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]

This year's Blip Festival took place from May 19-21 at Manhattan's Eyebeam. Pictures from all three days continue below...

Continue reading "Blip Fest 2011 in pics"

photos by Leia Jospe

Anamanaguchi

Ary Warnaar, guitarist for the New York chiptunes band Anamanaguchi, famously described 8-bit music as "the punk of electronic music."

It was hard to dispute that claim as Datapop 3.0 kicked off the first of its two nights Tuesday at the Highball. The third annual event celebrates 8-bit music -- a distinct brand of electronic music that's composed and performed through the use of old computer consoles from the 8-bit era of video games. Imagine techno performed entirely through samples culled from your dusty, trusty old Nintendo Entertainment System and you'll be in the right ballpark.

8-bit music may not have the rage -- or even the lyrics -- of punk music, but it does share the same sense of youthful innovation and wild, giddy abandon. Also like punk, it's the sort of thing that's likely to be appreciated only by those of or below a certain age -- if you're not young enough to recall just how fiendishly addictive the melodies in, say, "Mega Man 2" were, there's a solid chance 8-bit music might just sound like so many computerized bleeps and bloops to you. [Austin Statesman]

The 'celebration of 8-bit music" took place on March 16th & 17th at the Highball in Austin. Leia was there on the 2nd day which was also the first night of SXSW Music. More of her pictures from the show (and the full lineup) is below...

Continue reading "pics from Datapop 3 (a SXSW celebration of 8-bit music)"