Pixelh8

Pixelh8 (pronounced "pixel hate") is the stage name for Matthew Applegate, a British chiptune composer.

Pixelh8
Birth nameMatthew Carl Applegate
OriginIpswich, England
GenresElectronica, Alternative, Video Game Music, Chip Tune
Occupation(s)Musician, Songwriter, programmer, software designer, lecturer, tutor, video game designer, programmer
InstrumentsGame Boy, NES, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro
Years active1999–present
LabelsHidden Youth Records (2005–present)
Websitepixelh8.co.uk

Career

Chiptune Music

Pixelh8 combines the sounds of video games and electronic toys, often those that have been reverse engineered to avoid either copyright infringement or plagiarism to form original compositions, usually children's toys like Speak & Spells and Game Boys.[1] Pixelh8 started off relatively unknown on Myspace and was widely discovered after winning a competition to open for Imogen Heap on her UK tour in 2006[2] and performing at Apple's iTunes Office in California.[3] Pixelh8 also won Sound on Sound.[4] Playback Album of the month in March 2008 with his second album "The Boy With The Digital Heart". Pixelh8 continues to release music on the record label Hidden Youth Records.

Pixelh8 has also designed music software such as Music Tech[5] for the Nintendo Game Boy and the Pro Performer[6] for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS which turn both machines into real time synthesizers and is currently developing software for other machines. Pixelh8 Music Tech software has been mentioned several times by Imogen Heap and is said to be used in an upcoming track called Tidal.[7]

Pixelh8 was the first headliner to the Nerdapalooza 2007 festival in California, other notable performances include performing for Huw Stephens on the BBC Introducing show December 2007 as well as Assembly 2008[8] in Helsinki, Finland.

December 10, 2008 saw Pixelh8 perform at Maida Vale Studios for the BBC[9] the session was aired on BBC Radio 1 on December 18, 2008 in which he dedicated part of his performance to the Radiophonic Workshop and cited them as an influence on his work.

January 23, 2009 The National Museum of Computing released a press statement [10] saying that Pixelh8 would be composing and performing an entirely new piece of music for the museum, using some of the "earliest and rarest" machines such as Colossus computer and the Elliott 803 entitled "Obsolete?".[11] [12]

April 15, 2009 Pixelh8 released Pixelh8 Music Tech V2.0, Pro Performer, Drum Tech and Death Ray software free for download[13] from his official website.[14]

May 25, 2009 Pixelh8 provided BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra with some of the backing tracks for their Big Gaming Weekend.[15]

May 26, 2009 Pixelh8 re-wrote the theme tune for BBC World Service's Digital Planet the special version of the theme tune was made available from The Open University [16][17] website for free.

Pixelh8's music has also been featured on and done interviews with BBC Radio 1 Rob Da Bank, Zane Lowe[18] and Huw Stephens' [9] shows, BBC Radio 6 Tom Robinsons,[19] Nemones [20] and Music Weeks [21] shows, BBC Radio 4,[22] BBC Radio 1 Wales, BBC Radio Foyle, BBC Radio Suffolk,[23] BBC Radio Three Counties, BBC Radio Norfolk,[24] and on BBC News 24 E24,[25] Ipswich Community Radio's Martin & Lewis Show, BBC Look East[11] and BBC South Today.[26]

His second album, 'The Boy With The Digital Heart,' is currently playing on loop in the Personal Computing gallery at The National Museum of Computing on Bletchley Park.

Creative Computing Club

In 2012 Pixelh8 started Creative Computing Club, a small club in which he teaches children ages 7–18 in the Suffolk area various technological things, such as GameMaker Studio, HTML, Arduino and much more. Creative Computing Club has grown exponentially over its 7 years of activity. Many of Applegate's student have gone on to work for big technology companies.

Discography
  • Handheld EP (2006)
  • Fish & Chips EP (2006)
  • Video Games Ruined My Life (2006)
  • The Boy With The Digital Heart (2007)
  • Obsolete? (2009)
  • And The Revolution (2009)
  • Hard Reset (2013)

Commissions
  • A Day At The Seaside (2010) Aldeburgh Music funded by Esmee Fairbain
  • Childhood Remixed (2010) Town Hall Galleries funded by Turnstone
  • Observations (2010) The Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge funded by PRS For Music Foundation
  • Obsolete? (2009) The National Museum of Computing funded by PRS For Music Foundation
  • BBC World Service Digital Planet Theme Tune (2009) BBC World Service funded by BBC

Software
  • Music Tech V1.0 (2007)
  • Music Tech Pro Performer (2008)
  • Music Tech V2.0 (2008)
  • Music Tech Master Stroke (2009)
  • Sonus (One) for Apple iPhone (2010)

Gameography
Name Year Platform
6X92012IOS & Android
OCARBOT2012IOS & Android
Block Monsters2012IOS & Android
Bee Bee the Bee2013IOS & Android
Cross-Side2014IOS & Android
Because ScienceFutureUnknown
gollark: > there are different types of stringOh, I see. How inelegant. Do you have to index them with a different offset too?
gollark: At the start.
gollark: You could have a string with an invalid length in it.
gollark: And?
gollark: With the pointer?!?!?!??!!?

References
  1. This Month's Soundtrack, Electronic Musician. Published March 1, 2008. Retrieved April 4, 2008.
  2. 60 SECONDS: Imogen Heap, Metro. Published October 23, 2006. Retrieved April 4, 2008.
  3. 'Chip Tunes' strike right note, CNN. Published February 27, 2008. Retrieved April 4, 2008.
  4. Playback March 2008 , Sound on Sound.
  5. Album on NES Cartridge, Synth on GameBoy , Create Digital Music Published July 4, 2007.
  6. Pixelh8 Music Tech Pro Performer Brings Live Performance to Game Boy , Create Digital Music. Published March 24, 2008.
  7. Imogen Heap vBlog#27, Imogen Heap. Published July 29, 2008.
  8. Assembly 2008 Press Release, Digitoday. Published July 28, 2008.
  9. Huw Stephens Introducing Tracklisting Archive, BBC Radio 1. Published Dec 18, 2008.
  10. The National Museum of Computing News, TNMOC. Published Jan 23, 2009.
  11. BBC News Look East, BBC News. Published Feb 17, 2009.
  12. New Scientist, New Scientist. Published Mar 11, 2009.
  13. www.pixelh8.co.uk Archived 2009-05-16 at the Wayback Machine, Pixelh8. Published Apr 15, 2009.
  14. www.pixelh8.co.uk Archived 2009-04-20 at the Wayback Machine, Pixelh8. Published Apr 15, 2009.
  15. www.bbc.co.uk/radio1, BBC Radio 1 Published May 25, 2009.
  16. Digital Planet Theme Tune, The Open University, Published May 26, 2009.
  17. www.pixelh8.co.uk, Pixelh8, Published May 26, 2009.
  18. BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 1. Published Apr 9, 2009.
  19. BBC Radio 6 Tom Robinsons Introducing, BBC Radio 6. Published Mar 16, 2009.
  20. BBC 6 Nemone, BBC Radio 6. Published Mar 26, 2009.
  21. BBC 6 Music Week, BBC Radio 6. Published Feb 1, 2009.
  22. BBC 4 Click On, BBC Radio 4. Published Mar 16, 2009.
  23. BBC Radio Suffolk Introducing, BBC Radio Suffolk. Published Jan 9, 2009.
  24. BBC Norfolk Introducing, BBC Radio Norfolk. Published Jan 25, 2008.
  25. BBC News 24 E24, BBC News 24. Published Feb 14, 2009.
  26. BBC News South Today, BBC News. Published Mar 25, 2009.

See also
  • Chip Tune
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