Biography
Crashfaster formed in San Francisco during 2009 as the initial solo project of video game composer Morgan Tucker, who crafted upbeat synth pop tracks by employing vintage consoles alongside drum machines and vocoders. Around the same period Tucker founded the local chiptune collective 8bitSF. The band’s material merges 8-bit video game music with synth pop and industrial textures, producing tracks that remain bright and effervescent yet convey greater darkness and melancholy than typical chiptune releases through explorations of loneliness and disenchantment. Following several compilation appearances, Monobomb Records issued the debut album Disconnect in 2011. The following year Crashfaster supplied a remix for Minecraft composer C418’s album One. By the release of the second album Further in 2013 the project had expanded into a quartet featuring vocalist Keiko Takamura, drummer Devin Nixon, and guitarist Ryan Case. The Superchroma EP appeared in 2014, and the group recorded a version of “Never Let Me Down Again” for the Depeche Mode tribute collection Enjoy the Science. The two-track singles Echo and Rewind arrived in 2015.