April 2014

By Nick Smalley, with help from Luke ‘GFD’ Benjamins.

The intro really makes the song. The pacing’s well done too: it bounces between slow, tired spots to frenetic, crazy speed.

Image source: MSPaint Adventures.

His smut has been forged into a formidable blade, capable of bringing elves to tears, John, too.

By Robert J! Lake

It’s hard to describe why, but this song gives off that ‘penultimate’ vibe. Really, like it’s building up to the end, but it’s not quite there. Like you’re on the eerily quiet path towards the end boss. Those weird stereo swishes are something else.

Images source: MSPaint Adventures.

Yeah. Attack the elf that just granted you two wishes. Nice going, there, chief. Now why does this scene look familiar?

A Common Occurance (Every Night, To Be Exact) (by Robert J! Lake) is one of the bonus tracks on the album (the whole album can be downloaded here). The song itself is a little bit too chaotic for my tastes.

Useful or Otherwise (by Robert J! Lake) is another one of the bonus tracks. The intro rolls off into a metronomic, basic ticking, and a new beat is added every few measures afterwards.

What was that stage show that was taking America by storm years ago? The one where it’s just a bunch of people standing on a set, but then they start making music with everyday objects! Oh. Stomp. It was Stomp. This is a little bit like that, I guess.

b a w s (by Nick Smalley) is yet another bonus song on the album… well, it’s not really a song, it’s more like max score at skeeball. Yet it makes me feel as though I accomplished something.

Softbit (Original GFD Please Shut the Fuckass Mix By Request Demo Version) by Robert J! Lake (whoa that’s a mouthful) is the last bonus track on the album.

Even simpler still than the version of this song earlier in the album. Even though it’s pretty basic, there’s parts of it I like even better than the more polished version.

RATING: 7 / 13 – this activity has been a nice diversion

Welcome to Jailbreak Vol 1, the unofficial soundtrack for the brief webcomic of the same name. I rather like the implication of more albums to come for this 134-page comic, Normally I’d be 100% sure that this was facetious, but in this fandom, who knows.

As someone whose first real game console was an NES, naturally I have a soft spot in my heart for chiptune music. This album delivers a megadose of 8-bit fundamental waveform mania. Some of these songs could have been pulled straight from an old game’s background ambiance.

That being said, by no means is it perfect. It’s one-dimensional (duh), and it loses a bit of steam in the middle tracks. But it’s a fun album to listen to.

Since it’s an unofficial compilation, it’s available for full download completely free of charge: you can download it in MP3 format (as well as some bonus NSF files, which can be played back in native chiptune format) here from GameFreakDude’s DropBox.

Click here for individual song reviews for Jailbreak Vol 1.