I assume if you read this newsletter you probably know what Kiroku Radio is. If not - it’s a secondary YouTube channel I run that has relaxing lofi music and animations to go with it. You likely have also seen that it hasn’t been updated in well over a year (which breaks my heart) so I wanted to explain what’s going on with it. First of all - if you listened to it in any capacity on YouTube, Spotifiy or Apple Music, thank you. The reception to it was always very kind and I’m glad it connected with so many of you. It still racks up thousands of plays every month on streaming which is always mind blowing to me. I’m genuinely happy that people are still listening.
So where’s the new uploads? Well, I have a golden rule when it comes to creating things - don’t make something you don’t have some control over, and don’t set the bar too high from the start. I broke both of these rules with Kiroku Radio. I was excited about it. I wanted it to exist. I wanted to it be a part of Byte Review. But I wasn’t writing the music and I wasn’t making the animations, I was just emailing people trying to keep things moving. Over time, both parts slowly became harder to coordinate as people (understandably) got busy with other things. Kiroku Radio was a passion project for me, but it wasn’t for everybody else and progress started to crawl. We did look for new animators and musicians but it didn’t feel the same - we set the bar too high with the music, and had no control over the animation production.
Truth be told, Kiroku Radio Vol 5 has around 30 minutes of music done. It’s beautiful stuff, our musician friend has really killed it with this set and we’ve been excited about it for, well, over a year. Yeah, a year. I really hope we can release it soon, and if we do, it might be the final volume of Kiroku Radio - but it’ll go out on a high note.
Also, if you happen to be a musician or animator, please feel free to reach out!
Sorry to come back to the newsletter on a sad note. Anyway we do have something fun for you :
What’s new with Kiroku?
We’re very happy to announce a new wallpaper set : Cascade!
Honestly, this might be my favourite set we’ve ever made. The mint colour (shown below) is just perfect, I love how it looks on my devices and how much it matches my aesthetic across pretty much everything I do! It comes in a bunch of colours and I think you’ll all really enjoy it, it also looks stunning with that liquid glass from iOS 26 👀
Creator Spotlight
🛠️ Scott Yu-Jan - Scott makes incredible 3-D printed projects to enhance Apple Products. He was known for making an iPhone / Braun inspired clock but recently he made the Mac Mini portable and the design is INSANE. You have to check it out.
🌖 Moonshake3d - Beautiful CG renders of products I wish existed, the camera mock ups on here are so cool.
🎨 Koysun - A sign painter who tells really compelling stories about making it as an artist and general life. The art is stunning and it’s so cool to see mastery in motion when he paints.
Remember in the last newsletter when I said I overthink everything when it comes to writing it? Well I wrote 2 newsletters since then and didn’t publish them 🤷
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this one!
- Tom
Yo Tom, you’ve got to get those 2 unpublished articles out of drafts! 😄 Enjoyed this one and hope everything goes smoothly with rolling out the next Kiroku Radio entry