ALBUMS, Features, GAME MUSIC, MUSIC

Ben Briggs – Aquarium Park

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I’m pleased to announce two new tracks from GameChops artist Benjamin Briggs. The Diddy Kong Racing champ turns his focus to Sonic the Hedgehog, creating unique remixes that blend multiple sonic tunes together. Both draw inspiration from Aquarium Park from Sonic Colors.

The first track, Trash FM, combines Aquarium Park from Sonic Colors with Hydrocity from Sonic The Hedgehog 3. The result is an electro-house banger unlike Sonic fans have ever heard! The second takes the same Aquarium Park theme and puts a dub spin on it, combining it with Rusty Ruin from Sonic 3D Blast.

These two tracks are part of an ongoing initiative by the team at GameChops to provide legally licensed video game remixes. San Francisco based company Joypad Records has been instrumental in obtaining compulsory licenses from Sega, as well as license from Nintendo for last month’s Triforce of Bass.

Follow Benjamin Briggs on Twitter, Soundcloud, and Facebook. Find more of his music on Bandcamp.

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, GAMING, MUSIC

Friday Freakout: *BEAUTIFUL* new Vince Kaichan EP released!!!

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THIS HAS BEEN A CRAZY COUPLE OF CHIPWEEKS. For reasons that I can mention (such as the INSAAAANE 17.5 hour chipmusic broadcast of AWESOME that I co-hosted on Geekbeat LeRadio earlier this week) and reasons that I can’t quite yet (hint: pay close attention to ChipWIN channels in the coming days ;). There’ve been a handful of extraordinarily awesome, completely unheralded chip releases that have contributed to this craziness as well. And boy do I have a damn good example of one of these right here for you:

On Thin Air
by Vince Kaichan

The chippy badass Vince Kaichan, formerly known as VCMG, dropped a 4 track surprise EP of PURE WIN last Friday. It’s a beautiful collection of very lush, atmospheric, ethereal, yet still quite powerful, driving tracks, which all but tell a story without a single word. It’s the way the tracks are composed and sequenced that denote this flow of story; like different movements of a classical piece that interweave together with perfect synergy. The meat of it is definitely “Binary Lake” (LOVE THAT TRACK~~), but the surrounding tracks are not to be overlooked! They’re what set it up so perfectly after all.

The funniest thing about this album is that its existence is due to nothing more than an unfortunate (or maybe fortunate in this case?) accident. To quote Vince’s words from his Bandcamp page, “These tracks happened only because Vince Kaichan was stupid enough to crack his Gameboy screen, rendering him sans-DMG for four weeks.” This EP was crafted with SunVox v1.6.4, Tweakybeat for iPhone, and a Korg Monotron. While I hesitate to wish damage to a viable Gameboy, I’m a bit thankful it happened this time. ;3 Although hopefully enough of you buy this album to see that it gets repaired! ;)

I also find it noteworthy to mention that while I often find EPs tend to be either somewhat lacking or give just enough of a taste to do the job, On Thin Air satisfies just as well as the most well put together full album release. Miss it at your own loss.

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GAME MUSIC, MUSIC

bLiNd – Ghosts N’ Pills

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Legendary trance producer of OCRemix fame, bLiNd, has recently released Ghosts N’ Pills, a progressive house single with influences of electro and dubstep. This dancy, twerky jam is available from Bandcamp and iTunes. Extended and instrumental versions available for serious listeners and Video Game DJs alike.

I am excited to announce that bLiNd will be joining the GameChops roster in the future with a new VGM release. Stay tuned to this blog and the GameChops Facebook page for details as they develop! To support bLiNd buy a release on Bandcamp. Follow bLiNd on Facebook and Soundcloud.

Download Ghosts N’ Pills from Bandcamp.

ALBUMS, CHIPTUNE, EVENTS, GAMING, MUSIC

Friday Freakout: New EP by The J Arthur Keenes Band!!!

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Vocally lead chiptune is kicking ass lately. Obviously you’ve got Br1ght Pr1mate with their stellar release Night Animals just the other day; that album in of itself is enough for me to confidently make that claim. And now, you’ve also got THIS:

The World’s Smallest Violin
by The J Arthur Keenes Band

This EP comes at you with 5 extraordinarily solid tracks of powerfully lush, excellently composed eargasms. The fantastic mix of lead and harmony vox drive this release along quite wonderfully, but it doesn’t hurt that there’s a wildly varied assortment of different instruments throughout it; various and variously effected guitars and stringed instruments, brass, keys, accordion, drums & percussion toys, and, of course, a fair amount of chippy goodness. Honestly, this album is a great example of chiptune as an instrument, as that’s simply what it is here! Albeit a fantastically used instrument, of course. ;)

The wonderful atmosphere, energy, and just all around vibe created by the STELLAR mix is worth writing about as well. Wanna know how to mix a winning chipalbum? ASK THIS GUY. Seriously, just put on a good set of cans, hit play, close your eyes AND LISTEN TO THE SONIC JOY. This EP has very quickly become one of my favorite chip EPs of the year if not all time. There’s a special sort of magic, energy, FUN on this album that I can’t quite capture in words. And I’m damn rare to point out a particular song on an album and/or pick a favorite, but HOLY FURKIN ZOMBOCON BOTH “MONSTERS” AND “OKAY” ARE GETTING POINTED THE BEEJEEBUS RIGHT OUT~!!! The entire thing is great, but those first two snag me something fierce.

In summation, if you can’t enjoy this album, well… FUCK YOU. <3 

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A blog for video game and chiptune music, retro gaming, and live events. Created by Dj CUTMAN.