I received an email this week that immediately slung me back to my childhood days, when all you cared about was Iced Gems and collecting all of the Premiership football stickers (I never completed a book – I will do, one day).

It was when you were quite content playing Space Invaders on your Atari 2600 console for hours on end, with your hands bleeding from grasping the bulky joystick and you weren’t bothered about how rubbish the graphics were – you didn’t know any different. If someone showed you the quality of the games that kids play now you’d swear blindly that it was work of sinister trickery.

The email I received was from a music re-mixer called Martin Dodd, from Wrexham. He doesn’t remix the expected dance music though – he remixes retro game music, concentrating on the ole’ classic Commodore 64. Now I thought the 64 was dead and buried – thousands collecting dust in attics and selling for pennies on eBay but no, there’s a whole community on the internet who remix old C64 game music using the original machine as well as other instruments. If you fancy a taking a retro music nostalgia trip, take a look at www.remix.kwed.org or Martin’s myspace – www.myspace.com/martindodd64remixes.

Those of you who aren’t on the ‘cutting edge’ of music will have not heard of Acid Casuals. They are playing a live laptop set at Luv*Jam, tomorrow night at Central Station. Acid Casual’s are a hyper fashionable techno collective from Cardiff and their members include non other than Super Furry Animals synth and sample master Cian Ciariân, Big Leaves bassist Kev Tame and Llyr Evans – brother of Rhys Ifans, who he starred alongside in the welsh (and better) take on Trainspotting, Twin Town. It’s all one big family circle down there – Rhys Ifans was once the frontman for an embryonic incarnation of the Furries. Tickets are £5 and its £6 on the door, the mayhem begins at 10pm.

With the re-opening of The Talbot Bar, as I mentioned last week, comes a welcome influx of new nights starting. One of them being an intriguingly named ‘The Kill Club’ which is having its debut on Saturday 15th November, is being billed as a truly underground night (literally) and will include garage rock, shoegaze, post-punk, electronica and new wave tunage as well as guest DJs and live sets from upcoming bands. Watch this space for more info.

Another new night at The Talbot is a weekly Wednesday acoustic night. It costs £1 to play and you get that nugget back if you play. Sounds like a decent deal.

Screaming Citizen’s are a group of 4 serious rock/soul funkers – think Red Hot Chilli Peppers living in Jamiroquai’s ridiculous hat (but being infinitely better). They’ve earned themselves the right to the claim of being one of North Wales’ tightest and polished bands, brother’s Scott and Fraser McDonald make up the front line attack whilst bassist Kev Mooney and drummer Jake Woodward hold it together at the back. They are headlining the colossal Oxjam music weekend at Hendre Park near Bangor in late October and tomorrow night they are playing the Socialist night at The Talbot. Be there from 8pm to bear witness.

On Saturday you can see Stokoz to Moscow and Pilot Wings playing at the Frog and Nightingale in Chester, it’s the Stokoz’s last gig before they disappear for a few weeks to write and record their much anticipated EP. It’s free entry and starts at 8pm.

And now for tonight. We (wrexhammusic.co.uk – my amigo Andy Salad and I) are returning with our first night since the immense Good Times! Festival in July. It’s been a while, too long for my liking, and we are back with a delectable line up at Central Station that includes highly respected post-punk-art-rock-harmonial band Hot Club De Paris, hotly tipped London outfit Tellison and local favourites Danblagroyd, who are fresh from their live sessions on Adam Walton’s Mystery Tour show on BBC Radio Wales. Hot Club De Paris are touring all over the UK, Ireland and Germany in support of their new single ‘My Little Haunting’ on Moshi Moshi. Doors are 7:30pm and £9 on the door or £7.50 a ticket. Hope to see you there!

Last Sunday Adam Walton and his trusty sidekick Soundhog declared the Gallops! track ‘Windows FX’ the best song they’ve heard all year, after playing it on Walton’s Mystery Tour BBC Radio Wales show. Good choice Mr Walton!

Now I’m off to my parent’s house with a can of Mr Sheen in hand to root around the attic for my old Atari. Please do email me at ben@wrexhammusic.co.uk and add to my ever growing inbox size. Take care.