Mixel Pixel are a trio who combine kitschy video-game noises and lo-fi rock. From the crawling beat and dramatic dead stops of the opener, "I Am the Contact Kid", this album begs for your attention. Yet while it keeps a consistent sound and atmosphere, Contact Kid would be easier to swallow if it skipped happily by on non-stop Casio beats, but "I Am the Contact Kid" and other songs are surprisingly sober. Thin, detuned guitars, distorted drum machines, and bristling garage-sale keyboards all hope to remind you of the lo-fi all-stars in your CD collection, while the vocals are delivered with marbles in the mouth and a tongue in the cheek, Valley-girl style.
It's a convincing recreation, but most lo-fi bands work with those production values out of necessity; Mixel Pixel do it for style. They're not the first to record this way just for aesthetics (recent bands like Unicorns and Single Frame spring to mind), but at the very least, those other artists had memorable songs. Nothing about this band is subtle, so the more minimal the songs are, the better: "Penny Rocket/Romantic" creeps along on low arpeggios and whispered vocals, and the open space within the song holds as much weight as the instruments. The instrumental "Gas House Gables" is a curveball highlight with a deft balance between quirky sound effects and pleasant melody.
Yet these moments are few. "Mantis Rock" runs through every gimmick at the band's disposal, with the exception of a hook. Cutesy tracks like "At the Arcade" sound even more forced and affected (though the video-game breakdown at the end is pretty cool). The singer rants over static and a moseying beat in "Little Wolverine", aiming for aloof but ending up dull, and "Out of My Mind" is like being stuck in a 5 x 5 room with the most annoying guy at a party-- and he's got an acoustic guitar.
While those tracks are grating, they're among the few songs with any impact. There's nothing wrong with wearing your influences on your sleeve, but it's a strange day when harsh, amateur recordings make for inconspicuous background music they way most of Contact Kid does.
