Tag Archives: releases

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, GAMING, MUSIC

Friday Freakout: Gi meg mjød! I mean, er… KUBBI ;3

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HOLY BALLS have there ever been a crapton of new Chip albums released in the last week or so!!!!! :O New 4mat, new Roboctopus, new Coda, new Kill3r Whale,  new Freezedream, new Starscream/Infinity Shred single (yes, Starscream had to rename themselves because of some legal bulls**t >___< ), new SMILETRON. SO MUCH CHIPPY GOODNESS…!!! –head asplodes- -pants asplodes- -EVERYTHING ASPLODES-

HOWEVER, none of these are the focal point of my chiptastic little blurb this Friday (although each and every one of them are more than worth a write-up and a listen, so be sure to check ’em all out too!!). Today, I’m writing about this crazy awesome Norwegian Chiptuner/prog rocker/dragon slayer who goes by the alias of…

KUBBI.

I’ve been aware of the viking duder for a little while now and both his previous album, Transmittance, and his EP, I dunno lol, have kept my Chippy ears happy ever since. But  last Monday he dropped his latest album, Sleet, and HOLY NORWEGIAN VIKING ZOMBIE DRAGON BEAR BALLS is it EVER good!!!!!!!!!!!! All seventeen – yes, 17!! – tracks are fandamntastic! A big ole frost giant step up from his previous kickass albums even! This new album chock full of WIN is comprised of very melodic, beat driven chipjams with a nice mix of prog influences and spacey, ethereal themes interwoven into the mix. If this sounds like an interesting combination, IT’S BECAUSE IT IS. But in the BEST  way possible! =D And WTF?!? I just  noticed, the apparently astro cat (hey, there’s a good, new Chiptuner name!! ;D ) cranked out all of this music – 38 tracks total!!!! – since last damn summer!! :O Seems like dude’s trying damn hard to emulate one of his biggest influences, SMILETRON, what with the prolific stellar track releases and all! And the craziest thing is? HE’S SUCCEEDING. O.O Must be that magical Norwegian mead or something (GOD, I love mead… -drools- ). Anyways, I could keep talking the kid up all night, but all that would really accomplish is making me feel like I’ve been eaten by a Norwegian bear and s**t off a cliff in the morning when, seriously, nothing I can say will better convince you then you taking your clickity clicker and clicking on the embedded Bandcamp link of the album below and experiencing that goodness for yourself. So… what are you waiting on?? GO GET YO’ CHIP ON ALREADY, FOO’!!!! ;D

P.S. Gi meg mjød! = Give me mead! I learned that bit of useful Norwegian from Kubbi in his 8 Bit Power Hour hosted listening party last Monday night. GOOD TIMES! 8)

P.P.S. YES, OF COURSE  HE HAS A TRACK ON MY UPCOMING CHIPTUNES = WIN \m|<3|m/ COMPILATION! All the more reason to stay tuned for that. ;) Also, did I mention it’s going to be around 50 tracks from some of the best Chiptuners to ever Chiptune?? ;) KTHXBAI~ ♥

P.P.P.S Sorry, Kubs, but I haven’t found the magical boob ice cream yet. Still searching though! IT’S GOTTA BE OUT THERE SOMEWHERE, DAMMIT!!  ;3 ;D \m|♥|m/

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

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, GAME MUSIC, GAMING, MUSIC

Friday Freakout: DANIMAL CANNON ‘SPLOSION!!!!!!11!1!1!

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SUP BIZNATCHES. =D Yup, I’m back again. Wasn’t just a one shot deal last Friday after all. ;)

YOU’RE WELCOME, WORLD. 8) (blame Cutman for it ;3 ).

ANYWHOOO, today I’m spazwriting/writespazzing all over this bloggity blog about something not new, but still worth the wordy words; about the very first dude who exposed me to live Chiptunes (and at MAGFest 9 no less! LOVE THAT FRICKITY FRACKIN PLACE/THING/WORLD/AMAZINGNESS!!!).

In other words, my Chiptune obession = TOTALLY THIS GUY’S FAULT:

Dan Behrens aka Danimal Cannon.

If you’re into the VGM/Chiptune scene AT ALL, you’ve probably heard of this cat from one of his many damn bands: Armcannon, Metroid Metal, WeaponEX, The Polyamorous Polyrhythms (okay, I made that last one up ;3 ). And if you haven’t? Well, GOOD DAMN THING YOU’RE READING THIS ARTICLE THEN, AIN’T IT?!? ;3 At any rate, they’re all lkjasdfjlk AMAZING, but it’s his solo chiptune jamolas as Danimal Cannon that really takes the honest cake. (Get it?? Takes the honest cake vs. just takes the cake?? As in the cake is NOT a lie?? YES I JUST WENT THERE & I MAY MAKE AN ARROW IN THE KNEE JOKE NEXT WUT OF IT?!?!? ;333 ). It’s top tier Chiptunes that’s a nostalgic yet brand spanking new series of musical

journeys through nerdtastically mathematical, polyrhythmic yet danceable, guitar shredding wonderment of LOVEBEERSEX CHIPTUNES FTW!!! <–Which SHOULD have been his album name, but he went with Roots instead.

Pssh!  WUTTEHFUKEVAR. >_> Awesome album title missed opportunity aside, his 18 track debut is one BADASSTASTIC mother that no Chiptune fan can afford to miss. And ZOMG! You can (finally) get a shirt to go with it! Which gives you super powers. Super powers of looking AWESOME, further increased by listening to the album’s AWESOME. It may just be the AWESOMEST AWESOME TO EVAR AWESOME. NOW GO BUY THEM BOTH AND EXPERIENCE THE AWESOMERY FOR YOURSELF. \m||m/

…UNLESS you first wanna go see an equally AWESOME series of Danimal Cannon videos taken by Emily Feder from the Chip Music Chronicle (more on that NEXT Friday! ;D ). You can find that goodness RITE CHAR:

AND be sure to catch the ridiculously talented little f**cker on his upcoming tour, which includes a stop at BLIPFEST. Yup, you heard me right:  the sonofan8bitwhore is actually playing AT Blipfest this year. Another reason to catch that amazing Memorial Day weekend Chiptune extravaganza. I mean, as if you really needed another reason to go to that, amirite? IAMRITE.

Also, did I mention yet that HE’S GOT A  BRAND SPANKING NEW TRACK COMING OUT ON MY UPCOMING CHIPTUNES = WIN  \m|♥|m/ COMPILATION NEXT MONTH??? So yeah, stayed tuned for that! ;DDD Ttfn~!

\m|♥|m/