Listen to this release in other places at https://songwhip.com/refractor/hello-world

14.)
Hello World started at the same time as Soon, 15th May 2020, during an 8 hour production session, although I struggled to expand on its structure for a long time (Originally it was just a 16 bar loop that you can now hear at the end of the song). The beat stemmed mainly from the thick bitcrushed synth part, which in turn was inspired by the likes of underscores and grape milk. I didn't really produce any more on this track until October, where I decided to steal a verse from "Wrong", a track which by that point I had already decided to cut from the album, and I came up with the vocal harmonies in the studio. Overall I think this is a bit of a weak track compared to others on the album, but it fills out a good role paired with Mindrider to lead out the album.

- For more commentaries and high quality downloads, please support me by buying the album at https://refractortunes.bandcamp.com/album/refractor

14. Hello World

Listen to this release in other places at https://songwhip.com/refractor/mindrider

15.)
Mindrider was originally produced at the same time as Monolith, 26th October 2020, and I built it around the vocal harmonies I had recorded for Hello World, which is why the tracks fit together harmonically. For production here, I went for a lo-fi hip hop paired with indie vibe, and the track feels more casual than many of the others. I mixed and mastered it messy on purpose and left a long noise tail to finish the album. It is one of the most catchy tracks however, and ended up sounding much better than I expected given that it was really only a one day project, and that I came up with all the lyrics the night before my December studio session.

- For more commentaries and high quality downloads, please support me by buying the album at https://refractortunes.bandcamp.com/album/refractor

15. Mindrider

Listen to this release in other places at https://songwhip.com/refractor/scared-complacent

13.)
Scared Complacent (Originally Manufactured Complacency, although I think the new name works much better) runs on from Let It Happen in its themes of anxiety and complacency, but with a more uplifting outlook during the main section. Originally meant to be a collab with zak1, the beat started life on the 4th June 2020, but I only wrote the ending section much later, in November. I think that the ending section really helps to round the track off structurally, and makes it one of the longest and most interesting tracks on the album. It stands out in a number of ways, it uses live electronic drum kit during the middle section, whereas all the other drums on the album are sequenced or sampled. Its 3/4 time signature also makes it stand out, and the fact that I strained my voice a lot during it, in a way the ending section in particular felt like a sort of vocal challenge for me. The intro in particular was quite inspired by the production style of Galimatias, one of my favourite producers. 

- For more commentaries and high quality downloads, please support me by buying the album at https://refractortunes.bandcamp.com/album/refractor

13. Scared Complacent

Listen to this release in other places at https://songwhip.com/refractor/monolith

12.)
Monolith is a beat I produced on 25th October, during this week I was making many beats for practice, (Mindrider is also from this time). I like the 5 part time signature, this and Mindbloom were the only times I got to use it, although Dichroic and Scared Complacent also have non standard time signatures. 


- For more commentaries and high quality downloads, please support me by buying the album at https://refractortunes.bandcamp.com/album/refractor

12. Monolith

Listen to this release in other places at https://songwhip.com/refractor/let-it-happen

11.)
Let It Happen was one of the first beats I started work on over lockdown, it began life on the 2nd April 2020 as an instrumental originally meant for Nofen, but he didn't really fit on it so well, so I shelved it until October. During this time I felt it was one of the weakest tracks on the album, and thought about cutting it, but in October I managed to really improve the production and write new lyrics (originally I was only working with the chorus lyrics), and once I got good vocals recorded in the studio it became as good as any other track on the album. The vocals are aggressive, for my music, and are meant to capture a crushing feeling of anxiety, and just letting things happen even though you have the power to stop them.

- For more commentaries and high quality downloads, please support me by buying the album at https://refractortunes.bandcamp.com/album/refractor

11. Let It Happen

Listen to this release in other places at https://songwhip.com/refractor/change

10.)
Change started out on 23rd August 2020, although for a while it was really only a basic beat built around the main synth line in the chorus because I thought it sounded cool and wanted to build a track around it. Later, around November, I expanded on the structure and wrote the chorus and a rap bridge section and then brought that to the December studio session. Quickly afterwards though, I dropped the rap section because it sounded pretty bad. I produced it as a mostly instrumental beat until 10th December, when I played the track to Nofen for feedback and he had the idea of adding 2 verses of his, which he wrote and I mixed in within the next week. This is also when the track became named Change, before that, the working name was "Knights"

- For more commentaries and high quality downloads, please support me by buying the album at https://refractortunes.bandcamp.com/album/refractor

10. Change (w/ Nofen)

I've never used so much reverb
Enjoy

Full EP:
https://soundcloud.com/cryvera/sets/solstice

Solstice

🌼Original: https://soundcloud.com/porter-robinson/unfold
📼YouTube: https://youtu.be/t-QyUBgqcDM
I had the most intense chills when hearing this during a listening party with my friends. At 3am that night I felt the urge to rip the track and play around with it and I spent my entire Friday working on this remix. Enjoy <3

Stream Nurture

DOWNLOAD

Unfold (Hexosphere Remix) - Porter Robinson & Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs

NOW ON STREAMING!! https://hexosphere.xyz/#lexivs
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/dBhDwxLDLLE

Lexi vs. The Universe

On Streaming: https://hexosphere.xyz/#careful
Lyrics:
I don't care about you anymore
Today I'm going to be myself
I shouldn't care what others might think
Because this is the real me

Oh, I know
I'm always filled with uncertainty
But this is the real me

---
YouTube: https://youtu.be/0y0xqKv8sUo
Bandcamp: https://hexosphere.bandcamp.com/track/careful-blissful-2

Careful, Blissful

Hi, my name is James. I started producing all genre bedroom beats on FL studio for fun when I was 14 and got obsessed with it. I released this stuff under the name ETAOI ( @etaoi-1 )

Over the next 3/4 years I refined my craft and started adding more guitar to my tracks, still releasing lots of stuff on soundcloud regularly. At some point around my 18th birthday I made the decision to go to university for music tech and pursue music/audio as a career.

During my time at uni I expanded my horizons a lot more, taking my craft out of the bedroom and into the studio where I started collaborating, producing and engineering, also learnt to play the drums and bass guitar.

Refractor was my project mid way through university aged 19-20. It was the first time I included studio recorded instruments in my projects and I sang myself on most of the tracks, though it still had a bedroom feel - I was still figuring out how to do a lot of the producing/engineering I can do easily now. They were also the first tracks I put out on Spotify.

Soon after releasing the album I decided to abandon the project and focus on more collaborative projects and securing work coming out of university. 

I'm 23 now and sometimes release music (mostly for fun) on Spotify as James Stickland, so look there or on my Instagram @ jamessticklandmusic for more recent updates. I frequently play gigs in London and Brighton with several bands (mostly as a bassist) and work as a sound engineer at some local venues in London as well as producing and engineering a lot of my friends and collaborators (mostly live instrument based) tunes, so I've really changed direction since this project came out 3 years ago. 

Although, if you like this stuff, I've released and am still working on some new solo electronic stuff which will go on the James Stickland spotify page, so definitely keep an eye out. I also frequently post WIPs, outtakes and all types of random crap on the @mylesmadeofmoneyjohnson and @mylesmadeofmoneyjohnson-2 accounts!

11. Let It Happen

Refractor

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