Grab ’em while you can; these tracks might not be free on Soundcloud for much longer….

Fans of lo-fi, electro, chiptune, synthpop, and all things 80’s listen up! Arkademode‘s latest release, Night Drive on the Spanish label emptypoolboys, is a tour de force of energetic video game inspired music. Starting off with in a noisy arcade, a robotic voice calls to you and suddenly you are in a stark world of sprites, polygons, menacing highways, and unreachable scenery. Act fast on this one, it won’t be a freebie for long!

Stand out tracks: Dead Road, Retro Teen, California 1984

Next up, a freebie courtesy of S. Jay & Ostertag “Rim Riddim” is a bass-driven mixture of throwback House and Garage rubbed up with a foul-mouthed ghetto couplet. The repititious use of the N-Bomb may dissuade a lot of jocks from playing it out in mixed company (is a dub or re-rub forthcoming fellas?) but it is a nice groove. Crisp, jackin’ percussion overtop a wobbly bassline, with an old-school breakdown and plenty of DJ-style flourishes in the mix.

Finally, you’d be a fool to sit on these Duck Droppings from Duck Sauce. This DJ-Friendly, free 4-tracker has party-starter written all over it. It’s Duck Sauce, so you know the drill: Looped-out filtered, pumpin, Disco, House with a side of funk topped with cheese. “Party in Me” is  jackin, funky call to get up, “Louie the first” is a chopped and sped-up version of the 1973 classic Brother Louie by Stories (a cover of the Hot Chocolate original) propelled by a funky breakbeat. My personal fave is “Calamari (Put the sauce on it!)” which starts off with a funky loopy bit of disco house that gradually gets trounced in reverb and echo that acts as a portal to transport you to an Italian seaside discotheque in the late 70s. Listen, you’ll understand. “Mondo” is a jackin, filtered loopy slice of Italian disco from 1980 La Flavour’s “Mandolay” that keeps the energy of the original pumpin’ right up front.