Archive for the '8bitpeoples' Category

04
December
2008
tags: Mr. Spastic, minusbaby, Role Model, USK, Stu, Anamanaguchi, Blip Festival, Animal Style, 8bitpeoples, Nullsleep, Bit Shifter, glomag, trash80, Mp3.

Blip Fest 2008 Mega Post!

Blip Festival 2008Blip Festival 2008Blip Festival 2008

Normally Trixie brings you all the hot chiptunes jams, but since she’s off being important, I figured I’d step up to plate this time.

Maybe you’ve noticed the banner added to the top of our site about a month ago? Well that’s Blip Festival, and it starts…. TONIGHT!

It’s international mayhem of the chiptunes variety; taking Game Boys (DMGS), Ataris, Nintendos, 8-bit emulator VSTs, Commodore 64s, Nintendo DS’s (and just about anything else you can think of), our stalwart adventurers hack, slash and tweak the hardware in ways mere mortals thought impossible, creating the most epic music you’ve heard in a long long time (or at least since you beat Metroid for that first time).

It starts tonight with full on mayhem, and continues for 4 days until the final level Showdown on Sunday. The Brooklyn half of Res is heavily involved in the chiptunes scene, and let me just tell you that the past two nights of non-official events have already been insane beyond belief. Tickets can be purchased here!

This year the journey takes place @ The Bell House in Park Slope
The Bell House
149 7th Street
Brooklyn NY 11215 US (map)

And now.. the MEGA POST (there’s echo on that, fyi)

Nullsleep | New York, NY, USA | Performs: Saturday night at 11:20 PM

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Nullsleep - “Supernova Kiss”
LINKS: 8BP Profile | nullsleep.com

USK | Fukuoka, Japan | Performs: Sunday night at 10:00 PM

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

USK - “Shanghai Moon”
LINKS: USK on 8bp | usk.cc

minusbaby | New York, NY, USA | Performs: Friday night at 12:00 AM

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

minusbaby - “Minha Caipirinha É Ótima (Very, Very)”
LINKS: minusbaby on 8BP | minusbaby.com

Glomag | New York, NY, USA | Performs: Friday night at 11:20 PM

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

glomag - “4shame (8bc 48 hour challenge)”
LINKS: glomag.com

Trash80 | Los Angeles, California, USA | Performs: Sunday night at 10:40 PM

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Trash80 - “At Teh Disko”
LINKS: Trash80 on 8bp | trash80.net

Bit Shifter | New York, NY, USA | Performs: Friday night at 11:20 PM

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Bit Shifter - “Hexadecimal Genome”
LINKS: Bitshifter on 8bp | bit.shifter.net

Animal Style | Philadelphia, PA, USA | Performs: Friday night at 8pm

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Animal Style - “Bit Scrape”
LINKS: Animal Style on 8bp | MySpace

Mr. Spastic | New York, NY, USA | Performs: Saturday night at 8:40 PM

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Mr. Spastic - “Ichi Ni San Cuatro”
LINKS: Mr. Spastic on 8bp | mrspastic

Role Model | Stockholm, Sweden | Performs: Friday night at 10:00 PM

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Role Model - “Boy Afraid”
LINKS: Role Model on 8bp | Website

Anamanaguchi | New York, NY, USA | Performs: Sunday night at 9:20 PM

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Anamanaguchi - “Fast Turtle”
LINKS: Anamanaguchi on 8bp | MySpace

Stu | Basel, Switzerland | Performs: Saturday night at 12:00 AM

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Stu - “AUCR”
LINKS: Stu on 8bp | Website

Not enough? Check out 8bitpeoples for over 89 quality creative commons releases! RSVP on Going or Facebook and then purchase tickets here. Blip Fest is also brought to you by The Tank, so swing by and check out what other events those crazy kids have going on.

Ok… lets dance!


Blip Festival 2008: The Promo from Richard Alexander Caraballo on Vimeo.

< hacks />

5 Comments



21
August
2008
tags: Data Dog, Less than Three, the fearsome sparrow, Animal Style, 8bitpeoples, The Tank, Mp3.

Less than Three returns– Adorable line-up for Saturday Night

The Tank’s night of crush-worthy electronic music returns for a second date! A wild-at-heart, all animal line-up will make you sway wistfully to their blissful beats– Animal Style with his guitar and Game Boy and VBlank with his mastery of eclectic visuals from lo-fi to hi-fi will be coming up from Philadelphia to join NYC’s own Data Dog and the fearsome sparrow for the bimonthly music series.

Less than Three August 21, 2008

Animal Style is on the artsier, R&D tip of this whole chiptunes scene. Don’t get me wrong, he’s got a good beat and you can dance to it, but he’s also pushing the envelope with things like popularizing the 8-bit fuzz pedal and developing his own Game Boy foot controller, as well as his release Game Boy Madrigals, a full album of chipmusic made with the 2-3 voice constraints of the traditional Renaissance song form.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Open Air — Animal Style

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Bit Scrape — Animal Style

(Both from the “Open Air” EP on 8bitpeoples.*)

Data Dog are reminiscent of Her Space Holiday with a double dose of Marc Bianchi’s vocals or a minimal cuddlegaze dance act fronted by the ghost of Eliot Smith. They’re cute and sexy, in a tragic, save-me-from-myself kind of way that girls with cardigans and glasses fetishes will likely use as the soundtrack for shy grad-school dorm room make-out sessions with their doctoral candidate TAs.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Native Frog — Data Dog

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Colour Bomb — Data Dog

the fearsome sparrow, who apparently got together in San Diego, have fittingly moved east where their brand of melancholy, girl-meets-boy idm has two seasons in which to fit, Autumn AND Winter, instead of 365 days of sunshine. Liz Godoy’s sweet, plaintive soprano and Brenden Beu’s charmingly unsure tenor are enough to make you fall head over heels through your headphones, while glitched out, skittish electronic textures keep things from becoming cloyingly sweet.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Colossus — the fearsome sparrow

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

My Formative Years — the fearsome sparrow

(Both from their album shimmer, available for download here.)

*All 8bitpeoples releases are released under this Creative Commons License.

1 Comment



20
August
2008
tags: The Depreciation Guild, Reformat the Planet, Random, Chiptunes, 8bitpeoples, glomag, Mp3.

Reformat the Planet– The Movie Available Online at Pitchfork

So, it’s not often that we actually have anything positive to say about Pitchdork here at Res, but since we were hot and bothered for this back when SXSW happened and the guys over at that other website were too busy taking pictures of freak folk acts and fresh up-and-comers like Michael Stipe, we’ll let their bandwidth get sucked and brag on ourselves for once again knowing what was cool WAY before they did.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the definitive (ok, and only) documentary on the New York chiptunes scene and The Blip Festival (so far) can be watched, in its entirety, here.

Congratulations to 2 Player Productions and we’re looking forward to that demo scene doc at which you’ve hinted!

A few of my favorite tracks from artists featured in the film:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Spontaneous Devotion — Random from “Bad Joke EP”* (if you are still wondering what this whole “chiptunes” thing is about, this is the answer– this recording is a gorgeous piece of electronic music, whether you think you like lo-bit music or not.)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Disorder (Joy Division Cover) — Glomag (this song is one of my favorite things ever to listen to on a sunny morning after some hardcore rain– it has that cinematic, end of movie hopefulness and the lyrics take on a whole different meaning in this version than the original.)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Nautilus — The Depreciation Guild from their album In Her Gentle Jaws (the Catherine Wheel of chipmusic– beautiful washes of guitars, dreamy rock songs, and… game systems? Definitely worth a listen and cued up in anticipation of sweater weather in my Autumn play list.)

*All 8bitpeoples releases are released under this Creative Commons License.

2 Comments



20
July
2008
tags: 8GB, Aliceffekt, trash80, The Tank, Pulsewave, videos, 8bitpeoples, Mp3.

Massive Cheaptoon Update

Oh, hai guise… Ok, ok, ok. First of all, I’m not going to do the usual “…trixie shows up and apologizes for not posting for three months” thing because, honestly, I’ve been busy working on my life long dream of being the female, short, blonde, American version of Tony Wilson, and that’s why you haven’t seen me in awhile. I’m still working hard bringing people new music, I’ve just kind of limited my scope to the “live” and “NYC” part of that job. You guys wouldn’t believe how hard it is to jump on to Res and write a post after sending ten thousand emails to coordinate people playing shows or after a successful show with a few beers in my stress-related-ulcerated stomach.

BUT… The “day job,” as they’re called because it’s what you DON’T want to do and not because of the time it takes place, has ended and I am doing the “making cool stuff happen” thing full time, so now I have the chance to come back to you guys with some really sick music. In the spirit of my new position at The Tank, NYC’s stronghold for 8-bit, here’s a whole slew of chip music that I’ve been enjoying this summer.

First off, trash80’s absolutely brilliant Icarus EP* has been the soundtrack to this summer– lush, sexy, sundrenched Balearic-bit for those who dream of an alternate reality Ibiza where Nullsleep and Bit Shifter hold court like Sasha and Steve Lawler once did at Space. Like all 8bitpeoples releases, it is free for download and sharing under Creative Commons, so follow that link and grab it.

Despite technical difficulties as a result of him overpowering the house system during his set at May’s Pulsewave, he kicked off my summer with an ear to ear smile stretched across my sweaty face. Here’s 2Player Productions’ rather disorienting video of “Missing You” from that night:


Trash80 @ Pulsewave in NYC, 05.24.08 (1/1) from 2 Player Productions on Vimeo.

Though “Missing You” seems to be the universally sanctioned hit from the release, “Sodium Sonet” is actually my favorite.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Sodium Sonet Extended - trash80

On the other side of the spectrum from trash80, I’ve been digging the 8bit + sparkling speedcore hybrid side project of industrial artist Aliceffekt. Called MALICE, it’s the sonic equivalent of grinding metal against metal to shoot dazzling sparks– one part hard and savage bass line to one part silver-filigreed synth lead, it’s definitely an exciting first entry into chiptunes and I’m looking forward to how this project progresses (as well as a super-secret OTHER side project of lush, melody-driven IDM that Resonator will probably be lucky enough to preview in the coming months).

MALICE

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Malice - L
(Note: The ID3 tags for this release come up with a bunch of Japanese stuff, so you may not be able to find it in iTunes by typing “MALICE.” To preserve the integrity of what the artist wants, however, I didn’t change the ID3 tags. Go blame them.)

MALICE is also available for free here. I definitely recommend downloading the entire album, as each track is mixed into the other so it’s hard to really listen to one on its own without hearing the tail end/beginning of another.

And finally– Argentina’s 8GB is pure, full on, hands in the air dance-till-you-can’t-move insanity. If you missed his set at Pulsewave’s 2nd Birthday back in March where his set rocked so hard that he caused a black-out, here’s a sample of what you can expect when he returns this month! (More on that coming later in the week– look out for it, because it’s going to be BONKERS!)


8GB live @ Pulsewave - New York - march 2008 (8/9) from Kiken Corporation (????) on Vimeo.

*All 8bitpeoples releases are released under this Creative Commons License.

0 Comments



07
February
2008
tags: Bit Shifter, Bubblyfish, glomag, 8bitpeoples, Nullsleep, Shows, videos, Mp3.

Reformat the Planet– The Movie

So… It’s getting to be that time of year again, where the Res kids tell you about all the cool shit to check out at SxSW because, well, we’re not going.* This year is a great year at the old Austin festival because it’s going to be chiptunes madness.

That’s right– not only are the lovely 8bitpeoples going to be hosting a showcase, but the movie (yes, MOVIE!) about the Blip Festival is going to be playing at the film festival. Featuring all of my favorite chiptunes artists, Bit Shifter, Nullsleep, glomag, Bubblyfish and loads of other musically brilliant nerds, it is going to be THE must-see movie of the festival… What I’m saying is take a break from dancing your ass off and GO SEE THE DAMNED MOVIE.

As if you needed more convincing, here is the trailer for Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet:


BLIP FESTIVAL: REFORMAT THE PLANET trailer from 2 Player Productions on Vimeo.

And in case you just need full length choons to carry ’round with you, here’s the namesake track of the movie by NYC-based Bit Shifter:

Reformat The Planet — Bit Shifter

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Yes, that track’s great… But my favorite, and I think SORELY underappreciated of the Shifter’s tracks is the self-titled off of the “Information Chase” EP.** The symphonic hold breakdown is enough to make college girls the world over have Garden State-like make-out moments… Well, provided that they’re cool enough to dig on Gameboy music.

The Information Chase — Bit Shifter

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

*Res doesn’t go to SxSW because we are too damned old to be drunk and sleepless for a week. Just ask Shaun about his old Winter Music Conference days. But while YOU are down there, make sure and get your chiptunes on AND check out our darling Loren Hynde’s party over at the Planetary Group bbq– we hear there is soy meat and hardcore (the guitar kind, not the electronic kind).

**All 8bitpeoples releases are released under this Creative Commons License.

3 Comments



15
September
2007
tags: Pulsewave, 8bitpeoples, Nullsleep, Mp3.

Pulsewave at the Tank Tonight!

I know, I know… I can FEEL what you’re thinking. “Oh, hi, …trixie, so nice of you to finally JOIN us. Mmmhmmm. And what do you bring us? What? A FLIER FOR AN EVENT?! WHERE’S THE NEW MUSIC, TRIXIE?!?!”

To which I say uh… Um… ok, this is shameful. So shameful. But I have lost my iPod. Yup, my room has devoured it. And my computer at work does NOT HAVE A SOUND CARD. I listen to music at home, but I work in silence. Can you believe it? I feel so remiss! But fear not, faithful readers. This is going to change. If i can’t unearth the thing from my room then I will just have to go and buy another one (much as I’d rather spend the money on concert tickets and books).

Anyway, when I have been listening to music, it’s been 8-Bit. I’m back firmly in big pixel land. Tonight, the great 8bitpeoples are having their monthly Pulsewave party at the Tank in Tribeca, and you should be there.

Pulsewave September

Nullsleep is playing and he’s arguably my favorite 8-Bit musician to see live, so it looks to be a great night. Come out and dance with me!

And if you need a little convincing:

Her Lazer Light Eyes — Nullsleep*

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

*This and all 8bitpeoples releases are released under this Creative Commons License.

2 Comments