HundredMillionThousand

Featuring emcee Kurai, the two part song beautifully explores mental illness

Photo via the artist

Edmonton-based artist HundredMillionThousand created a highly polished work of art for a music video. Co-director by Steve van Diest, the video for "Exalted" features emcee Kurai and was filmed in Drumheller, Saskatchewan. Emcee Kurai spits introspective and avant-garde lyrics, as he battles demons in a desert landscape. The track is the first single from HundredMillionThousand's debut album, LP1. The producer plans to drop the record in February 2017 on Spotify, Apple Music, and vinyl. You can pre-order it here. The two-part track also explores several facets of mental illness and loneliness. As Kurai raps, "I soliloquy when I am by the self."

"The first half of the video is about the cyclic nature of mental illness and the temptation of suicide," says HundredMillionThousand. "There is no beat and no pacing; just random stabs of chaotic drum fills in between short temporary peaceful phrases. The second half is about anxiety attacks: being stuck in a moment but having no control over it. Like being in the driver's seat of a car you can't control as it speeds down a straight, endless tunnel." - NOISEY

HundredMillionThousand’s debut album, lp1, is set to be released this April 8th and the new single “Yalda” is the perfect example of what he can do. Based in Edmonton, Canada, HMT, or Noel Jon, is a Persian/Filipino producer who crafts epic, gritty, and unapologetically futuristic tunes. Find the new single below.

He definitely takes a page out of Amon Tobin’s book and achieves a big, atmospheric landscape with sound effect-heavy kits and crunchy synths. The suspense is palpable at all times and may be telling the story of HMT’s personal journey with mental illness. Both ominous and exciting, HundredMillionThousand captures an electronic texture that’s darkly colored by Iranian vocalizations and complex percussive patterns.
I got a sneak peak of the album and all the tracks seem to dance between anxiety and serenity, anger and peace. “Yalda” is my favorite, but a couple of the tracks with rap are on point too. Here’s a video for “Exalted,” featuring Cab’ral.
In an era so overly saturated with electronic production, HundredMillionThousand’s debut is a stand out because of its foreboding, aggressive quality. Forget the crowd-pleasers, HMT is here to explore anguish.
Listen to this song while you’re training for the apocalypse, and find the full album on Spotify, Apple Music, and limited edition vinyl this April 8th. - Earmilk

If you listen to even one of the songs on HundredMillionThousand’s LP on Spotify, you’ll understand why an album release performance was so overdue. The Edmonton-based electronic artist’s music is so heart-felt and nuanced he deserves a whole damn concert to himself.

Luckily, 9910 was able to host the event last Thursday along with bands Nehiyawakband and Softcure, who each preceded the performance. The venue, which parallels gastropub and sister business The Common is both nightclub and event space, although on this particular evening, it seemed more like someone’s basement on a Saturday night.

HundredMillionThousand, or just Noel Fanaeian to his friends, took his time walking around the room before the performance to talk to anyone who wanted to comment on his music or buy a vinyl. There were flashing lights, cocktails being shaken and crowds of close friends and relatives chattering between sets and jumping excitedly at every song change. Even the small cover didn’t ruin the personal vibe. And that was kind of the point. HundredMillionThousand’s album isn’t meant for a strict crowd, its music that every generation can enjoy – a medley of images and sounds that reflect the artist’s diverse group of friends, Filipino and Iranian upbringing and time spent in places like BlackDog’s hip hop mecca – underdog and Edmonton’s hippy chai mecca – Remedy.

There’s obviously a lot of rap, some eerie and unmistakably byzantine choral music in the aptly named ‘Serbians’, some modern yogic notes in ‘D’om’ and tribal East-Asian beats in the impossibly catchy ‘Rescue Feeling’. That said, the star of the show is ‘Yalda’, which features all kinds of synth mixed with Persian vocals evoking classical Persian music and pre-revolution pop.

Though many of us don’t speak Persian, sorrow and anger are depicted so beautifully in Yalda that connecting emotionally to the lyrics isn’t remotely difficult. It’s also Yalda which appropriately ended the night after a long stream of photos and video clips depicting strong Iranian women (as well at the men who would rather see them behind bars). The theme of the night – next to turning the hell up – was the plight of the Iranian woman, who lays claim to a rich artistic history and deserves more recognition for her role in everything that current Iranian art represents.

At one particularly memorable point in the night, the already dark room was filled with people holding their breath as the story of Gordafarid unfolded on the screen behind HundredMillionThousand’s setup. The clips, which come from the Movie Nagl – e – Gordafarid or ‘The story of Gordafarid’ directed by Hadi Afarideh show a Naqqali (Musical Narration) which recounts the story of a heroine from ‘The Book of Kinds’, a poetic opus comparable to the Odyssey. Typically, Naqqali forbid women from performing, but Fatemeh Habibazid, a student of museum studies in Tehran, is hoping to change this cultural and societal rule – and many others, by portraying Gordafarid.

The effect of inserting clips from this documentary between songs was seamless and showed the same lack of “rules” that reign over the entire album. One review of lp1 lists it as being ‘volatile’ and ‘probably unable to sell’. I and many others would disagree. Music, and in this case an album release performance, doesn’t have to be clear-cut. It can involve several genres and textures and inhibit a variety of responses. As demonstrated by hundreds of fellow musicians and producers, musical performances can also involve several media formats, which for HundredMillionThousand meant the incorporation of feminist imagery that reflects his attitudes towards the women in his life and his gratitude towards Iranian music, along with experimental and industrial beats that the artist himself enjoys. Clearly, hybridity is the name of the game – and for HundredMillionThousand, that can only mean more listeners. - the Wanderer

HundredMillionThousand (HMT) is a brand new producer out of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada whose debut album, Lp1, released in early April. HMT’s sound is an incredibly complex yet beautiful and evocative mix of heavy bass music Middle Eastern melodic influences inspired by his upbringing in Persia.

HMT’s sound is so unique in a large part due to the Middle Eastern elements, as it is incredibly difficult to fuse a western beat structure with Middle Eastern music, especially Persian. This makes HMT difficult to classify within bass music and EDM, but in the best possible way. His tunes are heady and danceable but also technically complex and experimental. If anyone can bring bass music to the precipice of a whole new sub-genre, it’s this producer with this album.

Your EDM is proud to exclusively premiere HMT’s second music video from Lp1, which is actually a live mini-set which he performed on an actual drum machine in an airplane hangar. This mini-set features three singles off the album: “Yalda”, “Serbians” and “Tunnelism”. Click the video below to be astonished by this never before heard brand of bass music, and check out the full album on HMT’s Bandcamp page. - YourEDM.com

It isn’t everyday that Persian music is fused with electronica and a Filipino flair. Somehow, it’s typically Canadian and the Edmonton-based musician and producer Noel Jon, the brainchild behind HundredMillionThousand. Jon, who is also a photographer and a videographer, has brought together a melange of unlikely influences for his debut album “lp1,” which drops April 8. There is personal history behind the Persian samplings and spiritual chants, so he took some time to spill the deets and dish on some of his tracks and his struggles as a millennial.

Local Suicide: When did you start getting influenced by Persian music and how did that lead you to songs like Yalda?

HundredMillionThousand: My dad is Iranian and brought my siblings and I to cultural gatherings since we were kids, which usually involved musical performances with Persian instruments and vocalizing. Out of all the music, the chanting in Farsi was by far the most powerful experience. There would be people who you’d least expect to have any musical ability, mesmerize a crowd. For example, you’d see an elderly gentleman with a big stomach and thick moustache (wearing the same clothes he probably immigrated to Canada in) take the mic, put it down because he didn’t need it, face the crowd with eyes closed, then unleash the most powerful singing voice you’ve ever heard. That stuff would even make the babies stop crying it was so profound. My siblings and I never had a clue what the chanting was about, because we were halfers in Canada who never learned Farsi, but it didn’t matter — the mystery made it that much more gripping.



LSD: What was it like growing up in a half-Iranian, half-Filipino household?

HMT: Being half Filipino and half Iranian, born in Canada and raised in white suburbia, I started feeling a lack of belonging a few years ago. I started binge-listening to traditional Persian music and playing Tagalog karaoke. It was a bit of a “cultural renaissance,” I guess to rehabilitate my cultural identity. It was like some lost soul going on ancestors.com and discovering their background. Fast forward to now and I’ve found production style based on Middle Eastern key signatures and percussion patterns voiced through new wave electronic timbre. Honesty and identity are fundamental to me when writing music, so it all felt necessary: from incorporating Persian samples (in songs like Yalda), to recording tombak with my bud Laheeb, to generating highly-dramatic atmospheres inspired by chanting. I’m real upset I don’t know Farsi though.

HMT_Photo4_Photographer- Stefan Legacy

LSD: What is the new album lp1 about and how did it come together?

HMT: I wrote “lp1” when I was a struggling university student, taking a program that made my parents happy (and would theoretically land me a job), trying to stiff-arm my way through mental illness, while dealing with habitual behaviour, doctors with prescription pads, and the rest of the same bullshit you’d see in a guilt-trippy MTV commercial. Story of every millennial. On the other hand, “lp1″ is not about those exact problems per se, but more so the trends of my varying moods, emotional responses, and personalities I observed in myself through those times. One therapist told me to keep a mood journal and write down how I feel day by day. Instead of writing it in a notebook I wrote it in an album. Each of those 9 tracks on “lp1″ conveys a different headspace I was in, transitioning from one into another, and changing gears to really tell a story about overcoming something. It’s not an album about disorders; it’s an album about mindfulness.

LSD: Can you give us some examples of your visuals in reference to Iranian art and poetry?

HMT: So there’s a Female poet in Iran named Hila Sedighi. She recited this powerful poem in public for oppressed students, and I weave video clips of this poem in between each song like skits in my live performances. I don’t include the subtitles for the audience, even though it was recited in Farsi, because the raw human emotion and expression from Sedighi is I want to convey; not necessarily what is being said. Again, my aesthetic is very impressionistic and this ties back to the feeling I felt as a kid not having a clue what was being said during Persian chants and singing.



LSD: It’s a very repressed country under Islamic law with limited women’s rights, so what can really be expressed?

HMT: I’m no expert on this topic since I’ve never been to Iran, and will probably never go since my family is part of an oppressed minority. But what I gather is that nothing can really be expressed by Iranians at all if it doesn’t subscribe to the government’s ideology. However, there is a thriving underground culture in Tehran and the youth do find ways to have fun like we do, but at a risk, and with more caution with their social media profiles. Women especially are oppressed in Iran economically, but on the bright side, Persians support higher education regardless of gender. Females actually make up 60% of university students and have much higher enrollment in science and engineering fields compared to men in Iran. Kind of a “nuanced” oppression of women in my opinion, since they can’t even perform music or dance in public, but can get Phd’s in engineering.

lp1 is being released on April 8. Check out HundredMillionThousand on Instagram. - Local Suicide

Edmonton, Canada isn’t exactly a place that pops into mind when as far as the urban underground is concerned, but maybe it’s actually hip hop’s greatest kept secret. HundredMillionThousand (Noel Jon) dropped his massive cyber bomb of chomp-worthy grooves, lp1 this weekend, and it’s lit. The 24 year-old Persian-Filipino producer masterfully pulls in the listener with a topical debut project that ignites conversations surrounding mental health.

This metaphysical mind trek begins at the first track, “Yalda.” The clicking timbre of the Tombak drives the track forward, almost altering our consciousnesses as we listen. The use of traditional Iranian chanting and artistic visuals accompanied in the video for “Yalda” are exquisite touches, and their incorporation show us how important an investigated self is to HMT. The project in its totality sounds like a video/audio assemblage pieced together by the highs and lows of the producer’s life. The choppy parts of “Yalda” are the scribbles of anxiety, or perhaps a manic-depressive state, and the longer emphasized note playing feels like the dawning of a natural disaster, tragic but beautiful, in the early hours when the light touches everything that’s been destroyed. The “calm” after the storm is released in slower patterns, slower breaths.

Track two is a transition into a more aggressive, vengeful high. The clicking timbre follows us here. An electronic wave grows larger, more futuristic. The clacking of a stubborn ego is at war with the ringing of a helpless soul in “Rescue Feeling.” When the drums kick in, the scene is set. I imagine someone being resuscitated back to life. I imagine them lying on the table being operated on, they are lifeless to the outside but the mind is spinning. For me, it’s the feeling of anxiety during a moping episode. A scream clawing the ribcage. People with anxiety try to hide in their thoughts, which is a self-destructive coping mechanism. The thing they need the most is stimulation from the outside–people, noises, activities. The tapping instrumentals represent an unsteady heartbeat, the kind an anxious person gets when they are hyper-aware of themselves.

The proceeding track has a cinematic landscape. HMT describes his inspiration for “Serbians” this way: “I spent a couple months in Serbia with a friend a while ago. I was drawn to the strong, rigid mentality Serbians have.” Deep, steady, and powerful, the drums pump blood into the veins of the ruthless. I believe that we don’t really win against our demons; we learn to live with them. We create a world within a world for them, a space for the dark and the light to cohabitate, to interplay between the frequencies of good and evil. Sometimes we know of the frequencies that are being sent out into the larger society and sometimes we lose control of what is being sent. “Serbians” represents, to me, the emotions that override our decision making during meltdowns and moments of weakness, the sand slipping through our fingers.

Another powerful track, “Tunnelism,” (ft. Kurai) carries us into the experiences of depression. Kurai writes, “Looked in the mirror, worn out, bags under eyes / I’ve been deprived in my life, never seen the light / I always try but I never get what I want wanna stunt wanna cop the unattainable / When intoxication is available, I be downing all kinds of shit until the pain is pulled / Disgusted with myself it’s sickening / Got an anvil on my shoulder and my posture’s slipping.” Like drops of water, we are sucked into a drain of spiraling propensity, a pool of thought too deep to swim for fear of losing ourselves. So, we drink. I feel myself self-medicating with the artist, waiting for this episode to pass. “Conspiring over patterns of the past, bitches I can’t have resort to meds or the suburban class / Suppressing thought of all the could-have-hads, got a lot, paradox, ideological collapse.” HMT makes addiction human and by doing so, he makes us more comfortable with speaking about it in a non-stigmatized, non-incriminating forum.

The beginning of the penultimate track on lp1 begins with a phantomy rattle shake and an explosion of cockiness. It’s one of the more dancier tracks on the album, and appropriately titled, “Flamingo.” The sonic elements set the stage for a mutual mating ritual of some kind. If you’ve ever seen flamingos mate, they shift their heads back and forth and extend their wings. Once they’ve found “the one,” they intertwine their necks. It’s a fairly unusual practice, but I suppose it could get steamy, with all of the neck twisting and what not. Could it be that the object of affection isn’t a person, maybe a drug, or a feeling? Sounds like there’s enough swagger for all three.

The final track, “Cathedral,” is trapped out with all kinds of goodies, including an electronic, sticky bass and wicked fast rhyming. There is nothing holy about “Cathedral.” HMT rides dirty in this track, but it’s the kind of dirty that could very well cleanse the soul. In the beginning of the track, HTM talk about a “third eye,” which is usually in reference to a clairvoyant ability and higher consciousness. In order to be great, you have to think three steps ahead. HMT urges us to “stay woke” in a world of sleep walkers.

lp1 comes fresh off an unbeaten path. The project is audibly courageous and HundredMillionThousand is an artist in every sense of the word. So too is his friend, Kurai, whom he wrote two of the tracks off the album with (his friend’s whereabouts are unknown at this time). Their art is adhesive on the brain, forcing us into awareness, teaching us to search for the beauty in all misgivings.

The lp1 playlist is available for streaming on Spotify. - the Word is Bond

La rete di sonorità e generi che ruota intorno a questo album è impressionante, una vera impalcatura fine e sofisticata

Il primo disco non si scorda mai e il produttore canadese Noel Jon ha deciso, per coerenza, di chiamare la sua opera prima “LP1”. La rete di sonorità e generi che ruota intorno a questo album è impressionante, una vera impalcatura fine e sofisticata.

Si parte con richiami alla World Music e alla musica iraniana, si prosegue con un rap dal profumo internazionale e si prosegue con tanto synth-pop.

La costruzione è sempre minimal, precisa, ben pensata e i pezzi non sono mai buttati a caso.

Nella sua composizione il disco è affollato e pieno di umanità come un Matatu, taxi comunitari che affollano le strade del Kenya. Questo lavoro, nonostante si sviluppi su frequenze e beat tendenti ad escludere i suoni complessi, è come quelle enormi sale da ballo in cui si fanno feste di quartiere. Tutto è contemporaneamente pubblico e privato e HundredMillionThousand sono i segreti che si vengono a svelare. Il sound è una matriosca elettronica piena di risvolti, sorprese.

Alcuni giorni fa sono uscite alcune foto inedite di Ginsberg, prese da scorci di gioventù.

C’è una foto scattata a Calcutta che assomiglia incredibilmente a questo album.

È necessario tornare in India nel 1962 per capire l’essenzialità di certi suoni di un lavoro che è talmente aperto, internazionale che è perfettamente adatto ad un ascolto casalingo, in solitaria.

A ben pensarci Ngugi wa Thiong’o, uno dei più audaci scrittori africani contemporanei, ha ambientato un romanzo dal titolo “Devil on the Cross” in un Matatu. Nella storia, come la natura stessa del veicolo impone, ci sono varie vicende che ruotano intorno a questo mezzo di trasporto, che si tramutano in sogni e incubi. La stessa cosa avviene nel disco che con finezza sa raccontare anche frustrazioni profonde e contemporanee.

Tutto si contrae in un equilibrio oriente-occidente, nel libro come nell’album, dove i richiami alle due tradizioni sonore si accartocciano e trasformano in un sound curato e particolare.

Il disco complessivamente si apre bene e si chiude con un trittico di pezzi, cantati dal rapper Cabral, che sono delle vere perle che si collocano in una barriera immaginaria, in uno spazio ideale dove i suoni del disco sono confinati per crescere al meglio.

La forza è nell’accurata scelta di ritmi, beat e pattern che è sempre adatta per ogni pezzo. Il giardino zoologico in cui LP1 è cresciuto dovrà cambiare panorama per permettere una nuova ricerca in vista di un nuovo e futuro lavoro. - Qube Music

Lp1 is an distinctive listen, full of dark alleys and unexpected turns.

The first thing you notice is the range of genres this album touches upon when listening to Lp1 by HundredMillionThousand.

Although it could be characterised as hip-hop, or minimal hip-hop, it is neither of those; it actually flirts with musical themes and ideas from all over the world. Here, synth-pop meets industrial sounds, and dubstep or hip-hop samples combine with oriental sounds, with throwbacks to Indian raga music and its beautiful sitar sounds. The album simply doesn't borrow itself to "typecasting". There is something for everyone, regardless of musical taste, but it is done in such a way that doesn't seem forced or unnecessary.

Right from the captivating opener, 'Yalda', through the eerie instrumental 'Serbians', all the way to the magnetic 'D'om', 'Exalted' and 'Tunnelism', you can feel the strong creative personality behind the tracks. The minimalist approach in which the songs are handled really adds to the atmosphere of the album, enabling you to plunge deeper and wander off into the unknown. The last three pieces are probably lesser works on the album, but they still manage to be a part of the whole, and not stand out as downright fillers.

The best aspect of this album, though, is a sense of composition which manages to come across in a clear, direct way. The songs are not just put together in a makeshift way, but rather thought out a great deal, each one with a reason to be included. Noel Jon, the producer, truly manages to compose the songs, and the fact that the music is electronic-based makes them even better. If this is what Jon created on a debut album, there are exciting things awaiting us in the future. His style is unique, confident and bold. By taking chances in unexpected places, the album gains in artistic quality and integrity.

Lp1 is an distinctive listen, full of dark alleys and unexpected turns. At moments, it may sound like it's going to be a somewhat dark, heavy listen, but it actually is what makes this album stand out. Borrowing from many musical traditions and styles, whether you like minimal, synth-pop, or hip-hop - you'll be immediately drawn into this album full of rhythms and harmonies, without the slightest desire to leave.

Rating: 7/10 - the 405

Heute stelle ich Euch in aller Kürze den Producer HundredMillionThousand vor.


Denn Anlass für dieses Review ist sein neuester Track „Yalda“. Den finde ich so unglaublich spannend, denn darin arbeitet er mit iranischen Gesängen. Das hatte ich vorher noch nie gehört und wirkt schon sehr spirituell auf den Zuhörer. Ich muss mich gewissermaßen auch erst daran gewöhnen und so ganz klar kommt man beim erstmaligen Hören nicht drauf.

Also nochmal ein zweiter Versuch. Der Track beginnt total düster und mit einem tiefen Synthesizer Dröhnen. Dann setzen die ersten Beats ein und der Producer agiert wie ein Künstler. Er baut sich den Track gefühlt in jeder einzelnen Sekunde selbst auf. Wie ein kleines Puzzle und so, als wisse er vorher nicht wie sich das alles auswirkt. Nur bei den Vocals herrscht eine gewisse Sicherheit.

Wer sich jetzt fragt, welches Genre da ist, würde ich darauf antworten: Eine Art Mixtur aus Electronic und HipHop. Der Producer hat aktuell sein erstes Album „Ip1“ in den Startlöchern und darauf klingt er als wäre in einer anderen Zeit und in einem anderen Raum. Unfassbar inspirierend ist das wie ich finde. Einer meiner absoluten Highlights auf dem Album ist „Rescue Feeling“. Ein treibender, pulsierender Track, der sogar auch noch richtig nice Rap-Parts aufweisen kann. Das Album erscheint am 08. April. - SoundKartell (Germany)

HundredMillionThousand is the moniker of Persian/Filipino electronic producer Noel Jon who is based in Edmonton, Canada. Noel Jon’s musical aesthetic is a blend of Iranian-inspired sampling, cinematic atmospheres, brooding atmospheric pads, and aggressive hip-hop tinged percussion patterns. Proud of his ethnic background HMT encapsulates his heritage into production through the use of Iranian vocalizing, key signatures, spiritual chants, and Tombak. HMT also collaborates with various artists to utilize visuals that are referential to Iranian art and poetry during his live performances. On April 8, HundredMillionThousand will release his debut album lp1.

lp1 is an incredibly well developed and personal musical mood journal from the mind of this talented young Canadian producer. This debut album serves as an audio log of the many facets of an ongoing journey with mental illness. It is a sonic coping mechanism, of Persian/Filipino artist.

Drawing inspiration from artists like A Tribe Called Red, DJ Krush, Amon Tobin and Massive Attack, HMT concocts a brand of electronic used hip-hop that is both shimmering and foreboding all at once. Rife with deep textures and dark colors, this album is a sonic landscape rising out of the cyclic nature of HMT’s journey through mental illness.

After getting an exclusive listen, I can definitely tell you that HundredMilionThousand is an artist you should definitely keep an eye on for the future. Songs like “Rescue Feeling” embody the depth and intensity of the cycle of anger and calm, while the pulses and waves in “Exalted” and “Tunnelism” put on full display the cycle between anxious tumult and decisive inner peace, with Kurai’s vocal delivery echoing through caverns of introspection and reflection. Standout tracks “Yalda” and “Serbians” – infused with the melodies of HMT’s Persian roots – prove themselves as bold experimental instrumentals, while the playful grooves of “Flamingo” and “Cathedral,” bolstered by rapper Cab’ral’s energetic cadences, provide some hard-earned respite from what’s otherwise an intense, gripping debut.

HMT’s haunting production style brings to mind the cutting edge work of electronic music mavens like XXYYXX and Mr. Carmack. The immediate, often startling changes in mood throughout lp1 further encapsulate HMT’s journey: hair-pin turns through a storm of adverse mental states, the mapping out of a rational pathway through the cycle of cycles that makes itself known as both obstacle and inspiration. Both mature and playful, meandering and direct, intense and glimmering, LP1 proves itself as a debut album that begs for another listen.

With this incredibly well-polished freshman effort, HundredMillionThousand definitely has a bright future in store. It is refreshing to come across an artist with such a rich sonic style and meaningful subject matter. Connect with HundredMilionThousand on Facebook and his Official Website. - Sensible Reason

Louder Than War’s Eileen Shapiro meets Noel Jon, the man behind HundredMillionThousand.

The most unusual, magical, and dramatic music has just come my way via the brain behind HundredMillionThousand, Noel Jon, presenting his debut album, LP1. Canadian born, Persian/Filipino producer, showcases a journey encased in mystery, suspense, aggressive darkness, and sonic aesthetics. Through his heritage he enchants his music with spiritual chants, Iranian glitter, Tombak, and hip-hop. The album is set to be unleashed on 8 April, but in the meanwhile enjoy his forbidding single Yalda.download

Noel was completely different than I had imagined him to be. Pure genius! However unlike his music, he was emotionally shy. He was a fusion of technical ambiguity, electronic poetry, and deep passion, all spilling out into his music. After an hour the walls he hid behind came tumbling down in the form of exotic rocks, chemical engineering and Star Trek. He became easy to fall in love with, and his music is even easier.

Louder Than War: Your music is intriguing and it fascinates me, let’s talk about it.

Really? I make down-tempo, electronic, music influenced I guess by hip hop, and I like to always include a lot of cultural resonance inside of it. That’s what I do. It’s not very poppy but, I’m a dark dude.

Yes, you are. Where does that darkness originate?

I’d say the majority of this album was written during University, and I guess I was one of those people that did not have a good time at the University. I was in the wrong program, doing something to satisfy my parents, mental health stuff, which could go in a different direction. It’s more so I like introspective music, and music that doesn’t necessarily fit with a lot of people being around, like a group, a club, it’s definitely something in my own head. I think darkness is awesome. Everyone has a dark side, everyone has a sad side, and I have to embrace that.

I’m trying to get into that head, because that music is so different.

What set it apart?

It’s very unique, and I’ve never experienced anything like it. It’s very dramatic and emotional, but yet it’s up-beat, and some of it actually relaxing. It’s addictive. I kept having to go back for more, even when I was finished listening to it. It’s almost like a challenge. It draws you in there, and I’d like to discover what in you’re music makes that happen?

I don’t want to divulge my entire formula, but, I do a sense of space and atmosphere. I do not like snares. I am a percussion snob because I’m a drummer. I like powerful, capturing, melodies.

Where do you get people to record it with you?

I do not care a lot about lyrics. It has to be somewhere in the vibe, but if someone has a big, loud, addictive, sound, I get really drawn into that. So I basically say, ‘this is what I do’. I’ll show them a video, and just be a casual person, I try to show some humanness, and hopefully they’ll want to do it. Right now I’m reaching out to a female rapper in Toronto, who only raps in Tagalog, only in the Filipino language.

Do you speak Filipino?

I cannot speak Filipino or Farsi, because we were raised in an American household.

I think your music leans more to the Persian side.

Definitely.

Where or to whom do you hope to market your music?

Honestly right now social media. I’ve been producing for a long time but, being public about it is very new to me. I think there is a certain balance in not over selling yourself, but also to have people come see it, because you can’t just hide under a rock. I just want to go for the niche blogs. I’m not trying to make it commercialized. I’ll basically go to blogs, maybe promoters, niche places….

How would you tour or even perform this music live?

I have a show 4 May, in a boutique men’s store in Edmonton, where I live. In a live setting it’s a very much different experience. When you’re with people you want to be more up-tempo, more gripping. So, I incorporate a lot of visuals and projections, I’ll be doing my thing with my pads. It’s not like a DJ, like a standard Pioneer DJ, I kind of hate DJing.

I will have visuals of textures and colors that are referential to my sound. I do a lot of video work, so whenever I’m writing a song I always have colors in mind. I definitely don’t really see colors, I feel colors. In Exalted, I see blue and gold. It’s very deep and ambient. I also see glistening Sitars and rich sounds, so my visuals will basically have colors like that.

In between each song I have videos of Iranian poetry, and I arrange these poems in my songs. They’re like skits in an album. The entire live experience is about 30 minutes long. It progresses like a story, and the audience obviously does not speak any Farsi, but it’s more the tone and the energy, and the video of the poet that’s kind of projecting a prelude to the next songs. In the beginning it will be kind of calm, suspenseful, and then halfway through her poem gets more live, energetic and proclaiming. It’s definitely an audio/visual experience, and it’s not dancie, I don’t DJ.

I conquer being a musician so I’m use to doing something interactive, giving all the energy to the crowd. I try to make it as dark and moody as it is, I try and make it intimate in a live setting.

How many instruments do you play?

I grew up playing the piano, of course, in an Asian family….I was trained on the drums a bit less, and then I taught myself guitar, and then a little bit of band in high school. As far as like a super technical musician, I’m not really classically trained. I really know what I like to hear. I think my strength is my ear. I think I’m very good at hearing a song on the radio, and figuring it out, and playing it out. Sight reading…definitely not. It’s not me.

What do you study in college?

I’m finishing chemical engineering. I’ve been in school for a long time. It’s kind of dragged itself out. The song Exalted on my album, is really my best work, and I actually failed a test at the university finishing that video. It got premier on Noisy.

Is there anything that you want to promote for yourself?

I’m really much just about the music, and the relationship between the music and visuals. Listen to the album, tell me what you think.

Where do you want your music to be say in ten years?

Of course music is not a career path that everyone can make a sustainable living on. I really want to get more into like scoring productions for film or video games. I don’t want to do the pop thing, always touring always doing albums, clocked into his schedule. I want to be economically stable, and just be more like an influence, because I don’t want to be the next pop producer. I think that people behind the scenes have a lot more influence of what’s going on, as opposed to just fame. It’s a longevity thing, like I’m married in a way.

I think a lot if my influences are a lot of weirdo producers that come out of London. I think tribal records is like my holy grail. I think that inadvertently my album took a lot of influences from cinema and the grandiosity of The Dark Night. When someone wants to know what kind of beats do I make, I say it’s like The Dark Night, rap music, its very gripping. People say my music is extremely masculine, but like it’s too much bravado.

Well your music is somewhat up-beat, but it does have a dark attitude.

On a first album it’s kind of like your child. You really wanted to be the best it could possibly be. A writer said that there was a certain questioning and searching in it. Those I themes that I don’t really try to create in my music, but it’s definitely part of me. When someone gathers is that it feels that you’ve really made something super honest. - Louder than War

HundredMillionThousand (HMT) is a Persian/Filipino producer now based in Edmonton, Canada who, beyond all other description, is one to watch out for as the breakout artist of the summer. In his debut LP, simply titled Lp1, this burgeoning genius combines almost all forms of EDM with rap, ambient noise and classical Middle Eastern music. It can not be understated that HMT is doing something extraordinarily different in this debut.

Lp1 consists of nine tracks, each more haunting and interesting than the last. It opens with probably the most Middle Eastern-sounding track, “Yalda”, which translates form Farsi to “birth.” The haunting female vocals and Middle Eastern strings in this track pair with the downtempo beat in a way which is surprising and interesting. That surprise turns into impressiveness, however, when one considers that Middle Eastern and especially Persian music is structured completely differently than Western music in both beat and note structure. It makes sense that HMT would need to pull out some creative beats to make the elements of EDM and classical Persian vocals work. They not only work, however, they excel.

Some tracks merge into others on Lp1, which indicates that HMT may have been going for a theme on his debut. After “Yalda” comes another highlight, “Rescue”, which opens with another sparse, and haunting intro and then adds more and more layers of experimental EDM, metallic, robotic samples a breakbeat which vacillates between old rave and classical Middle Eastern. Again, this arrangement would have been difficult and extremely fidgety to put together. “Rescue” is also one track of many which features the rap work of Cab’ral, who adds another layer of interest and difficulty as he works his rhymes over this experimental and highly syncopated beat.

One video has been released off of Lp1 so far, for the track “Exalted”. This is one of the more straight-on hip hop tracks on the album, featuring another rapper named Kurai, but the video makes an unsettling nod to HMT’s Persian roots once again in the form of a desert landscape where figures stand and then eventually fight in the dark. The lyrics go along with the action in the video, creating a stark, emotive and once again unnerving effect in which old and new, east and west compliment as well as challenge each other.

HMT’s debut Lp1 signifies a new direction in EDM and hip hop with its bold sounds and complex yet evocative beats. More releases will be coming from this artist, but in the meantime the LP can be purchased on his website or on Bandcamp and the video for “Exalted” as well as an album teaser are available on his Youtube channel. Parts of the album can be streamed on Spotify. - Ellenwood Review

We’re excited to bring to you the eerie and anthemic soundscapes of HundredMillionThousand (HMT). The man behind the sonic moniker is Noel Jon, an Iranian Filipino who’s creating quite the boom with his sinister, amplifying sounds. He’s finally pushing out an album thats been in the works for several years and features two rap collaborators that lend their unique flavors to HundredMillionThousand’s upcoming album.

HMT dishes his style outright with the opening track, ‘Yalda’, which alludes to his heritage with Iranian vocals that create suspenseful tone as if you were lost within your own mind when the basslines rattle. The spiritual chant dances to ethnic drum patterns and ‘Yalda’ rocks your body into a spiritual distortion. ‘Serbians’ follows soon after as the album’s third composition and echoes similar depths of despair and nostalgia. HundredMillionThousand finds his solace in his production as part of his battle with mental illness. A male chant causes ‘Serbians’ to rise in progression with breaks of steel blocks and metallic drums bring some chops to the smoothness. D’om is where we hear the machine that is HMT come to life, that beyond the despair there is still life and the machine continues to run, with a steam-engine sample running through the trills.

HundredMillion Thousand conscripts two mighty rappers to bring some utter chaos: Cab’ral and Kurai. You can peep ‘Exalted’ that features Kurai down below that really echoes the struggle of life and the urge to move forward despite the negativity that hinges us to ground. Drugs, alcohol, sex and substances are all the common themes throughout HMT’s vocal productions that are seen as the chains or solutions to struggle. A watch through the ‘Exalted’ music video and you can quickly tell that HMT plays a heavy hand in all aesthetics of the project including the visuals, music video, and photography.

HundredMillionThousand’s ‘lp1’ will have a very limited, exclusive vinyl release on April 8, 2017. - Global Dance Electronic

HundredMillionThousand’s new EP features a moody journal of the many faucets of mental illness and the producer’s experience with the subject. HMT is fronted by producer Noel Jon whose musical aesthetic touches upon a brooding and suspenseful atmosphere.

HMT’s debut album “LP1” proves to possess a dark and melodramatic core. Jon’s moody aesthetic is especially prevalent in the lead single “Yalda”.

The musical elements in “Yalda” are harmonious and prove to be an easy listen which is due to the careful composition of the instrumentation. HMT demonstrates his mindfulness when composing this single to make sure that the sounds are balanced and not too crowded.

In “Yalda”, HMT definitely wanted the bass to be the main component of the song. I noticed that they brought the bass to the front and every other instrumentation is put in the background to support it.

HMT’s “Yalda” features real, treated vocals with an added stutter effect. This stutter effect was added to the sounds on the vocal line at the beginning and the effect was similar in other parts of the single. This composition provides an eerie and unforgettable EP track. The vocals on “Yalda” are excellent because the song has a heavy bass line, but the vocals are able to cut right through them.

I think the reason why it sounds like the vocals were inputted is because HMT pushed the fader up quite a bit, which adds to the effect of the vocals slicing through the bass line.

Furthermore, reverb was added to the vocals to really broaden the kind of sound HMT was aiming for. So this adds to the song in an excellent manner.

I thought the transition (like 3/4 of the way through the song) was really well done because they were successfully able to introduce an almost completely new theme that changed the pace of the song. There were still some slight noises in that tiny section where everything was cut, however, that was just to help the listener know that the transition wasn’t the end of the song.

The use of white space was also extremely successful in this instance.

The melodic line also has some very slight pitch shifts which I thought were quite cool.

My experience of listening to the lead track is positive because I thought “Yalda” is an excellent composition and the vocals are unique. I thought the song was hauntingly beautiful.

Further Listening: Transcendence, Boards of Canada, Inward - Digital Owl Music

Edmonton-based producer Noel Jon weaves an eerie and beat-driven musical landscape on his debut album, aptly titled lp1. He utilizes Iranian music samples with tense, danceable production from the first track, entitled "Yalda," onwards. "Rescue Feeling" injects hip-hop into the mix, with rapper Cab'ral laying down a confident verse over precise, clipped beats and synths.

The album plays quite seamlessly, in some ways feeling like a mixtape. At times, the repetitious nature of the tracks can create detachment with the listener, as with "D'om," but Kurai and Cab'ral's appearances on the album's latter tracks add a humanity and intimacy to the songs, as Kurai references a "psychological collapse" in "Tunnilism." It's one of many references throughout lp1 to mental illness, a theme that's explored particularly well on "Exalted," an early track featuring Kurai.

HundredMillionThousand manages to blend a variety of genres and influences on his debut album, including hip-hop, rap, dance and electronic music. He marries Western and Iranian sounds in order to develop a varied sound that's at once melodic, haunting, abrasive and ominous. (Independent) - Exclaim!

7/10 - Album of the Year

HundredMillionThousand (HMT), the musical project and brainchild of Noel Jon, recently dropped his debut album –lp1. The cover artwork for the album is very unique, being an enlarged photo of hydroboracite, a rare mineral with unusual chemistry.

Lp1 is a musical mood journal or audio log, a musical map through the matrix of mental illness. So in a sense, it’s ambient music. HMT’s music is designed to map out “a rational pathway through the cycle of cycles.” Pretty intense stuff.

HMT’s style of ambient music utilizes influences from Persian music, along with the Iranian tombak, which is a goblet drum that produces a unique percussive sound. If you listen closely to HMT’s music, you can pick out rap and hip hop elements that complement his distinctive style and sound. I’m tempted to call HMT’s style of music Persian rap, but the term might fall short of describing the totality of HMT’s sound.

Lp1 contains nine tracks. “Yalda” is first and might be my favorite. I like the percussive groove that drives the music, followed by the chanting vocals and somber deep tones of the synth. The song is almost bi-polar in structure: manic and depressive, with transitions between the two states.

Another favorite is “Rescue Feeling,” featuring the vocals of Cab’ral, whose vocals provide a definite rap element, even though the music avoids overt rap elements. The melody is what I call industrial/Persian, because of its mechanized beat. “Serbians” establishes a staccato-like beat that starts and stops as the song progresses; the melody, dark and moody, like an approaching bank of clouds, conveys a tension that borders on tentative, as if the tension can’t make up its mind – go, or stay and increase.

Good stuff.

“D’om” is an excellent example of ambient music. A nice shuffle beat with a mechanized flavor contrasts against the light Persian melody. Although not a happy-peppy tune, there’s something hopeful to it, like a light at the end of the tunnel. Featuring Kurai, “Exalted” starts off like a Gregorian chant that then segues into a slow Persian rap-like melody. “Tunnelism” follows “Exalted,” flowing smoothly from one to the other, a natural pairing.

The final three tracks on the album – “Magic,” “Flamingo” and “Cathedral” – feature Cab’ral. And all three have a heavy dose of rap influence mixed in, primarily from the vocals. But even the melodies have been baptized in the rap river. Of the three, I liked “Magic” best. Probably because of its mantra-like background vocals.

I classify the Persian rap songs on lp1 as “an audio journal,” and the instrumentals as ambient music. In effect, two different musical forms designed to establish a mental state or mood. The two forms work well together and lp1 is excellent: superb arrangements, outstanding vocals and good production values. And Jon’s songwriting ability is extraordinary.

Find out more about HundredMillionThousand here. - the Huffington Post