Chipmusic • Music Artists

8BC Tracks of the Week (8/2/09 – 15/2/09)

logoWell, 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.

Chipmusic • Labels • Music Artists

Midweek Round-up with the II Comp. and more

25

Fortress of Baditude

The Winter II Records com is out and its a doozy. It features the following tracks:

01 Disasterpeace – Bird Season
02 ok ikumi – white plains 96
03 The J. Arthur Keenes Band – Stoic
04 Fighter X – Winter Death
05 Evil Wezil – Icebreaker
06 Zan-zan-zawa-veia – Khei-moni
07 Animal Style – Ancient Accumulator
08 µB – ice flower
09 iqtu – ice palace dub
10 Derris-Kharlan – Shiva
11 temp sound solutions – the last of all that lasts
12 failotron – hullamzoret
13 oxygenstar – the lazy gnome

On top of that is news of two hot commercial releases:

Spamtron – Never Say Die!

Blast off into Spamtron’s world of fast-paced robot action with Never Say Die!, an eighteen-track thrill ride full of spammy wonderment! Experience tracks never before heard in one beautifully presented package. Spamtron takes chip music to the next level. No n00bs!

Mommy Was An Asteroid – Morphballs 3″CD-R

wots space-punk speeding thru space to do? …the only musical instrument afforded in such tight quarters is the beloved 21st century gameboy micro of course, so have gameboy will travel and hear ye my musical love-poem to a broad 8n a spacesuit called Samus!

Chipmusic

8BC Tracks of the Week (1/25/09-1/31/09)

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Pete’s sick with a bad cold. And sorting thru the 200+ uploads to 8bitcollective from last week isn’t gonna make the guy feel any better. I’ll help a brotha out. Here are the 5 tracks that I believe deserve some recognition:

spamtron – “Daniel Liss”

A “tribute” to VGM shred kid who uses the internet alias “Ashane,” this sprawling track hits the listener with some serious progression, melody and sick glitches atop blast beats that would make any head banger throw their metal sign in the air.

Je Deviens Dj En 3 Jours – “Bencong”

I did a google image search while at work and I think “bencong” is Indonesian for “tranny.” Regardless, this track kicks the ass. Also, I’m not usually a fan of tracks made in the nanoloops. Regardless, this track kicks the ass.

Mahamajama – “Alright…”

Here’s a perfect example of why it pays off to listen to EVERY uploaded track when compiling these lists: this wonderful XM track would have surely slipped under my radar, as it has been missed by all of you as well. The song’s gotten only a few views and comments but hopefully that will change soon. Also, get the .xm here.

nobuyuki – “Take Me Home Tonight”

Yes, this song by Eddie Money was a #1 hit years before the majority of 8bc members were even born. Nostalgia and lulz aside, this is a catchy pop tune and nobuyuki does a great job translating it into a chip track.

Trim White Spaces – “The Golden Sherpa”

Put some chemicals in your body, turn off the lights, turn up this track… and poop in your pants. I mean, I did. OK, not really… but you can imagine what it’d be like if you did, right? ;)

The following also are not your standard 8bc uploads and are all well worth checking out:

exnfox – “Crossing Guard”

ast0r – “lover’s rock

µB – “Maracas Demon”

sixafterseven – “ituneshelper”

Maskodling – “Egenmelding”

And for those of you considering uploading a new track to 8bc, remember these wise words: QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY, SHOULD BE YOUR MAIN OBJECTIVE.

Chipmusic • Music Artists

This Week at the Collective IV – Back in the Habbit

Welcome to another edition of “This week at the collective IV – part 4”.  I have to say, based on listening to about 160 songs this week, about 150 of which were NL 1.3 and LSDJ 3.7.5 (update?) i have decided that after this week, i am not going to listen to any more gameboy songs, unless they were done in gameboy MML.

That being said, this week is set up based on audio technology lines.  Get on your lines, and insert your audio technology!  HERE — WE — GO!
Continue reading This Week at the Collective IV – Back in the Habbit

Chipmusic • Music Artists

This week at the Collective II

For the Week of 10/28-11/03

“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 particular order.” – The Boss

This week, i will bring you what i found to be the most Slorricious of all the songs.  There were many songs that vied for the best five, but only four actually made it.  Yet there are some honorable mentions.  You’ll see what i mean in a moment.  This week seems to have been a slow week.  Don’t agree?  Post a comment.
Continue reading This week at the Collective II