Tag Archives: electronic

GAME MUSIC, MUSIC

Octavators – Super Castlevania IV, The Remix Album

Leave a comment

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!!!

1 Comment

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.

\m|♥|m/

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, GAMING, MUSIC

Friday Freakout: NOROCK = ALL ROCK!!!

As deeply involved as I have become in the chipscene as of late, some folk might assume that I would know of pretty much everything happening within it before it even happens. Those people would be dead furkin wrong.  In fact, you’ve only gotta go back as far as last Monday’s episode of 8 Bit Power Hour for proof of this. While we were live on the air, Obtuse dropped an awesomebomb  on me from one of his Michigan chiptuner buds. To be more specific:

Loudness by NOROCK

Loudness = six electro chipjams of booty moving, dance-tastic, high energy, nerd zombie destroying goodness FTW!! This EP has been rocking my earholes daily since experiencing a couple tracks from it last Monday night. In other words, IT’S A SUREFIRE WINNER.

While NOROCK has been around for a good while, this album is brand new; released on 10/12 to be exact. Not your typical chipmusic creation setup either, as the heart of this chipalbum is Atari driven. To be specific: “Loudness was created using a modern PC and an Atari 1040STe. The PC controls the Atari via MIDI, essentially turning the Atari into a very flexible YM2149-based synthesizer. FL Studio 9 runs on the PC, and MaxYMiser runs on the Atari.” This unique chipset gives the bleep bloops in these tracks a different tonal quality than your typical LSDj or Tracker based album; makes it stand out all the more!

At any rate, do yourself a favor and go give this awesome album a solid listen; and if you really dig it, drop a 5-spot on it and download the sucker! Trust me, YOUR EARHOLES WILL THANK YOU.

And if you’re interested in discovering new chipmusic before I get a chance to write about it here, be sure to swing by the 8 Bit Power Hour on 8bitx every Monday night from 9-10pm EST. If nothing else, drop by the irc to give Obtuse a high-five for this awesome tip-off! 8)

\m|♥|m/

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, DANCE MUSIC, Features, MUSIC

Powerglove – The Remixes

Leave a comment


This summer I held my first remix contest. I had written this track with friend and label-mate Benjamin Briggs and had it mastered by producer/DJ 23 from Monstercat Media. Needless to say, I considered it a successful collab, I DJ’d the track at shows and it sounded great and got people moving, but in the collaboration process I had to sacrifice some ideas I had for the sake if the project as a whole. Riffs and melodic ideas that didn’t fit once there was another cook in the kitchen. What Ben and 23 came up with was so awesome and so far beyond what I had imagined myself, I decided to open up the track for a public remix contest. I wanted to hear what the track would become if even more people got involved.

Two friends of mine had started a freelance audio website AudioCatch earlier in the year and I participated as a beta tester. When they caught wind that I wanted to hold a remix contest, they were quick to help. They offered a sponsorship that funded our Grand Prize, as well as provided a platform for submitting, reviewing and judging entries.

The winning remix was by Upstate New York DJ/Producer Direktor, who I had coincidently met at my show with Excision this summer. Direktor transposed the tune and transformed it into a formidable dubstep track, loud and brilliant. But there were so many other entries that were top notch, I couldn’t stop there.

With Ben’s help, we picked out the best 6 remixes and put together this album, Powerglove: THE REMIXES. I even took some time and recreated what my “original” version of the song may have sounded like, and included it as a VIP mix for those who choose to pay for the album.

Powerglove was based very loosely off the opening riff from the Nintendo game MIG29: Soviet Fighter. GameChops is my record label for video game music, combining music production and a passion for gaming. All purchases go directly to supporting the artists and funding new music, so please purchase Powerglove: THE REMIXES if you can.

Remix stems are still available if you’d like to try your hand at remixing the original track. Check out GameChops.com for remix stems.