Everything Must Change at archive.org

Download entire album as a ZIP file

Sample audio:

Download Looking Forward

Download To the Last Penny

Download Funhousedub

Download Vicariously Hidden Potential

Download Underproduced and Undermarketed

Download Everything Must Change (For You), So That Everything Stays the Same (For Us)

Download Salud Presents

Download Ice Cream House

Download The Sky Is Falling

Download Looking Forward (Reprise)

Everything Must Change (For You), So That Everything Stays the Same (For Us) is a return to the RPM Challenge in 2011 (The RPM Challenge is a public dare to create a recorded album using the time only in the month of February to conceive, compose, record, produce, and master) and is named after a paraphrase used in the blog Spike Japan (http://spikejapan.wordpress.com) to describe the country’s economic structure.

As with Release Zero, the RPM Challenge was in the same month as Battle of the Bits’ Winter Chip VI and contains mastered versions of some entries there. The blend of chiptunes and samples of varying rates with RPM’s time limit causes a rough blend of sounds and styles, beginning with the eerie and soft and gradually moving towards the tongue-in-cheek only to return again.

I had originally started this project with the intent of using only the classic ST-XX sample disks (such as the overused ST-01) for Amiga Protracker for sources of sound as a tribute to the tracker and demoscene that inspires me to create; however, after four or five different attempts to go through the samples and create a piece good enough for release, I found that I was editing the samples until it didn’t matter what they were or where I was getting them from, they all started to sound too similar.  Winter Chip began, so I did the same thing I did for Release Zero- I used my Winter Chip entries as tracks.  It took quite a bit of polish and even some rearranging (and retracking) to get it all to blend.  Perhaps it is the nature of the RPM Challenge to make records that are rough and don’t flow well, but by taking the challenge twice I’ve learned that there is a feel in working quickly that does not come out when I work slowly.  I hope that this work is enjoyed all the same.

Related Articles

• Make an Album in February Or Bust: The RPM Challenge, and Deadlines are Good (createdigitalmusic.com)
• Geocache (Release and Prototype Mixes) (chunter.info)

On a Rainy Day at archive.org

Download entire EP as a ZIP file, courtesy of archive.org

Download On a Rainy Day

Download What More Can Be Done?

Download Pitter Patter Rainy Day

Download Is It Okay To Go Outside Yet?

Download Found, At the Edge Of the Forest

Download On a Rainy Day (Acoustic)

This was supposed to have been released in March or April, I’m sorry that it took so long.  Regular followers or SounDevotion regulars will recognize that I’ve themed the EP after a tune I created as an entry; from the beginning, I wanted the song to flow into a greater work that included some pieces that I originally composed in One-hour competitions but have been restructuring and improving over the months, until I could give the entire thing a nice flow.  The climax of “Found, At the Edge Of the Forest” was an entry for SDCompo as well, this piece given slightly different mastering and some real guitar to assist the sound of the sampled one.

Cover art by SirMarkus Kidd.

“Markus” mascot based on “Darkbrown Raccoon” by Ryan Radio.

“Littlegrey” mascot based on “Raccoon2MaleFemale” by MiniFeru Artizar.

Download chunter – release zero courtesy of archive.org

Purchase physical CD copy of chunter – release zero courtesy of CDBaby.com

Sample audio:

Happy Street

Geocache

Upgrade

Lift

Winterfunk

Antivirus

Slow Weekend

Overcast

All My Days

Soft Weekend

Release Zero was created as part of the RPM Challenge, a public dare to create a coherent album using the time only in the month of February to conceive, compose, record, produce, and master. Since this coincided with participation in the Battle of the Bits Winter Chip IV competition, about half of the songs were composed with that contest’s rules in mind, although there is much retouching so that the result here is thin, light, and relaxing, instead of the shrill and overpowering sound often found in chiptunes. The result is an album with an atmospheric flow between tracks, designed to be played at a medium soft volume and provide a gentle, melodic background to your next thirty minutes.
“12-String Legacy” guitar rendering by Ortho Vargas.  Cover design by SirMarkus Kidd.

Download chunter – release zero courtesy of archive.org

Purchase physical CD copy of chunter – release zero courtesy of CDBaby.com