Alright Nullsleep! Tour time folks... get your tickets here for Nullsleep's Collapsed Desires Tour. Nullsleep is an electronic musician whose style is best described as post-cyberpunk: a combination of distorted synthpop, electro, and industrial produced with repurposed low-bit electronics. Something to listen to while experiencing the rapture/apocalypse/end of dayz. His mastery of sound and technology produces a sound that is simply a wall of digital noise, but driven by a deeper pulsing beat, that is inevitably torn apart in a cascade of complex glitches and drones emanating from cheap plastic devices.


Tour dates:
2010 05 19 CHICAGO IL, USA . REGGIES ROCK CLUB
2010 05 28 PORTLAND OR, USA . BACKSPACE
2010 06 03 SAN FRANCISCO CA, USA . DNA LOUNGE
2010 06 06 AUSTIN TX, USA . THE HIGHBALL
2010 06 09 NASHVILLE TN, USA . THE END
2010 06 12 PHILADELPHIA PA, USA . STUDIO34

Listen below for A little taste of what you can expect to hear from Nullsleep on the Collapsed Desires Tour this Summer.

Nullsleep- "2010 Promo Mix"

Tracklist: Wave Function Collapse | Pleasure Construct | Tel Aviv | Decade | Limit Break | Shadows in the sky | Disaster Fetish

This submission is licensed by author under CC Attribution Noncommercial No Derivative Works (BY-NC-ND)

End of days: Pixel Edition

The days of the 8 bit computers, Tetris, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, the Commodore 64, Bomberman, etc., have come to rue the day that we decided to advance technology and forget them all!

The movie has been directed by Patrick Jean and produced at One More Prod. Director of Photography: Matias Boucard.

Whats pixilated and has a population of 8.3 Million?

Imagine New York City (and the boroughs) as an adventure-scape of the 8-bit world from your old-school Nintendo days.

MIT alum, Brett Camper puts the pixel treatment on a Google Map of the 5 boroughs of New York. In this incredible mashup parks, water, some notable landmarks and roads take on such a blocky NES map look like RPGs of yesteryear. If only you could be able to assemble a team of adventurers and storm the island exploring side streets and neighborhoods, plundering its riches!

Tanguy Ukulele Orchestra - Legend of Zelda (Aloha Metal de Link remix)

Blip Fest: Day 2

Day 2 was chiptastic: I, Cactus/ Nullsleep/ Rainbowdragoneyes + the most regrettable decision! Previous to going on Friday, NY1 was on the tv, and what pops up? oh well just a special report on the international festival taking place in our wonderful city! I now present to you the first word of the wise; Blip tip #1: Be prepared for some Nerd-Moshing!!!! I mean this festival represents something that is unseen and brings together a range of interpretations but for the most part tonight was made for uncontrollable crazy android-esq movement. Caught the very end of little-scale, an excellent, excellent utilization of chip technology in my ears. He actually has a rendering of his set list (not a live taping but the man has to practice his art!) from his blog, get it here.

Moving forward I, Cactus was next. A simple looking fellow with a studded sleeveless jean jacket, however his music was not simple. Its weird how you can produce something so complex and have so many people understand it and appreciate your work. His set covered a broad range of musical styles, themes and emotions, but mostly it was just filled with badassitude. It was great that after he was done working on some beat or tampering with the file or running the sound through some synth or reverb his reaction was a sign to what we could be hearing in about 1 second. when the song would loop, and we would hear the creation, which were stunning, and at times, humorous (looping lyrics to say vulgar or funny things is always a good time).

The Heavy hitter Nullsleep was next, and not to disappoint he got it off the ground fast with some pretty dark and hard hitting chiptunage. The room, filled with darkness and incarnadine hues matched his sound perfectly which really soldered the audience to his bit propaganda...

...The video is cut short due to some serious movement amongst the crowd. Also if anyone knows what this song is please leave a comment. It was amazing, brought the data demons out of everyone.
Rainbowdragoneyes (pictured first) was next and I had no idea what to expect. I had never listened to his stuff let alone heard of his work. But my expectations had to be high with an alias like that! This guy literally pressed play and started head banging and dancing around the stage and getting the crowed amped up, it was absolutely insane! When I got home I went on the to Blipfest website and saw they had done a quick interview with him, one answer really but his set into perspective...

I like to party a lot. I hate a lot of things, especially boring music, so I try to always write stuff that makes my brain explode

.
HAHAHAHA, yup, my brain exploded... especially when he played some hi-fi music.

Alright so time for Blip tip #2: don't leave early! I did and boy did I miss out when I woke up this morning to find this...

It's the opening sequence for the Covox and Random project CONDOM... Total facial, LaFleur. Damn!
Blip tip #3: If its snowing, go anyway! Day 3 never materialized for me so this is the end.

Ill have some videos from Saturday performances from some of my favorite- Bubblyfish, Bit Shifter, and PSILODUMP... as they surface on the web.

If you didn't make it this year, make it your new years resolution!

Blip Fest: Day 1

Alright chipsters, Day 1 was a blipping blast. Minus Baby, Chromix, Albino Ghost Monkey- all stellar, stellar acts. Getting to the Bell House was easy and quite an adventure. Blip fest is hidden behind a swanky looking bar area... but as you snake your way through the back you start encountering people and kiosks of chip merchandise and as you enter through a set of double fire doors it hits you. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 bits of music, wow! If you enjoy listening to this music, then you would have had a grin on your mug from one ear to the other. I just couldn't believe I was here...

...Walking through the crowd you realize it is a very modest space and the people in attendance are just as modest as well, however, ask them about the music and they lose their reserve. Blip fest is for the true and stalwart fans. In the corner lounge of the space there were a group of 3 dudes just typing away on their laptops. They are Gaijin & Robotube and they we're challenged to create 'a game in a day'. by the time I walked in they had the matrix already set up and base game play implemented all that was left was the soundtrack. Can't wait to get there tonight, bright and early...


Music Lineup for tonight: (its probably the best night... who am I kidding all 3 nights are kick ass)
8:00 Disasterpeace With visuals by Enso
8:40 Starscream With visuals by Jean Y. Kim
9:20 Fighter X With visuals by outpt
10:00 little-scale With visuals by Rosa Menkman
10:40 I, Cactus With visuals by VBLANK
11:20 Nullsleep With visuals by Rosa Menkman & Paris
12:00 Rainbowdragoneyes With visuals by The C-Men
12:40 Patric C With visuals by NO CARRIER
1:30 CONDOM & HALLY Covox & Random collaboration plus special guest Hally.

Its that time of year! Blip Fest 2k9

This is it folks... since this blog has started one year ago we have been spreading the the 8-bit music love! And the pinnacle is here!

Save the date(s)-
Blip Festival 2009 - December 17, 18, 19 - The Bell House - Brooklyn, NY

Nothing but a home page yet but stay tuned for more updates to come...

Bit Shifter- "March of the Nucleotides"

Bit Shifter- "Hexadecimal Genome"

Random- "Beautiful Brutality"

Random- "Grey Love"

Nullsleep- "On Target"

Nullsleep- "Ballistic Picnic"

dope

These are 2 of my Favorite things

Weezer + 8-bit = fantastical!

Weezer- "In The Garage" (OxygenStar Remix)


Weezer- "The World Has Turned And Left Me Here" (Bit Shifter Remix)

Download the entire work here.

Pulsewave NYC- 8/29

Three years ago in downtown Manhattan, the first Blip Festival proved that the New York chiptune scene is strong and unstoppable. After all this time, the scene keeps growing and getting stronger. Join them as they and NYC say goodbye to 2 Player Productions at their last Pulsewave before they move to the West Coast. True to form, they're leaving us all with a parting gift in collaboration with 8bitpeoples:

This night marks the official release of the long awaited and much-guessed at catalog number 8BP100. In celebration, this will be a special, extra-long Pulsewave with a whole host of surprises and treats, including:

A 7 PM special screening of 2 Player Production’s documentary “Reformat the Planet 1.5",

8 PM Open mic,

8BK-ok, Covox, Touchboy and Bud Melvin with visuals by J.Y.K., Dave Mauro and VBLANK.
And DJ sets from Natty and C-Tor between each act so the music never stops.

Saturday- The Tank, NYC (W 45th St) starting at 7pm
Presale tickets are available here



WHO'5 G0ING?

Mom, its raining 8 pixils per inch outside....

Consequence (ft Kanye West) "Turn Yaself In" X Chiptunes

I'm A sucker for anything chiptune... But you mix a Hip Hop song with 8-bit, Just miraculous...

Bit Art

SPACE INVADER #763


Music by Jawad Bennissi

Check out more at its website...
Or here for another vid...

8-bit x Hip-Hop

Just wanted to post up some stuff from some Brooklyn producer/remixer, Tugboat. He’s doing a bunch of amazing shit that I didn't even know about. The remix below is a super awesome 8-bit remix medley of some of hip-hop’s most popular songs. The tracklist follows the mp3:

Tugboat- Remix Medley #1

1. Jay-Z- "Dirt Off Your Shoulder"
2. T.I- "What You Know"
3. Chamillionaire- "Ridin’"
4. Ludacris- "What’s Ya Fantasy"
5. Bonecrusher- "Neva Scared"
6. Twista- "Overnight Celebrity"
7. Ludacris- "Move Bitch"
8. Lil’ Jon- "Get Low"
9. Kanye- "Gold Digger"

SlotMusic, #24

--->Role Model- "POP5"<---

Get immersed in this stuff via the labels myspace...
Or check out more here!

Friday!!!!!

A little graphic to celebrate this past week both on the blog and in this country
(image by Jude Buffum)

This post is dedicated to scoring 9 minutes of a possible weekend dance party.
For this post I will go further from the bare bones 8-bit music i've been posting and link songs that embrace the synthesized, electronica, dance genera. We will go into these artists at a later date, but it is at this point, in the post, where I say to you, Go nuts! Let loose! Enjoy!

Anamanaguchi- "Video Challenge"

David Sugar- "Totaly On"

Hyper Crush- "Robo Tech"

Dan Deacon- "Snake Mistakes"

Crystal Castles- "Black Panther"

Thursday!!!!!

Here are some tunes and a video to keep you nerd moshing...

Rushjet1- "Troubled Dreams"

USK- "Easty Boys"


Y|K-"The Bytemaster"

Aonami at the 2006 Blip Festival!

Wednesday!!!!

Its 8-bit art day! Today is dedicated to showcasing the extent of this culture...

A quick video documentry highlighting the Street Artist named Space Invader


And how about some 8-bit fine art...
Originally released in early 2004, this short series of photographs captures those moments where New York meets Nintendo.

But, you may be saying to yourself, wow this music is great I wish there was something I could wear to show my enthusiasm... Ta Da! I present to you the 8-bit tie! Unfortunately because of the simple little fact that a real tied tie would end up creating a curved triangle knot, which is very un-8-bit, the tie is a clip on in order to maintain its rigidity and simplicity.

Tuesday!!!

Some videos of blip festivals of past, wonderfully done by 2 Player Productions...

Be prepared for some Nerd-Moshing!!!!

Bubblyfish live at the 2006 Blip Festival!



Bit Shifter live at the 2006 Blip Festival!



Random live at the 2006 Blip Festival!



Nullsleep live at the 2007 Blip Festival!

Monday!!

8-bit music refers to a style of electronic music totally inspired by the sounds that can be created by old computer consoles. Some may listen and simply think that they are listening to the soundtrack from a video game, and the musicians themselves claim that they create this music out of a common love for classic video games, but I must stress the following sounds are far from something that simple. Because it takes more than just these small plastic devices to produce a surprisingly intense sound. It takes a relentless search for new ways to add, subtract, link, merge, synthesize, tweak, alter, and adjust, to overcome the limitations of these simple machines.

The artists below all only use the Game Boy system and some other machines to distort the sound being produced. Other than that, this is as basic as it comes... besides 1-bit music... but you can only imagine what that sounds like. That alone is a post in itself...

Bit Shifter- "March of the Nucleotides"

Bit Shifter- "Hexadecimal Genome"

Random- "Beautiful Brutality"


Random- "Grey Love"

Nullsleep- "On Target"


Nullsleep- "Ballistic Picnic"

8-bit, or low-bit, music is high energy, sporadic, and primarily produced and composed on low bit computers by grown up nerds and video game enthusiasts alike. Artists take advantage of these perfected palm sized systems commonly known as the Nintendo Game Boy. Other consoles used include the Commodore 64, Game Boy, Atari 2600, and the Nintendo Entertainment System aka NES. Musicians boot up an "LSDJ" cartridge which gets you access to the program which turns the system into a synthesizer and a sequencer and using only simple tones allows the user to do some pretty crazy things. Which brings us to the reason for this music. 8-bit music isn't about using the Game Boy or any other Nintendo system (actually Nintendo seems to have distanced itself from this music scene), but using the hardware inside these systems to create this music. Because of this the genre can be appreciated in literally every state or nation anywhere in the world that has come across a computer or some form of computer technology in the last three decades which makes it a truly international music form. Specifically, its blowing up in Japan, Sweden, Spain, France, Greece, Russia, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, and of course the USA.

Thats all for today. More tomorrow.

The week ahead

Blip Blop Bloop... Its 8-bit music festival week!

BLIP FESTIVAL 2008, December 4,5,6,7!! which means it will be happening on month from this week! Mark your calenders!

Location: The Bell House, 149 7th Street, Brooklyn, New York, NY, 11215




If you live in and around the Brooklyn, I am way jealous of you. I want to go but unfortunately i'm a slave to a higher calling...

If this preview tickles your fancy check out more HERE

This week all postings will be about and for the promotion of this eclectic, yet nostalgic, music genre! Tune in all week for more!

WOW

Something I learned how to do, pretty sweet, easy, and it looks fucking sick...



...and it will make you sick if you look at it for too long...

Listen to Nullsleep- "Dirty Rom(dance mix)" as you take this nauseating image in...