Lives in white out
Turn the lights out
Fax machine anthems
Get your damn hands up
Hell yes
So, I was doing a little research in some old issues of Rolling Stone and I stumbled across something I’d never even heard of. It seems Beck, in the run up to his album Guero, pulled some of his typical Beck hijinks and released an EP featuring four remixes of songs off Guero. Remixes utilizing sound effects and music from old video games (this is why the EP is sometimes called Gameboy Variations). And this was, hilariously, the first time anyone got to hear anything from Guero. So, I mean, this was just crazy, so I had to check it out. The remixes are of Hell Yes, Que Onda Guero, E-Pro & Girl. And, if Hell Yes is the title of the EP and a song on the EP, it’s also my reaction to the EP. This EP is around twelve minutes long, but it’s just an experience of pure joy; I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve listened to this over the last couple of weeks. It helps that Hell Yes and Que Onda Guero are great songs in their original incarnations (E-Pro & Girl aren’t bad, but they’re not as good as those two), but the bleeps and bloops of Super Mario and Donkey Kong and whatever else just add to the fun immeasurably. Que Onda Guero? Hopefully to check this one out. 4 stars.
tl;dr – clever EP mixes great songs with retro video game sound effects and music; as much fun as you can pack into twelve minutes. 4 stars.