Favorite tracks : 授与な 事, Light Nude, Mirror Spit

Danny Scott Lane ‘Holy Goodnight’ is out now via Bandcamp.

Every hit lands square on target with devastating results and the fuzzy basslines are finetuned to raise hairs throughout the album’s 11 tracks. Cyberpunks best not miss on this top-shelf release by darksynth’s newest recruit lest they want to miss some of the season’s heaviest singles.

Be sure to grab a digital download of the album, as it comes with a pdf and audiobook of the album’s story.

Favorite tracks : The Fear (feat.Magnavolt), Back to Sleep Again (feat. King Protea), Highrider (feat.DreamReaper)

Starfarer ‘The Dark’ is out now on Bandcamp and Spotify.

Dimensional is out now on Bandcamp via Innerworks Records.

Gregg Araki can be at times a polarizing director. Some people just really don’t like his work. I remember browsing for videos at the former KIM’S Video down on ST. MARK’s Place and over hearing the clerks or film hipsters discussing how his films are nonsense and style over substance. And the former may have a bit of truth to it. His films are very colorful and very stylish. However, it’s the subversion that makes it worth it. His films and especially his trilogy are in a way a parody of youth culture in the late 90’s.

The vibrant color pallet acting as a veneer for the disconnected and apathetic teenager of the decade. The Doom Generation was a satire of the Hollywood road movie as Nowhere is a satire of the coming of age teen romantic comedy.

Nowhere starts off like most men start their day – masturbating in the shower. Our love hungry protagonist named simply ‘DARK’ is young, alone and desperate for someone to love him. His journey now seen in retrospect appears sad, depressing and often pathetic but, in 1997 was relatable to a younger me. He is hopelessly in love with a woman who would rather not be in a relationship and juggles between play partners like addicts interchange excuses. He wants all the cliche tropes of romance and she just wants a good time. This dynamic is an obvious role reversal of the classic teen romance. She’s the shallow jock and he’s the awkward teenage girl. More specifically he’s a ‘time hoe’ as Patrice O’Neal once put it in one of his podcast rants.

The world of Los Angeles as it is shown in this film is already past the ground zero of the apocalypse populated by teenagers roaming the streets, boardwalks and coffee houses of the former world looking for kicks and satisfaction. Some scenes are set up to look like Night of the Comet. The color pallet is here and in full bloom with set designs acting as enhancement to the psychological turmoil of these characters like the bedroom of one character on the verge of suicide. And some moments just being blatant obvious metaphors for character motivations like when Dark is literally holding onto a towel that says ‘HOPE’ at Jujyfruit’s house party – The poor bastard is holding onto hope.

Life seems like such a bummer until Dark meets Montgomery and feels somewhat of a connection and love at first sight chemistry with him. Should he stay in a one way relationship or test the waters with this handsome yet dumb blonde he’s just met early that afternoon.

Nowhere stars James Duval as Dark, and co-stars: Rachel True, Kathleen Robertson, Christina Applegate, Scott Caan and Guiermo Diaz with a who’s-who of B-list celebrities from the 90’s. Every scene with have at least two celebrities as minor characters including Shannen Doherty, Charlotte Rae, Debi Mazar, Jordan Ladd, Christina Applegate, Jeremy Jordan, Jaason Simmons, Beverly D’Angelo, Eve Plumb, Christopher Knight, Traci Lords, Rose McGowan, John Ritter, Mena Suvari, Staci Keanan, Devon Odessa, Chiara Mastroianni, the Brewer twins and Brian Buzzini. There’s more but I don’t have the time to list everybody. Favorite characters would have to be the twins played by Ryan Phillippe and Jordan Ladd. The really funny and the type of guy I grew up with people person/drug dealer ‘Handjob’. And of course ELVIS (Thyme Lewis) is the scene stealer every if he’s only in the film for less than ten minutes. The tomato can scene also being blatant metaphor for the action taking place in said scene.

The cinematography was handled by Arturo Smith. The soundtrack to the film featured songs from Slowdive, 311, Radiohead, Elastica, Hole, The Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack, Curve, Lush, Ruby, Marilyn Manson, Chuck D, Suede, James, Portishead and more.

Watch it. Be merry. Be cool. Be swell. Be good. Keep that finger on the rewind button and I’ll see you on the flipside. Be seeing you.

Michael Oakley is turning heads with his debut EP “California.” Oakley is a Glasgow born, recent Canadian transplant known for his melancholic synth-pop and a heady mix of 80’s power-ballad vocals.

“Rabbit in the Headlights” is the first dazzling track on the new “California” EP – and also happens to be the first track Oakley produced when starting the Michael Oakley project a little over a year ago. This very first track has garnered over 150,000 views – an insane amount of playtime for any beginning producer!

The hype is easy to understand.  The tracks on “California” play out like the soundtrack to a John Hughes film updated for the 21st century.

Each cut from this EP is produced and mixed very well, with plenty of layered nostalgic synths aiming to please to even the most ardent of synth heads. Oakley’s pop vocals – a breathy mix that brings to mind the likes of John Waite and Spandau Ballet – are a perfectly gaudy addition to the backing tracks. This particular mix of synth and vocals make for a perfect larger-than-life romantic soundtrack experience.

In fact, all of the tracks on this EP are themed around romance – and the EP itself was inspired by a nasty breakup – as Oakley explained in an interview with Music Musings and Such.

“I started writing California shortly after a very painful break-up with someone I was in a long-term relationship with. I was completely lost in every way – emotionally and spiritually….Every song on the E.P. is a love song in all the different shades you can have: a love lost, a love found and a love you’re trying to find….I decided to make the kind of music I loved listening to when I was a kid just for me – and I was shocked and overwhelmed at how well my music been received so far.”

Over all, the music sounds true to his vision, with each track bleeding these romantic, 80’s synth-pop vibes.  “California” is an overall fantastic soundtrack retro-ballad of an EP, and a fantastic debut as well.

I would have liked to see an instrumental b-side released just like The Midnight did with “Endless Summer” – for the synth heads in the audience that generally steer away from vocals – but even those fans may be pleasantly surprised at this release.

Top Tracks: “End of Summer,” “California(feat. Missing Words),” and “Rabbit in the Headlights”

California by Michael Oakley

COMMUNITY RATINGS

DANCE WITH THE DEAD / PROTECTOR 101/
FUTURE HOLOTAPE / SYNTAX

This is our first huge event so we need all you Synth-heads to come out and have a good time! 

Presale – $12 (Goes on sale 3/15) 
Advanced – $14
At the Door – $16

Performances by…

DANCE WITH THE DEAD – 
https://dancewiththedead.bandcamp.com/ 

PROTECTOR 101- 
https://protector101.bandcamp.com/ 

FUTURE HOLOTAPE- 
http://futureholotape.bandcamp.com/releases 

SYNTAX- 
http://30thfloor.uk/album/island-universe

Come down and enjoy some Retro wave vibes.

More details here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/588698311286791/