Between Burning : Happiness Circuits!, My Yellow Poney rebooted into NANOMAL. I found this out after reading about Destroying : Happiness Circuits! on the band’s Bugs page. But the name change hasn’t altered the band’s sound but allows the band to flow in new directions.
NANOMAL is still living in its pop, electronic, and indie worlds. Destroying : Happiness Circuits! might be a transitional album that combines My Yellow Poney with the new NANOMAL chapter. “Space Missing” is a cute electronic pop track opening the 11-song album. It has a relatively simple composition and focuses on connecting every single melodic line together.
I like “Neon Ocean” more because it adds a faster tempo and a bit of a retro 80s video game sound. The three members, White Deer, Rubberman, and 뚜드, all work in sync to create these unique songs. White Deer’s vocals are in a higher tone, but it fits the instrumentals perfectly. I wonder where the trio’s song ideas come from because sometimes they are able to compose songs in styles that I don’t expect. “Too Small” sounds like a synth-focused bedroom pop track that’s also kind of making fun of the style.
Experimentation is NANOMAL’s key signature. But it’s not that they’re experimenting with different styles, instead are willing to create music that doesn’t follow traditional expectations. At the core of every song, it’s like NANOMAL aren’t taking themselves too seriously and create melodic music that is addictive and fun.
And when you think NANOMAL is only able to create offbeat songs, they deliver an impressive indie rock track on “Bathbomb.” It splits Destroying : Happiness Circuits! in two. The latter half focuses more on customary rock music with the guitar having a prominent voice. But they still present their weird style like on “Hospital (that erases your memories)” which sounds like a weird internal monologue.
NANOMAL is one of those bands that have a concrete idea of who they are but aren’t defined purely by the music they create. This full length might be a farewell to the My Yellow Poney days and the start of something different. The last song on Destroying : Happiness Circuits!, “We Never Get Old, We Never Faded Away” is like the last sentence of a chapter and a fitting end to this album.
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Chris P
Korean Indie owner and Editor at Large. Constantly looking for new music and working on library parity on Spotify and YouTube Music.