Tag Archives: Chip art

Friday Freakout: New Stern Fucking Zeit = CHIPTASTICALLY BRUTAL \m||m/

A lot of people tend to think that chiptunes are just a bunch of dancey dancey blipity bleep bloops. And to an extent it’s true (although some damn good dancey dancey blipity bleep bloops!!!). However, I know of at least two particular crazy German chiptuners who would reply to that line of linking with a solid, “F**K OFF!”, and they’d enforce it quite handily with their latest album:

Pathoscillator
by Stern Fucking Zeit

I’ve been a metalhand for at least a decade now,
long before I ever really got into chiptune. There’s something about the energy and the ferocity of metal that appeals to me even today (that and the badass  guitar solos, of course ;). So to discover an album that deftly blends both metal/hardcore/screamo stylings and chiptune (chipcore? chipmetal?) so damn well fills me full of \m||m/Even if the entirety of it is completely devoid of any metal guitar!!!  :O Although the indescribably brutal LSDj riffage does the trick JUST as well, which is quite the claim, I know! The album itself is a fair mix of both instrumentals and punishingly metal vocally led tracks, all interwoven with the perfect mix of thrash and melodic work to really make it catch. Either way, there is nothing about this album that isn’t METUL AS FUCK; it hits me right in my wheelhouse with the power of 10,000 pixelated Henry Rollins. And man, what I’d give to catch one of SFZ’s undoubtedly extremely high energy live shows; a mosh pit at a chiptune concert just sounds AWESOME. At any rate, all that I’m really trying to say with this meandering write-up (TOO… MUCH… METAL!! CAN… NOT… FOCUS!!), if you dig both metal and chiptunes but haven’t found anything yet that scratches both of those itches at once, THIS ALBUM IS FOR YOU.

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Friday Freakout: Auxcide is Awesometastic!!!

So just the other day  I was listening to the recently released goodness that is the Pxl-Bot compilation “One Year Later”; it has some stellar chipjams on it worth checking out, no doubt about it (just check out Pxl-Bot in general. IT RULES. ). One of the tracks that I kept returning to, however, was the first track, “Impact” by Auxcide. So I did me some googling of this yet unheard of (by me) West Coast chipper to see what else he had available. AND I FOUND THIS:

Of Atoms and Stardust
by Auxcide

I believe it was just last Friday that I mentioned how much I love pleasant surprises, and this definitely qualifies as another one of those!  Seriously, man, some LSDJx2 goodness right here if I’ve ever  heard it! Epic, spacey, chipsteppy, dancey, gloriously melodic goodness FOR. THE. WIN.  I love the flow, the progression, the energy  of the album (the sequencing is done excellently), and the inclusion of a bonus mp3 of the entire album in one track  for gapless playback really  shows that off (very cool little bonus!). Also, did I mention that Of Atoms and Stardust is his debut album (& it JUST released)???  :OOO -head asplodes- INORITE?!? Auxcide is simply another stellar example of some of the up and coming talent that’s bursting forth into the chiptune scene with a fury of a thousand angry comets (I HAVE FURY!!!!!). Again I say, there is no better time to be involved in chiptunes, as an artist and/or a fan, than right now. More and more crazy, awesome goodness to come, of that much I am certain. At any rate, give this awesometastic duder’s chipalbum of WIN a solid listen as soon as you get a chance (and send the dude some money! He deserves it!! ). OR THE ANGRY COMETS WILL COME FOR YOU.  Or not. But you would miss out on some awesome chipmusic and that’s almost as bad.

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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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