Welcome me, Akira (a.k.a. 8GB) to True Chip ‘Till Death! I hope to bring you hot hot hot news, specially from my areas of oldschool expertise xD
As my first post I present you with video recordings of all the chipmusic performances at the MAIN #3 Festival/demoparty.
The link contains videos to all performances, and for Saturday, the video marked as 8GB actually contains many more performances in the end (no, I did not play 150 minutes :P)
Last weekend, the Philadelphia area was blasted with what is hopefully the first in a series of regular chip shows under the 8STATIC name. The event, at a yoga studio felt like being in a big (and awesome) living room.
Akira posted his impressions on 8BC of the Main 2008 Demo Party:
YO yo yo!
Reporting live from the partyplace on the second day
Yesterday night the internet was hard to come by, so we spent our night partying (like if that hurts… )
The night started early with Lithis closely followed by Psilodump, representing the swedish collective X-Dump. Those who know the work of these dudes know they can expect some heavy dancefloor smashers, with these guys’ particular style. It rocked (the soundsystem in the Espace Julien is amazing)
After that I went to check out Dr. Von Pnok. Hailing from Rennes, this GB-powered drum and death dude has heavy shit going on. I can’t get tired of his tunes. Fucking amazing bass coupled with wicked syncopated beats. Just check out his profile and get some music if you never did (why?). But I am sorry to say the Doctor is to be experienced live (videos of yesterday soon) since most of his music is nowhere to be downloaded
A quick refreshment session in the backstage with the swedish crazies, and then we went onto the main stage to get a load of Meneo. As always, the guys rocked the house, and managed to fit all the present audience into the stage at the end of the set (which also included some jamming with friends! What else ya want?). I have to make a special note on Entter’s visuals. This show I spent most of my time looking at the screen, and now that Raul has a wireless connection to his software (he’s controlling it with a portable device), he has more freedom to go crazy on the visuals, stage and audience. I managed to see visuals for lots of new songs (current favorite being “I KNOW BASIC”) and it was fucking kickass.
So now the main space finished its programme, so we reared onto the café space, which is only smaller in size, because the soundsystem is out of this planet. I played a couple of new tunes before Je Deviens DJ en 3 Jours stormed the stage as always. His mix of nanoloop-powered, currently fashionable french electro/techno, is something that will get your ass shaking no matter how tired, shy or lame you are. The show is coupled by a very energetic performance by him, so it has all the elements of a powerful set. One of my current favourites.
After him, Confipop took the stage with his techno mix and circuitbent toys. This guy knows how to rock a dancefloor. Massive dance anthems and amazing LSDJ skills for the local man. We just couldn’t keep dancing with Psilo and Lithis, while trying to take over all the computers spread around the partyplace (lots of Amstrads and Atari STs, a few Amigas, couple of C64s, one MSX, and more), infecting them with the GOVERNATOR VIRUS, which has only been defeated in one machine by, exactly, who else? A swedish hacker xD
After this we decided to ponce around looking for the last drinks of the night. When we realized the party was over for the day, and it was 5 AM
So that’s all for yesterday’s report, today we have my set and the Micromusic All Stars, which will be a massive jam of hours between all the chipmusic artists present at the partyplace.
Suffice to say, if you are in France or close proximity, if you are not here, you are missing out big time!
Philly Visual Artist NO CARRIER is giving a lecture at Indy Hall. He writes:
“Their time in the spotlight may be over, but many have found uses for forgotten video game consoles and computer hardware. Although 8-bit games are a thing of the past, there is a vibrant art scene with retrocomputing at its core. The hardware of the Game Boy, Nintendo Entertainment System, and the Commodore 64 are repurposed and software reprogrammed to turn these aging machines into synthesizers, sequencers, visualizers, and much more.
Don Miller, or NO CARRIER, is an educator, programmer, and live visualist living in Philadelphia. Part of the 8bitpeoples artist collective, he writes new software for nearly obsolete videogame and computer hardware, for use at live music events and installations. He performs regularly in Philly and NYC, and has recently taken his visuals worldwide. Catch him again this year at the Blip Festival, December 4th-7th 2008, in NYC.”
Hello everyone!
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