Tag: J. Arthur Keenes

Well, the time has come again for us to review what the hell is happening at 8bc.  I’m not sure what the hell is happening.  I gave a listen to all these damn tracks, and I gotta say, this was a slow week.

I have no way to spin that.

However, we were treated to a Famicompo runner up post by the nation’s favourite Zabutom, Zabutom.

Retardation! – A feast of breeelionce by Sweden’s best unsung master of chiptune.  There’s a lot of hyperactivity surrounding some of the best self promoters (pixlh8), and virtually none surrounding the best composers.  Zabutom routinely tosses out chiptunes in every format under the sun that are better than anything any of us will ever create, and he does it all just because he likes tunes.  You need to learn from him.  (pixelh8).

Cute Girl Game – Coda grants us a stay of execution with this sugary gubernatorial writ reminiscent of SVGA isometric windows games with inscrutable Japanese characters and the WAReZ bbs promise that the game DOES, in fact, contain nudity.  This song perhaps is that nudity.  It’s nakedly sappy and sentimental, but a masterpiece nonetheless of economy and fun.  Coda’s a grand master.  Enjoy some of his leavings.

Periscope – I already really love J Arthur Keenes.  It’ snot because he’s Canadian, it’s not because he’s ontarian, it’s not even because this song reminds me so much of my (shameless plug) song Seigfreid.  It’s because he’s consistently interesting and nice.  His music is pretty, and interesting, different than the F G Am Em chiptune UNCE standard fare foisted on us by the NBCs of chiptune.  He’s got a real flare for detail, but not that kind of chaotic, Fighter X, 10,000 arps per second detail.  Actual, clear, clean, detail.  This one is nice.

February – Being that Firebrandboy is Scottish I assumed this was a sequel to the classic Scottish pop song, January, However, it was not.  What it was was a stunning use of mssiah and midines and what i assume is a guitar (set to amazing) to create a slow, at first pensive but ultimately satisfyingly simple and lovely mixture of modern rock and, yes, even some DONK.  The sid has a magic ability to lay donks on things without donks becoming rediculous.  It’s why i favor the Donks de Side.  I also favor firebrandboy.  With my wife.   (he may be insulted by this, but shades of Coldplay, without the lameness).

Honorable Mention

Ending Credits – Ctrl Alt Destroy has a great name.  This song fits under the “doesnt’ quite make it” category, but is so close it deserves mention.  It’s a really lovely and nostalgic piece that really does what it says it will do, remind you of watching the Producer, Co producer, programmer, character designer, sound design, etc… credits slowly scrolling by while mario dreams of shyguys.

Angel – Spamtron might aggravate some with his unique communication style, but no one can deny his skill with a tracker.  This might not be in honorable mention, except that it’s a .. well, remix?  revision?  reimagining?  it’s a kind of cover.. is the gist of what i mean.  It’s not precisely a cover, but you’ll feel the Mega Man 3 in there.  And the NiN.

Jesusforce 4 – Swear, i wrote this song off right away.  The name of the composer is Glitterforce Mastersystem.  I listened to it out of justice and honor and being unwilling to call the songs I picked “the best of 8bc” without knowing for a fact that they were.   So I listened.  What starts as a relatively basic haircut romp eventually develops into lacunae of clarity and actually interesting instrumentation.  For parts.  It’s an honorable mention.  Barely.

Remember folks, happy chipping.  And also, someone said something good to me today which i’ll pass along.  Time spend admiring your own work is a pause without progress.   Write more songs people.