“Live free or die!” This bold declaration isn’t just the motto of New Hampshire. It’s the foundational philosophy of all truly free people.
This song was written and recorded overnight during the Winter Solstice, 2021. It was the end of a long week of protests with New York Freedom Rally.
We are peacefully resisting pandemic mandates, which result in unjustifiable and systematic segregation. Some of us have been arrested by the police for asking to be served at restaurants without disclosing our medical information.
After participating in so much activism against rising totalitarianism in New York City, I felt irresistibly inspired to record new music.
This is one of my heaviest songs ever! I describe the sound as industrial death metal. Even if it’s not your favorite musical style, the lyrics promote the individual freedoms that many of us cherish.
Available soon for streaming and download across Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, and many more.
My latest album is finally here! You can purchase it by clicking below.
You can also preview the entire thing on YouTube. Coming soon to iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Pandora, and other digital services!
Soundtrackis a return to instrumental songs, and includes several deep remixes of previously-released tracks. In some ways, these versions feel even truer to their essence. And there's lots of completely new music, too!
I titled this Soundtrack largely because I'm inspired by the Synthwave movement in electronic music. As an 80s/90s kid, I grew up loving synthesizer-based soundtracks. Especially horror! So when I discovered Synthwave through Spotify(Try saying that a few times fast!) I was thrilled by these soundtracks to movies that... well, they DO exist. As music!
And this is the kind of stuff I've been doing since the early 90s, when my Dad gave me full use of his 80s synths and 4-track cassette deck! Even then, as an adolescent, I was recording a mix of sinister soundscapes and danceable beats. The raw warmth of those oversaturated cassettes still informs my sonic aesthetic. (Some early stuff, at least from my teens, is in last year's T2L release: Little Monsters.)
This album has been gestating in my mind for at least a year. Aside from a few humorous songs and parodies, lyrics were starting to feel forced. And if the lyrics didn't come, I'd let an exciting instrumental track sit on the dusty digital shelf. I'd been craving the abstract purity of music alone, but kept feeling like I should be writing songs "about things." (Funnily enough, I tend to write abstract lyrics anyway!)
Then a dear friend asked me for an instrumental for his ritual magic playlist. From there, I kept on digging for songs that belonged together in the album I had envisioned. It became a magical process of its own, so intense that I had to dedicate a song to Odin!
As much as I've been wanting to make this record, little did I realize how much it would mean to me. I'm very excited to share this with you! Why try to act cool about it? After all, my specialty isn't just darkness. It's WACKY darkness! Because everything is wacky when you think about it enough...
If you just can't wait to start listening, here's the aforementioned video. Thanks for your support!
Now available to download and stream! The 2nd Law has released "Little Monsters," its 3rd full-length album.
The primary musical project of Michaelanthony "Mandrake" Mitchell, T2L presents 23 mostly unreleased songs spanning a bizarre range of genre-bending evocations.
Each song is its own world, and you never know what's next. From teenage recordings to more recent tracks, this collection is an Industrial synthesis of Synthwave, Metal, EBM, IDM, and more.
Join T2L for over an hour of nostalgia, evolution, and madness.
Track Listing (with original recording dates, some approximate)
1. The Evil Ice Cream Truck (2001)
2. Tickle Tickle (2003)
3. Nimbus Cube (1999)
4. Bitter Sobriety (2003)
5. not sure why (1998)
6. Weevenge (2003)
7. Glue & Milk (2000)
8. LUNCH (1999)
9. I am in terrible pain. (1999)
10. Busy Monday ("Gloomy Sunday" updated, 2014)
11. Pink Mice (2004)
12. In Criticism of the Competitively Insane (1998)
13. Glare (2004)
14. X-Ray (2005)
15. Winter (2002)
16. Questions & Lies (2003)
17. Diagnosis (2000)
18. The End of the World (2002)
19. Chrysalis (2001)
20. Obsessing (2014)
21. Baudelaire (2015)
22. Death (2017)
23. Quiet (1998)
Now available on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Spotify, and more!
NYC-based electronic music project The 2nd Law has unleashed Nine Monsters, its first album in six years.
Nine Monsters is a vortex of weird anthems and dark meditations. Catchy hooks mingle with morbid textures. The lyrics embrace an existentialist universe with passion and humor.
Created in the mid-'90s by Michaelanthony "Mandrake" Mitchell, T2L crosses and combines genres including Industrial, Darkwave, Noise, and more. The project's 2010 full-length debut, Apollonysus, is a maelstrom of Noise and Neo-Classical available through Cold Spring Records.
You can listen to previews and purchase through CD Baby below:
After years of fascination with the famous "Oh Long Johnson Cat" of AFV and South Park fame, I have finally indulged in creating an Industrial remix of this viral phenomenon.
Many thanks to this linguistically mysterious feline, who has given us a new means of verbalizing our most sardonic bile. I will never grow tired of your enigmatic phrases. In return, I offer this musical tribute.
I recently composed music for the above lecture video on the controversial topic of Satanism. Given by Rev. Kevin I. Slaughter of the Church of Satan, it is an engaging and entertaining introduction to this religious philosophy's principal tenets. I encourage anyone who is interested in the subject to watch all nine parts. My contribution is primarily at the beginning of the first video and the end credits of the last.
In the above video, at about 2:05, are the aforementioned end credits, for which I composed the most lengthy cue for this project. Click here for a direct link to the exact time.
It was truly a pleasure to contribute to this video. The delivery is powerful, the design is beautiful, and adding music to the production has been profoundly rewarding.
(UPDATE: This contest is over. We are currently awaiting the results.)
Hey, fellow spuds! Michaelanthony Mitchell, the sonic sorcerer behind The 2nd Law, has remixed DEVO's "Freedom of Choice" for a contest. You can help to get it released on Warner Bros. Records by registering here:
Voting begins on November 16 and ends on November 30. If you enjoy Michaelanthony's mutation of this DEVO classic, please vote for it. Your support is appreciated!
