Yukihiro Takahashi (1952 - 2023)

Quick post to honor the late, great Yukihiro Takahashi. Yellow Magic Orchestra has been the go-to soundtrack for countless late night sessions at Onell HQ dating back to Wave 1. For a few years Matt and I had our own band, Indoor Recess, where we would play YMO-esque improv jams every week (shame we never recorded anything, but maybe for the best). The combined synth wizardry and iconic melodies of YMO have provided endless inspiration.

Takahashi brought a warm pulse and steady heartbeat to the best electronic trio in music, and his solo work stands just as tall. His recently reissued debut LP is "the missing link between the City Pop scene of the late 70s and the synth sound of YMO which was about to revolutionize the world" (via We Want Sounds). Highly recommend checking out / revisiting the self-titled debut, Yellow Magic Orchestra, and Solid State Survivor, plus Takahashi's Murdered by the Music, Neuromantic, and What, Me Worry? or just work your way through their collective catalogs. RIP to a true master.

Halloween Bonus Bits

Shipping Update

As of this afternoon, almost every order since the release last Sunday has been packed and shipped out, with only the international orders left to complete by the end of today.

Thanks again for your patience and we hope you guys have fun when the boxes start to arrive!

Special thanks to Marcus and Pj for serving time in the barn as we weathered the cardboard and plastic tornado. I owe you two a double trip to Nick's!

Chaotic Compression

After doing so many record covers, I've been applying the Album Artifact treatment to various other things like characters, logos and burgers. Naturally, my favorite Space Traveler was amongst the first to be downsized. A few of the bits above are dedicated to Mori of RealXHead, who recently sent us a package that would make any of Santa's elves gasp. Check out this RealxRock Man!

For whatever weird reason, the 12x12 format has really struck a chord with me. The limited canvas presents a fun and (sometimes) quick challenge, and is a great exercise in color placement. It takes the "every bit counts" approach to another level- minimal, but in a way, complex. I think Matt's contained builds have mutated my brain.

Raster Peace

The Album Artifact project rolls on, and I wanted to spotlight today's entry.

Our friend Rich Vreeland, aka Disasterpeace, has been the official soundtrack to Glyos since we first discovered him years ago. We've used his music exclusively for the Passcode videos and games, and had the amazing opportunity to work side by side while he scored The Soul of the Traveler back in 2010. Not only a top notch composer, he is just great company to be around.

Rich was recently involved in a fantastic game released last Spring called FEZ. The game itself is a very fun and inspiring title that made a lot of buzz considering there are no enemies, no weapons, no motor vehicle theft and no upset avians. But I feel it was the original soundtrack that truly separated this game from the rest of the pack (I won't get into the controversy surrounding the game's creator Phil Fish).

The gameplay promotes exploration and discovery to the highest, challenging players to basically figure out the game themselves as they navigate a vast 2D-turned-3D world (we like that sorta thing around here...). Vreeland's OST compliments this perfectly, as he manages to capture the wonder and curiosity while blending retro sounds with modern production. Reoccurring themes of light and dark make this album stand alone even without the visual cues. I could go on and on about this release- but probably better to just listen for yourself if you haven't yet.

The soundtrack's cover art (also designed by Phil Fish) is interesting and somewhat unexpected, as it does not feature any artwork or characters from the game- just color and shapes. What seem like simple gradients are actually noisy, pixelated color splashes that reveal another layer of depth to the image. The Album Artifact version has a funny way of simultaneously degrading these effects while also making it seem more up to speed with how the game actually looks. I guess the weirdness and unintentional commentary of these pieces are part of what fuels me to keep making them.

Thanks again for checking this out. Next week I'll be posting even more weird/freaky albums in honor of Halloween!

Album Artifact

Before we get deep in NYCC mode, I wanted to quickly share something new I've been playing around with lately.

Album Artifact is the newest cure for my Music ADD, where I redesign classic album covers in pixel format. Specifically, the challenge is to remake 12" records in a 12x12 pixel grid. I ended up making so many of them from the get go that I'll be posting at least one a day until the end of the year!

I hope that this weird blog becomes a fun trip for music nerds and Nintendo Nostalgics like myself. The albums are chosen randomly from my collection, but I'll try to keep a steady balance of pop culture classics to underground/unknown icons.

Thanks for checking this out! Requests?