Issue #2: Prime Slime

New House Music on Tape from UTA Trax + New Live Event

Jul 28, 2023

Out now from Hel Audio: A new collection of tapes. The “Prime Slime Trilogy” consists of 3 recent UTA Trax releases: “Raw Hardware Tracks”, “Deep Zone”, and “Dreams”. 20 tracks of energetic electronic rhythms, mostly in the classic house style. Don’t miss “Think It Over”, a new collaboration with Bobo!

Available on Bandcamp (digital & cassette), Spotify, Apple Music, and various other streaming services. Check at the end of this newsletter for a handful of free download codes.

BUZZIN’ BEATS Tonight in Salt Lake City

For those in the SLC area, there will be a free night of BUZZIN’ BEATS on July 28th (TONIGHT) at The International (342 S State). There will be DJ sets from Mooninite (be sure to check out his new tape) and Bobo, and live hardware sets from UTA Trax and Matthewfit.

Sludge Life Review

Sludge Life is a super stylish first-person game about coming up as a new graffiti artist. It exists in a semi-dystopian open-world full of industrial islands floating in an ocean of sludge. You play as 'Ghost' and spend your time exploring this space in order to find suitable spots to put up your tag. There's a heavy emphasis on aesthetics in the game that comes across in everything from the visuals, soundtrack, and dialogue with other characters.

For a game that, technologically speaking, is visually unimpressive, I find Sludge Life to be infinitely more immersive than most modern huge-budget open world games. The current landscape of mainstream games is dominated by the chase for visual realism and universal appeal, but in these misguided pursuits most game studios fail to create something truly interesting. Sludge Life is not universally appealing, nor does it look anything like a scene from your backyard. What it does have is style and character. It doesn't spread itself thin with a radial wheel full of mechanics and an overly large unnavigable map. It's a much more focused experience. You can run, jump, open doors, talk to NPCs, and tag walls. The inherent simplicity of the gameplay allowed the developer to really drill down on what’s interesting, and you can feel that in every part of the game.

Sludge Life is short and sweet, but I find myself thinking about it often. It's a great example of a game that knows exactly what it is trying to be, and then unashamedly being that.

— Drew (website)

Check out Sludge Life: Official site, Steam/GOG, Soundtrack

Release Recommendation From SIAK:

“Bass Is The Name Of The Game” by DJ Magic Mike (1990)

1990 Atlanta Georgia. My older next door neighbor got a Kicker subwoofer installed in his car. I would purposely miss the bus so he would drive me to middle school whilst listening to this tape. To this day it remains my top Miami bass album. Fast scratchin, amazing editing/sampling and of course big bass!

— SIAK PHD (instagram)

Check it out: Youtube, Discogs, Spotify

PS1 Game Music Gems

Takayuki Ishikawa & Shinya Watabe - Ending

Dolphin's Dream (aka Diver's Dream) is a really cool underwater exploration game with some great tunes.

Soichi Terada - Time Station

Ape Escape is a popular 3D platformer from 1999. Soichi Terada is a house music legend who started the Far East Recording label with Shinichiro Yokota.

Tetsukazu Nakanishi - Beats from Above

Klonoa is a mostly 2D platformer that was just remade for the Switch. Tetsukazu also worked on the soundtracks for Ace Combat and Rage Racer.

Yuji Takenouchi - Track 5

Circadia is an adventure / RPG that I haven't played, but the whole soundtrack is incredible!

— Jacob Hall

Starter Track: “Zeta Generation”

_ _ _ _ --------------- KICK |X| |X| |X| | | |X| | | |X| | | | --------------- --------------- SNARE | | | | | | | |X| | | | | | |X| | --------------- --------------- CHH | | |X| | | |X| | | |X| | | |X| | --------------- --------------- OHH | | | |X|X| | | | |X| | | | | | | --------------- --------------- CLAP | |X| | | | | | | |X| | | | | | | --------------- --------------- PERC | | | |X| | | | | | | | | | | | | ---------------

___ ___ ___ ___ :SEQ: |A |B |D |F# |A |A |B |D |F# |A |A |B |D |F# |A |A | :OCT: | | |up | | | |up | | | | | | | | | |

Name & sequences generated by the Hel Master Terminal (non-mobile browser recommended).

Thanks for your support!
Compiled by KJ
Reach out at hello@helaudio.org
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HEL032 free download codes (redeem here):
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