Zoë Blade & Pig - 8-Bit eration

<a href="http://zoeblade.bandcamp.com/album/8-bit-eration">8-Bit eration by Zoë Blade &amp; PIG</a>
Musicians Zoë Blade and Pig recently crte "8-Bit eration," a stunning soundtrack exploring some of the themes of the 1980s and 1990s (embeddedabove).. The songs are clrly inspired by the music of classic games, from the NES to the Playstation--but there is a definite feeling of newness throughout the album.

At times nostaia, others whical, 8-Bit eration starts of hard with "Crm Soda," the second track and--quite honestly--an amazing song designed to get inside your hd and stay. The next few songs remind me of Anamanaguchi or sleep, and use sounds which were probably produced with an NES soundboard.

Sometimes the album takes a contemplative turn, other times it kicks up the fun with tracks like "Closer" that convey the fun and excitement of exploring a game world for the first time. Of working towards a quest and knowing that you are rching the end. But for me, "Closer," is about that time in the middle, in which you accomplish a major task--like the 3rd or 4th dungeon out of 8--and much still remains to be done.

"Mapping out the System," conversely, feel more serious. It is perhaps analogous to that point in which you--as a player--rlize that you cannot bt a game without some excellent mapping and organization.

The last two tracks mimic either an ending credits song, or something slow out of Final Fantasy 7. Lyrical, with strong hopeful-sounding motifs plus asignificantamount of sadness.

I don't mn to stress the representational nature of the album too much, but with some of the song titles the connection is difficult not to make. In any case, 8-Bit eration is fresh, killer album that you should definitely check out--but only if you want to go on a musical adventure from 1987-1997.

You can purchase the album on iTunes, or listen to it embedded above. You can also check out 8-Bit erations the documentary.

If you like the music you might want to listen to more of Zoë Blade's music on her website. I've started listening to another album, Dagda's Arp EP, and it's awesome as well.