Here follows a transcript of an email from Baphomet Tripp of XAOS.ca and his impressions of Music for Misanthropes Volume One.
I finished up the Hell-week (I guess technically Hell 8-weeks-or-so, but it was the end) at work last week, and instantly decided I would take this week off for a holiday because I was fucking burnt.
So I've been at home, doing very little. My creative ya-yas have been directed towards the re-working of my Invisibull cartoons instead of the new x.a.o.s album, which is something I did not expect, but I humbly submit to the whims of whatever it is that makes me want to make apparently-pointless things like music no-one listens to and animations no-one watches.
Anyway, I have taken the opportunity to also give the Ignore That Door album a couple of listens. I can see why you named it something else besides your existing hundred of project names - once again, you've started doing something that has its own sound, different from any of the other things you've done that also have their own sound. How exhausting!
(just kidding - this is why I named my output after 12:20, x.a.o.s - because chaos can be anything and I didn't want to feel limited or have to keep coming up with new project names due to my inherent laziness)
First up, me like.
Second up, although when I'm mixing my own stuff I listen to it repeatedly on a bunch of different kinds of speakers (earbuds, over-ear headphones, monitor speakers, car stereos, etc) to get a clear sense of how it "sounds", I had less of a lab-coat on while listening to your album, so didn't do a cross-platform examination of whether certain frequencies were over- or under-represented on different kinds of speakers, etc. I mostly listened to it on my casual over-ear headphones, and it sounded good! So I don't have a detailed critique of your mix - in these kind of laid-back circumstances, it sounds perfectly great, though.
Third up, I was surprised to see the song we both worked on, not on here. Is that destined for M4M2? I was pretty happy with my edit of it, and I hope you liked it too.
Fourth up, I didn't listen to it all the way through in one go ever, because 13 songs over 80 minutes is what killed the music industry. My favourite listening experiences are more in the 20-40 minute range generally, so I chopped my listens to your album up into a couple or three sessions each time. So if there's a flow that I missed by not listening all in one go, I apologise, but them's my listening habits.
Fifth up, when I first tried listening back to it via my currently-preferred audio media player of choice (MusicBee, in case you were wondering), it couldn't find the files. I edited the metadata for each song in MP3tag and then I could actually listen, but I recommend making sure you set the song title, band name, album name, etc in something - whether it's Audacity or MP3tag or whatever.
Sixth up, some basic thoughts I jotted down (didn't jot down something for each tune, but again I didn't have my lab coat on):
Blackstar Rising - nice sense of movement
Not Your Slave, Feed Your Mind, You Will (NOT) Submit - a second-person trilogy (all variations of "you" and "your" in titles) is probably unintentional but fun anyway. "...Submit"'s use of repeated vox as if sampled dialogue gave those vocals a rhythmic sense that contributed to the song's groove that I really liked
Hunting With Hunter - funky!
Music for Misanthropes - groovy - I bobbed my head pretty much the whole time
X-Communication Breakdown - best song-title of them all! adding 4 or so minutes in the distorted snare (?) and occasional revolving noise gave this one a nice sense of progression, and again I was grooving
Crossing the Line - Nice! Noise + Dancey + Metal Percussion = kind of 80s-90s industrial in spirit but modern production means no one would actually mistake it for something from back then.
Post-Hypnotic Suggestion - "I am the destroyer of words" instead of "I am the destroyer of worlds"... that's very clever
Exit Strategy - Strangely pretty after 3:30 or so - bass throb, synth pad alternating between 2 notes, I actually liked it better once the vox dropped out and I could just sit in the wash of synths.
So, them's my initial thoughts anyway. You've obviously gotten the hang of FL Studio pretty quickly. I hope I get the gift of more. Thank you for letting me listen!
I'm out!
Baphomet Tripp and our producer Cryptaesia