Vintage-Demo-Time: Kewlers & mfx
...real-time nostalgia for a VHS you never owned
This is old stuff from 2004. That mimics event older stuff from VHS. So nostalgia, upon nostalgia. And why is it still cool?
In 1993, Berlin label !K7 started releasing the X-Mix series — VHS tapes pairing DJ sets from Richie Hawtin, Paul van Dyk, Laurent Garnier, and DJ Hell with early computer-generated 3D visuals. It was club culture meets CGI, pressed onto magnetic tape and sold in record stores. The series ran until 1998 and basically invented the idea of a DJ mix as an audiovisual object.
Fast forward to Breakpoint 2004. Finnish demoscene groups Kewlers and mfx drop a 10-minute PC demo called Ion Traxx — a full real-time homage to those tapes. Rotating geometry, checkerboard patterns, raytraced spheres, dolphins. And crucially: a VHS degradation filter that simulates tape artifacts, RGB channel separation, tracking errors and all. And dolphins, checkerboards, and techno. Obviously.
It got them lots of fame, like getting three nominations for the scene.org award in 2004.