Article in WOZ
I have an article in the current issue of the Swiss weekly magazine WOZ. The theme of the issue is soundtracks and my article is about game composing in the 1980’s. About the low status of music in a young industry full of craziness, and how some groundworking soundtrack works came out of this.
But also about what happens when you can make music in a game, and when your music software becomes intelligent and can offer game-like aspects to composing. Who owns the music then?
The text is in German and it’s available online (behind a paywall for now).
California with Kero Kero Bonito
Hey I’m joining Kero Kero Bonito for the California leg of their North American tour. Slime Girls also joining!
Oct 16: San Francisco: Swedish American Hall
Oct 19: Santa Ana: The Observatory
Oct 20: Los Angeles: The Echo
Oct 21: San Diego: Voodoo Room
Impromptuous Set in NYC Tonight
Yes, from 6-9pm tonight I’m doing a small show with KODEK, OG J, KADAVER, NONHORSE and PAPER MACHINE. I’ll do a fully improvised C64-set from scratch, I think, so expect the expected to be expected.
The venue is the Detective Squad, 11 Stanwix St, Brooklyn 11206.
Pictured is Shrimps, the C64 destroyer.
Chiperia #6 Out Now
A new Amiga music disk in the Chiperia series, run by the almighty Slash. This one was put together by no other than Dan & Facet – two of the biggest names of the 1990’s Amiga scene. There are about 20 songs, and I made a contribution together with my old partner in crime, Niemo. Our song starts at 32.16 in this video, or check it out running in Protracker:
Me and Niemo started making Amiga music together in the early 1990’s and he taught me a lot back then. We made tons of weird Amiga mod-songs before we started using synthesizers and drum machines to make micro-pop music under the name HT 1997-2004.
So yeah, don’t call it a comeback! Or maybe do?
My shortest live performance yet
I did a surprise one-song performance today at I/O in Brooklyn, New York. I did a duet with Macintalk, courtesy of Chipspeech!
Official Chipspeech Computer Funk
Excuse me sir. Sir! SIR! Hello? This is the official launch song for Plogue’s Chipspeech 1.5, which now has MacinTalk that you can hear singing in this track. This song is also on my new 80864 release, as a bonus song (not on the vinyl).
Get Chipspeech here and don’t miss their mini documentary about MacinTalk.
80864
80864 is my first 12″ solo vinyl, and is now open for pre-orders. This release presents the new partnership between C-64 and TR-808 that I’ve worked with for the past two years. As usual, there’s a bit of computer funk pop rock dub stuff all over the place, but it also delves deeper into a more solid techno/acid/electro field. Which I’m quite happy with.
The cover is shaped like a 5.25″ floppy disk, thanks to the magic of Data Airlines, with design by Dubmood. Apparently 40% of the vinyls are already pre-ordered, so you better hurry up and get one. Be part of history! Join the movement!
If you buy the vinyl you also get 7 bonus tracks as downloads, which means a total of 1 hour of music. In October, when 80864 hits the streets.
There are also 80 cassettes available in one of the four colours of the TR-808.
I’d like to thank my man Mats for making defMON, the C-64 software that I’m pretty much alone in the world to use. Also thanks to Scannerboy who built a few boxes that meant that I could synchronize the C-64 and the TR-808, which has been a dream ever since Kissdub gave/lent me his TR-808 many years ago.
Btw, it’s pretty crazy how well the 808 and the 64 fit together. I wonder what the 1980’s would have been like if there was defMON and Scannerboy back then. Maybe Afrika Bambaataa would’ve become a scener and Egyptian Lover would be the best BASIC coder on the block.
Oh look mom, a professional recording studio setup!
Seafax Exhibition
Dan Farrimond, one of the most prolific teletext artists out there, has used some of my music for his newest exhibition, Seafax.
On display now at L’Unique in Caen, France.
Philadelphia This Weekend
I’m playing 8static with Boaconstructor, Kite Splash and Trey Frey, with Cheap Dinosaurs on visuals. Will be a blast, d-don’t’t’t miss out’t!
dubCRT
It’s finally out! DUBCRT is a music album, interactive light synthesizer and remix-gadget released as a Commodore 64 cartridge. It holds 8 songs with inter-reactive PETSCII-visuals coded by 4mat, with graphics made by iLKke. Get it on Bandcamp (very limited edition). The audio release has recordings of the songs (8580 and 6581 mixed together) and remixes by Datassette, Julien Mier, Mesak, Faderunner, ssaliva, Anomie, Sm0hm, Tim Koch, Jellica, Brännvall and Extraboy. Get it on Bandcamp too! 
A 19-minute jam with some of the songs from DUBCRT, performed in defMON on C64 together with a delay pedal.