Draft:Square Sounds Festival

Background

Square Sounds Festival was an art and music festival dedicated to celebrating the chiptune community. During its run, it was dedicated to music and visual art either created with or having the aesthetic of antiquated videogame consoles, trackers, synthesizers, circuit bent toys and other somewhat unusual methods. The festival was one of the biggest and longest running chipmusic festivals in the world

Chipzel performing at Square Sounds Melbourne

Generally referred to as simple Square Sounds, the festival began in 2013 in Melbourne, Australia and continued until 2020 with a total of 14 shows in both Melbourne and Tokyo, Japan. It grew out of the best known chipmusic festival, Blip Festival, which ceased in 2012 when the local organisers of Blip Australia and Blip Tokyo wanted to continue promoting events in a similar style in their local communities, borrowing a similar structure from their predecessors.  In addition to the main music events, the Australian arm also ran open mics, workshops and other events aimed at furthering the scene in Australia and partnered with a number of local events including Pax and White Night. Square Sounds was featured in a variety of media including segments on TV shows including Good Game.

Melbourne events primarily took part at the Evelyn Hotel, before shifting to 24 Moons, while the Tokyo events consistently took place at Koenji High throughout the span of the festival.

In addition to the almost 200 music and visual artists to play the main stage, each event also included a variety of acts playing different events on the days before and after. These included artists who had played the mainstage showcasing different projects, DJ sets, open mics to give exposure to new and emerging artists.

A Tokyo show was initially announced for September 2020.  A variety of reasons, including the Covid 19 pandemic and personal circumstances for the organising teams lead to Square Sounds going on indefinite hiatus.

Pozible Gigs

The Melbourne shows 2014 event was supported by backers through Pozible, and participated in an event called “Pozible Gigs” aimed at promoting crowd funding live music and became not only the first event to meet their target, but the highest amount raised as well.

Notable performances

GAMER (Melbourne 2016)

The performance from Melbourne synthwave group GAMER combined live music performance as a soundtrack to a live 3d pixel art story. The performance was originally created for a sold-out event during Melbourne Music Week and this was the final time it was performed live.  Audience members were given 3D glasses to experience the performance which took participants into a dark pixelated universe accompanied by a moody synth score.

Square Sounds audience wearing 3d glasses for GAMER A/V set

7BitHero (Melbourne 2017)

Queensland group 7BitHero (brainchild of Brisbane electropop producer and co-founder of IV Motion Hans Van Vliet) soundtracked a live videogame that allowed audience members to sign in from their phones to compete against their friends in various games. The live performance of the soundtrack concluded with a special song customised to the winner.

Performers

City	Melbourne
Year	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Dates	17-18 Feb	28-29 Mar	20 - 21 Mar	4-5 Mar	3-4 Mar	23-24 Mar	N/A	20 - 21 Feb
Art Design	KeFF	8GB	Josh Alan Bradbury	ENSO	Connor Fowler	Raquel Meyers		0f.digital
Artists	A_Art	8GB	Alex Lane	Abortifacient	0F.digital	Aday		A Comic Book Villain
	Aliceffekt	Brainbeau	Bubble Town Babe Crew	Aday	2mg	Alex Lane		breezesquad
	Cheapshot	bryface	Chipzel	Cheapshot	7bit Hero	Aquellex		Classic Mistake Vs Tom Foolery and the Family Jewelery
	Chronic Sans	Chronic Sans	Chrism and Fenris	Chibitech	boaconstructor	Batterie		Cyanide Dansen
	cTrix	DKSTR	DF0:BAD	C-Men	Busty Coastline	Bl00dsp0rts		Cyberpunk Ibis
	Doshy	HarleyLikesMusic	Eyeliner	cTrix	Cat Full of Ghosts	Bleeds		Derris-kharlan
	Elliot	J. Arthur Keenes Band	Galaxy Wolf	CyberPunk Ibis	Cyberpunk Ibis	Calavera		Dweeb City
	Huf	Josh McVomit	Goto80	Freezedream	Danimal Cannon	Captive Raptors		Exilefaker
	Hunz	little-scale	Green Nose	Gamer	Dot.AY	Carla Zimbler		Fearofdark
	Ilkke	Maddest Kings Alive	Henry Homesweet	HarleyLikesMusic	Heavy Viper	Chipocrite		Hedonist
	Jayson Haebich	Calavera (originally NNNNNNNNN)	Hip Tanaka	Los Pat Moritas	Jamatar	chipzel		Kataplexia
	M7Kenji	No Carrier	iLKke	Quarta330	KUNIO	Classic Mistake		Kenobit
	Mr Spastic	Peaches the Wale	lazerbeat	Robert Parker	Raquel Meyers	Disasteradio		Little-scale
	Omodaka	Sabrepulse	little-scale	Shirobon	Ray Manta	godinpants		m.pegasus
	Other Places	Sexy Synthesizer	Men64	Spirit Bunny	Space Town	Kate Geck		Modern Chair
	Pselodux	Tiasu	NNNNNNNNN	Ten Thousand Free Men & Their Families (& Band)	tiasu	Makeup and Vanity Set		Neon Merkin
	Ralp	Victory Rd	Slippery Jim	Tuberz McGee	Tom Foolery and the Family Jewellery	Roboctopus		Radlib
	StarPause	X in O	Toriena	UltraSyd	Trash80	Robotprins		Rave Stabber
	Trash80		Xyce	VJ Simulcast	ZEN ALBATROSS	Teledildonix		S.C.R.A.P.S
				Wiklund		they/them		Saitone
	Tokyo
Dates	28-29 Sep	27-28 Sep	26-27 Sep	9-10 Sep	15-16 Sep	15-16 Sep	21-22 Sep	N/A
Art Design	m7Kenji	m7Kenji	m7Kenji	m7Kenji	m7Kenji	m7Kenji	m7Kenji
Artists	A_rival	BSK	Cheapshot	2MG	Applesorce	Bit Shifter	2PColor
	Chronic Sans	Chip Tanaka	Chibitech	Atomsmasha	BOKKADENcl	Boaconstructor	Breezesquad
	cTrix	C-men	Chip Tanaka	Captive Raptors	Calavera	Bolcoantes	Cheapshot
	Cheapshot	_ensnare_	cTrix	Cheapshot	Cheapshot	Cheapshot	Chibi-Tech
	Chibitech*	Gigandect	HarleyLikesMusic	Chibitech	Chip Tanaka	Chip Tanaka	cTrix
	Danimal Cannon	Higedriver*	Hizmi	Chipzel	cTrix*	Dot.AY	DEFENSE MECHANISM
	Dot.AY	Kplecraft	Lazerbeat	DJ Master Kohta	DBOYD	Droid On	Gesceap
	Hally	KUNIO	M7Kenji	Galaxy Wolf	Hally	Kris Keyser	Kplecraft
	Hizmi	M7Kenji	NNNNNNNNN*	HIGEDRIVER	Note!	Kubbi	M7Kenji
	Kubimatsuri	Monodeer	No Carrier	KAZ AKA Hige	Omodaka	Lazerbeat	Nishioka Diddley
	M7Kenji	Mr Spastic	Rymdcraft	KUNIO	Pain Perdu	M7Kenji	Shinoryu
	Master Kohta	Naruto	Sexy Synthesizer	Lazerbeat	SDHizumi	NES Band	Skybox
	Matt Nida	No Carrier	Sharaku Kobayashi	M7Kenji	Sharaku Kobayashi	Quarta330	Starving GOGO
	Minikomi	Omodaka	Sige	Mega Ran	Tobokegao	Rekcahdam	SUPERSTARS
	No Carrier	Roboctopus	Storz	NNNNNNNNN	Uraboroshi	Robotprins	Toriena
	Quarta330	Robokabuto	Suesett	Note!	Wiklund	Scythe	Wabisavita
	Saitone	Shirobon	Tappy	Saitone	Yukkerom	Toriena	YMCK
	Sexy Synthesizer	USK	Trash80	SBThree		Xinon
	The Hunters	Yerzmyyey	UltraSyd			Yokemura (from YMCK)
	Xyce	YMCK	Xyce Vs Men of Mega*
'* Unannounced set that was kept secret until the show