For my first official review of the year I’m going back to an album from 2016 in Pixeltune’s latest album ‘For a While’! Pixeltune is an incredibly sophisticated chiptune artist who focuses in using extensive LSDJ layering & programming as well as including other elegant sounds through the use of digital effects and computer keys.

For a While by Pixeltune ‘Gemini’ starts off as a very chilled yet hard-as-nails tune through its use of sawtooth bass, keys & an elegant lead that go together like cheese & ham. I especially loved the shimmering bass that explodes at the start of the song. It’s a beautiful introduction to a truely powerful song with still more to show off. Once the drop hits at ‘01.33’, ‘Gemini’s’ real hook hits you by taking elements of EDM & Dubstep to make a heart pounding sound whilst shimmering through the noise of LSDJ. It also features some cool little licks & fills under the use of the drums & wobbles of dubstep. ‘Gemini’ truly shows how technical you can be with LSDJ.

For a While by Pixeltune

The best track off the album however has to be ‘Half-Awake’. It’s a seriously cool tune which has both incredibly chilled out styles as well as being balanced with some carefully crafted EDM. The one thing that obviously stands out is ‘Half-Awake’s wonderful piano pieces which fantastically fit alongside harsh 8bit dubstep dance & edm. It’s really a massive clash between something so elegant & sweet, but at the same time the brutal sound the Pulse & Wav channel crashes down epically. ‘Half-Awake’ also contains strong progression, beginning vastly atmospheric and becoming much more sharp & quick as the track continues. ‘Half-Awake’ One beautiful tune that goes through so many motions.

For a While by Pixeltune

Although ‘Half-Awake’ was a my favourite track off the album, I have to talk about the 5th track ‘Rose Thorn’ as this was another standout tune for me most noticeably because of the fantastic use of break-like drums using the samples from the TR-727 drum machine. They pop through the dnb commotion giving ‘Rose Thorn’ a funky feel. ‘Rose Thorn’ is incredibly varied. For example, at about the ‘2:30’ mark ‘Rose Thorn’ explodes into a huge crescendo of drum breaks until going into a freakishly chilling bridge, while claps are scattered through out. It’s a great change of pace and is both beautiful & heart pounding.

‘For a While’ is a great album with a huge amount of brilliant songs to get into & dance. It almost makes me feel bad that I haven’t gotten into his Cheapbeats release, ‘A Coherent Fix’ yet! I think I might have to re-listen to that and give it the Chip Bit Sid treatment in the future.

For a While by Pixeltune

Pixeltune

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This has been a blog post from Chip Bit Sid, a UK based Chiptune Blogger. Along with monthly features here on The ChipWIN Blog, I post twice a week on my own blog. To get in touch, please message via the social media links below! I also do my own music under the banner as ‘JELLYATRIX’.

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