I am nuts about Phlogiston. He’s got some of the richest textures and melodies of any chiptune artist.

In his new release, Croqel, the focus is on melody and the richness of the NES. These days, it’s easy to make a song that sounds like it’s from an NES. But there are so many NES games that use fairly unique sounds considering they all use the same sound processor. Phlogiston seems to embrace the variety of possibilities that can be born from the 2a03. Through this, we are presented with detail-laden melodies and a cornucopia of sound effects. The effects are what really make the songs full of emotion and create an almost vocal feeling.

It should be noted that the longest song on Croqel is 2:22, and that is nearly a minute longer than the next longest. Most of the songs are under a minute and really have no complex arrangements, just like if this were a real NES game.

Making a short album like this is a pretty big risk. You have to be good at making worthwhile melodies if you are going to ditch complex arrangements. Lucking Phlogiston nails it. As a bonus, artwork for each track is included.