Parasite (musician)

Parasite is the artist name of raggacore/breakcore musician/producer Armin Elsaesser. He was born in Eureka, California and currently lives in Bristol, England.

Contents

• Discography
• Songs
• References

Elsaesser runs the record label Death$ucker Records, which boasts one of breakcore's most eclectic rosters, featuring Bong-Ra, knifehandchop, Monkey Steak, d'kat, and DJ Ripley. In addition to records on his own label, he has released work on Peace Off records and on Bong-Ra's label, Clash Records. He also heads DSWAT.net, which advertises as "the premier online record shop specialising in Breakcore, Mash Up, Ragga Jungle, Dubstep, Grime, Drum & Bass, Electronica and Bashment," and offers support to small independent labels, musicians and producers. Elsaesser also organised the now-defunct Toxic Dancehall parties in Bristol. The parties grew from 30 people in the basement of an Indian restaurant to crowds over a thousand strong at the Black Swan in just three years. After deciding that he wanted to take the live music in a different direction he co-founded 'The Goatlab' which looked to break new music and artists on the Bristol breakcore scene. The name of the night came from the Jon Ronson book, 'The Men Who Stare at Goats' which Parasite references as an influence.

In 2008 Elsaesser composed the soundtrack and sfx for the PlayStation 3 game Savage Moon which was developed by FluffyLogic. The soundtrack has received a wealth of praise from a variety of game review websites. According to VideoGamer.com "The audio is best though. It's horrendous, but in a good, uncomfortable way. The shrieks, clicks, croaks, ticks, gurgles and cries of the bugs, not only as they emerge from their pits of doom but also when they're blasted into oblivion by your turrets, are just brutal.". PS3 Center said "Savage Moon shines in the audio department; great enemy sound effects, and a fitting soundtrack really add to the gameplay experience.".

According to Elsaesser, "It has been a great pleasure to create the soundtrack to the Savage Moon series of games on Playstation3 and PSP for FluffyLogic. The thriving Bristol music scene has had a major influence on the music I compose bringing in flavours of dubstep, drum & bass and breakcore. Computer games have generally had quite traditional sounding orchestral soundtracks for a while now, and to be able to bring in more experimental music to the games market has been a real challenge.".

In 2010 the soundtrack to the DLC of Savage Moon: Waldgeist – also composed by Elsaesser, was nominated for Best Original Video Game Score in the 55th Ivor Novello Awards. This was the first year that music from games was given a category in the awards.