Releases

Indie Music

Maserati’s Next Album titled Rehumanizer is coming October 30

August 24, 2015 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on Maserati’s Next Album titled Rehumanizer is coming October 30 Share this

If you’re not familiar with Maserati, they’re a band out of Athens, Georgia that has been producing albums for sometime and describe their music making as a process of marrying the past to the future. They’re retro futurists hellbent on forging Krautrock and classic rock into one motorik, monolithic vehicle, releasing their newest album; Rehumanizer this October.

Rehumanizer is the most accomplished product of that process to date, a marriage of man and machine that plays like a supergroup comprised of Gary Numan, Cluster, and Pink Floyd. Building songs up bit by bit — and breaking them back down to their barest elements — Maserati fully embraced technology as a songwriting tool. The band takes greater risks than ever, sonically experimenting on the fly and incorporating unprocessed vocals for the first time ever. For the past decade Maserati has built a career out of relentless forward momentum – a tight, sleek, chugging beast that drove towards the sun and rarely veered off course. Rehumanizer maintains that same ambition and sense of abandon, but is distinctly as much man as it is machine – a true alliance of the past and the future.

Maserati

The new album will contain a total of six tracks, and you can sample the track titled “Rehumanizer II” below.

Rehumanizer can be pre-ordered for $9.00 on Maserati’s Bandcamp, and will be released on October 30th.
Game Music

Volume Original Soundtrack Available Now

August 19, 2015 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Volume Original Soundtrack Available Now Share this

Volume, the new game from Thomas Was Alone creator, Mike Bithell, is out now and it’s accompanied by an elaborate and eclectic soundtrack from David Housden. The game is a near-future, sci-fi retelling of Robin Hood with a stark visual style and stealth-based gameplay but the music harkens back to something a little more medieval.

“By juxtaposing period instrumentation with more contemporary cinematic elements and ambiences, I created something which hopefully compliments the visuals of the game at face value, as well as alluding to its roots in the past,” says David Housden.

“Recordings taken from banging swords and suits of armor [at Sherwood Forest] make up a lot of the percussion, and we even went as far as to go to an archery range and record a variety of sounds from the flight of an arrow, to the impacts on targets, in order to create some unique cinematic sound design potential.”

The press release elaborately calls it a fusion of “medieval instrumentation, with contemporary percussive beds and synths, post-rock type ambiances and cinematic grandeur.” I haven’t played the game yet but that’s a fitting description of the samples and clips I’ve heard so far.

You can check out the full title track above or pick up the album now on Steam (along with the game), Bandcamp, Amazon, iTunes or stream it on Spotify and Apple Music.
Chip Music

Clay Memory by Fluidvolt Now Available on Ubiktune

July 31, 2015 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Clay Memory by Fluidvolt Now Available on Ubiktune Share this

The music label Ubiktune has recently released a new chip album by artist Fluidvolt called Clay Memory. The album features a compilation of over 300 instruments organized into soundfonts, and based around the style of the GBA game, Mother 3.

After Bregalad created his fantastic program GBA Mus Riper, it’s been possible to dump Mother 3‘s sounds into a massive soundfont of 1668(!) instruments. – Fluidvolt

Condensing the soundfont by weeding out unneeded instruments and splitting others, Fluidvolt managed to create soundfonts with which he used to create his album, and will be featuring them bundled in with purchase.

You can find more information on the album on Ubiktune’s release announcement. The album is currently available on Fluidvolt’s Bandcamp for whatever price you deem fit. If you’re a fan of the music of Mother 3, or of Fluidvolt’s previous album, Reflections of a Dancing Leaf, then Clay Memory is worth checking out.

Clay Memory by Fluidvolt – Bandcamp | Soundcloud
Game Music

Music for Battle Soccer: Rocket League Soundtrack Released

July 25, 2015 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Music for Battle Soccer: Rocket League Soundtrack Released Share this

The zeitgeist game of the moment, Psyonix’s Rocket League, is one of the first PlayStation 4 games I’ve seen to use its space on the home screen to advertise a soundtrack. Clicking on the icon loads up this page in the browser with links to get the music from CD Baby and Google Play or to stream it through Rhapsody and Spotify. It looks like they’re planning on bringing it to every streaming service and digital marketplace under the sun which is good because this soundtrack is bangin’!

A little softer than you might expect from a game where rocket-cars wage Battle Soccer in domed arenas, it’s full of thumping bass, chirping synths and smooth vocals. A different singer accompanies almost every track with lyrics about angel’s wings and “flying forever”. It’s very reminiscent of Genki Rockets or maybe the mellow cousin to the old Sega Touring Car soundtrack.

What’s odd is that the music only fades up in the game on the menu screens so you barely get to hear it while playing. What I wound up doing was turning down the in-game music and streaming from the PS4’s Spotify app to listen uninterrupted. It’s a little ironic if you think about that but it keeps the music playing! Check it out on your music service of choice and let us know what you think.
Chip Music

Get The Scent: Tracer Releases On May 3

May 1, 2012 | Audun Sorlie | Comments Off on Get The Scent: Tracer Releases On May 3 Share this Get The Scent: Tracer Releases On May 3

coda, one half of the retro-glorious unit yogurtbox, is ready to take on the world by himself with his new album, Tracer. The album promises over half an hour’s worth of chiptune prog-rock fusion, a familiar sound to those who follow the Ubiktune universe of releases. The artist has had previous success along with surasshu with their yogurtbox label, releasing the highly acclaimed Tree of Knowledge, an imaginary soundtrack based on the PC-98 era of erotic visual novel games. Tracer will however, be coda’s debut album, making it very interesting indeed to hear the results.

The release will be broadcasted on a live listening party over at Noise Channel Radio at 10PM Eastern, May 3rd. Be sure to sign up to their Facebook event and join in on the festivities as coda unveils his debut effort to the world.
Chip Music, Reviews

Danimal Cannon’s Chip Music Debut Begins at the ‘Roots,’ Ascends To The Stratosphere (Review)

December 1, 2011 | Joshua Kopstein | Comments Off on Danimal Cannon’s Chip Music Debut Begins at the ‘Roots,’ Ascends To The Stratosphere (Review) Share this

Around this time last year, I was sitting at my desk, jaw agape, listening to an early recording sent by the inimitable Dan Behrens, lead guitarist of VG cover bands Armcannon and Metroid Metal. It was maybe the 2nd song I’d seen him write under his Danimal Cannon moniker with LSDJ, the popular homebrew tracker for Game Boy that he had begun using in earnest just 2 months prior.

What I was hearing, however, sounded like the work of a hardened veteran, chock full of masterfully measured dynamics, thoughtfully programmed software instruments and complex, melodic arrangements that could have been played by a 4-piece prog metal band if they didn’t sound so damn good on a Game Boy.

Now, a year later, I’m similarly stunned by a full-length release that’s staggering in both length and variety, where guitar solos (born of both plucked strings and pulsewaves) soar over a bassline bedrock and into picturesque landscapes of micro-processed progressive, math rock and heavy metal anthem. Combine that with a smattering of live instrumentals and guest appearances from the likes of keyboard virtuoso Shnabubula and you’ve got one hell of a debut chip music album.

<a href="http://danimalcannon.bandcamp.com/album/roots">Roots by Danimal Cannon</a>

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Chip Music

Cheap Dinosaurs Have A New Album, And You Can Plant It

October 17, 2011 | Joshua Kopstein | Comments Off on Cheap Dinosaurs Have A New Album, And You Can Plant It Share this

Photo: Emi Spicer

Fans of chiptune prog rock outfit Cheap Dinosaurs have no doubt been gritting their teeth in anticipation of an official release from the esteemed super-group, which contains members of Chromelodeon, Animal Style and Brown Recluse. Now, after an extremely limited physical release back in 2009, it’s finally here: From singalong favorites (familiar to those who have seen the group play at MAGFest) like “Tagalog” and “Stroll” to the surprising polyrhythms and crooning ambience of lesser-known tracks like “Cup” and “Beech,” Cheap Dinosaur’s debut sports 9 synth-heavy progressive jams that twist like the limbs of a tree branch and itch like poison oak.

Which is just as well, because the album’s packaging is full of seeds, letting you grow some plants of your own. In collaboration Philadelphia-based “trans-digital” record label Data Garden, Cheap Dinosaurs’ debut release can be planted into the ground to sprout actual flowers. Just copy down the download code from the back and plant the screen-printed package into a thin layer of soil. With just a few weeks and some TLC, you’ll have blue lobelias blooming from your biodegradable music purchase. Listen below, and check out Data Garden for more eco-friendly releases.

Buy/Download: Cheap Dinosaurs – Cheap Dinosaurs (MP3/FLAC, Seed Paper)

<a href="http://store.datagarden.org/album/cheap-dinosaurs">Cheap Dinosaurs by Cheap Dinosaurs</a>