Category Archives: CHIPTUNE

Chiptunes and Chipmusic

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, FUSION, GAME MUSIC, GAMING, MIXES, MUSIC, RETRO GAMES

A Video Game Music Tribute Field Trip …or, A Review of Joshua Morse’s Indie B-Side, Vol. 1

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Joshua Morse's Indie B-Side Vol 1Joshua Morse takes us on a half hour sonic romp through virtual worlds with his album Indie B-Side, Vol. 1. A tribute to the indie games and composers who originally created these tracks, this album is full of thoughtful, as well as delightful, reinterpretations sure to please anyone who’s either listening to these arrangements for the first time or who might be familiar with the originals.

The album opens up with “Onward Via Rotation,” an homage to the 2D platforming game FEZ, with music composed by Disasterpeace. Referencing FEZ’s “Adventure,” Morse’s choice to open with this song was a fantastic decision. With its added funky grooves and beats, “Onward Via Rotation” makes you feel as if you’re flying above the horizon, peeking through layers of clouds to the land beneath you. Before I cheated and looked to the bottom of the page to see which game the song came from, I really did feel as if I were embarking upon a listening adventure; the track starts off quickly, with lots of energy, and after a series of encounters with additional layers of synths, gradually slows down, granting the listener a dose of blissful release and satisfaction in the song’s smooth ending.

Ranging from playful riffs to more serious tributes, this album truly showcases Morse’s talent as a composer, as he adds his own unique flair to songs from virtually every genre. For instance, the title of the fifth song “Packaging and Shipping,” is an apt name for this fun reimagining of Melvin’s Madness from the game Cardboard Box Assembler. “Healing Places,” the sixth song of the collection, is a beautiful tribute to “EliasPalace,” from online game La Tale. The song remains relatively simple and slow throughout, but with the sweeping sounds of strings and echoes of quivering piano synths, the emotional punch is huge. Hopefully my readers won’t hate me for this next reference, but it brought to my mind the anime adaptation(s) of the visual novel Kanon, particularly the song “Last Regrets.” (I challenge anyone who thinks I’m crazy to listen to both and compare, then get back to me)

Admittedly, I’d only ever heard of a handful of these games before listening, and the rest were completely foreign to me. But while I may have missed out on the nostalgic attachment that a more experienced gamer might have brought to the songs, the songs that Morse picked were striking and evocative. As I continued to listen to them, over and over again, I found myself becoming increasingly hooked. It was like the aural equivalent of going to a craft brewery, getting a 2 oz. sampling glass of various kinds of beers, and then going home with a eight-pack of all my favorites. Except instead of beer, I’ll have to buy and play all of these games now! This album is only volume 1 of what is sure to be many more tribute compilations to various indie games, and I can’t wait to see what more awaits us in the future.

Intrigued? Hungry for more? Just want some beer? (if yes, grab some, then come back and listen) You can learn more about Joshua Morse and his music by checking out his website, Facebook page, and bandcamp.

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, Features, FUSION, GAME MUSIC, MUSIC

Dj CUTMAN, Spamtron – MeowMeow & BowWow, a tribute to Link’s Awakening (Producer’s Notes)

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MeowMeow & BowWowNearly a year of work, dozens of mixes, a handful of awkward titles and here we are. MeowMeow & BowWow a Link’s Awakening tribute written and produced by Spamtron and myself.

What can I say that hasn’t been said on our Bandcamp, press release, or Facebook page… This album was both a challenge and wonderful fun to work on. Spamtron is an incredible composer and I began to love his covers of the Link’s Awakening OST almost more than the originals. The level of detail and commitment in his programming is astounding, it was nothing short of a delight to mix. The medleys he programming in Sword Search and The Woods are so fluid, I almost don’t notice when he transitions the source material.

Certain songs, like Ballad of the Wind Fish, were a serious challenge. This is a very emotional track in the game, a repeating motif that serves as both congratulations for completing a dungeon and the heartbreaking finale of the story. Spamtron re-wrote this song three times, in an effort to capture the subtly and emotion of original. I went through nine distinct mixes of the ballad before the version that made it on the album.

I created  a mini-game within the album’s music, playing off the title. Hidden in each song on the album is a Meow and a Woof. This was my attempt at personifying the NPCs Madam MeowMeow and BowWow (her “dog”). These samples can be heard clearly on the introduction of Mabe Village. Can you find Madam MeowMeow and BowWow in each track?

This album went through a very serious mixing and mastering process. At the beginning of August (when Spamtron and I had believed the album was done) I found myself researching some of the most technical areas of sound engineering. I made discoveries that blew my mind, so much that I purchased new plug-ins and re-mixed every track in MeowMeow & BowWow. For the sound engineers out there, I discovered the benefits of linear-phase EQ, 32-bit floating-point renders and the limitations of mixing at 44.1khz.

The excitement culminated last weekend at our release party, 8-Bit Lounge, held at the historic PhilaMOCA, originally owned by world-renown music producer Diplo. To extend some of the celebration online, I’m selling the remaining commemorative badges from the event, each containing a download of the album thats set to last ten years.

The album is available on music.GameChops.com, streaming it its entirety on YouTube, and will be available soon on iTunes and Loudr. It’s been an incredibly rewarding experience working on MeowMeow & BowWow. This album serves as a spiritual successor to Bagu and the Riverman, the Zelda II tribute Spamtron and I completed in 2011, which later became the seed for The Triforce of Bass, our first #1 album on Bandcamp.

I hope you enjoy MeowMeow & BowWow as much as we enjoyed making it. And to anyone who buys the album or shares it with their friends, thank you for your support. This would not be possible without you.

>B]

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, DANCE MUSIC, Features, MUSIC

Fighter X – BERSERKER

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a3831357739_10Chiptune legend Fighter X just released his first new album in four years. BERSERKER is available on Bandcamp for name your own price.

Writing his music on a Gameboy with LSDj, Fighter X has been considered by some to be a pioneer of Chiptune dance music, since his self-titled release back in 2009.

The Fighter X project has gone through some changes over the past eight years. Originally started in 2005 by Seattle-based Chiptune musician  Nickolas Walthew, Fighter X later incorporated Jack Waterman, creating one of the first 2xLSDJ 2xHuman-Being chiptune acts. When the duo split in 2011, Nick took a hiatus from Fighter X while Jack went on to start his own project  Electric Children. On June 1st of this year, Fighter X began performing again, starting with a show at The Vera Project in Seattle.

Get BERSERKER on Bandcamp for free, or choose to donate to help this awesome chipmusician. You can follow Fighter X on Facebook, Twitter and Soundcloud.

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, FUSION, GAME MUSIC, MUSIC

“The Chip Age” – A Review of Joshua Morse’s “Waveform 4”

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“Hey buddy, you got chip in my jazz. Actually, y'know what? Just leave it there. It's rad.”
“Hey buddy, you got chip in my jazz. Actually, y’know what? Just leave it there. It’s rad.”

Joshua Morse‘s newest jazz-fusion short release, Waveform 4, has to be the most charming thing I’ve heard in a good while. Jazz has always been my favorite style of music I know nothing about, and any time I come across an “X-jazz” genre tag I get all tingly. And if you’re a little more familiar with jazz and the word “fusion” terrifies you, I say, “Worry not, citizen!” This release keeps it reigned in, being creative and enjoyable without getting avant-garde or just plain weird. As per his own mission statement, Mr. Morse does indeed prove that not all jazz is elevator music.

Now, I do have to admit, it took me a little while to actually accept that this album is jazz-inspired, but that has everything to do with my skewed perceptions. I lay the blame squarely on my college’s radio station, which plays some really pretentious, fringe nonsense when it comes to jazz. I swear, next time I hear a DJ say “post-bop” on the air, I’m gonna call in and give someone a knuckle sandwich over the phone.

But, I digress. Every track on this short album (or EP, or “chipdisk” as Morse himself puts it, or what have you) is a choice cut. The opening track, “Turtle Dance 3,” brings it old school, straddling the line between honest jazz and arcade soundtrack that the retro gamers are incredibly familiar with. It won’t make you think of a specific title so much as like, all of Sega at once. “Fusion Factory” achieves the impossible by throwing a bunch of genres into a blender and creating a coherent product. There’s funk, there’s disco, there’s jazz, there’s chip, I could go on. Use your imagination, and “You Got Me” is the back-beat to an R&B jam 20 years out from now. I really expected Robotic Barry White to roll out at some point, no joke. “Galactic EQ Bands” sounds like something out of an 80s action movie soundtrack, and I mean that as high praise. The way it opens will put you right back into a Beverly Hills Cop shootout. The closer “It’s Like Flying” not only lives up to its title, but brings a truckload of passion to bear as well. You can put your own love-song lyrics to the synth and piano melodies in certain parts; that’s how much raw emotion this track has.

Naturally I’m gonna gripe about the length of this release, because it’s a knockout and I’d love more of it. At the same time, however, I’m rather thankful that it’s only five tracks long. Each track stands high and solitary, being entirely unique with regard to the other four. This is something I can’t really see as being possible in a full album’s worth of material, or at least I would consider it a feat only pulled off on incredibly rare occasions. Yet it works as an album as well because of the common jazz thread woven through each cut. I believe that balance, that “one out of many” quality is what makes this release truly special.

Danwich has begun work on an amateur American Gothic novel.  You can read its beginnings here.  He would love your votes.