Galactron - Wo Men Move On

Described by Galactron itself as a band from outer space, this first track of theirs has a very strong FM synth quality to it. Excellent fake-guitar instruments, some nice airy pads below everything, and really shiny, popping drums make this sound like the future we all hope to some day inhabit. Apparently a proper album is in the works, slated to come out this winter or possibly spring. I'll be anticipating it!

Happy 2011, guys and gals:)



Galactron's website

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Hubnester - Cortex Command Intro

You guys, this game is incredible. Here's a smattering of links, in no particular order:

CC's intro video
Music for the above video
Cortex Command's website
The Humble Indie Bundle

You can buy the game for a name-your-own-price deal using the fourth link there, and you can have that money go to the developers or charity or a combination of the two. I bought and played all of the included games, it's really worth your time (and at LEAST a few bucks!)

THAT IS ALL

glič - Withes Ain't $H!T

I was contacted the other day, as I sometimes am, by a chiptune artist who had recently finished a project. I love getting emails like this, and I love it even more when the music included is as crazy good as what he attached. Pronounced "glitch", (č is actually the phonetic symbol for "the chuh sound", as I found out), the music is decidedly spastic and at times completely non-sequitur, in a great way. The best part about music like this, for me, is when you're being tugged along through all manner of chaotic noises and rhythms and suddenly there's a great, solid beat.

I'm a sucker for simple rhythms; math-rock and crazy progressive metal are interesting and display heaps of talent, but they're not my preferred genres of music. I have to admit, when I began listening to this track, I was pretty put off by how crazy it was, but made it to the minute mark where there's this awesome straight-up beat that I loved. Then it goes crazy again for a while, then there's another awesome beat... And so on, throughout the whole album! Yes, there are in fact 11 more tracks to follow this one on his album "Schwartzenegger Please!", which you can buy over at his bandcamp site. I've bought a copy so I can listen to this in my car and drive really, really fast to it, and I suggest you try that out too!*



glič's website

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*generic disclaimer blah blah don't speed whatever okay shut it

Daemon9623 - As We Approach The Dawn

When I first heard this, I thought for sure it had to be a cover of some tech metal band or something. In fact, it's an original composition on I think Famitracker? He never really said. Regardless of the software used, it's a brilliant chiptune. It would be an interesting departure from the norm to hear a cover of this made with real guitar and drums!



Daemon9623's website

The 8BC page (leave a comment!)

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CSGuitar89

Today I'm doing whatever I want; this isn't 8-bit music at all, it's HARDCORE METAL COVERS OF ZELDA SONGS. YEAAAAAAAAAAAH!! Well they're guitar covers of Zelda songs anyway; some of more down-tempo tracks remain down-tempo and pretty. Wow if only he were making these when I was in middle school, I would have had better music than MIDI covers of Zelda songs to listen to.

GERUDO VALLEY:


SONG OF STORMS:


GREAT FAIRY'S FOUNTAIN:


BALLAD OF THE WIND FISH:


There's tons more on his channel. Go! And listen to them all!!!

CSGuitar89's website

Inverse Phase - NES Me An Angel

So Inverse Phase got a hold of me the other day as people sometimes do to let me know about a project he's just finished, and I've got to tell you guys: It's really good! It's a chiptune cover album using I think just the NES to make all the tracks, not sure if there's more systems involved on other songs or not... Regardless, this entire album is worth your listening to (for free) on the bandcamp website or (for $5 and a blank CD) in your car. There's a cover of Weezer, a couple songs by The Cars, that one "Woo hoo" song by Blur, and most interestingly, a cover of a cover of an NES song. Just think about that one.



Inverse Phase's website

Real Life's website

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Get "Retrocovered", the whole album!

.:ikanetik:. - Before I Go..

At first I was like "ow those drums are super fuzzy" but you get used to it, and it actually makes for a really awesome, full sound. Something you come up against basically first thing when you start writing chiptunes is the fact that the very simple waveforms that are the bread and butter of the genre have very little presence. Whereas many people can and have made excellent sounding music using only a guitar and their voice, the equivalent in chiptunes of using just a couple of waveforms can be very difficult to make sound "whole". It's a very ambiguous quality which is why I'm having such a hard time describing it, but what you need to know is that this track is full, whole, whatever. Listen to it with headphones! There's little, subtle, barely-noticeable things happening all over the place in this one. It's great!



.:ikanetik:.'s website

The 8BC page (leave a comment!)

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Anamanaguchi - My Skateboard Will Go On

Sup guys! I took a little break from chiptunes recently, but you all knew that. I've been playing a ton of Starcraft 2, listening to non-chiptune music, and basically being a big lamer all summer, working and sitting around. Hurf durf to the maximum, that's right.

So I'm done with that crap, I went onto my usual sites (see the bottom of this page for what exactly those are) to find some FRESH MATERIAL, and of course my progress was instantly halted when I went on 8bc.org and saw that Anamanaguchi had procured the top two most-liked spots on the chart. Well sheesh just listen to this track, they deserve the entire chart. It should just say "ANAMANAGUCHI'S UPLOADS" over there because god they are KILLING it.



Anamanaguchi's website

The 8BC page (leave a comment!)

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Maktone - Addiction

Wow, it's been a month since I updated 8BD? Sheesh! Well I've been working on stuff of my own... SECRET STUFF. So I say that's okay. :B

I don't know how many of you guys go to 8BC.org on a regular basis, but man. Lately, that site gives me a headache just looking at it. The front page is ceaselessly filled with first attempts, and now more than ever before every artist seems to have "bit" or "nintendo" or something like that integrated into their name. Seriously! Go to the site and read down the list of artists!! It's artists like Maktone that punctuate that noise with music I can get into, making chiptunes that sound like the background music to a Commodore 64 demo.



Maktone's website

The 8BC page (leave a comment!)

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Zan-Zan-Zawa-Veia - Grey Mlkn

I was talking to a chiptune artist from New Jersey named Kris Keyser yesterday about some of the finer points of the chiptune scene. We were talking about chiptune labels and the character of music typical to a few of them. I've always thought of Pause and 8bitpeoples as the two "premier" avenues of digital chiptune distribution, but I had never really thought about the markedly different styles of music each puts out. Whereas 8BP does not hesitate one iota to put out some fast, hard chiptune techno, Pause has a lot of complex, intricate releases. Not to say 8BP is lacking in detail! But I think Kris was onto something when he connected the name "Pause" to the action you must take when listening to their releases. This isn't music to listen to on the go. This is music that listening to is an event in and of itself.



Zan-Zan-Zawa-Veia's website

The Pause page (leave a comment!)

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Fuckjazzforaminute - Closing Night at the Drive-In

Way intense LSDJ jam. Loud as you'd ever want it, with tons of raw noise and abrasive textures, but nothing cacophonous or annoying, just one really heavy track. I need more of this, pronto!



Fuckjazzforaminute's website

The Chipmusic.org page (leave a comment!)

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EpiiicSignal - Telephone

I like how this song is actually good instead of the original which is endlessley abrasive. EpiiicSignal is some sort of musical alchemist, transforming this song at its most fundamental level into something with a completely different feel and tone. It's a fantastic remix/cover, and I don't care what anyone thinks of me for featuring it. MY SITE, MY RULES. END OF STORY. (ha ha)



EpiiicSignal's website

The 8BC page (leave a comment!)

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Pieces Of Eight - Eraser to Erase Her

8BD is getting old enough where I can do cool things like click the random post link at the top, find one I remember liking a lot, and then going to the artist's page to see what's new, and then picking that as a new 8BD!

Not that that's what I did today, oh no, I was just listening to some 8BC.org tracks from over a month ago, because I suspected something good to have been posted then, and I was right!



Pieces of Eight's website

The 8BC page (leave a comment!)

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BEASTMODE - Gameboy Beats Vol. 2

Some heavy electro made with the Game Boy. Very unique sound for LSDJ, and some really good party music. Actually, similar comments apply to most of BEASTMODE's library! He's definitely got a great technique with LSDJ. Go check it all out!

Also the MP3 player should be fixed?



BEASTMODE's website

The 8BC page (leave a comment!)

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Bryface - Eye Twitching

DS-10 music has always interested me, since it represents a sort of locked treasure chest of musical capabilities. I cannot seem to get anything interesting out of it, but then someone comes along with a track like this that is so full and rich you want to go try your hand at it again. But I've played this game before, and I know that if I boot up the DS-10 again it'll just lead me right back down that road of frustration. It's a software better left to the experts, far as I'm concerned.

Another reason I was glad to feature this track was because through it I discovered a great site called DS10forum.com. Maybe I can learn some tricks there!



Bryface's website

The 8BC page (leave a comment!)

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Get
"Health and Safety", the whole release!

Noisewaves - Do I Look Like I Want To Play Volleyball?

Coming out with his (their?) first EP, Noisewaves is a neat guitar/drums/NES outfit from my hometown of Grand Rapids, MI. Together we form the West Michigan chiptune scene, though there may be others who keep their work to themselves. Anyway, when I first heard Noisewaves, it was a song called Pioneer Island which sounded a lot like Anamanaguchi. Since that track, the sound has gone a few notches down-tempo, with a lot more of an experimental indie band sort of composition to it. It's a great feel; extremely calming with dramatic builds and explosive outbursts of drums.



Noisewaves' website

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Get "Noisewaves", the whole release!

Kool Skull - STRUCTURE B

I like melodies. Catchy lines, structured harmonies, and distinct lead instruments make up most of this site's library. This track has none of that; it's a thrash, a jam, made on a sample-based tracker that lends itself to fast, loud, aggressive and abrasive music. Unlike so many circuit-benders or self-proclaimed "noise musicians", Kool Skull has discernable rhythms, musical structure, and a sound that is not so overbearing as to be distracting. It's definitely a standout from the rest of the music I pick, but it represents a large segment of the population that identifies with the chiptune scene, and a very large, perhaps even majority, of the live acts out there. Seriously, if you go to a chiptune show, you can expect a lot of noise, then a lot of typical DJ-electro-trance-whatever, followed by anything you might see here on a daily basis. Whoops!



Kool Skull's website

The 8BC page (leave a comment!)

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Fun Secret - SHEMP

Despite the fact that it's made with LSDJ and I listen to music made on that software nearly full-time (exaggeration), this sounds very different from typical LSDJ fare. The entire song consists of notes just barely long enough to hear, like he wanted there to be equal parts silence and noise only chopped up very finely. It's not easily placed in any genre I'm familiar with, either. All around, I just don't know what to make of this! I like it though, and I'll be waiting for a full-fledged release from Fun Secret.



Fun Secret's website

The Chipmusic.org page (leave a comment!)

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Interview with Brian Mazzaferri of I Fight Dragons

A couple weeks ago, just days after booting 8BD out of hibernation mode, I got an email from Atlantic Records asking me if I'd like to interview the band I Fight Dragons for my site. I've never been asked to do anything like this, in fact it's usually been me on the requesting end, asking people for permission to release their music, if they have websites they'd like me to link to alongside their featured track. But it was a cool opportunity to promote a band that's working hard at getting off the ground and becoming a full-fledged professional bunch of musicians. So I agreed and sent Brian, their lead singer/songwriter/founder a bunch of questions. Here are his answers!

8BD: Did you have experience writing chiptunes before IFD was started, or did you decide to try your hand at it shortly before deciding you could work it into your band's repertoire?

Brian: Actually, it all kind of came around at the same time. When I was first working with Bill Prokopow, our first project together was making a demo of "Heads Up, Hearts Down" back in very early 2008. I had randomly thought the song would work well with an intro that sounded as if it was the song coming out of a nintendo, so we mocked one up using the internal Logic synths, and were quite pleased with ourselves. After showing it to a few people, I decided to look on the internet to see if people had done that sort of thing before, and I stumbled upon the whole world of chiptune. I was immediately hooked, got myself a copy of LSDJ and started using it on my old DMG from growing up. However, I will say my interest in chiptune was always related to how to use it in a full-band setting, since that's the world I come from, I'm not really an electronic musician by trade.

8BD: Have you ever written music for non-Game Boy trackers, or used other consoles in your live performance?

Brian: I've played around with FamiTracker and NitroTracker, which were cool but not as portable as LSDJ since I can bring my DMG anywhere with me and write. I also have a midiNES which I find to be AWESOME in a studio setting and can do a ton of things with sweeps and samples that I don't find LSDJ as useful for. I've also got 2 Pixelh8 Music Tech carts for GBA which I've used in recording settings as well.

In a live sense we tend to sample the sounds and trigger them using controllers, since the complication of mixing all of those different consoles and samples (we tend to ignore polyphony limitations) would be near impossible, and more than that I like the idea that we're triggering electronic sounds in real time, turning them into instruments in a way.

8BD: What gave you guys the idea to allow 100 people to have unlimited access to future shows/CDs/etc. for $100?

Brian: That was just out of my twisted imagination. I think it's been really cool, and the fans have really responded well too, although I will say it was a one-time thing. We might do a lesser permutation of it in the future, and we'll definitely continue to search for ways to push the boundaries of the industry.

8BD: Was it a bit of a surprise to you guys that the band took off as well and as quickly as it did?

Brian: Yes. There's no other way to put it. Yes. I mostly did it because I wanted chiptune-pop-rock to exist, and I tried to build some kind of sustainable career around it, but none of us had any clue it would skyrocket this far this fast. It's incredibly humbling and exciting all at once.

8BD: Is it true that you guys are getting some sweet custom-made superhero digs for on-stage, and if so when do you think they'll be ready?

Brian: Sort of. We've all got our own logos which represent each of us, and we just debuted our new outfits which incorporate those logos earlier this week on tour. There's some pics up from the first show here, and we'll be putting new promo shots up on our website soon.

8BD: What made you decide to wear all DC Comics shirts rather than all Marvel Comics or a mix of both?

Brian: You know the biggest thing for me is that I love Superman. I love what he stands for, I love that no one really thinks he's cool any more, and I love the mythos surrounding him. From there I just thought it would be weird to mix Marvel stuff in there, although I will say there was one photo shoot where Bill wore a Captain America shirt mostly because it's impossible to find a 6th Justice League shirt (we ended up custom making his Hawkman shirts later on)

8BD: Do you have any favorite chiptune artist/artists/band?

Brian: You know, I feel like there's a decidedly mixed reaction to us from the chiptune scene, because we're not pure chiptune. Admittedly, we've never pretended to be, it's just one element of what we do. All the same, I do love chiptune in lots of its forms, despite the artists mixed reaction to us as a band. A few of my favs are Chipzel, 8 bit weapon, Anamanaguchi, Starscream, and YMCK.

8BD: Since getting signed to a record deal with Atlantic earlier this year, do you feel as if you've had more or less time to concentrate on fan interactions? What's changed since getting signed?

Brian: Well, it's a tricky question to answer, because we've been in a big transition period that would've happened whether we signed with Atlantic or not. We've been working on our first full-length album for the past few months, as well as working on our new website and generally trying to figure out how to make it all work on a larger scale. So there's been less free music emails and fan interaction. However, we've kept up with weekly internet call-in shows, Facebook, and more, and we'll soon be relaunching our email list with lots of new material and free downloads coming every couple weeks, so I feel like ultimately we'll get to do more fan interaction on a grander scale, which excites me greatly.

8BD: What games did you bring with you when you were on tour? Are there any new games you want to play while on the road for the upcoming summer tour?

Brian: Hmm, well we've got a PS3 and an XBOX 360 on the bus. Not enough room for a Wii :P We've also got laptops with fully stocked emulators too and USB retro controllers. As far as specific games, I know last tour I played a lot of Secret of Mana, Packy played a lot of Kung Fu, Bill got Left 4 Dead 2 and started playing lots of that. I know JJ our manager has been playing a lot of Robotrek (an old SNES RPG) this tour, and I brought FFXIII to finish it although I haven't had much time yet. We played a bunch of Street Fighter 2 the first couple days, I've been playing a lot of Command & Conquer for the iPad too, so I guess generally lots of different ones. JJ and I played a round of hotseat Settlers of Catan for iPhone today :P

Shiru - Fase Dos

Shiru wrote the software to make this song, I think that is more hardcore than most other chiptune musicians out there. It's also a 1-bit tracker, giving it a very distinct sound. You can hear that it only likes to do one noise at a time, so the drums have a sort of "perfect sidechain" effect to them, and playing two notes at once gives it a strange flanger sort of noise. It's awesome!



Shiru's website

The Chipmusic.org page (leave a comment!)

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