“The J Arthur Keenes Band” (Used 4 times)

Chipmusic has begun to grow older in internet years, as thousands more people become acquainted with it day by day through retro styled games, live shows, sarcastic youtube videos, and as chipmusic's reach grows, one begins to find that patterns and cliches haved crept into the vernacular about the scene. Perhaps the laziest, and most pervasive cliche is that of the "mario at a rave" idiom. The subject of hundreds of googles, and dozens of lazy college journalism flybys (I have to admit to making a joke one myself),the term itself is usually a key sign the article is heading south quickly.

If you can look at it in a THIS ISN'T YOUR PARENTS VIDEO GAME MUSIC, it can pretty funny but it can also be pretty dangerous in that it threatens to simplify an entire medium into one cranky half-joke. With this in mind, I was initially wary of the compilation from the readers over at Chipmusic.org called "Mario in an Elevator", and that was based soley on the title. Well dear readers, I was wrong.

Ostensibly a Chiptune Muzak comp, in a lot of ways it gives voice to the growing backlash within the community towards the high profile Blip Festival level histronics, and is a great example of chilled out and mellower takes on the medium. Faves in particular include tracks from scene veterans 8bitweapon and The J. Arthur Keenes Band perhaps the only criticism one could give it is in the packaging, with weak album art and a hasty release on Archive, and the fact that its way too short!

Do yourself a favor, and check out some choice selections, download the rest, and see you guys in seven for more of this stuff, at a rave. Maybe.

As mentioned last week, the chip music scene often engages in challenges and competitions with their peers for fun and such. Perhaps stemming from its demoscene roots, you can still find it today in events like Japan's NES composition competition, Famicompo, and on forums like Chipmusic.org's 48 hour challenges. It was the latter that inspired The J Arthur Keens Band (whom we covered last November) to take the idea one step further and try to do an entire EP in 48 hours. 

Vol 1 (which we have uploaded to the FMA here) was so successful it has since inspired two more volumes. The songs are surprisingly well produced with tons of extra sonic layers that one might not expect from the common chip musician, but have come to enjoy from JAKB and his prolific catalog. Check these songs out, and grab the other two volumes as well, and see you guys again in seven days. 

One of the biggest such events of the year, The annual Chip Music fest, Blip Festival is quickly approaching a collision course with NYC Dec. 17th, 18th, and 19th. Furthermore, fans of WFMU and the FMA will be happy to known that both a live stream and archived recordings will be made available to fans and interested observers of chip music, so stayed tuned here for more details.

One of the more interesting performers on this years bill is The J. Arthur Keenes Band. In reality the brainchild of a single infuriatingly multi-talented composer Dan Mclay, the recently released Pamplemousse may be one of the most inventive and diverse chip release of 2009. Combining chip music sounds and melodies with various forms of electric and acoustic instrumentation along with an acerbic and poppy singing style shows Mclay at the height of his powers, and his listeners deep in the sway of his magical blend of Brian Wilson, Weezer, and whatever gear your roommate found in the alleyway this week. Enjoy Catfish Lagoon, and join us next week for another Blip artist from the 2009 roster.