Ultrachip

U2011 report

2011-08-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

Ultrachip 2011 was pretty much everything that could have been hoped for. Two solid nights of great music, lots of dancing and fist pumping, much sweat and shouting. Friendships were made, knowledge was shared, laughs were had.

Once more, my thanks and gratitude to everyone who attended, performed or in some way facilitated the happening of the event. Thanks also to the guys at The Forest for allowing us to do this again, and for not minding us hustling patrons off tables & blasting them with square waves. This will most likely be the last time Ultrachip happens at The Forest since it's expected to cease to exist in just a few days - a sad loss of a unique Edinburgh venue.

For those of you couldn't make it (or those who did & want to relive it) please enjoy the following chronologically arranged playlist of clips of performers from both nights:

All videos by Tom Lindsay, though others may be added as time goes on. Photos to appear sometime soon too!

Poster!

2011-07-23T00:13:00.000-07:00

Behold! A wonderful poster, courtesy of the talented MisBUG - http://www.misbug.com

Ultrachip 2011 - Full details (more or less)

2011-07-19T13:59:00.000-07:00

Here's the Facebook event page. Now details:

Ultrachip returns for two more days of live chiptune & chip-related happenings, featuring local, national & international artists. It's all going down in Edinburgh at the Forest Cafe, and it's entirely free to attend.

The event runs 8pm - 3am both nights, plus there are afternoon events on the Saturday. Details:

FRIDAY 19th AUGUST
Live music:

Stevens - www.myspace.com/stevenosurname
Spazrammer - http://microraves.tumblr.com/
Cerebral Scars - http://cerebralscars.wordpress.com
an-cat-max - https://8bc.org/members/an-cat-max
Edward Shallow - http://edwardshallow.bandcamp.com/
HarleyLikesMusic - www.youtube.com/harleylikesmusicuk
Wolves That Byte - www.myspace.com/wolvesthatbyte

Plus open mic hour 8-9pm!

Live visuals:

Euan McKenzie - www.suitcase76.com
Robert Motyka - http://weedogdesign.co.uk/

DJs:

James CDK - http://calmdownkidder.com/
LastKnight - http://soundcloud.com/lastknight

SATURDAY 20th AUGUST
Live music:

nordloef - www.nordloef.com
DS-10 Dominatör - www.ds10dominator.com
We Are The Future - www.myspace.com/lylatcore
Comptroller - www.cmptrllr.co.uk
Gasman - http://matt.west.co.tt/
Sycamore Drive - http://sycamoredrive.bandcamp.com/
Theremin Hero - http://thereminhero.com/

Plus open mic hour 8-9pm!

Live visuals:

RetchyvSmash - www.retchyvsmash.com
LastKnight - https://twitter.com/lastknightuk

DJS:

Akimbo Divine - http://akimbodivine.wordpress.com/

SATURDAY AFTERNOON EVENTS (12-5pm)
Workshops:

1pm: Making music with the Nintendo DS (DS-10 Dominatör)
2pm: Visuals: A Practical Approach (LastKnight)
3pm: Tracking From Scratch: creating a Spectrum chiptune in 1 hour (Gasman)

Games/Devices:

Play 'Super Mario Bros' using a theremin on a nice big projector screen, courtesy of Theremin Hero!
Other games TBC

Chip market:

Tables! Chip-related goods! Music, merchandise, old consoles and associated paraphernalia. Browse, buy, be happy.

IMPORTANT FINAL BITS
There will be alcohol onsale at night, so the live music in the evening will be 18+. Sorry about that. People of all ages can attend the Saturday afternoon events though.

If you have any queries, get in touch via ultrachipfestival AT gmail DOT com.

Line-up details

2011-06-19T06:41:00.000-07:00

Who's playing Ultrachip 2011? These guys are (in alphabetical order):

Combat Dave
Comptroller
DS-10 Dominator
Edward Shallow
Firebrand Boy
Gasman
HarleyLikesMusic
Nordloef
Spazrammer
Stevens
Sycamore Drive
Theremin Hero
We Are The Future
Wolves That Byte

DJs, visual artists, afternoon events - details to follow.

Ultrachip 2011

2011-05-03T11:56:00.000-07:00

Here are the few details I can confirm for now:

Ultrachip 2011 will be happening over Friday 19th August & Saturday 20th August at The Forest, Edinburgh. Like last year, all elements of the event will be free to attend. Alcohol will be onsale at the venue, so the live music in the evenings will be 18+.

There will be events happening in the afternoon on both days, including chipmusic related workshops, a market, and some kind of gaming event. Full details to follow.

Live music will run from approximately 8pm till 3am, with a selection of different chip acts from around the UK (and beyond?) playing each night. There will also be DJs providing music between acts, and live visuals from some cool guys.

An additional feature this year is an open mic hour. This will run at the beginning of Friday & Saturday night's line-up. Any chip musician in attendance who's not on the bill but wants to show what they can do - this is for you.

To anyone considering attending, I highly recommend you book accommodation as soon as you can. Ultrachip will be happening at the height of the Edinburgh Festival, a time when the city is ridiculously busy. Good luck!

Full details of line-up, times, etc. will be revealed over the coming weeks/months. Also, this ugly website will be getting overhauled. Thanks.

Ultrachip VS Forest Closure

2010-11-30T00:06:00.000-08:00

Ultrachip VS Forest Closure by Ultrachip

Ultrachip venue The Forest is currently facing closure unless they can raise the £500,000 required to buy their building.

The Forest is an important arts and events space that has provided great support to the local creative community for over a decade. In an attempt to help out, we've put together a benefit album where all proceeds go directly to them.

'Ultrachip VS Forest Closure' features tracks by every artist who performed at Ultrachip. The bulk of them are exclusive, new or rare. £5 gets you 15 tracks, neat accompanying artwork by Retchy v Smash, plus your money goes towards a worthy cause. It's a good deal.

Stream above, follow link to download. Thanks.

It was a success!

2010-09-07T14:18:00.000-07:00

Ultrachip 2010 was so great that it's taken me over two weeks to collect myself and post this. If you were there, you know this is truth. If you were not, I pity you.

The Forest was filled to capacity on Saturday, with people queueing outside for entry. Experienced acts remarked that it was the most enthusiastic UK chip gig crowd they'd ever seen. Sunday night (held in the larger upstairs area) saw a second assault of equally powerful music, though with a slightly reduced crowd. We'll aim for a Friday & Saturday night next time instead. :)

My heartfelt thanks to all who performed, contributed and attended. All acts (musical and visual) performed without payment, purely for the love of chip music. The event was free to attend, which meant a greater number of random people turned up & were exposed to fresh sounds. I personally spoke to several people who'd never heard any chip music before that weekend, but were rendered excited converts by their Ultrachip experience. This is good.

Ultrachip 2011 will definitely be happening, but you'll have a long wait for further details. I suggest you follow us on Twitter and watch for the signal. Have patience.

There are plenty of photos on the Ultrachip Facebook group, plus many videos grouped together on the Ultrachip YouTube channel.

Here's a small sample:

Photos courtesy of Tom Lindsay. Check the above links for more media. Don't let yourself down.

Sunday afternoon...

2010-08-16T07:07:00.000-07:00

All Sunday afternoon Ultrachip activities will be held upstairs at the Forest. The main hall will house the Chip Market, running from 12 - 5pm. The secondary room (attached to the main hall) is where the tutorials will be happening.

12pm, main hall - Chip Market starts, ongoing until 5pm. A range of chip-related music, accessories, art, electronics, other, will be on offer for you to peruse and purchase.

1pm, room 2 - 'The VJ Survival Guide', presented by LastKnight

2pm, room 2 - LSDJ tutorial, presented by Edward Shallow

3pm, main hall - Tonylight performs live!

4pm, room 2 - Circuit Bending tutorial, presented by Enfant Bastard

5pm - CLOSE, so setup/soundchecking can start for that night.

Each tutorial will be up to 1 hour in length (but no longer), and will be FREE to attend. Attendees: please be on time! Don't wander in late if you can help it; it's disrespectful to the hosts, who are being good enough to share their knowledge & expertise for no personal gain.

Don't miss Tonylight! Hear great live music while browsing chip goods, 3-4pm!

Poster!

2010-07-15T08:21:00.000-07:00

Behold! The white border is just so it can be seen more clearly on this page. You can download the standard poster from these locations:

SMALL (for general online posting / spamming)
FULL A3 SIZE! (if you want to go crazy and print off copies for some reason)

Spread the word!

Ultrachip line-up announced!

2010-07-09T07:59:00.000-07:00

Starting with headliner, live music from:

\\Saturday 21st August\\
Jellica
gwEm
The Tin Foil Hat Brigade
Fueldiva
Comptroller
Diamonds & Dynamite
Samwave

\\Sunday 22nd August\\
Talk to Animals
Firebrand Boy
Edward Shallow
Enfant Bastard
an-cat-max
arcadecoma.
Bit Face

Music expected to run from approximately 8.30pm - 1.30am, with DJs until 3am.

Plus visuals from:

Saturday 21st August - LastKnight, Retchy & Smash

Sunday 22nd August - Pointless Creations, Robert Motyka

The poster should be ready for unveiling soon...

This is it

2010-06-02T15:33:00.000-07:00

The June 1st deadline has passed - we are now closed to submissions for performers & collaborators. However, we're still open for any chip merchants out there. If you have chip-related art, merchandise or devices you're looking to sell, get in touch; the chip market on Sunday is the place for you.

Now we begin sorting out the details and nailing things down as best we can. We humbly suggest you follow our progress by joining the Ultrachip Facebook group and/or following us on Twitter. We will keep you informed of exciting developments.

A list of confirmed chip artists (so far) can also be seen over on the right. We'll be adding to that over the next couple of weeks. The final schedule of live visual artists will also soon be revealed.

There is much still to do.