Tag: Synthpop

[listen] GORILLAZ: “Aries” ft Peter Hook & Georgia

*waves hands enthusiastically*

Peter Hook bringing fantastic psychedelic synths, that classic New Order-esque bass line and  head bobbing percussion (hear those clickety-clicks?) to 2D’s more-than-usual, done-with-life vocals.

Damon Albarn, in his new series of musical collaborations in Sound Machine, ventures back in time, recreating Plastic Beach glory days of hailed Gorillaz sound. Is this Albarn’s way of joining in the 80s Nostalgia craze sweeping music and film today? Think Dua Lipa’s 80s pop album, Wonder Woman’s own New Order soundtrack, Stranger Things…

Though it is easy to dismiss the track as another attempt catering to nostalgia sheep (including myself), there’s something so likable about it that seems to separate itself from the rose-colored glasses that is nostalgia illusion. Perhaps its the contrast of the vocals with the synth backing or the framing and lyrics; it doesn’t listen as 80s New Wave re-packaged but more as re-interpreted. Give it a listen and stay tuned for more Gorillaz up to the end of the year.

~

This blog has been a clear fan of Synthpop and by extension, New Wave and therefore inevitably Peter Hook’s work in New Order. The band is credited to have been the first to make rock music for a dance crowd (or dance music for a rock crowd), uniting the two genres in a crowd-crazed, titillating synth and guitar vortex-inducing discography. More on New Order and Damon Albarn’s ouevre soon.

 

[Listen] ALL THE REST: “Our Youth”

Image result for all the rest our youth

“for anyone who doesn’t quite have their life together. Very rarely do we learn from any mistakes other than our own. Sometimes we make a mess, but that’s just how it goes”

⇑⇓

I knew as soon as I heard the very first 2 seconds of this track, that it would belong to my all-time favorite list: a list of songs that I maintain on those virtual post-its on PC, with one click could quite dangerously disappear and I’d have to rack my memory to start all over again.

All the Rest are the newest addition to this list, and its no wonder that this song resonated with me… much more than any other in the past few months. Most of these songs on my list follow a pattern; they have not much in common in terms of genre but more in tone, generally uplifting but existential, energetic but wistful. Songs to listen to so you can take time to momentarily sulk and feel sorry for yourself, but then move forward with life.

‘Our Youth’ draws pangs of familiarity, with sharply recognizable 80s chords (think Eurythmics), catchy, high-pitched vocals and body-swinging ‘pa-pa-para-para‘s. But this isn’t just another peppy indiepop track, as the lyrics mull over future unknowns, misfortunes and naivete just as much as the next brooding, millennial ballad to hit the charts. The exception is that the band packages disillusionment with some semblance of hope, leaving you optimistic rather than bereft.

Listen here:

More All the Rest to come.

[Listen] MAGDALENA BAY: “Ghost”

Mica Tenenbaum of Magdalena Bay © Nicole Almeida

Retro pop

Indie pop

Synth-pop

Heavy pop

Glitz pop

Space pop

Neon pop

Magdalena Bay began writing ’90’s music from the future’ together since high school. Listening to this track of theirs is quite like time-travelling in a glitch-infused tornado of neon color. Pulsing beats, jarring vocal chops and a carnal base topped with contrasting lofty vocals and synths all build up to a thrashing climax: Jamming, clashing, brain-dazzling electronic sound.

Both recent graduates of college, the duo have found solace in pop in expressing a nostalgia for another time of freedom and self-expression.

In an interview with Atwood magazine, the band commented on how today’s pop music has indulged into the sound of the past, on a global scale. The band argues that this is a reflexive response of using that blinding brightness of 80s and 90s sound to counter the dominant currents of darkness surrounding pop in the past few years.

Read more here:

Talking Retro Pop and Vintage Film: A Conversation with Magdalena Bay

And listen here:

Amazingly, Magdalena bay are also responsible for all of their glitch-crazed graphics accompanying their videos and campaigns, essential to creating ‘the vibe’ of their music according to the band.

[Listen] METRIC: Now or Never Now

Image result for metric

The first time I ever listened to a song by Canadian Indie-pop band, Metric, was in Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim versus the World. A young Brie Larson appears on stage as the narrator screams ‘And then it was time…. for Toronto… to drown in the sweet sorrow of The Clash at Demonhead!’

Related image

Image result for scott pilgrim vs the world brie larson

In a sultry, already suggestive voice, Brie covers Metric’s Black Sheep single,  chanting several oh yeahs as the crowd goes wild with ex-superman jamming on the guitar. Eyes flash, hair is tossed and silent threats fill the room. Metric’s original song gives the film added layers of complexity, contrasting the overt sweetness of Brie’s character with darkness, as the track twists and turns in its sharp key changes.

Metric’s most well-known track also embodies this theme of oxymoron, obvious in the very title as it is in the the jarring switches from major to minor; help, I’m alive.

This is what makes Metric truly unique. Each track weaves optimism with cynicism, indie-pop edged with a distinct flavor of dystopian despair. This is often so subtle that listening lifts your feelings and hopes but leaves you wanting for resolution. With their latest full-length album coming out this year, the band has been slowly releasing upbeat, dreamy singles, each more synth-heavy than the last. Their use of synthesizers give their tracks that distance between listener and vocalist, with emotion only just graspable but yet so far away that its almost surreal.

Listen to the two new singles and watch out for the new album!

[Listen] LEON ELSE: The City Don’t Care

Image result for leon else

Disillusionment, isolation, cog-in-the-wheel existential crises, the overwhelming feeling of disenfranchisement and  desensitization… are only some of the dark, jaded emotions that were expressed often in the art and music scenes of the 80’s.

City populations grew so dramatically, that the lost individual, disconnected from reality, became a symbol of new life in 80’s American cities. ‘I am an island, lost in an ocean’ Leon Else sings, on a backdrop of a darkened synth landscape, a low pulsating rhythm that sets off the brightness of his echoing vocals. Else brings sharp production to his 80’s revival track, generating a bittersweet feeling for an era I’ve never lived through but can absolutely relate.

The loner, racing down an empty highway going somewhere but nowhere in particular (also visualized on the single’s album cover) is a renewed visual corollary, reminding me of Sam’s character in TRON: Legacy, before he found his virtual escape, or Knight Rider, and of course Ryan Gosling’s character in Drive.

Perhaps this is why 80’s music and culture seems to resonate so much with millennials  who are experiencing the same feeling of disconnection with reality, under the influence of social media, polarizing politics and mundane jobs.

Image result for knight rider

Image result for drive ryan gosling

[Listen] VÖK: Night & Day

Vök © Sigga Ella

Dream-pop electronica band from Iceland, Vök create a dreamy world inspired by their bleak, but incredibly beautiful home country. Little sunlight, miles of snow, falling glaciers and terrifyingly cold, but crystal clear water are just some of the images their music seems to inspire. Often compared to the XX, the band takes aspects of the famous coolness and distance in the XX’s oeuvre and adds pulsing synths and heightened vocals to create an immense feeling of power, reminding me more often of BANKS and CHVRCHES.

The band has never played outside of Europe, yet their sound is growing to have a universal appeal. Give it a listen.

[Listen] W.H. LUNG: Simpatico People

Image result for wh lung

Hailing from Manchester, UK, W.H. Lung present this 10 minute odyssey of strumming guitars, bursts of synths, breathy singing and crystal clear production. Naming influences such as Prince and Julia Holter, the Synthpop trio also meld  post-punk into the mammoth track. Their sound distinctly feels like it has been grown in a time-machine, intricately collaging waves of different influences in a track that swells and recoils, excites and eases.