💿 LINDSAY LOWEND — LL 2020 - VOLUME 1

⌾ LISTEN TO LINDSAY LOWEND, LL 2020 - VOLUME 1 EP ⌾

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Back in 2013, Lindsay Lowend released an incredible collection of music: the Wind Fish EP. It popped with energy, combining hyperactive dopamine-firing electronics and footwork-flavoured beats with videogame music for an unforgettable sound. With the added bonus of being, in title at least, inspired by a unique Zelda title (Game Boy bop Link's Awakening, of course), Lindsay Lowend set a bar of quality for early '10s internet music.

And then he was gone — sort of. Lindsay Lowend maintained an output of a few sporadic tracks from then on, and even an album under his actual name, Antonio Mendez — 2018's Highland Drive.

Meanwhile, the Wind Fish EP, and its creator, drifted into legend.

- But now like Link himself in a legend retold, Lowend has risen and released LL 2020 - Volume 1 into the world: a 3-track EP that enlists the help of fellow VGM-leaning musicmaker Maxo.

Beginning with a dose of chiptune, 'NBA LIVE 99' shares the funk-meets-jazz club vibe of its namesake's soundtrack (check out the NBA Live 99 menu music, for starters) but keeps it strictly 16-bit. The bass fuzz and staccato beat, stuttering melodies and glittery top notes carve a territory somewhere between Streets of Rage and an off-duty Sonic the Hedghog, moving into a second half beset with hefty chords and fluid neon melody. It's a party.

In 'should my pet be eating that' (lol), the sound morphs into something more contemporary, plasma chords clacking with wonky sheen — similar to the spacey vibe of the 'Wi-Fi Menu' theme in Mario Kart Wii and the stark, soft-and-sharp intro to Dizzee Rascal's 'Sittin' Here'. It presses on, driven by a robust D&B-flavoured beat (a passage of skiffling breakbeat dropped in for good measure), the warm melodica-esque chords and a woozy virtuosic melody painting a the by-the-sea vibe.

'Permabanned' (again: lol) finishes things up beautifully. Like admiring a sunset with new pals on Animal Crossing, this is Lowend's effervescent collab with Maxo, streaks of melody like sun sparkling on water playing over a chord progression that K.K. Slider would be proud of: lounge-y, emotive and dipping into pools of chill, snippets of real-life birdsong peal between the instrumental (it's not his first foray into foley, going by this Breath of the Wild redub) — a trickle of reality from your window. An echo, maybe, of Wind Fish title track with its crashing waves and beeping seagulls.

The first multi-track release from Lindsay Lowend in years may be short, but it hits the spot: pure chiptune, VGM-style atmospheres, variegated beats, a lush environment. And if you're left wanting more, that's ok: LL 2020 - Volume 1 is just the beginning.

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• 🔔 You can listen to and purchase ($1, or more if you're feeling generous) Lindsay Lowend's LL 2020 - Volume 1 over on his Bandcamp.

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☟ Lindsay Lowend Internet Presence ☟
soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ twitter ⚘

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CELADON CITY – EVERY NIGHT

To be totally honest with you I was first attracted to Celadon City because of the name. Any Pokémon fan will tell you that Celadon City is the 'big' city in the Gen 1 games (Pokémon Red/Blue – plus later gens set in the same area), the big apple of Kanto, which has skyscrapers, a mall and a casino. A pretty happening place.

If you know all this already, I hope you didn't mind me saying it. If you didn't, go play a Pokémon game or like, go read about it on Bulbapedia.

With all that said I'd like to introduce Celadon City. Well, not really "introduce" because he's not here or anything. Rather, I'd like to introduce a new song of his called 'Every Night'.

In keeping with the VGM theme we started on, it kind of sounds a little bit like something that could soundtrack the gentle, sleepy atmosphere of night in Animal Crossing – at least at the beginning; soft guitar arpeggios and delicate piano twinkles ripple alongside nocturnal breezes and sampled insectoid chirruping.

But then there are claps, percussive ticking sounds, ghostly javelins of icy synth, muted strings, a more robust exploration of those piano sounds growing richer and more fulsome. And towards the end, after a tease of a beat, it arrives with crashing intensity, cymbals exploding like fireworks and frenetic clockwork hi-hats taking up the higher end of a swaying beat, an ear-satisfying crescendo of sound.

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☟ Celadon City Social Media Presence ☟
Facebook • SoundCloud • Twitter

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LINDSAY LOWEND – BODY PARTY INSTRUMENTAL (SNES VERSION) [FREE DOWNLOAD]

You can pretty much always trust or at least count on Lindsay Lowend to create very good songs. That's basically a given. Yep, this is the Washington DC-based producer dropping in again with more sumptuous VGM-(videogame music if u please)-inspired music, and what's more he's made this casually whilst he's on tour in Europe. Just dropping genius joints offhand and nonchalant – it's loveable.

Using SNES soundfonts, which are basically just instruments used in SNES games, for chords played in whimsical story-telling patterns, LL offers up a new and particularly wonderful rendition of Ciara's 'Body Party'. I've been burned before for posting on Twitter about a Ciara remix that was available for free download, so there's this underlying feeling of dread as I write this. In any case, aside from the crystal clear samples of the original, this may as well be a totally new song, which it kind of is.

Crunchy 16-bit bass carves out curving tunnels beneath the totally winsome chords, nostalgically fresh, as a metronomic beat keeps time in a simple bop from kick to snare. Later on it's as if KK Slider from Animal Crossing has joined in, the bwee-bwee-bwayy-bwoo noises later on basically summoning KK from his digital plane to this earthly world, sharing the stage with Ciara, and with Lindsay on keys. An ideal fantasy line-up in the world of fantasy line-ups.

The three tags that accompany this song on SoundCloud basically sum it up: #CIARA, #SNES, #SILLY_SHIT. And even if it IS silly shit, it's some of the best silly shit I've heard – perhaps it's better just being called "a fun song." And with that, he's also being rather pioneering in the pairing of seemingly disparate styles: SNES-era sounds &... Ciara. Usually a joke song is also kiiiind of rubbish (most things by Flight of the Conchords exempt), but Lindsay Lowend is clearly a musician through and through – even though it's silly, he can't help but make it oh— so— good.

• Yeah, this is a free download (clicketh).
• PS. WHERE does that funny little "Oh…" noise in the song come from? I recognise it but I've been going crazy trying to think where it comes from. If you know please tell me. Thank you.

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SAINT PEPSI MR. WONDERFUL [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Mr Pep. Peppy. Or Saint Pepsi if you wanna be proper about it. Yep, the Long Island producer is here again with a nice new song that's as nice as anything I can imagine, as nice as something that I can't describe with words. This man has come a long way with his music, blowing up completely last year thanks to that now infamous (at least in my mind) premiere of his song 'Unhappy' on The Fader. What's great about Saint Pepsi, though – real name Ryan DeRobertis – is his everchanging style when it comes to creating a song. From UK garage to what could be described as emo-trap, he's unpredictable in a good way: i.e. he makes whatever the hell he wants to make.

As such, we have new song 'Mr. Wonderful' to contend with. Cue everybody talking about the song to call it "wonderful" (well, to be fair, it IS wonderful). The "Mr." honorific gives it this cute feel, as far as a title goes anyway. The song itself is "cute" yes but it's more of a mildly intense, dreamy sensation. Indeed, Saint Pepsi himself has tagged it as "Mario Kart Dream Trap" and I'd say that these four words pretty much sum it up.

Why not try listening to it yourself with your ears?

Beginning with a slow dreamy portal river, with echoes of subconscious mists blowing about, we drop into some lovely synth chords presided over by some seriously syncopated snare rolls and rhythms. Then the main bulk of the song falls into your brain like it should: wonderfully. Synth vox melody (K.K. Slider anyone?) bounces cutesily over the now rather bassy wash of sound, and soon we're introduced to the song's sample and the inspiration for the song's name, cuts from the chorus of Aretha Franklin's 'Wonderful'. Turns what was a metaphysical trip into nostalgic memories of Rainbow Road into a down-to-earth celebration of soul music – a gloriously rich throwback to Saint Pepsi's musical origins and clearly still a part of his musical appetite: funk, soul, R&B.

Ending abruptly, this is something that I actually want to listen to for years. Well maybe not for years because that would be ridiculous. At least for another few minutes. But anyway, this song: lovely. Don't you think? A great mix of trap-flavoured beats, videogame nostalgia and the embryonic memories of soul-loving vaporwave. A true mix of musical styles, it's just another small step for Saint Pepsi, and a step in the right direction. Do what you want!

PS. This is now available as a FREE DOWNLOAD (click!)

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STRANGEHEAD ㄷㄹㅊㅅ (DREAM CHASER) [FREE DOWNLOAD]

For ease I am not going to be dealing with the Korean characters, although here is a fun fact: it's called Hangul and instead of being written straightforwardly, each word is a 'block' of these little characters. Isn't that fun? Someone should create some blocky typography of English in this way. It'd look nice I think. What am I saying? Who cares. The Hangul here - ㄷㄹㅊㅅ - if you want to know, is like an acronym or abbreviation, cause it's in letter and not word form, and says: d r ch s. DRCHS - a truncated form of Dreamchase(r)? I guess.

Anyway, in the depths of the night I found this song and I enjoyed it a lot so I am writing about it right now. It's probably really bad for LA trackmaker Strangehead because I'm writing about this in a not very good mood so I don't think I'll do the song as much justice as I normally would, however I do hope that you - whoever is reading, skimming, or ignoring this writing right now - enjoy the song no matter what gibberish I blather, what garbage words I tip-tap into this word box right here. Pls enjoy it. Let's call it 'Dream Chaser'.

Caught up as I was in the 80s synth dreamscapes offered by people's musical reaction to the film Drive and its College & Kavinsky-dominated soundtrack, the love of this type of music has never left me so the opening to 'Dream Chaser' is like a sudden step into an alternate world populated by electronic beauty and the tough undertones featured in games like Streets of Rage. However, this song is the kind of thing you'd hear once you've cleaned up the city in that game, don't you think? It begins as a foray into dubstep tinged by bleeping arpeggios and a smooth lead synth heralding good news.

Claps lead up to a lovely winding build-up awash with freestyle beats, snares roll and hi-hats buzz with insectoid surgicality, the second part of this song being marked by the fun vocal sample of "Readyyy... Go!". It's a plunge pool of low melodies bopping over wide Sonic-inspired chords, clean and smooth and delicious. A second "take-off" at like 1:38 sends us into fantastically happy world, where house piano chords stab and vox synth provides simplistic melodies (sounding like a K.K. Slider song from Animal Crossing). More dynamic changes - strings join the show for drama - claps in a frezy. Then everything suddenly fades out leaving you with candy-popping soft synth mixed with a pop song sample from where I don't know.

How nice was that? And with all the videogame references I've made it's clear that, whether intentionally or not, the often underrated, earworming videogame sounds have made their influence known. With the song levelling-up its atmosphere of fun and magic, the title seems very apt indeed.

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