Kevin Balke, aka V-Axys, is a Gamer through and through. Born in Germany, he met his co-hort in music crime in 5th grade. Now that he's all grown up his passion is composing music and shredding his guitar! He founded the Music Entertainment System with Nesmic, a fellow artist and friend.
"How Does This Work", his self proclaimed, 'first attempt at bleeps and bloops' comes off as very put together. The mic check, or "Chipcheck", as the opening track sells Kevin's Chiptune ability immediately. "Glee", his second track, hits like a slap in the face with fist-pumping ChipPop cheerfulness. Definitely, "Glee" stands out as the best of the bunch. The happy continues into "Space Rocket", where the pace is quick and the harmony is swooping.
Coming into the second-half of the album, the mood hits a wall with "Overscale", which seems like it should've been a ballad, but then hit a riff that seemed to repeat itself for a good minute-and-a-half too long. The change continues with track 5, "4x4 Burrito". It's hard to pin this one down as a ChipDance tune or the Composer trying to get into the gritty and test out how much he can put into a song without completely destroying it. "Burrito" is also the longest song on the album, at 5:21.
"How Does This Work", his self proclaimed, 'first attempt at bleeps and bloops' comes off as very put together. The mic check, or "Chipcheck", as the opening track sells Kevin's Chiptune ability immediately. "Glee", his second track, hits like a slap in the face with fist-pumping ChipPop cheerfulness. Definitely, "Glee" stands out as the best of the bunch. The happy continues into "Space Rocket", where the pace is quick and the harmony is swooping.
Coming into the second-half of the album, the mood hits a wall with "Overscale", which seems like it should've been a ballad, but then hit a riff that seemed to repeat itself for a good minute-and-a-half too long. The change continues with track 5, "4x4 Burrito". It's hard to pin this one down as a ChipDance tune or the Composer trying to get into the gritty and test out how much he can put into a song without completely destroying it. "Burrito" is also the longest song on the album, at 5:21.
Rounding out the album, track 6 "Link Cable", gets back to the uplift party from the start. The 6 track album ends on a high note and stays there across two bonus tracks. "White Clouds" makes you feel like you should be jiving in a pub and "Green Pipes", as it's name sake suggests, relies heavily on Mario 3 sound chip emulation and thumping bass. You're gonna wish you were searching for Princess in a different castle.
Overall, the album is well worth the $4.05 US price tag. V-Axys has definitely hit the scene running with this first Chip effort. I'm looking forward to listening to Kevin's sophomore Chiptune effort. I believe he has the talent to put something great into the void.
Overall, the album is well worth the $4.05 US price tag. V-Axys has definitely hit the scene running with this first Chip effort. I'm looking forward to listening to Kevin's sophomore Chiptune effort. I believe he has the talent to put something great into the void.
Written by Ryan H