Venice Treacle’s “Bad Aji” answers a question nobody was brave enough to ask: what if one of the most traumatising moments in board-game history absolutely slapped? Inspired by Go legend Lee Sedol’s infamous 2016 loss to DeepMind’s AlphaGo, the single turns existential dread into something funky, twitchy, and oddly danceable.
Right from the start, the track refuses to behave. The groove doesn’t so much settle in as it trips over the furniture, apologises, then does it again. Basslines wobble, rhythms hiccup, and melodies pop up like thoughts you didn’t invite. This is Venice Treacle’s proudly off-kilter Quank aesthetic—music that sounds like it knows the rules, understands them deeply, and then ignores them out of spite.
The song’s spirit channels that move: the now-legendary shoulder hit that made Go grandmasters gasp, scoff, and briefly assume the computer had finally lost its mind. Spoiler alert: it hadn’t. Bad Aji captures that exact emotional journey—dismissal, confusion, dawning horror—by constantly pulling the rug out from under its own groove. Just when you think you’ve got it figured out, it changes its mind.
There’s something deliciously funny about Venice Treacle turning humanity’s quiet “uh-oh” moment into a playful funk workout. Underneath the jerks and jolts is a sly commentary on our ongoing battle with algorithms—one where the machines don’t gloat, they just calmly win.
Bad Aji is clever without being smug, nerdy without being dry, and proof that even when AI beats us at our own games, at least the soundtrack can still make us dance about it.
Review by Thomas Imposter