Preview| V/A - µCollective, Vol. 1

Following the dramatic closure of 8bitcollective, Sam Wray, 8bc’s then last hope, created a site to fill the hole the collective’s ruin would leave. µCollective was the end result, launching in October of 2012. In a bid to expand, µCollective is putting out their first compilation, a physical-only collection of sixteen tracks to debut at SuperByte. Featuring hugely revered acts (cTrix, Paza, nordloef), lesser known artists (Balloonbear, Skin Walker, <3an) and those somewhere in between (Auxcide, Holy Konni, Decktonic), ‘Vol. 1’ hosts a hugely varied selection of talent.

Getting the negative out of the way: the album’s introduction is weak. Beginning with Byzanite’s inessential take on EDM, ‘Cakebomber’, most listeners are going to quickly see through the thinly veiled lack of substance. ‘Cakebomber’ is followed by the underwhelming ‘Mysterio Guitar Sloth’ by Holy Konni, a track that’s nice enough, but doesn’t even touch the quality of his recent output (though the guitar sampling is a nice touch). Elsewhere, Paza throws up the compilation’s most disappointing moment. ‘Damn Lokki’ constantly builds to absolutely nothing, all grating ‘melodies’ and tiresome percussion in a faux-gabber abomination. 

Elsewhere though, the quality is incredibly high. PANDAstar‘s ‘Delirium’ features the album’s most euphoric melody, unforgettable and beautifully sweet, whilst <3an’s ‘Mariana Trench’ seeps watery, lucid delivery, a blend of slow-moving bass and deep ambient undercurrents. Kubbi manages to meld progressive electro with pop melodies and danceable beats on ‘Void Pt 2 (Renovation Mix), and Auxcide supplies those trademark, epic space melodies, slathered over thick layers of gorgeous harmony.

The best tracks on ‘Vol. 1’ are those where the artists outdo themselves. Decktonic’s ‘Dancing Is Permitted’ is a vigorous froth of summer melodies and strong kicks that are irresistible. ‘Czar’, Cheapshot’s contribution, is swagger at its most effective, conveying groove through enormous beats, making it the most exciting Cheapshot track in some time. nordloef’s outstanding ‘Mark II’, repeats this excitement, showing the veteran’s ability to remain as fresh and melodically robust as ever. The album’s crowning glory, however, is the final track, Vince Kaichan’s ‘Sailboat’. Full of striking motifs, harmonies, and layers of delicate nuance, ‘Sailboat’ is a testament to Vince’s growing prowess. It not only sounds strong beside the likes of cTrix and xyce, but it towers above them, sounding like an off-cut from Roboctopus' recent and fantastic 'Disco.txt'.

Minus problems with the track sequencing, some of the thematic jumps are too violent to create a cohesive listening experience; µCollective’s debut compilation is fantastic. Sam Wray’s curation deserves special praise, his fusing of the old established and the new revolutionaries works perfectly, and almost every track brims with quality. With all proceeds going to support µCollective plus mastering by DJ Cutman and art by Love Through Cannibalism, this is one package you owe yourself to get if you’re attending SuperByte this year.

PS: If you are attending Superbyte this year, come and say hi! I'll be on the dancefloor or at the bar wearing a bison t-shirt and a ponytail xo 

Tracklist:
01. Byzanite- Cakebomber
02. Holy Konni- Mysterio Guitar Sloth
03. PANDAstar- Delirium
04. xyce- Arbre De Viw
05. Paza- Damn Lokki
06. <3an- Mariana Trench
07. Cheapshot- Czar
08. Decktonic- Dancing Is Permitted 
09. Balloonbear- HAVOK
10. Skin Walker- Shanghai At Night
11. nordloef- Mark II
12. Auxcide- Threads
13. gwEm- High Gain
14. cTrix- Ion Cruising 
15. Kubbi- Void Pt 2 (Renovation Mix)
16. Vince Kaichan- Sailboat

WeeklyTreats Q1 Catch-Up Zip [Jan-March]

Four months already! As promised, we finally bring you the first three months of WeeklyTreats in an easily digestible zip! But that's not all! We've also been scrapping up all manner of goodies from our first 13 WeeklyTreaters, and as such we're happy to present to you a boatload of bonuses! 
What you get in the Q1 Catch-Up:
- Tracks 1 through 13 of WeeklyTreats
- All poster art for the first 13 WeeklyTreats
- All Bonus art from the first three monthly zips, including wallpapers and sticker art
- 4 brand new tracks to WeeklyTreats!:
--- 001 Kubbi- Up In My Jam
--- 002 DKSTR- wailinggoose
--- 003 Starpilot- Wonderflea
--- 004 Starpilot- Wide Awake [Demo]
- Bonus artwork from WeeklyTreater Starpilot
- Bonus artwork and assorted photography from WeeklyTreater Holy Konni
- Mikee Teevee's Modification Gallery
- Steve's Super Famicom DJ Chart 2013
- LGPT song and sample files for Cheapshot's track 'I Do'
- WeeklyTreats: The Game, an art NES rom by our very own Love Through Cannibalism! 

What are you waiting for? Get it here!

Review| Holy Konni- Fetushouse

Debuting on the Cheapbeats label this week is Swedish HolyKonni with his first release since last year’s ‘lgpt_princess’. Holy Konni’s style is a fairly unique one, forming a bricolage of multiple genres from ambient and juke to seapunk and deep house. In short however, this is certainly Konni’s most refined work to date.

Let’s rewind a bit first though. Holy Konni’s style has been in a continuous state of reconfiguration. There’s always been a standard ‘base model’, but nearly every release that he’s put out has substituted various components to form a new take on old ideas.’LET MEKILL!’, released in November 2011, featured a selection of chillout tracks, and the following release ‘lgpt_princess’ flirted with seapunk and trip-hop. ‘Fetushouse’ fits somewhere in between.

This new styling, self-proclaimed by Konni to be the first iteration of what he’s dubbing ‘fetushouse’, sounds exactly as the label describes. Warm ambient tones flow fluidly through house beats with heavy sampling and melodies reminiscent of seapunk and a short gander into trip-hop beats on occasion. Think quiet Aphex Twin crossed with Whitely's seapunk outings. Summer audiofied. That’s the style covered, what about the songs themselves?

The strongest set of tracks he’s produced yet. The five songs work as a unit perfectly, leaving you begging for more (as all good EPs should). ‘Self Portrait 19’’s juke inspired sample work was definitely a highlight, as was the oceananarchist throes of ‘Natalie Portman’. If anything, the songs work so well together that my only real gripe with the release is that the tracks weren’t presented as a single mix instead of separate tracks.

Should you download this? Of course you should. It’s Holy Konni. It’s not just Holy Konni, it’s Holy Konni at his very best. Get hyped for summer people!
You can grab it here! Digital downloads are $3 and you can nab a physical copy for only $7!

Tracklist:
1. Kate Moss Magic
2. Self Portrait 19
3. Vlieg Berg/Stop Nie
4. DREAM CRY BREAST LIFE
5. Natalie Reborn

WeeklyTreats #04| Holy Konni- Betelgeuse

Howdy Chaps! In Week Four we're staying in Scandinavia, this time visiting the multi-talented Holy Konni!

WT: Let’s start at the beginning, what was your first contact with the chiptune scene, and the first piece of software you wrote with?

Holy Konni: Hello Andrew and thanks for this opportunity!   

My first contact with chipmusic was when I first got a Gameboy Color from my Grandma, when I was about 6-7 years old. I think the best game music back then was Kirby or Zelda. Then, when I was in 6th grade me and a friend made shitty tracker music (if you can even call it that) on ModPlug Tracker, and by chance downloaded some keygen music that we loaded into ModPlug. It might have been a Dubmood song, can't remember. But I was amazed and thought it was really cool. At the age of maybe 17 years, I discovered 8bc, and started making music with Milkytracker.

WT: How has your style evolved, what has been your favourite release to write thus far and why?

HK: After making pure LSDJ chip for a while I became bored with the pure chip sound, and wanted to be able to implement other sounds and samples into my music. I discovered LGPT and it's probably my favourite tracker (it has built-in bitcrusher!!!). I've experimented a bit with ambient/chip music, and right now I'm writing a new release which is kind of house-beats/ambient/samples/chiptune. My favourite release was probably earth child, answer already. I learned so much about writing music during that one. It's a favourite.

WT: Who are your main musical influences in and outside of the chiptune scene?

HK: I get influenced by pretty much everything I hear, both in and outside of the scene. But I think some artists that have influenced me in particular are Chalices of the Past, Musho, OK Ikumi and maybe Crystal Castles when it comes to vocal samples.

WT: What other instruments do you play, and how have you utilised them with the chiptune medium?

HK: I play guitar! And sing. But I've never really used those things that much in my songs, probably mostly out of laziness. But there are some vocals in my music, but not much. However I've always wanted to do a chiptune & singing album.

WT: You also do a lot of artwork right? Could you tell us a bit about that the influences which dictate your style?

HK: Yes! I used to do lots of art before I started getting 'serious' with music. I also made animations and stuff like that, and some album art for the chip community. I was really influenced by a group of artists on this website called UPWN, but it died. I really like Pendleton Ward's Adventure Time, and I guess my style is kind of similar. But now I mainly do music, and that is what I like the most right now. Maybe in the future I will pick up drawing and painting again, we'll see. 

WT: As a Swede, what are your opinions on the current Swedish chiptune scene as well as the worldwide chip scene?

HK: I'm not a Swede, but I've lived here for some 10-11 years now. The Swedish chip scene is pretty good, when compared to other countries. There are lots of events taking place and even in my tiny town I get to play shows from time to time, which is nice. There are a great number of famous chip artists that are from Sweden, like goto80, Boomlinde and my BFF Nordloef. I ♥ Nordloef. 

In general, I think it's pretty interesting how the chip scene is getting more mainstream. You can hear chip sounds in pop songs played on the radio today. And bands like Crystal Castles are promoting the sound to other audiences. 

WT: And finally, what are your future plans for ‘Holy Konni’?

HK: I'm just gonna see where I go from here, where the project takes me. But in the nearer future I'm releasing a new LGPT album called Fetushouse, which is a mix of roughly cut lo-fi samples, house-beats, ambient vibes and chiptune & glitch sounds. It's going to be released by the great Cheapshot and Lazerbeat label Cheapbeats and sold as CD's. I'm incredibly exited and hyped for this and really hope it will be well received by people.

Some News| 22.01.2013

I've been meaning to create bi-monthly news posts for some time now, but work with WeeklyTreats has left me explicitly busy. But without further ado, here is a small round-up of some notable chiptune happenings:

Starpilot released the first in a trilogy of new releases under the guise 'Energies I', with 'Energies II' looking to follow very soon if the fact a front cover has been posted on his Facebook fan page is anything to go by. Also released only today, 'Frozen Solvents On A Windy Day', a collections of tracks, most of which were created last year. 

Stenobot has just released the follow up to his fantastic Crunchy Co. release 'Sink or Swim We'll Go Together'. 'Thirteen Orphans' contains much of the guitar, vocal and electronic intertwining seen in his previous release. A physical release is also due out January 29th.

Danimal Cannon and Zef have joined forces to release 'Parallel Processing' with Ubiktune. Hard beats and progressive tendencies, a physical release is also available. This release sounds like definition of LSDJ's climax, it's hard to think anything will top this on terms of sheer technical application. Also the music is fucking stellar. 

aanaaanaaanaaana, the, well I'm not sure what, has released a collection of tracks. Expect what you'd expect from ant1 (if he is the only contributor?) , genuinely gorgeous music hidden behind a veil of nonchalance. A video for track 'Doughnut Universe' has also been created, be sure to check that!

80s inspired label Telefuture releases another collection of tracks ready to be utilised in 'Drive 2's soundtrack. 'Animal Magnetism' by Collins, a producer and DJ (among other things) based in Rio de Janeiro, features much of the familiar 80s slow house and funk stylings we've come to expect from Telefuture. Another fantastic release from this label. 

In news more related to this very blog, we have another release coming very shortly, so get hyped for that. Also, at WeeklyTreats this week we'll be bringing you a track from Sweden's Sweetheart, Holy Konni!. Check back here friday for the interview!!!  

Review| Holy Konni- lgpt_princess

It’s no secret I’ve worked with Holy Konni a multitude of times in the past. As a result, it might be rather difficult to convince anyone reading this that the impending torrent of hyperbole and descriptive rimming is an unbiased portrayal of what lies within ‘lgpt_princess’. However, one listen to this release and it’ll become clear that whether I’d even heard of Konni before is a total irrelevancy to how good this release is.

The first two words that comes to mind when spinning this disc are summer and swag. Both opening numbers lurch forwards with graceful groove and optimistic atmosphere, cradling body-morphing basslines and a plethora of background tweaks to ensure multiple listens are a viable and profitable undertaking.

The third opus opens with a slightly unsettling cascade of samples; wailing voices and demented horn-like sirens, which in turn give backbone to the liquid candy melody which sneaks up out of nowhere, followed a few minutes later by a wavering bridge section of an industrial tinged synth before double-taking to the previous slow groove. The sample madness doesn’t stop there (the title has ‘lgpt’ in it so it’s not unexpected) with ‘Slushie House’,  a momentary relapse from the wide-eyed-grin of previous tracks and instead a delve into middle eastern melodies and drum beats that always seem on the verge of teetering out of control into a breakbeat frenzy. The tension and structure of this track surpass anything else on this release, forming an unforgettable motif and unique groove that is difficult to pigeonhole into any particular style or genre.

‘Happy End’ does as its name suggest, sounding like a forgotten track from Peer’s release ‘Dances’, cradling an ever-changing and seemingly undecided (though clearly a creative decision for intended impact) melody with soft chords overlapping in the background. Whilst without the obvious groove of previous tracks, the track still holds its own as is difficult to shake from you brain.

In the idea of fairness, there are a few gripes. The penultimate track ‘Dat White Boi’ sounds unrealised and slightly misplaced, ‘Happy End’ could and should have been more explosive (Konni has shown many times he can do epic as well as ‘Emperor’) and the overall track ordering could have been tweaked slightly for a larger reaction and better flowing dynamics.

That being said, it’s all really pointless when you listen to the album as whole. Whilst the album may not be perfect, the way Konni has tackled his chosen style IS perfect, he truly has mastered what he set out to do, which only makes me more excited for the future. Full of unforgettable tunes and an awe-striking level of groove, if you were waiting for a summer album to see you through the sunny daze, it has just arrived. 

Get it here!

Tracklist:

1. Nice Body

2. #dolphincrew

3. Wua fua sua RAVE 

4. Slushie House

5. Dat white boi

6. Happy End

7. Fuck You (Bonus Track)