Stef Animal (The Golden Awesome) presents her debut solo release Top Gear again – now on limited edition LP for the first time since the album’s 2018 release.
Top Gear is a paean to obsolete, entry-level, mostly 1980s synth, computer and electronic music technology. It’s a concept album of fifteen compositions, each conceived and recorded in one session. Each track was made using a different piece of obsolete or unfashionable music equipment, and the result is a collection of lo-fi epic miniatures.
Even if you didn’t grow up with Atari video games, have no idea what Acorn and Commodore computers are or what acronyms like PCM and MIDI mean, you’ll still find the intricate universe of sound represented on Top Gear to be full of adventure, wonder, human emotion and melancholic weight.
But there’s a playfulness here too. Not only in the Top Gear title, but also in the way an electronic duck caller is hacked to produce a track, and childrens’ Casio keyboards and entry-level MIDI synth modules are used to deliver dark, sophisticated progressive experimental dream-pop mini-symphonies.
Tracklist
- Loading (Casio Ca-100)
- In the Pines (Casio Sk-1)
- Ducks (Cass Creek Electronic NZ Waterfowl Call)
- You Have Powers! (Casiotone Mt-800)
- Cave Story (Acorn BBC Micro)
- The Tgv (Roland U-220)
- The Ghost (Jaycar Waveform Generator)
- Adventure (Yamaha Vss-200)
- The Golden Condor (Commodore Amiga 500)
- Dragon Swirl (Ploytec PL2)
- Owl (Roland Mt-32)
- The City (Yamaha Tx81z)
- Running Music (Atari 2600)
- End Credits (Letron Mc-38)
- Our Spanish Dream (Roland U-110)
