Okay, here’s the opening round of our 50 YMM! MVs in 50 Days bonanza! Let’s dive in…

The raw rumblings for the genesis of a whole new take on idol music were still fresh in 2013.  BiS and Babymetal certainly got most of the attention as this breed of bolder, more diverse artists came to light, and perhaps it might be forgotten or even unrecognized by some that YOU’LL MELT MORE! had been formed in 2012, which is understandable because not only were they underneath the pop radar, but they were testing the waters drawing from an even deeper, more obscure niche than the aforementioned groups.

Certainly punk and metal were wild, somewhat surprising sources of influence on up-and-coming idols, but YLMM! went into territory that I feel like it’s safe to say nobody ever saw coming: The fascinating genre offshoot of psyche, electronica, and prog that originated out of post-war Germany which music critics dubbed “Krautrock”…

“New Escape Underground”  (YOU’LL MELT MORE!’S first widely distributed release.) was released in September of 2013, and from a glance at the cover, there was no doubt where their sensibilities lay…

Neu! were of course a legendary (and I don’t mean that lightly.) offshoot of Kraftwerk that weren’t especially successful in their time, but became hailed as cult game-changers in not only Krautrock, but with the entire music scene from punk to dance to hip-hop and just about everywhere else, and with YLMM!, that includes idol…

So now we come to the closing track of New Escape Underground, the just over ten-minute epic, “SWEET ESCAPE”. Let’s check out the MV!

Okay, first off, what the heck kind of idol MV is this? The members of the groups are nowhere to be seen! For a genre that is often dismissed as having a superficial focus on cute girls, it a pretty radical departure here. Instead of images of young girls dancing, we get a ten minute headtrip of a what appears to be a salaryman on an afterwork odessey as he (presumably) drunkenly wanders through the nightime cityscape in a wild psychedelic blur in the course of single evening.

As the night wears on, he even transforms physically (by putting a stocking over his head) to match the mind-altering madness around him. And then at the end, we watch a flower a bloom… I like to think that the flower represents his mind opening wider, ultimately leaving him to never be the same again. I do have one remaining question though…did this guy show up for work the next day?

And as for the music: This really is practically pure Neu! but with added vocals that really enhance things wonderfully. I just absolutely love the groove this song makes and it captures the essence of Krautrock faithfully without falling into pale imitation.  I’ve long wondered, what would the band that influenced all this think of it? Sadly, founding member Klaus Dinger passed away in 2008, so we’ll never know how he would’ve felt, and I’ve never come across anything that suggests that Micheal Rother is even aware that YOU’LL MELT MORE! exists. (If anyone should find anything where he’s been asked about it, please share cause I’d love to read about his take!)

As an added closing bonus, here’s an amazing live video of YOU’LL MELT MORE! absolutely killing it with a fantastic live version of “SWEET ESCAPE”. You’ll be missing out if you don’t crank this one LOUD!

Oh, one last thing, in true NEU! tradition, their music was often designed  to be listened to and appreciated at multiple speeds. It works with “SWEET ESCAPE” too. No really, try it out! Watch the MV at the slowest speed, and try it again at the fastest…it’s still awesome!!! Give it a shot…