiltration' :

01. Intragalactic   3:28
02. Blackformation   1:50
03. Discovery of Lucid Pearl   2:12
04. Fasten your starbelts   0:37
05. Star blast festival   1:09
06. Mutated star rats   0:59
07. Exoriant radiation   1:57
08. Neogalacticohesion   0:51
09. Unintelligent by design   1:37
10. Pulse from galactic filament 333   0:47
11. Spheres of Draitoz   1:07
12. Space raynergy system   1:39
13. Dimensional constant   0:45
14. Red nil sworn first   1:01
15. Artificial duality   0:34
16. Warbegunugebraw   1:09
17. Red nils worn last   0:55
18. Planetary security gates   1:42
19. Xilixirious elements   1:13
20. Green slime from Zaidazopth   0:59
21. Drones   0:33
22. Extragalactic   3:26

As you can see by just looking at those titles, it's definitely scifi. No surprise there!

Well, here comes the coverart pics, front and back covers (click them to see them larger).

Latemogelian infiltration - front cover

Latemogelian infiltration - back cover

And here's the tracklist & song lengths for Chipfusion release 'Yksi' :

01. Chipgalactic   3:15
02. Chipformation   1:49
03. Discovery of the Chip   2:03
04. Fasten your chipbelts   0:36
05. Chip blast festival   1:08
06. Mutated star chips   0:59
07. Exoriant chip   1:45
08. Neogalactichip   0:51
09. Chipped by design  1:33
10. Pulse from galactic filament chip   0:41
11. Chips of Draitoz   1:06
12. Space raynergy chip   1:50
13. Dimensional chip   0:44
14. Red chip sworn first   1:02
15. Artificial chip   0:50
16. Chipbegunugebpihc   1:08
17. Red chip worn last   0:55
18. Planetary chip gates   1:36
19. Chip elements   1:12
20. Green chip from Zaidazopth   0:58
21. Chips  0:31
22. Galactichip   2:37

Rather familiar looking song titles, right? Yeah. :) The chiptunes are pretty much 100 % unaltered if compared to how they are mixed into Scumfusion album. Just one real exception; song number 15 has slightly longer midsection than how it goes in Scumfusion song (with the very same number, too). Other than that, it's the same chippers with minimalistic techno beats crafted by yours truly.

I didn't create back cover artwork for Chipfusion, just the front album cover, which also happens to be strongly connected with Scumfusion's album cover. It makes sense in a twisted way. Here you go (click to see it larger).

Yksi - front cover

Soon to be released (parts one and two)

After several days of listening and checking how the 2nd master version feels, I decided that it's the final master version. Nothing to be fixed. I've already started submitting the album to CDbaby first, and I'll progress with few other streaming sites during the weekend. Going to make full album video for youtube, containing visual lyrics, etc.

Not just the SF album release, but I'm simultaneously releasing also chiptune album under the name of Chipfusion. It contains the chiptunes used in Scumfusion's new album, with minimalistic techno beats replacing all the grind / metal elements. It's a funny package and makes an interesting listen and kind of comparison to the Scumfusion album. How different can an album sound. Very different indeed.

I'll post album coverart(s) and tracklist later into this blog. Possible also for Chipfusion since I won't be making any separate blog etc for that release. Since this release is connected directly to Scumfusion, its' details are going to be here as well.

Lookin' through thy 2nd master

It's progressing. Yes. I already crafted second master version of the album tonight, after working few hours with tweaking them sounds. I even managed to listen the album once through in its' current form and it's surely getting there bit by bit. I'm not sure yet, if this second master version is the version or not - since I'm not in any kind of hurry, I'll listen it for a day or two and then look how it feels. Currently it feels very good already.

Now I have quite precise overall length of this album to tell, too: 30min 30sec. And if not counting few longer space soundscapes included, the album (grind stuff) is perhaps 28-29 minutes long. The current length feels very good to me, too. Very fitting.

Already listening (but not for signals in space)

Against my earlier expectations I had time to do the full album bounce today and I've even listened the package twice through. Musically speaking I'm very satisfied with the package all in all. Production'wise it's ... well, it is rough sounding package, too. Dirty and primitive. But as it happens, it suits the material perfectly.

Now it's mainly about seeing how I finish the final mix / mastering process. Earlier I've been thinking about working the material so that I'd get the overall mix louder. But as I did some analysing tonight and experiments, I'm starting to feel more certain that ... I will not try to force a louder mix. It would be against my own overall picture about  the "loudness war" subject. I'll rather let the album stay more dynamic and organic, kind of, the way it is currently. I will be doing some mixing & mastering experiments, ... gotta see how it goes and how long it takes. Not necessarily long at all.

If previous SF album ("lost constellations") was the most pure sounding moment for SF, this new album will be about  the opposite. But in a good way. I can't say it'd be the most unpure sounding since that prize would have to go the debut release which was and is beyond unpureness. :)

Space t(h)ree

Third "spacescapey" session tonight and ... it was rather surprising. I thought I'd have at least two more basic space soundscape sessions left but I got all the rest songs worked through tonight. I'm not sure yet if that's that, or is more soundwork needed - I'll have to listen the full album few times before doing any decisions there. I also lost count of the space element songs I did tonight, but I'd estimate it's like every second or every third song will have some space sound elements mixed in. In many songs' cases the crazy chiptune soundscape is more than "spacy" enough, ha!

So, ... next up will be putting up a bounce for listening the full album. It could be that I don't have time to do that yet during the coming weekend since there are other things to do. I'll report when I get into next stage. Listening sessions ahead.

More space soundworks

Continued the work tonight for few hours. Got basic space elements done for four tracks. And while doing that, it became even more clear that the space soundscapes are less obvious / noticeable with this release. They are  there, some of them will be easily picked and noticed, but some sounds are more like hidden expansions within the grind chaos (or in the breaks from the chaos).

Well, the work is progressing nicely. To be continued ... I think it's at least two more space soundscape sessions ahead at this stage.

... into spacy elements

Started working with the additional space soundscapes / elements for the album. It's going to be bit different with the space sounds than in past few albums, in some ways. Mainly because there's not going to be that much space / scifi soundscapes this time - this is how I feel currently anyway. The difference might not be that audible though. It's connected with the chiptune element actually ... as the chiptunes sound quite spacy in many of the songs, especially in the way big bunch of songs start and end. It souds at times like it is the space soundscapes, instead of "just" chiptune playing ...

... well, I got some songs initially checked in tonight's session. Opening and closing songs will have space elements as well (not surprising, goes with the stories of songs, too). So I got them sorted for now, and also third song got some minimal space elements. Next song that will have space sounds looks like to be song number six. That's where I ended tonight's session, next up is song six.

I'm quite confident I'll get the album ready and released during March if no big surprises come. Perhaps the third week of March ... we'll see how things go. I think the mastering / mixing will be more demanding than anything else left to do.

1st full listening session and thoughts

Even that the material is not in its' final form (space soundscapes + mixing & mastering) I went and listened the full package from start to finish tonight. First time with the vocals I've recorded so far. To get the impression how it all sounds now, at this stage, with fresh ears. I'm glad to say I really enjoyed the listening session. It's really punishing package, but it's not just noise (is grind eva?) - there are some songs with some real hooks in my opinion. For grind freaks, anyway.

Hard to say yet if I need to record some more vocals or fix something, gotta let it be for some days and start thinking & doing some space sound experiments this week.

Oh and also; now that the trailer revealed what the extra factor is (chiptunes combined with grindcore) you can get the idea what I mean in past weeks / months by saying that I've been composing the songs "bit different way" than usually. Kind of. In some cases I've written the grind stuff first, then composed & created the chiptune around the grind ... but in most cases it's been the opposite way; I've composed chiptune first, then composed grind around the chiptune. I really like the way it came out, ... and as you can hear from the trailer, the material is certainly not "overproduced" but funnily it has more resemblance with the early SF soundscapes than past few releases. Vocal style is radically different from how Timo used to sing - but that shouldn't be any surprise. And you can also get the idea from trailer clip, that it will be quite challenging to mix that noisy stuff. But as always, I'm open to challenges. ^_^

Trailer time

Without further blabbin' this time, ... it's here. Trailer. The "extra factor" gets revealed. As well as album name, and a glimpse of album coverart. \m/

Final vocal session \m/

Yes, you read it right: I successfully recorded the screamy & extra vocal bits for the remaining songs tonight. The long outro song included, yeah. Came out all good, but as usual - after a day or two I'll listen it all with fresh ears and see how it all feels. But for now, I'm satisfied with the work I got done. Really happy about it.

And that's not all I did tonight ... I went and started crafting the trailer I've been thinking about recently. I thought I'd had time to only start making it, but I got it almost done. Well, at least the main parts of it. It looks like it's going to be quite a long for a grind trailer but there's explanation for that - it has a story to tell.

It could well be that the trailer hits youtube during this week. We'll see how it goes.

Bunch of work done

Busy weekend (friday eve included) so I only had time to continue with the vocalworks today. But don't let that fool you out, because I got lots of work done today. Really satisfied with the results, too.

During the morning hours I went through the first 6-7 songs of vocal recordings and recorded the extra vocal bits for them all - which means I will not be going through all the songs for third time (first time; sewer, second time; screamy + extra vocal bits). No longer need to record the extra vocal bits as I started recording them during the same sessions while I was recording the screamy / yelly vocal lines from 8th song forwards. The extra vocal bits is not totally different style as it's mainly a style for making the sewer vocals sound more strong where needed.

Then during this evening I recorded screamy bits and the "extra backup bits" for five songs. They came out very good, that's how my initial feeling was about the session. Currently only three songs have screamy vocal parts missing. Songs 18, 19 and 22. Out of those that number 22 is of course the long outro style song. While the other songs are clearly shorter and less demanding, it will be interesting to see whether 22 needs an eve of its' own for screamy bits.

With this rate I'll get the rest vocals recorded in coming evenings and then I'll start looking into the space / ambient sound elements.

The four spacemen

Tonight's session got finished about half an hour ago. It was a very good session, too! Got four songs screamed through (or should I say screeched, more like) ... and I really like the way the songs are shaping now. Some songs are such "straight to face" type grind blasters.

During past two screamy vocal sessions I also noticed a fitting third vocal style I'm already using here and there. It works nicely with sewer background vocals and it's used when the high pitched lunatic type of vocals aren't used. All in all, progressing very nicely.

If my current calculations are correct, there are 8 songs left to be screamed with. Then some vocal finetuning session or two ... and then I'll have to start looking into the space soundscapes. I also got an idea for this whole album as I get it all done, but I might leave the idea for later use.

Oh, and I also got a really funny idea for trailer ... trailer that would also reveal what's the "extra factor" I've been talking since I started crafting this new album. The trailer would also showcase a short bit of grind madness you'll witness with this album, of course.

Ahead with four

Tonight's session was quite a heavy one, again. That combined with slight headache, all right ... yeah. But I got four songs worked. After I got the last song finished I was glad I got it done since the screamy parts certainly didn't help the headache. Not surprising at all. :)

Not much else to say except that there's still so much vocalworks to be done. Better not to think about the sheer amount of it overall, but keep doing it every now and then as days come and go. I'll stop here right now and go sleep this 'ache off.

Triple grind threat

So, I continued with the experimental vocal sessions tonight. Really rough, coarse vocals. Drinking water is the key and still, with my "not probably exactly 100% correct" singing style it's very demanding. It's wise to have numerous smaller sessions like tonight as it's such a demanding task to one's voice. Well, I got some work done tonight:

Three songs got more vocals recorded tonight. I got a vibe that I'll go all the songs through with this current high pitched sort of screamy style - after that I'll go all the songs through ... and possible record some low vocals for emphasizing certain parts and moments.

It will be demanding to get the overall sound where I want it to be - and with being able to mix and master it all in an ... let's say acceptable way. But I am confident I'll make it. It will certainly sound different than past few releases, but it's also easily recognizable as SF material - even with the certain extra factor / element added. It's at the same time "something old and something new".

Continuing them sessions

Only had time to continue recording the vocals yesterday. Actually it's more like going into experimental sessions first, for now. I knew what kind of base layer vocals (sewer style) I wanted, but now I'm experimenting first with what kind of vocals work best mixed with them. It's also about the overall sound, doing my best to keep it together - keep it under control sort of but at the same time letting it "grind out" sonically speaking.

I chose a really sweaty song for the first experiment. Or to be honest, this is not the first one since I have two short songs pretty much completed and the layered vocals in them are quite freaky, high pitched screaming with distortion. So I do have an idea what and how to experiment, but I also have an idea about certain songs having bit different vocals. Perhaps. Anyway, while the already experimented two songs are short bursts of grind, yesterday I went on with the opening song - which is the longest song of the pack. It's the song I happened to make very first, back in mid'December when I thought it would be whole new music project. And as it happens, both the opening and closing songs are long ones and they have awful long set of lyrics if compared to all the other songs. So, ... no wonder it took time and voice to complete vocal experiment on the opening song yesterday.

I'm not yet sure if it came out exactly the way I wanted - but initially I felt it's getting there and the layered vocals made the song feel more hectic. I guess it tells something about the style, if I say how my wife described me recording those vocals; she came from other room, with spooky face, stating that "wtf? you sound like a witch!" ... hah! It made me laugh as it's in a way quite a fitting description. Though unsurprisingly I wasn't exactly thinking about imitating some witches burned at the stake or stuff like that, but perhaps more like how Alan Dubin sounded during his OLD days. :)

Anyway; the experiments shall continue. The opening song might be a sweaty experiment (which is sure is even that it's not so furious than most of the other songs are) but it's also a good one for experimenting certain styles / vocal sound ideas at this stage.

Vocal recording session vol4

I forgot to write about this 4th session yesterday evening so I'll do it now: Yesterday's evening session was quite similar to 3th voc. recording session meaning that it was about one hour session, one long song, base vocals got recorded. That's it for the sewer vocal parts anyway.

While I've been recording these base layer vocals, I've noticed that some things might get bit tricky; there are bunch of songs where the grind parts are very noisy / chaotic - as supposed, yeah - add the extra element / factor (from where this whole album started) and it's at times even more noisy or should I say ... "full" of sounds. So compromises will probably have to be made. I was thinking about this already when I recorded the first song - in a way that the current guitarsound is kind of darker, softer if you could say so. It's not "wall of sound" type of guitarsound that comes straight to face. Choices have to be made, though while guitar is not "in the top of it all" so to speak, bassguitar sound is the other way - distorted and crumbling. Contrasting the guitars and balancing the certain kind of softness, yet leaving room for drums, the extra element and of course vocals, too. I don't think that the vocals would be loudest in the mix, either. Drumworks will be rather strong in the mix, which has always been my way / style of doing it - and it's also my vision of grind from day one; the beats. But if there's anything you can conclude from these thoughts, it's that I will have challenging times from mixing point of view. It will be interesting to see how it all sounds in the end.

Next I'll be recording the other vocal layers, screamy & shouty parts, etc. And then there's the space soundscapes, too, yeah.

Vocal recording session vol3

Tonight's session was pretty tight and short if compared to previous massive ones. Well, that was my plan, too, as the last remaining songs have long set of lyrics. Pretty much four times longer lyrics than average song of the new songs - and average song has 10-20 lines of text.

So, ... it took me about one hour and I got other of the last two remaining songs sorted when it comes to sewer vocals. Really like the way the base vocals came out again. Had an urge to record some screaming for certain parts, but I'll leave the screaming fun for later sessions. First gotta complete the sewer stuff. Getting there, as it's only one song with long lyrics left at this stage.

To be continued, again.

Vocal recording session vol2

After a good set of wintery jogging and stuff I continued recording the base vocals, meaning the so-called sewer vocals which will form the base layer of vocalworks. It went exactly like yesterday, meaning that I consumed lots of water and kept singing in sewer style. While completing some songs I had a really great feeling, like here's a real grind gem for me personally, whoa now!

I got 9 songs' base vocals recorded in today's session. Only two songs remain, currently lacking any kind of vocals. I left them undone for now, as together they contain clearly the longest set of lyrics and even that I've drank lots of water, I don't wanna ruin my voice by doing them tonight. They will be done during the coming evenings, I bet. Better have multiple sessions as I'm not in any hurry.

In any case, this is progressing in a great way, methinks.

Vocal recording session vol1

I did mention "vocal experiment sessions if I'm inspired" earlier, right? Yeah, I know I did. I thought I'd at least do some experiments with styles and soundscapes regarding vocals recording. I thought already weeks ago that I'd record these SF vocals in a specific, experimental way, too. So yes, I did do several short vocal experiments around 11 am today. What happened, is that I found the sound and settings much faster than what I thought. It took perhaps 30+ minutes only. After that I ... was like "ok, let's go and try record some vocals, then!" .. and that's what I did.

It was a long session. Closer to 9 hours today, quite a saturday all right! Full day's work practically. I kept singing & recording and drinking water. Record a verse, take few sips of water, record a verse, take ... repeat, repeat ... repeat. In the end I was stunned about the amount of work I got done, really: 11 songs now have base level vocals, or should I say one layer of vocals. And what is funny, it's that they are done in true sewer vocal style - meaning this is a real return to roots album, hah! Though I can say my skill for sewer vocals seems to be much better these days than it was years ago. Perhaps not doing them at all has improved the skill, ha! You see, the last time I used sewer style was "the awakening" release in 2002. But this will be different though; back then I had nothing else but the sewer vocals and it was rather flat in that way.

Back then I also didn't know much about recording layered vocals, I was only starting to understand all that bit better then (and first time tried layered vocals on "menacing ep" 2003 with Taito on vocals). Now ... I have this idea that the sewer vocal style is the base of the vocals, and I'll do different screamy / shouting / nutcase'ish vocals as another layer. I already tried this today with 2 songs and the result was something I really liked a lot. It means a lot of vocalworks though, 22 songs is practically at least 44 songs, if recording all the lines twice. In some cases I might end up having three layers of vocals so ... lots of vocals to be recorded. It'll be both challenging and rewarding - and of course fun.

I'm planning to continue recording the sewer vocals tomorrow. If things go well, I might be able to get all of them recorded which leaves the other vocal styles to be recorded in coming days & weeks (or weekends).

Oh ... and some visual evidence below. In space no one can hear you grind ... or was it scream? ^_^

Graphics & Coming sound experiments

I spent few hours yesterday evening working with graphical set of lyrics. Got it all sorted out pretty good already, I think. The lyrics package in PDF format is about 24 pages long. Even that some of the songs have very short lyrics. Well, on the other hand, some of the songs have long(er) lyrics. The amount of pages could had been notably shorter, but it's about the graphic nature of the package.

I might start doing some vocal recording experiments during the coming weekend already. Depends on inspiration. The same goes with crafting space soundscapes. Even that I have a certain kind of vision already forming for the space soundscapes; rather short soundscapes. No forced spots for space soundscapes, only using them where the soundscapes genuinely fit and enchance the music. That's the aim anyway.

... and then back to drawing board.

Continued crafting the artwork tonight ... and 'twas a great success, too. Now the album back cover artwork is pretty much 100% finished. Yeah! Not bad at all considering I started from a scratch, didn't have anything else but the idea to go for. Turned out very good and it works great together with the front cover artwork, too.

Now the album artwork is very near complete. I might still tweak the front cover, but I'll let it brew for some time now, I think.

Return to noise

Went back to do some sound tweaking tonight, after taking about 3-4 days break from listening to any of the new material. What I did, was mainly some graphic equalizer finetuning for the guitars, and for the bassguitars. Also adjusted some drumsound details, too. I used one song for the initial sound tweaking and after I got the kind of overall soundscape I wanted, I went through all the songs and adjusted them accordingly. Then I listened to the songs and started smiling. Massive improvement on many levels with just one night's work.

Oh, and our cats are certainly a good test subject for how the material feels (by saying that, they don't have to listen to extremely high volumes either - yes, some common sense) ... it's hilarious how they get really crazy play / run-as-fast-as-you-can mood whenever I'm working with the new SF material. It's like they are having their very own cat pit going on, running literally on walls. Effective! ^_^

Logo improvement complete & blog design updated

Finished the logo improvement project and even that it was some 5-6 hours work, it was definitely worth it. I already used the improved logo for remaking this blog's logo (see the colorful logo up there?) as it was a good test for how working with the improved base logo now goes. Works good, sure, and I also did some quick logo experiments with the new front cover, as a real test - and yes, definitely worth the extra work.

I also updated this blogs outlook a bit for a change. It has been looking the same for years already so I think it was about time. As there was fitting background image in blogspot's template, it was easy & swift change. Compared to precise logo improvement thing especially.

Currently drawing

I started doing something I was thinking about doing already several years ago; improving the Scumfusion logo. With improving I don't mean "changing", but simply improving, working with tiny details. Pixelcrafting with drawing board.

I can admit that I was recently briefly thinking about "should I perhaps redesign the logo?" but I didn't think about that more than a day or so. I even did try some different designs but while some of them might have fitted the new album cover, it still didn't feel right. Combined with that, I thought how I've personally felt with my fave bands changing their logos in past (like Napalm Death, first example that comes to mind) ... I've never liked it when it happens, and it always raises questions like f.e. "don't they respect their roots anymore?"... It's kind of interesting matter to think; it's a simple logo, word or two drawn, right? That's it. Or then not. As a logo has been used for a long time, it's much more than just some words drawn. It's visual design, something that has sticked to mind, and especially something you identify the artist with.

What made me think about logo change at all, was primarily some technical details - nothing visually wrong with the logo itself. I was also thinking about how the Scumfusion logo came to exist; I asked a friend, graphic designer called Andrew Cramer to draw me a simple logo for SF. So he did. That happened during early 2006 or so. The logo was first time used in "under exoriant light" album, which was also the first album containing Timo. The logo has been in use ever since. It's funny to think nowadays that I never had a proper logo for SF prior to 2006. But that's how it was. I didn't care, I saw SF just a funny little online project I did and I didn't care about album artwork back then either (that's why none of the early SF releases has official cover artwork - there never was any!) ...

... so, now recently I thought that as I'm doing SF as one man band again (first time since 2002), would there be point to change the logo also because of that? Not just the technical issues I have had with the one and only official SF logo? I didn't have to think about that for long, either. Because it didnt't make any sense as a reason for changing logo. Why would I change a perfectly working logo which has served me well ever since it was created? There simply isn't any reason to change it. So what I started doing then? I started doing some heavy graphic work today with the logo. Not changing it, but "cleaning" it (for lack of better word) and then drawing over it, improving the borders of letters. It all begun with getting the logo as black on white background (original logo is slimy green on black background - check out "under exoriant light" front cover and you see why). I'm doing all this simply to get a logo, that's way more easily "usable" when layering it with front cover artwork and stuff. To be able to work with colors, too, notably more easily. To get the kind of impact I want - also to make the logo more clear, more "striking", kind of.

It's also nice work to do now, this artwork stuff - I've managed to keep out from the new SF material for a day or two now ... so, yeah. Might be able to work with the back cover artwork for the new album this weekend, too. But now, first ... the logo work. See the visual evidence below, work in progress.

Crafting cover artwork

Started working with the front cover art tonight. I went browsing my picture archive (pics taken by me) and didn't browse for a long time as I stumbled across an icy shot I took about two years ago. I remember when I took that picture, thinking right as I took it, that there's something special in this. I didn't think about cover artwork or anything, it was just a quick instant intuition that this will become something more than just a pic. And look what happened ... as I now came to that pic, I stuck looking at it and had an idea for compiling several pictures of mine. And that's where things started happening: I worked with layering the pictures, and painting over them for some 2-3 hours ...

... and now I have let's say 95% ready "base" front cover art. Gotta look into some details still, if I could add some more visual messages. Even that it already has several hidden more or less, and of course connected with the lyrics and themes, too. It's at the same time following the same visual overall style than "Lost constellations" front cover, but it's also different. Bit like if you were looking towards the "Lost constellations" from another dimension, through a crack in time and space ... or something like that. I really like the way it looks.

To be continued.

Lyrics? Done!

Well look at this ... I wrote the last six scifi chapters today, and not just that - but I did vocal arrangements for all the rest songs where it was still to be done. Quite many, probably about 50% of the songs. I made a list of the 22 songs with song titles, and the initial reaction what I had looking at that list of songs and songtitles (and knowing the lyrics in them) ... like I said to a friend tonight; "now this s**t goes deep, really deep ... space and beyond, and it's pure imagination used, nothing else" ... hah! But that's how it feels, oh yeah.

It's especially good that I even got all the rough vocal arrangements planned - it will make recording the vocals so much easier. Now I might take few days break from the material itself, let it steam a bit without hearing it daily - and perhaps I'll look into cover artwork next. Before vocal experiments. Well, there's of course also the space soundcapes matter, gotta think about that, too.

... then "some" lyrics indeed.

Talk about creativity in written form; wrote lyrics for seven songs today! Not just that but I also did rough vocal arrangements for six lyrics and I now have 8 songs which have title and lyrics reserved. I was testing how the lyrics fit, and they seem to fit like a fire to the surface of our sun.

And I really like the tales. They vary from abstract gigantic scale cosmic stories into almost physical description of ... let's say combination of organic & technological creatures of kind. Tales of events happening in fictional planets. Crossreferences to past music projects occasionally surface. Two songs are interconnected (and I don't mean the opening & closing song with this) both musically and telling a certain (yet not necessarily same) tale from two points of view. And so on ... and so on.

If my calculations are correct, I have lyrics for 16 songs so only 6 more tales shall be written. Considering what I got done today, it might mean writing for just 1-2 days more. Then it's just vocal arrangements work, which I've already started, too, so this album is progressing awesomely.

Some lyrics more

Wrote lyrics for two songs really fast tonight. Other set is slightly longer. One crossreference to ancient material can be spotted, too. And some all new scifi vocabulgary was created during the process. Expect the unexpected in the form of some x-elements.

The work continues ... but not tonight anymore. It could continue during the dreamworld ...

From lyrics into dreams

Gotta tell briefly about how yesterday's lyrics influenced the dreams I saw last night. Very realistic feeling one dream especially; a dream where I had skill of travelling anywhere through time. I didn't have any visible time machine or technical device for time travelling, but I simply did it by power of thought. I started going around in time from this current time in my life, so the only "device" I had with me, was my current mobile phone (Microsoft Lumia 950 XL if you really needed to know).

I'll describe one time travel case from that dream here: I appeared in a school class of my own, from closer to 30 years ago (late 1980s). The people in the class first couldn't see me, but I could move around in the classroom and observe what was going on. One student was about to start a presentation and I went to front of class as well, looking how it goes. Student stated that the subject of presentation is music, and heavy metal music - the most extreme form of it especially. I was amused about the subject and thought like "well this is something I must hear!" ... nothing really special there, but after some beginning lines one pal from back of the class raised his hand and teacher gave that student permission to talk. It was a guy that used to be a friend of mine back then. He stated excitedly something like "we have a visitor here who should be giving this presentation instead!" and pointed at me. Suddenly everyone saw me. He continued by shouting "how do I know? because this guy has been listening to his dose of metal music well over 30 years by now, even the extreme metal stuff, not just heavy metal!" ... Instead of students looking at me, everyone started shouting, laughing and questioning about what on earth is being claimed, there was no extreme metal 30 years ago, are you crazy! (yeah, count back 30 years from late 1980s). Hah!

So the situation calmed down somehow and the original presentation was continuing. I took my current mobile phone and tried taking some pictures thinking about "what if the pictures stay in the phone as I travel somewhere else in time and even to current time?" ... somehow (surprise) I couldn't seem to get any pictures. Phone was working normally otherwise, but camera wouldn't take pictures. I was making some noise while messing around with the phone, and at that point students started looking at me again - asking who is this guy and hey what is that thing you are playing with!? I was explaining it's nothing, just some junk and I'm leaving soon ... which I did, too. Just vanished and went elsewhere. Etc.

Talk about lyrics affecting dreamworlds. :) ... and I wasn't even writing about time yesterday, I was thinking about how these tales don't seem to have so much to do with time than my doom metal project M4D's last release clearly had. But these SF tales (some of them) deal with space travel so combining two things ... you get dreams of time travelling. Funny.

Lyrics continued

Pretty productive writing session this evening; wrote six new tales. Currently I got lyrics for seven songs already. Yeah!

Out of these seven songs, two set of lyrics are much longer than the rest (4 times longer). It is connected with the lyrical idea I got especially for opening and closing songs just today. Really nice idea that not just opens and closes the album as in written format, as a wider space tale, but it's also connected to the songs musically speaking - or the two songs' tales are interconnected - and also some connections to some other space tales I've created years earlier. Lots of connections, yes.

It feels like I'm going to write more lyrics and possibly all the rest lyrics before I'm looking into what kind of space soundscapes I'll be creating & using for the package.

Lyrics started

Have thought about starting to write lyrics recently but have been otherwise occupied. Until tonight. Wrote lyrics for some of the short songs really fast. Not much to say other than that it came naturally and fast, just like the music. It's a good start and the work continues from here.

Composing and first recording stage completed

I recorded guitars and bass for the closing song today, and it came out cool. The way it turned out, it also confirmed that this closing song idea that came yesterday shall be how it goes, yeah. The closing song is a song # 22 so there will be 22 songs overall. It's a number that feels good. And once again intuition got a nice real life confirmation as I loaded all the 22 rough mixes into music player and checked for the first time what kind of overall length would it be ... 29 minutes 26 seconds. Just as I visioned right from the start, that I wouldn't want to make the album longer than 30 minutes.

Well, to be honest, this isn't the final length yet as of course I'll have to do the space soundscapes and in some songs' cases they will make the songs bit longer. Though on the other hand I think the space elements won't be long ones, not long intros necessarily ... something that broadens the material, but won't make it much longer. There are some songs that might get shorter (depending how I'll shape them endings) so keeping it under 30 minutes is realistic. As usual, we'll see how it goes.

I listened all the songs from start to finish as one package tonight, not once but twice ... I know all the cliche sayings about how artist's newest album is always "the tightest", "the most brutal one" or whatever. Sometimes there's reason to say things like that, sometimes not. Well, I can honestly say, that this next Scumfusion album might well be "the most grindy" (or just plain crazy) album SF has ever done, so far, and I'm not exaggerating. There are hardly any slower songs; in a way I'd say there is one such song, but while it might be bit slower from start to finish, it has the most twisted end riffage section. Crazy is again the word that would fit well, or then ... twisted. And it's also interesting to state that I composed about 90% of the songs in all new way - it's because of the surprise element all the songs have. I'll explain it later, perhaps only after the album is released ... because I don't want to spoil the surprise. It's certainly something that you haven't heard much (if ever!) in grindcore and it also goes well in with the space theme ... in a twisted way. Of course. ;)

So, ... next up is lyrics. I'll start writing them someday soon, as inspiration comes. I do have already some ideas that came from the album title - so writing might start sooner than even I myself think. I also have some ideas how I might record the vocals, but I will have to do some vocal recording experiments, that's for sure.

Few more and probably a final blast soon

More material has been crafted during this weekend, just as I felt would happen. Not just that but things seem to follow my intuition pretty much 100 % exactly. First of all, one new song was composed and recorded yesterday. Another one for the one minute series, yeah. That happened late friday evening. Other new song got composed and recorded today, saturday - but unlike most of these creations, this new song was born around midday, out of the blue. Got idea for a real all out grinder and went for it right away and it was smooth job from start to finish. It's probably the shortest song ouf of these new songs, about 30 seconds long piece.

Well, what about following the intuition then? Earlier I mentioned that I got an idea for longer piece as song number 22. If it would be longer piece, then that song number 22 would also be the last song done for this package. I did have an idea, but the idea went further, it evolved into something that kind of fits rest of the material in a twisted way and I went on with that ... and I have a base for a longer song - well, a long song compared to most of the tracks anyway since it's going to be about 2min 30sec if I make it happen in the form I'm planning it. The base is prepared, the song is composed but since it's soon midnight, I'm going to record it tomorrow, during sunday.

To make things more funny (or should I say furry) I had an assistant during the friday's recording process; one of our two cats. Ha! It was sure different recording that song's guitars with a kitten licking the guitar, rubbing her face to the guitar's neck and so on. You know cats (if you don't, well then you don't) ... want evidence? Check out the picture below! ^_^

Ahead

Yesterday evening I was otherwise occupied but tonight 'twas time to let out some serious steam once again. And so I did. Another new song was born and it's bit over 1 minute long. If not counting the first song I did, the rest of the pack are notably shorter songs, so far anyway. One idea recently came to me though; what if both the opening and closing songs were longer? Not necessarily otherwise similar though. Well, we'll see what happens.

... and then there were one

Didn't remember to write about this yesterday evening so I'll do it now: Another new song got composed & recorded yesterday evening so yes, the flow still continues. Though I'm sensing that the flow is reaching the end in coming days, I can feel it.

Checking the calendar made me realize that it might well be that during the next weekend I'll compose the last new songs for this package - as next weekend it's 4 weeks since I started crafting this new material. Four weeks feels fitting. And funnily it's also about the very same amount of time how it's been during past few SF albums - even timing goes along the same lines; starting around the end of the year, finishing during the first month of the next year. Well, composing & recording (music) stage, that is. Of course there are lots of other things to do after this stage; writing lyrics, recording vocals, planning and creating the space soundscapes for the album ... creating artwork. Album title isn't 100 % decided, but let's say it's 90 % there already. Mainly minor tweaking.

Currently the amount of new songs is 18. I haven't checked the exact length, and it's also noteworthy that the song lengths may well change with space soundscapes mixed in ... but I think it's around 23 minutes now. That also is a sign that the end of composing stage is getting closer.

Newbie and a funny lil' human error

Composed and recorded a new song tonight. Melodic opening which gives a contrast to furious storm that follows. About one minute long song.

While I was preparing the recording of this forementioned new song, I accidentally made a little mistake. Somehow I managed to save the new song base (which at that point had nothing yet) over the last new song I recorded late sunday evening. Yeah! I instantly knew what I had done, but it didn't make me angry, hardly even a bit. Instead it made me smile ... why? Well, instead of searching the guitar and bass files from hd (they would had been there and still are) and recompiling the whole song from scratch - I decided that I'll just record it all again and it's probably only better after that. So I did. And yeah, it turned out even better. Now some sections, especially the end section is really menacing ... a good mistake, but I won't be repeating it anymore though. :)

Counting beats (or then not even trying)

You could say this was a productive day. That could be even an understatament. :)

I composed and recorded three (!) new songs today, and I didn't even start composing until around 5 pm. I was in the process of recording guitars for second creation, when a nasty grind riff came to me and I composed third song on the fly. What makes me tick, is all these three songs are either furious or plain "crazy" - and I'm not just talking about the tempo. Blasting? Oh yeah. Speed? Oh yeah. But there are some borderline hilarious riffs at some points and the extra edge I'm still doing gives the songs bonus effect that's hard to describe with words.

Song lengths in today's session vary from bit over 30 seconds to bit over 1 minute long.

Warp speeds

Time for another report. To put it shortly; got two new songs composed & recorded since last update. I just finished recording the second one out of these two - you can get the idea what kind of material it is based on approximate song length: 45 seconds. The other new song is around 1min 30sec depending on how the ending on it goes in the final version.

I also got an interesting idea about the space soundscapes for this album - but I have to look more into it would it be worth making. I also came up with the potential album title during past week - or should I say that the potential album title came up with me ... since I was on the way to work, early in the morning train, borderline sleepin' and it suddenly came to me from the dreamworld.

Next up ...

New song just got completed. Following the very same formula, and that doesn't mean it's getting slower but if possible even more blasty and grindy. I felt like I was constantly smiling when I was recording this song and now that I'm listening to the rough bounce mix, I'm smiling even more. Good sign? Nope. It's a great sign! ^_^

I'm getting the feeling that I'm approaching the kind of grind style and mayhem I was dreaming about years ago already.

(all men play on) 10

Finished next newbie tonight. Surprisingly demanding one when it comes to guitars, but it turned out very nicely anyway. And yeah, it's another very, very long song ... about 40 seconds or so. ^_^

Tonight was bit hectic, I might have done another new song otherwise - but there's no hurry so ... until next time. Which, I bet, will be very soon with the current creative mood.