One of the rare indie games voted in by the public, conductor Andrew Skeet and the London Philharmonic Orchestra have teased this snippet of their fully orchestrated version of Disasterpeace’s Adventure, a key track from the soundtrack to Polytron’s Fez.

The arrangement will be featured alongside pieces from games like Skyrim, Castlevania, Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Metroid, as well as tracks from Portal and Little Big Planet, on the full ‘Greatest Video Game Music 2’ compilation, due for release in just a few short weeks on November 6th. Keep your eyes on the compilation’s twitter feed for information on the release.

As much ink has been spilled on the seemingly senseless slaughter in Dennaton’s Hotline Miami as has blood in the game itself, but not nearly enough attention has been given to its sounds. Early demo versions of the game included a playlist of music both officially licensed and not — some having been placed in-game to set the mood as development progressed.

What has been announced is that the entirety of 2011’s MOON EP, from Boston musician Stephen Gilarde, aka |M|O|O|N|, will be providing the backdrop for much of its action.

Mastered in part at LCD Soundsystem front man James Murphy’s DFA Studio (and sounding every bit the part), the EP is streamable below via Gilarde’s bandcamp, where you can name your price for a download of the album in anticipation of the game’s October 23rd release.

As previously mentioned, also making an appearance on the score is artist & musician Niklas Åkerblad, whose Do Not Lay Waste To Homes… EP is also already up for sale on bandcamp, and is most noteworthy for Daisuke, the laid back beats of which have already made it into the game’s trailer.

And finally, placed here for good measure: Sun Araw‘s Horse Steppin, which hasn’t been confirmed for inclusion, but which made a perfect wind-down counterpoint to the early demo’s disco-death — a song which seems to drip and melt through the cracks between the game’s neon-lit nightscape pixels.

About a million tonal, stylistic & emotional miles away from Flying Lotus‘ first teaser (included below the fold) for his upcoming album ‘Until The Quiet Comes‘, but no less worthy of mention, comes Putty Boy Strut.

The video’s a brilliant collaboration with Cyriak (aka “that guy that does the crazy fractal-animal animations“) that perfectly illustrates what I’ve always imagined was happening inside my computers, anyway. [via n0wak]

(more…)

Probably the best videogame/Zelda-inspired mixtape since 2009’s Ocarina of Rhyme, WAVVES side-project Sweet Valley’s just-released Eternal Champ occasionally dips in and out of overt samples, but tracks like Spirit Temple and Gold Gauntlet wear their influence on their sleeve.

Listen below, or download for free via Bandcamp. [via RCRDLBL]

LISTEN: 8BITPEOPLES RELEASES BLIPFEST 2008 2XCD, ANNOUNCE BP2K9 DATES

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9.10.2009

Brandon Boyer

5 Replies

My gut’s quite certain that, looking back some years on, 2009 will be the year chiptunes broke as big as they’re probably ever going to break, thanks in no small part to the 8-bit Weezer album, the newly announced Beatles cover album, and the various other projects on the side.

Though it’s still quite hard to keep abreast of all of the developments in the chipscene without dedicating yourself to it entirely, 2 Player Productions and 8bitpeoples’ just-released two-disc compilation album bringing together 32 live acts from BlipFest 2008 is probably the best catalog of all the current top acts in their native setting — surrounded by an adoring crowd (as you’ve seen from the frequent BlipFest videos featured here).

For the long time listeners, your favorite artists will probably remain your favorite artists (my choices for compilation toppers: Unicorn Dream Attack, Minusbaby, Nordloef and Anamanaguchi), but for newcomers, there’s a lot to discover here: find the double album at the 8bitpeoples store.

At the same time, festival organizers have announced the first information about the next Blip Festival, which will be coming to Brooklyn’s Bell House on December 17th through the 19th.

No acts have yet been revealed for the latest Fest, but tickets are due to go on sale next Monday the 28th, so expect much more specifics by then.

LISTEN: ANAMANAGUCHI, MINUSBABY, GOTO80 APPEARING ON BEATLES CHIPTUNE COVER COMPILATION

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9.9.2009

Brandon Boyer

2 Replies

Yet another 09/09/09 surprise, this time the Beatles-half of the blowout day that surprisingly has nothing to do with monophonic reissues or Rock Band: 8-Bit Operators, the same group that brought you the eponymous 2007 Kraftwerk chiptune cover album have just announced WANNA HLD YR HANDHELD, a new 20-track compilation covering the best of the Beatles.

The Operators say the full release will include tracks from 8-Bit Weapon w/ ComputeHer, Bacalao, Anamanaguchi, Bud Melvin, Burnkit 2600, Depreciation Guild, Glomag, Herbert Weixelbaum, Neotericz w/ Naku, Bubblyfish, Poke-1,170, Shrimps w Robert J Smith, gwEm & Counter Reset, goto80, Receptors, Psilodump, Cheap Dinosaurs, Saskrotch, Minusbaby, Rabato and Aonami.

For 09/09/09, a preview release of nine streaming tracks has arrived at the new HLD YR HANDHELD MySpace page, with a full Minusbaby-designed site to follow at the Operators’ page on 10/09/09, in celebration of John Lennon’s birthday.

It’s Bacalao and 8-Bit Weapon/ComputeHer that dominate the streamable tracks so far: pay special attention to the former’s deep-thumping/square-wave tweeting Blackbird and the latter’s Eleanor Rigby — you’ve never heard a speech-synthesizer sound quite so plaintive.

A little mid-afternoon demoscene work with Shaping Reality, a NES demo created by 8bitpeoples regulars Nullsleep, Random, No Carrier and Enso for July’s LCP compo.

I honestly thought my emulator was on the fritz until I found the accompanying YouTube at top: you can break your own emulator with the .nes ROM here. [via Enso]

[UPDATE: Apologies to musician Random for leaving him off the original list of collaborators!]

From the same devs, unsurprisingly, that brought you the Steve Jobs parodying Korg DS-10 Plus game announcement: handheld synthesizer creators AQI have just announced Elvis Presley & KORG DS-10 Audition, a new competition in celebration of the 55th anniversary of Presley’s debut that’s asking DS-10 composers to create their best techno remix of Elvis hits.

Fantastically unlikely as it is, it’s all on the level with the Presley estate, and winners of the competition will see their track officially promoted and sold on iTunes and released on a special CD in Japan.

Full contest details are available at the official site, and users outside Japan will be submitting their entries via the newly established ElvisAudition YouTube channel, so watch that for further developments ahead of the October 20th cut-off date.

Due for an official release September 8th, and coming live to the Penny Arcade Expo just a few days before: Metroid Metal‘s Varia Suite, the band’s first recorded collection of — well, as you might guess — metal remakes of various Metroid themes from throughout the game’s history.

Metroid Metal’s site has more information on both the album, and their PAX live performance, and the Silent Uproar record label is taking pre-orders for the album both in standard form, and in a bundle with an awesomely iconic T-shirt.

LISTEN: 8-BIT MILES DAVIS TRIBUTE ALBUM KIND OF BLOOP RELEASED

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8.17.2009

Brandon Boyer

4 Replies

Now available to all the Kickstarter contributors who helped make the project possible: Kind of Bloop, the 8-bit remake of Miles Davis’ jazz classic Kind of Blue spearheaded by Andy ‘Waxy‘ Baio.

For the general public, the album will be available as a $5 download this Thursday, August 20th (and CDs for the Kickstarters are expected to be shipped in two weeks), but you can preview clips of all five tracks now at the Kind of Bloop website. And I suggest that you do: Shnabubula’s take on All Blues (YouTube of the original) is especially jaw-dropping (though you’ll have to wait for the full release to hear its goosebump-inducing crescendo/breakdown).

All five takes, though, have proven out Baio’s experiment: the unlikely partnering of good jazz’s organic, unrestrained structure via chiptune’s rigid, digital, mathematical rendering is both entirely possible and fantastically glorious as a result.