.sylCMYK - Sylvester's Theme

Back with his second feature on this site, this is the anthem of .sylCMYK, a New York graphic artist/chiptuner, who once again features his I-Hate-Mid-Frequencies mastering technique with a frantic (though not as much as in his other songs) lead and crisp, bright-as-the-sun drums. Apparently this is just some melody he would hum to himself from time to time? It's super catchy!

Last time I featured one of his songs (Jj), he reacted as if it wasn't worthy, or if his music was only so-so. Well I don't know what he's hearing when he hits play, but I think this music's fantastic! I think a lot of us do!

We'll show you, Sylvester!



.sylCMYK's Website

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cTrix - Wednesday Chip

I think this is the first Commodore 64 song to make it onto 8BD... The machine has a sound similar to the Atari ST (which I love! and want to buy one of!!), and is generally only used by the hardest-core of all chip musicians. This is the first track released by cTrix this year (that's come to my attention, anyway... Feel free to correct me on this in the comments section!), and it's extremely sweet! Makes me wonder how many other artists are lurking on 8BC, unknown to most of the quickly growing community. Enjoy!!



cTrix's Website

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Disasterpeace - A Single Ray of Light

Disasterpeace's own description of this song is just too good... I can't really top it, only add to it:

"For generations, there lasted a darkness. A darkness each of us hoped would pass. As we watched and waited, life around us began to wither. And as the darkness grew more dense, we soon realized that the single ray of light we had hoped for would never come. We had been clenching our fists around a fleeting notion only to find that it had escaped our grasp. For ages, we slumbered waiting in the cold. Choking on the air in our own lungs. We were upon our final hours when he appeared to shine a light onto our path. A path we might follow into eternity."

He's actually making a video game, or about to, but he needs help! That link leads to a page where you can donate money for their project to get funded. It is a pretty sweet idea that I have never heard of before. And the song is even better when you watch the video that's next to it! It's called "High Strangeness", which isn't about being high or anything like that, "Strangeness" is actually a physical property, and so you can say something is "Highly Strange" and actually be talking about a real and pseudo-quantifiable value. Read more on it (somewhat lofty) here!



Disasterpeace's Website (Music)
The High Strangeness Donation Website

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Ungertron - Bobby The Thief (Whom God Loves)

Kind of all-over-the-place, but hear it out. This song is really well written, with lots of minor and accidental stuff going on that keeps it full of strife and darkness. Instrumentally simple, with nothing by way of post-processing that I can hear, but not boring by a long shot. The conclusion of the piece is very satisfying as well.



Ungertron's Website

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SingleForSaturday - Try Force

Well, it's another video game referencing track (the title, not the tune), and as much as I do not like that stuff, these guys have written a pretty solid dancey track. Their strength is in their transitions, which sound powerful and always break into something new and different and more energizing than the last section. I was somewhat surprised that the song had only 3 "likes" when I happened upon it, but was filled with comments calling it "spectacular" or "a perfect tune!"

That's right, a guy called this the Perfect Tune, and then didn't hit the "like" button. And I wonder why autotuned vocals over some weak, repetitive chippy loop made in GarageBand make it onto the 8BC chart every week. Whatever. Nothing gets past my radar, and I'm gonna give this song the recognition it deserves!



SingleForSaturday's Website

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Kulor - Anime Techno

This gets a spot here because it's a sweet track which makes awesome use of the Casio toy keyboard "Japanese" demo which is very dated and borderline derogatory. I remember this demo on a friend's keyboard, I never understood how having it as accompaniment could ever work in a song. I guess I've finally found an answer. It's a little bit on the quiet side, though, so turn it way up!!



Kulor's Website

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SpareTimeHero - Forever Is Child's Play

What do you think, is he saying that a claim involving the timeframe of "Forever" is child's play, as in to say "I could do that forever" is not a very impressive exagguration? Or is he saying that child's play (i.e. trivial challenges and easily surmountable opponents) is forever? Is SpareTimeHero so bored by this life that he has the tenacity to say that everything we do, everything we overcome, is a feat so commonplace as to be overlooked? I certainly don't think so. I think life is full of rich challenges and difficult one-in-a-million opportunities.

Regardless, it's a great track, worthy of your ears. See what you think!



SpareTimeHero's Website

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Bud Melvin - I'm Old Fashioned

AAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!! Curse you, Bud Melvin! I hate that you made me have a song with lyrics on my page!

Normally I can't stand chiptunes with lyrics. Something about lyrics over any sort of electronica just doesn't jive right with this dude. But... Somehow, making your lyrics old-timey happen to do the trick? Or maybe I'm just playing this because it's POPULAR MUSIC and I think that by featuring this I'll be popular too? Oh, wait, no, that's just the name of the LP (and I feel good about saying LP here, since Bud really is old fashioned and got this release pressed into vinyl). It doesn't actually mean anything. UP NEXT WEEK: THE WORLD'S FIRST CHIPTUNE GRAMOPHONE RELEASE?!?!?!?!



Bud Melvin's Website

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SMH - Graduation Song

It's graduation time! This song is just so full of hope and opportunity. It makes me feel like the whole world is mine for the taking! It's not, but... I feel like it is when I'm playing this. Congratulations to people getting out of college, and my heart goes out to all the kids that are about to go INTO college this fall. It is quite the ordeal~~!



SMH's Website

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CONQUEST - Poseidon

Off of his LP-in-progress comes a song that is as water-mixed-with-electricity as I always picture Poseidon to be. But it's not just that he calls his shot that makes it so impressive, the song is written excellently! And it's a song that I think deserves more attention than it received (a comment from me, to be precise). So check it out!



CONQUEST's Website

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Xylo - Thirteen Peanuts.

This song is good and nice. It has a pleasant melody, simple drums, and a warm mood. It is just so... Great!!

Xylo's Website

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Alex Mauer - Snipes

This is a cool song off of a really cool release from Pause. Published onto an NES cartridge, it's a rare format for an LP. I don't own an NES myself, which is why I was so glad they made a ROM available that you can play on your computer with an emulator. There's various options when considering picking up Vegavox II, from the physical cartridge to a .zip of the mp3s here!!



Alex Mauer's Website
Pause

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µB - The Locust

What µB describes as a "minimal" track, this song is very full, with nice clicky percussion, a rich bassline, and excellent mixing overall. Despite its heavy repitition, he does enough with volume manipulation and the slow adding of instruments, not to mention he made the most fantastic kick drum I've heard since I first got into Daft Friggin' Punk. That's saying quite a bit.

So turn this one up loud, 'cause it's ridiculously sweet.



µB's Website

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f12 - Pie Time

PIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEE~~~!!!! Finally, the bulk of chiptunes style makes its way onto my site. Dancey, upbeat, maybe even "sugary". F12's second release on 8bc.org is ridiculously catchy, utterly repetitive, and just varied enough to not get old by the end of the track.

In 8bd news, I'm finally getting a cache of picks built up, and I can say... What a relief! No more almost being late to work because of this website! I'll have to find new and exciting ways to be tardy, I guess...



f12's Website

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Kulor - Atlantis Throughout Thy Ages

An original composition that sounds like it was made 200 years ago. An excellent hymn, perfect for a Sunday like today. Praise be to Atlantis~!



Kulor's Website

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Pieces Of Eight - Unrest A-OK

This song is quite explicit in its narrative, making use of weird chip effects to create a very definite mood. From the filtered noise channel as radio silence, to the high-pitched echoed arpeggios as an unanswered telephone or alarm, and finally with the bent saw wave as a spoken response, it's a very interesting and unique piece of chip composition. And to really round it out, the song that follows the rather intense introduction is excellent, too!



Pieces Of Eight's Website

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MmcM - Spring Day

The second and final track I'm gonna feature from the new "Springtunes" album, to show you how imperative it is that you get it!! Hit up Ubiktune and grab it!



MmcM's Website (Russian)
MmcM's Website (Translated)

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iqtu - Dinosaur Document

This guy is a master of mixing and production. His songs sound truly professional, with percussion that pops out, thick melodies, and all sorts of cool little effects floating around. It's definitely a release to inspect the entirety of, and it's over there at "pause" records (www.iimusic.com) for free, like near every other chiptune ever.



iqtu's Website

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Riskej - Hanashi: Pretty Voice Of Spring

Off of a release from a label I found out only because of this compilation comes Riskej's "Hanashi: Pretty Voice Of Spring". It's a fantastic song off of a truly incredible release. It's so good, in fact, that the "Get It!" link below will not link you to the single song. Oh no, it's all or nothing today, baby. You gotta get the whole release. And listen to it. YOU MUST~! Spring is in the aaaaaiiiiiir~~~~!!



Riskej's Website? (A quick Google for Riskej finds all sorts of his work all over the place, with no real centralized place for the bulk of his releases in sight)

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DEADBEATBLAST - Zombie Slam Dance

Perhaps you, dear reader, aren't familiar with the concept of the "Midi NES". Perhaps you aren't up to date on the controversy surrounding the insane level of demand for this product, or the myriad complications involved when one desires to acquire one. Allow me to write for a minute, here. The MidiNES cartridge is something that allows for any program capable of controlling a device via MIDI connection architecture to interface with the NES on a core level. This means that you can write a neat little melody in your favorite piano roll program, like FL Studio, Reason, Cubase, etc. (the bane of many a chip-artist for reasons of "authenticity": most people using these programs output sounds that are merely emulations or at best samples of dated hardware), and then have the legendary 2AO3 (the name of the NES's CPU/Sound Chip) belt out your music in a fashion that would please the most hardened elitist. It, in short, offers composers the best of both worlds. So it's no wonder that this cartridge is incredibly sought-after. Cool, right? There's no shortage of LSDJ cartridges, and they're available instantly to anyone who asks, it would make sense that the same goes for an NES cartridge (especially since there are far fewer NESes lying about than there are all the various generations of Game Boy capable of playing LSDJ), right? Wrong. The creator of the midiNES, a guy who goes by x|k on the ol' internet, makes every cartridge himself. By hand. He finds old game cartridges, restores the plastic shell to its original pristine condition, replaces the guts with his own PCB and MIDI cable, and then sells it to you for a cool $100 (partly 'cause he can, partly 'cause it takes forever to make one of these carts). Despite this high price, demand for the cartridge has so far proven to be endless, and a number of forums the scene over are flooded with attempts to reach x|k and nervous inquiries as to the whole operation's validity. Honestly, I feel bad for x|k, shouldering the intense burden that has resulted from his light-hearted desire to form a shortcut from PC composition to authentic hardware noise output, but as he churns out midiNES after midiNES, an extremely powerful tool makes it into the hands of one more lucky composer.

All this is setup for what I'm about to play for you. This is a song by DEADBEATBLAST, who reports that he just got his midiNES. While I make no guarantees that you'll make music like this the instant one of these coveted cartridges makes it way to your house, this is a sampling of the power of what you can do with one, and it sounds like it's worth the wait.



DEADBEATBLAST's Website

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Ultrasyd - Scene Spirit

Like Cerror's "Salvator", featured last month, this song makes great use of the Atari ST. I've recently been toying with ST in my own music, and it's got a sweet chip with some really textured sound possibilities. Ultrasyd gets his money's worth out of the thing in this song, and turns out another good track (you should really check out his whole library, but if you don't have time I won't hold it against you).



Ultrasyd's Website

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NAND - K-Maps

A chiptune artist whose every song I've heard, NAND has made some pretty incredible progress since I first started hearing stuff out of him. While this track is pretty technically simple, it's a really catchy song that I've found stuck in my head every day since I've heard it. Plus, I figured I should let y'all in on what some LSDJ tracks sound like. Have a cool Sunday, dudes~!



NAND's Website

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Nestroyer - ZZ Pot

Nestroyer is just the cleverest guy. ZZ Pot (like ZZ Top, GET IT?) is the bonus track of Nestroyer's brand new release "Four times oh oh seven and the company of three mutated animals plus extra track". Not the sort of album name you'd see lying around a Best Buy or FYE, but you know... Not the kind of music you'd hear around there either. Accompanied by the likes of "Supermutated Daniel Craig", "One Eyed Sean Connery", "Plasma Dog" and "Laser Cat", you get a sense that Nestroyer doesn't take the naming of his tracks very seriously. My only qualm with this album, though, is that it didn't pay homage to my favorite Bond, the one I grew up with... WHERE IS MY TWO HEADED PIERCE BROSNAN?!



Nestroyer's Website

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SAVESTATES - Mother's Meltdown

This song is ridiculously good, and the fact that he got two features in one week just goes to show how talented MattWilson a.k.a. SAVESTATES is. It goes into time signatures I'm not sure I can even name, but somehow continues to groove. This is the work of a true composer, not some kid toying around with LSDJ or the demo of Fruity Loops. THIS is the state of professional chiptunes.



SAVESTATES' Website

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Rhinostritch - Futureworld

Sounds like the theme for some awesome action movie called Futureworld starring Peter Fonda (actually that's what the creator says it would be, I think he's right on!).

It's got some awesome old-school synth, like you might find on the SNES or Genesis. So really, it's more of a 16-Bit Daily... WHO CARES. I HAD GUITARS YESTERDAY!!



Rhinostritch's Website

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Norrin Radd - She's Lost Control

This song is absolutely different from anything I've put up here before. Let me show you how:

1. It's old. First released in 2007, this song is far older than any other song I've featured, which have been released anywhere from two months to a mere couple of hours before getting their spot on this site.
2. It's metal. I've had chiptunes + instruments before, but not like this. There's actually a guitar solo where the electronic stuff fades out and you just hear the guitar for a bit. I was scared when I first heard it.
3. It's apparently from a video game. Virtual On for the Sega Saturn. Never heard of it, but it's still a VGM cover.

All in all, three precedents set by this song. Good job, Norrin Radd!



Norrin Radd's Website

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MattWilson - Outracing An Explosion In Slow Motion

Today's song is by a guy with the most normal-sounding name I've featured yet. No "radioactive sandwich" or "mister nintendo dude" or anything like that. Just a name. His song is upbeat and RAD and sounds like some good, solid chiptunes. It's not annoying, it's not ridiculously orchestrated, it's just the sounds of one console doing the best they can. And their best is fantastic. CHECK. IT. OUT.



MattWilson's Website

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BIG STUPID EDIT: This Matt Wilson fellow pulled a fast one on me, I didn't know his proper band name was SAVESTATES, and so I made this whole thing about how funny it is that his name isn't all that quirky or game related. Well... It is. I'm not changing it though~!

Weave Of K. - A Walkthrough

According to Weave himself, he's been listening to some classical lately. It really shows itself, and the bassline and the drums (especially how they come in on the back of that sweep, AAGHHH I can't get enough of that entrance) are just too cool. I've listened to this song like 8 times already (not saying too much, it's a pretty short track, as per Weave's style), so even if you're cramped for time feel free to click that play button. Then click again when it's done. And again. It's sweet.



Weave Of K.'s Website

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BONUS INFORMATION: There is now one hour of music on this site; I keep all these songs in a playlist on my computer, and it's 1:00:20 thanks to today's track! Click the little icon to download all of the music so far in a neat little .rar!

Stung - Ride It !

I listened to EVERY TRACK from the past two days on 8bc, and luckily there weren't any releases, 'cause I had to wade through a whole ton o' tracks. It was interesting to see that one of my picks (Shonen's Beauty of the Believer) made it onto 8bc's popularity-generated most liked chart. I'll have to keep an eye on this trend, see how "off-beat" (or not) I am.

ANYWAY, ABOUT THIS TRACK. It's by a guy named Stung, this is his first and only track that I can find, and I like it. After listening to song after song after song, I came back to this track, which I had listened to rather early on, and decided that what this site needed to really round out the style of my picks was a song that fit more in the background than the center of attention. Most of my songs are tracks that you can just stare at the player while they play, 'cause they have so much going on to pay attention to. This song might help us all settle down a bit!



Stung's Website

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NESessity - Heartburn

Track 8 off of an album released by NESessity a.k.a. LethalJellyBean (gotta love chiptune artists' names, huh) called The Heartbits. He uploaded the whole project to 8bc.org last night, so I downloaded it all and put it on my iPod, then listened to it today while I sat at work doing nothing. This is my favorite track of his, but his other ones are worth looking up as well.



NESessity's Website

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NOROCK - Quantum

Since I'm about to be late for work and I can't find any good new tunes, I'm just throwing a track of my own creation up here. Hey, I like it! I told myself I wouldn't do this when I started the site, but... It's better than no music today, am I right or am I right?



My Website

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