Reformat the Planet

If you were born in the 90’s chances are you played a videogame once in your life, weither it be in the arcades, PC or home console. Thats why I highly recommend my fellow gamers out there to watch a documentary called “Reformat the Planet”. I just came across it a couple of months ago but it has introduced me to something I never knew existed: Chip tunes.

What is “chip tunes”? Essentially chip tunes is very elaborate 8-bit music. Much like how hip-hop took old records and made their own music or how punk took rock and shoved it back in its face, chip tunes asks the question, is 8-bit music relegated to only videogames? The answer is a direct, no.

These new musicians are expressing their musical talents in a new way by using old GameBoys, NES’ or even Atari’s. For the GameBoy there is a cartrage called “LSDJ” that enables the user to take every noise a GameBoy can make and allows them to arrange those sounds into actual music. It is very cool and for some very nostalgic.

The Chip tune scene has slowly been growing over the years and now there is a home for it in a club called “The Tank” in New York. The Tank brings chip tune musicians from all across the America to play at their stage. It allows unknown musicians to get exposure and for veterans to drop their new albums. Once a year The Tank holds their own version of Woodstock called “The Blip Festival” where for 3-4 days straight musicians come and show off new techniques and songs. These musicians come from every corner of the planet ranging from Sweden to Japan.

There is something very unique about chip tunes. It is definitely an acquired taste but as stated before, I think if you have ever played a videogame in your life you need to check out this scene.  You can watch the entire film “Reformat the Planet” free at penny-arcade.com/patv/reformat-the-planet.

Watch it, and welcome to the chip tunes community.