And so it finally begins – I’ll be sharing an In Praise of Shadows track preview each day for the rest of this week and into the next, beginning with Proteus’ Monochrome. As the earlier master of this track will be familar to most of you, today’s post will also introduce TYFTH’s new logo and a preview of the artwork.
Unfortunately the blog still isn’t ready for the cosmetic surgery needed to really do the art justice, so instead I’ll point you towards SoundCloud, Facebook and Twitter, where there’s now some unified brand-identity action going on.
The backgrounds show off a small part of In Praise of Shadows’ cover, but seeing the entire image is something else altogether. To say it nails the atmosphere I was hoping for is an understatement – you can almost hear the music just by looking at it.
I’m also enormously happy with the logo. It has the balance of aggression, moodiness and slight delicacy that I was hoping for, and despite being effective wherever it’s placed, also manages to look like it was designed specifically for this release.
TYFTH still takes priority, but I’ll be adding plenty of info to the new Facebook page in the near future (not least the release date and ordering links). I’ll also be more active on the label Twitter account, as it could be a nice supplement to the blog if life continues to be as hectic as it has been recently. Please feel more than free to share posts and links with whoever you think might (or might not, come to think of it) be interested.
Finally, back to Monochrome – I could hardly have asked for a better prologue to the album, especially as I’ve been talking with a few people recently about how NRG and freeform could potentially grab all kinds of new audiences with the occasional drop in bpm (similar thoughts led to my Dark Alternative set a while back). Dark and beautiful, it’s just the kind of track I was hoping for when I first pitched the project to Proteus, and this improved master really does it justice.
As always, don’t hold back with the feedback, thoughts and suggestions – thanks again for your patience, and I’ll be back tomorrow with the second of the track previews.
It’s finally coming!
Jon, you have my heartfelt thanks for all the hard work you put in this project. It looks very promising and thrilling!
Did you consider the making of merch like stickers and t-shirts by any chance?
Thank you! I hope it becomes even more promising as the rest of the previews appear 🙂
And the short answer is yes – I’ve definitely been considering it, but at the same time I’m wary of going too ambitious right now. Something small has already been decided on, but t-shirts could be something for the future…
I’d buy a t-shirt for sure. Will keep sharing the tracks in my facebook group. So nice to hear tracks that really ‘do it’ for me that I can be genuinely enthusiastic about. I agree on the tempo. I’ve always preferred to play sets between 165-170bpm, as I think any faster than that and the complex nature of darker freeform sounds too frantic to really be appreciated. Cheers for all your efforts Jon.
T-shirts would be pretty great – if anyone has any expertise or advice on that front then please let me know. Either way it would have to wait until after the album release, as life away from TYFTH is quite manic at the moment and I’m struggling to even keep to the preview-upping schedule!
HR, I’ve been meaning to say a big thanks for sharing posts on facebook, with time being a bit short I haven’t managed much of that myself and it makes a big difference 🙂 Hoping to commandeer some FINRG resources for promotion soon, but in the meantime any and all help is appreciated!