Nineteen Ninety Never

Proceeds go to charity. Seems like a good idea.

Have you played Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP yet? You need to.

This iPad/iPhone game is the mythopoetic adventure that is sweeping Twitter. Seriously, just do a search for #Sworcery to see what I’m talking about.

The game also has a great soundtrack by Jim Guthrie.

Listen to the track below, then buy the game and full album on iTunes.

Jim Guthrie - The Ballad of the Space Babies

Learn more (including links to download the game) at SwordAndSworcery.com

The following post is from Thomas Fortunato, a freelance writer from U S of A who will be writing the occasional field report for us.

NEW YORK CITY—Babycastles, named for bite-sized Portuguese cakes in Japan, is the city’s first independent video games arcade, has been showcasing indie videogames, large-scale art installations, and local chiptune music at the Showpaper 42nd Street Gallery in Manhattan.

I attended the venue on November 4th with my friend Mox, who invited me to come with her and watch her boyfriend, New York chip musician Zen Albatross, perform at the gallery for the “Heavenly Symphony” event organized as a joint venture between Babycastles and videogame culture shop Attract Mode. Performing with Zen Albatross were chip musicians Nullsleep, and George & Jonathan.
Admission was free to get into Babycastles, although drinks were rather pricey: $5 for a can of beer, and $6 for bottles. If I recall correctly, shots of vodka or whiskey were $1. Behind the bar was quite possibly the most addictive video game at the arcade: the “hug machine.”

The hug machine was an old television set with two buttons for controls, one on each side of the box, causing the player to “hug” the machine by putting one hand on each of the buttons. One button makes the on-screen cursor go up, the other makes it go down, and the player must navigate the cursor through a rapidly scrolling “tunnel” without hitting either the ceiling or the floor. The hug machine had very basic black-and-white graphics reminiscent of Pong or MS Dos.

The rest of the games at the arcade were considerably more artistically inspired, both in regards to the graphics in the games themselves the graffiti- and anime-inspired imagery painted on the physical box that housed the hardware. All the machines were for sale, Mox informed me, with one such game carrying an alleged price tag of $5,000.

Nullsleep - Dirty (ROM Dance Mix)

zen Albatross - Masada Gestalt

Hit up Zen Albatross on Twitter, Nullsleep on Twitter and George and Jonathan on Twitter

Then make you sure you follow Nineteen Ninety Never on Twitter. That shit is the future.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how much I loved the design of the Gotta Dance Dirty website, and the guy who made it, Falco, left me a comment to say I should check out his site.

It turns out he does design work for a whole bunch of artists, and seeing his graphics for Bubblegum Sci Fi made me want to give them a listen.

Here’s a couple of their sci-fi-tastic remixes that I picked up from around the web:

Chromeo - Night by Night (Bubblegum Sci Fi Remix)

Passion Pit - The Reeling (Bubblegum Sci Fi Remix)

Check out Falco’s website for more, and let me know if you think Bubblegum Sci Fi got their name from The Bubblegum Crisis. Either way, I totally think The Knight Sabers would be an equally bad-ass band or DJ name.

I know that I normally include a photo with each one of my posts here, but in this case I’m making an exception. The reason I’m making an exception is because (as Claudio who first showed me this video pointed out), every frame looks like a photo.

Watch the whole thing - right through to the credits.

Hecq vs Exillion - Spheres of Fury

I wish I knew more about the track, but the most I can find is Hecq’s MySpace.

Word is that back in the day the CIA distributed a booklet to Nicaraguan citizens about how to upset the government. You can check it out here, or look at some pictures from it below.

These totally make me want to start bringing a dry, compressed sponge to parties.

I also like the idea that a government can be toppled with false hotel reservations.

On a related note, Taliesin is distributing a pretty wicked mix that I’m sure will upset someone. (I guess he’s part of Dutty Artz, whatever that means). Full track list is below.

Taliesin mix

NGUZUNGUZU - HATE2WAIT (Kingdom Refix)
“?????” - Kubo Remix
Dev79 - In Ya Face
CardoPusher - Low End Legacy
Vybz Kartel - Empire Army
Dead Prez - Politrikkks
Wisp - Whisper
Thark - Apatia
BD-1982 - Seeing Orange
Connor- Belles
Aleister Crowley - Gnostic Mass
Duran Duran Duran - Unholy Dracula Vagina Alien
Flying Lo - RobertaFlack (feat. Dolly)
David Banner - Shawty Say (feat. Weezy)
Saigon - Come on Baby (Inst.)Bi
Mali - Pale Twop
Shit Mat - Big Ben’s Big Remix
Jahdan Blakkamoore - Bus it Pon Dem
Small Professor - Kelis

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I’ve got a ton of pictures from Japan that I’ve never really shown anyone.

Here are some from the Tokyo Auto Salon that my friend Datablend took me to. Apparentally it is the world’s biggest customized car show. That means that there are no stock cars, everyone single one has been modified in some way.

It also means that there are a ton of car babes.

To continue with the Japanese theme, here are some tracks that Takeuchi sent me. I really dig that Kills one because I listened to them a lot while I was living in Japan.

The Kills - Cheap and Cheerful (Hoshina Anniversary Remix)

Cut Copy - Heart on Fire (Hoshina Anniversary Remix)

Hoshina Anniversary - House Trance On Love

Digitalism - Take Away (Hoshina Anniversary Remix

Gambate!

For no real reason, here is a picture of a white tiger with the text “Tabloid Fodder” and some black lines I added using a pen and a ruler.

Thanks to my blogalicious friend Maria Sophia for pointing out this wicked track.

Trash Yourself - Touch (AC Slater Remix) (via Fancy Sounds)

CSS - A La La (Hydroz Remix)

Lykke Li - Little Bit (Autoerotique Bootleg Remix)

A-Trak  - Say Whoa (Boyz Noize Remix)

Blaqstar - Shake It To The Ground