Kind of Bloop
| Kind of Bloop | |
|---|---|
Cover of the 2024 reissue[1] | |
| Studio album | |
| Released | August 20, 2009 |
| Genre | Chiptune |
| Producer | Andy Baio |
| kindofbloop | |
Kind of Bloop: An 8-Bit Tribute to Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is an album produced by Andy Baio in 2009. The album is a chiptune cover of Miles Davis's 1959 album Kind of Blue.
Composition, release and reception
The website Kickstarter is designed to help people crowdsource the funding for their projects. Some months after its initial release in 2009, Baio, a Miles Davis fan and one of the site's board members,[2] came up with the idea of recreating Kind of Blue in chiptune, a type of music found in early video games, as an example project to test the site's functionality. After purchasing a copyright license for each of Kind of Blue's five songs, Baio assigned each to a musician to work on for three months, allowing each musician complete creative control with the sole condition of keeping "Davis' original feeling and intensity". The track "All Blues" was assigned to New York–based jazz pianist Sam Ascher-Weiss, who created his version by relying on a recording of himself playing the original. According to him, the task was tiresome, requiring "a masochistic desire to have something difficult to do".[3]
The album was publicly released on August 20, three days after the 50th anniversary of Kind of Blue's release. According to Baio, before the album's release, its concept was received negatively by users in some online jazz forums who "fe[lt] like it[] [was] blasphemy". Claire Suddah of Time described the album as not "sound[ing] like jazz" but not "sound[ing] completely unlike it either. It's like Miles Davis lost in Legend of Zelda".[3]
Track listing
| No. | Title | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "So What" | beek (Chris del Camino) | 9:24 |
| 2. | "Freddie Freeloader" | virt (Jake Kaufman) | 9:40 |
| 3. | "Blue in Green" | sergeeo (Sergio de Prado) | 4:14 |
| 4. | "All Blues" | Shnabubula (Samuel Ascher-Weiss) | 10:43 |
| 5. | "Flamenco Sketches" | Disasterpeace (Rich Vreeland) | 7:06 |
References
- ^ Beschizza, Rob (August 15, 2024). "15th Anniversary Vinyl Edition of A Kind of Bloop". Boing Boing. Retrieved November 24, 2025.
- ^ Baio, Andy (July 20, 2009). "Joining Kickstarter". Waxy.org. Retrieved November 11, 2025.
- ^ a b Suddath, Claire (August 20, 2009). "Kind of Bloop: Miles Davis as Video-Game Music". Time. New York City. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
Further reading
- Vartanian, Hrag (June 30, 2011). "Breaking: Millionaire Extorts $$$ From Artist, Street Artists Strike Back". Hyperallergic. Brooklyn. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
- Vinogradoff, Luc (June 14, 2010). "Du Miles Davis en 8bit, les Kinks reformés?" [8-bit Miles Davis, the Reformed Kinks?]. Le Monde (in French). Paris. ISSN 1950-6244. Retrieved May 21, 2025.
- Foulquier, Baptiste (October 11, 2009). "Miles Davis: un carnage!" [Miles Davis: A Carnage!]. Causeur (in French). Paris. ISSN 2270-4140. Retrieved May 21, 2025.
- Bergman, Silje (2019). "Utfordringer ved bruk og deling av visuelle uttrykk i en digital tidsalder" [New Challenges Related to How We Use and Share Visual Expressions in a Digital Age]. FormAkademisk. 12 (1). Oslo. doi:10.7577/formakademisk.2641. hdl:11250/2647875. ISSN 1890-9515.
External links
- Official website
- Baio, Andy (June 23, 2011). "Kind of Screwed". waxy.org. Retrieved May 21, 2025.