Remix-Haunted House Creature: Electronic Critters Review
Oct 16, 2008 6:53 PM
HAUNTED HOUSE RECORDS CREATURE: ELECTRONIC CRITTERS
WHERE CIRCUITS GO TO GET BENT
In preparation for his latest album, Distant Horizon, Derby, UK-based Stephen Haunts—aka Creature—spent several months circuit bending and sampling electronic children’s toys. He enjoyed the process so much that he continued developing the sounds, soon collecting enough tweaked-out specimens to release them as a sample library. Electronic Critters contains 750 raw samples of circuit flows being interrupted and Stephen using his body as a giant resister (prodding custom-installed body contact points on the toys) to further twist the sounds in real time. A second folder contains more than 250 complex textures and atmospheres, created using heavy processing and stretching of the raw material. All samples are provided in both 16 and 24-bit, at 44.1 kHz.
Every ounce of the raw material sounds incredibly cool: A toy phone is made to sound like C-3PO swallowed Tweety Bird. A re-wired Furby spouts off incoherent phrases as if scrambled in digital transmission. A glitched Major Morgan produces dissonant tones across several octaves and then distorts into siren-like effects, while My Little Talking Computer serenades you with crunchy, flipped-and-chopped 8-bit renditions of “Old MacDonald Had A Farm,” spoken numbers and phrases such as “choose a game.” Of course, there’s the venerable circuit-bending favorite, Texas Instruments’ Speak & Spell—to the tune of 330 raw samples. Quite often it’s difficult to recognize the source of these raw sounds, the way that syllables hold ad infinitum, tones abruptly loop and release and Stephen’s body contacts produce all sorts of cool ring-mod and legato/glide pitch like effects. With DSP processing, these sounds turn into unnerving dark drones, space-gongs, alien-choirs, suspenseful elements, animated rhythmic sequences and more. This brilliant and unique collection also comes at an unbeatable price.
HAUNTED HOUSE RECORDS
CREATURE: ELECTRONIC CRITTERS > $40
At a glance: 750 raw circuit-bent toys samples. More than 250 processed sound textures and atmospheres made from these sounds. 16 and 24-bit, 44.1 kHz WAV formats.
Contact: www.electroniccritters.com
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