Bubblegum Octopus is the New Jersey based "synthpop grindcore rave" solo project of vocalist, composer, sequencer, and instrumentalist Matthew "m@ the c@" Morden.
The project began in 2005 after the release of the c@ album copy as an attempt to recreate the synth-punk sound of the late 70s. As writing progressed, the… Read moreShow less
Bubblegum Octopus is the New Jersey based "synthpop grindcore rave" solo project of vocalist, composer, sequencer, and instrumentalist Matthew "m@ the c@" Morden.
The project began in 2005 after the release of the c@ album copy as an attempt to recreate the synth-punk sound of the late 70s. As writing progressed, the original intention was supplanted by the development of a melodic hybrid of cutesy picopop/shibuya-kei style pop, "extreme" metal and punk, Eurobeat and Bemani type dance music, early 00s style digigrind, and predominantly 90s, 16-bit video game music style electronics with elements of breakcore, noise, IDM, synth-funk, 8-bit, uplifting trance, and electro-punk.
Because the project is so often inaccurately pigeonholed into various sub and quasi-genres of electronic music, m@ and his fans have seriocomically adopted the terms spazzpop and tweegrind to describe the project.
A number of other, less used terms (cat-wave, picothrash, blackened disco, sugar doom, and pizzacore, for example) have also been used, as well as "fey-pop," coming from an early magazine review of the project.
The songs were initially rooted in MIDI sequenced synthesis, vocals, and occasional guitar or electronic noise, but have evolved to incorporate circuit-bent toys, effect pedal chains, hardware sequencers, drum machines, synths, theremin, mandolin, horns, percussion instruments, SNES and Gameboy soundchips, a host of different programs, the manipulation of self-made samples, and a variety of other hardware.
Ideologically, the project is rooted firmly in an absurdist outlook on life and art, combating the Peter Pan complex, and rejecting the type of fandom culture-centric lifestyles that so many video game influenced music projects thrive on.
The love of cats is also promoted heavily.
The project is often thought to include samples of video games or other things and pitch altered vocals, but nothing of the sort has ever been used in a Bubblegum Octopus song.
Since it's inception, the project has been promoted almost exclusively through the word of mouth of supportive fans, bringing in enough attention to bring the project to #99 in the list of the top 100 unsigned myspace artists over all in 2006 and 2007.
Shows in the past were extremely rare (twice a year or so, and only locally,) and, according to m@, not even a very important part of BgO's existence, until 2009, when touring and regular, more exciting shows became commonplace.
After a semester in school for music performance and composition, and a semester in school for audio engineering, Matthew decided to continue his musical and artistic education on the road, touring the United States.
With his personal endeavors, Matthew has a prolific catalog of released and recorded music, starting as far back as age 15, covering a wide variety of sounds, but most commonly in melodic and/or chaotic, often experimental electronic contexts.
Matthew is best known for his work with his primary solo project, Bubblegum Octopus, wherein his loves of Japanese pop, extreme metal, video game soundtracks, and avant-garde electronic music are explored, usually all at once, a sound which garnered a cult following for the project, online.
As a freelance musician, Matthew has done soundtrack work for independent video games, film, and TV, sound design for art installation, taught lessons in DAW proficiency, bass, and guitar, worked as a recording engineer, composed and produced music for other artists, taught at Verona Summer Music since 2007, & played bass in diverse musical contexts.
Other projects with recordings that m@ has founded include:
Rage-a-holic Tortise
yamiwosukasu
Black Clocks
c@
First Aid Squid
Fork Sister
