Tag Archives: albums

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, GAME MUSIC, GAMING, MUSIC

Friday Freakout: Seven Ubiktune albums for $1 = CHIP INSTABUY!!!!!!!

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Typically I just write about one new album per Friday. Today, however, I’MA CHEAT & BREAK THE HELL OUTTA THAT RULE.  8) SEVEN DIFFERENT ALBUMS FROM UBIKTUNE COMING RIGHT ATCHA!!!

And all of these INDESCRIBABLY AMAZING  releases from some of *THE*  most influential artists in the chipscene for only ONE DAMN DOLLAR…!!!  That’s over a $30 discount for those of you wondering. :OOOOO

To get ahold of this AMAZING  deal before it expires, click on the following Bundle Dragon link and snatch it up:

http://ubiktune.bundledragon.com/pilot

Feel free to check out the streams of any/all of the albums below (let me give you a head’s up: THEY’RE *ALL* AMAZING). Or if you’ve discovered this article after  the bundle has expired, you can still  obtain all of the albums via the artists’ individual Bandcamp pages. Will cost you a bit more than a dollar, but still VERY MUCH  worth it.

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ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, GAMING, MUSIC

Friday Freakout: Yoann Turpin’s Rhythm ‘N’ Bits = FUNKALICIOUS

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I’ve said this before and I’m gonna say it again now:  one of my favorite things about chipmusic is how an *AWESOME* artist that I’ve never  heard of before can come out of nowhere with a *STELLAR*  release  and *COMPLETELY*  blow my mind. Today’s Friday Freakout artist does this yet again for me and in a *SPECTACULAR*  fashion:

Rhythm ‘N’ Bits

by Yoann Turpin

This Ubiktune release (that alone  should tell you something!!) is jammed full of funky  goodness with 19 tracks of mind blowing, hip moving, baby making AWWWW YEEEAAAH!  Yoann describes his fantastical release quite accurately as, “…the meeting of Chiptune with Funk, RnB and Epic Themes!!” While there’s a goodly amount of EPIC  in the chipscene, both funk and R&B are largely underrepresented genres. This release most definitely  helps fill that void and in a damn powerful way!  The overall level of musicianship displayed by Yoann on this album, along with the very high production value of it, is frighteningly amazing; even for the talent rich chipscene full of stand-out releases and artists, this one stands out like a 100 story unicorn made of disco balls and laser beams and EXPLOSIONS and sexy. 8)

There’s a bit more going on with the theme of this album than meets the eye as well. According to Dmitry at Ubiktune, “Rhythm’n’Bits is a tribute to the video game soundtracks that had a big impact on Yoann as a child. Yoann captured this fascinating music in this album, inspired by the RPGs from the 90’s as well as Sega Mega Drive and Super NES games.” Dmitry goes on to explain, “The story told with the album is about the gamer he (Yoann) was and still is. In every track, Yoann tried to show that chiptune has not aged and can be considered a contemporary medium or instrument.”

Snag this FUNKALICIOUS  album on iTunes, Bandcamp, or Amazon.mp3 (the latter currently having the lowest price for purchase in the states, as Yoann hails from France!). EASILY  worth the purchase price to obtain these EXCELLENT  jams, although if not you can always stream it at Bandcamp or Ubiktune. Whatever you have to do, GET THIS GOODNESS IN YOUR EARHOLES.  It’ll do your mind, body, heart, and  soul a world of good. Funk is magical like that. 8)

\m|♥|m/

ALBUMS, EVENTS, GAME MUSIC, GAMING, MUSIC

Friday Freakout: The World Is Square debut album released!!!

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I love Final Fantasy/Square-Enix music. It’s grandly fantastic, highly emotive, cinematic music goodness on an epic scale x 1,000,000! Whether it’s the earlier compositions from the NES & SNES games (easily  my favs) or those from the more technically superior consoles of today, the music remains completely magical. And so are the awesome, musically talented, badass nerds  who remix, rearrange, and play this excellently fun music live in various forms, fashions, and instrumental configurations; there’s nothing quite like rocking out, dancing, swaying, and just getting downright weird  to a live set of this sort of awesomeness. Speaking of getting weird, I think it’s time I STFU with this extra long intro & bring you the debut album from one group of said nerdy badasses:

No Phoenix Down
Can Save You Now
by
The World Is Square

This delightfully quirky, wonderfully weird  5 member Square-Enix tribute band brings it  with 13 toe-tapping, giant grin inducing folky earjoys. Their acoustic instrument driven arrangements are strikingly different than any other band within the VGM scene; they craft their lovely covers with nothing more than keys, a Glochenspiel (!!!), several string instruments (acoustic guitar, ukulele, mandolin, & bass) and various forms of percussion. It brings a simpler, more paired down sound to what are typically extraordinarily cinematic, grand soundscapes, yet it works in a way that I never would’ve imagined possible. They’re fast becoming one of my favorite VGM acts in the scene, and hell, I haven’t even seen ’em live yet!!! :O (will be fixing that the first damn chance I get~ <3 ).

According to Lauren from TWIS it’s a damn fun experience within the group as well. “I wish you all could have seen my face when we were adding stuff together like the vocals in ‘vamo’ or the snap tracks. Standing around a mic with some of your best buds trying not to laugh is far more difficult than i thought.” Lauren goes on to say, “I’m really happy with how it (the album) turned out and honestly so flattered and overwhelmed with the amount of support and love we’ve gotten from everyone. I would have been happy recording silly youtube videos in our living room forever but this has just been a total bonus.”

If you’d like to experience some of this funtasticness first hand, be sure to come hang out/party/get weird online with the band and a bunch of other awesome nutbars (myself included most likely ;D ) during The World Is Square Interview & Album Bash at 8bitx.com on Wednesday, Sept 12th at 9pm EST.  There’ll even be chances to snag some free download codes! For the full skinny, be sure to check out the Fb event here (and invite ALL the friends!!!  ;D ):

https://www.facebook.com/events/279825558790405/

In the meantime, go listen to their lovely album, and, of course, BUY THE HELL OUT OF IT OR TONBERRYS WILL CHOP OFF YOUR JUNK WITH THEIR SCARY, SCARY KNIVES & FEED ‘EM TO UMARO!!! <– Although quite honestly, this threat is wholly unnecessary. Once you listen to the album, you’re gonna wanna buy it. <3

Also, ZOMBOCOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNN~~~!!!!!!!!!!1111!1!1

\m|♥|m/

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, GAMING, MUSIC

Friday Freakout: *BEAUTIFUL* new Vince Kaichan EP released!!!

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THIS HAS BEEN A CRAZY COUPLE OF CHIPWEEKS. For reasons that I can mention (such as the INSAAAANE 17.5 hour chipmusic broadcast of AWESOME that I co-hosted on Geekbeat LeRadio earlier this week) and reasons that I can’t quite yet (hint: pay close attention to ChipWIN channels in the coming days ;). There’ve been a handful of extraordinarily awesome, completely unheralded chip releases that have contributed to this craziness as well. And boy do I have a damn good example of one of these right here for you:

On Thin Air
by Vince Kaichan

The chippy badass Vince Kaichan, formerly known as VCMG, dropped a 4 track surprise EP of PURE WIN last Friday. It’s a beautiful collection of very lush, atmospheric, ethereal, yet still quite powerful, driving tracks, which all but tell a story without a single word. It’s the way the tracks are composed and sequenced that denote this flow of story; like different movements of a classical piece that interweave together with perfect synergy. The meat of it is definitely “Binary Lake” (LOVE THAT TRACK~~), but the surrounding tracks are not to be overlooked! They’re what set it up so perfectly after all.

The funniest thing about this album is that its existence is due to nothing more than an unfortunate (or maybe fortunate in this case?) accident. To quote Vince’s words from his Bandcamp page, “These tracks happened only because Vince Kaichan was stupid enough to crack his Gameboy screen, rendering him sans-DMG for four weeks.” This EP was crafted with SunVox v1.6.4, Tweakybeat for iPhone, and a Korg Monotron. While I hesitate to wish damage to a viable Gameboy, I’m a bit thankful it happened this time. ;3 Although hopefully enough of you buy this album to see that it gets repaired! ;)

I also find it noteworthy to mention that while I often find EPs tend to be either somewhat lacking or give just enough of a taste to do the job, On Thin Air satisfies just as well as the most well put together full album release. Miss it at your own loss.

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