Month: January 2009

  • Artist of the Year

    Oh my god! Its here for all the beans! Let’s DO IT!

    The Best Artist is an incredibly subjective category.  Being proficient on multiple levels is good, being synonymous with a  style, or simply executing at a high level, all important things.  Here are the innovators, the dominators, and the taste makers that are 2008’s Best Artists.

    minusbaby

    A multidimensional talent equally at home in art as in music, minusbaby had one of his most fruitful years with his various releases in music, art directing the Blip Festival, and taking his live performance to the next level. Always interesting, and ever moving,  he could be a candidate in this category for years to come.

    gwEm

    As a coder of Maxymiser and a tireless advocate for his platform, gwEm has justification enough to be here. But he is also an awesome musician and live performer who seems equally at home in the club as he would be behind a podium waxing philosophically about chip, and the worlds view thereof.

    Bud Melvin

    Mr. Melvin is one of those talented multi instrumentalists who has the ability to excel at whatever genre he is involved in, and we are lucky to have him in our scene. At times funny, profane, and groundbreaking, his style is laid back and deceptively simple at times, but still waters run deep. Able to blend many styles in his own unique voice, and a amazing live performer, Bud is one of my personal favorites, and one everyone should have at least a passing familiarity with.

    goto80

    goto80 is also one of the best voices in the scene, especially for his firm connection to chips demoscenes roots. As a musician, performer, or blogger, his style is a breath of fresh air, even on works that are now seemingly older than most musicians in the scene.  Able to bend and break the rules of chip composition with ease, he is perhaps most consistently inventive and fun musicians in the scene.

    stu

    No artist is better on his own platform (just ask him!) than stu. Atari Solo was a soliloquy to the decimation of expectations for the poor little atari sound chip and his live show straddled the line between absolution and obliteration. One of the most exciting and accomplished composers in the scene  shows signs of only getting better going into 2009.

  • Best Live Visuals IV

    All the way from my “madre Patria”, Spain, this crew which started as a  duo is now a one man force, much alike The C-men, but still packs a punch: even if one would suppose that two factors on their own wouldn’t sum up as much, it seems these guys are working independently in an even greater energy.

    A set by this guy contains a shit load of graphic content, all computer visual data, that is tinted by “glitches, ROM hacking, trash culture, machinima, visual algorithms, cyberpunk and random scripting”, all run by proprietary VJ software and, recently, triggered from his wireless device while he is rioting on stage or anywhere else. Oh yeah, he likes to perform in the truest sense of the word, many times doing life-defying stunts (he once almost dies in front of my eyes when performing together in Barcelona, when he missed teh border of a table he jumped on)

    Playing around Europe in a myriad of festivals and club venues, but always closely tied in to chip musicians, the collaborations with Goto80 and Meneo are the most notorious, the latter one being the focus of Raul’s current interests and one of his most interesting projects.

    I also cannot leave this text without mention of his former “partner in crime”, Raquel Meyers, since a lot of the work in the early days, like Goto80’s first AV presentations, were done with her in the team too, and as I said, she’s packing up some amazing visuals on her own as well, doing the Goto80 show now and performing solo for other musicians. This nomination is for her, too

    Ladies and gentleman, please welcome:

    ENTTER
    [Santander, Spain]

    BASIC - MENEO from Entter on Vimeo.
    Meneo – I Know Basic

    (more…)

  • Best Release

    There were “loads” of releases this year, but it seems that for every great one, there where 12 “eps” of questionable quality. A truly great release must withstand repeated listening, have overall top grade quality, and be presented in a cool manner. Here are some of the best releases of the year.

    minusbaby – Saudade for Beginners

    Lowbit renaissance minusbaby started what seems to be an ambitious cycle of records with Saudade for Beginners. Playful melodies intertwine with complex voicing and awesome artwork in one of the more personal and heartfelt releases of the year.

    Disasterpeace – Level

    II music label head Disaterpeace maintained a consistent vision and  artful composition and pulled it all together with thoughtful sound design and masterful use of the limitations inherent in the genre.

    Trash80 – Icarus

    Trash80 similarly transcended the restraints of the chip sound, and used studio production to enhance, not overwhelm the glorious chip sounds. “Missing You” was perhaps the breakup track of the summer, but all the songs were great tracks of their own, and could’ve carried any release by their own accord.

    stu – atari solo

    Is there any artist in chip music who is synonymous with the chip they use as much as stu? Pushing the chip to its limits, then forcing it farther, stu redefines the concept of what exactly these limitations are, and how they are no barrier in the hands of a masterful musician.

    Chromelodeon – The Final Recordings

    Its initial release was so small, and sold out the only night it was on sale, II should be thanked heartily for giving the rest of our saps a chance to hear the biggest band you never knew. Dino Lionetti’s awesome compositions are matched by a bevvy of talented musicians and masterful production in a great blend of chip rock hybrid sounds. The band is sorely missed, but this impressive document will live on.

  • Best Live Visuals III

    Slow monday is slow… but here I am presenting another nominee for the Live Visuals category.

    Hailing from New York, our next nominee’s game (no pun intended) is coding software for handheld consoles (and Pure Data) to get his vision across. A balanced blend of minimal shapes, all tinted by the laws of mathematics, is his forte. This guy has also that always needed good sense for music, making all the situations on-screen tightly in sync with what’s going on on the screens. On this year’s Blipfest, he was one of the most tight visual performances, and I can also see how he’s rapidly growing int the field. Giant steps!

    Having said somewhere else in this blog that he got kind of kickstarted by a talk given by The C-Men some time ago, he’s been into the chipmusic scene of New York ever since, being a frequent figure on the Pulsewave monthly night at New York as well as other events in the area, like all 3 Blip Festivals up until 2008.

    Another regular lecturer in the US and Europe, “he was awarded a residency at the Experimental Television Center and created a series of video podcasts for the pioneering composer William Duckworth”. Man, all these VJ guys are serious business.

    People, please give it up for:

    Paris Trentafeles
    [New York, USA]

    [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/AsWqgnHaKIQ" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

    (more…)

  • Best Track

    Getting this list down to five worthy tracks was a nearly futile effort. First there was the impossibly hubristic act of saying that only five songs where good enough to be considered, then the consideration of what effect time had on older tracks and will have on younger ones. But then I just let go and picked the songs that “I” liked and said damn the torpedoes. And now, with surely a great flurry of controversy, here are the nominees for Best Track.

    8bit What – Bud Melvin w/ gwEm

    Dis tracks are great when done right, and this tracks deliberate dismantling of a certain Best Label nominees vetting process is wickedly funny and well executed with next level sound design, catchy hooks and lyrics and an over all high quality we’ve come to expect from both these artists seperately, and now together.

    $$ Troopers – Huoratron

    In a year of “me too” dance beats, and hackneyed use of basic chip sound design, this track from Huoratron was a breath of fresh air. Yes the gameboy is heavily processed, but the spirit of its use is still intact and the track shows excellence on all measurable levels of ass kicking.

    Nullsleep- Shadows In The Sky

    Long considered one of the Ambassadors of the US chip scene, this track may be Nullsleep’s magnum opus. A great blend of complexity and simplicity the track performs the rare feat of making you forget the device being used, and focus soley on the song.

    Animal Style – DMG Guitar

    Animal Style – DMG Guitar

    An even more difficult effort for chipspotters is this track which rocks both Animal Styles compositional skill and his guitar abilities. A live powerhouse, the track has withstood repeated listenings and still kicks my ass every time I hear it.

    Cheap Dinosaurs – Hot Plate

    Having come late to the Chromelodeon party, One definiatly does not have to settle for this solo project. This krush groove esque synth jam seemlsly blends chip sounds and enhanced synthesis into an organic brew that foretells of a stunning chip future, where the composition is never overshadowed by the platform, and the artist is always amazing without an “for a chipmusican” qualifier.