An album you could only listen to if you had a working NES console — that's been the test Daydream Plus has put fans through for the past three months. Now the emo math-rock outfit, made up of members from death metal band Tomb Mold, has finally put their 8-bit remix album "Second Last Day Of Summer: Extended Forecast" on streaming, so anyone without an old Nintendo console can finally hear it.
The story starts back in July. Daydream Plus released their debut full-length "Second Last Day Of Summer," a fully instrumental record blending the emotional throughline of Jimmy Eat World and American Football with the math-rock structures of Lightning Bolt and Don Caballero. The band also made a remix version, "Extended Forecast," reworking the original tracks into 8-bit video game scores, drawing inspiration from chiptune acts like Anamanaguchi and Disasterpeace, as well as classic soundtracks from "Final Fantasy VII," "EarthBound," and "Sonic Adventure."
This remix version was initially only released as a working NES cartridge. After it sold out, label Run For Cover Records announced a second restock,pre-orders are now open. The streaming release fills the gap left after the cartridge sold out, freeing the music itself from being tied to hardware.
Band member Payson Power spoke about his commitment to physical media in an earlier interview with NME: "I love owning physical media, it's a form of respect for the artist, especially in an era where everything is disposable." He extended the point to the gaming industry — Rockstar Games has confirmed there won't be an official physical release for "GTA 6" when it launches in November, and PlayStation has announced it will fully phase out disc releases starting January 2028. "That's terrible, and it's scary," Power said. "Digital ownership means you're basically buying a license that could be revoked at any time, and with day-one updates becoming more and more common, what we're actually getting is a gutted product. It only encourages greed and corporate garbage."
The order of releasing the cartridge before streaming, in a way, mirrors Power's stance — letting the physical object become something worth collecting first, with streaming as a supplement rather than the default option.
