Mentufacturer in the 90s

These four tracks were made in my bedroom studio on 4-track tape recorder, a primitive computer-based sampler, a keyboard and drum-machine. Some time between 1991 and 1993.

They were roughly recorded to cassette tape for temporary listening and ripped back into the computer sometime around 2013. The 4-track masters, if not lost, are not easily recoverable, so I've taken the old MP3 rips here and done what I can to remaster and reconstruct them into a short mix. The hiss and flutter of tape, especially on the last track, are ineliminable. Rather than a modern contrivance.

The influences are obvious : early house music, particularly the UK "bleep" variant that was yet to evolve into rave and jungle. Also more aggressive and noisy industrial music. (I was particularly taken with bands like Meat Beat Manifesto, Consolidated and Greater Than One at the time.)

For a long time I dismissed this music as cringeworthy. A low point in my music journey. Particularly the samples and other clichés of the genre. But in re-evaluation I'm struck by two things.

Due to a mixture of ineptness, perversity and lack of equipment, I often ended up with drum and synth sounds that were far from the norms in the genres of music I was referencing. The overblown harsh whistles and distraught beeps are not typical of the music. But are closer in spirit to the experimentalism of the times, than a retro purist of today might imagine. These tracks are primitive. And full of clichés. But they ARE also genuinely experimental and trying to push the genre in new directions. And that itself was typical of the times.

The second thing that strikes me is the youthful energy and aggression. I often express disdain for raw four on the floor beats. I am, genuinely, bored by music which is too focused on speed and heaviosity of beats. These days I am all about a pursuit of melody and beauty.

But these tunes remind me of a time when I genuinely did believe in bringing the noise. I couldn't really mix or master. But did believe in the ruckus. In throwing everything - kick drums and snares, layers of harsh hats and piercing beeps - all at once, into a full frontal sonic assault.

And I kind of miss that version of my artistic self.

♬⋆.˚♬⋆.˚this work is part of proscrypta.mp3♬⋆.˚♬⋆.˚