Albescent
By Tone Matrix on January 7, 2024 5:03 pm
Hello WB_frainds,
Last year was one of the more difficult years I've experienced. I had to say goodbye to my 19yr old best friend Beanie just a few days before my 45th birthday in September. Without getting too emo in the feels I just wanted to quickly mention her and how awesome she was to me. She was a hurricane rescue kitty that we adopted after a storm hit in Orlando Fl of 2004. Somehow through all of the ups and downs I experienced, Beanie was always nearby to help me get through it with something as simple as just laying next to me and purring. She also inspired so many more naps than I should have taken as well. Beanie was thee harshest critic of my music as she would usually leave the room or walk straight over the keyboard as I was trying to work on what I tell her is "music". Last year I had a scare with my computer & phone where the phone was accidentally wiped of all it's contents (which included all of my beanie photos). I had been lazy for a few years (not properly/regularly backing up) and been keeping pretty much ALL of my pictures only on my phone. So for a few days I was in a huge panic because I thought I had lost every single picture and video I had of her and my buddy(cat) Moby forever. Long story def not short. I was able to restore everything. I am so thankful I have all of these pictures and videos to remember both of them. I admit I am still very much missing her and it tends to happen at the most random time. You don't fully realize it until their reliable comforting presence is no longer there. I know a lot of you have been through similar situations with your pets so I just wanted to say thanks for reading and thank you for listening. I have been a fraind of the WB_community since 2014 and I appreciate being able to share not only my music with you but the things that sometimes feel overwhelming. It's not about getting a final answer or solution on how to fix things it's just knowing you're not alone.
On a much lighter note. Here are a few albums (along with my fav track) that I couldn't stop listening to last year.
1. Mark Giuliana - The Sound of Listening - When you fall down the streaming rabbit hole and accidentally discover how much you like jazz music. I've always admired jazz artists but this was the first album that I religiously listened to pretty much every week last year. "Everything changed after you left" is one of my fav tracks ever because there are some awesome piano licks in there. I usually listen to this while prepping dinner but there is one part of the piano that always stops me in my tracks to listen to. Because of this album I now happily listen to jazz piano playlists hoping to come across that same feeling of discovery.
2. Foo Fighters - But Here We Are - The last track "Rest" and pretty much most of this album is all about losing someone close to you. This helped me get through september as well.
3. Peter Broderick - Piano Works Vol 1. - another accidental streaming discovery but such a calming piano album. If you're a fan of Gonzalez but don't want your noodling to get too spicy then Broderick's calm mellow tracks will def put you at ease.
4. Health - Rat Wars - If you're missing some old school industrial/metal/rock feels ala 90s_NIN def check out Health. Their latest album at times feels like a love letter to Trent's older Downward Spiralish synths. Could just be me since I am a huge Reznor_fan 
5. Sleep Token - Ascensionism - I actually didn't listen to this album front to back but this particular track was my middle finger to anger/frustration/sadness and just pure cathartic feels. It starts out as a mellow emotional track and then just lets all the rage and anguish out. Huge metal riffs and genre bending R&B vocals that's impossible to not nod your head along to and raise your hand.. \m/
Oh yea a description for the track you say? Well I noodled and didn't realize how long I was noodling. Usually I just take a section from a long ableton-capture and try and find something loopable. Well this one just kept going and so a few note adds/edits later it was a 9min dish. The full version went over the 16mb limit so the version on WB is a lil lower in bit at 173kbps. If you'd like to gain an additional 9mins of nap time please visit my soundcloud page for this years WB tracks
soundcloud.com/tonematrix
At some point I hope to be releasing a new album on the camp of bands.
tonematrix.bandcamp.com
Thank you for reading this novel. I promise next week's reading material will be a sentence 
I hope you all had a good 2023. I look forward to this year and am glad my WB_frainds are here.
synthwaves & synthhugs
some pictures
Audio works licensed by author under:
CC Attribution Share Alike (BY-SA)
