| #554 |
|
2001 |
Perilous 554 Do you remember the days of the Commodore 64? The chunky 16 colour graphics and the nifty raster effects that made it look like there were so many more than just 16; and the plethora of weird and wonderful games like Boulder Dash, Wizball and MULE? Not to reminisce too much, but the C64 has an excellent music chip aptly named SID. Advanced for its time the SID chip managed to work as a proto-synthesiser and introduced, perhaps subconsciously, the idea of pop electronic music to many people. I used to wake up really early on Sunday mornings to play games on the C64 and later start hacking the graphics and sound out of certain games to stick into homemade demos and the like. Those halcyon days seem long gone but the arrival of a nifty little compilation from Austria, Input 64 brings them flooding back. Packed with 19 original Commodore 64 game tunes Input 64 features some of the key C64 game composers – Rob Hubbard, Martin Galway and Ben Daglish – and some crazy game music that never sounded so good. A lot of the tunes produced in those days were a mish mash of current pop trends with the inherent limitations of the SID chip which gave most music produced with it a strange futuristic or electro edge. The theme tune for Turbo Outrun inspires body-popping with its distorted sampled speech “go! go!”, and the twinkling diamonds of the classic Boulder Dash are heard through a synthetic sheen on Pieter Leipa’s title music. It’s a shame some of the cool tunes like those for Hunter’s Moon or Delta, both Thalamus games aren’t here but maybe they’re being saved for a later compilation in the series. Input 64 comes with full liner notes explaining the history of the SID and the C64 and, interestingly, where these key composers are today. Of course, if you have Mac or PC you can find a whole host of SID archives on the web where fans have preserved the C64’s games and music through emulation projects which let you play and hear C64 titles on your desktop computer. Moving forward, Warp Records have a swag of new titles out over the next month or so. From new signings to old favourites, the albums are flowing thick and fast. First is Chirs Clark’s odd debut for Warp titled Clarence Park. Although it opens with the lush melodic muted piano of Pleen 1930s it plunges into more crunchy cut up territory (much like some of the recent Planet Mu releases). Veering from annoying to interesting and back again, and with 14 short tracks, its more like an EP. More rewarding is the superb album from Scott Heron as Prefuse73. Miami-based Heron records as Delarosa & Asora for Schematic producing glitchy abstract cut up music with nods to post-rock but drops a few of his cut-up hip hop mutations as Prefuse73 on Chocolate Industries. Now it’s a full length Prefuse73 release for Warp. Working with real rappers and digitally chopped up lines from others, Heron shakes up beat structures and still maintains a strong hip hop authenticity. Next are the four big guns. A new Autechre album, Confield that sees them marry the sound of their earlier releases like Amber with their tricky DSP-isms of late. Plaid also comeback after their Trainer retrospective with a new full lengther Double Figure which continues in the vein of the lovely child-like breakbeats of Rest Proof Clockwork. Then its the new Squarepusher album Go Plastic which is a welcome return to the manic red cordial breakbeats of yore. The 1st 12”, My Red Hot Car is hilarious “I’m going to fuck you with my red hot car” or something like that croons Jenkinson through a vocoder. Mid July, Two Lone Swordsmen release a compilation of remixes of Tiny Reminders from people they’ve been remixing for themselves like Lail Puna and Calexico. Don’t forget, Squarepusher is out here July 20th for one Sydney show too. Which happily coincides with Frigid’s 5th birthday bash at a larger venue. And on the Frigid front its Oz hip hop this week with Celcius, Explanetary and a rare Fathom show. Yellow Peril (www.snarl.org)  Goto
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