New Music: Hell Yes; Beck

After confessing his love (both explicitly and implicitly) for artists as disparate as Os Mutantes, Prince and James Taylor, Beck begins 2005 with a paean to…Nintendo? This 4-track internet-only EP (intended as a hors d’oeuvre of remixes before next month’s full length Guero) is singularly devoted to the noise of obsolescent gaming technology. The rainbow electronics and 8-bit rhythms back Mr. Hansen’s characteristic non-sequiturs, just like the chaotic but impeccably-produced sounds of his past ventures into noisy, guitar-driven rock (Odelay) and funk-rooted, accessible but left-field jams (Midnite Vultures).

Hell Yes shouldn’t be mistaken for an album, as it’s really just a multimedia commercial for the man, the myth, the Loser. Witness the “cover art” (covering what? It seems to exist only for the sake of iTunes), depicting a Gameboy being played into an amp, and the gleefully cheap-looking video for the title track, the frantic “GHETTOCHIP MALFUNCTION (Hell Yes)” (the track titles, like the music itself, spurns anything lowercase).

If you’ve ever enjoyed his work, you’ll no doubt savor “Hell Yes” and its garishly fluorescent video. An animated Beck dances awkwardly while singing about East L.A., anvils and skeletons, gleefully lamenting either lost love or the passing of Megaman.

It’s all a gimmick that cut outs before it wears too thin, whetting the appetite instead of turning the stomach. The poppy chorus of “BIT RATE VARIATIONS IN B-FLAT (Girl)” can’t fail to please, while “GAMEBOY/HOMEBOY (Que Onda Guero)” finds him once again attempting to rap with typically mixed results.

A decade ago Beck played a song called “Mountain Dew Rock”, and despite making some spastic music in the past, only with this EP has he achieved something truly worthy of the moniker. Neon-green-tinted and jitter-inducing, the EP is like that oft-maligned beverage: the buzz fades quickly, but it may give you enough of a jolt to finally defeat Bowser --- or your Sea Change doldrums.

-- Eric Fritz