Videogame music can be fun and even pleasant, but with repetition it usually gets old. Nathan Koch, the man behind Emulsion, took this seemingly limited genre and expanded its horizons beyond the 30 second mark. The elements are the same, but the purpose is not.
All of the sounds are obviously computer-derived; in just about any other kind of record, the simplistic, old school instrumentation would have felt gauche or half baked. Koch, however, never breaks out of his keyboard-ish aesthetic, allowing the music to inhabit and populate a world of its own. Ultra-fake hand claps can have their place when they aren�t pretending to be real ones. Koch has it right: he lets his creation stand on its own terms, thoroughly divorced from the world of live instrumentation.
The pace of the music never tries to pump itself up into a dance mix either, rather it keeps steady, chilling out. The tone also stays benign, and this is helped by Koch�s willingness to allow each of the sound effects room to breathe. As a result, we don�t feel a compulsion to hear every last swoop or percussion tap; the listener can relax and just soak it in.
If old school computer games all had this kind of elaborately pretty soundtrack, no one would have to bother and play all these new generation games that intend to imitate reality. If this record takes off, you can expect NES systems� prices to rise on E-bay. Consider this your investment opportunity to buy now before price appreciation materializes! And then buy Blue Sky Objective! - Joel Dunham