Chiptune Documentary Now Available Online
For the next week (and only the next week), Pitchfork.tv is hosting Reformat the Planet, a chiptune documentary from 2 Player Productions and director Paul Owens. The film centers around the 2006 Blip Festival in New York City, and features interviews and performances from several artists in the chiptune field, such as Nullsleep, Bit Shifter, and Bubblyfish. It looks and sounds fantastic, and even if you're not a huge fan of the scene, I'd recommend at least having a peek at the first part.
The film was shown this year at SXSW and The International Melbourne Film Festival, and will be screened Friday, August 29th at this year's Penny Arcade Expo. The group behind the film will also have a merchandise booth at the event, and will joined by Anamanaguchi, the first chiptune act to play at PAX. Check out the trailer after the break.
The film works hard to validate the featured musicians, who want to be taken seriously in an industry that places a lot of emphasis on image and credibility. An inherent conflict in the film sees artists trying to legitimize the genre by dismissing its connection to gaming, but from their instruments to the Goombas sitting behind the interviewees, I come away thinking more than ever that the two are pretty much inseparable. I completely respect the artists involved, but perhaps the goal shouldn't be making chiptunes and videogames mutually exclusive, and instead accepting and broadening the concept of gaming as more than kids playing with toys.
Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet [Pitchfork.tv]
Dawdle
Posted to Hot Stuff, Music on 16 August 2008
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: 2 player productions, blip festival, chiptunes, pax 2008, reformat the planet
Nice, this documentary looks like its worth checking out. I'm not into chiptunes, but I enjoy some of it. Could be cool learning about the people in it.
While some of the compositions bear merit, the music is of such low fidelity it gives me a headache to listen to very much of it. I can't help but think that the talents of these musicians would be better served by working in more mainstream electronic music.
Thanks a lot for this info, always liked chiptunes and it's good to get a bit of a who-is-who in chiptune/bitpop.
@Keith: As always with music, it's a matter of taste, and in the mainstream electronic music sector, these artists would only be small fish in the big pond. Jazz musicians might also be more successful if they'd make mainstream pop, but then again, they wouldn't be jazz-musicians, would they?