Tag Archives: CHIPTUNE

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, MUSIC

The Flight Away – SEGA Swing

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flightAwayIf you haven’t heard of The Flight Away, you need to get their amazing EP “If I Could Reach the Sky”, an awesome emotronic album that blends sunny emo vocals and guitars with classic 16-bit and 8-bit tones and basslines. Not content to just create the same sound over and over, The Flight Away’s newest release, SEGA Swing is a bit of a departure from the sounds of If I Could Reach The Sky.

Music in the late 80’s and early 90’s (pre-grunge) had a very distinct sound. Those big gated drums and synthetic baselines and synth pianos just scream ending credits of an 80’s teen movie. The SEGA Swing album aims to capture some of this sound. The entire album is made up of instruments ripped straight from Sega Genesis soundtracks as well as drums that mimic the style of the era. It’s a double dose of nostalgia with the song style and the sounds from the 16-bit console of the era.

It’s not the most commonly imitated time period, but I think we’ve reached the point where it can be enjoyed in a nostalgic way. The romantic and pop-infused tracks of SEGA Swing will remind you of everything from New Order to Michael Jackson to EMF. It sounds weird but it also reminds me of Toad the Wet Sprocket. Total 90’s new jack swing styled thing going on throughout it. Also Dance Fight is a somewhat hilarious bonus track that reminds me of Haddaway and Night at the Roxbury.

The stand out tracks in my opinion are The Endless Loop and I Can’t Take (This Feeling), which emulate everything that was amazing about New Order in the 1980s. There’s not a bad song on here and it still feels like something by The Flight Away, not some huge digression from their core style. Grab it today!

 

Screen Shot 2013-05-03 at 2.36.44 PMBeatscribe is a full time indie composer, musician and writer. By day he creates soundtracks and sfx for various mobile gaming companies, by night creates megaman-inspired chiptunes, in the afternoons he drinks tea. Check out his latest releases, tutorials and retro ruminations at www.beatscribe.com.
ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, MUSIC

Chema64 – Zapotecno

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Chiptune’s ‘official’ Mexican exporter, Chema64, has returned with a new collection of tracks spanning four years and four consoles. Released on his own label, 56kbps Records, Chema64’s infectious jams are sure to remind the world that, along with Pulselooper and Chilean Analog, South America should not be underestimated as a producer of chiptune. One thing ‘Zapotecno’ does well is traverse genres. Tracks ‘Machines of Loving Grace’ and ‘Fin del Mundo del Fin’ both contain nods at metal a la 90s VGM faux-thrash (think Duke Nukem 3D’s soundtrack). Elsewhere, album closer, ‘Quetzalli’, has a euphoric Saturday Morning theme tune pop atmosphere, with the accompanying hook-laden melodies lodged within its crevasses. The apex of the release really does come past the mid-point, however, and to be honest if the first four tracks had been cut the five remaining would have created a far more cohesive and powerful statement. The sounds present within ‘Dubtrip’ and ‘Featherblade’ are one of a kind, in fact the horn-like glissando harmonies on the climax of the latter sent goosebumps shooting up my arm. The spaced out atmosphere and throttling basslines of ‘Datavoid’ created a nice chunk of variation, and ‘Quetzalli’ has quite possibly one of the greatest selections of melodies to be released this year. Whilst on the first few listens the sometimes repetitive and often hap-hazard sounding melodies might deter future listens, I would implore you to persevere. Unlike the adrenaline ladled ‘unce’ of most of his contemporaries, Chema64’s real strengths lie in his understated melodic hooks. What on first listens might appear like a jumble of erratic notes will quickly become nine tracks of greatly varying character and undeniable brilliance. So, with the amateurish tones of ‘BROWNWAVE’ and dud melodies in ‘Megameng II’ aside, this release is fantastic. Given the time, ‘Zapotecno’ will likely become a mainstay in your listening repertoire, and such a unique one at that. If this is the level of quality produced elsewhere in South America, the rest of the world should definitely take note.

Grab the release here.

Written by Andrew Kilpatrick for his blog The Waveform Generators.

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, FUSION, MUSIC

Piko Piko Detroit Releases The Midwest Compilation

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Here's the gorgeous hard copy version of the Piko Piko Compilation.
Here’s the gorgeous hard copy version of the Piko Piko Compilation.

Piko Piko Detroit is a net label run by Pikoboy and Snesei, two hard-working musicians and fans of VGM and chiptune. These two guys have pretty much have single-highhandedly created an active and exciting chiptune scene in Detroit. They recently put out a big call for all midwest chip musicians to join forces and create a compilation of epic video game tracks representing the region. The Piko Piko Midwest Compilation is available here for your download.  Here’s a quick review of what to expect in this massive 49-track album!

There is a lot of variety on this album. I can’t even begin to explain the differnces in styles and music. Tracks range from straight-up LSDj tracks to remixed tracks. Both of the Piko Piko founders contribute totally awesome tracks, SNESei’s track, Virtual Epilepsy is a great dance track that keeps your head moving. Pikoboy’s track, The Truth has some awesome effects-laden vocals that will get stuck in your head. I also really enjoyed Saskroch’s track Found, with a lot of chip flavors and some dynamic changes. Komissar’s Dynamite Girl is a standout Gameboy track as well. The two Sega Genesis FM synthesis tracks by Plants>Humans and Diode Milliampere also stand out; you’ll swear its a track from Sonic when those first drum of Plant>Human’s notes hit.

Some of the more blended chiptune fusion tracks also add some variety. My Life Is Pixels track sort of reminds me of Snow Patrol mixed with some chiptune sounds. Happenstance’s track has a chill  Trentemøller-styled vibe that I can’t get enough of. Awkward Terrible’s rocking song, complete with vocals, is also a dynamic and exciting stand-out track. I really wish I had time to write something about every single track. There really isn’t a bad track on the disk. The straight-up hardware tracks are interesting, inventive and full of suprises and the fusion tracks mix things up in a good way. Check it out today!

Piko Piko isn’t done yet. In fact, they’re hosting a 2-day 8-bit festival in downtown Detroit at the end of the month. Detroit is where lots of underground music started and blew up (I mean, techno, for one!) It looks like it’s going to become more than a blip on the map of the chiptune scene too. Check out their upcoming events at pikopikodetroit.net!

 

Screen Shot 2013-05-03 at 2.36.44 PMBeatscribe is a full time indie composer, musician and writer. By day he creates soundtracks for various mobile gaming companies, by night creates megaman-inspired chiptunes, in the afternoons he drinks tea. Check out his latest releases, tutorials and retro ruminations at www.beatscribe.com.
CHIPTUNE, EVENTS, MUSIC

Best Chiptune Radio Stations

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Chiptune radio stations are becoming more prevalent. Making a chiptune station is sort of like making a “rock” station, you can’t appeal to everyone’s tastes and respect the history of the genre. However, there are some pretty decent stations out there that sort of have their own flavor. Here’s a quick rundown of what to expect to find the one that’s right for you.

8BitX

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-Format: Streaming

-Navigation: Forward Only

-Summary: If you miss your college radio station and the sounds of your NES, this is your station.

-Mobile Friendly: iOS/Android

8BitX is a huge undertaking of a chiptune radio station based out of Philadelphia, home to one of the most active chiptune scenes in the USA. 8BitX feels the most like a real radio station to me. It has different shows with different styles of chipmusic, remixes, video game rock bands and all kinds of stuff like that. You’ll hear raw, hardware chip stuff, OC remix-styled stuff and rock covers of classic tracks. If you miss your college radio station’s chatter and want to stream some videogame-related tracks, this is the place to go. They’re also affiliated with Piko Piko and other chip collectives so you’ll hear a lot of great music here. I recomend the 8bit Power Hour and anything else hosted by the Chiptunes=Win blog. It really sort of takes me back in time in two ways, video game music and awesome college radio.

 

This Week In Chiptune

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-Format: Podcasts

-Summary: A Weekly Update of What’s New and Great In The Chiptune World

-Navigation: Podcast

-Mobile Friendly: Works anywhere a podcast does.

DJ Cutman’s awesome weekly show showcases some of the greatest new releases in the chiptune world. If you’re like me, it’s hard to keep track of where new stuff is available at. It comes out in many places that you might not be watching. Cutman puts it all in one great place that you can enjoy via sound cloud or a podcast. You can also catch it live on Mixify!

-Format: Podcasts/Live Streaming

GeekBeat Radio

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-Format: Podcasts/Live Streaming

-Navigation: Live Streaming = Forward Only

-Summary: The Place for High Quality NES and Gameboy Tunes

-Mobile Friendly: Android Only (flash)

I love Geek Beat’s little retro background with 8-bit clouds and mountains that slide by as you play. I even like that winamp-y spectrum deal that plays while you stream it. This station has high quality chiptune songs 24/7. I feel like the stuff on here is more video-game and demoscene-influenced than some of the other entries, it’s not quite so dance/remix-centric. It’s mostly pure chip sounds all the way! You’ll hear stuff that sounds like a long-lost Megaman track and other nostalgia-inducing goodness. You’ll hear some interesting covers as well on this high quality, very dedicated radio station! I rarely hear a track I don’t like. The operators of GeekBeat have informed me they’re hard at work on getting it to stream on iOS devices too.

Battle of the Bits

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-Format: Streaming

-Navigation: Playlist Style, Full Control

-Summary: Mostly Pure Chip station populated by the entries hundreds of competitions.

-Mobile Friendly: Android Only (flash)

I love this site. It reminds me of the old day’s of underground BBS boards, back when the interwebs only had 16 colors. The site is hilarious, obnoxious, convoluted and ultimately has a character all its own. This is the place for hardcore hardware chiptune (at least the majority of it) artists. The radio station is filled with the results of tons of ‘battles’ which are basically contests which people make songs within a set of parameters (use this sample, use this tracker, produce on this hardware, etc). There is a lot more than just LSDJ tracks coming out of this site. While some tracks may be noisier and weirder than you’re used to, play this station for a few hours and you’ll be walking away with some new favorite obscure underground chip artists. You can skip and rewind which is also nice since some other stations don’t allow this. There’s not many things going on hear that anyone would label “fake bit”, considering that most contests require you to submit the raw nsf, dmf, svram, etc file.

Digitally Imported: Chiptunes Channel

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-Format: Streaming

-Navigation: Forward Only

-Summary: Randomized Playlist of things somebody labels as chiptune, most of it good.

-Mobile Friendly: No

This page is sort of a random assortment of chiptune flavored tracks, lots of variety, not a lot of cohesion, quality level is fairly high overall and you will find some good stuff you wont hear elsewhere. This one seems to be just bot-run, playing its way through a playlist. You might get a raw LSDJ track followed by some kind of ambient song with something vaguely retro going on in it. Like most DI channels, it’s kind of all over the place, but you’ll find good stuff here or there. It’s kind of like when you have a “rock” station that plays anything labeled “rock” – you get Led Zeppelin followed by Sum 41 and are bound to lose a few listeners. One thing this station has above the rest is the fact that it works on AppleTV, it’s in the default setup under Radio > Electronica > DI: Chiptunes, so if all you have is a TV in the room, this is your only option for streaming chiptunes.

Noise Channel

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-Format: Podcast/Archived Downloads

-Navigation: Full control

-Summary: Awesome podcast featuring new stuff and upcoming events.

-Mobile Friendly: It’s a Podcast

This is not a station, but a show. It’s mighty good and you can download their archives to hear some quality stuff. I like the show format because you get more than just a playlist of tunes and you can rewind and identify tracks you liked and stuff like that. Noise Chan also helps you keep up with what’s going on in the scene and about new releases, upcoming shows and a lot more. Check out there amazing compilation albums too. TrueStar and the other owners of this podcast really contribute a lot to the chiptune world. Subscribe today!

Alpha and Omega Radio

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-Format: Streaming

-Navigation: Forward Only

-Summary: More than just chiptune, video game music from all periods.

-Mobile Friendly: iOS/Android
Alpha and Omega radio is not strictly chiptune. It’s a great place to hear what modern composers are doing with video game music and you will hear some chiptune, chiptune-influenced stuff. There’s also a lot of news on this site about what’s going on in the world of game soundtrack composers. All and all it’s a nice change of pace once in a while.

Last.Fm

-Format: Streaming
-Navigation: Playlist Style
-Summary: Pretty decent mixture of ‘big name’ chiptunes and obscure stuff
-Mobile Friendly: iOS/Android with Paying Membership

Last.Fm is a great site for listening to indie music and obscure styles like shoegaze or drone. It’s probably the online station I use the most. It’s more underground than Pandora but sports the same basic operating principles. Their #chiptune tag channel is pretty good. You’ll get a lot of remixy electro stuff as well as scene standards like Dubmood, Anamanaguchi and Depreciation Guild. Just keep using the heart button to define your style. It’s actually a better variety than I would’ve expected and the quality level is pretty decent.

Pandora

-Format: Streaming
-Navigation: Playlist Style
-Summary: A few big names and some remixes.
-Mobile Friendly: iOS/Android

I can’t really say Pandora is the greatest place for chiptunes. You’ll mostly only hear the most well known, record label chiptune artists like Sabrepulse, Dubmood, Anamanaguchi and 8bit Weapon. It’s not bad at all, but Pandora will constantly keep trying to gently nudge you out of chiptune and into electronica/dubstep for some reason. I guess that’s what it does when it doesn’t have enough artists to fill a genre. Still, it’s not bad if Pandora is all you have where you are at the moment.

Screen Shot 2013-05-03 at 2.36.44 PMBeatscribe is a full time indie composer, musician and writer. By day he creates soundtracks for various mobile gaming companies, by night creates megaman-inspired chiptunes, in the afternoons he drinks tea.  Check out his latest releases, tutorials and retro ruminations at www.beatscribe.com.