Blipfest Was Amazing

[low-gain @ blipfest 08]

It was a fantastic weekend here in Brooklyn thanks to the 2008 Blip Festival, four whole nights of chiptune music from the form's major artists. If you're unfamiliar, these musicians use the sound chips from old game hardware (NES, GameBoy, C64 and stuff) and create wholly original music from the sounds.

So it's not like they're playing video game songs -- in fact, many chip musicians would really prefer not to be associated with Super Mario nostalgia -- and yet for those of us who grew up playing games on that hardware, it's still oddly comforting (and sometimes mind-bending) to hear.

To be honest, while I've always appreciated chip music -- I interviewed Nullsleep for Paste Magazine last year -- I never really found it casually listenable. But getting to see it live, complete with visuals and virtuosos wailing on videogame machines inside a crush of other fans was really a pretty singular experience. My personal faves from the show, if I had to pick, were Bubblyfish and Glomag, but I hugely recommend checking out and supporting some of these artists if it sounds like your thing!

I took more photos, but holding up an iPhone in a dancing crowd when you're as short as I am, tottering on heels, and in the sauce is not so much a good method for capturing events. Thankfully, Giz and the NYT have coverage, and I'm sure plenty of other folks do too.

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