Two tracks I’ve made to try out some new gear/software: Nanoloop for the iPhone and the amazing Shruti-1
Usually I don’t happy by rumpelfilter
shruti test 01 messy version by rumpelfilter
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Some more rumpeltunes
August 23rd, 2010
Another unlikely hero, lazy saturday sketches
August 14th, 2010
As I told you before, more music related works are coiming! This is another chiptune EP cover I’ve recently done, for a guy called Futurnari. The album (which you can freely download here: www.beepcity.com) is clearly inspired by the game soundtracks of past times, but adds some nice variations to it. Be sure to check it out. The cover takes the 4 elements contained in the titles of the tracks (mushrooms, fire, bricks and toadstools) and combines them in one picture. The idea was to convey the spirit of the tracks, and suggest a somehow gamey athmosphere.
And now for something completely different… it’s saturday, and I haven’t been posting sketches in a while, so here is one that somehow goes well with the above illustration (though, there no kind of relation between the two).
Cover design for PlainFlavored
July 26th, 2010
As you probably know I recently got more and more involved in the wonderful world of chipmusic. Until now it was mainly something related to my musical activity (as a listener and producer), but recently this has started to involve also my activity as an illustrator and designer. Actually I have been longing more and more to close the gap between these two worlds, creating illustrations for musicians, and making music inspired by illustrations and comics… somehow things are starting to work out!
I’m proud to announce that the album Hexadecimator: Chipmusic in G Minor by PlainFlavored, for which I’ve designed the cover, has finally been released! You can grab it at Calmdownkidder.com or check out the first track of the album right here.
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More about the realease:
Adam Schackart may be PlainFlavored by name, but his music certainly isn’t! Hexadecimator includes five tracks of DMG music influenced by a dream that took place in the summer of 2009, as well as eight years of previously abandoned works. This creates a work that is both somehow fractured and complete at the same time, turning from underclocked churning to high powered energetic music instantaneously.
With cover art by Hannes Pasqualini (click album art for larger image) and vocal and acoustic guitar intro by Andrew Winzenburg.
Chiptunes for the people, Ep.3
May 26th, 2010
2080 – Nerd to Geek
I like French electronic music. I like their way of being funky. 2080 takes that funky French electronic vibe to chipsounds. Though there are no real chips involved in the making of his music (he mainly works with analogue gear like an old Juno 60, and some MFB synths) the sound really reminds you of the gamesoundtracks of the past, so I guess it fits here anyway.
This one’s no free download, but if you’re into this kind of music, it’s really worth the expense!
buy the album on 7digital.com (but you can probably find it on other stores as well)
Multifaros – Dreams, Yozef’s Journey
Multifaros is the alias of Bård Ericson, a young man born in 1991 who creates electronical music of various styles and genres since 2006. His primary tools for making music are Reason 3, Little Sound DJ, guitars and other instruments, coupled with a MIDI-keyboard and his passion for music, sounds, life and the universe.
Here’s another great artist blending chiptunes with acoustic sounds with a lot of other stuff, creating an amazing sound, and really interesting music. I highly recomend both albums: Dreams and Yozef’s Journey. Thy are quite different, while the first one is brighter, happier and featuring vocals on most tracks, the second one is purely instrumental and sounds darker and more dramatic.
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download Yozef’s Journey from multifaros.info.se (Free)
download Dreams from calmdownkidder.com (Free)
Nario – the most of me
While this album has one of the worst covers ever, it contains some unique chipmusic gems! This guy has some lurking talent…
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Chiptunes for the people pt.2
April 6th, 2010
It’s been some time since the last instalment of Chiptunes for the People, in the meantime I’ve discovered lots of new and incredibly amazing chip musicians. Despite this, for this episode I’ll focus on those who I see as my own, personal, long term heroes in this genre. I would like to remind you here that I’m really no expert in this field and that these are not reviews of any kind.
Binärpilot
I’ll start with the one guy who first started to mix 8bit sounds with modern production techniques, creating a completely new and personal style. He refers to himself as Binärpilot and as so many great electronic musicians, he’s from scandinavia, from Norway to be precise.
From the Binärpilot website:
I am a sentient program. I became self-aware in 1997. Spent my first CPU cycles establishing purpose; To create. My origin is a mystery to me. I remember much confusion and a breakdown of sorts. However it’s apparent that my birth was merely coincidental. Searching for a place to develop I found µHz. After studying their principles and manifestations a clear sense of purpose was found. To better communicate my message to carbon-based lifeforms, I constructed a physical presence. His name is Alexander Støver and I have placed him in Norway because I like the trees there. Our symbiotic state has proven difficult but rewarding.
You can legally download his complete discography from his website (here) or from torrents.
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Little Scale
He’s one of those people who made something completely different out of the chipsound, taking into the territory of experimental music. Little Scale works with some NES and a Megadrive, devices he has modified himself. As far as I have understood he uses Max to control the chips of those devices (but correct me if I’m wrong) and also likes to add field recordings to the mix.
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You should really check out his blog, where he posts all of his creations as free downloads: little-scale.blogspot.com/
Also worth checking out is the project Lazerscale, where he and other musicians among them Lazerscale, produced a song a day: http://www.lazerscale2010.com/
Dubmood
I’m one of those people who absolutely hates recordings of live rock concerts. They always sound horrible. Be it because they try to apply the same production techniques they use on studio recordings, or because rock music tends to become a big mess live I don’t know. On the other hand chipmusic really improves when recorded live. Probably that’s because the ambience and the voices of people in the background, both take away some of the mechanical coldness the simple waves of chips have.
A perfect example is the live recording of Dubmood’s performance at the Blipfestival in 2008 (in New York), which is one of my absolute favourites when it comes to chipmusic.
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You can download this live track here: www.dataairlines.net
Check out Dubmood on myspace: www.myspace.com/dubmoods
And, why not, maybe you could be interested in buying one of his records on 7digital: www.7digital.com (or wherever you want as long as it ain’t itunes)
Rumpelfilter is back from the dead
March 2nd, 2010
2 brand new tracks out of Rumpelfilter’s sound cooking kitchen!
Smashed to Chips (Space Invaders pt2) by rumpelfilter
Killer Aloe intro music by rumpelfilter
If you’re on soundcloud, here’s my page: http://soundcloud.com/rumpelfilter