‘Bloops, Razzes and Buzzes’
DJ Niceberg on his neo-rave madness
You are an Imperial student. Your brain and body require intense stimulation. Thanks to exams, you now have free time and money, are still in the vicinity of Metric, and are dying – craving, praying – for a chance to have your jiving, drunken body pounded with bass-heavy, cutting-edge dance music. Your prayers have been answered. This Saturday, I’ll be running the gamut from garage and dubstep to full-on neo-rave frenzy, dropping in 8-bit chipstep treats throughout.
Chipstep is something of a fondness of mine, you see – it’s the nostalgic love child of old-school video games and modern dance music, and my production focus. Remember how abrasive and gritty those games used to sound? Our top bass scientists have harnessed its plutonium-like power and are now putting it to use manufacturing weapons of mass booty destruction.
Chipstep encompasses any dance music with a retro game flavour, from remixes of old game music to tunes that merely incorporate the characteristic bloops, razzes and buzzes. In my tracks, this works particularly well for genres like bassweight dubstep and electro, where a raw, primitively digital sound is what’s needed. The target audience is emerging just about now – we’re looking to get into clubs and listen to serious dance music, and we’re older than the new generation that won’t say “aha!” when they hear “ha!-ha”. I’ve noticed a little chip influence in a lot of recent dance music releases now, and some big names have gone all out and made proper chipstep releases, a notable one being Bop - The Amazing Adventures Of One Curious Pixel.
Promoting the good cause is a night called Nintendisco, for whom I’m an occasional DJ. These guys run monthly events where you can come on down to 93 Feet East in Brick Lane for a combo evening of SNES and boogying. Do you get better or worse at Street Fighter with a couple of pints in you? Come along and find out. This comes especially recommended for those of you who need a fun pre-lash or who don’t go for longer nights, as it starts and ends relatively early.
If you want to learn more about anything I’ve mentioned here, just search SoundCloud, where you’ll find my artist page, the chipstep group and Nintendisco’s mixtapes, among other things.
Check out Niceberg’s sick chiptunage on soundcloud.com/dj_niceberg.
