posted 11/18/2008 (Tue) @ 03:32 pm
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she - Chiptek (2008) [EP] [FREE MUSIC]
Bitpop / Electronica / Retro
NOStalgia (emphasis on the NOS)
- Intro
- Music
- Supersonic
- Memories
- Chiptek
- Intermission
- Kicks
- 1997
There’s a special place in every geek’s heart where he keeps all his (or her) memories of video gaming as a kid. When you’re six, nothing matters except getting to that next level in Sonic when you get home from school.
For musically-inclined geeks, the sounds coming from the nearest console are indelibly etched into our memories. Everyone can hum the Super Mario theme from memory. Or the “Boss” themes from any number of platformers starring a certain blue hedgehog. These are memories with connotations of childhood innocence attached, and their soundtracks were composed on and performed by 8- and 16-bit consoles.
Chiptek emits nostalgia like a radiation. Not entirely unexpected, since it’s a sonic mind meld of old school Sega, Nintendo and MSX with the capabilities of a modern computer. Even if you were deprived as a child and never had the chance to play video games, nothing sounds like 8-bit.
Composition-wise, Chiptek falls somewhere between Pioneer and Coloris. The former’s retro soundscapes are, of course, front and center, but mixed with some of the dance/funk tone of Coloris, making for some head-turning, “gotcha” moments, indeed. Like Coloris, Chiptek features sprays of mangled vocal sampling. The pointedly-titled “Memories” uses a distinctive sample for the bass line which will instantly put Sega fanatics in the Marble Hill Zone… but with realer-sounding percussion and pop song format.
The title track? Possible soundtrack to a hacker’s wet dream. Laser-lit bullets of synthesizer; vocoder-in-the-woodchipper madness; raved-up, seesaw channel panning; 8 bits of massive pad swell goodness. “Intermission” is perhaps the signature she track of the album, though: self-referential melody ties together this brief (1:02) square-wave distortion cocktail. It packs a punch.
The effortless, childlike nostalgia of Pioneer, combined with its obvious flair for sound manipulation and composition, made it one of the greatest chiptune/bitpop concoctions of recent memory. Chiptek is like that. Eighteen months or so on, she has been updated for Moore’s Law. Pjat Lain’s music has evolved in that timeframe, and thus, this mini-album is like the alpha mixed with the latest omega: more of a dance feel in spots, more vocals, all the same skill.
Don’t let the atrocious album art scare you. Dive in. Geronimo!
Links
Official site / Download [FREE] (along with 7 other she releases)
Myspace
Tags: best of 2008 candidates, bitpop, chiptek, chiptune, electro, electronica, she
2 comments on this article
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she - Chiptek (2008) [EP] [FREE MUSIC] | Console Gaming Says:
November 18th, 2008 at 6:31 pm[...] post by Three Star Smash [...]
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super mario computer games | Digg hot tags Says:
November 19th, 2008 at 1:27 pm[...] Vote she - Chiptek (2008) [EP] [FREE MUSIC] [...]
