Taking place twice a year (once in Melbourne, once in Tokyo), Square Sound Festival stands as a must-attend destination for devout followers of chiptune across the globe. Bringing together artists who push beyond the limitations of vintage gaming hardware from Amigas to Game Boys and everything in between, the festival will host its 2016 Melbourne iteration on March 4–5 at The Evelyn Hotel.
To give you a primer on what to expect, festival co-organiser Alex Yabsley has compiled a cheat sheet of ten tracks showcasing the diversity of chipmusic, only including music that is recorded directly from hardware, with many of the artists featured here performing next weekend. Check out the full lineup here.
Videos by VICE
Ultrasyd – “The New School Oldschoolers”
New track from French artist Ultrasyd written entirely on an ancient Atari STe coming out with a ridiculous EDM banger.
Freezedream – “Lullaby”
Beautiful chill vibes coming out of a Sega Mega Drive from Australian artist Freezedream. Just amazingly beautiful music.
Chibi Tech – “Moe Moe Kyunstep (Part II)”
Written almost as a way to prove the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is capable of massive distorted bass sounds. Thinking that this track is coming out of the original Nintendo console is just crazy.
Cheapshot – “Giddy”
Some great bassy shuffled house coming from a Game Boy Advance running Nanoloop 2.0.
HarleyLikesMusic – “Just One More”
Just a single Nintendo Game Boy making a hardcore jungle rave track that puts most nu-jungle to shame.
cTrix – “gAtari”
Amazing example of making the most out of one of the most terrible sounding consoles ever: the Atari 2600.
Hizmi – “Shigure”
Lush beautiful music coming from the obscure Sharp X68000 on par with the best IDM.
David Sugar + Ears – “First Ok”
A chip classic, Game Boy creates grime beats amazingly and complements the vocal so well
goto80 – “Ajvar Relish”
In my mind the Commodore 64 is so well suited to dub, and this track is a standout for me
Dispyz – “We came to overtake!”
Like an Amiga-core manifesto hardcore fast tracking amazing hooks and just brutal wait for the second drop at the 2:00 mark.