Ninajirachi: I Love My Computer review – a surprisingly moving tribute to 2010s EDM
A glitched-out cacophony of bleeps, mechanical spirals and sirens, the track – titled, descriptively, Fuck My Computer – is a firework display of raw energy and excitement. That freneticism rarely lets up across I Love My Computer, an immensely fun and inventive dance album that doubles as a surprisingly touching coming-of-age story from one of Australia's minted electronic exports.
After first gaining prominence as a triple j Unearthed High finalist in 2016 and 2017, Ninajirachi – real name Nina Wilson – established herself at the forefront of Australia's then burgeoning hyperpop community. But as the genre's saccharine synths, irreverent samples and pitched-up vocals went increasingly mainstream post-2020, Wilson expanded her sound further. She released a cerebral 2022 mixtape, Second Nature, and played a series of slots at major US festivals including Lollapalooza and Las Vegas's Electric Daisy Carnival.
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The now 25-year-old producer has started identifying her genre as 'girl EDM' – a tongue-in-cheek nod to the 2010s electronica she first fell in love with as a teenager online.
Across the album's dozen tracks, Ninajirachi pays tribute to that nascent period. Repeatedly, music reaches out in a language only she can hear: On Fuck My Computer, 'it calls my name'. And CSIRAC, a throbbing track named after the first computer to play music (an Australian invention, incidentally), feels like a deranged, borderline inscrutable trip into Wilson's laptop.
Across three minutes, the track jumps from chipmunk vocals to squelching acid-house breaks, metallic drones and pixelated breakbeats, as well as an eerie spoken-word bridge about following a sound. Which is exactly what the track is doing, racing through Wilson's computer at breakneck speed and transcribing its bleeps and bloops.
But you don't need to overthink I Love My Computer to grasp the sincere depth of feeling Wilson has for her tech. In iPod Touch, another album highlight, Wilson links her music player to a flood of teenage memories. 'It sounds like high school, front gate, smoke in my face / It sounds like iPod Touch / yellow Pikachu case,' she sings, her sugar-rush delivery thrashed against a frantic beat.
Not to will another reboot into existence, but it'd make a great theme for a gen Z take on Puberty Blues. Here, images of archetypal Australian teenage rebellion (including wearing tiny Supré shorts) are just as nostalgic as memories of 'me and my computer hanging out till late', blasting a bass-boosted Porter Robinson song and trying out free music production software.
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Even with its 2015-specific imagery, iPod Touch encapsulates something universal. It sounds like the giddiness of adolescent discovery, where a song or artwork can cut through the confusion and awaken something so personal that you have no choice but to make it your entire personality.
You might scoff at Wilson's awakening through EDM – arguably the defining sound of the previous decade thanks to the likes of Calvin Harris, David Guetta and Diplo. But I Love My Computer proves how much juice the genre has, especially stripped of its noxious frat bro connotations. Wilson readily embraces steady builds, squelchy drops and a relentless BPM rarely below 120.
I Love My Computer isn't all euphoria, either. Delete is a twinkling ode to embarrassing Instagram stories, while Battery Death is a burnout lament built over dystopic error-synths. And on eurotrance track Infohazard, Wilson recalls stumbling upon a photo of a decapitated man on her computer as a teen. Led by a piano, it's one of the few times a non-digital instrument is easily identifiable on the album – offering a strange sense of warmth to the confused, confronting memory.
Indebted to electronic pioneer Sophie, Wilson has never been focused on real-life restrictions, more interested in what she can create than replicate. With her debut album, Ninajirachi charts a long-term (and fruitful) relationship with her computer. It's very fun and surprisingly moving.
I Love My Computer by Ninajirachi is out now via NLV Records
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