Freitag, 17. Oktober 2025
"Neuromancer" was actually adapted as a computer game in 1988 with the involvement of Timothy Leary and Devo
"Neuromancer" was actually adapted as a computer game in 1988 with the involvement of Timothy Leary and Devo
It's a story that seems to be a bit too crazy to be true... but William Gibson's cyberpunk novel "Neuromancer" was an early computer game port[1]. Released in 1988-1990 on contemporary computer systems like the Commodore 64, Amiga, or Apple II.
What's even more crazy is that the whole thing was initiated by "the most dangerous man in America" (according to Richard Nixon) - the 60s hippie guru Timothy Leary. Leary seems to have "jumped ship" early on during development[2], though, and in the end it was the company Interplay Entertainment that produced+released the game.
Interplay is also known for some other famous classics like The Bard's Tale, Battle Chess, or Wasteland.[3]
New Wave band Devo provided the soundtrack to it. According to the box cover art. Or rather, one of their songs got "ported" to the various systems, too. So the C64 actually has 8 bit vocal samples of the Devo singer, while the Amiga has a purely instrumental cover of the song as soundtrack.
The game itself is one of the most "mentally split" things ever, because you play the game as a fairly normal and conventional "point and click" type adventure (with a strange interface that avoids the "pointing" part of a point and click adventure, most of the time).
And then [warning, major spoilers ahead] boom! You lift off into cyberspace, and now it's an early 3D game, with wireframes, polygon graphics and all. You float around the matrix and need to hack into "ICE"[4] and battle AIs in a kind of "turn based real time fight" (too complicated to explain, just get in the car).
The setting is loosely based on the Neuromancer novel: you run around Chiba City, and Chrome, Wintermute, Neuromancer are amongst the AIs you encounter in the game. Other characters get mentioned, too, or omitted.
The story is entirely novel and different though, and die-hard fans would likely object that a lot of content clashes with the canon of the original book.
One of my favorite oldschool games!
So, why was a person like Timothy Leary so hell-bent on getting the story of Neuromancer out and onto the circuits?
Well, after the 60s subculture had died down, and the more sober 70s passed, Leary became interested in the computer / dial-up / hacker / cyberpunk culture of the 80s, and believed this to be the herald of a new "cyberdelic revolution" that would continue on the path of the original hippies (and knock the establishment out of business for good!)[4]
And why was Devo involved? Jeez! It's Devo, man. Did Devo ever need a reason?
Footnotes:
1: It might actually be one of the first computer ports based on a novel (most game adaptations were based on movies - and still are).
2: https://www.theverge.com/2013/10/1/4791566/timothy-learys-neuromancer-video-game-could-have-been-incredible
3: Interplay was also involved in a lot of other fairly famous games, but my "shortened" research on this topic did not make it clear if they developed these, too, or just licensed / acquired them.
4: "ICE (Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics) is the technology that protects a system from illegal intrusions" in the world of William Gibson https://williamgibson.fandom.com/wiki/ICE
5: if you are interested in this kind of stuff, then it is a very interesting topic to research on the internet.
Note: No AI was used in writing this text (sorry for that, my dear Neuromancer!)
Mittwoch, 23. April 2025
Between Sleaze and Cosmic Longing: Themes of Love and Sensuality in the Early Techno Underground
The early techno scene is a bit of an oddity in the continuum of "dance" music in a wider sense. The disco era had many songs of a graphic or explicit nature (sometimes more veiled, sometimes less veiled), the 80s disco / dance era had a lot of sleaze and graphic affairs, too (Karen Finley, anyone?)... but the Techno sound?
There was almost none of that to be found there; the aesthetics were pure, clean, almost virginal...
Very strange for a sub-genre born out of LGBTQIA+, "free love" and similar sub-subcultures.
I guess part of it is the whole 60s, psychedelia, cyberdelia concept that runs through this sound... the initial acid house boom was called "second summer of love" for a reason (a reference to the first "summer of love", the zenith of the hippie movement in the Bay Area).
"We are cosmic dancers now, we move upwards to the sky, we leave our bodies behind... and our bodily needs, too".
And yeah, the heavy drug use associated with that scene means that, most of the time (and contrary to popular belief), they did not want to get it on.
And then there is the whole "future" vibe... original techno sounds like "alien music from planet alien"... it's tracks about hexadecimal dimensions, interstellar signals, journeys to the seven stars...
Too abstract, too nerdy, too brainiac to think about skin2skin action.
And the fallout of that is that 99 out of 100 early techno tracks are not about intimacy. (To put this into perspective; look up the regular pop/rap/dance top 100 charts and ponder how many of these tracks are about it...)
Now let's look at the few "unicorns" inside this group that are different in that regard.
1. Model 500 - Night Drive (Thru-Babylon) https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Woah! That's a sleaze-bomb right there. Juan Atkins, what were you thinking?
If you try to decipher the lyrics, it's about him driving his Porsche through Detroit until he meets... his girlfriend? a stranger? a sex worker?
And then... well, as the lyrics go, "she turns it... all the way"
2. LaTour - People Are Still Having Sex https://www.youtube.com/watch?
actually one of the first true techno hits and classics.
a witty satire and almost political commentary on human intimacy.
very direct, but also polite and modest enough to leave a lot to the imagination.
reverts the trope of the "sexual revolution" by saying "we didn't change anything, it was always here and will always be here".
3. LFO - Tied Up https://www.youtube.com/watch?
LFO were the heroes of bleep techno right? Warp records, warehouse raves.
And then they drop this one, many years later. A hymn to BDSM culture. Very heavy stuff.
If you still have a bit of innocence in your mind, listening to this track might haunt you forever.
4. Culture Trance - La Revolución Del Sexo https://www.youtube.com/watch?
This is what I wrote about earlier. Cosmic longing, cosmic trance, dancing under the night sky.
The "sexo" in this track feels very new age like too... hippies, gurus, shamans... unity with the stars. Bodily unity.
5. Marusha - Whatever Turns You On https://www.youtube.com/watch?
An early hit for "queen of hard trance" marusha... sound is a bit rougher than her later tracks.
Not very graphic or explicit at all, still, the sounds, vocals, and drums make you feel the ecstasy...
6. Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo - Ultimate Sextrack (Remix) https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Gabber producers never beat around the bush when it comes to any topic, and the track is exactly what the title says.
and now... "my favorite fantasy is..."
7. Lords Of Acid - Rough Sex https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Lords of Acid were probably the most sexual themed act of the rave scene... or in the history of music.
This track pushes back the "comic longing for love" aspect I mentioned earlier... and sports a more rough and hard outlook on the whole subject matter.
8. Legend B - Lost In Love https://www.youtube.com/watch?
The acid-trance vibes, the mood of the track, and the vocal samples ("Remember when we played together?") evoke a mystical, pure, almost innocent form of intimacy.
9. Moby - Everytime You Touch Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Moby went from being a depressed rocker to being a depressed raver and finally to being a depressed producer of world-famous electronica-pop.
This is not to put him down, not at all; his music is pure and genius in its melancholy and infinite sadness.
But I guess this track was the closest he ever got to feeling happy.
10. ''O'' - Another Orgasm https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Little nasty early EBM-Electro track.
Its author later became one of the most prolific producers in all the world of electronic music.
Ca. 1996/1997, the cosmic, new age mood of techno began to wane, and with it, the association with happiness, euphoria and ecstasy.
Now, the mood in electronica and dance music was more disillusioned, apocalyptic and pessimist; and this gave rise to a lot of very sleazy tracks.
The former "odd" period of almost bodiless electronic music was over.
There was almost none of that to be found there; the aesthetics were pure, clean, almost virginal...
Very strange for a sub-genre born out of LGBTQIA+, "free love" and similar sub-subcultures.
I guess part of it is the whole 60s, psychedelia, cyberdelia concept that runs through this sound... the initial acid house boom was called "second summer of love" for a reason (a reference to the first "summer of love", the zenith of the hippie movement in the Bay Area).
"We are cosmic dancers now, we move upwards to the sky, we leave our bodies behind... and our bodily needs, too".
And yeah, the heavy drug use associated with that scene means that, most of the time (and contrary to popular belief), they did not want to get it on.
And then there is the whole "future" vibe... original techno sounds like "alien music from planet alien"... it's tracks about hexadecimal dimensions, interstellar signals, journeys to the seven stars...
Too abstract, too nerdy, too brainiac to think about skin2skin action.
And the fallout of that is that 99 out of 100 early techno tracks are not about intimacy. (To put this into perspective; look up the regular pop/rap/dance top 100 charts and ponder how many of these tracks are about it...)
Now let's look at the few "unicorns" inside this group that are different in that regard.
1. Model 500 - Night Drive (Thru-Babylon) https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Woah! That's a sleaze-bomb right there. Juan Atkins, what were you thinking?
If you try to decipher the lyrics, it's about him driving his Porsche through Detroit until he meets... his girlfriend? a stranger? a sex worker?
And then... well, as the lyrics go, "she turns it... all the way"
2. LaTour - People Are Still Having Sex https://www.youtube.com/watch?
actually one of the first true techno hits and classics.
a witty satire and almost political commentary on human intimacy.
very direct, but also polite and modest enough to leave a lot to the imagination.
reverts the trope of the "sexual revolution" by saying "we didn't change anything, it was always here and will always be here".
3. LFO - Tied Up https://www.youtube.com/watch?
LFO were the heroes of bleep techno right? Warp records, warehouse raves.
And then they drop this one, many years later. A hymn to BDSM culture. Very heavy stuff.
If you still have a bit of innocence in your mind, listening to this track might haunt you forever.
4. Culture Trance - La Revolución Del Sexo https://www.youtube.com/watch?
This is what I wrote about earlier. Cosmic longing, cosmic trance, dancing under the night sky.
The "sexo" in this track feels very new age like too... hippies, gurus, shamans... unity with the stars. Bodily unity.
5. Marusha - Whatever Turns You On https://www.youtube.com/watch?
An early hit for "queen of hard trance" marusha... sound is a bit rougher than her later tracks.
Not very graphic or explicit at all, still, the sounds, vocals, and drums make you feel the ecstasy...
6. Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo - Ultimate Sextrack (Remix) https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Gabber producers never beat around the bush when it comes to any topic, and the track is exactly what the title says.
and now... "my favorite fantasy is..."
7. Lords Of Acid - Rough Sex https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Lords of Acid were probably the most sexual themed act of the rave scene... or in the history of music.
This track pushes back the "comic longing for love" aspect I mentioned earlier... and sports a more rough and hard outlook on the whole subject matter.
8. Legend B - Lost In Love https://www.youtube.com/watch?
The acid-trance vibes, the mood of the track, and the vocal samples ("Remember when we played together?") evoke a mystical, pure, almost innocent form of intimacy.
9. Moby - Everytime You Touch Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Moby went from being a depressed rocker to being a depressed raver and finally to being a depressed producer of world-famous electronica-pop.
This is not to put him down, not at all; his music is pure and genius in its melancholy and infinite sadness.
But I guess this track was the closest he ever got to feeling happy.
10. ''O'' - Another Orgasm https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Little nasty early EBM-Electro track.
Its author later became one of the most prolific producers in all the world of electronic music.
Ca. 1996/1997, the cosmic, new age mood of techno began to wane, and with it, the association with happiness, euphoria and ecstasy.
Now, the mood in electronica and dance music was more disillusioned, apocalyptic and pessimist; and this gave rise to a lot of very sleazy tracks.
The former "odd" period of almost bodiless electronic music was over.
Mittwoch, 16. April 2025
Looking back at music history: the raunchy/spicy New Wave of German music 1977 - 1983
[Warning: mature themes throughout the text]
When people think about the New Wave era, the eye usually wanders towards the UK and, to a lesser degree, Northern America.
Rightfully so, because both countries had the most important and best known output regarding this music (Just think about Visage, The Human League, Blondie, Talking Heads...)
Germany is mostly off the radar, and again, rightfully so.
The new wave of signals were heard in Germany, yes, and it led to a huge wave of new music on its own, yes, that dominated the German and sometimes worldwide charts (Major Tom, Der Kommissar[1], 99 Red Balloons...), but... there is a big *but* here.
Because somehow the signals must have been splintered or fractured, as there was a strange, surreal mutation in sounds.
Or to describe it in more "sober" words: the influence of british new wave music gave rise to the so called "Neue Deutsche Welle" - 'German new wave' - *but* it sounded quite different to its British counterpart.
Much more so than, say, Belgian Techno did sound different from French Techno.
In fact, many "Neue Deutsche Welle" songs (I will call it "NDW" from now on) would not fit to the "New Wave" term, and vice versa.
Now that this intro is over, let's cut to the point.
The NDW scene had a huge and varied output that is of increased interest to international (and German) collectors and music fans in general.
There are a lot of gems, oddities, rarities and obscurities to be found; and this time, we will look at NSFW NDW songs.
These songs are of highly cultural (and maybe even sociological and political) interest, as they came into existence when various, sometimes completely opposed societal groups collided in the NDW scene, trend, and market.
"Raunchy" or "offensive" songs were, for example, done by ex-punk bands that tried to create an outrage, middle aged business men that wanted to generate easy money (by creating an outrage, too), feminist bands trying to stir up the male-centered cultural discourse, art projects that sought an outlet for highly intellectual, academicized, post-modern and post-cultural views on sex and nudity (and also wanted to create an outrage).
so, essentially, you had everything, from drunk gutter punks (of all genders) yelling particularly vulgar and obscene words for perfectly natural human body parts and activities, to chic, upper crust and high brow art school type people yelling particularly vulgar and obscene words for perfectly natural human body parts and activities.
The common thread behind all this indeed seems to have been the desire to create an outrage - and maybe to have some fun (and make easy money).
Did they succeed? Well, yes and no. The raunchy hits rarely became *official* hits, but, as expected, a lot of them spread in the underground and subcultures.
How did the public react? Nudity and other topics that were considered to be "no-no" in countries like the USA shocked Europeans and Germans to a much lesser degree. And playing the "art card" (which most bands could credibly do) usually meant that you could do whatever you want in Europe.
So, yes, there was some scandal and debates, but on a much smaller scale than one might expect when looking back at this.
The NDW unexpectedly faltered some time after 1983. "Over-saturation" of markets and "over-stupefaction" of songs is often cited as the reason.
So, this part of "raunchy" German music history ceased to exist, too.
And then, less than a decade later, the German Techno scene came around, and with it subcultures that were much more "risqué", but that's a wholly different matter.
Footnotes: [1] The media and most people refer usually refer to all songs of this movement as NDW or "Neue Deutsche Welle", even though a lot of it is actually of Austrian, Swiss, and other origin.
Examples of raunchy NDW / German new wave songs.
Note: don't expect driving disco music with luscious voices. The music is really like I described it above; somewhere between cringe and art, surrealism and synthesizers. I guess some of it won't be a "turn on", especially if you look back with today's eyes. Unless you are a drunk punk or art nerd, maybe.
Note 2: If you ain't fluent in German language, I suggest you get a dictionary and look up the song lyrics.
Because otherwise you might be entirely missing the point.
The Pinups - New Wave Lover (1980) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEQjpd8GgjY
Zaza - Zauberstab (1982) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmGaJ-6o3MI
guy sings about his "magic wand"
Die Chefs - Oberficker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkYlDK0eWcI
Spider Murphy Gang - Skandal Im Sperrbezirk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oESfa8jt0p8
about people allegedly having to resort to specialty telephone operators due to a ban of sex work in Munich.
Hans-a-Plast - Sex Sex Sex https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICNTwrj_nzc
Extrabreit - Annemarie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRDW1JwjL_g
the singer wants to have sex with Annemarie (also slight allusions towards BDSM and fetishism)
Trio - Anna https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8H0EUIq6Fs
the singer asks Anna to let him "in and out".
Falco - Der Kommissar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtxkmrXfgTM
sex drugs and rocknroll in the underground night life, basically - while paying attention to not get busted by the cops
Kiz - Die Sennerin vom Königsee (1982) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtxkmrXfgTM
young men from all over the nation visit a Bavarian dairymaid in order to "yodel" with her.
Bärchen und die Milchbubis - Schweinekram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZS5qKZO3Fo
"Bärchen" can't stop thinking about sex
Hans-a-Plast - Lederhosentyp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGfUTsaglc8
about wanting to have sex with guys in lederhosen
Autofick - The deutsche girls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPGju05kjy0
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft - Sex Up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiA6x4tjDwg
Ixi - Detlef (1983) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuvNMBiNnL8
a girl wants to pimp her boyfriend and send him off to work the streets
Schaltkreis Wassermann - Sex Is Out, Ich Bin Geklont (1981) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWovS806lyI
about the future of being a sexless clone
Strassenjungs - Jeder Mensch ist mal alleine (1977) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe6QUZKmWj8
justification and instructions for solo-sex
When people think about the New Wave era, the eye usually wanders towards the UK and, to a lesser degree, Northern America.
Rightfully so, because both countries had the most important and best known output regarding this music (Just think about Visage, The Human League, Blondie, Talking Heads...)
Germany is mostly off the radar, and again, rightfully so.
The new wave of signals were heard in Germany, yes, and it led to a huge wave of new music on its own, yes, that dominated the German and sometimes worldwide charts (Major Tom, Der Kommissar[1], 99 Red Balloons...), but... there is a big *but* here.
Because somehow the signals must have been splintered or fractured, as there was a strange, surreal mutation in sounds.
Or to describe it in more "sober" words: the influence of british new wave music gave rise to the so called "Neue Deutsche Welle" - 'German new wave' - *but* it sounded quite different to its British counterpart.
Much more so than, say, Belgian Techno did sound different from French Techno.
In fact, many "Neue Deutsche Welle" songs (I will call it "NDW" from now on) would not fit to the "New Wave" term, and vice versa.
Now that this intro is over, let's cut to the point.
The NDW scene had a huge and varied output that is of increased interest to international (and German) collectors and music fans in general.
There are a lot of gems, oddities, rarities and obscurities to be found; and this time, we will look at NSFW NDW songs.
These songs are of highly cultural (and maybe even sociological and political) interest, as they came into existence when various, sometimes completely opposed societal groups collided in the NDW scene, trend, and market.
"Raunchy" or "offensive" songs were, for example, done by ex-punk bands that tried to create an outrage, middle aged business men that wanted to generate easy money (by creating an outrage, too), feminist bands trying to stir up the male-centered cultural discourse, art projects that sought an outlet for highly intellectual, academicized, post-modern and post-cultural views on sex and nudity (and also wanted to create an outrage).
so, essentially, you had everything, from drunk gutter punks (of all genders) yelling particularly vulgar and obscene words for perfectly natural human body parts and activities, to chic, upper crust and high brow art school type people yelling particularly vulgar and obscene words for perfectly natural human body parts and activities.
The common thread behind all this indeed seems to have been the desire to create an outrage - and maybe to have some fun (and make easy money).
Did they succeed? Well, yes and no. The raunchy hits rarely became *official* hits, but, as expected, a lot of them spread in the underground and subcultures.
How did the public react? Nudity and other topics that were considered to be "no-no" in countries like the USA shocked Europeans and Germans to a much lesser degree. And playing the "art card" (which most bands could credibly do) usually meant that you could do whatever you want in Europe.
So, yes, there was some scandal and debates, but on a much smaller scale than one might expect when looking back at this.
The NDW unexpectedly faltered some time after 1983. "Over-saturation" of markets and "over-stupefaction" of songs is often cited as the reason.
So, this part of "raunchy" German music history ceased to exist, too.
And then, less than a decade later, the German Techno scene came around, and with it subcultures that were much more "risqué", but that's a wholly different matter.
Footnotes: [1] The media and most people refer usually refer to all songs of this movement as NDW or "Neue Deutsche Welle", even though a lot of it is actually of Austrian, Swiss, and other origin.
Examples of raunchy NDW / German new wave songs.
Note: don't expect driving disco music with luscious voices. The music is really like I described it above; somewhere between cringe and art, surrealism and synthesizers. I guess some of it won't be a "turn on", especially if you look back with today's eyes. Unless you are a drunk punk or art nerd, maybe.
Note 2: If you ain't fluent in German language, I suggest you get a dictionary and look up the song lyrics.
Because otherwise you might be entirely missing the point.
The Pinups - New Wave Lover (1980) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEQjpd8GgjY
Zaza - Zauberstab (1982) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmGaJ-6o3MI
guy sings about his "magic wand"
Die Chefs - Oberficker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkYlDK0eWcI
Spider Murphy Gang - Skandal Im Sperrbezirk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oESfa8jt0p8
about people allegedly having to resort to specialty telephone operators due to a ban of sex work in Munich.
Hans-a-Plast - Sex Sex Sex https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICNTwrj_nzc
Extrabreit - Annemarie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRDW1JwjL_g
the singer wants to have sex with Annemarie (also slight allusions towards BDSM and fetishism)
Trio - Anna https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8H0EUIq6Fs
the singer asks Anna to let him "in and out".
Falco - Der Kommissar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtxkmrXfgTM
sex drugs and rocknroll in the underground night life, basically - while paying attention to not get busted by the cops
Kiz - Die Sennerin vom Königsee (1982) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtxkmrXfgTM
young men from all over the nation visit a Bavarian dairymaid in order to "yodel" with her.
Bärchen und die Milchbubis - Schweinekram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZS5qKZO3Fo
"Bärchen" can't stop thinking about sex
Hans-a-Plast - Lederhosentyp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGfUTsaglc8
about wanting to have sex with guys in lederhosen
Autofick - The deutsche girls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPGju05kjy0
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft - Sex Up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiA6x4tjDwg
Ixi - Detlef (1983) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuvNMBiNnL8
a girl wants to pimp her boyfriend and send him off to work the streets
Schaltkreis Wassermann - Sex Is Out, Ich Bin Geklont (1981) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWovS806lyI
about the future of being a sexless clone
Strassenjungs - Jeder Mensch ist mal alleine (1977) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe6QUZKmWj8
justification and instructions for solo-sex
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