What does Sloopygoop sound like?

Chiptune mash-ups on the Game Boy.

The review of Sloopygoop – Pre-Teen Wasteland

One of the best things about platforms like Bandcamp or Itch.io is that the barrier to entry is greatly removed. It allows for niche and unusual ideas to have a home, no matter how commercially skewed they may be. Sloopygoop is a video game music composer who also releases their music as a ROM file. This means you can play a visual ROM of the soundtrack as a game, even if the game isn’t technically a game, it’s a soundtrack visualiser. I didn’t know this was a thing until recently and Sloopygoop is an excellent example of how this works.

‘Pre-Teen Wasteland’ is a chiptune soundtrack based entirely on the Gameboy Colour. Sloopygoop (Andrew Davis) superbly uses the chipset to mix up his own compositions with creative covers. We have the euphoric jamboree of ‘Hey Bob, The Dog’s On Fire!’ which sounds like an overworld level select screen high on sugar. ‘Time To Get Unglued’ is a groovy riff brought to life in a more percussive Shirobon style. Big kickdrums, throbbing bass and plenty of low hiss to rumble your bones. Then there is ‘Kirbanera’ which takes a traditional tango riff and turns it into a Tetris battle track. The last Sloopygoop original is ‘I Am The Mayor’, the tour-de-force piece. Shifting from cinematic uprising chord progressions to bombastic frenzied sound effects, sirens and chord breakdowns, it is a superb piece.

There are also three mash-up covers on the EP and they are inspired. ‘Stronger Levitation Around Mercury’ is a mash-up of Daft Punk’s ‘Around the World’ and Queen’s ‘Another One Bites the Dust’. Two songs I’d never imagined together, yet Sloopygoop mashes them together perfectly. ‘Nite Hiway’ sounds like Sonic 3 covering Dua Lipa and it’s as good as you’d expect it to be. ‘Baba O’Riley (Teenage Wasteland)’ covers The Who’s classic track with French composer Georges Bizet added in. I was expecting it to go hard but it’s quite a breezy and light take which I appreciated.

Odd, enchanting and making me now think of loads of chiptune cover mash-ups I want to hear, Sloopygoop has a deft hand at chiptune composition. ‘I Am The Mayor’ is particularly top tier but his creative covers mark him out as a talented musician too. Whilst the music is available on Bandcamp, you can also visit his Itch.io store to get the ROMS.

Recommended track: Stronger Levitation Around Mercury

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