So, Crystal Castles use bleepy chiptunes sounds, although apparently separately from the chiptunes scene, just because they sound cool, and because they grew up with those noises just like we did:

It was only to create annoying sounds. That keyboard was made back in 2004 and then we learned about this whole 8-bit scene, which we don’t really have anything to do with. It’s a completely different world.

That’s cool. It sounds great, anyway.

However… this ‘different world’ story seems to be unravelling. It seems they’ve been using extensive samples of original chiptunes from the 8-bit community, and violating the licensing terms for attribution-required Creative Commons-licensed music. As n0wak says:

One time is, maybe, a careless mistake. Two, three, four times over is kleptomania. The worst part is that they distance themselves — a ‘completely different world’ — from the very same community that they are influenced by. Chiptunes? Not cool. Asshole douchebaggery? Totally hipster!

The 8bitpeoples response is worth reading too:

As you may have noticed, we release all our music under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND License here at 8bitpeoples. What this means is that you’re free to share it however you like, with whomever you like. All we ask in return is that you credit it appropriately, do not use it for any commercial purposes, and obtain permission before creating any derivative works (such as remixing it or using it as the soundtrack for a video). Crystal Castles has violated every term of this license in their use of Lo-Bat’s music.

If you’re going to sample from an underground scene, it’s only fair to credit and be cool about it. wtf.

While we’re talking about CC and chiptunes, check out this awesome 8-bit cover of ‘Crimewave’ ;) –

Dauragon88 - Crimewave (Crystal Castles cover)

Finally, while I’m posting — classic 1978 epic Italo-electro mp3 over at xxjfg — Automat, ‘The Rise, The Advance, the Genus’. Imagine a 16-minute long Kraftwerk tune with massive bombastic build-ups and breakdowns; a favourite of mine…

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 11:33 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response.