Inverse Phase | |
|---|---|
 Inverse Phase performing. | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Brendan Becker |
| Born | October 1979 (age 44) United States [1] |
| Origin | Baltimore, Maryland [2] |
| Genres | Chiptune |
| Occupation(s) |
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| Website | inversephase |
Brendan Becker, known by his stage name Inverse Phase, [3] is an American video game composer [1] and chiptune musician, using Atari, Commodore, and Nintendo hardware. He also speaks and hosts workshops on video game music, chiptunes, and composing. [4]
Becker, born in America in 1979, claims to have had a typical childhood where he was obsessed with video games and Saturday-morning cartoons. While he was enrolled in a piano class at an early age, he did not keep interest due to attention span issues. However, his interest in computers, programming, and music led him to the demoscene. He soon began composing music with a music tracker for games written by his grade school friends, as well as various remixes and covers. [5]
In 2010, Becker received extensive media coverage for his NES parody of CeeLo Green's single, "Fuck You". [6] A month later, the soundtrack to the video game Super Meat Boy featured his song "Boss Burger N' Chips", a remix of the first and second level boss themes. [7]
In mid-2011, Becker announced that he had gone full-time with his music and was working on multiple game soundtracks. [8] Later that year, he released soundtracks to Super Smash Land and Shuttle Scuttle, handing out copies of the latter to MAGFest X attendees at a secret show shortly thereafter. [9]
In June 2012, he released Pretty Eight Machine , a tribute album of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails' 1989 debut album Pretty Hate Machine . [10] [11] Inverse Phase had been able to raise $3,654 for making and promoting the album through the crowdfunding website Kickstarter. [12] Rob Sheridan, who is associated with Nine Inch Nails, tweeted about the album shortly after its release. [13]
While fulfilling kickstarter rewards for Pretty Eight Machine, Becker released Treachery in Beatdown City: Episode 1 EP, [14] the soundtrack to a game seeking funding on Kickstarter in 2014. [15] The kickstarter names Inverse Phase as the composer for the rest of the game, which was released in 2020. He also plans to tribute U2 as well as more Nine Inch Nails, which he claims to be one of his favorite acts. [16]
Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN, stylized as NIИ, is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland in 1988. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Trent Reznor was the only permanent member of the band until his frequent collaborator, Atticus Ross, joined in 2016. The band's debut album, Pretty Hate Machine (1989), was released via TVT Records. After disagreeing with TVT about how to promote the album, the band signed with Interscope Records and released the EP Broken (1992). The following albums, The Downward Spiral (1994) and The Fragile (1999), were released to critical acclaim and commercial success.
Chiptune is a style of electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video game consoles. The term is commonly used to refer to tracker format music using extremely basic and small samples that an old computer or console could produce, as well as music that combines PSG sounds with modern musical styles. It has been described as "an interpretation of many genres" since any existing song can be arranged in a chiptune style defined more by choice of instrument and timbre than specific style elements.
Michael Trent Reznor is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. He serves as the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, which he founded in 1988 and of which he was the sole official member until 2016. The first Nine Inch Nails album, Pretty Hate Machine (1989), was a commercial and critical success. Reznor has since released 11 more Nine Inch Nails studio albums.
"Say It Ain't So" is a song by American rock band Weezer. It was released as the third and final single from the band's self-titled 1994 debut album on May 15, 1995. Written by frontman Rivers Cuomo, the song came to be after he had all the music finished and one line, "Say it ain't so". Cuomo made a connection to an incident in high school where he came home and saw a bottle of beer in the fridge. He believed his mother and father's marriage ended because his father was an alcoholic, and this made him fear the marriage between his mother and step-father would end this way as well.
Watch Out For Snakes is the pseudonym of Atlanta-based musician and producer Matt Baum. He is often credited as a pioneer of the chipwave genre, fusing elements of chiptune and synthwave.
MAGFest is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose mission is to make the world a better place through video game art, music, and culture. They hold multiple events throughout the year, with their flagship event being an annual festival held in the Washington metropolitan area the National Harbor. The events feature concerts by chiptune artists and video game cover bands, educational panels and activities, free-to-play arcade cabinets, a bring your own computer (BYOC) LAN party, community jam spaces, and charity speedruns & auctions.
The Megas, sometimes performing as The Belmonts, are a Los Angeles based independent video game cover band. They are primarily known for their work based on the Capcom franchise, Mega Man, but from 2016 onwards have also covered Castlevania tracks. They differentiate themselves from other artists in the scene by adding lyrics and blending original material with the games' melodies. The band gained initial popularity through Newgrounds and MySpace in the late 2000s, as well as their live performances at MAGfest, Nerdapalooza, and the Video Games Live tour. Capcom has occasionally promoted the group, and used their material to market Mega Man Universe in 2010.
Anamanaguchi is an American chiptune-based pop and rock band from New York City. The band has four members: lead songwriters and guitarists Peter Berkman and Ary Warnaar, bassist James DeVito, and drummer Luke Silas.
Math the Band is an American chiptune-based synthpunk band from Providence, Rhode Island formed in 2002 by Kevin Steinhauser. Originally being a solo project by Steinhauser, the band's style has been sometimes called Nintendocore. The band has performed over 1000 shows throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, and the United Kingdom, touring with bands, artists and rappers such as Andrew W.K., Japanther, Wheatus, MC Frontalot, Horse the Band MC Chris, Peelander-Z, Anamanaguchi and MC Lars. Math the Band has been featured in several magazines such as Venus Zine and Keyboard Magazine, and were also featured on NPR Music. Still, with band members spread across the United States, Math the Band is based in Providence, Rhode Island and are a part of Providence's AS220 and have performed there multiple times.
Nintendocore is a broadly defined style of music that most commonly fuses chiptune with various hardcore punk and/or heavy metal subgenres, most often metalcore and post-hardcore. The genre is sometimes considered a direct subgenre of post-hardcore and a fusion genre between metalcore and chiptune. The genre originated in the early 2000s and peaked around the late 2000s with bands like Horse the Band, I Fight Dragons, Math the Band, An Albatross, The NESkimos and Minibosses pioneering the genre.
Pretty Eight Machine is a tribute album by Inverse Phase, released on June 14, 2012. It features 8-bit covers of the 10 songs from Nine Inch Nails' 1989 debut album Pretty Hate Machine. The album was crowdfunded via Kickstarter. $3,654 was raised by 162 people for the production. The album was recorded on 8-bit systems arranged to the sound bytes of games and consoles, such as Metal Gear 2 and Castlevania 3. The sound configurations include SID/6581, POKEY, straight 2A03 (NES), SN76489, LR35902, and OPLL. The album artwork is based on Pretty Hate Machine's 2010 album artwork by Rob Sheridan. Trent Reznor and Rob Sheridan responded positively to the album.
Jimmy Hinson, also known as Big Giant Circles, is an American musician and composer in the video games industry. Originally adopting the name as a hobbyist submitting video game music remixes/rearrangements to OverClocked ReMix, Hinson now actively composes video game soundtracks. He has contributed to the soundtracks of Borderlands 2, Threes!, There Came an Echo, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix,Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Mass Effect 2. Hinson is credited with his work on several independent games including Pocket Mine and Extreme Roadtrip 2, and has contributed to OverClocked ReMix. His style has garnered him praise from Daniel Floyd of Extra Credits and Anthony and Ashly Burch of Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin'?, as well as positive press from Kotaku and GameTrailers.
Daniel Behrens, better known by his stage name Danimal Cannon, is an American video game composer and chiptune music performer. He is most known for combining guitar playing with Game Boy music. He is also known for his presentations on chipmusic, having hosted panels at Penny Arcade Expo, YouTube tutorials, a TEDx Talk, and a Game Boy masterclass workshop at Blip Festival 2012.
Niamh Houston, better known by her stage name Chipzel, is a musician from Northern Ireland. She is best known for making chiptune music, particularly with a Game Boy. She is also a video game music composer, and is known for the soundtracks of games such as Super Hexagon, Interstellaria, and Dicey Dungeons. Her music is also featured in other games such as Just Shapes and Beats and Spectra.
Franck Hueso, better known by his stage name Carpenter Brut, is a French darksynth artist from Poitiers, France. He has released three EPs, EP I (2012), EP II (2013) and EP III (2015), which were collected and released together as the album Trilogy (2015). He later released three additional studio albums, Leather Teeth (2018), Blood Machines OST (2020) and Leather Terror (2022), along with one live album, CarpenterBrutLive (2017). He has also contributed original music to a variety of soundtracks, both for film and video games.
Grant Henry, better known by his stage name Stemage, is an American guitarist and composer. He is known for his video game and television soundtracks, including Cartoon Network's animated series Steven Universe. He is also known for his involvement in several video game cover projects, including Metroid Metal and Viking Guitar.
Dr. Zilog is a chiptune metal trio from Denver, Colorado. The band blends 8-bit chiptune melodies with real guitars and drums.
The music of Deltarune comprises multiple soundtrack albums created and scored by Toby Fox. The first soundtrack album was released on Bandcamp on November 1, 2018, a day after the game was launched. In collaboration with Fangamer, Fox released the first chapter's soundtrack on vinyl in 2019.
Chris Davidson, better known by his stage name DJ Cutman, is an American chiptune DJ. He is known for his remixes of video game soundtracks through his label GameChops, such as Zelda & Chill, as well as his live performances at video game events and his web series This Week in Chiptune. His stage name and costume during live performances are derived from the Mega Man character Cut Man.
Treachery in Beatdown City is a beat 'em up video game by NuChallenger and HurakanWorks. Although designed to be look like a retro video game, the gameplay combines elements of turn-based tactics games and Japanese role-playing games.
Pretty Hate Machine by @nineinchnails recreated, in its entirety, in 8-bit chiptune (by @inversephase): http://inversephase.bandcamp.com/album/pretty-eight-machine …
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