Better Than The Book - Two Years On is OUT and now available on Bandcamp, iTunes, and all major digital distributors; Vlad made a Lovely Typography Video; the One Small Step EP hits iTunes; + More

It's been a super busy week getting everything sorted for last night's release of the new Better Than The Book Album - Two Years On! It's been such a journey creating this piece of work, it seems almost crazy now that it's finally out in the open and done. As you might expect, much of this week's news is BTTB related. Let's get started!

Firstly, as previously mentioned, the "Two Years On" album is now ready to purchase on Bandcamp, iTunes and all major digital distributors (though I'd recommend bandcamp for the best choices in format and price). The full album is also up for free streaming in its entirety on SoundCloud, YouTube and Newgrounds, so feel free to visit those streams and leave your comments. I plan to release the individual tracks on the BTTB Youtube Channel for streaming soon too. 

As part of the pre-release hype campaign, Vlad from World Beyond also made this fantastic Lyric video for Track 02 Homecoming, and from the reactions I've been getting Facebooked and Tweeted, the hyping has definitely worked a treat! Thanks so much Vlad! Please check out the video below:

With regards what to say about the album, I think the music itself speaks more than I could explain in a few words here, but I'd like to share some kind words from Vlad's World Beyond Blog which mean a great deal to me. I won't say any more right now, but for a full list of credits, thanks (and if you'd like it to pick up a copy) please visit the Better Than The Book Bandcamp page. Without further hesitation, I present to you: Better Than The Book -  Two Years On
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All track were written, performed and produced by Nick Standing [Jabun], with additional writing and vocals from Bob Axell [Cyberdevil] on “Re: HipHopPunk” and “Head Above Water”. All samples used are either property of Nick Standing, royalty free, or are in the public domain (as appropriate). Artwork was drawn by Nick Standing [Jabun]. 

Going with the theme of the final track, Confessions (but not really), I do have  a HUGE confession to make on the release of this album. While the album was supposed to go out at midnight on February 6th on Bandcamp (which it did), I kinda made a mistake with the iTunes distribution dates, in that I couldn't figure out how to set a start date for sale, but the system said it'd take 2 weeks for it to upload to stores to I figured, I'll be out later anyway. Well... I figured wrong! In actuality, the album went live on the iTunes store on Thursday, but I kept it quiet because I hadn't got the Bandcamp release fully prepared yet! Well... now that the album's out (everywhere), it seemed like a good story to tell! Another funny story comes from when I was called out for all the samples I've used in track 05 Channel Surfing, and I was asked to provide evidence of my eligibility to use them (to which I obviously did. I'm a punk not a thief!). I feel like a true sampling musician/artist now!

Onto the other news for this week. The One Small Step EP also has made its way onto the iTunes store which is pretty cool! The rest of my week has been continuing with orchestral arrangement for a school in California which is going well and on schedule. It's certainly been a busy week though and I should probably take a line from my own lyric sheets and "Leave behind this laptop screen... shutdown my Windows, and step out of my door"! Even following this major project release, I don't think I'll be able to get rest straight away, but perhaps at some point!

Now you may be asking, what's next music-wise, since this album is finished? Well there are actually around 10 more Better Than The Book song ideas already (little recording snippits, riffs and lyrics), but I think I'll be taking a ska punk break for a while. I'd love to get back to doing Jabun (electronic/orchestral) again and hope to do an Album/EP this year, so that's the next major release you should expect next! I'll still be working with all sorts of projects to earn a living too though so we shall see how busy things get!

That's it for this week! I'm not actually sure whether I'm here next week or not, so there may be an update, but for now I'll say that I'll be taking a (well earned?) break from the blog next week. I hope you enjoy the new album, and please share it with anyone who you think would be interested. Until next time, thanks for supporting JabunAudio and I hope you all have a good week(s). Take care!