Author: Peter Swimm

  • Atarimatt – “I Was A Teenage Metalhead”

    Atarimatt sends TCTD a cd-r of his new split “I Was A Teenage Metalhead”. Atarimatt, working entirely on two copies of synthcart on the Atari2600 makes probably the best use of the TIA chip outside Slocum’s own Treewave.  The first track on the disc, “Space Squid Shakedown” is its most succesful track,  with slow building tension and adept use of the 2600’s especially limited sonic palette.  Atarimatt does use some mixing and effects, but the use is subtle and does not detract from the song, rather reinforces it.

    After a track from other band, electro Proggers GUL, atarimatt second track “The Electric Monsters”,  is a jaunty well played tune, but perhaps falls victim to the shortcomings of the TIA with its limited pitch range.  Everything about the track is solid, it just did not grab me as strongly as the lead-off track.

    Finally the two artist take turns remixing the rad atarimatt tune, “Commuter”. The source song, on atarimatts myspace” , is itself a beautiful track, and the remixes are different enough to be unique pieces of work.  The disc itself comes packaged with artwork and stickers for the bands and label. At five bucks its a very low risk high reward proposition, and a great showcase of the potential of synthcart at its best.

    You can get it for $5 anywhere in the US at his myspace.

  • PopMatters reviews Nullsleep live

    Now accepting writers!
    Now accepting writers!

    PopMatters wrote a review of Nullsleep‘s Lit Lounge Show on Oct 3rd.  While its geat to see an lengthy article focusing on one of the live greats of the scene, the article falls short in a few ways. Some Excerpts:

    But back to the familiar part for a moment: Imagine he’s set up like a conventional DJ, with pulsating basslines reaching outward from a huge 4×12 speaker cabinet atop of which he has placed a mixer cabled to two turntables. Now scratch the turntables—instead, they’re Game Boys.

    Its a common conceit amongst many authors that chip music IS JUST like something you know very well, but MIND BLOWINGLY different. He goes on to overly complicate and mystify the process by describing artists using “expensive proprietary writers, others imported from Europe thanks to an industrious German” and making the logical leap that “it’s a lot like Tetris, but with square waves taking the place of those infernal L-shapes.”

    But while he gets the basic demoracy of the chip platform wrong, he does touch on the point of it all with the following:

    “There’s a minimalism in the equipment which you’d think would parallel the compositional philosophy, but in fact it seems to be the inverse. How much noise can we make with this?  How complex can the songs get with just two toys? With eight bits? Some say the absence of limitations is a mortal enemy of creativity; Johnson takes that philosophy and bites its head off as though it’s a dead bat.”

    So it still worth a read, as we still wait for the right author to speak evocatively about the scene from an outsiders perspective.  I would like to see in the future authors start judging the music on the merits of the compostion isntead of waxing pihlosopically at length about the boring technical details, all the while getting many parts of the process incorrect, or simply representing them in a way that further distances the artists from potential fans.

    Read more

  • A26F 2600 Midi Cart Appeared

    The prolific madman from down under, little-scale has posted his video of his 2600 midi interface.

    He writes:

    I love the sounds of the Atari 2600. I made a MIDI interface that gives you full control over the sound output of an Atari 2600.

    Watch a demo video here.

    I really want to thank Paul Slocum and all of the fantastic work that he has done for the inspiration.

    I have created an announcements group for this project here.

  • Il creatore – Crazy 8bit electo pop videos

    Il creatore sent us a link to some of his awesome console derived videos for his blippy electro pop. One Part Bruce Haack, ten parts crazy, the videos are a shitstorm of fun. Check them out here:

  • This week at the Collective I

    For the Week of 10/20-10/27

    Lets try out a new feature picking five tracks that grabbed our attention over here at TCTD from the 8BITCollective. Here they are in no praticular order.

    “Space Race (adlib)” by oxygenstar

    Another great track from the recent spike in fm based tracks on the collective, the track is a mindblowing melange of sound design, driving rhythmic elements and great melodic elements.  Cheers to the fm revival!.

    “Gajanana” by Bud Melvin

    Bud takes a terrible 8BC trend, the posting of ill advised and poorly made “my first tracks” and knocks it out of the park here with his janky but pretty tune evoking a quiet day in a Lewis Carroll garden.

    “From the Ghetto with Love” by Crazy Q

    Another ringer, this old but new to 8BC track is classic Crazy Q. Fat bass lines, and dancing arps mangy stay firmly on the awesome side of the fruity euro chipstyle.

    “Lock” by Dise-a.g.m

    Dise-a.g.m. has been making songs I like for a while, so its good to seem him get props for this solid track. Stick around for the back half for an accomplished take on the endless chip solo style.

    “Ottomania” by Broomlinde

    Boomlinde brings this infectiously fun track with its gypsy tech beats and claps. Perhaps the biggest knock you can justify on 8bc is a lack of diversity so special note must be made of those who both create great tracks which are ass kicking AND unique sounding.

    So that was easy huh? With over 160 tracks release in a week it was pretty tough getting down to just five, so please post any ones I might’ve missed in the comments. See you next week!