Now it's out I thought writing some background info might be fun. Pretentious as hell, yes, but I don't seem to write much here so it's some content. Besides, you can always tl;dr
I decided on 2 things, firstly it would be a chipmusic album using only trackers that I had in the old days. (Protracker and FastTracker2, though I dropped the former almost immediately) Secondly none of the songs would be driven by the melody. While a strong melody is part and parcel of chipmusic in general (after all, what the hell else have you to work with?) over the course of 40 minutes I didn't think it would work. For a game soundtrack, yes, but for an album of electronic music? No. Short hooks would be fine, and I hope they're recognisable as such, but there'd be no verse/chorus/verse. Amusingly for 'real' music' it's normally quite the reverse.
Calling the album Decades meant I could use some styles from my past tracks, but in reality only 1989 really does that. I wanted the styles to be varied but still sit together as a whole, kind of like Daft Punk's "Homework" if possible.
'I hear the sound of waves':It took me ages to find an opening track, firstly I tried a kind of Vertical remake but I soon got bored with it. Next I was going to start off with 'Decades' which was originally a 4/4 dance track, but I got bored with that too. '1989' was about halfway done when I pulled the staccato phaser sound out on it's own and added some delicate synth chords. Once again it wasn't really going anywhere either until I accidentally left in one of the patterns from 1989 at the end of the song. That's where that first boost at 1:21 came from, a total accident but it meant the track had some dynamics at last. This was followed by a lazy sub-bass/clap to get an early '80s electro feel into it. Because the first two tracks are so closely linked it was easy to segue directly from one to the other, I also liked this effect when it was used on Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express album. And yes it's named after this blog.
'1989':I had the hook for this track since around since 2000, but it never really fitted in anywhere. The name and the first half are direct references to the oldskool demo music I used to write, though it contains no lead melody. Tbh I got bored with the style almost immediately :) so the last half is more spacey console-esque stuff, using the synth volume looping saw instrument that ends up as the main lead on 'Virginia'. I do like the echo solo at 1:41, that was a nice fluke. Finally we return to the phaser sound, though a tone lower than when it started the album.
'Paper Dolls':Paper Dolls was written back in February of this year. If I'm honest it started as a mickey-take of the 'chiptune 4/4 happy tech' style that seems to be the most popular genre of the modern chipmusic scene. I'd never written one before and thought I'd do it for a laugh, but the last half didn't turn out too bad I guess. It's on the album mostly because it's my most 'popular' song, but the third track also needed to be a fast one and this certainly is that. It fades out to some pink and brown noise waves that oscillate in volume, ape-ing the sound of those wave machines you could buy in the 1970's. I really like pink noise, it's an incredibly relaxing sound.
'Decades':The waves fade out and in fades the oldest riff on the album. This echoing theme was originally made for the Amiga game 'Cardiax' back in 1991. However the authors never paid me for it so I've taken it back. :) The track came about when I was thinking of using snatches of some of my old songs for an intro, like I did with Vertical a few years ago. I added a 4/4 beat to it and thought it might work as a complete song, though after a few tries it changed to an rnb beat which gave me more scope for dynamics with the bassline. This is the only track on the album with genuine chipmusic arps, Mr. Hernandez would be disappointed. The melody hook is kind of throwaway but is joined by a few others to create 'gang' vocal before it breaks down to just staccato pulse tones. Finally after leaving the backing chords for a few bars I throw in the 'Konami' ending. If you've played any of the MSX Gradius series that was the kind of feel I was going for. Eventually the pink noise appears again and reclaims the song, fading out to silence.
'Affectation':The first 45 seconds of this track existed for quite a while, the fading sequence was jammed in live play mode and was saved because there's an odd change in there I like. Once the drums come in the first bars become sort of a verse when I pick a couple of the notes out an octave higher, though there was no discernible melody when I played it. I quite like this one, it's kind of gentle and yet abrupt. Suits the title I think. The song ends at a southern American swamp with a train rushing past. I'd have liked to have used more soundfx but it was starting to sound too cheesy (even for chipmusic) so this was the only time.
'Broken Spirit':This and the following track came out of some collaboration work I did with a friend of mine. Unfortunately the songs we tried out together didn't really work with chip instruments, so I took the real samples out and worked them into the songs on here. Broken Spirit is lead by the bassline, infact it is only a bassline. There are a few more samples than usual in the accompaniment, the trumpets are a 5th chord played at two different pitches and there's a genuine rave synth following the bassline towards the end.
'Break Up':This is probably my favourite songs on the album, again it's mostly lead by the bassline but it's quite driving and I like the breakdown in the middle.
'Glory':I really tried to add more to Glory but nothing seemed to work, eventually I just extended out the one minute demo version of it to repeat the melody and left it. It's the most basic structure of all the songs, infact I don't think there are more than 6 patterns in the source file. Again the pink noise waves make an appearance at the end of this track, I needed an intro to the next two fast songs and this seemed the most appropriate way that would keep continuity on the album.
'Latin EQ':This track is very old, from 1997 or '98 when I tried doing another EP just for my own fun. The original was much slower, more like Daft Punk's "Da Funk'. The lead sound is a drumbeat that was boosted to incredibly high levels and then flanged to such a point that it become a tone rather than percussion. A synced volume slide loop was added to the instrument to create the final effect. Again this is quite a basic track but it ups the pace enough for the following song. The title comes from a samplename in the track, I can't remember what it refers to as the sample was made so long ago.
'Only the beautiful survive':This was the last track written for the album. I've used the C-Major riff in a slower 'real' song but it's playing a different role here, as counterpoint to the fast cut breaks. The riff changes pitch with the verse melody and also acts as a fake chorus when the verse breaks down.
'Lead Sister':Lead Sister was written in April and I put it out originally under my other handle The Amber Room. I took it back for this album because I needed a track just like it to set off the final three songs, there's no point trying to write another one if you got it 'right' already. Incidentally the title comes from a t-shirt in a photograph of Karen Carpenter.
'Virginia':This started out as a faster paced song for the abandoned marie2 EP. It had a beat similar to Radiohead's 'There There' as well as a proper melody. I removed both and gave it the heavy rnb drums, bringing the fast repeating chords to the front of the mix. There is an attempt at an accompanying melody on the second run through of the 'verse' though it's more to give the backing a bit more depth. This gets larger with a lead saw sound and eventually everything fades to a swirling organ wave. The segue between this and the next track came about because I was jamming riffs over the pattern with the double-time beat for about 10 minutes. Adding a passing train soundfx made the transition more apparent. Virginia is named after Virginia Woolf, my favourite author.
'Galaxies':As I mentioned this came out of jamming a pattern from the Virginia track. I absolutely love the drone songs by Stereolab and the openers on the first two Neu! albums. This was my attempt to do something similar but just with chip instruments. The simple riff gradually builds up with more parts, all of them bouncing off each other. The occasional bit of pink noise reaches a crescendo where it takes over the mix towards the end of the song, distorting the track in the process until only the waves and bass drone are left to fade. The title was kind of a throwaway but seems to fit.
'Just enough everyday now':This was also written in February, I was quite surprised at the positive reception it got on 8bitcollective there. For the album mix I removed the drumbeat and a verse. It plays through twice and ends with a positive chord and the sound of a record scratch fading to silence. As a nice coincidence it's in the same key as the last two songs, though my attempts to start this track while Galaxies' bass was still playing just sounded wrong.
'The secret track':Having 'secret' tracks has fallen out of a favour with digital downloads, but I wanted to put something after 'Just Enough'. When the song has finished the waves return for a couple of minutes. It's then interrupted by a fake radio station broadcast inspired by those odd 'numbers stations' recordings. The numbers on this track do mean something but are not cryptic at all, I'll leave you to figure out what they are. :) If you've used a computer in the last 15 years you should be able to work it out. After the radio shuts down we go straight back into the waves but they are joined by ambient chords on a loop, after a couple of minutes of this the whole thing finally fades and the album ends.
