Domino Grey Reviewers Thoughts and assorted Quotes of all Sorts

Back in the Black

The perfect girl for DJ Moodswyng based on listening to the album Back in the Black…

***yes, he included this pic***

“a smarmy hipster chic who either smokes, weed, cigarettes or cigars, drinks moderately/socially…wine and some Jack D, total cerebral type. We get at it with red and black lites with a strobe set to look like lightning while the album rocks loudly around us and she TOTALLY GETS THE MUSIC.”

– – DJ MoodSwyng

“We Can go Dancing”

“This is a solid track, and I think it’s perfect for a club setting…you’re talented at what you do, so keep it up!”

– – A&R Blog

“Just Look at Me”

“Love this Track great Job!!!!!

Send me a copy of this track … and I will put it in the mix on my show.”

– – Scott Bowdoin DJ and on air Talent and Producer of Digital Response – http://www.insoulwetrust.com

“My Heart Never Skips a Beat” Remix EP by Dynamics Plus featuring DJ MIKI

DJ Miki My Heart Never Skips a Beat

Domino Grey “My Heart Never Skips a Beat” Remix EP by Dynamics Plus featuring DJ MIKI:

“The track sounds slick and professional. DJ Miki’s vocals are spot on, the production is likewise and the whole atmosphere just feels right. It’s very apparent that you know what you’re doing and doing it very well. There’s a big market for this sort of music and I think you have what it takes to make it big. I wish you lots of success and hope you’ll continue doing what you’re doing.”

— Aaron More StarsUncharted.com

“You’re My Addiction” [Featuring Stephanie kay and Shea the Doll Lizette]

“Hi Domino great song and sounds very catchy … I will keep it on file for the future.”

– -thanks Andy Lee LTI

Domino Grey – Electronic Music Review: Primal Themes and the Beating of Wings

“Primal Themes and the Beating of Wings” is an electronica/dance track by popular New York/Long Island artist Domino Grey taken from his “Butterfly Affect Part 1: Facial Recognition Technology” release. In the vein of artists like Underworld, Juno Reactor, Chemical Brothers, Sphongle, and the Orb, Domino Grey has no trouble at all encouraging the dance impulse, but it’s the self-reflective, thoughtful impulse that he has just as strong a gaze towards.

You can break it down as follows:

“D.O.M.I.N.O. Dance Or Move In Natural Order

G.R.E.Y. Generate Rhythmic Energy Yourself”

“Primal Themes and the Beating of Wings” starts off with some very hypnotic trance samples, reminding me of the moods created in Araabmuzik’s latest release. Domino continues elevating the energy by incorporating new textures, and the beat remains consistent and dependable. This is music to walk to and contemplate your next move in life, to work to (as I am today), or to simple sink deep into with your good headphones on. It could even lend itself to meditation. Domino Grey’s music does an excellent job of coaxing the subconscious mind into action. He brings psychedelia and ethereal exploration into the club world.

This is highly recommended music for any dance/electronica/trance music fans.

Original Source: http://www.independentmusicpromotions.com/2012/03/28/primal-themes-beating-wings-domino-grey-electronic-music-review/

Available now on any site where digital music is sold.  iTunes

More about Domino Grey

Centri featuring Skyzoo – RhymeGlue produced by Dynamics Plus

 Off of his upcoming Rise of a Veteran mixtape, Centri unites with Skyzoo and reinvents the concept of a hook over production from Dynamics Plus.

Centri ft. Skyzoo – RhymeGlue produced by Dynamics Plus

About a year ago, I produced a bunch of tracks off the Article 15 album from fellow Lenzmen Centri. Since then he’s been running around, traveling and meeting up with other emcees and also started featuring other rappers on his songs. Every once and a while I hear that someone else is on board and it seems like cats is really getting behind his mission. Now the thing about Centri (that I endlessly make fun of) is the fact that he’s a One-Man-Army like he done had too much super-soldier serum. When he goes in, he goes in…all in and so it’s almost no surprise when I see videos of him performing over my unreleased tracks and unfinished beats like nothing.

He mentions that he’s working on a collabo with Skyzoo. Cool. I got up on Skyzoo at a few iStandard events so I’m thinking Yeah, I can imagine them cooking up something kinda crazy. Next he tells me that it’s done and says “By the way Skyzoo picked one of your beats”. Nice, but they happened to pick a track from my Fallout Shelter instrumental album and so I had to replace it and strip down the track to create space for rhymes.  If you listen to the ending you can hear me playing the Jamisen <think Shamisen, a Japanese guitar> and I had a bridge and additional solos before the track was opened up.

The track was mixed by Big Earth and you catch it on Centri’s Rise of a Veteran. Right now he has it for free download on his Bandcamp site here. You can catch more on Centri by visiting his website here and check out his previous album Article 15: The Rebel Knowledge Story here.

Rapper’s Delite has a blog blast about this single too!

After the military Centri built up a name for himself in underground hip hop circles joining the abstract crew, ’The Lenzmen’ and debuting on ’The Persecution of Hip Hop’ compilation album back in 1998 along side Cannibal Ox, Slug, etc. He recently dropped a military inspired album titled ’Article 15: The Rebel Knowledge Story’ on 11.11.11. Veteran’s Day in preparation for his next project ‘Headless Nobody’ which features Akir, Blaq Poet, Sha Stimuli, Planet Asia and more.

Number One Music is a scam

Try to keep your music ambitions based in reality

As an independent artist and label owner, I’m always looking for new avenues to share/promote/push my music, I am always keen on using various profile sites to spread the word. Years ago, I joined NumberOneMusic and created a profile. I also registered at LastFM, DMusic and iSound all around the same time so NumberOneMusic was pretty much lost in the shuffle. At that point, I think MySpace was the big site for musicians looking to gain fans and attention. I made a little bit of noise on LastFM, but noticed a sudden spike of activity on NumberOneMusic.

I started getting TONS of FANS every day. I also got a huge amount of comments and people sharing their email addresses with me. Nice! The only thing that concerned me is that my music was pretty much ‘underground’ and really shouldn’t be getting this much love from the masses. I may have been a dreamer back then, but I was also self-aware enough to know I made niche music.

I started to doubt my results when I didn’t see any traffic leaving the site to follow my links. I figured the people on NumberOneMusic STAYED on NumberOneMusic and didn’t migrate off site- even to follow an artist they are supposed to be a die-hard fan of.

Fast forward to 2010. I kept hearing about ReverbNation and decided to join up. Reverb has a section to link all your social networking sites- so I Googled myself to find all the hubs and drop them in one place. I found my NumberOneMusic profile and signed back in. I checked out my account. I found the first hints of a scam in progress, but didn’t think it could be true.

1. I saw that I had about 2,000 fan email addresses. Pretty much all of them were gathered during my free trial period and almost none after. I thought, maybe when you join, you get put on the front page so your exposure is greater.

2. I saw tons of music plays for that period and also a complete drop off after my trial ended. I figured they weren’t showing my profile on their genre-specific pages so I’m the one that’s lost in the shuffle now.

3. I paid around $15 bucks to reactivate my account for a month in order to get access to those email addresses. By then, I had my own newsletter service (the somewhat pricey Constant Contact) and wanted to export them to my own data bank. I did.

4. Upon reactivation, the attention exploded again: tons of emails, comments and attention. Wow. It seemed too good to be true. I checked out all the genre pages and didn’t see my stuff listed. I checked the front page…nope. I wondered how the hell everyone knew I was back to being active on their site again.

5. In a rash move, I signed up for six months (about $69.00USD). At this time I was doing other social networking campaigns so NumberOneMusic didn’t stick out in my mind so much. It was bothering me that all the other pitches had less activity, but you could trace the trail of bread crumbs back to my promotional campaign. I decided to look into NumberOneMusic more closely.

6. I sent an email blast to my new NumberOneMusic email list and checked the results. It was 80% bounced (no person or active email account at the other end) 18% SPAM and 2% who knows. I thought that was weird. Why would you sign up as a fan and suddenly go cold? Something smells fishy in Demark (Russia more like, but hold on a second).

7. After doing some web searches about their company, I found an address for an empty suite in Manhattan New York registered under the same Russian names listed as programmers on their site. I checked into their accounting and they were using 2CO (A business like Paypal so you understand), which I also use for some of my business transactions. I called and 2CO listed them as a new account so it seems every few months they switch money handlers. I’m not sure who they are with now, but their jumping around is not a good sign.

8. I did a plain Google search for reviews and feedback and found TONS of musicians echoing my experience. I would love to live off the hope that there is some chance that, oh 100s of musicians are wrong and I’m really a brilliant artist on this one website and I should keep u$ing it.

9. I sent NumberOneMusic a long letter explaining my concerns and wanted a refund for the six months. In 1 hour they deleted my account (never mind the 1 month trial that I was still in) and any reference to my artist name on their site. Ouch.

The reason this is all coming up now, is that on my ReverbNation site, which gets descent activity, has shown a spike in fan comments. Those comments are glowing and suggest that I use NumberOneMusic for more exposure. Wow. Here we go again. So apparently NumberOneMusic is up to their old tricks again. Musicians beware.

Let’s talk seriously and answer a few questions before you ask them.

How Good Are You?

As a musician you need to have a sobering view of your own music and understand your genre and fan base and the reality of how well your music is likely to be received. If you are out of touch with the world at large and choose to live inside your own head, where you are brilliant and talented and the rest of the world is just too dumb to realize your genius, I don’t know what to say.

How Should I Rate My Music and Potential?

This is an ongoing process that is reflected by other people’s reaction to your music. There must be SOME SORT of reaction you hoped to elicit- from joyous frolicking to thoughtful beard scratching to solemn brooding. The question is: does your music cause that? That’s the only gauge you need.

How Do I Get More Meaningful Fans?

Meaningful is the question since anyone can amass the things that ‘fans do’ without having actual fans doing it. That means LIKES on Facebook, friends on MySpace or followers on Twitter. All those stats and numbers sound great, but in reality you want SUPPORTERS, not fans. You want to attract people that HELP your music move forward. This is achieved by sharing an experience to create an experience.

I don’t lean on terms like ‘enjoy’ or ‘Good Music’ since it doesn’t really make a difference in the overall scheme of things. You want to foster a connection between your music and the people listening to it. Either they ‘feel it’ or they don’t. Either you put your feelings into your music or you don’t. I know many musicians/producers who hope to create a personal impression by using an impersonal technical approach. You can’t argue someone into liking a song, but you can aggressively share your music- as opposed to waiting to be discovered. That’s the side of the MUSIC Business most artists want to pretend doesn’t exist- or that they don’t need to worry about. Let the label handle that stuff.

This is how scam sites like NumberOneMusic.com stay in business. They prey on your inflated ego and know that you want to create an entire career off the merit of how good your artistry is. The real world doesn’t work that way. Never has and never will. In these times, flattery will still get you everywhere and the quickest way to an artists pocket is to tell them they are going to be a star. Number One Music is using bots, clever programming and cheap hired help to tell you that you are great. Don’t fall for it. Its okay (and even sensible) to pay for exposure. Among millions of artists, the difference between Musician A and Musician B might be the difference of who is the most $erious.

This means you are willing to INVEST in yourself. Just be aware that every penny spent, is not a penny sent wisely. Earn your accolades by truly being talented and expressing your creativity. Find out by sharing yourself with potential fans. Do your shows, make your appearances, hand out your CDs and talk to the people you encounter. Become who you hope to be and live an artistic life. Don’t hide behind a computer screen and bank on a viable career being something you can download.

Let the internet be a reflection of what you have accomplished in the real world. Count your fans as the number of people who have been inspired by you- to support your aims and goals as an artist.

Lastly, don’t be confused by a few “success” stories. Not everything is black or white. Many of these sites that sell beats or offer tons of exposure for cheap offer some true avenues for minimal success. If they can fool you, why can’t they fool someone who wants to use the service for legitimate reasons? Test your results and motivate you “fans” into action. If you can do that; you have an engine worth using.

Last thoughts are from the wise Griffin Avid:

Promotion is active.
Sharing is inactive.
Promoting means you are doing something MANY TIMES.
Sharing is doing something once.

Promotion means I have to say no to avoid your pitch.
Sharing means I have to say yes to hear your pitch.

Promotion = Click to Close
Sharing = Click to open

A true sales pitch is concerned with presenting the AD in front of an interested audience. You want some sort of filter. You want traffic that makes sense, not just numbers.
That’s why certain commercials come on at certain times, during certain shows. And the same company has different commercials for the same product. You (if you’re serious) would need to understand this and apply it to your own attempts.

It’s not easy to corral traffic, or basically create/develop a customer/subscriber list. Anyone who has done it monetizes or controls what their base sees. So you are never able to randomly pitch to them. So, you have to contact that blog owner, get in touch with that DJ/host, join or somehow reach out to the people that matter.

Ask yourself the serious question: Am I going after props or profit? Am I chasing Dreams or Dollars? Am I looking to be COMPENSATED for my artistry or looking for a short-cut? I say: if it’s easy to do, it probably aint worth doing.

Stay smart and productive.

UPDATE APRIL 2017 

And they are STILL up their old tricks, unless you believe this is a real person. And N1M is Soooo popular that ONLY on reverb nation do anonymous N1M members ask you to sign up for their service weekly, like clockwork. I guess their email server spams on Thursdays. Ask yourself. Why would ANY FAN of Music on N1M run around asking random artists to join? People (most likely their reps) often pop on my blog, insult me and say I’m a loser for missing out by not signing up. lol

————-

 

Long as we’re here, check out another post with some swarmy sites and You Tube stuck in the middle.

The Thing [from Another World] Movie Review 1951, 1982, 2011

After reading all the lackluster reviews for the updated The Thing movie, I passed on the theatrical release and figure I’d wait for the DVD rental. Before picking up on the re-imaging, I thought it might be wise to watch the original 1951 Howard Hawking version along with John Carpenter’s The Thing 1982 update.

The Thing from another World (1951)

I remember this B&W classic from my childhood and being creeped out by the huge humanoid monster stalking through the hallways like an unstoppable Juggernaut. You didn’t need special effects or sophisticated graphics to turn a man into an alien beast. Giant hands and a helmet, along with good physical acting, was enough to convince anyone back then.

Watching the dialogue now reminds me of the different deliveries and sense of timing actors used in those early days of cinema. The rapid fire speeches gave a sense of military formality, efficiency and added a rushed importance to every line. We have the classic commander who is respectfully chided by his men and who is in full command, but also willing to listen to solid ideas from the men under him. He comes off as not knowing everything, but still being the smartest. Yes, they chose a military officer who uses common sense.

The scientist is still the early cliché of wanting knowledge of the unknown and is willing to sacrifice everything – including human life to get it.  To his un-cowardly credit, he is willing to trade his own life in exchange for furthering our understanding of the universe. Of course, he does an ill-advised, morally questionable experiment that does give us our only look into the habits of the monster. In this case, the alien visitor is a humanoid beast that has apparently evolved from plant life and feeds on blood. The sled dogs are fodder and food and have little involvement with the creature besides attacking the intruder early on.

This is a great movie that stands as a perfect example of our early paranoia about alien visitors and invasions. It ends with the memorable line “Keep Watching the Skies”.

The Thing 1982

John Carpenter takes the basic concept and updates the science while keeping the atmosphere intact. He takes environmental factors like the cold and isolation and turns them into major plot points. He uses a research station as the backdrop and assembles regular men to go up against the threat from outer space. The monster has been turned up a few notches too. The original was a menacing brute and this version pits the humans against a shape-shifting alien that can impersonate any living organism it comes in to contact with. Assimilation after annihilation. Our paranoia over space invasions has been replaced with paranoia over who you can trust as it isn’t clear who is friend and who is foe- who you can turn to and who’s been turned.

We still have the alien saucer under the ice as the initial point of contact, but even that idea is pushed further as the alien tries to build another ship using spare parts from around the base in order to make his escape. The original alien was pretty smart for cutting the power, but this guy is really sharp (no pun intended). The surrounding cast is composed of well crafted characters and the main protagonist is the helicopter pilot J.R MacReady played by Kurt Russel. The movie has more of a singular focus as we mostly follow MacReady and learn as he learns. Like the best of horror movies, our characters are placed in a near hopeless situation and it’s only their spirit and willingness to live that keeps them going. If the original ended with the line Watch the Skies, this one should end with “watch the man next to you”. This is one of the few times where a remake does justice to the source material.

The Thing 2011

The newest version is listed as a prequel and although the events of this film bring us within a few hours of the 1982 John Carpenter classic, it still feels like a modern translation since several key scenes are recreated. I’m not sure why director Matthijis van Heijningen Jr would choose to helm this movie as his first big release. It wasn’t as though the 82 version was dated or The Thing represents some sort of big money franchise that needed to be restarted or reinvigorated like Star Trek.

Most modern horror flicks reply on jump gags where there’s a meaningless, but sudden action meant to deliver a quick jolt of fear. It’s the old cat jumping out of the cupboard and unfortunately that’s the engine behind this movie. It lacks the hard science and joy of discovery from the first movie and misses the ‘who can I trust?’ paranoia of the second. There is a good attempt to recreate that tension, but it falls flat since all the characters are fairly generic. It’s pretty much a few random Americans and a bunch of crazy Norwegians. When you compare this cast with stand-out characters from John Carpenter’s take, you’ll quickly realize why the deaths are meaningless. The writers Eric Heisserer, John W. Campbell Jr. never gave us any personalities to connect with. The main character, a Kate Lloyd played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead does a fine job as the one sensible character. It’s obvious from the beginning that she deserves to live and everyone else deserves to die for being so stupid.

The 1982 Thing did its best to show us a monster that was doing things on-screen that we had never seen before- from growing heads – to assimilating dogs- to, damn, just being gross and scary. The monster in this affair is a multi-lobster-limbed crawler and, I must admit, quite formidable. It copies the big punch-line or becoming a grotesque merging of all the victims it’s absorbed, but in this case, it looks kinda silly. When you finally get the payoff of seeing a version of the monster in full light, it’s a little disappointing and honestly, non-scary. Still, it does better to deliver the chills than the current crop of disposable horror-flicks Hollywood has been churning out in recent years.

In the original movie, it’s science verse the military when the army men want to destroy the dangerous alien and the mad scientist wants to be friends and preserve the monster at all costs. And although that was the same foolish opinion held by the upper branches of the military, it didn’t seem so sinister. The 1982 film simply stands us up against a monster we don’t understand and survival is the only goal. The 2011 thing brings us another dumb scientist, but you could argue that his interest also lie in a quest for personal glory. “We May lose this find” yes, he has a personal interest and is in it for his own immortality and legacy.

The music/soundtrack borrows or pays homage to the 1982 score by Ennio Morricone. Those two ominous tones drop at the very start and at the end of the movie. It makes for a nice wrapper. Speaking of endings, 1982 left us with two characters staring at each other with complete distrust. This is an amazing stalemate and a good way to end a classic. This movie, in perfect step with the younger generation, cannot leave anything to the imagination and we get a big impact. Yeah, I must admit this is a welcome twist.

Overall, I consider the 2011 The Thing to be a good movie. It’s worth seeing if you’re a fan of the original and the 1982 revisit. The original was a statement of our time and left a marker that exposed how we felt about first contacts. The second was a statement about the human condition and what it would take to break down the bonds that hold us together as a species. This third version details who we are in 2011 and beyond. Simply put: we are creatures that seem capable of holding on to every memory and experience while we refuse to let anything with $entimental value go. Once, we had a disposable culture, but now we have one of recycling: it’s all old- fashion, phrases, influences and ideas. The big question for every revisit or re-imaging is what are you going to add? Are you going to give us useful background information? Are you going to develop a beloved character more? Are you fixing technical flaws or enhancing an experience? The problem I have with most rehashes is that the priority lies in bringing us the memorable moments while forgetting to include the WHY as far as why we chose to hang on to those moments to begin with. I think I’m going to watch the 1982 version again. Thank you John Carpenter for including the why.

I am not a movie critic. I am merely critiquing a movie.