If Casino Versus Japan were to carry their ambient approach and sound over to the world of video game soundtracks, the resulting beats would probably mirror pretty closely the sound of Emulsion.
While “leftrightleftright” opens the disc with a pretty standard synth sound, the listener quickly gets a taste of Emulsion’s ability to blend mood and texture into the mix on the next track, “King of 1998”. The rest of the disc plays very much the same way, with tracks like “All Robots on Sale!” staying true to the disc’s synth pop roots but allowing for plenty of experimentation on tracks like “New High Score”. The album’s experimentation comes at a price, though. While tracks like “Balloons and Centipedes” prove that it is possible to express some moments of supremely tranquil beauty without getting sappy, “Smeared Bus Window” plays with even more sounds and takes them in even more directions and winds up sounding cluttered at times.
While there’s plenty of the eight-bit synth vibe to go around with tracks like the title track, this disc also offers the listener tracks like “Without” and “Shapes and Colors”, which approach the ambient sound of artists like Solvent. The disc is a solid choice for fans of the house sound who are looking for something a bit more emotiveunder blue skies is the objective. -LarryMac