»Killbots EP« by Blasterhead

Having been beguiled by the retro bleep sensibilities of Japanese videogame composer Akihiro Ito, aka Blasterhead, ever since hearing some of his Nintendo GameBoy tracks via Osaka-based ‘chiptune’ meta-site Vorc.org, we hunted him down, and the results of this predatory action come in the form of the wonderful GameBoy-based rave bleep release you see before you, ‘Killbots EP’.

When he’s not sneaking off for some GameBoy rave action, Blasterhead is sometimes sneaking GB sounds into the soundtracks of the PC hentai dating games he provides music for, and is now providing music for (non-adult!) Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 versions of the (distinctly risque!) Kero-Q PC dating title Moekko Company (Moekan), about ‘an enigmatic man served unquestioningly by five beautiful maids with equally mysterious pasts.’

But we get the fruits of his Killbot spree, non-mysteriously and immediately, and the EP, originally released as a 500-copy limited-edition CD with the addition of a (non-included) live track, and largely composed with the homebrew Nintendo GameBoy music composition tool LittleSound DJ, starts with the almost robotic, percussively smart GameBoy romp of ‘Skyblue Monday’, before seguing into the sirens and pitch bends of the rave-like ‘Killbots’. The rest of the EP is similarly sparkling, with ‘We Are Here’ a particular highlight, all intelligent repetition and danceable retro beats.