I know that soon the "Don't give everything away for free"-folks will show up and tell me, that I am too generous ;). But in my opinion the recordings in this package are not suitable for a commercial release. And before the stuff rotts on the hard drive, while not just a few people ask where you can download the old stuff, I prefer to give it away for free. It may be of interest for the "make money from everything"-folks to know, that there were listeners who, when I released the other two free albums, advised me not to do it, as the quality of the old crackers would be bad advertising. You see, so everyone has their own opinion on what is sellable and what is not.
So, after I already made "Excursions in Time & Space" a free album and put the commercial (in my opinion) not usable tracks of the (no longer available) albums "This is not really Reggae" and "Early Experiments in Dub" on the free album "Free", I now compiled another 13 old tracks for another free album, titled "The Alion Archives". And this time, you get some, as some would say, legendary pieces of alionsonny history. This blog is really long because I want to tell you a little something about each featured song. After the big break with my "everything free, donate what you want"-strategy in 2009 and the decline of ReggaeDubwise.com some things disappeared completely from the Web, not just a few people would be happy to get their hands on again. Well, clever ones, who downloaded the whole stuff when it was still online. And so requests for certain songs didn't stop coming in. And every time I asked myself, how I would get this sorted. For a few songs the decision was simple: I did not have the original sources and the existing MP3 file was encoded in less than 192 kbps, which made a commercial release on the usual sales portals impossible. In other cases certain plugins for my audio software did no longer work, resulting in that a revamp would have been very complicated. The rest of the songs, from my point of view, would have required a major revamp, which I do not think is advisable because of costs and benefits. And that is good for you because now you get, just before the release of the new commercial album "Continuity", a little gift again. Following, I would like to tell you more or less about each song :
01. Fiesta (first published March 18. 2006 )
This is my first and only version of the famous "Lalabella"- or "Ghetto People" riddim . This Riddim is my favorite riddim, right after the "Ali Baba" riddim. The version on this album was actually scheduled for one of the infamous "Dubwars" on Versionist.com. However, this did never happen due to the decline of this community. Really a pitty. I would certainly have won again ;).
02. Midnight Summer Dream Dub (first published January 20. 2006)
This is a reggae cover version of my favorite song of the rock band "The Stranglers". It was produced during just one night. The idea was actually to transform ANY song by ANY rock band into a dub reggae version. And since I had the melody of "Midnight Summer Dream" in my head since a New Year's party anyway still, it was clear which song it would be.
03. Language of My Reality feat. Colin Mutchler (first published March 18. 2006 )
Actually, I was just looking for drum samples ... yes , at that time my collection of free samples was not really large. And so one day I was once again on the hunt. An online friend recommended me CCMixter. Why that? Because after some browsing , I noticed that I was at the completely wrong place for collecting drum samples. I was looking for one-shot drum samples, but here I found mostly more or less complete tracks and acapellas for remixing. This was a community for remixers. But while I was there, I looked at what I could find. From the beginning I found the Acapellas very interesting. The possibilities to do voice recordings inside my flat were even more unsuitable than today and I found it a good idea to use something like vocals, at least a rap as an element of a new song. And so I stumbled across the Acapellas by Colin Mutchler, which were superb in both, recording quality and the very appealing topics. After a first contact I have also noted that Colin is a really nice person. Once more a "Versionist.com Dubwar" was on it's way, and the chosen riddim was the Skylarking Riddim. So I created a suitable version of that riddim and Colin's Acapella fit excellent. I don't know whether the aforementioned "Dubwar" ever took place, and if so, what position the song reached... well, who cares? ;).
04. Ali Baba's Psychedelic Breakfast (first published: December 31. 2005 )
A long, long time ago on a long gone website (Versionist.com) with a unique community consisting of more or less crazy Reggae musicians, dubbers and reggae lovers, there was a beautiful tradition: Since the assembled musicians had a certain tendency to verbally go for eachothers throat the ritual of the so-called "Dubwars" came to life. A well-known Riddim was chosen and until a set date all participants could produce versions of that riddim and showcase it on Versionist.com. Then the winner was determined in a democratic vote. At my suggestion my favorite riddim, the Ali Baba Riddim, was selected for the Dubwar at the end of 2005. And it would have been a shame for me if my version would not have won. And I won, despite the fact that I could produce the version on New Years Eve 2005 just shortly before the deadline, due to a severe flu.
05. Alion Smoke Signal (first published: July 14. 2006)
There is actually no particular story behind this. I found the original "Baffling Smoke Signal" by Lee Scratch Perry always funny and I had the idea to craft an instrumental cover version of it for quite a long time already . The choice of an accordion as main instrument had to do with my, at the time, very strong tendency to anger the reggae purists. ;) And so it was done .
06. Heart Attack (first published: July 09.2006 )
As for the 5th title there is only to say that I always liked the original "My heart is gone" by John Holt and because of this wanted to release an instrumental version. Said and done ...
07. Dinner Time for the Cats (first published: May 31. 2007)
Mid 2007, the open verbal war between me and those who wanted "their reggae" free from any alien influence was at the absolute peak. This was due also to the fact of the decay of the Versionist.com community, the process of the creation of the alternative plattform ReggaeDubwise.com and my choice of side. This created some well-deserved hostilities against me. Skilled by the previous Dubwars, and learning the versioning of classic riddims, I directly strove for provocation with the release of "Dinner Time for the Cats". Daring to version the classic Sleng Teng riddim in my own (perceived by the purists as blasphemy) style was actually reason enough for an outrage. However, it was a much greater provocation to do that version using the melody of a well-known children's song. The response was accordingly: FYAH ! ;)
08. Babylon DC feat. Ital Roots Players (first published: May 16. 2006)
The Ital Roots Players and me, during times of Versionist.com and ReggaeDubwise.com, were connected via a kind of "love-hate" relationship. At least the two Ital Roots Players, as well as I did, enjoyed excessive flame wars in the forums. How surprising it must have been for the "bystanders", who always perceived our flame wars as some kind of a total war, that I accepted the offer of the Ital Roots Players to use their Acapella "Babylon DC" in a song. Countless versions using this Acapella were published back then. However, mine was most likely the one which most surprised the audience.
09. Everyday Choices feat. Colin Mutchler (first published: May 15. 2006)
After the unexpected success of "Language of My Reality ", it was no question that I would produce another song with an acapella by Colin. This time I decided to use a genuine own riddim creation instead of a version of a classic riddim.
10. A Banquet At Elvenwood Castle (first published : 18.08.2005 )
Some Versionists really loved my first songs in which I joined a "Dungeons & Dragons" theme with reggae-ish music very much, such as "The Knights of Dubwood Castle" from the album "Xperimental Reggae WorX". The idea behind this, very early, production was to make it more suitable for a movie soundtrack. Whether this was successful, everyone should judge for him/herself ;) .
11. On the Rocks feat. Scott Durfinger (first published : March 11. 2005)
At the height of my experimental phase I encountered a young rock guitarist who presented quite high quality recordings of his art in the forum of SoundClick (not to be confused with SoundCloud ...did not even exist back then). I asked him, if I could use one of his solo recordings for remixing just for fun. He agreed and now I could try to mix rock guitar with reggae. If I succeeded doing this? Well ... judge for yourself
12. Astral Travel (first published: July 11. 2010)
There is not much to say about this: I was in search for public domain video material on Archive.org and stumbled across a spoken meditation instruction. I had just finished an instrumental track... and something was missing. A little bit of work and this is the result.
13. Everyday Choices feat. Colin Mutchler - Alternate Version (Previously unreleased)
This is an alternative version of "Everyday Choices". I can not say anything specific about the origin. The thing was somehow always somewhere on the hard drive and was always ignored until a girlfriend found it and said that this version is better than the other one. Hmm, I do not even think that this is a final version. But, hey, it's free ;).
Ok, I hope I did not forget anything. And finally: You can download the album from my website, FOLLOWING THIS LINK. There simply click on "FREE DOWNLOAD". The album is available in RAR format. Actually, everyone should know how to unzip something, for example using the free software 7-Zip. ENJOY!
So, after I already made "Excursions in Time & Space" a free album and put the commercial (in my opinion) not usable tracks of the (no longer available) albums "This is not really Reggae" and "Early Experiments in Dub" on the free album "Free", I now compiled another 13 old tracks for another free album, titled "The Alion Archives". And this time, you get some, as some would say, legendary pieces of alionsonny history. This blog is really long because I want to tell you a little something about each featured song. After the big break with my "everything free, donate what you want"-strategy in 2009 and the decline of ReggaeDubwise.com some things disappeared completely from the Web, not just a few people would be happy to get their hands on again. Well, clever ones, who downloaded the whole stuff when it was still online. And so requests for certain songs didn't stop coming in. And every time I asked myself, how I would get this sorted. For a few songs the decision was simple: I did not have the original sources and the existing MP3 file was encoded in less than 192 kbps, which made a commercial release on the usual sales portals impossible. In other cases certain plugins for my audio software did no longer work, resulting in that a revamp would have been very complicated. The rest of the songs, from my point of view, would have required a major revamp, which I do not think is advisable because of costs and benefits. And that is good for you because now you get, just before the release of the new commercial album "Continuity", a little gift again. Following, I would like to tell you more or less about each song :
01. Fiesta (first published March 18. 2006 )
This is my first and only version of the famous "Lalabella"- or "Ghetto People" riddim . This Riddim is my favorite riddim, right after the "Ali Baba" riddim. The version on this album was actually scheduled for one of the infamous "Dubwars" on Versionist.com. However, this did never happen due to the decline of this community. Really a pitty. I would certainly have won again ;).
02. Midnight Summer Dream Dub (first published January 20. 2006)
This is a reggae cover version of my favorite song of the rock band "The Stranglers". It was produced during just one night. The idea was actually to transform ANY song by ANY rock band into a dub reggae version. And since I had the melody of "Midnight Summer Dream" in my head since a New Year's party anyway still, it was clear which song it would be.
03. Language of My Reality feat. Colin Mutchler (first published March 18. 2006 )
Actually, I was just looking for drum samples ... yes , at that time my collection of free samples was not really large. And so one day I was once again on the hunt. An online friend recommended me CCMixter. Why that? Because after some browsing , I noticed that I was at the completely wrong place for collecting drum samples. I was looking for one-shot drum samples, but here I found mostly more or less complete tracks and acapellas for remixing. This was a community for remixers. But while I was there, I looked at what I could find. From the beginning I found the Acapellas very interesting. The possibilities to do voice recordings inside my flat were even more unsuitable than today and I found it a good idea to use something like vocals, at least a rap as an element of a new song. And so I stumbled across the Acapellas by Colin Mutchler, which were superb in both, recording quality and the very appealing topics. After a first contact I have also noted that Colin is a really nice person. Once more a "Versionist.com Dubwar" was on it's way, and the chosen riddim was the Skylarking Riddim. So I created a suitable version of that riddim and Colin's Acapella fit excellent. I don't know whether the aforementioned "Dubwar" ever took place, and if so, what position the song reached... well, who cares? ;).
04. Ali Baba's Psychedelic Breakfast (first published: December 31. 2005 )
A long, long time ago on a long gone website (Versionist.com) with a unique community consisting of more or less crazy Reggae musicians, dubbers and reggae lovers, there was a beautiful tradition: Since the assembled musicians had a certain tendency to verbally go for eachothers throat the ritual of the so-called "Dubwars" came to life. A well-known Riddim was chosen and until a set date all participants could produce versions of that riddim and showcase it on Versionist.com. Then the winner was determined in a democratic vote. At my suggestion my favorite riddim, the Ali Baba Riddim, was selected for the Dubwar at the end of 2005. And it would have been a shame for me if my version would not have won. And I won, despite the fact that I could produce the version on New Years Eve 2005 just shortly before the deadline, due to a severe flu.
05. Alion Smoke Signal (first published: July 14. 2006)
There is actually no particular story behind this. I found the original "Baffling Smoke Signal" by Lee Scratch Perry always funny and I had the idea to craft an instrumental cover version of it for quite a long time already . The choice of an accordion as main instrument had to do with my, at the time, very strong tendency to anger the reggae purists. ;) And so it was done .
06. Heart Attack (first published: July 09.2006 )
As for the 5th title there is only to say that I always liked the original "My heart is gone" by John Holt and because of this wanted to release an instrumental version. Said and done ...
07. Dinner Time for the Cats (first published: May 31. 2007)
Mid 2007, the open verbal war between me and those who wanted "their reggae" free from any alien influence was at the absolute peak. This was due also to the fact of the decay of the Versionist.com community, the process of the creation of the alternative plattform ReggaeDubwise.com and my choice of side. This created some well-deserved hostilities against me. Skilled by the previous Dubwars, and learning the versioning of classic riddims, I directly strove for provocation with the release of "Dinner Time for the Cats". Daring to version the classic Sleng Teng riddim in my own (perceived by the purists as blasphemy) style was actually reason enough for an outrage. However, it was a much greater provocation to do that version using the melody of a well-known children's song. The response was accordingly: FYAH ! ;)
08. Babylon DC feat. Ital Roots Players (first published: May 16. 2006)
The Ital Roots Players and me, during times of Versionist.com and ReggaeDubwise.com, were connected via a kind of "love-hate" relationship. At least the two Ital Roots Players, as well as I did, enjoyed excessive flame wars in the forums. How surprising it must have been for the "bystanders", who always perceived our flame wars as some kind of a total war, that I accepted the offer of the Ital Roots Players to use their Acapella "Babylon DC" in a song. Countless versions using this Acapella were published back then. However, mine was most likely the one which most surprised the audience.
09. Everyday Choices feat. Colin Mutchler (first published: May 15. 2006)
After the unexpected success of "Language of My Reality ", it was no question that I would produce another song with an acapella by Colin. This time I decided to use a genuine own riddim creation instead of a version of a classic riddim.
10. A Banquet At Elvenwood Castle (first published : 18.08.2005 )
Some Versionists really loved my first songs in which I joined a "Dungeons & Dragons" theme with reggae-ish music very much, such as "The Knights of Dubwood Castle" from the album "Xperimental Reggae WorX". The idea behind this, very early, production was to make it more suitable for a movie soundtrack. Whether this was successful, everyone should judge for him/herself ;) .
11. On the Rocks feat. Scott Durfinger (first published : March 11. 2005)
At the height of my experimental phase I encountered a young rock guitarist who presented quite high quality recordings of his art in the forum of SoundClick (not to be confused with SoundCloud ...did not even exist back then). I asked him, if I could use one of his solo recordings for remixing just for fun. He agreed and now I could try to mix rock guitar with reggae. If I succeeded doing this? Well ... judge for yourself
12. Astral Travel (first published: July 11. 2010)
There is not much to say about this: I was in search for public domain video material on Archive.org and stumbled across a spoken meditation instruction. I had just finished an instrumental track... and something was missing. A little bit of work and this is the result.
13. Everyday Choices feat. Colin Mutchler - Alternate Version (Previously unreleased)
This is an alternative version of "Everyday Choices". I can not say anything specific about the origin. The thing was somehow always somewhere on the hard drive and was always ignored until a girlfriend found it and said that this version is better than the other one. Hmm, I do not even think that this is a final version. But, hey, it's free ;).
Ok, I hope I did not forget anything. And finally: You can download the album from my website, FOLLOWING THIS LINK. There simply click on "FREE DOWNLOAD". The album is available in RAR format. Actually, everyone should know how to unzip something, for example using the free software 7-Zip. ENJOY!
