Long time no journal!

Live has been busy, or not, depends on how you want to see it.
Work takes up a lot of my time sadly - I really don't like my job to be honest,
but I guess it could be worse. I have found more motivation to make music though lately,
and I already have 4 new tracks ready to release on bandcamp and youtube in case anyone is interested in those.
Not sure when I'll release them, but they are coming ^^ Keep your ears pealed... or something like that.

And now, have some tracks I found recently and listen to all day ^^
They really help me stay sane.... somewhat ^^



(deadmau5 drumloop anyone? :o)





thy for taking the time, I hope you found something to listen to more often! :)

Hey there!

Today, I released a new track. You can listen to it on soundcloud, youtube and on bandcamp if you wish.
"Moments" is a very funky, warm and relaxing piece of music.

I hope you enjoy!



Thank you for listening!

Oh, and if you don't have an hour for an album (which you should)
here is my track recommendation from the album. I actually teared up when this came up... ^^



what a sound...

Mat Zo's new album "Illusion of Depth" came out today!
https://open.spotify.com/album/2gUL.....Rh-ADFe44wwAQQ

Here's the Youtube Playlist (apparenty releasing soon)


Really cool stuff in there, a lot of different feelings and sounds.
Rollercoaster of emotions :P
Definitely a highlight for me...

Heyho!

I'm livestreaming today (basically NOW, 7pm CEST) ! :P
Starting an hour later from now on, so from 7pm CEST to about 10pm CEST every Thursday and Sunday.
Today I'm playing some Mirror's Edge, but I'll play a lot of other stuff too - whatever I feel like - and maybe stream some music production too. ^^
Feel free to join in!

https://www.twitch.tv/kacktusman

Hey!

I am streaming some HUNT: Showdown right now!
https://www.twitch.tv/kacktusman
I will be streaming every Thursday and Sunday starting at 6pm CEST.
If thats something you'd be interested in, feel free to come by and say hello! ^^

Thanks!

So I have been listening a lot to Tame Impala over the last couple of months and today his new album came out.
It's funky and psychedelic, he has a really smooth high voice and everything blends together perfectly.
Maybe you will enjoy it just as much as I do :D

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?li.....1DrJBEO-_g-Z-w

A good friend of mine has released a great remix album today! :P
It consists of 15 remixes and one new original - including a remix I made.
I think it turned out amazing and is full of undiscovered talents, so I'd love if
some of you would give it a go.

This link should provide you with a streaming platform of your liking:
https://fanlink.to/OWRMX

If you want to listen to my remix, you can do so right here:


The coverart was drawn amazing artist:
https://twitter.com/halflizard

Thank you for stopping by! Have a nice day!

Hey! A bunch of friends and I have started a project where we come up with different genres
and themes for tracks and produce one track each. It was a lot of fun so far and this is my first track for the project:




I hope you like it. Check the video description for the other tracks. Thanks for listening! :)

Hope you like it! Thanks for listening <3

Video made with FL-Studio ZGameEditor Visualizer plugin

Effect author credits:
"OverlySatisfying", author: nimitz
Twitter: stormoid
Adapted from https://www.shadertoy.com/view/Mts3zM

"SphericalProjection", author: StevenM

"Youlean Color Correction", author: Youlean

Hopefully you like it just as much as I do.

I was looking through my playlist, searching for artists that so far only had one track I liked and checked their profiles for some more music.
Glad to say I was lucky and my playlist got some new additions. I am really picky about music to say the least.
I can listen to almost anything, but there are some few tracks that get to me on a deeper level thats instantly recognizable.
Most of those get saved to my playlists. :)

Heres some great music I found lately:






I hope you like it as much as I do.
Music really keeps me going.

If you have Spotify, feel free to follow my playlist(s).
Here is my biggest and favorite one:
https://open.spotify.com/user/kackt.....QVmwfm0kY5ehGw

Thanks to Spotify I found this track yesterday.
I absolutely love it. It hits me in so many right spots: talkbox+vocoder are almost always a plus for me - a powerful mainpart with amazing vocals and a guitar solo... the melodies and atmosphere...

Its from 2011 and still I never heard of it. Its funny how most of their other music isn't really my thing aswell and suddenly this one track ticks all my favorite boxes ^^ Makes you wonder what else you are missing out in the masses of musicproduction. Hopefully you'll enjoy it just as much as I do.



Regarding my music, I have finally finished a new track and hope to deliver some more in the near future. This last year was a mess in terms of stress and productivity. Thanks for sticking around ^^

I'm not dead. ^^
Here is some music I have been listening to over the past months:

Cool stuff:





















Relaxing stuff:













Hope you like it ^^

Random thoughts incoming... (Fat text marks the beginning of a new topic.)

I love cats.
They have been around me since I can think and they probably always will be.
For me, a cat is the center of calmness and relaxation in a house and I wouldn't want to miss them ever.
Home is where there are cats. Wherever I have traveled in my life so far, be it England, Croatia or Germany I always felt at home
when there was a stray cat around somewhere, waiting to get a little massage.
I have lost a bunch of cats to cars or sicknesses and even though it hurts my soul really bad to see one
go, it doesn't keep me from getting another one to care for.

They are beautiful elegant creatures, silent and calm but in the next minute energetic and wild.
And no matter where they have been adventuring the whole day, they always come back for you, your food and your comfortable sofa.
They are soulbuddies, comforting you and teaching you to relax every now and then.
Sometimes I doubt I would be where I am today without my little companions.

They have their own heads, its true. Our current pitch-black little monster destroys stuff with passion.
She analyzes my habbits and uses that information against me, for example when trying to get my food or in order
to climb out on the rooftop when I just wanted to let some fresh air into my room.
But its getting more rare the older she gets, and when she curls up on my lap when I'm scrolling through
the internet, everything is forgiven and forgotten.

I never doubted my humanity, but if I was to choose an animal that I can relate to the most, it would be cats.
Gotta post some pictures sometime. ^^


Musicwise my situation has become a bit better lately. I am still working on a remix I started in March I think. ^^ But I am starting to get some motivation back and I am experimenting with sounds every now and then. One of my remixes "Nico Lud - I Was Wrong (Starscapes Remix)" will be released by Nico Lud on the 22. this month on "all platforms". I am quite excited.

My character ref sheet also got a minimal visual and textual update. I will probably comission an artist soon, so I finally have some more art and references for future projects :) Someday I will get a fursuit head too, but probably not for a while.

New content might be coming up by the end of this year. I am planning to upgrade my gaming rig and to hopefully get a somewhat stable internet connection to do some gameplay or musicproduction videos or if everything works out maybe even a stream here and there.

Life stuff: Currently trying to do a bit more sport. Going for some evening runs every other day. I think it really improves my mentality and motivation. Maybe I'll do some photography on the way.

Some music
Found this guy on souncloud today. Really cool music, I am definitly following him to see where he is going :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gPyg_1XGEg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyKiaewe-d4

No Mana:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oozevqF6oRM

Also, since you are on youtube now, check out "Corridor Digital" and maybe also the "Corridor Crew" channel. They are a bunch of guys
doing funny and cool visual effects videos on their main channel and some interesting and entertaining vlogs and behind the scenes on their "Crew" channel.

Have a nice day! I'll stop my rambling now... x)

I have been quite stressed lately with getting back on track since I have decidet to change career-paths in January and was worried about
what to do next. Thankfully, I have found a nice education that starts in October. I am super glad it worked out and I am looking forward to
get my hands on the topic. Now that this problem is no more, I can slowly come back to making music again. I have quite a lot of project files saved up -
most of them are just short loops - but I am positive that I will get some stuff done soon. I want to continue with chill and funky music. Maybe there will be an actual album sometime? Not too soon though, as I need to get back into the matter.

Here are some music recommendations :)

GAMMA by Fewjar (From their new album with the same name. Nicely animated musicvideo aswell)


He^rt by Starcadian


Complicated by EDDIE


Ghost Voices by "Virtual Self" aka Porter Robinson


Snoop Dogg feat. The Doors - Riders On The Storm (Part of the OST from Need For Speed Underground 2. I loved this game as a kid)

Hey! This will be just another "random thoughts" journal. But maybe you are interested and want to read my rambling. ^^

About two days ago when I was digging through youtube again, i stumbled upon a video that discussed some background-
facts about the movie "Tron Legacy". If you haven't seen it yet here is my recommendation and a short spoiler-free plot explanation:

Tron Legacy is about a guy named Sam Flynn searching for his father who went missing 20 years ago. It turned out that his father had been working
on creating a digital world called "The Grid". When Sam heads out to find his father, he stumbles upon his belongings - hidden in an old arcade - and somehow more or less accidentally enters said world, where he continues his journey to find out what caused his father to never come back.

Its basically the sequel to an old movie called "Tron", but this time with state of the art visual effects and one of the best soundtracks (produced by Daft Punk) ever created. I love the way the "lightcycles" and "light-suits" are designed. It's so incredibly cool to me that I can't even describe it.

But the reason I mention this movie is the fact that it got me to listen to Daft Punk's soundtrack again and further lead me to relistening their "Alive 2007" album. I have always been loving this set/live-remix-album. They managed to pack everything in there. The disco-frenchtouch sound of their album "Discovery" (which is probably my favorite album of all time), the noisy and badass sounds from "Human After All" and their incredible housemusic from "Homework".

It got me thinking about them. Their whole story, I think its so incredibly unique.
There will never be anything like it again, they reinvented themselves and became robots, just at the right time to shine aswell...

They built up their name in the underground clubs of france, then they went from dj's to producers by inventing their own sounds, only made possible by using the most modern form of creating music to that date. They jumped upon the "electronic-music-train" as one of the first to become popular and they evolved with it, helped innovating it and resampled existing tracks in a way so appealing, that nobody even cared about where they took it from. By the time they released "Discovery", they had come up with their robot personas. Not only do they look crazy cool, it also allows them to stay undercover. They don't have to give autographs wherever they go, they don't have to deal with fans finding out their adresses, they don't have to worry about beeing stared at wherever they go, since only very few people actually know or remember their faces. And not only does it help them, it also helps their fans allowing them to fill in the gaps on "who they are" with their own fantasy.

They went to ask a skilled practical-effects guy to help them design and create their helmets and accessorys and they even contacted a guy working with LED-boards to make their helmets glow and display texts and visuals. They walked out of the underground into the spotlights while still remaining mysterious at the same time. Every album they have created up to this date is a success on its own, and as soon as they had delivered some new sounds, they vanished just as fast - to continue living their lives - further fueling the mystery about who they are.

With "RAM", their latest album, they won a grammy for "album of the year". They performed with Nile Rodgers, Stevie Wonder, Pharell Wiliams and many more, then vanished once again to only rarely reappear on other people's records. ("The Weeknd - I feel it coming" for example, which really sounds like an unreleased Michael Jackson record if you ask me )
Even though I didn't like their latest album as much as I did love all their works before, I see it as their way of saying thank you to some old friends and idols, while also featuring many newer and less popular musicians who surely earned a lot of new listeners in the process.

They took their chances at just the right time, they planned it out well and went with it, innovated and reworked their sound.
They are creative not only in their music, but also in the way they show themselves - the way they market themselves.
They have reinvented themselves.

All of this could probably only happen at that exact time, at those exact places and only because of their great ideas. I love what they have done... so much. They are amongst my biggest idols, and they had and will have a huge influence to me.

My love goes out to all artists who stay true to themselves and create something unique only they can come up with.
Our minds are all unique, nobody can come up with stuff exactly the way you do. And to embrace this fact, to open the doors to the world in your head and let it break free into reality, to share your most beautiful visions with the world, is the best thing we all have to offer.

Trust in yourself, stay true to yourself and make the world a more mysterious and beautiful place. :P

A friend gifted me "Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy" recently. For those of you who don't know what that is,
its a game about a man waist down stuck in a cauldron, with a sledgehammer in his hands who has to climb up
a steep mountain of rocks, buildings, furniture and other random stuff. Its very hard and with no checkpoints whatsoever.
It only saves your current position when you quit.

While climbing, Bennett will tell you famous quotes about "getting back up" and "not giving up", comment your progress and your
fallbacks, mostly with jazz music playing in the background. Of course it often is sarcastic, sometimes the audio pops in at the most
unlucky times so it scares or distracts you. But I found it was funny and nicely made, the quotes were quite inspiring and I like the whole concept of the game.

Let me use the chance and quote the man himself:

"Imaginary mountains build themselves from our efforts to climb them, and it's our repeated attempts to reach the summit that turns those mountains into something real."

- Bennett Foddy

Some might see this mountain as impossible to climb, I did not think I could make it myself at first either. But I got hooked and even if it
was terribly hard, I tried over and over until I noticed progress, which motivated me in a way no game had done in a long while.
I felt like I had accomplished something in the game, it was not the game that changed, it was me getting better at controlling the stupidly
weird hammermovements. Similar things had happened to me before with another game - "Bob Was Hungry" - a really hard indie platformer.
Just like in "Getting Over It", what at first seemed impossible and ridiculous became managable and easy.
I am in love with this kind of games lately.

The reason I talk about this, is myself beeing really unmotivated in real live and I think I know some of the most significant reasons for that.
I figure I should probably not list them up here though. ^^' I have just felt so stuck for the last two or three years. Its those moments of noticing progress, even if in a game, that lets me know that I should get up and do something about it, no matter how shitty the situation is, working on it over and over until it gets better seems to be exactly what my life is missing lately. I need to practise my music, I need to get myself out there for a run here and there to get my blood pumping. It might seem hard for me now as I dont have much sparetime, but its not a big deal when I keep working on it. I need to set goals for myself again and then chase them down until I arrived exactly where I want to be.

What I want to say with this is: If you aswell find yourself beeing stuck, getting unmotivated to do literally anything, think about what reasons could be the problem, which problems you can fix and how. Then get some managable goals and start working at it. Dont do it fast, start slow BUT keep it up steadily over time, then slowly raise the intensity level. Hunt down one small goal after another. You can do anything, if you work on it and have a clear goal in mind, of that I am sure. I am sick of beeing demotivated, I want to get music done again and I am going to. I just ignored the fact I could change this.
I need the feeling of accomplishment again, the knowledge that I have done something about it and that I am not just sitting there letting myself get
beaten by my own lazy mind. I have so many ideas I want to get out there and its time to start working on it...

Some music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx6cgltQg5E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ImnV9uzPAo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x8pgAJC0Hw

I just wanted to write a journal about how the phrase "Martin Garrix, the best DJ in the world..." in a newspaper
really triggered me, but I think that would be a long and tiring journal, so I will keep it short x)

What I want to say is: Whenever you listen to a really big act or watch the video of a famous youtuber,
take a minute and listen closely, think about what content you are beeing offered, then look at how many
people are following and liking this artist or youtuber and ask yourself if you think this content has enough quality to deserve all the attention.
I think in most cases of mainstream or famous artists/content-creators, it is really just a huge hype bubble around something
or someone, who is really no different than a small channel or artist, who still does his work without all of this, getting no money or
complements for it.

I dont ask you to unfollow your favorite popular artists, I myself have my own set of very popular artists I follow.
But I ask you to take the time to think about what content you consume, and who you want to support.
Because for a huge channel a like means nothing, not even a cent of payment. But for a small channel
it could brighten up a whole day. I think thats easy to forget in our current hype culture.

Some music:

I played some Minecraft today. A totaly overhyped game with a billion youtube channels around it and
Microsoft making millions of it. But when I originally bought it it was developed mainly by one "Persson" and about 2 other guys.
And its music still takes me back to the feeling of when I didn't know what this game had to offer, and how deep i could dig or how far I could walk.
What a great work of soundtrack by C418. One of the best.
https://youtu.be/xIQrC4CerB8

Deadmau5 - Sleepless
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2L599fMDPI

Stars On 33 - LUV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qYYaTgXuno

This one is a longer one. Starting with some rambling (kinda as an update) and ending with some nice tracks.

Started going to school again, so I can hopefully get a job after the two years of education.
Its incredible how much time young people have to spend learning. I don't want to say its
bad to learn a lot, since it helps you get a better vision on things, but it's also quite tiring
when you know you are not getting any money for it, and most of the times you even have to
pay a lot to even be able to study. I have spent like... 13 years of my life visiting some sort
of education facility? Of course its was more easy going when I was younger, but still...
I have pretty much spent my whole life mainly on learning stuff. Like most people
around my age. 2 thousand years ago people already died naturally at this age.
Its crazy to think about it.

The school I started is pretty hard and really time consuming, and I am
really afraid I wont make it. I am not a superbrain, my skills are more on the creative side.
But beeing creative is just a sideaspect to the majority of jobs. If you're not a talent at marketing
yourself and working on your own, you will probably have to take a job thats focussing more on other things.

I really want to start working already. The one year I have worked on an actual job was tiring too,
but at least it got me some cash and I didn't have to think about it after coming home.

It makes me realize how much more work I want to put into my music-making.
I want to get active on my social media sites, make contact with others, find fans and friends
and most importantly work on my music, live out my ideas and get better at producing.

I know it should be just 2 more years of giving my best to finally be able to start working.
But its hard to cut off everything else in order to make it through those...
And since my interest really only lies in creative things, learning stuff you don't
really care for personally is quite a task aswell.

How do you do it? Do you have a job that somehow crosses your interests, or do you keep it separated?
Thats quite a personal question, so I don't mind if noone wants to give away the information ^^
I am just wondering. I dont think many people have the luck to make that work. At least not from the start.



To make this really thoughtfull journal more positive, lets throw in some music:

Found this guy on soundcloud and he really has an awesome and clean sound to his works. He seems to be only 15 years old!
https://soundcloud.com/acidoasis/41a

An "old" funky classic from my playlists:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rlx7g85FTJc

"New Lands" by Justice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ecNe7eS-F8

"Never" by Phonat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLoZTKc2fPI

If you made it through all of this, have a look at Jesus having trouble carrying his cross:
https://youtu.be/-_D1E6Ienx4

Cya! ;D

Like the title says, these are just some awesome tracks I digged up.
Hopefully you will like them just as much as I do.











At the moment, with all the stuff to study and some other limitations,
my musicmaking seems to be pushed to the side.
I will try and get ideas out anyway, and hopefully,
some day I can start making music regularily and professionally.
For now I am just producing random stuff now and then as always.
It's annoying to have so many ideas but no energy nor time to
get them out of my head. I am sure many of you know this problem too well...
There is a whole world inside my head, and I want to share it.
And it's my life goal to create as much cool stuff as possible, to inspire and entertain.
I'll give my best to get going as soon as possible.
It seems though, that at first, I will have to reassamble myself.