ZEN ALBATROSS

Post-MAGFest Recap + Taking Game Boy Orders

We’re all still coming down from MAGFest last weekend and as expected, this year was the best it’s ever been. All the chip concerts exceeded expectations, and I was especially pleased to see the legendary Jake “Virt” Kaufman — pink hair, glowsticks and all — back on stage after a few years of MIA. Seeing Nobuo Uematsu and his band Earthbound Papas was also a life-altering experience. Original Sound Version did a nice recap of all this and more with photos, and Chip Music Chronicle caught pretty much everything on video.

Also great was the surprising amount of interest in modded Game Boys. Stock is nearly wiped clean for the moment, but due to the demand I’ve decided to begin accepting orders via email until I can get some sort of online shop set up. If you’re not the soldering type and are interested in backlit/prosounded DMG’s, don’t hesitate to contact me with requests. 

See you at MAGFest X+1.

Blip Festival 2011: THANK YOU

Six years ago, I had never been to a chip music show in my life. I had no clue how to use a tracker and I didn’t know what a “hexadecimal genome” was (I still don’t, but I’m known to stagedive when 10K asks loudly into a microphone). Nevertheless, I reached out from my academic prison in upstate New York to channel what I could of the radiant energy that seemed to pour from a tiny subculture in my neighboring childhood urban sprawl of New York City.

Tirelessly pursuing my soon-to-be-worthless B.A. in Digital Media Art, I began to uncover what I could about this vibrant music scene that repurposed outdated computer hardware to make music. I hosted a radio show, which was really quite terrible, and let the sounds of artists like Bit Shifter, Glomag and Nullsleep inspire my early art projects, which were also really quite terrible.

Finally I secured my useless degree and fled to New York City. But my daring escape came with a price: 9 months of unemployment, extreme poverty and all manner of disheartening misfortunes lay in wait for me.

Somehow I survived, thanks mostly to the moral support of a number of individuals, many of whom were the very artists I had once admired from afar, and all of whom I now consider some of my closest friends.

As expected, saying it’s been a surreal pleasure to perform at the Blip Festival this past weekend alongside so many absurdly talented and generally amazing people rings harshly in my head as an obscene understatement. Even if I were to play dozens more music festivals in my lifetime, I simply can’t imagine they’d include the sense of unfettered camaraderie that Blip so effortlessly provides.

Consider this letter my giant THANK YOU to everyone that made this happen. Stand by for massive GREETZ:

To Jenn, Ricardo, Dustin, Adam & Kris K - I couldn’t have found a nicer and more supportive set of core bros if I had combed every street of all 5 of these boroughs (even the Bronx, lol)

To Josh Davis, aka Bit Shifter & Chris Burke, aka Glomag - Your friendship, support and enthusiasm has proven to be just as inspiring as your music

To all the organizers, artists & volunteers at 8bitpeoples and The Tank - Thanks for keeping this shit going long enough to make this part of the story possible.

To Emi - You don’t deserve half of the shit I make you put up with. The other half is fair game so DEAL WITH IT.

To all the visualists who have given sight to my sound: NO CARRIER, Invaderbacca, vade, Batsly Adams, et al - Don’t let anyone ever tell you that your shit is less than half the reason these things are so incredible. (in fact, sometimes it’s probably more)

To all musician-friends from near and far: cTrix, minusbaby, Animal Style, Nullsleep, little-scale, Starscream, TOO MANY TO MENTION - Being able to see all of you perform (some more times than I can count) throughout the years has provided an unparalleled creative energy that’s as exciting as it is inspiring.

To the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Tim Wu and DIY’ers everywhere - You are an inspiration for creativity and freedom in a world where our technologies are otherwise owned & enslaved by an unfeeling corporate hand. Never give up the fight.

All supporters on the journalism front: Peter Swimm, Matt Hawkins, Samit Sarkar, Topher Cantler, Leigh Alexander and everyone else who has helped spread the word out of genuine love for the scene. 

Everyone who has ever come to a show and did not ask me if I’m playing videogame music - Your informed appreciation makes me feel better about making music with shitty electronics.

See you all at BLIP FESTIVAL 2012: MAYAN LONG-COUNT APOCALYPSE EDITION™

BLIP FESTIVAL IS HAPPENING: May 19—21 @ Eyebeam NYC

I attended my first Blip Festival in 2008, after completing my undergrad work in upstate New York. Despite being the focus of my studies for the past 2 years, I had used a tracker maybe once, and had been to exactly two chip shows. The fest was vibrant and exhilarating, and I was perfectly content with watching from the sidelines.

Now, by some strange twist of fate, I’m slated to perform at that very same festival as it celebrates its 5th anniversary as the largest chip music event on earth.

The schedule is absolutely massive — I’ll be followed by a swarm of international demoscene legends like Ultrasyd, cTrix and 4mat, plus a whole mess of insanely talented New York area locals: Anamanaguchi, Bit Shifter, exileFaker et al. To top it off, some incredible visual artists from all over will paint the walls with pixels during all three nights of performances: Racquel Myers, NO CARRIER and m7kenji, to name a few.

Get your tickets now at http://blipfestival.org/2011/tickets/

Full schedule, below: