Tag Archives: ♥

Friday Freakout: Vacation Wasteland EP by Slime Girls

Oh the joy of the pleasant surprise. Honestly, one of my favorite things about Chiptune is how a brand new artist that you’ve never heard of before can just come blasting onto the scene with a killer album out of fuggin’ nowhere. Case in point:

Vacation Wasteland

by Slime Girls

Seriously, I was just chilling in Areciboradio.com‘s chatroom during Obtuse’s 8 Bit Power Hour chiptune show (Man, did we throw an awesome listening party for the Chiptunes = WIN compilation there or what?!? \m|♥|m/ ;D ) when he up and decided to play a few Slime Girls tracks and completely blow my mind.  Nothing I had ever heard or heard of  before. So I did what any self respecting nerd would do: I googled ’em. And was very happy with what I found. To borrow a few words from Pterodactyl Squad, the netlabel that released their EP a few days ago:

“Bright blue pixellated waves lap against the pink sand as you quench your thirst on an ice cold cocktail. Over the gentle lull of the tide, you can hear the warm sounds of surf, ska, reggae and chip. You watch the musical notes float by. Slime Girls are playing in the distance and their debut EP is the chiptune soundtrack to your summer.”

Yeah, that pretty much sums ’em up. hahaha Sound somewhat like Anamanguchi and The Revengineers (soaring electric guitars, crashing drums, LSDJ leads & bass), but definitely have enough of their own sound to stand out; more of a surf rock/guitar sound than the aforementioned bands, which is something I could enjoy hearing a lot more of (well, that and Chipblues! GOD I LOVE CHIPBLUES~~ ).

So yeah, check ’em out when you get a chance. =) SAY FOR INSTANCE THIS MONDAY NIGHT AT THEIR LISTENING PARTY DURING THE NERDYJUNKFOOD SHOW ON ARECIBORADIO aka Listening Party Radio!!  Will be good times for sure, as it always is; and the more, the merrier, so come! And bring friends!! =D

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Friday Freakout: Inverse Phase + NIN = OH HELLZ YEAH!!

Chiptune covers of songs are f*cking awesome (like this Genesis one for instance). Personally, I get a real kick out of hearing some of my favorite songs, both old and new, transformed into Chiptunes. It’s a best of both worlds kinda thing. And when I’m in the mood for this niche within a niche, there’s one guy in particular that I always go to:

Brendan Becker
aka Inverse Phase

Whether it’s his collection of nerdy anthems on Retrocovered, a handful of various, awesome singles, or even his Guilty Gear chiptune cover album, the dude has some highly entertaining and very detail oriented covers absolutely worth checking out. Of course, if you want originals he’s got that happening too! Both the soundtracks for Shuttle Scuttle (Three-Stage FTW!!!) and Super Smash Land that he composed are excellent, and so are the original tracks in the Exclusives section of his bandcamp page.

But more importantly…

YES HE’S ABOUT TO RELEASE AN ALBUM FULL OF NINE INCH NAILS COVERS ON JUNE 14TH THAT HE’S BEEN WORKING ON FOR NEARLY A YEAR NOW!!!!  ZOMGWTFBBQ!!!!! 

I’ve always just been a casual NIN fan myself; more familiar with the singles than anything. That said, from the little bits that I’ve heard from this album (yes, I’ve got in on some early listens. I’M SPECIAL! WHAT OF IT?? ;3 ) he’s got me ready to wrestle a pack of Narwhals to own the sucker!! And I’m not the only one! His Kickstarter for the project collected over $3,600 in donations to make it happen, which is $1,000 over the initial goal set for the project. Quite  a vote of confidence from his fans! If you didn’t get in on that action, though, don’t you worry! You can still pre-order a copy of the album on his Bandcamp RIGHT HERE, either digital download ($6) or CD ($9). And you should. RIGHT DAMN NOW. Or Trent Reznor will teleport into your house via a magical flash drive and punch you in the genitals with a pixelated gauntlet of pain and angst. Or maybe not. But you would still miss out on the album and that would suck almost as badly, amirite? IAMRITE. ;)

Also, there will be  one of those crazy awesome listening parties for this chippy goodness on Areciboradio on the same date. Check out the details of that RIGHT HERE. In the meantime, stay tuned to IP’s Facebook & Twitter accounts and listen to Areciboradio for further details & chippy goodness!!

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Friday Freakout: Daniel Capo’s O.S.T. (i.e. OVERWHELMINGLY SEXY TUNES 8)

I love video game music and chiptunes.  I’m pretty sure that’s not exactly shocking news to anybody at this point. ;3 That said not all too long ago, just a little bit before MAGFest X I think, I discovered a fairly unique combination of the two. Sorta. To be a little bit more specific:

O​.​S​.​T:
Original Soundtrack

by Daniel Capo.

 

It’s not technically  a soundtrack to a video game, either from old or new platforms; there’s no actual game associated with this album. What it is is a collection of all “old school”, chiptune, 8bit, retro, etc. styled completely original compositions  written as an homage by the artist to his favorite video games. More or less Daniel “Captain Awesome” Capo (which is the very  fitting nickname that I just now gave him ;3 ) took everything that he loved, all of the wonderful nostalgia and artistry from his favorite video games and their soundtracks, and wrote his own damn album/soundtrack in tribute to such.

DO YOU NOT REALIZE JUST HOW COMPLETELY F**CKING AWESOME  THAT CONCEPT IS?!?!!?!? :O :O :O

And wait until you hear just *HOW* damn well he pulled it off!!  From start to finish, from intro theme to shop music to various level themes to boss fights and even down to ending credits, the album flows to life like an old, top tier NES era game would. I HAVE NEVER WANTED TO PLAY A GAME THAT DIDN’T EXIST SO BADLY IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!!  Seriously, I’ve been trying to write these latest articles with a bit more intelligibility and less over-enthusiasm, BUY HOLY BALLS I CAN’T COMMUNICATE HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS ALBUM WITHOUT LOTS OF ALL CAPS AND RUN ON SENTENCES AND CRAPTONS OF ESCAMASHUN PURNTS!!!!!1111!!1!11!1!111!
-takes deep breath, calms down, finishes blurb-
All joking aside, the total level of artistry displayed in this album is hard matched within both the VGM & Chiptune scenes, and not NEAR enough people in either scene know about this guy or the album. And that’s a damn  shame, and honestly it’s one of the reasons that I’m writing this blurb up now some several months after it’s release (dropped in November 2011). More people need to hear it.  
In other words, GET TO LISTENING AND SHARING THE DAMN THING ALREADY!!!!!11!!11!111! ;3 ;D \m|♥|m/

Also, Daniel has an EXTRAORDINARILY beautiful and brand spanking new track on the upcoming Chiptunes = WIN \m|♥|m/compilation, so there’s yet another  reason for you to check that chippy goodness out when it releases! ;D

Chiptunes = WIN \m|♥|m/ Compilation INFO BOMB!!! =D

ALRIGHTY THEN.  Time to drop a knowledge bomb on you regarding the Chiptunes = WIN \m|♥|m/compilation as hard as I can! =D

First, if you haven’t watched the promo video yet, DO THAT NOW:

To reiterate what was stated in that awesomely ridiculous  video, the 51 track Chiptunes MEGA compilation releases on June 5th at midnight via Bandcamp immediately  following the 8 Bit Power Hour listening party starting at 8pm Eastern time on Areciboradio. A link to the Facebook event page for that can be found right here.

In the meantime, stay tuned on Mondays to Geekbeat LeRadio on Unregular Radio, &  Nerd Rock Radio with Samuel Mulligan on WMFO Medford 91.5 FM for project news and teaser tracks from the upcoming compilation! Will hear different tracks on both programs on every show leading up to the release date!

Also, for more information and Chiptuney goodness feel free to check out the Chiptunes = WIN \m|♥|m/ Facebook page, the 8bitx blog page, and, of course, the 450+ member strong Facebook group that started it all! =D

And did I mention yet that Dj Cutman is mastering the entire project? EXACTLY.  8)

So hold on to your butts, because in only two weeks!!!!!  teh Chiptune craziness is ON LIKE A NECKBONE!! 

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