#carl and dresden might get along

[autixel]

I've got an idea (devious)

Dresden Files x Dungeon Crawler Carl crossover

Incorrect quotes where

Dresden goes: "Death measles," I heard myself say as I ran. "Now that's funny." It wasn't funny. I laughed again. What the hell is wrong with... "Ow," I cried as a rock bounced off my head.

Carl goes: "I used the knife. I saved a child. I won a war. God forgive me."

[backchat]

Techno, Hackers

In the past I have discussed, at length, the ways that electronic music got into my life. But I can trace back that first listen- that promethean moment- to a movie theatre in Tustin, California, in 1995. It was a thing back in the 90's as you may well remember, that a movie had to have a good soundtrack. It made good business sense: one wholly separate revenue stream from CD sales that could make money even if the movie tanked. And since most movie studios either owned or were tied to a record label in some way, it really was low hanging fruit. It was also evil genius: want to break a band without spending boatloads on the requisite music video? Put the song on the trailer, then put the song on the soundtrack and do a compilation music video using footage from the movie, with some antics from the band and BOOM! New band for a fraction of the price. An ironical (and iconic) example is a video directed by Kevin Smith for a song featured in the Mallrats Soundtrack link here. Say what you will about Kevin Smith, but he sure knew how to nail 90′s cliché right on the head. Studio time could even be bundled into the movie budget. It was genius. But the odd thing is just how good some of these soundtracks were/are; "Can't Hardly Wait", "Cruel Intentions", hell the TV Show "Charmed" owes its intro song to "The Craft" soundtrack originally releasing Love Spit Love's far superior cover of The Smiths' "How Soon is Now?" and originally associating that song with magic and the occult. If you go back to the nineties and compare to soundtracks today- with some exceptions granted- it really was the golden age of the medium, even if the accompanying films left something to be desired, or didn’t age well upon review. These compilations ended up being free form dadaism, sampling music across styles and genres in order to generate reactions. Got an emotional yet outsider character on the screen? Throw Stabbing Westward onto the track list (The Faculty), need a sporto get-psyched and rebel song? How about Foo Fighters' "Hero" or "Nice Guys Finish Last" from Green Day (Varsity Blues), or go full Brit pop and launch or revitalize like half a dozen bands' careers a la the Trainspotting Soundtrack (e.g. Underworld, Iggy Pop, New Order, Primal Scream, Bedrock/Digweed). Bear in mind, "Lust for Life" was a cult classic but by no means a well known song (or record) for a whole generation prior to Danny Boyle using it to stunning effect in the film. "Lust for Life” was released in 1977, it didn't exist for babies of the eighties, but there Iggy stood, doing his signature heroin strut on MTV in 1996 alongside the cast of the film. It's absolutely ridiculous. These releases bent and rearranged pop culture, for what seemed like purely capitalistic, or ever anarchic ends. But sometimes, soundtracks changed music. And here we reach "Hackers." Dear readers, Hackers really is a terrible film. Few will ever appreciate such timeless lines like: "You guys! This is insanely great! She's got a 28.8bps modem!" A strong likelihood for someone in their thirties being able to quote Ginsberg can be attributed to this terrible yarn as well. The entire film revolved around consumer technology which was out of date the day the film was released. With a Rotten Tomatoes Score of 33% it does beat the 2015 "Fantastic Four" reboot, but can claim few other accolades. Except for the soundtrack. The soundtrack was apparently successful, so successful in fact, that 2 more compact discs of completely unused-in-the-film music were released. Kind of ridiculous when you think about it: A film that did not do well in any format it was released in had three soundtracks released using promotional material from the film... why? But I digress: a few years ago (read here: 2002-2007) I was one of many moderators on a message board for a now defunct website called the bt-network.org. At the time, discographies- especially for electronic music artists- were a hard thing to come by. Even if the artist was signed with a major label, they might be doing small releases, aliases, white label prints, unauthorized remixes and there was no Soundcloud to help the listener find such things, or really much of any method to post it online, of course leaving out early “deep net” (ICQ and Sharing Boards) that was all a bit too advanced for me. The bt-network website had the entire discography of one artist: Brian Transeau, aka BT. Brian was releasing a huge amount of music... some of it shameless and trashy house, but none of it really bad, in fact, some of it kind of earth shattering. Also, he was using a 303 (with the devilfish mod) to stunning effect on almost every track he was releasing, fusing piano and 303 melodies into a new brand of electronic music. At the time, the term “Dream House” was being thrown around, or Melodic Trance, but then the banner term- and equally pretentious- Progressive Trance label was settled upon. But he was, at the time, working at a prodigious rate: discogs.com credits Brian Transeau with 171 remixes and damn it all if I didn’t try to hear and or collect every single one. Along with that, as if by no effort at all, he released three incredible albums, Ima, ESCM (electric sky church music) and Movement in Still Life (to be referred after this as MISL). Though BT has since released important albums and some solid releases, these three represent my first experience with his music and here, we get back to Hackers. The first release of the Hackers soundtrack includes some truly heavy hitters in electronic music: Carl Cox, my favorite boys from Essex, Underworld, Orbital with the truly timeless “Halcyon & On & On,” Stereo MC’s, Leftfield, The Prodigy and Kruder & Dorfmeister, electronic music’s own Simon & Garfunkle. But the second album had BT, with his jaw dropping release, “Remember.” I think it’s hard to go back and remember that electronic music was so hard to understand back then, it was truly hard to know what sounds were “real” or if everything was synths, how the sounds were made and at that point I had no understanding of music production what so ever. Here is a track with everything; “Remember” opens with pianos and atmospherics, then jumps right into a stuttered two-step break beat, then enters an almost pop hook with clearly ripped off Peter Hook bass, a severely distorted, almost unrecognizable guitar and then finally transitioning into a classic four on the floor sound more clearly reminiscent of BT’s prior releases. Let’s not forget that Jan Johnston is also at her best here, passionately singing of longing and unrequited love. This song has it all, finally reaching a very solid pop/house hook with some truly wonderful production work that still holds up today. It is arguably one of Brian Transeau’s finest songs, his most creative time and at one point when he has not been tied down by his trademark “Stutter Edit.” This was my first discovery of BT and it was an incredibly important song, because his music brought me to discover so many other artists, so many other styles of music. I was locked in to his music for years after this, seeing him live on more than one occasion, again frequenting the bt-network but all of it was due to this first moment and the groundbreaking music that followed it. I can not say that BT’s current releases have moved me as much- excluding “Tomahawk” and some other recent tracks- but this music that he first released are to this day cd’s I still own and music I still listen to. His music was “my” music for so many years, it was the music I tried to get people in to and the albums I loved to share.

And all thanks to a ridiculously terrible nineties film, called Hackers.

It really must be said that without BT’s music, I would have had a hard time finding Adam Freeland, Sasha, DJ Rap, Paul Van Dyk, Beber & Tamara, Gabriel & Dresden, Grayarea and dozens more. Through remixes, DJ mixes where BT’s music was featured, raves and parties where he headlined, I found artists that I’ve followed since discovering them. For that, I really am grateful.

Remember, as I have not said it in a long time, keep your headphones on.