Sadistik – The Art of Dying

Aug 12, 2010 Opinion, Vincent dePaul

Let’s just put this up front: I’ve been mixing music for a long time. Back when I was a full-time engineer, I mixed audio simply for sustenance and rent. I was forced to listen to a wide variety of talent all compete to operate within the same narrow range of genre branding. This self-imposed compartmentalization was the most prevalent with hip-hop artists. The fear of emotional confidence or embracing an authentic presence overwhelmed a good 99% of the talent I’ve worked with over the span of fifteen years. The result was a dogmatic adherence to DASS Syndrome. (Different Artist, Same Shit) It is the Cult of the Genre and it’s a difficult conditioning to break. I held out hope for ten years against this flood of inanity, hoping that people would no longer be afraid of creative experimentation and emotional expression, but alas, the mob of plainness was too strong. I gave up on achieving fulfillment in the career of audio engineering and began down a road where such conformity and predictability were rewarded: computer programming. I could honestly tell you that after that experience, I genuinely hate music.

Now that my money woes are mostly solved, I can now stick to a strict policy of only working with artists that move me. Let me state that again: I will only work with creative individuals who boldly step down a road that has not been traveled before and do so in a powerful and convincing fashion. In other words, 99% of you self-styled “artists” need to pay close attention to the passion, fire, and the nuances of whatever internal chemical furnace that powers you. If you do this, it will be obvious and the world will resonate with you. If you don’t do this, it will be obvious and you will tempt the wrath and ire of those who don’t appreciate having their time wasted by the insecurities of others.

With that self-aggrandizing rant as the preface, you now have a context of why I chose to work with Sadistik on his newest album “The Art of Dying“. I’ve worked with Sadistik before on his mixtape from nearly a decade ago. It was called “The Return of Hip-Hop” and when I first heard him,. I honestly wasn’t all that impressed. As a freshman release, I could respect that he assembled a solid cast of rappers and producers to use their momentum to project himself forward. But, again, as a novice, his presence was muted and his performance was not synchronized with the courage of his passion. None the less, it was a fun album to work on, but my money was on Sadistik fading off into obscurity like so many before him.

Years later, he contacted me for his current project “The Art of Dying”. He sent me “Bed of Flowers” and “Black Rose” to do some preliminary mastering on. I fired up the ol’ HS-80’s and was struck silent as this beautiful music poured into my soul. There was no fucking way this was Sadistik. What the hell did I miss? I try to keep a decent tab on the emotional evolution of people I’ve done work with, but Sadistik literally came out of the void with the force of a freight train. As soon as the songs were done playing, I pleaded with him and demanded the right to work on his project. The songs started to come in and each one affected me in a new and unexpected way. The movement in “Divas De Los Muertos” was stunning. Kid Called Computer’s compositions were absolutely phenomenal. Sadistik found his furnace in this album and controlled it with an inspiring bravery.

He sent me hundreds of vocal files, most of which were punch-ins. Such obsession with detail and perfection are the signs of a person who is truly driven. I ran the whole album through my super-secret vocal shimmering contraptions. (20khz boost ran through an peak compressor) To emphasize the emotional barrage of these pieces, I applied a transparent AutoTune to his rapping performance to be in the key of each composition. While you cannot hear the AutoTune artifacts at all, an A/B between his original performance and the AutoTuned version adds a fulfilling musicality to everything. I did almost half of the strange and eerie vocal effects for the album. We even tried to add my penchant for screaming and Mike Omni’s bass line habit onto the album. We basically threw kitchen sinks from other dimensions at this project until everyone was equally moved. Precision. Passion. Rage. Creativity. These aspects are all captured on “The Art of Dying”.

I’m an extremely difficult person to impress, so if I’m begging you to be a part of your next project, then you’ve done something right.

Go review the masterpiece at SadistikMusic.com

Tags: art of dying, balancing act, Engineering, kid called computer, mixing, sadistik

Vincent dePaul – Buy You A Drink

Dec 3, 2009 Audio, Critical Mass, Urban, Vincent dePaul

So after several days of travel and sickness, I slipped into a delicious bout of delirium.  Since I don’t do psychotropics, being delirious is the closest I’ll ever be to being “high”.  So, instead of analyzing the situation internally like I always do, I decided to go all musical about it.  Needless to say, I channeled my inner Busta Rhymes.

For example, I say “Fuck your IQ if its higher than two.”  My ability to give one fuck has hit an all time low.

Tags: aggressive, bonkers, busta rhymes, crazy, eminem, energetic, hot, insane, rap

Vincent dePaul – On Demand

Nov 7, 2009 Audio, Critical Mass, Rock, Urban, Vincent dePaul

I posted a request in a forum I frequent to tell me what composition to make.  They gave me the key, the tempo, the lead instrument, and the mood they wanted.  Three hours later, this tense sounding piece was the result.

Tags: bright, Dark, energentic, inspirational, militant, Moody, tense

Vincent dePaul – Civilian

Oct 21, 2009 Audio, Critical Mass, Urban, Vincent dePaul

The melancholy of Viktomajarmo’s composition drove my pessimistic vitriol outward.  As you can tell, I have little faith in my generation to do anything worthy of merit.

Tags: bitter, Dark, emo, guitar, mean, piano, saddness, sarcastic

Vincent dePaul – Blaxploitation

Sep 24, 2009 Audio, Critical Mass, Vincent dePaul, Voice Over

Sometime in 2008, the very personable Djay Cas came to me and said “You’re good with words, do a voice over introducing our new rapper, Verbatim.”  So I gets to writing the most outrageous Black Nationalist agitprop (pre-Obama) I could muster.  After the first recording, he said the voice it wasn’t black enough.  So, unlike a few of my previous clients, I went back into the booth and pressed the Extra Black button (not it’s Craigslist equivalent) and out came this fun little gem.  Enjoy!

Tags: agitprop, black preacher, blaxploitation, i love africa, marxism, racist, scare white people, so racist

Vincent dePaul – Gradient Rage

Sep 23, 2009 Audio, Critical Mass, Rock, Soundtrack, Vincent dePaul

It was 2007 and I had just been paid an egregious amount of money for doing voice work for Scion.  I was collecting my check from a 24-hour straight session of mixing and mastering an entire country album days before it was submitted to the record label.  For the first time in a long time, my audio career was taking off financially.

So I quit my studio job and took a six month vacation from the world.  Vertical movement be damned!

I added the finishing touches of a long overdue equipment upgrade to the studio and proceeded to go full retard.  Six months of isolation (henceforth known as the Great Shut-In of 2007) interspersed with the occasional visit from the lovely and talented David B. Mitchell.  His tremendous knowledge of Progressive Rock eventually rubbed off on me and, as a result, this semi-epic piece was spawned.  Balls-out horn blasts from Sonik Synth 2 pleasantly startle the nebulousness of the Minimoog.  One day, perhaps a real guitarist will do the lead line.

Tags: angry, epic, guitar, horns, minimoog, powerful, sonik synth 2, synth

Vincent dePaul – Survival of the Fittest

Sep 23, 2009 Audio, Critical Mass, Rock, Urban, Vincent dePaul

After I had purchased my Avalon 737sp for a hell of a deal, (Thank you, Ryan of Guitar Center!) I decided to test it out.  One of my favorite songs of all time is “Survival of the Fittest” by Mobb Deep.  So I did a cover of it and added my patented “Hatred-In-A-Box (Just add excuse)”™ to it and, voilà!

I had absolutely no idea that I could sound like Zach de la Rocha.  I might use that to my advantage.

Tags: mobb deep, rage against the machine, rock cover