Tag Archives: chip groups

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, EVENTS, GAMING, MUSIC

Friday Freakout: New EP by The J Arthur Keenes Band!!!

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Vocally lead chiptune is kicking ass lately. Obviously you’ve got Br1ght Pr1mate with their stellar release Night Animals just the other day; that album in of itself is enough for me to confidently make that claim. And now, you’ve also got THIS:

The World’s Smallest Violin
by The J Arthur Keenes Band

This EP comes at you with 5 extraordinarily solid tracks of powerfully lush, excellently composed eargasms. The fantastic mix of lead and harmony vox drive this release along quite wonderfully, but it doesn’t hurt that there’s a wildly varied assortment of different instruments throughout it; various and variously effected guitars and stringed instruments, brass, keys, accordion, drums & percussion toys, and, of course, a fair amount of chippy goodness. Honestly, this album is a great example of chiptune as an instrument, as that’s simply what it is here! Albeit a fantastically used instrument, of course. ;)

The wonderful atmosphere, energy, and just all around vibe created by the STELLAR mix is worth writing about as well. Wanna know how to mix a winning chipalbum? ASK THIS GUY. Seriously, just put on a good set of cans, hit play, close your eyes AND LISTEN TO THE SONIC JOY. This EP has very quickly become one of my favorite chip EPs of the year if not all time. There’s a special sort of magic, energy, FUN on this album that I can’t quite capture in words. And I’m damn rare to point out a particular song on an album and/or pick a favorite, but HOLY FURKIN ZOMBOCON BOTH “MONSTERS” AND “OKAY” ARE GETTING POINTED THE BEEJEEBUS RIGHT OUT~!!! The entire thing is great, but those first two snag me something fierce.

In summation, if you can’t enjoy this album, well… FUCK YOU. <3 

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ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, GAMING, MUSIC

Friday Freakout: New Br1ght Pr1mate album released!!!

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I ♥ Br1ght Pr1mate. So hard.  J-Prime & L-Primal simply know how to make quality chipmusic that tickles me right in my happy place(s). The fact that they’re one of the very first chipgroups I discovered and experienced live (at PAX East 2011 in the MAGFest Jamspace) doesn’t hurt. Then again neither does the fact that they release albums like this one:

Night Animals
by Br1ght Pr1mate

This brand spankin’ new 10 track collection of chiptastic, bombastic merriment & joy has quickly become one of my favorite things of 2012/this decade/EVAR. This shouldn’t be too surprising when you learn that the album has been in production for three damn years…!!!  :O In James’ own words, “It is what we set out to do as BRIGHT PRIMATE.” I suppose I can agree with that if what they intended was to be exceptional sources of creativity, positivity, and professionalism within the chipscene. Well, that and to make an EPICLY BADASS ALBUM, of course. ;)

Night animals is about half instrumental earjoys and half sultry Lydia vox-a-paloozas. Quite literally; the first half is vox driven, & the second half is mostly instrumental. While the instrumentals are wholly amazing and worthy of an EP all on their own merit, it’s the vocal tracks that really  make this album stand out among the crowd of instrumental chipalbums; they prove that vocal chip CAN  be done, and done WELL, regardless of the fact that not many chipartists seem to agree with said theory. Honestly, both the production value of the overall album in general and the extraordinarily high creativity level of ALL of the compositions makes for one of the best examples of what chiptune truly can be. To borrow a statement from James and Lydia, “Its been an effort of love and we believe that it represents another small step forward in the evolution of chip music from a basement hobbyists pursuit to what we all know it can become.” Damn well said. 

If nothing else, spend the extraordinarily deserved $5 on this release for the album art alone. 
SHIT IS SO GAL DARN STOOPID FURKIN CUUUUUUUUUUUUTE~ <3

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ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, DANCE MUSIC, EVENTS, GAME MUSIC, GAMING, MUSIC, NERDCORE

Friday Freakout: OFF TO NERDAPALOOZA, BIZNATCHES!!! \m|♥|m/

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YUP.  As this scheduled write-up automatically releases, Dj Cutman, Obtuse from 8 Bit Power Hour, myself, and a WHOLE MEGAFURKCRAPTON of other awesometastic nerds are headin’ to Nerdapalooza.

RIGHT. FURKIN. NAAAAOOOOW.

 

“What teh furk is Nerda?!?” you dare to ask?? CLICK HERE FOR ANSWERS. Although to sum it up quickly, IT’S A GIANT VGM/CHIPMUSIC/NERDCORE PARTY OF WIN. Just *SO MANY* awesome artists!!! TOO MANY TO LIST!!! (click HERE for a full schedule of the performers). In other words, YOU DON’T WANNA MISS THIS GOODNESS. You may even meet the hot nerdy chick/dude/asexual alien lifeform of your dreams at it, WHO KNOWS??? (met my gf there last year, and we’re still dating! ;D <3 -cue the, “DAWWWWWWWWWWW~” ;3 ). So get your damn tickets already (here or at the event) and GET YOUR ASSES DOWN TO ORLANDO, FLORIDA TO PARTY WITH US!!!

See ya there~<3

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ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, GAMING, MUSIC

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

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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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