Category Archives: GAME MUSIC

Video Game Music and Remixes

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, FUSION, GAME MUSIC, MUSIC

Awesome Chiptune Fusion Bands

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There are myriads of awesome instrumental true chip artists and bands out there, but the ones that break the norm the most are the ones that combine chip music with other genres of music and add lyrics. This article is not about the best live performing bands but rather those of the highest quality music and lyrics.

The Depreciation Guild


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Style: Shoegaze + Chiptune
Sounds like: The Cure, Cocteau Twins, Armor For Sleep (the music anyways)

If you never heard the term shoegaze, it’s a style that started in the early 90s and had to do with using layers of guitar effects and lots of keyboards to create a dense dreamy wall of sound. If you ask me, chiptune and shoegaze go together perfectly and it’s a widely unexplored area of music that has massive potential.

Heartfelt romantic chiptune? Yeah! You may recognize the names and voices of Kurt Feldman and Christoph Hochheim from their currently popular indie pop/noise rock band The Pains of Being Pure at Heart which is also riddle with nostalgic nods to the Smiths, Smashing Pumpkins and other things from the past. The Depreciation Guild is one of my all time favorite acts. They are now broken up but you can still find their albums out there for download. My favorites are Butterfly Kisses, Sky Phantoms (epic feels!) and Dream About Me.

Cheap dinosaurs

Style: Rock + Math Rock + Chiptune
Sounds like: A little bit of everything all mixed together
There’s nothing cheap about Cheap Dinosaurs. This is some high quality music here with jagged math rock tempo switches and unexpected changes. Their tracks are mostly straight-up chiptune with just some light drums and guitar augmenting them. The trippy Train Hop is one of my favorites and it has a whacky video to match.

Revengineers

Style: Post Rock + Chiptune
Sounds like: A more rockin’ Six Parts Seven, Tristezza, Solar Powered Sun Destroyer

Post rock is an instrumental style with lots of dynamic changes. I think Revengineers captures this better than any other band I’ve heard. The amazing song Laika is a prime example of this bands powerful sound. It’s emotional and uplifting and gets you banging your head at the same time.

The Flight Away

Style: Punk Pop + Electropop + Chiptune
Sounds like: Angels And Airwaves, A remix of Dangerous Summer, Owl City (just a little)

The Flight Away has some of what might be called an “emo” sound (although I hate to use the word) by some with their expressive vocals. It’s one of the catchiest chiptune rock band type groups you’ll find. I really can’t get enough of their EP.

The J. Arthur Keenes Band.

Style: Ska + Regae + Rock + Chiptune
Sounds like: 311, Elvis Costello, Dub (not step), Various other rock groups

While their name sounds like some kind of blues trio, The J. Arthur Keenes Band’s album “Computer Saavy” is a great little smattering of ska, regae and rock influences with excellent vocals and lyrics. The vocals will remind you of 311 or Solar Powered Sun Destroyer. You have to love that they have a song called, “The Bus That Couldn’t Slow Down.”

KANGAWA

Style: Noise Rock + Ambient + Post Rock + Shoegaze + Chiptune
Sounds like: Caspian, Hammock, Solar Powered Sun Destroyer, Explosions in the Sky, most Shoegaze acts

Another shoegaze+ chiptune pioneer, Kangawa combines high quality production values with lush synth backgrounds and Gameboy thumps and bass lines. Their songs range from post rock anthems to gentle yet noisy ambient tracks. There are also some surprising moments on this album that you won’t be expecting.

Super Danger Casper

Style: Punk Pop, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists if Ted was from Indonesia + Chiptune

Super Danger Casper is similar to Anamanaguchi musically, but they have wonderful emotional vocals over top of it…in Indonesian. Yeah, I have no idea what they’re saying but it sounds very endearing and emotional. I love all those rolled R sounds too. After a few listens, you’ll find yourself singing along although you have no idea what they’re saying. If you speak their language, tell them to set up a bandcamp and a soundcloud page! The song above is one of their few english songs.

BeatScribeFaceBeatscribe is a full time indie composer, musician and writer. By day he creates soundtracks for various mobile gaming companies, by night creates megaman-inspired chiptunes, in the afternoons he drinks tea.  Check out his latest releases, tutorials and retro ruminations at www.beatscribe.com.
ALBUMS, GAME MUSIC, MUSIC

Shag – Flyrule “A Terrible Fate”

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1540549226-1Young beat-maker Shag released a sequel to his Zelda album Flyrule. This new album, “A Terrible Fate“, takes inspiration and samples from Majora’s Mask. Listen and download below.

Album available from Bandcamp at name-your-price.

EVENTS, GAME MUSIC, GAMING, MUSIC, SHOWS

MAGFest Game Over Austin ROUNDUP!!!

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Last weekend a bunch of amazing MAGFestians (myself included) brought a magical slice of MAGFest to Austin, Texas. It was called MAGFest Game Over Austin AND IT WAS GOOD.
(actually, it was REALLY ZOMBOFURKIN AWESOME, but you get the point ;).
This is my firsthand account of the glorious madness that was this first mobile MAGshow. ENJOY. \m|♥|m/

The shindig started early for me, as I arrived at Red7 with the rest of Lords of Thunder to load in. We got that done, enjoyed some pizza & soda, I logged some time on the freeplay Turtles in Time arcade cab with fellow Thunder Lord Daniel Tidwell, got made-up for the show (hair, make-up, & kilt!!!), made sure merch was setup (i.e. watched the Ladies of Thunder [aka ChipMom & Jenja] make that happen), got destroyed in Mario Kart 64 by Tien from Gameover Videogames (altho I redeemed myself later in the night battling C~Money), and then got ready to catch THIS dude perform:

Dr. Awkward kicked the night off WITH A COLOSSAL BANG with his furiously delicious, cleverly constructed nerdcore rhymes. Honestly, I’d heard of the dude before this show, but hadn’t heard him. IT WAS A GORRAM TREAT. “Impostor” & “Geekquilibrium” were my personal favs, both for the hilarious lyrics & DAT 8BIT GOODNESS. If you haven’t checked him out yet, 
FIX THAT NOW.

And then it was TIME FOR THE THUNDER…

I guess it’s kinda unfair to write this one up since, yanno, I’m playing bass in the band. :3
AH WUTEHFURKEVAR HERE GOES NOTHING~ We came to Austin, we played our 2nd live show ever (1st was 2nd stage MAGFest 11), and we melted faces. In other words, SHIT WAS EPIC. 8) Debuted a new track from Bushido Blade 2 (the closer for our set), which ties as my personal fav with the Guilty Gear 2 jam. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, I finally got to wear my kilt on stage. AND IT FELT GOOD. ;3 Also, BEWARE RANDOM ATTACK OWLS~ ;)

Following our face-meltery was the debut of the all new Descendants of Erdrick line-up:

CONFESSION: I was probably both the most anxious & excited for this set out of ANYTHING happening that night (even our set!). Short backstory: DoE are a big part of what pulled me even deeper into the VGM scene, to the point that I’m now playing in a VGM band with some of the former members of DoE sharing the stage with current DoE. MINDSPLOSION. O.O
Much has happened since then, including this lineup change, and thus a bit of conflicted feels.

THIS SHOW COMPLETELY BLEW ANY & ALL OF THOSE FEELS AWAY & REPLACED THEM WITH GI-FURKIN-NORMOUS FEELS OF AWESOME!!!

The Lepre lead lineup & stylistic change were indeed different; as Lerabbit stated, more of an “RPG Adventure tribute band”, and with a slant more towards prog rock. Works INCREDIBLY WELL, as you should be able to tell from the video (and the crowd’s reaction in it). Seriously y’all, keep following this band. They’re just going to get better and better.

Speaking of following awesome people & bands, be sure to catch the previous DoE members & the THREE OTHER VGM ACTS that they’re now involved in: LoT, Gimmick!, & The Returners. Where there was one VGM band there are now four. GOTTA LOVE IT. ♥

And then… there was Megaran:

As always, Random aka Megaran brought it SOMETHING FIERCE. Honestly, I’ve seen him perform several times over the years, & at various different types & sizes of venues, but each show has always been consistent in the PURE EXCELLENCE factor. And I say this as, truthfully, not the biggest nerdcore fan! It’s quality nerdcore artists like Megaran, Doc Awk, Shaffer the Darklord, etc. that make me question that, however, as they get my head bobbin’, feet movin’, and face grinnin’!

Last but HOLY CRAP NOT LEAST are the furious force known as Urizen:

Urizen is another act that appeared at Game Over Austin that I’d heard of (& always awesome things!), but hadn’t witnessed in person yet. To sum up my first time experiencing them live: 

HOLY FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU~

Their mix of metal, chip/8bit/synthy goodness, and INSANE stage show (ZOMBOFURKIN ROBOT MONSTER STAGE BATTLE FINALE ZOMG~!!!) definitely made for an EXCELLENT headlining act. To top it off, their energy & stage presence were MONSTROUS, & crowd interactivity was AMAZEBALLS (can you say THE BEST group Colossus roar outside of MAGFest TO DATE???). Needless to say, I left the show A HUGE FAN. And upon coming home discovered that their frontman, Thomas Drinnen, had also made a Chipmusic version of their latest album titled 8-Bit Universe. THIS PLEASES ME GREATLY.

And now to round-up this round-up with this MAG Austin round-up video by Melissa Flores!

Aw man, watching this video fills me with SO many damn feels! WHAT A ZOMBOFURKIN’ GOOD TIME WE ALL HAD~!!! ^_^ And most importantly, MORE TO COME!!! \m/\m/

Again, SO VERY MUCH LOVE to everyone who was a part of this show. It was DAMN amazing and I’m incredibly proud to have been a part of it. Until the inevitable next time, my friends, upon which I will undoubtedly tell you to…

GET DAT ASS TO MAGFEST!!!!!

~Hoodie
\m|♥|m/

All full set videos provided by Robert Swackhamer of 8bitx.com.

MAGFEST

GAME MUSIC, GAMING, MUSIC, RETRO GAMES

Most Underrated NES/Gameboy Soundtracks

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The lists of the best NES and Gameboy soundtracks are filled with familiar hits from Megaman, Zelda and Metroid. But there were a lot of less-than-stellar games for these systems that had some killer music. Here’s some amazing 8-bit songs you might have never heard.

 

Journey To Sillius

 

 

Journey to Sillius was originally going to be a Terminator video game but somehow Sunsoft lost the liscence and slapped a generic Sci-Fi story on this super tough platform run-and-gun game. Sunsoft gets two games on the top of the list for the same reason: Killer bass! While the triangle wave bass sound is one of the defining sounds of the NES, it also lacks character and punch of more modern synthesizer basses. While the DPCM channel on the NES normally plays tiny drum samples, that’s not all it can do.

 

The composers of Journey To Sillius loaded up beefy synth samples and used the noise channel to make drums. That gives these songs a lot more punch than your standard NES song. The added static from these 1-bit crushed samples actually adds to the power of these tunes.

 

To be fair, this soundtrack has gotten some recognition, it breaks the top 100, 300 and even top 20 on some lists, but I think it should be much higher. Check out the mind-blowing echoing part around 2:12 too!

 

Gimmick!

 

Gimmick is another Sunsoft entry to the NES line of games from 1992. Its happy, bouncy tunes are propelled along by awesome slap bass and crunchy samples that set it apart from other NES songs with their subtle bass parts. This game has got to have the busiest DPCM channels of any game out there. If you listen carefully you’ll notice that in some songs drum samples are playing in between bass samples. The resulting full sound never got the recognition it deserverd, probably mostly due to the fact that the game came out so late in the NES’s development cycle.

 

M.C. Kids

 

 

An annoying thing from the 90’s was that there was a video game that game out for every product imaginable. Every Saturday morning cartoon, soda, action figure collection got their own second-rate NES game. McDonalds didn’t want to be left out so they released M.C. Kids. It was basically a Super Mario 3 clone and brought little innovation or excitement. It’s graphics were also pretty weak. All that said though, this track is one of the most catchy things I’ve heard on the NES. The way they use the triangle bass is just great! I am warning you right now, if you listen to this song more than twice, it will be in your head for weeks. You may even awake from a sudden daze sitting in McDonalds with a Big Mac in your hand and have no idea how you got there. True story.

 

Turok

 

The Turok franchise started up around the N64 days around 1997. The Gameboy games had some amazing music. This Asian-infused little groove is really great. It’s hard to imagine this song sounding any better with modern instrumentation.

 

Conquest of the Crystal Palace

Conquest of the Crystal Palace was a hard-as-Blaster-Master platformer filled with weird characters (Dogs wearing Samurai armor) and impossible jumps. It’s one of those games that’s hard even if you use save states to cheat! The first level, however, has some of the most memorable Asian-influenced music you’ll ever hear on the NES. It’s got some great drum work too.

 

 

S-11

Released by Sunsoft and Paragon 5 in 2001, S-11 boasts some of the most amazing music for the Gameboy Color. You’re ears will have a hard time accepting that you’re only listening to 4 simultaneous sounds here.

 

Uncle Fester’s Quest

This super whacky Adams Family game might not have been the best game ever, but it had some killer music. This track uses the sampled bass trick that Sunsoft later perfected. You gotta respect that gritty bass sound and head banging beat. It’s very hard to make anything that truly rocks on the NES but this hits the spot. The interior “3d” areas of the game also have some of the creepiest music you’ll ever hear. I remember being on the edge of my seat exploring dark empty hallways, expecting something to jump out at me.
This is by no means a complete list. Post in the comments the long-lost gems that I might have left out.

BeatScribeFaceBeatscribe is a full time indie composer, musician and writer. By day he creates soundtracks for various mobile gaming companies, by night creates megaman-inspired chiptunes, in the afternoons he drinks tea.  Check out his latest releases, tutorials and retro ruminations at www.beatscribe.com.