Discovering the Mana Bar

Posted by Matt Purslow at 4:47pm on July 29th, 2010

We’ve all done it at some point. Crowded around a TV, Xbox and Guitar Hero; half a bottle of whiskey flowing through the blood stream and some bizarre cocktail of God-knows-what in our hands, attempting to beat Hysteria’s complicated bass line on expert.

Not all of us try and do this for a living, however. But, for a few guys in Brisbane, Australia; the dream of playing Guitar Hero whilst drunk every night is now a massively successful profession. (Well, perhaps not being drunk, but certainly watching others do it from the other side of the bar.)

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Revenge of the antique sound chips

Posted by Chris Holmes at 11:45pm on May 4th, 2010

The often-overlooked chiptune genre has seen a recent resurgence as of late, with the tenaciously vicious yet symphonic beats from yesteryear becoming one of the music industry’s less publicised secrets. In this genre, old, vintage sound chips and synthesisers replace the current high-tech, highly-computerised technology, and this creates a much sharper yet hypnotic sound.

Classical choices for sound chips normally come from older computers and video game consoles such as the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Commodore 64, and the grossly underestimated Sega Mega Drive. This ability to reuse older equipment and bring it into a newer setting is obviously not a new one, but the way in which chiptune artists view their work and their equipment is different to most genres, they seem to have a much deeper connection to the sonics and capabilities of their devices and honour them before honouring themselves, a trend forgotten about in this increasingly image-dominated music industry.
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The top 10 chiptune artists

Posted by Chris Holmes at 6:37pm on April 9th, 2010

Chiptunes have been about for a while now, so it’s only fitting that we should carry on with the internet tradition of putting things in order of “the top 10 of x” format by counting down the top 10 artists of this form of musical expression.

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