New Beepin' & Bleepin From Max Tundra

English multi-instrumentalist (of mostly the '80s Amiga kind) Max Tundra will release his third full-length recording via Domino Records Nov. 18. His spiraling, synth-driven and colorful electronic collages and all his beep beep bleeps have garnered him much praise from the likes of the late John Peel---Tundra, a.k.a. Ben Jacobs, was among the last to record a Peel Session---Pitchfork, and Owen Pallett (formerly of Arcade Fire). I hear he kills it live, too -- I'm thinkin' Dan Deacon-style (see UK dates below). I think he sounds pretty darn amazing:

In a press release, Tundra was kind enough to describe his music-making processes and tools with many fun details, yipee:

There are no modern-day computers on this record. My PC is strictly for emails and Photoshopping the words Max Tundra into Coldplay line-ups. The main technology behind this and all of my albums has been the Commodore Amiga 500 - bestselling home computer at the time - running a $1 public domain software tracker program. The sounds don't emerge from the Amiga itself however; the machine is used to control various synths, samplers and the like. I look at colums of numbers all day on the screen of a black and white television; these digits relate to pitches, durations and tones. A lot of the noises on my record are real; the cello, bass guitar, drums, piano, trumpet and others are all rehearsed and played by me, but sometimes I will use realistic fake versions of these noises. Each song is recorded in a different way; drumkits are recorded on mono cassette recorders twice, then stuck together on the left and right of a mix; string arrangements are planned and then layered up; each note of an electric guitar is sampled so that it can be sequenced in ways too complicated for my fat fingers to play at full speed. And then I have a cup of tea and sing my heart out.

Tour dates:

05 Oct 2008 - LSO St Luke's (with Juana Molina)
23 Oct 2008 - Southampton Guildhall (with Hot Chip)
24 Oct 2008 - Cardiff University (with Hot Chip)
25 Oct 2008 - Liverpool Academy (with Hot Chip)
26 Oct 2008 - Leeds Academy (with Hot Chip)
28 Oct 2008 - Sheffield Academy (with Hot Chip)
29 Oct 2008 - Birmingham Academy (with Hot Chip)
30 Oct 2008 - Cambridge Corn Exchange (with Hot Chip)
01 Nov 2008 - Manchester Apollo (with Hot Chip)
02 Nov 2008 - Glasgow Academy (with Hot Chip)
03 Nov 2008 - Leicester De Montford University (with Hot Chip)
05 Nov 2008 - Brighton Dome (with Hot Chip)
06 Nov 2008 - London Brixton Academy (with Hot Chip and Wiley)
07 Nov 2008 - London Brixton Academy (with Hot Chip and Wiley)