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I have so much yet to discuss: I have MIST2000 puzzles to spoil; I have MIST1015 artworks to discuss… I have a holiday multimedia extravaganza to hype! But in keeping with my mandate to not let timely matters get away from me… I have a concert to plug by a Mistigris alumnus. Oldschool Misters might remember him as Handiboy or Haquisaq; you last saw him in MIST1014 under his modern sobriquet of “bryface”, which not only hints at his real name, but lets you know that yes, he has a face. (He is also represented in MIST2000, so I’d better get around to cracking that nut for the benefit of all of you lazy gadabouts who refused to do so for themselves.) Though he had a deft handle on sample use back in the ‘90s, he has since refined his masterful art down the manupulation of pure square, sine and triangle waves, and you can hear him leading the way to some retrofuturistic palace of wisdom in a chiptune idiom. I praised his musical achievements before, and I guess his turn has just come around again.

Here, it’s nearly Christmas, enjoy a seasonal video of his handiwork. (Er, I mean haquiwork. Uhh… workface.)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQPCr95vkJM&w=560&h=315]

And now, the concert details:

Thursday Dec 17, 8 PM
Rickshaw Theatre (254 E. Hastings)

Music and Gaming Festival’s GAME OVER event series is coming to the northwest at the Rickshaw theater. $15, 19+

Performances by:

bryface
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bryface composes and performs chipmusic using real game hardware: his most recent project, “VARIOUS TOPICS”, is a full-length album written solely using, of all things, a 1980’s Nintendo Game Boy. But this music is a far cry from the nostalgic, simplistic video game stereotypes of yesteryear – watch bry demonstrate prowess in a multitude of modern genres such as House, Electro, and Drum and Bass, all using nothing more than the sound coming from the Game Boy’s antiquated 4-channel sound chip. bry’s music has gained notoriety throughout the worldwide community of chip musicians for being highly sophisticated and forward-looking, yet deeply rooted in oldschool demoscene aesthetics.

The Runaway Four
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The Super Smash Bros. of video game music! The Runaway Four performs video game music in the form of themed medleys, tying songs together from all different games. A regular at local conventions including the Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo and Nerd Fest, this band is known for performing high-energy sets and long, expository audial journeys. They can also be be seen frequently around Vancouver collaborating with other geek-themed performers like Geeks vs Nerds, and they always keep a healthy stock of medleys uploaded on their YouTube channel.

missingNo.
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Founded in 2011, missingNo. has played venues from house parties, to clubs and local conventions, to some of the largest video game music gatherings in North America. missingNo. boasts a full horn section that injects a heavy soul-fusion influence into their arrangements of classic and modern tunes and they’re consistently blowing away the crowd with their big sound and ability to draw out the inner child in their listeners. Their first album, Warp Zone, dropped in 2013. Epoch, the band’s next studio recording is slated for digital release in Fall 2015. Their music is available for sale on Loudr, Bandcamp, iTunes, among others and is also available for streaming on all major internet radio sites. Be sure to track them down on YouTube and Facebook to track down their latest videos and music releases.

Freaky DNA
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Freaky DNA plays his own NES-style chiptunes from the Retro City Rampage album which currently has 200,000+ plays on Bandcamp. Previous live shows include Osaka, O’Porto, Brooklyn, Banff, Zürich, Seattle, Toronto, Norwich, Newcastle, Berlin, San Francisco, Amsterdam and other locations around the globe.

Late-breaking update: Bryface tells us that he will have merch at the concert! We never did end up making the Mistigris CD sampler, but this … is probably quite a bit better.

also, at the venue i’ll be selling a collection of most of my existing / unreleased works on SD card! not only will there be .MP3’s but also a handful of tracker files and other music source file equivalents.