TI Dictée Magique (Speak & Spell freanch version)

OK, I like circuit bending as well as 8 bit / chip tune music.It took me over 1 year to finally find a functional unit, at my mother house, in her original box... A friend of mine brought me another unit found in a garage sale 2 weeks later! So within 2 weeks, I was the happy owner of 2 Dictées Magiques. I modified one unit using all the schematics developed by the bending guru known as Reed Ghazala. The other unit was modified both with Ghazala schematics mixed with personal ideas. I really enjoy the glitching noise going out of those machines. These are very powerful but the main pleasure remain they're unpredictability. A nice add on to any experimental music / sound design rig.

8/10

Ghazala web site

 

Hecq 0000 review

Hecq (AKA Ben Lukas Boysen) is a young german sound designer who works for a lot of advertising project including TV channels and various companies / brands. This background is audible all over is discography. Hecq is mostly considered as a IDM music artist, even if I personally don't think he could be categorized within a specific genre. I really enjoy 0000 since it was released, back in  2007. This album consist in 2 disks, the first one being original compositions and the second, remix works in collaboration with other artists including  Newt or Snog. I'm kinda jealous of Hecq talent regarding the creation of lush sounding landscapes who evolve and morph perfectly trough almost any song he produce. I like the way weird sounds are able to blend with each other and create a coherent and melodic package. Also, sampling his overused but in a manner that doesn't hurt my ears as everything layers perfectly. The second disk is awesome with some gems that unfortunately never reach the status it deserves... 

9/10

 Awesome short film with Hecq sound design:

 

Nanoloop 1.5 review

I really enjoy listening to chiptune. All the 8 bit musical movement is interesting, remembering old gaming souvenirs and raising a good dose of nostalgia. Elektron, the famous Swedish synth designer started this musical trend in 1999 with the release of the now famous Sid Station, a desktop synth wish is exploiting the SID (Sound Interface Device) chip commonly used as a sound generator for the Commodore 64 in the early 80's. As this device was hugely popular within the musical community, other manufacturer decided to offer similar product (Sid Station production stopped, units are rare and very expensive). Nanoloop was created by a German programmer known as Oliver Wittchow. This software is included on a typical Game Boy cartridge and enable the user to exploit the sound chip. The interface is pretty simple, working as a typical 16 step sequencer. It is also possible to build complete songs, arranging the sequences. The cartridge also feature some memory slot for songs and sequences. The sound of this chip is typically 8 bits, raw sounding. The Game Boy output (1/8 jack) is low quality and noisy. It is also possible with further mod to implement midi protocol in order to control the Nanoloop externally (check out the video). This device is really fun to use and inject a non subtle dose of lo-fi gritty sound in your music! 

7.5/10

Sound demo 

Fluxination by Spiralex

Fluxination  by  Spiralex

This song is a personal tribute to the original Aeon Flux cartoon music wish I really dig.

Nitzer Ebb Showtime Review

This is the first album I've ever bought. It was in fact a tape found in a music shop at a special price of 0.49$!!! Showtime was released in 1990, a prolific period for electronic music. This tape ran on my walkman for at least 6 months. I really dig in Showtime as it was quite a revelation for me as a young fucked-up teenage: Hard driven music with the characteristic Douglas McCarthy's voice, very aggressive in some ways. The album is quite short in length with only 9 songs but there is absolutely no fillers. My favourite songs are Getting Closer, Nobody Knows and Fun to be Had. It is possible to ear a lot of musical influence within this LP ranging from Depeche Mode (Lighting Man) to Leonard Cohen (Nobody Knows). The artwork is also minimalistic and very efficient (I like it!). This album also influenced a lot of artist during the 90's and even today. Classical stuff...

9/10

 

Alesis SR-16 review

This was my first drum machine bought 3 years ago. A friend of mine recommended the SR-16 as it is easy to use and great sounding. It is in fact easy to use but for the sounds, I don't think they are great. The SR-16 sounds very generic. The samples are very basics and lo fi. Some acoustic drum samples are good thought and  they layer very well. This machine was released in 1990 and still in production until 2003, wish is a good indicator of it's popularity. A lot of people bought it in the early 90's as a replacement for Roland XoX digital drum machines. A lot of them miss the XoX sequencer. The midi implementation of the SR-16 is quite good and it is possible to use it as a controller. The pads are velocity sensitive, giving more «natural» expression to rhythm patterns created on the fly. It's a good tool to have in the studio.

6.5/10

Front 242 Tyranny >For You< review

Released in 1990, this album highlight the talent of Front 242 to produce electronic dance music. Unlike mainstream house or techno music that was popular at the time, this music is more aggressive and trance oriented. The proper description of this kind of music is EBM (Electronic Body Music), a genre they pioneered along other bands like Nitzer Ebb, Front Line Assembly or Clock DVA. Many artist failed to reproduce this kind of music opening the path to many sub genre known as future pop, electro industrial, IDM etc. I really like the hard beat driven songs on this LP, Tragedy for You, Neurobashing or Moldavia to name a few. The production is excellent, as well as the military atmosphere surrounding the songs. This album was followed by a lot of singles, notably the excellent Mixed by Fear, including some awesome upbeat tracks. Note that the following video is absolutely cheesy!!!

8/10