Songs of the Robocalypse Vol. 2 - Star Scat

It's Wednesday so that can only mean one thing! Robots singing scat! Right? Everyone? RIGHT.

Caravan Palace are a Paris based electroswing band who started out making music for silent pornography. Of course.

Their whole output is an ear melting blend of block rocking beats dancing with Django and Grappelli- the soundtrack to robotic fever dreams covered in the melting wax of a gypsy jazz record. This is particularly true of today's Song of the Robocalypse- Star Scat.

I picture a black suited robot holding court at a cabaret, it's head hanging off its neck like a bobble toy belching and bleeping scat songs. This is surrounded by heavy striding rhythm and fiddles. It's amazing how well double bass clambers atop processed beats, like rubberbands iceskating down a subway track.

It's reassuring to know that even after the machines rise up and take over we'll still have some damn fine dance floor grooves- just don't do the robot. I'm serious. They will destroy you.

Chiptune Chuesday: Bouncing - Multifaros

There's something about the music of Multifaros that makes me think of bubblegum. Not the genre mind you- actual bubblegum. It's in the sound I think, all plastic and glisten held together by twangs and wind.

The opening sub-bass tones of 'Bouncing' are round and rubbery bubbles that shift and burst to the sound of drums exhaling in reverse. Pingponging chip bleeps echo across the structure like a digital likembe while free wheeling guitars funk there way into the shape of squares and triangles.

Multifaros is the stage name of Swedish chip/bit/electronic/indie wizard Bård Ericson. Today's track 'Bouncing' is available on his 2010 EP Dreams. He has many more EPs and albums of his genre crossing musics available from his website.

Chiptune Chuesday: Small Regrets - Tugboat

Tugboat is a New York based drummer and electronica musician who, up until retiring from the genre two years ago, was one of the more prevalent and talented chiptune artists. For those who need a refresher, chiptune is a genre of music based upon using the soundboards of old video game consoles to create new pieces.

Our personal favourite track by Tugboat is Small Regrets, which can be found on his career spanning compilation album Man Of The Year available for free from CalmDownKidder Records.

The mood of Small Regrets undeniably wears its heart on its sleeve, but that's exactly what I find so awesome about it and more broadly what I find awesome about chiptune. It's music which has taken the sound of an entire generations collective childhood memories (specifically I suppose a generation of children who played video games in the eighties and early nineties) and creates new emotionally resonant compositions out of them. It melds and morphs the harsh electric squalls of archaic technology and gives them a new lease on life. It's a genre which is seeped through with nostalgia, both literally and figuratively, in every bleep.

Yet it also manages to be a fresh and attention grabbing sound. The viral popularity of free demake albums such as 8Bit Side of the Moon or Kind of Bloop have shown there is a wider public thirst for the style of music. Even radio friendly hits are getting in on the action! Most likely tied into the long running eighties aesthetic revival pop and rock music have been going through for the past ever, the use of chip sound boards has become more prevalent than ever before.

It's a rapidly growing genre with an enormous amount of diversity contained within it, and we want to help more people hear it. If you enjoyed today's song, check back each Tuesday for another dispatch from the land of chip.