10 — Live + UFO EP

The international duo called 10 was formed by Itta from South-Korea and Marqido from Japan, both also active as solo-artists. Marqido on his laptop and Itta on assorted instruments, toys and vocals. Laptopmusic often ends up a bit boring to watch but the extravagant looks of Itta and the use of the colours red and black makes them appear different compared to the competition.

Musicwise they also come across a bit different, more friendly and what they consider ‘poppy’. Although definitely not without melody, the first melancholic pianochords on the live disc already show that, this noise being closer to playful than abrasive. Mind you, it’s still noise, so it buzzes and squeeks, but it’s just more fun than usual. 10 themselves consider their music “ironic”, but I’m not entirely sure what they mean by it.

Like I said the live disc opens with melancholic pianochords, soon to be flowing into twinklings that get a backdrop of soaring noises. Basically it continues like this, the laptop provides a continuous sound over which melodica’s, childlike vocals, percussions and other organic sounds get sprinkled. The interplay between the digital and the analog makes the sound of 10 very lively and also gives it a bit of a ritual feel. It’s improvisation and I guess it comes with the territory, but this track seems a bit random though, it doesn’t really seem to go anywhere. The second of two long tracks is better. Itta sings nicely over the Marqido’s buzz and the keyboard sound adds some more texture to that resulting in a wonderful piece of music.

There’s also a studio EP called UFO which continues on the qualitative standard of that last live track. A noise thick with bass itself is already quite cool, but the sounds coming from Itta really add to it. I understand that there’s lyrics, but of course that’s lost on me as I don’t speak the language. That’s not really a problem for the music, but if you do understand the words I can imagine it adds to the endresult.

10 is a nice addition to the laptop scene I think, the two are touring a lot, mostly in Asia at the moment, but I’m sure they’ll make it to Europe and the US some day. In the meanwhile we in this area have to do keep ourselves busy with these two releases, which is not a chore at all.