From Chiptune and Trance to Speedcore and Gabber: Spotlight on Oliver Kirwa aka Mindviper aka The Sorcerer

The "producer life" of Oliver Kirwa is most exceptional. Let's look at 10 of his tracks.

1. Oliver Kirwa - Build It (1991) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBX31lqj7hk

He started as a composer for video game music on the commodore 64 computer, and even wrote some games of his own. like "Gotcha". This was first released as a "type-in game" and became the winning entry for a famous german computer magazine; "type-in" meant that the magazine actually printed the source code of the game, on paper, in their magazine; and the future users had to type every word and letter and number into their own computer, often spending hours or even days on this task.

2. Sorcerer - The Silence (1993) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SJCo8IrJ9g

an early hardcore track by the sorcerer, released on the Thunderdome edition "with the dog on the cover" (as my friends called this CD).
starts quite "silent" indeed, then goes into hyper-fast blast beats.

3. Sorcerer - Summer (1993) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrJi_2Ctzp4

this is his best-known track in the hardcore circuit. featured on another thunderdonme, this is one of the earliest speedcore tracks ever - it goes somewhere close to 700 bpm, quite a feat for the year 1993.
"and now... release your anger!"

4. Matrix - Feuervogel (1994) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVxLFkm0-qU

again a track that straddles the line between "german" style hardtrance and hardcore gabber.. and it straddles it skillfully. nuclear pounding groove!

5. Mindviper - Messiah 2000 (1994) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNnGQwmmsM

ooh, this is quite the treat here. situated somewhere between trance, hardcore and techno.
the instrumentation appears quite simple; the main part is a meandering bass-saw-synthline that keeps going throughout most of the composition. but the track feels so epic and immense nonetheless.
dreamcore for life!

6. Mindviper - Salvation (1994) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUqTYw00x_g

another "odd one out" track. i find it hard to describe it; kinda like a fusion of "krautrock", video game tunes, and techno. probably all his influences are summed up in this track; and it's an ear-pleasing summary for sure!

7. Future Viper - Paranoid Beauty (1995) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY8iRLArWcY

featured on one of technohead's hardcore compilations... was released on an uk label at first.
and it takes no prisoners! "ambient" intro, then the killer bassdrum troops arrive.

8. Nutron Intelligence - Incredible High (1995) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F07eK4p4cpw

this is legit hardtrance right here - good use of "rave choirs" and mean beats.
the b-side actually has one of the earliest tracks with a "newstyle gabber" kind of synth!

9. Mindviper - The Outside (1996) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6I8Ood0jQE

follow up to the messiah ep... a quite techno track again, very quixotic, feels even a bit like psytrance - "but better!".

10. Oliver Kirwa - Steelword (Chapter Two) (1996) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkVo1Y3Dnl4

this is interesting, because it's neither techno, hardcore, but more of an electro track. but the trancey synth- and basslines can be found here, too!

after these 90s releases, few traces of him can be found; and an extensive re-search on the internet produced no further results.
maybe he quit all this and joined the office work force, as many writers or composers in the early computer game scene did.
or he is sitting somewhere and still doing awesome tunes now and then.

regardless of which, we wish him a long and happy life!