Artist of the Year – gwEm

Many different criteria came into play when considering Artist of the Year. Music was one, but also other aspects of work done within the community also came to factor in the decision. Weighing all these facets equally, this years choice was gwEm. As a musician, developer, and tireless advocate for his own platform, he worked throughout the year producing an brilliant music release on 8bitpeoples, a collab with fellow nominee Bud Melvin, and his work on his maxYMiser tracker for Atari computers.

gwEm is a great spokesman for his own software taking time to help users in forums and mailing lists, and was a thoughtful voice on the heart and philosophy of the chip music scene world wide. In that respect, he is an artists artist, and all his work is marked by high levels of ass kicking and insight that any of us would loved as our own. Striving to be the best is one of the more admirable trait of the chip music scenes, and few artists set the bar higher than gwEm.