Chicago's I Fight Dragons make fun, inventive pop by utilising the 8-bit sounds from NES and SNES consoles, combined with some good old fashioned Blink-182 style power-chords. Known as chiptune, it's not as unusual a concept as you might think, with proponents of this quirky sub-genre popping up all over America over the past 5 years or so, as well as some far flung outposts, notably Scandinavia.Welcome To The Breakdown, featuring seven new tracks, is the band's second release after 2009's Cool Is Just A Number EP.
High Points
The opener and title track Welcome to the Breakdown showcases the best of I Fight Dragons with a big bouncy chorus, and chunky guitars cutting through the usual bleeps and bloops.
No Kontrol continues in the same vein, before a brilliant re-imagining of the Huey Lewis & The News hit The Power of Love. This is surely what chiptune is made for, turning the song into a gloriously geeky feelgood anthem when re-routed through a SNES. By chosing such a quintessentially eighties hit the material chimes perfectly with the chosen medium, not sounding too dated or twee.
Give It Up is another perfect nugget of furious power-pop which recalls bands like Nada Surf or Cake, with it's inspiring and unpretentious chorus "Give it up for human nature / Give it up now bit by bit / Give it up cause kid your future lies here dying and there's not use crying over it".
The Verdict
Not much summing up to do here, Make Up The Breakdown is a great little EP, and well worth a listen. If you like chiptune you will like this, and if you've never heard of it then I urge you to try this, you might just like it.
Final Score: 79%
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