feeling a bit nostalgic...

...I decided to compile a list of songs which can make me feel nostalgic. I'm freaky like that, hahaha!

Taste Experience - Summersault: Reminds me of the time when me and my youngest bro could still get along and do things without feeling awkward. I taught him to play the song on my keyboard so that we could play duet.

Funny - Sing A Song (All Night Long): Despite the sheer ridiculousness of this song, I really love this! This is one of my first favourite dance music song. Back when I was 8 or 9, this song was played everywhere, especially at dollar stores (they tend to play lots of crappy Ah Beng nu-italo disco stuffs like that). I remember getting all excited when I heard this song played in a pirated CD shop, and proceeded to ask the salesgirl the title of the song. Of course she didn't know it lol. 11 years later, I rediscovered this song from Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music. Took me 11 freaking years to search for a ridiculously addictive nu-Italo disco track!

Astral Projection - Mahadeva: My very first Goa trance exposure. Found this on Astral Projection's official website in 2003. Before the advent of Celcom Broadband and affordable mp3 players, I had fun blasting this song on my neighbourhood cyber cafe's faulty speakers, much to the dismay of rempit guys sitting beside me.

Push - Strange World: This was on my first ever dance music cassette, bought in 2002 from my kampung's pasar malam (of course it's pirated, duh). Cassettes are effin annoying - this is my favourite song from the compilation, but replaying it was a pain in the ass (mechanical forward/rewind and stuff, have to be very precise kalau tak nanti terlajak). Thank God for mp3s!

Ian van Dahl - Castles in the Sky: Discovered this from The Official UK Top 40. They used to have this on hitz.fm every Saturday, and I would spend my Saturday evening glued to the radio, religiously jotting down every single dance music songs appearing on the chart (songs from the likes of Flip N Fill, N-Trance, Kelly Llorenna, Scooter, occasional Prodigy). This song reminds me of the times when I had to stay at dad's mother's house, zaman-zaman merempat dulu. Still a cool song though.

4 Strings - Take Me Away: Back then when I had to stay at my maternal grandmother's house, I worked as waitress at grandma's food stall in Gunung Ledang. Johor FM was the official radio station at the food stall, playing the latest Malay hits and lengthy news segments. Odd enough, in between songs and DJs babbling about random stuffs, they played an instrumental version of this song.

Daft Punk - One More Time: I think this came out when I was 9 or 10, no? I was particularly excited about it receiving airplay on commercial radio stations like hitz.fm (it was even on their daily chart! How cool is that?) Back then I was obsessed with songs with vocodered vox, so naturally Daft Punk became my instant obsession.

Cosmos - Take Me With You: From good ol' Essential Selection circa 2001, used to be on Red FM every Friday at 10 pm. Again, kept me glued to the radio until midnight. Friday night was my dance music marathon night, with Wicked playing house and trance from 8 pm, followed by Essential Selection at 10. Those were the times when my only source of dance music was from commercial radio stations, and good thing Red FM had a dedicated dance music segment every weeknights.

Holden & Thompson - Nothing: When I was in Form 1, I was too noob to go back to JB from my school at Kuala Pilah on my own, so dad had to fetch me. He would take a bus to Seremban, and then I would follow him back home by bus. Basically the monthly cost of me going back home would be doubled, because he had to accompany me on my journey. I don't know how I could do that to my dad (hey, I was not the one asking for it). Anyhoo, one unfortunate evening (the day before Raya holiday), dad came and fetch me as usual, but by the time we reached Seremban, there were no tickets left to Johor Bahru. Not even a single ticket, bas tambahan pun takde. No choice left, we had to take a taxi, which costed around RM200 to JB. Thank God there was one unfortunate uncle who also had to go back to JB by taxi, so dad only had to pay RM130 (was still very expensive though). I felt like crying once we're in the taxi, and that's when this song came up on the radio. I still remember every single thing happening on that day every time I play this song. *cries*

Terry Bones vs Fred Baker - Return to Innocence: Form 1. It's either the bus, or dad fetching me all the way from JB by motorcycle. Yep, I'm not bluffing, I used to have several 300km+ journey from Kuala Pilah to JB, and back to Kuala Pilah again by motorcycle when it was time to go back. Come rain or shine, dad would spend a total of 24 hours to and fro Kuala Pilah on the road (6 hours from JB to KP, 6 hours with me from KP to JB, they cycle is repeated again when it's time to return to school). It must be very tiring for him. I'm such a terrible daughter. Anyhoo, the song. I used to listen to this song on one of those journeys, courtesy of Wicked. It was barely audible though, masked by the sounds of motorcycle engine and wind blowing past us.

Brother Brown - Under the Water and Chungking - Making Music: By the time I was in Form 2, I can finally go back home by bus on my own. My journey usually took 6 hours, and by the time I reach JB, it was already 9 pm. I spent the last hour of my journey listening to Wicked, and songs like these usually came up at the beginning of the show. Best part of the journey.

Aqualung - Strange and Beautiful: What? Of course I do listen to stuffs other than dance music! Again, discovered this song from The Official UK Top 40, one rainy Saturday night, in my late grandpa's van while on my way back from shopping at Tangkak. This is a very strange and beautiful song indeed, but it has now became my official stalking song. Most people I like are strange anyway, so yeah. Hahahaha.

Adele - Hometown Glory: I forgot when exactly did I first listen to this song, but this song is nostalgic for a reason. It's the song me and Leana performed on INTEC's Got Talent (we didn't even get to the final stage, though). So basically, this song reminds me of her. Aw, rindu lah.

I think that's all for now. I have lots of other nostalgic songs to be included, but meh. Exam, exam. In the meantime, what's your list of nostalgic songs?

Off to study Chem

Alice

the ocean also dreams (a song meme - Goa trance version!)

Nobody tagged me, but I still feel like making one here. Lame meme is lame, but who cares? XD

RULES :

1.Put your music library on shuffle.

2.For each question, press the next button to get your answer.

3.You must write that song title as the answer to the question, no matter how silly it sounds! Most of the time they seem to work though, strangely enough.

Ok, go!

1. If someone says, “Is this okay?” you say

Zero by Astral Projection

2. How would you describe yourself?

Kumba Mela by Cosmix & Etnica (what dude seriously?)

3. What do you like in a guy/girl?

One Blinding Illumination by Cosmosis

4. How do you feel today?

Gift of the Gods by Cosmosis

5. What is your life’s purpose?

Fluorostani Transcendance by Unconscious Collective

6. What's your motto?

Navras by Juno Reactor (awesome)

7. What do your friends think of you?

Reload by Deedrah

8. What do you think of your parents?

Maian Dream by Astral Projection (!)

9. What do you think about very often?

Radioactive Rain by Infected Mushroom (typical of me)

10. What is 2 + 2?

Mai Mai by Jaia

11. What do you think of your best friend(s)?

Astral Way by Etnica

12. What do you think of the person you like?

The Flame of Eternal Life by Chi-AD (gila awesome Raphael)

13. What is your life story?

Astral Warrior by Chi-AD (yeah!)

14. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Liquid Sun by Astral Projection (ha!)

15. What do you think of when you see the person you like?

Imagine if the World Was On Trip by X-Dream (oh yes, imagine....... )

16. What will you dance to at your wedding?

Spiritual Beings in Physical Bodies by Shakta (trance dance I reckon...)

17. What will they play at your funeral?

Dracul by Infected Mushroom (appropriate weh!)

18. What is your biggest fear?

The Prophecy by Astral Projection (Hari Kiamat kah?)

19. What is your biggest secret?

People Can Fly by Astral Projection (yes I can fly! In my lucid dream and in reality! XD)

20. What will you post this as?

The Ocean Also Dreams - Chi AD

Doesn't make sense, eh?

Alice

new song

Not entirely new, though, just felt like sharing this with you.

Unfortunately I'm still new when it comes to music production. Hope that I'll be able to improve my skills this holiday.

Lucid Dreaming to the Past by Vryzzer

If you're wondering, yeah, I intended to make psy (failed miserably, though)

blogger paling malas

Heya. It's been a month. This time, my excuse would be the dreaded trial exam. Trial is awesome, we should do it more often, it doesn't matter if we get A in our Maths paper/managed to answer Malay paper perfectly within the time limit/ get into the Pelajar Cemerlang list or not, as long as we have tried our best yayyy!!! *cue fake optimistic squeal*

Anyway, I am not going to bitch about the trial exam or whatever, because I believe what's done is done, and it's my fault anyway that I didn't get anywhere near the expected level of an NZ-bound pharmacist student-to-be. I am here to bitch about how it feels when one is deceived.

Hahahaha, no wayy. You don't expect me to be that brave, do you? But one thing for sure, I am a 'feeler', therefore I can assure you that my hunch is quite reliable (although I felt that most of the time those 'hunches' are merely paranoia).

But yeah, when you look back, it's my fault anyway. I can perfectly understand why am I being deceived. So yeah, there's no need for me to bitch about it. Just felt like mentioning it here, because I was amazed with my ability to 'read' people's minds. Maybe if I were to be a sparkly vegetarian vampire, I would have real mind-reading abilities.

On a lighter note, I made a Soundcloud profile. For those unaware of the existence of this website, Soundcloud is a site for producers and DJs to publish their productions and remixes for free. I have published two track for you guys to listen to. Nothing remarkably awesome though, just a couple of no-vocal stuffs I made using FL Studio 9. I still can't pigeonhole my tracks into any genre, though. If you have any clue on which genre do my tracks belong to (progressive? techno? fidget house(XD)? ), please tell me. I'm a noob in music production hahahah. While you're at it, do drop a comment there. I need to know where can I improve myself, music production-wise.

Sneak preview: I bought a Bodyline JSK :D Shall post a review on the next post.

Don't want to write more. Have some sewing projects to complete. Till next time.

Alice

aku ada buat lagu

tapi sayangnya aku tak boleh kongsi dengan orang sebab aku tak boleh upload mp3 kat mana-mana site (tak tau sebab apa). Nak post lirik pun tak boleh sebab dah nama memang tak ada lirik kan. Lagu tu tak awesome mana; 4 layers, ada synth dua, bass satu, pads satu cukuplah. Dah nama pun noob kan. 8 bars of melodies diulang-ulang barang cukup 3 minit. Itulah dance music ambient pada tahap paling basic, terma kasih kepada FruityLoops.

Kenapa aku tulis ni?

Sebab aku kagum dengan mereka yang tulis dan buat lagu sendiri. Ini tak hanya merujuk kepada dance music artists. Orang terdekat pun ramai. Adik aku misalnya. Aiman Black pun hebat.

Satu hari nanti aku akan dapatkan Ableton Reason dan buat lagu sekompleks Shpongle. Paling koman pun, brush up aku punya FL skills supaya aku tau macamana nak vocoderkan suara aku guna that damned Vocodex (salah aku ke salah soundcard aku tak tau). Semalam aku baru discover macamana nak guna Fruity Love Philter. Sungguh pathetic. Kau fikir bagi seseorang yang minat dance music, lagu-lagu yang aku buat mesti at least ada a brief session of filter. Filter sungguh awesome. Aku berjaya remake I Feel Love menjadi lebih housey (acid synth boleh dikira housey kah?).

postscript: Minggu depan balik. Aku rindu mak. Rindu bapak. Rindu adik-adik. Rindu rumah. Hahahaha cheesy sungguh diriku.

midnight randomization part deux

Aku tak berapa kisah kalau kau nak kacau aku pun. You could say I like it. Sebab aku rasa kau menarik. Dan aku suka orang-orang menarik. Orang normal sangat boring. Ya, aku label kau dan aku sebagai tak normal. Tapi itu patut jadi satu compliment. But I don't know. Some people get offended by this, tapi aku trust kau bukan jenis yang cepat offended.

By the way, yes, I love dance music. Been hearing it since I was 4. It's only natural. Sayangnya tak ramai orang di Malaysia tahu pasal dance music. Kalau ada yang tahu/suka tu pun daripada exposure lepas pergi ke kelab-kelab posh e.g. Zouk (kelab tak posh tak pasang dance music, diorang pasang lagu dangdut); suka sebab dance music mempercepatkan heartbeat dan mempercepatkan proses high. Bukan suka sebab dance music itu sendiri. Takpun exposure lepas lepak-lepak di Bukit Bintang dan berkawan dengan budak-budak shufflers yang menari mengikuti rentak hardstyle. Mereka cuma tahu itu hardstyle, dan letak di t-shirt masing-masing; mereka tak tahu itu ialah sub-style hard dance, dan "hardstyle" yang mereka gelarkan itu boleh jadi hard trance ataupun cuma bangin' techno. Lalu dengan knowledge yang sikit ini mereka cuba buat tracks sendiri; maka keluarlah lagu seperti Roti Keju yang sangat out of place.

Mereka yang menghayati dance music sangat sedikit, apatah lagi menghayati psychedelic trance. Epic Tribe sangat awesome, mereka ada soul Goa sebenar (sans LSD). But that doesn't mean all of the punters that attend their events have that true psychedelic spirit. Kalau orang berhenti associate dance music dengan clubbing dan dadah, dunia ini akan jadi lebih indah. Dan kalau industri muzik indie di Malaysia juga memaparkan artis dance music alongside the usual alt rock bands, dunia ini sudah tentu akan jadi lebih awesome.

Entry ini pelik sebab aku terbaca blog lama di Friendster yang ditulis masa umur 13, komen-komen pasal local dance music scene. Waktu aku umur 11 dulu, dance music di radio tempatan sangat awesome. Sekarang sudah mati. Terima kasih mainstream music kerana contribute serba sedikit ke arah itu.

Midnight randomization part deux kerana kalau kau perasan, entry ini ada kena-mengena dengan midnight randomization yang pertama, bab 'exposure' tu. Hint from the writing style of this entry. Mari layan Moguai yang tidak sama dengan Mogwai (aku baru perasan).

Alice yang bakal hadapi interview lagi sebelum cuti.