Tag Archives: ChipWIN

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, GAMING, MUSIC

Friday Freakout: New Decktonic = BASSTASTIC!!!

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I like bass. A lot. Folk that know me even halfway decently are aware of this fact. Hell, I’ve played bass guitar for over 10 years now! BASS IS GOOD. Moves the body, causes babies to be made, makes the world go ’round. For any of you that feel similarly about the goodness that is bass, I’ve got a chipalbum with your name written all over it:

Stars by Decktonic

I’ve been a fan of Decktonic’s for nearly a year now. As long as I’ve been listening, dude’s been consistently laying down some tasty, bassy chipgrooves.  It was a complete no brainer to try and get a track from him for the first Chiptunes = WIN compilation, and awesomely enough he joined right in. \m/ It turned out that his kickass submission, Africa, was a track from this then unreleased album. From the very first listen through I knew right off that it was gonna be a killer release when it finally dropped. And I’m thrilled to say, I WAS DAMN RIGHT.  Stars is 10 tracks of TOTAL WIN in an amalgam of varying musical styles, all composed with KORG DS10+ and Nanoloop. More importantly, all composed with buttloads of bass. You feel this stuff right in your gut. Literally.  ;) In fact, do your bass loving self a favor when you listen to this album and take Decktonic’s advice: listen via some good cans and/or sound system with solid bass response so that you don’t miss out on any of the deep basstasticness. Honestly, if this album doesn’t get your foot tapping, head nodding, ass shaking, and feet moving, there’s no hope for you. Don’t be hopeless. EMBRACE THE BASS. <– NEW LIFE MOTTO. 8)

\m|♥|m/

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.

\m|♥|m/

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, GAMING, MUSIC

Friday Freakout: Vacation Wasteland EP by Slime Girls

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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

\m|♥|m/

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, GAME MUSIC, GAMING, MUSIC

Friday Freakout: Daniel Capo’s O.S.T. (i.e. OVERWHELMINGLY SEXY TUNES 8)

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I love video game music and chiptunes.  I’m pretty sure that’s not exactly shocking news to anybody at this point. ;3 That said not all too long ago, just a little bit before MAGFest X I think, I discovered a fairly unique combination of the two. Sorta. To be a little bit more specific:

O​.​S​.​T:
Original Soundtrack
by Daniel Capo.

 

It’s not technically  a soundtrack to a video game, either from old or new platforms; there’s no actual game associated with this album. What it is is a collection of all “old school”, chiptune, 8bit, retro, etc. styled completely original compositions  written as an homage by the artist to his favorite video games. More or less Daniel “Captain Awesome” Capo (which is the very  fitting nickname that I just now gave him ;3 ) took everything that he loved, all of the wonderful nostalgia and artistry from his favorite video games and their soundtracks, and wrote his own damn album/soundtrack in tribute to such.

DO YOU NOT REALIZE JUST HOW COMPLETELY F**CKING AWESOME  THAT CONCEPT IS?!?!!?!? :O :O :O

And wait until you hear just *HOW* damn well he pulled it off!!  From start to finish, from intro theme to shop music to various level themes to boss fights and even down to ending credits, the album flows to life like an old, top tier NES era game would. I HAVE NEVER WANTED TO PLAY A GAME THAT DIDN’T EXIST SO BADLY IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!!  Seriously, I’ve been trying to write these latest articles with a bit more intelligibility and less over-enthusiasm, BUY HOLY BALLS I CAN’T COMMUNICATE HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS ALBUM WITHOUT LOTS OF ALL CAPS AND RUN ON SENTENCES AND CRAPTONS OF ESCAMASHUN PURNTS!!!!!1111!!1!11!1!111!
-takes deep breath, calms down, finishes blurb-
All joking aside, the total level of artistry displayed in this album is hard matched within both the VGM & Chiptune scenes, and not NEAR enough people in either scene know about this guy or the album. And that’s a damn  shame, and honestly it’s one of the reasons that I’m writing this blurb up now some several months after it’s release (dropped in November 2011). More people need to hear it.  
In other words, GET TO LISTENING AND SHARING THE DAMN THING ALREADY!!!!!11!!11!111! ;3 ;D \m|♥|m/

Also, Daniel has an EXTRAORDINARILY beautiful and brand spanking new track on the upcoming Chiptunes = WIN \m|♥|m/compilation, so there’s yet another  reason for you to check that chippy goodness out when it releases! ;D