New split EP! DFxO! That’s Dystopian Futures X Ospreyshire, for those scoring at home.

This is what I referred to last week!

I, Ospreyshire got to be involved with a split EP and it’s the first time I’ve ever done a collaborative album with anyone. The other part of the split involves the Scottish experimental punk band Dystopian Futures whom I’ve mentioned on this blog before and I’ve even made a music video for them on their first EP. Dave Emmerson (lead singer/bassist) and I are good friends. We had an email conversation a while ago about potentially collaborating and once the Coronavirus was unfortunately spreading worldwide, he came up with an idea of coming up with a “lockdown” project. Despite him being in the UK and me here in America, we sent each other songs.

I got to remix Dystopian Futures’ song “Apocalyptic Romance” which was really fun. I added some digital synths, random sound effects, a lo-fi recording of me playing a keyboard and I do back up vocals in the middle of the song. Dystopian Futures also got to cover the song “Corona” by the Minutemen. Some of you might recognize that song as the theme to Jackass.

For me, I got to bust out with two new Ospreyshire tracks. The first one is “Is This a New Normal?”. I used an organ setting on my keyboard while adding my trademark acousmatics in it. I also freestyled all of the lyrics which was a first for anything I’ve ever done as a way to reflect about how I felt about the pandemic. The second one is “Art In the Midst of Pandemonium and Pandemics”. I wrote down the lyrics to this one as well as doing some avant-garde soundscapes by multitracking live sounds of me playing bass in traditional and unconventional ways. This was also an Ospreyshire first since it involves a guest vocalist with the aforementioned Dave. He got to write and record his vocals in the song and it really tied in well. I liked how he referenced all the other songs in the split EP with his verse.

Just so you know, this split EP is either FREE or pay-what-you-want. Whether you want to chip in some money or not is totally up to you to get some new music.

Have a great day, everyone!

Ospreyshire Origins: Ishango

Lyrics:

[Lingala]
Tosalaki eloko ya sika
(Eloko ya sika)
Mokuwa oyo ekosunga bato pona koyekola mitango
(Koyekola mitango)
Tozali basali ya eloko ya sika
(Eloko ya sika)

Over 20,000 years ago, we crafted something still being taught to future generations. We made a calculator and calendar from a baboon’s bone. What a prime way for instructions from a primate. We solved problems and tallied up solutions. Nzambe bless our methods. Counting lunar cycles, adding, subtracting, dividing, multiplying notch by notch. We made generations smarter and efficient. We know other civilizations wouldn’t be born in millennia. Our technology shall not be fractured, only modernized in future ages.

Ishango=Innovation (repeat)

---

I would like to thank Dr. Y. and Deogratias from Lingala Academy for this song. The former has an article about this aforementioned ancient calculator and the latter helped me with the Lingala part of the song.

This was a good kickoff song besides the intro by covering this overlooked invention. I didn’t realize one of the first calculators was made from a baboon bone from what’s now the DRC. Anyone who says Africa had no civilization or inventions need to get educated. This bone was used as tallies and as a tool for multiple kinds of math problems. Okay, I wasn’t the best at math, but the fact that some of my maternal ancestors could’ve invented this does fill me with joy and some self-esteem.

From a musical standpoint, I listened to a ton of traditional Congolese drum music, so I wanted to do something very percussive, but still lively despite the lack of instrumental melodies. Using Lingala again has been great. It’s a very musical language and has a certain beauty to it.

What are your thoughts on the Ishango Bone or this song? Don’t forget that Dear Innovare is $7 on Bandcamp!

The Ishango Bone image is from MAA.

DEAR INNOVARE IS HERE! You can stream and buy it now!

It’s finally here!

My first full-length album “Dear Innovare…The Souls Of Ignored Pioneers Shall Be Ignored” finally drops. It’s only $7 for 41 songs. If you pre-ordered it, then you should get the whole album now.

If you didn’t buy it, then please support me whenever you can. Regardless if you do or not, you can stream the FULL ALBUM on my Bandcamp page or this album player on this post. This thing was a fun experimental genre roulette while making songs involving various inventions, artwork, medical breakthroughs, music, film, architecture, and even anime. This is a unified theme of creators who were overlooked for their creations and/or had their works stolen.

Feel free to check out this album!

Dear Innovare is released TOMORROW!

https://ospreyshire.bandcamp.com/album/dear-innovare-the-souls-of-ignored-pioneers-shall-be-renowned

Happy Boxing Day, everybody! I hope you all had a great holiday season so far.

This is a friendly reminder that my first full-length album Dear Innovare…The Souls of Ignored Pioneers Shall Be Renowned is released tomorrow! It’s only $7 for 41 tracks, so that’s a better offer than many other musicians will give you. The concept is useful since it involves all these forgotten creators and artists (some of them had their works stolen), so it’s both educational as well as innovative in a musical approach!

Don’t forget that I was also part of a Descendents tribute album!

2 Weeks Until Dear Innovare Drops!

You read that. 2 more weeks, everybody! It’s only $7 for 41 tracks for the first Ospreyshire full-length album. You can listen to the first song for free and if you pre-order it on Bandcamp, you get that song automatically.

12/27 can’t come soon enough!

The recording process…

Some of you know I’m working on a full-length album. It’s been a couple of months of writing, recording, and mixing so far even though I have a few songs left to complete the project.

I don’t want to give too much away, but I’ll tell you a few things about this particular album. This will be the first full-length Ospreyshire album. Not an EP or some singles, I mean this is going to have way more songs in it. Much like my previous EPs Verses Vs. Anhedonia or Pathos Formula Wave, this will be a concept project. While I’m not trying to make the next Tommy, The Wall, or anything Coheed & Cambria has done, this will have an overarching theme.

That theme involves innovators and creators…some of whom were ripped off.

The tracks here involve various inventors and artists who have been ignored whether they made live-saving inventions, buildings, or stories that either get overlooked, undermined, or in some cases having their works stolen by undeserving people. This album is an homage to them and most of the time uses the perspective of the original inventors and creators. I really hope to get this fully recorded before the end of the year, Nzambe willing.

Hope you’re doing well.

Speaking of which, do you know about various inventors people should know about? Do you know about inventions we take for granted? How about inventions and patents that were stolen? Do you know any form of art or media that were plagiarized? Which creators deserved better? Share your knowledge in the comments section!

Inspiration for Pathos Formula Wave

I didn’t expect to get some attention for my new EP, but I appreciate those who’ve listened to it. If you haven’t then here it is.

I wanted to strip my sound down for this concept. This involved a restricted setting with the recording and writing process. For starters, every song had to be based on the same poetic format. In this case, I chose the nonet. That’s a nine line poem with nine syllables each. There are also nine songs on the EP, so one can say I went up to the nines, right?

The recording process is even more minimal than previous recordings I’ve done with my last EP, singles, and compilation contributions. I only used my voice and acousmatics for this one to see what sounds I can get or manipulate. Some of the found sounds are more obvious than others like using a bathtub in one example.

Besides the composition, I thought this EP was therapy for me. I have to be honest with all you readers. I have a lot of issues with internalizing my anger and sadness. A ton of people have enraged me for most of my lives. Most of them are people I haven’t done anything wrong to. I won’t name names, but the tracks involve people who’ve bullied me in the past, some racists who’ve given me hell, and former co-workers who questioned my worth while getting special treatment. This has been a long time coming. The times when I was open with my anger, people treat me like I’m Satan himself. Not to mention a lot of those same people never owned up to THEIR actions and wrongdoings which frustrates me more. You really want to get on my bad side? It’s when others don’t take responsibility for their words or actions when they do something hurtful. I was sick of hiding these feelings for years now and they manifested in spoken word form.

So what do you think? What was your favorite song on the album? What are your thoughts on how I created this EP?

Maybe this could lead to something good and that’s saying nothing about another album I’m writing and recording. Wink wink.

Pathos Formula Wave is HERE!

My latest EP is now available for the public. This involves nine nonets of some of the angriest poems I’ve written as of recently. All the tracks involve my voice and acousmatics. No instruments here, everyone. Pathos Formula Wave: One Score of Rage is available at your price including free.

Track listing:

Nonet #1: A Friendship Becomes Astray
Nonet #2: Hate as a Trendy Endeavors
Nonet #3: Crimson Stained Flowers
Nonet #4: Abject Disrespect
Nonet #5: Dog Whistle Language Waltz
Nonet #6: Not Another Piece of Art Bashing a Jock (Oh, Wait. It is. Can You Not Read the Sarcasm?)
Nonet #7: Valleys of Endless Pretension (A Post-Rock Fanatic Satire)
Nonet #8: An Expose on a Feedback Loop
Nonet #9: One Score of Rage

Verses Vs. Anhedonia: 1 Year Anniversary

Can you believe it?

Exactly one year ago, I released my debut EP “Verses Vs. Anhedonia” to the world. Time has gone by way too fast here. This was my first foray into recording some poems and adding some avant-garde soundscapes with them. It was also the first time I’ve ever used my omnichord as an instrument for some of the tracks. Granted, this stuff isn’t the kind of music you’ll hear on Top 40 radio or commercials, but I hope you check it out for those who didn’t catch it the first time.

You can download it for free or you can pay what you want.

I want to thank Dave Emmerson from ZAP Records for distributing it worldwide and for formatting the liner notes of the album. Thanks for believing in my art, mate.

One year later, and I never thought I would continue with this avant-garde project.

Thank you all.

-Curtis