Interviews

A Blast of Fake Believe

Ever wonder why Alex Mauer’s trilogy of NES chiptunes is called “Eat People”? Check out this interview over at Igloo Magazine.

Alex Mauer

Excerpt: ” I’m not really interested in chiptunes crossing into the mainstream, but it wouldn’t bother me if they did as long as it didn’t misrepresent what is going on in the chip scene. I think Anamanaguchi is good… but I’d rather see them put their guitars down and just hit play on the NES controller and stand there. (Laughs.) Not that they aren’t good or anything, it’s just that I’d rather be able to hear the NES by itself. Personally, if I was really good at playing, I’d rather make some nerd in the back of the room happy than get the whole room jumping up and down.”

Read the rest!

Releases

Magnetic Sumo comp released

WHERE THE LAWS OF ATTRACTION AND THE ETERNAL BATTLE FOR THE TITLE OF YOKOZUNA INTERTWINE.

  • 01 Yakuza Heart Attack – Bionic Boiz
  • 02 Alex Mauer – Terraforming Mars
  • 03 Rico Zerone – Spheredivers
  • 04 Phlogiston – Song from Croqel 3D
  • 05 Norrin_Radd – A Barrage of Hostile Abstractions
  • 06 Disasterpeace – Malbone street wreck
  • 07 Joshua Morse – Meteor shower pro
  • 08 zan-zan-zawa-veia – hushhush
  • 09 Temp Sound Solutions – Floating Point (Alex Mauer cover)
  • 10 TristEndo – What was once a great nation
  • 11 Spiny Norman – Give us the green light

Pause

Releases

Love Songs From The Future

The Mayor of Beep City was on his last legs, as was his once-proud metropolis, now littered with invading ninja. All weapons had been used twice-over, all ammo depleted. The butts of guns and the hilts of worn blades the only remaining resistance. That is… until they opened the vault.

  • 01. Warm Green Something (Bit Rat)
  • 02. Battle For Bifrost (Daemon9623)
  • 03. Nicole Shippo (Alex Mauer)
  • 04. The Tale of A Pirate (Nario)
  • 05. Honey Hive (Moldilox)
  • 06. Infernal Shell (Temp Sound Solutions)
  • 07. Never To Return (Norrin Radd)
  • 08. Kludge (Captain Tortilla)
  • 09. Flight of The Peacock Lords (Prizmatic Spray)
  • 10. Air Raid The Ocean (Zio and TEH LOLZ)
  • 11. Sputnik (Wizwars)
  • 12. Jungle Jim’s Jellybean Jamboree (Djinnocide)

via Beep City

TCTD 2009 Awards

TCTD Awards 2009: Best Release

“Release” is sort of an abused term in the chip community. TCTD regards the term “release” as:

  • Contains a number of quality tracks from an artist or groups of artists
  • Album artwork and hosting so you can easily direct friends who might want to learn more about the artist or label
  • Quality tracks

The nominees this year include a variety of formats, from ROM carts to vinyl to digital to CD. Their common thread is that they are all collections of great tracks by some of the best artists in the game.

Here are your 2009 Best Release nominees:

Bud Melvin –  Popular Music / Self Released

Bud is one of the most interesting voices in the chip music scene, his songs eschew chip music cliches and use a wide spanning soundscape to paint expressive backgrounds for his madcap narratives.

Bondage FairiesCheap Italian Wine / LoboTom

Sweden’s favorite 8bit, punk rock, robot duo’s sophomore release did not disappoint, with more Pixes flavored Devo-inspired scatologia  that rocks from the first synth warble to the last downbeat.

Alex MauerVegavox2 / Pause

The master of the NES ROM album world (and thanks to NO CARRIER, it is actually becoming a world), this ROM showcases Alex’s acknowledged mastery of the 2a03 and gives you a glimpse of his lesser known pixel chops.

V/A – Blip Festival 2008: 32 Live Recordings / 8bitpeoples and 2playerproductions

Perhaps the definitive live chip music document, this release showed that the energy of Blip Festival and its performers can indeed be captured and will remain a keepsake of all involved for years to come.

c-jeffelectric / Pause

c-jeff’s concept EP shows off his considerable musical chops (with some help from his friends) and is one of the more touching and cerebral releases of 2009.

Chipmusic

V.A. - Autumtunes released on Ubiktune

ubi011Another BRILLIANT compilation released on C-Jeff’s Ubiktunes, featuring a lot of new names for me that I was happy to discover, and a bunch of the good ones, showing their autumn-inspired tunes.

Catchy pop-ish tunes that will make this week a better one. Quality release, of the type we don’t see much anymore.

Download this because you will not regret it.