Floptrik

Floptrik is an album with Commodore 64 electro/acid/funk songs available as normal recordings for download, and as executable C64-programs on a 3.5″ floppy. Everything can be downloaded from CPU Records. The floppy is available at bleep.com, but might disappear fast.

Stream and download at Bandcamp
█ Promo-mix at Soundcloud
█ YouTube playlist

– “Birds On Fire Note” captures what sets Carlsson apart from gimmicky chiptune artists. The heaving bassline on “Monday Night,” for instance, rivals any modern techno or dubstep track. Floptrik sounds like literal computer music. It’s not always easy listening, but it’s a fascinating extension of the CPU aesthetic.”
Andrew Ryce, Resident Advisor

The programs are remixes and visuals, all contained in a 170 kilobyte disk image. They can be played on a Commodore 64 or in an emulator (instructions here). The remixes sound different every time they are played, by re-arranging the song and changing the instruments. The visuals are all in C64’s colourful ASCII-mode, PETSCII, and were made by Raquel Meyers, Linde, and Johan Kotlinski aka Mathman. See below. Originally released in the demoscene.

The audio recordings are in stereo, where the left channel uses the new SID-chip (8580), and the right uses the old one (6581). Both play the same 3 voices of the original song, but since the chips are different you get these cool hi-fi stereo lifestyle defects.

“Bet you didn’t know the Commodore64 could make dance floor jams like this.”
–  Sedge808, including Floptrik in a Best of June list.

Academic Article on Text Graphics

A new issue of the academic journal WiderScreen was released today, and includes a text by me. The theme of the issue is text art, and my text takes a critical look at the terminology surrounding text graphics. In short, I look at ASCII, PETSCII, Unicode art and Shift-JIS and ask whether these encoding terms are the most relevant way to categorize them today.

Read the article: full article or my shorter comment on Chipflip.

There are some very good contributions by e.g Raquel Meyers, Tommy Musturi, Gleb Albert, Dan Farrimond, Markku Reunanen, Daniel Botz and many more. So you should check out the whole issue, if you’re into this texty stuff.

Interview for Slovenian TV

Here is a clip about me in the Slovenian public service station RTV. I’m not sure what they’re saying, but the interview felt good afterwards (for a change) so hopefully it’s all good.

 

Floptrik Promo Mix

On 16 June my new release Floptrik drops on CPU Records. Very happy to be part of their great electro catalogue! Below is a short promo mix with all 10 tracks. They will come as normal recordings for download, and as executable C64-programs on a 3.5″ floppy. There are generative remixes that sound different every time, as well as PETSCII visuals. Read more.

 

Zyron DJ-set

Zyron mixes disco, funk, downtempo, groove, acid, house, stuff – including one of my songs from 80864. Enjoy!

Upcoming Floptrik

My next release is Floptrik, which will be out on 3.5″ floppy and Bandcamp, published by the great electro label CPU Records. It includes 10 songs, and the floppy contains eternal remixes for 5 of the songs, and visuals for the other ones. Here’s one of those visuals: Fist of Trade with PETSCII-animations by Raquel Meyers (first released here).

dubCRT – Second Edition

The second edition of dubCRT, produced by Shareware Plus with a new package design, is available now. This is a C-64 cartridge with songs and reactive PETSCII-visuals that can be tweaked, remixed, and destroyed. There’s also 11 fresh remixes! From the Facebook-post:

The first batch of 25 dubCRT’s are now ready to order!

Simply send £65 GBP to sales[at]sharewareplus[dot]com making sure you include your full name & address. For tracking please add £5 GBP.

We expect the first batch to sell out quickly over the weekend and a second batch will be available in two weeks.