Reformat the Planet
August 19, 2008 7:15 AM   Subscribe

It started with sequencing 8-bit chipsets on Nintendo Game Boys, but the Chiptune scene has now expanded well beyond game systems. Reformat the Planet is the essential introduction to this awesome new genre, and proves it's more than just a blip. This week only you can watch the feature length documentary in its entirety on Pitchfork.tv.

Want to listen to some of the incredible music? Check out 8bitpeoples (previously 1, 2).
posted by sveskemus (67 comments total) 19 users marked this as a favorite
 
Nullsleep's "Her Lazer Light Eyes" is a lovely, sweet-sounding pop song. I wonder whether it could work at all with conventional instruments.
posted by ardgedee at 7:45 AM on August 19, 2008 [1 favorite]


nullsleep's depeche mode megamix

music.mefi tags: chiptune chip 8bit
posted by Eideteker at 7:49 AM on August 19, 2008


pew pew!
posted by DU at 7:51 AM on August 19, 2008 [2 favorites]


neustile: "No, it most certainly did not start with the late 90s/early 00s "Game Boy music" (nanoloop, pushpin, lsdj etc.) It started when sound chips started appearing in home computers: SID, POKEY, YM, etc. I'd peg 1982, the release of the SID to the general public, as the starting point. (I doubt anyone was sequencing distortions on the 2600 as a compositional tool previous to that.)"

Yeah, I lifted the text from the Pitchfork.tv copy and now, re-reading it, I wish I hadn't. I think they mean the concert aspect of it which as far as I'm aware1 didn't happen much back in the golden days. Sure, you would have chiptunes playing at demo parties but not really in the form of concerts.

I also hate that they wrote "this awesome new genre" as that is obviously not true. Anyway, it's a good documentary.

1 Feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken.
posted by sveskemus at 7:53 AM on August 19, 2008


I'm not feelin it yet. I'd been hearing about it for a while and I just can't get past it being video game music. Which - the video game music is cool and awesome and what not - I love the ending soundtracks for the megaman games, and the music for space harrier is sweet, and who didn't get up and dance their ass off to the Forbidden Forest music when you shot the thing down on c64, but ultimately it doesn't move me past that.

But some of the rap remixes to game tunes do. Cocoa Brovas - Super Brooklyn and the Atmosphere freestyle over the same (Mario Bros) track, and tangentially, Masta Ace's Spread it Out. But I probably won't get into it until the next iteration, when somebody takes it to another level.
posted by cashman at 7:53 AM on August 19, 2008


the music for space harrier is sweet

That reminds me, duracell is totally awesome.
posted by burnmp3s at 8:03 AM on August 19, 2008 [1 favorite]


I'm not feelin it yet. I'd been hearing about it for a while and I just can't get past it being video game music.

I was going to disagree, but then I listened to god particle's "Playing Games" linked here. Now I agree with you that all the others sound like video game music.
posted by DU at 8:34 AM on August 19, 2008


... proves it's more than just a blip.

I see what you did there.
posted by atbash at 8:46 AM on August 19, 2008


Boy 8-bit has done some mixes with some chiptunes amongst the tracks. The loosecannons one is my favourite. Other good stuff there.

One of the Red and Blue clips had a 'DJ' spinning chiptunes as the musical interlude, IIRC.
posted by asok at 8:48 AM on August 19, 2008


I can't watch the documentary until this evening, but I hope it has something nice to say about YMCK.
posted by ardgedee at 8:53 AM on August 19, 2008


Crystal Castles
posted by empath at 8:59 AM on August 19, 2008 [1 favorite]


Hello my name is wfrgms and spray coffee out of my mouth and all over my screen when I see hipsters making music on their gameboys and famicoms while thrashing to it...
posted by wfrgms at 9:00 AM on August 19, 2008


Mega Man remix that's quite good.
posted by empath at 9:01 AM on August 19, 2008


Seconds on the 8-Bit Peoples recommendation!

ardgedee, "Her Lazer Light Eyes" was my intro to the chiptune style (well, other than music from actual video games), and I've often thought the same thing regarding the chipsounds vs. real instrumentation. But to cite the other posted example here in the thread, if Depeche Mode works as a chiptune, then a chiptune could be "blown out" into a full-rez mainstream pop song. A good deal of the charm might be lost in the process, but it's certainly possible. Also, the melody line on "HLLE" is so strong that it practically demands to have lyrics, just so I can sing it while driving to work.

This may also be of interest: A Kraftwerk chiptune tribute album called 8-Bit Operators. The live electro/hiphop cover of "The Man-Machine" by gwEM and Counter Reset is fantastic!
posted by Strange Interlude at 9:01 AM on August 19, 2008


sort of related is this other documentary about art and video games.

here's the trailer.

it's called 8-Bit, which makes it easy to remember!
posted by hapticactionnetwork at 9:03 AM on August 19, 2008


I think the Pitchfork writeup means that 8-bit music composed with ironic intent is new. It doesn't count until the hipsters have appropriated it.

This is a typical example of why I do not read Pitchfork.
posted by greenie2600 at 9:10 AM on August 19, 2008 [3 favorites]


Wait, I'm supposed to be enjoying these ironically? OK, let me relisten to them with a smirk.

....

Done. They are now "awesome".
posted by DU at 9:13 AM on August 19, 2008


Most people spend a lot of time and effort to make this music and push it beyond the boundries of regular video game sounds. You're supposed to enjoy it because it's fun. I think it's understood that this genre is not enjoyable to many people for many reasons, though.
posted by budmelvin at 9:22 AM on August 19, 2008


Baud of Passion by x|k is what finally convinced me to get a midiNES.
posted by lekvar at 9:31 AM on August 19, 2008


the Atmosphere freestyle over the same (Mario Bros) track

?????????? WHERE CAN I FIND THIS?!
posted by shmegegge at 9:34 AM on August 19, 2008


You're supposed to enjoy it because it's fun.

Well now I'm all confused. I better listen to some Classic 90s Spears until this blows over.
posted by DU at 9:39 AM on August 19, 2008


I always feel compelled to post in chiptune threads, because they're my biggest hobby, and it's interesting (and sometimes depressing) to see people's reactions when it goes beyond our little tight-knit scene. Usually it's written off as some ironic hipster fad, but there is a HUGE range of people writing chiptunes for all different reasons.

I wonder whether it could work at all with conventional instruments.

No question, it's a solid song and could be arranged really well -- a concept demonstrated countless times by video game remixers. Conversely, some of us are writing chiptunes with "real instruments" in mind, trying to recreate the sound of, say, metal guitar riffs with chip timbres. There's stuff all over the map.

Wait, I'm supposed to be enjoying these ironically?

DURRR mario coin sound LOL -- It's certainly not ironic to most of the people making them. Most of us are into it because we find the sounds to be comforting, and the artists to be really stand-up guys. Very little drama compared to other music scenes; the Timbaland fiasco was as crazy as it gets.

8bitpeoples are amazing but there are other incredible artists and netlabels who don't get as much attention: Alex Mauer, The entire iimusic roster -- Disasterpeace, Norrin, Shnabubula, everyone here is brilliant. As mentioned before, YMCK are wonderfully good, and there is great stuff to be found at the 8bit Collective.

It's easy to pigeonhole chiptunes because they use the same type of basic sounds. Please don't!
posted by jake at 9:52 AM on August 19, 2008 [1 favorite]


I like a bunch of this music, (not so much the ironic covers like Neverending Story) in the way that I think it's a challenge to write engaging songs with a set limit of specific tools and it's quite powerful when it's successful. A great example would be Metafilter Music's jake and songs like his amazing Staring at My Spaceship.
I also like that it really becomes such a genre unto itself.
I do, however, find it sort of lame that it's a "scene," complete with dorky spazzed-out dancing, important-sounding statements like "this is OURS" and people dressing up as Tetris shapes or whatever.
posted by chococat at 9:52 AM on August 19, 2008


OH SHIT, hey Bud!!!

You said what I said in about 80% fewer words! Big surprise there :)
posted by jake at 9:53 AM on August 19, 2008


chococat: It's a "scene" in the "demoscene" sense, which is a different meaning of the word than most people (read: pitchfork) are used to. It's not really as much of a social scene, short of the occasional 4-day music festival, as it is an internet community. Blip Festival was a fluke, and kind of a happy one.

And I can personally attest that the Tetris Piece guy is totally nice, and really into the music for the music's sake.

And thanks for linking to my tune, that was sweet of you! But there's so much more good stuff out there that pushes boundaries.
posted by jake at 10:00 AM on August 19, 2008


greenie2600: "I think the Pitchfork writeup means that 8-bit music composed with ironic intent is new. It doesn't count until the hipsters have appropriated it.

This is a typical example of why I do not read Pitchfork.
"

Why would you think it is meant ironically? Did you watch the documentary? Did the people seem ironic to you?
posted by sveskemus at 10:05 AM on August 19, 2008 [1 favorite]


And thanks for linking to my tune, that was sweet of you! But there's so much more good stuff out there that pushes boundaries.

What's weird is that I didn't even notice that you posted right above me! Bizarre.
I was writing that as you posted I guess.
I just wanted to mention how great your stuff is and how, for me, it surpasses any kind of novelty-factor, because they are good compositions to begin with.
posted by chococat at 10:15 AM on August 19, 2008


There's something wonderfully ironic about downloading a 5MB .mp3 recording of a chiptune that was composed to fit inside a 32K demo. I've got about 200MB of chiptune .mp3s on my player that probably only take up 500K in their native format.

I still think there are quite a few "classics" from the Amiga / C64 / .xm / .it era that are more fun than the songs linked here. I made a comment in the Timbaland thread listing some of my favorites.

But I'll enjoy checking out some of your links, Jake. Thanks!
posted by straight at 10:16 AM on August 19, 2008


I really like the concept of chiptunes - the restrictions, the use of non-standard/outmoded instruments, &c. - but an entire song made this way just sounds... hideous (and I say that as someone who usually likes 'hideous', and who is playing Whitehouse's Total Sex just now).

Maybe it's because I've never played a computer game, so never became attuned to these particular tinny noises running constantly, but chiptune sounds just seem much better suited to judicious use in amongst other instruments and samples, as Timbaland did (sorry!) or as folk making 'wobbly' style dubstep and grime (eg. Rustie) or daft breakcore type stuff tend to do.
posted by jack_mo at 10:32 AM on August 19, 2008


I like everything except country, opera and chiptune.
posted by fleetmouse at 10:51 AM on August 19, 2008


I like about watching video footage of 8bit performances. The signature sound is thin, almost pure sinewave, and when it's pumped through a PA over a lot of ambient noise, the whole tonal character of it changes -- the space gives it presence and harmonics. It suddenly stops sounding like something isolated and alienating.

The crowd cheering along might have something to do with it too.
posted by ardgedee at 11:00 AM on August 19, 2008


I like some chiptunes, dislike others. Speaking broadly, the tunes I've liked have had at least a little post-processing and mastering. A little reverb here, some chorus there, a light touch with the EQ. I'm sure there are CT purists who feel that this ruins the tunes, somehow makes them less "chippy," I think chiptunes as a genre would benefit from the creators thinking like producers as well as thinking like enthusiastic geeks*.

*not a troll; I'm one myself.
posted by lekvar at 11:12 AM on August 19, 2008


I love chiptunes. Not all of them, of course, just the ones that sound cool. Stuff with good composition? I don't know, I don't have a vocabulary for describing that sort of thing. Maybe I like em because it's because I grew up with the aesthetic of the Gameboy and Nintendo sounds. I can't articulate it very well, but Cruise Elroy says it much better than I could (the author is a mefite, but can't remember who for the life of me).
posted by Mister Cheese at 11:15 AM on August 19, 2008


Oh wait, I should of linked this one too. These two articles are about video game music, but I think they'd apply to chiptunes too.
posted by Mister Cheese at 11:21 AM on August 19, 2008


So if we are to follow this "awesome new genre" to it's logical historical beginnings, there are are good handful of Japanese guys and girls, now well into middle age, who essentially CREATED this "awesome NEW genre" fifteen-some-odd years ago, correct?

Essentially, they're programmers playing their programmed tunes in public (the exceptions being the hybrids, who are combining them with other instruments/structures). It's honestly boring to watch. I'm very glad they are fist pumping their own jams, but it feels like they should be doing it alone in their bedroom, not in front of a crowd.

They are very talented people, with a real devotion and love for what they do. Respect for that, for sure. But it's really boring.

The guy who made the sound circuits, though, he's a hoot.
posted by gcbv at 11:32 AM on August 19, 2008


I like music. Not all of it, of course.
posted by brevator at 11:45 AM on August 19, 2008


This music is not "ironic." Video game music is genuinely beautiful when done well. Quit putting an ironic dollar sign on everything you fucks.
posted by basicchannel at 12:10 PM on August 19, 2008


The philosophical question is whether this music actually good, or if it's just bringing back good memories? (Because some part of my brain is whispering that it's just shitty euro dance music.)
posted by smackfu at 12:12 PM on August 19, 2008


It's one thing to listen to this music, it's another to watch someone pretend to rock out and dance to it.
posted by Sprocket at 12:12 PM on August 19, 2008


It's easy to pigeonhole chiptunes because they use the same type of basic sounds. Please don't!

Hooray for the 8-bit hardcore collision of Sonic Death Rabbit!
posted by ...possums at 12:14 PM on August 19, 2008


> It's one thing to listen to this music, it's another to watch someone pretend to rock out and dance to it.

Pretend? What makes you think they're not enjoying it?
posted by ardgedee at 12:24 PM on August 19, 2008


Sprocket: "It's one thing to listen to this music, it's another to watch someone pretend to rock out and dance to it."

I went to the Malmö show of the world tour mentioned in the documentary. I was dancing and enjoying myself, not pretending. And so was everyone around me it seemed. These people are genuinely into the music they're playing and some people (including me) really, really like it. I don't understand why this is such a hard concept to grasp for some people in this thread.
posted by sveskemus at 12:46 PM on August 19, 2008 [1 favorite]


I don't really have much to add other than I love 8bit/chiptune very muchly. Nullsleep and Bitshifter will always have a place in my heart (as I saw them perform in Sweden two years ago).

There was a really great cry.on.my.console remix of MIA's "galang galang" which he mashed up super mario brothers to create "super galang galang". AND if we're talking about remixes, there is a great Beck remix from the "Hell Yes" ep entitled "Bad Cartridge" by e-pro.

Let us not forget the wonderful swedes: Slagsmålsklubben, Tobiah, Role Model, Häxor och Porr...

Okay, I better stop now. I can go on for days...
posted by modularette at 12:48 PM on August 19, 2008


Watching these kids rock out to video game music makes me laugh.
posted by hellslinger at 12:54 PM on August 19, 2008


sveskemus: I was there, too! In May of 2006?
posted by modularette at 12:54 PM on August 19, 2008


If you're feeling lucky try finding a copy of former Bob Log III drummer Thermos Malling's COiN. The album Architects of Character was made with MAME and sung by a Mac text-to-speech.

And you can my copy when you pry it from my cold, dead, Nintendo-gloved hands.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 1:00 PM on August 19, 2008


I do like 8-bit music alot, I suppose I just don't understand the pleasure of headbanging to, essentially, press play and walk away prerecorded audio, where the artist himself just stands there and headbangs until the song is over. When the live performance is a recording the performance itself seems unneccessary, and the dancing forced.

the bands that incorporate some live interaction (beyond just dancing on the stage) and instrumentation is a bit different.
posted by Sprocket at 1:00 PM on August 19, 2008


modularette: "I was there, too! In May of 2006?"

Yeah, in some little place in Malmö which I've never been to before or since (that place, not Malmö). Very intimate, interesting people, lots of fun. I remember talking to a few people so maybe we even met! I was there with a friend, I think we were the only Danes there.
posted by sveskemus at 1:06 PM on August 19, 2008


wow, that documentary is actually pretty ballin'. that Coova girl, from tokyo, made stuff that sounded a bit like Dntel (a dude whose stuff I love) and which I would absolutely listen to just for the hell of it, 8 bit nostalgia or otherwise.
posted by shmegegge at 1:33 PM on August 19, 2008


also, for real, where can I find Atmosphere freestyling over Super Mario Brothers? that is a melding of my two favorite worlds.
posted by shmegegge at 1:36 PM on August 19, 2008


The philosophical question is whether this music actually good, or if it's just bringing back good memories? (Because some part of my brain is whispering that it's just shitty euro dance music.)

To be clear, a large portion of chiptune music is far removed from any dance style. I recommend looking at the links I posted upthread. I can't imagine you not finding something you could enjoy in any of those links. Chiptunes are not a "genre" any more than songs containing guitars are a "genre". Thus, style and compositional complexity varies as widely as the artists themselves, and I can't emphasize that enough.

It's worth the small time expenditure to explore the more artistic, less clubby side of this stuff, trust me. You're missing some great music if you write it all off as superficial dance music, based on a small sampling.
posted by jake at 1:46 PM on August 19, 2008


No, it most certainly did not start with the late 90s/early 00s "Game Boy music" (nanoloop, pushpin, lsdj etc.) It started when sound chips started appearing in home computers: SID, POKEY, YM, etc. I'd peg 1982, the release of the SID to the general public, as the starting point. (I doubt anyone was sequencing distortions on the 2600 as a compositional tool previous to that.)

Wrong. "Chiptunes" in the original sense refered to only one thing, namely tracker modules (MOD, S3M, XM etc) where the instruments were made out of very short (often less than 1000 bytes) samples. It was an artificial limitation that some people liked working under, and it made the melodies sound like the music of earlier platforms. But that does not make songs made on the SID, NES etc into "chiptunes". The only true chiptunes were on the Amiga which, ironically, was a 16-bit system.

But I guess this is a lost battle, just like the hacker/cracker debate.
posted by ymgve at 1:55 PM on August 19, 2008


Chiptunes are not a "genre" any more than songs containing guitars are a "genre".

Songs containing instruments are my favourite genre.
posted by jprind at 2:21 PM on August 19, 2008


It's a lost battle because it's stupidly pedantic, even if it is technically correct. Please suggest a better term that is not "chipcore", "bitpop", "8bit" [shudder], or "shitty euro dance music".

The only true chiptunes were on the Amiga
MOD, S3M, XM etc <>!!

Also, tiny samples in trackers are how some modern guys actually write their console-soundalikes, as opposed to compiling machine code or using composition tools on the actual hardware, which is tedious if more "authentic". So, in fact, these fake-out anomalies are closer to "authentic" chiptunes (by your definition) than the "authentic" hardware stuff. It's a weird continuum.
posted by jake at 2:29 PM on August 19, 2008


Oops, that should have read

The only true chiptunes were on the Amiga
MOD, S3M, XM etc CONTRADICTION DETECTED!!
posted by jake at 2:30 PM on August 19, 2008


Related, previously and previously.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:50 PM on August 19, 2008


Cool post.
posted by ersatz at 6:35 PM on August 19, 2008


It was an artificial limitation that some people liked working under, and it made the melodies sound like the music of earlier platforms

I used to download MOD songs because they hadn't invented MP3 yet, and the idea of downloading music over a modem was ludicrous.
posted by smackfu at 6:50 PM on August 19, 2008


Cruise Elroy says it much better than I could (the author is a mefite, but can't remember who for the life of me)

Hey, that'd be me. :-) Thanks for the link.

I'm glad to see this post. As I argued in those posts Mister Cheese linked, chiptune music gets a bad rap for no good reason. I will also nth the recommendation for jake's stuff. Compositionally the lo-fi sound is irrelevant -- it's just damn good music.
posted by danb at 7:27 PM on August 19, 2008


The problem with 'pure' chiptune stuff, is that you're greatly limiting the sonic range you have available to you. You can't really do advanced stuff like compression, filtering, flanging, reverb, delay, etc, that take simple sounds and make them sound 'big'. Pure chiptunes will always sound cheap, thin and tinny. That said, chip sounds make a great starting point for a synth sound, and used well, (like Crystal Castles and 8 bit boy, for example), they can really make a dance track sound unique and fill the midrange/high-end well.
posted by empath at 8:47 PM on August 19, 2008


Sprocket wrote: I do like 8-bit music alot, I suppose I just don't understand the pleasure of headbanging to, essentially, press play and walk away prerecorded audio, where the artist himself just stands there and headbangs until the song is over. When the live performance is a recording the performance itself seems unneccessary, and the dancing forced.

Playing a live instrument alongside chip music does have a certain performance factor but one thing that people often miss is that many of the purist chip musicians are actually performing in the sense that they are (live) triggering different loops in different channels or playing the chip by means of different software or hardware. The more skillful artists, like the more skillful DJs, will be able to read their crowd and trigger their loops accordingly. People who play other instruments alongside their chip music do often just press play and walk away - excluding the crazy, guitar footery of animal style.

Just from a personal standpoint, when I trigger a loop at exactly the right moment, it does make me want to dance (maybe not headbang) and even more so when it's quite loud.

On a different note, I'm kinda surprised by the response chip music is getting on mefi. Perhaps the tones don't agree with many but writing off the entire body of music as hipster wankery is something I didn't quite expect. There are a lot of remarkably talented chip musicians out there (many mentioned earlier in this post) and many who have been producing this music for almost a good 10 years (maybe?). Writing the whole style of music off because you saw one picture of a tight-panted, feathered hair, hipster holding a gameboy in his myspace photo is a bit silly, I think. Look deeper and you'll find some pretty amazing music.
posted by RobertFrost at 12:17 AM on August 20, 2008


Warren Ellis on Bit Shifter, whose track The Uncertainty Principle was my introduction to the scene via This Spartan Life. Bit Shifter's homepage is here
posted by Molesome at 4:44 AM on August 20, 2008


This Spartan Life, that's the Red vs. Blue thing I was thinking of.
posted by asok at 4:54 AM on August 20, 2008


As someone who grew up grooving to the music in pirated European c64 games, I'm kinda conflicted about the rising notice that chip music is getting. On the one hand it's cool to see it getting more popular, and having slightly less chance of getting weird looks for rocking out in the car to Hubbard and Daglish's 'Monty on the Run' theme turned up high - but on the other hand, it feels strange as hell to see 'normal' people getting into it instead of total nerds like me.

Not all chiptunes are inherently awesome - they can be annoying and horrible, and there's a lot of cack being put out - but that top 5% or so can really just get my ass moving.

Honestly, the main difference between chiptunes and other electronica - IMHO - is that chiptunes put a lot more emphasis on ultra-pure tunes and/or rapid arpeggiations instead of actual chords.

Also, I gotta throw in a link to venerable net-label Monotonik, who's been spreading nerdy synthy stuff since the days when the Amiga was still a going concern. Some of what you find will be chiptunes, some will be more lavish, but it's all generally pretty good.
posted by egypturnash at 5:50 AM on August 20, 2008


I was watching the documentary when in the middle i saw myself in a picture that was very weird.
I was at BitShifter and Nullsleep's gig in Tokyo during their world tour. They took a phot at the place we were eating and it's ashot that's used in the documentary.
I didn't know much about chiptunes at the time, my friend Motoki (aka Aonami) had invited me.
It's funny to see a full fledge documentary on those guys, we spent a really cool evening together on top of the music.
It's hard to believe that those two low key guys were actually so important in their scene. YMCK were also there and they so shy and cute, it was impossible to realize how popular they were in Japan by meeting them.
It was quite a shock when i saw their videos in rotation on MTV Japan.
posted by SageLeVoid at 6:32 AM on August 20, 2008


MetaFilter: DURRR mario coin sound LOL

(I read "mario coin sound" as the actual mario coin sound, not someone saying "mario coin sound.)
posted by Eideteker at 8:55 AM on August 20, 2008


That raises an important question: how do you spell the noise that Yoshi makes? (I'm talking about Super Mario World-era Yoshi, not that bullshit new Yoshi that sounds like a Teletubby knockoff.)
posted by danb at 8:31 PM on August 20, 2008


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