8-bit operators: a tribute to the music of kraftwerk

8-bit operators: a tribute to the music of kraftwerk (astralwerks)

i picked up this album as a promo in a cut-out bin in a local record store for 99 cents. i’m a gigantic fan of kraftwerk and the idea of doing a tribute to this band using 8-bit technology sounded interesting to me, so i bought it immediately.

before this tribute, i had no idea what 8-bit music was. most artists in the scene don’t use the term 8-bit, rather they like to use either chiptune or chip music –it all depends on who you ask. after doing some background checking into some of the bands on the tribute, i found out that some of these are considered the best of the best, and i’ve been able to see some of these artists live when i attended the blip festival in new york this part year.

kraftwerk is such an integral part to electronic music that tributes never do the band much justice, and i’ve heard some absolutely terrible tribute albums to them over the years. fortunately, this is the best–and the most original–that i’ve heard to date.

like i stated before, this is by far the best tribute to kraftwerk i’ve heard and there are definite stand-outs on this compilation, most notably: the robots by bacalao, the model by nullsleep, and the amazing it’s more fun to compute by bubblyfish, who i got the opportunity to witness perform this live at blip fest 2008.