The Catabolic new release June 2 is an uplifting disco house track with summer energy, deep house touches, and a much longer history than most.
In one form or another, the track has been around for about 14 years. It started with a set of chords I kept coming back to. Something unresolved, hopeful, and a little bittersweet.
Over time, that feeling became the heart of the song: holding on to something meaningful, even when things have changed.
Musically, it leans into disco house, while still crossing over a little into the deeper house sound I naturally gravitate towards. The chorus opens up around the line:
“Hold on to the moment…”
For a long time, the track didn’t quite feel finished. Then the right singer came along, and it finally started to come alive.
The new Catabolic release is out June 2. You can follow Catabolic on Spotify here to catch it when it lands:
The E-mu SP-1200 and its predecessor the SP-12 didn’t just help create great tracks — they defined entire genres. The SP-1200’s 12-bit sampling and unmistakable lo-fi warmth became foundational to hip hop in the late 1980s, with producers like Pete Rock, Large Professor, and DJ Premier using it as their primary drum machine and sampler. At the same time, Chicago and New York house music producers were running the same hardware to build the gritty, textured rhythms that drove early house tracks. The SP-12/SP-1200 workflow — chop, pitch, layer — became the DNA of drum-based electronic music production.
Fast forward to 2022 and Isla Instruments released the S2400, a machine built explicitly as a spiritual successor to that legacy. The S2400 brings 12-bit sampling back with full modern connectivity, and it has rapidly developed a serious cult following among producers who want that era’s character without hunting for a fragile 35-year-old unit on eBay. The machine sounds right. But its stock display? That’s a different story.
The stock OLED on the S2400 does its job, but it’s utilitarian. If you’ve dropped serious money on a piece of gear that pays homage to production history, there’s something satisfying about making it look the part too. That’s why this S2400 screen mod is worth a small amount of your time. Here’s how to do it cheaply, reversibly, and without touching a single screw or wire inside the unit.
What this mod actually is
This is a non-destructive screen color overlay using camera lighting filters — the kind photographers use to adjust color temperature and mood — combined with a custom laser-cut wood frame. No electronics, no disassembly, no voiding of warranties. Total cost is around $20.
You can change your mind anytime. The filter simply sits in front of the screen held by double-sided tape. If you decide you hate orange next month, swap it out in five minutes.
Your three options for getting a filter
Before buying anything, know your sourcing options:
Direct from a supplier like CrystalFonts — you get exactly the color you want, but you’re committing upfront
eBay resellers — the selection is wider but you pay the reseller and eBay markup
Camera filter packs on Amazon (the Selens pack is the one used in this video) — you get a wide variety to test in person before committing, which is the move I’d recommend
Color options: what actually looks good
Running through the Selens pack in person reveals some clear winners and a few that look better on camera than in reality. Here’s a realistic breakdown:
The strong choices
Dark green — gives that Kraftwerk-era terminal feel, vintage and readable
Pink — looks less aggressively pink in real life, genuinely distinctive on stage or in a studio photo
Dark orange — cuts the blue OLED bleed well, warm and readable; go for the darker of the two orange options in the pack
Dark purple — dramatic in person, would be a strong second choice if you want something theatrical
The passes
Plain blue — doesn’t read differently enough from the stock OLED color to be worth it
Black — unless you genuinely have light sensitivity issues, this one kills readability
Frosted — novel but ultimately impractical; pass
Pale yellow — washed out; go for a saturated yellow if you want that look
One useful note: the blue bleed from the underlying OLED comes through lighter filters more than darker ones. Orange and green do the best job of neutralizing it.
The wood overlay
The filter alone looks clean, but the wood border is what elevates this from a mod to a statement. The screen dimensions are 30mm × 60mm, so you’re trimming the filter slightly larger than that, then having a matching frame laser-cut.
If you’re in any city of reasonable size, a local maker space or laser cutting service will handle this without issue. You can go basic — just a rectangular border — or get into more elaborate designs. Wood options that work well:
Maple — light, clean, modern
Cherry — warmer tone, suits the vintage aesthetic of the S2400
Custom engraving — if you want to go further, the same laser cutter can add detail to the frame
Trim your filter to slightly larger than 30mm × 60mm. Attach it to the back of the wood frame. Then attach the combined piece to the display. For adhesion you have three options depending on how committed you are:
Double-sided tape — reversible, easy, the default choice
School glue — semi-permanent, removable with effort
Epoxy (e.g. JB Weld) — permanent, only if you are absolutely certain about your color choice
That’s it. The full video walkthrough is below. If you end up doing this mod — especially if you go with pink — send a photo. I’d love to see it.
The demand for the SP sound is so enduring that Dave Rossum, the original SP-1200 designer, launched an authentic reissue through Rossum Electro-Music. I find the S2400 essentially gets you there while giving you a more modern workflow.
Midnight Hearts just got the lo-fi treatment. This Circuit Chill Mix slows everything down and turns up the vibe—mellow, dreamy, and endlessly replayable. For late nights and quiet moments. Out now on all major platforms.
Get ready to immerse yourself in the latest release! I’m thrilled to announce a new chill remix of one of my most popular songs, Midnight Hearts. This track turns up the mellow sensual vibe. Perfect for alone time, or for spending time with someone special. Midnight Hearts (Lo-Fi Circuit Chill Mix) is out now on Spotify, Apple Music and other major platforms. Promo video below.
This is an extremely rare piece of software for the Elektron Octatrack. It runs in … Microsoft Excel. Pretty unique for musical instrument software. If I recall correctly, the developer of OctaEdit (Rusty) released this software as a free prototype in 2012. Screenshot below. This might just be the only picture of this software on the web.
I have not used this software in a long time but it did work way back when.
Hey everyone – I’m excited to share my latest track “Deep In My Soul” with you. This one’s been in the works for a while, and I think it just might be my absolute signature deep house track. It’s coming out on July 23 and will be available on Spotify and Apple Music and most other streaming platforms. New deep house music coming your way.
Thanks for listening and supporting the music. Can’t wait for you to hear this one!
With the recent Kraftwerk show at Coachella I thought I would talk about them from the perspective of somebody who can bridge you back a bit to talk about what an enormous legacy they had. I remember that 70s/80s era and I remember hearing them for the first time in the 80s.
So imagine you’re back in the 70s. It’s a time of exuberance, bravado and swagger in music. It’s a time of Robert Plant, Donna Summer and Freddie Mercury. It’s a time of triple-necked guitars, wizard costumes and mind-altering substances. You’ve got these iconic performers and the showmanship is off the charts with raw talent. The songs are about love, sex, regret, hate and having a good time, and in other cases about political and social concerns. A wonderful time for popular music and there are legendary things going on.
But here comes Kraftwerk and what they do is a complete 180° versus everyone else. They’re doing things that have zero in common with what’s going on in the big musical leagues. Conventional showmanship with unbuttoned shirts and spectacular virtuoso moves? No, they are mimicking mannequins and robots. The singing? Intentionally monotonous on many tracks. The album covers sometimes make them look like wax figures from a long time ago. They are way out of step with most of the rest of the time period.
Let’s talk about the music itself. The choice of instruments was something again that was usually way out of step. Walls of guitar amplifiers and enormous drum sets? Not quite. Huge horn sections or disco string orchestras? Nope. Kraftwerk famously used children’s toys like Speak and Spells and obscure gear. But some of the vibe reminds me of the home organs of the 1950s-1960s. By the 1980s these home organs were not the most stylish of instruments. Home organs sounded like a relic of a generation who had retired. Home organs were something that no one under the age of 50 wanted. Finally, Kraftwerk’s songs were about pocket calculators or bicycling in the Pyrenees. Huh? So putting this all together, at the time listening to a Kraftwerk record was really different from listening to anything that was around. I have to admit, at some times I wondered if some of their earlier music was made with tongue in cheek or as some kind of a joke. (I’m pretty sure that was my first reaction to one of their earlier LPs.) It doesn’t matter either way but again, that was different for the time.
Anyhow, the rest is history as they say. People were so struck by Kraftwerk that it ended up inspiring and influencing just an uncountable number of artists over the years. Even today, one of my top listening albums for car drives is Computer World. Given how fast music changes and technology changes, it’s extra surprising that this LP seems timeless and relevant. For me it’s still fresh and engaging so many years later. So hats off to you to Kraftwerk for going in a completely new direction and in a way as a brave move artistically. Kraftwerk opened the door to so many music developments, and inspired so many artists (myself included). So thank you Kraftwerk.
Kraftwerk and me?
If I had to pick one of my songs that was the most like Kraftwerk, I’d pick one of my earliest releases. The song is Interplanetary Weather Report. It’s got that very mechanical Kraftwerk vibe. Also the topic, which is (ahem) a Weather Report, would be something that I imagined would be mundane some day. In a few hundred years when humanity had spread throughout the solar system, maybe people would tune into the Interplanetary Weather Report. What would that sound like? I also have a robot as a character in the song, which would fit right at home with Kraftwerk.
Post Script – I have to mention another musical group, Art of Noise, that came some time after Kraftwerk. But in a similar way Art of Noise was a pivotal music group. Once again Art of Noise just totally ripped up the playbook and created an LP that had never been heard before. Art of Noise did this with sampling on the Fairlight while Kraftwerk did it (mostly) with synths (yes they later moved into samplers quite a bit). Anyway I would put Kraftwerk and Art of Noise down as two of some of the most influential electronic groups in earlier electronic music. Just like Kraftwerk, when you heard Art of Noise the first time there was just nothing to compare it to.
Hey everyone, I’ve got a new video up. I’m taking a look at the Telefunken TDA-1 DI box. I gave it three tests: bass guitar, drum machine and even vocals. I love it and it’s definitely a keeper. #recordingstudio#bassguitar#housemusicproducer
I was having a great chat with @warrenmusic on YouTube about the Elektron Monomachine. We were talking about my video below. I’m posting the Sysex file for the kit used at around 3:08 in the video. This kit can be used with the waveforms mentioned in the video (also freely available elsewhere). Load the kit into the Monomachine and place the S230 wave in the kit as shown. The other sine-width modulation waves should be placed as in the video. For example Wave S225 would need to be in the D06 slot. Once the kit is loaded and all the waves are set up, the Monomachine should then have the sound on Track 3. Enjoy!
