Fringe Communities

The power of the internet to bring disparate elements together is not to be underestimated. The space for cultural interchange is something incredible, where elements of the most refined and the most simple cultural forms coincide, fuse, and break off into further tangents. Some of which go on to become defined forms in themselves.

Take C64 remixes, for example. A generation grew up on C64s, Amigas, and Atari STs who have never forgotten those intros, cut animation scenes, and high scores pages where, occasionally, the limited 8bit or 16bit music would stand out as being distinctive, impressive, even innovative. This was particularly the case in long-standing products such as the C64, whose music-making abilities were being fully exploited by the time it disappeared to a new breed of fastly reproducing consoles.














Unlike the Playstation 3, which will most likely never be exploited to its full potential, the C64 underwent an evolution that took it from rudimentary games like Frogger to titles that involved entire production teams, such as Last Ninja 3 and Creatures. The difference between early titles from 1983 and those produced just under a decade later is phenomenal, because they were created on the same platform with no great increase in technical specification, rather than being rushed onto recently dispatched consoles, soon to be replaced.

Those of 'you' who like Last Ninja 3: I cannot recommend highly enough some remixes made by Mind.in.a.box musician, Stefan Poiss. Go out there and find it yourself, and then buy a copy if you like it from the on-line distributor of your choice. Mind.in.a.box are a studio band, and you won't be seeing them at a venue near you.

I will leave 'you' with a reminder of just how people on the fringe can get together and create something ......, just something

open the link yourself