March 12, 2011
by Sean Armstrong
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2011 Sampler – February Update

Here’s the update to my monthly sampler! 2 minutes clips of new music. I have a few downtempo tracks and a bunch of house I worked on in February. So far, none of these are slated for official release and a few of them still need quite a bit of work.

Enjoy!

February 16, 2011
by Sean Armstrong
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Sliptide – Pike (Out on Further Records, March 14th!)

Due to an unforeseen circumstance, the drop date for my debut deep house EP has been pushed to 3/14!! Keep spreading the good word, and expect to find the Beatport links on all of my sites on 3/14!

Here are clips from my debut deep/tech house EP on Further Records!

Release Date: March 14th, 2011
Catalog: [FUR033]

Support:

Estroe “Nice release, Pike is the one for me.”

Norman H (Stripped) “Smooth grooves all the way here played all four at the weekend in the first hour of my set excellent deepness.”

Kasey Taylor (Vapour / eVapour8) “Nice cool techy house here thanks”

Wez Saunders (Endemic Digital) “This is special shizzle!!! Pike & Contours are worthy chart contenders for me … all 4 cuts will get support from me in the very near future. I can see Pike in particular becoming a 2011 fave of mine. Very good stuff, thanks!!”

Amir Abbasi (modifi music) “Great release, Conours and Ninja Figurine are my favorite!”

Xaric (Stripped Digital / Atlant Digital) “Pike & Deeper for me. 2 Great tunes.”

Daniel Mehes “really cool deep and mellow sounds. my two favs are the contours and the Ninja figurine, thnx”

February 13, 2011
by Sean Armstrong
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Sliptide Featured in SoundCloud’s Blog!

Check it out! I was featured in the SoundCloud blog for their article “SoundCloud Local: Seattle”. A small blurb, but still pretty damn cool. =D

“Sliptide
A producer/artist living in Seattle, who primarily works from a down tempo or house influence, but still finds himself experimenting and working in every genre that catches his fancy, whether it be garage rock, trance or hip-hop! He’s a passionate SoundCloud member and is willing to collaborate as well!

soundcloud.com/sliptide

Check out the full article with links to other awesome Seattle bands, artists, and producers here:

http://blog.soundcloud.com/2011/02/10/soundcloud-local-seattle/

February 13, 2011
by Sean Armstrong
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2011 Sampler – January Update

Sean Armstrong – 2011 Sampler – Updated for January by sliptide

This months marks the beginning of a monthly set I will be updating to reflect the works I have either in process or already finished. It will cover everything from downtempo to house and even previews of remixes (pending approval from parties involved).
For January I have a large number of down tempo styled songs with heaps of texture and chill sounds. Thus far, these unsigned tracks are compiled into a set that may end up as an LP indie-released project (I’ll float it to some labels, but if nobody bites it will go indie).

I also re-visited my lust for house music but with a fresh set of ears and a new approach. The result was Pike, Contours, and Clichy, 2 AM. These three songs have had some great responses from fans and peers and I have some big news regarding their future that will be announced soon!

My good friend and co-conspirator in Silver Standard, Jeff Surek, has been working on his own chops for music. He’s been doing his own thing on a semi-regular blog.  His first step into a more danceable category rang well with me and I offered up a chill remix of his track “No, You“.  I’m happy with the song but it needs some work on the mix/EQ.  The release of that track is entirely dependant on what Mr. JSurek wants to do with it, so you’ll just have to sit tight before you can hear the full version.

Good times!

February 13, 2011
by Sean Armstrong
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All Things Considered

This is more of a test post than anything else. I’m re-working my website a little bit to be more accommodating for news releases. While I’ve moved my blogging action over to Tumblr (sliptide.tumblr.com), I still need to have news and pertinent information on the front page of Sliptide.com. That means that I’ve re-instated the use of posts.

For awhile I’ve just had the WordPress running as a zombie site with manually updated pages each time I wanted to showcase material. I’ve decided that I’m going to use posts for news updates and filter out the sticky posts to present on the front page, while still using the footer and template items to display things like my SoundCloud samplers, Flickr photo streams and what have you.

So yea.. Time to get a move on and upgrade my WordPress install and tinker with the code and get this to my liking. I may even get away from Tumblr and go back to using Posterous to duplicate posts across Posterous, Tumblr, and WordPress ^_-

December 31, 2010
by Sean Armstrong
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Winter Update / New Years Eve

You can hear it in the latest music: I’ve succumbed to my downtempo ways and am cranking out songs rife with /*nerd*/ (chill)^100 /*end nerd*/.  As I continue to read everything I can about local music, the west coast electronic music culture, and input all sorts of stuff into my brain by way of my ears, I’m feeling pretty good about opportunities to share my music with the world. I admit, previously (say, 10 years ago), I was very nervous and bashful of the music I made. *I* understood it, *I* loved it, and I had a few people close to me who also made claims of adoring my adventures in sound, yet I found myself continually shying away from broadcasting it to the world that I make music.

To say that “I make music”, though, is an understatement. Ask any of the self-proclaimed musicians, producers, and DJs out there who have a portfolio of tunes available: They will tell you that they eat, sleep, breathe, and are consumed by all things music.

It has taken a lot of encouragement from friends and family, paired with a lot of ‘figuring it out’ on my own that brings me to where I am today.  I feel great about everything I’m doing and I can’t wait for the next few projects to be ready for display.

My wife has been instrumental in keeping me in check as I continually have all of these ideas for projects (some which aren’t music related). I can only do so much that I need to ensure those projects/ideas most important to me are taken care of first.  Having things-to-do on the peripheral is fine and dandy, but if I dick around too much I won’t realize my visions related to my music.

Enough of the introspective crud! (for now)

It’s been a low-key and relaxing holiday. Just in time to build up to a crazy start for 2011. Moving (staying in King County though), music, day job, performances, a big hiking season (hopefully!). To the joys and successes of 2010, I bid you farewell.

On to 2011!

Posted via email from Sean Armstrong (Sliptide)

November 10, 2010
by Sean Armstrong
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Fall is Awesome

Welcome to November, Mr. Armstrong.

10 days in and I feel some of my bones aching from the lack of hiking this year. Not a single trip to Mt. Rainier! On the other hand, quite an epic close to one chapter of my life and an even more legendary start to another; getting married and going to Europe for the honeymoon took such a large chunk of my mental, physical (not to mention economical) resources that I think I’m still in “recovery phase”.

Sidenote: This picture is from my phone while visiting the Microsoft campus in the evening hours. I was bummed that I had forgot the camera at home when I had left for work that morning, but at least I had *something* to grab these with and made the most of it. 

Fall has been filled with delicious home made cappuccinos with Monin Pumpkin Syrup and cinnamon on top. It’s been rife with delicious home made food.  It’s been chill in meeting various folks around the area for fits of hanging out (usually involving some form of tasty beer or coffee).  I’m definitely enjoying the season as we move swiftly into winter.

I’ve been all over the place in musical diet lately.  It’s been a good thing as I’ve had positive results in writing and producing music for the Sliptide side of things. I’m also trying to get ideas down for the new Silver Standard music, plus another entirely different project with another friend of mine that will exude a lot of tribal and industrial feeling.

With everything that I want to accomplish in life it’s hard to keep in mind we have to pick our battles wisely. We can’t be everywhere at once. If you multi-task too much then you aren’t contributing enough to each involvement to be moving forward. It seems that there are only so many things you can be doing at once. While I’ve become better at having more on my plate, there are times that require me to have less going on so I can dedicate myself to important tasks.  I digress.

I admit I’ve been having problems writing lately. I just can’t seem to get the motivation or the appropriate mindset to sit down and write anything (journal, lyrics, etc). What does come out ends up being fractured and in pieces, much like the topic-to-topic post you’re reading now that really doesn’t have much weight or substance to it. Ah well, at least I’m doing it!

So, what’s the skinny on the music, huh? I clearly don’t spend *enough* time doing what I want, but with the time I have been working with I’ve produced some great stuff. Think broken-beat meets grooves meets abstract music– in line with things you might find on any of Ghostly International, Brainfeeder, or Warped. Bold statement, I know, but that’s what’s driving me right now. Infusing my downtempo and chill soul with my mantra from mid year: “Emotion, texture, ambiance, and passion.” I’ll have some better examples beyond the first, “Getting Into Position”, coming out later this month.

Wow, November. It’s my birthday on Friday. I’m 28. Twenty Eight. Two in the tens, eight in the ones.

I wish I were making music right now because life is so god damned beautiful today. I look forward to seeing my wife later tonight.. we’re doing some heavy grocery shopping this evening (and contrary to popular belief, even before we were married we liked doing that together. We love food).

I need to add some widgets and additional information to my blogs. Stuff like, songs I’m into, albums I’m listening to habitually, or random thoughts/ideas about any old subject… maybe even quick snippets of tracks I’ve worked on in a given week.. ohh that’s a good one!

 

 

onward!

Posted via email from Sean Armstrong (Sliptide)