Last week I got a WiiU, and felt oddly inspired by that long firmware update that happens as soon as you turn the thing on. I sat content, tidying up my living room and listening to the tunes Nintendo put together to sooth the frayed nerves of excited gamers everywhere. I felt oddly inspired, and created a 9 track album of remixes sampled from the WiiU. Download now from my site:
The album is name-your-price with no minimum, so download for free if you’d like. Support me by sharing the link to this album with your friends online. Shoot me a message on twitter @VideoGameDJ and let me know what you think!
Artistic growth is an awesome thing to behold. To witness an artist’s humble beginnings, their developmental period (which some might say never truly ends with an active artist!), and their transition into a truly legitimate, confident professional in their field; just AWESOME. Truth be told, I feel as if I’ve witnessed at least a part of this progression with today’s artist and his latest release:
Epic Elevator Music
by The Bitman
To start off, “Epic Elevator Music” is eight *STELLAR* tracks of hard hitting, powerfully driven, yet wildly stylistically varied LSDj goodness of the highest mark. It’s another one of those chipalbums that I knew would be an instant favorite of mine before the first track even finished, and 100% confirmed after about eight back-to-back playthroughs. DAMN GOOD JAMS.
It’s upon comparison to Max Dolensky aka The Bitman‘s previous two EPs from earlier in the year, “Ten Day EP” & “Nimbus“, that his growth becomes strikingly apparent. Neither of these albums are bad. In fact, they’re both quite solid & worthy of downloading! That said, EEM is on a completely different level of chipartistry. The complexity of the compositions, the more intricately designed melodic structures, the wonderful variety and blending of different musical styles, the greater aptitude regarding LSDj composition and mixing technique; everything is better, stronger, catchier, more aptly composed & inspired.
According to Max, some of this development simply comes from gaining more experience with his craft, but the lion’s share of it comes from gaining more experiences. By this he means learning from and collaborating with other chipartists and awesome people within the scene, and of course by participating in live performances. BRKfest in general stands out as a poignant turning point in his chipmusic career, much as it does for so many other chipartists that attended &/or performed at it. (For more thoughts straight from The Bitman himself, keep an eye out for an in-depth transcript of our *AMAZING* chat coming soon to the ChipWIN blog!!).
But if you think The Bitman has reached his developmental plateau, check out this rough draft of a brand new track he’s working on:
Right at the start, the powerfully sexy vibe and addition of the live brass (!!!) set this track apart from his already unique & established stylings, hinting at the potential for even further artistic development & just the overall exceptional future he has in store. And if you’re interested in seeing how that pans out (and how can you NOT be after hearing that track?!!?!?), you should probably stay tuned to The Bitman in the near future (i.e. more like this coming very soon~ ;).
While you’re here don’t miss the article written about him recently in the school paper of his Alma mater, the University of Alabama. It’s complemented by a video interview as well, which you can check out here:
But enough of my blathering already! Get to the real reason you’re here: listening to someAWESOME CHIPMUSIC!! 8) And while you’re doing that, make sure to donate some $$ to the “help Max not be a broke college student” fund. Always a worthy cause, especially when there’s more artistry to develop. ^_^
For those of you who have been into Chiptune music for a while, you probably remember the website 8bitcollective.com. Plagued with site issues like downtime and a finicky uploader, 8bc held a special place in my heart, it was an incredibly active portal for free chiptune music. Every submission was downloadable, and its where I learned of many of my new favorite artists, included Smiletron, MisfitChris and Electric Children.
At the end of 2010, 8bc went down for good. Luckily, some crafty people took the time to create this: an archive.org collection of every song on the 8bc database. Just over 18GB, this collection is massive chunk of chiptune history, and includes some songs that can’t be found anywhere else. And the best part, this collection is entirely legal under Creative Commons.
For those looking for a new Chiptune fix, check out uCollective, a website started in the spirit of 8bc, with much more attentive developers ;)
Nobody ever really quits chiptune. Regardless of the reason – busy raising a litter, taking a hiatus in an attempt to shake the burn out, feelings hurt by too many forum trolls – any chipartist truly in love with chipmusic always seems to come back eventually. The 8-bit addiction is simply inescapable. Today’s proof of this theory is thus:
22:06
by Breakbeat Heartbeat
Yup, that is indeed a name that hasn’t been heard from in awhile, possibly even since the 8bc days! Breakbeat Heartbeat has undoubtedly been a viable chipartist since 2007, but there’s not been much from him in recent years. That said, via the new chip netlabel The Waveform Generators, he’s most definitely blasting back onto the chipscene with a powerfully composed & well produced new album full of melodically driven, beautifully melancholy earjoys. It took all of about 10 seconds of the first track “Blue Paint” to get its hooks in me, which were pounded irretrievably deeper in by the following 11 tracks (track 4 “Before My Eyes” quite especially! POTENT STUFF).
To shed some light on the creative process behind the release & his return, Neil Turnbull (BBHB) says, “When I’m actually writing I do each song in one sitting because I much prefer to start from scratch every time I sit down; which has really helped me get a better variation of styles into the album.” Neil goes on to say, “I listen to lots of different stuff and everything puts me into a different mood for writing so I end up feeling a bit constricted having to go over something I’ve already written. Sometimes I’ll listen to something I’ve written a while ago and I won’t even recognize it!”
He’s also very glad to be back into music production mode and feels that he’ll definitely be at it pretty solidly for the foreseeable future. “It’s good to be back making music though I don’t think there will ever be a point when I don’t enjoy making it! I’m sure I’ll do another album. I’ve got myself just a little but more free time from now on and I can’t really think of a better way to spend it!”
Andrew Kilpatrick of TWG, and also a renowned chipartist in his own right, shares some insights on his netlabel’s latest release as well: “Every release I put out on TWG I want to be special. Whilst with Pxl-Bot I work in conjunction with someone and our opinions and feelings towards pieces conjoin, with TWG everything within is something I hold dear by someone I admire hugely. As a result, I thought BBHB would fit in PERFECTLY.” Andrew continues on with, “I’m really glad, feel honoured in fact, to have had the chance to work with Neil, and hope to do so again in the future. His talent pool is too deep to not continue exploring!”
At any rate, be sure to check out this stellar new BBHB comeback album below for absolutely FREE. Yup, another amazing chipalbum for $0. Are we spoiled rotten in the chipscene or what?
Last week I got a WiiU, and felt oddly inspired by that long firmware update that happens as soon as you turn the thing on. I sat content, tidying up my living room and listening to the tunes Nintendo put together to sooth the frayed nerves of excited gamers everywhere. I felt oddly inspired, and created a 9 track album of remixes sampled from the WiiU. Download now from my site: 
Epic Elevator Music
22:06