so i plonk about on synths and make lovely sounds and painful shrieks and deliciously sexy squeals...
25kV 50Hz is my solo project ... been at it since about 1995 ... take a listen to some tracks here...
Left Spine Down is another project I'm involved in... QPXKZ, Evropa, the Drummer and Me... much fun
Football Hooligans is a third project ... rather moribund lately but will revive like a Phoenix...
So what bands are my biggest influences? I'm not certain which have directly influenced me, but among my favourites are Kraftwerk (they are #1 - and definitely my biggest influence), Laibach (The boys from Trbovlje who make the greatest noise - 2nd biggest influence), Vennaskond (Estonian avant-garde punk). The next-greatest band in the world is Welle:Erdball - they kick serious aft! I also listen a lot to bands like Omega, Lokomotiv GT, Sandow, Feeling B, Abfallsozialprodukt, Sex Pistols, Riblja Corba, Zabranjeno Pusenje, Front 242, :wumpscut:, KMFDM, Depeche Mode, Wolfsheim, VNV Nation, Apoptygma Berserk, Suicide Commando, L'Ame Immortelle, Feindflug, Funker Vogt, Mlada Fronta, Grazhdanskaya Oborona, And One, Mory Kante, Youssou Ndour, Salif Keita, Zhang Ming-Min, Bijelo Dugme, Atomsko Skloniste, Tankcsapda, Einstürzende Neubauten and many others...so my influences come from all over!
Football rules. And the greatest team is
Then of course there is the team of my home town - a truly great team with a proud history:
I'm also a big fan of BFC Dynamo Berlin, who play in Germany, fifth division, though they are 10-time East German champions. Some have asked why I like BFC. Simple. Look at their logo:
Now, back before 1991, Újpesti TE was called Újpesti Dózsa, and their logo looked like this:
So, in short, I began liking Dynamo Berlin because the D in the logo was similar to the D in Újpest's logo. Same reason why I like Dynamo Moscow :D.
I also like Energie Cottbus in Germany, they are the team in the First Bundesliga that I like, cuz they are an East Side team too, and they have several players who used to play for Újpest (Robert Vágner, Zsolt Lőw).
Massive congratulations to Senegal for beating the French!
This site is also for showing off and voicing opinions on the various machines I own/have owned/played with.
This synth was made in the USSR and even in Russia is very rare...for a long time I didn't know anything about it except that it was made in the same factory as Polivoks... 16-note polyphonic... nice selfoscillating filter...when you crank the resonance all the way up, be careful you don't blow anything out...max the res and tweak with the cutoff frequency and the envelope and it sounds like a showrtwave radio when you're listening to the empty air... she has one VCO and LFO...oddity: has a section called "tembr" (timbre) with four knobs: piano, string, klavesin, brass - this is basically the waveshape section, you can adjust the amount of each "timbre" here...maybe a little brassy string sound you want? LFO is straightforward except it's called "vibrato"...has controls for frequency, depth and delay...VCF again straightforward, has one ADSR env and knobs resonance, cutoff freq and env depth (note that all is written in russian!) and an interesting little red button marked "brass" when unpressed and "filter" when pressed in, this turns the filter on and off... Ksenija (this is her name I gave her like I give everything) is built like a good Russian girl, solid and you can't break her...metal case only the keys and end panels are bakelite...comes with nice leather carrying case with wooden lid to protect keyboard side... bizarre girl she is but great fun.
This thing (her name is Natasha) is cool. The sounds are nice and dirty thanks to the 8-bit PCM samples (it's digital, with MIDI, and - oh yeah - it's made in the USSR too =) ). Programming isn't overly difficult thanks to the fact that I have the manual and can read Russian. Lelj-PSR or TR-626? I'd say, go with the Lelj, if basing on sounds alone. The interface is really simple (and simplistic), it displays song number, rhythm number, measure, beat of measure in one display mode, in the other it shows you time (1/4, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 1/3, 2/3, 3/3), tempo (40-200 BPM) and volume level, all through the use of "electroluminescent vacuum indicators". The manual is great for a laugh too. On the last page is a form which writes, "Esteemed Comrade! Thank you for the purchase and we ask that you answer these questions..." Old Skool, man, back in the USSR!!
This was the first piece of gear I ever got...her name is Dragana...she is a digital deum machine made by Roland in mid 80s...what can I say about her? Many people say lots of bad things but I have to refute that. 10 outs! each sound you can tune separately...but reverb and flanger on the kick, some distort on the highhat (which is a bit short, but it's okay) and whatever else you want and it sounds pretty choice...also can use it as a sixteen step sequencer...oh yeah and it's midi...
Now here's a synth...great for basslines and making strange sounds...my best mate kAINE has one, got it for a ridiculously good deal... I'd pay for it what he did, maybe a bit more too... use the Juno to provide droning backdrop for ambient stuff along with the Babyvoks for "shortwave radio" squealies and Pro-One for other strange noises...sounds good...playing around once like that and put the distort pedal on and we picked up a chinese radio broadcast out of the airwaves...fading chinese speech in and out over a high-low drone from the Juno sounded pretty cool, add to that the squeal of the Babyvoks and a trip loop out of the Pro-One and a fast-slow drum line...maybe soon I'll put that up here...
This thing is lovely...you all know the tech details ... Played with her thru a Zoom pedal...put a note on hold and tweak the knobs...that's why analogue rules and kicks digital's arse...tweaking knobs...
Korg Z1Stevo has one...but...bleah...it's digital...makes some nice sounds though, and it's fun to play with but for the price of it I'd rather go buy an ARP Odyssey or somesuch...
