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Electronica, chiptune, videogame, sound track
Genre:
Electronic: Experimental
Release Date:
2007
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Videogames Ruined My Life
© Copyright-Matthew C Applegate
(634479537370)
Record Label: Hidden Youth Records Uk
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After opening for Grammy Nominee Imogen Heap on her UK tour, Pixelh8 rocketed into the spotlight with several national (UK) and international interviews and articles.
The long awaited 14-track debut album, which melted two laptops in the process, took two commodore 64's, one 48k spectrum, one nes, one snes, five gameboys, several kids toys and keyboards, countless yards of wire and solder to make.
Videogames Ruined My Life Pixelh8's debut album is a journey through all that is 8 bit.
Internationally renowned chip tune musician Pixelh8 makes his music from reprogramming vintage computer systems such as the ZX spectrum, Commodore 64 and Game Boy. His unique blend of Electronica has taken him across the globe, performing at Microdisco in Berlin, at Apple iTunes, California, for BBC Radio 1 in London and Assembly 2008, Helsinki Finland.
Pixelh8 has also opened for Imogen Heap on her UK tour on a few of her dates.
Highly regarded in this emerging genre of music, he has been interviewed by both CNN and the BBC, as well several magazines and websites all over the world.
Pixelh8 combines the sounds of video games and toys, that have been reverse engineered and reprogrammed to form original compositions. Pixelh8 has also created software like the Pixelh8 Music Tech Game Boy Synth and Pro Performer for other musicians.
Pixelh8 continues to release music on the record label Hidden Youth Records and is currently working a series of hardware items for various vintage consoles.
"...I’m more into geeky noise music. I got a great support act through MySpace called Pixelh8. He makes music out of discarded toys such as Game Boys and Speak & Spells. I love his music. I didn’t realise there was such a scene for revitalising old toys. I didn’t know it was possible to create music on a Game Boy, using specially written software. It’s quite exciting." - Imogen Heap - Metro Magazine
"I’ve gotten quite into 8bit-chip-hop (I don't know what they call it but hot dang is it good!) As a result thanks to Pixelh8" - Imogen Heap taken from her I-Blog @ www.imogenheap.com
"Unbelievably, Matt has managed to make entire tracks using just old consoles. And they don't sound like a five year old pressing random keys on a crap synth. In fact his tunes are glitchy electronic house and dirty soulful electronica." -
DJ Magazine UK Vol 4 Issue 35
Visit www.pixelh8.co.uk for more info.
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Video game music manipulation at its best. 1-Up!!!
author: John Book, Music For America
A number of fellow producers have created songs directly from old video games. A lot of us grew up with those sounds, sometimes wondering how those 8-bit games could sound so funky? Bullets went "keeuuuwww", the movement of a leg would cause heavy basstones, and eventually someone had to come up with a way to put those sounds together. Over the years there have been many who have tried but sometimes failed in making 8-bit music. One artist who is doing it right calls himself Pixelh8, and when he titled his CD Videogames Ruined My Life (The Hidden Youth), he meant it.
The first sound from the CD comes from a cassette, loading the data of a video game to the computer. I know this, because I had a Commodore VIC 20 in the early 80's, and a game that was maybe (keyword: "maybe") 8k would take about 5 to 10 minutes to load. Not sure what game he's loading, but it's a set up for what's about to be heard. The sounds are familiar, and yet the way he puts them together, you wonder if you're enjoying them for nostalgia sake or because you too were addicted to the sounds these games made. "Baby Buggy" reminds me a bit of Goonies II for the NES, but it may be me. Plus, video games had cool sounds but the beats were never THIS funky. When you hear "Segue 12", you know very well that you've heard it, but you're not sure of what is falling, what is being swallowed, or what colors are being flashed on the screen. Maybe it's all in our minds. "Happy Go Lucky" made me think of a certain penguin who liked to throw ice cubes a lot, while "Kilobyte Rider" sounds like an old television show about a talking car, that is if David Hasselhoff grew up with Kraftwerk and Timbaland next to the Casio factory.
The sounds are all familiar, but the way Pixelh8 (a/k/a Matthew C. Applegate) manipulates them for his own benefit is unique. Maybe the original programmers for video games were electronic and prog rock fans, and it has taken this many years for someone to bring this to the surface. Player 1 Ready.
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