It’s not too often that I’m going to waltz in here and brag about the packaging of a CD, since it’s so frequently tangential to the contents of said CD, but given this disc’s retro-video game theme, it has the coolest possible case: the disc is black on both sides, and comes in a soft-lined floppy disk sleeve cut open at the top. The floppy sleeve comes in the traditional paper envelope, and by God, it looks like a 5 1/4″ floppy.
Now let’s talk about what happens when you actually play it. The entire CD consists of remixed tunes straight out of a Commodore 64 SID chip. For those who haven’t thought about it in quite a while, the SID chip was the secret behind the C64’s unique musical abilities, and the songs heard here are all from games that made the best use of the SID back in the 80s heyday of that computer. Seth Sternberger adds his own unique touch, usually a somewhat more robust beat than the SID could’ve produced by itself, and the result is as catchy as it is unique. Remixing video game music may not be anything new, to be sure, but this is a case where the artist doing the remixing makes it his own.
The third and fourth tracks are easily my favorites on here, but it’s all good and highly recommended. As of the time of this review, the 8-Bit Weapon CD is available in a special deal with Sternberger’s solo CD Unfortunate Brain Chemistry. And if you ever get the chance to see him play live at Classic Gaming Expo or some other venue, Seth puts on quite a colorful show.
- Times of Lore intro (remix) (0:54)
- Neuromancer Ending (Warhol Edit) 2.0 (1:46)
- MULE (Bitblaster mix) (2:20)
- Inspector Gadget (GoGo MIX) (0:58)
- Crazy Comets (Orbital Decay Mix) 2.0 (4:45)
- Chimera (Miles mix) (3:53)
- Spy vs Spy II (Drunk n basement mix) 2.0 (2:55)
- Bards Tale II – Sanctuary Score (Ybarras Mystic mix) (1:45)
- Defender of the Crown Theme (down 4 da Crown mix) (1:01)
- Movie Monsters Game (disco terror mix) (2:08)
- I.G.U.S.T.R.A. (full bit mix) (3:43)
- Commodore C 64 (bit blitz mix) (3:00)
- Boulderdash Theme (Dirty bass mix) (0:47)
- Acidgroove (Orchestral mix) (4:35)
- Agas Sram (Alien Vinyl mix) (3:06)
- Mars Saga (MrJetlands slow jam mix) (2:02)
- Defender of the Crown Romance (on the downlow mix) (1:15)
- Times of Lore Title (Epic Hendrix Mix) (7:49)
Released by: Brainscream
Release date: 2003
Total running time: 48:42
