The J. Arthur Keenes band continues to impress me. Their previous abum, Computer Savvy has what I consider to be the finest piece of chip/ska ever written, a bouncy little 2 minute piece called Cluck, which I’ve listened to on repeat while jogging over 20 times straight without noticing. I’d have been happy to have a whole album of nothing less than these great ska and reggae influenced chiptune tracks. But you get so much more from a J. Arthur Keenes album.
On trying to describe their latest album, The Social Lion, I find myself referring to bands that are the furthest thing from chiptune; M. Ward, Pedro the Lion, Beck, early-Wilco come to mind, mixed in with bits of swing, cowboy music and of course more ska and reggae. The chiptune influences are still there, little reggae upstroke ARPstabs, occasionally swirly bending notes and most prominently a low, crunchy bass, however they are a lot less prominent than they were on Computer Savvy. It sounds as if someone took the instruments away from half M. Ward’s backing band and replaced them with Gameboys.
The most distinctive thing about Social Lion is the vocals. The lyrics are clever and memorable and you’ll find lots of memorable choruses and melodies. This album is a lot more cohesive than Computer Savvy. You can get a digital copy for $8 and for just $2 more, an awesome hard copy album. It may be the first chip/folk/reggae thing in your collection!
Call up your folks and tell ’em disco ain’t dead, baby! Jake Kaufman‘s newest release, the soundtrack to WayForward‘s 3DS puzzle-platformer Mighty Switch Force! 2, harkens back to the glory days of dancehall greatness, yet still keeps things fresh by throwing in some of electronic music’s more recent innovations. Nearly every track on this album will make you want to stand up and get down. I guarantee it. So grab your white suit and let’s groove!
This album has a very distinct, classic dancehall inspiration behind it that strings the whole album together, but different tracks approach that unifying sound from various angles. Numbers like “Rainbow Love Zone,” “Got2BAStar,” and even the short little “Title” track bring the funk like only old-school-inspired dance music can. I honestly thought Maurice White or Barry Gibb was going to start singing when I cranked up that opener. You can imagine my surprise, then, when “Rescue Girl” comes around at the end and actually kinda delivers on that feeling, in the form of Kaufman himself singing with a couple friends, no less.
Meanwhile, other tracks take the album’s disco sound and brilliantly mix it into something more contemporary. “Exothermic” lays that sound over a drum-and-bass beat that slides into classic dubstep, but without following that old and busted build/drop formula that loses the beat. In fact, the closest thing this album has to a modern dubstep track is “Soak Patrol Alpha,” but even that song has more in common overall with 80’s pop music, and the drop isn’t even really a drop so much as a random section of wubs. Somehow it works, oddly as that may strike you.
Other tracks fit into a kind of gray area between these two extremes, and I think that’s where the album truly shines. “The Afterblaze” has got to be the catchiest thing I’ve heard so far this year, and gives “Exothermic” a run for its money in terms of being my album favorite. Tracks like “Soft Collision” and “Dalmatian Station” owe as much to 70s disco as they do to modern house music, yet both manage to synergize those two genres, rather than imitate one or the other. “Rescue Girl” is so incredibly fun to sing they probably can’t play it in countries where joy is frowned upon by the State, and “Glow” sounds like the opening theme to a Powerpuff Girls movie in the best way that sentence can be read.
My only real gripe with this album is that it can be repetitive at times, but that doesn’t even feel fair considering that’s my default problem with any video game soundtrack. “Title” forms the basis for much of “Got2BAStar,” while “Rescue Girl” is just a longer version with words. This isn’t inherently bad, but I could definitely understand people taking issue with it. Beyond all that, the album in general is built upon the soundtrack for the previous game in the series, which Kaufman also made. However, where the MSF1 soundtrack had chip, MSF2 has disco, so if you’re familiar with the previous OST, you may or may not prefer this one.
The album closes with several remixes by other artists of some the album’s core tracks, which are great from a standalone perspective but might feel repetitive if you’re listening to the album cover-to-cover. Under his “virt” handle, Kaufman turns “Rescue Girl” into a slow-jam R&B song, which was pretty rad, while his remix of “The Afterblaze” lives up to its “Bonus Chip Mix” subtitle. Coda drops the dubstep trappings of “Soak Patrol Alpha” and replaces the main melodies with delicious funk basslines. Finally, DJ Bouche‘s orchestral remix of “Glow” could easily be a tune in a Zelda game.
Just like the firefighter heroine of his song, Jake Kaufman is here to rescue us. His disco- and funk-inspired music rises above the jaded wastes of modern dance and reminds listeners that, in the future, electronic music can still have a soul. This is the music we’ll be listening to when we’ve all got virtual reality glasses grafted to our faces and we’re dancing in German diskotheks in the Metaverse. Except we haven’t left out living rooms.
Danwich once deconstructed a post-modern novel. He is still too irradiated to risk personal human contact. You can reach him through his email or his radio show’s page.
Amidst the commotion of fast-paced 21st-century life, 80s-inspired record label Telefuture reminds their listeners of a more optimistic time, when we could only just begin to glimpse at what technology might become. Over the last year, Telefuture has strived to keep alive the ideals and sounds of the 80s. A celebration of the label’s first anniversary, One: A Telefuture Compilation Album is an hour-long musical ride that pays homage to the golden age of wayfarer sunglasses, hairspray, and video arcades. The eleven songs showcased in this albumre-imagine 80s auditory tropes for the listeners of today by capturing neon-lit nostalgia through the use of classic analog sounds and samples.
The album leads off with “Gemini,” an exquisitely introspective track by Nashville-based Makeup and Vanity Set. The song draws us in with its subtle buildup of atmospheric synths coupled with delicate percussive pops, while also sparking Cosmos-likevisions of exploding stars and faraway galaxies. Moving on through time and space, the album next invokes the era of the Brat Pack with Le Cassette‘s “Tonight.” No album inspired by the sounds of the 80s would be complete without a throbbing vocal ballad and Telefuture’s inclusion of “Tonight” definitely does not disappoint. Flashing back to an electronic love affair long gone, “Tonight” shines bright as the only song on the album with vocals at the forefront; the track blends buttery backing synths with smooth vocals into a delicious sonic simulacra of an 80s-style ballad.
One leverages the combination of different musical artists to great effect; the songs combine old and the new to the point where it is difficult to tell where one era stops and the other begins. With its bouncy, upbeat synths and delightful underlying rhythms, Arcade High‘s “One Year Ago” summons up an especially jubilant acoustic throwback to the coming-of-age films of the 80s.
While there are many bright moments to be savored on this album, not every song completely hits the mark. Planted squarely in the middle of the album, Swedish musician Linde‘s “M.Y.S” clocks in at just over eight minutes. Wading through the track’s psychedelic echoes and ethereal arpeggios, though they are at times gripping and always interesting, constitutes an exercise in patience. By the seventh minute of languid electro synths, there exists an almost palpable desire for a jolt of musical rejuvenation. Thankfully, this jolt comes in the form of the track that follows “M.Y.S.” – lpower’s “Passage.” “Passage” recovers the album’s energy and recaptures the spirit of chiptune as it draws upon the power of bassy and driving melodic synths to pack in an energetic, addictive blend of dance beats, chip harmonies, and an intense boss fight wrapped up all in one.
The end of One does not impress as much as the beginning; this is not to say that the latter songs on the album do not deserve as much credit, but in the wake of the earlier musical heavy-hitters they remain at an auditory disadvantage. Overall, the album is a fantastic and thoughtful tributeto the sounds of the 80s, where the sincere efforts of the musicians on the album pack a punch as powerful as He-Man himself. With one ear in the present and the other in the past, any listener will find Telefuture’s first anniversary compilation to be a memorable musical marvel.
K.K. & Friends: The new remix album from GameChops remixers Ben Briggs and ectogemia.
Video game remixers Benjamin Briggs and ectogemia have produced a nine track remix album in honor of the new Animal Crossing game. It is now available from GameChops, the Philadelphia-based record label specializing in licensed video game remixes.
Animal Crossing, the beloved video game franchise from Nintendo is getting its first full-length remix treatment be remixers Ben Briggs and ectogemia. The new album K.K. and Friends is their first collaboration, and is professionally mastered and released by GameChops.
Animal Crossing featured a unique approach to its music; depending on what time you played the game different tunes would play. K.K. and Friends contains nine cover songs found in the Animal Crossing series, organized by the time of day they’re presented in the game. Starting with an upbeat “Bright and Early”, taking us through “Rush Hour,” a “Rainy Day,” finally settling with the mellow, “Moonlit Memories.” The progressive arrangement and polished mixing makes it clear that Ben Briggs and ectogemia are two promising young musicians in the vibrant video game remix scene.
The album runs over a half an hour long, and is currently available for pre-order from KKandFriends.com. The album releases on June 9th, the same day as Nintendo’s newest game in the Animal Crossing series, New Leaf.
GameChops is the first record label to specialize in electronic video game remixes with high production quality and licensing.
