New Better Than The Book single "Meteor Shower" and pre-orders for the Hopes and Dreams album launch TOMORROW, some happy 505 Day videos + celebrating 2 years of Jabun's debut album Daydream!

Hi everyone and hope you're having a great week since the last post! It's been a super busy one over here getting everything prepared for the launch of the lead single from the new Better Than The Book - Hopes and Dreams album, "Meteor Shower", (more on that in a moment) as well as celebrating some other special things throughout the week too! Lots of things to share this time so let's get started!

Let's start with news of what's to come. After much hard work and preparation, I'm super excited to finally announce that the lead single from the upcoming Better Than The Book - Hopes and Dreams album, "Meteor Shower" will be launching this Friday 10th May at 6pm BST on YouTube along with a fantastic lyric video courtesy of my good friend and collaborator, Vladimir Kuznetsov of World Beyond! Not only that, but at the very same time pre-orders will be opening for the Hopes and Dreams album on Bandcamp, as well as the album cover art finally being revealed to the public! Come join the premier via the YouTube video link below (This will become a proper video once the premier has started), and keep an eye on the Better Than The Book Bandcamp page to see the new album art, album credits, and pre-order Hopes and Dreams:

https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/

Remember too that the Hopes and Dreams album has already been released to the $5+ monthly patrons over on Patreon, so if you can't wait to hear the rest of the album, head over to Patreon to receive early access to the album over 2 months before it releases to the public! I hopes you enjoy it!

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

Next this week, a bit of a different celebration for the 5th of May, which I'd decided this year to make an unofficial 505 Day honouring the Roland TR-505 drum machine, an unsung hero in Roland's synth history! The rest of the Roland X0X machines get a lot of love with the TB-303, TR-808, TR-909 and more recently the SP-404 having their own dedicated days of celebration by the Roland Corporation, either sharing articles or launching new products on these special days to celebrate their technology which has made a huge mark on the music industry. The TR-505 hasn't made quite as big an impact as it's siblings but is undoubtedly a charming drum machine in its own right, and on this 5th of May, the first that's come now that I actually own a TR-505, I thought it'd be nice to make some short videos to remind people of this lovely instrument an its quintessentially 80s digital character! The one I'm playing of course was a 29th birthday present from my twin brother Eamon last month, my first instrument older than I am (1986), and while I'm still getting used to programming it properly, I thought I'd do some finger-drumming for 505 Day and share it with the world. Check out the video below:

[For those interested, the TR-505 was recorded in mono through the Korg ESX Electribe (Red machine above it) adding a touch of reverb and valve saturation, before heading to my Akai MPC 1000 to capture the audio which was then synced to the video in post editing].

Here's another extra video from the same session, though this time it's just the camera mic:

Whether you're an avid drum machine fan or you've only heard about the TR-505 today, I hope you enjoy the videos above and I look forward to recording with it properly soon! ​No doubt this gem will be on the next Jabun album which I aim to start working on later this year. Anyways, a belated Happy 505 Day to you all, and I look forward to 808 day when I'll likely be doing a similar video with my TR-08 reissue of the classic machine (unless I get 606 or 707 in the mean time)! Fun times!

Lastly this week, a big celebration for the 4th of May as my debut chill / electronic album as Jabun, Daydream, celebrates 2 years since its release! Man how the time flies! If you've yet to hear it, then feel free to sit back, relax and have a listen via the player below (make sure to start from track 01) and feel free to pick up a copy on Bandcamp if you like it. It's been a while since I've worked on similar chill vibes, but once the BTTB - Hopes and Dreams album is out, and after another brief excursion, I hope to get back to it and start on another Jabun EP or album later this year. Looking forward to it, and while you wait, enjoy Daydream:

That about wraps thing up for this post! I hope you're all excited as I am for the "Meteor Shower" lyric video launch tomorrow so come join the premier on YouTube and check out the BTTB Bandcamp page as soon as you're done to read more about the upcoming album, check out the cover art and pick up a pre-order! I'm sure you'll love it! No doubt that next week will be busy with the promo work for the new single but there'll definitely be more to share in the next blog post so look forward to that. Until then I hope you have a great week and thanks as always for support JabunAudio, Better Than The Book and my various music projects. Take care until then, and I hope you enjoy the new and old music and videos!