* EXCLUSIVE 12INCH SINGLE OUT NOW! * 15 TRACK CD OUT NOW!
on ASTRALWERKS.
"People grew up immersed in this stuff – that 8-bit, blippy sound speaks to them on a deep level. It’s taking back a pure and total part of our childhood and turning it into something crazy and new" – Mike Rosenthal, artistic director, Blip Festival, NYC in XLR8R magazine, November 2006
A labor of love, many years in the making, Astralwerks is pleased to present a various artist covers compilation, featuring interpretations of classic Kraftwerk songs, arranged primarily on lo-bit handheld gaming devices, vintage video game consoles and obsolete 8 bit home computers, revered for the rich and distinctive sound of their lo-bit microchips. This video game-influenced branch of electronic music, sometimes referred to as ‘chiptune’, ‘bitpop’ or just ‘8-bit’, has developed a flourishing international live scene, and is one of the first new genres of music to use the internet to its fullest advantage, with the advent of home-brewed synth cartridges and hacker influenced musical tools.
As one of the New York chip artists Glomag said in a 2004 Art Forum interview, "We've made Kraftwerk's phrase 'I'm the operator with my Pocket Calculator' more apt than ever”.
Conceived and compiled by long-time electronic artist and 8-bit composer Jeremy Kolosine(a.k.a. Receptors), the 8-BIT OPERATORS collection features some of the top 8-bit artists from North America, South America and Europe, a selection of the best musical innovators, and several of the inventors themselves.
01. Bacalao - The Robots (Die Roboter) - Switzerland
02. Glomag - Pocket Calculator - USA
03. Covox - Computer Love - Sweden
04. Role Model - Showroom Dummies - Sweden
05. Nullsleep - The Model - USA
06. David E. Sugar – Radioactivity - UK
07. Oliver Wittchow – Kristallo - Germany
08. 8-Bit Weapon – Spacelab - USA
09. firestARTer - Computer World (Computerwelt) - Germany
10. Neotericz - Electric Café - Argentina
11. Receptors - Trans Europe Express - USA
12. Herbert Weixelbaum – Tanzmusik - Austria
13. Bubblyfish - It's More Fun To Compute - USA
14. Bit Shifter – Antenna - USA
15. gwEm and Counter Reset - The Man-Machine (Die Mensch-Maschine) - UK
ALSO OUT NOW:
An exclusive 12" inch single (and digital download equivalent) features 2 tracks available only on this 12 inch single:
* 8-BIT OPERATORS' amazing Glomag MEGA-MIX of “Pocket Calculator” (featuring 0x7f, Bit Shifter, Bubblyfish, firestARTer, Hey Kid Nice Robot, Ladybug, M-.-n, Nullsleep, Psilodump, Sidabitball, and David E Sugar) plus an exclusive version of :
* “The Robots” by L.A.'s 8-BIT !
HEAR 8-BIT OPERATORS "Pocket Calculator"(MEGA MIX)! NOW AVAILABLE! Exclusively on Vinyl & download at your favorite record merchant and at ITUNES.
"Is the technofuturist tunage of Kraftwerk not geeky enough for you? Interface with this tribute album to Düsseldorf's finest, which was made by some of the biggest artists in the chiptune world."
Wired Mag
"As forward thinking as Kraftwerk were, they also had an enduring fondness for the pleasure of nostalgia. And the music here draws from that well, adds a twist, and finds a way to look to the future and the past at the same time."
Pitchfork
"If you find a way to hack into my nintendo so this is playing along to Mike Tyson' Punch Out, I will never leave the house."
Village Voice
"Unlike just about every Kraftwerk tribute record to date, 8-Bit Operators is the modern(wel, throw back modern) response to the producers and bands who have failed to pay proper homage to machine music's innovators."
XLR8R
"its clear that only the vintage gaming audio suited this compilation- no other method captures the mechanical mindset and imaginative potential of a band as important as Kraftwerk."
Weekly Geek
"immerses the listener in a strange, swirling temporal vortex of music written by a futuristic electronic band in the late '70s and early '80s, reimagined by retro-holic musicians in 2006 using a sound palette straight out of a video game console circa 1981, with technical flourishes only available in software invented in the last five years."
Orlando Weekly
"While there have been tribute albums to Kraftwerk before, perhaps the most inspired attempt at reinterpreting the German group's canon arrives in the form of 8-Bit Operators' The Music Of Kraftwerk album."
1 Up
"Anyone with an olde fashioned Nintendo will get a kick out of the music, and it does not come off as a novelty either (something increasingly hard to do with tribute discs)."
Static
"These tracks stay true to the roots of each song, yet bring something of each artists style to the mix; walking the line between rocking out and robo-boogie. The CD has 15 tracks, and would be a great mix for any party, dance, or at work at those times when you need to embrace your inner drone."
Retro Thing
"Put out by the [micro]superstars of the chiptuniverse, 8-Bit Operators, these lo-bit microchipmeisters and their homemade circuit-bent contraptions actually seem worthy enough to cover the classics of Der Düsseldorf Man-Machines."
Robot Sound
"This tribute with a twist is far from silly, even if it sounds rather goofy on paper.8-Bit Operators is a collective of electronic bands that constructs tracks out of blips, bleeps and blasts from vintage video games. 8-Bit Operators joins forces here to re-create the pioneering songs of Kraftwerk with astonishing results."
Boston Herald
8-BIT OPERATORS CD : "I WANNA HOLD YOUR HANDHELD" RECEPTORS full length CD : " LO " .
MOMMY WAS AN ASTEROID EP : "MORPHBALLS" .
RECEPTORS "USER" EP coming soon:
Ksine
of Receptors by Jesse Turnbull, promo for upcoming"LO" album.
ReceptorsMusic CD/Vinyl- 8-BIT OPERATORS- An 8-Bit Tribute to Kraftwerk on Astralwerks Jan '07!
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Check out the free 8-bit/chiptune mp3's on the audio page.
CLARK HUMPHREY / NO PHASE RECORDS RELEASES(1980-2001 archives) :
