Hidden Gems: YMCK

Today in hidden gem we are going to look at a trio of musicians who have been creating chiptune electropop for the past 17 years and this group is YMCK.

In case your wonder what YMCK means, the name came from the CMYK subtractive color model for example:

C is cyan
M is magenta
Y is yellow
K is key or black

The group was from back in 2003 and still has the original members in the group and they are:

Midori Kurihara on vocals
Takeshi Yokemura on music, lyrics, and arrangement
Tomoyuki Nakamura on composition and music video

The group has 8-bit versions of themselves and kind of has this Gorillaz vibe to them when they do live performances and music videos. The group’s first album release “Family Music” was a self-released album and it was a hit with songs such as Does John Coltrane Dream of a Merry-go-round?, Pastel Colored Candy, Pow*Pow, and Yellow, Magenta, Cyan and Black.

Soon after they would release albums such as:

Family Racing in 2005
Family Genesis in 2008
YMCK Songbook: songs before 8bit in 2008
Family Cooking in 2009
Family Days in 2013
Family Dancing in 2015
Family Swing in 2017
Magical Galaxy Tour EP in 2018
Family Circus in 2019
Cat Stroke in 2020

They way YMCK has created this chiptune electropop sound is amazing. They somehow created this sound that anyone can listen too, regardless if they like video games or not due to the 8-bit sound. YMCK has this underground hidden gem vibe that you can’t help but fall in love with due to its chiptune sound that is easy to the ears and get you such in with ease.

In case you are wondering what are their live shows are like you can take a look here and their music video “Cat Stroke.”