MÁRIUSZ “DAMAGE” BARI
Writer, researcher and electronic music producer based in Budapest, Hungary.
I work at the intersection of technology, culture, communication and music.
Over the past three decades, that has taken me from community building through journalism, research, radio and education to electronic music, I always worked on futurepresent issues and helped turn complicated ideas into things that other people can understand, use or experience. I have written for major Hungarian media, built and managed online communities, worked with international startups and established brands, co-authored books and screen projects, taught digital culture and marketing, and released music as PLANETDAMAGE.
Cyberpunk has always been a recurring influence throughout most of my projects — particularly the relationship between people, technology, media and whatever version of the future has already arrived.
WORK WITH ME
I currently take on selected freelance work in:
- English ↔ Hungarian translation and localization
- Research, creative concepts and content development
- Original music, remixes and audio for games, video, advertising and other media
- Copywriting, copyediting and editorial work
If your project overlaps with technology, music, subculture or unusual subject matter, even better. If you have a project in mind, [get in touch →]
If you want a PLANETDAMAGE gig in your club/venue or at your festival, get in touch for a presskit!
CURRENT PROJECTS
Translations for Hungarian book publishing company Agave. The third Planetdamage album. A second non-fiction book.
MUSIC & AUDIO
I had already been making electronic music with FastTracker in the second half of the 1990s, but spent the following years largely on the other side of music: radio, DJing, journalism, promotion and events.
In 2016 I began releasing music professionally as PLANETDAMAGE with the EP Snapshots of a Surveillance Manifesto.
The PLANETDAMAGE moniker operates primarily in electro-industrial, with elements of EBM, breakbeat and psytrance.
My second album, KILLCAPS, was released in March 2026. The fifteen-track album includes twelve original tracks and remixes by Angelspit, Kris Baha and Statiqbloom. Earlier PLANETDAMAGE releases have featured remixes by artists including Attrition, Haujobb, Leaether Strip, Angelspit, The Mercy Cage and Black Nail Cabaret.
I also operate the heavier, more guitar-focused project RTFXX and have contributed vocals and other work to Hungarian industrial veterans CMC / Cro-Magnoni Cola.
Explore the complete music and remix archive →
SELECTED WORK EXPERIENCE
Writing, research & editorial
Cyberpunk does make you a sucker for new tech and weird stuff, I know it happened to me. I spent two and a half years as a tech columnist for HVG, one of Hungary’s major news publications, covering emerging technology, digital culture and events like Ars Electronica or the unveiling of Google’s Zürich offices. I later wrote on similar subjects for for 24.hu.
For almost five years I worked with the Hungary-based Japanese pop culture magazine Mondo, where I ran my own 12-page column entitled Damage Report that led to my eponymous first non-fiction book: a gonzo exploration of technology, cyberpunk and fringe culture, not unlike Mondo 2000’s A User’s Guide to the New Edge. (You can grab Damage Report for free here if you read Hungarian.) I also created The Dose fanzine, very much like a Lonely Planet guide to cyberpunks, goths and underground afficionados. Four PDF issues were made, focusing on Budapest, Tokyo, London and Paris, respectively.
GPOYW from Brain Bar Budapest, 2016.
Alongside publishing and research, I have lectured on social media, digital marketing, emerging technology and online culture at International Business School Budapest for a decade.
Communities & community management
Being the founding chief editor of LD50, Hungary’s first and up-to-date biggest alternative community portal (something very similar to Vampirefreaks) with a peak of cca 12.000 daily unique visitors was the first CM job I tackled.
I also ran point on Budapest’s first regular weekly goth/industrial club series at Club Marco Polo (with Zero of the NegativeArt crew) and I was one half of LD50’s Kollektíva promoter/org team, doing a well-established regular mini-fest for the Budapest scene. All this gave me the possibility to work with such amazing musicians such as Eve of Destiny, Soman, Killing Miranda, Closterkeller, The Sepia or Angelspit, among others.
After seven years as LD50’s editor-in-chief, I moved increasingly toward research and journalism — although one does not simply stop community management.
I subsequently worked with music startup Dragontape and, after relocating to North London, with music-based dating platform Tastebuds, then serving a community of more than 125,000 users.
LD50 became read-only in 2011 and its remaining public content was removed in 2021 for privacy and GDPR-related reasons.
Media, radio and storytelling
My background in media actually started with radio! During the late 1990s I hosted a weekly programme about cyberculture and underground music for four years on ParaRadio, Hungary’s first web radio station (sponsored by The Soros Foundation).
This led straight to broadcast radio: another two and a half years at EstFM 98.6, where I hosted programmes and served as lead scriptwriter for the absurdist radio comedy Kónuszék, avagy a Szabódó Család.
I later became one of the screenwriters of the animated feature Nyócker! / The District!, which received international coverage and distribution.
I have also co-authored two further books — one about music genres and another about Steve Jobs — and later returned to technology broadcasting as part of the Hungarian podcast 20 perccel a jövőbe / 20 Minutes into the Future.
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