8.

Hot Chip - The Warning

I want to talk about nintendo for a minute. I want to talk about nintendo forever, but I'm only going to talk about nintendo for a minute.

There's a certain kind of electronic sound that's generally identifiable to my subconscious as "nintendo music." To me, the low-fi midi sounds of certain video games are the sound of childhood, and my id reacts accordingly when I hear something that resembles it. We gets emotional.

I don't think it's just me. The crazy thing that history and science seem to be about to find out is that folks who grew up on video games are starting to make a lot of music that wrings tons of feeling from those sounds. (as for music that romanticizes the content of old nintendo games, check back later this week.) What are we learning? That machines make our feelings better, make them somehow more feely.

I think.

My favorite moment on this record comes at 3 minutes into the 11th track - you'll have to get it yourself if you want to hear it. Here's a powerpoint version of that part of the song that I made while I was bored at work yesterday:



Okay, it isn't exactly the sly comment on music, technology and meaning that I'd hoped it would be. I'm going down the wrong road here. But here's the last thing you should know: this album as a whole, despite 3 or 4 certifiable danceparty hitz, is so, so sad. So here's the emo core, because it's finally getting cold outside, and because tomorrow we are gonna fix you up good.


Download: So Glad To See You

amazon link

tomorrow: my seventh-favorite album of the year