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YMCK - Family Music (Audio)

August 25, 2005 By Glenn Turner

YMCK's debut Family Music isn't for everyone. Their fusion of hushed vocals, chip-based tones circa 1986, jazzy breaks and pop-like structure is immediately friendly, but be wary: their brand of music can be a bit more shrill than you're used to. Despite my love of NES sound effects, their pointed notes can be a bit trying, even for my tastes. Despite that, there's a lot to love about Family Music, and it's worth your time to listen to a band actively pushing our expectations of chip music.

It's rare when a chip music band can create new and intriguing sounds and still radiate aural nostalgia, but YMCK pulls it off. Pasta Candy for example, carries a memorable pure tone that floats up and down throughout that I can practically recite from memory. Darling has a similar set of tones that act as endearing counterpoints throughout each verse, and are so infectious that I can't help but whistle with them. John Coltrane recruits a vocoder to a magnificent effect that practically creates a new low-end rhythm genre, and SOCOPOGOGO's treble-laden break is practically the tipping point of the album. And then there's the noodling. POW * POW takes a break about a minute into the song to just explore its tones, half a step up here, down a step there.

Let's not forget Midori Kurihara's hushed but breezy vocals. Her voice lilts and flits through Tetrominon in an infectious manner, and she carries the same weight throughout the album. Even the odder, less-pleasant vocoder vocal styling (such as those found in Synchronicity) are intriguing and ear-grabbing. All of these contorted sounds and vocals work to create a gleeful series of pieces, glowing with exuberance and pep.

YMCK represents an innovative step forward for chip music. Where many chip or bit-bands get in a rut or let the samples rule their songs, Family Music warp and bend NES sounds, and even themes in a manner that makes it their own. In fact, other than a blatantly recognizable set of notes and sounds here and there, any homages to direct songs are hard to pick out. It's refreshing to see a band like YMCK growing the genre by refusing to be content with serving up nostalgic sounds.

Unfortunately, despite my enjoyment of the singular tracks, I have a very difficult time making it through the entire album. Even though I genuinely adore and often find myself humming several Family Music tracks, it's difficult to restrain myself from pressing 'next' when it comes up in shuffle rotation. It's not as if I'm adverse to the NES-like sounds of YMCK; I have quite a history of liking such things. It's not the construction of new sounds, and it's not the vocals. I've pinned it to the fact that as the album plays, it steadily fills my quota of 'shrill' for the immediate present. I attribute it to the high-end noodling combined with a general lack of low-end or general rhythm that has me reeling and shouting 'enough!' once my quota has been filled.

No, this isn't an album I can listen to repeatedly, over and over again like I've done with some bit-rockers but there is a lot of worth in each song. YMCK are one of the few chip musicians that are able to execute an intrinsically interesting piece, and they do this despite the association of old-school video game sound effects. Their music doesn't rely on nostalgia; it's catchy, intriguingly structured pop that just happens to utilize a whole lot of chip sounds.


YMCK's Family Music is available from Records of the Damned at http://www.recordsofthedamned.com.

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