Part Five of Five
No. 5: My Little Ponies by Radix
Classic Radix, and a joy to listen to. "My Little Ponies" includes a flawless melody, excellent composition, and a transition to die for--and all this with a mere four channels and 27 kilobytes. One of my favorite tracker modules for sure.
No. 4: We Can See Our Breath by Brother Android
Brother Android's "October November December" is extremely heavy on the atmosphere, but thankfully, the songwriting doesn't suffer as a result. Described by the artist as "an album about the winter time," it's quite a thoughtful, coherent, and unique collection of tunes. The second track, "We Can See Our Breath," is a solid highlight, featuring lots of precise drum work, slow-burning sine waves, and interesting mixing. Nice outro too.
No. 3: When I'm Gone by Reborn.nsf
Noisy and urgent, "When I'm Gone" still has a nice charm to it after all these years. You probably won't hear another quirky, melodic burst quite like this one.
No. 2: Recovery by Fearofdark
Written for a Ubiktune compilation in 2011, and inspired by the tragic events in Japan that happened in the same year, "Recovery" might be the most effectively emotional chiptune I've ever heard. Masterfully written and incredibly sad, it more than lives up to what the title implies: a long, hard road to recovery from some tragedy, filled with both melancholy and hope. If you have friends who don't think chip music can be much more than catchy bleeps or nerdy nostalgia, show them this song.
No. 1: Rainy Summerdays by Radix
Despite the fact that, as a whole, this list isn't organized from least-to-most favorite, I've reserved the top spot for this one. "Rainy Summerdays" is my favorite chiptune of all time, and it pretty much sums up why I like chip music. When I interviewed him back in 2010, Radix explained, "[It] was composed on a rainy day in '95 on Amiga. Good times! '93-95 was the highlight of the demoscene for me." Good times, indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment