Quest for the 8-Bit Melodies

I never really got with the recent 8-bit/bitpop musical revolution (Crystal Castles and all that lot) despite, back in the day as an impressionable 10-year-old, loving the incidental music on many of the Commodore 64 games. My personal favourite was Martin Galway's (nephew of the famed flautist James) haunting music for 'Rambo: First Blood II'. There's a brilliant Top 15 of C64 themes made by some guy on YouTube -



I then found this incredible site where lots of insane people have remixed C64 theme tunes. Check it out! There are absolutely tons of them. I have barely scratched the surface, but my fave so far is a slo-mo techno version of the music from Bruce Lee - one of my favourite C64 games of all time. God I used to love kicking the shit out of that stupid ninja! I also found this crazy movie basd on the 'Bruce Lee' computer game by the improbably named Bruce Gargantua - It Rocks!



Adventure - Crypt Castle Cult

Anyway, there is actually a point to all this C64 reminiscing - the release of the excellent debut album from Adventure aka Benny Boeldt on Monday. Boeldt is a part of the Wham City Arts Collective and has recorded an album for Carpark Records of Washington DC. The reason why Boeldt's brand of 8-bit awesomeness has resonated with me more than previous exponents of the genre is his brilliant use of melodies. At times it's like prime Vince Clarke crossed with Happy Hardcore - wonderfully emotive hooks and evocative bleeps, all underpinned by bonkers bouncy beats. Adventure and me instantly clicked - maybe it also had something to do with look of pure joy on my 8-month old daughter's face when the album came on and she was in her bouncer - grinning away as she boinged up and down to Boeldt's 8-bit madness. He looks like a bit of a nutter too, and that's always a good thing in my book.

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Joe.