Clubbers’ Decktionary: Chiptune
29 May 2012
Chiptune, proper noun, aka 8Bit, Bitpop, Bitcore, Nintendocore
Any tempo but generally fast (i.e. 130-180bpm), the sound of 8-bit and 16-bit micro-chips from classic arcade games from the late Seventies and early Eighties, hand-held computer games from Nintendo and other home computers.
Origins: Tokyo pioneers Yellow Magic Orchestra’s seminal Computer Games single sampled the sound of arcade games in 1978, as did much of their eponymous debut album. In 1982, Ohio duo Buckner & Garcia scored a US Top Ten hit with their (atrociously bad) novelty record Pac-Man Fever. Two years later, YMO’s Haruomi Hosono released Video Game Music, the first album produced entirely from arcade game samples. In 1985, Rob Hubbard started programming sounds for the Commodore 64’s SID chip, ensuring his status as a chiptune legend has endured ever since. Seven years later, Aphex Twin sampled Pac-Man again as Power-Pill. Hexstatic’s Bass Invader sampled Space Invaders, in 2000.
Key figures: The last decade has seen a huge proliferation, mainly due to the release of software such as LittleSoundDJ and Nanoloop for the Gameboy. Pioneering label 8bitpeoples launched in 1999, releasing Finnish artist Huoratron’s 2006 debut Liquid Acieeed, and Chiprape by Atari ST fan Stu of legendary Swiss collective Drop da Bomb. Armed only with a Gameboy and a megaphone, Japan’s DJ Scotch Egg emerged in 2005 and has been frightening grannies ever since. Of chiptune’s growing brigade of whizz-kids developing their own gear, Pixelh8 has created software for Imogen Heap and Damon Albarn, while genius live performer André Duracell creates his own programs linked to a drum-kit, triggering notes from his Sega Mega Drive with each drum-hit. Latterly, Toronto’s Crystal Castles have done much to popularise the genre, bringing it closer to the mainstream.
Edinburgh’s Enfant Bastard (pictured above, now based in Gothenburg and who helped enormously in the research for this feature – cheers Cammy) was the main champion in Scotland, until teenage Leith sensation Unicorn Kid made off with his crown, remixing the Pet Shop Boys when he was still only seventeen….
An edit of this feature was originally published in September 2011 by The List magazine. It has been reproduced with their permission.
do you like Jahtari?
Yes, i do and i even went to see them play Optimo once but still forgot them… 😉
Will have to talk about them some other time, though. Cheers!