Minusbaby - A Few Years Later

Off of a spectacular release called Left by chiptune celebrity Minusbaby on the venerable 8-Bit Peoples label, this second-to-last track is a probably the most laid-back of all the tracks on the album. It's also my favorite! I can't tell you why (I would love to but I just don't know, it's not that I don't trust you!) I've always held the belief that Minusbaby would do better to stick to his visual art (which, incidentally, is fantastic) and letting his peers make the music. It's not that I thought his music was bad, it was just that whenever friends/acquaintances of mine wanted Chiptune music recommendations (as if this site's extensive collection isn't enough for them), of all the people on the 8BP label I spoke of (Random, Bit Shifter, Anamanaguchi, even Virt has a release on there!) Minusbaby was never among them. I don't know. His music never struck me as anything all that special!

(I'm probably going to get an email about that last bit, huh?)

The thing is, though, this release has made me abandon that previously held notion! "Left" continues a streak of 8BP releases that I would deem "unmissable" that started with IAYD's Supergalactic. (I wasn't too big a fan of the Starpause release, and the streak would go back a few more albums were it not for 8BP097. Sorry Starpause!)

Anyway I'm talking way too much about this. Check out the whole release after this song unfailingly draws you in!



Minusbaby's Website

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SpareTimeHero - Secret Speculation.

Yes, there's punctuation in the title of this song. I don't know why! But there's some great drums and it's a nice spacey feel that's got me hooked, so I guess we'll let that dot slide.



SpareTimeHero's Website

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Rico Zerone - Empty Beach

It's so cold, gray, and windy today! Summer's on its way out, and so the great people over at Ubiktune have released an album to follow their excellent "Springtunes" release, appropriately called "Summertunes". It ends with this song, "Empty Beach", which is great imagery for the end of the season. Plus it's a great track, so I'm featuring it today!



Rico Zerone's Website

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One Armed Hans - Catching a Tune

Acoustic guitars and some chiptunes. It's a very warm track. Also you might notice some imperfections in the guitar (I did) but it's to be expected, I mean, this guy only has one arm! I'm surprised he can play more than five notes at all, I mean, I wouldn't be able to with only one arm.



One Armed Hans's Website

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Jonte Nyhlin - Me

I'd love to say this song was written about me (I just did) but it's not. It's written about Jonte Nyhlin, author of this track. Should we call this song "Him"? What a mystery!



Jonte Nyhlin's Website

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Fish and Chip 8 Bit - NaTo

Some Game Boy music! This track is off of the release "Lost and Found", available right here [ZIP File] from the Chippanze netlabel. It's a pretty solid album, I found most of the songs to be pretty good. It's not Starscream or anything, it's not crazy-flip-out-maxing-out-the-system music, but it's some catchy, simple composition rendered on a Game Boy.



Fish and Chip 8 Bit's Website

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Super Dimension Fortress - Farenheit

Slow, heavy track. Something about it resounded with me today, I don't know! It's a great song. It would be even better if it were raining outside.



Super Dimension Fortress' Website

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Skp - I Have Wolf Teeth

Some jammin' rock-out music by a guy named Skp. If there were a graph of how good this song sounds on the y-axis and how loud the song is on the x-axis, it would look something like the first-quadrant portion of the function

y(x)=x^2

only well it probably wouldn't go up forever I mean are you ready to listen to a song that is INFINITELY LOUD? I think not. So maybe it would be like the composite function

y(x)=[x^2|0<x<n , y(x)=-1,000,000,000*x+(100+n^2)|n<x<∞] Where n is some positive number at which increases in volume result in a linear decrease in enjoyment of negative one trillion units of delight per one unit of volume, until some point p at which it is not at all enjoyed. Any further increases in volume might be impossible, or fatal, or just continue to be not-at-all-enjoyed. The equation doesn't tell us, because frankly I just made that up.

Yeah, that sounds about right. Turn this one up, but not quite "all the way"!



Skp's Website

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TREYFREY - Not Forever

I don't know if this is technically "Happy Hardcore" or not, but it's a song in that vein that I actually like. Yes, folks, this is saying something! He has some great harmonies in the form of separate moving lines that I just love, like a dueling guitar solo or something but blended into the central refrain of the song instead of out at the end of some tangent, which is always welcome by me. I love that stuff.



TREYFREY's Website

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Derris-Kharlan - Zelda Medley

An epic 11-minute mashup of a ton of Zelda themes, done for a crazy Video Game Music release [ZIP File] over at Pixelmod Records. I love having these long medleys from my favorite games. There's a good Castlevania one [MP3 File] by a guy called Powergoat, there's the Metroid one [MP3 File] by Virt, and now I've got a spiffy Zelda one for the set! What a good day.



Derris-Kharlan's Website

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Lesnik - Ninety Degrees

Cool demoscene .mod .xm what-have-you track. Simple, clean, and catchy! Just my style.



Lesnik's Website

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Accentalpulse - Bruised-Bit

Hardcore thrasher breakbeat Game Boy music. I think that really says it all! A bit different from my usual blend, but variety is a good thing!



Accentalpulse's Website

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Mathgrant - Undertakings of Roflo

A song I discovered in a very roundabout way, you'll notice that this track was uploaded to 8bc about 2 months ago, had no likes (until I found it) and under 25 listens. It scares me that 8bc.org is so chock full of tracks like this. People who spend their time making music, music that sounds great like this track, and then it just sits there for the rest of time. Well, I'm going to show this song to people!

I've sort of been yammering on about the point of this site lately, haven't I? Well anyway, I hope you enjoy this super-catchy melody by Mathgrant!



Mathgrant's Website

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2PLAYER - STRT_WALKN

Go back and look at the first post ever made here. It's the same artist as today! The whole reason I made 8-Bit Daily was because I had all these songs (the earliest bunch were my stockpile, but I knew there would be more) that I loved and thought people would really like if they heard them, but due to the small-time nature of many a chiptune artist and the large number of people producing music like this, they might not get proper notice. So I decided to start keeping a log of songs every day that deserve a listen from anyone interested in some good music.

I ran a similar site in high school, hosted on my home computer and shared with my friends, only it could be any kind of song whatsoever! I've always enjoyed sharing the music I like. A recurring daydream of mine is one in which giant speakers appear in the air, in the ground, in buildings' walls, in parks and on boats and mine shafts and forests and everywhere with anyone near it, and they are all playing the song I happen to be listening to. Blaring it, so everyone knows that THIS SONG IS IMPORTANT.

This site is the closest thing I've got to that!



2PLAYER's Website

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I Fight Dragons - Heads Up, Hearts Down

I really don't know if I Fight Dragons was headlining the show I went to (they played last) or not (Anamanaguchi and Starscream are the bands that are touring), but they played a great set and finished the concert out excellently. Despite the popularity of the band, Brian (lead singer and guitarist) knew who I was from our internet correspondences and knows about 8BD (Hi, Brian!). Actually, that's not just true of IFD; Starscream and Anamanaguchi both seemed to be familiar with this site as well. I think that's awesome!

So here we are at the end of the gigantic six-part update of how my weekend went. I hope you enjoyed the large amount of music I just dumped on your plate, and give these guys a listen! Tomorrow, it's back to normal!

My apologies to members of 8bitcollective.com that uploaded stuff while I was away. I will probably never hear most of that stuff. Sorry. If you don't want to miss your chance, email me about it! norock at gmail dot com.



I Fight Dragon's Website

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Anamanaguchi - Video Challenge

Off their first album, Power Supply, Video Challenge is a great upbeat tune that was awesome at their show. They played a new track, one that's not on any albums, which I would have loved to feature but it doesn't really exist anywhere yet. Except their laptop. Pete said if someone came up with a name, he'd give them twenty bucks, but quickly rethought his offer. Good to hear Anamanaguchi is working on new stuff, though! I can never get enough of those guys.



Anamanaguchi's Website

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Starscream - Kepler's Star Catalog

The fact that two 18 year olds were playing to a bar crowd, and moreover that the venue had apparently never hosted musicians younger than 21 (since if they had, they would have known that it is totally messed up to make your musicians stand outside when they're not on stage) before really tells you that these guys are a couple of chiptune prodigies. Damon on Game Boys and George on drums, it got really rockin' and of course blew my show the previous night out of the water. Damon said they're working on a new EP, and all I can say is that that is excellent news. I'll be waiting!



Starscream's Website

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Cat Brigade - Messing About

After Yatagarasu, Justin from Cat Brigade got up on stage with a copy of Nanoloop and a laptop. The other guy from Cat Brigade was out camping on the day of the show, so it was a half-staffed act. And then he also got interrupted by the staff, since they closed at midnight (I went on at 11) and kicked everyone out. All in all, the venue could have been better, or we could have started earlier, or something, but it ended up being kind of awkward for everyone involved.

Oh well! The show was done, and so it was time for me to drive back to Grand Rapids, work the next morning, and then get to Chicago the following afternoon for a show of my next three featured bands: Starscream, Anamanaguchi, and I Fight Dragons!!



Cat Brigade's Website

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Yatagarasu - Cut Off

Oddly appropriate for a song title, since Yatagarasu was unfortunately cut off in the middle of their set. Despite the fact that we were in a music cafe, a venue that (I assume) plays music on a regular basis, the neighbors were complaining about the volume. Of course, a band like this can't live with low volume (and would you want them to anyway?) and so after compromising a little bit, they were once again talked to and then got off the stage. Unfortunate, since now that I've bought their CD on iTunes and can listen to their stuff properly (i.e. not on Myspace) I've found that it's fantastic stuff! Their set, as short as it was, sounded really great. Also, Chris (NES Programmer and lead singer) uses Nintendo consoles differently from anyone else I've ever heard of to make music. Foot pedals and a giant drum machine/mixer looking thing are all manipulated constantly during the show, and noise just pours out of his two torn up consoles. It's really incredible.



Yatagarasu's Website

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NOROCK - The Jams

Today, 8-Bit Daily is going to update six times! I both performed in and attended a chiptune show, and so to showcase the awesome artists that I played with and rocked out to, I'm giving them all a place on my site! Woooooo!

So the first act of the first show was me. It was kind of nerve-wracking being up in front of people with just my laptop. There was no light show of any kind, and I didn't even have a mic to talk to the crowd. All I could do was play my music! Well, despite my weird nervousness, I think it sounded pretty good, and I got good reactions from the few people in the audience.



NOROCK's Website

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FantomenK - Slayer Waves

Awesome rock chiptune track that goes through a lot of phases as it progresses. Excellently chosen waveforms for his instruments (especially that lead, wow!), nice clean "real" drums back it up, and a glaze of subtle effects over top really polish it to a soft sheen. Yes, this track is the genuine article.



FantomenK's Website

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Oiki ft. MsPsyjazz - Twilight, September

Really weirdly named track but it's cool! This is the product of two people improvising live at some sort of venue or club or something. It starts off like any jam session, with the artists not immediately meshing, but once they find a groove it's really good stuff. So here. A chiptune jam session.



Oiki's Website

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Anticlimax - Rip Me Open

A healthy amount of syncopation, intelligent and subtle use of accidentals, and some killer percussion and well-placed arps all super-team it up to bring you this sweet track!



Anticlimax's Website

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Sanczo Zapienkanka - Dancing in the Fallout

Made with DS-10. I've actually had the chance (since last I spoke about DS-10) play around with the program and I can now tell you first hand that it is terribly difficult to make music like today's track using that software.

TERRIBLY difficult. Its saving grace for me was the fact that it's a piano roll (despite having unbearably short phrases) layout and it's very, very fun to mess around with the simulated Kaoss Pad. The downside is that there's TWO instruments plus drums, and the instruments cannot be changed much during a phrase (i.e. you can't readily abuse the phrase and manipulate it into having, for all intents and purposes, two instruments in one instrument channel that conveniently never harmonize with each other). So making cool, thick music like this is a product of overdubbing or using the DS-10's wireless mode to sync multiple tracks together. Either way... Commendable!



Sanczo Zapienkanka's Website

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Adventures in Slumberland - Rainy Day at the Zoo

Reminiscent of the music of the super-cool indie game Cave Story (click link for a list of downloads for various OSes and languages), this song is super cool.



Adventures in Slumberland's Website

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Admiral Cashbar - A Death Mark Is Not an Easy Thing To Deal With...

Soundtrack to a western movie. It's somewhat classical, quite grim, and very looming.



Admiral Cashbar's Website

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The Hamlet - Coastal Path Rumble

The most non-repetitious song I may have ever featured, I don't know if he repeats a phrase even once the entire song. Somehow, though, I find it irresistibly pleasant and easy to listen to. Great mood to this song, and really finely tuned instruments (well not TUNED exactly, yes they are perfectly on-key but I meant he clearly refined them to get the sound just how it should be). What more can I say? It's a good song.



The Hamlet's Website

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Animal Style - Please Let That Be You (Rentals Cover)

For those of you that don't know The Rentals, it's a side project of one of the old bassists from Weezer. In some aspects, The Rentals had a more interesting sound as they were more experminental in their instrumentation (I remember when I first heard them thinking "huh, it's like Weezer with a synthesizer!"). Ultimately, though, I couldn't like them as much as Weezer because Rivers' voice is just too good. Haha.

Anyway this song is a cover of The Rentals, not Weezer, and it's really, really good!



Animal Style's Website

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MmcM - Ainsi Soit Je (M.Farmer Remix)

A sweet .mod/.xm/demoscene track by one of the greats, MmcM!



MmcM's Website

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Lynit. - Supersonic (Oasis Cover)

I like Oasis, but I'd like them a lot more if their songs sounded like this! Hahaha... Anyway I have no idea what he made this track with, but the drums sound fantastic, don't you think?



Lynit.'s Website

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Kid Flyaway - G'day G'day

Whooooooooooop! Missed yesterday because I was busy. Sorry!

Anyway, this song is very happy. It is actually kind of ridiculously happy. But that's okay! Can't have dark chords and all that stuff all over this website all the time.

Bye!



Kid Flyaway's Website

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