Tag: Synthwave

[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] 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.

[Listen] MANILA KILLA: 1993

Image result for manila killa 1993

(Is there anything more retro-inspired than Manila Killa’s new set for his 2019 solo tour? Seeing all of the very highlights of 2018 electronic music production turn away from house and tropical beats to synths… a new zeitgeist. Who knows. )

Manila Killa, along with artists such as Hotel Garuda and Jai Wolf, represent a new generation of electronic artists that draw inspiration from cross-cultural experiences and the timelessness of the previous three decades of music. Manila Killa has produced such a wide range of tracks, from tropical house, now to the Daft Punk inspired titular track to his EP, 1993.

Nostalgia, starry skies and dreaming is in, summer-vibes, letting loose and sunshine are out. Encapsulating the feeling of the track himself, “a moment that you’ll most likely never live again, but always remember as being beautiful”.

[Listen] SUPERCAAN: The Bull

(free download) 

This band has only one song on their Bandcamp. Just one. Yet they’re charting on Hype for the past two days because no other band’s sound has come so close to sounding like a 21st century version of The Cure. That sultry, dark, deep voice over dying snyths and guitar, with that sense of spaciness between the two… where the texture of the voice identifies much more than each beat of synth from a MS20 riff.

(This thing is a MS20)Korg MS-20.jpg

[Listen] JAI WOLF: Your Way

Image result for jai wolf the cure to loneliness

Jai Wolf will be releasing a much anticipated album on April 5th, and of course the man behind the most atmospheric and emotionally driven electronic music has turned to retrowave. With music videos of astronauts in space, vivid imagery of electric blue and neon orange, his music reflects a introspective exploration of escapism and losing control.

Day Wave, featured on this track, has also explored similar themes with his airy indie, a fitting great favorite of music channels such as Majestic Casual on YouTube. The combination is an guitar-strummed modern take on just regular old beaty-synth, a unique sound that gets me very excited about the upcoming album.

Get hyped, Jai Wolf’s single just released released yesterday, with more to come on him and his work on this blog.

The posters above were designed by Mishko, a graphic artist who also did Jai Wolf’s entire promo package for the upcoming album. His work is the very embodiment of the spirit of synthwave, and we will probably unavoidably see more of him as his style so strongly resonates with the theme.

Official video just came out: Introspective, soulful ending with a bang and a flash.

https://mishko.co/portfolio

Ami

[Listen] TOUCH SENSITIVE: Pizza Guy

Image result for touch sensitive pizza guy

Touch Sensitive delivers pizza just the way I like it, no fuss and no lyrics, just a riding wave of synth and beats. Also known as one of the members of Australian electro-pop act Van She, Michael Di Francesco pays a tribute to mindless yet soulful driving in a great car… at dusk, across bars, parties and concerts (insert Flume cameo, see YouTube video linked below). The song embodies the feeling of outrunning yourself, for no particular reason but freedom. And simplicity, just like pizza.

Ami

 

[Listen] YOLANDA BE COOL: Dance and Chant

yolanda be cool

Listen:

A modern twist on 80’s disco electronica. Swinging sax, clappy beats and lyrics limited to ‘do that thang’.

About:

Australian duo made up of Andrew Stanley and Matthew Handley, better known for their collab ‘we no speak Americano’, though this might not entirely be a testament to their production skills. With a name from that one line in that one scene from pulp fiction, the pair of producers are one of many with obvious golden age syndrome.

Ami