“Through Fields of Mercury” by Greenleaf. This haunting, heavy-hearted track comes from Greenberry Hill, the latest release out of Hemlock Records, which you might recognize as the label that put out the excellent Seasonal Affective compilation.
You can (and should) stream Greenberry Hilly in its entirety for free from Greenleaf’s Bandcamp page. There’s also an option to download a low-quality version of the album for free or a high-quality version for $5.
While you’re pulling out your credit card, you should also give Lake Poems, another new chip music release, a spin. Tiny Cartridge reader Zachary Reese and his band Bear and Walrus laid down the album using LSDJ, LittlePiggy tracker, and instruments like accordions, glockenspiels (?!), and pianos. I’m listening to as I type this post, and though I’m only three tracks in, I’ve heard enough to know the CD is magnificent.
“My Beautiful Empty Heart” by 4Mat. This is my jam right here, a sharp song to put on as you turn your back to everything and look to the uncertain road ahead. Also brilliant: “Like Seeing You Again For The First Time.”
Glomag and Peter Swimm performing Devo’s “Gut Feeling” at Pulsewave in November. Peter pointed this out in the comments of my last Devo post, and I am sooooo glad he did.
Devo’s “Mongoloid,” covered using Magical 8-Bit Plug by Joe. Everyone likes Devo, right? Well, everyone in charge of this website for now likes Devo, which is all that matters.
“Las Olas” by Balún. As promised, the digital edition of the new Memoria Textil album is available on Bandcamp for the low, low price of whatever. You could be listening in seconds!
If you don’t mind waiting, and you crave a tangible object, there are still some limited-edition CD-Rs from the band’s run of 100. The band even tweeted a coupon code (“chicle”) that will get you 20% off!
“Colour Television” by J. Arthur Keenes. What is up with those noises halfway through? It’s like the chiptune equivalent of the Gilbert Gottfried-voiced AFLAC duck. But in a good way.
“4h30” by Danger. Before you listen to this incredible track, you need to watch these 16-bit teaser videos the artist produced for his upcoming EP 09/17 2007 (that’s the actual title, not the date of its release):
I love Nerd Music’s analysis for why this 16-bit style, seems so much more enthralling compared to the glitzy and polished visuals in modern games:
“The rough and grimy look of early 90s beat-em-ups, Double Dragon and Streets of Rage, with its bright coloured, mohawked, and sexually-ambiguous baddies, in dank run-down urban environments, is one that doesn’t get much play anymore. Everything is too fucking slick now, from sharp high definition displays to 100% accurate digital music reproductions to every post-effect applied to every film and photograph to fix every mistake. It’s boring.
By contrast, those dirty beat-em-ups of the early 90s took their influence from the rough and weird gang-land punk films of the late 70s and early 80s, like The Warriors and Escape from New York, copied over and distorted on VHS with soundtracks on cassette and syndicated and broadcast over the airwaves to your wood-paneled giant TV with a UHF dial in your parents basement. Perfection wasn’t important, just being able to access the content was the goal. Nothing was as ubiquitous as it is now. The fringe shit took a lot of effort and doing to find.
That’s why chiptunes, and the recent trend of faux-80s retro, and cassette based underground drone releases, and lo-fi distorted disco and folk (Nite Jewel and Grouper) appeal so much. It isn’t just the nostalgic chic of the sound that they produce as much as it’s their embrace of the limits and imperfections of technology. It’s more human that way.”
The vinyl edition of Danger’s EP goes on sale this Monday, while record label Ekleroshock will release the digital version on February 1st. Grab this shit.
Anamanaguchi set up an online shop so you can now buy the group’s CDs, shirts, etc. Speaking of the band, what’s the deal with them not performing at Blip Festival 2009 proper? Was Anamanaguchi not invited or did something else happen?
You can now buy a physical CD for Balun’s latest EP Memoria Textil (limited print run 100). I’ve listened to this all week, and it’s splendid, exceeding my high expectations. The group’s preparing a digital pay-what-you-want release for Bandcamp, too.
“Get Well Soon” by Áron “Failotron” Birtalan. I noted over the weekend that the latest Penny Arcade: The Series episode featured a chip music soundtrack, as picked out by 2 Player Productions. 2PP’s Paul Levering later pointed out to me that all of the songs in the new episode are previously unreleased Failotron material, now available to download for free from the artist’s site. Rad!
I like how subtle the chiptune elements are in this track, almost like an idle Game Boy was accidentally left several feet away from the mic while recording the piano.
“Muchas Muchas Veces”, or “Many Many Times”, by Balún. Another beguiling track from our favorite Puerto Rican chip music group! This song comes from the band’s Memoria Textil (Memory Fabric) EP, which was initially slated for last September as a teaser for its upcoming full-length album but didn’t come out until just now.
Though Balún pressed 100 copies of the album (many of which were presumably sold at its release party in San Juan last night), they aren’t for sale online yet. You can, however, listen to three tracks from Memoria Textil on the band’s MySpace page. Balún says it will upload two more songs if their Twitter account reaches 300 followers, 49 more than its current count, so please kindly add them. While you’re at it, if you haven’t yet, follow our Twitter account, too.
Modded duotone (Black/White) Game Boy by Nonfinite. I showed off this glorious customization before, but this post comes with video and a demonstration of the system’s chip music capabilities. Fuuuuuuuckkkkk.
I have a whole round-up of chiptune-related links I’ve been meaning to share with you this past week:
First off, congrats to Leeni for winning the Beaterator Challenge, a competition that had entrants creating original songs with Beaterator for PSP. I don’t like her submission as much as some of her other tracks like “Animatronic Boy” or “Nice Young Man”, but it’s great a chip artist won and took home $5,000.
Someone (or a group of someones?) launched Chipmusic.org, a new community for micromusic artists and fans, and an alternative to 8bit Collective. The design seems Minusbaby-esque, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s involved! It’s just a forum right now, but apparently music/image uploads, a video area, and member blogs are in the works.
The latest episode of Penny Arcade: The Series is out (Child’s Play, Part 1), which is produced by the talented 2 Player Productions, so of course it has a great chip soundtrack.
