Codebase
  Tickertape cover
Tickertape
Cornwarning Digital Release

Stuck in Time album cover
Stuck in Time
Disco Couture DCX-727

Style Encoding album cover
Style Encoding
Force Inc FIM-240/FIM-1-064

Seek and Destroy EP
Seek & Destroy EP
Force Inc FIM-241

Beat the Curve EP
Beat the Curve EP
Intrinsic Design ID-018-6

Global Underground: Miami mixed by Danny Howells album cover
Global Underground: Miami mixed by Danny Howells

Confusion 2005 album cover
Codebase vs New Order
Confusion 2005

Two Hundred Forty Volts volume 2 album cover
Two Hundred Forty Volts Vol. 2
Swayzak Recordings SWZLP4

Two Hundred Forty Volts album cover
Two Hundred Forty Volts
Swayzak Recordings SWZLP2
(Codebase appears using the alias 'Betamax')

downloads.

download codebase mp3s, including remixes from swayzak, perkowitz, and stewart walker. or, head to soundcloud for more tracks.

reaction.

An exquisitely sharp revision of just what electronic rhythms can do. As its title suggests, Style Encoding is a historical projection, an elegant summation and an astutely focused projection onto the dancefloor of the immediate future.
- Ken Hollings, The Wire

Deft enough to fuse yesterday's sounds into something seamless, unfailingly melodic, and plenty satisfying
- Michael Alan Goldberg, Miami New Times

A well-constructed ode to classic dance music.
- Mike Basplay, UWSA Stylus Magazine

Throughout this ten-song album, Butcher shows an evident debt to the Detroit techno school of beatmaking, as there's an omnipresent otherworldly feel to his melodies and a heavy reliance on good old-fashioned synthesizers. You can hear the electro influence in there as well. His rhythms are twisted and always intertwined -- bleepy synth lines intricately woven through b-boyish drum tracks and vice versa.
- Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide

With hooks bouncing back and forth between the bass and upper registers, the opener, "Collapse," recalls New Order's collaborations with Afrika Bambaataa compadre Arthur Baker, while the sexy "Seek and Destroy," peppered with percolating analog blips and laser FX, showcases a late-night, Italo-disco vibe. "Stripmine 2" kicks off with a dusty, chugging rhythm that sounds like it was lifted off a cassette tape left in a boom box back in 1982, then quickly ignites into an effervescent array of twinkling synths and mechanized hi-hats, abruptly punctuated by a couple of sudden backspins. "Tron," one of the oldest compositions here, ends the disc with a mesmerizing flurry of burbles and bursts of static born entirely from improvisation.
- Kurt B. Reighley, Seattle Weekly

Part Drexciya, part Juan Atkins, part Global Communications, Tom Butcher's melodic electronic is starkly futuristic and gloriously timeless.
- Luke Magnuson, Epitonic

I'm candy flippin' over this one. Codebase brings acidic trance-house back in the game, leaving the glow sticks and guidos in 1996. With lots of twinkling melodies and lots of easy-to-eat beats, I think it might be time to take up clubbing.
- Manny, Vice Magazine

A neat splicing of Giorgio Moroder's early '80s proto-electro with Detroit techno's more contemplative side.
- Michaelangelo Matos, Seattle Weekly

events.

5/3/11: hot off the presses, check out codebase's remix of chromeo's song "Hot Mess" here.

2/14/11: download codebase's remix of zowie's "Bite Back" for free at hardcandymusic.com.

12/13/10: download codebase's war games remix of florrie's song "Panic Attack" for free on soundcloud here!

11/30/10: follow @codebasemusic on Twitter for infrequent music-related updates.

11/25/10: download codebase's remix of florrie's song "Call 911" for free on soundcloud here!

7/25/10: codebase 'stuck in time' with bonus track available on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and other digital music stores.

7/22/10: codebase 'style encoding' bonus edition with two tracks from the original style encoding sessions available on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and other digital music stores.

12/30/09: now you can follow codebase on soundcloud.

8/31/09: codebase dj set at seattle's decibel festival 2009.

7/1/09: new codebase digital release tickertape now available as a free download from the american label cornwarning. the release features two new codebase tracks, remixes from chaircrusher and perkowitz, along with a kit for creating your own remixes

4/22/08: catch codebase on may 9 at broken disco. also on the bill are mochipet, lusine, recess, and more. the show is at chop suey in seattle's capitol hill.

10/10/07: codebase ringtones are now available at toneshared.com, along with ringtones from other artists like vladislav delay/luomo, pole, alva noto, deru, atom heart, telefon tel aviv, and more!

12/5/06: new album "stuck in time" is out now on disco couture! here is a review, and you can find the vinyl at other music, wall of sound, and easy street records (so far).

11/6/05: codebase "beat the curve" on intrinsic design (id-018) now available from rhythmic nyc

7/6/05: catch a rare dj set from codebase at this year's capitol hill block party (seattle) 7/31 on the decibel festival stage. other performers on the decibel electronic music stage inlcude lusine (ghostly), caro (orac), jacob london (classic), jerry abstract (shikatapult), kris moon (decibel), and nordic soul (decibel).

4/13/05: codebase selected to play the annual bellingham electronic arts festival 5/7 along with anna oxygen, kris moon, nordic soul, and many more

4/4/05: new codebase ep "beat the curve" coming this fall from the new york label intrinsic design featuring 3 new tracks of meticulously crafted electro-house

3/29/05: global underground: miami is out now in the us and uk... also catch a codebase dj set at the lower level (seattle) friday 4/1 as well as a completely new live set at nectar (seattle) on 4/29

2/9/05: codebase track "seek and destroy" is featured on the new danny howells double mix cd global underground: miami, out 3/29

2/5/05: catch codebase live + dj set at seattle's new wednesday night at club element on 2/16/05

2/5/05: codebase vs new order "confusion" bootleg out now... codebase reworks the classic new order recording from 1983 with tasteful attention to the spirit of the orignal

10/5/04: catch one of codebase's last live sets for the season at seattle's tuesday night bastion of techno, oscillate. oscillate is every tuesday at the see sound lounge in belltown.

9/26/04: codebase performs live for seattle's decibel music festival, alongside markus nikolai, john tejada, the advent, jeff samuel, and many more pioneering artists

9/11/04: new download page added with original codebase music and remixes

5/2/04: seattle weekly music showcase. codebase live at the last supper club, seattle. 10pm

5/15/04: shameless. codebase live at the alibi room, seattle. 10pm-2am

1/25/04: recordings from codebase are now featured for download on the upstart music site emusic. it's a subscription service, but they have the entire style encoding album ready for download.

11/20/03: resonance magazine's current issue has a short piece on codebase.

7/1/03: seek & destroy ep (fim-241) is out now! the four-track ep features the original mix as well as a-list remixes from swayzak, stewart walker, and perkowitz.

5/6/03: force inc music works releases the debut codebase album style encoding! it's out now on cd (fim-1-064) and double lp (fim-240).

9/3/02: 240 volts, volume 2 was recently released from swayzak recordings, featuring the codebase recording 'esperanto'. the whole double lp is great, with tracks from random factor, roger23, thomas villhauer, init, dwayne sodahberk, codebase, da lub masheen, konrad black, and lifestyle interiors & the ether bunnies.

artist statement.

on Style Encoding

Style Encoding is how I like to characterize my approach to music. From an early age, music has always had an impact on me, evoking a wide range of feelings and the expression of patterns, relationships, and meaning.

While some of my compositions are more direct in their message than others, many are abstractions, counterpoint on patterns, or simply a reflection of how I see my surroundings at a particular time.

The interplay of these forces comprises the balance I like to find in my work, between the nuance of minimalism, the deep spaces of layered sounds and echoes, and the fabric of interwoven rhythms. This balance is the encoding of my personal style, in songs and in sounds.

Tom Butcher, February 2003

links.

codebase at soundcloud
disco couture
codebase ringtones at toneshared.com
codebase at discogs.com
codebase at epitonic.com
email codebase to join the announcement list
codebase@x09music.com

 

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