This is Volume 3 of one of my favorite genre’s of music – music inspired by the sounds of the Drive Soundtrack. This mix features new releases that I feel would have fit perfectly on the soundtrack.
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Feathered with optimism, “Rainy Day” is a really just a simple song about taking negativity and trying to make the best of it. Its hopeful lyrics, laced through with the singer’s beautiful and unusual lilt, paint an upbeat picture of wearing a smile as an umbrella. With its positive, danceable beat and bright melody, it is delightful in its candid, buoyant cheerfulness, completely unabashed.
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This one will have you singing along in no time, but you might want to do this in private. I would imagine that walking around belting out, “My heart is in flames, a-ooooooo” might garner some strange looks. Trust me though, it’s going to happen.
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An amalgam of animal and artifice, “Daisy Cutter” thumps into being with a calling that immediately commands the struggle taking place within its tones. With an inherent uncertainty, there is still the sense of something victorious here; veiled among the overturning of allegories and pontifications on doubt is a creeping self-awareness of purpose that builds this song into an anthem at its climax. This is a song about survival, about laying waste to obstacles and destroying barriers to find truth and faith beyond a seemingly endless void.
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There is something emphatic and romantic about Electro Spectre, something primal and elemental even as their sound dances on the spine of its electronic core. Much of their music flashes like hot coals and curls up and around me like smoke, a sharp kinesis of desire laced with earnestness and honesty.
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Manic, the latest single from Toronto’s Prince Innocence, may have just heralded the end of synthy summer jam season. The deep, bassy intro hearkens back to late 90’s Triphop. The song itself has a dark and ominous feel throughout. The lyrical content does nothing to brighten the mood, with its reference to ‘dark hallways and wasted days’.
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New order release their first single ‘Restless’ off their upcoming album, Music Complete out September 25th on Mute.
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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.
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Chvrches has announced the initial details of the sophomore album called Every Open Eye. It is scheduled to be released on September 25th. The first single is called Leave A Trace and you can get your first listen right here.
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Halou-lujah…some new music from San Francisco Synthpop duo Halou! Ryan and Rebecca Coseboom have been making music for almost 20 years now, orginally under the name Halou but also as Inivisble Ballet, R/R Coseboom and Stripmall Architecture. They have ranged from Dreampop to Synthpop to Trip Hop. The latest single, Lean Into The Gravity starts off sweetly enough, but a faintly sinister Triphop beat enters, giving the track a bit of a dark, ominous feel.
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It’s becoming quite popular to cover Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without A Face” these days, and I’m quite OK with that. The Irish duo Electro Sensitive Behavior have given this track the synthpop treatment. While it sounds true to the original recording, the additional synths combined with a Lou Reed meets Peter Murphy vocal make this cover a keeper.
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Yesterday, 80’s icons a-Ha released the first single called ‘Under The Make-up’ off of their forthcoming album ‘Cast In Steel’. A tour is expected to accompany the new album. Singer Morten Harket’s voice is as good as ever on this melancholy track that reminds us a little of ‘Lifelines’. The synths and orchestration on this track are movie soundtrack beautiful and leave us anticipating what the rest of the album might sound like.
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