On my deathbed I'll remember the Contra code
Aug 18, 2022, 06:18 PM
Composition by Toledo the Horse.
"I like taking sounds out of context and seeing what I can do with them. The pieces I've made that I'm most happy with are usually the ones that sound very little like what I had in my head at the beginning. But I do usually listen for some sort of note, or scrap of a melody. I thought I heard something close to a note in the creaking sound of (I'm assuming) the mechanism of the NES that the cartridges were loaded into. It gave me something to start with, even if it is not the backbone of the completed track. For that, I used various processed tracks of the controller buttons. The other sounds are slowed down, reversed, and chopped up samples and loops run through various effects. For financial and aesthetic reasons I use GarageBand and various apps to compose and manipulate my tracks. Everything heard on the track is manipulated from the original recording and every sound from the original recording appears in the track at least once.
"The title of the piece is definitely a play on memory. Just the fact that I could listen to the original recording and knew what was making that sound is interesting to me. And I never owned an NES, but I still know the Contra code for 30 lives. I had a Sega Master System, which probably no one remembers. Perhaps that'll be a next project. I also like to think about the connection between repetition and memory. Much of the track is loops and even though it is the same sound repeated, our experience of that repetition can change."
This is part of the Obsolete Sounds project, the world’s biggest collection of disappearing sounds and sounds that have become extinct – remixed and reimagined to create a brand new form of listening. Explore the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/obsolete-sounds
"I like taking sounds out of context and seeing what I can do with them. The pieces I've made that I'm most happy with are usually the ones that sound very little like what I had in my head at the beginning. But I do usually listen for some sort of note, or scrap of a melody. I thought I heard something close to a note in the creaking sound of (I'm assuming) the mechanism of the NES that the cartridges were loaded into. It gave me something to start with, even if it is not the backbone of the completed track. For that, I used various processed tracks of the controller buttons. The other sounds are slowed down, reversed, and chopped up samples and loops run through various effects. For financial and aesthetic reasons I use GarageBand and various apps to compose and manipulate my tracks. Everything heard on the track is manipulated from the original recording and every sound from the original recording appears in the track at least once.
"The title of the piece is definitely a play on memory. Just the fact that I could listen to the original recording and knew what was making that sound is interesting to me. And I never owned an NES, but I still know the Contra code for 30 lives. I had a Sega Master System, which probably no one remembers. Perhaps that'll be a next project. I also like to think about the connection between repetition and memory. Much of the track is loops and even though it is the same sound repeated, our experience of that repetition can change."
This is part of the Obsolete Sounds project, the world’s biggest collection of disappearing sounds and sounds that have become extinct – remixed and reimagined to create a brand new form of listening. Explore the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/obsolete-sounds