Blip Festival 2009 • New York, NY, USA • Photograph © 2010 by Marjorie Becker
Long-time 8bitpeoples member, minusbaby, born Richard Alexander Caraballo in New York City, trades in counterpoint, subtle dissonances and surprises. While it may be impossible to predict exactly what will happen at each performance, one constant can be expected: a forceful, equatorial beat. Each familiar song is given new variation while the center holds it down with a bassy bottom end to make anything bump and bounce that hasn't been tied down, exploding the very meaning of 8-bit orchestration.
Since 1999, he has come to prominence in the chip music scene with a foundation in New York City and the 8bitpeoples. He has performed extensively, having been featured in London's DMZ Media Arts Festival, the International Chiptune Resistance, FMEL (Festival de Música Electrónica Latina) in Chicago, Blip Festival 2007, 2008 and 2009, multiple Pulsewave nights and Philadelphia's only monthly chip music event, 8static.
In 2009, he completed a seven show, month-long European tour playing Bleep London and Chipfest IV in England, Blip Festival Europe in Denmark, Bang! in Portugal, two sets at Era New Horizons in Poland and Budapest Micro 2 in Hungary followed by a west coast U.S.A. Data Beez tour in collaboration with Giant Robot, Attract Mode and L.A. Game Space playing shows in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.
In addition to music, he is a prolific pixel artist who, since 2001, has been largely responsible for defining the unique aesthetics of the modern 8-bit creative movement. Spearheading the visual identities of 8bitpeoples, Pulsewave and the Blip Festival has contributed to making minusbaby's work ubiquitous to the public's perception of chip music and art.
His work, which he has referred to as, "a practice in primitivism, but mostly a stab at trying to continue several traditions at once," is often guided by a central idea meant to be interpreted by the individual. Combined with his love for patterns, type and limited color palettes, minusbaby has developed his own unique visual language. Rather than easing into the more common pixel trends, he utilizes multiple sources outside of video game culture to broaden both his and the movement's repertoire so as to expand the canon and avoid Super Mario cannons.
minusbaby Interview for Revista Fraude · October 19, 2009
• http://minusbaby.tumblr.com/post/254506979
minusbaby at WFMU's Free Music Archive
• http://freemusicarchive.org/music/minusbaby
minusbaby Interview at 8bit Today · December 31, 2008
• http://www.8bittoday.com/articles/13/the-artwork-of-minusbaby
11m 20s of New Music
"Flying Bonus Beats, Version 1"
I wrote 13 minutes of bonus beats to extend my Beatles cover, "Flying", for a dance party-style gig in Montreal on February 11th - Forward Music at Bar Passeport. My oft partner in petty crime, glomag, played, too.
New Video and a Live Recording
"A Few Years Later"
From "Left" [8BP101] · 8bitpeoples
Illustrated and animated by Plasticflesh (Stieg Retlin)
"Flying [Live at Blip Festival 2009]"
Blip Festival 2009 • Day 01 of 03
December 17th, 2009 at The Bell House
Drums: OxygenStar (Carl Peczynski)
You may download it at:
http://3.ly/flying
“Blip Talk with minusbaby”I've been interviewed for the Blip Festival 2009 blog.
Blip: Before you got into making chip music, what type of music or art where you into?
My taste in music and art hasn't changed drastically since I began making chip music in 1999, but I've dug deeper into Brazilian, French and German prog over the past decade. Wonky time signatures haven't made it into my music, yet, but I've adopted a more dissonant, unstable and semi-psychadelic slant to my music that I'll happily acknowledge as being a direct link to classic, Clube da Esquina-era music coming out of Minas Gerais, Brazil during the early— to mid—1970s; Lô Borges, Milton Nascimento, Beto Guedes and Nelson Ângelo, especially. Also, string arrangements during that same era by Wagner Tiso and Toninho Horta. All of this, of course, may be traced back to Cartola, Dorival Caymmi and Antônio Carlos Jobim whom, with Vinicius de Moraes and João Gilberto, managed to make sour notes extend into several levels of sophistication, headiness and just a bit of raunchiness.
Read the rest at http://blipfestival.org/2009/blog/12/01.
DATA BEEZ WRAP-UP
I had a great time on the Data Beez West Coast Micro Tour with blackpawn, Crashfaster, Fx6Ex6, Go Motion, Guybrush, Leeni, Mr. Spastic, Paris, Daniel Rehn, Spamtron, starPause and Trash80 in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle from November 5th through the 20th.
Check out my Data Beez Tour Collection at Flickr, which is incomplete right now, but will be fully updated by the end of the week. I just didn't have it in me to keep it hidden for so long.
Special thanks to Adam Robezzoli of Attract Mode, Giant Robot, Japanese American National Museum, Miguel Arias, Tim Dufour, Miguel Hernández, 2 Player Productions and every single man, woman and savage who made it out to the shows; even the crazy robots.
“minusbaby - Left” by Ian CofréIt takes a certain point in an artist's career – after having already developed a rich, personal vocabulary and a command of his tools – to take an inward look and render a self-portrait that is sincere, accurate, and profoundly complex. Richard Alexander Caraballo (minusbaby) has done that with his new album, Left, which reads like a traveler's journal for his firing synapses.
Read the rest of the article at http://minusbaby.tumblr.com/post/260081378.
• Beatles Cover8-Bit Operators "I WANNA HLD YR HANDHELD"
Almost 2 full years in the making, the 8-Bit Operators' “Wanna Hld Yr Handheld, Vol. 1” Beatles tribute focuses on the glorious avant-garde and electronic side of the Fab 4 with over 20 of the biggest international names in 8-bit chip music, all utilizing re-tooled, classic Game Boys, Ataris, Commodore 64s and Nintendo Entertainment Systems.
• minusbaby “Left”New EP, remixes, music video, and upcoming projects.
In early August 2009, I assembled a group of musicians to remix the first single, "A Large Part of Your Mind Sliced", from my newest release on 8bitpeoples, "Left". I'd mentioned that purebred animals are more likely to succumb to one of a wider array of illness than crossbred specimens and that I am all for healthy animals and music. There were no rules.
Remixes by:
6955 [Canada], 8GB [Argentina], The ARE [USA], Rhinostrich [USA], Saskrotch [USA] and sylcmyk [USA]
Visit the release's mini-site for more information.
UPCOMING
FILE Hypersonica emphasizes musical, sonic, visual and performatic manifestations of electronic art presenting, among others, works by artists which will perform at the Teatro do SESI - SP from July 27 to 30, 2010.
FILE Hypersonica · http://www.file.org.br/
Centro Cultural FIESP · http://www.sesisp.org.br
Av. Paulista, 1313 – Metrô Trianon-Masp
São Paulo, Brasil
Google Map
http://3.ly/kQ6D
minusbaby, 2.6k, Droid-ON, Ghouls and Eggs, Orbe, pulselooper, Subway Sonicbeat, synthesizemii with visuals by VJ 8Beatz!
Nullbits · http://chippanze.org
Livraria da Esquina · http://www.livrariadaesquina.com.br
Rua do Bosque 1254 (Barra Funda)
São Paulo, Brasil
Google Map
http://3.ly/Nn6r
Música feita com videogames, circuit bending, computadores dos anos 80 e sons lo-fi: é isso que você pode esperar da festa Nullbits. Utilizando o que hoje é considerado sucata tecnológica ou sons duros e de baixa fidelidade, os artistas provam que usando a criatividade é possível qualquer coisa.
PAST
I/O:QNS · La Kueva • New York, NY
Pulsewave · The Tank • New York, NY
Forward: 8-bit Edition · Bar Passeport • Montréal, Québec, Canada
I/O · Niagara Bar • New York, NY Chiptune III · The Middle East · Upstairs • Cambridge, MA
Data Beez · Grey Gallery & Lounge • Seattle, WA
Data Beez · Ground Kontrol • Portland, OR
Data Beez · DNA Lounge • San Francisco, CA
Data Beez/Giant Robot 2 · Chop Suey • Los Angeles, CA
Noise Channel · The Studio at Webster Hall • New York, NY
ITP TNO · No Malice Palace • New York, NY
RockEM SockEM · Otto's Shrunken Head • New York, NY
Festival de Música Electrónica Latina · Sonotheque • Chicago, IL
Buenos Amigos: The Show · The Annex • New York, NY
Budapest Micro II · Tüzraktér • Budapest, Hungary
Era New Horizons · Teatr Polski and Arsenal • Wrocław, Poland
Blip Festival Europe · Platform4 • Aalborg, Denmark
Bang! · Plano B • Porto, Portugal
Chipfest IV · Korova • Liverpool, England
Bleep London · The Courtyard Theatre • London, England
Godxiliary Tour: NYC · Santos Party House • New York, NY
Pulsewave · The Tank • New York, NY
Sólo Dame Indie Pop! · Don Pedro • New York, NY
8static · Studio34 • Philadelphia, PA
Pulsewave · The Tank • New York, NY
Wicked Willy's • New York, NY
RockEM SockEM · Otto's Shrunken Head • New York, NY
Blip · FUN • New York, NY
I am a satisfyingly caffeinated freelancer always accepting interesting projects and commissions, so feel free to inquire about contract work, concepts awaiting production, booking me for a show, exhibition offers, press interviews, game, theatre and short film composition, caipirinha taste-testing and whatever else may be tickling your proverbial fancy. Surprise me.
Se habla Español (mas o menos) and falo Portugês (mais o menos).
P.S.: I'm very interested in designing a wine label. Tell me you're out there!
You may also contact me via various instant messenger alleys.
Other places of interest.
