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Happy release week here at Alpha Juno. Please find a handy recap of the release’s e/p/k below!

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lovesongs mixtape vol 1 cover

mrtorian

Lovesongs Mixtape, Vol. 1

For Release Friday, April 1, 2022

Austin-based electronic artist, mrtorian, releases New Wave Inspired House EP



OFFICIAL WEBSITE + INSTAGRAM + PRE-SAVE

Listen to Lovesongs Mixtape, Vol. 1

Lovesongs Mixtape, Vol. 1 may feel like a step back in time to listeners, but to Austin-based electronic artist, mrtorian, it’s an evolutionary step forward, going from more-typical singer-songwriter to loops-based indie chill/dance songs. This wavey, sonic blend of 80’s and 90’s vibes is dedicated to love and inspired by the times he almost got arrested for loitering outside his local record store as a punk kid.

This ep is the sound of two worlds—melodic house and singer-songwriter—having it out. mrtorian decided to do something crazy during the pandemic: put his instruments back in their cases and recover his early obsession with electronics. He learned a lot of old classics, diving deep into organic/ melodic/ deep/ micro/ lo-fi house music. 

The result is a sub-sub genre of House Music. Call it ‘(around the) House Music’. Lovesongs Mixtape, Vol. 1 is a mini movie soundtrack with colorful lyrics like “Bikini Blue” that transmit 8-bit nostalgia.

Check out the Austin Marathon Show 2/20/22 Recap!

https://www.yout

Upcoming Shows:

3/26 – The Arbors at Round Top – 12-3PM – Round Top, TX

4/2 – La Grange – 5-7PM – Houston, TX

4/2 – Private Event, Houston, TX, Acoustic with Neil 9PM

//BIO//

mrtorian (JD Torian Sr.) is an Austin-based electronic artist with a classic song-based, analog writing approach that slots right in with his love of Melodic House, Indie Dance, Downtempo, Chillout, Ambient, and even Rub-a-Dub. 

He writes and plays all the time, be it at home in his underground lair, at staged micro shows around his neighborhood, and now with an anywhere-is-a-venue ethos all around town. 

A hybrid of a live electronic show and a DJ set, it’s hard to tell the difference between his music and the records he’s slipped in. The samples, slices, and synths all mix into a set as varied as his years of influences. 

It all feels cool, relaxed, dance-y, and mostly happy; just like him.

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boo!

Show is “postponed.” With no back-up, it’s kind of canceled. Hence the quotes. 

A few lessons here. 

  1. Don’t make a non venue a venue. I had an idea for this owner, who is a friend (was?). Maybe in hindsight it all looks pretty-self serving, but I was only willing to try this new idea out w/ myself as the unpaid help.

    The idea is small electronic music that’s unobtrusive; listen while you’re doing your thing, whatever that may be. Here folks don’t specifically listen. More passive environmental. Do it right and you enhance the experience of what’s going on around you.

    Save a concert venue, this should be the aim of mostly all music being played out. And DJ’s.. Been my experience this is what the people want anyway.
  1. Don’t ask the venue to stay open late for your test. It is very hard to change behavior. Things get weird. Maybe the owner was obligated to say yes face-to-face.

    Instead get in the middle of traffic. Don’t recreate. Innovate within a known something. 

***

Building-up a music following, career, catalog, etc. is a near-infinite series of deeply personal failures with a few small victories thrown in. These victories more than make up for the blue times.

Canceling a show is pure punishment. Makes you feel like a heel. And worse, it gives you the opportunity and excuse to stop all work. And pout. But you have to keep on it. Find a way to keep the momentum going. 

***

Last year I junked a busy singer-songwriter thing in favor of an electronic chill-type set up because it’s what I wanted to do in the first place. A lot of work down the drain, and not. Process are familiar if not the same, and all of this work will pay off in the long run. This I know for sure. 

The entire thing’s been a bit of an a**-whoop, but I know where I am going. I will get there.

Just not on the 26th

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#electronicmusic #synths #technominimal #technomusic #minimaldeeptech #dancemusic #melodichouseandtechno #minimaltechno #newmusic #livemusic #coffeeandchill #chillout #chill

#music #producer #musicproducer #abletonlive #dj #beatmaker #musicproduction #beats #techno 

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More improvisation with the Elektron Model machines and terrible iMovie filters.

Made for Cuckoo’s Jamuary contests. Basically he throws out an idea and you have a day to come up with a track. So, you get what you get and cross your fingers.

It’s been a long time since I’ve made instrumentals that were non-ambient, and I’ve been enjoying it.

The Kidd is almost back. Give me 5 or 6 more songs…

Look at those creepy hands!

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Jarrod Ives, a former WunderHaus restaurant employee, works on his music Nov. 3 in a studio he built in Hot Springs, Ark. His newborn daughter, Ella, sleeps next to him. (Will Newton for The Washington Post)

For a lot of people the Pandemic has given us time to consider a lot of deep questions. And some of the lot-of-us are asking the following: Do I have to have a job-job?

Most are a “yes.” But some aren’t so sure.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/12/16/quit-job-what-came-next/

This story follows some folks looking for alternatives.

It’s an excellent breakdown of the splintering effects of the COVID on a single restaurant, Little Rock’s WunderHaus.

Yes a lot of restaurant jobs are the worst, but a lot of the worst jobs teach the best stuff, both about business and the business of being a better version of yourself.

When you’ve figured out some of the world for yourself, the path to improvement–should you have any interest, will be better mapped out.

Employees will be back within the next two years. It has been my experience that if you let them go do their thing–figuring out a bit of the world and themselves–they return all the better for it.

And they are ready to work.

-jd