Niamh Houston

Chip Music, Game Music, Indie Music

Watch Niamh Houston’s AKA Chipzel’s TEDtalk on Chiptunes!

January 30, 2017 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on Watch Niamh Houston’s AKA Chipzel’s TEDtalk on Chiptunes! Share this

Niamh Houston, also known as Chipzel gave an excellent TEDtalk on chip tunes this past November 5, 2016. If you’ve ever wanted an explanation on how she creates her music, she gives a full demonstration as part of the talk. She also talks about the overall idea that we are all hackers, and the importance of being authentic in any creative pursuit.

The ‘hacker ethic’ is central to Niamh’s musical creativity as she takes us on a journey into the Chiptune genre, a subculture creating music from augmented hardware and software, and why such expression resonates with Millennials and others who are seeking to create raw and unfiltered music for an online generation.

She is a BAFTA nominated and award winning independent composer from Northern Ireland. In 2015, Houston received the Best Music award in XBLA Fans’ Game of the Year awards, as well as being named VGMO’s best independent composer.

She has scored the original sound tracks for six video games, including the critically acclaimed Super Hexagon. Houston continues to compose music for forthcoming video game projects while working on her next studio album and touring the world. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

TEDx

The TEDtalk runs around 17 minutes, and it definitely worth your time. If you’ve had something on the creative back burner for a while, this might be the pep talk you need to hear. You can learn more about the TEDx event here, and check out chipzel’s music on her website.

What did you think of Chipzel’s TEDtalk?
Events, Game Music

Know Your MAG 2016: Chipzel

February 4, 2016 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Know Your MAG 2016: Chipzel Share this Know Your MAG 2016: Chipzel

MAGFest has three days of chiptune performances lined up on the main stage this year. It all culminates with a CHIP RAVE that daringly, brazenly lasts “until we are done, baby!”. Amidst that chaos of square waves and laser lights will be Chipzel. So let’s get to Know Your MAG.

Born in Northern Ireland, Niamh Houston discovered the chiptune scene around 2006 and quickly set out to explore the space in her own way with Game Boys in hand. In the following years she released several original albums and performed at Blip Festival 2011 before being contacted by Terry Cavanagh about a game jam project called Hexagon.

<a href="http://chipzel.co.uk/album/interstellaria-ost">Interstellaria OST by chipzel</a>

Later in 2012 Cavanagh would set out to recreate his game jam entry in a super way and once again contacted Chipzel about her music. Creating an original track for Super Hexagon motivated her to get much more involved with game soundtracks. After nearly two years she released her first large scale project, the 55-track score to Interstellaria which you can read much more about in our review. It took so long that she released another soundtrack in between for the twitchy neon arcade racer, Spectra.

<a href="http://chipzel.co.uk/album/spectra">Spectra by chipzel</a>

And now she’s traveling far overseas from her home in London to perform amongst the chiptune artists on Saturday night at the MAGFest Chip Rave. Her portion of the show will be lit, animated and overscanned by the Visualist stylings of Pixelseed, aka Sean Smith from the local Baltimore area. Check her out!
Chip Music, Game Music, Indie Music

Interstellaria Original Soundtrack Available Now

July 27, 2015 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on Interstellaria Original Soundtrack Available Now Share this

Just released on Steam on July 17, 2015 Interstellaria is a real time space-exploration sim and crew management game where you can command a fleet of vessels wandering the galaxy for adventure and profit. “Every star and planet holds untold riches and dangers. Each encounter will require skills in trading, diplomacy, and combat. Allocate power to engines, charge all weapons, and take on the worst the galaxy has to handle.”

The music for the game was written by the very talented Niamh Houston, known as Chipzel and is available for purchase on bandcamp. Since its release many supporters have given it rave reviews:

This ost is a gem on its own. The varied musical themes take you on a roundtrip across the galaxy. Favorite track: Sakari. – Supporter, Niels Vermeulen

The soundtrack for Interstellaria is, well, STELLAR. Seriously. It’s like FTL and Super Hexagon had a baby, and it is awesome. Also, it was ridiculously hard to choose between Xiwang and Annihilation as a “favorite track”, seriously. Favorite track: Xiwang. – Supporter, Blazing Glaceon

My only experience with Chipzel’s music was the track “Menacing Wonders” she provided for Brave Wave’s hit album In Flux.

I’m still listening to the album but so far my favorite track is the final track on the album “Somnolence” which has a scratching vinyl lullaby sound.

The album is available now on bandcamp for 5 pounds, just under $8.00 US. The soundtrack can also be purchased as a DLC with the game on Steam. Have you played Intersellaria and experienced Chipzel’s music in the game? Let us know what you think!