Jacob Kaufman (also known by his online alias of "virt”), an underground electro/chip musician turned freelance video game composer, put on a show at the Little Temple club in Los Angeles on Tuesday, May 9.  The show featured some of Kaufman's previous works along with unreleased material that he stated was in the E3 spirit of "unveiling new things." 

For those who are unfamiliar with chip music, it is a style of composition using waveforms generated by the sound chip located within the console hardware.  If that still doesn't make sense, think of the music that was produced on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).  Video game-esque music is apparently a mainstay of the Little Temple, as seen by the many televisions scattered throughout the venue running NES hardware with classic games like Tetris.

Kaufman played a number of pieces and accompanied each piece with a live performance of one or more instruments from each title.  For example, he pounded away at the synthesizer while playing the percussion track from his drum 'n' bass piece from an unreleased Game Boy Advance title.  It was absolutely astounding to see complex percussive transitions performed live.

The show continued with Kaufman's interpretation of music from Konami's Castlevania series in a Capcom style of composition (there are distinct differences, I promise!), followed by an unreleased track from a compilation of original chip tunes that is currently a work-in-progress.  His performance ended with a chip remix of the title track from the cult hit Katamari Damacy, to which many members of the audience sang aloud the lyrics in conjunction with Kaufman’s playing of the lead melody.

The show definitely demonstrated Kaufman's versatility and ability to perform and incite a reaction in the crowd.  With an unreleased GBA title on the way, and a personal compilation of chip tunes currently in production, we will definitely look forward to what Jake does next.

Official Site: Here