Sensational is the weird kids’ favorite rapper. He is the most unknown, sort of well-known, but not really, abstract experimental vagabond you’ve never heard of. He’s written numerous albums, E.P.’s and features that can be found all over bandcamp.

With “The Pearl”, Sensational delivers his signature brand of stream of thought wordplay and his gruff-gravely delivery layered over Planteaterz’ otherworldly productions.  This is more free-verse than what you’d typically expect from an underground Hip-Hop album. Experimental landscapes and textures layered very well with Chuck O’Bliss’ rhyme patterns. Some of these tracks including the few remixes is mystic circuitry; easily going from garage band Dan the Automator into lush and beautiful weirdness.

Listen to the whole album here
https://naffrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/the-pearl 

Sensational according to wikipedia:
“His style is often about weed intake or sci-fi based themes. He is known more for his often eclectic collaboration work, having played with the likes of Cardopusher, Kid 606, Handsome Boy Modeling School, DJ Scotch Bonnet, Kouhei Matsunaga, and Spectre. Often quite prolific, but known for brief spells of homelessness, it is not known how much of Sensational’s discography there actually is, as he can often be found selling his music on the streets of New York.”

Also included in this review is the most recent documentary about Sensational

THE RISE & FALL & RISE of SENSATIONAL
https://youtu.be/_qMQ96Bvz18

What lies behind the Iron Maiden like artwork is a fiery full throttle marathon of dark rave songs drenched in horror and Italian giallo slasher influence. There are two cuts that stand out. #6- Blood God and #7Demonic Incantation. Demonic Incantations specifically, is in my opinion, best described as Breakbeats from Hell.

If you are looking for bombastic, hype, tracks for your dancefloor dj sets or industrial anthems for your crime spree, this is the album for you.

BANDCAMP – https://draven1980s.bandcamp.com/
Linktr.ee.com – https://linktr.ee/Draven1980s

Stay classy, stay out of the sun and keep your finger on that REWIND button.

Bronster Bridge ‘Environment’ is out now via Bandcamp and Spotify

Favorite Tracks: Maelstrom, Voyager, Stranded Vision

Dameron ‘Stranded Vision’ is out now via Bandcamp and Spotify

Phantasm is a ravenous new chapter for the dark synth warlock, fueled by bloodlust and dedicated to the wretched beasts that lurk below. Packed with overdriven synth leads, buzz bass lines and pummeling beats, Phantasm is a thrill-ride fit to score your sweetest nightmares.

Occams Laser ‘Phantasm’ is out now on Bandcamp and Spotify.

Abyssal Arcana

1. Forgive Me Father
2. The Horrifying Autopsy of Deamien Raven
3. Cauchemar Noir
4. Silver Coffin
5. Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things
6. BloodGod feat. Day Dralleon
7. Demonic Incantation Blues
8. Impalement & The Brazen Bull
9. A Horrorsynth Symphonic
10. The Conjuring feat. CONNÖR
11. The Intimate Portrait f the Devil
12. Le Vampire du Grand Guignol
13. Exsanguinated With a Drill

Draven ‘Abyssal Arcana’ is out now on Bandcamp and Spotify.

As one could expect, the album packs a heavy dose of streamlined tracks, with unapologetic pop hooks that hit right on target with the efficiency one can only expect from a Swedish songwriter. For fans of melodramatic eighties pop, FUSIONWAVE is the album you need to keep your cravings in check for the next few weeks.

FUSIONWAVE by HOLOFLASH

HOLOFLASH ‘FUSIONWAVE’ is out now on Bandcamp.

At what point did you decide that radio would become central to this new Starcadian chapter?

It was on Christmas of 2012! I had just wrapped up Sunset Blood, which was my first foray into electronic music. I was literally learning the concepts of synths as I was writing songs. As I was writing the album, I realized that it was shaping up into a mythology. It was during that time that I started writing the first iteration of ‘Satellites’. As I was writing the mythology and planning what I would do with Midnight Signals, I realized that it would all culminate into the concept of Radio Galaxy: frequencies, feedback loops, time loops, causalities…

Has ‘Satellites’ kept the same role and position in the Starcadian narrative?

It has. That song is pretty key to tying everything from the first single ‘He^rt’ to Radio Galaxy. It forms a loop. The way I formed it in my head is that Midnight Signals I and Radio Galaxy form their own loop, and the entire trilogy is Sunset Blood looping back into Radio Galaxy, like a sub-loop and a loop. There are subtle mirrors and reflections between all three albums to tie them together. I have this obsession with Leitmotivs and I made sure I put all of my creative efforts into coming up with them in beginning and distributing them as I formed more and more of the consecutive albums.

 To what extent do you let musical experimentations guide or change the narrative you set out to tell?

Funnily, I did it the most on Sunset Blood and cut it off after Saturdaze. I had a massive collection of songs in the beginning that I retrofitted into a narrative. Once I did that, I started actually building a narrative, which was spurred by doing the ‘He^rt’ video. Ever since then, I’ve basically been laying down a set number of tracks, each with a brief description of how they sound, their cadence, tempo, their narrative lows and highs. I will basically write to that. I also have a pretty comprehensive sketch library where I pick stuff, but when it comes to the narrative I think the overarching story defines things more than the sketches I have at my disposal.

Would you say this approach helps you or is it merely a necessity for the vision you’re aiming for?

I feel it’s a wonderful way to sabotage yourself if you really want to deliver something fast. This is the best way to not do that because it adds the complication of making sure everything ties together and stays consistent. It’s tough when you want to break off and write a bossa nova song or a spaghetti western song. The more weird and extreme the music, the more I’m into it. I relax to the weirdest shit I can find. Whenever I see a framework, I have a tendency to kick sand at it and build things upside down. That’s my instinct at all times. That’s something I keep to myself, I don’t put it on the audience. I fight that battle in me, and hopefully, the resulting product is somewhere in between commercial and completely uncommercial weirdness.

 What was it like working on this album with Rob O’ Neil? There must have been some extra constraints in creating an album at such a particular time.

You would think it would hinder us, but the reality is that this is how we’ve always worked. We used to work together before moving to LA. Back in 2010, he texted me telling me he had just found a cockpit for 200$, and that’s basically where it all came from. I never saw him once during the filming of ‘He^rt’. He bought the cockpit, he shot the raw footage and I edited it together, added the visual effects, and that was it! The only time we didn’t shoot something separately was on Freak Night. I flew out to LA in December 2019, which was very lucky timing. We narrowly missed the pandemic.

Other than it being, in my opinion, your most ambitious album to date, I also feel like Radio Galaxy sounds more diverse, dynamic and somehow more guitar-oriented. How would you describe the arrangement and writing process compared to your previous albums?

You’re completely right, it’s definitely a lot more guitar-oriented. I originally played the guitar, I didn’t play the synth or the keys at all, but there was a point in the mid-2000s’ where society decided that we were over guitar music. I think it was during the unfortunate time of dubstep and EDM hitting the charts, which unfortunately shoved guitar out of the door. On the other hand, it also allowed me to open my mind to different instruments and different production techniques, which led to Sunset Blood.

 I never quite left the guitar, but I put it down for a little bit. Radio Galaxy marks me coming back in contact with my guitar playing roots, connecting to the spirit of Soundgarden. There’s a lot of Soundgarden on this album. The first CD I bought was Superunknown and it completely defined the way I write lyrics and music, the way I think about signatures and bars… You can definitely hear it on ‘Gutter’, for instance.

I’m still learning how to be a musician and how to write songs and albums. Radio Galaxy is me simplifying but also expanding at the same time, starting with a strict pentatonic guitar-minded way of composing, doing the chord progressions with my hands and leading with my voice rather than writing completely with my fingers on the keyboard and thinking about it in an Ableton, music-production way. It was very freeing. It gave me a new lease in songwriting life. I believe it’s really important for a writing musician to put down their preferred instrument and pick a completely different one. It will completely change the way you structure songs and stories and lyrics.

 Some songs even feel like they could be played by a full band.

I think that comes from shedding some of the layers. Sunset Blood with maximalist, layered decadence and Midnight Signals pulled it back a little bit. As you grow, you try to learn to be more scalpel-like with your compositions and instrumentation and shed the layers. I think that this was me subconsciously thinking in band terms.

Musicians talk a lot about the ‘rule of threes’ where you should at all times hear three distinct elements to a song. You don’t need more, the human mind can only focus on three. That principle somehow bore itself into my brain and I held myself from adding too much stuff. Tracks like ‘Lovebeats’ have very few layers. It’s just something where I just wanted to get the point across as simply as I could.

 Another noticeable shift marked by this album is its red album cover, a radical departure from the predominantly blue tones of previous releases.

It’s funny that for all the meticulous planning I do, that’s the one thing I didn’t notice until I put the album up on Bandcamp for pre-order. I told myself “Huh, there’s a distinct lack of blue in this, sh-t!” *laughs*.

I would love to say that it was intentional, but it was probably just another subconscious way of shedding the same thing. Midnight Signals was more in the same pool as Sunset Blood, but it was a small, subtle attempt to nudge people out of it with songs like ‘Polyana’ and ‘Trapped in America’, stuff that wasn’t necessarily 80s-inspired or in my usual sound. It was very intentionally peppered there to prepare people for songs like ‘I Demoni’ or Shadowcatcher from last year. It was a gentle way of pulling the listeners in the direction that I want to go towards while keeping my style. I think it was the same deal from a visual perspective. I love dark blues, but this cover felt more like the panic attack that I wanted some of the songs to feel like.

 The song ‘Neonhead’ sounds like a term you’d use to describe a fan of retro-synth music, the same way metal fans are referred to as “metalheads”.  The line ‘I am Neonhead’ even reminds me of the opening quote in Black Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man’. Does any of this make sense to you?

You’re pretty close! I really enjoyed writing the lyrics to that song. The reason why I call these songs “ear-movies” is that I like to put myself in that mental space when I write them. For this song, I got stuck in this Lovecraftian, neon-soaked cosmic horror world as I was writing it. The metal and Synthwave worlds have such a big overlap, so I put myself in the shoes of 15-year-old metalhead-me and how badass it felt singing ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’. That’s what I was aiming for.

To me, ‘Neonhead’ is the sound of a neon-soaked live show 20 000 leagues under the sea, surrounded by bioluminescent Lovecraftian monsters.

 Whereas some of your previous songs such as Trapped in America carried a serious message through a heavy, ominously themed track, it seems like some of your harshest bits of social criticism on this album derive their power from the fact that they’re set to such upbeat, funky tracks. Was there a conscious decision to play on this counterpoint?

Absolutely! I actually got a tweet from a fan today that illustrated this point pretty well: “Only Starcadian can make music that kinda calls me out but also makes me dance to my own flaws”. That’s more or less what I was going for.

I’m not going to sit on a twitter-throne and judge people for specific things, I’m going to call it out with a bit of comedy and satire. Neither ‘Culture’ nor ‘Propaganda’ are me chiding people telling them to not appropriate or start a youtube channel. It’s all stupid. The offensive things that people do are stupid, and the way you’re reacting to them, even though you’re correct, is stupid. It’s all stupid and pointless. So just dance.

It is interesting that a lot of people read ‘Culture’ and ‘Propaganda’ as a critique of Republicans and Far-right people. It’s more about the 15-year-old teenagers that ape and assimilate working-class culture, turning it into an expensive hobby while the actual working class is suffering because of those upper-middle-class families. These kids will make a Youtube channel where they talk about self-fulfilment, self-healing grifts and hustles. It’s all done on the blood of people that don’t do that kind of stuff; people that make your coffee and lunch, drive you to work, clean the building that you work in…

 The Internet is a weird place to be in, hence the lyric “the web’s a big mistake”. I feel like your only two options are to either go full alt-right incel, which is the worst possible option you can have, or get into left-wing socialist twitter, where moderation and common sense is out the window.

It’s a very bizarre landscape to release any kind of art into. The only way to break out of that binary classification of art is to adopt this jester-like ribbing of both sides of the argument.

 People are lonelier than ever. We’re starving for real conversation, real contact and the only way to do that is to post a hot take for people to interact with you. Democratized art is just piling up, desperately slicing throats and punching babies to get to the top. When I was a kid, “selling out” was a bad word. Right now, people would kill for a sponsorship or promoted video. It’s embarrassing. But because that’s a reality, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to say something genuinely stupid, controversial and out of bounds to get people to talk about you.

 Amongst the most notable features of this album are the inclusion of new instruments, most notably on ‘Cannibal Gods’. How did these enter the picture in terms of arrangement?

I found myself in the middle east during that same Christmas in 2012 as I was writing ‘Satellites’. I spent a lot of time there as a child. I’m from Greece, which is a big melting pot of Middle-Eastern and European cultures due to it being conquered by the Turks, Venetians, Moors etc. So a lot of our music is based on Middle-eastern instruments. For instance, the Oud is the predecessor of the Bouzouki, which is a Greek instrument.

 It was natural for me to at least do a song where I have a lot of instrumentation that I’m comfortable and familiar with. While I was in the Middle East, I started writing tidbits of that song and trying to imagine what would a Justice song sound like if it was written by Tinariwen. That more or less describes my influences: the Middle-Eastern cultures that I grew up with and French Electronic music.

As with ‘Neonhead’, the phrase ‘Cannibal Gods’ bopped into my head as yet another Lovecraftian cosmic horror vision.

That particular song’s arrangement of traditional instruments and modern sounds actually reminded me of Sepultura.

I love Sepultura! One of the big influences on this album was Sepultura and Mixhell, which is Igor Cavalera and his wife Laima Leyton’s current band. I actually played with them in the Underworld in London. They’re the nicest people on the planet! They have this song called Antigalactic which I’m obsessed with and that was very much inspiring a lot of the songs on this album. One of my favourite albums of all time is also Against by Sepultura. It’s very percussive, full of unimaginable triplets and syncopations. It definitely inspired quite a bit of Radio Galaxy. 

Without a doubt the craziest track on the album is the second to last song, “I Demoni”, named after the Italian translation of Dostoïevky’s novel. It feels very Giallo-esque with some Italian Prog influences. How did this song come about?

It’s definitely inspired by Giallo and Night of the Demons. I think this song marks the first time I thought to myself: “F-ck it, I’m just going to make the music I really want to make and not think of it in terms of aesthetics and vibes”. That made it fit even better into the album, weirdly. This is purely distilled Morricone, Mr.Bungle, Goblin and the oodles of metal that I listen to. I approached it as a Goblin song being produced by the band Jamaica. Visually, the song is essentially a splatter-fest in a room full of demons in the last ten minutes of a Giallo movie. 

Last time we met, you mentioned that your next songs were going to have some Mr.Bungle influences. Listening to this track, it finally started to make sense. Stylistically, it is easily the most radical shift you’ve done so far.

That’s not going anywhere. The next time I feel like doing something like that, I feel like it will go even further. I don’t know what ‘further’ would sound like, though. It all goes back to that ‘itch’ of wanting to do an album that everyone’s going to either hate or get super confused by. How much you curb that instinct defines you as an artist, I find. If you don’t have that instinct, that’s just weird. Aesthetics is basically how much you allow your mind to deviate from what’s expected of you.

To finish off, can you give us an album, book and film recommendation?

It’s sad because I used to read two books at a time, but Radio Galaxy took up so much of my time that it took up most of the time I wasn’t spending on work. I did listen to an audiobook of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind. It’s about the rise and creation of New Hollywood, started by Warren Beatty, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas… it’s a monumental telling of how New Hollywood took over.

While I was doing Midnight Signals, I kept noticing that my ‘Discover Weekly’ playlist kept recommending New Disco to me. Ever since then, all of my recommendations are Joe Jackson, Dr.Feelgood… all power-pop, punk, metal and guitar music in general. I think I’m finding my inspiration in guitar music again, just like the good old days.

Film-wise, I’m still in the same space as before. I’m done with American cinema. I think I’m firmly entrenched in Asian and European cinema. I’m just exhausted by Marvel. I’m even exhausted by A24.

My absolute favourite filmmakers right now are Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. They made a movie called Resolution and a sequel called Endless. Their first two movies are the most groundbreaking films I’ve seen in a long time. It doesn’t get more meta than those movies. They delve into the nature of films and their viewers, looping and rewatching a film. It very much informed Radio Galaxy and the whole mythology. Their stuff is incredibly exciting and it’s uncategorizable. I don’t think those two films can ever be popular, but they’re a mine for ideas.

 Thank you to Starcadian for taking the time to answer our questions!

 Starcadian ‘Radio Galaxy’ is out now via Bandcamp and Spotify.

For those unfamiliar with your work: where are you from and what is it that first drew you towards electronic music?

Hi, I’m Miles Matrix, a Synthwave / 80s Electro producer based in Vienna. I’m also a Synthwave DJ. I’ve been living in Vienna for about ten years now. I was born in Gibraltar but grew up in Germany after our family moved around Europe including France for a while.

I’ve been into electronic music all of my life really. Some of my first cassettes were 80s Electro, or “breakdance music”. I also had some cassette compilations where some artists covered popular tracks as synthesizer instrumental pieces, so I got into the sound very early. My taste in music is pretty eclectic, I am a huge Oasis fan too for example but electronic music has probably been the most steady constant in my life. I remember in the 90s, in my teens, I used to listen to recordings from the Love Parade and dance on my own to all the Techno, turning my desk light on and off again, to imitate a strobe.

The liner notes for LA BOUM mention a mixtape that introduced you to “Breakdance Music”. What brought you to consider fully embracing this sound for this latest album?

Yeah, that was a cassette a classmate of mine recorded for me in primary school. He was into breakdance, and while I couldn’t dance myself, I loved the music a lot. It was only years later I realized that was actually old-school electro, basically one of the origins of the dance music we listen to today. I never stopped loving the sound, and after a couple of albums where I was going for a more traditional Synthwave sound, now was the time for me to go down this route. And I must say I feel pretty happy on this road and I can imagine exploring this Electro sound even more on upcoming releases. There’s something very refreshing in this sound.

LA BOUM by Miles Matrix

Can you tell us a little about the gear you used to bring the 80s’ Electro sound back to life?

So I think the most important aspect in production was dedicating myself to some minimalism. As a synthwave producer, you tend to go all-in on FX and soundscapes, trying to be very cinematic or dark, which very often results in a million tracks in the DAW. Obviously, this approach wouldn’t be very authentic for a sound rooted in the 80s. But far more importantly it actually boosted my creative energies having to work with a limited amount of tracks. It forces you to focus on the essential parts of a song. It’s a challenge from a composition perspective as you can’t cheat your way around boring parts with “more FX / more pads / more sounds”.

My approach was to deconstruct what old-school Electro is made of. Essentially, it boils down to these parts: A groovy bassline, an infectious hook, reverb and delay, and most importantly: percussion. Electro gets its groove from an offbeat kick and the snare playing regularly on the 2 and 4. From there you can get really creative with hi-hats, cymbals, cowbell, rim shots and percussive effects. The percussion is the most important part of Electro.

In terms of gear, I had a hybrid approach. I composed a couple of my album songs on my Roland MC-101 and TR-08, giving them a finishing touch in my DAW. But also in the DAW I worked with authentic samples from the 808, 909, 727 and 505. The synths I used were nothing special because I was going for a raw sound, and based on the feedback so far, it really worked out.

Currently, I am working on translating the album to a hardware gear-only live set with my MC-101 and TR-08 and Monotribe. The concept is to have one continuous set and to that end, I am remixing every album song for a live performance to give it a bigger club touch. We are currently in lockdown but I can’t wait to perform the album live!

What are the aspects of NYC Club music and Breakdance music that hit you in ways that more modern dance or hip hop music fail to do?

I wouldn’t say “old music” is per se better or modern music worse. I listen to a lot of current electronic music. But I find myself returning to the “olden times” a lot. In terms of what I like to produce myself, this sweet spot in the 80s where acts like Newcleus, Egyptian Lover, Hashim and others were redefining electronic music, very much inspired by Kraftwerk on the one hand and disco and early hip hop culture on the other hand, this sweet spot really gets me. I love it.

Tell us a little about the songs ‘COUNTACH THIS!’ and ‘CUPCAKES’. What’s the story about these tracks about Lambos and Cupcakes?

Hahaha, it’s so funny to see the reactions to these particular songs. I know this is a very disappointing answer but there isn’t a huge story behind them, to be honest. Here’s the thing: When producing the instrumentals I tend to give them working titles, mostly some random word I come up with on the spot, which in this case was “Cupcakes” and “Lambo #5” respectively. And then I basically just started ad-libbing to the beats and that’s how the lyrics came about. I then sent them through a text-to-speech software and voilà. Countach this is of course a pun based on MC Hammer’s hit, but it just fit so perfectly. And Cupcakes, well, let’s just say I got carried away while ad-libbing…

If you were to book 5 artists from that classic 80s era for the perfect Breakdancing music night, who would you choose?

Damn, only 5??? That’s tough. I think I’d book Chris “The Glove” Taylor to DJ the night. I’d want Egyptian Lover, Newcleus and Cybotron to perform, with Ice-T emceeing the event. I think that would be so dope!

Closing off with the question I ask at the end of every interview: name one of your favorite albums, movies and books.

Tough again, haha. It always depends on the mood I’m in but I’ll give it a try. Album: The Crystal Method – Vegas. Movie: Jerry Maguire. Book: The Cartel Trilogy by Don Winslow!

Thanks to Miles Matrix for taking the time to answer our questions!

Miles Matrix ‘La BOUM’ is out now via Bandcamp and will be released on Spotify in December.

Cinematic, heavy and irresistibly funky, this latest iteration bears the unmistakable mark of the enigmatic space-lord. Loyal fans will no doubt shiver and shake it utter delight at the disco-funk riffs of ‘Culture’ or ‘Lovebeats’, basking in the awe-inspiring magnitude of ‘Gutter’ and ‘Satellites’ along their sonic journey into deep space. Between these familiar marks, however, lies an entirely new land to discover and marvel at. The esoteric twists and turn truly start to take over on the album’s fourth track ‘ Cannibal Gods’, which enters to the sounds of eerie detuned synths before kicking into high gears with distorted basslines, scintillating synth leads and middle-eastern instruments.

The record keeps throwing fresh ideas at you, adding a fresh, exciting touch to each track whilst keeping a purposeful, coherent flow throughout the album’s runtime. ‘I Demoni’ acts as the album’s narrative culmination and will without a doubt go down as one of the craziest Starcadian songs to date.

With Radio Galaxy, the masked synth lord marks the grand return fans have been waiting for

whilst indulging in some of the project’s most progressive and experimental pursuits to date.

Rather than cater to the songs he’s built his name on, Starcadian has dropped a record full of twists and turns that you simply cannot do without after your first spin.

Starcadian ‘Radio Galaxy’ is out now via Bandcamp and Spotify.

LA BOUM by Miles Matrix

The album strikes a clean balance between old-school Breakdance-oriented Electro-Funk and Club-oriented Dance beats and makes a strong case for one of the eighties’ more underappreciated subcultures, where style and attitude were the name of the game.  Whether you’re into flashy sportscars or have a serious (borderline psychotic) fixation on cupcakes, ‘LA BOUM’ has got you covered.

If your strain of eighties nostalgia includes memories of Afrika Bambaataa’s ‘Planet Rock’, Grandmaster Flash, Run DMC and Captain Rock, LA BOUM is most definitely the throwback party you’ve been waiting for. Standing still isn’t an option.

Favorite Tracks: KID MIDI, COMPUTERMUSIC

Miles Matrix ‘La BOUM’ is out now via Bandcamp and will be released on Spotify in December.

The whole record carries a distinct haunting yet soothing quality through its roomy, echoing reverb trails, orgasmic sax solos and bluesy midnight moods, adding up to what may well be Phaserland’s most cohesive and strongest effort to date. Whether you’re looking for a bit of synthpop melancholia or a bit of me-time under a cool blue moon, ‘Heart Plaza’ is the place for you.

Favorite Tracks : Space Glide, Another Night, Midnight Jazz

Phaserland ‘Heart Plaza’ is out now via Das Record on Bandcamp and Spotify