Spotlight - Cathode Ray Tube

Cathode Ray Tube: Bleeps, Bloops, and the Beautiful Unknown

If you grew up anywhere near a radio in the 1980s, you know the feeling — a synth line drifting out of the speakers that sounds simultaneously futuristic and ancient, like a transmission from somewhere just out of reach. That feeling is the native territory of Cathode Ray Tube, the project of Portland, Maine-based electronic musician and multi-hyphenate creative Chang Terhune. His music sits comfortably — or rather, productively uncomfortably — at the intersection of classic IDM, ambient electro, and the kind of dub-informed sonic depth that he describes as "the voice of the universe."

He will be the first to offer a self-deprecating comparison. "I get a lot of comparisons to The Orb, John Carpenter, Richard H. Kirk, Autechre, Monolake," he says, "and that's humbling as they're gods while I am but an insect." The humility is genuine, but the receipts tell a different story: those same artists have actually heard his music and loved it. More on that shortly.

A Sonic Palette Decades in the Making

One of Chang's earliest memories is of music, and the forces that shaped him read like a beautifully chaotic curriculum. Growing up in Connecticut in the 1970s and 1980s, his household ran on Donovan's Greatest Hits and Sgt. Pepper's. Then came a PBS broadcast featuring the radical experimentalist Harry Partch, a genuinely frightening Edgar Varèse record courtesy of his father, and the steady signal of 1970s FM radio bleeding into the new wave transmissions of WLIR 92.7. Rush. Depeche Mode. Cabaret Voltaire.

The catalyst that made it all personal was his grandfather — a self-taught multi-instrumentalist who played piano, organ, accordion, guitar, and mandolin with infectious joy. "The joy he felt and the joy he gave others really resonated with me," Chang reflects. His grandfather's final gift was a Yamaha CE-25 keyboard, the instrument that lit the fuse.

"Looking all the way back to that time, 1984 A.D., I find a lot of similarities with the music I make now 42 years later. I just wish I'd started sooner and didn't listen to the opinions of others."

The teenage years brought a deep dive into synthpop, goth, and industrial — New Order, Ultravox, Skinny Puppy, Meat Beat Manifesto, Einsturzende Neubauten, Cocteau Twins, Bauhaus. Then, a life-changing night: seeing Orbital, Aphex Twin, Vapourspace, and Moby perform, with Moby DJing at The Cafe, a booze-free teen dance club. "Moby was really responsible for several people in that space becoming DJs or musicians, myself included." Chang made his first radio appearance in 1997 on WZBC 90.3FM, on the legendary Interglobal Electronics show hosted by the late Gene Sweeney. He has been making bleeps and bloops ever since.

The Sound and the Self

A friend once described Cathode Ray Tube's music as "ambient electro," and Chang considers it exactly right. The reference map he draws is instructive: Autechre, Richard H. Kirk, Meat Beat Manifesto, Kraftwerk, Four Tet, and Phoenecia. Dub reggae is an unexpected but crucial thread — he is a genuine believer in its power.

"I truly believe dub reggae is the voice of the universe in the way it taps into something ancient and deep. I love hearing delay and echo turn a beat or synth part into something with an entirely different rhythm or tone to it."

At six foot seven, Chang describes himself as shy and introverted — someone who opens up around people he loves and trusts. That interiority shapes the music. He is a committed believer in science and simultaneously awed by how much remains unknowable. "We are but a speck of dust in this far-flung edge of the cosmos and cannot possibly know all there is," he says. "That unknown is what drives me — I look towards learning new things and experimenting in my music, especially in the last four or five years. An unexpected side effect of Covid, actually."

His creative process reflects that openness. A new piece might begin with a single drum sound, or with something heard in another song that he wants to understand by attempting to recreate it. He works primarily in Ableton Live but has been returning to hardware — drum machines, synths, and sequencers — finding that the limitations of physical gear force creative decisions that a computer's infinite flexibility never would.

"I try to be open to creating something new while accepting that I'm just a listening, copying, pattern-seeking human being."

Latest Release: Inferyes

The title of Cathode Ray Tube's latest release, Inferyes, has an origin story as entertaining as it is fitting. When the announcement of Boards of Canada's album Inferno sent the electronic music world into a frenzy, Autechre's Sean Booth posted on Mastodon something to the effect of: "Inferno? More like INferYES." Chang found it hilarious. Months later, stuck without a title for his new EP, he jokingly floated the word to Michael Southard of Triplicate Recordings — and it stuck.

Inferyes is out now on Triplicate Recordings and collects four tracks that span a range of ages and tempos:

• Cheap Stasis — very new, and unusually fast, running up around 140 BPM, reflective of a recent creative shift toward faster material.
• Octophobic — approximately three to four years old, a track that listeners frequently don't realize is as long as it is.
• Deuteronomyopia — very new, with a title Chang himself cheerfully questions.
• Nonreactive Agents — the oldest of the four, perhaps five years old.

Chang writes long songs — seven, nine minutes and beyond — and is disarmingly candid about the responsibility that comes with that. "If I'm asking folks to endure a seven or nine minute song I better be giving them something worth their time." By his own account (and he is, emphatically, his worst critic), not a note is wasted across the entire EP. The reaction from listeners has validated the approach: many are genuinely surprised by the run times, and nearly as many say they love that he makes longer songs.

Stream and purchase Inferyes on Bandcamp.

Beyond Cathode Ray Tube

Cathode Ray Tube is one corner of a busy creative universe. Under the name Containment, Chang makes hard drum and bass and jungle — and the latest Containment release, Misadventure, is out now on Component Recordings. He also has new Cathode Ray Tube material due on Component toward the end of the year.

Then there is Cathopsis, his collaborative project with James Miller of Solypsis. The two share touchstones — Meat Beat Manifesto, Cabaret Voltaire — but diverge productively, with Miller bringing a power-noise sensibility that sits outside Chang's usual orbit. The push and pull of those differences is exactly what makes the collaboration generative. Their upcoming album, Solythode, is due in September — a word they coined together that started as a joke and became the only possible name for the music inside.

Chang's label credits include Component Recordings, Heterodox Recordings, Triplicate Recordings, and Ohm Resistance, among others. His album Unearthed was featured in Bandcamp's Best Electronic Music roundup after a friend suggested he reach out to the right writer — a reminder that persistence and community pay off.

On that note: Chang has sent his music directly to some of his biggest heroes, and the results have been remarkable. Robert Henke of Monolake, Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto, and Sean Booth of Autechre have all heard his songs. "All because I was a pesky son of a gun who knew they'd hear something they'd like. Ain't been wrong much there."

The Wider Creative Practice

Music is not Chang's only art form. He is also an illustrator — working under the pen name Chang Terhune — and has created artwork for his own releases as well as for artists including Chaircrusher, Alpturer, and Droidhop. He writes reviews and interviews for Igloo Magazine under the same pen name. It is a creative life built outward in every direction, sustained by curiosity and a stubborn love of the craft.

He also has a yellow lab named Henry Pancake, about whom he offers no apologies whatsoever.

Find Cathode Ray Tube

• Bandcamp: conditionhuman.bandcamp.com
• YouTube: youtube.com/@bigbadchang
• Mastodon: @changterhune@mastodon.social
• Instagram: @cathoderaytubemusic