Album Review - Chipzel "Disconnected"
After a live tweet review of Disconnected by Chipzel tonight, there is at least one more person out there who's ears have been opened up to the unique sounds of the chiptunes genre and who has gone to seek out more music from it. If you missed the live tweeted version of this review from earlier, here is a recap, complete with music to accompany your read.
Tonight's live tweet album review featured "Disconnected" by Chipzel, an artist recommended to me by reader LoveAssassin13. Now, for new readers and for the uninitiated, chiptune music, or chiptunes if you will, is generally created using modded Game Boy's or other video game systems, but can also involve the use of programs or emulators that replicate their sounds. It is obviously electronic music, but born out of a strange era that never existed, but actually did. Confused? Stay with me.
Many chip songs are done using the exact same hardware videogame programmers used to create the music for Super Mario Bros. and all those other games you may have played as a kid. Flash forward a couple decades and a new breed of musicians began hacking into their old game systems to see what sounds they could create from the chips themselves. So what you have is a music genre that is all at once retro and completely new. This is a bit of an over simplification, but it gives a level 1 listener a base from which to begin. That said, hit play and enjoy the sounds as you read along to the recap of the track-by-track review!
Track 1 "Breathless" - From the get go, I'm enjoying the tones Chipzel is playing with. Bright, fun and born of a game that doesn't exist.
Track 2 "Something Beautiful" - Play this for someone with no chip music knowledge and their mind could be blown. A solid bit of electronica.
Track 3 "Can't Stop Us" - A very bright melody line powers this one. Fun and frantic in a very good way.
Track 4 "Waiting" - Very different tonal palette starts this one. Mid-range growl beneath is a nice touch. Mega Man-y in a very good way.
Track 5 "Something Beautiful Pt. II" - Where part one had dubstep DNA, this one has ravier roots. Very different from track 2.
Track 6 "Disconnected" - After back-to-back break neck BPM's, the title track slows things just slightly. An interesting change of pace/sound.
Track 7 "When You Realise" - Chipzel changes things up again with a more D&B mode. Appropriate, throaty bass tones. Love the "chorus" section
Track 8 "Her Heart" - After a very game themey open, shifts into a chipy left/right stomp with nice evolution throughout the song.
Track 9 "If You Weren't So Difficult" - Are we talking about a game or significant other here? ;) Great build to earworm pulse @ 1 minute mark
Track 10 "We Knew" - If there is one thing I've learned about @chipzel from this first listen it is... too long for this tweet. #MoreNext
What my ears found while listening to Chipzel is this young lady from Northern Ireland does a wonderful job of mixing up her tones and style influences which keeps each song fresh. This can be challenging in chiptunes and can often lead to some artists ending up with songs that sound relatively identical to each other. That is definitely not the case here.
For a first-time listen, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Chipzel's sounds. For more on Disconnected and her other music, you should definitely check out her bandcamp page. And, if this was your first chiptunes experience and you liked it, spin the tunes to be found, here.
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