Est. 2003 · Tampere, Finland
About MattCurrent
From the Finnish Demoscene
MattCurrent.org takes its name from the demoscene alias of Jean Nine, the organizer of the Stream demoparties — a series of underground digital arts events held in Tampere, Finland, from 2003 to 2011. At Stream, coders, musicians, and graphic artists competed to create the most impressive real-time computer graphics, chiptunes, and 64-byte intros.
The domain survived eight consecutive editions of a party that drew visitors from across Europe — some flying in on Ryanair just to spend a weekend watching demos on a Commodore 64. International visitors got in free. The sauna was always hot.
The Stream Demoparties (2003–2011)
Stream ran eight consecutive years, which is exceptional longevity for a community demoparty. The events took place at a fixed venue — the K-yttöauto Green indoor golf facility in Tampere — and were known for their inclusive spirit: competitions spanning everything from high-end PC demos to Game Boy Advance intros, Amiga 1200 oldschool, and even Nokia N900 demos.
Stream 8 (2011) drew around 200 visitors and featured a fully RFID-based cashless payment system, OSC-controlled stage lighting, and a shuttle bus from Helsinki. It was a community event at human scale, and that is exactly what made it memorable.
The Revival — MattCurrent as Magazine (2026)
In 2026, the domain was recovered and relaunched as an independent magazine covering the intersection of the demoscene, creative coding, tracker music, and AI music generation. The name "Matt Current" is also a bilingual pun: matt (matte, subdued) + current (flow, now) — and blackcurrant backwards in spirit, hence our pixel-art berry favicon.
Our editorial stance: we believe the demoscene produced some of the most technically impressive and creatively dense work in the history of computing. We also believe AI music tools are creating genuinely new possibilities that deserve the same rigorous, non-hype coverage.
What We Cover
- Demoscene History & Culture — demoparties, famous groups, legendary productions
- Tracker Music & Chiptune — MOD/XM/IT formats, the scene archives, modern tools
- Creative Coding — shader programming, 4K intros, procedural graphics, OpenGL
- AI Music Generation — Suno, Udio, Stable Audio, LLM-based composition, ethics
Editorial Standards
MattCurrent is an independent publication. We have no advertising relationships with the tools we review. All comparisons are based on our own testing. When we interview experts, they are identified by name, affiliation, and years of experience. When we make factual claims about demoscene history, we link to primary sources or scene archives.