Galbatron

Galbatron was an electronic music group based in Holland. The band, consisting of Eppo Schaap (a magazine editor, music teacher and translator) and Loek van Kooten (a translator), started making music in 1994, when they launched their first album called "Sophistication". The original album was launched on cassette tape only, for distribution with an MSX video game called D.A.S.S. (released by Engine Software). In the year 2000, Galbatron was revived when they had found a new outlet for their music on MP3.com. Galbatron re-released a cd version of "Sophistication" and put out a second album called "Robotica", only to disappear again because mp3.com had stopped paying their artists for downloads. Neither their homepage (www.galbatron.com), nor their MP3.com website are currently functional. Though Galbatron never had the intention to become rich and famous with their music, they did regard MP3.com's payments for downloads as a symbolic reward and a necessary incentive to continue making music. They also felt that to really get their music off the ground, they had to invest far more time in it than their day jobs and families permitted.

Galbatron's music features prominent use of the synthesizer, and has a majestic, sweeping style with dense, layered arrangements. A standard 4/4 trance beat appears in several songs, but the material is quite varied. For example, Galbatron does covers of Widor's Toccata and Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, both originally written for organ. The latter song was their biggest hit ever.

Galbatron has done one collaboration with another artist, Ric Bonnell, a jeweller from Boston. Ric Bonnell's voice is featured on the track "Light One Candle (Robotica)". Unfortunately the song flopped: Galbatron's fans preferred the instrumental version of the song "(The Final Curtain (Sophistication))".

Galbatron did make several songs for a third album, "Synthetika", available for download, but the actual album was never released. Their music is often mixed up with Jean Michel Jarre's, especially in peer-to-peer environments.

Recently, Galbatron's music has become available for download again (see link section below).

Notability

Galbatron are not very well known as mainstream artists, but enjoy quite some fame in the 'underground' electronic musician scene. Googling their name still gives hundreds of hits, even though Galbatron stopped making music many years ago.

Notable facts are:
- Their music has been featured in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
- Their music has received positive reviews in Keys & Audio (now [http://www.keyboardplus.nl/ Keyboard Plus] ), a national Dutch keyboard magazine
- Their music has received negative reviews in [http://www.keyboards.de/ Keyboards] ), the de facto keyboard magazine in Europe
- Their music regularly soared the electronic music charts on MP3.com and was downloaded more than 150.000 times (source: MP3.com)
- Galbatron has sold about 250 physical albums. The low number can be explained by the fact that all their music was distributed via electronic venues like MP3.com (source: MP3.com) .

Eppo Schaap is still active in the music business. He used to be editor-in-chief of several national Dutch keyboard magazines and is currently working as an editor for [http://www.interface.nl/ Interface] , a national Dutch magazine for musicians and producers.

Discography

*Sophistication
*Robotica
*Synthetika

External links

* [http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=811417 Galbatron's mp3 download page]
* [http://www.engine-software.nl/ Engine Software, the company that distributed Galbatron's very first album]
* [http://www.proz.com/English-to-Dutch-translation-services/freelance-translator/49177 Eppo Schaap's translator profile]
* [http://www.akebono.nl/ Akebono Translation Service, a company run by Loek van Kooten]
* [http://www.loekalization.com/ Loekalization, a company run by Loek van Kooten]
* [http://www.thebailiwick.com/bailiwick/cdcovers.php Galbatron album info (with cover pics)]