Broken Lamp EP

If you were a boy growing up in the late 80s and 90s, you were most likely familiar with 16-bit video games. Pixelated, simple, and two-dimensional, they were the precursor to today’s decidedly more advanced games. One of their most memorable features was the MIDI music that played in the background, whether it was a cheap drumbeat and anxious bassline orchestrating a side-scrolling shooter, or the digitized horn and harp fanfares of an epic RPG.
 
The music of Maduro sounds like the music from a 16-bit video game, with a bit more kick, and a bit more sophistication. The Broken Glass EP, his second release, is seven songs of MIDI goodness, with thumping drum’n'bass beats that will have your feet tapping throughout the EP’s whole duration.
 
“Haunted” opens with MIDI bells and chilly keyboard tones. A thick bassline and drumbeat inject some energy into things, and eventually some keyboards and a sample tie the song together to make it one of the stronger songs on the EP. As I said, it most definitely sounds like something out of an early video game—the only thing that’s missing is a little pixelated jet firing lasers at oncoming alien foes. “Of Legends (Hero)” is more of the same, this time with an arpeggiated bass undercurrent and a sample of the word “hero” repeated throughout the song. A soft keyboard lead plays the melody of the track, and various spacey alarm sounds make things interesting.
 
“Emergency” and “Moon Mask” are two of the more advanced, and better, songs on the disc. Making use of watery keyboard and reversed beats, “Emergency” is one of the more chilled out and darker cuts, while “Moon Mask” takes phased laser sounds and MIDI bells to close out the EP on a strong note.
 
The problem I have with Maduro is that the songs are often as two-dimensional as the games that may have inspired them. Songs take off, but then don’t go anywhere from there; they stick with the same pattern and repeat it for five minutes. Also, the somewhat cheesy MIDI sounds get a bit annoying after a while.
 
Still, though, that’s not really the point. Maduro most likely isn’t aiming to create anything particularly deep or innovative—he just wants to make our heads bop. And he does.  On tracks like “Haunted”, he gets things thumping just as welI as any Out Hud song.
 
In a day and age where most electronic artists are taking advantage of sophisticated software and creating works that break boundaries or create new ones, it’s more difficult to find someone still making the primal, repetitive electronica of old. Maduro does, and he does it well. In a way, it’s nice and refreshing to hear something so simple, unpretentious, and as honest as Maduro. And so while its lack of complexity, and the all-too-familiar MIDI sounds, might turn away some people, the music of Maduro is good enough that I see myself putting it on whenever I need something to tap my feet, drum my fingers, or shake my ass to. Cool.

Written by Richie DeMaria.