Razor 1911 was recently the first to do a real crack and not just a workaround for Ubisofts new DRM copyprotection and celebrated it with a crackintro that even auto started each time the game loaded, just like in the old days. The cracktro was designed and coded by a new Razor member that people thats been around the chipcomunity since the 90s probably know: Rez (ex eclipse, bomb & tpolm). Rez also runs chiptune.com and was one of few who did a enormous job to archive and keep chiptunes and related software alive during the chipmusic darkages aka the 90s. Thanks to his and a few other dedicated peoples work(HVSC, ST Pleasuredome, Amiga music preservation, modarchive etc), a lot of knowledge stuck around to help the new kids compose their tewns when the 00s 8bit hype struck.

And now he joined Razor 1911. His first intro feature a new chiptune by Dubmood. Made in FT2 and will suerly make everyone who likes dubmoods other crackintro musics very happy!

Download the intro here.
Check it out on pouet
Check it out on youtube
Download the music.
Check out chiptune.com here

Finally its out. Data Airlines 009. Transregional des pyrenees. Gameboy electro house composed with LSDj by Dubmood in 2007 re-edited and re-released in 2009 and just like the case with British Rail, Sveriges Järnvägar or the Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français, heavily delayed until 2010 by reasons force majeur. We are sorry for that but at least its out. Including remixes by Facteur, Fred Berthet and Goto80!  At the moment you can get it at Amazon, Itunes and Last.fm but it will soon be online at spotify, deezer and beatport (just follow the links). Again, we are very sorry for the long delay and stayed tune for the upcoming misfitchris release!

Buy the album at:

Or Stream it from:

You remember the amigacrew Uprough!  which I’ve mentioned on this blog?  Said group organised a demoparty in Göteborg last week called DataStorm2010. A few weeks earlier I got an email from Louie / TBL asking if I could supply him with music for a C64 demo due to datastorm that he was working on together with Pantaloon / Fairlight.  I know I’m Razor 1911 but old rivalry gets boring (and I already broke that rule by making a chip-coop with Bliss / Fairlight on Hype2003). So that was never a problem.

The problem was rather that I never made a SID in my life since  i’m all about Atari. So I gave Zabutom a call and due to lack of time we decided to do a remake of my old gameboy electro house tune from 2007 called C’etait mieux en RDA (wich is a mix of Sector 1A to 1D on album with said name).  I re-tracked the song with FTII using c64 limitations, or well more or less, and gave it to zabutom who got killer sid skills. He then recomposed the whole thing on commodore and gave it some zabutom touch in the process and the result got lovely. Honestly Zabutom I never heard such a nice SID basedrum in my life of work (and if I have I don’t know where I heard it!)

And the demo? Kickass as expected with such a great lineup as louie and pantaloon.

all Datastorm 2010 released are available for free download here

As with my live from Stockholm in 2008, I decided to share a series of extracts of live-sets recorded over the years, starting with my blipfestival concert in Brooklyn 2008 recorded by the friendly guys over at 2 player productions.

Ain’t that easy to make a setlist for this one though. It start of with a remix of Ym2149 sexy thing from 2002, then a dubmood vs facteur remix on Kraftwerks Heimcomputer. Third song is an extended version of Oai Star – Sature Part 1. Then it gets into some random mishmash of chipcovers of soulwax, several parts of the Sektor songs on C’etait mieux en RDA, Gem Tos – Sunnyvale, Voices from Samel L Session, a remix of my gameboyremix of The Knifes Silent shout, a mashup of a mr oizo track, back to The Knife and off with a very edited and remixed Toffelskater, its actually a mashup of 3 different remixes.  Confused? Me too and then I havnt even mentioned the bugs and lags during the set since I had computerproblems. =) But I hope someone will like this anyway!

Download here click click click

Signal FAIL, If I remember someone poured a beer on the VJ-computer and TheCmen had to hop in and save the ship.

The J. Arthur Keenes Band - Pamplemousse II 34

As the name suggests, The J. Arthur Keenes Band isn’t really a band. At least not by traditional definition, since it consists of one man only: 17 year old Dan McLay from Toronto, Canada. The music itself does however sound more “band like” (if that’s even a meaningful categorisation) than most other chipmusic. With guitars, vocals, and occasional melodies played by a melodica, glockenspiel or a Roland SH-09, along with the Game Boy providing drums, baselines, more melodies and beautifully programmed arpeggios, I would not criticise anyone for believing this was music performed by a full band, unless they had not been told otherwise. The traditional instruments are very well mixed together with the chip sounds, creating a lush, seductive texture. Perhaps it is sometimes a bit flat or cold sounding, though nothing your personal hi-fi can’t fix with some tiny EQ adjustments.

But what makes this release really stand out is not simply the well executed blend of chip- and non-chip instruments, because that has been done many times before by artists such as Tree Wave, David Sugar and The Depreciation Guild, but Dan McLay’s brilliance in composition and lyrics writing. It’s full of finesse, innovation and playfulness, but always with a certain sophistication and naturalness.

My favourite track on this four track EP, “Dispatch”, is so full of surprises, you can never guess what is waiting behind the next corner – only that it’ll be something good. It starts out with a distorted guitar arpeggio, and then kicks in with the Game Boy to a rocky part, which made me say “Wow!” out a loud the first time I heard it. A breakdown with a lone, slow arpeggio builds up to a heavier part with metal like guitar chords. It is followed by a guitar solo, and then the song makes a U-turn to a Caribbean like rhythm, only to be followed by a more straight up reggae beat with back beat chords and vocals. And the story doesn’t end there…

You may think it sounds like McLay lacks focus or a “red line” so to speak in his music writing. But the fact is – and this is perhaps what impresses me the most – that it all makes perfect sense when you’re listening to it. It couldn’t be any other way, I wouldn’t want it any other way. It grips you from the very first moment, and keeps you equally emotionally and intellectually stimulated all the way through.

During the Blip Festival weekend last December, I remember noticing myself quietly singing the opening lines of “Catfish Lagoon” many times: “This ain’t your home, your home”. Often someone nearby would start singing along. Or perhaps it was me singing along to someone else? I can’t really remember. The point is that The J. Arthur Keens Band had infected us with his catchy melodies and witty lyrics. And he will continue to do so, because after seeing him perform live and listening to this release over and over again, I do not think it is neither imprecise nor exaggerating to call him one of brightest rising stars in the contemporary chipmusic scene – and beyond.

Download “Pamplemousse” for free on Pause.

Glomag - Roland + The Lamprey 8bitpeoples 103

Glomag aka Chris Burke has been active on the chip music scene since 2001, very active that is because we have been seeing him a lot. Quality wise, he has always been above the majority of the US Chip scene, even though that ain’t too hard there are a lot of Glomag songs on my chip music play lists. All of his music that I have heard has been made with Nanoloop or LSDj, but what makes Glomag stand out among the his fellow oldies in the US scene is that working on Gameboy hasn’t limited his style of music as most other Gameboy users. Its lacks the monotony and repetivity that I’m so bored of and! it has often got vocals, and even though they are not always good, they are still very welcome since that’s what most chip music lacks. Despite all these good points, Glomag has been keeping a very even quality, and the negative side of this is that I have never heard any Glomag song that really stands out and stays in my head. At Least none of his own compositions since his Kraftwerk cover, Pocket Calculator, was a real masterpiece. But that doesn’t stop me from enjoying Furious Clubfoot or Oye Como Va whenever I hear it.

So for his latest release, I was excited. The album cover art is the best I have seen on 8bp for a long long while, kudos to minusbaby for some great work done. The EP starts of, just like his last 8bp release,  with a cover of Ennio Morricone (Ecstacy of Gold). Might be a cliché choice you think? But hells no! This one is very well performed and has a guitar! Ever since Machinae Supremacy I have been convinced that the best two elements to go with chip music is vocals and electric guitars and this simply another proof of that. The next song is another one of those well composed glomag songs but not much more than that… Glomag has a thing for making his Gameboy sound better than others though, sound wise. I dont know if that’s a result of post production or if his Gameboy is simply better than average, but I wish more Gameboy tracks would have this sound. Even those horrible LSDj sample kits sounds good in track 3, which is a pretty Depeche Mode-esque song with not-that-superb lyrics that might’ve benefited from a little more volume. Track 4 is an average to good breakbeat track, but if I was glomag I would’ve let bitshifter handle this style. Thats not to be harsh on the song but Bitshifter has already monopolised this style, especially on the gameboy, till the point where after 5 seconds I thought my playlist had shuffled.
The best song by far on the release is track number 5, and I think I can go so so far as to say that this is the best Glomag song I’ve ever heard. Superb dark dance friendly chip music at its best and with great vocals. This track is definitely something for my DJ-sets and I hope to see some remixes of this in the future!

Conclusion, a very good Glomag release, I cant really decide if it’s my favourite one but will always be the one I remember the most thanks to Disco Nostromo. I hope to see a lot more from Glomag very soon. And more guitars please!

M.Echant for dataairlines.net

01 The Ecstasy of Gold
02 Roland & The Lamprey
03 Bad Therapy
04 Ice Me Nine
05 Disco Nostromo
06 Fan Service

And for all of you who didnt do some simple url-checking and found out that the files were online already, here you are, the last episodes. Hope you enjoyed this!

Marshacks #13 (17-12-2007)
Marshacks #14 (21-01-2008)
Marshacks #15 (18-02-2008)
Marshacks #16 (17-03-2008)
Marshacks #17 (21-04-2008)

Get it now!

Receptors - User Deluxe. 8bitpeoples 104

This week, 8bitpeoples brought us some new releases, the first one is a 6track EP by Receptors, which is a name I’ve seen before but I cant really put my finger on where so here is a little background check. He is from England, he makes music with gameboys and is behind the project 8bit-operators, -yep, that’s not in your head, the cliche warning bells are definitely ringing! Also, 8bit operators is something he refers to as the chipmusic vanguards (ouch) in their bio. Well they were the ones releasing the chipremix compilation of kraftwerk tunes on astralwerk. Say what you want about that compil, I thought it had a few very nice tracks and a lot of  junk. Something that is pretty amazing since kraftwerk music is so good that it should be more of a challenge to make a bad kraftwerk cover than a good one, so kudos to those who managed to do that! I don’t have the compil lying around anymore so I cant see if his track could be included in this rant. Anyway lets get on with the review of his new release!

This time, he has decided to replace an old toy with a new one, – I really hate musicians who refer to their instruments as toys but for the hell of it, ok!, apparently he only used Nintendo DS with a Korg MS-10 emulator this time. Well this sounds promising, Korg-10 is a great synth, but why use a Nintendo DS to emulate it instead of using the real deal beats me. So lets start of with the artwork. It is horrible. Ugly, ugly colors, and it has gameboys on it. My condolences to who ever thought this fake retro style was a good idea. And now, the music.

How does this emulated MS10 sound like? Well, have you ever tried out one of those guitar amps who claim to emulate old vintage amp sounds? Same thing. Add the cheap Nintendo DS sound and too much reverb to that and you will get the picture. But spite the bad sound, the first track, speed dialer, is really good. It has a nice theme and a fairly well arranged buildup. Too bad its not on a real MS10! Spite the good start, the second and third tracks are really bad. The purpose might have been good but the lack of proper sound just makes it annoying to listen to, especially with alot of stereo panning and re verbs all over the place. The compositions seems to have been made without a real idea behind them, like in random. But what do I know, I wasn’t there. I had to skip the fourth track to escape instant headache. But then came the big surprise in the fifth track called re_user revisited, it sounds like a remix of the first track with some really nice bas sound programing. If I would set scores on each track, this would be a 5! It is really smooth together with the first track. Nice work. Then follows the last track, which is called a remix of the first one, even though I would have called it a re-edit since its not that different so cant really do any comment on it.

So to the conclusion. Overall, this EP would have been very interesting if it was made on real hardware or at least with a good emulator instead of the NintendoDS MS10 program. I wouldn’t call it chipmusic since there is nothing from the definition chip in this, so the talk about being 8bit vanguard goes down the drain. Still, the first and fifth track really saves the release from going down the same drain to get the grade OK. And since its a webEP I can take out the tracks I like and flushing the rest. I will check out upcoming Receptors releases with some interest. And till the next time, try to have some cover art that actually have something in common with the music.

For dataairlines.net
M. Echant

Here you are, the second part of the Marshacks episodes, 7 to 12.

Marshacks #7 (16-06-2007)
Marshacks #8 (16-07-2007)
Marshacks #9 (20-08-2007)
Marshacks #10 (17-09-2007)
Marshacks #11 (15-10-2007)
Marshacks #12 (19-11-2007)