Battlemode

Battlemode is the vibrant and irrepressibly energetic work of mismatched but inseparable friends Biff, Astro, and Sam. Together they create dynamic electro pop that embraces the sounds of the past in order to look forward; incorporating the glitchy 8-bit chiptune sounds that accompanied adolescent days spent playing Gameboys, and reinvigorating them amongst contemporary synth tones and fresh beats.

The trios’s friendship was forged in their shared love of chiptune, but it is perhaps their individual differences that most contribute to the unique flavor of their musical output. Kris grew up amongst hip hop and metal music in a self-described “shithole drug-addled small town”, while Biff got his start in life in the same bucolic corner of eastern Massachusetts that is home to Thoreau’s Walden Pond and developed his musical skills through classical training and a love of early-2000s pop. It is a fitting origin story that the duo met while performing wildly-differing solo sets on the same bill.

With driving and broody tracks like Battlemode’s debut single "Midnight Blue", and the earworm new track BFF feat. Sam Mulligan, it’s clear that these tunes will resonate with listeners far beyond the niche of computer game music. There is, after all, something undeniably welcoming about these songs that celebrate, what the duo calls, the “brighter side of all this shit.”

Sounds like Bit Shifter, Anamanaguchi, and <a href="spotify:artist:07pYha0yg2GCN1sycMWCAG" data-name="(T-T)b">(T-T)b</a>