Virtual Boy

Henry Allen and Preston Walker met their freshman year at Chapman University's Conservatory of Music. Allen is a classically trained guitar virtuoso, while Walker’s voice is so awesome that he joined the Chapman University Choir and performed in the Sistine Chapel for Pope Benedict XVI. But it was in a music technology class that the duo realized they could create electronic music that's progressive, punk, and classical all at once. Naming their act after a 1995 Nintendo console, their eponymous debut opens with “Motion Control,” a masterpiece of distorted synths and lo-fi Moogs brilliantly arranged to reveal an equal appreciation for Mozart and Ratatat. Just when the Vocodered vocals start to recall Daft Punk, they import Spanish acoustic guitars and speaker-blowing keyboard blasts. “Go Johnny, Yeah!” follows with a cosmopolitan cool reminiscent of early Air recordings, while “Empty Place” simmers down to create lush, sweeping soundscapes and manipulated synth tones arranged masterfully under a barbed vocal melody. “Only One” closes on the warm hum of a vintage Wurlitzer playing under spare beats.