Infected Mushroom Celebrates 25 Year Anniversary With Imaginative "Shroomeez" NFT Drop

Infected Mushroom (Erez Eisen and Amit Duvdevani) celebrates 25 years of high-octane beats and consciousness-expanding live shows this year. The Israeli-born psytrance duo has always been synonymous with mind-bending visual art. So, it should come as no surprise that part of their silver anniversary would include an innovative NFT drop on Nifty Gateway.

The NFT is released in concert with their new EP "Shroomeez," out now on Monstercat. Eisen and Duvdevani teamed up with experimental visual artist FARGO to create a groundbreaking audiovisual marvel. FARGO used an AI-enabled algorithm to merge thousands of images of faces, nature, and of course mushrooms to create each Shroomee. It’s an unprecedented leap forward in AI, and nothing of this scale or size has ever been released as an NFT before.

“The first Shroomee creature was presented to us by Monstercat and the artist FARGO a while back,” Infected Mushroom told us. “We loved the idea and imagined a planet full of Shroomeez and a mushroom society. It was a musical journey for us. We wanted to represent something futuristic that would suit an advanced mushroom society.”

The project is split between three collections. The first offers (via raffle) 100 unique Shroomeez as 1 of 1 pieces. The second (via raffle) puts the Shromeez into four distinct worlds, soundtracked by the four songs on the EP. The third offering (via auction) is a lone Shroomeez NFT paired with a brand new, unreleased Infected Mushroom tune. Only the buyer and Infected Mushroom will ever hear it.

Monstercat co-founder and CEO Mike Darlington helped bridge the relationship between Infected Mushroom and FARGO. It was truly a collaborative project FARGO says, “I was given incredible music to listen to throughout the whole process, including their EP. This really helped energize me and align myself to the project.”

FARGO says his process ensured that each Shroomee was distinctive. “I used machine-learning AI technology and then developed my own proprietary methods to work collaboratively with the AI to make the creations. They are all unique, just like us. And I’ll be honest... sometimes they can get a little ugly. But that’s ok, we all have our ugly moments. I love these characters because they have character. There is beauty in their imperfections.”

In a statement released by Monstercat FARGO added, “The most important thing to note about the AI-enabled art process I have formed, is for the first time ever, the software has upgraded itself from the role of a 'tool' to a 'collaborator.' The AI is a collaborative partner and we pass files back and forth to create the results together, each using our strengths to aid the others’ weaknesses.”

Infected Mushroom are excited to enter the NFT space at this momentous time in their career. The drop is the perfect companion for an EP that is packed with the duo’s signature transcendental sound. They said, “We always look for new ways to promote and drop our music and NFTs are an exciting format that has an added value in an artistic way. The blockchain world opens unique possibilities to distribute music directly to our fans.”