I recently found a new simple yet fun (and free!) synth plug-in from a recommendation on YouTube and spent a few hours playing around with it. Just a quick little loop, nothing special. The plugin is called the SQ8ROM, and apparently it's based on the Ensoniq SQ-80 synth. I enjoy the retro sound and sound-design aspects of it, lots of fun. Link to the plugin here: https://www.samplescience.ca/2019/09/sq8rom.html

SQ8ROM Plugin Jam

Guitar, synths, and beats. Everything is a work-in-progress. The more I think I know the less I know I know.

1992:  4 brothers joined to share in sonic chemistry.  Jam sessions in midtown NYC spaces, teeming with spirit and vigor.  In a time of fading hair metal and grunge power, this band was forging something different.  Skirting the edges of punk, dream pop and rock this band proposed a wholly new approach.  The name “xBoy” was chosen for some reason and aided with modest cassette recordings of their sessions, the band cultivated songs out of hooks and bits and nibs.  Five songs emerged as their 1st recording session neared.  Recorded in the summer of 1992 at NYU recording studios on Washington Sq after a barter agreement to edit a NYU senior thesis film was hammered out.  The session lasted 12 hours -xBoy left that day with a muddy mix on a cassette tape.  The band jammed some more into 1992; commitments to marriage, cross country moves and professional lives rendered x-Boy good and done. 

2013:  an email from the engineer of the NYU session arrived on spring day.  Something to the effect of “…hey not sure if you remember me…I’m moving apartments in Brooklyn and cleaned out a closet and found xBoy’s master reel…do you want it?”  Stunned that it still existed, his question was met with an immediate and profound affirmation.  A 1/2” 8 track reel collected dust for 7 years and attempts to find a finishing house that would digitize the master reel proved fruitless, then in Dec of 2019 a place in Red Bank, NJ was found to properly bake and transfer the tape.  

2020:  digital files in hand, a producer/mixer/masterer in Seattle (Dave Locke - JPmasters.com) emerges to lend a hand to craft the album that never was into something worth listening to.  Scrubbed, brightened and pixie dusted - xBoy’s 1992 release “Freudian DNA” is a romp of a therapy session highlighted by lead singer Drazen’s thrusts and ramblings on a wracked sexual potency and primacy.  Ramos keeps the backbone alive with alternating bass lines from GA and the Q.  The guitars move between anger & sweet surrender with slashing urgency and a pensive plucking.  These 5 songs are a reminder of what once was and points toward what may become - the first flight of a young and talented group not aware of their potential - truly, “x-boy’s” searching for the meaning of manhood.  And, 30 years on, a fond remembrance and embrace of something unique, uncluttered and real…

xBoy is:

Drazen - vocals & bongos
Ramos - drums
GA - guitars & bass
the Q - guitars & bass

SQ8ROM Plugin Jam

Tomatron