LISTEN: JOSH STAFFORD’S VIDEOGAME MIXTAPE SONGS TO FRAG BY

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8.10.2009

Brandon Boyer

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Released as part of Yewknee’s ongoing Summer Mix Series — which opened up the floor for anyone to curate and upload their own MP3 mixtape (I still have yet to make my own, though you do have me to thank for the Pavement song on the Texas-themed tape) — Josh Stafford’s Songs To Frag By is most notable for not going the easy route and solely mixing in chiptunes/converted NES soundtracks.

A few of those are, of course, represented (see: the requisite YMCK), but Stafford did an excellent job of digging up songs from the game/music periphery, starting all the way back with Buckner & Garcia’s Do The Donkey Kong (the lesser-heard sibling of early 80s standby Pac-Man Fever), to the Mega Man rock-opera-concepts of The Protomen, to Del the Funky Homosapien’s name dropping hip-hop “classic” Proto Culture, to the open and closer tracks from Offworld favorite Mario-remaking one-man-band XOC.

The full tracklist:

01 Super Mario World Course Clear – XOC
02 Bit Rate Variations in B-Flat (Girl) – Beck
03 Super Mario Land (Radio Version) – Ambassadors of Funk feat. M.C. Mario
04 Mega Man 2 (Title Theme) – Year 200X
05 II B Unrest In the House of Light – The Protomen
06 Do the Donkey Kong – Buckner & Garcia
07 Technology Boy – Bachelorette
08 Sabita Tobirano Daihachi Tengoku – YMCK
09 Punch em Out – Swell +N remixes
10 Where’s My F_ing Genesis – Charles Hamilton
11 Khaos Unique Proto Culture – Del The Funky Homosapien
12 The Legend of Zelda Tribute – Swell Session vs Koji Kondo
13 Tetris – Powerglove
14 Super Mario World Death Game Over – XOC

If not the best games-related mixtape made, it’s at least one of the most novel. [via Yewknee]

This clip just about has it all: PixelJunk Eden‘s audio/visual director Baiyon spinning his trademark blend of house/trance at Kyoto’s Club Metro, to an adoring crowd of frame-dropped and light-smeared kids & adorable mod-striped short-haired girls, while wearing — best of all — the T-shirt he received for speaking at this year’s Game Developer’s Conference. [via Nobuooo]

Above: a May 16th performance of Los Angeles’ Golden State Pops Orchestra playing selections from thatgamecompany’s flOw, as composed by Austin Wintory. An MP3 of the section is also streaming at the official PlayStation.Blog.

Toronto electro artist Deadmau5 figures out the fastest way to get his crowd moving, opening his Nature One festival set this past weekend with a theme Familiar To Everybody. [via Anamanaguchi]

Phillie chiptune megagroup Chromelodeon taps artist Johnny ‘New Jedi Order‘ Rogers for their Polygon Sun video, which must be the fastest ticket to a mouth-foaming seizure I’ve ever narrowly avoided. If you survive, though, they’ll land you on a glorious glitch-landscape, and it doesn’t hurt that the music’s good, too. [via Nerd Music]

There is something so perfectly Wareheim-ian about this video from last weekend’s Brooklyn chiptunes dance party at The Brick that I can’t help but post it: it’s got an amazingly un-contrived 80’s public access feel, with what looks like an attendance I can count on both hands (maybe the rest were all at the Mario Kart kiosk?), all doing awkward Charlie Brown Xmas drunk-dancing to what is honestly a wicked set by both Kurisu Bearcub and especially OxygenStar, in the wig, on the drums.

Just don’t get me wrong: this is totally my idea of a good time, and was a far better Saturday night than I had down here. [via TCTD]

LISTEN: SIDHE STREAMS MODULE’S SPACE ROCK OPERA SHATTER SOUNDTRACK

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7.27.2009

Brandon Boyer

1 Reply

Just unveiled for Sidhe’s just-released PlayStation Network Breakout/shooter crossover game Shatter (which I have been far too overwhelmed, game-wise, to properly get my head around, but was previously featured back in May): a new page to both stream and purchase the surprisingly excellent score from Jeramiah ‘Module‘ Ross.

Sidhe says the soundtrack was meant to conjure “80’s new wave, stadium rock and intergalactic space rock opera,” and I can’t argue with a single aspect of that. $9.99 will get you the full downloadable version, and, while you’re there, you can also stream/buy Ross’s contributions to GripShift, Sidhe’s fantastic debut PSP/PSN/XBLA puzzle-racer.

LISTEN: ANAMANAGUCHI LAUNCH NEW SITE FOR U.S. SUMMER TOUR

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7.24.2009

Brandon Boyer

1 Reply

Oft-mentioned 8-bit punk purveyors Anamanaguchi — most recently heard on Pterodactyl Squad’s chiptune Weezer cover album — have written in to notify us that they’ve just launched a new site for their upcoming U.S. tour, which will kick off in NYC on the 6th of August in NYC and end on the 6th of September in Seattle for the Penny Arcade Expo.

The first half of the tour will be supported by fellow NYC chip band Starscream, and all dates will include graphics by frequent Pulsewave visual collaborators Paris and Outpt. I’ve got it on good authority that there may be much more to the August-end Los Angeles shows than you might imagine.

Below is a sample of what to expect, or you can listen to the entirety of their last Dawn Metropolis EP at this previous Offworld post:

Check the official site (created by former One Shot featured artist David Mauro) for tour dates and more information.

LISTEN, TOO: 2D BOY’S GABLER, OCREMIX MUSICIANS RELEASE CANCER BENEFIT CD SONGS FOR THE CURE

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7.22.2009

Brandon Boyer

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First mentioned back in March as Relay for Life — a charity CD being put together to raise money for the American Cancer Society — Kokoromi member Heather Kelley updates to note that the compilation has just been released to iTunes and amazon.mp3 as Songs for the Cure ’09, with some 19 tracks by indie and games-related musicians.

You can preview the tracks via either site, which so far have turned up very strong showings by 2D Boy’s Kyle Gabler with a skittering downtempo track that doesn’t sound far removed from the excellent score he composed for World of Goo, Joshua ‘Zen Albatross‘ Kopstein with a very bouncy chiptune track, and Heather Kelley herself, pulling vocal duties on Don’t Eat Sky’s track Pears that may or may not be about a game itself (reference the lyrics here).

Keep watching Josh Whelchel’s site for more information on the release (which it seems hasn’t quite been updated yet), which, at the end of the initial push, had already raised some $5600 for the cause.

LISTEN, ALSO: LOW-TECH SHOEGAZERS TREE WAVE RETURN WITH FREE 10 INCH EP

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7.22.2009

Brandon Boyer

4 Replies

Apparently we’re in the midst of a Very Musical Wednesday, so let’s keep it going as strong as could be imagined with this: the latest, long anticipated and entirely free EP from frequently featured Dallas hacked-up hardware shoegaze (or are we actually calling it chip-gaze now?) outfit Tree Wave, simply titled 10 Inch.

[mejsaudio src=”http://venuspatrol.com/ofiles/2_realaudio9_by_treewave.mp3″]

It’s hard to pick just one of the four tracks to feature, but above is my favorite, realaudio9, which comes as close to the gloriously upbeat, muddied ethereal drone of My Bloody Valentine as I believe is allowed by law, before then opening up into a section of hypnotic cut-up rhythm.

It’s a bit of a departure from their earlier Cabana EP, which relied much more blatantly on the sounds of the Atari 2600’s SynthCart, C64 equivalent CynthCart, and a firmware hacked Epson LQ500 dot-matrix printer, all instruments of Tree Wave lead Paul Slocum’s own design.

But, all four tracks are extremely strong, and carry hints of off-kilter ‘oriental’ melodies that vaguely remind me how much I’ve missed now-defunct Athens group Macha (see also, especially: their collaborative EP with Bedhead).

Slocum’s had some difficulty keeping the site alive for all the downloading, but it looks like it’s back to stable now: grab the EP while you still can. [UPDATE: Slocum’s mirrored the release here, too, if you’re having download troubles.]