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Chip Music, Game Music, Indie Music

DJ Cutman launches 24/7, lo-fi Game Music Beats Stream

October 10, 2017 | Shawn Sackenheim | 1 Comment Share this

Over the last few months, GameChops founder DJ Cutman has been posting some of my favorite tracks to his personal YouTube channel. They all hail from his older albums and they simply feature game music, with a beat, slowed down to a jam-worthy tempo. It turns out this wasn’t a coincidence as he recently launched Radio Cutman on the channel offering a “24/7 live stream of instrumental & lo-fi hip hop, video game remixes, and chill-out beats”.

Cutman isn’t mixing the music live 24 hours a day but he has curated 231 beats from himself, DJ Grumble (Freestyle Tools), and Bknapp (SNES Beats) into a 9-hour playlist that unfolds differently each day. He’s also edited many of the beats to fit the non-stop stream format — cutting out intros and adjusting the audio to get things into a seamless flow of jams.

As advertised, it’s been a great accompaniment to my workweek. Retro tunes and samples (largely from Nintendo consoles) appear alongside modern indie favorites (like Undertale and Shovel Knight), all aligned with some fantastic beats. Give it a listen above or on YouTube to join the live chat where the GameChops crew seems to be pretty active. Rumor has it a similar live station is coming soon to highlight GameChops releases.
Game Music, Indie Music

Freshly Chopped: GameChop Remixes of Undertale, Overwatch & NiGHTS

September 19, 2016 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Freshly Chopped: GameChop Remixes of Undertale, Overwatch & NiGHTS Share this

We’re back with another roundup from independent game remix label GameChops. Over the past week they’ve released a slew of new remixes and mesmerizing music videos through their YouTube channel. From modern fan favorites Undertale and Overwatch to Sega’s niche nightopian, NiGHTS, there’s a bumpin’ remix for just about anyone inside.

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Events, Game Music

Miss MAGFest Labs? Catch the Concert Replays!

September 12, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | 1 Comment Share this

MAGFest Laboratories was this past weekend. (Full disclosure, I do know several of the bands that played and hosted the Opposing Bloodlines competition panel) Taking the place of MAGFest Classic from the two years prior, the event still retained the same amount of lower-key atmosphere and less of the grandiose of main MAGFest. The concerts, however, were still plentiful in both number and variety.

If you happened to be wary of the new branding of the mini-MAGFest event and missed out, you’re in luck! The crew running MAG Labs were zippy as ever in making sure all of the concert performances were up on their Youtube channel in HD quality within hours of recording, so you can already watch the entire musical entertainment from the event.

Kudos to the MAG Labs music and media departments for their timeliness, and for making sure that those who missed the event can still get in on the awesome. (And that those who did and have any of the dreaded post-MAG depression can receive a nice emotional boost.)

Did you attend MAGFest Laboratories? What did you think of the performances? Let us know what you thought in the comments!
Miscellaneous

Soundsgood.co pulls Playlists across the Web

July 26, 2015 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Soundsgood.co pulls Playlists across the Web Share this

Looks like it’s time to check out another new site that aims to collect and curate the world’s music. Soundsgood.co is a French site that’s been around since October of 2014 that emphasizes curated playlists and big, modern visual designs. It also hopes to minimize the work of those building playlists by matching up tracks across an array of services. Say you found a great track on Soundcloud but you’ve already built a playlist on Spotify. Or you’ve got a great collection on YouTube but some of your links mysteriously disappear. Soundsgood currently connects to YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify and Deezer with support in the works for Rhapsody/Napster, Rdio, Xbox Music and Beats Music.

While it sounds great for French hipsters looking for a playlist of dream-pop for their Summer music festival, how does it fare for those of the video game persuasion? Surprisingly, Ubisoft is already there as a music label with playlists from Far Cry 4 and Assassin’s Creed Unity. Beyond that, the pickings are slim but the playlists are pretty good.

Galway to the Galaxy highlights Martin Galway’s Commodore 64 work which is almost completely foreign to me. Bit-nique is an eclectic collection of SNES, PC and arcade favorites from the 90’s. Chiptune Porn is a huge playlist full of the usual suspects and BAGARRE features 90 tracks from one-on-one fighters and character action games. If I may be so bold, I’ll include my own playlist I made while checking out the site for this post. Lounge Land 1-1 is a collection of original pieces and remixes with a jazzy lounge vibe. It’s a playlist I’ve been meaning to make for a long time and Soundsgood gave me the motivation to finally do it.

Despite the slight language barrier of some pages, Soundsgood is really easy to use. Playlists and channels are featured with huge images and the persistent player offers all the controls you’d expect including a little view of the YouTube videos. Something about it inspires artistic creativity even if you’re just pasting in links to Twisted Metal music; it’s very French in that regard. Have any playlists of your own to share? Maybe dress them up on your own Soundsgood page or just link us in the comments.
Miscellaneous

Watch Cutman Interview Brentalfloss while playing Mario Kart

July 19, 2015 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Watch Cutman Interview Brentalfloss while playing Mario Kart Share this

When he’s not busy producing some of my favorite bangin’ video game remixes, DJ Cutman can be found playing through a ton of games on his YouTube channel. It’s here that he’s launched a new series called SmashTalk where he chats with other personalities from the gaming community while they play a competitive game.

The pilot episode features comedian/songwriter Brentalfloss and is as amusing as you’d expect for an interview conducted during a game of Mario Kart 8. Alongside complaints about red koopa shells there’s a good discussion about Brentalfloss’ academic education, his favorite childhood games and a message to others trying to break into the YouTube scene. He also lays out the history behind Wario while winning a race; the guy is talented. Check it out up above or over on YouTube.
Game Music, Music Production

Take a Look Behind Banjo-Kazooie’s Dynamic Soundtrack

July 16, 2015 | Shawn Sackenheim | 1 Comment Share this

The YouTube channel ClassicGameJunkie just recently started a new video series called How Did They Do That!? which aims to dissect a specific mechanic or effect from a game. Their latest episode focuses on the dynamic music of Rare’s Nintendo 64 classic, Banjo-Kazooie. It’s not a technical deep-dive but the video does a good job of explaining how Grant Kirkhope pulled it off in just under four minutes.

It’s totally worth watching just for the final few moments where they layer six of the game’s tracks over one another. It must be that trademarked Kirkhope genius because it sounds just as good as each track does on its own. Check it out up above.
Featured, Game Music, Music Production

Check Out This 17 Minute Tribute to the History of Videogame Music

June 2, 2014 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on Check Out This 17 Minute Tribute to the History of Videogame Music Share this

If you frequently explore YouTube for videogame music covers, chances are that you’ve encountered the videogame rock arrangements by Jules Conroy, aka FamilyJules7X. If you haven’t, then today you are in for a treat. For the past three years Jules has been arranging and performing music from videogames and uploading videos of these arrangements to his YouTube channel. He’s covered games including Donkey Kong, Pokemon, Binding of Isaac, Final Fantasy, and Elder Scrolls to name just a few.

This year, to celebrate the three year anniversary of his videogame cover projects, Jules put together a seventeen minute long medley of game music. As the title suggests, “Replay: A Metal Tribute to the History of Video Games” is a guitar cover tribute to videogame music and covers the medium’s more than thirty year history. The medley starts off at the year 1972 with the original Pong, works it’s way through classic Nintendo and Sega games, and proceeds to go through every year up to 2014.

As if the size and scope of this medley alone wasn’t impressive enough, Jules completed this project, start to finish, in just eight days and during the same week as his college finals. According to his video description, he only had four days to record the guitars, one day to do the arranging, one day for the drums, one day to mix and master the music, and only one day to edit all of the video footage. He set it up as a challenge for himself and the results are quite amazing. It’s an impressive feat to get all of that done in such a limited time frame. If you’ve never seen or heard his arrangements before, definitely give the FamilyJules7X channel a look. Metal fans and videogame enthusiasts will not be disappointed.