Chiptune Chuesday: Juggernaut - Kubbi

Kubbi is a Chip Viking if his bio is to be believed (AND WHY WOULD HE LIE ABOUT THINGS LIKE THAT I MEAN REALLY). He says he makes Chiptune music, drinks mead, and rides polar bears to his local viking raid. You should already be loving this man, or at least giving him furtive glances from across the room because maybe he'll look up at just the right time, brushing his viking braids or whatever back from his face.

"But wait TSB," you shout in a sweet but grating voice, "What if I don't LIKE vikings?" Ah, well then my dear it's time to convince you with song. A big song. A Juggernaut.

Kubbi's latest piece of work straddles the divide between 8 and 16-bit chiprock. The intro is drenched in JRPG arpeggios as strings swell and the beat drops from the innards of an old boombox. Then just as you're getting comfy he drops some heavy bass on you and you're slammed into the next level of the game. The whole song feels like playing your way through a classic brawler or platformer, the cartridge itself slowly evolving over time from a NES cart to a SNES cart. To our less gaming versed readers-ermm… that line was totally (definitely) clever and I don't know how best to translate. The old becomes new while still sounding old over the course of the song! There. Fixed.

It's a great piece of chiprock and can be downloaded for FREE from Kubbi's Soundcloud, alongside full on albums available from his Bandcamp. Go throw some love and money at this Chipped out Viking this instant.

Chiptune Chuesday: Koopa - Alec Friend

Milwaukee based chip-hop-tronica artist Alec Friend has put out an albums worth of Mario inspired material titled Koopa (the title track of which should be blasting out of your speakers right now on this most excellent Chiptune Chuesday).

'Koopa' bends and morphs the iconic Mario jump sound into a layered bass heavy and harmony rich song which is BEGGING for someone to rap over it. Literally. It is giving you the eye right now just in the vague hopes you'll spit some lyrics in its general direction. That being said the song does stand on its own, the chiming melody lilting somewhere between high sea adventure and digital leaves on the breeze.

Koopa can be had for the low low price of whatever you like over on Alec's Bandcamp page. Give it  a listen and see if you need some more Mario inspired clubbing in your life (the answer to that question is always yes by the way).

Chiptune Chuesday: More Power More Pop More Love - Daily Stupidity of a Superhero

Sometimes it's all in the names. This Chiptune Chuesday you're going to enjoy the manic bleeping tones of More Power More Pop More Love by Daily Stupidity of a Superhero. I don't have a lot more to say. Stick this stuff on loud. Start dancing. Find demented 8-bit rainbows burst out of your speakers. Stop panicking. Accept death by 8-bit powerpop rainbow explosions.

Enjoy your Chuesday!

Chiptune Chuesday: El Scorcho - Tugboat

It's a wonderfully sunny Tuesday in London, so what better way to celebrate the mood than with El Scorcho by Tugboat!

The track is a Weezer cover (though I find the original to be infinitely less interesting), and is part of a wider chip-weezer cover compilation which can be had for the price of zero money here: http://www.ptesquad.com/more/pte018.html

I always thought this would be what Mario would put on at a beach party. Anyhow, stop reading this, get outside, and enjoy your digital sunshine. See you again tomorrow.

Chiptune Chuesday: So What - Ast0r

We're getting classy this Chiptune Chuesday. We have So What by Ast0r from the 8-bit demake of the Miles Davis album Kind of Blue: Kind of Bloop.

The whole album is available here for the super cheap quantity of five dollars.

Chiptune Chuesday: What Child Is This - Rush Coil

It's Chiptune Chuesday! And it's April! Know what that means? THAT'S RIGHT! CHRISTMAS MUSIC!

Look I know it's out of season, but this song has been stuck in my head since last December so maybe this'll finally exorcise it. Chip artist Rush Coil put out the album 8-Bit Christmas a few years back, and it's awesome- a bleep and burble burst through your favourite Christmas carols.

What Child Is This is a carol written in the mid 1800s by William Chatterton Dix, a hymn born of out of a near death experience later set to the traditional tune Greensleeves.

The song feels like a slow motion pistol duel on a misty morn in the English countryside crackling from the confines of a NES cart. And it can be yours! Right now! Along side eleven others! For three bucks! That's like £1.50 in real money! Go geddit here: http://rushcoil.bandcamp.com/album/8-bit-christmas

Tristan - Failotron

Let's pretend for a moment that a Gameboy could feel heartbreak.

If so, this is what it would sound like:

Digital veins pulsing with harmonic electronic heartbeats. Optimism crystalized in a perfect sequence of microchips and waves. Welcome to Tristan, one of the most achingly gorgeous pieces of chiptune I've ever encountered.

Chiptune, in brief, is music that uses the sound boards of old video game consoles (think Nintendo, SNES and Gameboy) to create new compositions. This particular track comes from Hungarian artist Failotron, real name Áron Birtalan.

The track is a masterclass in simplicity. Much of chiptune feels overwrought, the musicians a little too enthused by the superhuman speeds which they can push the melody and instrumentation towards. Tristan however is content to allow the listener some breathing space, and is all the more emotionally resonant for it.

The melody is carried by glittering bell tones which sing out like golden flashes of lightning over a thunderous rubbery baseline. Brushed highhats and thumping snares rush through the song like water. It's a rain shower of digital love, by turns retro and thoroughly modern. You need this song in your life.

Androids may dream of electric sheep, but video games dream of crushes and high school love letters. I know which one I'd rather be with.

Tristan | 8bc - Online Chiptune Media Sharing

Failotron