Throwback tuesday!! A couple of years ago I did a live recording of my 1975 analog synth Roland System-100, where I used the sample & hold function to create loops and noises. Everything was recorded in one take and only some reverb was added afterwards.
Check it out if you like phat analog bleeps and bloops.
I think the most famous artist I remixed back in the day must have been Matt Darey and his rocktronica project Urban Astronauts. (I’m not counting Jean-Michel Jarre and Klaus Schulze as those remixes were actually covers where the artists weren’t involved in the project).
If you know your trance music history you know that Matt was one of the big names. He’s sold more than two million albums during his long career. I used to send him my tracks and he played some of them on his radio show Nocturnal. In 2008 when he was starting the Urban Astronauts project I was asked if I wanted to remix one of the tracks. I got to choose which one. A couple of weeks later Urban Astronauts – Animal (Bjorn Fogelberg Remix) was done and approved by Matt. The EP was released later that year.
https://soundcloud.com/knatter/urban-astronauts-animal-bjorn-fogelberg-remix
Throwback Sunday!! Here is one of my older tracks that pops up once in a while. It’s my remix or rather cover of Jean Michel Jarre’s classic track Zoolook that I did for the Jarre Forever CD. Released in 2002, that whole project was put together by the official Norwegian Jean Michel Jarre fanclub. The track still holds up pretty well I think. What do you think about it? Comment on Facebook if you like.
When I’m not posting stuff about DIY music electronics or re-painting a huge kitchen cabinet, I’m also producing some new music. I got roughly enough for a new full length album now, but still need to finish up a couple more tracks, which I hope to do within the next couple of weeks.
However, this track called Red in a sea of green is done and I’ve decided to make it available on Soundcloud. It’s an atmospheric progressive(!?) dance tune with some sort of summer night vibe. Oh and it has a melody.
The album is still unsigned and truth be told I haven’t really put that much energy into fining a label for it. Worst case I’ll just release it myself. Should you know anyone at a (big-ish) label that could potentially be interested, please let me know and I can send send them a secret link to the whole album.
Listen to this 1 hour ambient mix from Mackami aka Macka X.
Tune #7 is one of my older tracks called SixFiveOneOh.
Check out this little techno track I just recorded from my modular synthesizer. It’s a work in progress obviously.
Yes I have a page on Bandcamp. There’s not much there yet except my latest official EP releases Rework 1 and 2. Check it out and buy my music if like like to support me. I will hopefully add some more releases there in the future.
Some techno I put together with my modular. Enjoy!
As some may or may not know I was pretty deeply involved in the so called Commodore 64 scene from around 1986 to 1990. I was the co-founder and musician/graphics guy of a Swedish demo and cracking group called XAKK. Rob Hubbard was one of my major inspirations for my music back then. Here is my personal top ten list of the best pieces of C64 music created by the one true SID-god, Rob Hubbard.
Edit: Actually there are 11 entries on the list since I originally forgot to include one of the best Hubbard tunes – Zoids.
This was one of the first games I played on the Commy. Even though the tune by Hubbard isn’t as good as the other ones in this list, it still holds a lot of sentimental value to me.
This is another amazing high energy piece by Hubbard that makes you want to dance. It builds and builds with different variations on the same theme. There are some really crazy arpeggios in there.
The game was great and I played it a lot back when it was released. The slow title tune by Hubbard borrows quite a lot from Ryuichi Sakamoto’s “Forbidden Colours” from the movie “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence”.
Another one of the classics. The melody is almost melancholic. It has a really cool break with hypnotic noisy beats and a haunting melody. I played the game a bit when it was released. It was pretty decent for a budget game.
Another game that I never really played. The tune by Hubbard is a slow piece with hints of sadness and almost despair in some parts. Note how the melody always goes down, down. Masterly programmed.
A simple and catchy melody. I like the way the background sounds melt together with the chords. It’s a tune that makes me happy. The game was easily forgotten but the music still holds to this day.
The game itself was a pretty standard vertical shooter but the music.. Atmospheric and epic. One of most toned down tunes from Hubbard. Still gives me the chills listening to it now, almost 30 years later.
I remember I was totally blown away when I heard this piece of music for the first time. The intro was so unusual – building up for something, and then BAM, a complex bassline and an almost oriental sounding lead. A very avant garde game tune at the time.
This track is actually based on “Ancestors” from the Synergy album Audion. I remember I bought the LP back in 86 or 87 and instantly recognized it. So Hubbard borrowed quite o lot at the time.. Still this is one of his best, powerful but with lots of feels, especially around the 2.00 mark. That melody gets me every time.
One of the best demonstrations of the, for the time, complex sounds that Rob Hubbard could squeeze out of the SID-chip. There are so many things happening in this track. I like how the melody and the arpeggio chords always match perfectly together, and how he throws in all these effect sounds here and there and still manages to keep everything working as a whole.
Delta is still considered by many to be one of the top five games ever released on the Commodore 64. Developed by Finish programmer Stavros Fasoulas, it had this killer title tune by Rob Hubbard. After so many years, this one still gets me all misty eyed. Such a simple but effective melody. Still the number one C64 tune for me.
So that was my top 10 list of the best Rob Hubbard tunes ever created. If you are interested in the music I created on the C64 in the 80s you can listen to it here.
I have been using the excellent music distribution service Distrokid for a couple of years. Once in a while they add more stores and streaming services that you can put your music on, but I somehow never seem to find time to actually do that, until a couple of days ago..
Now almost all releases on my label XAKK are or will be available on Amazon, Beats, Deezer, Google Play, iTunes, Rdio, Spotify, Tidal and YouTube.