Hey everyone!

My latest track, Reveries, has been released on Novatone’s SoundCloud and Bandcamp as part of Obscure Genre Challenge V! Check it out! Also, do yourself a favor and check out the other artists who released on this; a lot of them are super talented (and now I may be a fan of Minatory, which I hadn’t heard of until today…)

https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/c93Rm67GwN2zXyjb9

P.S. I also got to the bottom of the share link not working for my Discord. Apparently I had a setting activated that killed the link after a week. It should work now following the link below, permanently; please let me know if you have issues joining!

https://discord.gg/UEwVpXKJQb

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let you know I’m busy and will be sharing some pieces of WIPs I’m working on before the year closes out. I’ve also created an industrial techno tune for Novatone’s Obscure Genre Challenge that (hopefully) will be released on their compilation. And, yes, still working on the EP (looking more like an LP now).

That’s all for now! Have a Merry Christmas, happy holiday, and Happy New Year!

P.S. I was told the Discord server link wasn’t functioning. Here it is, (should be) fixed:

https://discord.gg/Q2jg7Vj2

Hi there everyone!

I have a Discord now, come join:

https://discord.gg/P9ggZKdk

My Discord is basically just a hangout at the moment, but, depending on how much traction I get, I may invest in upgrading it. Come join and stay up-to-date on the latest!

I’ve also put my first two NFTs up for auction: one for the Sakupen Hell Yes remix, and one for Reflections. 100 shares each at .002 ETH (roughly $7-$8 USD at the time of this post)! Just a reminder that the proceeds go towards supporting my music career and become a personal investment in my future for years to come (yes, that means you succeed with my future success)!

The Bassfly Vault OpenSea NFTs

Hey everyone!

It’s been a little while since I’ve reached out on here. I’ve been extremely busy as of late (what’s new), but I am working on the EP. I’ve got a pretty cool theme, now it’s just a matter of making the music! I’ve got some cool ideas that I’m starting to flesh out, so I’m hoping by 2022 I’ll have some more of it ready.

I’m also planning to start selling listening rights to original copies of my old songs as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), as well as provide regular sketches of the EP, and eventually early limited listening access to songs that I produce! Just to note: these NFTs are like buying an investment and appreciate with time. The original proceeds go to supporting my music career, but eventually you can sell these like any other investment (or collect them, where they become more valuable with time). I believe there’s also future royalties that come into play, but I’m still learning how all of this works. More to come on this soon!

-Bassfly

Hey Fellow NGers!

Today is a glorious day: I released my first track in such a long time today. Go listen to Blizzard when you get a chance! And it couldn't come at a better time, as I sit on a beach and sip down on a beermosa! Many thanks to the Skybreak @skybreakedm for helping me make this song the best that it possibly could (he's also super awesome, so I highly recommend hitting him up for commissions when he's available)!

I tried floating it around on a few labels, but it just didn't happen. And that's OK: it is a little rougher than I'd like to make, and it gives me a good goal for the future. I also have yet another track currently in the works that I hope to release later this year that I'm happy how it's turning out, so just stay posted, folks!

In addition, I have finally pinned down a theme for my EP, and will begin working on this with the remainder of the year. I expect it to be darker and more minimal than Blizzard, but every bit as melodic. Expect great things in the next 6-12 mos, everyone!

-Bassfly (Jazzman)

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/Y5mepaa1pDExcZrM6

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Bassfly-Dubstep-106326261638251/

Hello fellow NGers!

I know it’s been a while now. Life has been CRAZY. Between the Texas Snowpacalypse and the birth of my second child, my life has changed in drastic ways very quickly, so thank you for your patience!

The good news is that my project Solstice is finished and will be undergoing critical review soon (reviewed by a very special up-and-coming dubstep artist...I’ll share with you who it is when I release it. ;) ). I’m rebranding it as “Blizzard” because that’s how it sounds to me now. My hope is to get this released over at Rushdown; if it doesn’t stick there, I’ll still give it a release on an official platform.

Besides that, I’ve been rethinking my EP as well. I think the Essence EP kind of died, but will give birth to something even better. I’m tentatively calling it “Broken Wings”, and I’m planning it to be completely different than anything that’s been heard in dubstep or EDM - more experimental and ambient than the boisterous, beautiful and harmonic colour bass or riddim tone that’s been the hallmark of mid-tempo bass music of late. Expect it to take the rest of the year and maybe into the next, but trust me, I will make sure it’s worth the wait (and not 10 years this time)!

I also think I’m going to stick to Bassfly (or Bassfly Dubstep) officially now, by the way. It’s a soft rebrand that gives a better inclination of the kind of music I’m trying to release. Note that I’m not the only Bassfly out there, but it’s OK...you’ll know my tone when you hear it!

Hello fellow NGers! Just a quick update.

I think I’m starting to settle on a sound that I like. I have the better part of 2 songs mapped out, totally opposite of one another; one is more melodic, while the other is more dark and ambient. I’m excited about both and can’t wait to share them with the world! I’m thinking about including them in an EP that I’m going to call “Essence”, which will encapsulate both “Light” and “Dark” essences...I’ll try to think of a more creative title later.

It’s been difficult getting back into this, but there’s a few things I’ve learned:

1. It’s OK to stick to what you know if it works. Example: I know Massive very well. When I came back into it, I saw that Serum had been added to everyone’s arsenal and felt some pressure to add it as well. The problem is, it’s expensive and totally different from what I’m used to. Does it do anything better than Massive? Most definitely, and I may get it someday in the future. But, it’s not necessary to create amazing music, and I hope you’ll see that when I finally release these tracks.
2. It’s OK to use samples (not just drum samples). I’ve always had this notion that using samples makes you unoriginal. However, this stunted my creativity, as there are many cool ways to employ samples. Not only, but many of the samples available come pre-mixed and pre-mastered, so getting them to fit into the mix isn't so much of a chore.
3. Don't give up. I used to have a habit of creating an idea and immediately becoming bored with it, so I'd save it as a "Sketch"; there are many examples of this from my catalog from years ago. I never took the time to really develop an idea. Then, I remembered what I did when I entered the NGADM all those years ago: just WRITE. The easiest way to do this is to create a 4-bar motif, then a complimentary 4-bar motif, then use symmetry to vary those two motifs and put a transition cadence within the last bar. Now you have a 16-bar theme that can be used anywhere in your song, and all other instruments should compliment this. Variation is the key and can take time, but it should all tie back to the 16-bar theme you created.

I'm hoping the next announcement I make is my plan for release of these 2 songs. Big things are coming, my friends! All I ask is for a little more patience (which I imagine is in short supply after 10 years).

I was going to hold off on posting this until a little while from now, but I can't help myself because I'm excited.

I feel like I'm in the midst of learning everything all over again - even what's the sound in dubstep right now, since I so heavily went back to progressive metal for so many years. Couple that with re-learning FL Studio, mastering techniques, and synthesis, while balancing it all with my family life, it hasn't been as easy to create as I had originally hoped.

That's not to say I've lost hope, though. I've been listening to this melodic dubstep and color bass stuff from Chime, Ace Aura, and others, and while I find the sound interesting, it isn't as dark as I would like to go with my music. And while I like the heaviness of riddim, I find it too difficult to create character in this space.

I rediscovered minimalists like J:Kenzo, Biome and SP:MC, and what I love about their style is how easy it is to create heavy music with very little. As I've gotten older, I've found that I have an affinity towards it, because its running in the opposite direction of what's mainstream: heavy, huge chords, fill in every last gap and hyper-compress (like I said, not that the mainstream sound is bad...but it doesn't readily lend itself to standing out of a crowd). Moreover, I simply don't have the time to spend 5 hrs mixing down a mid-level bass noise anymore, unless I want to release a song once every 6 months.

So, what does all of this mean? Expect my next tracks to be dark. And by dark, I mean DARK. If it goes according to plan, it will make anything released in 2011 look like a child made it (because it was). Song List #1 is still valid, but I'm believing more and more that it was a stepping stone to arrive at my current list. I'm considering releasing this as a 3 to 4 song EP.

1. Dark Essence - a heavy entrance. Expecting it to sound like the arrival of a mothership, or the antichrist. Take your pick.
2. Dissonance - a punctuated song. I'm picturing heavily detuned sliding saws for this one.
3. Soul Distiller - the most rhythmic and experimental song. I want to play more with the guitar on this one, and take nods from ambient prog metal (think Tool, Karnivool). It's been my dream to created a polyrhythmic dubstep song, so I'm planning to employ hemiola for now, or maybe an odd time signature. We'll see where this goes.

OK, so I FINALLY got FL 20 onto my new machine and was able to access a lot of my old projects - which is good, because the cobwebs run deep with my knowledge of the DAW (not to mention all of the new features that come with it...its like I'm learning it all over again!).

One of the things I remember that made me most productive was having a set deadline; it prevented me from leaning on my perfectionism too heavily, and it gave me boundaries on a project to say, "Good enough." Trust me, this is difficult for an analytical soul such as myself...which is probably also at the root of why I haven't finished any songs in nearly 5-6 years.

In addition, I stumbled across a good video from Virtual Riot where he gives 5 tips for producers. They're very basic tips, but I think they're things I needed to hear right now. In it, he recommends having a theme and purpose for all your songs, ideally starting with your song name. Duh! It sounds so basic, but I honestly got so lost in trying to mimic the bass sounds of others that I forgot that a song has to have a SOUL! I mean, why do y'all like Iron God, other than the fact that it's been complicit in an Npesta meme or is the main theme for Kenos/Sakupen Hell in Geometry Dash? It has a voice, it takes you somewhere: to some futuristic battle between two behemoth robots (which is literally what it was, and you can see in the video it was intended for).

I know this is verbose, but all of this is to say two things: I'm developing a starting list here and now of the projects that I intend to complete by the end of the year. I have names developed for them that will stem as the master inspiration for the sound; in fact, I can hear the main themes in my brain, I just have to get them captured. And it's going to be public so that I feel more pressure to create and finish.

Without further ado, here it is:

1. Gut Punch - consider this a "welcome back". For a while, the song I've been trying to create is so cerebral, ambient and contemplative, it just got boring. So I need to go back to what I know, just to know I can do it (which isn't a bad thing). I'm going to strip down my Hypothesis project and make something nice with it. It's going to be a riddim track that just kicks ass, so I hope y'all enjoy it when it's finally done.
2. Peril: Andromeda - it's an idea with a space theme that's been floating in my head for years. It has a similar vibe to a song I heard on the Galaga remake for Playstation 1, with this super deep, dark and cinematic techno vibe. I want to take that and modernize it a bit while also expanding on my other Peril works.
3. Monolith - some ambient dark thing with a Halo vibe. I love the music from Halo.
4. Entanglement - I did a ton of research on particle and theoretical physics for a prog fantasy book idea I had. I have an ambient theme kind of playing in my head with this one. This will be the hardest one to make, as I want to tackle the polyrythmic sound that Tesseract created in One and combine that with dubstep. If it works out, I may make a full conceptual EP based on this song, complete with guitar and vocals. But that's for 2021, folks!

That's all for now. Time to get to creating!

10 years....Fuck. That's a long time to be gone. I cannot believe what's happened since then. Life and maturity are factors, but it's good to be back in some capacity. Let's address some things first:

1. I left this community due to plagiarism. I tried to reinvent myself as "Bassfly", which I feel was a misstep. After all, I had many followers who love the Jazzman stuff, so why change that? Jazzman is returning for the foreseeable future.
2. I miss what this community had to offer. I learned so much here, and got to see peers rise to the household name (xKore and Haywire come to mind). Obviously, these guys are far better producers than I ever was or will be, but it was fun being in their orbit. I'd love to reclaim that.
3. I've become aware of Sakupen Hell and Kenos in GD. I don't know how to feel about it: honored that my song has achieved such popularity in the gaming realm, or disappointed that that's the song I'm going to be known for. I feel like I'm capable of so much more. This pandemic has given me time to reflect on the possibilities, and I'd love to use the current upward momentum to give y'all a taste of something even better.
4. I plan to create more music in the future. When this will happen is a mystery, but I can't hold it back any longer. I hate being a spectator to any of this, a "has been".

I'll be keeping tabs here. See y'all again soon!