Fini. I Think.

This blog hasn't been updated in ages and it seems a little superfluous to where I'm really putting my effort in - my Maqlu project - so screw it.

Perhaps in the future I may revisit it, but basically I'm just going to maintain the one blog from now: blog.maqlu.com

Maqlu stuff: Video for "Lord of the Flies"

Made a lil' video for "Lord of the Flies" off the new Maqlu EP, Haze.

All footage is in the public domain, music and lyrics copyright 2011 Pyra Draculea.

Haze is now available on iTunes.

And to tie it in with the more usual theme of this blog, promotion tips etc., here's a couple points I don't mention elsewhere on the web: I whipped this video up in Final Cut Pro over the course of an evening. Yes, more time might have made it better, but hey, there's some fun spots where things line up just so, and I think it's a good example of what a band or a solo artist can do on their own. Actually, you can do an even better job, as I plan to next time. Might even spend a whopping two evenings on it.

You can do just as good a job in iMovie and there's a bunch of other free or cheap video editors - I just use Final Cut as I learned it 3 years ago at school and I already have the software and can't be bothered to learn any other program.

Hell, you can make a video on your iPhone now.

And as noted above, this is all public domain footage. In other words, this is an example of a "zero dollar music video" which is one of the latest buzz things. All it cost me was time in digging through archive.org, time in going through my videos and making sub-clips which I though might work, and time in figuring out how to order them and then tweak the edits into the final form.

I plan to do more zero dollar videos over the rest of the spring and summer until all of my songs have one. Some might retain a public domain focus as for this one, some might be me figuring out what footage to shoot around town and working from that, some might be me roping my best friend into filming me in mock performance type situations, etc. All of them will cost me only time.

So - there ya go. I'm the queen of excuses and procrastination, and as a solo artist I don't get to share the workload and now even I have a music video.

New Maqlu EP Haze comes out tomorrow, actually it's already up on iTunes.

Secretly I'm dreading the bullshit cheerful robot email from CDBaby congratulating me on the release. I remember a year ago today when Blood came out thinking "oh shit, that was today?!" when I got that email.

I was in the studio out at Vogville running for Dave Ogilvie while he mixed Raggedy Angry's new album. We had just picked them up onto our management roster at Synthetic and I was busy as Hell with that session and the usual work stuff. Also April 30, 2010 was the start of the MIDI Ghetto tour with 16volt, Chemlab, and Left Spine Down and I was going to the show at the Rickshaw Theatre. And various other shit was going on that meant that while I was glad the release was out, I really couldn't deal with it appropriately and in fact I didn't until damn near July. I think the only people I told on the actual day of the release of Blood were Isaac, Josh and Clayton, because I ran into them at the Rickshaw and somehow the conversation got around to what I was up to musically.

I was a little thrilled, though, that I'd managed to actually do the release and get it out there. Even though the reality is it's not really that hard to do, you'd be surprised how many artists never even get to that stage. And I of course came of age in the days of "Big Daddy Record Company" as I seem to recall Mona Mur putting it, so actually just going ahead and putting it out there all by my lonesome was a big deal, at least perception-wise if not in terms of the actual reality of recording, mixing, getting it mastered, doing the art and getting it released. As with so much these days in the current state of the business, it's getting your head wrapped around the process more so than the actual process.

The year's been hectic and weird and crazy and good and bad etc. Blood charted, its follow-up Black charted, which was a nice feather in my cap though ultimately it doesn't mean much. Haze closes the circuit on these three EPs, originally to be called Tales From the Black Heart but actually when the CD comes out in a month or so with all 3 EPs on it, I'll call it blood.black.haze.

I'll leave the EPs on iTunes etc. as their own discrete entities, the CD album is just for those who want a physical copy, doesn't make much sense to do a digital release for it when the songs are all already available digitally.

I'm working on new material which has evolved from where I was with the first cycle, though lyrically I suppose it's pretty similar.

Well, maybe not, since a lot of blood.black.haze seems like a lifetime ago, even though it's sort of a "same shit, different day" feeling for me.

Wonder how long til the Russian pirates find it. Took them a couple weeks to discover Black, then they went back and found Blood a few days later. I guess at least they're interested enough to rip it off.

Lots of stuff on the go, most of which is too early in its development stages to mention lest I jinx it, and while I'm not in the studio running for Rave on a session with one of our bands, that's only because we just finished the mix for The Rabid Whole's new album a couple weeks ago now. End result is the same - when the robot emails me today, I'll be glad to have a new release out but at the same time I'm busy dealing with other shit.

Catch ya later, though not as late as last year [should have CDs by mid-May and will be servicing college radio by early June].

Article on Vancouver's Electro Scene

Missed this originally, caught it thanks to a post on twitter.com/musicwaste

Sparks Fly in Vancouver's Sizzling Electro Scene, by François Marchand in the Vancouver Sun

Some interesting points on how 3 different artists have developed.

24 Hours of Radio Art: The Maqlu Tarot

Today at noon PST I did an hour long set on CiTR's annual 24 Hours of Radio Art, in which I debuted my series of short compositions, The Maqlu Tarot.

22 short compositions loosely inspired from meditating on the 22 cards of the Major Arcana of the Tarot, designed to be played at random to see what it evokes.

Sonically it ranges from mutilated spoken word and distorted guitar to lovely little MIDI brass compositions to carefully arranged birdsong samples that almost sound plausibly natural to pseudo-club 1990s industrial.

The Maqlu Tarot is available as a free download from my website (a .zip of all 22 MP3s) or you can grab individual tracks off my last.fm profile.

This is the order in which they were played on 24 Hours of Radio Art. The randomization was set by putting the tracks on shuffle through an iTunes playlist.

XVI TEMPERANCE
VII THE CHARIOT
I THE MAGUS
II THE PRIESTESS
VI THE LOVERS
XVII THE STAR
XIX THE SUN
IX THE HERMIT
IV THE EMPEROR
XI JUSTICE
V THE HIEROPHANT
XV THE DEVIL
III EMPRESS
0 THE FOOL
XVIII THE MOON
VIII STRENGTH
XX JUDGEMENT
XII THE HANGED MAN
XIV TEMPERANCE
XVI THE TOWER
X THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE
XXI THE UNIVERSE

More information: http://maqlu.com

Podcast of my timeslot on 24 Hours of Radio Art.

Maqlu chart positions

So... found out my little EP, Blood, under the artist name Maqlu, which I also produced and mixed, has been hitting the Canadian college radio charts.

First, back in early August I found out I scored my first chart entry: CFRC in Kingston, ON, had Blood at #30 on their Top 30 chart for the week ending August 3rd.

CFRC chart on !earshot

Not a bad start.

Then earlier this week I found another chart position for Blood - for the week of August 31, 2010, it was #7 on CFRU Guelph's Electronic Top Ten chart!

CFRU Electronic Top Ten for August 31, 2010

I also found I hit #21 on CJAM's Top 30 chart for this week. [CJAM is 91.5FM in Windsor, Ontario and I believe its signal reaches into Detroit as well.]

Super stoked... and then I noticed they also do an electronic chart. I clicked on it to discover Blood is #1 on their Electronic Top 10 this week!

Giddy... I am positively giddy!

CJAM Electronic Top 10 for September 14, 2010

Maqlu on Euanator Radio on CJSF

Today I popped into CJSF Radio up at Simon Fraser University to be the guest on Euanator Radio from noon to 1 pm.

We chatted about my Maqlu project, about remixing, etc. and I played a couple of tracks that I haven't played elsewhere yet:

• "Move Through Me [Pulse Mix]," a remix I did of one of the tracks on Blood


• "Paws Off," a rough mix of the noise piece off the upcoming EP, Black, which I only finished a few days ago


• my remix of the Rabid Whole's "Faith In Yesterday [Maqlu Mix]"


• "Lord of the Flies," a stark almost a cappella piece that will close out Black

In case you missed it, here are the podcast links for the show:

Maqlu on Euanator Radio July 30, 2010: Part 1

Maqlu on Euanator Radio July 30, 2010: Part 2

Thanks again to Euan for having me on the show, it was a blast and I hope your listeners enjoyed it as much as I did.

Raggedy Angry new album teaser

LOL - I saw part of this before but was obviously flipping between multiple tabs in Firebox, so I only just realized I'm hiding in the background in a couple of the shots from the studio!



This album can't come out soon enough for me - can't wait to leave it on endless loop and piss off the neighbors by blasting it super loud for, oh, about 6 months straight should be a good start...

Anyway, check out more stuff from Raggedy Angry on their MySpace:

Raggedy Angry on MySpace

Hey, looky looky what came out today

Well, well, well, look what I found on iTunes today, the actual official release date:

Maqlu: Blood

And here I was thinking I didn't have to start promoting it til after the mixing session I'm sitting in on til Sunday [Dave Ogilvie is mixing Raggedy Angry, it all sounds killer and I will resort to pointing and laughing at the rest of you who can't hear this stuff til September. Wait, I won't hear it again until September. Shit. Nevermind].

Because I thought iTunes followed the usual new releases on Tuesdays schedule the rest of the North American music industry follows.

Oh well. The propaganda campaign will begin on Monday as scheduled.

In the meantime, go buy my lil ol' EP. It's awesome.

[The album liner notes are on my laptop, which I don't have with me today, so I shall post all that later this weekend.