Music and Religion

I'm a huge fan of Disturbed ever since I was first year high school. I've been listening to them starting from their The Sickness album to The Lost Children. They are currently on a hiatus mode but I will patiently wait for their next album. Anyway, this post is about musicians' point-of-view to religion.

Photo courtesy of Ted Van Pelt.

Disturbed's second album is controversial. The symbol that you can see in the photo above makes the album controversial. The name of the album is Believe and its front cover has that symbol printed on it. Naive people thought that the symbol is somewhat Satanic. Well, I would love to tell you it's not and it even have a wonderful meaning. In a live performance video, starting at 1:53, Draiman explained:

1. "It is a symbol of universal belief"

2. "You have the Cross standing for Catholicism and Christianity"

3. "The Star of David standing for Judaism"

4. "The Pentacle standing for Paganism and Wicca"

5. "That is not a Pentagram!"

6. "We do not acknowledge the existence of Satan in the first place"

7. "The final addition to the symbol is the Crescent Moon of Islam"

I agree with Draiman. Is it not bothering you that religions are there to harmonize mankind yet they even create boundaries and disconnects? I'm proud to say that I really don't care about other's religion. As long as you are nice and you care for others, that alone is a good religion. To wrap it all, I'll say

"Love is my Religion"

that is the title of a song from Ziggy Marley, a Grammy Award winning artist and son of the legendary Bob Marley. Love encompasses almost any religion. I guess.

New EP from Koan Sound and Asa

Photo Courtesy of Koan Sound and Asa

July 30, 2013 when I posted about Koan Sound having a new EP. Well, guess what? They will be releasing it on the 22^nd of October. That's what they posted in their Facebook page. Yuhoo! I'm so excited for this one!

Me and Electronic Dance Music

I'm really a fan of music. It was high school when I first realized that I am so into music. I listen to different genres and different generations of music. I really don't know about the generations of music but in my own observations it seem that music evolves pretty much every decade. Just like in the early 2010's there's this new era of music called as Electronic Dance Music. It's really hard to describe and classify the variations of EDM but below are the producers who made tracks that captivated me.

1. Skrillex - A Grammy Award winning Record Producer who made Electronic Dance Music to a whole new level. I'm pretty much aware that he is bashed on the Web but I still like his records no matter what. Maybe it's because we have the same orientation. He first loved Metal music when he were younger then eventually moved his interests to EDM. Absolutely, almost the same with my situation.
   

   

   Image Courtesy of Sonny Moore a.k.a. Skrillex

   I like almost all of the tracks produced by Skrillex but my handpicked favorites are in my SoundCloud set called The Best of Skrillex.
   
2. Zomboy - A Record Producer who admitted that he was inspired by Skrillex but then eventually he earned the respect of the EDM industry. If you enlist his tracks together with the tracks from Skrillex, maybe you won't be able to distinguish who among the two recorded the track currently playing. Their records are really somewhat alike.

   

   Image Courtesy of Joshua Jenkins a.k.a. Zomboy

   I also like almost all of the tracks produced by Zomboy but what I love the most are those from his EP's. The tracks can be found in my SoundCloud set called The Best of Zomboy.
   
3. Koan Sound - A Dou who produce EDM records. What I love about their records is about the concept of relaxation with groove.
   

   

   Image Courtesy of Koan Sound

   Here's what I want you to do, put yourself into a state of relaxation (preferably, lying down) then play the tracks from Koan Sound with just a reasonable calm volume. Their tracks can also be played in my SoundCloud set called The Best of Koan Sound.
   
4. Madeon - A 19-year-old Record Producer who was able to make wonderful tracks. Even though he is so much younger than me, he already gained a great respect from me.

   

   Image Courtesy of Hugo Pierre Leclercq a.k.a. Madeon

   He had made many remixes of tracks but what I like the most are his original works. You can hear my favorite Madeon tracks in my SoundCloud set called The Best of Madeon.
   
5. Killbot - A group of three Record Producers who called themselves Killbot. Their music is somewhat an infused product from Metal music and EDM. Just like what I've said earlier, I also love Metal music. Killbot's genre really sit in between Metal and EDM. That's why I love their tracks.

   

   Image Courtesy of Killbot

   Currently, Killbot have a single EP only. Sadly, they didn't publish their tracks in SoundCloud so I was not able to create my own set for them, anyway you can still hear their track samples in Beatport.
   

I listen to EDM tracks usually when I'm with my earphones on the way to the school or with my headphones doing software developments.