Quick and dirty translation part one...
The heart beats with 64 kilobytes
OLDSCHOOL-SOUND: The world of beeping and screaming computers / File against producer Timbaland
If anyone's looking for unusual hobbies, he'll find one at Volker Buckow from Wedel: the 34 year old is among the leading members of a world-wide remixing scene, that is dedicated to old computer game soundtracks.
BY ANDREAS DIRBACH
As "Pandora's Box" the Commodore 64 is described by die-hard computer freaks. With 17 million sold units it's the best selling homecomputer worldwide - and enjoys a cult status. A whole generation of now 25- to 35- year old has spent hours upon hours in front of the computer that has been first presented to the public in 1982. Volker Buckow from Wedel was one of them. Unlike many though, the 34-year old has never abandoned the "breadbin". That's because especially the music of the old games had touched something in him. "I had never played an instrument", recounts the man from Wedel. "But then again I wanted to be able to create complete tunes on the computer." Still today, he can't help laughing about his first song: "That was really bad."
That has changed in the meantime, because as "Dr.Future" he has made a name for himself. It took a while though, because only in 1994 and through the internet, Buckow came to realise: "There are loads of other maniacs like me. I'm not allone." Unfortunately, the scene community met in England, under the direction of the Composer Chris Abbott, at the "Back In Time Live" conventions. Only after releasing a remix of the "Hollywood Poker Pro" soundtrack (Original by Chris Hülsbeck) eight years ago, which was being celebrated as "remix of the month", he was on the "inside".
Today he counts himself among the approximately 40 people involved in keeping the memory of the "good old times" alive, when every bleep from the speakers had been cherished. He estimates the current count of fans of old comupter game soundtracks at a mere few thousands - even if almost everyone had owned a c64, Atari ST, or Amiga - and had listened to the catchy songs. Albeit: one adherent to the remix scene, Buckow can call by his name. None other than US music producer Timbaland (responsible for the success of Justin Timberlake, Destiny's Child and Aaliyah, among others) is supposed to download the mostly freely available sound files from the internet. Although not without leaving a bad taste, because he is alleged to have used a track called "Acidjazzed Evening", that had been published by a finnish remixer named Janne Sunni seven years ago, almost unaltered as the groundwork for the song "Do It" from the current Nelly Furtado album. A copyright claim has been filed against him and is ongoing. "Many other of Timband songs show a lot of influence from the c64 remixer scene, too", Buckow comments the reproaches. Who wants to make his own image, is to search for the keywords "Timbaland" and "c64" at
http://www.youtube.com.
-- end of part one --
