With Volume 1 out of the way, time to discuss last year's
Expansion Pack! Based tunes from huge names, if you're a goon and haven't
checked it out yet do so now!!! ::::::~~Information Overload~~::::::
nordloef - Do What You Want
Sweden’s most exported chiptune artist opens the expansion pack as
only he could. Hyper fast happy hardcore draped chiptune in a minute and a half
burst. With a back catalogue consisting of only a sporadic collection of tracks
dotted around the many recesses of various chiptune compilations, nordloef’s
real claim to fame is the popularity and energy of his live shows. Having
played live all across the world, if you ever get the chance to see him, sell
internal organs if you have to.
animal style - pls wrng mod
With releases on 8bitpeoples and Pause, this guitarist/chip artist
probably doesn’t need much of an introduction. The track itself is exactly what
you’d come to expect of AS, pounding beats and jazz infused future-jams with an
unrelenting urgency. Mixing those unmistakably ‘animal style’ aesthetics with
frantic melodic layered mayhem, this track continues his trend of high quality
chiptune created with meticulous detail. For more of his great tunes check out
his bandcamp and website, or failing that, try and catch him live!
Electric Children - Pills &
Needles VIP
One of 8bc’s final success stories, Ex-‘Circles’ and Seattle’s
LSDJ dance guru provides the compilation with another killer club-filler.
Melding elements of trance, house and chiptune ‘unce’, EC formulates tracks
ready for dropping on the DJ decks. Following that strain, ‘Pills…’ features
euphoric highs bridged with UV expanses of late-night raves, traversing from
the opening electronic jazz piano all the way to the sample-scattered throes of
four-to-the-floor mayhem. With four releases already under his belt, including
the vocally-focal ‘All Night Party’, Electric Children is surely one of the
chiptune’s most understated prodigies.
Disasterpeace - Cycles [feat.
Stemage]
Disasterpeace; composer of soundtracks for games as prolific as
Fez, owner of the Pause netlabel and with multiple well-received and loved
releases under his belt. Stemage; composer of game soundtracks, former of the
Metroid Metal project and with multiple well-received and loved releases under
his belt. Both influenced by game music and progressive rock/metal, together
they’ve created this behemoth of a track; lucid Gameboy tones alongside funky
prog rock guitar. Ying and Yang at its most explosive.
Skip Cloud - Tape
Despite being one of the lesser known artists on this compilation,
Skip Cloud doesn’t stop providing one of the compilation’s best tracks.
Delivering a high energy LSDJ power-house dance track, Skip Cloud shows off his
assets flawlessly through this cut taken from his most recent release, ‘Helix’
. With only 2 EPs and a collection of spare tracks released since his genesis
in 2009, this elusive but talented artist has promised he “…won’t wait this
long before releasing music again”, so hopefully that’s good news for the rest
of us! Definitely an artist to watch out for.
Roboctopus - Lights Out for the
Invisible Girls
Multi-instrumentalist and composer extraordinaire, Roboctopus,
submits to the compilation a track dripping in hooks and euphoria. With several
LSDJ releases already out, Roboctopus provides any naysayers a reminder that
his ‘chip + live instrument’ is coming together, and when it finally does we’ll
all be in for one hell of a treat. Mixing LSDJ sounds similar to a
happier Infinity Shred with a multitude of instruments to form a progressive
rock/indie pop chiptune hybrid, this is for sure one of my favourite tracks
from this comp. Also, look out for the forthcoming DISCO.txt on Cheapbeats!
Solarbear - Shortcomings
If you’ve listened to Solarbear before, this track is exactly what
you’d have come to expect. If not, let me summarise for you: LSDJ chiptune
powered by progressive and math rock, with a tight and eclectic focus on
melody. Using a whole heap of sounds and pushing them out of a single Gameboy,
Solarbear’s meld of the experimental and the familiar provide some of the
hugest melodies on the compilation. Owner/curator of the quickly expanding US
chip fest BRKfest, he’s also recently [read: finally] released his debut
effort, ‘Solarbear Daisuki’, so go and check those out!
The J. Arthur Keenes Band - Tommy
Did The Walkin’ (feat. Crayona & The Colorettes)
With highly acclaimed releases on 8bitpeoples and Pause, both of
which are considered by many to be chiptune classics, as well as a recently
self-released effort, J Arthur Keenes is one of chiptunes brightest artists.
Ditching his previously trademark meld of reggae, indie pop and chiptune, this
time round, in the vein of recent release ‘The World’s Smallest Violin’, J
Arthur has gone all baroque pop with a 50s swing twist. Backed by a female
vocal group, the melodic tones and harmonies add that familiar hook-laden
addictiveness which is so prevalent in the back catalogue of this truly
fantastic artist.
OxygenStar - Gravitate
The Talented Mr. Ripley of chiptune, Carl Peczynski, has decided
to grace this compilation with what is probably his best known and loved alias,
OxygenStar. Scatting drums and melodic swagger are the order of the day on
‘Gravitate’, so cocooned in its own surrealist atmosphere that its main motif
threatens to disrupt your very mental processes. With nods to Daft Punk –esque
disco house melodies and enough booty-shaking swing to get even the biggest
minusbaby fans arseache, OxygenStar has once again scored a winner. A fan of
his work? Well there is plenty of it to check out, as well as Miami-House
project Rolly Mingwald, one man rap crew Steady C, party animal Radlib and
probably hundreds more I’m not aware of.
Stern Fucking Zeit - Bahamoot
Chiptune’s newest [and now defunct] hardcore punkster SFZ delivers metal tinged
noise with lyrics begging to be screamed out. Whilst not as brutal as most
chipthrash, this metal/chiptune meld does deliver on the ferocity front,
providing screamed vocals and an off-kilter breakdown sure to get those necks
craning. For more music by SFZ be sure to check out his nearly year-old debut
album Pathoscillator, which acts as a quite stunning tribute to both the range
and the compositional strength of this fantastic artist.
Auxcide - Chain Reaction
With one of the most explosively received chiptune debuts in
recent times, Auxcide materialised on the scene only a year ago, yet he’s fast
become one of the chiptune scene’s most essential artists. Auxcide pumps out
spacey jams and high octane melodies mixed with a dashing of euphoria and urgency,
something started on his debut ‘of Atoms and Stardust’ and continued on recent
sophomore EP ‘Dimensions’. Sounding like the end of times through a
trance-tinged kaleidoscope, Auxcide is chiptunes most recent supernova.
Slime Girls - Space Fold Romance
Coming out of absolutely nowhere last year with their debut,
Vacation Wasteland, Slime Girls VERY quickly established themselves as one of
chiptune’s best powerpop bands. Following in the footsteps of the Gooch, Slime
Girls meld those two irresistibly compatible genres together to form one
monolith of summer vibes and shoutable melodies. One part cartoon theme tune,
one part pop punk, one part garage rock and three parts chiptune, if this
doesn’t get you jumping and screaming whilst lathering yourself with suncream
then NOTHING will. Hibernate.
Beta To The Max - Time
Chip duo ‘Beta To The Max’ release one of the sparse tracks since
2011’s EP release, ‘From Tomorrow, With Love’. Having been going since
2009, the duet’s ear for dirty dance jams is fine tuned. Sounding like the
epitome of cyberpunk, a dirty neon alleyway of attitude and futuristic
aggression, the ‘Beta…’s sound production give the compilation a nice dose of
dynamic difference. Whilst melody may not be the focus here, it’s more than
made up for in the beats and swagger.
SingkongBalado - Spank
Member of the Indonesian chiprock band ‘Super Danger Casper’ gone
solo, ‘SingkongBalado’ delivers a melody-centric pumping jam to Chiptune=Win’s
expansion pack. Throwing in dubstep stylings, and not the Skrillex bullshit but
some actual substantial bass lines, ‘Spank’ melds countless genres into a
dub|electro|pop|chip|trance hybrid. If this is what he’s got in store for us
then we’re in for one hell of a ride, SingkingBalado is just another piece of
evidence that amazing chiptune can be found ANYWHERE in the world!
Derris-Kharlan - Sol
The Australian chiptune guitarist gives us an 100% chip jam to get
us in the mood for astral flight. Epic melodies and layers of thick
countermelodies roll past each other as titanic hooks claw their way through
the track’s duration. With a heavily freeform structure and plenty of
variation, this is definitely on the compilation’s best composed pieces.
‘Derris-Kharlan’ has plenty of releases elsewhere, including a Western themed
split with Disasterpeace and a live album released on British label CDK. Another
reason why Australia is fast become chiptune’s new epicentre.
Marshall Art - Papercut You Into
Little Pieces
A collaboration of titanic proportions, one half Canadian chiptune
mastermind’ jmr’ and one half Russian guitarist and VGM-er ‘Streifig’. The two
go an unsurprisingly overwhelming direction with their track; dark dingy
chiptune with a hellish beat combined with Dire Straits through Clapton guitar
work. The middle section mixes unrelenting guitar solos with a slightly dark
and constantly shifiting chiptune element beneath, sounding an awful lot like
Genesis or early Pink Floyd. Having only officially released two songs thus
far, this being one of them, there is not an awful lot of Marshall Art out
there. Hopefully soon we’ll be graced by their brilliance in full!
Zio and TEH LOLZ - Horse Force
‘Zio…’has been active since 2008, creating metal-infused dark
chiptune for a good few years now. Dissonance and heavily foreboding
atmospheres combine to make a menacing two minute slab of aggression and fury.
The ever constant drums add force whilst the huge sounding chords strike an
undeniably powerful resonance. For more of his stuff be sure to check out his
bandcamp for his 5 other releases!
subPixel - Brown & Red
Another track another progjazz chiptune legend. With tracks on
compilations released on Ubiktune and the composer of the hugely acclaimed
album ‘The Wave’ among others, subPixel’s grandiose ‘ZZZV’ styled progressive
jazz chiptune is a sight to behold (for your ears). ‘Brown & Red’ shows off
exactly why subPixel is so revered, mixing spacious jams by blending emotive
and freeform melodies with flexible beats and tempos into a consistently
changing mass of jazz genius. Check out sub’s bandcamp for countless more great
releases!
Andrew Kilpatrick - Bearclaw
Not going to say much about this handsome gent/ best person/ top
guy, other than check his bandcamp/ numerous projects (TWG, Pxl-Bot,
WeeklyTreats). Short story shortest: math rock meets chiptune through grindcore
and prog metal.
AndaruGO - Bokura
The busiest man in Cincinnati delivers another notch to his
cyberpunk back catalogue for his C=Win submission. The pounding, complex meld
of space-infused dance and chiptune unce you’ve come to expect from AndaruGo is
here in all its 2006-throw-back glory. Hard-hitting sounds and atmospheres have
always been a mainstay in AndaruGo’s career; both releases on Pxl-Bot and the
Noisechannel released sophomore solo release emphasise this point quite
concisely. Check everything he’s done out if you fancy dancing the night away
in a star-fuelled furore!
Optimus Chad - Spike Brothers
Fight Anthem
Doing what he does best, Datathrash’s right hand man and
ex-resident thrasher for Pxl-Bot, Optimus Chad, delivers another pounding fist
of chipthrash mayhem. With multiple sample-laden chipthrash releases, a split
with Thunder Face and a recent vocal reincarnation release called ‘Riley Rust’,
Chad’s music is quite simply brutal, emotive, and heavy as fuck. Highly
recommended for anyone in need of an ear-battering, pissed off at the world or
just wanting to thrash the fuck out!
C-Jeff- The Hearts of Everyone
Owner of the prestigious ‘Ubiktune’ netlabel and composer of prog
jazz chiptune gold, the prolific C-Jeff delivers the perfect ending to a
quality-rife compilation with his beautiful atonal masterpiece. Having been
releasing music since 2000, unsurprisingly C-Jeff’s back catalogue reads
like an ‘essential chiptune’ through the ages, with most recent release
‘Preschtale’ blowing the minds of anyone who came within a 10 foot radius of
its magnificent and grandiose prog rock jazz funk. Pay the great man his
dues and head to his bandcamp for more Grade A chiptune!
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Until Volume 2!
