Nick Marino

I've got a couple of things going on musically that I want to share:

First off, my new custom-made theme for the Comic Book Pitt podcast is live! Tune into CPB #51 to hear it, and then stick around to listen to DanG and the Duke dig into some deep conversation about what they've been reading.

Secondly, I've got a new Nik Furious fan page, so if you're on Facebook, stop over and hit the Like button! In fact, you can just hit the Like button right here:

Also, if you dig the sound of my new theme for the Comic Book Pitt, you can hear the full song over on my new Facebook page. Just look for the song "Steel" on the left sidebar to listen to the whole thing.

And, as always, you can buy my 100% original album, Brilliant Shower, on iTunes, Amazon, Napster, and most other music download services.

But if you're too cheap to pay $9.99 or less to own Brilliant Shower, you're not out of luck -- you can still download some of my music for free. I'm releasing my mixtapes piece-by-piece here on my blog. I'm currently posting songs from Superior Tech.

Finally, I've decided on the name of my next album: 7 Star Sky Flash Kick. It'll feature the aforementioned Steel, as well as the theme to A Podcast with Ross and Nick and a bunch of other diverse instrumental songs.

Anyone out there know where the 7 Star Sky Flash Kick name comes from?

This is one of my most mellow productions. It's heavily influenced by the sound of Le Knight Club and the sampling style of Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (of Daft Punk fame).

Personally, my favorite part of the song is what I call -- for lack of a better phrase -- the "trips," or rather the moments when the beat does little skips at the end of a phrase.

If you dig this, then check out my 100% original album, Brilliant Shower, on iTunes, Amazon, Napster, eMusic and most other popular pay-for-download sites.

I love this beat. The whistle, the build, the mix of diverse sounds.

In terms of musical memory recall, I'll always remember when I made it because the drums on this track were heavily inspired by Big Boi's "I Like the Way (You Move)."

If you dig this, then check out my 100% original album, Brilliant Shower, on iTunes, Amazon, Napster, eMusic and most other popular pay-for-download sites.

The hardest part about this song was coming up with a name. Otherwise, it came together pretty easily.

I'd had the drum loop in my files for a while and never used it. But I suddenly felt the muse one Saturday, I wrote a bassline, and the rest just fell into place.

If you dig this, then check out my 100% original album, Brilliant Shower, on iTunes, Amazon, Napster, eMusic and most other popular pay-for-download sites.

Haunting. Rhythmically intricate. Richly Melodic.

Those are words that describe other songs. However, this one is pretty good too.

Don't forget to buy my album, Brilliant Shower. It's 100% originally awesome. (And this song isn't on it!)

This beat was made in the thick of my nonstop production days (a.k.a. when I lived in Brooklyn and didn't have a job). It's a solid, if not unremarkable, ditty. Yes, I said ditty. The drums arrangement/build up is very Just Blaze inspired, as I was trying to emulate the energy of his tracks at this time.

Now go check out my album, Brilliant Shower. It's 100% originally awesome.

I made this beat off a recommendation from my friend Dan. And I think it turned out great. I normally hate strings but I think they work well on this track. BUM-BUM-BUM... BUM!!! That's what the strings sound like.

Sometimes when I make beats, I mentally link them to certain artists. To me, Lightning Storm sounds like something Ciara would use, especially after she put out "Oh." Anyway, check out my album, Brilliant Shower. It's 100% original and sexy.

You might see this song title or listen to this track and think, "Man, this guy's a stoner" or even just "I bet he likes to smoke weed." WRONG ON BOTH COUNTS! I actually hate smoking weed. But I do love flying in hot air balloons. It's been a passion of mine ever since I accidentally commandeered one and flew it around the world in 80 days. True story.

Whatever. Just go check out my album, Brilliant Shower. It's 100% original, unlike Superior Tech.

It's been a while since I did one of these! I'm trying to get back on the wagon, so here it goes... Diamond is a unique beat for me in the sense that it 1) utilizes a single, short string of sample, and 2) the sample contains no rhythm instruments whatsoever. I have a couple other tracks that do this as well, but they're few and far between. Diamond is the first and best of its kind to do this. The bass and drums on this track are both mine, built around the swirling keyboard sample. Eventually, one day I'd like to either recreate or re-envision the sampled part of this track and make a 100% original version of Diamond.

Since it samples, Diamond's not on my album, Brilliant Shower. But a ton of great original beats are on there, so check it out!

Man, this beat = TROUBLE. It sounds great, don't get me wrong. I used to shop it around back when I was trying to sell beats. It helped me make all sorts of awkward connections. Eventually, it led me to one local Pittsburgh singer that asked if she could record over it. And then, suddenly, drums were missing. Gone from existence exactly one day before I'm supposed to take it into the studio. So I rebuilt it!!! I REBUILT IT AND MADE IT STRONGER!!!

Colossal's not on my album Brilliant Shower because it's not 100% original. But a bunch of other good songs are on there! Check it out.

I am SO proud of Century. It happens to sample one of my all-time favorite themes, but does so by transforming the sample rather than simply building upon it. The sample has been slowed and chopped to create something completely different, and... in my humble opinion, completely awesome.

Okay, now go buy my album Brilliant Shower. It's awesome, too.

Armor has gone by many names over the years. But whatever it's been called, it's important because it's the first sampled beat I ever made.

It's also going to be the first song I'm posting in a new weekly music series. I've divided up my beats into 13-track mixtapes, and Armor is the lead track off on Superior Tech (once all the tracks are up, I'll post a .zip file of the whole mixtape).

While you have to buy my 100% original music from my new album, Brilliant Shower, I'm giving away all the tracks from Superior Tech (and my other mixtapes) for free.

This new weekly series is a continuation / relaunch of the Beatcast, a podcast series I used to run on the AudioShocker.

"Nik Furious" is one of the names I use to make music, focusing specifically on instrumental music. It could be a hip hop beat or a rock song or an electronic jam or something inbetween... but about 99% of the time, the music is instrumental.

Over at my blog, the AudioShocker, I used to run a feature called the Beatcast. This was mostly a spotlight for Nik Furious music. That tradition will continue here, as I plan to post a ton of unheard Nik Furious instrumental music, ranging from sampled beats to unique originals.

That'll start once I get my podcasting plugin all set up. In the meantime, you can buy the first Nik Furious album -- stuffed with 13 awesome original instrumental tracks -- on iTunes (watch out! the iTunes link will try to launch the program), Amazon, and just about every other online music store out there.