Hi, everyone. Lapthony Toptano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of the new Ninajirachi record, I Love My Computer.

Australian DJ and electronic music producer, Ms. Nina Wilson or Ninajirachi. She has been releasing a slew of EPs and singles for years now, really since about 2019, and she has gradually been building up to her full-length official debut album here. And her influences tend to range, whether you're talking about ground-breaking producers such as SOPHIE, dubstep kingpins Skrillex, also the epic electro-pop and synthpop stylings of Empire of the Sun, and of course, pop icons like Lady Gaga, too.

With this new LP here, she covers all of those bases and beyond, and also tried to go the extra mile here and give us a record that tells us a bit of a story, is autobiographical. And rumor has it that she's been crafting a lot of the songs on this record for years, waiting for the right moment and tracklist to put them all together onto a cohesive album.

And being cohesive, I would say, is one of this record's biggest selling points because it's not just Nina giving us a self-portrait of sorts, but also a commentary on what it is to grow up as a person in an age of technology.

But I'll stop and say that, on the surface, that is the thing that makes me skeptical in this current post-PC Music landscape. Because right now, it's not as if that's the most novel angle to be working with your art. I mean, you're telling me there's a terminally online girl making electronic music who likes anime and Y2K aesthetics who is Googling 5G towers in her room where there is terrible cable management? I mean, fork found in kitchen.

But when you actually dig deeper to the storytelling and the production and the song ideas this album has to offer, it's actually a lot of fun. And features a flow where pretty much all the tracks here segue seamlessly into each other. And while I wouldn't say I Love My Computer is a groundbreaking album, it is a versatile one from a producer using her chops to not just pull together banging beats, but a narrative, too.

I think this record starts off pretty strong, too, with the opener "London Song", which is a bit of indie, sleaze, electro with super grimy bass, some cheeky spoken word samples, hard-hitting dance grooves. I also love the jittery little details Nina works into the beat here and there as well. Even though the song on the surface is very much about having not been to London, it does play into an overall theme on the record that, yes, while you are not there and you have not been, you can go there through your computer screen, which puts into motion this idea of life through tech on the rest of the album, just talking about how tech frames the human experience.

Of course, Nina dives into that with respect to music on the following "iPod Touch", which is this synthy, very retro-futuristic Y2K aesthetic house cut, which features a lot of hypnotic and idyllic grooves. Also, some of the vocal passages feel slightly Kero Kero Benito-influenced. It's very cutesy and endearing.

Then after another segue, Nina's relationship to tech gets sexual on the track "Fuck My Computer", and the chopped up, nearly deadpan vocal passages on this one have big Daft Punk vibes. The commentary going on with this track is absurd, it's hilarious, and is met with some roaring drops in between the verses. I should say, it speaks, I think, in a very funny way to the fact that we currently live in a paradigm where our computers and our AI guy/girl friends know us better than the people in our lives do, our romantic partners, our actual human ones.

Now, going deeper into this tech rabbit hole, the following track is titled "CSIRAC", which apparently is an acronym for an Australian computer that is the oldest surviving first-generation electronic computer, according to Wikipedia, and I guess was also allegedly the first in the world to play digital music. And I mean, given Nina's background, the album that we're listening to, that's obviously quite meta. And she also switches things up stylistically on this track, too, giving us a bit of bubble gum bass with some chipmunk vocal chops.

And this track slides very cleanly into the following "Delete", which to my ears, it sounds like more PC music worship. Even though each one of these cuts here is its own thing, its own moment, again, it is all mixed together in a way to where it feels like I'm listening to a DJ set or a mega mix of some sort.

But there is a bit of a break momentum after this with a part acoustic interlude that essentially serves as the intro for "All I Am", which is another highlight on the record for sure. It feels like a bit of a trip down memory lane for me because there are some old 2000s blog house, maybe even Crystal Castles vibes on this one, while the lyrics feel like a very simple statement on the totality of the self.

Then I would say things get a bit darker on the following "Info Hazard", where many of the lyrics read like maybe what would go through someone's head after reading some weird creepy pasta on the internet, and you're suddenly finding yourself afraid of either weird videos or images that you saw or a strange guy without a hat.

And then "Battery Death", while this one is a very thrilling, exciting, intense bit of complextro, I would say, with some dubstep-esque drops, all of which go over very well. This track, too, adds to the narrative of the album in a very interesting way, as it does seem to question the direction that our lives are taking as a result of the technology that we're surrounded by.

The final moments of the album past this point are interesting as well, as the song "Sing Good" is another very meta moment, an intimate low-key ballad where Nina sings about the ways in which her computer and her relationship with technology and software allows her to create the music she wants to make. Meanwhile, the collab cut "It's You" is a really anthemic bit of electropop that helps tie the progression of the record up really nicely, just before Nina starts firing on all cylinders with a bunch of sonic fireworks on the actual closer "All at Once".

But yeah, while there are a few songs on the tracklist here that paled in comparison to others a bit, I still thought this was a very smart, entertaining, creative record where Nina, again, not only pulled together a bunch of hard-hitting, exciting EDM beats and styles and shades, but told a story with them, too. A story of youth and growing up and nostalgia and again, tech. And also the way it's encroaching upon every part of our lives every day.

But yeah, really impressive debut with a lot of ambition to it. Certainly a more personal touch than I think you get from a lot of records in the EDM scene, which is why I'm feeling about a light 8 on this album.

Anthony Fantano, Ninajirachi. Forever.