Eat Your Space Calories: Experimental Bit Pop Reminiscent of Earthbound and Sonic

Well, here’s another shameless plug for Mephtik Netlabel. I hope you don’t mind, as we just released an awesome bit pop disc called Space Calories. Ariel Gross (Sleem, Funkymuskrat, sp00) serves up seven amazingly bizarre creations with funky basslines, groovy synths, computerized vocals, and what sounds to be some Earthbound and Sonic the Hedgehog influences.

Does the handle “Funkymuskrat” look familiar? It might. Ariel posted some masterful remixes of Sonic the Hedgehog’s “Green Hill Zone,” Chrono Trigger’s “Memories of Green,” and F-Zero’s “Mute City,” all of which are some of my favorite remixes of all time, and in constant rotation on my iPod. I highly recommend seeking them out!

Join us on this epic gastrointestinal journey in space after the jump.

It all starts with a little “Extra Droid Sauce,” complete with a groovy bassline and lots of flange effects. Synthesizers blast forth like lasers, creating a fun and spacey atmosphere that prevails through the rest of the disc. “Seaphoam” comes next with a bit of a dancey feel with fat bass and synths. There’s a jazzy excursion near the beginning with synth stabs and a smooth melody with lots of reverb that reminds me of the hotels in Earthbound every time. Ariel’s eclectic style is definitely fitting of an Earthbound comparison.

“Sweetest1” is an adorable piece with the most precious vocals, processed through a vocoder to make it sound computerized. The melody is so sweet it’s almost sickening. “One Two What Shoe” and “Glug Glug Glug” follow with some highly experimental sounds, tackling pop progressions with bended and tweaked synthetic sounds.

Taking a somewhat more serious approach, “After We Are Gone” features many intracate layers of sound, plodding along at a much slower pace than the rest of the tracks on Space Calories. It provides a contemplative listening experience. Finally, my favorite track, “Blastocity,” springs forward with explosive bass, computerized scat singing, and an absolutely amazing octave-jumping disco bassline. Fantastic stuff.

This is the largest release on Mephtik Netlabel since the debut release, Ignition, so it was quite a treat to listen to and post his Space Calories disc. It’s especially cool of him considering he operates his own netlabel called Spoomusic that hosts music of a similar experimental style. It’s all free, so check it out!

Anyone out there remember Funkymuskrat’s remixes? Are you digging his Space Calories release?