This album is the culmination of a year and a half of inspiration from the raw energy of drums and synths. A lot of slicing vinyl samples to make kits, a lot of classic drum machine samples, a lot of analog synths or analog sampled synths, and a rule of keeping to somewhere around a fast hiphop tempo (85-100bpm) and under 3 minutes length, which at first came naturally then had to be consciously enforced. I was most inspired by Quakers, though there are a lot of 'mixtapes' these days, but that one seduced me totally and entirely to an electronic analog space that was new for me and made me aware of an ingredient i already searched for in electronic music - some degree of rawness, imperfection, improv, ie some human core, inherently imperfect and unpredictable even within the cloak of a DAW and a rhythmic beat.

Often i would just start by exploring a new kit with my triggerfinger and the rest would write itself. In a few cases the synth lines led. A few tracks were made that were eventually scrapped, a new vetting process that could only come with months of slow building. The order the tracks are in on the album are exactly the order i wrote them in, except mandala which was last written but fit better elsewhere.

I asked a number of my friends if they'd like to remix a track of their choice. I assumed most would not come through in the end, but i was wrong and ended up with 6 full remixed tracks. Each is totally different from the next, but somehow together they make a perfect 'side B' to my 10 'side A' compositions. There is even a 7th remix which i am assured constantly is 'almost done' so keep an eye out for a hidden bonus track on future downloads.

After all that there came endless mixing, over and over and over again, until i was happy with my tracks, or really until the mastering session i'd booked came up and I had no choice but to stop tweaking things. The mastering process was a whole other story which developed from a test release I did earlier this year with a friend from Berlin. I found an old studio in Brooklyn with an old timer engineer, better known for his work on indie rock than electronic music, short on words and big on brains and vintage equipment, and who added an immense quality to bring everything together. The moral of that story is: Analog Mastering. i cant praise it enough.

The album is released with a Creative Commons license, meaning both I and the remix artists would like to see this music get copied and shared and spread beyond the abilities of any one person or any one label or market.

To anyone who was around in Beirut in 2008-2011, when OkyDoky first started and developed (a journey taken especially with sary moussa aka RadioKVM), this album is a departure from my early style of breaks and vocoders (and death metal). I have no idea what my next album next will be but it will certainly be different again.