Chip chaser

>> Montreal’s Phil Karneef, aka IPRC,
gets intimate with his machines

CARD SHARK: Phil Karneef

by JACK OATMON

“Oh! Somebody bought 24 SIDs,” Montreal’s Phil Karneef, aka IPRC (and one half of Ghettonuns), exclaims in a tone that would normally accompany a phrase like, “Oh! Kovy makes Chara look like a pylon!”

He then explains, from behind a tangled spread of dull grey plastic and patch cables, that the SID is the synthesizer that was in the Commodore computer. Someone has acquired 1,000 of the dated chips in working condition from a warehouse and begun selling them online. The reason for Karneef’s enthusiasm about one person owning two dozen of them comes into focus as he glances away from the screen and declares, “So they’re gonna make an orchestra or something like that.”

This clunky, monophonic sound chip from the early ’80s has recently been retrofitted by a German designer to be accessed via MIDI from an open-source hardware platform. So it’s a new way to frig around with old junk that conjures waves of indelible nostalgia for Activision fanatics and old-school computer geeks.

While we chat, he begins fiddling with a 16-year-old Toshiba Satellite laptop containing the same chip as the classic Soundblaster 16, the sound card that powered video games like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D.

As the growling bass and plinking notes spring forth from the speakers like Pixy Stix for the ears, I ask why he prefers the venerable gear.

“I’m into not abusing—” Karneef begins. “Well, I do that too, so, not getting carried away with using really complex stuff that you have to pay for and is designed to no end. A lot of people are taking advantage of new hardware and software that’s coming out, and really not paying them their dues.”

He continues to explain that knowledge and understanding of equipment is one of his key criteria for judging artistic integrity. He cites the “intimacy” that artists like Kraftwerk and composer Wendy Carlos achieve by getting to know their machines. He emulates that quality through thorough scrutiny of both the functionality and culture surrounding his favourite pieces of circuitry.

“It’s one thing to talk about integrated circuits. But it’s fuckin’ 2008. Nanotechnology is coming up. They’re making gates out of three atoms—something that makes a decision with three atoms. Let alone all this high-voltage AC stuff. Everything is going down—the requirements for power and usage. Efficiency is going up. I have software on here that mimics rooms full of synthesizers. Buildings full. You can design everything you’ve ever dreamed of. You just need to spend the time to learn how to do it.”

He then takes me into another room to show me his SIDs. He has two of them, not 24, but with that he can achieve stereo sound, something previously impossible with this particular chip. The care with which he treats the gear is as telling as his convictions about its usage.

“The coolest part about this stuff that I’m working on now is that it’s open source. Everybody’s working on it together and helping each other out. When there’s a breakthrough, it’s not coveted. They want to share it. They’re patent busters, these guys. They really don’t give a fuck. Design and development is paramount.”

With Low End Ensemble,
Yellowknives and DJ Catpiss at
Zoobizarre tonight, Thursday,
March 27, 9 p.m., $5