Yamaneko - Project Nautilus (Keygen Loops) (2016)

Yamaneko’s sophomore album is a crafty expo of keygen music inspired by the deep sea. Keygen music is best known as an aspect of the demoscene - a computer art subculture which encompasses chiptune music and makes use of vintage tracker software - which deals in similar aesthetics to the early grime and new age impetus of Yamaneko’s music, as previously heard in the Pixel Wave Embrace album, and his ace Yaroze Dream Suite uplink with Mr. Mitch.

Effectively Project Nautiluss (Keygen Loops) sounds like the grimy spawn of Drexciya which caught the gulf stream and ended up in UK waters, where it was mutated by Sellafield radiation and nurtured by a BBC Radiophonic Workshop engineer before somehow crawling up Local Action’s pipes.

The results is 10 strangely animated digital organisms, each with their own oddly idiosyncratic character; ranging from dreamy baroque bleeps in Blemtrails to melancholic sino-grime mutations of Gala Helipop and Pixel Wavedash, or from Outrun-styled 4x4 grime chasers in Rushing the Ice Palace, and the devilishly in-the-pocket swagger and detail of Blotter, to the synaesthetic ambiguity of Pink 3’s cavernous yet compressed bass dimensions.