Inverse Phase - Retrocovered

Inverse Phase
Retrocovered
Без лейбла (IPH-002)
25 июля 2010
0:47:18

Трек-лист

1. NESformers
2. Fami-Dance
3. Song 6502
4. The NESsage from Dr. Light
5. New Year's Data
6. Propane NESmares
7. (Just What I) 2A03'ded
8. NEStroid Metal Theme
9. Say it ain't sixty-FO
10. NES Me An Angel
11. C_Drive
12. Duke NES'em 3D
13. ImpermaNES

Описания треков

NESformers

Back in 1986, after a lot of childhood TV watching, the powers that be got serious with Transformers and made it more badass, darkening it some. They brought us a PG rating with big-people words, more dramatic character development, and decidedly a killer soundtrack (especially for the time), including a glam metal redux of the main Transformers theme.

Whilst air guitaring (the only form of guitar I play, probably to everyone's benefit) this theme in my mind and waxing nostalgic, as many 80s kids surely do, I decided I would flex my chiptuning muscle by writing a NES rendition of it in anticipation of the upcoming Transformers live-action movie. The Contra drums were a bit hard, so I tried the Super C drums out on this one. I think it came out rather well

Original: Lion - The Transformers Theme

Fami-Dance

Often when playing chipmusic for folks, I'll also show people how I do it, and in an attempt to do so, ask them a song to cover so I can do a few bars of it and they can watch everything come together. This started as one of those songs and for quite awhile I used it as a "name that tune" at shows, slowly turning channels on and off and giving away CDs to people that could guess it.

But, it couldn't be that way for long. This song has to be one of the number one nerd-anthems of 80's music. I got a lot of requests to finish it, and as it turns out, covering this song into NES really just makes it even more into a nerd anthem. To boot, a few synth things match up perfectly just like some of my other tracks.

If for some reason you don't know, Famicom is the Japanese name for the NES, from whence the title stems.

Original: Men Without Hats - Safety Dance

Song 6502

This was written alongside my Weezer track to have another crowd pleaser at my first show. It worked pretty damn well. And then I used it as a "movement experiment" at my Play N Trade show which also worked pretty well. Probably the most instantly recognizable track I've done so far. A C64 should be fully capable of reproducing this.

By the way, yes, I know the Commodore 64 contains a 6510 and not a 6502, but if you know your chips you also know the 6510 is just a modified 6502.

Original: Blur - Song 2

The NESsage from Dr. Light

So there I was, hanging out with THE MEGAS on the Internet and telling Greg about my latest chiptune when he said it would be cool if maybe there was an NES cover of a song by THE MEGAS. Well damn, I was thinking the same thing! So now we've gone full-circle.... from Nintendo to Vocal Rock back to Nintendo, with all the added original material by THE MEGAS.

If you've never heard of THE MEGAS, sweet jesus, go over to www.themegas.com or check out their bandcamp at themegas.bandcamp.com right now. This track is on both Get Equipped and Get Acoustic.

THE MEGAS' all capital lettering scheme has been brought to you by our good mutual pal: Tony McNameDrop

lyrics
Chorus:
be-beep beep be-beep be-beeeeep
beep be-beep beep
beep be-beep beep
beep be-beep be-beeeeeeep
beep beep beep be-beep be-beep beeee-beeep be-beeeeeep
beep be-beep beep
beep be-beep beep
beep be-beep beeeeeeep
beep beep bee-beep be-beep beep beep be-beep beep beep

Original: The Megas - The Message From Dr. Light/Level Select Original Original: Mega Man 2 - Stage Select

New Year's Data

If there's one thing I've heard a lot of in my life, it's U2. This probably goes for a lot of people, but especially me. You see, my dad's quite the fan, to the point where he has pretty much anything U2-related that's ever been released, even remixes, covers, and everything from the fan club. So, quite a bit of U2 music has made an impact on me throughout my life.

This song used to be an inside joke of sorts, as it was intended to advertise the chiptune concert at MAGFest which did infact happen on New Year's. I didn't really have the song done in time, though I did play an early version of it at the show. I hope you like it, since I've spent way too long on it. =]

To those that are curious about my technical process, I really find the keyboard elements and bass line to be key in recognising this song. Adam's tone resembles the triangle wave and Edge's keyboard notes sound a bit like the 50% square so I did my best to preserve them on the NES without sacrificing the vocal melodies or the interesting things U2 always does with guitar "effects". I used the Gyruss/early Konami snare since it has more snap.

Original: U2 - New Year's Day

Propane NESmares

This one's a pretty nice (and so far the most recent) example of my non-expanded NES work instead of C64 like my last tune, this is a pretty much direct cover. I've kept on with the campy titles for now. Short story? I like the track and it was playing in everyone's car ever in 2009. Stuck in my head like whoa.

Commentary video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zRGwmRtqkw

Original: Pendulum - Propane Nightmares

(Just What I) 2A03'ded

This is the second of the three Cars covers I started on and by far the most frequently aired -- at least, locally -- so it was the next-most pervasive one to pop out of my machine. I had a lot of fun writing this one despite a little bit of a block towards the end. No real new techniques or anything here, I just wanted to write something happy and put people in a good mood.

The oddly-timed bridge sounds very natural in their song but threw me for a loop (no pun intended) a few times until I nailed it. I was very pleased with the way the heavy vibrating synth at the end turned out, which is ironic/amusing because I wrote that part first. The filter was left off for this one. I'm trying to atone for my sins from C_Drive, here.

Original: The Cars - Just What I Needed

NEStroid Metal Theme

band that has both played MAGFest and I am in decent communication with. This guy [nick]named Stemage, he's a pretty nice guy, and he did all of these totally metal, progged out covers of Metroid you can get at metroidmetal.bandcamp.com and they're damned awesome.

So now, he plays with a full band. With thanks to his bandmate Kirby, we talked to the crew at PAX East before their next (now past) show, and managed to arrange for them to fade out in preparation for Metroid Metal to play....but then they would play my track before they opened the curtain. With the plan to give the cover to Stemage in motion, I had to overcome one major hitch: I was already at the event.... and...ackk...not done! If only I could finish!

Well, I did. Ten minutes before they went on. I ran in with a preliminary WAV render on my cellphone and we hooked it up to the mixing board. The crowd went nuts, but they didn't know that Metroid Metal was behind the curtain going just as crazy. It was awesome. lyrics Will you quit looking for lyrics and headbang already?

Original: Metroid Metal - Theme Original Original: Metroid - Theme Original Cover Art: Robbie Player

Say it ain't sixty​-​FO

So I actually wrote this about 3-4 hours after I heard the Weezer compilation awhile ago. This song wasn't on it and I had a show coming up so I figured some new material would be fresh. It's pretty direct with a little bit of a spin. I hope you guys like it. Campy titles, woo!

Original: Weezer - Say it ain't So

NES Me An Angel

Way way back when I started to track on my PC, my pal Curtis from grade school handed me a tape of Real Life's Send Me an Angel single and asked me if I could do a cover. Sure, I thought, I had done a few other tunes and I could handle that. But alas, I was 13 and easily frustrated, so I soon tabled it for later.

I recently got the song stuck in my head again after hearing a cover somewhere, probably on Youtube, so I poked around on Wikipedia and made a quick visit to the Real Life website. I saw they were still releasing music and there was a recent (within the last few months, anyway) blog post and scrolled down to find a "hey, email us" post. To my delight, I found out that Mr. David Sterry does indeed check the box.

So, this tune combines two trends I've been a part of...one of them being that I do covers for friends' requests and the other being that I have been able to contact artists while working on their covers. And now I'm able to fulfill that gradeschool promise and you can vicariously relive those moments of what went through my head as a kid listening to this on the air.

Beyond Curtis and David, this tune is secondarily dedicated to people that dig arps.

Original: Real Life - Send Me an Angel

C_Drive

Lately, The Cars have been following me everywhere I go. And that's not just because I've been playing in traffic...I don't think so, anyway. Ok seriously, I've just heard a whole lot of their music lately and my videogame seller buddy Carlson said he really liked Drive. I started on a bunch of songs and this is the one I finished first.

More unexpanded NES work, using the Contra drums again. After a very long personal debate (with myself! massive turmoil here) I decided to filter out the aliasing on this. I know I lose authenticity points for it, but I feel it really helps the triangle shine. So get ready to slow jam, put this track on....and....drive.

Original: The Cars - Drive

Duke NES'em 3D

Q: What would Duke Nukem 3D look like if it were a NES game?

A: Probably like shit!

Q: What would Duke Nukem 3D sound like if it were a NES game?

A: Hopefully not like shit!

Now click the play button! Fanservice awaits your ears.

This tune has had like 30 different purposes. Though it was once something fun to send to the 3D Realms guys and part of a Duke Nukem "grab bag" remix contest, it was also originally one of my first-released chiptunes and my first go at really challenging myself with NES music. Plus, I had been playing DN3D a lot lately.

In an ironic turn of events, I was able to send the track to Duke Nukem "himself" after meeting him at MAGFest, and he recorded voiceovers which I hope will please both Duke and NES fans alike. lyrics It's my theme song! Bitchin'! It kicks ass! Let's rock!

Original: Lee Jackson/Bobby Prince - Duke Nukem 3D OST: "Grab Bag" intro/title

Please attribute by linking Inverse Phase and Lee Jackson/Bobby Prince anywhere you use this track.

Voiceovers courtesy of Jon St. John: jsjprod.com ....and mutilated by Inverse Phase

This track has not been endorsed by Nintendo, Apogee, 3D Realms or Take Two Interactive in any way.

ImpermaNES

Once upon a carpool, this track got a lot of play, it got stuck in my head, and the best way to get songs unstuck from your head is to cover them. I was actually able to get a hold of Tom Shear and ask him for permission to cover/release/play this, which is totally awesome. This is an unexpanded NES, and I'm using the Contra drums, if you're curious.

This song was originally destined for Josh Whelchel's cancer drive (Songs For The Cure '10) which I'm an artist on but I poorly timed my request to Tom to include it there, as he was on tour in Mother Russia at the time. Whoops! So I'm releasing this track here and I wrote another completely original tune for Josh's CD here: cancerdrive.org

Original: Assemblage 23 - Impermanence www.assemblage23.com

Please attribute Inverse Phase and Assemblage 23 with a link anywhere you use this track.

Ссылки

• http://inversephase.bandcamp.com/album/retrocovered
• http://vgmdb.net/album/21117