Surachai

It has been an incredible amount of work to get to this point and I’m proud to announce that Plague Diagram is now out!! Pre-Orders got shipped out today.

The album is free to download, has a $3 Hi-Def download option, is available on 180 gram, clear vinyl (limited edition of 500) and there is a sick shirt – all physical orders come with stickers. I’m partial to the vinyl release as it was the reason the album was held up for a few months and it sounds sick – lots of clear highs, sub bass and transients that punch at your chest! Not to mention, the vinyl edition is beautiful in its minimalistic design. Also with the vinyl purchase, I’ll pass over the vinyl digital masters if you request it in your order. The video below is of the assembly process.

This is a 100% independent release, having no help from labels or outside funding. Any promotion, interviews or help would be appreciated as I’m only one person. Contact info@surachai.org for inquiries.

Plague Diagram Notes
Isolation (Featuring Alessandro Cortini, Richard Devine, Otto von Schirach)
Ashes (Featuring Nordvargr, Andre Sanabria)
Void (Featuring Otto von Schirach)
No Names (Featuring Richard Devine)

Artwork – Bridget Driessen
Digital Mastering – James Cigler
Vinyl Mastering – Shawn Hatfield
Devised by Surachai Sutthisasanakul

– Plague Diagram

Plague Diagram has a release date: It will be January 24th! I’ll be sending out an e-mail offering pre-order specials, including discounted vinyl editions and access to limited edition test pressings. If you want in, sign up below! E-mails go out tomorrow!

The past year was incredible for music and here is a list of my favorite releases.

Deathspell Omega – Paracletus
One of the most musically confusing and complex releases in recent memory. Like other bands that do complexity and confusion correctly, there are moments that bring you to a ‘holy shit’ realization that Deathspell Omega is controlling your every breath and all you can do it try to keep up. The production is clean but not polished which works perfectly. Paracletus is one of the most beautiful and engaging albums I’ve come across and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.
http://www.myspace.com/deathspellomega

Nails – Unsilent Death
A grind monstrosity from LA recorded by Kurt Ballou. A dream come true. Colossal walls of guitars, Kurt behind the production and catchy arrangements make Unsilent Death one of my favorite albums from a band I had no idea that existed a few months ago.

Enabler – Eden Sank to Grief
This one came from left field. I was browsing Halo of Flies Records and randomly found this band which turns out to be one of the most aggressive and energetic bands I’ve come across this year. Recorded by Shane Hochstetler at Howl Street Recordings in Milwaukee and it sounds great!
http://www.myspace.com/enablermilwaukee

The Secret – Solve Et Coagula
Another album engineered by Kurt Ballou at God City Studios and another one on this list. Great sounding record that has incredible energy and intensity that carves into your brain. Don’t listen to it.
http://www.myspace.com/thesecret

Sonoio – Sonoio
I usually don’t listen to friends’ music but I got over that quick when I caught myself singing along to this album. Honestly, I’m surprised this album even exists given the tools that were made to create it. Creating melodic music on a Buchla is no easy task and I’m glad that someone not only accomplished it but ran with it.
http://sonoio.com

Twilight – Monument to Time End
One of the few bands that incorporates modestly used drones and electronics to compliment their appropriate black metal production. Catchy as hell and one of my favorite releases from Southern Lord this year.

Trap Them – Filth Rations
Ok, so the genre description for this band is spot on: Death Punk. It has the brutality and tone of Death Metal and the wordiness, agility and energy of Punk. Like Marston, anything Kurt Ballou touches is going to sound amazing and this is no exception.
http://www.myspace.com/trapthem

Rotten Sound – Napalm
Just a taste of their full length coming out on Relapse in 2011 and I’m salivating. One of the few bands that gets better as time goes and anything they put out I will buy. Pick up ‘Cycles’ if you want to see some monstrous production and the best sounding grind guitars.
http://www.myspace.com/rottensound

Castevet – Mounds of Ash
All of the genre mashing that reviewers put on this album confuse the hell out of me and while it probably has merit its not the sound of Castevet. This, as with many, band simply do their thing while people try to categorize them. Mounds of Ash is usually listened to in its entirety and then repeats until it’s time for Black Ops.
http://www.myspace.com/castevet

Black Swan – In 8 Movements
If I had to pick one drone album this year, it’d end up being In 8 Movements. Using degenerative repetition while introducing melodic elements keeps it interesting, beautiful and something you always want to come back to.
http://blackswan.bandcamp.com/album/black-swan-in-8-movements

1349 – Demonoir
I stumbled onto the entire discography of 1349 this year and kept coming back to a couple albums, Demonoir and Hellfire. Since Hellfire was released in 2005, I’ll just go with Demonoir for this list. It’s probably a combination of clarity of the high production and the infectious songwriting. I’m not sure what they’re trying to accomplish with their Tunnel interludes but they should probably call me up to get that taken care of.
http://www.myspace.com/1349official

Big Black Delta – BBDEP1
Catchy pop electronics that can’t be forgotten once you listen. The grimy and dirty production works to Big Black Delta’s full advantage with this EP.
http://bigblackdelta.com/

Haus Arafna – You
Scott Jaeger introduced me to these guys and I feel like their albums should be included with his modules or you should at least listen to them before meeting the guy. One of the few electronic bands that make me uncomfortable with their sounds and I love it.
http://www.myspace.com/hausarafna

Daughters – Daughters
Haters gonna hate. Call it “something”-core or whatever reduces a bands work into a couple words but the production on the album stands out as well as their vast array of sounds they use.
http://www.myspace.com/daughters1

Liturgy – Renihilation (2009)
New to me but not new. I’ll listen to anything Colin Marston touches either musically or production-wise as I feel he really understands the bands’ sonic image. Colin has seen out really great sounding records but with Liturgy he took a minimalistic approach in the spirit of early Black Metal recordings which works well with this album.
http://www.myspace.com/liturgynybm

A few requests for interviews and random questions have been asked and in an attempt to provide some insight on the process and release of Plague Diagram, this page will serve as a information to, hopefully, clear everything up. If you have questions please leave them in the comments.

Plague Diagram will be released on both digital formats and vinyl in early-mid December. The downloads will be a choice between a free mp3 version or a $3 hi-definition upgrade that includes source audio as well as other hi-fi options. The vinyl will be presented on transparent , high quality 180 gram disc. Thick enough to decapitate the closest thing next to you. It’ll cost $17, comes with beautiful full-sized artwork by Bridget Driessen, a sticker, personal thank you notes and hopefully, posters.

After mixing the album I took advice from friends and decided to outsource the mastering for the digital release. I thought about my choices and decided to use someone that works with high quality products on a daily basis, James Cigler. James explains his mastering process:

I used the UAD Manley Massive Passive plug-in to bring out some of the high end detail of the electronic sounds on the tracks; they sounded really great, but at times could be overpowered by the guitars. I also used it on some tracks to dip down some of the low-mid region as well as add some rumble to the drums.  Each track ended up calling for slightly different EQ frequencies, boost/cut and Q amounts, but the general approach for each was essentially the same.  Additionally, I used a yet-to-be-released plug-in to add a lot of “analog” character and natural sounding compression and saturation to each track – this worked incredibly well at adding a lot of punch and heavy sounding attack to the drums while gluing together the upper end of the frequency spectrum a lot better.  Lastly, I used the UAD Precision Limiter plug-in, adjusting for optimal release times for each track, in order to prevent digital overs as well as keep the dynamics in check without sounding overly compressed or unnatural.

The mastering for the vinyl was slightly different. Immediately after I decided to release on vinyl, my hunt started for a mastering engineer as I have not a clue how to master for vinyl. I remember reading an article on Sound on Sound here. It said:

Despite what you may have heard, mastering for vinyl is the easiest type of mastering you can do, as it involves only two steps: 1. Find a mastering engineer who has mastered a ton of recordings for release on vinyl. 2. Present your final mixes to that person and say “Here, you do it.”

I started to ask friends from all spectrums of the audio world and found Shawn Hatfield of Audible Oddities. He has mastered several of my friends records and also releases great music I used to listen to obsessively under the name Twerk. Being familiar with the mastering work he’s performed I knew he was the guy for the job. His rates are ridiculous for the amount of quality you end up with. Shawn had this to say about the mastering process for Plague Diagram:

The signal chain was fairly straight forward though having the Massive Passive allows for some interesting EQ. I used a shelf to add air, but gave that shelf a strong Q which gives it a dip of a couple dB at the chosen frequency. This allowed me to pull up some clarity in the drums but slightly suppress some of the piercing guitar all at once with a single EQ band. From there it went into the Manley Vari-Mu in compression mode, and just barely “kissed” the audio with less than 1dB of compression but used the input and output gain to add a little mojo as it hit the HEDD convertor with a touch (both at 2) of Pentode and Tape harmonics to add a layer of subtle but effective harmonics and saturation in the bottom.

As you can see, both of these mastering engineers used some similar components in their signal chain and came out with incredible results. The end product definitely take full advantage of the medium they’re presented on. The digital version is huge and strangely warm. It brings out the aggression and extensive range of sounds on found on all the layers. It’s not the loudest album but it breathes and brutalizes just as heavy as any other album. The vinyl release has a large dynamic range and the simplest way I can describe it is that it feels like an assault. All the analog components that Shawn used make the drums, at times, feel like a weapon and the synths sound like shimmering knives cutting through bone. Because of the snappy transients that Shawn dialed in – it sounds as deadly as it was intended to.

The manufacturing process of the vinyl has been (and currently still is!) incredibly stressful as I’m trying my best to keep the audio quality as high as possible. I contacted multiple vinyl pressing plants where they insisted I send in an audio cd where they would make record off of. I made them repeat this back to me just to be sure I was hearing correctly. I wish I could have recorded those conversations because you would have heard my brain melt through my nose with disgust and awe. Essentially they were compromising the quality of the album by making it 16 bit 44,100 kHz and restricting the quality to CD. What would be the point of that?! I finally settled on United Record Pressing where they spent the time to answer my dumb questions, clear up my insecurities on the process and most importantly retain the quality that Shawn Hatfield sent me with 24 bit, 48 kHz. They talked me out of some ideas I had because it would’ve affected the quality of the audio and I’ve decided on clear vinyl (which has a beautiful hypnotizing pattern) on high quality 180 gram discs. I’ve received test pressings that I’m not 100% satisfied with and it seems like they’re trying to accommodate my wishes for the highest quality possible. I’ll keep you posted on the process.

The artwork was created by Bridget Driessen whom I worked with before with Decrepit, Designed Deficiency and Programmed Cell Death. Like before I was always blown away by her attention to detail, evolution as an artist and ability to say something out of abstracts. I’ve never felt it was my place to tell where the artist to go but they needed to know where Plague Diagram is coming from. She asked what color template I wanted and told her a preference but left it up to her to follow it or not. The artwork can be seen in it’s intended medium when purchasing a vinyl copy of Plague Diagram. It’ll feature lyrics and credits on a 22 inch foldout. The digital files will feature only the cover and miss out on some extra goodies I’ll be throwing into all physical shipments like stickers and handwritten notes.

I’ll talk about my creative process in the next article. There are two songs now available for download above or here:

– Plague Diagram
– Twitter
– Facebook

The opening track called Isolation to Plague Diagram is available for download over at PlagueDiagram.com. It features Alessandro Cortini on the Electronic Music Box, Richard Devine on modular synthesizers and additional DSP, Otto von Schirach with guest vocals and additional DSP work. Isolation sets the tone for the rest of the album and is probably the most user friendly track on Plague Diagram. Ashes, the next track, will be released in the coming weeks.

The album is currently set to be out early December on 180 gram clear vinyl and digital downloads with artwork by Bridget Driessen. I’ll continue to post updates on the release through twitter, facebook, here and at PlagueDiagram.com. If you have questions or comments the best way to engage me are those mediums.

– Twitter
– Facebook
– Plague Diagram