Alex Mauer returns with his third NES album. Having had a few days to sit down with the ROM and play it, that the concept of a album on a cart has come to full fruition. The tech on the cart allows you to drop your virtual needle on any track, and listen as it seamlessly plays through the album. One could imagine Mauer doing a cart tour, just by mailing his cart to various chip events around the world. The music and artwork are sparse yet intricately woven, delicate as a spiders-web. Our friends over at II have posted a copy of the rom, tracks, NSFs, and its worth every bit of your bandwidth.
Tag: II
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Vegavox 2 by Alex Mauer
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GM4A Interviews II Netlabel
Missed this from earlier in the week, but GM4A has interviewed the II Netlabel. Some choice excerpts:
When you started your label, what were your initial goals and ideas for what you wanted out of your site?
R: We initially wanted Pause to be a team of musicians who exclusively released all of their music on Pause, essentially to use the site as a homepage on the web. It was going to be the place for this small group of artists to have all their music either available or linked to, blogs, and all sorts of information that people might care about. Ultimately we decided to go for a broader variety of releases and pass on the team idea, at least for the time being.
E: The idea was that we’d get more exposure if we made one website instead of as individuals. As Pause grows we get new ideas and set new goals. I guess now one of the main goals would be to find ways to generate some income, so we can treat our fans to more merchandise, gigs and what not. But for the time being, Pause is still just on the hobby level.
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zan-zan-zawa-veia mole soul ep
Long awaited release from zan-zan-zawa-veia for fans of the uneasy listening progressive chip maximization. II writes:This cream of nine month’s work is a set of curious songs sung by a neglected NES, buried alongside the sounds of dinosaurs – progressive rock, the earliest game soundtracks, cabaret and other such styles left to hibernate. All six pieces avoid the immediate and mechanical, instead delving naturally into exploration.
01 Silk Webs
02 Look Away
03 Clan Duat
04 Cats Play
05 Kheimoni
06 Snow Hare
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Best Label
In a time of great upheaval in the music industry, many mainstream labels struggle to find a role in the fast changing media landscape. This proves even more so for the extremely niche market that is modern chip. The best labels have in common a love of the music they release, firm quality control, and a strong ability to support and promote the artists on their roster.
The nominees are:
Kittenrock – This label celebrates excellence as well as diversity with a flood of great and interesting releases in 2008. Tracks from Silreq, My Two Robodads, and uberkin Stevens were marked not only by a strong experimental leaning, but also superb composition.
Retinascan – An anachronism and a sort of reaction against the glut of me too netlabels, Retinascan delivers hand made cd-rs chosen from some of the greats like Stu, Jellica, our own 8GB, and more. By making the runs short and the tracks great, they created a sort of unique excitement that gave a refreshing alternative to the free data flood that often overwhelms all but the most unique voices in the chip scene.
II – Running roughshod over our collective mp3 devices, this label hit the ground running with an great Linde release and did not let up all year long. Highlights included Animal Style, Disasterpeace’s Level, The Final Chromeledeon reissues, EvilWeezil, Alex Mauer and more. II not only releases great chip music, but music that often transcends many genres, and often of very high quality both in composition, sound design, and overall presentation
Shanshui – The unfortunate reality is most of the focus of the world is on on the western, Caucasian, and American edges of the genre. Shansui appears to be propping the entirety of the nascent Chinese chip community on their backs, organizing tours and releasing excellent records from the greats in theirs and the worldwide community. It seems a surety that if the community is to grow it must become far more diverse and this label is an exciting first step.
8bitpeoples – The venerable (and maybe even stately?) netlabel chugged along with another excellent year of releases. As well as showcasing some of chip’s top artists (in a more or less timely manner), they hosted another Blip Festival and served as an excellent ambassador to the outside world and media time and time again.
