Reformat the Planet is a feature-length documentary that focuses on some of the personalities behind the 8-Bit / chiptune scene in New York City, featuring some of our favorite Game Boy artists, notably Bit Shifter.

Reformat the Planet (RTP) is a feature length documentary which delves into the movement known as chip music, a vibrant underground scene based around creating new, original music using obsolete video game hardware. Familiar devices such as the Nintendo Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System are pushed in new directions with startling results.

…After documenting several live chip music performances in New York City and being invited to film the first year of the now annual Blip Festival, it was clear that they stood before a rich cultural mine that few were tapping in any long-form projects. The decision to focus the film on the varied personalities of the NYC chip music scene was a quick and obvious one.

Here’s a nice article over at Memeshift with a lot of resources from all over the intertrons for getting started making electronic music. Even though it’s a bit old (2008), it focuses on basic principles and components, like oscillators, filters, synthesizer programming, and sampling. A nice resource for people just getting started.

The author recommends Ableton Live as the sequencer of choice, because it allows for both live performance and more traditional sequencing and I agree. I would also add that to get some really advanced sound and have control over it at a very granular level, look into MAX / Msp. Despite the steep learning curve, and somewhat unintuitive interface, it allows for some very interesting, interactive and experimental projects, like these over at Musicthing and these over at Create Digital Music. There’s a guy who uses turntables to video mix, someone who created an invisible violin using a wii controller and bluetooth with MAX/Msp, and a crazy balloon + lights + sound installation by Monolake at Mutek.

If you just want to play with something online and get the feel for making electronic music, Audiotool (pictured above) is pretty awesome.

“How to Start Marking Electronic Music”

Also, if you live in Chicago, there are other physical humans that can help with your quest at

via

Check out our Soundcloud Meetup at Transistor. The folks from Transistor, a cool music and bookstore in Uptown have kindly agreed to host this Meetup. Also, this Meetup will be a bit tricked up. There will be Soundcloud swag and wi-fi, so people can share their tracks.
From the Soundcloud Meetup Group:
Also, the folks from Soundcloud would like for us to record some audio (music, interviews, whatever) from the meetup to share with the Soundcloud community.

I made a Group on Soundcloud where you can post your tracks: Chicago Innovative Electronic Music Soundcloud Group

When: Wednesday, February 9, 2011
7:00 PM
Where: Transistor, 5045 N Clark St
Chicago, IL

Liz Revision:“Ode To Sniffles” [DOWNLOAD]

Actual paper toy to follow, once I reinstall Windows + Adobe CS5 on the work putie.

1. Altered Tensions “Slow in Ashes” The Answer to the Question You Forgot to Ask [Self]

2. Diarmo “Details” Robohustlin [subVariant]

3. s.t. “Emotions in a Box” Emotions in a Box [Monotonik]

4. Elijah B. Torn “oooEight” Robohustlin [subVariant]

5. Kettel “Boekebaas” Myam James 2 [Sending Orbs]

6. Fourtet “Sings (Extended)” There is Love in You [Domino]

7. Quantazelle “Polychromatic Tomatoes v.1″ Unreleased

8. Deetron “Collide” Collide [Green]

9. Marc Romboy vs. Stephan Bodzin “Atlas” 6 Monde [Systematic]

10. Nick Curly “Kalimba” Critical Mass EP [Murmur]

11. Peaches “Lose You (Brodinski & Yuksek Remix)” Lose You [XL Recordings]

I’m a big fan of fractals, starting with discovering Fractint while filecrawling on a BBS back in the day, then naming my online “geek boutique” after them, then creating a paper toy named “Mandlebot”. Here’s a cool documentary on fractals by Nova: “Hunting the Hidden Dimension.”

I’ve put together an IDM compilation on my label, subVariant and I’ll be doing a virtual release party on Thursday.

…Robohustlin, is a curated collection of melodic IDM, ambient and glitch tracks from Chicago and beyond… All thirteen tracks were chosen from an open call for songs in July-August of 2010, and represent the highest quality and most discernable sonic dedication that fit with the general theme that organically emerged over the course of weeding through all the submissions.

Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 9pm CST
Robohustlin with be premiered in a live DJ set by Liz Revision on Ustream on at ustream.tv/channel/live-at-subvhq (embedded below).

Friday, September 24, 2010 at 10am CST
The compilation can be downloaded from www.subvariant.com

Read more here: Robohustlin virtual release party.

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Posted Under: Chicago,Electronic Music,Free,Liz Revision,Music,Musicians,subvariant
by Liz on September 22, 2010

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Check out this mostly-nerdcore hiphop compilation inspired by Doctor Who, Put together by the excellent nerd-musicblog, Hipsterplease. “Visitations: A Musical Tribute to Dr. Who.” It’s free as either a single-track or .rar download.