Friendship Park, by Big Blue Bazooka

Friendship Park

by Big Blue Bazooka

supported by

ehSteve This album brings me back to a simpler time while remaining wholly new.

daneascott this makes me long to play a video game that has yet to exist

more...

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Friendship Park on CD
Manufactured by Kunaki

Includes unlimited streaming of Friendship Park via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	Across the Sea 00:52	info	buy track
2.	Blue Beach Buoy 02:00	info	buy track
3.	Marching On 02:03	info	buy track
4.	Astro Girl 01:46	info	buy track
5.	Into the Well 02:44	info	buy track
6.	Colombian Necktie NES 02:06	info	buy track
7.	Come and Lay Me Down 02:44	info	buy track
8.	Forest of Angels 02:46	info	buy track
9.	Goldfish Walk 01:22	info	buy track
10.	TED 01:09	info	buy track
11.	Special K 00:30	info	buy track
12.	Dying Intel 8253 00:30	info	buy track
13.	Level Complete 00:03	info	buy track
14.	I’m Just a Kid 01:43	info	buy track
15.	Into the Devil's Lair 04:59	info	buy track
16.	I Really Want to Know 01:45	info	buy track
17.	K-Hole 02:23	info	buy track
18.	Shadow Showdown 03:39	info	buy track
19.	Another Day of Endless Pain 05:09	info	buy track
20.	The Colour of the Wind 03:03	info	buy track
21.	Huey, Dewey and Louie 01:33	info	buy track
22.	The Kingdom is Saved 01:41	info	buy track
23.	Friendship Park 02:13	info	buy track

about

The idea of this album was to create music for different retro sound chips while staying true to the limitations of the hardware in order to create authentic sounding music that could be programmed and played on real hardware.

Some of the staples of being true to the hardware means that most of the time you have to work with a very limited amount of voices, most often 3 voices and a noise channel, but some chips only use three voices and no noise/percussion channel and others have as little as only 2 square wave voices.
The album includes music made from simple sound chips to FM synthesis to sample based sequencer music of the SPC700 sound chip used in the Super Nintendo game console.

I really enjoyed writing with limited voices such as with the NES' three part harmony limitations, it made me have to think differently about composing and harmonisation compared to when I can have as many tracks and voices as I want in modern sound production. The simplicity in both tones and harmony limitations was refreshing to work with.

Some of my biggest inspirations for making chiptune music come from Koji Kondo, who I believe is the most significant and remarkable composer of retro game console music. I am also a huge fan of Grant Kirkhope who I absolutely adore and who cultivated my love for Low fidelity sample based sequencer music as seen in his work on the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 game consoles.

The sound chips used on this album (with the systems they are most notably found in) are:
Intel P8253 (IBM PC compatibles)
Yamaha YM2413/OPLL (Japanese Sega Master System, Yamaha PSS-170 and PSS-270 Keyboard)
Yamaha YM2423/OPLL-X (Philips PMC100, FM Melody Maker)
Yamaha YMF281/OPLL-P (Pachinko/Pachislot machines)
DMG (Game Boy)
RP2A03 (NES)
RP2A03 + MMC5 (NES + MMC5 mapper expansion)
AY-3-8910 (Atari ST, MSX, ZX Spectrum, and arcade games such as 1942, Elevator Action and Moon Patrol)
SID (Commodore 64)
SPC700 (Super Nintendo)
CASIO VL-1 (Casio VL-Tone VL-1 instrument)
M5232 (Korg Poly800)
SN76489 (ColecoVision, Neo Geo Pocket, Sega SG-1000, Sega Game Gear, Tandy 1000)
D1771C (Super Cassette Vision)
NEC D65010G031 (Casio PV-1000)
MOS Technology TED 8360 (Commodore Plus/4 and 16)
Yamaha YM2612 / OPN2 (Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, FM Towns, Sega System 32)

credits

released June 24, 2023

Written*, sequenced, produced and mixed by Nicholas Kempson

*Except for Colombian Necktie NES (Written by Big Black)

Artwork by scipai (www.instagram.com/scipai/)

license

Some rights reserved. Please refer to individual track pages for license info.

about

Big Blue Bazooka Melbourne, Australia

I'm Nick Kempson, a DIY musician from Melbourne, Australia.

I started out playing bass guitar and it all went from there.

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