Incomplete without surface noise

Zen Albatross: Starscream - 'The Space Years' (Review)

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 15:09:00 -0500

Zen Albatross: Starscream - 'The Space Years' (Review):

Belonging to a musical movement commonly misconceived as a nostalgic outlet for glowstick-wielding gamer geeks isn’t easy. The pressures of distinguishing oneself within a scene that embraces extreme artistic limitation — not to mention an increasingly familiar audible aesthetic — can be taxing. Nevertheless, New York Game Boy Rock duo Starscream holds their ground, eschewing typical 8-bit dance and pop formulas in lieu of a refreshing, progressive sound that’s more akin to late-90’s shoegaze post-rock than any videogame soundtrack. And if their latest EP proves to be as prophetic as its mythos suggests, we might just be seeing the beginnings of a new chapter in the history of chip music. In space.

Read my full review at Original Sound Version.

v.a - nanovoice 1.0 1. Austin - Dead Pixels 2. disassembler -...

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 00:03:37 -0500

v.a - nanovoice 1.0

1. Austin - Dead Pixels
2. disassembler - falling in and out of step
3. DJ Hollow Life - NanoJa extended
4. environmental sound collapse & Nikaena Vizukae - irradiated soil (excerpt)
5. Flashbob - Zen Medication
6. godinpants - Nana’s Voice
7. infradead - sing a song to make you suffer
8. little-scale - Sunset On The Esplanade
9. Miko - Genesis & Catastrophe
10. nezar - echo
11. Raz1r - Sailing the 8th Sea
12. the mist toggles - roots in mud

v.a ● nanovoice 1.0

Ebot - 3807 Disk Ebot - 3807 Disk 1. Hey Boy 2. Deep Chip 3....

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:41:58 -0500

Ebot - 3807 Disk

Ebot - 3807 Disk

1. Hey Boy
2. Deep Chip
3. Pixel Love
4. Best fuck in Japan
5. Konga
6. Monty on the run (Monty Game boy - Poke20 remix)
7. Kid Bomb
8. Black DMG
9. Sine Bells

http://www.creativeapplications.net/iphone/nanoloop-iphone-sound/...

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:31:51 -0500

http://www.creativeapplications.net/iphone/nanoloop-iphone-sound/

My Plastic Heart

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:25:00 -0500

1. Starmelt - Brittle (Intro)
2. Maxfarnea - Electtrico Pleasure
3. Elisha Gray - My Plastic Heart
4. Christopher Jion - Presence
5. Joystick - Pixel Love
6. Nordloef - Shortcuts
7. Elektrobot - Hey Boy
8. Glomag - Mr. Grieves
9. Flashbob - Compatibility Issues
10. Disassembler - Closure

v.a ● my plastic heart

2010 Releases

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 23:11:05 -0500

A few things to keep an eye out for in the months to come.

February

v.a - nanovoice compilation

March

mononoke -untitled

Mid/Late 2010

disassembler one-off live shit!

Falling in and out of step

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 05:45:00 -0500

falling in and out of step by disassembler

Nanovoice and Nanoloop 1.3 synced on two Game Boys and edited in real time. Includes fuck-ups and gratuitous background noise.

I prepared a few loops in Nanoloop, then made a simple loop with Nanovoice. I started off by bringing Nanovoice into the mix first, then added the patterns from Nanoloop one by one while editing both Nanovoice and Nanoloop in real-time. If you’ve ever used Nanovoice you’ll know that it can be difficult to work with sometimes, especially in conjunction with other software. There’s no grid or visual cues to guide you when placing pixels on the screen, so you have to guess and hope that the pixels you add won’t throw everything out of step.

Zen Albatross' Unofficial Guide to Blip Festival 2009

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:06:44 -0500

zenalbatross:

Blip Festival 2009 is imminent. All hands are on deck, and the emergency blogcast system has been activated. With only three days left until the world’s largest chiptune party comes to New York City, we here at Zen Albatross Industries have suspended the activities of our Department of Airship Manufacture to bring you a concise list of all the exciting chipmusic events that will be taking place over the next week.

Blip Festival itself might be only 3 days long, but thanks to a number of additional shows taking place in Manhattan and Brooklyn, the festivities this year will be extending it to a full six days. Plus, I’ve got the skinny on a couple of unannounced events featuring Blip artists that will be occurring during the week of the festival. Hit the jump below for the lowdown on ALL of the happenings at Blip Week 2009, including the official full schedule for Blip Festival 2009.

Read More

gamefreaksnz: VIDEOGAMES + MAGAZINE + ADULTS = KILL SCREEN —...

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:57:42 -0500

gamefreaksnz:

VIDEOGAMES + MAGAZINE + ADULTS = KILL SCREEN — Kickstarter

Disassembler chooses Brooklyn as his next target!

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:09:11 -0400

One year after laying waste to Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood, disassembler returns to New York, this time choosing Brooklyn as his next target!

Along with Facundo, Tenfold, OxygenStar, Goferboy (a possible appearance from Dapantz) and Mike Goodwin manning visuals, disassembler plans to unleash a blistering audio assault on unsuspecting ears at Coco 66 tonight at 9pm!

Coco 66
66 Greenpoint Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11222

The rumors are true: Blip Festival, the world’s biggest...

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:15:07 -0400

The rumors are true: Blip Festival, the world’s biggest celebration of chiptune music will return to New York City this December. Mark those dates in your calendars, kids — If the euphoric spectacle of last year’s festival was any indication, Blip ‘09 is going to be something you will not want to miss. Stay tuned to Blip Fest’s website and 8bitpeoples for more info.

Blip Festival 2009

December 17th-19th, 2009
The Bell House
Brooklyn, NY

Ambient Nanoloop release on Dirgefunk Records

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 02:30:00 -0400

Christopher Jion - Brain Geodes | Dirgefunk Records • DF 05 CD

1. Brain Geodes
2. Cave Diamonds
3. Shiny Blue Bricks
4. Crystalline Heart
5. Grass Walker
6. Climb The Chain
7. Nephophobic
8. The Hero
9. Silver Worms
10. Water & Concrete
11. The Ice Woman

Music, artwork & design by Christopher Jion.
Limited to 300 copies.

Made using Nanoloop 1.3 and a Zoom RFX-2000 multi effect processor.

Bit Field Records 2nd Release

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:20:19 -0400

After months of planning, Bit Field Records is proud to bring you our 2nd release! DJ Hollow Life’s “nanovoice ep” Raw, uncompromising 4-bit additive synthesis on the Nintendo Game Boy!

DJ Hollow Life | nanovoice ep

Sonic Reformation & LSDJ

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:46:51 -0400

I’ve been neglecting Nanoloop for the past few weeks and I’m getting to know LSDJ inside and out. I have four tracks which are all works in progress. After experimenting with some patches from the LSDJ Patch Book I’ve been putting tables to use a lot more. They definitely add flare to your instruments!

Two of the four tracks that I’m working on will be featured on Sonic Reformation, my long overdue solo EP. I figure the two LSDJ track will compliment my minimal style with Nanoloop.

Sonic Reformation

Nanoloop

1. Minimal Game Boy House Party (Edit)

2. Limited Edition

LSDJ

3. Untitled

4. High Score (working title)

Upcoming Releases

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 21:49:00 -0500

Chiptune:

Disassembler - Sonic Reformation Solo Nanoloop EP on BIt Field Records. I’m still reworking a few things. New tracks should be finished in time for my North Jersey show on the 24th.

Starmelt - Untitled Nanoloop 2.3 EP Released on Bit Field Records. I belive Magnus is almost finished. I have to e-mail him again.

DJ Hollow Life - Untitled Nanovoice EP Released on Bit Field as well. No date is set for its release.

V/A - Nanovoice Compilation Also on Bit Field, I’m organizing and releasing this compilation. If you want to submit a track, reply here.

Non-Chiptune:

Sect 7 - Aliceffekt Remix EP (tentative title Re: Aliceffekt) A remix EP for Aliceffekt using Drool String Ukelele and possibly Reaktor 5.

First release of 2009!

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 20:59:00 -0500

sect 7 - max/msp works

1. ae reconstruct 1 (9:10)

2. ae reconstruct 2 (2:08)

3. ae reconstruct 3 (1:41)

4. ae reconstruct 4 (5:45)

Download: max_msp.zip

All samples used are from the releases Draft 7.30 and Tri Repetae by autechre. © autechre, Warp Records 1995 and 2003. All tracks were constructed using Twerk’s Drool String Ukelele.

This was a fun release. It was an experiment which is in the works… load some samples, press some buttons, see what happens… I hadn’t used Drool String Ukelele in a while, and the last time I did, I was pretty lost. After reading through the Help text I loaded up some samples and did some tweaking. Soon, I had some solid loops and sequences. I moved a few sliders and pressed a few buttons then rendered the files and I tweaked everything in real-time. The four tracks are the end result.

Drool String Ukelele

The legend that is Drool String. Twisted back-alley crap shooter used on countless records spanning the entire breadth of electronic music as we know it. Based on the sole idea that breaking habits is easier left to machines, I embarked on a journey to program tools that would generate happy accidents. This would end up being the first of many.

8static in Philly!

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:28:58 -0500

8static is Philadelphia’s first and only monthly chiptune event! The first show was in October of last year and featured Glomag, Bit Shifter, Animalstyle, Cheap Dinosaurs and Graffiti Monsters! The demand for more chiptunes in Philly was high, so now 8static is coming to you every month! Here’s what we have lined up for the new year:

We start off on January 10th, with an awesome lineup: 8GB, Anamanaguchi, Animalstyle and Rhinostrich with visuals by VBLANK and NO CARRIER. We want more people making chiptunes so Animalstyle has graciously agreed to give a free workshop, “Intro to Game Boy music”, covering Nanoloop and LSDJ starting at 6:30pm. Performances will start at 7:30pm.

On February 7th we have Nullsleep coming over to make you dance your 8bit butt away. He will be joined by Cheap Dinosaurs, Starscream and Peter Swimm. Visuals will be created by Paris Treantafeles and NO CARRIER - they really did some wonders together at Blip ‘08.

By March 21st you’ll see everything in pixels and hear everything in blips, just the right combination for the music of gwEm, Bubblyfish, Ary and Natty and the visuals of noteNdo and VBLANK

For more info check out http://8static.com. I will also be handing out fliers and putting them up in record shops, coffee shop and chop shops (kidding about the last one). :D The event is held at the Hacktory located at Studio 34 in West Philly!

The Nanoloop Comp is out!

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:58:00 -0500

You can download it here: http://www.soundcollapse.org/nanoloop/nanoloop2008.zip

Track# | Artist | Title | Nanoloop version

01 Albino Ghost Monkey - Enter 1.3
02 Bit Shifter - Tea With Galactus 1.1
03 cris2600 - Sounds Like A Duck Sort Of 1.3
04 Cerebral Scars - Newcastle Anthem 1.3
05 Glomag - Weel Kickit 1.2
06 nordloef - Computer Says No! (Does Not Compute) 1.3
07 Falco Lombardi - This Island 1.3
08 Je Deviens DJ en 3 Jours - So Sue Me 1.3
09 environmental sound collapse - See You Later 1.3
10 Giveupnewyork - Abnormal Effects 1.3
11 Flashbob - Heart Jitter 1.3
12 Videovalvantaa - Monster Of Loch NES (Zombie Seal) 1.3
13 Henry Homesweet - twoTek 1.3 & 2.2
14 Ubey - _5 1.3
15 Flanboy - Smack Your Children 1.3
16 Zombectro - #C3FF00 1.3
17 Big-Chip - Of Horse Feed And Guinea Fowl 1.3
18 Starmelt - Bad Apricots 1.3
19 Hidden Village - Between Waves 2.01
20 Infradead - Waiting For The Shoppers 1.3
21 Peanut Wilson - Puppy Dogs And Sewing Kits 1.3
22 disassembler - Minimal Game Boy House Party 1.3

Yeah, my track is last, but that’s okay. I was one of the last few to submit a track since I’m not on 8bc 24/7 anymore and I found out about the comp a bit late.

A big thanks goes out to Kevin (E.S.C.) for organizing this and an even bigger thanks to all the artist who submitted tracks and made this an epic first compilation appearance for me! :D This is an amazing way to end 2008!

I even got some praise from Mr. Shifter himself! “Your track is fantastic. Really loved it. esc gave me shit in #8bc for missing this track live when I arrived late at the Pulsewave you played. I lose.”

My track on this comp was recoded on June 26th, before Pulsewave. 1 copy of Nanoloop 1.3. I made a few loops as a base, then loops loaded, dropped and created loops and recorded on the spot, so this recorded version is slightly different than what I ended up playing at Pulsewave. This track will also be appearing on a upcoming EP (under the working title Sonic Reformation) as “Untitled 1”. I dropped the title to fit the concept of the EP. I hope to have it finished before the new year. Read the full story here: http://micromusic.sect7.net/post/57010972/sonic-reformation

Download the comp! Play it for friends, pets, ghosts and zombies! Tell them to download it too!

- disassembler

Older non-chiptune tracks compiled.

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 03:59:00 -0500

I compiled a small release of my non-chiptune tracks from 2004-2008. All tracks by me are listed as sect 7 with respective aliases listed in the comments.

sect 7 - selected works (2004 - 2008)

1. sect 7 - space girl (v.1)
2. ava luna - will not discolour, crack or peel (tainted by maschinenvolk)
3. ava luna - shiny lights on high poles (bright lights fading by aurora noise)
4. sect 7 - the city’s wide awake at 4 am (demo)
5. sect 7 - deconstruct 1
6. sect 7 - unravel (fragment 3)
7. sect 7 - dead and gone (pt. 1)

Track 1: Recorded in 2004 as aurora noise. Equipment: Boss SP-202, Novation K-Station, Roland SH-32. Contains a sample from Voices of a Distant Star.

Track 2: Recorded in 2006 for Ava Luna. Equipment: Reaktor 5. Contains samples from the track Will Not Discolour, Crack or Peel by Ava Luna from the album Prayers for Fallen Powerlines.

Track 3: Remix for Ava Luna. Recorded in 2006. Contains samples from the track Shiny Lights on High Poles from the album Prayers for Fallen Powelines. Equipment: Reaktor 5.

Track 4: Recorded in 2005 as aurora noise. Equipment: Reaktor 5. It’s a bit repeatitive, but I like it. :]

Track 5: Recorded in 2006 as maschinenvolk. Equipment: Reaktor 5. Contains samples from Acetate by No Movement No Sound No Memeories. Used with permission. Thanks to Thaddi. :]

Track 6: Recorded in 2007 as maschinenvok. Equipment: Cecilia proccessing environment for Csound, Nanoloop 1.2 (sample from the n-channel processed heavily with time-stretch and filter modules in Cecilia).

Track 7: Recorded in 2008 as maschinenvolk. Equipment: Reaktor 5.

Download: selected works (2004 - 2008)

Sonic Reformation

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:19:00 -0400

After four months with little or no inspiration, I’ve finally come up with a solid idea for my next release. The idea came about after reading the back of Alec Empire’s Nintendo Teenage Robots’ release We Punk Einheit. Alec created an interesting backstory for NTR…

Once again berlin is divided…
two underground scenes fighting each other with ignorance caused by the gameboy as a music pocket calculator.

…two movements attacking each other with the sound of static bleeps. One gameboy scene is putting up exhibitions at art galleries - overproduced melodic gameboy songs with reverbs and delays… The other scene called “out” is doing abstract futuristic cold atmospheric dance parties at disco clubs. A different sound: gameboy straight into DAT or CD recorder. Alec Empire is involved in the second.

The idea I had was to release an EP based around the idea of the first scene. Now, what would this sound like? Well, four months ago today I was in New York with a Game Boy in hand, playing for a venue packed with friends and fans of the chiptune scene. The sounds coming from my Game Boy were almost exactly what Alec described, melodic gameboy songs with reverbs and delays…

So, I’ve decided to compose three or four more tracks with this concept in mind. With the proper setup, composing three or four more tracks in real-time shouldn’t be too difficult. Hopefully the EP will be finished by mid November. More details will follow as things develop.