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MORTIMER TWANG, aka Lukas Nystrand

[WHO?]
Lukas Nystrand , known as Mortimer Twang, Velvet Jones, Sweet Tee, and all manner of other things, is a Swedish .MOD tracker who started making _amazing_ jazzy, funky, reggae and house-influenced, beat-driven .MODs sometime in the early '90s. He came to prominence in the Amiga scene around 1993, with his soundtrack to the 3 Little Elks demo 'Passengers', and his work with his own group, Black Sista, as well as his amazing ASCII-art. Although coming along to the .MOD scene fairly late in its life, his prodigious output (we have 310 of his tunes hosted!) and the sheer quality of his music has made him stand out as sounding like nobody else who makes .MODs. He continues to compose and release music, though generally .MP3s nowadays, under multiple pseudonyms as part of Ageema Blues.

[OUR TOP 5 .MODs?]
1. "Streetbeat"
[Circa 1995, the sound of Mortimer doing amazing stuff with real-time scratches, loops, funky-as-hell basslines, speech samples, and the whole kit and caboodle. Like a jazzy version of the Bomb Squad, this is taking what can be done in a .MOD file to the extreme, and it ends up sounding like the best scratch records you never heard, in just over 500k.]
2. "Theme"
[Showcasing a downtempo side, this again highlights the classic sample selection, with authentically-dug breaks and piano samples all over the place, and an affecting melody drifting gracefully over the top. And under such difficult circumstances (4 channels and limited controls), the super-complex, multiply layered breaks are just insanely good.]
3. "I Am The Passenger"
[A chiptune in only 37k, and partially inspired by the Iggy Pop song of the same name, this is melody at its absolute purest, with cleverly minimalist percussion to get everything to fit in the space. And the phrasing is awesome considering it sounds smoothly played on a real instrument, but it's actually carefully constructed from zeros and ones.]
4. "Velvet Disko"
[More of Mortimer's disco-house side, something he went on to later in his .MOD career, this is awesomely funky, awesomely well-programmed .MOD work which breaks down and then builds up and up and up into the heavens til you can't breath no more - supremely good.]
5. "Find Yourself"
[Alternately frantic and super-laidback, with more quality vinyl samples all over the place, further cementing Mortimer's rep as the jazzfunkedup breaks-digging DJ Shadow of the .MOD scene, and even some cheeky sub-bass sneaking in there, a testament to the crazy things you can do with a sampler, an Amiga, a love of soul, and imagination.]

Download our top 5 Mortimer Twang .MODs here, or the scene.org mirror (1.1mb .ZIP!)


[ALL MODs?]
As well as offering our top 5 picks, we've included another archive with every single Mortimer Twang .MOD ever released, for completists and those who want to hear more from the artist in question. Particular favorites of ours from the rest of Mr Tee's .MOD output include:

- "Born Toulouse" (amazing rolling, jazzy funky stuff.)
- "Your Luv" (blissful Amen-breakin' summer-theme.)
- "Royal Offbeat Piece" (perfect chiptune staccato reggae action.)
- "Mortimer T's Future" (great junglistic remix of Twilight/Mono.)
- "That Organ Thing" (badass jazzy organ.. thing!)

Download Mortimer Twang's complete .MOD collection here, or the scene.org mirror (310 tunes, 21.3mb .ZIP!)
[list of included .MODs is here.]

[MISSING .MODs?]
If you have any Mortimer Twang .MODs that we're currently missing, please contact us.

These works are licensed under a Creative Commons License with the explicit permission of Lukas 'Mortimer Twang' Nystrand.