Phase With The Moon - Track By Track Breakdown

Isle Royale Study - this portrays the wolf as an object of human scientific study, without getting too hard-edged on the science side of things, so, science as more of a warm, squishy human behavior than a cold system of principles. we watch them, we want to know what they're up to. it also refers to Isle Royale in Lake Superior, which is an awesome place I have yet to visit (regrettably!) that harbors several wild wolf packs.

Den Mother Dear - in this one I wanted to portray the wolf as a warm-blooded, loving family-oriented being, and to kind of tell its story from its own point of view. i wanted to draw an emotional connection between our world and the world of wolves, so i appealed to the idea of a mother's gentle affection.

King of Currumpaw - this covers the wolf as the object of myth and fantastical tall-tale style celebration in human culture, and simultaneously, tells the story of how Ernest Seton went from being a trapper to an animal lover and advocate. It refers to a particular wolf who eluded trappers amazingly until they killed his mate and brutally injured him. When Ernest Seton realized the level of savagery he had sunk to just to bag the animal, he became a reformed animal protection crusader for the rest of his life - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobo_the_King_of_Currumpaw (it's a short article, but worth a read I think!)

Aerial Kill - this one is about the practice of aerial wolf hunting (gunning them down from airplanes in Alaska), a program that was twice dismantled by majority vote by the people of Alaska, and twice reinstated by government officials against their wishes and against the biological community's findings. The claim is that it serves the purpose of population control, but many hunters feel it is brutal, unsportsmanlike, and is carried out by contracted "thrill killers". (here is a fairly decent video explaining the dealio - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KTLeLqw7Hw )

Phase With The Moon - I wrote this track in 2006, and it has barely been changed since then except for having a few volume levels tweaked. It is the beating heart of the EP. I'd be lying if I said it never brought a tear to my eye. Being just a pretty track about how I think wolves are cool, it doesn't portray anything really, but it is probably the most innocent and heartfelt piece of music on the whole EP. Pointless trivia: the faint sample at the very end is a baby wolf doing its first howl, recorded off a National Geographic program.

Ely Rendezvous Site - this track portrays the wolf as a Minnesotan creature. Boreal Network has always been in part a love letter to Minnesota, and the state is unique in that it harbors an environment for many wild wolves up north. Ely is the town where the International Wolf Center is located - and 'Rendezvous Site' refers to the place where wolves meet throughout their life to find mates.

Once Roamed - just two words, a warning from the future, and a reminder of the past.

Write up by Nicole Johnson of Boreal Network. Get Phase With The Moon here.

Review Of Midmir's 'Step Into A Dream'

Phuturelabs have done a nice little review of Midmir's Step Into A Dream which was released a short while ago. Check it out here. There's some other great recommendations on that site too, cheers guys!

Quick Update For What's Coming Over Christmas/New Year!

Hey guys, just thought i'd give an update on the next few releases coming out over Christmas and the New Year. Firstly there's the new Boreal Network record Bikehigh USA 2: Nettles Revenge, which is the latest installment in Boreal's annual (hopefully for years to come) Bikehigh USA series. As ever with Nicole Johnson's music it's just brilliant from start to finish. A track from the soon to be released mini-album is now listed on the featured tracks on our homepage, titled Bikehigh Forever, it's awesome.

There's a couple more releases confirmed too, one around Christmas and one around the New Year. We've kept the artists a secret till their release as a pleasant surprise around these festive times! However there's a track featured from each release on our featured tracks to listen to now, some people may have heard these already, I've no idea if they've been on MySpace before now, but if you do know, keep it a surprise eh! ;)

Hope these releases will bring people lots of free auditory joy over the coming month.

The featured tracks can be found directly on our homepage, just hit the play buttons!

All the best.

First Off...A Big Thank You!

This blog will be updated regularly in the near future with relative news and nuggets of interest within and around the world of Retronym. But to kick off, we'd like to thank each and every one of you who have listened to the music on offer, told your friends about us, and especially those lovely people who have released excellent material upon our little hub...and all for FREE!

The friendly users of Twoism forums have been greatly supportive, giving some excellent feedback and even contributing their own material which oozes with personality and intruige. It's amazing to think really that this BoC inspired community can produce so many brilliant artists with a keen and ever expanding interest in audio exploration.

A big thank you also goes to those than have purchased our music. The fact that people want to own our homemade releases makes us smile, and it's something we'd like to expand upon in the near future. However, all our releases will remain completely free to obtain, in some shape or form!

We'd also like to thank those lovely bloggers and journal posters who spread the word of our releases such as last.fm user Sefotron, who wrote this lovely review of GABRIEL's Roads We Travel:

"...Wow. Just. Wow.

I've been waiting for something like this for a long, long time. I can't comment too much as I am still on my first listen through (right this very instant), but so far, this has been one of the most lovely albums I have heard in a very long time.

It's simply wonderful; the sound of 1980's maths programmes, mingled with blurry polaroids of forgotten childhood holidays and the optimistic possibilities of the first morning of the six weeks holidays. Really making me smile this one.

And on the off chance you are reading this GABRIEL; nice job matey! 10/10. More please!"

For as long as you guys keep putting a smile on our faces, we will offer the same in return for a long time to come.

Here's to ever growing collective expression!

On a sidenote, Boreal Network's latest full-length DOS Image will be released in a matter of days. As a little taster, here's a rather fittingly 16-bit video of the track Hitops 88, created by the talented Paracat: