As promised, Red Ankh has dropped 11 complete rerecordings, 1 new remix, and 7 new covers in the form of their Classics Compilation 01. Two hours and forty-four seconds of Red Ankh’s finest work, on new equipment, using new techniques, and this time with the whole band contributing vocals. From now on, they make what they imagine, not held back by technical restrictions. RED ANKH LIVES, BETTER THAN EVER.
This one’s on Spotify and the other major streaming services and digital retailers February 1st, 2024.
They haven’t forgotten about the Red/Black rework, and that’s coming up next!
Pictured here: the old ruler seems as immortal as his tradition’s designs, but in fact both are but carvings of sand
Another single from the Red Ankh compilation is ready! This time it’s I Demand Order beefed up with disto kickdrums. More tunes are already ready to stream on the 19-track pre-order-able album on Bandcamp.
From Red Ankh: We’ve got the mojo back. Since 2014 we’ve released some major works pretty quietly via Shyfted Minds: the reconstruction of Red Ankh’s instrumental album UNIVERSE in 2015, a couple Synthetic Experiments EPs in the same year, the steamcore horror booms album Cing of Cogs in 2016, the hardcore compilation album Down the Road of No Return in 2017, and the giant rebuild and expansion of the [Feind] album plus its counterpart album [Shyft] in 2020, focusing on gritty, dark industrial aspects of a handful of genres and the limits of synthwave, respectively. These dropped on Bandcamp and Spotify but as soon as they did we put them down to focus on fiction writing and interpersonal stuff, having bursts of focus on a new Red Ankh album here and there, nearly finishing a few songs. After a couple major life changes we wound up with the resources to build a decent sound studio and the time and motivation to use it, so in April of this year it was the Red Ankh project’s turn to start getting something big ready for release, after ten years since the last fresh album. It’s strange to see that in writing. Ideas for Red Ankh are always turning over in our heads, and we’ve never lost a draft–they’ve just been waiting–so it doesn’t feel like that could possibly be right, ten years since Shadow. But here we are, with new tools, new skills, finally ready to finish the flagship Red Ankh double album that we started way back in 2006, finally ready to finish Red/Black.
The old drafts of albums Red (featuring the above song Gloricia) and Black were just under 70 minutes each, and we’ve only expanded some arrangements since then. They’re folky, they’re symphonic, and they got the big overdrive kicks. We’re all contributing our voices this time, our new grasp of philosophy to the lyrics, and the technical quality of things is going to be vastly improved over previous releases. And it doesn’t stop there. Some day, we’d like to rerecord all old Red Ankh releases (again, for some of them), but for now we’re simultaneously working on a compilation album of some of our favorite Red Ankh tracks (featuring the above version of Tahztey Greaggor), ones we thought could gain a lot from rerecording with current resources. On top of that, we’re also working on Red Ankh versions of old underground industrial/synthpop favorites from the 90s and early 2000s that have gained enough traction to be released on the compo. Much to do, much excitement to do it with!
Red/Black is about 80% there, and we hope to drop a couple more singles soon. The classics/covers compilation is maybe 70%.
And then… we’ll see how much momentum we have left for finishing the eclectic cyberpunk/folkprog synth metal album, Green.
Red Ankh is still plugging away at revising their old albums for rerelease, but some thing came over them and they jumped back from the on-deck Green album to UNIVERSE, the instrumental, many-genre-blending album from two thousand five, the one written between This is Our New Age and Bronze. UNIVERSE is comprised of four long pieces that progress through organic styles of music, with a hard core/gabber alternate version of a refrain section thrown in for good measure! The first track of this album, A Little Bit of Every Thing, is the second fifteen minute plus track to be written under the Red Ankh name, the first being Made Zon from their second album, MASTER SYNTH. A Little Bit of Every Thing is twenty-six minutes and twenty-seven seconds long, which also means that it beats out both A Change of (Speechless) Reasons and Bittersweet in length, making it the longest Red Ankh song to date!
More than any thing else, A Change of (Speechless) Reasons, released as a single track in 2010, was inspired by UNIVERSE. As such, UNIVERSE and A Change of (Speechless) Reasons are together the most diverse Red Ankh releases to have been released so far, though where the former borrows from electronic genres as IDM, drum ‘n’ bass, and trance, UNIVERSE downplays its use of synths to leave more room to explore classical, jazz, and an assortment of folk genres. CAN YOU DIG IT? Click above image to acquire this monster for FREE!
Yep, Shyft’s fourth installment of Synthetic Experiments is finally available! SLOW BUT SURE. RIGHT? And, as a special treat, K.H.D. has made his first contribution to the Synthetic Experiments project, and this fifth volume is also now ready to be heard! These two stand out in other ways, though: they are being released on Bandcamp early, before retail releases, and they are both available on Bandcamp for FREE. Money is accepted and appreciated of course, but you can input an amount of zero to bypass payment. I still want Shyfted Minds to be remembered as offering free music, and, with this Shyft release being one of the least DJ friendly to date, I’d really like to make sure that people just have the chance to have and listen to the unconventional oddness when ever and where ever they please. Hit the images above to get your cyber fingers dipped in to these!
Shyft’s release will hit digital retailers on May fifth and K.H.D.’s will hit may ninth. Since Bandcamp is right here, this is mainly important for Spotify streaming, I imagine. Speaking of other outlets, click here to see K.H.D.’s video for Lebe Jetzt!.
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Stay tuned! Scorpyd also has a new release in the mastering phase, Shyft has two other Synthetic Experiments volumes near completion, one focusing on psychedelic trance influence and the other on industrial horror atmospheres. He’s also reviving an old, instrumental epic within the realm of Red Ankh…
The reboot of Red Ankh Green just won’t happen for a while, due to the sad fact of time restraints. In its stead, we have the Little Green EP! No, it’s not just the few tracks from Green that were managed to be finished; it’s three brand new tracks and one gabber remix (cause that’s what we do here). The first track is vocal heavy, lyrically expounding on the essence of folk metal in general. It is more reserved than the others in a technical sense. The second and third tracks are both instrumentals focusing on Germanic folk influences and Caribbean folk influences, respectively. Ever wanted to hear a metal track full of steel (or pan, considering your frame of reference) drums? Well, Red Ankh sure as hell did. If you’re over there going, ‘The hell is a steel drum or a pan drum? Aren’t all modern drums made with steel and are more or less pan-shaped?’ Well, YOU FOOL- remember those plinky, bright staccato instruments in half of the up-beat tunes in Super Mario World? No, not the piano. Yes, that other thing. That was a MIDI-style synthetic version of a steel drum.
Any way… K.H.D. of course is the remix artist on this one, as medieval melodies are his thing. The album art is all eight-bitty because I’m pretty sure my love of folk metal was directly influenced by old-school fantasy adventure and role-playing video game sound tracks. That, and may be I missed my old, crappy pixel art and may be I wanted to give it an other go. You’ll notice that the release date differs from this post date. This is because most folk metal belongs during autumn, the non-remix tracks were all ready to ship in autumn, and I do what I want! It’ll be up on Spotify and stuff in a couple weeks or some thing.
IN OTHER NEWS, K.H.D.’s new massive release is all complete now; we’re just waiting for the cover art. Predaking is returning with a new release, which very well may be ready next week’s end. As you can see, we’re rather relaxed about release dates around here. We’re an organic organization with digital hearts! Or some such nonsense.
For the purpose of better organization, Shyfted Minds will from now on delegate its heavy metal releases to a sub-label, Shyfted Minds of Metal or SHMM. It’s catalog begins with deluxe versions of Red Ankh’s Shadow and Gray double albums, which include instrumental versions of songs. Through this label Red Ankh enters in to the digital retail realm, but these albums can still be purchased for cheaper on Bandcamp, and the instrumental tracks are now included as free bonus material on that channel. Follow the link path through the image above to these, if you have yet to acquire them and would wish to do so.
As said, here it be. The Zarkerovense remix that you may have heard a sneak preview of last year made it. K.H.D. was responsible for that of course. Imil and 1nsane returned after long silences on SHM to tackle Ankh’s Terror and New. Dustrict answered the call with a heavy tune much more on the jungle side, but with its industrial build up it fits in fine. Shyft took two tracks as well, totaling six gabber remixes of industrial-metal-themed Red Ankh tracks. Sound familiar? Good. You belong here. Click the image above or here and enjoy this free release!
Got money that you don’t need? Want to pay a large corporation a hefty fee so that we can get a small cut and you can get cool representative items of our brands? Then this is the place for you! Have mouths to feed, don’t feel like turning your body or your flat-faced possessions in to portable advertisements, but would still like to support our creators of cool music? Look up our individual monikers on Bandcamp and buy some music!
More seriously, Zazzle’s manufacturing fees are kinda high, but so far I have been pretty well impressed with the quality of their products. I do love my Shyfted Minds jacket, for sure!
In other news, Deluxe editions of Red Ankh’s Shadow and Gray will be released in mid May through Bandcamp and major digital online retailers. These editions include instrumental versions of Red Ankh tracks, honoring the discontinued, original version of Gray from two thousand eight. The upcoming K.H.D. release sounds promising so far. Predaking is working on some thing completely different, some chip-tune drum and bass, and per haps under a different alias. Shyft has a string of experimental gabber EPs in the works, the first scheduled to be released next month. Aaaaaaand last, and probably least, the release date for Red Ankh Gray: The Gabber Mixes is as floating around as ever. It was decided to give the remaining two remix artists an extension to the dead line, since, well, hey! We were looking forward to hearing those!
To date, there are three Shyfted Minds releases that are available in CD format. Their pages that provide digital down loads link to these physical versions, but, for your convenience, links are provided here. These releases are also available on Amazon, but this store, a subdivision of Amazon, provides the artists more royalties.
Shyfted Minds 