For as long as it had been decided that hipness and irony could co-exist artists (and wannabe artists) have retrofitted their work to not only make it appear older, but to make it appear nostalgically older. This has made photo-filtering apps like Instagram insanely popular. Swedish electro-disco musician Johan Agebjorn released a track only available on 3.5" floppy disc. Google Maps turned the earth into a Nintendo playground this past April Fool's Day. All for the aesthetic thrill of reveling in the imperfections of old technology. When done well the results can be startlingly beautiful. When done unwell... then you just fuzzed out a perfectly good photograph of your dog.
To my infinite amusement, Sleeping At Last just posted four "8-bit" tracks up on NoiseTrade. Now solely the project of frontman Ryan O'Neal, the Illinois-based Sleeping At Last is one of the few remaining active remnants from when emo ruled the world a dozen years ago. Normally the music is soft and introspective, but these remixed songs play like the soundtrack to a lost Zelda game.
This is retrofitting done well.
For comparative/contrasting purposes the original versions of the songs are included in the free(!) download.
I don't know how long this whole thing will be up. However long a "limited time" is. Check it while you can.
