astronaut arcade – NewRetroWave – Stay Retro! | Live The 80's Dream! https://newretrowave.com Stay Retro Tue, 13 Feb 2018 11:54:29 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.7 https://newretrowave.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/cropped-10906530_846941002018082_8508920941385779369_n-1-32x32.jpg astronaut arcade – NewRetroWave – Stay Retro! | Live The 80's Dream! https://newretrowave.com 32 32 Top 10 Retrowave EP’s of 2015 https://newretrowave.com/2015/12/13/top-10-retrowave-eps-of-2015/ https://newretrowave.com/2015/12/13/top-10-retrowave-eps-of-2015/#respond Sun, 13 Dec 2015 16:30:10 +0000 http://new-retro-wave.com/2015/12/14/20151213top-10-retrowave-eps-of-2015/ The NewRetroWave Top 10 Retrowave EP's of 2015 is finally here.

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10. SID64 – Future Nostalgia

Charles Michaud’s alter ego SID64 illustrates the potential that music has to tell stories. His experience composing film soundtracks no doubt lends itself to the best parts of his summer EP Future Nostalgia. The lead synth lines are the highlight, and they shine best on “Violet City”.

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9.  Moondragon – Miramar

While many artists in theretrowave / synthwave / outrun scene focus on the atmosphere created by and created for driving, Moondragon looks to the skies. Even without the Bandcamp description, Troy Simpson’s music lives in the experience of liftoff. “Maneuvers” is the biggest standout track. 

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8.  The Starfighter – After Hours

Dustin Fraser’s retro-inspired project The Starfighter is unique in that there is an understanding of the kind of power empty space can have in music. Just because every moment of a song can show you how fancy it can be with melody or effects doesn’t mean that is neccesarily always should. The open spaces are exactly what make After Hours memorable and groovy. The best song here is “Night Hawk”.

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7.  Waveshaper – Solar Drifter

Solar Drifter opens with one of the most danceable songs of 2015, regardless of genre. While “Stellar Jupiter” is the best song on the EP, the supporting songs after it each bring a confident and catchy mix of sounds. This was one of the first new releases I heard this year, but it stuck with me since. 

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6. Raydar – Evil Squad

If the first track on your release is titled “Satan”, you know exactly what you are doing. Evil Squad is as menacing as it is infectious from beginning to end. It manages to blend in several glitch hop elements throughout the five-track run. The best song is ” Lycanthrope”, which is set dead in the middle of the EP.

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5. Sebastian Gampl – Winner

Winner is not homage to music from the 1980’s. Apart from the release date, it is music from the 1980’s.  I have a soft spot for vocal synthwave, and the vocals on this EP are a perfect match for the music, and the melodies are exceedingly catchy. “Without You” is the highlight here.

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4. Robert Parker – Cardinal

Cardinal is an EP that knows it’s cool. It expertly weaves 80’s synths with 90’s nu-disco grooves and funky bass lines.  The production is clear and punchy, serving the funk and disco. The way Robert Parker weaves music from three decades, in particular on the track “Flashback”, shouldn’t be missed.

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3. SelloRekT / LA Dreams – Sounds and Waves

Being “weird” in terms of sound is impressive in its own right. What is more difficult, however, is composing weirdly. The songs on SelloRekT / LA Dreams’ EP Sound and Waves utilize familiar sounds from the scene, but every single track contains surprising melodies and turns that you don’t expect the songs to take. The album leaves an impression of being strange while not always being able to tell exactly why. It’s the songwriting. The titular track, “Sounds and Waves”, is the standout. 

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2. OGRE – Gradients Live

And once in a very long while, an artist comes along with a release that manages to be constantly unexpected in terms of craft and sound, all the while pushing the genre into territory as of yet unexplored. The entire EP was recorded live and in one take on forty-year-old cassette. And that odd quality to the sound? You’re hearing all hardware. Nothing on this EP was created in a computer. It’s odd and catchy and atmospheric all at once. A large part of the charm is found in the improvisational quality the music has, but it’s built on a foundation of true talent. If OGRE refines it, I can honestly see him releasing the Kid A of synthwave albums. Every song on this EP is the standout, but if I absolutely had to pick: “A3”. 

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1.  The Northern Lights – Teenage Wasteland

The Northern Lights released an excellent album this summer under the moniker Astronaut Arcade. Teenage Wasteland was released shortly after, and it feels like the night following the summer day that permeated that album. The indie and nu-gaze influences can still be heard on this EP, where they are complemented by either catchy and breathy vocal performances or catchy and breathy synths. It’s chilled out, well written, and sonically interesting from beginning to end. “Say Goodbye” leads the pack as the closing track, bringing in everything that made the EP great with what I swear is some inspiration from Twin Peaks.

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]]> https://newretrowave.com/2015/12/13/top-10-retrowave-eps-of-2015/feed/ 0 The Astronaut Arcade – Electric Summer https://newretrowave.com/2015/06/25/the-astronaut-arcade-electric-summer/ https://newretrowave.com/2015/06/25/the-astronaut-arcade-electric-summer/#respond Thu, 25 Jun 2015 13:59:53 +0000 http://new-retro-wave.com/2015/06/25/2015625the-astronaut-arcade-electric-summer/

One of my favorite things about the scene is the fact that you can find an artist you have never heard before, who is good enough that you definitely should have heard of them before, and who has been active long enough to give you a catalogue to listen through. This was my experience with Electric Summer by The Astronaut Arcade, my favorite album of 2015 so far and one that is setting a high bar for summer releases.

“Pacific Lights” is my favorite song on the album and shows some pretty strong M83 influences. Where M83 lands more in the realm of shoegaze (or nugaze if we’re being Wikipedia genre snobs about it), Astronaut Arcade lands squarely in the retro synthwave genre, bringing just enough of the bombast and atmosphere to give Electric Summer an immediately recognizable sound. It also showcases how this album can have an almost lo-fi sound while still maintaining cohesiveness.

Vocals are present on a number of tracks. The interesting thing about them is that they act more as textures than focus points. The lyrics aren’t always discernable, but the melodies and production add to the track in the way that an additional synth might. It’s exciting while never coming off as a novelty. 

While I am piling praise on this album, I want to acknowledge that some NRW readers might not be as into this sound. It is not an album for fans of (and I don’t mean this negatively) heavily compressed dance oriented songs. The beats don’t hit as hard as many other synthwave albums. This is not a bad thing, as it allows the rest of the mix room to breathe. The level of reverb and echo on some tracks might be overbearing as well, but again, this adds to the atmosphere the album is so intent on crafting.

I am a fan of science fiction themed concept albums and have given them high praise in the past. That is a trend that is popular in the synthwave music. Because of this, the straightforward and personal songwriting of Electric Summer is so refreshing. The Astronaut Arcade knew exactly when to release this album. Hearing it on the cusp of summer 2015 it feels like a cool wave of water. It is rare for me to start an album over immediately after listening straight through it. This album did that for me. Beginning to end, it is refreshing, emotional, and most importantly fun. If you do buy this album, for the love of all that is retro play it while you drive.

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