Ochre

The sequel to Sony’s popular LittleBigPlanet game has finally been released on PS3. Developed once again by the talented folks of Media Molecule), LittleBigPlanet 2 is touted as not merely a platform game, but a platform for games, allowing players to create their own games, levels and music.

My track ‘Infotain Me’, taken from Lemodie, was licensed for use as part of the in-game soundtrack within LittleBigPlanet 2, and features alongside tracks from the likes of Plaid and Squarepusher. Needless to say, I was thrilled to be involved.

Infotain Me by Ochre

It’s well into 2011, and now that they have officially ceased trading, my album contracts with Benbecula Records have expired. As a result, I’ve kindly had the rights to ‘Lemodie’ and ‘Like Dust’ handed back to me, so I’ve made them both available for download directly from my Bandcamp page (alongside ‘Midsummer’).

All three albums are downloadable on a ‘name your price’ basis, currently with no minimum charge, so if you simply feel like swiping them without paying a penny or sharing your email address, you’re free to do so. Better yet, you can set a price you deem fair for my hard work, and sleep easy knowing you’re incentivising future Ochre output. Please spread the word; retweet, share, post etc.

Each full-album download contains a bonus track, with ‘Lemodie’ and ‘Midsummer’ having their respective CD ‘secret’ tracks appended to their tracklist, while ‘Like Dust’ features ‘Threnodie’, a track previously released as part of the ‘Death of an Aura’ EP (which I’ve now retired).

The expiry of my contracts with Benbecula also means that both albums will start to disappear from third-party download stores. Once all down, I’ll set about distributing them through my own digital aggregator (probably Emubands, as they currently handle ‘Midsummer’ distro).

This may be old news to anyone following me on SoundCloud or Twitter, but still, I thought I’d make it a bit more official by jotting it in the blog.

I’ve posted both of these as, to be frank, I’ve no idea when or even if I’ll get another album completed (for now I’m shooting for the summer!). Rather than just sit on a pile of tracks that may or may not see light of day, I’ve popped them up on SoundCloud. As you can see, they’re freely downloadable, so you can enjoy them on your portable players without being tethered to the cloud. I must say, it feels nice to be able to post tracks online for immediate feedback again.

Glassmaker by Ochre

Blue Hours by Ochre

If you’ve been following me on Twitter this will be old news, but the late Benbecula Records are having a Christmas sale, selling all physical releases for just 99p each. Lemodie and Like Dust are there for the taking, for a whopping grand total of £1.98.

Hi folks. I’ve recently started work on a film soundtrack for Dolls, and currently have three pieces written to date, posted below. Feels nice to take off my Ochre hat from time to time, writing music tailored to the requirements of a specific project.

Dolls by Ochre

I’ll be posting more news as and when it trickles through, but if you’d like to actively stay in the loop with Dolls, we have a Facebook group to join, as well as a dedicated film blog for your bookmarks. If you’re on Twitter, you can also follow the Dolls team on there, too.

Meanwhile, I’m feverishly trying to complete my uni work over the summer, as well as sorting out the next Ochre project.

Last year San Diego-based games developer Psyonix got in touch about licensing a couple of tracks in a tech demo/game called Whizzle, showcasing the Unreal Development Kit. Being a demo, it’s just a single level (for now, at least), but I’m glad it came to fruition nonetheless. Here’s a short vid of Whizzle in action:

If you’re interested in learning more about the UDK and fancy dipping your toes into the world of game development, then this video of Dave at Psyonix gives you a quick intro to the platform. The UDK is free to download too, so given a little free time there’s nothing stopping you from crafting your own titles.

And it needs you! Yes, I know you may have already done this (and I do apologise for the inconvenience), but it’d be awfully nice of you to click on it again.

Following my traditional of sporadic and occasionally regrettable social media suicides, I had removed my Facebook profile after inadvertently hosing the Ochre page (I thought it would be ‘hibernating’ along with my personal profile, but I guess not!). Now while I’m not missing MySpace, Facebook was a much handier means of getting snippets of news updates out there, and although Twitter has become increasingly useful for this, there’s no denying Facebook’s convenience and popularity.

I think it’d probably be a good idea for me to install some admin other than myself though, just in case I get trigger happy while aiming at my feet again.

Oh, and I am working on some new music by the way too, if I may self-consciously steer this post towards something a little more newsworthy. More details to come soon (demo track deleted from post).

If you’ve been following Bandcamp’s Twitter/blog updates you’ll have probably noticed a rather major update: the ability to sell physical products alongside your downloads. Needless to say, I sorted out a bundle for my remaining Midsummer Nice Dream vinyl, pairing up the double vinyl and an instant download for the current sale price of £5. I’ll keep it at that price until next week, so if you were thinking about either purchasing it on FLAC or picking up the vinyl, now’s the time to act. Consequently, I’ll probably retire the Ochre shop in its current state, and divert traffic to Bandcamp for sales.

I’ve also sent some vinyl to CD Baby, enabling stateside fans to get a better deal on shipping than ordering from me, although at the current sale price it’s probably still cheaper to buy direct.

Minor rant ahead. Last week I pulled the plug on my MySpace page, though admittedly not without a certain amount of hesitation and deliberation—it took a long time to amass those hard-earned 120k plays after all, that’s for sure. But, once I thought about the ridiculous valuations MySpace has bewilderingly managed to achieve on the back of advertising potential (not to mention the many millions of penniless and uncompensated musicians bolstering its value), as well as its corporate bedfellows, I felt a little better about ditching it.
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Just a final reminder that I’ll be closing the mastering service and shop before the end of the week, until August, as I’ll be off to concentrate on my thesis work over the summer. I’ve got 7 Midsummer Nice Dream CDs left in stock, which would be nice to clear; considerably more vinyl is available, so don’t worry about that — plenty left. If you need any odd tracks mastered, please arrange to get them to me by Wednesday at the latest, just so I’ve got a couple of days to work on them and get them back to you.

I’ll still be online around here though and obviously contactable via email—not going to leave the face of the planet while I’ve got an impending album release.