I got so busy I forgot to announce the release of a new digital single! This ended up being (somewhat quietly) released in late April.
“Shocking” could now be considered an older favorite of mine (Way back from 2013!), having been a central part of the mix SHOCKED. Although there weren’t enough originals in this mix to warrant an EP release, I really liked this track.
I had been thinking about this track a lot recently, and got inspired to create a new drum & bass remix. This fits in really well with the original’s electro style while updating it with some more energy and modern touches. I think the remix is the high point of this release, but I also still like the original.
“Shocking” is available wherever you listen to music, but is cheapest from Bandcamp. Check out the link through the player below.
I’m not much for hashtags, but read about one recently about “#spreadjoy” or something like that (If you can correct me, feel free to send a note on the contact page). If you’re cooped up at home like me, you could probably use a little joy.
I thought I would use the opportunity to do what I can here, and spread some joy with what I have. Especially if it’s your first time on this site, please enjoy a freebie, on me. Please follow the instructions below. (Can’t see the content? Enter directly here.)
This is somewhere between an EP and a “mix series” entry. This short EP is presented in mixed format; this is a collection of tech house composed exclusively on flights from PHX-PHL and PHX-MFR.
Although the tracks are shorter and less complex than my typical releases, producing this way this was an interesting constraint. I used the iOS app Groovebox to create these tracks, then stitched them together using Ableton back at home.
All of the tracks and the mix are presented without any fancy effects, this is as straight-up as it gets. This reminds me a lot of a lot of early stuff I did based on that simplicity, as well as Pattern Recognition but with a little more cohesion of the individual tracks.
This album is a Bandcamp exclusive and free download. Please visit Bandcamp through the player below to download this EP.
I am excited to release this new hard dance track! This took a long time to get right (I think I started this about a year and a half ago).
Although this turned out practically happy-hardcore adjacent, it started with a (maybe surprisingly?) much darker vibe – I think it turned out the right way, reflecting in the melody what the words were saying. This is seriously uplifting euphoric hard dance.
You can enjoy “Bring Me Joy” anywhere you listen to music, in the new single accompanied with “The Exchange (Hard House Mix)“. You can download this from Bandcamp, cheaper than anywhere else.
Because They are Hard featured a lot of old tracks that were updated with some more “pep”, but the most drastic transformation was for “The Exchange”. This is one of my favorite old tracks, and I really enjoyed giving it some new life with this remix.
This track was the only true “new” content from the compilation, unlike most of the other recent compilations that have gone on to become EPs, this didn’t really have enough new stuff to pass that bar (even though this might be my favorite from the Mix Series).
edit 02/01/20: Download “The Exchange (Hard House Mix)”, alongside “Bring Me Joy”, in the new digital single.
Just a little over 6 years ago, I released life.remixed. Similar to what I was able to do for Existential Funk, I wanted to somehow update the release for it’s 5th anniversary. I’ve been working on this for almost 2 years now, and I missed the release date by a year and a half, but today I am ready to release this “special edition” of life.remixed: life.refactored.
life.refactoredstarted as a DJ mix of the entire life.remixed album. However, it quickly came to my attention that the album was too diverse for a straight DJ mix, so it was necessary to “remix life.remixed”. Rather than remixing the tracks on an individual basis, this is a remix of the entire album – the tracks are split up at an atomic level and mixed together to form something totally different. In the making of this mix I constrained myself to only using samples from the original album, with small exception (a breakbeat and a cymbal).
Interestingly and only by coincidence, life.refactored is 10 tracks, just like the original.
The quintessential life.refactored experience is to listen to the continuous mix (linked below), and although it would be best to have some familiarity with the original life.remixed, it is not required. You can also click through the link below to download the entire life.refactored album, including the individual tracks.
Anything or anyone who falls through the event horizon will soon reach the region of infinite density and the end of time.
Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time
As a young child, I read a children’s book which covered a number of natural and scientific topics. There is a part which particularly interested me which talked about the death of our Sun, to occur in 5 billion years. I would read this again and again until I was overcome with dread. Looking back this is probably a bit ghastly of a topic for 5-year old readers. As an adult, I have maintained a fascination with space, and find myself with a similar fixation on black holes.
The first part of this mix is an exciting and fast-paced breakbeat set with a lot of new material, my favorite being the remix of “Abyss“. In the second half, a dark, spacy drum and bass mix with a few old favorites and a couple new ones. A new track “Titan” is being debuted here, and is one of the most dramatic of the entire mix (for that matter, recent memory).
This is presented as a concept mix in two parts, with a vision of travelling a great distance from Earth to a black hole. Starting from the excitement of beginning a journey, this moves to feelings of dread and timelessness near the end. This is Into the Void.
Part I – Liftoff: Explosive Breaks to Begin the Journey
0:00 Karl D – Get Wrecked
0:56 Karl D – Tube Transit
02:36 Karl D – Solar Flare
05:30 Karl D – Award Winning
10:04 Karl D – Lorentz Factor
12:12 Karl D – Abyss (Remix)
15:17 Karl D – Evening
18:36 Karl D – Dodge This
Part II – Event Horizon: D&B as Dark as the Depths of Space
21:02 Karl D – Apex Predator
22:44 Karl D – Dirt
24:37 Karl D – R
26:41 1_13 (from random beats, vol 1)
28:00 Karl D – Things You’ll Need to Know
32:39 Karl D – Titan
35:31 Jules AI Outro
Thanks for checking this mix out! You can now get the exclusive tracks from this mix anywhere you buy music, in the “Into the Void EP”. Bandcamp buyers can get a bonus track not available elsewhere.
In certain circles, “hard house” has been overshadowed by the more commercial “EDM”, but to me this is the difference of a craft-made beer vs. Pabst Blue Ribbon. One could argue each has their place, but something is missing for me with EDM (and PBR for that matter).
The quote from Lady Waks (she may have been talking breaks, but she’s spot on), as well as the one from Kennedy sum it up. At this point, there’s no money in this, one has to really want to participate, both in creating and listening. The hardness no longer refers to the just the music itself, it is a struggle to keep the community alive. For an artist, the work has to be its own reward.
The mix is pretty diverse, spanning over 15 years of my own hard house production, mashed up in hard dance appropriate style with a few other tracks. This has been in the works for a long time – perfection was the goal but doing the work is more important.
This is hard on purpose. We do these things not because they are easy, but Because They are Hard.
(0:00) Karl D – Mashup intro
(0:51) Karl D – Pure NRG (Remix)
(1:52) Karl D – Rock the House
(2:33) Karl D – 4_11 (Remix)
(4:54) Karl D – Climbing to the Top vs. Brothers in Rhythm – Such a Good Feeling
(7:34) Karl D – 3_01
(10:08) Karl D – Unrefined Emotion (Remix)
(13:32) Vengaboys – We Like to Party (Karl D Remix)
(15:53) Karl D – At the Base of the Mountain (Remix) vs. Britney Spears – Til the World Ends
(18:20) Heaven’s Cry – Til Tears Do us Part
(21:07) Karl D – The Exchange (2018 Hard House Mix)
