Lucius - Bach Two-Part Invention #6

I can't help but imagine sitting in the library of some gargantuan house, a tumbler of bourbon held lazily in one hand while I read from a book of classic literature in front of a fireplace, comfortable in my high-backed chair. On a nearby endtable sits a Game Boy, quietly emitting the music of Bach.

Happy New Year!



Lucius' website

The 8BC page (leave a comment!)

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NOROCK - The Walk

Hahaha, yes. I just did that.

In 20 minutes I've gotta be at work. I spent all day downloading as many old 8BD entries as I could, and contacting the artists of all the songs that have since been taken down. I'm trying to get every song I've featured onto my hard drive, and it's taking a while. But! Here's some stats about my current 8BD pick playlist:

- It consists of 168 tracks (I'm into October and missing some tracks)
- It's 776Mb, meaning a full year of this stuff will likely be about 2Gb
- The length of all tracks combined is an impressive 8:57:10. A full year looks like it will end up being about 24 hours long. How about that, a year of 8-Bit DAILY and it's ONE DAY long! So cool. :)
- The longest track (added so far) is Maktone - Playing With Music at 10:00.
- The shortest track (added so far) is Sci - Superdrums at 0:42.

So, like I have done in the past when I'm crunched for time, I just upload something of my own! This was made by controlling my Atari ST with MIDI. It's short.



NOROCK's website

The 8BC page (leave a comment!)

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Coma - Skogens Djur 011

Some radical cracktro/demo/keygen/mod music! I did a bit of random digging around on keygenmusic.net (lol) and found this track which was released with a keygen for Goldwave (an audio program I've used before which is why I happened to click on that one). I thought it was a pretty sweet track, so I decided to check out the guy that made it, who I discovered to be a fella named Daniel Johansson, aka Coma.

This track is part of a 20-track release by him, which you can get here. Probably the oldest track I've featured, this one was written way back in '97! And suddenly, here it is, on a website in 2009. Oh, by the way, you'll need something like ModplugPlayer to listen to the .mod files, but it's worth it! They're cooler than .mp3s, since the files are telling your sound chip what to play rather than just giving some (potentially lossy) waveforms to be parroted by your speakers. Also, they can repeat partway the song, so you'll hear the intro but once and jam out to let's say Skogens Djur 020 for let's say ten minutes while writing up let's say a blog post about chiptunes. ;)



Coma's website

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Silent Requiem - Killed By Cardboard

The bass on this one is just incredible. It sounds like a small lowpass filter was laid over the top though, since the lead instrument seems to have had its "edge" taken off. It's only in the awesome saw instrument and the super high-pitched tones that you really hear those high frequencies come out. I dunno, I just love the sound of it.



Silreq's website

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4-Mat - Veni, Vidi, Vici

Looking around at old Demos on pouet.net, found this awesome one for the VIC-20, with music by 4-Mat (protip: you need to know who 4-Mat is). I'm currently about a quarter of the way through downloading the .avi of the whole demo (it's 160Mb, I'm excited).

It came in second place to this demo, however. You win some, you lose some! Nevertheless, great great music 4-Mat, and a nice "old-school" feature the likes of which I don't do nearly often enough.



4-Mat's website

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Je Deviens DJ En Trois Jours - Bencong

FRENCH TECHNO. JDDJ3J played one of the best sets in New York, figured I should show you guys this (because you know, nobody gets their music from any other site but this one!). Wish they'd release more on 8BC but hey, what can ya do.



JDDJ3J's website

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Glomag - The Ectasy of Gold

I have some catching up to do, what with all the days I blatantly disregarded the needs of you, my poor, poor audience, and you were left stranded and chiptune-less. So it's two today, and two again whenever I feel like it's applicable! There's a new Glomag release over at 8BP, the first track of which is simply fantastic. It's a cover, yeah, but I don't think it detracts from this site to feature covers. Anyhow, enjoy!



Glomag's website

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8BC Advent Calendars 2008 & 2009!

50 Christmas tracks!

Thanks to all you guys who have been spending almost a full year now checking out this site, listening to all the cool chiptune artists I feature every day. It's been a lot of fun getting to know the chiptune community better, and I hope to be writing a similar post one year from now! Have a great Christmas, wherever you're from!

-Curt

Rush Coil - What Child Is This

From 8-Bit Christmas, which I had been planning on featuring since I got word of it on December 1st. It wasn't until today that I realized a few things:

1. None of the songs are available for free download, so I'm not about to post .MP3s to subvert that.
2. All the proceeds of this project are being DONATED TO CHARITY so I would effectively be stealing from kids in hospitals if I tried to get you this music for free.
3. [adult swim] linked to this project as well, and it's Christmas Eve so none of the songs will load very quickly due to some overloaded bandwidth.

Regardless, I cannot recommend this album enough as the end-all chiptune Christmas dealio. The "What Child Is This" (officially the 8BD of 12/24) cover mixes Metroid with classical Christmas tunes, and as soon as I heard that I knew there would never be a Christmas song that topped it. Equal it, maybe. But not top it.

Merry Christmas, people! Give $4 to charity and listen to some rad music!

EvilWezil - Second Hand March

It's been a while since I featured a release! Today's track is not off of 8bc.org, but the venerable Pause. The whole release is worth grabbing, of course, so I suggest you follow the link to the Pause Page and get the MP3 .zip! Although not too apparent in today's track, the album makes use of a lot of strange time signatures and rhythms, making it a pretty engaging listen. Pretty cool fake-world writeup, too! I always get a kick out of that kind of thing.



EvilWezil's website

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Trash Can Man - Birth

Here's the TCM track I promised you guys! The melody comes in about halfway, I think you'll really enjoy it. More stuff tomorrow, when I'll have time to do stuff!



TCM's website

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Blip '09 Writeup #3 (The J. Arthur Keenes Band, Trash Can Man, Bubblyfish, The Hunters, Glomag, Bit Shifter, David Sugar, Psilodump)

Gooooooood morning (yes it is almost 12:30PM as I begin writing this)! What a weekend Blip has been. I've got one last show I'm going to today at 4PM, and then it's all over! So many chiptunes. It's been absolutely fantastic, I got to meet a lot of excellent folks and listen to some ridiculously jamming tunes. Okay, here's your writeup!

J.A.K. was one of my most anticipated shows of these three days. I don't know what it is about his songwriting, but I just love it. Like the previous night, it took him no time at all to get the crowd jumping and moving. His Game Boys supplied ample bass and percussion, covered with his top-notch vocals, guitar, and melodica, which I had never seen played live before. It's got the sound of a harmonica, but it's played like a piano (except you have to blow into it)! Very interesting, but it went great over the more chilled-out portions and grooves of his set. He has a sweet variety of reggae, ska, and rock feels to his tracks, and it had the crowd hooked, singing along, and happy. Superb!

Next, Trash Can Man played what I want to call chip-grunge, but won't (I didn't, see?) because I'm not sure the consequences I'll be bringing upon myself if that's inaccurate. At any rate, he opened with a cover of a song called "Emancipation" according to Twitter posts, and by my best guess it's by a guy named Ihsahn, frontman to a black metal band named Emperor. The crowd was screaming along, and I have to admit I felt pretty awkward that I didn't know the lyrics myself! Haha, anyway, it was a pretty rad set, and TCM made a few new fans judging from what I read. I'll have to feature a track by him soon so you guys get an idea for what he was like.

Bubblyfish followed, opening with a cover of Sleigh Bells that was much louder, tougher, and cooler than it ought to have been. Her set was a lot of fun, and she had some really crazy tunes that sounded folksy or country or something. Like the music that plays when a horse is walking in a cartoon. But then she'd break out of that into really thick beats, as powerful as anything played that night. It was really interesting, but a lot of fun. It was also the last set that I stuck to the front of the stage, at that point I was really feeling the effects of having partied and walked for miles for two and a half days straight with less than optimum amounts of sleep. It was an awesome set, though, and I'd love to see Bubblyfish play again!

The Hunters came up next, playing a really chilled out tune before unleashing their more hopping tracks. They also supplied their own visuals, which were much smoother than the hyper glitched stylings of the VJs (The C-Men, Paris, Outpt, Enso, Vblank, NO CARRIER, and Rosa Menkman, all of whom were just incredible and mind-blowing). They had that thick, bassy Game Boy sound that drives people nuts, and it looked like a great response from where I was standing during their set!

Glomag followed, getting the crowd going ballistic to his heavy, fast beats and rock and roll guitar playing. A New York favorite, Glomag's set had everyone going nuts, quite a feat when you consider what most participants had been through the past few days. For one of his tracks he had one of the C-Men (who were VJing his set at the time) come up on stage to sing some vocoded lyrics, and chiptune-writer-guy Natty Adams to rap, which went over most excellently as you can probably imagine.

Then Bit Shifter! The Blip Festival was nearing its end, and it was apparent by the awesome acts they had "saved for last". Bit Shifter had the crowd going wild, yes I'm aware that EVERY ACT seemed to be doing that last night, but it's the truth! The chiptune scene only gets one Blip Festival every year, we make it count! So he's playing, people are loving the Information Chase tracks, Reformat The Planet went over exceptionally well, maybe the biggest cheer all three nights for a song coming on. But at the end of his set, once we all thought that he was about to leave the stage, he announced that while he had been feeling sick and for that reason didn't sing any songs like he had wanted to, he was going to sing his very last track, which was the cover of a Misfits song called (excuse me here) "AngelFuck". He invited everyone who wanted to up on stage, and closed his set out as powerfully as you might expect from Bit Shifter.

David Sugar played next, sometimes singing, sometimes playing guitar, but always using the Game Boy and dancing around to his tracks. He's been away from the chiptune scene for some time now, saying that it had been probably close to a year since he'd played any chiptune shows. But being invited to Blip had gotten him excited over chiptunes once more, and he played us a track that he wrote just for Blip. It was a good song, and the crowd ate it up! I'm not as familiar with David Sugar as I think I ought to be, so I think this week I'll have to spend some time getting to know his music better.

And, after three very full concerts even without him, it was time to squeeze one more act into the agenda, and Psilodump took the stage. He played absolute bangers. His act had superb visuals by Paris and The C-Men, in my opinion the best of all three nights (though Minusbaby's was a very close second). His sound was very professional sounding, with spot-on levels and mixing, and tight crossfading between tracks so as to not let the crowd down for even a second. It was intense, and seemed to last much longer than it actually did. To put it shortly, it was the perfect set to close out Blip '09!

And that's how the show went down. Once I got outside, there was a ton of snow on the ground and I got to shuffle back to my hotel in the wind and the cold. Sigh. Such is the dichotomy of life, an equal and opposite reaction for every action. But I cheated this fate, that seemed to be punishing New York for having too much fun, by getting a delicious sandwich on my way home, and having a great night's sleep. Can't beat me, snow! I'm from MICHIGAN!!

Blip '09 Writeup #2 (Disasterpeace, Starscream, Fighter X, Little Scale, I, Cactus, Nullsleep, Rainbowdragoneyes, Patric C, Hally, CONDOM)

First off, this is the longest concert I've ever been to. I suppose that's why it's legitimate to call Blip a festival rather than, say, a "concert series" or something like that. These are not concerts every night, they are tests of party endurance!! Okay, so going right in order...

Disasterpeace, of whom I'm a big fan, was up first. He had his whole set queued up on the software side of things, and played his guitar along with. It seemed as if some residue energy was still in the crowd from last night, since there wasn't that two or three set buffer between concert starting and crowd starting like there was Thursday. Although his music isn't the best for headbanging, jumping around, and crowd surfing, it was apparent people were into the math-rock compositions, crazy time signatures, and powerful (not to be confused with power) chords. It was quite the set, and same as yesterday's performance by Silreq, a great kickoff for the night.

Starscream was up next, and Damon and George made quick work of getting the crowd frenzied. I was glad to hear some new tracks by them, and everyone around was enjoying the flowing music over the hard drums. I was also surprised to see Damon, who for so long reminded me of a long-haired friend of mine named Justice, had cut most of his hair off. Anyway, the music was great, Starscream is another one of those bands I was extra excited to see perform, and they did not disappoint.

Fighter X came up next, the party-hard collaboration between the original Fighter X and Circles (there's a post about it not too long ago). They played their "unce", as people have come to call it, and it really got the crowd moving. I think at one point they were both in the crowd (by which of course I mean ON the crowd), but I'm not sure. Plenty of people were floating atop the audience last night. During Fighter X's set was when I started realizing how tired I was feeling. Combining the drastic increase in exercise I'd been getting (walking around NYC and rocking out to the entirety of a 6-hour concert all day and the day before) with the toll the loudspeakers were taking on my ears and the fact that my vodka tonics' (drink of choice, people) "influence" let's say was fading, yeah. I was getting pretty exhausted. I wasn't sure what would happen if another Fighter X show happened, but next up was Little-Scale, and what I've heard of him is generally not that up-tempo or ridiculous. I thought I was safe!

Little-Scale's set opened with A vs. B, a track some people might call a "joke track". The 8bc.org version consists of two notes, identical in pitch but with some sort of duty cycle shift or filter cutoff automation or something, resulting in subtly different timbres from start to finish. It's only a few seconds long, and it inspired a few "reimaginings" or "remixes" in the days after its being uploaded to 8bc. So those notes played, and I thought he'd bow and the crowd would have a laugh, but instead the song just exploded into a very hard beat coupled with some fast-paced melodies. He continued in this way pretty much his entire set, taking the occasional break to play some tracks with a down-tempo feel while the crowd caught its collective breath and cheered. It was a great set, and by the time it was over I'd forgotten I was supposed to be tired!

I, Cactus followed Little-Scale's set, playing from his laptop. His music was the least "chiptune" set of these last two nights, with plenty of pop music culture weaved in with his tracks. He had a sort of remix of Britney Spears, Eminem, and Nine Inch Nails I think, all mashed together to make bizarre but coherent sentences. He looked like he was enjoying his set as much as anyone in the crowd, laughing at the stranger sequencing of words (Eminem's "Hi, my name is..." with a myriad other goofy things following it) and getting thoroughly sweaty dancing around the stage.

Nullsleep came on stage to no small amount of applause, and since he's one of the biggest names in Chiptunes it should be no surprise. Playing off a couple Game Boys, his set was way harder, noisier, and devoid of melodies than I had been planning on. Great party music to be sure, and the crowd knew this all too well, but just... Not what I'd expected. Talking with Ethan after the set, he agreed with my take on it, mentioning that Nullsleep's seemed to have abandoned rich, melodic tracks in preference of more up-tempo, crowd-stirring dance tracks, leaving him feeling personally betrayed! I could hear where he was coming from, since I would have loved a slower set for multiple reasons, but what was done was done, and Nullsleep's approach seems to be working out just fine for him!

Rainbowdragoneyes was the second-to last, and what a crazy show that was. I discovered later that RDE actually works in the recording industry, working with all sorts of metal artists professionally. As such, his stage presence was very death-metal, with him flinging his hair around, screaming into a microphone, and turning off all the stage lights. It was a crazy set with a unique style (though I suspect seeing other metal-chiptune artists like Nestrogen or Norrin Radd would be a similarly intense spectacle).

Closing out the night, or at least the part of the night to which anyone with $15 bucks was allowed, was Patric C. He was just awesome. The most "old-school" artist in attendance, Patric C. chided the scene for forgetting about its roots in the demo scene, and expressed some frustration with the iTunes age of music distribution, in which the fringe, self-produced independent tracks, the likes of which have created the entire chiptune culture, have no chance of thriving. His set was invariably intense, getting the crowd moving in no time despite the fact that if they felt anything like I did we were all one minute of silence away from falling asleep.

After Patric C. had finished off Blip night #2 proper, Hally and CONDOM were scheduled to make an appearance. It was around 1:30 when P.C. got off the stage, but it wasn't until 2:00 or so that Hally finally began his set, and I moved toward the stage in a zombie-like state that evaporated as soon as his double NES setup started assaulting us with its rich beats and smooth moving lines. I just have to say that Hally was probably the coolest performer, playing his set in a track jacket and slowly donning his trademark sunglasses right before the initiation of his sonic barrage. The crowd was utterly insane, especially considering how late it was, but that wasn't even the half of it!

By the time CONDOM came on, Covox and Random had been getting their set put together and everything connected for almost an hour. 3:30 AM was when the ambient, flowing dissonance of their opening track started, building into a raging sea of noise, at which point they walked on stage, completely in black. They stood motionless for a full minute, then put their hand to their ear at a musical cue. Another moment later, and they flipped a switch, illuminating two point-sized LEDs where eyes would be. Their set consisted of a few spoken pieces - half jargon half euphemism about condoms - in between all of their tracks. After the show, I ended up meeting a couple guys from Blip waiting for a subway, Kris Keyser and Ricardo Almonte (and one of Kris' friends whose name I didn't catch). Kris summed up the CONDOM show pretty well when he mentioned "they out-Justiced Justice". I think it's safe to say that with music the likes of which Covox/Random was blasting, you could sell out some pretty large venues. It was absolutely insane, and my favorite set of this festival so far.

So, another night of Blip come and gone! Last night, with the exclusive afterparty show, ended up being something like 9 hours long. I showed up at quarter to 8 and got back at quarter to 5. What a night.

So, tonight! The J. Arthur Keenes Band, Glomag, Bit Shifter, and more! It's gonna be a blast!!

Blip '09 Writeup #1 (Silreq, Failotron, Leeni, Minusbaby, Chromix, JDDJ3J, Albino Ghost Monkey, Eat Rabbit)

Wow, what an interesting experience was last night's Blip! Well, let's get right to it.

First up was Silent Requiem (Silreq), who seemed to be trying his hardest to detonate the sound system. Very heavy on the bass, the percussion (white noise with envelopes = percussion), and other noise. It was a bit like a DJ set because he didn't stop the music, he didn't say anything, he just played some crazy hard music. As I said to Ethan (look in the comments on these entries, chances are decent you'll see that name), "It's good music to show off the sound system". It was a great opening act, and it got the crowd a little bit energized, but nothing like what was to come.

Next was Failotron, from Budapest, Hungary. He spent his sound check strumming a guitar and playing with the delay and stuff, then set the guitar down and told the crowd "I just wanted to test this guitar, I won't be using it". He plays Hullamzoret Two first, which of course I loved! But then, I think it was a couple songs later that he went to play a track the name of which escapes me, it was discovered his LSDJ save had corrupted! So he gets the privelage of playing at Blip '09 in New York, flies there from Eastern Europe, he is about to play what he called his "FAVORITE SONG"!!!! And the cart died! It was... The saddest thing I've ever seen. But he got his "Commodore Advanced" (his laptop), and we got to jam out to it anyway. The buildups he writes are just fantastic, and the guitar/drum/gameboy trifecta didn't fail to disappoint.

Third, Leeni, a singer-songwriter girl from Seattle, was a radical departure from the rest of the night. I felt like she was disappointed in the crowd for not dancing as much as she'd like us to, and I empathize. You want your Blip show to be as good as it can be! But the thing to realize is that chiptune crowds usually consist of a lot of head-bobbers and toe-tappers. And that's what the crowd did, though slightly harder once she hinted that we were "allowed to dance" and whatever else. The music was nice; melodic and soft, if I had to pick two words, but it didn't get the crowd moving. Ah well!

Next up was Minusbaby. His set garnered a lot of interest before he went on because he had been wandering the club handing out 3D glasses to be worn during his set. The visuals were, as such, rendered with the red and pale blue offset instantly recognizable as 3D, and the beats he laid down were fantastically heavy. It got the crowd moving, but I'd say "pulsing" would be the more accurate term. A lot of movement, but no jumping around or thrashing. Also, those super-low triangle waves... Oh man. It was an all-around intense experience.

Chromix played after, with nothing on stage but him, his GBA SP, and a mic. His set was rad, and he was dancing as hard as anyone else in the room. It was during this set that people really got going, as his fast-paced beats and the amount of energy he was exuding inspired a lot of jumping, thrashing, and yelling. Oh what power the Game Boy holds! He played a rad cover of Chemical Plant Zone from Sonic 2, the highlight of his set for me, as well as plenty of his own original creations which consist of a lot of fast kick-drum and... Noise I guess? Melodies were there, but the spotlight was not on them. It was about the jam.

With Chromix's set done, the crowd was peaking. The music was getting more and more energetic each set, and the next artist, Je Deviens DJ En Trois Jours (I/I've/I'll Become A DJ In Three Days depending on the tense) has a bit of a reputation as making killer party music. He treated the Game Boys like turntables, and it was during this set that people started crowd surfing and the entire audience was jumping around like mad. Also, he was overpowering the system or a cord was unplugging or something, because periodically in his set the noise would cut out completely, with the crowd giving a huge "AWWWWWWWW" every time. But then the problem would be resolved, the music instantly back to its strength, and the crowd was pulled right back in. It was a great set, and JDDJ3J is an excellent performer who knows how to frenzy up a crowd.

Following that act was Albino Ghost Monkey. I'd retreated back to the front room, mostly because it was close to the door and hence some degrees cooler, when I heard the between-sets music cut out and our friend the pale tarsier took the stage. He played very intense music, probably the hardest dance music all night, and got the crowd present absolutely frothing. There was almost perpetually someone on top of the crowd, it was at this point that glow-sticks and other blinking, glowing rave-toys appeared in the crowd, and he was dancing just as hard as he could, so of course the crowd went berserk! He kept telling the crowd he loved them, and I'm sure he made quite a few friends after his set last night. As for me, though, I'd been at the edge of the stage all night, so I just watched all this happen from a distance and had a drink.

Closing out the first night of Blip was EAT RABBIT, a French guy who I would feel comfortable describing as "insane". I mean, he's not really, but his sense of aesthetics is pretty out there. He wore a suit and tie with a big bunny head mask, and his music was like deranged carnie tunes. Regardless, the crowd loved it, and at one point during what sounded like a hardstyle polka, the crowd started chanting "HEY" on every offbeat while I assume they kicked their legs forward and crossed their arms. Hey, we'll make do with whatever music the artists give us!

All in all, the first night of Blip was, I think, successful! It was interesting how heavily documented the event was, with 2PP's camera crew all over the stage, no shortage of cameras, and the entire event being streamed online. I suspect that for those of you that didn't get to attend Blip '09, you'll be able to pretty much "get the idea" from some DVD that will go on sale in a while.

Also, no tracks today, sorry. I'm going to just save up and catch up on music when I get back! Like, I'll post... What, five songs? Something like that. Anyway! Seeya tomorrow for Writeup #2!

Albino Ghost Monkey - Host

I was hopeful that a "Ghost Monkey" was a real animal. Alas, I have scoured Wikipedia with no result. Most disappointingly was the discovery that there is no catch-all "List of types of monkeys" page, the type of thing you might find for plenty other strange categories.

At any rate, this is a track I had not heard before today, and it makes me very excited to be going to Blip in... Hm, about 15 hours I'll be headed out the door! I'll be bringing my laptop and updating in my hotel though, so don't expect me to take a break or anything lame like that!



Albino Ghost Monkey's website (my best guess, anyway)

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Leeni - Animatronic

Not only music, but words, too! I suspect Leeni would have been happy to continue playing guitar and singing songs like so many other people do, but apparently she was bored and decided to check out Nanoloop one day! A good decision if ever there was one, as she's quite successful, with a couple of professional looking music videos and some albums that you can buy over at CrunchyCo if you feel like it!



Leeni's website

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Nullsleep - Supernova Kiss

The classic Nullsleep track! This song was on the legendary 8BP050, which acted as my formal introduction to chiptunes as a genre. Before then, I was familiar with downloading NSFs to listen to the old NES tunes, or going to vgmusic.com (I'd been visiting that page since Windows 98 was the OS of choice, and downloading a MIDI was a serious investment in internet time) to listen to covers of videogame music rendered in a worse-than-the-original sounding style. Of course, I knew the music for Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the N64, but didn't own the console myself! It was my friend's! So I used the internet as a way to listen to the music of Gerudo Valley, or to listen to that whistley sledding theme from Mario 64 (a game I have, to this day, not played).

But it wasn't until 8BP050, when I heard of guys like Random and Anamanaguchi and Virt and Nullsleep that I finally understood the potential in taking the sounds that I really liked - the tones and styles of game music - and writing original compositions. And once I'd listened to 8BP050, and then gone to 8-Bit Peoples' site and used the Firefox plugin "DownThemAll!" to amass an awesome collection of 400+ chiptune tracks... It was over! From that point on, chiptunes have predominantly satiated my musical appetite.

Nullsleep, ladies and gents!



Nullsleep's website

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Failotron - Hullamzoret Two

Back when this song was first uploaded to 8BC, I was interested in hearing more of it. This track, as you might have noticed, is the "part two" of a four-track project. Now that I think about it, I've got no idea if it's finished now or not! Regardless, this track stands fine on its own, and it's a very calming piece with great chords and just the right amount of open, empty space.



Failotron's website

The 8BC page (leave a comment!)

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Bit Shifter - Reformat The Planet

Bit Shifter is interesting in that the majority of his music has been released on compilations rather than on his own EPs/LPs. Just look at his Discography! Just a whole bunch of compilations, as well as "Life's A Bit Shifter" and "The Information Chase", where this track is from. I'm looking forward to seeing him play because I want to see if it's the same few tracks of his I've been listening to for so long now, or if he'll have a lot of stuff I've never heard!



Bit Shifter's website

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Minusbaby - Left, Part 6

A big name from the NYC chiptune scene, Minusbaby is equal parts visual artist and musician. His latest collection of tracks, Left, is pretty awesome and I featured a track off of it back in August when it came out. The EP is worth your while, the tracks are all excellent, and it's got a sweet exotic feel to it that I don't think you'll find in much chipmusic.



Minusbaby's website

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Silent Requiem - "Doctor X" 1932

Wow okay I just realized I have to be to work in 15 minutes (thanks for that, phone!) so I can't say much other than listen to this guy's one-channel LSDJ tracks (on his page, link below). They are very good given the restrictions he's working with!



Silent Requiem's website

The 8BC page (leave a comment!)

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Fighter X - A Dystopian Future

I've featured Fighter X before, but he'll be playing at this year's Blip Fest, so I'm featuring him again! When this track was made, Fighter X was just one guy, but now there's two Fighter X members, the second of which used to go by Circles. I've featured him before too, actually! So yeah, their set should be pretty hardcore. They make tough dancey Game Boy music with kicks that are hard and plentiful. Great stuff when the volume is ridiculously amped!



Fighter X's website

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Disasterpeace - Quartz

Disasterpeace is one of the Blip artists I'm most eagerly anticipating having the opportunity to watch. His songs aren't just good, they're emotive and varied. I'm expecting great stuff from the whole lineup, but I have a feeling that Disasterpeace's set will be a standout, given the nature of all the songs by him I've heard before. Anyway, here is one of his less heard tracks (if 8BC listens are any indicator, and I think they may be). Drink some coffee or something while you listen to this one!



Disasterpeace's website

The 8BC page (leave a comment!)

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Chromix - Passive Resistance

My featuring Blip artists is an attempt to accomplish two things. The first is that you, as listeners of Chiptunes, might appreciate the music of the people who will soon be coming together to put on three awesome nights of music and visuals and maybe even choose to fly/drive out to NYC for the big event itself. The other is to expose you to artists who are, for lack of a more precise term, "legit". I mean, I look at the list of performers, and while I recognize most of them, I certainly don't know them all. Aside: To this end, I was going to feature EAT_RABBIT yesterday but was taken from my computer by a shadowy figure and not returned to my home until late that night at which point I decided to sleep. Sorry. So I'm going through the list, checking out some of the artists... And in my usual way, picking out sweet tracks I come across to save you guys some sifting time!




Chromix's website

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David Sugar - Totally On

With my concert over, we can get back to the concert that's really important - Blip! This track was picked by Octavialsilver since I'm on an internet connection that doesn't allow me to listen to music, and I'm on a different computer than the one I normally use and can therefore not listen to music. But! David Sugar is an O.G. of the chiptune scene, and has toured with Digitalism, a very good and also legitimate band. This track's off his 8BP release "Fresh Off The Chip".



David Sugar's website

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Octavialsilver - Mechanical Madness

A collaboration between Octavialsilver and Anticlimax. Tomorrow I'll be heading to Detroit to play a show with Octavial and Noisewaves (see yesterday's post!) on really loud speakers and there'll be some shiny lights and people and the whole thing. Wow!



Octavialsilver's website

The 8BC page (leave a comment!)

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Noisewaves - As Days Go By (Family Matters Theme)

Okay, Noisewaves isn't playing at Blip but I'm taking a three-day break from the Blip Hype Project to feature the participants of a concert that's this Thursday (yeah that's in two days) in Detroit, on the campus of Oakland University! It's gonna be in an arcade, we'll have free food and video games and maybe some free pool tables but I dunno for sure. Anyway, it's gonna be me (NOROCK), Noisewaves, and Octavialsilver. Should be a cool show!



Noisewaves' website

The 8BC page (leave a comment!)

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