Teknikal Assassin

Teknikal Assassin compositions are almost entirely composed using lo-tech equipment such as an Apple Powerbook 170 (named Nanotron), a Mini-cassette recorder (for field recordings) and free software (as a result of just being too cheap to buy the good stuff).
Here is a little background on Teknikal Assassin...
San Francisco, 1996. Repulsed by the stinky hippies peeing and pooping on his stoop in the Upper Haight, Teknikal Assassin began his musical career by pedaling his red Schwinn Stingray around the neighborhood, playing his songs ; composed and performed on laptop. Using a case from an old record player all of the gear was packed in and a spot on the street was picked to get maximum exposure to the thousands of curious hippy loving tourists who visit the Haight Ashbury every day. What resulted was pure terror on the faces of the unsuspecting visitors to the smelly hippy enclave. Expecting to hear the Grateful Dead on acoustic guitar, passers by were bombarded with electronic sounds, digital glitches, bloops and bleeps that confused everybody. This period of artistic expression was dubbed the "Fall of Haight" as a direct response to the "Summer of Love" that the area is so well known for. In this time, seeing a laptop musician (let alone a laptop street musician) was almost unheard of as this sport was being pioneered by a handful of forward thinkers (Kid 606 is one that comes to mind). It is almost the norm these days that performers have laptops producing sounds...
Releases by Teknikal Assassin were all very limited edition. One method for distribution was to go to Open Mind Music and take demo tapes that were left behind by big label reps pimping candy pop bands. Teknikal Assassin would take these tapes and record his mixes onto them and repackage them and return them to Open Mind for free distribution. If you have one of these tapes still, let us know (teknikalassassin at gmail dot com). Copies of these tapes were also taken to shows and handed out, and just given to people. This is the ultimate in guerrilla marketing, a sort of Robin Hood approach.
Taken in by all of the Y2K hype, Teknikal Assassin retreated San Francisco and has not been heard of since. A package came to 10-8 Foundation Studios just before Y2K that contained some CDs, some tapes, and the now legendary Nanotron laptop with a note that said

I would like you to have this. Please keep it for me. Make it available to the people (even the stinky hippies, if they ever figure out how to use the internet).
- Sincerely, T.A.

In an effort to preserve this legacy of groundbreaking laptop music, 10-8 Foundation Studios is making available for the first time the entire collection of works released by Teknikal Assassin, FOR FREE! There may even be some unreleased works hidden in the vaults as well. We will totally be digging for these gems.

We hope that you enjoy this trip down memory lane.


Here is a release by Teknikal Assassin from 1998 and 1999. This was produced in San Francisco, CA at Sub Urban Sabotage Studio , Thanks Noah Kincaid!

Vacuum Sounds - Stream - lo vbr
1. Drowning in a Drum Machine lo vbr hi ogg
2. drum and glitch 43rd attack lo vbr hi ogg
3. drum and glitch 8th attack lo vbr hi ogg
4. Inside the Vacuum lo vbr hi ogg
5. lets get real paranoid lo vbr hi ogg
6. space texture 333 lo vbr hi ogg
7. toxik warfare lo vbr hi ogg
8. train ride lo vbr hi ogg