Blip, Bleep (Soundtracks To Imaginary Videogames)

Lucky Kitchen is a label started in NYC by Daniel Raffel, Alejandra Salinas and Aeron Bergman in '96. I guess it would be considered an "artsy" label, but that's only because their releases are so diverse. They've released field recordings, family tapes, non-academic electro acoustic recordings (say it five times fast!) and were self-aware enough not to take themselves too seriously. Their releases feature incredible packaging, but the first batch came in numbered, hand crafted packages and the sounds contained therein were just as unique. All in all, Lucky Kitchen puts a lot of time and effort into their releases and it shows. Take a few minutes and visit their site and you'll be able to see the majority of their releases and their awesome packages.

Probably the best known release in Lucky Kitchen's catalogue is Blip, Bleep (Soundtracks To Imaginary Videogames), a wide spanning collection based on the rather obvious subject matter. When it comes to game-inspired music, I'm used to hearing a lot of 8-Bit style sounds, so it's a pleasure to hear music not confined to that rather limited palette. That's not to say the 8-Bit spirit isn't there, and it would be wrong if it was missing, but everything doesn't sound like Super Mario Bros and that's a blessing.

Blip, Bleep was issued in a quantity of 746 copies and was an instant hit. David Byrne and Jim O'Rourke praised it and the accursed Rolling Stone even interviewed the label for a planned article. That article didn't happen which is probably a good thing, but when there are only 746 copies in existence of a highly coveted release it's hard to gauge how the world would react to hearing more than mumbles about you. Because of that, a lot of tracks from Blip, Bleep were reissued on other compilations, but that's just not the same thing as having that hand-crafted package.

I searched for years for an original copy of the album, but the best I ever came up with was an excellent quality 256kbps rip. Thankfully, someone was nice enough to upload the packaging from their copy to Discogs.com and a perfect FLAC rip has since appeared online, so that's probably as close as we'll get to the real thing. So, today I present to you the aforementioned 256kbps MP3s with the artwork from Discogs.com for your listening (and viewing) pleasure. Of course, you should take the time and visit Lucky Kitchen's fascinating site for additional info about this and their other releases, and you can always also check the Discogs reference to see the original artwork in case you don't want to download the album. But if you haven't heard this one yet, grab it and enjoy. If you like videogames and/or videogame music, you'll most likely find yourself very pleased!


Blip, Bleep (Soundtracks To Imaginary Videogames)
Part One
Part Two

01 Nick Birmingham & Daniel Beattie - Trashcandan
02 V/Vm - The Swedish Model With Big Bazoomas and No Implants Bedding Game
03 Soundcard - Thula
04 Colongib - Megablasterfiend
05 Egghatcher - Chaos Equilibrium
06 Jake Mandell - Botanical Seppuku
07 Personal Electronics - A Seller's Variation's
08 Thug - Theme From Tsunami Brothers
09 Marumari - The Vaus
10 Blitter vs. Hrvatski - Nuclear Cats Get New Home
11 Flexible Products - Get Soaked
12 Aerospace Soundwise - 1985
13 MHAR66 - Access Denied
14 FlatlinerRacingSystem - Video Tic-Tac-Toe
15 Stupid Lepton - Star Cruncher
16 Wheaton Research - Soul Transport
17 Suetsu & Underwood - Family Tree Polo
18 Underwood - Leonardo DiCaprio Game