Bank Robbery

Bank Robbery Cover Art

Well it seems like it takes longer and longer to push out new songs but we finally finished it! This one took longer more so due to external forces (namely Tim falling victim to an ugly stomach bug) than mastering, although that did take a good chunk of time as well. This song is pretty fun because it uses real tube distortion using Tim’s tube mic pre-amp. It’s only in a few tasteful locations (it can easily be overused) but it does add some nice depth here and there.

We are also particularly happy with the intro since it really sets things up for the overall tone of the song. Though this one does not use the GameBoy, it does use the extra channels and saw found on the VRC6 sound-chip as emulated on the PowerPak. For our newer songs we have opted to use the GameBoy to do what would have previously required emulating the VRC6 chip. This song is actually one of our first songs we started working on and predated the GameBoy. We didn’t want to change the sound too much so opted to keep things the way they are.

In any case, we hope you like it! You can find the song for listening at the usual suspects. You can download it off SoundCloud (linked below) and off the Chipsurf Pipeline album page. If you want to help support the band, you can buy this song as a single or pre-order the whole digital album off Bandcamp. And for the curious, yes, we are still trying to figure out how to put the album on vinyl!

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/22851261″ params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=340080″ width=”100%” height=”81″]

Mr. Transistor

Mr. Transistor Cover Art

Well this one took some time to master for sure but it was all worth it! Mr. Transistor is the 7th finished song off our forthcoming album, Chipsurf Pipeline. Though the chippy sounds are dominated by the 2A03, this song features a bit more influence from the GameBoy than previous songs. The voice in the beginning and the chip-leads at Tim’s favorite break are from our modded DMG-001 GameBoy running LSDJ. The same GameBoy that was recently modded for us by Thursday Customs, who did a fantastic job!

It is also our first foray into 8-bit glitch type sounds. As a result, the sound is a bit more mechanized. In fact, originally it reminded us of The Factory in Final Fantasy VI a bit with a very surfy twist of course. It perhaps tells less of a story than our other songs. It is more of an anthem. Mr. Transistor’s anthem, in fact. A robot focused on taking over the world one switch at a time…

Mr. Transistor is available to listen to on Soundcloud, to download on the Chipsurf Pipeline Download page, and for purchase at Bandcamp.

Not to go all emo, but we are a small two man band starting from zero so we appreciate your support! If you cannot help us monetarily by buying our work, simply tell your friends or help spread the word about us if you like what you hear! We would sincerely appreciate it! Above all else, though, we mostly hope you enjoy our music!

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/21136673″ params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=340080″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

Level Grindin’

Music to grind levels by! An upbeat sort of song that hopefully makes the mundane task of leveling up one’s characters before the big battle a bit easier. Most all RPGs required some time grinding through levels, including the one this song pays homage to. This song can also be thought of a bit as the calm before the storm. There are some heavy themes throughout the album but Level Grindin’ escapes those heavy themes for a bit to provide something that is more upbeat. For the curious, the NES was used for the chiptune sounds save for one solo which uses the GameBoy.

If you wish to listen, download, or buy the release, head over to the Chipsurf Pipeline album page.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/20619160″ params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=340080″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

Symphony of Vengeance…

…is finally finished! I spent a good amount of time mastering this one, mostly around making the guitars fit well with the chippy parts while sounding bassy, but not muddy. Both John and I are quite happy with the end result. We also opted to push back releasing the song until we had a good cover for it. Can you guess who is on the cover? 🙂

The song itself is rather deep and dark but has a driving force behind it as well. It centers around one of the common themes found on games from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras. The song is about love lost, the desire to get even, and the struggle to do so. I suppose you could almost call it an 8-bit Kill Bill in a way, which itself sort of follows suit with the themes found in Ninja Gaiden (a series of games we have been known to pay homage to before)

We certainly hope you like it! If you wish to listen, download, or buy the release, head over to the Chipsurf Pipeline album page.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/20092204″ params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=340080″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ]

Lots of mastering to do!

We had band practice today and went through a couple of new songs ready for final recoding and mastering. The brings the list of songs in various stages of mastering to about 5. Symphony of Vengeance should be done quite soon. Level Trippin’ should be close after depending on when Tim gets his tricked out Game Boy. The others involve recording the tracks off the NES still and need to be mastered thereafter. Plus cover art, of course! Beyond those, we have 2 songs coming along nicely, including The Genesis Machine and another yet to be named song also featuring the Game Boy.

Chipsurf Pipeline is really coming together! We are still working on some of the final cover art, t-shirt designs, and all that fun stuff. We very much want to try to do a physical release so check back for more details on that. More than likely, we will try to do a Kickstarter project in order to do a small vinyl release. Regardless, we are very proud of the album and we hope that in whatever version we offer the album, it provides as much joy to our fans as it did for us making it!