MC Spatula tracking down some fellow old heads!

[egggohan]

Hello WATMM! This is the user formerly known as mc_spatula, back from the dead 20 years later. If you don't know who I am, you probably weren't here before the big 2005 server reset. I was the token 12 year old that every internet community then and now is guaranteed to have. I posted here from approximately 2001 to 2004-05. I went to high school, college, grad school, and have been working for the last decade or so since then. I just turned 34 a couple days ago.

I grabbed a new account on here a month or two ago and have been poking around to see how many of the old heads I could still find. I reached out to Joyrex, delet, mcbpete aka Cubus, taphead aka ACP, Springymajig aka Dane Jacobs, Kcinsu, Entorwellian, and Encephala and heard back from about half of 'em. In digging through search queries I heard bits and pieces about the fates of asymmetrical head (now QBLA), semj yek, Theocide, Essines, and a few other nostalgia threads bringing up folks like Diao, Geography Horse, Quelnt, Die on Spectrum, Esquimaw, netka, rusuDen, Orange Dust, so on and so forth...

First and foremost, I just wanted to pop my head in here on the forum proper and say hello to anyone who remembers that time. I don't anticipate becoming a regular here again, but I have an account and will be prone to occasional lurking again because this place is important to me.

But, I am also attending to some personal project business in being here too. I am working on remastering and reissuing a selection of my old music to put on Bandcamp, from unreleased material I've created over the last decade or so since school, going all the way back to tapes I made when I was a single-digit age. The current one that I'm focusing on involves remixes of a track I made in 2001 called "a platw! (YAy)" done by the EKT community of 2002, and I'm trying to find as many of the track authors as I can. Firstly just to solicit their consent to release their track, but also potentially to interview them a bit for the liner notes of the remastered release. I'm absolutely going to come back here and share the record when it's complete, as my intention is to make it a bit of a subcultural document of that time and place; a tribute to the golden era of WATMM. I was hoping to keep it under wraps until it's fully complete, but I've decided to make a post here to see if I can generate more leads on the ones that have gone cold from pure sleuthing and DMing.

mcbpete, taphead and Springymajig have all gotten back to me directly and have been SUPER helpful and co-operative. Thank you all!! I have separately tracked down Denizen and Bosskax outside of the forum. I was wondering if anyone has knowledge of the whereabouts of any of the following:

• MRX - he made a wonderful, very bizarre and captivating track for this record and was quite a prominent presence here back in the day. The closest thing I could compare it to would be mid-90s Coil, which is something I hold very close to my heart. It's like, tribal and unsettling. He puts Entorwellian through some kind of groaning, granular, zombie treatment the whole time in a way that is both hilarious and extremely creepy. I put a lot of work into remixing this one because it is exploding with cool sound design, but it needed a lot of work to play well with the others. I see he posted here as a guest in 2015, but that's all I've got.
• Aron Zacharias EDIT: got em - The fellow youngster of the era. I see he still has an online presence in the form of his Shirley & The Pyramids project, so I contacted that entity on Bandcamp, but have yet to hear back... that one is TBD if the lead is warm or not. He has an amazing track on the record as Schema Figura. Very psychedelic and hallucinatory, pure DSP abstraction. Really enjoyable. Maybe even a Richard Devine vibe if I'm being generous??
• Planetoid - Another really prominent presence on the forum back in the day. His track has this great sort of Rez / Ken Ishii vibe, really enjoy it. I gather that he has popped up as a guest multiple times as "My Usernames Always Really Suck", "penis stuck in pool filter", and "sephiroth's dildo stuck in the penis stuck in the pool filter" among other listings, but no idea where he is now, it has been years since he resurfaced as far as I can tell.
• EJChris - I can't find anything about him at all. He made a track called "Rikugun Battle Mix" for the record that has a vibe that's like, partially Adult Swim alt hip hop-ish, partially lo-fi texture of the Ventolin Remixes EP that I really like. He was definitely around a lot back in the day.
• Pawuel - Honestly, I got nothing at all on this one. Would love to know more if anybody has anything. His track sounds like Hangable Auto Bulb or something, it's awesome.
• Kcinsu - He has an account on here that has at least posted since 2020 or 2021, but did not respond to a DM and seems to have a mostly abandoned online presence outside of that. I know who he is personally... he's the first person I found out about Berklee from! His track sounds like it could fit on the Artificial Intelligence compilations no problem, it has a "home listening techno" vibe to it that I really love.
• Encephala aka encey EDIT: got im - He's still here, but has not responded to my DM and doesn't appear to have read it... Think it might have been a while since he's logged on. I had to do the least to his track in terms of remixing and mastering it... it rules. Has a wonderful "lucid dream in the club" quality to it... like AFX's Baby Ford remix or something mad like that.
• oRBIT - A true old head. Seems to have disappeared a long time ago. Would love to know more. Love his track. Single synth and a pitched down Amen break. Feels good.
• Entorwellian EDIT: got him too - He has some stuff online still and an inactive account on the forum, but I have not heard back from him. The original hype man from the original track! Need to talk to him.

If anyone has any info for any of the above, please let me know if you feel so inclined! DMing me directly or replying here are both good!

Much love to all the newer folks here that I've never met! Thanks for keeping this place going. Cheers y'all!

Edited June 27, 2023 by egggohan

[zero]

I definitely remember your username. I really can't recall much about interactions I had with specific members, and/or their posting habits exactly from that era...there were of course the stand outs like Theocide, pen expers (sp?), vik, Sini (RIP), ~ism, Fred McGriff, Essines, Encey, Zelah, etc., etc., which were all quite memorable "characters." I do remember that overall, watmm was far, far more NSFW, argumentative, weirdly philosophical, and a totally off the wall non-stop black comedy show compared to how it is now. which is fine. people age. 

sorry can't help on tracking anyone down really. I know Fred has his own beak forum, where I think a bunch of pre-2005 watmmers post. may check there.

and here's a reminder on how a bunch of people looked back then. I see you're on there - https://forum.watmm.com/topic/76034-post-your-most-recent-picture/?do=findComment&comment=2852592

 

 

[egggohan]

Ha! I am indeed on that graphic... I found that one in my searches. Were you always zero? What was your handle before? Ah, just saw the note that you were called handsplatter. I don't recall us meeting before!

It was an extremely edgelordy time, and boy was I performing within that space as a tween. I am VERY relieved none of that has survived. It's for the best.

Are you able to point me in the direction of Fred McGriff's split-off forum? I had no idea that existed.

Edited June 23, 2023 by egggohan

[cruising for burgers]

yeah I member u being very young and lots of those ekt's... I didn't even post on general banter... just ekt... I wasn't on my best back then and I'm still going worse... anyway welcome back... xoxo

btw I quit making music...

glad to know you're doing good...

Edited June 24, 2023 by cruising for burgers

[egggohan]

What was ur handle back in the day?

[cruising for burgers]

2 hours ago, egggohan said:

What was ur handle back in the day?

cubensis or beatoven can't recall exactly... by the time we did those project ekt compilations I was beatoven...

 

yeah beatoven in 2006...

https://www.discogs.com/label/57907-Project-168

Edited June 26, 2023 by cruising for burgers

[zero]

29 minutes ago, cruising for burgers said:

cubensis or beatoven can't recall exactly... by the time we did those project ekt compilations I was beatoven...

you'll always be MJ to me 

[cruising for burgers]

[egggohan]

Ohhhh right cubensis I remember you! hell yea

[Alcofribas]

Haha wow I didn’t realize @cruising for burgers was cubensis, beatoven, etc

@egggohan your post brings back the memory of several people I’d long forgotten. it’s strange to consider how long ago all that was. i think I joined in 2005. 

[Squee]

Nice seeing an old and familiar face pop up!

Man, some of those names you mention bring back memories.

[YEK]

Hey MC! 

Memories indeed. I miss those times. 

Reunion?

 

[egggohan]

I would love that!

[Squee]

Does anyone know what Vik is up to?

[egggohan]

Apparently not...