In Case You Didn’t Know…

Post by JAI
Award winning composer, vocalist, and superheroine

Sensuous Enemy 2012

We have a lot to tell you about AND we have an exciting announcement! For those of you who don’t know about us, Sensuous Enemy is a female fronted electronic darkwave band that’s been around for almost a decade! We have worked hard writing, recording and performing solid music while going to school and working multiple jobs in order to support our number one passion…Music!

We started in 2004 and put out our first album “Deadly Sins”, which included six original songs and one cover that was released on Sonic Mainline label out of Madison, Wisconsin, owned and operated by Matt Fanale of the band Caustic.



In 2006 we came out with our first full length album “Fragments” with eight originals, one cover and four incredibly powerful remixes from some of the most well known bands in the EDM Industrial music genre.
The album was mixed and produced by Wade Alin of the bands The Atomica Project & Christ Analogue in Chicago and also released on Sonic Mainline label.

Then after a couple of years of continued growth and changing members we signed to a new label called Radio-Active-Music [RAM] out of Virginia Beach, Virginia, owned and operated by Laura Hofford. We released “Parity” in 2010 with three original songs and seven fabulous remixes.
In 2011 we continued writing new songs, we designed a new light show, performed numerous shows throughout the Midwest and we delivered a powerful and exciting east coast tour.

By the middle of 2013 we had written nine more songs. We wrote and recorded all summer and released our single “Sirens of the Sea” this past September with five moving remixes. In one short week you’ll now be able to purchase and listen to our newest and second full length album “Voyager”, with nine original songs, mixed and produced by Wisconsonites Dan Clark of Listless Works and mastered by Eric Oehler of Submersible Studios!
We will be performing most of “Voyager” at The Frequency in downtown Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday November 16th, with our new label mates Null Device and pounding dance beats provided by DJ Siberia!

That isn’t all though. The best news is that we recently signed with the long established, well known Nilaihah Records out of Columbus, OH,owned and operated by Kristy Venrick of the band The Azoic!! Both our single “Sirens of the Sea” and our full length album “Voyager” will be released under Nilaihah Records this month! We’re so excited to be a part of the Nilaihah team of bands and friends!! Check out our music and some of the fabulous bands currently signed to Nilaihah Records!

We look forward to performing for you in the near future. Thanks to all of our family, friends and fans and for all of your support, love and dedication. We could not have done this without YOU!

Death of a Great Industrial Music Label

It is with much sadness today that we announce our label Radio-Active-Music will no longer be in business. We have thoroughly enjoyed working with Laura Hofford Wilder, the owner, over the past two years and wish her the very best in her endeavors as she continues on with her new life in Colorado

We are thankful that we had the opportunity to have met and worked with so many wonderful and talented musicians, like The Dark Clan and XuberX, whom we’ve gotten to know much better due to being on the same label. It’s been a good run and we hope to find another label with as much vim and vigor as Radio-Active-Music!

So, until we find a new label home, you can still find us here at sensuousenemy.com and on CD Baby. We look forward to whatever the future has in store for us and we hope you’ll remember all the by-gone labels that brought you so many great artists and songs!

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Electronic Saviors 2 Cancer Benefit Chicago Festival

Post by JAI

Award winning composer, vocalist, and superheroine

Hey everyone!  We’ll be playing a fun festival on June 30th in Chicago at the LiveWire Lounge!

We’ll be participating in the Chicago ES2 Cancer Benefit Chicago Festival along with Ego Likeness, The Gothsicles, Rein[forced], Am.Psych, Cryogen Second, Short to Ground, Patricia Wake, with DJ sets from Matt Pathogen (Pandemic), and Wade Alin (Christ Analogue/Atomica Project).

Ticket prices are $10
21+ doors at 4:30 pm (1st band at 5pm)

More information is posted on the Facebook Event Page.

This new release,  Electronic Saviors 2: Recurrence,  includes 142 artists from all over the world with exclusive tracks from Covenant, I:Scintilla, The Gothsicles, God Module, System Syn, Project Pitchfork, Rein[forced], 16Volt, Caustic, Ayria, XuberX, Ego Likness, The Dark Clan, The Azoic, Null Device, Bella Morte and many more . This incredible project includes beautiful and insightful artwork from Jeff Confer and Samantha Johnson.  The boxed set will be released on May 8th and can be pre-ordered fromMetropolis.

“Jim dedicates this body of work to all who have suffered with cancer as well as survivors and loved ones touched by the disease.”

Related Links:

http://metropolis-mailorder.com/product.php?prodnum=MET+777

Electronic Saviors 2: Recurrence – Cancer Benefit & CD Release Party!

Post by JAI

Award winning composer, vocalist, and superheroine

We all know someone or a relative of someone who has fought cancer and either survived it or didn’t.  For those who beat it, after enduring chemotherapy, radiation and a host of other torturous treatments, there is always the question in the mind of the cancer survivor…will it come back again?  Cancer is a disease that affects all of us in one way or another.  It’s especially difficult to swallow when it happens to someone who has made such a positive humanitarian social impact.

Electronic/Industrial/Rock music scene promoter, DJ and Rein[Forced] frontman, Jim Semonik is the brains behind the Electronic Saviors compilations. Jim survived stage 2B colorectal cancer in 2008, and then created one of the most successful compilations with 83 musicians, presented in a lovely 8 panel digipak with 16 page booklet titled Electronic Saviors: Industrial Music To Cure Cancer.  This project raised over 20K for Charities.

This new release,  Electronic Saviors 2: Recurrence,  includes 142 artists from all over the world with exclusive tracks from Wisconsin’s very own Sensuous Enemy,  The Dark Clan, Caustic and Null Device,  along with bands Covenant, I:Scintilla, The Gothsicles, God Module, System Syn, Project Pitchfork, Rein[Forced], 16Volt, Ayria, XuberX, Ego Likness, The Azoic, Bella Morte and many more . This incredible project includes beautiful and insightful artwork from Jeff Confer and Samantha Johnson.  The boxed set will be released on May 8th and can be pre-ordered from Metropolis.

“Jim dedicates this body of work to all who have suffered with cancer as well as survivors and loved ones touched by the disease.”

Related Links:

http://metropolis-mailorder.com/product.php?prodnum=MET+777

http://clubinferno.com/events/5382/e-s-2-cd-caustic-sensuous-enemy-dark-clan-null-device

https://www.facebook.com/events/119084264882489/

Writing Intentions

Post by John Freriks

Programmer, guitarist, geneticist

I was digging through my backup hard drive, and came across some of the original project files for songs off our last 2 releases. So just for fun, I’m going to walk through the parts and give you an inside look at how our tracks come together.

We’ll start with Intentions. Everyone seems to like this track. No two songs are written the same way for us – Sometimes Jai has a melody and lyrics that I build soundscapes around; sometimes I’ll have the backing tracks 90% done before she starts putting words to them; sometimes we just jam until it sounds good (or it doesn’t, we drink heavily, and then quit in dejection.)

Intentions was written over a two week period, which is ridiculously fast for us. We’ll often tinker with a song for months on end (Kali, for instance, took 9 months to complete) so having a track come together so quickly and the results being as good as they were very welcome. We had just recorded three songs for the Parity EP and weren’t happy with one of them. We needed a third track to put out the EP. It turned out to be one of our most popular songs.

Tech stuff: key of A minor, 127 BPM
Gear used:
Access Virus
EXS 24
reFX Nexus
Schecter Hellraiser
Peavey and Mesa Boogie amps

Jai came to me with a recording of her playing piano and singing the first verse. I started with an arpeggiated bass to follow along with the chord progression (Am-F-G-F) – the part started as an arp preset in reFX Nexus, but as the song grew I transcribed the arpeggiator pattern onto a Virus bass patch so I would have more control over certain sections (this is a very common trick I use.)

Nothing can fill out or wash out a mix like strings. For the into I was going for big and brooding – The string line harmonized with the bass pretty well, but to keep the build up from being too repetitive I ended up cutting the bass out of the first few measures.

The plinky lead sound is a pair of Virus patches – one is a fuller sound, the other gives the high end some distortion- The verse was MIDI notes drawn onto Logic’s piano roll. The chorus was actually a part that was cut from Whispers and I had always wanted to reuse it somewhere – and it just happened to fit Intentions! The sound is tinny on it’s own, but works in the mix.

Verse

Chorus

The intro noises were fun to make. The voice is from the last interview with Lee Harvey Oswald before he was shot – It has nothing to do with the song and I’m not making any statement about whether I think he killed JFK or not. His voice on the lo fi recording sounded cool, and it sounded even better after is was run through a huge reverb and Audio Damage‘s Dr. Device . The other sound is some generic pad run through Audio Damage’s Replicant plugin, then 100% wet through Logic’s Space Designer reverb.

Guitar – For those of you who don’t know Dan Clark, you should. In addition to his band The Dark Clan, he’s been in Null Device and is currently in Stromkern. He’s recorded and produced Chemlab, Ego Likeness, The Gothsicles, and Caustic among others. And us, of course. What does this have to do with guitar? Well, Dan’s the best guitar player I’ve ever met. Dan uses DragonForce songs as warmup exercises. I should also mention he’s probably the nicest guy you’ll ever meet. Anyways, guitar – I’m a hack on it, so playing in front of Dan was equal parts terror and inspiration. He can hear when you’re gripping the neck too tightly and pulling the strings slightly sharp. He knows if you’re holding the pick wrong for the amount of attack a certain part needs. And he’ll hear this through while the entire mix is playing through his headphones. It’s nuts.

All the parts were played on a Schecter Hellraiser tuned to D Standard, and were recorded through Dan’s Peavy 5150 and Mesa/Boogie Triple Rectifier. If I recall correctly, the verses and solo were on the 5150 and the chorus was the Triple Rec. For the verse I mirrored the low string part, and Dan wrote out a harmony line for me to play over it. I’m glad he did – the harmony moves between consonance and dissonance and ups the tension of the verse.

The solo (the first I ever wrote no less) is in the A double harmonic scale – I didn’t know this when I was writing it, I just liked the middle eastern feel of the jump between the minor 2nd and major 3rd. It’s double tracked, and you can hear when I fell off time with myself. Dan wrote me in a harmony line and the high notes at the end – more ideas I wouldn’t have thought of on my own, but are the little extra touches that give a song it’s edge.

Put those all together along with a good beat and some creative flourishes from a ridiculously talented producer, and you’ve got one hell of a track.

Click the download button to grab the instrumental version

Links:
Sensuous Enemy – Parity on Bancamp.com
Listless Works (Dan’s studio)
The Dark CLan

Feb 25th! Fab Show at Club ?

Post by JAI

Award winning composer, vocalist, and superheroine

So there’s a fabulous show happening in Milwaukee on Saturday at Club ? with our good friends I:Scintilla and The Dark Clan you won’t want to miss! Also, our very own Chris Wenzel will be celebrating making it through 3 decades alive! Happy 30th Chris!!