2014 has probably been one of my most productive years so far. It started off Christmas Eve of 2013, which involved staying up all night writing a track whilst my partner (Clare) was putting together some Christmas hampers for the family.

Since then I’ve become pretty happy with the music that I’ve been making, and lucky enough to have kept on making it. My workflow has improved so much since the 2013, which has allowed me to make music around the day job (which unfortunately can be really tough sometimes. I image some of you can relate).

So, ‘Year One’ is basically my personal favourite tracks from 2014. I felt that my Soundcloud page had become cluttered with the 40+ tracks made over the year, so I’ve dumped all but a few, obviously with the intention to create space for 2015. The artworks a little basic, but I like it 🙂

I’m still a little unsure as to where to put all of this music I create. Soundcloud is such a noisey place. Everyone fights for the same thing. A little bit of recognition. When I was 16 and spending the majority of my time glued to MySpace, this never used to be such an issue. Somehow people would come across your page through others a lot more easily, you’d start a conversation and form a relationship EASILY, where with SC everyone just seems to be a robot! (Often in the literal sense)

If anyone has any suggestions for an alternative then please do comment.

So anyway… This year I’m hoping to find a way of performing my material live. There’s a small community here in Cardiff dedicated to finding Electronic acts that perform rather than ‘just DJ’, the go under the name ‘Dragon Era’. I attended their previous compilation release at a bar called Gwdihw where I was pretty jaw droppingly suprised by some of the raw talent that was there. I was then lucky enough to get one of my tracks onto their compilation in March 2014. You can check it out here

Speaking of compilations, I also appeared in ‘AEP 3.1: Picking up the Pieces’ released in April 2014. A competition that took part on the IDMForums (and others) where you get the chance to use stems of tracks by particular artist (In this case it was ‘GrainBastard’) in order to create something completely brand new. Not just a remix. These competitions run sporadically and are certainly worth checking out.

So all in all, this year has actually been a little more productive than I though it had been. Probably why I don’t update the blog more often 😉

Lastly, I got to see some great shows last year. I had the chance to see Daedelus here in Cardiff, and even bought him a shot at the bar, followed by a short chat about record label experiences, taking some Caerphilly Cheese back for Shigeto to try, and where to find the best coffee in Cardiff (Waterloo Tea of course). It was such a surreal night though. A show that if back in LA (I believe) would be sold out and packed, where as here in Cardiff there were only around 20 people who attended. I was getting quite worried that this would ruin the night, but once he got up on stage (or should I say moved behind his equipment) it quickly became one of the best gigs I’ve been too.

These guys were going nuts to anything trap orientated. Tbf, I did eventually join in.

The end of the night felt very special indeed. (Sorry for the low quality videos. To be honest I don’t actually care, I remember the night way better than these videos)

I also had the chance to see Flying Lotus doing his final run with Thundercat and Captain Murphy before he released his amazing album ‘Your Dead’. This was a must, so I made sure to get my butt down to Bristol to see this phenomenon. I was too engrossed with the visuals to take any videos so here’s a link to someone who did.

I found it hilarious that the techs were getting so fed up of Flylo clipping the system, that instead of talking to him about it, proceeded to move onto the stage and mess around with his gear. Let’s just say that he wasn’t happy about this and made some mild threats.

Oh, and I shouldn’t forget that I also went to see Lapalux at ‘Start the Bus’ in Bristol later in the year too. No videos of that gig so here’s one of his more recent releases (if you haven’t already heard it). A wonderful 3 part track showing off some his different characters in production.

Well here’s to a new year anyway. This post ended up being way longer than I had originally planned. Hopefully just as productive as the last. Don’t forget to check out ‘Year One’, download it, share it, and have a good 2015. x