d Story of GarbiTch

1986 – d sample

In 1986 I recorded the now classic hip hop documentary Big Fun in the Big Town on VHS tape from television. This documentary had a big impact on my artistic development. The colors, the sounds, everything I loved about this documentary and I watched it a thousand times. Especially the ending with Schoolly D. The rawness of his performance, the beats and the rough scratches. I used this beat for Sick ‘n’ Tired.

1988 – Tragic error

The visual style of Big Fun in the Big Town was one of the main sources of inspiration to make my first audio-visual composition, Tragic eRRoR, in 1988. For this composition I used many video samples from this documentary. Three of these samples formed the basis of my favorite composition, GarbiTch. Also the basic idea, the structure of GarbiTch comes from this composition. A beat, gunshots, the hook ‘GarbiTch’, the theme ‘Roo-toodoo-ka-doo’. Only the ‘Say Hoooo!’ sample is not in there.

1992 – Runn into jaZz

Before I used the ‘Roo-toodoo-ka-doo’ sample for GarbiTch, I used it to create Runn into jaZz in 1992, which was the first track I released ever. It became a (modest) club hit in 1993, proving the potential of the sample.

1993 – Callippo coLa

In 1993, I created caLLipPo coLa as well. For this track I used the garbage sample and subtitled the track ‘GarbiTch’. It is the first in the caLLipPo series, followed by caLLipPo Lemon (I am Fresh), caLLipPo sinas and caLLipPo bospad.

1996 – Amiga version

In 1996, I created the track GarbiTch with my home made video sampling set-up. A great advantage of this video sampler was that it worked in real-time and was controllable by music software (CuBase in the case). This allowed me to create the entire audio-visual track live, in a musical way. It effectively turned CuBase into audio-visual software. Video editing software is not suited to work in a musical timing. The final composition is recorded straight from the sampler on VHS tape.

1996 – Amiga version live

GarbiTch was an instant hit during my live shows. The tracks begins with a Schoolly D sample, shouting ‘Say Hooooooo!’. I used this to hype up the crowd. I played the sample and the crowd would react, shouting ‘Hooooo!’. A cool way of interacting with the crowd. In classic hip hop fasion, but through a video sample. Once the gunshots started and the beat dropped the crowd would explode. The ‘GarbiTch’ sample added a lot to the vibe with its punky, funny attitude. The saxophone samples are played by Peter Kardolus, who also played on In d Mode, Breakfast cLub and many other tracks.

1996 – Premiere version

In the summer of 1996 I bought a proper video editing set-up and I remixed GarbiTch using beter quality (color!) video samples. I also changed the mid section, putting less focus on the saxophone and more on a phat bassline.

1998 – AVFX version

In 1998, I remixed GarbiTch again. Video software and computer hardware had improved, so I could use more effects. Around this this I began focussing on audio-visual effects and visual music. This still plays an important role in my work. This GarbiTch remix was the first track in which audio-visual effects are one of the main ingredients of the composition. I used this track for many live shows, mainly DVJ shows. 

1998 – Filter funk remix

I love the idea of audio-visual effects and wanted to make a more extreme version of GarbiTch with even more effects in 1998. I created the audio first, but soon realised that it was to time consuming to visualize all the effects with the software and computer hardware from that time. This made me realize that I should make my own audio-visual instruments a.s.a.p. Instruments to work with sound and visuals at the same time (an now there is EboSuite!). 

2000 – SenSorSuit version

In 1999, I created my first SenSorSuit. GarbiTch was the first composition I remixed for use with the SenSorSuit. To work with audio-visual effects live I used the skrtZz technique.  

2003 – DVJ version

Coming up