A seventeen-year-old French producer, one Novation launchpad, thirty-nine songs mashed live in a single unbroken take. Went viral within days of upload and launched his career in electronic music. The record's entry for the video that made a grid of glowing buttons look like an instrument.
Died around 2015, not from neglect but from imitation. Once every producer had a controller video, watching a pad light up stopped being evidence of anything in particular.
The appeal was legibility. You could watch a pad light up and hear the sample arrive at the same instant, so the skill was visible to people who knew nothing about production.
I bought a launchpad in 2012 because of this video. I learned four bars of it, played them badly at a party, and sold the launchpad in 2014.
What does it mean? Write it the way you would say it out loud.
