Tag Archives: MUSIC

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, GAMING, MUSIC

Friday Freakout: THE BITMAN LEVELS UP!!!

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Artistic growth is an awesome thing to behold.  To witness an artist’s humble beginnings, their developmental period (which some might say never truly ends with an active artist!), and their transition into a truly legitimate, confident professional in their field; just AWESOME.  Truth be told, I feel as if I’ve witnessed at least a part of this progression with today’s artist and his latest release:

Epic Elevator Music
by The Bitman

To start off, “Epic Elevator Music” is eight *STELLAR*  tracks of hard hitting, powerfully driven, yet wildly stylistically varied LSDj goodness of the highest mark.  It’s another one of those chipalbums that I knew would be an instant favorite of mine before the first track even finished, and 100% confirmed after about eight back-to-back playthroughs. DAMN GOOD JAMS. 

It’s upon comparison to Max Dolensky aka The Bitman‘s previous two EPs from earlier in the year, “Ten Day EP” & “Nimbus“, that his growth becomes strikingly apparent. Neither of these albums are bad. In fact, they’re both quite solid & worthy of downloading! That said, EEM is on a completely different level of chipartistry. The complexity of the compositions, the more intricately designed melodic structures, the wonderful variety and blending of different musical styles, the greater aptitude regarding LSDj composition and mixing technique; everything is better, stronger, catchier, more aptly composed & inspired. 

According to Max, some of this development simply comes from gaining more experience with his craft, but the lion’s share of it comes from gaining more experiences.  By this he means learning from and collaborating with other chipartists and awesome people within the scene, and of course by participating in live performances. BRKfest in general stands out as a poignant turning point in his chipmusic career, much as it does for so many other chipartists that attended &/or performed at it. (For more thoughts straight from The Bitman himself, keep an eye out for an in-depth transcript of our *AMAZING* chat coming soon to the ChipWIN blog!!).

But if you think The Bitman has reached his developmental plateau, check out this rough draft of a brand new track he’s working on:

Right at the start, the powerfully sexy vibe and addition of the live brass (!!!) set this track apart from his already unique & established stylings, hinting at the potential for even further  artistic development & just the overall exceptional  future he has in store. And if you’re interested in seeing how that pans out (and how can you NOT  be after hearing that track?!!?!?), you should probably stay tuned to The Bitman in the near future (i.e. more like this coming very soon~ ;).  

While you’re here don’t miss the article written about him recently in the school paper of his Alma mater, the University of Alabama. It’s complemented by a video interview as well, which you can check out here:

But enough of my blathering already! Get to the real  reason you’re here: listening to some AWESOME CHIPMUSIC!! 8) And while you’re doing that, make sure to donate some $$ to the “help Max not be a broke college student” fund. Always a worthy cause, especially when there’s more artistry to develop. ^_^

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ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, GAMING, MUSIC

Friday Freakout: Breakbeat Heartbeat returns!!!

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Nobody ever really quits chiptune.  Regardless of the reason – busy raising a litter, taking a hiatus in an attempt to shake the burn out, feelings hurt by too many forum trolls –  any chipartist truly in love with chipmusic always seems to come back eventually. The 8-bit addiction is simply inescapable.  Today’s proof of this theory is thus:

 22:06
by Breakbeat Heartbeat

Yup, that is indeed a name that hasn’t been heard from in awhile, possibly even since the 8bc days! Breakbeat Heartbeat has undoubtedly been a viable chipartist since 2007, but there’s not been much from him in recent years. That said, via the new chip netlabel The Waveform Generators, he’s most definitely  blasting back onto the chipscene with a powerfully composed & well produced new album full of melodically driven, beautifully melancholy earjoys. It took all of about 10 seconds of the first track “Blue Paint” to get its hooks in me, which were pounded irretrievably deeper in by the following 11 tracks (track 4 “Before My Eyes” quite especially! POTENT STUFF).

To shed some light on the creative process behind the release & his return, Neil Turnbull (BBHB) says, “When I’m actually writing I do each song in one sitting because I much prefer to start from scratch every time I sit down; which has really helped me get a better variation of styles into the album.” Neil goes on to say, “I listen to lots of different stuff and everything puts me into a different mood for writing so I end up feeling a bit constricted having to go over something I’ve already written. Sometimes I’ll listen to something I’ve written a while ago and I won’t even recognize it!”

He’s also very glad to be back into music production mode and feels that he’ll definitely be at it pretty solidly for the foreseeable future. “It’s good to be back making music though I don’t think there will ever be a point when I don’t enjoy making it! I’m sure I’ll do another album. I’ve got myself just a little but more free time from now on and I can’t really think of a better way to spend it!”

Andrew Kilpatrick of TWG, and also a renowned chipartist in his own right, shares some insights on his netlabel’s latest release as well: “Every release I put out on TWG I want to be special. Whilst with Pxl-Bot I work in conjunction with someone and our opinions and feelings towards pieces conjoin, with TWG everything within is something I hold dear by someone I admire hugely. As a result, I thought BBHB would fit in PERFECTLY.” Andrew continues on with, “I’m really glad, feel honoured in fact, to have had the chance to work with Neil, and hope to do so again in the future. His talent pool is too deep to not continue exploring!”

At any rate, be sure to check out this stellar new BBHB comeback album below for absolutely FREE. Yup, another amazing chipalbum for $0. Are we spoiled rotten in the chipscene or what?

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GAME MUSIC, MUSIC

Octavators – Super Castlevania IV, The Remix Album

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Today we bring you a guest post from The Octavators, with their cover album of Super Castlevania 4.

The Octavators is a music production company made up of Beyond Z (Joshua Hurwitz) and Vinnie Treux (Vincent Trudel), who have been making beats for the last twelve years. These talented beat makers provide instrumental music for TV shows, musicians looking for backing music to their lyrics, and video games. Their latest project is the soundtrack for the Japanese video game “Super Castlevania IV,” and they deliver the perfect background music to listen to while enjoying the game. As players battle Dracula and his minions, the soundtrack sets the mood and provides a nice auditory experience that will stick with you long after the game is over. “Demon Castle Dracula” has an eerie, spooky vibe, with a slow tempo and heavy bass. The creepy, slinky keyboard adds to the overall scary vibe, and the sound of “bones” clanging together is a nice touch. “Dracula’s Theme” starts out with the creepy sound of a chorus singing, mixed with synthesizers and piano, for am overall surreal feel. The guitars then come in to mix in with the chorus– perfect music for a horror movie. “Forest of Monsters” starts out with a funky drumbeat, and segues into an almost dance/rave type music style. The synthesizers are working overtime in this track, and the tune is both weird and catchy at the same time. Even though all of these songs have no lyrics, the instruments convey all that is being said in the songs– evil, scary, creepy vampires waiting to jump out at you as you go on your quest to destroy Dracula. The Octavators bring it on their latest, “Super Castlevania IV– The Remix Album.” The sound is creepy, the instrumentation wild and weird, and the sound exhilarating. The music sets the perfect mood for the video game, and the songs are catchy.

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, GAME MUSIC, GAMING, MUSIC

Friday Freakout: ABSRDST’s new album = ABSRD!!!

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To start things off,  I promise to try my damnedest not  to make any “ABSRD” puns throughout the duration of this article, as I’ve already met my quota this week. ;3 It’s going to be really, really  hard for me to hold to that, I’ll admit (I love being punny ;3 ), but I promise to try my best. Possibly. Maybe. I guess. We’ll see…

WUTEHFUKEVAR!!  Time for the most ABSRD  Friday Freakout EVAR!!!

Sugar Blossom and the Space Cadets
by ABSRDST

I’ve been a big fan of Eric Byrnes‘ Seaking’s Seaglass  chipradio show for awhile now. Hell, I even went on it a little while back (before the Expansion Pack released) to chat it up with Eric about ChipWIN. Was good times! ^_^ That said, one of my favorite things about the show is how Eric always seems to find a way to introduce me to some EXCELLENT  new chipmusic each time I tune in. And man oh MAN  was this last Tuesday afternoon with ABSRDST EVER  a good example of that!!!

“Sugar Blossom and the Space Cadets” consists of 12+ (bonus tracks FTW~) incredible, super  funky, spacetastic, electronic chippy jams engineered masterfully for the explicit purpose of bringing extraordinary amounts of pleasure to your earholes, and HOLY FURKIN ZOMBOCON does it ever deliver!!!  Such an amalgam of wonderful musical stylings and soundscapes as well! Can go from one track having a crazy, funktastic space rave vibe to the next being an ethereal mood piece reminiscent of floating around lost in the cosmos. This album is another instant favorite  for me, EASILY.  Track #4, “Loss of Loved Ones”, may be one of my favorite chiptracks, PERIOD.  There’s a hauntingly beautiful vibe to it that gives me goosebumps ASA I hear that first arp. -shudders- GOOD STUFF.

Seriously, I cannot suggest strongly enough that you immediately  go experience this STELLAR  chipalbum for yourself. Listen to it, & then promptly download it, FOR FREE  if you must. Although if at all possible pay the dude something  for the release, as this album truly DESERVES TEH MONIES.  If nothing else, you can at least help me share it to the ends of the intertoobs and back!! Dude deserves more exposure. It’s just that simple.
And dare I suggest that you keep an eye and a pair of ears out for this guy as the days roll on. If he keeps making music like this, things are going to get far more ABSRD  than you can even begin to fathom.

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