VirusesOrganic

Viruses is the long game. An ongoing electronic experimental project between Michael Vitali, Rocco DiDonna, and Jeffrey Smith, it has been passing signal between New York and Chicago for two decades — files traded, tape mangled, synths pushed into the red, songs assembled across state lines and years. The name is the method: a virus doesn't tour, doesn't rehearse, doesn't break up. It transmits, lies dormant, mutates, and reappears — and that is exactly how this project has behaved since 2006. All methods of creation are on the table and always have been: circuit and wire, cut-up and collage, drone and pop wreckage. What matters, and what the label certifies on every surface, is that every recording in the Viruses catalog is fully organic — made before the members had ever heard of AI or had access to it in any form. In a catalog that now sits alongside hybrid, disclosure-labeled modern productions, Viruses is the control group: two decades of machine music made entirely by hands. The banner release is 'Popdust,' issued worldwide January 22, 2013 on Magnetic Eye Records — Vitali, Smith, and DiDonna staring out of the three-panel press sheet like a police lineup for a crime that hadn't been invented yet. It shared the label's 2013 catalog wall with Asvara's 'All' — two sides of the same experimental year. Viruses never broke up because Viruses was never exactly a band: it is a standing agreement that whenever the three of them touch machines, something gets made. The full archive is being remastered and staged for the PENNY vault — every era, every transmission. It is still active. It will probably outlast the grid.

The history and the records, pressed into one column — read it, hear it, own it, in the order it happened.

2006Transmission begins

NY ↔ Chicago

The project forms as a standing collaboration between Michael Vitali (New York), Rocco DiDonna (Chicago), and Jeffrey Smith — electronic experimentalism traded across state lines, no rules, no deadline, no end date. The channel opens and never closes.

2013Popdust

Popdust (Magnetic Eye)

'Popdust' released worldwide January 22, 2013 on Magnetic Eye Records — the project's banner transmission, announced with the three-panel press portrait of Vitali, Smith, and DiDonna. Seven years of accumulated NY–Chicago signal, pressed into one title.

Popdust2013

Digital · Magnetic Eye Records · 2013-01-22 · 8 tracks

Released worldwide January 22, 2013 on Magnetic Eye Records. The title is the project's whole aesthetic in one word: pop, reduced to dust, swept into new shapes. Electronic experimentalism assembled between New York and Chicago by Vitali, Smith, and DiDonna — synths, tape, collage, and wire, fully organic, every second of it made long before AI existed in the members' world. Per the founder's liner notes, the album itself came together in roughly three months of file-sharing sessions: Ableton, a Monome, laptops, and real instruments passed down the NY–Chicago wire — Vitali on guitars, electronics, keys, and drums; DiDonna on vocals, keys, and electronics; Smith anchoring on bass plus keys, drums, and electronics. Eight tracks in about thirty-five minutes that run the project's whole range: sound-art weirdness, hypnotic grooves, rock muscle, and electropop shine — the seven-and-a-half-minute 'Revanans' at one pole, the sugar-rush of 'Peach' at the other. Contemporary reference points from the house file: Radiohead's experimental side, QOTSA swagger, Zach Hill's drum chaos, Head Automatica, STS9. The three-panel press portrait from the release campaign hangs in the gallery below, alongside the 2013 Magnetic Eye catalog wall where 'Popdust' sat among the label's first transmissions. (In this same era the founder ran Nanobox Records, MER's electronic sublabel — 'Spar' would arrive there in 2015; 'Popdust' stands as a Magnetic Eye release per the owner's record.) Timings per the founder's catalog notes, pending verification against the archive masters.

First pressed via Magnetic Eye Records, 2013

2015Spar

Spar (Nanobox NB013)

'Spar' released March 7, 2015 on Nanobox Records (NB013) — Magnetic Eye's electronic sublabel, built by the founder so his ad hoc electronic passion projects with friends wouldn't clutter the heavy stoner-rock vinyl catalog. Seven rounds recorded and produced at IO666, sold under the band's own tagline: 'Sugary Pop Tunes made for no one to love. Ever.' Details per the founder's 2026 liner notes, pending verification against the archive masters.

Spar2015

LP · Nanobox Records (NB013) — sublabel of Magnetic Eye Records · 2015-03-07 · 7 tracks

Released March 7, 2015 on Nanobox Records (NB013) — Magnetic Eye's electronic sublabel, and the owner's own explanation is the best liner note it could have: Nanobox existed 'in order to not clutter up the heavy stoner rock serious releases — with vinyl and international bands — with electronic ad hoc passion projects I was working on with friends.' Spar is exactly that passion project: the second Viruses transmission, recorded and produced at IO666. The band's own tagline for the record says everything about its posture: 'Sugary Pop Tunes made for no one to love. Ever.' Seven tracks in about thirty-three minutes, sparring exactly the way the title promises — the two-and-a-half-minute jab of the opener against the six-minute drifts of 'Letter' and 'Off to the Stars.' 'Ghettos of the World' carries the record's sharpest line — 'Do you kneel before the screen… do you treat it like a God…' — the same screen-worship indictment the founder was writing into Ironweed lyrics in the same era, here set to electronics instead of fuzz. Timings per the founder's catalog notes.

First pressed via Nanobox Records (NB013) — sublabel of Magnetic Eye Records, 2015

2026Ongoing

Still transmitting

Twenty years in, Viruses remains an open channel. The full archive is being remastered and staged for the PENNY vault — every era, fully organic, recorded before AI existed in the members' world.

• Michael VitaliMember · guitars, electronics, keys, drums, production — New York
• Rocco DiDonnaMember · vocals, keys, electronics, production — Chicago
• Jeffrey SmithMember · bass, keys, drums, electronics — the anchor; a 'monster' bassist in the founder's own words

The catalog streams right here — one stream, one penny, straight to the artist vault.

Vinyl and merch, sold direct — no middlemen between the record and your hands.

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