Low-bit gal from 'round Tokyo-way.

February 4, 2008 10:38 PM

There is a small but very dedicated and enthusiastic group of people around the world making music with Nintendo Game Boys and other cheap electronic gadgetry. While many of them are consciously fitting their low-bit sonics into relatively straightforward and predictable dance-oriented forms, some others are taking a rather more whimsical and less predictable approach. One such favorite of mine is the utterly charming, Tokyo-based henna dress. Then there's her alter ego, beta dress. Then there's her 3rd alter ego, CAMEBOY (of GGG) .

Wikipedia page for Game Boy Music

posted by flapjax at midnite (21 comments total)

AHEM, flapjax - you've left out the musicalinstrument tag, a tag I thought you were fighting the good fight for.

Shamed, that tag is. Nay - shamed, the whole musician race is. I'll be bringing this up at our next meeting.
posted by Item at 10:46 PM on February 4, 2008

If you like this stuff I can't recommend 8bitpeoples highly enough.
posted by phrontist at 10:47 PM on February 4, 2008

Oh, and flapjax: write and record me a thumpin' zombie or voodoo tune prior to the 16th and I'll work it into my set. No promises that the piece won't be thrown into a blender & butchered like a trainload full of turn of the century Mexican train passengers, but I'll play it. Damn hell I will.
posted by Item at 10:51 PM on February 4, 2008

And this is where I recommend my good friend Paul's Treewave project for the umpteenth time. He makes music out of reprogrammed Atari carts, dot matrix printers, and custom C64 hacks. And it's damn fine music, to boot.
posted by Item at 10:55 PM on February 4, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

This is just great.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:02 PM on February 4, 2008

AHEM, flapjax - you've left out the musicalinstrument tag, a tag I thought you were fighting the good fight for.

item, you are so right. I shall add that all-important tag forthwith if not sooner.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:15 PM on February 4, 2008

BTW, MeFi's own tehloki has contributed some tracks to MeFi Music that pay homage to the world of low-bittery, this one, for example.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:22 PM on February 4, 2008

Oh, and item, damn I wish I could get you something by the 16th, but time is tight, and I don't think it can happen. I'm delighted you thought of me, though!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:25 PM on February 4, 2008

No sweat. As I said, I probably would've chopped 'n screwed it into an entirely different animal before it reached my decks. Maybe we can do a zombie MeFi Music challenge in the near future.
posted by Item at 11:30 PM on February 4, 2008

That is definitely the best I have heard in this genre. Especially the henna dress stuff. (how about a d-load henna? At least one!)
posted by vronsky at 11:33 PM on February 4, 2008

Some previous stuff on the blue and an Askme question on finding more 8bit music.

Also, it looks like you can get nanoloops again.

And Treewave is amazing.

So is Superargo, although they're not completely 8bit, they are great.
posted by sleepy pete at 11:47 PM on February 4, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

(how about a d-load henna? At least one!)

You know, vron, a few months back something changed at MySpace Music, and suddenly the download function just wouldn't work. I've seen a few pages here and there where you can still select "download" on the player, but the vast majority of pages (including mine) have this feature disenabled. Not sure exactly why that is, but then, I haven't really looked into it, either.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:52 PM on February 4, 2008

(how about a d-load henna? At least one!)

There do appear to be a couple (mentioned on the myspace page): [1][2]
posted by juv3nal at 12:00 AM on February 5, 2008

There you go! Nice work, juv3nal.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:34 AM on February 5, 2008

This reminds me of "El Bozo" by Chick Corea on My Spanish Heart.
posted by mitocan at 1:20 AM on February 5, 2008

nullsleep is the background music to quite a bit of the video game of my life.
posted by knowles at 2:14 AM on February 5, 2008

I got to see nullsleep about a week ago as part of "Technology and Art week" and he frigging rocked the house. The only terrible part was that we were in an auditorium with a steep incline so getting up and shaking your booty was would have meant breaking you neck. Still, the music was addictive and nullsleep, as I said, rocked the house with his enthusiasm.

Here's a short video of it, with a brief explanation by nullsleep and some of that booty shaking music
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:24 AM on February 5, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Yeah, this is cool shit. Reminiscent of a lot of good arteests - Aphex Twin, Add N to X, Erase Errata, Stereolab, Boredoms - all in a blender and then set up with an NES.
posted by not_on_display at 5:09 AM on February 5, 2008

I was blown away at Blip Fest this past December, (and was surprised to see G4, BoingBoing, Wired, and frickin' ABC news there).

In the past week, i've gotten addicted to LSDJ on the gameboy. I thought it would be hard to learn, since i've never used a tracker program before, but it was surprisingly easy to get into.

For anyone wanting to make chiptunes:
LSDJ (gameboy)
Nanoloop (gameboy)
Nanovoice (gameboy)
Pushpin - (gameboy) you'll need to hack together a midi-to-gameboy cable
MIDINES (original Nintendo) midi cable included.
Prophet64 (Commodore 64) Find one on ebay, or eagerly await the release of the upgrade: MSSIAH
Cynthcart (Commodore 64)
Synthcart (Atari 2600)

Get your bleep on, and then head over to 8bitCollective talk to other chipheads and share what you've made!
posted by TechnoLustLuddite at 7:34 AM on February 5, 2008 [4 favorites has favorites]

MICROMUSIC! There is a sweet little gallery/exhibition on the King of Kong DVD. It is called "I am 8bit" in the special features. If you poke around a bit you might even find yours truly :)
posted by hellphish at 10:17 AM on February 5, 2008

CNN discovers chip music.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:25 AM on February 28, 2008