I’ve just released my chiptune cover of Maneater by Hall & Oates!
Check it out on Spotify, Bandcamp, and see the music video below :)
music
Did a synthwave thing
1/12/2021 edit: So - in December I came across a demo somebody made on Youtube of a Japanese synthesizer. At the end of the video they do a brief little jam with it which inspired me. I kept wanting to hear it expanded and I made a quick song using it and built some accompanying visuals. After putting the video up the person who made the demo video that I sampled in this project, who I very prominently credited up front for this personal, unreleased, non-monetized project, made it abundantly clear through a barrage of comments and DMs that they were opposed to any use of his demo video that isn’t explicitly authorized, so this is gone now.
I've never understood that sort of mindset and, to be honest, I think that sort of thing is everything that’s wrong in the creative space. After they saw the posts (two weeks after I posted them and tagged them?) I was immediately bombarded with “This is illegal!” (it’s not) “All rights reserved, you can not use this!”
What this was is a fun personal project that I did, sampling their demo video, because it inspired me. If they’re unhappy with seeing their demo video re-contextualized, fine. But the aggressive bombardment of comments and DM’d threats due to a personal project that sampled some synthesizer demo footage, which again, was prominently credited to them right up front, is a massive bummer. It was needlessly aggressive, and that sort of mindset and approach discourages collaboration, drives people away from your work and the thought of engaging with it, limits exposure, creates an air of self-importance, and breeds creative isolation imho. This is a net negative for everybody involved. Nobody was making or losing money on this one-off, unreleased, short personal project.
While I don’t know the exact reason that my sampling of their demo video was such a massive issue for them, it’s their right to ask me to take it down and I tend to try and take the path-of-least-resistance, so it’s whatever. Just a bummer.
Edit: 5/28/2024
I am placing the video here, on my personal website, unlisted.
Live Show & Collaboration // Dec. 27th in VR via VJ Open Lab & Never Knows Better
Stop by VJ Open Lab Berlin in VR on December 27th for a collection of artist collaborations.
I’ve got a 15 minute set of original music, including some unreleased material, with visuals provided by Niki Cardoso Zaupa of Pink Noise.
Broken Alias - Shifty City (Track & official MV release)
Artwork being shown @ Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo as part of Neo Shibuya TV
As part of the “30 second museum” put on by Neo Shibuya TV on November 16 - 22.
Via @Neoshibuyatv on Instagram:
Premiering two audiovisual pieces @ Lightbox NYC, part of the Creative Code Art festival on the 12th through the 15th
Super excited to be a part of this event coming up on November 12 - 15th. I’ve got two pieces being debuted, “Ablation Cutie” and “Aurora (Migration)” this Thursday, the 12th between 8pm and 9pm.
Those in NY can come to the festival at Lightbox in Manhattan, and those outside of NY can take part virtually in Sansar & watch the pieces streamed on Twitch!
Footage from my installation @ The Cityfox Experience Halloween 2019
Put together some footage of my install at last years Cityfox Halloween festival.
Around this time last year I was given the opportunity to put together a themed composition with synchronized lighting for the "Lobby of the Lost" at the Cityfox Experience Halloween Festival at Avant Gardner here in Brooklyn.
The 30 minute piece moves through a series of dark atmospheres, anxiety driven percussive moments, ambient textures and (given the room's theme) some eerie circus-type melodies. The music is accompanied by a collection of sequenced strobe lights, chandeliers, wash lights, and glowing gowns that surround the room.
Both the music and the lighting sequence were written in Image-Line’s FL Studio. The lighting sequence, written in a series of 14-bit MIDI triggers and automation envelopes next to the music, is sent in real-time via a loopback into Derivative Touchdesigner where the data is processed and sent out as DMX values to each of the fixtures. A simple previz system was also built within Touchdesigner to visualize the lighting data during the sequencing process.
It was an absolute highlight of my year getting to dive into such a unique project and see it all come together. To everyone at the venue who helped in any way, Billy for the opportunity, and those who came by to check out what I went nuts working on for a couple weeks, thank you. Hope to do something like this again some day 🎃 Happy Halloween!
https://www.gleix.net https://www.instagram.com/gleix
Thank you to https://www.brendanzoltowski.com for helping capture footage during the event.
#cityfox #halloween #installation #synchronizedlighting #touchdesigner #flstudio
Full overview videos: Circuit Bent Hing Hon EK-001, Casio SA-2
Excited to have these done. The EK-001 below is one of the more advanced versions of this build I’ve ever done. I’ve been aiming to do proper VO overviews of things recently, despite the time it takes, and I’m pretty happy with how these came out.
And a very brief one for the SA-9:
Album Release: 'FM in the B4' by Broken Alias
'FM in the B4' by Broken Alias is out today on all streaming platforms. You can also pick up a limited edition cassette available on Bandcamp which featuring stills from a DIY video synthesizer.
[Links]
Album stream with analog visuals • Bandcamp • Spotify • Lagom Audio/Visual • Broken Alias Webpage
Broken Alias is a project that was conceived in an effort to keep music that I make on mobile platforms & consoles separate from the other music I produce, and this album is no exception. FM in the B4 is, like previous Broken Alias works, an album written entirely while traveling and commuting in NYC, using Caustic for Android. As a theme this album explores FM Synthesis as a primary tool. The album title is derived from this fact, and due to this album being written in 2019 - in what many of us might now consider the "before times.”
Released through Lagom Audio/Visual.
New chiptune & visuals during another chip music stream on the 29th!
IO Chip Music NYC is hosting a second international chiptune open mic! This time around I’ll be premiering a brand new song & music video off of an upcoming Broken Alias EP, and I’ll also be doing visuals for a few acts! Full lineup and info below.
Music Video: Broken Alias - Meeting u
Finished up a reworked version of the video I debuted at I/O Chip Music NYC’s International Open Mic stream the other day!
I'm taking part in a chiptune music stream!
My Chiptune project Broken Alias will be taking part in an international open mic event for artists who make chip music, as well as visual artists, on the 11th and 12th! See poster below.
I’ll have a selection off of Travelchip and a live performed visual accompaniment. Come stop by at 10am on July 11th and 9pm July 12th at twitch.tv/iochipmusic
Music Release: Gleix - Data Will Call / This Kind of Thing (Two track single on 7")
in music
Data Will Call / This Kind of Thing is a two-track breakcore single out on 7” 45rpm lathe and for digital download on BandCamp. On all streaming platforms shortly. This marks the second single off of an upcoming full length album, Anxiety Dreams, which I hope to have out later this year.
This release, including the physical copy, is pay what you want. At minimum I will ask that you cover shipping. The recommended donation for this release is $15. All proceeds for this release will be donated to the Black Visions Collective. More info @ www.blackvisionsmn.org - If there is a different organization you would like your money donated to, just press "Include a message" during checkout and let me know.
Released via Lagom Audio/Visual
Data Will Call Music Video here.
6/20 update: Up on Spotify
Music Video: Gleix - Data Will Call
Image-Line, makers of FL Studio which I use for music production, opened up a contest to build something using their visualizer plugin. This is my entry.
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Data Will Call is a track off of an upcoming two track breakcore 7" single by Gleix. This music video was built fully within the song's project file in FL Studio using the zGameEditor Visualizer plugin (v2.73). The visual plugin for this project is utilizing 55+ total layers with 400+ detailed automation clips linked to shader parameters, as well as audio from a few mixer channels, to craft this tightly synchronized music video. The only external asset is my logo.
Thank you to Image-Line for putting together this contest - this is a plugin I had completely overlooked and I had a ton of fun diving in and learning it while trying to craft a music video to fit this piece.
I think the potential of the plugin to do more than a one-scene visualizer for a track is massive! While many of the shaders that have been ported to the plugin don't have a ton of hooks in them for more control, it still provides a way to modify and sequence a ton of shader parameters in real-time! I really wanted to try and showcase what it's capable of in it's current form and am excited to play with this a little more in the future. Good luck everybody who's entering!
Visit me at https://www.gleix.net // @gleix on instagram // https://www.twitch.tv/gleix for live streams. Watch for the release with Lagom Audio/Visual in the next month or so.
Credits & appreciation for shader authors and those who ported them to the plugin:
ColorCyclePalette (0:44 to darken) - cynex
Xyptonjtroz (0:00) - nimitz
ColorBlobs (Throughout as the glowing white orbs) - @paulofalcao
Protean Clouds (0:15, throughout intro)- nimitz @stormoid
Youlean Blur, Youlean Peak Shapes (1:48), Youlean Tunnel (0:38), Youlean Waveform (1:18), Youlean Pixelate (1:38) - Youlean
Combustible Voronoi (0:34) - Shane (converted by Youlean & StevenM) https://www.shadertoy.com/view/4tlSzl
Neon Lit Hexagons (0:47) - Shane,Youlean
StrangeAcid (0:23), TextDraw, FeedMe (2:17), BoxedIn (0:41), Blooming - Jph Wacheski http://jph_wacheski.itch.io/
Hexagonal Blocks (0:50) - Shane (converted by Youlean & StevenM) https://www.shadertoy.com/view/XdjyWD
Cubic Truchet Pattern (0:58) - Shane (converted by Youlean & StevenM) https://www.shadertoy.com/view/4lfcRl
Psuedo CJKV Characters (1:18) - Shane (converted by Youlean & StevenM) https://www.shadertoy.com/view/Xtcczj
RhodiumLiquidCarbon (0:31, throughout) - Jochen Feldkoetter http://www.soundcloud.com/virgill Adapted from https://www.shadertoy.com/view/llK3Dy
SplinePeaks (1:18) - David Hoskins Adapted from https://www.shadertoy.com/view/MsXGDj
Oblivion (1:32) - nimitz Twitter: @stormoid Adapted from https://www.shadertoy.com/view/XtX3DH
Transparent Isoslices (1:16, 2:04) - Shane (converted by Youlean & StevenM) https://www.shadertoy.com/view/MsjBDR
Stack Trace (1:09, 2:25) - srtuss Adapted from https://www.shadertoy.com/view/lt23WG
BallZ (0:49) - Rado1
StereoWaveForm (2:25) - StevenM
Cheap Cloud Flythrough (1:29, throughout) - Shane (converted by Youlean & StevenM) https://www.shadertoy.com/view/Xsc3R4
Polar (2:52) - K+OBV10U3_NINJA
Boaty Goes Caving (1:36), Alps (1:40), Alien Thorns (1:51) - Dave Hoskins
Extruded Video Image (2:13, throughout the end section) - Shane (converted by Youlean & StevenM) https://www.shadertoy.com/view/tsdXDB
Linear (2:04) - StevenM,OBV10U3_NINJA,Youlean
Notebook Drawings (2:09) - Florian Berger - shaderoo.org
And whoever brought FL Chan into the mix
Video Release: Gleix - Talk About It All
Music Release: Gleix - In Light Of Pt. 2: Ocean Floor (Live at Avant Gardner 9/28/2019)
in music
This album is a curated collection of moments from an improvisational ambient performance on 9/28/2019 at Avant Gardner in Brooklyn. This performance was done as part of Cityfox Transcend, 2019.
Released through Lagom Audio/Visual.
Available on Bandcamp.
Upcoming show: Gleix @ Cityfox Live 2/29/2020 (Avant Gardner in Brooklyn, NY)
in music
On February 29th I’ll be doing a live 3 hour improvisational performance at Cityfox Live 2020 at Avant Gardner in Brooklyn, NY. Primarily downtempo, ambient stuff. Here’s a little promo!
Music Release: Gleix - Through The Trees (two track single)
in music
Two track single by Gleix released on Lagom Audio/Visual
Available on BandCamp
Streaming on Youtube
2/22/2020 update: Streaming on Spotify
Debut album "Travelchip" by Broken Alias released as part of Cassette Store Day 2019!
in music
I’m so excited to be announcing the release of Travelchip, the debut album by my chiptune project Broken Alias. What started as a side project grew and grew into a full length album accompanied by a limited run of cassette tapes as part of Cassette Store Day 2019.
“Debut album from multidisciplinary Brooklyn-based artist Broken Alias. Taking cues from local legends such as Anamanaguchi and Bit Shifter--yet ultimately carving out a fresh corner of the NYC chiptune scene--Broken Alias crafts densely layered and melodically rich tracks inspired by the 8-bit era. Contained within are a wide range of styles represented by the deceptively simple timbral palette; from bright and bubbly to bleak and brooding, you'll hear soaring sawtooth leads, bit crushed snare rushes, and public transit field recordings providing a bit of atmosphere over it all. The title Travelchip comes from Broken Alias' songwriting process: all tracks were composed during the artist's daily train commutes using only Caustic 3 for Android. Tapes are housed in clear slipcases with custom handcrafted u-cards that incorporate all elements of the packaging into a unique, multilayered design.”