A few weeks ago, just as we were finishing up the final touches on the website revamp, it occurred to me that I had been so busy with school and work that I hadn’t checked the showcase channel in our Discord server in weeks. For those who aren’t a part of our Discord server (which I highly suggest you join, we have a lot of fun times in there), the showcase channel is a place where people can post links to their new music or projects, and it’s one of my favorite places to keep up to date with what’s going on in our little slice of the scene.
As I browsed through the channel, one particular link stuck out to me - a link to a song posted on YouTube from an artist I hadn’t seen before named FLIPPENDO ! The song, called “Space Cartel,” was made in LSDJ, and the second that it started pouring out of my speakers, I was blown away. It was a nasty, high energy track that sounded like something right out of Cyberpunk 2077. The tension invoked by the high pitched wails of the pulse channels contrasting with the bombastic, grimy wavetable channel made for an explosive track that tickled my little sci-fi brain.
After I retrieved my pants (which had been blown off by just how good that track was), I decided to take a look at some of FLIPPENDO’s other works. Given the quality of the track, I thought for sure that he had to be some kind of veteran of the scene that had just recently joined the server. So, I clicked on his channel to see what was up, and was floored when I saw that his entire back catalog consisted of three original songs and one cover, all uploaded in the span of a couple months. Besides Space Cartel, FLIPPENDO ! also had two other space themed tracks on his account; one, a high energy drum and bass inspired track titled “Comet” and the other, his earliest original work, a very groovy track named “Stellar,” both made with LSDJ. The cover was of Radiohead’s “15 Steps,” the first track from their seventh studio album, In Rainbows (Which is their best album, stay mad :p). An interesting choice, to say the least.
It was at this point that I knew I had to investigate further. He had barreled onto the scene, seemingly out of nowhere, producing some of the best tracks I had heard all year, and I knew nearly nothing about him. So, I reached out and asked him a few questions about himself and his craft, and he was generous enough to provide very detailed answers to all of my questions.
The first thing I asked him was how long he had been making music, and what motivated him to start down that path in the first place? As it turns out, he grew up in a family of musicians. “In my family, everyone plays an instrument or makes music, either professionally or for themselves. My dad bought me my first electric guitar at the age of 7 and taught me the basics of guitar playing. I still play the guitar today, but I really fell for electronic music when I was around 10 or so.”
He told me that around that age, he, like many others in our scene, began exploring the technical side of electronic music. “I started learning to use DAWS and the basics of how synthesizers work. At first, all I did was basically sound designing stuff for fun by layering synths and organic sounds together, but a few of these experiments eventually became (very bad) tracks, and I never really stopped doing that ever since!”
My second question was regarding who he considered to be his musical inspirations, and how he felt they had affected his music. As one would expect, growing up in a family of musicians certainly helped develop his tastes in his formative years. “Both my parents are metalheads so that is what I mainly was raised with, but they are also huge fans of artists like Radiohead or Björk, so I grew up listening to their entire discography as well.”
“During high school,” he continued, “I was a big fan of Bass music. I used to listen to a lot of Noisia, Phace or Misanthrop, and this is probably what really got me into wanting to do more complex sound design. I was always into video game inspired music but didn’t really think about making Chiptune before discovering Chipzel, Anamanaguchi, Dubmood, et cetera.”
After being inspired by these artists, he began to flirt with the idea of making chiptunes himself. “I started experimenting with the tools I had at the time, so Ableton and a bunch of 8 bit plugins.This year I discovered the existence of LSDJ through Laamaa, Paul from Pain Perdu, and Defense Mechanism. I was blown away by the variety of sounds that could come out of this old brick, so shortly after discovering them, I ordered a modded Game Boy from gamechanger and an Ez Flash Junior.” Regarding what he likes about making music with Game Boys specifically, he had this to say: “I just love how the limitations of the original DMG forces creativity in a cool way. Also, being able to create music from anywhere is fantastic and I really think I finally found a way to be able to do that when I’m on the go.”
The last question I had for him was what plans did he have for the future? Given my amazement with his current work, I was excited to hear what he had cooking. “I really want to keep my YouTube channel and other social media going,” he said, ”I’m meeting really nice and interesting people by releasing videos and I’m definitely having fun doing that! All the songs on this channel so far (apart from the Radiohead cover) are part of a 4-5 track space themed EP that I really want to wrap up soon. I’m also almost done with another EP project that doesn’t necessarily involve Game Boys that I plan on releasing somewhere in 2023. Next year is going to be pretty huge professionally speaking for me, so I’m not putting too much pressure on myself for releasing FLIPPENDO! related stuff, but I really feel motivated!”
Needless to say, I’m excited for how FLIPPENDO ! will finish his EP's exploration into the cosmos. If you’re also interested, make sure to follow FLIPPENDO ! on his social media accounts so you can be updated whenever he releases new music. He can be found on YouTube, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Instagram and TikTok. A big thank you to him for graciously answering my questions, and I wish him luck in his future endeavors.