Phonocratic Records

The Quandaries and Panaceas remix album Same Problems – Different Solutions has today been digitally released. It is available on iTunes, Amazon, and other digital stores. The physical release will be sold through the Phonocratic Records store at Bandcamp as of Monday next week.

The remix album features a highly diverse collection of excellent remixes by Oraku, Trance Line Project, Scarlett Nina, The Kratz, !PAUS3, Aragorn, Shane Wittig, The Argyle Raver, Nuevo Musica Gente, and Lost Shadow himself. If you prefer to try before you buy, you will be able to do so on Bandcamp as of next Monday, and soon also on Spotify. Stay tuned!

We have spent the last week going through the collection of entries we received for the remix contest, and we are now very happy and proud to announce that we have selected a winner. In the end, it became a very tough race between our two personal favorites, Oraku and The Argyle Raver. Complicating the matter further, after we selected Oraku’s remix of the track The last song we will sing for the digital single officially released today, Oraku provided us with a stunning remix of The last love affair, which we also just love. This should be compared to the Argyle Raver’s remix of Returning to the Crystal Garden, which grows fabulously in its extended version. All in all, this became an extremely tough choice.

However, we needed to pick a winner, and we have settled with naming Oraku as the winner of the grand prize of the remix contest, for his work on The last love affair, which can be heard on Oraku’s Soundcloud page. Congratulations to Oraku, great work!

This track was, however, not finished in time to be selected for the Lost Shadow single released today. Instead, Oraku’s remix of The last song we will sing will be the leading track of the single, with The Argyle Raver’s short version of Crystal Garden as a b-side.

Finally, we have selected a number of remixes that will be included on the upcoming Lost Shadow remix album. These are (in no particular order):

The remix album will, in addition to these remixes, contain mixes by The Trance Line Project, Aragorn and Shane Wittig. More news to follow on the remix album soon, so stay tuned!

Lastly, we would like to thank everybody who has participated and submitted entries to the contest. Most entries we have received have been of very high quality, and it wasn’t easy to only select a few for the album. Thanks for your contribution, we look forward to collaborating with all of you again.

The second Lost Shadow single taken from the forthcoming album Quandaries and Panaceas has been released today. The song is called There and is a ballad about not forgetting the good times in life. It has been described as a “chill” song, and I can only agree.

The single features the radio mix of the song, as well as a handsup radio mix by Shane Wittig. As a b-side, a club remix of the song The turning point, also taken from Quandaries and Panaceas is included. In addition, there are remixes by The Argyle Raver and Aragorn featured on the single, which can be downloaded from Bandcamp. To have a listen to the single, use the player below.

My personal feeling is that this song very much complements the previous single (The problem with democracy) in describing the sound of Quandaries and Panaceas, which is aimed for a late October release. I would like to thank the remixers who have done a terrific work on this track!

The new Lost Shadow single “A Nuance of Future” has been released. A Nuance of Future is the second single taken from the Lost Shadow ten year anniversary album “Age and Time“. This time, we have put together a maxi-single of over 70 minutes, consisting of 11 tracks. On top of long and short modern versions of A Nuance of Future, the single also includes the five winners of the Lost Shadow remix contest (Jason & Sander, DJ Alann Morse, Shane Wittig, stróm, and The Argyle Raver), as well as remixes by The Trance Line Project and Lost Shadow himself. We think this single is terrific, and suggest immediate downloading or ordering of it!

You can listen to the single at either Last.fm or Bandcamp. At Bandcamp you can also order a physical copy of the single, as well as downloading it. You could also use the player at the bottom of this post.

We also sadly announce that this will be the last single (at least for a long time) that is made available in physical format for ordering. In the future, Phonocratic Records’ singles will be released only in digital format, with printable booklets for those of you who want a physical copy in the shelf. We think of this as a necessary move to keep costs down, and hope that our reasoning is understandable. The whole store is going through some changes in the near future, which you will see soon. Stay tuned!

As I got the question of how we picked the winners for the remix contest, I will publicly disclose the reasoning behind our choices. First of all, we have judged on three main criteria: originality, creative use of the song material, and whether we liked the remix so much that we wanted to listen to it also outside of the actual listening for the contest purposes. We have, however, not focused very much on the quality of the remixes in terms of mixing, mastering, etc. We wanted something we wouldn’t have done ourselves. When the new single is released on Monday you will be able to listen for the details I specify in this post…

The Argyle Raver: In this remix, we really enjoyed the big contrasts created between the verses and the chorus, which are much bigger than in the original version of The Man Without A Shadow. Also, we liked the hard electronic part of the verses. And when the build-up comes at 0.24, it is totally unexpected… Overall, we would not have been able to come up with this idea, or creating something that sounded like this remix.

DJ Alann Morse: This remix creatively focuses on transforming the whole mood of A Nuance of Future into a completely different song. The setting is different, gone is the hope for the future, instead a whole lot of electronic mysticism comes in and disturbs this dream anthem. Very interesting take on the song.

Jason & Sander: We really liked this remix from the first time we listened to it. It sort of takes the best from A Nuance of Future and places it in a slightly different context, keeping the dreamy feeling of it, but also added in chords and melodies that send shivers down at least my spine. What also strikes me is that the sound of this song resembles what I currently is working on for my next album. Once again, taking a remix taking the original song and making something truly new with it.

Shane Wittig: The thing we really like with this remix is that it combines the sound of the original 2006 version of A Nuance of Future with the sound of the new version made in 2009. Also, it puts it all into a sound context that sounds quite much like the sound that the first Lost Shadow records tried to achieve back in the early 2000’s. However, Shane succeeds much better with that sound than I ever did. Still not convinced? Listen to the rising synth part at 5.25, and you will understand the greatness of this thing.

stróm: Well, this remix is truly different. We like that the tempo is sort of halved, and also we really like the instrumentation. I think the wasteland feeling I get from this very much aligns with the feeling of the original version of The man without a shadow, meaning that they really complement each other in a very nice way. What stróm deos with the vocals towards the end (at 5.37 ->) is fantastic. I would never have thought of this use of my vocals! In addition, taking more than two minutes before the vocals come in is a bald move, and should be highly encouraged!

I hope this sorts out some uncertainties about our remix picking. As you can see, we have been highly subjective, and mostly judged from taste. The common denominator between the five is that they all became frequent playlist entries in my iPod during the last month, even at the times I did not listen for the context purposes, which I think indicates that I liked them the most…