video

Golden Shower – Video Computer System: Pixelated Nostalgia

Despite its, um, colorful name, Golden Shower is a Brazilian outfit that produces some excellent electronic music, all of it heavily inspired by the sounds of the 1980s. For something that will blow the mind of any child of that decade, watch the award-winning video (2000 MTV Brasil Video Music Awards) for Video Computer System, then download the song itself.

The video is a tribute to the classic games of the Atari gaming system and the song is actually composed of beeps, boops and other sounds sampled from various gaming titles. The premise is that a protagonist must make his way to a G.S. concert while overcoming typical obstacles from the Atari gaming world including Frogger, Pitfall, Missile Command, Pac Man and others.

At one point, he gets killed, but it’s ok, he’s got another life. Also, the video features some pixelated “bullet time,” which is an interesting concept.

Golden Shower has never released an album in its ten year history, nor is it what is normally called a “band.” It’s more of an art and culture project and all its materials are downloadable. Check it out, I say.

Golden Shower – Video Computer System Atari

Roni Size: a cause & cure for hyperventilation

Back in the day, Roni Size’s / Reprazant’s Brown Paper Bag and the accompanying video on MTV’s AMP remember AMP? were just the mind-blowing thing a musically-experimental shiftless college student needed to expand his horizons. I credit both Brown Paper Bag and The Chemical Brothers’ Dig Your Own Hole with diverting my attention away from rock and focusing it toward the burgeoning electronic scene.

Considering the state of rock throughout 1997 and 1998 and where it has gone since, those acts may have saved me from much musical mediocrity, for which i am eternally grateful.

To this day, the sweet wobbly guitar riff that drives Brown Paper Bag, as well as the pulsing beats and the interjection of some subtly smooth rap continue to make this song compelling, even as my interest in straight-ahead drum and bass is on the decline.

From the album New Forms. Hear the song for yourself and enjoy the awesome video:

Roni Size/Reprazent – Brown Paper Bag