Mutations

I've recently overhauled the Subhuman Species website. Its now a bit more focused (on music at the meantime), but I hope to add more content as the ideas come rolling in. Any suggestions, or criticisms (good or bad) are always welcome.

On a related topic, I've just begun working on the new track entitled 'Wasting Away', and from the look of things its headed for a goth/industrial feel to it again. I guess because I'm feeling a bit glum these past few days. The anger is quite evident with the pounding noise in the early mix (and I'm guessing it will stay that way). I'm not going into production details here, which can instead be found in the Journal page of the website. Hope you get to listen to it one of these days.

Changes

I've just uploaded the new track entitled Apocrypha. This was the track previously called "The Macabre" (see previous post). Like I said before, it's more guitar oriented, but still bouncy enough to fit into the whole Violate theme. It can now be downloaded in the new Downloads page of the main website along with the new mp3 version of Replicant, and a new mix of Violate (to those who were able to download the previous incarnation, I hope you'll notice and appreciate the subtle changes). If you notice, the new Downloads page is now dedicated to Subhuman Species music. This is just the start of the site's overhaul. More to come. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the new track.

Blood, Sweat, and Electric Dreams

Well I just finished mixing "The Macabre" (title pending) and will be uploading it to the Subhuman Species website soon. I really had difficulties mixing this one. At first it was too sombre, then it became too pop. I'm aiming to make all the tracks as bouncy (if not danceable), and in the end I think I got it right. Things will still change when I come around to actually fleshing it out and doing a final mix. More updates later.

On a related topic, I was able to acquire two software programs that are proving to be quite useful (and fun). One of them is called iDrum, and the other is Doggiebox. Both are Virtual Drum Machines, each with their respective interface, and aesthetics. I'm still trying them out (read: trial version), and still undecided which of them I'll actually use. I might use one or both of them in an upcoming track (who knows). Anyway I'll inform you when I do.

Its been a cathartic experience making music (even if its just arranging and mixing it), and I'm thinking of doing this more when the inspiration hits. Its always a great feeling being in creative mode! Anyway attached is the cover for the upcoming Violate EP.

Peace!

The Macabre

I've been working on the third track for the Violate EP. it's entitled The Macabre. It's goth/industrial with crunchy, abrasive guitars. Did a few mix of it, and it should be finished soon. Like I said before this is just a demo, and purely amateur. Everything is done on computer, using Apple's Garageband and Software Instruments. Hopefully I can upload this track on the main website soon. Anyway I'll be back with more updates. Gotta go. F1 is on.

A Logo To Go With The Name

Didn't have anything better to do, and I've been itching to get one anyway, so I decided to fire up photoshop and did a few stuff (jeez I'm rusty with PS), and this is what I came up with. It's pretty much what I had in mind, but like all my other stuff, it will mutate in coming days. For now I'm happy with it. The S's was an idea I got from old Nazi SS badges (or something). It doesn't connote racism or bigotry in anyway. It also doesn't promote Nazism in anyway. It just looks cool!

I Believe I Can See The Future

...and it's exactly the same as today. Sometimes you wonder how everyday starts to resemble each other. Work, drink, sleep, work, drink, sleep, work, drink, puke, sleep, work, drink, sex, sleep, work, drink, sleep...snore. Despite the few surprise threats thrown in between, you have to agree that mundane life has become excruciatingly routine (read: boring!). Sometimes sleeping itself has become a hassle, coz you know what the next day has in store for you. You don't really need to be a rocket scientist or a batty fortune teller to know whats comin' up. All you have to do is wake up in the morning (or night for the vampires) and watch it unfold for the nth time. Believe me, the few surprises that do turn up are rather dodgy at best. Sometimes a hit, most of the times a miss. Then you'd have to go through the whole routine again just to see if the next surprise will be the lucky one. And I guess thats what really keeps us going. Its the desire for better things. Keep dreaming folks! No one really wakes up and find themselves 86 million dollars richer... unless you count those who died of severe heart attack after hearing of their shocking change of fortune. You can cut your hair, get a tattoo, go blonde, beef up your muscles, beat-up your friend, but in the end your really just adding more ingredients to an already stale life. No matter what you do, no matter how successful you are, everything WILL BECOME A ROUTINE. Then you can say that, "I can see the future, and its exactly like today."

Crawling On

Days seem to go faster when you're busy. Unfortunately I haven't done any real work on some of the projects lately. I've been busy putting new stuff on the Subhuman Species website, and have managed to create a yahoogroups mailing list (see side bar to join). I want to concentrate on the demo tracks at the moment. I plan to finish three more before I go back and make a final mix. After that I plan on producing my own web comic as inspired by my friend (check out the website for more details). I've been planning that for almost five years, but I really had no idea how to put it out at that time. Well now I do, so I may go do that after I finish with the Violate EP. Anyway I hope to keep in touch when there's enough progress (or lack of it). Stay tuned!

Violate This!

I just finished the Violate demo. Had to upgrade my iBook’s RAM just so I could get better performance from Garageband. It’s turned out close to what I had in mind, but it will still have to undergo a few more mutations to get it just right. I think this will definitely need some vocals. Maybe short, repetitive chanting and rants, and a few digitized samples. Guitars could be more aggressive, and the mixing needs a little more tweaking (specially when I heard it from Shure e2c earphones). Otherwise, the demo mix would have been perfect, but alas that’s what demos are for. Hopefully the final mix would come around sounding close to perfect. Anyway it will probably take me a bit longer to finish this track compared to Replicant. Well back to work, for the meantime check out the Violate demo at the Subhuman Species website.

What's In A Name?

Welcome to my first blog installment. I’m still new at this whole web journaling thing. I tried it first with Friendster Blog, but some of my friends have inspired me to move my blog to a more flexible and popular blog agent (not to mention free), and so Subhuman Tongue is born. You may be wondering about the name of the Blog, well it so happens that I did not want it named simply as the Ryan Mendoza Blog. Not only would that be boring, but the name had to encompass a lot of different things, be a culture unto itself, I thus came up the title Subhuman Species (which is also my electronic music alias). Well I gave that name to the Main Web Site already so I decided that since the primary purpose is to talk about stuff, I decided to call it Subhuman Tongue.

This made me think that I could actually make Subhuman a culture unto itself, a multimedia/digital culture covering music, videos, photos, print, etc. Aside from my self-centered and most-of-the-time pointless rants, you’ll also be reading updates about current and upcoming projects from Subhuman Species (that would be all of me). While we’re on the topic, I’d like you to check out some of the music from Subhuman Species that can already be downloaded from the Web Site. Check out the Downloads page, where you can download artwork and music, and maybe videos in the future.

The songs available at the moment are Replicant and Violate. Both are demos created from Apple’s Garageband application. It’s in ACC format, so you might want to download Apple’s iTunes first. I’ll release mp3 versions soon, so that even WMP (for Windows users) can play it. The two songs are both instrumental, but I might add a few vocals, and digital samples during the final mix. I plan on making three more of this and release it as an EP and give them away to family and friends. I’m not planning on making money out of this; it’s merely just for fun, and part of the Subhuman Species projects. Anyways I’ll be back when new stuff comes out. In the meantime lets go back to random and pointless rantings.