The Dark Side of the Moon – The 8-bit Album

Dark Side Of The Moon 8-BitPterodactyl Squad – a video game music netlabel – has released The Dark Side of the Moon – The 8-bit Album.

38 years ago today Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon was released in the UK, and Pterodactyl Squad are marking the date with their 30th release, The Dark Side of the Moon – The 8-bit Album.

After the success of Weezer – The 8-bit Album in 2009, the Squad assembled an “all-star cast of chiptune talent” to create a VGM-inspired tribute to 1973’s, The Dark Side of the Moon. All 9 tracks have been filtered through an 8-bit lens, and while each artist brings a different sound and creative angle to each track, the album flows seamlessly together, just like the original.

Pterodactyl Squad says:

Although attempted numerous times before, Pterodactyl Squad have finally done the original album justice with the definitive 8-bit interpretation of Pink Floyd’s progressive rock classic.

Produced as an 8-bit mirror of the original, the music on this release was created using sounds from various old games consoles including the Sega Mega Drive and Nintendo Game Boy.

The album features tracks from Bit_Rat, EvilWezil, khades, Rabato, sergeeo, Videogame Orchestra, Jason Vincion, echosignal and Brad Smith and Temp Sound Solutions.

You can preview the sergeeo 8-bit take on Money below:

The Dark Side of the Moon – The 8-bit Album is available to download at the Pterodactyl Squad site or directly via archive.org (.zip).

23 thoughts on “The Dark Side of the Moon – The 8-bit Album”

  1. ooph!!! Talk about blasphemy. One of the worst fads in musical history desecrating one of the best albums ever made.

    I don't know how these people can live with themselves. Artists create, not desecrate. It's like spray-painting graffiti on the Mona lisa then calling it art.

    1. Spray painting great works of art worked for the Joker. Look how happy he was. Seriously, I kind of like DSOTM8B. I wonder if Alan Parsons ever listened to this.

  2. sooo unnecessary….not that i have objections to the DSOTM being covered (see: Flaming Lips) but to do it in a completely soulless chiptune version (with crappy direct-recorded guitars)?? Hey Guys, the fad police called – your 15 minutes of retro revival are over. pack it up, go home…

  3. eehhh, I think it's cool. Take it for what it is… I'd rather hear this than most of the mediocre cover versions I've heard of these tunes. I don't think this is intended to stand shoulder to shoulder with the original, but just as an interesting reinterpretation.

  5. Though it's a different interpretation done by different people. I haven't listened to this one yet, but I am looking forward to it. The last one was a bit underwhelming imho, but the weezer project these same guys did a while ago was quite excellent.

  6. Though it's a different interpretation done by different people. I haven't listened to this one yet, but I am looking forward to it. The last one was a bit underwhelming imho, but the weezer project these same guys did a while ago was quite excellent.

    Edit: Listening to it now, and it's very good. Much better than the other one.

  7. I take it you don't like chip music? 😛

    I grew up with those sounds, they evoke a very special emotion when I hear those kinds of sounds and styles. Also DSOTM is also something I grew up loving, so the two together is something I want to hear.

    I don't go on to posts about genres/sounds I don't like and then complain about how crap they are. To use your analogy, it's calling the Mono Lisa crap because it's not experimental enough, or it doesn't use enough red for your liking.

  8. which track has direct recorded guitars? I'm not hearing it. I would be pretty pushed to call this soulless as well. You can hear the love put into these covers.

  10. see the guitars on track 1. well maybe not direct, but to my ears, pretty outta place on a chiptune song. soulless may have been a bit harsh. i guess my ultimate beef with it is that it's more or less a verbatim cover of the album with the sounds replaced by 8bit sounds. nothing new is added and there's no reinterpretation. i mean, if you're gonna do it, i wanna hear Money covered at a coked-up 160BPM. i don't want to hear the equivalent of midi files of the songs being played back through a soundblaster. guess that's just me. but i'm an elitist asshole and my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt.

  11. ah yeah, I didn't notice that the first time through.

    and you are right, they aren't reinterpretations they are pretty much covers.

    I guess what I was focusing on more than anything was the sound design in each of the tracks, which i quite enjoy as there is a fairly limited spectrum of sounds you can use and still call it chip tune.

    I guess it would have been nice to see full reinterpretations, but I still enjoyed these quite a lot. It's been a while since I last listened to DSOTM, and I felt like it captured the feel of that album, while still providing that chip tune nostalgia aspect as well.

  12. beat me to it. I love dark side, I love lo-fi 8 bit music, but this doesn't work for me. I appreciate that the artists had the love and took the time, but unfortunately I found it unlistenable (my opinion, yours is allowed to vary).

    BUT – Dub Side of the Moon is absolutely amazing! A must listen if you're a fan of the original.

  13. I put 'Money' on to start with and enjoying it.. It's actually 16bit tho, I dunno about the others but lots of mega drive style FM in here which is good in my eyes 🙂

  14. OOOh! talk about self-riotous pseudo-music critic xenophobic party poopers talking crap about funky novelty grooves!!
    -Theultimatelazer.

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