Disquiet

There’s so much bippity boppity lo-fi, lo-tech electronic music out there, it’s almost too easy to take comfort in the abstraction of beatless atmospheres. At least with music like soundscapes and field recordings, you can take refuge in your own imagination. The Gainlad netlabel is pumping out exactly the sort of music that should fall short of even low expectations, yet so much of it is addictively listenable. Case in point, Jon Bro‘s three-track Cleanser EP, which appears to have been constructed on a Nintendo Game Boy, or an equivalently underpowered chipset; not only does it sound like the soundtrack to some chaotic Wario adventure, it has these irascible little melodic lines that skip around with an assuredness that much video-game-indebted netlabel pop sorely lacks. Check it out at gainlad.gameboymall.com. Oh, and the label currently has a call out for contributions to a Halloween-themed compilation. Entries are due October 25, so if you’re up for the challenge, then get thee to an arcade, pronto.

By Marc Weidenbaum