Tag Archives: benjamin briggs

MAGfest: Dj CUTMAN & GameChops special events

magfestThe time is upon us. The annual Music and Gaming festival ( MAGfest ) is significant for both gamers and artists. For one, it’s where the original inspiration for Dj CUTMAN was conceived. Now, just three years later, my friends are I are gearing up for our largest MAGfest yet!

Thursday: NESteryears Album Release
NESteryearsMAGfest’s opening day and the release of bLiNd’s first full-length remix album NESteryears! From MegaMan to Castlevania, bLiNd has put his nose to the grindstone and produced 11 exclusive remixes with GameChops!The album will be available from GameChops.com and CD versions will be available at MAGfest!

This page will be updated with a link to the album once it has been released!

 

Friday: bLiNd & Ben Briggs Live!
Ben Briggs live at Nerdapalooza 2012Get to the main concert hall Friday at 11:30PM (that’s right before midnight!) to catch Benjamin Briggs and bLiNd’s DJ sets!They’ll be spinning their own video game remixes, some tracks from their GameChops releases and some other treats. The first time these two legendary remixers have performed together, so don’t miss it!

For music by bLiNd and Benjamin Briggs, check out music.GameChops.com

 

Saturday: Dj CUTMAN Concert (the final boss battle)
Dj CUTMANSaturday night (and slighting into Sunday morning) at 12:30AM is the final boss battle of MAGfest, none other then a set yours truly!I have the honor of following Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage, ActRaiser, Shinobi), the Japanese musician and DJ. This is his first show in the US, and he is a guest of honor at MAGfest!

I’ll be debuting new remixes,a handful of original tracks and my favorite game and chiptune inspired songs from the past year. I will be joined by a very special guest for the first portion of the set. Be there!

 

All Weekend: Dj CUTMAN & GameChops Booth!
For the past two years I’ve been tabling at conventions, DJing some tunes and providing music for the convention. This year, thanks to GameChops, will be the biggest year yet! I’m coming with exclusive CDs from GameChops artists as well as bLiNd’s new album and a brand new compilation that won’t be released for another 3 weeks! Stay ttuned to my Facebook and Twitter for give-aways!Get to the booth on Thursday or Friday as supplies are limited! (this post will be updated with directions to the booth as soon as I can manage :)

MAGfest is the event I look forward to every year! If you can’t make it, stay tuned to this blog for updates and new music! Let’s get this new year started right!

-C

Powerglove – The Remixes


This summer I held my first remix contest. I had written this track with friend and label-mate Benjamin Briggs and had it mastered by producer/DJ 23 from Monstercat Media. Needless to say, I considered it a successful collab, I DJ’d the track at shows and it sounded great and got people moving, but in the collaboration process I had to sacrifice some ideas I had for the sake if the project as a whole. Riffs and melodic ideas that didn’t fit once there was another cook in the kitchen. What Ben and 23 came up with was so awesome and so far beyond what I had imagined myself, I decided to open up the track for a public remix contest. I wanted to hear what the track would become if even more people got involved.

Two friends of mine had started a freelance audio website AudioCatch earlier in the year and I participated as a beta tester. When they caught wind that I wanted to hold a remix contest, they were quick to help. They offered a sponsorship that funded our Grand Prize, as well as provided a platform for submitting, reviewing and judging entries.

The winning remix was by Upstate New York DJ/Producer Direktor, who I had coincidently met at my show with Excision this summer. Direktor transposed the tune and transformed it into a formidable dubstep track, loud and brilliant. But there were so many other entries that were top notch, I couldn’t stop there.

With Ben’s help, we picked out the best 6 remixes and put together this album, Powerglove: THE REMIXES. I even took some time and recreated what my “original” version of the song may have sounded like, and included it as a VIP mix for those who choose to pay for the album.

Powerglove was based very loosely off the opening riff from the Nintendo game MIG29: Soviet Fighter. GameChops is my record label for video game music, combining music production and a passion for gaming. All purchases go directly to supporting the artists and funding new music, so please purchase Powerglove: THE REMIXES if you can.

Remix stems are still available if you’d like to try your hand at remixing the original track. Check out GameChops.com for remix stems.

Powerglove Remix Contest

My netlabel GameChops is hosting it’s first remix contest for Powerglove, the tune Benjamin Briggs and I did together. Here’s your chance to take this brand new track and edit, change, mix and wreck it in whichever way you see fit! Are you an audio nerd who just likes listening to stems? [I am, had to ask :] Well they’re free, so head over to GameChops, download the stems and start remixing!

We took a sample from the Nintendo game Mig 29 Soviet Fighter and transformed it into a dirty, loud, electrohouse track! Featuring samples from the movie The Wizard, this tune is so good it can only be described as “so bad.” Have a listen:

Ready to make this track your own at a chance to win a release on GameChops? Head over to the Remix Stems page, download and get to mixing! Submission deadline is June 25th!

Benjamin Briggs – Snake Man vs The World

Described as an “Mega Man music orgy festival,” producer and composer Benjamin Briggs brings us a four track EP of snake-like proportions. Woah, that reads weird.

Ben Briggs, who I remixed about a month back, is an awesome dude with boundless talent. With production chops and musical ingenuity, Ben Briggs weaves a engaging, exciting, and downright fun soundscape in each of his tracks.

He writes: Four Mega Man remixes, as byproducts of DarkeSword’s awesome Wily Castle Remix Gauntlet, a weekly team-based song-combining competition. It includes, in order, all four of my tracks that were submitted as entries in the Gauntlet. My character theme was Snake Man throughout the competition, so each song includes his theme, and a damn good theme it is.

Damn right. The album is available for free via Bandcamp with an option to donate via paypal. Follow Ben Briggs on Twitter, Facebook, and Soundcloud.