Carpenter Brut teams up with Seth Ickerman once again to create another visual and sonically pleasing masterpiece. If you haven’t already, check out the film “Blood Machines” by Seth Ickermen, and the music video to Carpenter Brut’s “Turbo Killer”. Both solid pieces of work. Watch the new Carpenter Brut video below:

† CARPENTER BRUT – SPEED OR PERISH † Directed by Seth Ickerman (Official Music Video)

• DECODER (1984) directed by Muscha & starring: FM Einhert a.k.a. Mufti (Einstürzende Neubauten), Bill Rice (The Offenders (1980), The Big Blue (1988), Manhattan Love Suicides 1985, Coffee&Cigarettes), Christiane F., Genesis P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic-TV) and featuring William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch, Junkie, Queer, Drugstore Cowboy, Dead City Radio) whose writing was an inspiration for the film.
  * The film featured this month is very avant-garde, subversive and punk-af. It is not meant for children under the age of 18 years of age and contains images of nudity, drug use, chaos magick, surgical footage, sexual situations and ideas of delinquency and anti-authoritarian themes.
  Language: German with Spanish subtitles.
  
  

In 1970 the collection of essays by Beatnik and Underground art icon William Burrough was published. In it Burroughs meditates on the written word and its evolution into the spoken. That language is something unique to the Human experience as it can exist both in image and sound. That the written language can enable the writer to cheat time and space and project thoughts, ideas, emotions, through time and affect readers in the future. Language regardless if it’s written on a medium or spoken has power; it is magick; no different from the sigils in a magician’s grimoire or the crystal ball, energized and imbued with power. How with the write configuration of words, images, sounds and their meaning can influence, control, infect and gestate inside the psyche very much like a virus.  

Decoder is a 1984 West German cyberpunk film that you’ve probably never heard of. I was fortunate to find it one late night while in one of my insomnia periods.

The story follows FM as he works for a fast food chain to make ends meet but, spends his evenings making compositions of abrasive industrial music. When FM starts noticing how passive and docile the customers at his Burger joint are when the Muzak playlist is cycling over the speakers. He figures that perhaps there might be something in the Muzak that’s making people compliant. That it’s the muzak that’s lulling people into submission in a world where visceral reality is almost a cheap thrill (a kink), something you tuck under your mattress when the relatives come home; a world where we just accept subjugation into an authoritarian corpo system where fascism bridges the gap between military and corporate corruption. FM also spends his free time with his girlfriend (Christiane) a peep show girl that works in the red-light district.

One night while working on music, FM starts to manipulate one of Christiane’s frogs and records the screams. FM realizes that he can use abrasive sound to instigate destructive impulses in people that listen to his music and cancel out the corporate muzak. He strategically places tape recorders, like sonic I.E.D.’s, at different well-known fast food establishments armed with his music. These subversive recordings cause riots, destruction of property, violence and social upheaval. After sometime these terrorist incidents earn the attention of the corporate overlords who hire an assassin (Bill Rice) to find who is creating these tapes and execute him. Bill Rice’s character a weary hitman more preoccupied with haunting the red light district and infatuated with a peep show girl who just happens to be FM’s girlfriend.

DECODER is low-budget, analog, cyberpunk with a Cold War edge to it. Lush lighting and a noir dread drip heavily here. The soundtrack features SoftCell, Psychic-TV, THE THE and Einstürzende Neubauten. The basic plot of the film is summarized here in this review so all you have to do is follow the visuals and vibe. Not suitable viewing for anyone under-the-age of 18.

Stay dangerous, stay underground, stay out of sight, stay away from bootlickers, magahats, democrats and anyone that tows the company line, puts blinders on, shuts up and takes it right up in there deeply (and without even a kiss or dinner to eat), drinking the government kool-aid. Stay aware, stay armed and get angry and keep your G*ddamn finger on the REWIND button.

Movie:

https://youtu.be/vdCXssmZLdw?si=PDidB4yL53XRVpXv

Bonus: Soft Cell – Seedy Films (Official Video Release HD)

the NYC-based Destryur is likely to be well-known to darksynth fans, having been a part of several NRW releases such as “Night at the Grindhouse” and the “In Search of Darkness” soundtrack.

Figure is a bit newer to the NewRetroWave scene – but he’s no stranger to horror, and is perhaps a more seasoned producer in his own right – having cut his teeth over the past decade in the U.S. bass music scene. His gigantic “We Must Destroy” track was released only just as NewRetroWave was getting it’s start way back in 2011!

Together, this is a fantastic match made in hell for your listening displeasure.

As for this album – “Frightmare” is a brilliant tribute to 70s and 80s horror VHS. Each track title is a reference to a classic horror film, such as “Exorcist,” “Phantasm,” and “Street Trash.” Even the title of the album, “Frightmare,” is a classic horror film as well.

But the coldly calculated concept digs even deeper, as the arrangement and composition of each track seems to be directly inspired by the individual films they’re named after. For example, “Spit on Your Grave” sounds like pure sonic inspiration for revenge – a clear homage to the ultra-graphic 1978 classic “I Spit on Your Grave.” Another example is the frantic bass-splattered “Street Trash”, which is reminiscent of the confusing, splatter-gore filled black comedy flick “Street Trash” from 1987.

Overall, this is a fantastic darksynth / horrorsynth album that should absolutely not be missed! So what are you waiting for? Grab a listen below now!

The Top 10 Synthwave Albums of 2023:

10. Along by demin

9. Slow Tapes by l y n x

8. Rogue by Wice

7. Axiom by PYLOT

6. First Person Shooter (Original Documentary Soundtrack)
by Various Artists

5. Premi​è​re Anthologie by Adieu Aru

4. Data Fire by Korizon

3. Between the Moon and Stars by Futurecop!

2. Unicorn by Gunship

1. Wavefinder by Sferro & Makeup and Vanity Set

Honorable Mentions

TRIFECTA by A.L.I.S.O.N, VIQ, Krosia

Katarsi by Katarsi

(Not really synthwave, but this is just too good to ignore!)

Evenings 夕​暮​れ Vol. 1 by Hotel Pools

On the face of it, you wouldn’t expect a collaboration album like “Wavefinder” to be so brilliant. Sure, both Sferro and Makeup and Vanity Set (MAVS) have honed their superb synth skills for over a decade – but their production styles are vastly different.

Sferro’s work is decidedly digital, featuring brilliant melodies driven by a disco heartbeat. MAVS, on the other hand, has honed his analog feel – slicing through soundtracks and albums alike with a keen edge of atmosphere.

So, I expected “Wavefinder” to be good – even great, given the sheer experience and quality of musicianship from these two artists. Truthfully though, I also expected some fragmentation – a certain disjointed feeling that is frequently noticeable with similar collaboration albums. It’s a sad fact that often when artists collaborate, there is a clash. Sometimes it’s ego, sometimes it’s production style, or wanting to go in different conceptual directions. Sometimes the final tracks just seem out of order. After listening to dozens and dozens of collabs, I can tell you there’s always something…

“In a lot of ways… the music sort of… tells me what it needs, you know? Then I just sort of let it happen.”

But then, as the first remarkable ripples of “Wavefinder” washed over me, I realized this record is something special. There is no clash – in fact, the opposite is true. The diverse styles of Sferro and MAVS complement one another in a unique way, merging into a gestalt of splendid sonic bliss that neither producer would have likely created on their own. From the initial vox-like trill of ‘Cursors’ to the final 90s-infused ambient decay of ‘Do You Really Want An Answer,’ every track on “Wavefinder” is truly exceptional.

MAVS + Sferro Wavefinder Vinyl From Stratford Court Records

Between syncopated kicks and stuttering hi-hats, there is a tangible atmosphere that pulls you in, demanding your attention. Brilliant polyphonic melodies emerge in perfect counterpoint to thick, juicy basslines – all punctuated by eccentric synth stabs that give the tracks an intense sense of movement and groove. And, of course, all of these elements are masterfully mixed and mastered. All of these different elements complement one another perfectly – much like Sferro and MAVS – and the end result sounds magical.

Throughout the album, there is a pervasive 90s nostalgia feel – which makes sense considering Sferro revealed during our interview that several of the tracks were actually outtakes  “Emotion Engine.”  Often the synth leads or stabs are also just slightly detuned, filtered with the analog wow and flutter warble of a VHS cassette in a very similar technique used in MAVS’ latest EP, “Gradient Ultra.” (Both of those releases made our yearly top 10 lists in 2021 and 2022 – and you should absolutely listen to them if you haven’t already!)

But, for MAVS and Sferro, that lush analog sound was not infused into “Wavefinder” for the often-cited stereotypical reason of feeling “warm” or “fat” – but instead to add a sense of organic decay and randomness. Chance.

“Anytime I can add unpredictability, I’m surprised by what it’s doing…” MAVS related in the same interview. “In a lot of ways, [through analog effects] the music sort of… tells me what it needs, you know? Then I just sort of let it happen.”

Makeup and Vanity Set at Human Music 2

Surprisingly, Sferro also related that although his workflow is digital, chance plays a large role in his production as well. “I can’t really explain it, but it happens to me digitally as well, because my computer sold. Like every render, dude… every render is different.”

“I don’t want to do the typical synthwave stuff anymore. I’ve done that beat and that to death… so the early 2000s, late 90s kind of thing – that’s what seemed attractive to me.” – Sferro

Perhaps most surprising is that MAVS and Sferro had never created together before, in spite of growing up within a few miles of one another in northern Ohio. In fact, the closest they had come to working together was when they both independently created tracks for the Demin’s “Initiate (Remixes)” – which happened to be very important to the genesis of “Wavefinder.”

Demin’s work sounds a lot like a sort of shimmering Com Truise. In fact, when “Initiate” was released, it led many to speculate that Demin may actually be a side project of Seth’s. This rumor is false, of course – as MAVS related perfectly in our recent interview, “…having talked to Seth over the years, I know that he’s into drum and bass and other stuff…. it would be weird for him to just do another thing that sounds like Com Truise.”

In fact, that sound – the Com Truise sound – is quickly becoming it’s own small microgenre called “Datawave,” Similar to how HOME’s work spawned Chillsynth. After working on the Demin tracks seperately, MAVS and Sferro thought that datawave sound would be perfect for “Wavefinder.”

“I didn’t want to deviate in the remix too much from [Demin’s] sound because I liked the sound. I was curious about the ‘datawave’ space…. so I just sort of leaned into that for the remix…and… it felt good. [Later] when I started to dig into the stuff [Sferro] had sent me, it just seemed like the logical progression, like the place to go. You always want to do something that’s exciting to you…and in that moment, that was what was exciting.”

Sferro at Neon RetroFest

But, in spite of finding inspiration in the Com Truise / datawave sound, no part of “Wavefinder” feels pastiche. Instead, the entire sound feels somehow new again – like re-experiencing your favorite movie for the first time. (Or, in my case, my favorite album.) That… genuine feeling – I think that’s what makes “Wavefinder” feel so special. At times it feels like so much synthwave today has been over-produced and polished into nothing but a rose-tinted mirror. It’s so incredibly refreshing to hear two old-guard synth artists creating sounds so new and fresh.

Like I said in the beginning of this review, it’s rare to find a release that reminds me of why I started writing about music in the first place. Those are nice words, sure – but what does that really mean? Well, the reason why I started writing about music was because I wanted to share the music that I loved with as many people as possible – and that sort of sums up how I feel about “Wavefinder.”

I love it.

Top tracks: “Hit Bit,” “Rubber City,” “Memory Screen,” and “Wavefinder.”

It’s official! Masebrothers new Movie “Dragon Cop” will have a live Premiere on the NewRetroWave YT channel this Friday at 1:00PM EST! This will be a live stream so make sure you attend to be one of the first to witness the greatness! You can also catch up on the previous Masebrothers releases HERE.

HongKong Trailer of Dragon Cop Below:

This live stream will also launch a crowdfunding campaign on KICKSTARTER for the franchise! 🙂

Support Masebrothers:

https://www.youtube.com/MASEBROTHERS

https://twitter.com/masebrothers

In the four years that have gone by, something cold, alien and deadly has been frantically cutting through the fabric of reality.

As the night grows ever darker a brutal, systematic rhythm can be heard coming from a distance.
A sound of metallic heels colliding against black basalt stones, the hissing of a blade gleaming wildly through the shadows, a low, regular rumble that amplifies the vast darkness that surrounds us.

The Top 10 Synthwave Albums of 2022:

10. Nosebleed (Deluxe) by Midnight Drift

9. Ultrasound by A.L.I.S.O.N & Hotel Pools

8. Heroes by The Midnight

7. The Textorcist OST by Gost

6. Triangle Unicode by We Are Magonia

5. Lovers Lake by Lovers Lake

4. I by Voyage

3. AKUMA 3 by ALEX & TOKYO ROSE

2. (Tie) In Motion I & II by Memorex Memories

2. (Tie) Tortured Waters by DEADLIFE

1. Sentimental by Miami Nights 1984

Honorable Mentions

(In No Particular Order)

In Search of Tomorrow (Original Documentary Soundtrack) – by Various Artists

Forgotten Shapes by Waveshaper

Payback by Neon Nox

Synth City by All the Damn Vampires

Distorted Memories by Lucy In Disguise

The Crucifix ‘Psychopunk 2165’ is out now on Bandcamp and Spotify.

Glitchy, funky and drenched in 80s’ corporate culture kitsch, ‘On the Telephone’ will have you dancing then drooling all over the living room floor as your friends call for an ambulance. Chasing down the sounds of that sweet after-work drink gone off the rails, ‘Preferred Stock’ feels like a dosed-up trip across the city night, lit by the ambulance warning lights flaring across the neon-paved landscape.

Tagged onto the release is the announcement of an upcoming EP and Album for the coming year, and we couldn’t be more chuffed to hear what Nmesh has in store for us.

On The Telephone / Preferred Stock by Nmesh

Nmesh ‘On the Telephone/Preferred Stock’ is out now on bandcamp.