2019, the unexpected year

High Marks "Precipice" (Persistentmidnight)

MELOK TYR "When the Tale Collapses to Nothing" (Stormmask LTD)

Paralysis Image "Concrete Body" (self release)

High Marks "Sister Shadow" (Persistentmidnight)

Desolate Moon Phases "Heathenstones" (Stickfigure / Stormmask LTD)

Lake Lander "A Walk EP" (Persistentmidnight)

Warning Light "Shaking Through a Hillside Blue" (Persistentmidnight)

Past Dawn "Dreaming Ulterium" (Stormmask LTD)

High Marks "Four Takes... Fake Turns" (Persistentmidnight

A much busier year for High Marks than any of my other projects, 2019 surprised me on so many levels. But, a new drum machine and a couple changes to my recording setup have changed how I look at music. I can't help but think this year of recording was the perfect way to exorcise some of the ghosts from my Atlanta days. Being in Minneapolis has changed every aspect of my life, but it specifically has changed my old recording routines. Life is an evolution. 

Ambient Programme Vol I

There has been a bit of a hiatus on this project, but it has afforded me time to slowly archive and look back on the last 10 years of this project. It occurred to me that many of my favorite tracks might sound quite different without the percussion and the synths remixed with a spacious sheen. I changed the arrangements, resampled and dubbed some elements, and this Ambient Programme series idea came into being. 

This is the first in a series of works, four long playing ambient albums that are part of a whole. In some ways, a spiritual successor to the Heavens Above, Heavens Below and Cosmic Mediation projects, these albums are comprised of only long form deep listening tracks... Minimalist overtures dubbed into spacey infinity... sleep musik for aberrant daydreamers

I hope you enjoy it.

Shaking Through a Hillside Blue collection

A new collection of ephemera from the most recent era of this project... there's a little bit of everything on here. I'll be the first to admit, I have given this band a bit of a break in my mind. Putting the finishing touches on this collection put me in a pretty nostalgic mindset, it's hard not to when you're sifting through nine years of sessions. The material here existed in tandem to a lot of album work, but most of it was approached with a completely different mindset.

Especially, the Inland Empires Disregard the Sea promotional edits took a long time. Surviving the Buried Earth somehow survived several uninspired attempts! I never wanted to cut it down. The backwards-syncopated outro of Lumen Tracker is also one of my personal favorite post-production elements I've added into any track. And the new mix on "The Company Men" had me twiddling knobs for hours trying to get it right. Inland Empires is one of my favorite records I've ever worked on, I challenged myself 

There are a couple of stand alone cuts of soundtrack work I did for Silent Frame productions in the collection as well. Soundtrack material is always so different than album music, I always look at it from an angle of "what is going to serve the film here?" It takes you outside yourself and your own taste as an artist, in that sense it's probably beyond healthy as artistic exercise.

Shaking Through a Hillside Blue is a scrapbook, a slideshow, a mural of different moments. I'm glad it's complete and out there for all to hear.

early release

Something from the very distant (fifteen years ago!) past, this is one of my first DIY releases. At the time I didn't have project names in mind; I made some copies of this on cassette and just gave them out to friends at the time. I doubt any of those cassettes still exist in any playable form, but at least this can finally be heard on the internet. I did try to redux the last track for Eternity Drones a couple years later, but that version seems lost to infinity at this point. The photo was taken in Dawsonville GA the Fall this release was made. 

2018, a year's journey

So, 2018 manifested itself as a time of transformation and travel for me. I left my home studio of 10 years in Avondale Estates Bedsitter studios (RIP) to start something new in Minneapolis, MN. I'm lucky I got to make anything at all this year, let alone nine releases (and an appearance on the Knifeplay compilation). At the end of the summer, I made it out to Oregon for the first time, it was about as amazing as I had hoped it would be. 

Persistentmidnight compilation "My Sound as Sculpture"

Warning Light "Left Behind the Range"

Sareth Den "Follower Year"

Paralysis Image "False Pink"

RE-MAINDR "Chillsmoker Streetlamps" beat tape

Distant Hymns "Yama EP"

Lake Lander "Past Distant Horizons"

Desolate Moon Phases "As the Dark Empire Burns Around Them"

Stormmask LTD compilation "I am alone, but so are you."

Left Behind the Range collection

PM050: Warning Light "Left Behind the Range" I've put up this collection of Warning Light stuff from the 2014-2018 era, my favorite mixes/dubs/cuts that didn't end up on XXXI, Oftenchance, Inland Empires Disregard the Sea, and At the End of the Road. This era of experimenting with rhythm, repetition, sampling and different arrangements marked a time of a lot of change for me as a musician and a producer. These tracks were recorded at Bedsitter Studios in Avondale Estates, and with my current move it makes it the last WL release I recorded there. I'll always look back fondly at my studio time there, I made a LOT of records there. Thanks to everyone who helped make it possible, I won't soon forget any of it.

Summer MIX

Hot mixxx for summer 2018... "There's a heatwave in the hearts and minds of the kids everywhere, this is a soundtrack for a hot-oven season in which sometimes you've just gotta have fun."