Battery Operated Orchestra - Flouoro Sushi

With our recent love of chiptune sounding pop increasing by the day ever since TeamRKT released their most recent E.P, it's great to come across another duo doing such fun things with bleeps and bloops. In this case, it is Battery Operated Orchestra.

Battery Operated Orchestra are a Brighton based husband and wife duo, originally from Glasgow and Tasmania respectively. They've got a debut album out next week, and to give you a slice of what to expect, here's "Fluoro Sushi", a chirpy, analogue powered electro-pop tune that sounds like a fun, childlike version of Chvrches, full of fun and devoid of irony.

Their album, "Incomplete Until Broken", is released on September 10th.

TeamRKT - Cat Island

Portstewart based chiptune-pop duo TeamRKT continue to extend their reach to the stars above with the release of their new single, "Cat Island". Presumably taking its name from Tashirojima, an island in Japan with an usually large stray cat population, the song continues the band's pechant for mixing guitars with beats and electronics sourced from Gameboys to create something that is fun, easygoing, and somewhat euphoric.

To coincide with the single's release, the band have released a neko-tastic music video to accompany "Cat Island". The rather bonkers promo features the band's cat quitting its job to go on a globe trotting adventure, and is well worth checking out.

The "Cat Island" E.P will be released in August, with the single available to download now.

TeamRKT - Rare Candy

Over the past month, everyone's favourite Portstewart based chiptune-rock duo with a Pokémon derived moniker, TeamRKT, have been releasing a brand new track weekly as part of their "Free Track Friday" project. The fifth such track, "Rare Candy" (which takes its name from an item from the Pokémon games which allows the creatures to advance in power quickly), has been released, and like previous TeamRKT songs that have come before it, it is a joyous little piece of video-game pop with a great big chorus.

Even more excitingly, the band have released a music video to coincide with the song's release. It's a fun home-made video which takes inspiration from old-school video games and that Blackberry ad that Tame Impala did the soundtrack for.

"Rare Candy" can be downloaded for free from TeamRKT's Bandcamp page.

Fulhäst - What Do You See?

The humble classic Gameboy. Even though it hasn't been available to buy in your local Argos for over 10 years, its bleepy-bloopy charm is still the backbone of a generation of chiptune artists. Locally, it has been TeamRKT that have been winning us over with their quirky mix of handheld-generated beats and guitar riffs. 

On the other side of the Irish Sea, that role falls to Fulhäst (Swedish for ugly horse), the London based moniker of Nik, who was formerly a member of cult indie-poppers Ace Bushy Striptease. With a new E.P forthcoming, he's made the first single to be taken from it, "What Do You See?", available as a free download. The song combines 8-bit electronics with power chords and sardonic lyrics to great effect.

The second E.P from Fulhäst, "Broken", will be released on July 29th. 

(Update 9th July: I have been informed that Nik has never been a member of Ace Bushy Striptease, but was in fact a member of Moustache of Insanity. Apologies for any confusion caused).  

Team RKT - Living The Dream E.P

I absolutely, positively love to hear local music that is imbued with glorious, youthful, pop orientated fun. This is why it's great to hear new material from Team RKT, a duo hailing from Portstewart. Having touched upon them last month when they were longlisted for Chordblossom's Kickstart competition (and have subsequently made the shortlist for), the band have now released their first official E.P, "Living The Dream", which is a jolly fun ride indeed.

The band describe their sound as "chiptune rock", generating music through Gameboys and adding guitars. Although truth be told, only two of the tracks on the E.P really match up to this description - "LTD", with its heavy drums and 'Sonic rings' percussion, and "Homerun", a track which sounds like a version of 3OH!3 that you don't want to repeatedly punch in the face*.

Perhaps the best descriptor of the E.P is the simplest one - this is a pop record, through and through. The opening track, "Break Out", is a gorgeous slice of escapist pop in the Owl City mould, albeit one which does veer towards lo-fi electronics (listen to the perfectly pitched synth-solo from 1:43). The final track, "Above The Clouds" is the most guitar orientated song, yet still stays firmly in the pop landscape, coming off like a fizzier Darwin Deez.

"Living The Dream" probably won't be seen as the best E.P released in Northern Ireland this year, but it surely is going to be the most fun. Team RKT feel like a breath of fresh air on the local scene. Finally, we have a male-fronted equivalent to The Wonder Villains.

The "Living The Dream" E.P is available to download for free.





*Disclaimer - The Metaphorical Boat does not endorse violence again any American electro duos, regardless of their artistic merit.