Tuesday, March 22, 2005

THE RETRO-TECHNO SOUNDS OF CHIP MUSIC

There's a whole school of music that shuns cutting-edge electronic instruments or computer programs in favor of the kind of primitive 8-bit technology found in video games or '80s computers like the Commodore 64. The C64 was sold between 1982 and 1993 and was one of the biggest movers in home-computer business history - more were sold then all the Macs put together - so nostalgia is certainly a factor, but "chip" composers are also drawn to the challenges and inherent fascination of trying to make music with such rinky-dink sounds. The Micro-Music website has lots of tunes you can download, and they don't all sound like Pac-Man soundtracks. Some are hip-hoppy, some suggest reggae dub, some rock'n'roll, but I doubt you'll hear anything better than Duff Fader's

"Chuck-da-8bix" 

Glitchy Rich took a rap acapella from the same time period (a 1987 Public Enemy classic), electronically processed it and wrote some new 8-bit tunage as backing. If we must have an '80s revival, may it sound like this.

3 comments:

James Carroll said...

Sir. First off, really enjoy your blog. Anyway, you could repost this? can't find it anywhere.

Mr Fab said...

thanks James- I found the Duff Fader track and put it up on divshare (the Micro-Music site appears to still be going) but alas, I don't have the Glitchy Rich track anymore.

James Carroll said...

Ok. THank you for trying.