control freak studio

control.org

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manipulate
control

What's the craic?

After a number of years of extreme volunteerism for community building and open tools and little to no space/health for exorcising my angels through noise, 2025 has to be different. Tomorrow is guaranteed to no one and brutally so for many of us. I've decided that if I wake up tomorrow I will make music with my friends. In 2025 I hope you will join me for a hecking loaded schedule including as much from here as possible:

  1. ** REPLICATE: a control.org vs C2 album of alt and pop covers. Bangers and clangers from the 80s to today **
  2. ** EVISCERATE: the fourth full-length from control.org after an helluva org album hiatus deferring to C2 for so long **
  3. Saṃsāra: the sixth industrial powernoise noisecape soundtrack nightmare from C2
  4. More sound and loop library releases in the BROKE AND DIRT series and exploring more themes
  5. High confidence dj mindstalker and djco2 will re-emerge
  6. there are a few remakes, updated guest vocals and re-arranged tracks kicking around under the flag REGENERATE
  7. Health pending or be damned, virtual live sets!
  8. Heaps of fun stuff to pull out of the vault. Things long out of print, mixes, remixes, projects etc that were declined or never released

Can you help? I am lucky to have a home but being immunocompromised, work options are violently limited. Here is my goal to be full-time on music and art this year.

Anyone that donates to the 2025 control freak studio fund will get any releases well ahead of it going public as well as access to hidden gems from the vault that haven't and may never be released. And please take what you like from teh back catalogue. Hopefuly there is something amongst it you might enjoy. There will be a *minimum* two new releases; the covers project and a new org album. Everything else listed above is very real and in some state of being.

I'm hoping to frontload planning for the year so have tuned off monthlies for this campaign. Your support throughout the year or when new releases come out is always appreciated. Our mail list might be handy.

I will also be taking donate what you can commissions (assuming content and vibe isn't punching down) for game assets, sound and installation design, soundtracks and remixes (250nzd recommended koha for 6x priority slots). If you are after a booming remix, soundtrack, beats, loops, game sounds, especially in my wheelhouse of dark and dystopian please reach out to book for the year. For all sound design tasks I can skew to a smidge of commercial potential or slightly less abrasive if that is your vibe. We can also talk about usage of existing tracks that might fit your brief as well.

If you'd like to sponsor a remix, WICKED, please donate and let me know it's not for you. I will put out the word there is a sponsored remix slot available and you will be helping me and another artist that might not otherwise have the means to donate for such a thing.

A recent remix of "One Thread" by Shannon Curtis:

Demo for the obligatory moody intro track for the new control.org album:

A lighter and slightly comedic sample from the cover album project:

I have references available. You can see more example work below in the discography with links to listen at my faircamp. Let's do this.

DONATION OPTIONS: ko-fi | liberapay | direct stripe

Do please email [ctrlfrk at duck dot com] when you donate so I can make sure you get earliest access to releases, events and special access content.

If you donate via stripe or liberapay I will manually add to the ko-fi goal tracker. Trying to make it easier for lowest fees and options for platforms you might be more comfy with rather than a single thing with automation for "rewards" but also more fees.

I recognise the world is fucking grim and there are many things needing our attention. I appreciate if you are able to help us go down dancing.

GOALS [$NZD]:

  1. 200 - offset web infrastructure [for self hosting music and more] *achieved*
  2. 600 - basic clearances for the covers album *achieved*
  3. 2100 - 6x priority remix slots [recommended min koha 250nzd]
  4. 3600 - help make the top 2 releases above happen
  5. 4100 - help for some physical and infra bits for live streaming
  6. 5800 - uncovered meds and heat for the freak and the studio
  7. more - stress reduction and more art happens. cheers.

we are underway! 15% and counting! thank you for your time and support.

Biography

control.org is a creative umbrella for music, media and technology projects. As a band, control.org have existed in some form as a performance entity for *yikes* three decades. control.org has weathered various live rosters and subtle genre shifts. With roots in synthpop, techno, house and industrial, control.org continues to do what it has always done and meld the sounds. Honest, organic and raw, we have never been much for form over function or calculated image over oontz. control.org return in 2025 with a new album entitled EVISCERATE.

C2 is aggressive electronic music for the strong-willed dancefloor. formed to catch the more harsh and experimental content emanating from the control.org studio, C2 courts the sounds and structures of rhythmic industrial, ebm, drum n bass and ambient noisescapes to weave its sonic assault. C2 has been said to contain 'excellent complex contructions of beats that straddle dark ambient underpinnings'. C2 has been releasing since 1997 and performing live since 1999. After hiding in the garden shed for years with only remixes here and there, C2 returned with a dirty low tech AM radio nightmare BOOM from 2013-2016 with a four EP series and fourth full-album QUADRANTS: the stories of four, PENTALOGY for Halloween 2018 and various singles and remixes since. C2 are back in 2025 with rumblings building toward their 6th full-length release.

Discography

Most of the discography is available at my own faircamp site. Bandcamp union busted too hard for my liking. We will also never intentionally be on any jerkbag corpo digital aggregators or streaming. If you see anything there, I sure as fuck ain't offer it to the scammers and skimmers.

Feel free to grab tunes for free in solidarity or if you have the means you might maximise your impact by donating directly. To support please see liberapay, ko-fi or contact. For other than personal listening, our general wish is that all our work is cc-by-nc-sa so non-commercial and share alike re-use. I do ask for a donate what you can for the original sample and loop library releases and these are absolutely free to use [cc-by] for all purposes with a simple attribution credit. For commercial or other potential usage arrangements please do contact.

CONTROL.ORG

'One Thread' [Shannon Curtis vs control.org remix] -- 2024 -- digital / SINGLE | original
#synth #sythpop #ebm #dark #dance #empowering

'I Am' [Shannon Curtis vs control.org remix] -- 2023 -- digital / SINGLE | original
#synth #sythpop #ebm #dark #dance #empowering

IT'S GRIM IN THE VERSE -- 2023 -- digital / SINGLE
a parody homage for Fedivison Contest 2023
#synth #ebm #industrial #house #techno #electro #cultureJam

DEGENERATE -- 2011 -- digital / LIMITED PHYSICAL
#synth #ebm #industrial #house #goth-hop #electro

RADIATE -- 2002 -- digital / PHYSICAL
#synth #ebm #industrial #electro

MANIPULATE -- 2001 -- digital / PHYSICAL
#synth #ebm #industrial #electro

C2

'Deep In' - Fugue State Audio [C2 vs control.org remix] -- 2024 -- digital ep
#powernoise #industrial #dnb #electro #synth

hell beings -- FEB 2020 -- digital single
#powernoise #industrial #dirtyhouse #industrialdance #militant

PENTALOGY -- OCTOBER 2018 -- digital
#powernoise #industrial #dirtyhouse #industrialdance #militant

PHLEGMATIC EP -- JULY 2016 -- digital
#soundtrack #dichotomy #horror #noise

CHOLERIC EP -- OCTOBER 2015 -- digital
#powernoise #industrial #dirtyhouse #industrialdance #militant

TETRAPHOBIA -- OCTOBER 2015 -- digital single
#powernoise #industrial #dirtyhouse #industrialdance #militant

QUADRANTS: the stories of four -- OCTOBER 2013 -- limited physical / digital
Urged to seek short-term physical gratification as pain relief, stuck in cycles of pain, we replicate pain as pain relief. We all have our sirens.
#industrial #ebm #powernoise #soundtrack #horror #noise

SANGUINE EP -- SEPTEMBER 2013 -- digital
#industrialdance #beats #female #gothhouse

MELANCHOLIC EP -- SEPTEMBER 2013 -- digital
#noise #soundscape #horror

CUBED -- 2004 -- digital / PHYSICAL (oop)
#powernoise #industrial #ebm #drumnbass #hardhouse #idm

CROWD CONTROL EP -- 2002 -- single ep / LIMITED PHYSICAL (oop)
#powernoise #industrial #ebm #harsh #noise

SECOND WAVE -- 2000 -- digital / LIMITED PHYSICAL (oop)
#powernoise #industrial #ebm #harsh #noise

INITIAL CONTROL -- 1999 -- digital / LIMITED PHYSICAL (oop)
#experimental #industrial #soundtrack #noise

CONTROLFREAK STUDIO

BROKE AND DIRT 003 -- NOV 2023 -- filthy drums, digital samples and loops
#loops #samples #ebm #industrial #house #dirty #noise

BROKE AND DIRT 002 -- MAR 2022 -- digital samples and loops
#loops #samples #ebm #industrial #house #dirty #noise

BROKE AND DIRT 001 -- FEB 2020 -- digital samples and loops
#loops #samples #ebm #industrial #house #dirty #noise

djco2

djco2 -- MAR 1998 -- digital / limited physical CD
#jungle #dnb #industrial #attack #aggressive

dj mindstalker

dj mindstalker -- JUL 1999 -- digital/ limited physical CD
#techno #techhouse #house #electro #trance #dnb #dark #uplifting #dance

SP UNITED

HOW TO WORK -- 2018 -- digital
#house #techhouse #electro #dance #unite

REVIVE THE TRIBE -- 2017 -- digital
#house #techhouse #electro #dance #unite

SELECTED COMPILATIONS

C2 'fourth estate medicate' 2023
album: DEF CON 31 Soundtrack - EFF fundraiser
label: DEF CON Communications

control.org 'reciprocate' 2016
album: Electronic Saviors 4
label: distortion productions / metropolis

C2 'four on the floor' 2015
album: S.I.N.G.E.D. volume 2
label: blatantpropaganda.org

C2 'affirmative negative infinite' 2015
album: Endzeit bunkertracks [act 7]
label: Alfa Matrix

C2 'RLFv3' 2014
album: Electronic Saviors 3
label: Distorton Productions / Metropolis

C2 'scream in the mirror' 2013
album: NAR Sampler Vol 2
label: New Alternative Radio

control.org 'thought control' 2011
album: GCS 1
label: COMA Music Magazine

control.org 'sacrifice' 2003
album: State of Synthpop 2003
label: A Different Drum

C2 'warning' 2002
album: Kappa
label: MHz

C2 'connect [subsnow mix]' 2002
album: Subsnow Tour CD
label: Ad Noiseam

Solidarity

donate at Liberapay - with a completely alternative file share download in 3 formats of nearly the entire controlfreak catalogue

donate at Ko-fi

a few things are on itch.io

or contact if you can help support in other ways

cheers

Contact

signup for our E-mail list

fediverse: @controlfreak

matrix: @ctrlfrk:matrix.org

digital carrier pigeon: ctrlfrk at duck dot com

Manifesto

*** 2018 note – Well then, maybe the masses starting to delete Facebook is a cool first step of late to the party outrage. Just remember that this wasn’t a scandle or an incident, IT IS corporate social media’s modus operandi! Next step, kindly be a dear to the people you communicate/collaborate with and don’t use google products either. It is painful deciding whether to respond or not to gmail knowing that it is even worse than Facebook. do avoid Google, Gmail, Dropbox, Instagram, Whatsapp, Telegram!!!!, Microsoft, Apple) * Open Source comms and collaboration to check out (protonmail, tutanota, your own pgp email if you are a sadist, riot.im and matrix, xmpp with otr (conversations), tox, nextcloud/owncloud, framasoft things, activitypub …) end 2018 note***

It’s not impossible to avoid facebook (instagram), yahoo (tumblr, flickr), google (youtube, android, everything), apple, microsoft etc in 2016, but pretty damn difficult. None of these things are good for humans and they are especially shit for artists, especially older ones who operate in the broom closet of the sub-basement of the dead horse beaten entrails of cannibalised underground ‘scenes’. After having various accounts locked on multiple music and social media sites because contrary to their hot air about your “safety” they don’t actually support randomised anonymous access, and losing all our recent tour “events”, I finally gave up succumbing to the fake need. So I’ve just stopped.

But here is the rub, all the metrics and the analysis of what was working on social media, WASN’T. For instance on our bandcamp, I am still getting the same (or better) plays per day, some downloads every week, and a few of those per month might even donate, all without wasting a single hour/day/week of my life trying to be cute or even visible for that matter on “social” media. I used to see a number of entries to our bandcamp music from facebook links, but they were exceptionally bad value insofar as they didn’t actually DO anything, not even download music for FREE. Some amazing quality traffic comes via facebook but only because it was shared from somewhere orginating outside the over alogrithm’d craposhere, ie from lovingly openly and honestly curated places like https://don-quichote-net.blogspot.co.nz/2016/08/c2-phlegmatic-ep.html. Now this will be a little more challenging during a new release launch, but again, the last release I spent literally weeks of time working facebook and got overwhlemingly more response to “it’s coming” than to “it’s here” *crickets chirping*. Think on that for a tick. On the latest release almost all actual download of music response came organically from Bandcamp and previous supporters (THANK YOU), real life suggestions, and from a number of web, blog and search sources originally OUTSIDE of facebook/twitter hole. The trick is going forward just as it personally failed with social web, is how to get new people to even give you an ear in, because statisically, once people find our bandcamp, they are usually fierce independent music supporters who usually check out and often donate for more back catalogue.

Bear in mind these releases for years have been avaialable free or by donation so really WTF facebook peeps you won’t even download something from your “friend” for FREE to help with visibilty? I’ve had the same domain for over two decades and the number of people I’m not in physical contact with, old friends and music buddies from facespace that have checked in considering I disappeared (twice) in quick succession…0. Is the web just that big and life that busy? Maybe, but I think academically speaking it is much more an indication that corporate social media truly has nothing to do with “connecting” friends or ideas and everything to do with infinite transient ego strokes to keep the masses complacent and ignorant that they are the product. Unless lucky, really lucky, flush with time or money, or dodgey you simply cannot bend that system to ethically work as a platform to invite sharing of creative work. The liberal pluralist narrative from the media and corporates means everyone is a “content creator” and the social internet is intentionally and effectively pollution that is getting too hard to sift against drip feed algorithms defined to keep you in the dark. Through the non-social web, I am hugely greatful for the durable and sustainable relationships I have with collaborators and a number of supporters who continually give my work a chance and ironically do their best to help share on the social web, but alas, the echo chamber is real.

On principle, I have and will never deal with digital aggregators and the corporate streamers. It is simply a kick to the groin to anyone thinking they are doing a solid to an artist by paying for music when most of the time, the artist truly gets fuck all and I’d rather give away which ironically, social media makes it exceptionally hard to do! And in terms of getting new people to even listen to our shit, the free or donation model is much less shit than dealing with schysters and middle-men and at the end of the day, requires less showers.

Therefore, I have reclaimed my time on the internet, my irl personal space and time and here on this “blog” we have a place where I can quickly post something of interest to myself or project status, it shoots the rss feed into the new basic bands page, and I can get back to doing actual things rather than waiting for it to never show up in supposed friends’ feeds for them to maybe click a stupid tracking button. To be sure, social media works if that is your full-time job or you have carved out a cutesy niche with a bunch of hangers on, but I can’t afford the time or the degradation to the soul for either. Life is short, art hard! No matter how you spin it, it simply cannot be punk rock to feed the tracking machine with you and your “followers” digital lives, so I’m out.

Yes I realise to embed bandcamp player there may be some google font or analytic scripts running from bandcamp’s side of things, and I don’t quite know how to get rid of youtube yet because holy shit does it have ALL the things in the shallow net, but for now, savvy people can block some of google’s assholery (at a minimum please install privacy badger add-on for firefox). But other than some legacy or reference embeds all my new web and art projects will be to the best of my ability free from evil wherever possible. I realise some people will say they that pervasive cross domain tracking on infinite share buttons is the future today and I’m just salty I couldn’t get 500 viewers on my live cam show. Spend 7 minutes flicking though some of that shit and you should have lost all hope for humanity to avoid catasrophic demise. Maybe you do fine “promoting” yourself or your art on the corporate web. I don’t care if you want to use the stuff and of course people will share my work to the wider social web, fine, I’ve just had enough with the existing paradigm, and I prefer for facebook and google to not own or define my material, events or identity. I have been working towards a free and open model that works for me and helps me feel decent about not feeding the machine, or our insane dependence upon it, if at all possible. I honestly don’t know how exactly to invite others to join me because neither the big corporates nor the transient giant killer apps/sites have been on balance, anything other than a waste of time for me. Certainly a few awesome people get connected via corporate social media, but in my experience at a ridiculous price of time and sanity thus relegating the ideas, art and culture you might have shared with them to the backseat while you constantly manage online promotion. I will retreat to the broken VHS deck and make my noises and if anyone wants to come along for the ride, cool potatoes!

Cheers j control Aug 2016

happily zero cross domain scripts, zero tracking, zero corporate social, simple embed and optional script to our own domain only for the audio previews
68kb uncompressed at 10/01/25 | 512kb club

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cc-by-nc-sa control.org v2025