Chiptune funk fusion at its finest, Joshua Morse brings us Waveform 3, an album that defies my ability to put it into words.

A distinct chiptune atmosphere surrounds each neatly arranged and thoughtfully instrumented piece. I particularly love Joshua’s use of delay, taking traditional chiptune sounds and adding a depth and and breadth that wouldn’t have been possible through old hardware alone. A unique album most certainly worth a listen, and definintly worth a download at name-your-own-price.

Follow Joshua Morse on Twitter and Facebook.

Jordan Steven, know throughout the VGM community as bLiNd, has been producing top-notch video game remixes for years. Best known for his trance remixes on Overclocked Remix, he has just released a new project in a new direction. The Lost Angelic Chronicles of Frane: Dragons’ Odyssey is the original soundtrack to an iOS JRPG. Jordan first soundtrack, Dragons’ Odyssey is truly remarkable, with expressive arrangements in 38 moving tracks. This is a far cry from Jordan’s previous EDM-style game remixes, with expansive soundscapes, moods and instrumentation.

The 38-Track album is available now on Bandcamp

My netlabel GameChops is hosting it’s first remix contest for Powerglove, the tune Benjamin Briggs and I did together. Here’s your chance to take this brand new track and edit, change, mix and wreck it in whichever way you see fit! Are you an audio nerd who just likes listening to stems? [I am, had to ask :] Well they’re free, so head over to GameChops, download the stems and start remixing!

We took a sample from the Nintendo game Mig 29 Soviet Fighter and transformed it into a dirty, loud, electrohouse track! Featuring samples from the movie The Wizard, this tune is so good it can only be described as “so bad.” Have a listen:

Ready to make this track your own at a chance to win a release on GameChops? Head over to the Remix Stems page, download and get to mixing! Submission deadline is June 25th!

Thursday was my 32nd birthday. I had no big plans; working for most of the day, fishing with a buddy right afterward, dinner with my folks, & winding up the night at Joshua Morse’s Waveform 3 listening party on the always fun-tastic areciboradio.com to share in some good music, laughs, and a few beers with my nerd buddies. Nice, chill evening; I can had a content. =) Honestly, I’d almost forgotten that it was my birthday that week; my girlfriend and family had to remind me! LoL SO BUSY WITH LIFE AND PROJECTS (with the Chiptunes = WIN compilation being at the top of the busy yet awesome list!! ;D ). And then some of my favorite MAGfamily crazies surprise me in the listening party chatroom (and sorta crash it! HahahaSORRIES Areciboradio!!! XD ). Was some serious WIN, and enough to wrap up my birthday with more than enough happy to do the trick. I figured the surprises ended there. I FIGURED DAMN WRONG.

FIRST, THIS HAPPENED. <– CLICKY CLICKY, PLEASE. =D

As I explored the custom VGM designed birthday card, read the messages as they scrolled by, listened to the amazing music, I freaked out. My myriad of ridiculously talented, AMAZING friends, who collaborated to create this for me, watched, laughed, grinned, took joy in my freakouts and continued to make it worse by leading me on to discover more and more wonderful things about it (there’s even a secret code in it!! Hint: look at the score ;). Once they’d strung me along with that amazingness long enough, they dropped the REAL bomb on me:

AN ORIGINAL 5 SONG EP MADE ABOUT AND JUST FOR ME

I. LOST. MY. MIND. I’m still in shock. The amount of artistry and hilarity and genuine love that went into the crazy project, just… WOW. What the F**K  I did to deserve this I DON’T KNOW. (I mean, I AM awesome, sure, but this is pushing it a touch even for me! hahaha ;D ). I’m not telling y’all any of this to brag about myself, boost my own ego, or anything self serving like that either (I really don’t feel like there’s that much to brag about anyways hahaha). I’m just sharing this as a testament to WHY I love the VGM/Chiptune/MAG/Nerda/etc. scene with every bit of me that is able to love:

The best motherf**cking people in the world are part of it.

The people that staff and volunteer the events, the various assortment of musical guests, artists, and speakers to entertain the happy, often drunken masses, and, of course, the awesome, CRAZY people who attend these events. And all of them, ALL OF THEM having the time of their lives, reveling in the sheer overwhelming goodness of being surrounded and celebrating with the most kindred of spirits. There really are no words to do it justice, and I feel I’m doing a fairly miserable job of trying to convey in words the powerful sense of awesome that you can get from being a part of, belonging to this community. hahaha XD Maybe that’s just it, though: you have to experience it to understand it. =) And if you haven’t yet, NOW  is just as good a time as any to join us. THE MORE, THE MERRIER, BIZNATCHES!! 8D \m|♥|m/

Also (I said I wasn’t going to do this, BUT OH WELL WUTTEHFUKEVAR!!!!): HUGE THANKS AND LOVE AND STUFF TO ALL INVOLVED WITH THE ALBUM: Mike Villalobos (Lobos) & Amanda Lepre (LeRab-it) from Descendants of Erdrick; Grant Henry (Stemage) and Dan Taylor (Chunkstyle) from Metroid Metal & Yes Mayhem; Nate Horsfall (Foxxdragon); Chris Ryberg (Rugal); Jameson Sutton (Shadix); Thomas Dougherty (Nickeledge); Chris Davidson (Dj Cutman); Erik Peabody (VikingGuitar);  Brendan Becker (Inverse Phase); Brandon Strader; and last but not least, my amaaaaaaaaaaazing girlfriend, Erin McQuisten (I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, BABY!!! ♥ ♥ ♥). Plus much love to all who signed the digital card!!!

YOU FUCKERS ARE SOME OF THE BEST FRIENDS A CRAZY SONOFABITCH LIKE ME COULD EVER ASK FOR & I LOVE YOU ENDLESSLY FOR IT SO THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111!111!1!11!!!11111!elevensoutthewazoo  ;DDD

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

April 3rd, 2012 marks a momentous day for me. It’s the launch of my not-for-profit internet record label GameChops. Over the last few years of DJing VGM and making beats I’ve met a lot of great people and learned a tremendous amount about production, performance, and making music a greater part of my life. With GameChops, I hope to give back to this vibrant, supportive scene.

I love hearing bits of original game music in new productions. Chiptune samples are my favorites, I don’t care if it’s a funk tune or a rap track, you throw a Nintendo or a raw sawtooth wave in there and I am hooked. It was this irrational love of game sounds that got me started as Dj CUTMAN; I was working as a hiphop engineer and I made my first video game beats while hanging out in the studio after recording sessions.

The debut release for GameChops is none other than Benjamin Briggs, veteran OCRemixer and budding digital DJ. The release is an EP inspired by Diddy Kong Racing aptly titled Bootleg Circuit. Thsip reductions cleverly utilize in-game samples to create a five track electro-house marathon worthy of any street race or game party. Grab the release on GameChops.

Head over to GameChops.com to check out all the releases. Please support this project by adding GameChops on Facebook. Here’s to much more music.

-C

The DA CHIP project started back in 2008 as an open competition organised on the 8bitcollective website by two french artists, Je deviens dj en 3 jours and Zombectro.

Four years later, the project returns, this time providing an expansive cast of chiptune talent in 13 crunchy chip tracks. From Sabrepulse to Cheapshot, Rushjet1 to Henry Homesweet, Da Chip Vol. II is a diverse and rocking album worthy of any gameboy.
And best of all, it’s free.

Download both albums at DaChip.com

For a full list of artists involved, visit DaChip.com