Blip Festival '07 Starts Tomorrow
The Times has a nice write-up of the Blip Festival, a four-day event starting tomorrow here in New York that is being called the "Woodstock for chiptunes." I had the good pleasure of going to the first Blip last year, and it was downright transcendent. (I wrote about my experiences for Table of Malcontents.) I intend to be down there every night this weekend. The only question: how do I shave an 8-bit mohawk?
From Melena Ryzik in the Times:
Among the stars this year are Hally, a Japanese musician who helped found the chiptune scene in Japan and is known for his work on Famicom, the original Japanese Nintendo; Haeyoung Kim, a k a Bubblyfish, a classically trained pianist and the sole female performer; and Bodenständig 2000, a duo from Germany making a rare appearance in the United States. (The London-based chiptune superstar David E. Sugar has gotten so popular that he was impossible to book, Mr. Rosenthal said.)
Each night eight musicians will perform, accompanied by V.J.’s who will live-edit video onstage. Behind them will be a specially designed low-pixel screen that looks like a giant, moving version of Lite-Brite, the electric toy. The effect will be as lo-fi as a high-tech party can get.
Making Old Hardware Play New Tunes [NYTimes.com]
Event home page [BlipFestival.org]
the latest
latest episodes
My favourite is BLASTERHEAD
(http://www.blipfestival.org/artist.php?artistid=006)
Usually he creates soundtracks for the best selling hentai videogames in Japan and his chiptune style is pretty hardcore...
Hey Joel, folks who'd like to enable greater blipping can do so by loaning the festival their TVs: