45 RPM. Anamanaguchi is a four-piece band from New York and Los Angeles made up of Peter Berkman, Ary Warnaar, James DeVito, and Luke Silas. They program and perform intensely emotional digital music, and also once sent a slice of pizza into space. Their new full-length, [USA], is released on Polyvinyl Record Co. "This album feels like a teenage coming-of-age movie, but in the domain of internet-based fantasy escapism,” says Ary. “Escaping from reality can be an amazing way to find yourself and be creative, but it can also be a free pass for lack of responsibility and unchecked desires. [USA] is a reflection on all this, the ups and downs of accepting it… which lots of people seem to be in the process of doing." Since forming in the mid-2000s, Anamanaguchi have been revered as pioneers in the homemade, video game world of chiptune music: they combine a loud and fast live band with hyper-melodic squarewaves from hacked Nintendo hardware. Their earliest releases have been distributed on NES cartridges you can actually play, and in 2010 they created the official soundtrack to the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World game. Though the band has always been inventive, [USA] is a significant progression. For years, Anamanaguchi presented an optimistic, overdriven version of art on the internet. [USA] is equally ambitious in its world-building, but it marks a departure that is in part sonic — they employ a much wider palette of sounds and voices, both synthetic and human, than ever before — as well as conceptual: perhaps for the first time, Anamanaguchi confront reality.
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