Wow, this is one awesome collaboration. The eclectic and multi-talented Beck sounds totally at home here over a bouncy synth beat from Electronic dance giants The Chemical Brothers. The first half of the track is a smooth and playful with repeated mantras of “I’m wide open” and “It’s getting away from me”
INTENT:OUTTAKE’s darkly gorgeous “Der Letzte Tanz” (in English, “The Last Dance”) is a song with which I have been slowly acquainting myself, sinking into its melancholy throb and surging sadness to relish the sympathetic salve of its despair. It tells its story with an arrhythmic heartbeat, an appeal for a frozen soul’s final dance before oblivion.
Hearts Of Black Science have a knack for layering, building from sparse guitars and subtle synths into harmonies of complex splendor. Ethereal, chilling vocals lead into what is essentially a lesson in aural world-building; by the end of my first listen I felt I had been transported into the moody, unnerving realm of its lyrics….palpable mistrust, doubt, and fledgling hopes all combine to create a panoply to showcase the talents of this fantastic Swedish mixed-genre band.
New order release their first single ‘Restless’ off their upcoming album, Music Complete out September 25th on Mute.
What better way to enjoy these hot summer nights then rolling down the windows and cranking out some Disco-Synth? Synthco? Disynth? I’m not even sure what to call this genre, but Kisses‘ A Groove could be one of its defining tracks, melding classic disco sounds with modern Electro-chill dance.
Right when this track started, i thought it was a new A-ha song…and that isn’t far fetched as A-ha DOES have a new song, and frankly this sounds like a dream collaboration between Morten Harket and Thom Yorke. The downtempo beats and falsetto vocals are gorgeous and infectious.
The London trio HÆLOS went and perfectly melded 90’s loungey-Triphop with late 80’s Synthpop by covering The Beloved’s The Sun Rising. Vocalist Lotti Benardout puts a whole new spin on the track, while the eerie sirens and breakbeats breathe new life.
From the moment you hear the syncopated beats you are thinking some kind of 80’s dance jam ala Blue Monday or Bizarre Love Triangle is on the way. Not exactly, as the song settles in to a more chilled groove with slightly disaffected vocals – but that is kind of the charm of The Radio Dept. As the song continues, the bouncy synths invoke Royksopp and Technique-era New Order.
Happiness is…a new IAMX single! Nobody quite lays down the sinister synth beats like former Sneaker Pimps frontman Chris Corner. Happiness is…the fact that the b-side of the single is a remix of the title track by fellow dark synth purveyor Gary Numan.
Sometimes it all just comes together. In this case, the interplay of outstanding vocals, dark lyrics complementing bright twinkling synths, glossy production and all make this a fantastic synthpop song worthy of ’90s-era Depeche Mode. Other ’90s synthpop bands that this reminds me of include Echoing Green, Brave New World, and Neuropa. In particular, the chorus just soars you into the stratosphere.
“Onto Something”, the dreamy opening synthpop track on Soviet’s new third album, would’ve been part of a perfect driving soundtrack in a convertible sports car on a summer night in the mid-1980s while watching the city lights reflect off the glass and steel of modern L.A.