Things.Yes

The Italian duo M+A (the "M" is Michele Ducci, the "A" is Alessandro Degli Angioli) make unrelentingly giddy electronic pop, imbuing the keyboards, sequencers, and programs with a bubbly warmth that many wouldn't necessarily associate with the style. On their debut album, Things.Yes, they create an inviting and happy world of glitchy sweetness that's hard to avoid falling in love with. Built around sprightly pitter-pat beats, warped keyboards, manipulated "real" instruments, and Ducci's warmly human (but also quite often manipulated) vocals, the sound is small in scale but intricate, like a tiny model of a blindingly clean and bright future city. The songs are mostly of a piece, sometimes aimed for the dancefloor of a club with a very liberal playlist ("Blå," "Adidias"), sometimes coming off like a computer-generated version of Phoenix ("Bam," "[We]"), and other times sounding like electronic sunshine being poured straight into your ear ("Yes.pop," "Bergen.jpg"). No matter the tempo, atmosphere, or style, the duo has the musical abilities, bright ideas, and ear for a lovely melody to make everything sound good. Sometimes even great. Fans of Plone or Boards of Canada still mourning the lack of new recordings from both excellent groups should latch onto Things.Yes, and so should all those who like their pop music electronic but not devoid of a beating human heart and tons of melody. ~ Tim Sendra