Bit Shifter at Galapagos

Bit Shifter

Bit Shifter at Galapagos art space, Williamsburg, NY, last night, in an event highlighting artists who've shown or performed at vertexList gallery. (Gallery proprietor Marcin Ramocki captured the animated GIFs behind him and digitally orchestrated them into swirling, random clouds.) The 8-bit cognoscenti know Bit Shifter for his music made with the Game Boy but he's using it here in an almost unrecognizable way--loud, guttural club music, drum and bassy verging on the speed and hardness of Dutch Gabber. Still, very infectious and danceable and not at all cutesy. It's exciting to hear someone bending both the sound engine (a repurposed toy) and the interfaces (Little Sound DJ and Nanoloop) into something new, unfamiliar, and ultimately gnarly.