I’m not a huge Beck fan: he’s amusing, but I could never really get into his particular brand of pastiche. I finally got a chance to hear his new album, Guero, and to be honest, I still prefer the teaser EP he released a little while ago, Gameboy Variations. This won’t come as a surprise to those who know my tastes in music: I’ve loved music made with the Commodore SID chip since I first got my hands on a C64, and unlike certain other childhood delights, my enthusiasm for the warm, layered sound of the SID has never waned. For me, hearing Beck’s spacey voice swaddled in the SID’s sound isn’t a nostalgia trip, it’s what pop music should sound like.
The first two tracks were produced by LA band 8-Bit, and mesh well with Beck’s white-boy-rap flow. It’s the last two tracks, though, where the sound of the SID shines. Produced by Swedish musician Paza, the songs take off and fly. “Bad Cartridge (E-Pro)” starts out with a grinding, fragmented bass buzz, but when the chorus comes, the lead wails and squeals in a way that belies its electronic origins. The last track, “Bit Rate Variations in B-Flat (Girl)” bounces along with Beck’s unusually melodic singing, enveloping you in a cloud of vocals and resonating square-wave tones. It’s one of those moments when electronic music starts to sound less robotic and more organic, when technology matters less than tone; it’s one of the things I love most about the SID as an instrument.