Jega on bandcamp

Looks like a good chunk of the Jega catalog got added to bandcamp

https://jega.bandcamp.com/

geometry and spectrum are classics. gotta pull my copies off the shelf! i met him in SF once when he played in the basement of a bar in chinatown. some stories exist from that night for sure.

Hope to see his Skam releases show up.

geometry for me. stone cold classic from a bygone era. listening to rigid body dynamics feels like time travel these days. 

found some photos of that event on facebook

I like Jega and all but Planet Mu needs to get a grip with this.

Variance has grown on me so much over the years, it's an amazing album.

Also the Type Xer0 mech has always looked a ton like a Shoji Kawamori design to me.

  On 4/2/2021 at 6:42 AM, xyrofen said:

Variance has grown on me so much over the years, it's an amazing album.

 

I enjoy both the official release & the leaked one which made him rework the whole thing. Not sure if everyone knows there are 2 variance double albums

I love 1995 too.

  On 4/8/2021 at 3:39 AM, Stickfigger said:

I was not aware of that. 

I don’t know the exact story but it’s out there somewhere - the gist of it is that the album was ready to go by 2003 or so, and a “friend” of his leaked it. Anyways instead of releasing the original version he reworked it and it was released several years later. Gun to my head the original was better but both are rly good.

Edit: they reference it in the boomkat release notes “Yes IDM heads, that day has finally arrived! Dylan Nathan aka Jega has actually completed and delivered a full, unleaked, and much refreshed version of his 'Variance' album for Planet Mu. As history tells us, the draft version of this album was leaked onto the internet back in '03, forcing the producer back into the studio to complete an expansive double disc of contrasting styles only seeing the light of...”

I don’t recall where I got the original one (what.CD maybe? I thought what.cd started in like 2012 tho) but it looks like I archived it in 2006. 

  On 4/8/2021 at 4:08 AM, Stickfigger said:

How different are they ?

Quite. Like 85% diff - there are some tracks in the final release that are obviously reworks, some in the final like “Kyoto” that seem to be completely unrelated to the original album, and vice-versa (some in the original album that are nowhere to be found in any sense on the official release). 

variance does sound a little too polished. prefer the older stuff.

there was a while there where I listened to the leaked version of variance a lot.  Songs like aerodynamic don't hit right on the official release, most likely because I am so used to the leaked version, but to me it is better.  Not a fan of all the choir voices added.  Plus the leaked version of aerodynamic could easily go in a top 100 tracks list for me.  

Geometry is a great album, but Spectrum was one of those special albums during a real good period in music discovery for me(96-98), so I hold it in high regard.  

  On 4/8/2021 at 4:48 AM, cloud capture said:

there was a while there where I listened to the leaked version of variance a lot.  Songs like aerodynamic don't hit right on the official release, most likely because I am so used to the leaked version, but to me it is better.  Not a fan of all the choir voices added.  Plus the leaked version of aerodynamic could easily go in a top 100 tracks list for me. 

Big same bro. Used to play the leak a lot when I was a teen, mowing the lawn...listening takes me back, lol.

I found a youchube playlist of the original leaks-

This track f'kin bangs-

This turned into "Hydrodynamic" on the official release and it just doesn't hit the same way for me.

It seems like a lot of the tracks that made it from the leak to the final got a spacier treatment, with longer intros and a sparser, more "digital sheen" sound, where the originals were louder and more to the point, which was endearing in a way.

Oh yeah! The leaked version of Variance is very good. I do have a lot of thoughts on it that I'm sure some of you will share in. It's such a swath of music and WIP that it's actually great; it's probably a selfish thought but I wish we saw this happen more often, but only in the sense of getting to hear beta version of tracks/albums to see how they changed. This particular album has the mythos of how long it took after the leak to see light added to it on top of Jega's strong-but-few releases. Almost nothing sounds like his music, even despite so many of the sounds being all around the scene (what with the breaks and softer synth sounds), his productions are all uniquely his.

The original Aerodynamic is massive. The version that made it onto the final release is definitely more polished, which I sincerely think the track did deserve in many ways. The leaked version really needed some mixing and sound engineering love that is present in the final. Did the 1 minute long intro need to become a thing? No, it became rather theatrical, but it's a more realized track and is still massive. I'm a huge fan of how it starts to deconstruct in the latter third.

Bicubi is renamed to Aqueminae. It swells more in the background, the original is more subdued but both are very pretty.

Haze became Latinhypercube. Haze to me definitely sounds unrealized and needed this. Not to say I don't like it, but it sounds skeletal and like it was pending revision. Really interesting to see the changes applied.

Whisperplane I think was beta for something else. I can't totally tell right now, fun Jega beats though.

Intron-x I think be played into Hydrodynamic with Acid and Hydro? I like where it went, I like both. This is a very "versions" thing to me and I like seeing the differences in direction. Acid is massive, I like all three of these but they definitely share a lot of similarities. Hydro and Acid sound very related.

Indica I think became Shibuya but I don't know. The flow relatively the same throughout. Indica is does feels simple but is pretty.

BMX is Reprise with less polish. I like Reprise more, this was some really great care added to it.

Caustic reminds me of Dreams and Zenith in a way. Zenith is one of my favorite tracks on the release after all this time.

I realize I linked nothing to Chromadynamic, and there's definitely some that are tied to it.

As far as I can tell the following didn't make it out:

Convolver didn't seem to make it through and that's a shame. This reminds me of the sound from Geometry, which I loved. Fireball really needed some mixing love, or maybe it just sounds kind of bitcrushed. This track is great though and I love the Transformers transforming sample in here that I know he's used elsewhere.

Ghost didn't make it out. I think it could have, but I kind of see why it didn't. Fun track.

Mixdown Bass. There's something here and I can hear bits and pieces in various tracks of the final.

Pass Arani I really enjoy, probably one of my favorites, but could go somewhere. Shame.

Pixel is pleasant.

shaft is fun, maybe didn't want to release it because of the sample?

Theme is an amen banger with a great synth line and cuts.

On the final release I absolutely love:

SoulFlute, The Girl Who Fell to Earth, Dreams, Zenith, Shibuya, Chromadynamic, Aerodynamic, Latinhypercube, Hydrodynamic, Reprise.

  On 4/9/2021 at 1:34 AM, xyrofen said:

Oh yeah! The leaked version of Variance is very good. I do have a lot of thoughts on it that I'm sure some of you will share in. It's such a swath of music and WIP that it's actually great; it's probably a selfish thought but I wish we saw this happen more often, but only in the sense of getting to hear beta version of tracks/albums to see how they changed. This particular album has the mythos of how long it took after the leak to see light added to it on top of Jega's strong-but-few releases. Almost nothing sounds like his music, even despite so many of the sounds being all around the scene (what with the breaks and softer synth sounds), his productions are all uniquely his.

The original Aerodynamic is massive. The version that made it onto the final release is definitely more polished, which I sincerely think the track did deserve in many ways. The leaked version really needed some mixing and sound engineering love that is present in the final. Did the 1 minute long intro need to become a thing? No, it became rather theatrical, but it's a more realized track and is still massive. I'm a huge fan of how it starts to deconstruct in the latter third.

Bicubi is renamed to Aqueminae. It swells more in the background, the original is more subdued but both are very pretty.

Haze became Latinhypercube. Haze to me definitely sounds unrealized and needed this. Not to say I don't like it, but it sounds skeletal and like it was pending revision. Really interesting to see the changes applied.

Whisperplane I think was beta for something else. I can't totally tell right now, fun Jega beats though.

Intron-x I think be played into Hydrodynamic with Acid and Hydro? I like where it went, I like both. This is a very "versions" thing to me and I like seeing the differences in direction. Acid is massive, I like all three of these but they definitely share a lot of similarities. Hydro and Acid sound very related.

Indica I think became Shibuya but I don't know. The flow relatively the same throughout. Indica is does feels simple but is pretty.

BMX is Reprise with less polish. I like Reprise more, this was some really great care added to it.

Caustic reminds me of Dreams and Zenith in a way. Zenith is one of my favorite tracks on the release after all this time.

I realize I linked nothing to Chromadynamic, and there's definitely some that are tied to it.

 

As far as I can tell the following didn't make it out:

Convolver didn't seem to make it through and that's a shame. This reminds me of the sound from Geometry, which I loved. Fireball really needed some mixing love, or maybe it just sounds kind of bitcrushed. This track is great though and I love the Transformers transforming sample in here that I know he's used elsewhere.

Ghost didn't make it out. I think it could have, but I kind of see why it didn't. Fun track.

Mixdown Bass. There's something here and I can hear bits and pieces in various tracks of the final.

Pass Arani I really enjoy, probably one of my favorites, but could go somewhere. Shame.

Pixel is pleasant.

shaft is fun, maybe didn't want to release it because of the sample?

Theme is an amen banger with a great synth line and cuts.

 

On the final release I absolutely love:

SoulFlute, The Girl Who Fell to Earth, Dreams, Zenith, Shibuya, Chromadynamic, Aerodynamic, Latinhypercube, Hydrodynamic, Reprise.

Expand  

This guy really likes Jega.

me too

Aerodynamic and Theme (from 1998) made it onto Planet µ compilations that came out around that time.

Pass Arani was a remix of Marco Passarani's Phonok

This is one of my all time favourite tunes!! Bo!!!

Naem - YouTube

Still waiting on Spectrum 2. Spectrum is for me the best thing he did. 

  On 4/29/2021 at 2:23 PM, TheBro said:

This is one of my all time favourite tunes!! Bo!!!

Naem - YouTube

Still waiting on Spectrum 2. Spectrum is for me the best thing he did. 

Yeah me too.  Any word on what happened with this?

  On 4/29/2021 at 2:31 PM, Extralife said:

Yeah me too.  Any word on what happened with this?

No idea. Maybe someone should e-mail him lol.

I emailed him. No response yet lol.