Hard-hitting Osaka producer 99Letters has been releasing pounding new numbers at a steady clip over November over at his Bandcamp page, running from somewhat misty to bludgeoning. “Bahamut” leans towards the latter, and actually increases the intensity — impressive for an artist who turned Game Boy blips into slabs of concrete. The beats hit extra…
By now, it isn’t news that Osaka’s 99Letters has expanded beyond the initial chiptune-fury of his early years towards something heading off in other directions too — he’s released whole albums of slightly uneasy house music, and has shown a stylistic hopping. Still, “Mind A” is the most relaxed I think I’ve heard the producer,…
When producer 99 Letters first caught our attention all the way back in 2009 (!), the music he was making aggressive chiptune music, a series of bleeps and bloops rendered a bit more crushing. He stuck at this for a while — and was very good at it — but he’s taken a step in…
Video game noises are no longer just a novelty, a cheap sonic trick used to evoke a decade long gone. Despite several hard drives worth of shitty chiptune music floating across the Internet in 2013, the last few years has seen 8-bit bloops legitimized, to some degree. Crystal Castles cop moves from the Silent Hill…
Though this line gets rolled out anytime I write about Osaka’s 99 Letters, it’s still a vital disclaimer – this is not simple novelty, nor is it the sound of some kid desperately clinging to his youth by rocking out to the Kirby’s Pinball soundtrack in his room. Nope, this is someone taking a particular…