In 1980, an Atari 2600 cost around $260. I know because my parents bought one for my family for Christmas. To give some perspective on what suburban families back then were willing to drop in the name of on-screen entertainment, $260 dollars in 1981 is equivalent to approximately $187,000 today. All that to watch two rectangular blocks knocking a third (square) block back and forth. Good old "Pong."

The primitive 2600 only had 4k of memory, so we had to do without some of the video game niceties kids today take for granted. Like sound and movement, for example. And music, for the most part, was completely out of the question. So, when playing the popular game "Adventure," you had to steer your blocky ass through those spooky mazes in complete silence. Believe me, this only added to the tension. Any minute, one of those sea monkey-looking dragons could move diagonally through the ether to touch one of your extended corners. Scary stuff!

Then Nintendo came along, and home video games began featuring music as a matter of course. This brings us to Lektrogirl. Now, me, I never had any desire to turn off the picture of a "Super Mario Bros." game just to hear those kicking tunes repeating ad nauseum. But for those who can't get enough of that vintage video game music, Aphex Twin's Rephlex label has a record for you. Emma Davidson (aka Lektrogirl) must use the same tools old Nintendo programmers used, because-- no lie-- it sounds exactly like early "Mario Bros." music. And I'm not talking one track here or there. I mean 14 discrete songs with melodies, basslines and cheap drum effects offered in the old Nintendo style. Lektrogirl knows what she's up to, clearly, because the song descriptions on the album's sleeve have narration like, "Take Lektrogirl through urban decay and collect treasure points as you go!"

The ultra-cheap tools do yield a distinctive sound, I suppose, and Lektrogirl does produce a few charming melodies. But I Love My Computer gets very annoying very quickly. It's classic headache music-- the kind of sounds you hear after 15 hours in front of the tube with your joystick in your hand and a half-rack of Mountain Dew in your stomach. It's possible that there's an elaborate joke or conceptual angle to this album that I'm not aware of, but I doubt it would increase your enjoyment of the record at all. Besides, I'm just here to tell you how it sounds. You can figure out the rest.

-Mark Richard-San