The Pop-Culture E-Zine
Teachers, leave them kids alone! Ah, couldn’t help myself, even though the track was on The Wall album. OK, I’ll stop now, but only if you press play and enjoy some sweet 8-Bit synth chiptune covers from one of the greatest music albums of all time.
Oh yeah, if you want to listen to Another Brick in the Wall (in full) from The Wall album, then check out music producer veridiz’s brill take on it right here.
source: veridiz
Ah, the young ones of today will never know the pain of dialing up via your home phone line to get onto the information superhighway! It was painfully slow, and very screechy!
Speaking of screechy, this Eclectic Method created song is an absolute aural masterpiece, bringing back a lot of nostalgia, or perhaps nightmares for us older types – especially when the connection would timeout or just stop midway through the connection handshake! *shudder*
As one YouTube commenter stated perfectly about this tune:
This track took some time, like those downloads back then. It’s an (sic) beautiful and important reminder, of the sound of the connected world and the ridiculous patience we had in the last century.
We have belted out RATM’s ‘Killing in the Name’ countless times over decades since it was released some 30 years ago (1993), and even now, it still stirs up the existential rage inside of us!
Before we get too deep into the meaning of the song, let’s take a step back and enjoy this timeless classic being played on Sega’s 16-bit awesome Mega Drive / Genesis console, courtesy of fxsnowy! Ah, that unmistakable sound of the Mega Drive’s Yamaha YM2612 six-channel FM synthesizer chip is music to our ears!
Turn it up peeps!
PS: Imagine this tune being played on the C64’s SID chip….. We can dream 😉
source: fxsnowy
These folks at Swedish uber design group, Love Hultén, sure know how to catch our attention (again!) and make our jaw drop!
Just check out this Pac-Man themed analogue synthesizer based on the Korg Minilogue – it’s darn amazing! Oh yeah, the chiptunes it generates are equally as awesome!
source: Love Hultén
What can we say, we are suckers for sweet, sweet C64 SID chiptunes!
We were recently stumbled upon the Shadow Ninja chiptunes concept-album on Bandcamp by the mysterious musician SID Ninja 64. What we heard was quite impressive and literally music to our ears. The original SID tunes on this album are stylised after great C64 maestros like Tim Follin, Jonathan Dunn, Matt Gray, Ben Daglish, Jeroen Tel and Chris Hülsbeck to name just a few – a pretty good darn pedigree.
If you are into SID tunes or chiptunes in general, check out SID Ninja 64’s Shadow Ninja album right now!
image source: SID Ninja 64
What do you get when you cross two C64 music maestros like Martin Galway and Rob Hubbard? You get this awesome Green Beret Commando Infiltration SID chiptune (remix) by t-tracker!
Play it loud!
source: t-tracker – Green Beret (Commando Infiltration)
If you are a fan of the Commodore 64’s SID chip and the brilliant music and sounds it pumps out, then you’ll also know the works of one, Mr. Rob Hubbard! The SID Maestro created countless classic chiptunes for some of the biggest games on the Commodore 64, from Commando, International Karate to Monty On The Run and Sanxion to name just a few.
This album reconstruction of Rob’s classic SID music in full stereo was painstakingly (and lovingly) assembled by Jason Page (aka: No Other Medicine). Jason had previously worked with Rob on the Project Hubbard KickStarter campaign, so this reconstruction was a homage to Rob.
The best thing about this album is that the 11 chiptunes are not remixes or hacked versions of Rob’s work, rather they have gone through a process called “True Stereo” to highlight the brilliance of the original tracks.
We reckon the best way to enjoy this album is via a pair of good headphones (or stereo speakers), so kick back and crank up the volume and enjoy some classic chiptunes in full stereo!
Thank you to Jason Page and Rob Hubbard for this aural pleasure!
There are literally thousands of podcasts out there, which makes it difficult to find some gems.
ABC Radio National’s the Sum Of All Parts podcast usually has interesting topics. Speaking of interesting topics, back in August they had podcast about chiptunes, which piqued our interest.
Lots of great discussion with well-known chiptune artists, like Chris Mylrea (aka: cTrix) and author of the ‘Bits and Pieces: A History of Chiptunes’ book, Professor Kenny B. McAlpine, amongst a few other chiptune maestros.
Kick back, press play and listen to Bel Smith’s report on the evolution of the 8-bit music scene.
image source: cTrix and Game Boy LSDj via ABC: Belinda Smith
As Queen’s Freddy Mercury once sang, ” Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?“. Could we be dreaming? The KORG music production studio will allow (from July 11) you to create 80s Sega arcade game sounds and Taito FM synth sounds on your Nintendo Switch.
Yep, dreams do come true! With the awesome collaboration between ‘SEGA’ and ‘TAITO’, version 3.0 of the KORG Gadget for Nintendo Switch is a reality that will include the 2 new gadgets – Sega’s Otorii and Taito’s Ebina!
Check out the video below and head to the KORG news site for more info on this music making awesomeness. July 11 can’t come fast enough!
source: KORG
[story & image source: Korg News]
There is something about lo-tech chiptune music that gets the old aural nostalgic nerve tingling. Listening to 8 Bit Weapon’s self titled album of chipmusic certainly took us back to the heyday of computer generated music that we loved to listen to, even if the associated game was absolute crap. Music has a way of speaking to us, no matter the times we are in.
8 Bit Weapon’s album is the culmination of sound experiments that started in 2015 and ending in 2017. Created via the original Game Boy and Commodore 64 (Ed: SID forever!), the artists sought to explore the outer reaches of the Game Boy’s 8-bit CPU/4-bit sound chip, especially it’s dynamic wave channel sound manipulation capacity with the addition of the Commodore 64 SID synth bass and other sounds to round out the albums sound.
Please don’t ask us to pick a favourite track, as it is like asking to pick our favourite child – impossible! OK, if push came to shove, then we’d say Dungeon Crawler Baller is our fave track, but only just – seriously, all the tracks are ace and unique in their own way.
What Seth and Michelle (8 Bit Weapon) have created is pure awesome original and unique chiptunes that your ears will want you to play over and over. If you are into chiptunes, then this album is for you. Get it now!
Artists: 8 Bit Weapon
Album: 8 Bit Weapon (available via Bandcamp)
Cost: USD $5.00 (or more)
Michelle and Seth are 8 Bit Weapon
image source: 8 Bit Weapon
Disclosure: 8 Bit Weapon kindly provided us with the download of their album for this article.