photos by Leia Jospe

Nullsleep

This year's Blip Festival was thrown at Eyebeam on New York City's West Side by a collective of chip musicians called 8bitpeoples, with help from NYC nonprofit The Tank.

Many of those who play chiptunes--music made through the sound chips of old video game hardware--have long resented the tight correlation between their music scene and video gamers. If that seems implausible at first, think of it this way: They're using the hardware as an instrument to create original electronic music that they hope everyone can enjoy, but the video gamey sound often leads to the misinterpretation that they're making "video game music", or that gamers are the only ones who can participate.

It seemed as if the surliness has relaxed. It's similar to the same kind of diversification that's been taking place in the gaming scene--the softening of divisions between types of players as the audience broadens--and this year's event welcomed gamers, musicians, hardware junkies interested in making new art with circuits, and music fans from the chip-savvy to the casual culturists. [Kotaku]

Continue reading "Blip Fest 2011 in pics"

Felix Cartal @ Webster Hall - February 27, 2009 (Nicky Digital)

There was quite a bit going on last week, but I hardly went to any of it. I did most of my getting down at the David Byrne show Saturday night at Radio City, which I (unlike Jon Pareles) found to be a great show.

On my way home from David's show Friday night I found myself at the Studio at Webster Hall just to buy a friend a birthday drink. I caught some of Futurecop's set, but it was a bit too much, too soon after David Byrne for me to absorb any of it or make any judgment.

Fortunately I wound up sticking around and getting my ears used to hearing electronic music long enough to realize Felix Cartal was tearing it up. His set was full of bangers, many of which I hadn't heard before. One was a remix/mash-up of Daft Punk's "Oh Yeah" and "Rollin' & Scratchin'" that was sick and featured a weird little vocal periodically saying "rollin' & scratchin!". As good as Felix's set was, I was exhausted and left before he was done.

This week is brimming with good deejays and I am almost glad I won't be around to have to make any of these decisions you're going to face, specifically for Friday & Saturday night. Here's what's happening:

Continue reading "the week in Dance w/ Showtrotta (Mixhell, Frankie Knuckles, Italians Do It Better, Glass Candy, Chairlift, more...)"