Chiptunes: Meet the DJs filling dancefloors with Tetris

Go ask your parents (or even go haul the attic), and eventually we’re certain you’ll probably dig up memories of retro games consoles. Even if the real things are nowhere to be found, many fondly remember the old ‘8-bit’ craze from back in the 1980s/90 – a time were the likes of the Super Nintendo ruled home gaming, whilst if you didn’t own a Game Boy, you felt inferior to others. Heck, back in those days, the thought of Mario and Sonic appearing in a game together would’ve made you laugh out of ridiculousness of the prospect.

Well, now three decades on, and the world has changed. However whilst gaming has become a bigger business than Hollywood, and graphics seem more ‘real-world’ than ever before, the memories of your old Mega Drive can still live on, thanks to the ideology of ‘chiptunes’ – essentially a way of making music from retro consoles.

Now in its fourth year, Manchester’s Superbyte Festival is wholly focused on 8-bit music, and is the largest event of its kind in the UK… and it’s growing fast! According to Sky News, whilst chiptunes are often created in bedrooms and home studios, the DJs insist it is the performance element that really makes this music come to life.

From producers to music fans themselves, chiptunes is starting to come into its own as a form of audio entertainment. Producer CTrix (aka Chris Mylrea) says “You put it through a big sound system where you’ve got loads of bass and all this range and suddenly people are realising ‘wow!’…. You can create these pallets of sound that cause a whole room to rumble and an entire dancefloor of people to get up and boogie.”

And it’s not only latching onto the retro-heads, but to the general music-listeners too. Games store owner Tom Humphrey adds “The appeal of chiptunes to me as a listener is the memories of video game music, but also the way chiptunes isn’t necessarily stuck to the video game music format…. There are chiptunes which almost sound like video game music soundtracks, but then for me there’s the other side: using those sounds but in contemporary structures so it doesn’t necessarily sound like a video game … but it’s got those nostalgic sounds.”

So there we have it! Check out Sky News‘ full delve into the world of chiptunes below; we’re certain you’ll be dusting off that Master System in no time!