What does Popskyy sound like?
Vintage, chonky and bright N64-styled chiptune happiness.
The review of ‘Atlas’ by Popskyy
Back after celebrating his 30th birthday with the excellent magnum opus ’30’, Popskyy’s chirpy and bouncy approach to chiptune music is always welcome. He channels N64 platformer optimism and catchiness with ease. ‘Atlas’ is a delightful trip down memory lane. It’s like a soundtrack to a game we’ve never played.
What Popskyy has always triumphantly created is the chiptune banger. Tracks like ‘Nerd Cave Game Day’ have big dance beats, bright synths and thick wobbly sinewave melodic leads that get into your brain. Elsewhere tracks like ‘Sinistral’ and ‘Attack’ rely on arpeggios and club beats to land the uplifting and euphoric feel. The melodies are largely quite simple but Popskyy gives them room to breathe and switches the chipsets or electronic synths playing them regularly. The music never gets dull.
That doesn’t mean that Popskyy only knows one gear. ‘Pillow Fort’ plays with banjo and rock drum samples to bring a lush synthetic backyard sigh to the album. ‘Tunic’ wears its influence in its title. This softest of bleeps is pillowy and comforting, giving a wink towards Lifeformed and Janice Kwon’s superb Tunic soundtrack. Add in a house beat and you’ve got an under-the-radar graceful track. ‘Stay Puff’ takes white noise as percussion and takes you back to the C64 days with modern-day synths over the top. Popskyy has a penchant for merging decades of chiptunes together and this example works a treat.
The back third of the album lets Popskyy try out a few new ideas away from his staple chirpy chiptunes. ‘To Be Determined’ is a rock-forward piece with chunky guitars and beats. Sounding like a lost Sonic Forces track, electronic elements seep in later on but there is definitely a rocker hiding in there somewhere. ‘Zee Bee Ex’ takes breakneck drum and bass beats and uses bassy pizzicato strings for the main thrust of the melody. It’s pacey, and frantic but also at times quite serene too. It quickly became my favourite track on the album. ‘Overseer’ officially closes out the album with a jingly mash-up of Megadrive bass funk and celestial glassy synths. It veers towards Vaporwave but doesn’t quite reach it. The final track on the album is an extended cut of ‘Staf Puff’ as a jaunty reprise.
Popskyy isn’t reinventing the wheel with ‘Atlas’ but then he doesn’t need to. His style and brand of unabashedly abundant chiptune electronica never fails to delight or raise a smile. If you want to get transported back to the N64 platformer era of video game music – ‘Atlas’ has you covered. Long may the uplifting joy last.
Recommended track: Nerd Cave Game Day
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Popskyy - Atlas