• Leah of punkdISCO

punkdISCO

www.punkdisco.co.uk & punkdISCO at myspace.com

Download: Space Hopper Girl
Download: Oral Hygiene.mp3

"Most of the annoying mid-frequencies, discounting Leah, are from the HardSID 4U which we have fallen in love with. There is also some MKS80 and SunSyn love action."

punkdISCO are:

  • singer/writer: Leah
  • producer/writer: Paul
  • Based in SE London.

Their thoughts on the HardSID:

Leah is almost completely talentless and I have slightly less talent than her. Our song writing is based on 5% conscious effort and 95% mistakes that sound good. A song usually starts off with Leah engaged in her favourite hobby of bitching about some self induced drama and I suddenly hear some rhythm or melody in her comments and think "that is a great idea for a track". We then start building a track around that 1 line (Oral Hygiene is a good example). The music is 'composed' using the same random approach, and this is where synths like the HardSID really shine.

With the HardSID, you turn a knob that you are fully familiar with and suddenly you think "whoa, where the fuck did that come from"?! If it is not the sound itself, it is some internal natural groove in the sound. You are never fully in control of the HardSID and if that does not intimidate you, the HardSID is a very inspirational and creative tool.

We are not really into the really pure 8 bit sound although we both love the 8-bit crowd who have a passion with a strong sense of community and support for each other (very punk!!) When you say the word SID to most people, assuming they know what you are talking about, they think of blippy computer games. What they often do not realise is that when a SID is packaged in a musical interface (HardSID!) it becomes a very raw and powerful analogue/digital hybrid synthesizer.

We really wish we had a second HardSID, not because we need more that 4 SID parts, but because it fits and looks so good on top of our Avantone MixCubes (see picture).

About Space Hopper Girl:
We are still very happy with your lovely HardSID. Got a Novation Zero SL MkII a few days ago and boy does this make the HardSID fun!!!
We have just put up a new HardSID track "Space Hopper Girl" and, if you look in this month's Sound on Sound (July09) we are in their Mix Rescue with the above track.