Chipzel

Game Music, Indie Music

Octahedron Original Soundtrack Available Now from Brave Wave!

March 26, 2018 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on Octahedron Original Soundtrack Available Now from Brave Wave! Share this

On March 22, 2018, Brave Wave Productions released the soundtrack to Octahedron. The game described by it’s creators is a challenging psychedelic action platformer that has you defying gravity to a pumping beat. The creators describe the game action as surfing through a pulsating, underground world on platforms pulled from thin air! You can watch the trailer for the game below.

The game’s soundtrack features music by Monomirror, Chipzel, Derek Howell, Andre Sobota, Solee & Alyne, and Reeder which you can sample below.

<a href="http://store.bravewave.net/album/octahedron-original-soundtrack">Octahedron (Original Soundtrack) by Demimonde</a>

You can purchase the soundtrack directly at Brave Wave’s store for $9. They are also offering a special launch discount on the soundtrack.

LAUNCH DISCOUNT: Use code OCTALAUNCH for 30% off!

via Brave Wave Productions on Twitter

The game, which is published by Square Enix Collective is also available right now on Steam, PS4 and Xbox One.

Have you played Octahedron yet?
Chip Music, Game Music, Indie Music

Watch Niamh Houston’s AKA Chipzel’s TEDtalk on Chiptunes!

January 30, 2017 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on Watch Niamh Houston’s AKA Chipzel’s TEDtalk on Chiptunes! Share this

Niamh Houston, also known as Chipzel gave an excellent TEDtalk on chip tunes this past November 5, 2016. If you’ve ever wanted an explanation on how she creates her music, she gives a full demonstration as part of the talk. She also talks about the overall idea that we are all hackers, and the importance of being authentic in any creative pursuit.

The ‘hacker ethic’ is central to Niamh’s musical creativity as she takes us on a journey into the Chiptune genre, a subculture creating music from augmented hardware and software, and why such expression resonates with Millennials and others who are seeking to create raw and unfiltered music for an online generation.

She is a BAFTA nominated and award winning independent composer from Northern Ireland. In 2015, Houston received the Best Music award in XBLA Fans’ Game of the Year awards, as well as being named VGMO’s best independent composer.

She has scored the original sound tracks for six video games, including the critically acclaimed Super Hexagon. Houston continues to compose music for forthcoming video game projects while working on her next studio album and touring the world. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

TEDx

The TEDtalk runs around 17 minutes, and it definitely worth your time. If you’ve had something on the creative back burner for a while, this might be the pep talk you need to hear. You can learn more about the TEDx event here, and check out chipzel’s music on her website.

What did you think of Chipzel’s TEDtalk?
Chip Music

Chiptunes = WIN: Volume 5 Compilation Album Now Released

July 21, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | 1 Comment Share this

Rejoice lovers of all things chiptune! The good people over at Chiptunes = WIN have released their 5th album in the main series of chiptune releases!

After what seems like an eternity of consideration, the roster for ‘Chiptunes = WIN: Volume 5‘ is complete. All judges have locked in their votes and comments and I’ve used the subsequent collective data to form the final roster. Per the usual, this was not an easy process. To be frank, it never is. And with the extraordinarily high quality of the top submissions this time, it was even tougher. Honestly, I’m just as excited for the inevitable expansion release as I am for Volume 5!

All the same, one thing at a time. ಠ‿↼ – Brandon “President Hoodie” Hood

The album features a slew of returning artists from former WIN albums such as Auxcide, Chipzel, Petriform and more, and also introduces a whole new roster of fresh artists including PROTOFLIGHT and chip-favorite artist Shirobon.

<a href="http://chiptuneswin.bandcamp.com/album/chiptunes-win-volume-5">Chiptunes = WIN: Volume 5 by Shirobon</a>

<a href="http://chiptuneswin.bandcamp.com/album/chiptunes-win-volume-5">Chiptunes = WIN: Volume 5 by Chipzel</a>

Volume 5 has an extensive 51-track list and the whole thing is available at the Name Your Price level on the community’s Bandcamp.
Events, Game Music

Know Your MAG 2016: Chipzel

February 4, 2016 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Know Your MAG 2016: Chipzel Share this Know Your MAG 2016: Chipzel

MAGFest has three days of chiptune performances lined up on the main stage this year. It all culminates with a CHIP RAVE that daringly, brazenly lasts “until we are done, baby!”. Amidst that chaos of square waves and laser lights will be Chipzel. So let’s get to Know Your MAG.

Born in Northern Ireland, Niamh Houston discovered the chiptune scene around 2006 and quickly set out to explore the space in her own way with Game Boys in hand. In the following years she released several original albums and performed at Blip Festival 2011 before being contacted by Terry Cavanagh about a game jam project called Hexagon.

<a href="http://chipzel.co.uk/album/interstellaria-ost">Interstellaria OST by chipzel</a>

Later in 2012 Cavanagh would set out to recreate his game jam entry in a super way and once again contacted Chipzel about her music. Creating an original track for Super Hexagon motivated her to get much more involved with game soundtracks. After nearly two years she released her first large scale project, the 55-track score to Interstellaria which you can read much more about in our review. It took so long that she released another soundtrack in between for the twitchy neon arcade racer, Spectra.

<a href="http://chipzel.co.uk/album/spectra">Spectra by chipzel</a>

And now she’s traveling far overseas from her home in London to perform amongst the chiptune artists on Saturday night at the MAGFest Chip Rave. Her portion of the show will be lit, animated and overscanned by the Visualist stylings of Pixelseed, aka Sean Smith from the local Baltimore area. Check her out!
Chip Music, Game Music, Indie Music

Interstellaria Original Soundtrack Available Now

July 27, 2015 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on Interstellaria Original Soundtrack Available Now Share this

Just released on Steam on July 17, 2015 Interstellaria is a real time space-exploration sim and crew management game where you can command a fleet of vessels wandering the galaxy for adventure and profit. “Every star and planet holds untold riches and dangers. Each encounter will require skills in trading, diplomacy, and combat. Allocate power to engines, charge all weapons, and take on the worst the galaxy has to handle.”

The music for the game was written by the very talented Niamh Houston, known as Chipzel and is available for purchase on bandcamp. Since its release many supporters have given it rave reviews:

This ost is a gem on its own. The varied musical themes take you on a roundtrip across the galaxy. Favorite track: Sakari. – Supporter, Niels Vermeulen

The soundtrack for Interstellaria is, well, STELLAR. Seriously. It’s like FTL and Super Hexagon had a baby, and it is awesome. Also, it was ridiculously hard to choose between Xiwang and Annihilation as a “favorite track”, seriously. Favorite track: Xiwang. – Supporter, Blazing Glaceon

My only experience with Chipzel’s music was the track “Menacing Wonders” she provided for Brave Wave’s hit album In Flux.

I’m still listening to the album but so far my favorite track is the final track on the album “Somnolence” which has a scratching vinyl lullaby sound.

The album is available now on bandcamp for 5 pounds, just under $8.00 US. The soundtrack can also be purchased as a DLC with the game on Steam. Have you played Intersellaria and experienced Chipzel’s music in the game? Let us know what you think!
Featured

Chime Sharp Kickstarter Launches

July 9, 2015 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Chime Sharp Kickstarter Launches Share this Chime Sharp Kickstarter Launches

Remember Chime? It was a nice music puzzle game originally released on Xbox Live Arcade in 2010. It featured the same sweeping time bar and glowing visuals as Lumines but focused more on Tetris-style pieces rather than colored squares. It was neat but I always felt at odds with the game. While I wanted to chill with the music and add layers to it as I played, that relentless bar and the unavoidable junk pieces made me rush, stress and frequently fail.

I’m happy to say that’s one of the first concerns addressed in the Kickstarter video for Chime Sharp. Headed up by Ste Curran, one of the creators of Chime, the goals for the sequel are simple; “a prettier version of the game that everyone loves, distilled, with extra game modes and all new music.” The pretty graphics are already largely in place but adding new modes and music is why they’ve turned to Kickstarter.

Music licensing is hard, especially when your game needs to rip up the songs and let the player piece them together. There’s already new music in place but with backer support the team hopes to add the likes of Daft Punk, Magic Sword, George & Jonathan, and Chipzel to build their “dream soundtrack”. Backers also give them time (and a test market) to experiment with new ways to play and, most important of all, prove to their publisher that there’s an audience ready for more Chime.

With 32 days to go they’re already nearly at their goal so Chime Sharp looks all but certain. The target launch is planned for August 2015 on PC, Mac and Linux but there’s plenty of time for stretch goals that could result in console ports and more features. You can see and hear more about the game and even play a browser based demo at the official Chime Sharp site.
Chip Music, Game Music, Indie Music

AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER: Brave Wave’s Retro-Active Pt.1 Remixed

June 5, 2015 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER: Brave Wave’s Retro-Active Pt.1 Remixed Share this

Retro-Active Pt. 1 Remixed contains remixes of Ninja Gaiden composer Keiji Yamagishi’s acclaimed debut “Retro-Active Pt. 1”. Artists such as Chipzel (of Super Hexagon), Kozilek (Nuclear Throne), ABSRDST, and others lend their unique touch to Yamagishi’s high-energy tracks. The opening remix of “Kaleidoscope” by Daliesk was the Grand Prize Winner of Brave Wave’s March 2015 remix contest.

If you pre-order now you will get a copy of the winning track, and the remainder of the album delivered to you on release day which is June 10, 2015. As you can see from the tweet below it has Mr. Yamagishi’s full approval. I have also given it a few listens today and highly recommend it!

Retro-Active Pt. 1 Remixed by Keiji Yamagishi

To pre-order head over to Brave Wave’s website, the album will set you back $7.00 and from my experience (as a huge fan of their In Flux album), it’s a solid investment as Brave Wave continues to produce fantastic releases.