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Born  RICHARD ALEXANDER CARABALLO  in New York City, minusbaby is a musician, designer and photographer. Focusing primarily on software-based composition, minusbaby uses lo-fi electronic synthesis to create polyphonic, rhythm-driven electronic music. Loudly.

Since 1999, he has come to prominence in the chip music scene, with a foundation in New York City and the 8bitpeoples, of which he is a longtime member. minusbaby has performed extensively, having been featured in London's DMZ Media Arts Festival, the International Chiptune Resistance, Blip Festival 2007, Pulsewave, and most recently having headlined the premiere of The Tank's newest music series, "Less Than Three". In addition to two solo releases, "Monkey Patch" [8bitpeoples] and "Strong Arctic Winds Take Terns" [Rappers I Know Records], he has been featured on the first Micromusic and Soulseek CD compilations, the influential "8BP050" [8bitpeoples/The Tank] and War Child's "Yesmamma" [Ninja Tune/Magex].

Inspired by a recent residency in Brazil, minusbaby recouped his technique and scope to prepare and produce a new mission: the propagation of a unique brand of chip music largely informed by 1960s samba and boogaloo, 1970s Krautrock and Música Popular Brasileira, 1980s No Wave, hip-hop and electro, and 1990s shoegaze and post-techno.

Always keen on collaboration, he is currently working with Def Jux Records' turntablist, DJ Big Wiz [Aesop Rock, El-P, Mr. Lif], Trackmasters producer, The ARE [Lil’ Kim, De La Soul, K-Otix] and the assembly of a samba school.

Release Alert

Strong Arctic Winds Take Terns

Now available on Rappers I Know Records, “Strong Arctic Winds Take Terns: Fourteen Songs Written and Recorded Between 2003 and 2004.

This new release of older material from Richard Alexander Caraballo, aka minusbaby, is, for the most part, not in his usual chiptune style. However, the way “Strong Arctic Winds Take Terns” relates to the chiptune work is instructive to the listener who might be just finding their way into his wildly creative universe.

With chiptune music, there is a forced elementalism, a certain influence imposed by the hardware limitations of making music on a vintage gaming console that pushes the artist to bust out creatively. But when the same artist works in the dizzying world of VST plug-ins and the endless possibilities of laptop music, those without a strong idea of their own sonic identity often flounder and are incapable of forging a distinctive style. minusbaby's work in chiptunes before and after making this music clearly gave him a sense of the need to create limits within which to work — the advantage of forced boundaries. Each track presents a short view into a very defined sonic world in which he explores just long enough to find the interesting permutations on the structure and yet leave the listener wanting more.

While betraying a sensitivity to the integrity of each sound, “Strong Arctic Winds Take Terns” does not come off as a “designer's record” in which one can hear the endless fretting over mix choices while the impact suffers. This release gives the listener a clear image of an artist with a solid, sonic identity; making harmonious, instrumental music.

Chris Burke • New York, New York, USA • May 13th, 2008

Soon.

Creative Commons License
Strong Arctic Winds Take Terns by minusbaby is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at rappersiknow.com.

Live Show Alert

Blip Festival 2008

DECEMBER 4TH — 7TH, 2008

Blip Festival 2008
The Bell House
149 7th Street • VIEW MAP
New York, NY, USA

Animal Style, Bit Shifter, Ikuma, Jellica, Lissajou, M-.-n, Meneo, minusbaby, Mr. Spastic, noteNdo, Nullsleep, Sidabitball, Starscream, Syphus, Tonylight, Trash80 and zabutom with C-Men, Entter, NO CARRIER, noteNdo, VBLANK and Voltage Controlled on the visuals.

Fifteen more artists to be confirmed.


TICKETS
• $15 a night
• $50 for festival pass
• $60 for festival pass and “Blip Festival 2006: The Videos” DVD

 Thursday and Sunday: 16+ 
 Friday and Saturday: 18+ 


» PURCHASE TICKETS

Please, visit the Blip Festival 2008 website for details.

Blip Festival 2008
The Bell House
Brown Paper Tickets