Month: March 2009

  • Claps and Leads by Mr. Spastic

    8bp096One of my favorites in the whole “MIDIFY Chip sounds but make the kind of music I want to anyways”  zone of the chip music scene, Mr. Spastic is extremely underrated and hopefully this is the release to get him on the map.  Having had one of the best Blip ’09 sets, he is sure to be killing it at this weekend’s  Dutycyle II show.  With its killer pixel art from UI, this may be hands down one of my favorite e-ep’s so far of 09.

    This is non-optional download. GRAB IT NOW.

    “Claps and Leads” marks Mr. Spastic’s triumphant return to the 8bitpeoples catalogue; five deft exercises in virtuoso programming, balancing intricate technical skill with a warmly organic sound, all delivered in his signature bold-yet-delicate tech-soul style. Jazz, deep funk, disco, R&B, and full-on techno inflections collide and merge into an astonishing stylistic cocktail, all topped off with a shimmering pro-grade production sensibility. Dazzling artwork by Ui completes the package, sealing the deal on a certain future classic.

    via 8bitpeoples.

  • Endless loop: A brief history of chiptunes

    via

    Chiptune refers to a collection of related music production and performance practices sharing a history with video game soundtracks. The evolution of early chiptune music tells an alternate narrative about the hardware, software, and social practices of personal computing in the 1980s and 1990s. By digging into the interviews, text files, and dispersed ephemera that have made their way to the Web, we identify some of the common folk-historical threads among the commercial, noncommercial, and ambiguously commercial producers of chiptunes with an eye toward the present-day confusion surrounding the term chiptune. Using the language of affordances and constraints, we hope to avoid a technocratic view of the inventive and creative but nevertheless highly technical process of creating music on computer game hardware.

    Full Paper.

    Im sure the Pulpit will raise some objections to the authors conclusions, but it is worth the read.

  • Outside the Box: PS2 as cheapo sampler

    [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/5-tddsxHZ3g" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

    You could get two decks of pstwos, one running this and one running PS24vJ for some lofi blurry beats. I have a copy of the older mtv generator and it was fun, but kinda slow in composition. Hows the sequal?

  • Retro Thing: Atari Flashback Portable

    While at the Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee, Retro Thing shot exclusive video of the prototype Atari Flashback Portable. This pocket-sized game has a built in screen, and plays your favorite Atari 2600 ROMs downloaded into its internal memory. Marty Goldberg tells us about plans to bring the Portable to market in the near future

    via Retro Thing: Exclusive Video: Atari Flashback Portable.

    Coupled with the usb port, this might be just the thing to get people working on more serious 2600 composition. At $75 AND dual keypad support, I’d be all over this :D

  • joystiq: SXSW 2009: Datapop tuneage

    While we’re scampering around GDC in the hunt for gaming goodness, we thought we’d drop a bootleg tune from last week’s Datapop concert party at SXSW, which went exceedingly well. The venue was packed with sweaty chiptune lovers, and it actually rocked a lot more than we thought it would. Check out the gallery below from the event, and bounce along to the song from Sievert — embedded at the bottom of the post.

    via SXSW 2009: Datapop tuneage for your Tuesday.