On this day, 8 years ago, I released my CakeFolder album ‘Possibilities’. Read more about it here: Possibilities
On This Day 11-Mar
cakeFolder
‘Ratio’, an album by CakeFolder
Imagine 2 tape machines, one running slower and one running 61.8033989% faster. Their relationship is governed by the golden ratio.
A single piece of tape, takes its journey through these 2 tape machines.
A single piece of music, drawn from the golden ratio, is then transformed by the golden ratio, becoming faster, becoming slower, becoming more complex, and becoming sublimely long.
Bonus info: even the colours used in the album art are governed by the golden ratio… these are not just random shades of red, green and blue. And obviously the dimensions of the quadrilaterals.
released March 1, 2023
Only on Bandcamp: https://cakefolder.bandcamp.com/album/ratio
‘Light’, the new album by cakefolder
My new album, ‘Light’, released on April 24th, 2021. Music by cakefolder. Lyrics by Martin Breedyk. Performed by cakefolder.
Track listing
- You Stole the Light [6:59]
- 0149 [9:11]
- The Geometry of No [3:22]
- Gecho Thunder [6:56]
- Your Chosen Path [3:55]
- Back of the Neck [2:27]
- Can’t Get Out [5:31]
- A Brush with a Gecho [4:16]
- You Stole the Light (Radio Edit) [3:38]
Tracks 1, 3, 5, 9: Lyrics by Martin Breedyk
Track 9 was done specifically for my wife, because she dislikes the long instrumental bits.
Available on:
Preview some of the tracks on YouTube:
In an Echo Chamber (Danger Remix) [feat. Zx85]
Today I released my new single:
In an Echo Chamber (Danger Remix) [feat. Zx85] – Single by Cakefolder.
A political campaign mastermind taunts the people he has manipulated.
A song from the 2018 album ‘Confidence’, radically transformed by the inimitable zx85 in this, the Danger remix.
Original production by Cakefolder.
It’s available on all the usual music stores and streaming services… e.g.
iTunes/Apple , Spotify , Google Play , Amazon
Please check it out!
2018 year in review
It seems rather self-indulgent, but there’s been a number of cool things this year, so looking back:
January
I released an EP of 2 songs and 3 remixes, called ‘Angel/Shirt’ by Cakefolder. It was released on the 25th, including remixes by Golden Cities, Stahlbürste Darling, and Last Years Man (5-track EP). I actually wrote the 2 songs in February 2017 as part of an unreleased 10-track album.
iTunes CD Baby Spotify Amazon MP3 Google Play Deezer
February
For the 4th year running, I spent my spare time in the month of February writing and producing a new album as part of the RPM challenge, which I would release in March.
March
I released the album ‘Confidence’ by CakeFolder on March 21st.
iTunes / Apple Music Google Play CD Baby Amazon MP3 Spotify
Ride the analogue wave with this whimsical, electronic, minimalist 10-song album about being full of confidence, or lacking confidence, and about taking someone into your confidence.
May
Paul O’Mahony was a member of the committee organising the Safehaven 2018 conference on May 11th to 13th, in Cork, Ireland, and he was kind enough to invite me along to attend. It was my first time in Ireland and my first time meeting Paul, so a huge thrill for me!
June
For a fews years now, it had been a personal goal of mine to speak at a conference in a professional capacity. I joined Toastmasters International in 2016 to start working on my public speaking skills, and in late 2017, having started working for a famous British department store chain, I was invited to speak at eTail Europe on June 19th, at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London. If you’re wondering why April is not listed above, it is because I was preparing and practising my conference speech for June. About 200 people were in my audience, and my friend Thor came along to support me. The speech was a success – so much so that I decided I wanted to do it again, with a few tweaks!
August
This was the month when my employer went into administration, and was ‘rescued’ by a larger British retailer, so I set about trying to find a new job in earnest.
September
Both of the kids started at new schools this month, and all the changes in routine that this implies. They both flourished in their new educational establishments.
Having completed several rounds of interviews, I accepted a fantastic new job, to start late in October. My job at the department store chain suddenly got very interesting, as I relaunched the website, shortly before it was time for me to run the Humorous Speaking and Table Topics contest at my local speakers club, and deliver my new improved version of my conference speech at eCommerceExpo at Olympia London on the 27th.
October
I worked out my last few weeks with the department store chain, even finding time to record this fun video with my dear colleagues, and another one that we would eventually release in December. At the end of the month I started my new job.
November
In my new job I got to visit Berlin and, for the first time, Paris. Another proud first for me was winning Best Speaker at my speakers club, for this speech.
December
To commemorate the sad moment when my ex-colleagues at the department store chain would vacate our old head office, we released this video, which we filmed in an around the office, for my cover version of the famous song named after the famous street where the office was located.
I also participated once again in Karaoke Secret Santa, making a cover version of Livin’ On A Prayer and as a special bonus, with Jana, a cover version of Sovereign Light Cafe.
‘Confidence’ by CakeFolder released
My new album was released today and is available in all of these places:
iTunes / Apple Music
Google Play
CD Baby
Amazon MP3
Spotify
Ride the analogue wave with this whimsical, electronic, minimalist 10-song album about being full of confidence, or lacking confidence, and about taking someone into your confidence.
All tracks written and performed by Cakefolder in February 2018.
Words on ‘To Aybrook Street from Tolmers Square’ were collected from the streets of London.
‘Enter the Dragon’ was inspired by conversations with Chris Randall.
For Jana, my inspiration, who banished me to the studio when I couldn’t be bothered.
Enter The Dragon
‘Enter The Dragon’ is a new song taken from my upcoming album ‘Confidence’ #RPMChallenge #RPM2018 this entirely analogue song was inspired by conversations I had with Chris Randall https://soundcloud.com/cakefolder/enter-the-dragon
Cakefolder ‘Angel/Shirt’ released today
The new 5-track EP by Cakefolder ‘Angel/Shirt’ contains 2 songs… ‘Angel’ is a delicate song with a fragile vocal performance, struggling with an ethereal question.
‘Shirt’ is a whimsical electro pop-banger, presented here in its original form, plus also remixes by:
- Golden Cities
- Stahlbürste Darling
- Last Years Man
It’s released today on online music stores such as iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/angel-shirt-ep/1339404325
CD Baby:
http://store.cdbaby.com/cd/cakefolder2
Spotify:
Amazon MP3:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0798BFY5L/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_ioVAAbWT1D0QB
Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/music/album/Cakefolder_Angel_Shirt?id=B546i7hotm7wuuwaqd2kktamfwq&hl=en_GB
Deezer:
http://www.deezer.com/us/album/55696362
Possibilities
If you’d like to listen to ‘Possibilities’ the new album by CakeFolder, you’d be welcome to check out the videos on this YouTube playlist:
If however, you’d like to get it on one of the popular online music services, there are a variety of options, including…
Introduction to ‘Possibilities’
Possibilities is the new album by Cakefolder… available from March 11th at iTunes, Spotify, and all the major online record stores.
“With this album I set myself the challenge of creating an entire album of electronic music – including proper songs – without using a computer to arrange and perform the tracks.
“I wanted to try a creative process that did not rely on looking at a computer screen. On the computer, you perceive the music as blocks on a grid, much like a spreadsheet, rather than sound waves travelling through the air into your ears.
“There’s so much great hardware out there these days that allows for jamming – especially the latest generation of hardware synths from Korg.
“When a four-piece rock band get together for a jam, they’re listening and responding to what each other are playing… they’re reacting to the little differences and the musical arrangement is evolving dynamically, organically even. If the lead guitarist is suddenly inspired to launch into an improvised solo in the middle of a song, the other band members can react accordingly, and the song changes shape, becomes better.
“I’m not in a 4-piece band. It’s just me. But the technology allows me to play all those parts myself, so I’m jamming with myself. If I deliberately (or accidentally) trigger or mute a sound in a different way, I’m able to quickly react and adapt with the other instruments.
“Even the vocals would be loaded up into my sample player, so I could trigger the vocal snippets at the appropriate time to suit the improvised arrangement of the musical track. Of course I had to write quite concise lyrics because I’ve only got 65 seconds of storage on my sample player. But these are the self-imposed limitations that force you to be innovative.
“So the song creation process became a process of preparing sounds and musical sequences, and then performing the song in real time, jamming against myself, over and over again, each time new ideas being added and modified and adopted, until eventually (after several hours) through iteration and practisebb, I would end up with a performance that was what I wanted it to be… which I would then record to audio as a simple stereo mix, and video.
“Just knowing that it would not be possible to fix anything afterwards, ‘in the mix’, meant I really had to get it right at the point where I recorded it into the computer – this made the creative process not only exciting and oddly liberating.
“When you listen to the resulting recordings, the sense of excitement and danger shines through.”
‘Possibilities’, the new album by Cakefolder, is out on March 11th…
sm2n 