October 2021, Baboon Torture Division Dot Com

Here is a brand new 22 minute EP of remixed soundtracks to classic video games on Sega and NES, produced by Steve Biloba.

Digital Masturbation (1) was the very first BTD album produced over 23 years ago when a young Steve Biloba wired his parent’s PC to control a friend’s state-of-the-art 90’s synth and used it to play MIDI files of Nintendo soundtracks. Many hours of quality amusement were had making instant remixes and learning the ropes of a shiny new synthesizer. Some of the results were terrible, most were ok, and every once in a while it was good enough to record. About 45 minutes of nonsense was distilled and overdubbed to produce 22 minutes of exquisite nonsense, which was released on a tiny CD by the fledgling Crunch Pod label.

Now Steve Biloba is getting back to his roots and adding modern synthesizer voices to old video game soundtracks. During the pandemic, Steve took the time to update his drum library, download some new plugins, and learn various modern virtual synthesizers. With a treasure trove of unfamiliar synths at his fingertips, Steve started combining random presets with NES MIDI files to breath new life into compositions that had classically been voiced by bloops an bleeps. When he stumbled into something that worked, he would then use that as a learning opportunity to get under the hood of the synth patch, figure out why it worked, and come up with ways to make it even better. A few of these happy accidents were too good not to share, so they were recorded it and given some polish and overdubs.

That was the process in 1998 for Digital Masturbation 1, and that tradition carries through to Digital Masturbation 3 in 2021. We at the Baboon Torture Division hope you enjoy the product of many wasted hours of digital wankery.

1. Chemical Plant Zone from Sonic The Hedgehog 2 by Masato Nakamura

2. Outside Streets from Fester’s Quest by Naoki Kodaka 4:02

3. Dr. Wily’s Castle 1 from Mega Man 2 by Takashi Tateishi 5:53

4. Interstellar Marketing from Solar Jetman by David Wise 7:40

5. Stage 2 from Metal Storm by Toru Watanabe 8:33

6. Team Rocket Hideout from Pokemon Red and Blue by Junichi Masuda 9:23

7. Desert Land from Super Mario Bros. 3 by Koji Kondo 12:17

8. Title Theme from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES) by Jun Funahashi 13:15

9. Gameplay Music 1 from Silver Surfer (NES) by Tim Follin 14:21

10. Parking Garage from Target Renegade (NES) by Tim Follin 16:24

11. Last Springsteen from Contra: Hard Corps by Hiroshi Kobayashi 19:04

Album available for download on Bandcamp: