The Geek Jam Surgery

Episode 2 of The Geek Jam Surgery, the podcast where we take a deep dive into what makes your favorite geek-culture music (anime/TV/Film score/Games/nerdcore etc) remain on your go-to playlists. Bedroom musicians with no formal training and trained, professional musicians get together to dissect sections of popular geek culture songs to analyze the creative choices and technical execution of the music. Looking at topics such as; rhythm, melody, harmonies, chord movements, modulations plus engineering, mixing and mastering, hopefully learning something along the way. Its nerd music as described by music nerds.

In this episode, Paul, Sterling and Matthew are joined by 8-bit chip-tune creator Aaron Good to explore the nostalgia-laden world of 8-bit music. From original Nintendo classics, to contemporary re-imaginings, the creativity bred by hardware limitations and the challenges of bringing games to life with catchy loops is examined. Dust off your old consoles and get ready for a trip down memory lane.

Featured Clips –

• Shovel Knight – High Above the Land
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywaT65aXoq8&list=PLvNp0Boas723qPMNwQfX0yRRHP242XH0f&index=11
• Super Mario Land – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb33Qnbw520
• Castlevania II Bloody Tears https://youtu.be/EjazC45Qkww
• Final Fantasy – Prelude – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YtfErGrnKA

Glossary

Arpeggio – Is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. A broken chord may repeat some of the notes from the chord and span one or more octaves.

Diminuendo/Crescendo – The terms crescendo, and diminuendo (or sometimes decrescendo), mean a gradual getting louder or softer.

Absolute pitch (AP), often called perfect pitch, is a rare ability of a person to identify or re-create a given musical note without the benefit of a reference tone. AP can be demonstrated via linguistic labeling (“naming” a note), associating mental imagery with the note, or sensorimotor responses.

Trill – The trill is a musical ornament consisting of a rapid alternation between two adjacent notes, usually a semitone or tone apart, which can be identified with the context of the trill. It is sometimes referred to by the German Triller, the Italian trillo, the French trille or the Spanish trino

Stankin’ Wet – Please contact Sterling Brown for a definition

Octave – An octave is an interval (or a measure of distance between notes) that spans eight white keys on the piano keyboard. Notes that are separated by an octave are always referred to by the same letter name.

Recommendations
“Motorway” by Fearofdark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgH9oNdOTq4
“Makebelive Girl” by Wiklund and Joule
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJVEr7J4nRg
“Staring at my Spaceship” by Virt (Jake Kaufman)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR659nEq3w4

Undertale – Megalovania (chips + “real” instruments)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDgQdr8ZkTw

The Hit – TWRP – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOWWaRbZucE

8-bit Universe – https://www.youtube.com/user/8BitUniverseMusic

Cool stuff

Legend of Zelda theme visualized – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKXGDuKrCfA&t=6s

Super Mario 3 Gameplay with audio visualizations (you can see when the parts drop out to cover the sound effects) https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=154&v=xI3xZAn7r2A&feature=emb_logo

Legend of Zelda main theme Famicom Disk System vs. NES
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuKmBZb3af0