There was a post on Metafilter about the artist Cicada, whose two albums “Technology Crisis” and “Technology Crisis II” are both available online for free. He describes it as videogame soundtracks without the videogame. There’s some really nice stuff on there.
The highlight of the first album, in my opinion, is “Earth’s Assault on the Central AI,” [MP3 link], which is a bit more uptempo then most of the other stuff, which is a bit for atmospheric.
I really love this sort of stuff. (I’ve also been listening to some Saskrotch (http://myspace.com/saskrotch) and 8 Bit Peoples, although not so much lately. Part of what I like about Cicada is that it isn’t actually pure chiptunes – he does it in Reason – but chiptunesesque, bringing those square waves that sound so great into a slightly warmer context. (Especially in the second album.)
Fantastic stuff. Reminds me of insane amounts of time spent on ModArchive, which has a lot of very talented musicians of this ilk (and a lot of untalented one as well, but it’s not hard to whittle).
Nice. That ‘one life left’ gaming podcast that was linked plays a lot of chiptunes and it got me listening lately.
Does anyone know, do the kids nowadays like this stuff? I grew up with c64/NES/Atari sounds in my dreams, but more modern generations had CD audio. Are there people under 20 making this stuff, or is it all 25-35 year olds who are right in that bracket?
I’ve been listening to Chipbeats for a while in the form of DJ Sabrepulse, but haven’t had the gusto to seek out new artists. This guy seems just as good. Awesome link.
You should check out DJ Sabrepulse, as well. Lame name, but great music.
He’s got a bunch of links to his stuff on MySpace:
I really like “Chipbreak Wars” from him specifically. I recommend you download that and try out Phallanx, Famicom Selecta, and Tageri. He mixes some classical instruments (violins, piano, etc) in from time to time and its just the right mix of nostalgia + newness to tug at my heart strings.
