Dark Side of the Moon Patrol – The MOON8 Review

Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon is one of the most important albums in popular music. With over 45 million copies sold, an unbeatable record 741 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart and the standard by which audiophiles show off their sound systems, it is one of a rare group of albums that truly are required listening. So what happens when you take one of the most legendary recordings of all time and recreate it in the chiptunes style? Come inside and take a listen. You may just be surprised. Now I am a huge chiptunes fan, but when it comes to these kinds of recordings, they really have to be done right to be listenable beyond mere curiosity. Not only does MOON8 sound good, it transcends sounding like music done for a video game. Sure, the tones are undeniably old-school NES, but nothing has been done to tweak the music to sound like it actually came from a game. This is a chiptunes recreation in its purest sense. What I find truly stunning about MOON8 is just how much effort has gone into the recreation of nearly all of Pink Floyd’s instrumentation. This is obviously not something that was cranked out in a weekend to say “hey, look what I can do.” The music is a labor of love, for both the source material and style in which it has been recreated. I was skeptical before hearing them, and then completely blown away by, how well the explosion of clock chimes at the beginning of “Time” and the cash register opening of “Money ” were done. Both pieces precisely capture the spirit of the originals in the chiptune style. Frankly, it’s pretty mind blowing how good the whole album sounds. The pulsing analog synths of “On the Run” sound frighteningly close to the original and the bleep-creations of Clare Torry’s vocalizations in “The Great Gig in the Sky” are spot on. It makes me wish LA’s Laserium hadn’t recently shut down (again) because replacing their regular DSOTM laser-show with this music for one night would be beyond cool to see.