akirali

Around 2000 I was in college with my best friend (Ricochet) and we were both taking audio production classes in hopes of being able to produce our own albums and eventually "make it" in the industry as artists and producers. Around this same time, my cousin (Rez) converted his very large bedroom into a studio, which he named The Relik's Tower.

Long story short, we decided to kill two birds with one stone and combine our efforts as a fledgling group (The R*E*F*) with our assignments and produce a demo EP of sorts, and some of the tracks could be turned in projects.

Why am I posting this? Because I listened to the entire album for the first time in years today and wanted to share it with people. The mastering is non-existant. The editing is pretty bad. The beats are mostly sub-par. But for what it is, I like it. And I'm proud of my first recorded effort ever.

My cousin & I split production duties but I listed myself as the Executive Producer because once I had all the tracks, I made some more changes and re-edited some tracks.

Because I know people don't like to d/l a lot of files in these days of streaming
music, here's 4 of the tracks via a MySpace page I just created for them:
http://www.myspace.com/relikstower

Intro
Produced by Akira
Bass by Rez
Just an intro to let people know which voice was which and what each individual was like.

Anime, Beats & Porn
Produced by Akira
One of the first beats I ever produced (thanks Mixman software!). I hated it because the stabs didn't hit the way I wanted them to (Mixman sucked at synching up individual music stabs as it just allowed you to manipulate set samples). But Rico and Rez loved the track. So much so that they wanted to make it the title track. I have a long history of hating my beats that others love and vice verse.

Red Pill
Produced by Akira
My first solo track. I LOVED that vocal sample and the rest of the beat kinda fell into place behind it. Lyrically it's not my best effort, but, it was my conscious attempt at aping Ghostface & RZA's style on "Can't Go To Sleep" (hence the awkwardly forced voice cracking)

Soul Penetration
Produced by Rez
Additional manipulation: Akira
This was a short simple track that we wanted to throw on there. It was my cousin's solo track and we decided to do some funky stuff with it. I fully admit to being way too influenced by the Revolver-era Beatles on this track. But I think it helped spice up what would've just been "another" song. For the full effect, check it out with headphones on.

Brody's Lament
Produced by Akira
Yeah, I listened to "Workers Needed" by Company Flow one time too many before I made this. To this day, I have made no less than 5 "sample collages" like this. This is my first and it's very raw and sloppy in places. Still it has a nice charm to it. And yeah, I over scratched like hell on here. ops:

R*E*F*fortlessly
Produced by Rez
To this day, I still think this is the best track that The R*E*F* ever appeared on as a full group. And the beat is the reason Rez handled most of our beat production responsibilities. Back in the day, he was our best producer, hands-down. Now I think Rico and I have at least caught up with him, if not surpassed him.

We Got It f/ Klotz's Krew
Produced by Akira, Ricochet, Arbell Cameron, Jeremy Ryder, Jack Klotz & Others.
This was our production class' final project one year. Everyone wanted to do a rap song with some pop elements, so Rico and I stepped up with the concept and lyrics. Our classmate Jeremy laid down the live drumtrack, another classmate (whose name escapes me right now) laid down the bassline and the reggae sounding verse at the end. Our prof. Jack Klotz (one of the coolest teachers I have ever had in my entire life) laid down the guitar track. And last but not least Arbell Cameron (who would go on to be in another group with me later on) provided the vocals (yes the melody is from another song, but we didn't care). The rest of the class did the equipment schlepping, the recording, and mixing, but final mixdown and edit was left to Arbell, Jack and myself. No it's not mastered (like the rest of this EP) because that was going to be on our plates next semester. The fact that both Rico and myself came up with punchlines that our non-rap listening professor both "got" and liked was a sense of pride for a while.

Spoon
Produced by Rez
Another "throwaway" track. We created it almost to give a feel like it was culled from a longer song and just cut together as a sampler track, But this was the whole thing. And in spite of the title of the track, that *ding* is not a spoon. It is Rico's knife hitting Rez's shuriken. We just loved the sound it made.

A Few Good Emcees
Produced by Rez & Rico
Yes, we are goofy. Yes, we love movies. Yes this is lame. But it was fun at the time. That loud sound and talking at the end is me slamming the headphones down onto the music stand and walking away from the mic and Rez and Rico cheer because I think I was on my 20th take of reading that goddamned speech.

So, there you have it. Roughly a year of the lives of me and two of my closest friends. It's not pretty, but it was fun to reminisce about. I hope you enjoyed this little unrequested memoir as much as I enjoyed writing it.