can't be sure how i came upon hard mix. had something to do with twitter, but it's fuzzy.  it went down something like this, a tweet appeared in my feed, by a person i didn't even know i was following and by chance i saw it. @ahardmix said: 
Re-recording "Dream Running." So glad I am. Just layed down a sick bass line and beat.10:33 PM Apr 1st via web
and like that my interest was piqued. sick bass line and beat? I'M IN. vowed to check it out the next day. and did, on hard mix's myspace page. found myself letting the sounds i found there loop and loop. shot DMs & emails to a few people on my same sound wave length, saying something to the effect of "HEAR THIS. it pretty much rules."  then i got greedy. or needy? i had no choice but to ask Noah Smith (= Hard Mix) to give me mp3s. i had to. and he did. like that. and my day turned brilliant. Upon my first few listens i felt a washed out, pictureplane vibe. what i love though is, Noah associates himself with moby. MOBY! that's so killer. and he's right. i hear that too. 

I asked Noah, about vocals & samples in his music and he said "I use my own vocals on You are Gold and Twenty-Fifth but everything else is sampled. I have a giant collection of acapellas from the 1960s and up. After I get done creating the music for a  song, I search through the acapellas and try and find one that can be sampled into the song." 
And what inspires/influences his sound? "I am mainly inspired by my life and everything around me. My current mood plays a big role in my songs too." He also mentioned listening to Parallels, a band from Canada, a lot lately, note to self: check them out. Pre-Hard Mix, noah played in the band,  Read In Response. Mad glad he's gone on to do what he's doing now. 
Hard mix has yet to play live shows. he wants to though. so stay aware people, should he come to city near you. hey hard mix, south florida, please. thanks. Within his music you'll find so much texture. so many layers and tangents. it's so right. i dig. hard.
a few fave tracks:

dream running

you are gold

earth

ballin'

just tell me

control this

one thing

twenty-fifth

hard mix plans to have a full-length album, In and out of My Life, finished no later than december 2010. want hard mix right NOW? lucky you, noah smith is extremely giving, just ask & i'll hook you up.
i feel perfectly confident assuring you that these sounds are going to make your monday a little less painful, a little less mundane. ;-) 


love,
sunlovey