is gerald growing?

according to his myspace; yes, geraldisgrowing. gerald being "just a composer with international tastes. his influences range from french electro, the british invasion of new wave synthpop to classic rock and funk with a punk/ hiphop spirit."

these influences are prevalent in the tracks that he sent over. the first, pressure in the city, has funky overtones and a kind of 70s and 80s disco vibe to it, which i find really enjoyable. there's a repeated guitar riff that wouldn't be out of place in the intro to a song by some cheesy hair-metal band from 'back in the day.' the track, as a whole, for me has a kind of feel-good thing going for it as well, as in i find it pretty uplifting. i can imagine it'd be good to dance to as well. i've not had to chance to test it out on a decent soundsystem yet, but it's played out well through the setup i have in my room and my friend's car system.


mp3 geraldisgrowing - pressure in the city [128kbps] (alt. links)

rise above insanity, the other track gerald sent me, has a more typical electro sound. in this one, the french electro influences can be heard a lot more easily, and he manages to bring in some nice 8-bit sounds, giving this track a kind of retro feel as well. this one mellows out as it progresses, which the other didn't, and i really like this aspect of it. the energy continues, but slowly dies down and chills everything out, making it, i think, a great track to end a night with. check it out.


mp3 geraldisgrowing - rise above insanity [128kbps] (alt. links)

and now i have something i'm really happy about, and that is that i am now a resident writer for the online magazine iinsight. it's my job there to keep the music section updated with articles, interviews and the like. one new one every week. i am really psyched to get going with this, as it looks like a brilliant project, and will hopefully help me promote the music i love even more. for my first few submissions, i'll probably be adding a couple of interviews already up on here, but i have a few new ones lined up. be sure to bookmark iinsight magazine as well! and take a look at the other sections; there's some awesome stuff on there.

on top of this, i'm also selling off a load of things i collected over the years and that i now never really used, in order to fund all the stuff i've got planned for the summer. and i'm bloody happy with that as well, as i've currently raised, i think, just over £400, maybe £600 by the end of this month. and my god, i'm hoping so, as i have a lot i'd love to get done!

just an extra little note, but sharebee seems to be down at the moment. i'll add the alternative links as soon as it's up again, but the direct links are working fine, so you can still download the tracks.