axisONE

Finally! After many, many years of production, vocal work and effort, Still Infatuated (feat. Allison Long) is OUT NOW on Beatport!

Fans who have been following my music for a long while will know that this song has been on the pipelines for about a year. But actually, the original concept for this song goes back to about the year 2009 - yes, you read that right - this track has been almost three years in the making! My, how time has flown.

The track was originally never meant to be in triplets - it was actually supposed to be in eighth notes! But while it would have still been a great track, the triplets feel give it a more unique groove, and so I kept it that way. The original track never had Allison on it - and if you were wondering, yes,  that is my voice on the track. I worked on my vocals first, and showed it off to a friend of mine, who recommended Allison's voice on the track. Interesting fact - we've never met in person, but we share a great friend for sure! Her voice fits beautifully in this track and she lifts the vocals up so well.

The whole idea for this song was centered around the theme of unrequited love. The lyrics are short, but they pack a lot of meaning.

"Where were you when I tried to find you?"

The guy in this song gives his heart to a girl he's interested in, she doesn't offer hers back.

"Where were you when I tried to let go?"

He successfully gets over his love for her, but to his dismay, she begins to find love for him.

"Where were you when you said it was good then?"

She promises to him that she's no longer interested - but it's a lie.

"If you felt different how would I know?"

And the cycle repeats with the girl in the song singing the same lines. In short, it's about two people who love each other, but at the wrong time. And sometimes, that's what love comes down to - timing. It may not be the right time in someone's heart to fall in love.

But, that's just my interpretation of it. Maybe it means something else to you! Do you have a different perspective on it? Let me know in the comments, on Facebook, or by e-mail.

You can buy Still Infatuated (feat. Allison Long) on Beatport, or wait two weeks until the 12th of March 2012 when it'll be out on iTunes, Amazon, Trackitdown and all other fine music download stores!

P.S: Kristoffer (Macarize's label manager) and I have decided to do something special - if you go on Facebook and tag the axisONE and Macarize fan pages along with the link to the release, you can get the entire Still Infatuated release from us FOR FREE!

Why are we doing this? Primarily because I think it's a unique track - and giving it away feels right. It's mainly as thanks to those who have supported my music. For artists like me, money doesn't play a huge factor in why I produce - it's about getting as many people to enjoy my music as possible!

So I sincerely hope you enjoy this release! It has a special place in my heart and I hope it does for you too.

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And now, to end the year 2011 - my remix of Mizar B's melodic masterpiece, Vesta!

Jan of WeRecommendRecords came up to me and asked me to put an axisONE spin on it - it was tough at first but I found my stride in the middle of production and just kept going - if you're a producer, you know exactly what I mean when I say that.

I took Mizar B's original chord line and sampled it, giving it a filtered, breathing effect that really worked with the syncopation aided by the massive amounts of sidechained reverb FX in the background. The track features this amazing 16th note arpeggiation which I programmed myself - and I think it makes the track! It definitely wouldn't have sounded as good without it. But what really ties the track together is the the square bass along with those crisp yet thumping drums. Always good on a house track, and you can't go wrong without them!

The Vesta EP also comes with the original mix, along with remixes from Mike Duz and Manse. It also comes with Star Compass, an unexpected breakout track which I really like!

I hope you appreciate this house/trance hybrid monster enough to buy it on Beatport, which is out now! If you've less cash to spend due to the excessive New Year partying, just wait on the 10th of January 2012, when it'll be on iTunes, Amazon, Trackitdown and all other fine music download stores!

Until then, Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year! See you in 2012 with more exciting tracks and remixes from yours truly!

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More monster releases, it seems! This time it's the four-track godzilla that is Skyline!

Skyline's original form was what you now know as Skyline (Part 1). I originally started out with those chords, added that earth-moving bassline and then placed that high synth line on top of it. That synth line is to be the bridge between Part 1 and Part 2. Part 1 in this case is a lush yet booming side of the single.

Skyline (Part 2) is the darker, grittier side of the release. I've switched out that earth-moving bassline in Part 1 for two dirty basses - and I think they do a good job. The 8th note chord break is one of my favorite breaks, and writing that in was a serious treat. Deadmau5 eat your heart out.

Not satisfied with just two tracks on my release, I put Bin Fackeen/Demzo as well as Mindset on remix duty. Bin Fackeen/Demzo supply an almost tribal anthem to the melody in Part 1, and Mindset kills it with his dark, but massively explosive take on the melody in Part 2. He rewrites most of the melody, but I absolutely love that - after all, I did the same with my take on Mindset's Yuu, so who am I to complain? Not that I am, of course.

Both tracks are my homage to Hong Kong - it's picturesque and piercing skyline, and its serene yet bustling imagery. These juxtapositions are why I made two parts to Skyline, and I think I sum up in music what I normally am incapable of doing with just words. Hong Kong, if you're reading this, I miss you and your sexy harborfront.

You can buy the release now on Beatport, or wait 2 weeks when it comes out on the 13th of December on iTunes, Amazon, Trackitdown and all other fine music download stores!

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Another preview? You bet!

This time, it's a three track EP behemoth for the Macarize label, and each track is full of progressive house goodness!

Macarize has released a Soundcloud set previewing the tracks, which you can find here:

  MRIZE019 axisONE - Find Love / Painful Smile / Shanghai Lights (Original Mixes) by Macarize

Find Love, the first track on the EP, is a high energy track, featuring more of that vocoded voice of mine. I've always loved tracks that can maintain that volume-knob-to-eleven power consistently throughout the song, and Find Love is exactly that track for me. The massive chords and that rising saw make this track an absolute club bomb. Fun fact: the shaker loop in the track is actually a high pitched snare. I accidentally stumbled across the rhythm by using Ableton's Beat Warp setting! Very neat.

Painful Smile, the second track on the EP, is more dark and complex, but it really delves into different melodies, sounds and chord structures, which I love fiddling around with whenever I produce. I made sure to explore the musical space I had with the track - so the song is abound with FX and unique melodies. My favorite part of Painful Smile is the growling bass drop at the outtro. Look out for it!

The last track on the EP, Shanghai Lights, is my foray into progressive house's slower tempos. The track focuses more on the lighter melodies, while still giving that organic bassline that subtle presence. This track changes chord structures midway to deliver an amazing climax. It's my tribute to the second best skyline in China. (First prize goes to none other than my wonderful home city, Hong Kong!)

So hopefully the preview's got you pumped enough to buy it! You can get it exclusively on Beatport on the 15th of August, and then on iTunes, Amazon, Trackitdown and all the other fine online retail stores on the 29th of August.

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That's right! Another promo - which means that I've got another massive track out. And this time, I mean massive. I present to you We Recommend Records' first ever "special" release, "Waiting For You"! Below are the YouTube and Soundcloud promos WRR has released for your listening enjoyment.

Old followers of my music will recognize this as a recreation of a classic track I made in 2009 called "We're What You've Been Waiting For". Now in order to explain the album I need to talk about the second track first.

The Classic Mix version of Waiting For You has been one of my personal favorites, and I've been belting it out on my mixsets for three years. But strangely, the main synth which drives the track no longer works with Ableton Live 8 (I was still using Live 6 back then). Previous attempts to recreate the synth have been fruitless. But one day I decided to recreate the whole track from scratch, and with some major synth tweaking, magic producer's dust and a shorter name, Waiting For You (Original Mix)  was born!  It is my homage to the track, three years in the making.

Waiting For You spans three years of axisONE production and all of its trademark melodic synthy goodness! Its available on Beatport, iTunes and other music retail stores on the 26th of July! Don't miss it!

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It's time for promo #2! This time featuring my newest three-track EP, "The Night Is Ours EP," out again on We Recommend Records, who have just released a wonderful YouTube and Soundcloud preview. Check it out!

axisONE - The Night Is Ours EP [WRR011] by We Recommend Records

The first track, The Night Is Ours, is meant to be an entirely groove-based dance track. I love working with melodies in different syncopated rhythms, so this tracks really pulls out the stops. The robotic vocals are a first for me too (and yes, they're my vocals)! This track isn't a cookie-cutter axisONE-styled track, but it fits effortlessly in a club or your car stereo. In the end you can still call it Progressive House, and I'm glad for that - Prog House should be as creatively broad as possible. So think of this track as my love letter to Electronic Dance Music and all of its spectacular sub-genres.

The second track, Our Childhood Memories, is a marriage between Progressive House and Trance. I love the subtleties of Progressive House, and the sheer melodic prowess of Trance. I initially started the melody of this track as a four bar loop when I started working on this track. Eventually, those four bars turned into eight, and soon that whole loop found itself morphing into an entirely different melody halfway through the track. It reminds me so vividly of my childhood memories growing up in Hong Kong, so that's where the track name comes from.

The third track is The Night is Ours (Lessov Remix).  When Kevin first heard the track he said the vocals sounded like Daft Punk, which is a pretty cool comparison in my book. Lessov purposefully channels PROFF in this remix and trust me, that rolling bassline is boss. Most of the melodies remain relatively intact, but with Lessov's take crafts them into a solid gem. My favorite part of the track is a piano solo at the end of the chorus, which blows me away every time I hear it.

This monster of an EP will be out on the 7th of June exclusively on Beatport, and out on iTunes and other music retail stores on the 21st of June! So mark your calendars!

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Yesterday I had the pleasure of being part of Pure.FM's first official global event, On the Air with We Recommend Records! I played the penultimate set in a 12-hour monster event with other talented progressive house artists on the We Recommend Records label. Needless to say I had a blast - I made sure the set included a lot of new material, rare tracks and a great piano intro to a song I hold dear to me.

If you missed the event, no worries - I've uploaded the whole mixset onto Soundcloud for you to download and listen to your heart's content.

axisONE - Pure.FM Guestmix [FREE DOWNLOAD] by axisONE Sets

You can also find the guestmix on mixcloud:

axisONE Pure.Fm Guestmix (On The Air With We Recommend Records) by Axisone on Mixcloud

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Big news! The preview for my new two track EP, "Everything To Me / Hexa EP" is out on YouTube and Soundcloud!

  AxisONE - Everything To Me / Hexa EP [WRR006] by We Recommend Records

The first track, Everything To Me, is a melodic track, very much within the trademark "axisONE" style you hear from me, and is meant to be an uplifting, emotionally-charged progressive house song.

The second track, Hexa, is a dark and hard-hitting counterpart to the EP, and the track focuses on buildup and drops, each one outdoing the other. It's stylistically ambiguous, structurally ridiculous, and it's definitely one of the more experimental tracks I've produced.

Expect it to be out on Beatport exclusively on the 29th of March, and on iTunes and other online music retail stores on the 12th of April!

(Amazing how this is my first serious official-type blog post. I've come a long way from a ROT13 confessional.)

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Hi!

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Don't expect any new updates.

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Yes. few things updated:

1. Updated www.axisonemusic.com with a new color scheme, About page, and icon shiznits. And a welcome message. Hopefully flavors.me adds new awesome features to use and abuse.
   
2. New songs coming up in the future. But then again, there's always new songs. Free ones and Beatporty ones, possibly. Mainly free because I love you like that.
   
3. ALBUM RUMORS LULZ

That is all you guys.

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I have created a new blog thing so that I can look socially relevant.

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