Review Summary: Jazz and chiptune come together in this infectious gem.
Chiptune has been spun into just about everything imaginable at this point - Victory Road has made it pop-punk, Danimal Cannon has made it progressive rock/dubstep , Disasterpeace crushed it into ambient electronic, and Anamanaguchi turned it into basically everything else on last year's "Endless Fantasy". So when I read about Protodome earlier this week, I was surprised that I hadn't heard of a combination of chiptune and various forms of jazz music before - after all, all of the other fusions before it worked, why shouldn't this? One listen proved me right - "Blueshift" is an engaging little album that combines the relentless energy of 8-bit music with the chord structures and improvisational solos of jazz. It's not the most memorable chiptune material out there, but it's definitely some of the most original.
"Blueshift" is the third and final release in Protodome's "Blue" trilogy, and easily the most advanced and varied. Opener "This is BLUESHIFT." could easily be one of the machine stages in a 2D Sonic the Hedgehog release, "Oh I Feel Just Fine..." is a fun pop song with silly lyrics about making macaroni and feeling happy, and "Here's One I Made Earlier..." is a straight jazz piece with trumpets and piano, only with 8-bit taking over where the bass and saxophone solos would be. All of this variety is crammed into under twenty-three minutes. It's designed a lot like the Adult Swim lineup - if something isn't your speed, it's only a minute or two until the next thing comes on and has a chance to grab your attention again. Those looking for meatier songs that expand on their ideas will be disappointed, but if you're just searching for something novel to spend a few minutes of a Saturday afternoon jamming to, this is your album.
