Four Track Trax, Vol. 1 [CLIPP194] by Boy 8-Bit

At night we tuck our kids into bed and tell them of a magical once upon a time era when DJs played music that sounded like broken robots eating scraps of sheet metal while cutting themselves with angle grinders. There were no rules in the music albeit some sort of discernable rhythmic quality, and the sound design was off the planet. Beats came from samples of samples of samples, labored over in 8-bit formats on equipment that looked more like battle tank parts than musical instruments. You might easily confuse this description for one regarding the era of “Blog House” from whence our latest knight of clipp drew his broadest sword, but we’re actually talking further afield to the dawn of Jungle and the Age of Amiga.

We could talk endlessly slash boringly about this all but maybe its better Roy (Boy 8-Bit) waxes lyrical himself:

“I made these tunes on a Commodore Amiga computer using OctaMED and a Megalosound sampler cartridge. It’s the exact same machine I started making music on over 25 years ago. It feels like I’ve come full circle. Except this time I know what I’m doing. Maybe. It didn’t feel like it.

The Amiga allows you to use four channels of 8-Bit audio and with good sample preparation and planning you can get great results. I didn’t do that and just decided to dive straight in using whatever sample scraps I had lying around, aiming to get a chaotic mid tempo rave vibe without using too many well trodden, overly obvious sounds (there are a couple in there.)

I’ve been meaning to do this for years, but old technology is temperamental. With a bit of TLC though my old friend is back on fine form and I look forward to continuing our musical relationship!”

Glad we got you working at it again Roy! Computer junglists forever!