1998 - 2004
The PlayStation Tapes
PIGSHIT SHOVEL
UNDONE
December 1998
PIGSHIT SHOVEL
December 1998
PIGSHIT SHUFFLED
December 1998
THE STALKER (remix)
PERSPECTIVE
February 1999
THE STALKER (Radio Edit)
February 1999
POPPIES
EVERNOW
January 1999
POPPIES (Single Version)
January 1999
OBSESSION
January 1999
PIPE OF POPPY
January 1999
REHUMPED
February 1999
THE STALKER, THE SADIST AND
THE DOOR
POPPIES (Album Version)
January 1999
THE STALKER
January 1999
SWALLOW
January 1999
BUNSEN BURNER
January 1999
ASHES
January 1999
THE SADIST
January 1999
REQUEST STOP
January 1999
SLOW SLIP TO SUICIDE
January 1999
HUMPED
January 1999
BLACK ORCHID
January 1999
THE DOOR
January 1999
SON OF THE ARENA
January 1999
FURTHER EXPLORATIONS
THE HUNTER
February 1999
DAKINI
February 1999
WASTED
February 1999
THE BLUE SUN
February 1999
CONSTRUCTION: Version 1
February 1999
LONG STALKER
February 1999
HUMPED 2000
2000
STRANGHAUS
2000
ELECTRIC DANCE (Original Backing Track)
January 11, 2004
CONSTRUCTION: Version 2
2000
THEME FROM ‘ORIGEN’S WAKE’
April 2000
SEX DUMMY (Original Backing Track)
February 5, 2002
WHAT LOVE IS (Original Backing Track)
September 18, 2003
THE GOLDEN AGE (Original Backing Track)
January 14, 2004
GARY LE STRANGE
BALLERINA (Original Backing Track)
July 18, 2002
What’s weird is that I didn’t start making music until I was 27. I’d had a go at guitars
and pianos, even wrote songs in my head, but never got past the initial ‘mucking
about’ stage and didn’t have the self-discipline to actually learn how to play. So I just
assumed the music would remain forever in my head and got on with something else.
That is, until the end of 1998, when Codemasters released a game made by Jester
Interactive for Sony’s PlayStation called ‘Music Creation For the PlayStation’ (or, simply,
‘Music’). I didn’t consider myself a huge gamer at the time but I’d had a PlayStation for
about half a year and curiosity got the better of me. So I bought it, and it literally
changed my life.
The plug-and-play version of the ‘game’ (because it wasn’t really a game - more an
attempt at a genuine piece of music creation software) encouraged you to make low-
budget dance music with a bunch of different musical loops - beats, bass loops, synth
riffs, vocal hits and so on - mixing and matching until you’ve made your own dance
track. The first piece I made - PIGSHIT SHOVEL, a couple of days after Christmas, 1998
- was done this way, using their preset blocks of sound.
Under the hood, things got more interesting. There were hundreds of sounds in there
and it became rapidly obvious I didn’t have to use their suggested presets at all. I
could create my own ‘loops’ - painting in the sounds myself, note by note. And that’s
when I fell in love with it.
By the time that was published, I’d already realised what I needed to do. But it would
be a few years before I made the leap and fully embraced computer music by
investing in a PC and a copy of Cubase. It was way too expensive to be just a hobby, so
I figured I had to find a way to make it pay first. In the meantime, my initial fervour for
the Music program faded, and I moved on to other things.
But I’d realised something really important. The stuff that worked best - so I thought -
was the stuff most rooted in 80s-style electronica. And this started dovetailing with
some other thoughts I had, about a comedy stage act I wanted to try out. Later
iterations of the Music program - Music 2000 and MTV Music Generator 2 - allowed me
to lean more heavily into this, so I must, on one level at least, have been slightly in
tune with the times. The handful of tracks I made in 2000 all seem to point in that
direction, including the theme tune I wrote for an animation I made with Tim Hope
called Origen’s Wake.
I knew nothing about making music with computers - didn’t even have a PC at that
point, had barely ever even touched one. I was pretty much a village idiot when it
came to technology. The idea that I could rearrange blocks and dots on a TV screen
and somehow turn that into music - that I could take control of all the instruments like
I was telling the whole band exactly what to play, and they would actually do it for me -
that was science fiction. A total revelation, and a feeling of immense superhuman
power.
I couldn’t drag myself away. The next month and a half were an obsessive frenzy of
late nights hunched over a PlayStation controller, staring intently at coloured digital
blocks on a tiny portable TV screen as I struggled to turn them into pop magic. For
years, I’d had songs in my head which played over and over. Now I could make them
real.
Over the next few weeks, the power trip grew in my head. I gave myself a fantasy
record deal - three singles and an album - and set about recording them all in that
order. Embarrassing to admit in many ways, but it was a great way of structuring my
work - a finite job which still allowed me a lot of scope. And that’s how I’ve decided to
structure the tunes here - three singles and an album, just as the young, uncool 27-
year-old me intended.
The trouble was, this music didn’t sound anything like the stuff in my head. They were
the same tunes, but wildly different arrangements. In my mind, these songs were
played by Led Zeppelin, The Stone Roses, Joy Division and The Doors. But hemmed in
by both the restrictions of the software and by my own lack of experience, they all
generally ended up sounding pretty goofy. And not goofy in a cool way, but
embarrassingly, childishly goofy. The kind of goofy that would make you think twice
about posting them all on the internet as a prime example of your life’s work. Which is
one reason I’ve never really done it till now.
It wasn’t just that the software sounded amateurish - it sort of does, but not
necessarily so. I could have got around that. But by avoiding the preset loops, I’d
eschewed any modern sensibilities and ended up with something far less danceable,
which took most of its cues from the 80s pop I listened to when I was a kid, and much
less from the house, techno or drum & bass genres it was meant for.
But I swallowed my pride nonetheless and sought a professional opinion. Not from
anyone who might actually give me a job, but from various electronic music
magazines, which I sent a compilation cassette to. And to my eternal surprise (yes, it
amazes me even now), one of them actually gave me a very kind review:
The last few tracks I made with MTV Music Generator 2 were all for my new act: an
80s-inspired New Romantic pop star called Gary Le Strange. I had a bizarre,
complicated set-up by now, involving minidisc players, film editing programs and lots
of cables, which allowed me to add vocals and effects to my otherwise basic sounds.
But these are some of the original backing tracks as made on the PlayStation2.
SEX DUMMY was the first track I made for Gary, but BALLERINA was where I got
serious about him - the first one that made me think “Wow, this act has legs.” It ended
up as the opening track on Gary’s first album, Polaroid Suitcase.
This early version of WHAT LOVE IS was made just a couple of weeks after returning
from Gary’s first Edinburgh Fringe. Completely different to the version on Face
Academy, which was a complete re-recording. An illustration of how much work I was
prepared to put in to get it right.
ELECTRIC DANCE is probably the most complex and accomplished thing I made on the
PlayStation2. Hard to believe I did it in just one day.
And then there’s THE GOLDEN AGE: newly rediscovered on an old CD-R. This version
has a different ending to the one on the album. It’s also the last track I made on the
PlayStation2, before finally growing up and making the switch to Cubase.
If you’re at all familiar with Gary’s music, you might already recognise some of the
other music on this page, much of which got reworked into the Le Strange catalogue.
WHAT LOVE IS is actually a rewrite of REQUEST STOP. SEX DUMMY is a reworking of
ORIGEN’S WAKE. The main riff from DAKINI got inserted into Is My Toaster Sentient,
while the riff from ASHES got repurposed as the main hook of Norman (I’ve Dropped
My Cup of Tea). HUMPED is Heart of Tears, SLOW SLIP TO SUICIDE is The Outsider and
great chunks of SON OF THE ARENA ended up in Grey. So I suppose you could look at
this whole page as the place where Gary Le Strange began.
Revealing your early work always feels a bit like pulling your pants down in public - it’s
the sort of thing you probably shouldn’t do, and you may well regret it in the long run -
but it’s 25 years since I made that first track, and I just didn’t think this site would be
complete without a page about where it all started. This stuff isn’t exactly gold dust,
but it’s real and raw and weirdly goofy, and as genuine a painting of the inside of my
head as any of the other music on this site. Thank you for indulging me.
GARY LE STRANGE
The
PlayStation Tapes
1998 - 2004
What’s weird is that I didn’t start making music until I
was 27. I’d had a go at guitars and pianos, even wrote
songs in my head, but never got past the initial
‘mucking about’ stage and didn’t have the self-
discipline to actually learn how to play. So I just
assumed the music would remain forever in my head
and got on with something else.
That is, until the end of 1998, when Codemasters
released a game made by Jester Interactive for Sony’s
PlayStation called ‘Music Creation For the PlayStation’
(or, simply, ‘Music’). I didn’t consider myself a huge
gamer at the time but I’d had a PlayStation for about
half a year and curiosity got the better of me. So I
bought it, and it literally changed my life.
The plug-and-play version of the ‘game’ (because it
wasn’t really a game - more an attempt at a genuine
piece of music creation software) encouraged you to
make low-budget dance music with a bunch of
different musical loops - beats, bass loops, synth riffs,
vocal hits and so on - mixing and matching until
you’ve made your own dance track. The first piece I
made - PIGSHIT SHOVEL, a couple of days after
Christmas, 1998 - was done this way, using their
preset blocks of sound.
Under the hood, things got more interesting. There
were hundreds of sounds in there and it became
rapidly obvious I didn’t have to use their suggested
presets at all. I could create my own ‘loops’ - painting
in the sounds myself, note by note. And that’s when I
fell in love with it.
PIGSHIT SHOVEL
UNDONE
December 1998
PIGSHIT SHOVEL
December 1998
PIGSHIT SHUFFLED
December 1998
Pigshit Shovel
Poppies
The Stalker, The Sadist and the Door
The Stalker (Remix)
Further Explorations (1999-2000)
Gary Le Strange (2002-2004)
I knew nothing about making music with computers -
didn’t even have a PC at that point, had barely ever
even touched one. I was pretty much a village idiot
when it came to technology. The idea that I could
rearrange blocks and dots on a TV screen and
somehow turn that into music - that I could take
control of all the instruments like I was telling the
whole band exactly what to play, and they would
actually do it for me - that was science fiction. A total
revelation, and a feeling of immense superhuman
power.
I couldn’t drag myself away. The next month and a
half were an obsessive frenzy of late nights hunched
over a PlayStation controller, staring intently at
coloured digital blocks on a tiny portable TV screen as
I struggled to turn them into pop magic. For years, I’d
had songs in my head which played over and over.
Now I could make them real.
Over the next few weeks, the power trip grew in my
head. I gave myself a fantasy record deal - three
singles and an album - and set about recording them
all in that order. Embarrassing to admit in many ways,
but it was a great way of structuring my work - a finite
job which still allowed me a lot of scope. And that’s
how I’ve decided to structure the tunes here - three
singles and an album, just as the young, uncool 27-
year-old me intended.
POPPIES
EVERNOW
January 1999
POPPIES (Single Version)
January 1999
OBSESSION
January 1999
PIPE OF POPPY
January 1999
THE STALKER, THE SADIST AND
THE DOOR
POPPIES (Album Version)
January 1999
THE STALKER
January 1999
SWALLOW
January 1999
BUNSEN BURNER
January 1999
ASHES
January 1999
THE SADIST
January 1999
REQUEST STOP
January 1999
SLOW SLIP TO SUICIDE
January 1999
HUMPED
January 1999
BLACK ORCHID
January 1999
THE DOOR
January 1999
SON OF THE ARENA
January 1999
It wasn’t just that the software sounded amateurish -
it sort of does, but not necessarily so. I could have
got around that. But by avoiding the preset loops, I’d
eschewed any modern sensibilities and ended up
with something far less danceable, which took most
of its cues from the 80s pop I listened to when I was
a kid, and much less from the house, techno or drum
& bass genres it was meant for.
But I swallowed my pride nonetheless and sought a
professional opinion. Not from anyone who might
actually give me a job, but from various electronic
music magazines, which I sent a compilation cassette
to. And to my eternal surprise (yes, it amazes me
even now), one of them actually gave me a very kind
review:
But I’d realised something really important. The stuff
that worked best - so I thought - was the stuff most
rooted in 80s-style electronica. And this started
dovetailing with some other thoughts I had, about a
comedy stage act I wanted to try out. Later iterations
of the Music program - Music 2000 and MTV Music
Generator 2 - allowed me to lean more heavily into
this, so I must, on one level at least, have been
slightly in tune with the times. The handful of tracks I
made in 2000 all seem to point in that direction,
including the theme tune I wrote for an animation I
made with Tim Hope called Origen’s Wake.
The trouble was, this music didn’t sound anything like
the stuff in my head. They were the same tunes, but
wildly different arrangements. In my mind, these
songs were played by Led Zeppelin, The Stone Roses,
Joy Division and The Doors. But hemmed in by both
the restrictions of the software and by my own lack of
experience, they all generally ended up sounding
pretty goofy. And not goofy in a cool way, but
embarrassingly, childishly goofy. The kind of goofy
that would make you think twice about posting them
all on the internet as a prime example of your life’s
work. Which is one reason I’ve never really done it till
now.
THE STALKER (remix)
PERSPECTIVE
February 1999
THE STALKER (Radio Edit)
February 1999
REHUMPED
February 1999
LONG STALKER
February 1999
THE HUNTER
February 1999
DAKINI
February 1999
WASTED
February 1999
THE BLUE SUN
February 1999
CONSTRUCTION: Version 1
February 1999
HUMPED 2000
2000
STRANGHAUS
2000
CONSTRUCTION: Version 2
2000
THEME FROM ‘ORIGEN’S WAKE’
April 2000
By the time that was published, I’d already realised
what I needed to do. But it would be a few years
before I made the leap and fully embraced computer
music by investing in a PC and a copy of Cubase. It
was way too expensive to be just a hobby, so I
figured I had to find a way to make it pay first. In the
meantime, my initial fervour for the Music program
faded, and I moved on to other things.
The last few tracks I made with MTV Music Generator
2 were all for my new act: an 80s-inspired New
Romantic pop star called Gary Le Strange. I had a
bizarre, complicated set-up by now, involving minidisc
players, film editing programs and lots of cables,
which allowed me to add vocals and effects to my
otherwise basic sounds. But these are some of the
original backing tracks as made on the PlayStation2.
GARY LE STRANGE
ELECTRIC DANCE (Original Backing Track)
January 11, 2004
SEX DUMMY (Original Backing Track)
February 5, 2002
WHAT LOVE IS (Original Backing Track)
September 18, 2003
THE GOLDEN AGE (Original Backing Track)
January 14, 2004
BALLERINA (Original Backing Track)
July 18, 2002
And then there’s THE GOLDEN AGE: newly
rediscovered on an old CD-R. This version has a
different ending to the one on the album. It’s also the
last track I made on the PlayStation2, before finally
growing up and making the switch to Cubase.
If you’re at all familiar with Gary’s music, you might
already recognise some of the other music on this
page, much of which got reworked into the Le Strange
catalogue. WHAT LOVE IS is actually a rewrite of
Request Stop. SEX DUMMY is a reworking of Origen’s
Wake. The main riff from Dakini got inserted into Is
My Toaster Sentient, while the riff from Ashes got
repurposed as the main hook of Norman (I’ve
Dropped My Cup of Tea). Humped is Heart of Tears,
Slow Slip To Suicide is The Outsider and great chunks
of Son of the Arena ended up in Grey. So I suppose
you could look at this whole page as the place where
Gary Le Strange began.
SEX DUMMY was the first track I made for Gary, but
BALLERINA was where I got serious about him - the
first one that made me think “Wow, this act has legs.”
It ended up as the opening track on Gary’s first album,
Polaroid Suitcase.
This early version of WHAT LOVE IS was made just a
couple of weeks after returning from Gary’s first
Edinburgh Fringe. Completely different to the version
on Face Academy, which was a complete re-recording.
An illustration of how much work I was prepared to
put in to get it right.
ELECTRIC DANCE is probably the most complex and
accomplished thing I made on the PlayStation2. Hard
to believe I did it in just one day.
THE GHOUL
(ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK)
Available for streaming and download
exclusively on Bandcamp
Revealing your early work always feels a bit like
pulling your pants down in public - it’s the sort of
thing you probably shouldn’t do, and you may well
regret it in the long run - but it’s 25 years since I made
that first track, and I just didn’t think this site would be
complete without a page about where it all started.
This stuff isn’t exactly gold dust, but it’s real and raw
and weirdly goofy, and as genuine a painting of the
inside of my head as any of the other music on this
site. Thank you for indulging me.
