Strange Life Records

Grindstone Redux

2011-01-05T23:05:00.001+01:00

The Story of the 1980's Underground Music Network.

This is the story of how the music business was transformed in the 1980s by like-minded musicians who decided to self-publish their work. They formed a “network” before the internet or email made it commonplace.

Today it is common practice for musicians to self-publish their work. But this is a recent development in music history, which began in the 1980s. It came in response to a music business with a narrow spectrum of music that was being released and promoted.

Before the internet or email, there was a network of “Underground” musicians and bands who networked with each other by producing recordings at home, exchanging them with each other, and communicating with hand-written letters. They created their own “record labels.” They produced independent magazines and the first generation of radio shows devoted to independently released music.

In the 1980s the music industry was also transformed by numerous technological developments: the first affordable recording equipment, the first affordable synthesizers and affordable photo-copying. For the first time, musicians were able to record and distribute their music without a “major” record company.

The network was supported by small, independent record stores (which have all but disappeared) where musicians could place their work for sale, as well as discover other like-minded artists and magazines. This created a sense of community in which artists were working locally with stores in their home towns. To a great extent, these stores helped build the network .

Watch it here

Spock Treks

2010-11-20T01:58:00.003+01:00

Captain Kirk & Spock enjoying romantic breakfast
more Great Star Trek fan paintings and drawings from Gamin Davis

Phochos Interphase Phrase A

2010-11-03T18:05:00.004+01:00

phochos and his studio somewhere in the 1980s

Coming soon on ice crystal clear vinyl on Creme records: Phochos - Glaciers EP(Creme 12-53). Introducing Phochos AKA Jos Lieffering, amateur astronomer and electronic musician from The Hague. Since the mid 1970s Phochos has been dabbling about with organs and synthesizers, releasing an incredible number of CDs and tapes on his own Orion records label. This is a snippet of the Legowelt remix of "Interphase Phrase A":

Soul Non Stop Smackos Episode

2010-11-03T01:39:00.003+01:00

Oh yeah here is the Smackos special guest Soul Non Stop episode from last week, apparently something went wrong while it was broadcasting, so there:

Soul Non Stop #57 - SMACKOS (Legowelt) edition by Micro Harvey

Ghostforestcatrave - The Cat With The Laughing Windows

2010-10-31T22:06:00.003+01:00

The Cat with the Laughing Windows by ghostforestcatrave

Soul Non Stop: Smackos guest episode

2010-10-29T12:35:00.003+02:00

I did a guest episode for Starborough's and Marv's cult Soul Non Stop IFM show...Escape from the mundainess of Italo disco...expect tinkering rhodes pianos, fuzzy wahwah's, thumping warm bass sounds, ghetto deepness, walks in the rain and ultraromance!

"Soul Non Stop presents a special guest episode by Smackos. The most psychedlic Soul Non Stop selection yet! Be prepared to expand your total self. Saturday at 12.00 CIT and Sundays at 21.00 CIT on IFM2: Classix." check it out on IFM

Regards,

Smackos

We Are All Together In Afo Afrique

2010-10-27T13:49:00.010+02:00

This man is one of my heroes. Check out his homepage. Mostly known for his hit Black Superman, it is his more obscure Afro Afrique that became a cult hit with Tirolian construction workers, schnitzel friers and shirtless tanned truckers (also known as the Cosmic scene). He was apparently obsessed with Africa as 90% of his songs are about that continent and its people, in a very British Brighton cabaret way... ("whose got the music, who got the soul now, who got the rhythm, someone take them by the hand......Africa Man!!!").

He also wrote an autobiography called "Long Time Running: The Johnny Wakelin Story".
In a very Partridigian style the book cover sais:

"However, the road to fame and success had been anything but smooth. Following a life-changing motorcycle accident in his teenage years, the young Johnny found his first ambition – to become an Olympic decathlete – tragically dashed before he even got off the starting blocks. Johnny lost a leg in the accident, and the future looked bleak. Johnny, however, still had his dreams and, with characteristic optimism, turned his energies into carving out a career as a singer/songwriter, paying his dues on the pub and club circuit before finally getting his break and striking out for the big time."

Owyeah. Anyways Here is the smacked out version of (We are All Together in) Afro Afrique, with extra Moogbass, drummachine rhythms, phasers, delays etc.etc.etc.:

download

W.T strikes again

2010-10-26T16:44:00.005+02:00

You probably already heard about this, but old man Willy is bugging me to write a review again for the two new vinyl LP releases on his W.T records. And he ain't gonna stop till I do that so here we go:

Uplifting happiness all the way with Model Man's Shouldnt I be dead by now. Model Man is none other then DJ Overdose which we ofcourse all know from his "In for the kill" LP release on strangelife last year. Here are some snipps:
model man_ a1 honesty doesn’t pay
model man_ a2 zelfkant (Selfside)
model man_ a3 hopeless romantic
model man_ b1 shouldn’t i be dead by now
model man_ b2 hoe de pet staat (Whatever way the hat points)
model man_ b3 model man
Not bad uh, sounds like the Das Boat soundtrack mixed with a lot of other soundtracks but with a definite dutch stroopwafel De Vierde Man flavor. Actors like Peter Faber, Jeroen Krabe and Huub Stapel would be grande over this. The rain never stops...

The other release is from Sir Stephen aka Pagan Future. He's from New Orleans and was Roughed up, kidnapped and robbed in his house during the production of this release! Here are some snipps:
pagan future_a1 ancient ritual
pagan future_a2 bastard prince
pagan future_b1 strange nobility
pagan future_b2 good king’s crusade
Reminds me of old Black Dog, English early 90s IDM detroitish techno. Someone bring in some commodore Amigas and make a video for this with raytraced balls and fractals!

You can get both releases at clone

Sincerly yours,

Spencer J.Spiddeley, Esquire.
(can I have my money now)

And back online again...

2010-10-26T11:55:00.004+02:00

That maintenance went way faster then expected, www.legowelt.com is online again!

Legowelt.com temporarily offline

2010-10-25T14:58:00.003+02:00

The Legowelt.com site has been taken offline for maintenance work, we hope to put it back soon all safe and sound. In the meanwhile we will use this site for any updates, newsflashes and notices of general interests.

Ray S. Escortienda - Lagrimas en Nuevo York

2010-10-12T14:20:00.007+02:00

Some of you might remember Ray "Slagwinkel" Escortienda, old school resident DJ of the infamous Salambo bar. Unknown to many he produced some tracks too, which he used to play from DAT tapes in the club. His style can be best described as a sort of melancholical latino freestyle house. Here is a deep meandering jam from him called "Lagrimas en Nuevo York" which would translate as "Tears in New York"
download

The Zouk Machine Smacked Out

2010-10-05T14:05:00.003+02:00

A smacked out version of The Zouk Machine's - "A Pa Je", 1986 from the Caribean Island of Gaudeloupe.
download

RIP Aaron Carl

2010-09-30T15:37:00.002+02:00

R.I.P Aaron Carl, may you shine in the great beyond

Soul Smackossa

2010-09-23T11:43:00.006+02:00

This saturday the Nacho Patrol soundsystem will play in the main hall of the Paard, The Hague during the Todays Art Festival. Expect full on ghetto style afro wahwah funk disco and whatever goes with that. From the depths of the Tascam fourtrack we bring you Nacho Patrol's version of Soul Makossa, using Afrique's exploitation 70's version as the basis.

Another jam full with out of sync drummachine rhythms, wrongly cut loops, too much tape echo, out of phase tapeheads, out of control synths, unintelligable structures etc.etc.etc. This is how we roll...

download

Composure

2010-09-16T10:52:00.003+02:00

UFO Onderzoek 1983 game on the Commodore 64

2010-09-10T19:07:00.004+02:00

Here are some exclusive screenshots from the new UFO Onderzoek 1983 videogame for the Commodore 64 computer. Developed by the top secret Strangelife Records software department in Cambridge, England, the game will take the computer to its limit with sixteen colors, 1 channel SID chip sound and huge interactive levels to explore for weeks.

Influenced by the Smackos album of the same name that came out earlier this year, you play the role of a washed up astronomy student who gets entangled in a web of intrigue and mystery.
According to Spencer J.Spiddeley the spokesperson of Strangelife Software International, the game will be finished before christmas. We will keep you up to date with any news about this exciting project.

Astro Unicorn Returns

2010-09-09T08:04:00.004+02:00

We've been a little bit slow with posting on this blog, sorry for that. We're going try to kickstart this joint again with useless information, exploitation tracks and the usual soupçons. Lets start with a general anouncement: Astro Unicorn Radio will return with a new episode tonight on Intergalactic FM. With an extra dose of DJ Jus Ed from Bridgeport, Connecticut and his new album, Texas Rap, Dirty lofi detroit chicago stuff etc.etc.etc. Starts at 22:00 C.E.T, reruns Friday at 06:00 and 14:00 C.E.T.

Superlife - Go Bananas

2010-08-10T21:15:00.001+02:00

Strange Life Video Awards 2010 nomination number one

2010-07-16T15:44:00.004+02:00

To give Strange Life Records more prestige our conciliaire , advisor and laywer"Better call Benny" Benny C.Goldstein devised a new plan to attract a hipper, younger and more "Streetwise" audience...namely: Video Awards. MTV has them so why not the Strange Life Records blog too!

The first nomination is ADEPTUS - Bury U in Kerman from the original Bay Area Jam boys. Full of stars such as Tharathyas, Dade Elderon, Marnacle, Tuned sports cars, girls with guns and the music is pretty darn deep awesome too! Kerman apparently is a place is Northern California near Fresno, sure as hell look s like a place thats bustling with activity!

Anyways here is the video:

Keep any eye out for more nominations in the future...

Westside Box Savants - Badass 808 Rhythm Trax

2010-07-09T18:22:00.013+02:00

Back in the days when DJs were awesome and drummachines were reallly expensive a few recordlabels released 12"s with just drummachine rhythms on it. This way DJ's could add powerfull rhythms to "weak" soul & funk tracks and make house songs on the fly.

We probably all know the ultra expensive rare Faces drums by Italo legend Alex Novaga, best described by Iamelectron from Mighty Robot records as "For all its hype you’d expect some mind blowing Novaga drum programming, ideal for ripping up your 80’s mixes, but all you get are a selection of embarrassingly simple Bontempi pre-set style bossa nova beats which a trained hamster could have programmed." More exciting is Virgo Go Wild rhythm trax with nasty smudgey beats that have a little more structure. Influential was the Mix your own Stars "original American rhythm tracks" whose "117 BPM" exhilarated many old school chicago house mix.

Now Strange Life Records is proud to present the Westside Box Savants with their crazzeeyyy "Badass 808 Rhythm Trax". Thirteen rhythm tracks from the original TR808 drummachine. So nasty, so heavy and so raw it instantly desintegrated the very tape it was recorded on. Perfect to spice up mixes, tracks, edits, jams or whatever. Feel free to use them how you want. Thirteen tracks in hifi 320 kpbs MP3. Get it on the legowelt site.

A Place Called Nowhere

2010-07-06T12:50:00.002+02:00

a Korg KPR77 drummachine rendition of 1990's The It - A Place Called Nowhere.

download

Africa Jet Band II:The Africa Jet Band Experience

2010-06-29T23:16:00.010+02:00

Above you can see the label artwork for the the new Africa Jet Band LP Coming later this year on the Australian M-Division records. Its called "The Africa Jet Band Experience" (I didn't invent that title they tought it up at the M-Division A&R department). Six dusty tape saturated afrofunk exploitation tracks on vinyl LP. There will also be an Africa Jet Band CD with both this and the earlier Africa Jet Band LP and some bonus tracks (Thats a fancy word for leftover tracks that didnt make it to the vinyls).

Stars Over Africa

Ghetto Compressor

No Angry people

Fuzz Party

Salambo Dance

Solomonic Dynasty

Legowelt, DJ TLR & Not Happy Jan USA Tour

2010-06-29T01:49:00.004+02:00

You might already know but here is the schedule for the Legowelt - DJ TLR (Creme organization) - DJ Not Happy Jan (M-Division records) USA Tour:

1 July Mezzanine San Fransisco (Only TLR & Not Happy Jan)
17 July Showcave Los Angeles (Only TLR & Not Happy Jan)
22 July Galaxie at Coco66 in Brooklyn New York
23 July somewhere in Manhattan TBA
24 July Sinergy Project Space in Philladelphia, Pensylvania
27 July The Nightlight in Chapel Hill in the woods of North Carolina hosted by FrequeNC records
28 July at the Brillobox in Pittsburgh, Pensylvania, Zombie capital of the world
31 July at Macho City in Detroit, Michigan
4 August Inferno Club Madison, Winsconsin
5 August Minneapolis, Minnesota venue TBA
7 August Missipi Studios Portland,Oregon (Only Legowelt)

Flamingo Holocaust

2010-06-27T17:45:00.000+02:00

Korg 707 Falckenhaus

2010-06-25T01:30:00.000+02:00

I found this little jam from my old Korg 707 synthesizer on my harddisk and kinda forgot what a cool machine it is. I can't really remember making this track but it must have been some kind of Franz Falckenhaus, Sammy Osmo or Smackos thing. Last year I traded or sold it to Orgue, maybe I shouldn't have done that cause I really liked the sound.

Its a late 1980s four operator FM thing like the Yamaha DX100 etc. but with a more wooley organic sound. Probably put on the market as a follow up to Korgs relative succesfull Poly 800 synthesizer using licensed FM chips from Yamaha. The Korg 707 didn't do well saleswise and has always remained in the somewhat obscure fog of synthesizer history.

Editing is an almost impossible guagantarian task IMO, making the machine pretty much a preset keyboard. There are however three sliders with which you can alter the envelopes and "filter" which is more of a tone control since FM synthesis doesnt have a filter.

Looking at the advertisement above I must say I have never seen a pink, white or blue 707, only the black ones are common here in Holland. The Korg DS8 uses the same synthesis but is more advanced and way bigger, I don't know if editing is any easier on that one too.

Here is an mp3 for the flashless

Jacques Arpologie Mer d'Hiver

2010-06-23T01:08:00.000+02:00

A sneak preview of some stuff that is coming out later this year on Strange Life Records after Strange Life of America INC. will open up.

We are proud to present "Jacques" from the fair city of Liverpool in England.
The A&R of Strangelife discovered this brilliant artist when he played a gig in a rundown gallifmaufrian cabaret club for 3 and a half persons. Liverpoolerians (or how do you call those people) might now Jacques as Jacques Malchance from Upitup records, a label that releases lots of cool free music on the internet.

Pushing to ecstatic currents in baths of fuzzy reverb this is deep British eccentric electronic music to the max!!!!! (even though he is not really British but he lives there). The album will be called "Arpologie" and here is a crappy lofi mp3 snipp of a track called "Mer d'hiver"...which means Winter Sea I think in French...it certainly got a Ravel-esque feel to it or something.

if you can't see the flashplayer try another computer or escape from North Korea to freedom

If you can't see the flashplayer use another computer or escape from North Korea

Out Now Chicago Shags - Flamingo World 12"

2010-06-21T13:53:00.000+02:00

Yihaaa finally hitting the stores as of today:

Chicago Shags - Flamingo World 12" Vinyl (Strangelife Records SLR029).Orgue Electronique and Legowelt team up again for five deephouse acid ghetto bangers.

Soundbytes:

FlamingoWorld

West Park

Judgement Day

Casio RZ1 track

Live by the Sword

Get it at the Strangelife Records shop or clone, godspill etc.etc.etc.

On this Planet...Distant Planet

2010-06-21T02:13:00.000+02:00

This was still floating around on a reel tape here...a raw take on Mr.Fingers timeless superdeep awe-inspiring classic "Distant Planet"...with some almost out of sync multitrack dubbing, Sequential Circuits drumtraks drummachine rhythms and the usual Juno 60 Squarewave chicago housebass, hand modulated analog echo blahblahblah. Just for reference we'll call it the "star trek mix"...because they had a lot of utopian distant planets

Iphoners, old school platformers, flashless, North Koreans and people who want to play it out go here

House of Jezebel

2010-06-16T18:08:00.000+02:00

Some ghetto raw gospel house track using a sample from our favorite Reverend Alicia public access TV song, brought to you by Houze of Jezebel...yes that is the cat from the neighbour in The Sentinel. Rejoice!

Iphoners, old school platformers, flashless and North Koreans go here

Synthesizer Mysteries: The Kawai SX210

2010-05-25T22:00:00.000+02:00

Ah we need some posts on this blog again so lets do a Synthesizer Mysteries series!
We start with a guest synthesizer from mr.Elektrovolt. The obscure Kawai SX210: An exotic one oscillator analog polyphonic synthesizer. Editing is similar to the Moog Source with individual knobs and a dail to enter the values. It looks pretty darn cool. Here is a soundcloud demonstration using a patch called "romero":

Space sx210 by elektrovolt

3 new strangelife releases!

2010-05-12T15:17:00.000+02:00

Three new releases on strangelife records!

Polysick - Meteo SLR041
Rephlexesque Surf Acid weirdness from a mysterious artist from Rome Italy
Click here fore soundbytes

Christian Gleinser - "Electric Winter" SLR040
Wooley winter campfire electronics from the Zeppelin capital of the world.
Click here for soundbytes

Count Hemmendorff - Castle Hemmendorff audiotour SLR042
Take the audiotour of castle Hemmendorf and enter the world of Transylvanian psycho-freejazz.
Remastered on Transylvania's only Fairchild super compressor for superior audio experience.
Click here for soundbytes

Order at the Strangelife records shop

Zompy Arpeggiators

2010-05-03T23:39:00.000+02:00

Zomp zomp zomp...a little smudgy tape techno jam made with the Amazonia 5 synthesizer and some badass TR626 drummachine samples in a sampler, in glorious 96kbps

Iphoners and flashless go here

Amazonia 5 VST synthesizer

2010-04-29T23:29:00.000+02:00

We go back a few years to 2003 or was it 2004... I don't remember anymore. I made a VST softsynthesizer in synthedit, it was called Amazonia 5 or Amazon 5.I thought it was lost in the tarpits of the internet but we found a copy again. I expected that after all those years stuff like this wouldnt work anymore but it still does...an indestructable piece of software! Its available again for download on the Legowelt site.
It is sort of specialized in obscure soundtrackish sounds, like 70s sci fi horror radiophonic workshop stuff.

Here is a little mp3 demo of some amazonia 5 preset sounds:

Iphoners and flashless go here

Bunker - Motorwolf party 1st of May The Hague

2010-04-29T12:23:00.000+02:00

Saturday 1st of May at the Paard The Hague
Orange Sunshine, A.Butler, Lucid, Unit Moebius, Schmerzlabor & Legowelt DJ etc.etc.etc.
Starts at 22:00 entrance 7,50 euro
Psych Fuzz Motorrock & The Hague Electronics

Sark Island Acid

2010-04-28T13:40:00.001+02:00

This is the upperleft corner of the flag of Sark. Until a few years ago the last feudal Island state of europe. Interesting fact: "In August 1990 an unemployed French nuclear physisist named André Gardes attempted a singlehanded invasion of Sark, armed with a semi automatic weapon. The night Gardes arrived he put up signs declaring his intention to take over the island the following day at noon. He was arrested while sitting on a bench, changing the gun's magazine and waiting for noon to arrive, by the island's volunteer constable"...now thats autisticly romantic in a way.

Here is a "british" acidish track called "Sark Island Acid":

Grackle DX100 track

2010-04-27T17:49:00.000+02:00

Some new material from the Texan-bred New York swimming teacher Grackle, a track called "Under All", using a lot of sounds from the cute Yamaha DX100 mini synthesizer (which is almost the same as the dx21). It reminds me a littlebit of the early 90s New York Nu Groove records style somehow...but then again Grackle doesnt have a mullet and a thin moustache....but he has a baseballcap.

Grackle as he would have looked in the early 90s

Smudge Hawaii

2010-04-14T14:42:00.000+02:00

Some more weirdness signed on Strange Life Records...more info soon

Cosmic Clock

2010-04-11T14:42:00.000+02:00

Electric Winter

2010-04-08T23:16:00.001+02:00

We signed our first artist from Germany on Strange Life Records: Christian Gleinser from the town of Friedrichshafen. A small municipality on the northern shore of Lake Constance in the shadow of the Swiss and Austrian Alps. Friedrichshafen is best known for having been home to the Zeppelin Airship Company and the Dornier Flugzeugwerke.

Anyways, back to Christian Gleinser..listen to this preview of three tracks of the upcoming "Electric Winter" album...lots of dark John Carpenter-stylo basslines, mellotrons and a charming ultraromantic cover of a 70s classic. Above is a picture of him in what must be, we can only guess, his car. You know what...If you can guess the brand and type you will win a free CD...when its going to be released soon.

Iphoners and flasshless can listen here

Strangelife Party Amsterdam

2010-04-02T12:12:00.000+02:00

Tonight 2 April there is a ambient-space-electronics party at the smart project space in Amsterdam, With Ian Martin & Legowelt live and other people (see flyer).

Entrance: 6 euro
doors open: 21:30
Arie Biemondstraat 111
1054 PD Amsterdam

Trident Crisis Screenshots

2010-03-31T20:08:00.000+02:00

Here are some screenshots for the C64 videogame "Trident Crisis", which you can bid on during the big IFM Donate-o-la tommorow(see post below). The title screen up here actually has scrolling animation and music on the background.

Here is a scan of the manual

And here is for the true freaks a youtube with the game

IFM Live Donate-O-La ThursdayNight 01-04-'10

2010-03-31T10:04:00.000+02:00

Since The Hague's worldwide internet radiostation IFM is in some heavy waters regarding funding of our operations we organize a live Donate-o-la. It costs a lot of $$$ to keep the servers, computers, radio/studio equipment running and its all volunteers running the operations so any donation is highly appreciated.

Thursday night we'll be transmitting live from the IFMX with special guests IFX, Frankie Osmo, Smackos and possibly others to raise money for the Hotmix Foundation. (I am pretty sure that elektrovolt is coming with his medival instruments and will play songs on request)
We're live as of 2100 C.E.T thurday 01-04-10

There is also going to be an auction were you can bid on the following highly coveted items:

Franz Falckenhaus - Secret Microcassettes Box Set which includes:

The so far only existing test-promotional copy of the never released "FRANZ FALCKENHAUS - Secret Microcassettes" album on CDR (strangelife#014PT), comes with handwritten tracklisting on the back and autograph of "Franz Falckenhaus".
The microcassette which had to accompany this release containing random fieldrecordings of various secret locations from all over the world
The Commodore 64 computer game cassette "TRIDENT CRISIS". Also a never before released cold war-spy text adventure in which you play Franz Falckenhaus. The game also comes on a CD so you can play it on any other system with an emulator. Comes with early 80s style instruction manual.

You can bid here on the IFM site.

Flemming Dalum's run in the tube triple CD box set serial #001 on Panama Racing.
Bidding for that here.

DMX Memory Vector Crackers

2010-03-26T12:19:00.001+01:00

You might already have seen this DMX promo youtube video featuring a couple of tracks from the new album...but maybe not:

New DMX Krew, The Psychic Stewardess & Satomi Taniyama albums out now!

2010-03-24T23:10:00.000+01:00

Three new album releases on Strangelife! Here they are:
First there is "The March to the Stars" album from the legendary Brittish electrofunk star DMX Krew. Nineteen (!) tracks from tv-intro-theme-tunes from yesteryear to irresistable electrofunk pieces straight from the streets. This is all never before released stuff from the archives of ED DMX.

Listen to more mp3 snippets from this album.

Then we have the Psychic Stewardess of whom you might already have heard. Fourteen tracks from the Californian desert town of Palm Springs...smudgey ambient detroit stuff to take you to the highest skies.

Listen to more mp3 snippets from the Psychic Stewardess.

And last but not least the obscure Satomi Taniyama, a garbage man and musician from Oda, Shimane Japan. With half broken casio keyboards and electric pianos which he finds on the line of duty he composed Sixteen exotic dark ambient jazz minimal wavish whatever-you-want-to call it tracks.

Listen to more mp3 snippets from Satomi Taniyama.

Available at the Strange Life Records shop and clone, godspill etc.
Price is 9 euro for each album.

Strange Life Islands: Flags of the Izu Islands

2010-03-22T19:49:00.000+01:00

Somewhere in the Pacific, south of Tokyo and north of the Phillipine sea lies the Dragon's Triangle (also know as the Devils sea or Ma no Umi, 魔の海), a kind of Pacific -more evil- version of the Bermuda Triangle in the Atlantic. I am very skeptical about Bermuda Triangle stuff but its Pacific counterpart seems to capture the imagination more...maybe because its in the Pacific it is automaticly more exotic... the usual "tinfoil hat"UFO sightings, dissapearances of ships and planes, strange lights etc. are abundant. Most of its mystery however can be traced back and deducted to the extreme geological acitivity in the area (earthquakes and vulcanos) . An experimental rocket launch site might also have something to do with mystifying the area.

Its pretty vague what the exact dimensions of this triangle are but generally it includes the Izu Islands. A chain of vulcanic islands that stretches southwards from Tokyo for about 650 kilometres. These (sometimes very mysterious) Island municipalities have pretty cool flags like a lot of other Japanese ones:

Ōshima Island, population: 8,553.

Mikurajima Island, population: 296.

Kōzushima Island, population: 1932.

Toshima Island, population: 309.

Hachijōjima & Hachijōkojima Islands, population: 8592.

Miyakejima Island, population: 2406.

Niijima Island, population: 3058.

Aogashima Island, population: 220.

There are a lot of other Islands in the Izu chain but these are uninhabited so there are no municipalities and, as such, have no flags. Here is a documentary about the Devil's sea.

Out now: Smackos - UFO Onderzoek 1983

2010-03-09T15:59:00.001+01:00

Its out! The Smackos - UFO onderzoek 1983 album, get it here

Zorlex I in Tahiti Rain Storm

2010-02-25T12:16:00.000+01:00

The IFM site now has a cool youtube-less video section on it with all kinds of cool videos from the IFM-Murdercapital-Hotmix world. We took out the IFM Flight Simulator plane for some scenic flying over the Pacific...

"The Zorlex I, flagship and so far only aircraft of the Intergalactic FM Flight Simulator X airlines fleet, is a rusty old 1958 Douglas DC7C (an extended long range version of the DC7). We take off from Tahiti Papeete airport, Faa'a international during a tropical Thunderstorm. Problems arise as soon as the take off comences. The weather makes the plane almost flip forward on the runway and we barely manage to take off. A cumbersome heavy plane to fly, we finally get some height after almost hitting some palmtrees. The landing-gear is stuck in the outward position so after flying around the island through thunder and lightning we make a typical "smackos-style" emergency landing. At least nobody got hurt." Music by Mono-Poly and S.Tanayama. Pilot: Capt. Smackos.

My favorite video now on there is this cool John de Bruin Radio Studio...old school The Hague disco radio!

Satomi Tanayama - Shimane Dreams, Foxes and Secret Squirrels

2010-02-20T22:59:00.000+01:00

One more from the upcoming Satomi Tanayama album with a little youtube movie...

Strange Life Library: On The Track of Unknown Animals

2010-02-20T04:40:00.000+01:00

UFO Onderzoek 1983

2010-02-11T02:46:00.000+01:00

Finally there is news about Smackos' UFO Onderzoek 1983 album: announced more then three years ago it got lost, but recently the masters were found intact floating around in a cupboard in the IFMX studios. It will be released on a new Hotmix Foundation subsidairy called Powerman records.

UFO Onderzoek 1983 is dutch (as are all the titles of this album) and it means UFO research 1983. The story goes something like this....

Autumn 1983. UFO fever has come to the desolated parts of the Netherlands. Rumours of strange sightings and abductions are plenty. Q & D, two students at the astronomy faculty in a small-town university trace the sightings back to the polar regions. They take the plane to the norwegian island of Svalbaerd were they discover the shocking truth...

Twenty-seven tracks of adventure, mystery, romance and cosmic horror. Here is the tracklist with some mp3 snippets previews and english translations of the titles:

UFO onderzoek main theme
Een Melancholische Herfstavond (A melancholical Autumn eve)
Noordzee Helikopter (Northsea Helicopter)
Donkere Maan (Dark Moon)
Veen Lichten (Lights in the Moor)
Mysterieuze Verschijningen Rondom Rijksweg 34 (Mysterious Appearances around state road 34)
Alarm op vliegbasis Drenthe (Alarm on Drenthe Airforce base)
Nachtmerrie Achter De Bushalte (Nightmare behind the busstop)
322 Squadron maakt Visueel Kontakt (322 Sqd. makes visual contact)
Vermissingen in het Dorp (Missing people in the village)
Q&D Gaan op onderzoek uit (Q&D start their investigation)
Een ontdekking op de Sterrewacht (A discovery on the observatory)
Angst op het Metereologisch Instituut (Fear on the metereologic institute)
Professor M's aanwijzing leidt naar Noorwegen (Professor M's clue leads to Norway)
Lijnvlucht KL203 bestemming Trondheim (Flight KL203 to Trondheim)
De eerste sneeuwbui (The first snow)
Fjordvogels (Fjord birds)
Hopeloze romantische ontwikkelingen (Hopeless romantic endavours)
Aurora Borealis (Noorderlicht) (Aurora Borealis Northern Lights)
Aankomst op Longyearben (Arrival at Longyearben)
Eindeloze schemering (Endless twilight)
UFO Basis op Spitsbergen (UFO Base on Spitsbergen)
Anathema: Vloek van de paranormale SS (Anathema: Curse of the paranormal SS)
D raakt Q kwijt in de mist (D loses Q in the fog)
Ontsnappings theme (Escape theme)
Eindgevecht: Donkere Natuur (Final battle: Dark Nature)
UFO Onderzoek 1983 Eindtitels (End titles)

More reading on this albums themes and influences:
UFOON ,Svalbard,Fokker F28

Smackos - UFO Onderzoek 1983 is out soon on Powerman records CD album HM-PM001

Satomi "Schlomo" Taniyama's Portopia

2010-01-26T15:23:00.001+01:00

A new artist signed on Strangelife records, all the way from Japan.
Satomi "schlomo" Taniyama, a garbage man from Oda in the shimane prefecture, send us a bunch of cassette tapes influenced by the Portopia serial murder case (One of Japan's first and most famous text adventures), which will be the name of his debut album too. This is probably going to be the strangest Strange Life release so far...here is a preview of a track called "Phillipine Sea" which is relatively normal compared to the other stuff.
(download link for flashless)

smackos, esquire.

Detroit, Rainbows Of Darkness

2010-01-19T15:59:00.000+01:00

Detroit, Rainbows of Darkness is the name of the track put over this video from an old 1980s dutch videogame for the Commodore 64 called "Verkeersrally" (Trafficrally). I really love these computerworlds with green grass and glass skyscrapers. Its a pretty cool game where you have to find some hidden radio transmitters throughout the city and obey the traffic rules. I cut out the traffic rule sequences so it seems you are just driving endlessy through the vast suburbian fantasy of an 80s dutch computer programmer.

Meanwhile in the studio...

2010-01-14T13:52:00.000+01:00

Finally no more empty walls

Yamaha DX21 demo

2010-01-11T16:20:00.000+01:00

A synthesizer demo of the Yamaha DX21 synthesizer from the Legowelt site were the studio section is updated finally. A church bell sound is programmed into a very british sounding "country life" ambient pad, only the frequencies of the operators and envelopes are changed. Notice the rough grainy harmonic frequenies at the end. Link For the flashless and iphoners etc.

Theme From Shinobi

2010-01-08T09:56:00.000+01:00

Here is a cover of the music from the 80s ninja videogame Shinobi. I've always been a huge fan of the soundtrack, not so much the game itself which is an ok platform ninja thing but I rather listened to the music then playing it. The music is a piece of unresistable genuine 70s cop series mystery funk. I am not sure who composed the original theme, but whoever it is he did a good job. Ninjas are way out of fashion but like with all things I bet in a few years the'yre gonna be cool again, just like with owls.

download link here

smackos, esquire.

UPDATE: So we got a whole team of people finding out who made the original music, to no avail, the closest we can come is "credited to the SEGA SOUND TEAM"...but then again....if you have any clues so we can give this person eternal respect let us know!

Bonzer RUK drummachine samples

2010-01-06T07:35:00.000+01:00

Some snacks for your sampler. I wanted to have the drumsounds from my futuristic roll up keyboard (the Bonzer co. R.U.K.) in my MPC sampling drummachine cause they are pretty badass I think. There's a Kickdrum, Snare (or clap whatever it is), closed and open hihat and thats about it. I cut them loose and and saved them as wav's. Get it here in zip or get them loose here:

Kick
Kickrepeat
Snare
Snarerepeat
Snarekicktom
Closedhat
Openhat

For the sampler-drummachine-less people you still can have fun with this page

The Call of Cthulhu

2010-01-03T10:11:00.001+01:00

H.P Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu in a radio "play" or whatever you call it. With music from Septik, Mono-Poly, Vagon Brei, Sam Lowry and Ian Martin. Special Effects etc. are from a BBC effect LP. Runningtime almost 106 minutes.

download link here

Artic Iglo Radio

2009-12-27T19:02:00.000+01:00

A cool radio show in dutch (from the eastern border forests of Twente), who is the coldest boogie man of 2009 ha:

Radio iglo #24 december 2009 II_(Top 10 // 2009) by Endfest

direct link to the page here

The Psychic Stewardess

2009-12-23T21:59:00.001+01:00

Eternal wisdom for spotting the plane
mp3 link

Boo The Cat And The Universal Computer Organ

2009-12-21T19:39:00.001+01:00

Boo the cat shows us the Universal Computer Organ, Los Angeles 20 December.

Its probably from somewhere around the 70s

Not much information on the internet about it, I found a youtube movie with a short demonstration and it sounds like expected, a nasal simple toy organ tone. Its got a two song recorder and playback function

Futuristic Star Trek Roll Up Keyboard

2009-12-17T23:59:00.000+01:00

I got this roll up piano at the local Rite Aid store here in Costa Mesa for 29 bucks, a futuristic keyboard instrument which trekkies might remember from a Star Trek TNG episode called "Lessons" (rating high among the most boring TNG episodes ever). Ofcourse that was the main reason to get it...it is after all one of those things that people in the 90s thought would be invented 300 years from now....but no, human ingenuity sometimes goes faster then the fictious star trek timeline and here it is in a Rite Aid in 2009 for less then 30 bucks.

The futuristic roll up piano as it appears to the world in the 23rd century in Star Trek TNG

Now there are many brands making these roll up pianos these days from quite professional ones with MIDI and pretty good sound engine roms like the Yamaha ones and really crap ones like the one I just bought. It doesn't have any serial type number so we just call it"Roll Up Piano" which it sais on the control unit in the most stupidest fonts you can imagine. The backside reveals it is manufactured by Bonzer electronics co. from the futuristic city of Guangdong.

I got to express to the fullest that this thing is pretty crap. Not as crap as the Dubreq Stylophone though, which I even didn't find worthy for a review here but still pretty much crap. Three keys stopped working in the first five minutes I played it...a day later the rest of the keys seemed to be working pretty good still. In favor of this thing: it is polyphonic (4 notes or less I can't figure that out), it has 99 preset sounds, a sustain function, a vibrato effect and a whopping 52 "musical notes" sequencer....uhm realtime recorder. Ow thats not even all, there is also a drummachine part with one of the most fucked up drumsounds I've ever heard. 99 preset patterns ranging from Disco to Slow Waltz...we are all set in the drum department. Well...except that you can't change the tempo of the drumpatterns but that is just a small 'incomfort'.

So we have a rubber keyboard that can be rolled up, whats so fascinating about that? Take it anywhere and just rollllll it out and impress your friends and after they are bored with it roll it up and put it in your pocket (A large pocket that must be). Now that sounds pretty wack on paper and in reality it is still pretty wack but somewhere it is strangely fascinating. The big rubber keys have some 1982 zx spectrum keyboard character and it also has some vague notions of some EDP Wasp synthesizer keyboard or some obscure giant modular control thing. It is FUN to play those giant almost dimwitted plump "safety" keys...no finesse, no precision...and really no high-tech suaveness. This doesn't feel like something from the 23rd century, its a device that someone forgot to invent in 1983.

Lets go back to the 99 preset sounds...we can cut that number to probably less then 10 because most sounds are used a couple of times as they are layered or shortened to make another sound. You might find a sustained trumpet sound to be doubling as the choir and a lower pitched banjo as monophonic moog synth. Lets check out some of these imaginetively called presets:

13 "Electronic Music Synth" This actually has a kind of pulse width modulation going on, fuzzy and electronic.

07 "Harp" A grainy hollowness gives this sound a some character

29 "Melody 07" a simple shady tone...but hey its polyphonic

57 "Percussive Organ" A 'folky' sound for melancholical mesmerations

01 "Vibraphone" hmmmm mweh....

Drumsounds assorted drum patterns

I will spare you the piano, trumpet etc. presets...overall the instruments sound like a 1992 soundcard but then even worse...maybe like those greeting cards with built in melodies. I am not sure I am gonna use this thing ever, maybe hook it up through some Korg MS20 and lots of effects...I just dig those big rubber keys.

Moosley Bay Geofictional Map

2009-12-17T07:33:00.000+01:00

Legowelt & TLR in Los Angeles

2009-12-16T22:19:00.000+01:00

You might already know, but just a reminder...this Saturday in Los Angeles
And for the people, here is an old (a bit up-tempo) mp3 excerpt from a liveset, many years ago in Detroit.

Strange Life Anthropology Facts #1

2009-12-15T07:26:00.002+01:00

Trame CD compilation on Minimal Rome

2009-12-12T00:59:00.000+01:00

A cool CD compilation on the Italian Minimal Rome records label, with lots of artists from the Strange Life Records stable. More information and ordering here on the Minimal Rome site.

Tracklisting and mp3 snipps:

1. Analogous Doom – Virus Loaded
2. Nacho Patrol – Bank Computer Theme
3. Jauzas the Shining – Circle
4. Kobol Electronics – A Violent Sea Storm Damaged the Wharf
5. Andrea Benedetti – L’Oscuro Scrutare
6. Alpha 606 – Particulas de Polvo
7. Sam Lowry – Mars Canal
8. Modular Experiment – Night Flight
9. TeslaSonic – Night Drama
10. Unit Black Flight – Tragedy on the 4th Floor
11. Vagon Brei – Don’t Look Back
12. C-34 – Lacerazione (excerpt)
13. Monopoly – Autumn Leaves
14. Heinrich Dressel – Tema Finale

Moosley Bay Graphic Novel

2009-12-07T17:35:00.000+01:00

This is the first page of a comic that takes place in the fictious town of Moosley Bay. The main character looks a bit like proffessor Malbador but it ain't him. I don't have a name for it yet. It gets more exciting on later pages.

Strange Life & Legowelt shop closed for the holidays

2009-12-04T15:46:00.000+01:00

The strangelife shop will be closed from tuesday 8th till 30th december for the seasonal holidays.

Last orders will be shipped this monday, so orders will be processed till monday morning.

We will be back operational from 1st of Janary 2010 basicly. In the meantime you can order some Strange Life Records stuff at Clone or Godspill.

Karl Lindh makes it into the hall of fame

2009-12-02T18:33:00.000+01:00

Look at that! An obscure Strange Life album from 2005 made it in Fact Magazine's top 100 albums of the decade. Coming in at a wopping number 96 its Karl Lindh's Bortom E4 Horisont (Thats swedish) Luke Eargoggle's electronic jazz masterpiece about the Swedish E4 highway to the north. "But this is no brooding Ballardian bore-fest – there’s wit and warmth to it. A totally unique and elliptical listening experience, Badalamenti by way of Portmeirion, Bortom E4's Horrisont is second only to Burial in the ultimate night bus soundtrack stakes." Congratulations Luke!

Technics SX-K200 Synthesizer...eh Keyboard demo

2009-11-30T16:24:00.000+01:00

Technics didn't only make record players and hifi stuff, they also made electronic instruments such as synthesizers and keyboards and even at least one drummachine that I know off. Recently I got my hands on a Technics SX-K200 keyboard from somewhere in the 1980s. I traded it for 2 effects pedals with this guy which I thought was a pretty good deal. Since its a "homekeyboard" you can't edit any sounds but the presets sound pretty cool. Its all analogue synthesis going on inside which results into some beautifull hollow squarewave flute sounds and thin crispy strings, not to mention the superfunky "cosmic wah" preset and charismatic piano. Its pretty beaten up missing 2 keys but it still works fine.

There is both a polyphonic and monophonic section which you can also layer for some interesting effects. With a little imagination its like an ARP pro soloist with a Solina string machine...but then really ghetto. There is also an automatic chord accompany section and some cool (hybrid analog-lo fi samples) drum part.
Here is a little demonstration in mp3 and some close up pictures of the very sexy buttons and colourfull livery (do you actually call those things livery on a synthesizer too?). More Technics SX sounds in this weeks Astro Unicorn Radio as it sees the return of the "Synthesizer Mysteries" series.

go here if you cant see the flashplayer
Update: For some reason the wrong mp3 was playing, it plays the right one now ;)

$tinkworx & Legowelt Live in New York 10 December

2009-11-29T21:52:00.000+01:00

A super strangelife WT records extravaganza in New York on Thursday 10 december. At 70 north 6th street. Live: Downlow North Carolina techno legend $tinkworx and Legowelt. I guess Speculator will be DJing but I am not sure. Legowelt and TLR will be playing on the westcoast in L.A on 19 december at the showcave, more news about that soon.

An Interview with Heinrich Dressel

2009-11-22T09:34:00.000+01:00

A ancient giant artificial hill made out of millions of broken pots or less romanticly a garbage dump of earliest of times. This Monte dei Cocci (Mountain of pots aka Monte Testaccio) seems to play a vital role in the concepts of Roman musician Heinrich Dressel, who you might also know as one part of Composite Prefuse, part CEO of the Minimal Rome record label and Valerio in normal day life. Why is he so fascinated with that hill and its ancient pots? Is there an ancient dark force roaming about? Is it infested with Roman legionaire zombies? Franz Falckenhaus flew to Rome on an early morning Alitalia jet service and found out with the man himself...behind a plate of Tonnarelli cacio e pepe in a small restaurant in the shadow of the giant hill of pots...

"When I was a kid my School was in front of the hill and me and my friends would play on it, I didn't know what it was only later I would found out that there was a huge archeological story behind it" Valerio recalls sipping on his espresso. The Monte Testaccio, on the banks of the Tiber river, was the place were the romans dumped their broken olive oil pots and jars. Millions of them. Over the years in ancient times a hill formed more then 35 meters high, covering an area of more then 20.000 square meters, making it one of the worlds biggest artificial hills. After the fall of the Roman empire the hill began to lead a life its own, or maybe it went to sleep because it just stood there for hundreds of years being a barren hill in a deserted part on the outskirts of Rome. A forest grew on it and some people dug secret caves in it. "My family has lived next to the hill since the 10th century" Valerio sais. " For centuries the hill has been a fascinating place for Romans... in Medevial times people believed it was ascociated to the biblical Golgotha mountain." He points out to the giant cross on top of the hill, barely visible through the forested slopes. "There they reanacted the via crucis on easter..." A macaber spectacle were the romans reanacted the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross. Valerio continues "But definitely in the night...it preserves a cool bleak charm..." and looks towards the dark caves beyond the rusty gated entrances...it tells us more then a thousands words.

A gloomy path through the forest on the hill

In 2006 Valerio started to use the Heinrich Dressel name for his new electronic music project. Moving away from Composite Prefuse's usual electro sounds into a more spacey soundtrack direction, this was a special project were he would envision certain places he had lived in through electronic compositions. In the shadow of the Mons Tasteceum it was pretty logical that the hill would be the first place to be studied. It would result in a trilogy of albums about Heinrich Dressel, a german archeologist who in the 19th century spend years digging about on the hill.
"I started to imagine the arrival of the archeologist Heinrich Dressel in Rome and its reseach on the Monte Testaccio. As a kind of travel not only physical...This trilogy is the approach, the study and its completion" Valerio explains "And the story of a lifetime with the holy hill"

Heinrich Dressel's albums are like adventures, soundtracks of movies in the mind. I ask him
if he's inspired by any movies or books when he makes his music. He quickly replies "About movies I am quite inspired by the poetery of Pier Paolo Pasolini. It is the images of both bucolic, idealizing rural life and ruthless...bluntley showing us the daily struggle for survival"

What is his favorite Pasolini movie ? "I have no doubts to choose 'Accattone''...It is a story about misery...hunger, loneliness that makes fun of all politics." He becomes more animated now we touch this subject. "One of the most important films in Italy's history of cinema, pasolini's masterpiece....about a young low class man and his tragic innocence in Italy's modernization after the second worldwar."

He continues emphatically "Fundamental is the metaphor of the death of Accattone as condemnation of the bourgeois condition that he himself was unable or unwilling to accept."
I take a sip of my beer trying to comprehend these semiotic insights. Valerio: "...And the death of Accattone in the final scene takes place right here on the Monte Testaccio. While the camera frames his body with the cross on the top the hill." The hill again. Those crazy Italians. I decide to discretly change the subject to something more lightharted before we enter dangerous grounds with Pasolini...synthesizers.

Dressels old studio RXX, With the Elka Synthex and a Yamaha CS20M

Valerio mainly improvises his tracks on ideas in an old 'analog' way. There is no endless sequencing on a computer, just a few patterns in the Elka Synthex, lots of 'jamming' and hands on the keys. We know that Valerio uses the Elka Synthex synthesizer a lot, a cult Italian synthesizer, considered by many the last great analog synthesizer.
"The Synthex is one of the first polyphonic synthesizers I bought, somewhere in 1996. What can I say about 'her'...its part of me, I love the her sound, the structure and the way it processes the sound...I will never sell it...it is the greatest polysynth ever made with a unique Italian sound"

Looking at his studio list we see another cult Italian machine: the Farfisa Synthorchestra. Like the Elka company, Farfisa build organs and tried to venture into the synthesizer world. The Synthorchestra, build from 1975 till 1978, is basicly a simple monophonic synthesizer based on some presets with a simple polyphonic section behind it, but it truly has a magic sound.
"This is my last catch in the studio, Its great and I know it was very in vogue during the classic Progressive scenes of the 70s...like the Canterbury scene. I am very inspired by it." sais Valerio. "It was a present from fellow Minimal Rome artist David aka C-34, I will be always gratefull to him". Generous chaps those romans it seems.

For my final question I ask him if with the last release in the trilogy there will be another project under the Dressel name. He ensures us: "Of course there will be some other Dressel releases, probably based around some other ancient Roman stuff or something else...but I'm also bringing up a new project under a new name early next year...but that is still top secret so far"

The Farfisfa Synthorchestra, demo from youtube

Heinrich Dressel's Completion of the Amphoras Table is out now on Strangelife Records.

New Strange Life releases

2009-11-20T11:17:00.000+01:00

Three new releases to get you through the seasonal holidays:

First there is Vagon Brei's debut album called Asturias Tierra de Leyendas, best described as "Think Jesse Franco spanish euro-horror soundtracks meets the 'haunting grandeur' of Wendy Carlos The Shining with the occasional drummachine thrown in". MP3 snippets and more information here.

Then there is Ian Martins second album already after his debut on Bunker records last month, called "Defused Nights". A film noir-ish trip that sounds like Jack Nicolson in a purple hazed Chinatown. More information here.

Last but not least its the long awaited Heinrich Dressel - Completion of the Amphoras Table. The sequel to the 2006 Mons Testaceum album this time going even deeper on the Elka Synthex synthesizer. Comes in a DVD box with postcard and booklet. More information and mp3 snippets here

Available at he Strange Life Shop

Motorwolf psych fuzz special reportage this thursday on Intergalactic FM

2009-11-17T00:09:00.000+01:00

Astro Unicorn dwells in the The Hague psych fuzz rock underground. The sleaze, the freaks, the motorbike gangs, the beards, the hockey girls and louder then *%*& PSYCHEDELIC FUZZ! That is the music of Motorwolf, the dark side label of Bunker Records C.E.O. mr.Tavares.

Special reporters Smackos and Elektrovolt (as unintelligable as Beavis & Butthead) were at Orange Sunshine's first gig of their new European tour last week at the illustrious The Hague Dystopia club. Expect Interviews and atmosphere live recording reports with Orange Sunshine, Djengis Kahn from San Fransisco, freaks and mega-liters of Euroshopper beer.

This Thursday on Astro Unicorn Radio, Intergalactic FM channel 1 at 21.00 C.E.T. reruns on Friday.

Forest Terry and the "Key-tar"

2009-11-14T11:32:00.000+01:00

more info here

The Seven Samurai on Korg MS20 synthesizer

2009-11-13T14:42:00.000+01:00

The soundtrack of Kurosawa's brilliant movie The Seven Samurai must be one of the greatest scores in film history. Written by Fumio Hayasaka 早坂文雄 (sometimes also known as Humiwo Hayasaka) who, despite facing tremendous hardships in his life, became a prolific composer of soundtracks and classical pieces in 1940's and 1950's Japan. Tragic as his life already was he would die too young at the age of 41 from Tubercolosis while working on Kurosawa's Record of a Living Being ( 生きものの記録). Hayasaka's style was unique as he mixed romantic and modern western styles with more traditional Japanese music styles.

Here is a "loose" cover version of the main theme I made today, played on the Korg MS20, Mono/Poly synthesizers and a Yamaha Sequencer. (Iphoners and flasshless go here)

Effects are a Boss Super Pitchshifter Delay pedal, the Electroharmonix Holy Grail and a Behringer V-Verb pro. I made it a littlebit more timid and haunting.

The MS20 and MonoPoly in the studio on this dark and rainy day

smackos, esquire

Yamaha TG33 Vector Synthesizer Sounds

2009-11-11T12:33:00.000+01:00

Behind the TG33 you can see Nomi the studio owl metronome.

I recently took out my Yamaha TG33 vector synth module from a dusty shelf after reading that this thing is -kindoff- hip again. Well, hip might not be the word but somehow it seems to be mysteriously rising in price in some circles. I don't know what circles or were this all happens maybe there is no hype and its all just one of those internet legends.

The TG33 is the module version of the SY22 and SY35 vector synthesizers. You can throw together a bunch of rom waves and FM sounds in some sort of dimensional vector spacing vortex (that is a very fancy way to describe mixing four sounds together with a joystick).

It is a very esoteric machine giving you a soundpallette that goes from nightmarish twilightzone paranoia to soothing scenes of country pastures and deep space galaxies in between. Here is the smackos TG33 demo I made a few years ago, just running through some presets and maybe a few own patches (Iphoners and flashless go here) :

smackos, esquire.

Vagon Brei artwork preview

2009-11-06T10:52:00.001+01:00

We are working hard to get the new Strange Life Releases ready this month, as you might already know, one of them is going to be the debut album of Asturian composer Victor Ramos aka Vagon Brei called "Asturias Tierra de Leyendas". Sixteen colourfull tracks ranging from "hauntological" synthesizer pieces to more wavish minimalistic electro pieces. Above is the CD cover artwork drawn with a bunch of markers. Here is also a preview of one of the tracks called Lamento Del Paso...(Iphoners and flashless go here)

Early 90s Bunker Unit Moebius reportage

2009-11-04T13:04:00.001+01:00

I've found this cassette with a recording from the early 90s where the legendary illustrious Edwin Brienen interviews "The Hague Underground founders" Guy Tavares and I.F on the national state radio. This was when the dutch state radio VPRO did really good stuff on prime time friday evening radio. Nowadays it sucks hard and they only play laxative top 40 or mainstream alternative pop music for dumb people and little kids. It doesn't matter nobody listens to it anyways its just our tax money getting thrown away on useless shit.

Anyways back to better days... its in dutch language, sorry for that. If you don't see the player here's the link

Teighnmouth Electron 1968

2009-11-03T14:20:00.000+01:00

Teighnmout Electron 1968

New Salamandos vinyl on Bunker

2009-10-25T17:48:00.000+01:00

Two new releases on The Hague's Bunker records from mr.Salamandos who you might remember from the 2004 "Master of House" 12" and his remix for Marcus Mixx's Shake that thing. More Chicago style track jams for the freaks! Now in stock at the Legowelt shop.
Check out the soundbytes:

Bunker 3075
Salamandos - "Follow the Messiah"

Jack for Jesus

Yobody
Mystic Track
Lovestory 21
Pump Pump Boy

Bunker 3076
Salamandos - "The World to Come"

Wigwam Track

Devestating JM/Enterprise
Apocalypse
Time to Spock

Ian Martin flies with Strange Life Airlines

2009-10-20T20:49:00.000+02:00

On a grey and rainy monday morning we took out the FSX Strange Life Airlines DHC6 Twin Otter to make a trip from Owl Ridge to Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. We pass the remote wilderniss of the Olympic National Park with music by Rotterdam artist Ian Martin. The track is called "Defused Nights" from his forthcoming album on strangelife records. As you can see the pilot had some problems landing but after a second try he put the bird on the ground safely.

Nacho Time

2009-10-19T23:01:00.000+02:00

Its Nacho Patrol time! Nacho Patrol is gonna play on that super IFM Creme party this weekend 24th of october, the one that should have been on the Stubnitz boat but it got beamed away with some magnetic coils in some kind of Philedelphia accident thing. So now its in the Melkweg Amsterdam. Live & DJ sets by Alexander Robotnick, IF, TLR, Orgue Electronique, Rude 66, Cosmic Force etc.etc.etc.

Here is a snip of some new Nacho material, fuzzy wahwah psychedelic afrofunk explosion I dunno if thats the track title maybe in a different order afrofunk wahwah explosion fuzz wah or something

Smokeyyyyy out

Murdercapital TV at Shoot Me Film Festival Den Haag Oct.22

2009-10-19T22:32:00.000+02:00

The TV stream from Intergalactic FM goes live at the The Hague Shoot Me Film Festival ! A good excuse for an exclusive launch party, with cult programming and soundtracks.

With Pametex, DJ Overdose, I-F, Bog and a special live soundtrack set by Legowelt.

I am not sure if its gonna be transmitted live but we try to record it or something

Its on the bottom of the new "super" skyscraper next to Hollands Spoor Station:

October 22, 22:30 - 3:00 hrs Strijkijzer, Begane Grond Rijswijkseplein, Den Haag
~~entrance fee € 5, -~~
Update: Entrance is free!

Vampire Island

2009-10-02T08:04:00.000+02:00

Check out the new blog from Kongshuttle called VAMPIRE ISLAND, Named after the great Drexciya song

Ron Hardy's First Choice Love & Happiness, a less lofi cover attempt

2009-09-29T16:11:00.000+02:00

For a while I've been obsessed by this track, Ron Hardy's house version of First Choice's Love & Happiness, a deep evaporating music box party jam that was never released. In 1987 William Stover (who made the beyond legendary tearjeark classic Never Let You Go) and Lidell Townsell made a sort of version of it (under their psuedonym Two Of A kind). But its a completely different tune in the end and doesn't use the First Choice vocals...Still rocking extremely hard though with its never ending TR707 drummachine and deep layered strings. It could be also that this is the original version I don't know exactly whats going on.

Anyways back to the Ron Hardy version...
Its so smudgey and saturated with tape that it even seems like some parts are actually crumbling off from the reel-to-reel tape as its played. Now I love lo-fi but when you played it in a club all I could hear was some vague rumbling, sort off. So I just needed a little more hifi version of this magic track and I decided to remake it. Ofcourse it doesn't sound like the Ron Hardy version that much in the end but it floats in the neighbourhood I hope. I can't release this for copyright reasons and stuff so you can download it here for free:

Smackos' Love & Happiness Ron Hardy version cover version

For the gear & studio freaks: Bassline is the Roland Juno 60, the strings are from a Yamaha DX21 and the drums are ofcourse the legendary TR707 played live from 1 pattern in pattern write mode.

smackos, esquire.

The Occult Animals of Silicon Valley

2009-09-22T18:16:00.000+02:00

A new release from Legowelt on the English Entr'acte label. Its a split release on good ol' cassette tape. On one side Kalabris who recorded a quote "‘Inbetween the sound sound: a sound understanding of a phrase and the misinterpretation of its meaning’ was conceived for Juxtaposition and performed at Wilton’s Music Hall, London".

On the other side its Legowelt's "The Occult Animals of Silicon Valley" a 15 minute ''composition'' about animals and pets living in silicon valley (racoons, squirells, cats and stuff).

You can order the cassette at the legowelt and strangelife shop, price is 5,50 euros.

Below are some snippets in one mp3 from various parts of the composition to give you an idea.(Iphoners and Flash-less go here)

Astro Unicorn Radio back on air

2009-09-07T14:32:00.000+02:00

This Thursday sees the return of the Astro Unicorn Radio show on Intergalactic FM internet radio channel 4.
Starts at 21:00 C.E.T till around 23.00ish. Use this to figure out what time that is in your time zone. Anyways, it will be transmitted live from the IFMIX studios and there will be a special guest, mr. Elektrovolt. Expect lots of world premieres of tracks (new strangelife releases and more) fiddling with musical machines and you can probably call in to ask questions too, or chat about Star Trek.

The Return of the Chicago Shags

2009-09-04T12:35:00.000+02:00

A little Chicago AM waves style minimix with the tracks of the new Chicago Shags coming later this year on StrangeLife SLR029 vinyl. If you don't see the Flash player under the picture down here go this way.

Okinawa

2009-09-01T12:38:00.000+02:00

A melancholic "technosoul" track made on the Amiga 1200, Juno 106, Boss DR770 drummachine, Space Echo and Behringer Reverb.

And for all you flashless systems and iphoners who can't see the player above, click here

Strange Life Airlines DHC6 Twin Otter

2009-08-24T17:19:00.000+02:00

Cause we are super dweebs and play Flight Simulator X all day we decided to get our favorite plane, the deHaviland DHC6 Twin Otter in Strange Life "Airlines" livery. We took it for a testflight from Moosley Bay airport:

Its a second hand DHC6-100 build by premier aircraft design, originally belonged to Kapowsin Air Sports (Reg# N52FW). The re-paint job is pretty ghetto; the horizontal stabilizer - thats the tail part is still the original blue colour, I guess the paint ran out.

Anyways if you have some suggestions were we can fly this thing we will be glad to hear it.

So keep your head up high and maybe you will see it fly...

Africa Jet Band label artwork

2009-08-13T11:19:00.001+02:00

Due to be released in september, the Nacho Patrol presents Africa Jet Band LP on the Merlbourne M Division records must sport one of the coolest label artwork in the galaxy:

a-side

b-side

Apparently the artist who made the artwork mistook the measurements and created a giant man-life-size painting, which is kind off super cool.

Here are some mp3 snippets if you haven't heard them already:

Stratus Chant
Caravelle
El Fuego en Nostrodos Todo
Cheetah Man
Small Stones
Hippo Aviation

Nacho Patrol presents The Africa Jet Band should hit the stores on 15th of September.

Highland Express

2009-08-08T06:34:00.000+02:00

update: Not everyone can see the player below so here is the direct link

A 15 minute ambient jam made by Smackos with a Kawai K4 and K1 synth. The picture above is from somewhere here...find out were exactly and you will be rewarded with eternal wisdom.

Coolest shirt ever with a Minimoog

2009-07-17T11:08:00.000+02:00

Check out this guys shirt. It must be the best clothing ever for playing synthesizers. Look at those sleeves...Spacious, airy and fresh. If anyone knows were they sell such a shirt let us know.

Astro Unicorn Radio Afro Psychedelic disco funk special & African airline timetables of yesteryear

2009-07-16T15:28:00.000+02:00

UPDATE: There was some mishap with the broadcasting time, it was broadcasted at 21:00 instead of 22:00 sorry about that, you can download the show here

Tonight on smackos' Astro Unicorn Radio (Thats Thursday evening 22.00 C.E.T, 16.00 N.Y, 13.00 L.A , 6 in the morning Merlbourne time, 0.00 Moscow time etc.etc.etc.) lots of old dusty African psychedelic funk disco stuff. Expect dusty moog-clones, DIY wahwahpedals , germanium diode fuzz boxes and all that kind of stuff. Tune in on Intergalactic FM internet CBS radio channel 4

The absolute beyond-cool picture above is from a site called timetableimages that archives old airline timetables and flyers from the collections of Bjorn Larsson and David Zekria.
Lots of forgotten obscure African airlines from the 1970s are included and sometimes the artwork is stunning. Here are two others:

And sometimes its just a piece of paper written with a typewriter and stenciled like this AirNiger timetable from 1979 (That must have given a very safe feel):

Anyways this great site is garantueed for hours of browsing, I just love this kind of stuff, therefore I give that site the Strange Life Records Website award of the month July (yes this is something new we gonna do it every month).

Smackos, Esquire.

Out now: DJ Overdose - In for the Kill LP

2009-07-16T15:23:00.001+02:00

Almost two years in the making (well the record not the tracks) its finally out...Balder then Terry Savalas....its the DJ Overdose - In for the Kill LP on Strange Life Records (SLR028 to be precise). Six ultradramatic tracks that eveporate the spirit of Charles Bronson and Brooklyn Soprano mob style atmospheres.

Check more information and mp3 sound previews here. Get it at clone who also does the distribution.

3 New releases!

2009-07-07T10:35:00.001+02:00

Three new releases on Strange Life Records to get you through the summer are out now!

Its a dark rainy morning in The Hague

F.Mavelli - Special Brigade CD (SLR030)

Florenza Mavelli's Special Brigade soundtrack first surfaced on the legendary CBS blog late 2007, only to fade into obscurity again after the old CBS's foreclosure. Now its back, remastered from vintage reel to reel tape, 14 tracks with lots of never before heard material on a CD album! The soundtrack of Special Brigade (aka Uomini Brigata Specialle) an obscure italian tv-series from yesteryear tells the story of an elite special goverment police unit formed to counter terrorism and organised crime. Ultra dramatic Italian cop soundtracks...Check out all the soundbytes here on the strangelife site.

Mono-Poly - Atlantic Storm CD (SLR031)

Monopoly's second album after releasing the ZOND3 CD on the Japanese Doppelganger records in 2008. Think of the great rural ambient sounds of Brian Eno's On Land mixed with dark isolationist dronescapes from the 1980s. Using rare modular synthesizers such as ancient EMS synthi's, Buchla's, Serge's etc. Atlantic Storm is the perfect music for a cold rainy day on the outer hebrides' atlantic shores...and that is ofcourse, just the way we like it. Probably one of the most essential rural ambient albums on strange life records so far!
Comes in a DVD box with a Monopoly postcard. Check out the soundbytes here.

Legowelt - Amiga Railroad Adventures CD (SLR032)

From the romantic days of Amiga computing cosyness come 16 fresh new Legowelt tracks in the style of Beyond the Congo and Venom 18. Music about golf courses in the Bermuda Triangle (oh no the ball went into a dimensional hole!), Night driving through 16 bit Amiga Pine Forests (Deluxe Paint sprites!), British railroad romantics (dedication to the trainspotters), Dr. Loomis' adventures in Haddonfield and much, much more! Made on the mighty Amiga 1200 running the Octamed sequencer, a TR808, a couple of Korg modulars and some old effects boxes.
Check out all the soundbytes here at the strangelife records site.

You can order the albums at the strangelife shop, shipping worldwide.

Sweatercat plays the Casio SK1

2009-07-02T23:37:00.000+02:00

Sweatercat is back! After his debut demonstrating the Korg Kaosillator a few months ago he returned to show us the wonders of the Casio SK1 sampling keyboard. He seems to have lost his cool hat, I hope he finds it back! Anyways...the casio SK1 was a marvel of technology that appeared in 1986, aimed at the extreme lowbudget segment of the sampling market i.e. kids and nerdy weirdos (in those days it was not cool to be a gadget freak). When its respective owner would sample "hello" for the 100th time this musical toy must have annoyed the hell out of many parents or the nerdy weirdos girlfriends (but it was the 80s they probably didn't have any back then really).

But that aside the Casio SK1 actually sported some advanced stuff for a toy: It was not only a polyphonic mini sampler with 1.4 seconds of sampling time, it also had a keyboard section with 5 PCM tones (including a pretty shabby but characterfull piano), an envelope generator, a polyphonic step sequencer(!!!), a build-in rhythm box (with fills!), a chord accompany-thing and an additive synthesizer!!! When you press the synthesize button you can add different frequencies of sinewaves to eachother using the keyboard and thus build your own additive synth sound. Whatever the result was it pretty much sounded like a decent organ sound. Everything is 4 voice polyphonic and there is also a vibrato and portamento function (and yes you can set the keyboard monophonic for some funky leads...ehm well close to that)...we could say this was the first mini workstation of its time.

Sweatercat just loves this mini workstation concept and recorded some (pretty shabby) tracks using only the Casio SK1 (and a delay effect).

The Japanese Cat Anthem mp3

Cat Beat mp3

Cat Mieuw mp3

P.S This music is highly annoying to humans it was especially composed for cats, please let us know if your cat likes it.

If you want to know more about the Casio SK1 check out this site

Pacific Dreams

2009-06-26T11:49:00.000+02:00

Some preview of stuff that will be released next week, keep tuned in...

Reel to Reel in Movies

2009-05-31T10:01:00.000+02:00

A Revox B77mk2 in Steven Spielberts Munich (which is wrong because it didn't exist yet in the films timeframe)

Reel to Reel recorders are supposed to be a manly sign of technical professionalism. Movie art directors love to place them randomly in the background so we know we are on a psuedo scientific level or at least have a vague notion of that whatever happens is going to be recorded.
Favorite user groups of reel-to-reels in films include paranormal investigation teams, marine biologists, spies, cops, nuclear submarine crews and last but not least sophisticated rich people.

A certain Juanjo Rodriguez made a great webpage about all this. It doesn't seem to be updated since 2006 but you can mail him if you know any movies or tv series with reels which aren't on the site yet.
I already think I know a few, I am pretty sure there is one in ALF.

A pioneer RT-909 is a sign of avant gardistic sophistication in Knight Rider's "Soul Survivor" (one of the greatest Knight Rider episodes ever, it not only does have a reel-to-reel but also a computer hacker and cosmic-esque hypno-music to overwhelm David Hasselhof !). Reel action starting at around 2:14m, check it out, here is the clip:

smackos, esquire

Special Astro Unicorn Radio live with Monopoly this friday

2009-05-28T22:01:00.000+02:00

Friday 29th of May 21:00 C.E.T (15:00 L.A / 16:00 NYC / 20:00 London time) on IFM 4.
Smackos' Astro Unicorn Radio live from scheveningen The Hague beach with special guest Monopoly. Monopoly makes ambient drone music with his collection of Buchla's, Serges and other hi-end modular closet synthesizers. He released his first album ZOND3 on the Japanese cult label doppelganger records last year. Mono will bring a strange modular synthesizer called the Blippoo box (made in The Hague) and talk about life, the universe etc.

All this on internet hottest radiostation Intergalactic FM channel 4 you can also tune in on the flash player here on the right.

One of the synths that will be featured is Rob Hordijk's very strange
Blippoobox synthesizer.

Here's some of his music:

The haunting cold atlantic U-Boat huntdown:

[Noodle]Mono-Poly - U-Boat Huntdown by mono-poly

Apparently made with

Wiard Sequantizer, Classic VCO, Waveform City, Borg 1 Filters, 2x NoiseRing
Klee Sequencer
Plan B Model 13 LPG
Serge Phaser, Voltage Controlled Stereo Mixer
Blippoo Box