Bio & Press
Posted on August 10th, 2024
Filed under: — Karl Olson @ 12:00 am
I’m Karl Olson, and I’m a software developer, a musician/producer and an occaisional animation website moderator/staff writer.
If you want to know about my career in software, just check my LinkedIn.
Musically, I focus on Nerdcore, though I also do a lot of Drum n’ Bass, Hyperpop, Minimal Techno, Big Beat, Ambient, Drill, Trap EDM and Vaporwave. I finished my most recent full-length Nerdcore Rap LP, Lost Languid Muddle in 2024.
Meanwhile, I very occasionally volunteer as a moderator and staff writer at Anime Superhero (formerly known as ToonZone,) an animation news and discussion site, as I’m a rather knowledgeable anime and manga fan. I’ve made a lot of good friends through this work, and it’s kept my writing skills sharp. The archives of my writing at Anime Superhero are here & here. Watch this space – I’ll eventually have an archive of all of these reviews for download.
Anyway, maybe these interviews, media mentions and reviews of my albums and songs can explain more (there’s a lot of dead links – stick to the archive.org annotations or download everything recovered in a single zip):
- Gaming Boulevard did a huge interview with me about my production process, projects like Karlland, video games, anime and much more! (archive.org)
- Nodball gives my album Karlland a perfect score – 10 out of 10 – calling it “the ultimate in anime trap and artistic expression.” Even I worry they oversold it. (archive.org)
- Nodball gives Variable Undefined an 8/10, comparing me to Drake & 6LACK. (archive.org)
- Dying of Exposure dares the listener to challenge their aesthetic preferences and gives Variable Undefined a B+ and a video review!. There’s also an interview at the bottom of the blog link! (archive.org)
- Geek-E Inc. Learns to Love Trap-style Rap production via my album Null Signifier, giving the album a solid 9/10!! (archive.org)
- The Unheard Nerd recommends Apocryphal Gospels my remix EP for Australian rapper Stevie Kincade. (archive.org)
- The Unheard Nerd really, really enjoys Unwarranted Self Importance. (archive.org)
- Fandomania also finds Unwarranted Self Importance to be a great album. (archive.org)
- Exclaim appreciates the relative concision and production of Unwarranted Self Importance but only finds my delivery passable, suggesting I sell beats to better rappers to find success. (archive.org)
- Hipster Please Finds my album Animatic to be a mixed bag. (archive.org, middle of page)
- The Unheard Nerd agrees more with Hipster Please’s assessment of Animatic. (Lost To Link Rot)
- Exclaim.ca on the other hand reviews Animatic kinda positively. (archive.org)
- Hipster Please briefly reviews Storyboard: The Animatic Mixtape. (archive.org)
- Jeff Nau on The Jace Hall Show perhaps confuses Hit Points for Hewlett Packard, but otherwise gives me huge props for my song Tap That Deck. (Lost To Link Rot)
- Nerdcore Now interviews me about my upcoming projects. (Lost To Link Rot)
- Hipster Please reviews Romance Language 2. (archive.org)
- Talk With Tim recommends The Cliche Remix LP. (archive.org)
- Wired’s GeedDad Blog also recommends The Cliche Remix LP. (archive.org)
- Hipster Please reviews The Fourth Estate (archive.org)
- Chocolate Lemon Gamer reviews The Fourth Estate. (archive.org)
- Nerd Lust reviews The Free Estate the cut-down, freeware version of The Fourth Estate. (archive.org)
- Hipster Please reviews Opensource Lyricist. (archive.org)
- Pure Defect reviews Opensource Lyricist. (archive.org)
- GaijinSide reviews Opensource Lyricist. (archive.org)
- Hipster Please reviews Romance Language. (archive.org)
- Other People’s Property by Jason Tanz has a couple quotes from me while discussing the state of Nerdcore back in 2007. (archive.org)
- Hipster Please interviews me. (archive.org)
- The Jibsheet, Bellevue Community College’s student newspaper, reviews revision4920.
- EMU SkateZine interviews me way back in 2002(?): Interview Pt.1 Interview Pt.2 Cover Index
If you’re more audio/visually inclined here’s some select performance and interview footage, though anything not on YouTube is lost to link rot. Links left as is for archival purposes only:
- 12-13-09: Ultraklystron performs at the Jewel Box, again
- 9-6-09: Ultraklystron tears it up at the Mega64 booth
- 7-31-09: Ultraklystron performs at the Blue Moon Tavern
- 5-3-09: Ultraklystron in the studio
- 6-12-08: Ultraklystron performs at the Jewel Box Theater
- 6-12-08: Atomic Town interviews Karl Olson amongst other more famous people
- 8-11-07: Ultraklystron & friends on SpikeTV’s GameHead (look at 4:40)
- 5-10-07: Nerdcore News interviews Karl Olson amongst other more famous people
- 1-13-07: Geek Entertainment TV talks to Ultraklystron and Nursehella at CES2007.
- 1-13-07: Ultraklystron and Nursehella perform at the Beauty Bar in Las Vegas
- PAX2005 – 1UP interviews Ultraklystron along with other convention goers: video 1 – video 2
Here a couple documentaries I am featured in as a subject/commentator:
- Nerdcore For Life. In fact, rent the whole movie on YouTube.
- Nerdcore Rising
In fact, uh, huh.
As far as other notable personal achievements (in music and media) are concerned: I’ve done collaborations with MC Lars, Megaran, Beefy and Original God. I’ve done remixes of mc chris and MC Frontalot songs. I’ve done a commentary included on the Sealab 2021 Season 3 DVD Boxset. A review of mine is quoted on the back of volume 5 of the single disc release of Spiral. Another review of mine was quoted in on the official US website of Princess Jellyfish after having been used by the US publisher as a means of gauging fan-interest in the title via their Facebook page. I wrote a review of Half-Life 2 for the English-Language edition of Joong-Ang Daily Newspaper. My early Electronica songs had been downloaded over 100,000 times before I graduated high school. I’ve been interviewed by a couple Canadian college radio programs. I was rated as the 10th best Nerdcore artist on a survey at Hipster, Please. I also did a freestyle on SpikeTV’s GameHead after having rapped at Capcom’s Booth at the San Diego Comic Convention. I ended up shooting some video footage that ended up on the PAX2007 DVD which resulted in a special thanks in the credits of one the segments. I’m also in two different documentaries about the Nerdcore scene, and that resulted in being referenced in and my music getting used in an episode of PRI’s To The Best Of Our Knowledge.
Fair and Balanced: I’m not notable enough for Wikipedia, and Something Awful thinks I am quite horrible.
Comments (0)
No Comments
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.