I’ve never been all that interested in video games. I was a teenager during the golden age of video arcades but they didn’t do too much for me. The thing that bothered me about games like Space Invaders or Pac-Man was that you always ultimately failed. Sure, with hours of practice you could play your way through all the levels of the game, but that seemed a dubious use of your time and money even to an awkward adolescent with bad skin and no girlfriend like me.

Because I never got into arcade games or Sega or Nintendo I’ve never been very enchanted with chiptunes. The nostalgia is lost on me and the limited palette of 8-bit music tends to strike me as boring and repetitive. The other day I found out about Kind Of Bloop, an 8-bit tribute to Miles Davis’ seminal album Kind Of Blue. Andy Baio put the project together as a labor of love and went to great lengths to get approval from Miles Davis’ estate. The one thing he didn’t think about was the album’s artwork, an 8-bit version of the cover of the original album. The photographer who shot the picture on that cover threatened to sue. Even though there’s a very good chance that a court would find the artwork sufficiently transformative to qualify as fair use, Mr. Baio paid off the photographer because he couldn’t afford to go to court.

All this made me think about electronic music. And when I think about music my thoughts more often than not end up being a Cover Freak post.

Virt “Freddy Freeloader” (Miles Davis)
The music of Miles Davis is something else whose appeal eludes me. I appreciate his place in musical history and the influence that he’s had on countless musicians. You would think that Miles Davis fans could reasonably agree that his music is not for every one, but I’ve been yelled at and insulted by Miles Davis fans over the years because his music just doesn’t move me like it moves them.

At any rate, Davis fans will either love or hate this, but for my money it’s every bit as creative as the source material in its own way. Buy the album and help Mr. Baio pay his legal bills.

Dos “Hallelujah” (Leonard Cohen)
When I posted a tribute to Laughing Len, one of my readers commented about how this song has become a “solemn hymn for the depressed” since Jeff Buckley got ahold of it. He should like this more upbeat take.

Moog Cookbook “Whole Lotta Love” (Led Zeppelin)
I just couldn’t stand to post five chiptunes, so now we turn to the mighty Moog synthesizer and its chips. Just like with chiptunes there’s a lot of crappy Moog music out there. But the Moog Cookbook righteously rocks on this one.

Martin Denny “Love Me Tonight” (Tom Jones)
If you’re a fan of Martin Denny’s dense multi-layered exotica records you’ll be hugely disappointed by his Exotic Moog album. But from the perspective of a Moog album it’s wildly creative and very good. As a huge Tom Jones fan I find this song highly amusing.

Gary Schneider “Green Tambourine” (Lemon Pipers)
I originally posted this song in 2006 and Gary Schneider somehow found out about it and wrote me. He was charming and self-effacing and sent me another CD that he had recorded in his home. He even told me where to find the plans to build the box that gave him the vocal effect he used on this song. It’s still one of my favorite things that’s happened to me over the lifetime of this blog.