Category Archives: Features

Guest Post: Zef – Didn’t Mother Teach You to Share?

[box type=”info”] Zef is a Chiptune artist from Saskatchewan, Canada. His debut release was released through NoiseChannel.org.[/box]

Didn’t Mother Teach You to Share?
by Zef

I’m going to be talking about the chipmusic scene, and one thing in particular that makes it very unique. In chipscene, artists make music, perform shows, and distribute albums just like in any other music scene, however chipmusic artists exhibit one major difference that distinguishes them from most of the music industry: In the majority of cases; chipmusic artists are doing these things for free.


For those who aren’t familiar with chipmusic already; jump on over here and pick up a quick background on it. For some reason chip artists are breaking the mould and they’re giving away perfectly good music when they could be making a profit on it; I believe there are several compounding reasons for this phenomenon.


Firstly; chipmusic is a rather small niche of the music market (though it’s growing in popularity quite quickly) that is to say, it had humble beginnings. It started off as people simply messing around with old hardware to see what new things they could do with it. Onlookers started paying attention and joining in themselves. Since its very beginnings chipscene has been about spreading interest in this interesting type of music. There were no means for early artists to make a career out of this music, and so the majority of the early scene was established primarily by hobbyists; people who did this sort of thing for fun. Since this scene was founded on the premise of having fun rather than making money it set a foundation that has carried on for years. The precedent this foundation set has carried on the principle, new artists entering the scene can see that those are already established in the scene are giving away their music for free and are actively working towards making chipmusic a community thing. Seeing that this is the way the scene works, new artists adopt these principles as their own.

One other possible contributor is that most of the materials involved in making chipmusic are free or very inexpensive. Most people have access to at least one old gameboy or NES, and most of the early software for making chipmusic was created by the musicians themselves and was given out freely. As it stands, most new chipmusic artists can get started for next to nothing.

All of these things helped to form chipmusic into the community that it is today. In this community you find the pros helping out those who are just starting, you see artists sharing tips amongst those who in any other context would have been their direct competition, and you see artists teaming up to use their music for the common good in compilations such as Chip In: Japan!.


The fans love it too of course, they get a lot of their music for free, but they also become willing to support their favourite artists through “pay what you want” releases. I’m certainly not saying that everyone needs to give out their music for free, what people do with their own music is their business, but what’s important here is that the precedent stay strong, that new artists can see that this isn’t a dog eat dog scene, but that it is a fostering community of artists helping each other to produce better music.


I’m Chris Penner, but I go by the alias Zef, and I encourage you to share this blog post around, and, if you’re an artist, to begin to share your own music for free too. To support this principle I’m releasing my new album Blackout (and all the source files) as a pay what you want download, grab it for free if you like, or donate a bit of cash which I’ll be lending through kiva.org, a wonderful organization that helps people in third-world countries get back on their feet; I highly recommend you check them out! In fact, I’ve made a chipmusic team for chipmusicians and fans alike to show the world how much they care; join up and start lending HERE. Just remember that the chipscene is about more than just music, it’s a community.

Zef’s new album is available from Bandcamp.

Powerglove Remix Contest

My netlabel GameChops is hosting it’s first remix contest for Powerglove, the tune Benjamin Briggs and I did together. Here’s your chance to take this brand new track and edit, change, mix and wreck it in whichever way you see fit! Are you an audio nerd who just likes listening to stems? [I am, had to ask :] Well they’re free, so head over to GameChops, download the stems and start remixing!

We took a sample from the Nintendo game Mig 29 Soviet Fighter and transformed it into a dirty, loud, electrohouse track! Featuring samples from the movie The Wizard, this tune is so good it can only be described as “so bad.” Have a listen:

Ready to make this track your own at a chance to win a release on GameChops? Head over to the Remix Stems page, download and get to mixing! Submission deadline is June 25th!

GameChops: A GameMusic / Chiptune Netlabel

April 3rd, 2012 marks a momentous day for me. It’s the launch of my not-for-profit internet record label GameChops. Over the last few years of DJing VGM and making beats I’ve met a lot of great people and learned a tremendous amount about production, performance, and making music a greater part of my life. With GameChops, I hope to give back to this vibrant, supportive scene.

I love hearing bits of original game music in new productions. Chiptune samples are my favorites, I don’t care if it’s a funk tune or a rap track, you throw a Nintendo or a raw sawtooth wave in there and I am hooked. It was this irrational love of game sounds that got me started as Dj CUTMAN; I was working as a hiphop engineer and I made my first video game beats while hanging out in the studio after recording sessions.

The debut release for GameChops is none other than Benjamin Briggs, veteran OCRemixer and budding digital DJ. The release is an EP inspired by Diddy Kong Racing aptly titled Bootleg Circuit. Thsip reductions cleverly utilize in-game samples to create a five track electro-house marathon worthy of any street race or game party. Grab the release on GameChops.

Head over to GameChops.com to check out all the releases. Please support this project by adding GameChops on Facebook. Here’s to much more music.

-C

Dj CUTMAN & An0va – Strobe (Deadmau5)

It’s my birthday!

To celebrate, I’m releasing a very special chiptune! It’s a collaboration with An0va, an all-gameboy cover of EDM producer and performer Deadmau5! This is an extra exciting track for me, as it is an 100% legal cover thanks to mechanical licensing. It is also (by far) the longest I have spent on a track on LSDj, and working with An0va was a blast!

You can pick up the two versions of this track on Bandcamp!