61 Frames Per Second : 8bitpeoples

Chiptune Friday: Game Boy Hero

Derrick Sanskrit — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:30:00 GMT

Last month, Game Boy musician Cornbeat finally released his long-anticipated EP Chip Hero through 8bitPeoples. As the name implies, Chip Hero presents itself as a concept extended play, the soundtrack to a future video game where the player simulates the live performance of Chiptune music with synthetic controllers resembling the vintage game consoles the songs were originally recorded with. Sounds familiar, no?

As would be expected for the soundtrack to such a game, the five tracks making up the twenty-minute soundtrack are great fun and you might just find yourself wanting to press buttons in time with the bleeps as well. Here now, for your week ending enjoyment, my favorite track from Chip Hero, "Backseat Driver":

Download Chip Hero from 8bitPeoples here.

Related Chiptunes:
Twilight Electric's "Razor Blades"
USK's "Little Sound Disko"
Anamanaguchi's "Helix Nebula"

Chiptune Christmas!

Derrick Sanskrit — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Christmas is almost certainly the holiday with the greatest quantity of specially-crafted pop culture to back it up. Christmas movies, tv specials, and music albums are all common in our commercially viable holiday season (seriously, have you heard Bootsy Collins' Christmas Is 4 Ever? I think you should...), and, of course, there's no keeping chiptune out of this. Last week, Cole pointed out the new 8-Bit Jesus album from Doctor Octoroc, but today we're taking a stroll down memory lane for me.

Five years ago, when I was first getting into chiptune as more than just a retro novelty, the 8bitPeoples released their second-ever compilation, The 8bits of Christmas (their first ep was all covers of the Beverly Hills Cop theme). Eight different chiptune musicians, each using a different piece of game hardware, each doing their own spin on a Christmas classic. All eight are delightful, and the EP quickly became a staple of my holiday playlist. Here now, my personal favorite, goto80's take on Wham!'s contemporary classic "Last Christmas," recorded using a Commodore 64:

Of course, if you enjoyed this, please download the entire 8bits of Christmas EP for free right here. It also includes 61FPS faves Nullsleep and Bit Shifter doing their renditions of "Silent Night"and "Let It Snow", repsectively.

Have a happy holiday, all!

Related articles:
Santa's Welcome Bounty: Christmas Morning Games
8 Bit Jesus: Holiday Chiptunes for Your Stocking
Making Black Friday Work For You
Praise His Name With Guitar Praise - Or Go To Hell
Chiptune Halloween

Blip Festival 2008 Primer - Part 2

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:00:00 GMT

The 2008 Blip Festival is only two days away, so today we're taking a look at the man considered to be responsible for the whole NYC chiptune scene, Jeremiah Johnson, aka Nullsleep. We've featured him here back on July 4th, but with Blip Festival just days away and a brand-new Nullsleep EP released just this past week, it seemed the time was ripe for a second look.

Without further ado, please enjoy "Salvation for a Broken Heart" from the just-released Unconditional Acceleration EP:

Oh my goodness, those sounds. Can you believe that was all composed and performed on an original Game Boy? Did you even know the Game Boy was capable of such sweet harmonious bliss? Kind of makes the Wario Land soundtrack just seem lazy, huh? But surely this can't be interesting to watch performed, can it? Well, here's a video of Nullsleep playing that very same song to a crowd of passersby in Chinatown eighteen months ago:

And if he can get those kids to dance out in the street in broad daylight, just imagine the fun to be had in a club at night.

Nullsleep will be performing this Saturday night from 11:20pm till midnight. If you enjoyed "Salvation for a Broken Heart," be sure to download the entire Unconditional Ecceleration EP for free from 8bitpeoples.

Come on back tomorrow for some more sweet chiptuning, and we hope to see you at Blip Festival this weekend!

Related articles:
Blip Festival 2008 Primer - Part 1 - noteNdo
Chiptune Friday: Nullsleep vs. Depeche Mode
Chiptune Friday: Bit Shifter
Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet on Pitchfork.tv
Chiptune Friday: Anamanaguchi
Chiptune Friday: USK
Chiptune Friday: cry.on.my.console Pits M.I.A. vs. Super Mario Bros.

Blip Festival 2008 Primer - Part 1

Derrick Sanskrit — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:00:00 GMT

That most wonderful time of the year is here, my lo-fi friends! The annual Blip Festival is almost upon us! In just three scant days, chiptune artists and afficianados from around the world will decend upon New York City as they have for the past two years and celebrate all that is good and futzwithable about video game hardware reappropriated for video and audio bliss. I'm excited. Can you tell I'm excited?

Four nights of live music performances (I know, it's hard to qualify them as "live" when most of the music is reliant on preprogrammed patterns on game cards, but it's still great), video shows, workshops and general camaraderie. To get you prepped for the rockin', we're here to shed some light on some of what you can expect from this year's performances.

First up is the man known as noteNdo, who's been with Blip Festival from the very beginning. One of the most popular of the chip visual artists, noteNdo will be providing the video accompaniment to five performances throughout the four day festival this week. Rather than create pre-rendered videos for each song, noteNdo, much like the musicians he works with, has restructured game hardware to automatically generate patterns of light and color rhythmically with the music. What does this all look like? Well, here's a video demonstration set to Bit Shifter's "Tea With Galactus":

Now imagine that on a big screen behind somebody rocking out on their Game Boy while you stand in a crowd full of excited hipsters. Makes you want to dance, right? You're damn right it does.

noteNdo is also kicking off this year's festivities with a set of his own music. You can check out his MySpace page for samples of that sweetness, and be sure to come back here tomorrow for another look at what to expect from Blip Festival 2008!

Related articles:
Chiptune Friday: Bit Shifter
Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet on Pitchfork.tv
Chiptune Friday: Anamanaguchi
Chiptune Friday: Nullsleep vs. Depeche Mode
Chiptune Friday: USK
Chiptune Friday: cry.on.my.console Pits M.I.A. vs. Super Mario Bros.

Chiptune Halloween: Check Your Candy For Razor Blades

Derrick Sanskrit — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Happy Halloween, everybody. I'm sure you've all got long nights of Sugar Daddies and Zombies Ate My Neighbors lined up, but don't forget some sweet tunes. Might I recommend the title track off of Twilight Electric's "Razor Blades" EP? I think you'll find these blades much smoother and more pleasant than the ones your mom was always checking your candied apples for.

Here's a little 30-second sample to give you a taste:

If you enjoyed this li'l tease, you can download the whole song as well as the entire "Razor Blades" EP for free from 8bitpeoples right here.

Happy Halloween!

Past Chiptunes:
Firebrand Boy vs. The Postal Service
RAC vs. Zelda II
Leeni's 8-bit Heart
USK's Little Sound Disko

Chiptune Friday: Little Sound Disko

Derrick Sanskrit — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:30:00 GMT

It's hard to believe that this track by Japanese Chiptuner USK was composed on a Game Boy. It's not because of the limited sounds and effects, oh no, that all works just fine. It's because this song clearly requires many more colors than even the Game Boy Color was capable of producing.

I present to you the Game Boy rave stylings of USK's "Little Sound Disko#05"

If you've enjoyed this jam, feel free to download the entire PICOPICODISCO EP for free from 8bitPeoples. If you're anything like me, all five tracks should certainly get you in the mood for a weekend full of PixelJunk Eden.

Related articles:
Chiptune Friday Friday Friday with TRUCKASAURAS!!!
Chiptune Friday: Nullsleep vs. Depeche Mode
Chiptune Friday: Reformat the Planet
Far Out, Man
Whatcha (Wish You Were) Playing: How Does Your Garden Grow?

Chiptune Friday: IndepenDANCE Day Weekend

Derrick Sanskrit — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Today is Independence Day here in the United States, which means everyone in the country is off at a barbeque and setting off fireworks.

What better way to celebrate the United States' independence than with a New York chiptuner's take on one of the most popular British bands of the past few decades? I present to you Nullsleep's Depeche Mode Megamix, with chiptune takes on "Enjoy The Silence," "Photographic," "New Life," and "Everything Counts."

Fourteen-and-a-half minutes of nostalgic Game Boy bliss should delight everyone at your party of choice and comfort that hottie you've been eyeing all afternoon as you gaze drunkenly up at the colorful explosions in the night sky together.

Graphic from one of my favorite shirts from R Stevens.

Chiptune Friday: Reformat the Planet

Derrick Sanskrit — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Happy Chiptune Friday!

Two weeks ago I spotlighted Anamanaguchi in preparation for their upcoming NYC live gigs. Just a reminder, they're playing Cake Shop tonight and outside The Tank tomorrow as part of the Make Music Festival. Today, we showcase the headliner for tomorrow's free outdoor chiptune party at The Tank, Bit Shifter. Enjoy "Reformat The Planet":

This Game Boy-powered track also shares its title with the recently released documentary about the rising chiptune music scene. Here's the trailer:

If you liked this tune, feel free to download the rest of the "Information Chase" EP for free from 8bitpeoples.

Learn more about this weekend's free outdoor Bit Shifter & Anamanaguchi concert at the Tank.

We wish you an 8-bit solstice!

Chiptune Friday: Helix Nebula

John Constantine — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Written by Derrick Sanskrit

It's friday, which means it's time for chiptune! It's also June, which means that the summer concert season has officially begun! Summer may not officially begin for another two weeks, but the sun is beating down on NYC, so let's go outside and rock out with our joysticks out!

To get you in the summer spirit, here's a track by one of my favorite chiptune bands, Anamanaguchi. This Brooklyn trio (sometimes quartet) uses a modified Nintendo Entertainment System to build their beats, then kick the bits up from 8 to 11 with electric guitars and bass (and sometimes a drum set for their live shows). Anamanaguchi's music is exciting and lively, full of warm square waves and fuzzy guitars with crunchy blips and beats. It simultaneously calls to mind the best 8-bit shooters and platformers with its aggressive playfulness. Makes me feel like running around the elementary school playground, hopped up on Pop Rocks, kicking the butts off radioactive goblins that only I can see.

If you liked this track, "Helix Nebula", go ahead and download the entire Power Supply EP for free, along with tons of other fantastic chiptune releases, over on the 8bitpeoples website.

Also, Anamanaguchi have a couple of sweet NYC gigs coming up! Come rock out two weeks from today as they rock Cake Shop on June 20th, and then The Tank (with fellow 8bitperson and famous chiptune artist BitShifter) on June 21st!