Tag Archives: magfest

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

ALBUMS, GAME MUSIC, GAMING, MUSIC

Friday Freakout: CORY JOHNSON (post-)ROCKS ZELDA \m||m/

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The Legend of Zelda.  Any gamer worth their weight in rupees is a fan of at least one of the games from this long lived series of awesome (and if not, may an octorok launch a spiky ball up your arse!!  :3 ) One among many, many  reasons that this is true has to do with the excellent music that accompanies every  Zelda game. And while there has been plenty of Zelda love among the VGM community over the years, there hasn’t really been any albums that were solely devoted to it.

ENTER CORY JOHNSON.

This dude that I’d never even heard of  before Jmr’s Open Circuit listening party on Areciboradio last weekend just up and released this INDESCRIBABLY amazing 23 track  Legend of Zelda tribute album. Turns out it’s actually been around a year in the making and you can damn well tell  by the quality of it! Stylistically it’s a mix of prog rock, post-rock, blues, western country, jazz piano AND ZORA KNOWS WTF ELSE!!!  Regardless, the end result is this stirring EPIC  – in the TRUEST sense of the word – of Zelda love and musicality far beyond the norm.
IT’S ABSO-F**KIN-LUTELY BEAUTIFUL. I mean, seriously, that sums it up, because how often do you hear someone describe a VGM album with the term “BEAUTIFUL“?? Also, the guy needs to get a band happening so I can see his ass play at MAGFest; would be a killer  show. SO GET ON THAT, VGM MUSICIANS!!!!   ;D ANYWHO, enough words already! HEY LISTEN!!  to it already and then promptly go bug the deku nuts out of Cory on Twitter about how awesome it is so he’ll keep making more fantastic VGMusic. DEFINITELY  will be your good deed of the day/week/month/year/EVAR.  ;)

\m|♥|m/

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, MUSIC

Knife City’s debut EP

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This is the first official (non-sucky ;) release for Knife City, aka Luke Silas. Drummer for chiptune-rock band Anamanaguchi and gameboy thrasher, Knife City brings high-impact dance music that you can’t help but get down to. This EP is five tracks, available from bandcamp for pay-what-you-want. Stream and download from the player below, and support this guy if you can!

More Knife City on Facebook and Bandcamp.

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, GAME MUSIC, GAMING, MUSIC

A personal love letter to the entire MAGFest/VGM/Chiptune community. ♥ ♥ (DOPEY POST ALERT ;3 )

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Thursday was my 32nd birthday. I had no big plans; working for most of the day, fishing with a buddy right afterward, dinner with my folks, & winding up the night at Joshua Morse’s Waveform 3 listening party on the always fun-tastic areciboradio.com to share in some good music, laughs, and a few beers with my nerd buddies. Nice, chill evening; I can had a content. =) Honestly, I’d almost forgotten that it was my birthday that week; my girlfriend and family had to remind me! LoL SO BUSY WITH LIFE AND PROJECTS (with the Chiptunes = WIN compilation being at the top of the busy yet awesome list!! ;D ). And then some of my favorite MAGfamily crazies surprise me in the listening party chatroom (and sorta crash it! HahahaSORRIES Areciboradio!!! XD ). Was some serious WIN, and enough to wrap up my birthday with more than enough happy to do the trick. I figured the surprises ended there. I FIGURED DAMN WRONG.

FIRST, THIS HAPPENED. <– CLICKY CLICKY, PLEASE. =D

As I explored the custom VGM designed birthday card, read the messages as they scrolled by, listened to the amazing music, I freaked out. My myriad of ridiculously talented, AMAZING friends, who collaborated to create this for me, watched, laughed, grinned, took joy in my freakouts and continued to make it worse by leading me on to discover more and more wonderful things about it (there’s even a secret code in it!! Hint: look at the score ;). Once they’d strung me along with that amazingness long enough, they dropped the REAL bomb on me:

 

AN ORIGINAL 5 SONG EP MADE ABOUT AND JUST FOR ME

 

I. LOST. MY. MIND. I’m still in shock. The amount of artistry and hilarity and genuine love that went into the crazy project, just… WOW. What the F**K  I did to deserve this I DON’T KNOW. (I mean, I AM awesome, sure, but this is pushing it a touch even for me! hahaha ;D ). I’m not telling y’all any of this to brag about myself, boost my own ego, or anything self serving like that either (I really don’t feel like there’s that much to brag about anyways hahaha). I’m just sharing this as a testament to WHY I love the VGM/Chiptune/MAG/Nerda/etc. scene with every bit of me that is able to love:

The best motherf**cking people in the world are part of it.

The people that staff and volunteer the events, the various assortment of musical guests, artists, and speakers to entertain the happy, often drunken masses, and, of course, the awesome, CRAZY people who attend these events. And all of them, ALL OF THEM having the time of their lives, reveling in the sheer overwhelming goodness of being surrounded and celebrating with the most kindred of spirits. There really are no words to do it justice, and I feel I’m doing a fairly miserable job of trying to convey in words the powerful sense of awesome that you can get from being a part of, belonging to this community. hahaha XD Maybe that’s just it, though: you have to experience it to understand it. =) And if you haven’t yet, NOW  is just as good a time as any to join us. THE MORE, THE MERRIER, BIZNATCHES!! 8D \m|♥|m/

Also (I said I wasn’t going to do this, BUT OH WELL WUTTEHFUKEVAR!!!!): HUGE THANKS AND LOVE AND STUFF TO ALL INVOLVED WITH THE ALBUM: Mike Villalobos (Lobos) & Amanda Lepre (LeRab-it) from Descendants of Erdrick; Grant Henry (Stemage) and Dan Taylor (Chunkstyle) from Metroid Metal & Yes Mayhem; Nate Horsfall (Foxxdragon); Chris Ryberg (Rugal); Jameson Sutton (Shadix); Thomas Dougherty (Nickeledge); Chris Davidson (Dj Cutman); Erik Peabody (VikingGuitar);  Brendan Becker (Inverse Phase); Brandon Strader; and last but not least, my amaaaaaaaaaaazing girlfriend, Erin McQuisten (I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, BABY!!! ♥ ♥ ♥). Plus much love to all who signed the digital card!!!

YOU FUCKERS ARE SOME OF THE BEST FRIENDS A CRAZY SONOFABITCH LIKE ME COULD EVER ASK FOR & I LOVE YOU ENDLESSLY FOR IT SO THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111!111!1!11!!!11111!elevensoutthewazoo  ;DDD

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥