Swimfail - "Vermin"

[Josiah]

(If there's a better place to put this, let me know)

EDIT: Some of the album's songs are now on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3Lybik8shI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc44XUVETfM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOb9ISEUUNw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXK7BxcfIv8

This album has gone almost universally unnoticed wherever it's been posted... despite the few who have listened to it consistently praising its memorable songwriting, heavy and detailed sound, and very polished production value. I feel somewhat uncomfortable praising my own work for promotion's sake, but I do know that I am capable of crafting very good and professional-level music and feel that I have done so to the best of my abilities for this album. Listens and comments a very much appreciated.

Original post:

Right, so I suppose a bit of an introduction is needed for this...
As some of you know, I like to think of myself as a musician-- and hopefully I'm not that delusional about it-- I play most normal 'rock instruments' and sing, and I am a trained recording engineer: Swimfail has been my personal industrial rock/metal/grunge/etc. project for the past four or five years now. "Vermin" is the fourth and final studio album I've created and released independently, and I've finally decided to let the project go and move on.

The album blends heavy industrial rock and metal with catchy melodic hooks, dense layers of samples, live instrumentation and whatever else crawled its way into the mix. I've spent about three months working on it quite steadily and I am utterly drained from the process.

You can grab the album from the music section of Swimfail.com:

Get it here

Hard copies should be available in the future as well.

Cover:


Back:


Insert:


I just felt the need to share this since I've poured so much time and effort into creating it...

~Josiah

[Lady Serpent]

Will certainly give this a listen soon, when the house is kid-free and when my poor 'ead doesn't feel so groggy.

Looking forward to it;
-LS

[Josiah]

Ahh, yeah I hope you feel better soon (or continue to feel better if that's already the case). Certainly not the kind of music to be listened to with a headache.

~Josiah

[Lady Serpent]

Mm, the head's actually been quite fine.  It's the overall dizziness and exaustion that's a tad disorienting at times, but it wasn't too bad tonight.

We did, though, end up getting quite into 'Artificial Intelligence' for the first time tonight.  Quite a unique movie; glad we got the chance to watch it.  (Plus, post-apocalyptic earth is always a strong point of fascination.)

[Josiah]

Oh, I remember seeing that movie awhile back... Can only remember certain parts and the impression that it dragged on quite a lot, but I do remember really enjoying in on the whole. Ministry also had a pretty awesome song and guest appearance in there.

~Josiah

[Hunter]

Have listened through.  Have liked.  Have picked initial favourites.  I'd have to listen through a couple times over a few days to sort through it, but as a first impression...

This being the first I've listened to Swimfail, "Sap" was a strange track to start with.  I didn't expect the rest of the album after it.  Further, I was watching the countdown, and as it neared the end, I thought "Wait, that's it?  But it isn't finished yet!"  Needless to say, I like the track, and there's a sense of regret that it leaves before its time.

The next track to really grab my attention was "Ratty".  Two reasons.  First, one of the sounds in it mimcs the phone in the next room exceedingly well.  Second, the ending.  Love that sort of thing.  I sit through BT's "The Anhtkythera Mechanism" for the same thing.  It also leads into what's currently my favourite track.

Overall, I like.  May be more articulate later on.

[Josiah]

Thanks for the comments!

Yeah, I really wanted the contrast between Sap and the 'real' opener to be quite strong. It is a little misleading on first listen, I suppose, but I think it hit what I was going for. I'm thinking I may re-record that song if I ever do an album of my mellower stuff anyway, so it won't be relegated to something of an intro.

You know, it's funny, I always think I hear the phone in Ratty too, but I've peeled apart that mix a few times and can't find the source of it. I'm assuming it's a couple layers of the song's ambient or sample tracks bleeding over a little farther than they should, or the unedited tail end of a guitar overdub or something screeching off in the background... very strange, but I like the effect: it suits the panicky, 'breaking down' sort of nature of the song.

Ahh, yeah, I went totally crazy with the glitch stuff in the ending to that one too, I love that sort of thing as well. Just making everything sound totally broken and tearing itself apart but still sounding awesome in the process, hehe.

Glad you enjoyed it!

~Josiah

[Josiah]

Bump: You can now watch a ten minute behind-the-scenes "making of" segment detailing the techniques and equipment used to create Vermin:

Part one

Part two



~Josiah