As you know, we released 5 new tracks over the summer, and we’ve now put them together on a brand new compilation CD – Cream of the Summer 2016.
As well as our first song, Migration, the compilation includes Jonathan Livingston, Cyberfunk, The Piper & the Frog, and City Folk. The CD, artwork by Dmitry Ermakov, in a card sleeve, is available together with digital download for £4.50 (+P&P) at: http://goo.gl/UbddtF
WIN A CD!
But – we’re also giving away a few exclusive, signed complitation CD’s in our Summer Competition – just add 3 MetaQuorum tracks to a new Spotify playlist, and you’re in with a chance to win a signed CD. All details are here: http://goo.gl/vZcHc1
Candian ProgCore Live Radio is devoting most of this Friday Show to MetaQuorum – featuring Midnight Sun [Remastered] as well as all five of this Summer singles.
We’ve just released the last in our series of summer songs: City Folk – Folk/Prog/World Beat Fusion track inspired by the pulse of urban life.
This track is quite different from our other pieces, a more lilting tune with plenty of space, punchy shuffle drums and oriental percussion opening out into soaring rock organ harmonies.
THE BEGINNING
Actually, the basic theme for this track was the very first thing Dmitry played on his Yamaha Motif when it came out of the box back in 2004 when he was living in London.
Barnes, 2004. Motif just arrived.Carol doing yoga stretch by Motif. Barnes, 2004.
So City Folk reflects the rhythm of urban life, and we’ve dedicated it to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a city where arts meet business, Georgian architecture blends with super-modern structures, and the River Tyne flows through it all.
THE MIDDLE
Koos and Dmitry ran into serious technical trouble with this track – we won’t bore you with the details, suffice to say, we had to take the hard drive apart with a drill…
THE END
But we managed to salvage it all in the end, and Chris Longwood did a great job on the master, so we’re proud to present: CITY FOLK.
You can stream and download the track on all the usual channels:
WHAT NEXT?
We’ve got one more single ready to release in September and are working on a couple of EPs, so we’ll have lots of new stuff for you in the Autumn.
Meantime, have a relaxing summer!
The latest in our volley of new singles, Cyber Funk. Here’s what Dmitry has to say about it:
“I was curious to see how we could fuse some elements of IDM dance music into our meld style – although I don’t listen to IDM much, I do like some stuff, so for this track we used an IDM-like drum sequencer for the first few bars, alternating it with Koos live on his Roland V-drums kit. Fun!
And of course, we love our funk, so Cyber Funk is partly a tribute to George Duke and his fantastic instrumental funk.
And we called it Cyber Funk because, well, it’s a cybernetic sound!” 😉
We had some technical trouble with this one, but rather than bore you with the details, we wanted to share our ‘eureka moment’ with you 😉 (Thanks for capturing it on film, Carol!)
Roaring dance sequencers and G-Funk leads combined with jazzy piano improvisation, slap and Boogie synth bass, strong, upbeat drums, Go-go percussion and Electro Funk vocoder – Cyber Funk is a rollicking Funk Jam piece, an unusual meld of several styles and beats.
While checking whether our new single #CyberFunk, coming out today, is a good to go on the digital outlets, I #StumbledUpon this #review on #Junodownload for our previous #single The Piper & The Frog. Since it was written by a #user, most probably a #DJ, it is quite funny and fresh and I like it a lot so wanted to #share it with you 😉 Check it out below. It is right under the track @
Midnight Sun (Remastered) was released on 18 June through all our usual digital distribution channels. And we are waiting for a bunch of limited edition CDs to arrive later next week. Why the need for Remaster? , you may ask. Well, the original master wasn’t really loud enough and it didn’t have this ‘big sound’ we developed for the 2016 releases. So Dmitry decided to remaster the album so that it comes closer to this new sound. We think it was a success. The tracks sound bigger and more 3D with many nuances coming to the fore. Give it a listen and see for yourself 🙂
An electrifying track with a hip hop beat, some snazzy effects and a funky vibe, The Piper and The Frog takes us from Celtic pipes through tropical frogs to a soaring crescendo as guest artist Markus ‘Bluesharp’ Bossert from Basel,Switzerland, carries us away with his bluesy solo on the harmonica. The Piper and The Frog – an IDM/Hip-Hop/Funk/Prog crossover with a sense humour.
Markus ‘Bluesharp’ Bossert (Photo courtesy AndreaA-rt)
BEHIND THE SCENES
Koos and Dmitry worked on producing the track in the Low Bishopley Home Studio last spring. The biggest challenge was trying to fit the original recording – an MP3 recorded on a stereo mike from the speakers, made back in 2000 – to the new grid to even out the rhythm.
Koos pondering sound-engineering techniques. (Photo by Carol Ermakova)
We’d not worked with a guest musician before – Markus sent several versions of his solo over from Switzerland so we had to pick the best and join them together to make a smooth, seamless track.
THE TRACK
The Piper and The Frog is an electrifying track with a hip hop beat, some snazzy effects and a funky vibe. It takes us from Celtic pipes through tropical frogs to a soaring crescendo as guest artist Markus Bluesharp carries us away with his bluesy solo on the harmonica.
MetaQuorum 