The presentation and visual style of this record is honestly quite pristine, as is prayboy’s videography of informational music production content. The album art strikes me as notably different from the rest of their releases, opting for the direct opposite of the usual “scroll Pinterest and pray” art methodology: it’s straight up real footage! The imagery of the computer setup amidst nature’s domain gets me all self-conscious, for better or for worse.
The naming conventions of the tracklist itself are less focused on that juxtaposition, but that’s far from a bad thing. I enjoy how personal this journey can get, and everything not being super-duper technology-rotted might honestly be for the best here. I see the album’s progression more as moving on from the internet’s influence, rather than continuing to revel in its volatility.

The production on this album oozes with great polish. Building on that general idea of “setting your mind free of the internet’s influence”, these soundscapes ring to me like something of an oxymoron: synthetic, yet natural; as is the core concept of ambient DnB - the fusion of polar opposites into a dance of yin and yang. The first sounds to stand out are, of course, the drums. The breakbeats vowen throughout this record’s grooves are a pleasant breath of fresh air, being shaped from multiple samples and further edited down to feel like something I haven’t heard hundreds of times. They pair very well with the recognizable pads, vocals and occasional acoustic instruments carefully utilized throughout. Things just stick into memory here: it took no time for me to mentally map each track as “that one with the [xyz]”, and that happens with all sorts of things in the music, not just cool breaks.
I’d liken the amount of care put into individual sounds to artists like deadmau5 - his dedicated fans can recognize entire tracks by kickdrum alone. For something like the harder-styles scene, it’d make some sense: hard kicks are elaborate pieces of work, and often stars of the show. But with less busy, cleaner sounding genres, it’s even more impressive. But I digress - when you do something right, no one will know how wrong it could’ve gone.

I may sing many praises about how all the tracks sound “very polished”, but don’t let that make you think this is something industry-grade, engineered in a private studio, and ran through ten executives before releasing with a marketing budget towering over your yearly wage tenfold. The fact that it isn’t like that is what’s great; it’s partly why I’m here talking about it now! Where this independence is most apparent is when you’re faced with a track literally called “my dog lives on in my camera roll” and proceed to hear what is most presumably a video of said dog. God damn.
The smooth piano lines laid front and center in “don’t cry, break!” remind me of jazzy hip-hop beats, à la Denzel Curry’s “The Ills”, in the best way. Though, I don’t think I’m the biggest fan of the vocal sample present throughout: it’s a juxtaposition that doesn’t resonate with me quite that well, or maybe it’s actually just not fun to listen to all the time; maybe could’ve cut down on the repetition of that line. Maybe it would’ve fit better on a more clubby track, who knows? Speaking of clubby, tracks like “self-obsessed loser” and “too introverted for the club” I absolutely adore as mix-ups to the traditional formula.
You’ll hear me gush about multi-genre albums later, but for now, just know that they are wonderful showcases of an artist’s range, experience and intent. It often feels like peering into different areas of one’s life and mind.

born on the internet won’t be your end-all, ultimate album. It’s very much subdued, and perhaps could be described as vulnerable in a tonal sense. It isn’t defined by 30-second peaks. But none of that is a weakness - what’s done, is done right, and that’s all you can truly ask from a piece of art. Many of the tracks have this downright hypnotic quality to them, drawing me away from what was on my mind just a few minutes ago: over the handful of months I’ve spent with the album, I often found it to comfort me more than anything in times of change. If I could bring two albums with me on another international journey, it’d be this and Ꚛrtodoxia III (الولاء) by modest by default.

Watching their video on their musical origin story has expanded my appreciation of this work greatly. We absolutely need more artists willing to share their experiences and artistic processes like this. Such stories often leave me with a much more lasting impression than any finished audio file would. Wouldn’t wanna bring AI into this, but… you know. Integrity of this sort is important nowadays.

FAVORITES:

• too introverted for the club
• self obsessed loser
• my pc is my bff
• my dog lives on in my camera roll

07:48. is a dissociative, alien, experimental blend of the familiar and the foreign, offering the frankly saturated modern breaks/ambient DnB genre a much needed refresh in aesthetics and performance.

I found this album while sifting through a friend’s Bandcamp profile. The cover drew me in well: it’s got this beautiful shot, love the framing around the photo, big fan of the wordmark. “Such a style!” - I thought. “I need to see if they’ve got any other socials I can support.”
Nothing. No Spotify, no SoundCloud, no YouTube, nothing on Google. Got hit with a NullpoMino GitHub issue as the first search result. Oh, and no other works on the Bandcamp. I think this absolutely bizarre release situation sets the mood very well: it’s like an elusive artifact of sorts, maybe something you were never meant to see, and won’t see ever again.

Trusty breaks and lush pads make up the musical canvas. The palette of experimentation incorporates creative delays, timestretching, flanging, tonal stuttering, and all sorts of rhythmic debauchery. Despite the general aesthetics revolving around dissociative, warpy, ambient moods, the record is not afraid to lose all restraint in a heartbeat, not just by injecting grit into otherwise relaxed parts, but also by going fully dissonant and atonal, stripping the track bare so that nothing stands in the way of raw power - the sudden speed-up in the last third of “29/3” took me out so hard, and it just goes back to scheduled programming afterwards. Such a memorable set piece.
As a whole, the album is chock-full of such bits: the unique metallic, glass-like percussion elements in “glass cracks under the pillow.” get so much time to shine; I love the near-minimalist approach of the track. The dynamic range present over the course of “date::unknown.”, transitioning from spacious ambience to extreme distortion, is like a bundle of two tracks in one. The very scarce presence of vocal samples makes each usage stick out that much more.
The heart of the album lies within space and progression; the aforementioned moments stand out all the more when given room to breathe. And more than anything, that’s what I love to see in a popular genre like this. Something happening, something changing, something that demonstrates artistic intent. It’s the inaudible tree of branching arrangement decisions that truly makes up a great track in a time when anybody can download the Rhythm-Lab Amen Breaks pack and spit breaks over a Sample Focus loop for approximately 2 minutes.

… Of course, arrangement isn’t everything: I’m not 100% a fan of the overly gritty segments in the music yet.
Particularly, “less.” stands out as less enjoyable of a listen compared to the rest of the record. I think it’s more due to the fact that nothing truly happens for over half the 2-minute runtime, rather than tube distortion proving itself to be too unpleasant. Yes, you do need more taste to make these breaks sound great as opposed to good, but the various switch-ups near the end of the song prove this could’ve been much cooler. I wouldn’t be too surprised if this was the quickest track to finish in production, maybe barring the ambient cut. I think the climax of “date::unknown.” suffers from a similar issue of being harsh with no real backbone.
“less.” stands as an example of lacking movement. Meanwhile, “layer of grief.” arguably moves a little too much. Well, the melodies do. I absolutely applaud the effort in trying to bizarro-style, Aphex Twin-channeling synthesized compositions, but it didn’t quite work out right this time. The first minute was pretty sweet, though.
I’m also not sure if the final track, “just you and me.” really felt like a “final track”, per se. It doesn’t trail off with a whimper, nor does it end with a bang. It feels like it’d be closer to track number 4 than 10. The non-finality isn’t only observed at the macro scale: the outro is very unwieldy even as a standalone song.
Not too many of the criticisms I may have really take away much from the final verdict, or from what the record stands for. (people just cherrypick tracks off albums anyway)

I’d imagine 07:48. to be an album you’d come back to once every few months, prompted by a faint memory, to smile listening to it again. Then again. Then again.
If you are to take away a keyword from this album, it should 100% be “progression”. If you’re a producer in any capacity, I implore you to give your tracks room to evolve and to flourish; to develop and to prosper. Perhaps you haven’t tried to get deep into automation yet, or haven’t been using transitional effects like fallers, risers and reverbs. Perhaps you’ve gotten pretty comfortable with your track workflow… too comfortable. Whatever the case: try things, maybe these songs can inspire you.

FAVORITES:

• glass cracks under the pillow.
• 29/3.
• portable state v.
• 86 nails were thrown into your eyes.

Following my review of his latest EP, I had a nice conversation with crxw. He talks about his upbringing as a producer, his greatest hits, habits in the creative process, favorite albums, and whether he likes sprinkles on donuts.

You can check out crxw in various corners of the web:

// // // // // // // // //

So I’m taking matters into my own hands. I will leverage my experience in production to start up a music publication, primarily focused on lesser-appreciated internet communities, giving them the formal voice they don’t usually get whatsoever. The main forms of content are album reviews, artist interviews, and otherwise interesting modern music content or news.
I’m a passionate speaker and writer: I can throw down a 1000+ word review on a record that’d only receive a maximum of 50 words in a YouTube comment section or an AOTY post. I’m also very intrigued by the people behind the music: the personality, the experience, the soul of the artist is integral to the art. Great works of art channel a piece of the creator’s mind to the world. But there are also many more useful, fun, or straight up inspirational things to learn by interviewing artists directly.

alpha.zero’s new facet is directly entwined with its primary job as a label: it’s a spotlight for good music, all the same. It’ll help the community expand much further than it ever could with just me making songs in a certain genre. So I’m very excited to do this - tapping into a market nobody else really has before.

An integral part of any music release is its visual identity: the square cover art’s role hasn’t changed much at all over the course of music history. It’s much easier to take the dive nowadays, (one click as opposed to a hefty purchase) but the rate at which information is served has been drastically increased. You need to stand out.
doll-like mEtals’s cover art grips the wandering listener very well whilst managing their expectations: dark, bordering on macabre. Very human-like, yet so far detached from the accepted societal image. Environments flowing with an unknown purpose… where is she even looking? The style seen in artworks like | All, i have,,, and the *???* EP is expanded upon, leaning further into realism, employing no distinct lineart, opting for softer edges and shading. The subdued wordmarking is appreciated - it’s very in-the-background, transparent to the cover’s composition. But if you’re looking for it, all the necessary info’s there.
I also particularly enjoy the visualizer: the artwork is writhing, shaking, strobing. Chromatic aberration introduces wild strokes of color into an otherwise desaturated image, datamoshing seeks to deform the image like distortion pedals do to sound. The music’s energy and dynamic range is matched well throughout the video: it’s very much akin to the POSTAL Redux soundtrack's visualizers, and I’ve always known I need more of such a style.

I think these songs fit best for me during a walk through the outskirts of a city under construction, way past midnight. There’s this lingering feeling that you’re not quite supposed to be here, and yet nothing that’s actually there is truly opposed to you, because it’s too far removed from reality to even sway one way or the other. Sleep for the sun is waking for the moon.
This EP can hit hard: breakbeats and roaring basslines are plentiful like beasts in the night. Levels of distortion are cranked and toyed with to a masochistic extreme, but never distastefully. Some moments can be trippy, dissonant, otherworldly in the ambient noises and synth lines. The tracks can even try to be cute, hence “doll-like”, courtesy of the Vocaloids featured on the project, though such moments feel almost out of place, in their own special way.

Indeed, crxw has wielded digital idols as aces up their sleeve for a while, but this time feels different. Maybe it’s the cover art providing juxtaposition, maybe it’s the vibes these instrumentals provide - these familiar voices are uncannier to hear than usual amidst these absurd soundscapes. Like every bit of shallow joy you receive from Hatsune Miku and Tone Rion can and will be taken from you at a moment’s notice.
That’s exactly how the record starts: poppy, four-on-the-floor vocaloid jams. Enough edge to make one think it’s as hard as it’ll get. Then, the plunge to hell, exactly a minute in. A masterful transition: the first drop sets the tone just right. I didn’t even realize what just hit me on my first listen. That brings me to what sets this record apart: how much of a living, breathing organism it resembles: it ebbs and flows beautifully. The arrangement can be described by many words, but never “blocky” - it oftentimes feels like the artist’s brain channeled into mine; a telepathic monologue the likes of which I can’t help but listen to on high alert. Of course, structure isn’t entirely forgone: you can always point out highs and lows; drops, verses and breaks. But it’s the front-to-back experience and progression you’re missing when describing intensity as a graph.
In short: there are no boundaries to what can happen in these tracks. It doesn’t even sound like the process of pulling out a whole new synth patch and pattern is noteworthy anymore: it just happens because it wants to. b1o,,,bl–dline generally feels like a slower-paced track in its arrangement, taking the time to opt for full-on ambient segments, but it still has straight up machine gun basses. I didn’t consider how tight-knit the web of synthesized or otherwise otherworldly instruments was until the piano hit at the end of س & despised,. The amount of different chops and cuts, whether it be in the drums or noise, present in down,right resolut,ion, is amazing.

Speaking of which, the final track is the absolute highlight by a long shot for me. It’s the piece that piqued my interest in the first place, and the other three tracks haven’t changed the relative rankings at all.
I interpret this title as some kind of graph heading down and to the right: a decline in status over the course of time. A breakdown of some sorts. “Resolution” as in finality; the culmination of the EP in an entirely instrumental pandemonium. Each and every element of the production contributes to a knotty, chaotic sound that’s arguably a very rare find in crxw’s discography. Yes, the other projects can get heavy, they can get choppy and messy, but this is much different. Ruthless, unrelenting, moving at breakneck speeds.

The intro’s staggering, choppy, acidic bassline is largely reminiscent of a modernized rendition of braindance. Particularly when paired with the break part’s high, pitch-bent sawtooth chords; sounds a lot like Aphex Twin's Cock/ver10. Such obvious, almost pretentious comparisons are immediately discredited and made puny when it hits you how much further beyond this beast of a track reaches in levels of brain-fucking: the metallic, clanging percussion element starts stealing the show the moment it starts contributing the brunt of the force in a grindcore-like flurry of unfiltered, programmatic noise-fury.
The clanging sound is arguably the most iconic part of the track: the way it dictates the flow of the complex web of drums, demands your full attention, and riffs out crazy melodic lines at the same time is genuinely sick. Don’t let that stop you from paying attention to the moment-to-moment arrangement decisions: that stuff’s downright incomprehensible. I can’t visualize and break down the individual elements well whatsoever, in the best way. It’s overwhelming, leaving me wanting more and more. It feels as if every element was treated so that it would be interesting every single bar, even in isolation. It’s ironic, because if you do think of each element in isolation, it seems improbable that anything this good would come out of it. Pressing a few keys on any of these synths, laying down a basic drum beat with these 909-esque drums, listening to the noise chops, none of it would’ve struck me as golden. And yet, that’s the beauty of using hardware in the age of software, and imposing creative limitations upon oneself in general; knowing your instrument inside out, and even still being surprised by what it can truly do. “Challenge” works like Ophidian's Main Sequence EP have shown me three times over that the source sound doesn’t matter nearly as much as what you write with it.

Even the seemingly simple main motif of this track is hard to grasp on an emotional level. Is it melancholic, euphoric, neutral, bored, pumped, angry? You’d think letting choir-like voices take the lead would clear things up, but the dream-like bed of vocal texture only strengthens the mental fog I experience. So many voices. Hence, my interpretation of the title.

And guess what? A lot of the praise I may sing about that one track can really be applied to all of them, in warped bits and pieces.
doll-like mEtals and fOresticks is an outstanding, concise, no-nonsense package of crxw’s heaviest, most intriguing production yet. This release will stand the test of time better than most: it’s clear this project was made with unrivaled volumes of passion. A hell of a good time, troves of relistening value.

The audio is final. We’re in the endgame now. Over a year of work is finally coming to a close.
While I work on supplementary material, there’s gotta be a way to keep you on your toes.

Introducing the alpha.zero Boosty. It’s basically Patreon. I give you exclusive and superfluous things, you give me support.

While I work things out, everything is free! Check it out here.


See you there. Big things coming.

I’m striking while the iron’s still hot.
Here comes an original song for Wega's Madness!
It’s a fast-paced Roblox Doors-like game by my friend Ultra. I’ve been a fan of her work for a while, so when this opportunity materialized, I took it and ran with it.
My music can finally take shape in a real shipped product, as this is one of the boss tracks in the newest game update, out now!

Currently, the song will reside on SoundCloud, with streaming coming in around two weeks.

The past two hours have been instrumental into shaping me into who I am, not only as an artist, but as a human being.
This project has stuck with me through all that time, and has since grown into a sprawling piece of art that I can proudly claim as mine, and will soon be ready to show you.

1 track has been crafted with care, spanning hundreds of hours of work, shedding light on a tumultuous tale of wega, madness, maltigi, shotgun, maltesers, breakcore, wegabreak, dnb and transgender.

Wega is often relegated to being nothing more than lost media, but there's so much more to be done with its raw madness.
I hope to harness that energy, and bring some shotgun and tigi to the genre, for to love something is to want to see it AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

See you on August 1st.

/j

The past year and a half have been instrumental into shaping me into who I am, not only as an artist, but as a human being.
This project has stuck with me through all that time, and has since grown into a sprawling piece of art that I can proudly claim as mine, and will soon be ready to show you.

12 tracks have been crafted with care, spanning hundreds of hours of work, each shedding light on a tumultuous tale of love, hate, forgiveness, repetition, abandonment, identity, self-loathing, repetition, and repetition.

Hardcore is often relegated to being nothing more than music for dancefloors, but there's so much more to be done with its raw energy.
I hope to harness that energy, and bring some heart and soul to the genre, for to love something is to want to see it improve.

See you on November 15th.

Updates:

• Seasonal: new homepage for OUROBOROS promo.
• Visual updates to the site header, footer and page title cards. (animated line backgrounds, caps titles)
  
  

More minor updates to the website:

• Added a Personal Experience article to tomorrowcave, featuring 3 unreleased videos and bits of information.
• Added GFX packs to every release so far. The download is located in the same place as the MP3/FLAC downloads. It’s a ZIP file containing most graphics assets I have related to the release, usually cover art JPGs and PDN project files.
• Added license information to release pages. You can see them at the bottom of the page. All releases so far are licensed under CC-BY-NC.
• Improved metadata for release pages: stuff like Discord embeds will now show more information about the release (short description and cover)
• Added “preceded by” to all applicable release pages, i.e. “This release is preceded by x and followed by y.”
• Added UNDEFINABLE’s Apple Music link. Oops.
• Removed Google Analytics. Can’t trust that.
• Emojis are real. :ok_woman:
  
  Enjoy!