Blue Sky Objective is the full length debut from Emulsion, which is solely compromised of Chicagoan Nathan Koch. Koch is influenced by Kraftwerk & Skinny Puppy as much as he is by the beeps and clicks that accompanied his favorite past time, video games. Growing up with a NES at his side Koch’s music reflects the simplicity of 8-bit games like Zelda and Metroid.
The album’s opening track, “LeftRightLeftRight,” sets the mood for the rest of the record in both style and sounds. It seems as though Koch uses the same basic handclapped beats and synth sounds throughout the whole album to create a soft, melancholy mood. While this monotony can be a bit boring at times it does creates a uniform sound of minimalist beauty.
“King of 1998″ starts with a distorted drum beat and a floating melody but with a 1:48 track time it fails to build up into the epic song it could be. Koch does keep things fresh throughout the album with a variety of glitches and beeps that sound like they were almost taken directly from the video games he played when he spent a year as a lead Game Boy tester in San Francisco.
Overall, Blue Sky Objective flows well and stays in a dark mid-tempo ambient mood highlighted by traces of melodic pop in songs like “All Robots on Sale” and “Tweeism.” My main problem with this album is that most of the songs just fade out. The last track, “You Were All There,” starts with an urgent arpeggiated synth line and lush ambient sounds but from there the song just slowly floats back to the tranquil mood that dominates the whole album.
Blue Sky Objective is a strong debut nonetheless and the monotony is more than made up for with solid songwriting and intriguing melodies. This is a definitely a very relaxed album, perfect for after the party, while coming down and watching the sun rise.