#blipfest

Set the date for your calendars people! In light of Ultrachip on my side of the Atlantic last year, I vowed to hit the other event our transatlantic Square-waved bretheren hold dear as well.

And for good measure, let's have some of my fave Chiptune artist, Random:

With an absence of blipfest  2010, it has been pushed into this year. and Today, Blipfestival.org has given the dates of this geektastic gigathon as may the 19th - 21st, this will be at the eyebeam in manhatten. I WILL see you all there!! :D

Apologies with the lack of updates regarding this, the time has most definitley come for the square waves to roar in arpegiotic (is that even a word?) triumph at full blast in the big apple. Blip 2011 is (very nearly at the time of scribbling) upon us. I would have scribbled more on it but things have both been crazy for me on both a work and personal level the week before, leaving me with only a full day to get myself sorted for it.But I'm here now and I have something of a schedule to work to. With bytejacker offering continuing coverage and information, as well as the following schedule I got from the (now sadly absent) James Bentley.(click to see at full zoom)

Dunno where james got that from but there was a bit of a location issue first of all, Bytejacker (correctly) reported that The Sabrepulse gig was at monsters island on river street instead of babycastles. I got there an hour late after some seriously noobish navigation from bedford avenue subway yesterday, mind you this was my Day of arrival in new york itself. credit to J arthur keenes by keeping us enterteined through the sound issues and being a key differentiator between the acts I did see. CD was bought for that as I did enjoy when it did go right. I never saw  or heard much of JDDE3J Before but found his stuff too hard and too fast without much melody. I also didn't take stick around for sabrepulse himself as I don't enjoy his material. 

BTW Also at the time of writing, the weather in NYC is pretty poor, so I don't know if anything is going to happen for the picnic. but I'll show up around then and see how it goes. 

Anyways, I'm REALLY looking forward to the main event at the eyebeam itself. & any readers of this see me at any or all of the above events, feel free to say hi, I'm Laurence, the big bandana'd british bloke with a gameboy cart necklace :D

More coverage: http://blipfestival.org/2011/

BlipFest, an epic 3-day long chiptune concert event, was recently had in NYC this past weekend, and while we here at Retro Game Network were unfortunately unable to attend, we were able to not miss a single solitary second of the show's dozens of chiptune acts from around the world. How is this possible? You can thank Emfedex, the curator of chip music chronicle, for her unwavering and utterly amazing dedication towards the scene. If you're reading this and thinking, "what in the world is chiptune?", I think I'm about to introduce you to a form of music that, if you like retro gaming, you are going to absolutely love.

Take it away, Wikipedia:

"A chiptune  is synthesized electronic music often produced with the sound chips of vintage computers and video game consoles, as well as with other methods such as emulation. In the early 1980s, personal computers became less expensive and more accessible than they had previously been. This led to a proliferation of outdated personal computers and game consoles that had been abandoned by consumers as they upgraded to newer machines. They were in low demand by consumers as a whole, and not difficult to find, making them a highly accessible and affordable method of creating sound or art. During the late 2000s, a new wave of chiptune culture took place, boosted by the release of software such as LittleSoundDJ for the Game Boy. This new culture has much more emphasis on live performances and record releases than the demoscene and tracker culture, of which the new artists are often only distantly aware."

A Sample Of What the LSDJ Software Looks Like

Now that everyone is on the same page, let me show a sample of why what Emfedex does is a true gift to all of us out there who appreciate this epic kind of music:

  This is just a small part of the show Radlib, one of the 30 artists present at BlipFest's weekend long chiptune fiesta put on, and Em didn't miss a beat, a blip, a beep, or a boop from him, or one of the 30 artists who appeared at BlipFest, featuring:

Batsly Adams

Bit Shifter

Burnkit2600

CHiKA

Chipocrite

Chromacle

:| kREW

Danimal Cannon

deadbeatblast

Dr. Von Pnok

enso

exileFaker

FlashHeart

George & Jonathan

Graffiti Monsters

Infinity Shred

Kris Keyser

Jean Y. Kim

Kodek

minusbaby

MisfitChris

Monodeer

NO CARRIER

Nullsleep

Omodaka

Pulselooper

Radlib

shitbird

Wizwars

Zen Albatross

You can view the setlists of all 30 of the artists on Chip Music Chronicle's BlipFest 2012 playlist on Youtube. Whether chiptune is something you've been familiar with, or this is your first exposure to it, all I can say is, is that I really hope you enjoyed it! There is SO much amazing chip music out there being produced on a daily basis, and from the beginning, we here at RGN really wanted to do what we can to help bring to light some of these talented artists who create such amazing music. Thanks again Emfedex! Keep up the amazing work you do!