A weird entry this one. On the one hand I give respect to a very cool musician and showman - Bacalao. At my last two micromusic live shows Bacalao has been there, and what fine and professional shows he did. Here I feature a couple of pics from his on-line gallery to represent the shows:
Gig in Wartek. DaddyBug makes me look like Led Zeppelin in these pics - thanks man ;) Anyway I also pay respect to Wanga and Carl for looking after me on this short trip to Switzerland, thanks for the invitation.
Paris_HQ always always organise a cool party. I'm pleased they invited me again to visit them. Bacalao took a cool pic of me here with Charlie on drums, we look distrubingly punk.
reveng.sevcom.com
More MacLaren stuff, I surely regret taking micromusic's offer to write that thing by now. Seems alot of guys misunderstood it. Anyway this is the most extreme opposite view I read, so I should feature it here of course - to include positive and negative comments.
For those who don't know Malcolm used to manage the Sex Pistols then when that scene died, he tried to jump on the hip hop bandwagon, now he's been single handedly responsible for making the masses aware of the chip music scene. Chip music group Gwem wrote Malcom a nasty and ungrateful open letter because they were upset with his "definition" of chip music. It didn't bother me I'd rather have people know the music exists than get locked in that stupid analog vs digital argument. The Reverse Engineers use both digital and analog, hardware and software we are a non-discriminatory employer of obsolete technology the Casio's we use are a composite of digital and analog technology so I guess that's why we aren't going to be taking sides.
I'm bored of this debate. I wrote a letter for micromusic stating researched and clear facts, and thats it.
Alive 9
The Atari ST disk magazine 'Alive' featured a number of technical articles I wrote in its last issue.
Resonant effect on Atari
Sampling the Atari soundchip
Research into volume levels
Atari tracker data formats
Using Compact Flash in Atari
Also there was a short review (of course not by me :) ) of an intro I made to showcase my new Atari soundchip routines:
This one barely makes it into the category of "intro". It was a last minute
throw-together, merely intended to showcase the new killer sound routines
from Gwem's forthcoming 'maxYMiser' chip tracker. The intro serves to
include the 'Readme' comments that Gwem was not allowed to put in with his
standalone music entry.
There is very little to it. A picture of Gwem, slaving over a hot tracker,
and a big yellow infoscroller at the bottom, that's it. Coding and
presentation wise, there's nothing at all to write home about, but listen to
the fantastic music! The tune singlehandedly picks this intro from face-down
in the lake and carries it to dry land for a quick spot of heart massage, a
swift towelling down, and a nice cup of tea with a drop of brandy in it! To
be fair to Gwem, he really is not expecting too many votes for the intro,
but do vote for the stunning tune in the music compo instead!
Rated at:- 5 out of 10 - (A 9 out of 10 tune is dragged down a bit ;-))
KVR Audio
Its always really fine with a hardware or software production is well recieved. OK, its also the same with music releases,
but in the case of ymVST I was astounded by its success, in some small way
its even starting to become a classic. Anyway the soft got another cool review, I would not normally another, but the
reviewer gives a balanced view, and I agree with all his comments (except being a hardcore scener, which is not really true... maybe a softcore one ;) )
Pros:
Authentic st sound. Good use of "sidvoice" as shown on those systems. UI very tracker friendly.
cons: UI not very intuitive for those used to synth programs, strangers to its influence may even find it ugly ;)
Only one voice at at time.
There are alot of softsynths that try to emulate that video game sound, but this is probaly one of the most accurate. It may sound dry and limited, but it will accurate impose on you the limitations on old ym composers. The major problem is the fact that it is one voice, so it might be hard to get that cool multivoice robbing effect used in a lot of scene tunes. Program will not rpobaly be udpated, but as it is, it is a very stable effective chipish tool...
Gwem is a hard core scener that has done his research (to my ears it sounds as accurate as any of the atari emulators out there). The best feature is that it's free and does not require any kind of fancy installer. Hopefully if eneough people sned back feedback, he can try and code a three voice version.
The Music Software Award 2004
The best Atari tracking site on the net gave me an award for best Music Software of 2004.
I was both surprised and proud to recieve this award. Thanks 505.
THE MUSIC SOFTWARE AWARD 2004
Hmm.. a bit of a problem, as several nice stuff has been done till now. Anyway, although tracker programs themselves may be the most important part of doing tracker music, I would like to hand out the award in this category to the author of a rather simple tool. I am speaking of the SNDH-converter written by GWem. This collection of utilities finally allows all chipmusicians to easily convert their SSD/Trisound/XLR8 or Triplex songs into the popular .SNDH format. This is a small tool, but a big step for the human race, erm.. well, you may know what I mean. It simply makes tracking life much easier! Thanks GWem :-)
Kammerkonzert Wachsende Stadt
Some pre-event hype about a show I did at the Golden Pudel in Hamburg. The show turned
out to be good, but not amazing. As always the Pudel guys were really cool ;)
Kammerkonzert Wachsende Stadt
Hamburg, Golden Pudel Club
22.08.04
...noch 39 Tage!
Facts:
Kammerkonzert Wachsende Stadt
DJ Phono, Gwem & The Gwemettes, Lawrence, Raf Le Spoink, Rocko Schamoni, Spongos, Viktor Marek
Genre: Elektronik/Gitarre/Pop/Sonstiges
boomkat.com
A short summary of 'The Small Hours':
while scary mockney operator Gwem delivers the most derranged narrative of dubious sexuality you’ll hear in a very long timr for EP closer 'Small Hours'. These Germans, what ARE they like!
i'm no German or Londoner, but cool you like the tune.
Anita Lixel
A honest review of my first old skool hardcore DJ set in years:
DJ set from Gwem : Without the sex appeal of Johnny Depp but with a certain magnetism on stage... and did I mention he put on an incredible DJ set I'll never forget!!!
thanks, it was a real fun set to play
flashtro.com
A fan of my STj DJ software dreams of a .MOD version for Commodore Amiga:
At least, Gwem a chiptune musician made a dj software that runs on atari st & its called stj http://preromanbritain.com/stj/ .Do someone know if such utility was made on amiga or permits to mix two mods at least ? coz i'm using traktor on pc & i'd like to use my true amigas to make the sound cheers.
konzol.suveg.hu
Nice reference to my old chip-tune radio show on Resonance FM
M ű v é s z e t k é r d ő j e l l e l , é s m e g k é r d ő j e l e z h e t e t l e n ü l
- Neoprimitív zsebjáték festmények. Handheld Paintings 1999-2000.
- Kagami no nai Seikai de - Tükrök nélküli világban. Reishi Mitsuhashi fekete-fehér fotói.
"All Your Base" angollal.
- Eggshell. Még több fotó, gyönyörű illusztráció és "élőhalott baba" Kokorótól.
- Zene? gwEm (Gareth Morris) a londoni Resonance FM műsorán [másfél órás LQ .mp3, 20 Mb].
Amiga, C64 és ST chipdalok, játék- és demózenék Atari ST-ről keverve. Bónusz: a napló képei
Game Boy Camerával készültek.
triggerfish.de
A nice review of 'The Small Hours':
Zu "Small Hours" von GwEm haben sich dann alle wieder lieb und werfen die Hände in die Luft. Rave-Piano, ein Booty Bass, jemand, der was von Partypeople und Fashion faselt und zwischendurch ein Gitarrenpart, für den sich selbst Hippieeltern schämen würden. Meinen die das nun ernst? Ach so, der Macher ist Heavy Metal Hörer und Autoscooterfan dann darf man sowas natürlich. Extrem… ähm… befremdlich, zumindest für jemanden, der schon bei der ersten Loveparade zu alt für diese Art von Musik war und von Underworld’s "Born Slippy" bereits nach dem ersten mal angenervt war.
Live in London
I made full on live show at the shitkatapult party in London with my friend Charlie and drums. Even though it was a warmup slot, the show went pretty well. seminal blog website howithappened.com reviewed the show:
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Gareth Morris is "gwEM" an "Atari ST Old Skool Rave DJ and Heavy Metal dude (The E stands for E)". For one night only he had somehow co-opted Charlie Beez into playing drums at his gig at 93 ft east. They were celebrating the launch of a new compilation DVD on German Disco-Atari-Punk label Shit Katapult. Nothing in my cosseted middle class upbringing could have prepared me for the rigors of the Deutsch Atari Punk scene. Gareth Morris commands the stage like an enraged mastodon. His vocals match the intensity and tone of John Lydon, to the inspired mundanity of Mike Skinner. Meanwhile he plays crazed power-fuzz guitar on a Gibson Flying V. You couldn't hope to recreate the magic of the gwEm live experience at home, but I do recommend a perusal of his hilarious website, and possibly downloading his meister-werk "The Small Hours" (probably not available from the iTunes music store).
A member of the shitkatapult forum described the my set as "interesting".
Live in Wuppertal
This was the most fun gig ever so I had to mention it somehow (I left my gameboy at home). The heavens opened and drentched the equipment, but we carried on anyway. Thanks to my good friend firestARTer for such a great party.
Here is a picture of my performance:
Also playing was Lo-bat, Hypercut, Plemo, Manou and Sputnik Booster
John Peel
John Peel features one of my tracks on his webpage, as part of his Shitkatapult showcase. The track is called 'The Small Hours' and will be on a compilation EP (from René Finken I hear it will also have tracks from Holz and Peter Grummich) from them sooner or later :) Thanks John and T.Raumschmiere for including it.
However, every sliver lining has a cloud... This time a small one though. On the Shitkatapult forum SickleCell described the song as a "shitty track of a dude talkin about a club party". Not actually what the songs about though :) I guess it wasn't his taste.
Playmusic Magazine
Because of the MacLaren Letter I was interviewed by Martin Bergesen of high quality on-line magazine 'PlayMusic'. He wrote a very good article about micromusic which you should read:
Or look at it online, Issue 6.
FYMW selling out
A small news, but it made me happy - on several online record store my "Frank Sinatra/FYMW" 7 inch is now registered as sold out.
Hypefest
Fellow preromanbritain star Alex's video for FYMW was entered in Hypefest 2004. In their listings they said:
The Daily Grind Sunday, July 25, 4:30PM (90 min.)
Gwem "FYMW" dir. Alexandre Singh
USA/2003/5:45
Gwem sticks it to the man in this video, which riffs on the monotony of corporate life.
After the competition was judged, it turned out he won a big prize! The "You Won't See This on MTV" Award. It didn't surprise me to hear the news, because Alex's video was the best possible.
MadTracker
It looks like my YMVST plugin might become something of a classic. I already knew that I get hundreds of downloads each month from it, but in the end this means nothing as it is free software. However it appears on the list of VST plugins recommened for the MadTracker music software, which is a low-key, but pretty sorted big-up. Its described as an "Atari ST chipsound instrument".
THIS is YM2149
I got a range of feedbacks on this mix album I created on two of my Atari STs. Some good some bad. Lets look at some:
O_TR_O was positive, he said "...but the mix tracks suits very well, atari is very hard to mix, & the result is pretty good..."
vorc.org mentioned the mix on their listings. They said "Gwem from the UK released a chiptune dj mix recorded just by his ATARI STs. He turned 30 minutes of masterpieces (15 tunes) mainly from YM Rockerz. It's available in MP3 format."
Xelebes was not so into it : "Near the end, some of the tracks were not meshing troo well, like rhythms and chord progressions were not meshing up... Listening to the tunes, it seems you were merely putting them in PCDJ or Traktor and computer mixing with very seldom processing". These are valid comments, except its a bit hard to process audio on the Atari STs :) Anyway, worth bearing in mind for the future
Now I removed the mix from the page - it was always going to have limited availabilty since I dont really like mix downloads. But I made some CDs of it, which I sold for zero profit to gemischtwaren.com. Here it was slightly marked-up and featured in their August product listing.... Please note - no one makes any money from these CDs. This shop exists off-line at Thor Zimmermann's gallery in Cologne, and its definately worth looking in.
neingeist
Neingeist mentioned my release on Berlin's Shitkatapult records on their website... Thanks mate :)
GwEm's punky release "FYMW/Frank Sinatra" is a MUST for everyone who "likes" IT management, cubicles and movies like Matrix and Office Space. Well, I got to buy that first, too! The B-side is a remix/-make of Miss Kittin and the Hacker's "Frank Sinatra".
Just have a look at the video or listen to the songs at the young Berlin-based label Shitkatapult's website to get the idea.
Khooini Maut
The band Khooini Maut features my track 'Song 4 Hanah' in their all time top 10 listing, along side the likes of Joy Division and King Crimson. That was cool of them, and I'll be checking out the rest of the music on the list. Suck the track on YM Rockerz. Also their music is nice and definately worth sucking.
PS - now they changed the top ten. But still I'm happy, because now 'FYMW' is mentioned :)
Dead Hackerz Society
DHS, the #1 Atari scene website has a couple of gwEm things on their pages. First they reported on my geeky format converters into the popular SNDH format, and they are also hosting a couple of my tracks which I entered in the Outline 2004 Atari demo party (2nd and 3rd place). The results for the voting were extremely close - to be honest all the top 5 entries ruled, and this was shown in the voting results.
$1000 Web Page Contest
If you want the chance to win $1000, you should submit your personal webpage to this competition. I did, although I guess from the feedback that the organisers weren't that into my site... Therefore I add the extra incentive to the organisers that if I by some chance win, then I will donate the dollaz to charity :) But lets be honest - it is a good thing that the organisers give you good honest feedbacks, and not lying bullshit, or worse - no feedback at all! This is what they said about my page:
"Still most active are electronic music bands and musicians. There are several reasons. First of all they spend a lot of time in front of their computers. Secondly, they really put an effort into web selfpromotion. And we advertised the 1000$ Page Contest on Micromusic.net"
Too bad I found out about the competiton by personal recommendation, and my webpage is not about music self-promotion. Ignoring these points I'm very much supporting the contest because of the cool linkz on the page and the wicked title page.
Space Trip
The Muller/Beroshima records website reproduced the phatt movie/hype produced by Wanga for my song 'Space Trip'! Check it out!
Lektrogirl Interview
I didn't see her for more than a year, so I was surprised to find this (apparantly recent) interview with lektrogirl on the web:
I love going to parties where Ed DMX is playing or DJing cause he really gets into the music and dances and jumps about. And I love the music that DRX from Bodenstandig 2000 plays - he has no mercy and play the cheesiest and best Eurodance Scooter / Squeezer / Modo / Bluemchen. The people producing the music I really love in the UK are Printed Circuit, Ed DMX, Cylob's pop tracks, Gwem and the music he makes and also the other music he releases on Preromanbritain. Well--like I said--I like pop music. But then I think groups like Yellow Magic Orchestra made pop...
Cheers mate for the unexpected big-up, hope your doing well.
The McLaren Fiasco
The letter I wrote for micromusic.net is being misrepresented and misinterpreted by alot of people. I suggest you read the letter and decide for yourselves.... I particularly draw your attention to the phrase "Whilst we are happy that you are interested in the style, your words have in some cases have concerned or even angered us.". I decided to collect only the coolest quotes from different websites, and ignore the many who misunderstood the letter. To those I say - "I am a Malcolm McLaren fan - I even brought Buffalo Gals!".
VORC.ORG presented a balanced view on the issue: "Malcolm McLaren (former manager of Sex Pistols) has been a focal figure in chip/micro music scene since 8-bit Punk article was featured to Wire magazine November 2003 issue. He introduced current GAMEBOY music as punk of the day, and became the first major music producer who faces chiptunes fully, at least in the West. (In Japan, Haruomi Hosono has already done it twenty years ago) He may be able to expand ranges of chip music listeners, but on the other hand, his thin veneer of knowledge is losing his popularity among traditional chip/micro sound freaks. So gwem, one of the most active chip/micro composers in the UK, focused their anxiousness and sent an open letter to Malcolm as a representative of micromusic.
"It's true that Malcolm is off the point on a lot of things, but still it's free marketing, so why not take it for what it is?" Johan Kotlinski, the author of the LSDj, brought forward a counterargument. Besides it, you can see many other opinions at micromusic's mailing list. In any case, not only McLaren but also all major producers won't be able to avoid musical incomprehension to expand range of audiences... ironically. For example, Japanese record companies after Hosono (and an ancestral label called G.M.O.) have been regarding vgms as "fan's goods" more than "music". Their attitude didn't educate many musical listeners, and finally it brought Japanese chip music scene to the brink of extinction in late 90s. We hope such a situation never comes again."
MARC PASCHAL gave good publicity to the issue, but only quotes the most sensational part of the letter.
CRASHING JETS were also interested in our letter, but is also pretty sensationalistic :( But good that a high quality blog reports on the issue - I am also happy that the reported that the letter was from micromusic as a whole, and not just a personal letter.
vorc.org
Vorc does a great job of keeping up to date with chip music! They mentioned many of my projects in the past months:
Gwem from the UK will perform Atari Dj with two of his Mega STs on Jan.21st 19:00 (GMT) via Resonance FM. People outside of the UK can also listen to real-time online stream (MP3/RealAudio). "YM Rockerz trax will surely feature heavily in the show," he stated.
GwEm's radio show was announced on Jan.16th. Now whole recording is available in MP3 format. He played many COMMODORE 64/AMIGA/ATARI ST tracks with commentaries for almost an hour and a half.
Month before last, Gwem released MusicMon2 to SNDH Converter which allows you to convert music data for MusicMon v2.0 to universal SNDH format. Then he also released the same kind of utilities for SID Sound Designer and Triplex, and repacked as "SNDH Converters" set. They run on ATARI STs or emulators.
Live in Paris
There was lots of photos and videos of the micromusic event in Paris, including some of the other artists and I:
- Eschaton Television - video (slightly embarrasing start ;->, frank sinatra)
- muzike.be - lots of nice images
- O_TR_O - video (don't give a shit, space trip, solo)
- Eat Rabbit - blurry in some cases, but very nice images
- preromanbritain - images from PRB boss Colin
shopping.net
My Slammin' Vinyl Fanpage featured on this
bad e-commerce site... Weird!
I am NOT Håkan Lidbo...
... unlike how I am described here ;->:
"1124 GWEM FYMW *LTD* 7 SHITKATA STRIKE 40 DE 145
Aka Håkan Lidbo."
vorc.org
Important chip scene site vorg.org gave a very nice mention of my gameboy pitch controller
"How to build Little Sound DJ Pitch Control
Gwem is a UK based micro musician who is also active as an software/hardware developer for the ATARI ST and the GAMEBOY. This time he created an external pitch control device for the GAMEBOY which allows you to change song tempo on the Little Sound Dj. It's simple and cheap to make, even more simple than his Little Sound DJ DIY MIDI Interface, and must make your djing and live performance more flexible."
ymVST
I was truly surprised by the response my Atari ST sound plugin - ymVST has achieved so far! Thousands of people have downloaded it and I'm pleased with the response. Heres some on-line quotes:
- ST Computer magazine said:
"ymVST ist ein VST-Plug-in für aktuelle PC-Versionen der Audio-Suite Cubase. Das Plug-in emuliert den legendären YM2149-Soundchip des Atari ST. Das Interface wurde stark an die ST-Software "MusicMon", die sicher noch vielen Atari-Musikern bekannt ist, angelehnt.
ymVST ist frei einsetzbar. Eine Mac-Version des VST-Instruments gibt es leider noch nicht. (tr)"
- Atari Tracking was one of the first sites to spread the message - thanx!
"YM sound in Cubase [03-11-18]
Caution, more PC news coming up. But it is interesting anyway: YM-Chipmusician GwEm/YM-Rockerz has released a VST-plugin for cubase which is emulation the Atari ST-soundchip. This means you can make use of YM-sound in Cubase for instance. It comes along with an Atari-styled interface (Musicmon 2.0 ripoff). Have a look at the ymVST project page."
- KVR-VST ymVST caused alot of discussions on this plug-in forum... including this ace comment from none other than chip ace Chris Huselsbeck:
"Cool... I really enjoyed toying around with this... revived some old fond memories too... :-)"
I also got a negative comment from Easymode:
"I knew this, but the gui was so unfriendly that i gave up..."
I say - too bad its meant to be unfriendly ;->
- Akutech it even got mentioned on this polish site!:
"ymVST,
Pod tak. nazw. kryje si. darmowy emulator uk.adów d.wi.kowych montowanych
w komputerach Atari, który mo.na pobra. ze strony Preromanbritain.com."
- hispasonic and this spanish one:
"hola! interesante hilo, si señor...
mi humilde aportación:
-ymVST: VST plug-in for authentic Atari ST chipsounds
Emulates the built in YM2149 sound chip
http://preromanbritain.com/ymvst/
lo encontré buscando sonidos de videojuegos... estoy harto de pedirle el amiga500 a mi vecino!!"
- Patch Arena and My Atari OK, I'm saving the best until last here... Tim from 'Tims Atari MIDI World' reviewed ymVST, and this review got featured on these two important sites - so thanx Tim ;-> Heres some quotes:
"ym VST When browsing through the Atari-MIDI forum, a member posted about a unique VST plugin capable of emulating the YM2149 sound chip on a Atari computer. Being the Atari man I am, this was an exciting find. I have many Atari's which I use for MIDI work and never got into the demo scene, but this VSTi may change my mind!"...
"Loading it up in EnergyXT I was able to get some very nice sounds right away."...
"I was very glad to see an Atari type venture as a VST plugin which will get some use in a modern day world of high tech computer music. Thanks goes to Gareth for his SynthEdit creation. Long live Atari and music!"...
"My score: 8/10"
vorc.org
A (slightly dissing) news item about my ymVST
Atari ST synthesiser on this cool chip scene site in Japan:
"Long awaited VST instrument emulating the AY/YM sound chip was finally
released by gwem from UK. Needless to say the AY/YM chip is used in
various platforms such as the MSX and the ZX SPECTRUM. But this plugin was
designed in consideration of the ATARI ST. So it supposedly
supports the ST's unique effects such as SID sound simulation and
Sync-buzzer effect (envelope transformation by cpu interrupt). Also the
interface design was ripped from MusicMon2: one of standard chip music
editors for the ST. In general the sound is pretty close to the
real platform, but noise emulation is only 85% accurate. Anyway it won't
be updated anymore unless you give a very good reason."
Visit Munich
My gameboy diary of a visit to the Munich
micromusic night featured on this
page promoting tourism to Munich.... Yeah!
FM4 On-line Magazine
Review of the Selfware.Games night I Atari-Djed at in Graz Austria.
"Für die passende musikalische Untermalung sorgten die aus dem
micromusic-Umfeld stammenden Briten lektrogirl und gWeM. gWeM hatte fast
zwei Stunden lang Atari-, C64- und Amiga-Tunes gespielt und sie
zwischendurch sehr nett moderiert: "This song was actually by me ...""
;-> ;->
Undercover Megascene
Review of the YM Rockerz 'Popstars' compilation, with short mention my my
track 'Song for Hannah':
"And as different as the musicians are so are the styles of them and, to
say it
right now, there are quite interesting musix included! Apart from
the more
classic composers like Lotek, 5o5 and DMA SC, some of them produced very
strange
stuff, such as Gwem, who included even some samplestuff and created
some very
pumping track with technoing style."
Space Trip
A link, and short review, to the video by Wanga of my track 'Space Trip'
on micromusic.net:
"GWEM: SPACE TRIP - video at micromusic
Mahtavaa menoa - hieno video!! Klikkaa sisään Micromusic:iin - valitse
choose Microhype 3_03 - valitse microhype archive ( sivun alalaita)-
valitse [microhype 2_03] by wanga. GWEM: SPACE TRIP -video. Oujee! Flash."
FREQ Singles Review
Another cool review of STRIKE 40 (Frank Sinatra/FYMW):
"GwEm - FYMW/Frank Sinatra
Label: Shitkatapult Format: 7"
Introduced by a blatantly shoe-horned Lemmy live in concert and
dedicated to IT managers everywhere, "FYMW" - Fuck You Management
Wanker -
is a lo-fi Punky Electro rant against working for The Man. Drum
machines charge full-throttle, cheap-stylee, accompanied by an equally
low
budget synth guitar riff, while Gareth Morris vents his spleen at a
former boss in a geeky monotone. Right on.
The AA side is a cover of Miss Kittin And The Hacker's classic piece of
nasty Techno "Frank Sinatra". Buzzing with a cheesy Rave
chord-stab melody and snarled out in a far more venomous vocal style,
the tune staggers with vitriolic energy, as Morris yells "Suck my
dick, lick my arse" to the bleepy hyperspeed beat. The geeks may not
inherit the earth, but they can sometimes assume the position.
-Freq1C-"
Thanks for the review man - but I use a real guitar ;->
De-Bug
I was fortunate to be reviewed for another time in famous German
music-newspaper De-Bug. This time it was a short review of the shitkatapult release. Here's what
they said:
"GwEm - FYMW & Frank Sinatra (Shitkatapult/040)
Endlich mal eine Punksingle auf dem Label, die nicht nach Elektroclash
klingt, sondern im besten gut gelaunt gerecht agressiven Prollstyle der
späten 70er losrotzt und die Welt in den Arsch treten möchte. Wir würden
wetten, GwEm war noch nicht auf der Welt als Sid Vicious sie verließ, und
vielleicht, wer weiss, vielleicht gibt es ja doch Reinkarnation. Ouch.
bleed *****"
So get out there and buy it ;->
SelfWare Games
I played my Atari DJ show at this art festival in Austria. I had a great
time there and met some great people, you can read about it soon elsewhere
on the website. I would play for them again... anytime! Here are some kinf
words they said about me on their website:
"gwEm is co-founder of the record label and art collective
"preromanbritain". He and his non-existent backing band "The Gwemettes"
have recently played a series of riotious live shows across Europe. gwEm
composes music on the Atari STS built in sound chip. He started to mixing
the Atari sound with rock guitars. "Low tech music works with dirt and
mistakes. High tech with gloss and quantisation", is a definition superB
gives for their motto. Lektrogirl continues: "But there can still be lo
tech with no mistakes. Bodenstandig2000 or gwEm both I would consider to
be lo tech - and work with limited musical equipment but still manage to
produce glossy tracks. They are fucking great!"
....
Having released his own 100% atari music on cult site www.micromusic.net,
the respected atari demo disk 'ym rockers', and on his own label
'preromanbritan' gwEm has more than the usual knowledge of music from
this scene. His rock'n'roll live show has wowed crowds all over europe,
but tonight he will be taking us on a real trip down memory lane. By
mixing audio from two of his beloved Atari STs he will be playing
favourites, both old and new, from the Amiga, Commodore C64 and of course
Atari scenes. Be prepared to be surprised by whats possible from 16 year
old hardware!"
FM4
Heres a playlist of a radio station in Austria... Cooly they played one of
my trax. Let me know if you
see any more of this kind of shit.
"The Terminkalender is ever present with party-tips and tickets to win for
the coming week. And around 22.45 his Aliveness (DJ Alive) will be giving
you the sickest of broken IQ Beats. Get ready for the new version of Frank
Sinatra (originally done by Miss Kittin), now totally messed up by that
label shitkatapult."
new bleep
Regular readers will know that its always a pleasure for me to perform at
the parties of New Bleep, which are run by some genuinely crazy guys. They
put an MP3 of an Atari DJ set I did on their site, so check it out!
And heres a picture of me playing that show, alot of people seem to like
this image.
www.ore.lt
There was alot of media surrounding a trip of microdisco to Lithuania. I performed a
live show and jungle DJ set at this totally great party. This link
features and interview with myself and fellow microdisco member manou....
in Lithuanian.
This photo was taken by some cool guys - thanks alot!
offf Nokia
Award
Since winning the Nokia award at the 2003 OFFF flash festival, animators
DuDu Pop_Lab have become
flash animation legends! The piece was a collabaration between their
animations and my music. You can see it here.
Many on-line sources reviewed the work. Here are some links:
- Flash
Magazine
- porlared.com
- ground
addiction
- shift.jp.org said:
"NOKIA became a sponsor this year, as a way to encourage designers and
media developers to develop new stuff for their mobile phones, as they
are incorporating flash applications. They gave a special Nokia Award for
the application that they thought would be great and possible to play on
a mobile phone. The winners were Dudu-Lab (Argentina) with their flash
animation Titan. they are also contributors of Innothna in Barcelona."
Various On-Line Record Stores
Since Shitkatapult released a
7" featuring 2 of my tracks I've been constantly freaking out when seeing
my record in on-line record stores. I'm sure that big-name artists get
used to this, but for me there is a real novelty aspect ;-> Here's some
links:
micromusic.net/events
This page contains lots of pictures of the micromusic show at Art
Furtura in Barcelona 2002. But check out the cool video clips, they've
been edited so well!
misskittin.com
Miss Kittin gives a small mention of my tasteful cover of her song 'Frank
Sinatra' that she did with The Hacker.
"We had a lot of fun and ended in Zurich @ Tonimolkerei for a 6h 4 hands
set… No need to tell we had enough vodka-taurus to nearly fall on the
turntables. We tried this crazy 170 BPM « Frank Sinatra » punk cover I
received on MP3 from a mysterious man... Wait and see..."
Who was that masked man?
el-mundo.es
This site contains a review, in Spanish, of the Art Futura event I played
in Barcelona 2002. There is a small bit about me:
"A una tremenda Manou que salió sola a cantar con sus cacharritos y una
voz que por momentos sugiere terciopelo y alquitrán le sucedió el Gareth
Morris AKA Gwem & Gwemettes, también conocido como DJ - NovaNova1, con un
elenco de disparatadas versiones en clave consolero, dejando a todo el
mundo helado con su sesión de techno-hardcore y su aspecto de geek de
reformatorio."
vorc.org
The first preromanbritain EP available in Japan thanks to this website.
GWEM/KINGKAS
"PREROMANBRITAIN RELEASE #1"
PRB
MEDIA:7EP
Modern Music
Modern Music say thay they are currently listening to my track 'Fuck You
Management Wanker' in their end of year review. Thanx guys.
Arte
TV
Part of my Brussels performance got
featured on this popular TV show! Unfortunately my name is not mentioned
in their summary (below) but I was transmitted.
Here are some stills taken from the program:
Embrassingly it looked and sounded as if I was topped up on drugs during
the short interview they did with me.... but maybe thats rock'n'roll.
drx
drx from Bodenstandig
2000 takes a picture of my atari-soundchip powered
drum machine in the development stages.
SoC Introduction
Some people have referenced my boring
DMA
Controller project in this System on a Chip introduction.
diacenter.org
World famous net artists Olia Lialina and Dragan Espenschied quote me and give a link to my site during an interview:
"As always we have had enthusiastic responses from the WIDOW OF LATE PRESIDENT MOBUTU SESE-SEKO OF ZAIRE. And also we received several offers to
promote our page with TrafficMagnet.com. But the reception is best summed up by Gareth William Morris (age 23): 'I think it's great that hundreds of
years old undead beings, such as yourselves, can exist in the modern hi-tech age -- and even embrace internet technologies.' (Gareth's home page:
http://www.preromanbritain.com/gwem/)"
lektrogirl
Lektrogirl comments on my Brussels gameboy diary:
"your show didnt suck that much gwem"
And at lastnite.biz rates my cover verison of Diamond Head's "Shoot Out The Lights",
and the preromanbritain website in her top tens:
"...08 shoot out the lights - gwEm & the gwemettes..."
, "...03 www.preromanbritain.com..."
Thanx for the big ups! (especially the brussels one, it really means something to me)
De-Bug
Another gwEm review in De-Bug, this time of my second release the 'Cold War Angst EP'.
"...kingkas und gwEm hatten keine lust zu warten, sondern gründeten kurzerhand anfang des jahres ihr eigenes label - "preromanbritain". nach einer
geschmackvollen und originellen 7 inch liegt nun endlich die erste 12 inch vor " cold war angst EP" von gwEm & the gwEmettes. was für ein wahnsinn !
(originalton john kick ass manomi) wer hätte das gedacht, endlich mal wieder erfrischende, weil befreiende klänge von der insel. das ist musik, die
ist noch ehrlich. handwerk und herz und jede menge humor...."
De-Bug
A review in german of lektrogirl's birthday party at the Golden Pudel, Hamburg, where I did a live set:
"...absoluter höhepunkt des abends jedoch ohne zweifel und einstimmig beschlossen "gwEm & the gwemettes" ! geniale mischung aus breakbeatz, hardcore,
rave & rock ! und das mit wenigsten mitteln, frei nach dem motto 'weniger ist mehr' : ein mann, eine gitarre und ein microphon. beatz und bässe hatte
gwEm schon daheim am rechner vorbereitet und konnte sich so voll auf seine liveperformance konzentrieren..."
LektroLab@Golden Pudel
Pictures and stories which involve my show there in Dec 2002 for the
birthday of lektrogirl. Read more in my gameboy camera diary here.
"they started off so cute and inconspicuous / BUT THEN THERE CAME ROCK! /
gwEm & the gwemettes in full effect!"
Lurker
The best comment yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!:
"At the Chicago Braindance show, Cylob or Ed DMX played a 45 that
sounded like a really bad UK punk garage band singing about how much
working in a corporation really sucks...the chorus was something
like "F*ck you middle management, you always get it wrong."
Ring any bells for anyone and any hints as to where to get a copy?"
Naughty Boy
Naughtyboy comments brief on my Paranoid rip-off in his tour diary:
"Then moving onto other equally outragous acts such as Komatrohn, Manou, Gwem (who opened with an 8-bit rendition of a Black Sabbath tune!), Puss (yes), and the most impressive was the 2 guys in the B2000 team!"
Smallfish Records
Release notes from Smallfish about PRB001:
"gwem - den of rock - pre roman britain - 7" (PRB 001)
obscure 7 " outing with 2 tracks, featureing one side of electro pop
inspired vocal madness, still keeping it on a slightly rocky vibe,
while the flip is musch more electronic as a whole..."
tracking.atari.org
Unusually some comments about my drYM drum machine project:
"an interesting project from a lowtek freak called gwem. He is working on a drummachine based on the YM-2149 chip, which we all know."
Art Futura,
Fifty Fifty
Here is some of the press build up about the Micromusic gig in Barcelona where I played. I was very flattered by what they said:"Gwem is an Atari musician and tech geek who plays pop and punk-rock music on a high level. His punk-hit "FYMW" can be found in the DJ bag of people like Cylob."
"Low tech music works with dirt and mistakes. High tech with gloss and quantisation", is a definition superB gives for their motto. Lektrogirl continues: "But there can still be lo tech with no mistakes. Bodenstandig2000 or gwEm both I would consider to be lo tech - and work with limited musical equipment but still manage to produce glossy tracks. They are fucking great!"
Noise Loop
I DJed chip_style at this great event called 'New Bleep', and got some good feedback:
"yeah, gwEm will definetly rock you !!!! :-)))"
Also theres a picture of me with 2 minidiscmans, which I tweaked up a bit.
Copenhagen Brains
Copenhagen Brains made some k3wl visuals when I first visited Berlin. Here is what he had to say about it:
"Micromusic Berlin @ Automatenbar. Micromusic's Berlin homebase.Live performance by micropunkrockstarz: gwEm & the gwEmettes"
Modern Music
Modern Music was complimentry but also critical, in a constructive way. So I've taken the tip and have worked hard to be less shambolic since:
"Manou is followed by Gwem who is/are to be frank odd and slightly shambolic in an endearingly unprepared kind of way, they play gabba versions of heavy metal tracks and dance ammusingly. For some reason it's absolutely mesmerising. Everybody seemed to enjoy the spectacle, except for one guy in the crowd who got hit by a flying Atari case during the fake instrument trashing heavy metal ending and seemed a little annoyed."
Smegenusokis
Smegenusokis did really seem to totally understand my stuff... but this is cool and I'll just have to make things clearer in future. At least they liked it, which is most important ;->
"The first group, which i have noticed, was Gwem. There were two blokes, who were playing their computer, guitar and electronic drums (small, toyish, those, which you can get from the catalogue Neckerman). They were playing german rave (i will talk roughly, because only music can talk softly about itself). They were shouting 'put your hands up in the air!!!' And many of us put. ;)"
roX0rz
The first gwEm pictute on the web, ever, on this website by amateur
photographer timokl.
"Micromember gwem has travelled from England especially for this concert."
(c) gwEm 2002, 2003, 2004
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