January Highlights

Neko Milkshake – Neko Milkshake 

(Future Funk )

Listen

Donor Lens – Live At Pink Bird

(Vaporwave/Synthpop)

Listen

Useless – Octa & Hexa

(Vaporwave/Retrowave)

Listen

Listen

Collection Privée – Ready.Go.Disco

(Synthwave/Future Funk)

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Listen

Pan!c Pop -5!ve 5tar

(Vaporwave/Future Funk)

Listen

Absolute Valentine – American Nightmares

(Retrowave)

Listen

Kick Puncher – LiveDieRepeat

(Retrowave/Darksynth)

Listen

Ultraboss – Gravitas

(Retrowave/Darksynth)

Listen

Lazer Station – Time Blazer

(Synthwave/Darksynth)

Listen

Dead Astronauts – Silhouettes

(Retrowave/Darkwave)

Listen

Singles & Honorable Mentions

Tokyo Rose & Johnny Craig – Dark Knights

Lau – The Cards

John Carpenter – Alive After Death

Ulver – Machine Guns & Peacock Feathers (Carpenter Brut Remix)

Night Tempo – 集中 Concentration

Paradise of Yesterday – 1994

蒸気YAMTA – 蒸気YAMTA

Iden Kai – Disco Fortuna

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While this is first and foremost a synthwave record, the way that it blends those familiar nostalgic sounds with the darkness and atmosphere of a group like Purity Ring and the ethereal pop sensibilities of an artist like How to Dress Well or Banks makes for a haunting pop album. Mad But Soft’s opening track “Cold Hard Ground” wastes no time in orienting listeners to Stewart’s sound. For reference, you don’t hear a single non-pad synth for nearly a minute. You don’t hear drums for nearly two. Instead, you are enveloped by the texture of vocals and pads blending, with the delay and reverb-laden vocals forming a similar sonic texture to the droning, washed out synth that lays beneath it. This is an atmospheric track welcoming listeners to an atmospheric album.

Follow-up track “Electric Heat” is noticeably more upbeat, but doesn’t shy away from the brooding and emotionally vulnerable tone that has been established, all while the catchy refrain of “Can you feel my heartbeat?” echoes. The tone of this album is unique. In some respects it has the kind of emotional rawness exhibited on such classics as Trevor Something Does Not Exist, but with a humbler and less cynical perspective. At the heart of both is the sound of heartache. In a lot of ways, the title Mad But Soft is the perfect name for it. This is an emotionally driven record that doesn’t shy away from its own playful spirit. The titular track follows suit by being musically high energy and dance-oriented while the vocals stay melancholy and dreamy.

“Cold”, with its Dana Jean Phoenix feature, is the closest the album gets to standard synthwave, but the strong sense of melody in the chorus keeps it from sounding stale. “Bike Night” slows things back down and serves as one of the best “headphones songs” on the album. It just envelopes the listener in a way that exemplifies the parts of this album that so effectively inspire chills. Closing out the album is the back to back to back creative and experimental wave of songs “Contract”, “False Memories”, and “Auto Fire”, with “Auto Fire” being the best song on the album. In these tracks, the album opts for its strangest synths and its most spaced-out atmospheres, and on “Auto Fire”, the emotional strike of the album is at its high point, and only rivaled by how endlessly catchy the vocal melodies at the center are.  

If you are an exclusive fan of darker or more concept-oriented synthwave, this might be hard to get into. The same goes for people who tend to avoid artists that really drench themselves in delay and reverb. For everyone else, and especially for people who like distinctive synthwave that opts to be something different and something authentic, this is going to be a melancholic, catchy, and unique album that will deserve multiple spins. There is a lot to love on nearly every track and it would be shocking if this didn’t wind up on an end-of-year list.

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It’s great. Seriously, this album is very good for the entire duration and doesn’t let up. Opening track “Roam” is largely a mood-establishing track, but when Hayley Stewart’s vocals kick in, drenched in space, it’s hard not to get chills, and even harder not to get them when the strange synth melody starts playing behind it. On Arms of Night, Hayley Stewart gives her best vocal performance to date. Her range has increased since Constellations, and the delivery has taken on an ethereal quality that matches the instrumentals even more than on any of the band’s previous releases. Jared Kyle’s vocals are still unlike anybody else in the scene and channel the 80’s underground heavily. Male vocals in synthwave are still somewhat of a novelty, so most male vocalists manage to sound distinct on synthwave tracks. Even if an established cliche male vocal style existed in the genre, I don’t think Kyle’s vocals would qualify as it. Just listen to the album’s titular track. Apart from the compositional, melodic, and lyrical nod to Echo & the Bunnymen, there is a serious channelling of the unsung heroes of the 80’s. 

There’s a lo-fi vibe to much of this album, but it largely adds to the experience and highlights just how strong the melodies are. The chorus of “War We Fight” is prime example of this, and also a prime example of the best weapon in Dead Astronauts’ arsenal. When Kyle and Stewart sing in unison, it is always the best part of the song. I’m not sure how this would translate if an entire track was constructed like this, but by using it where they do, it creates clear highlights in the songs where it’s used. “No Voice Remains” and “Black Echo” are two standouts in a row as the first half of the album ends. The former is catchy from the ground up, with something pleasing to hear in every layer of its constant use of countermelody. The latter is one of the poppier moments of the album, which is definitely not a bad thing. Pop is not usually associated with darksynth, but when Dead Astronauts tap into their pop sensibilities they are at their most memorable and exciting. There is a real ear for hooks. 

“Eject” might be the best song on the album, and more than any other song that the group has released deserves to be listened to on the best headphones you have. The pairing of low synths with chirping synths against a pulsing background groove recalls some of the Crystal Castles best work but with Dead Astronauts clearer sense of melody and retro aesthetic. The strange “Invisible Creatures” follows, which has some of the oddest sounds on the album and uses them to great effect. 

This album deserves, at the very least, a listen from anybody casually interested in the genre. It is a solid evolution from one of the most original artists in the scene and manages to be a standout in already standout year. 

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

]]> https://newretrowave.com/2016/11/19/dead-astronauts-arms-of-night/feed/ 0 https://newretrowave.com/2014/12/22/wretrowave-com201412top-ten-eps-of-2014-html/ https://newretrowave.com/2014/12/22/wretrowave-com201412top-ten-eps-of-2014-html/#respond Mon, 22 Dec 2014 16:07:00 +0000 http://new-retro-wave.com/2014/12/22/wretrowave-com201412top-ten-eps-of-2014-html/  NewRetroWave’s Top Ten EPs of 2014

by Joey Edsall

(@JoeyEdsall)

10. Dynatron – Throttle
Up

My list begins with the first release I reviewed for NRW. I
initially described the release as “confident“, and after months of
listening this still stands.  Throttle Up has a thumping, driving quality
to it that never really lets up.

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Soundcloud

9. Sagittarius V – Renegade

Sagittarius V’s thematic and dystopian release from September 2014 was one I found myself going back over several times.
Several of the songs balance this line between frantic and calming, a quality
which made this EP a standout.

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8. Midnight Static – Colorwave
No Album Art Available

The undeniably catchy and lo-fi tracks on Midnight Static’s
very recent release feel like they could be New Order demo tapes. Let me be
clear: A lot of the synths on this EP are not pristine and clear. Let me be
clearer: they sound beautiful and it makes this release memorable, unique, and
one of the ten best synthwave EP’s of the year. Oh, and it’s free.

Soundcloud

7. Com Truise – Wave 1 

Moving away from the most obscure on this list to the
closest this list has to “mainstream“, Com Truise released an EP this year, and
it was (unsurprisingly) groovy and awesome. While demonstrating the scene’s
love of certain words (“waves“, in this case, more on that later!), the
releases showcases a lot of funk sensibilities, a trait that I noticed popping
up in a lot of underground electronic releases this year.

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6. Dead Astronauts –  ­Self Titled EP 2.0

If you’re like me and loved Dead
Astronauts’ full length, then you would be happy to know they
have a name your price EP also available on Bandcamp. It is technically a
rerelease of a 2013 EP, but has re-mastered audio and bonus tracks to keep you
more than satisfied. It has everything that made Constellations so memorable and enjoyable.

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5. Josef Kenny – Parallax

Parallax really
emphasizes the ­–lax in this subdued, chill EP. The album is dripping in
analog, being recorded with a slew of synthesizers, guitars, and a drum machine
all into a cassette recorder. While the digital vs. analog debate is…endless,
the EP has an identity all to its own and is refreshingly original from start
to finish. The guitar work in particular in this album is unlike any guitar on
any release this year.

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Soundcloud

4. Marco Maiole – Pollen­

Marco Maiole’s debut from November has one of my favorite
opening tracks of any release of the year. This is another very funky release
this year, with upbeat and euphoric synths and vocoder laced vocals. The entire
EP feels like the playlist for a dance club that closed when you were too
young, and you spend the rest of your life imagining how much fun it must have
been.

3. Timecop1983 – Waves

Wait a minute… Retrowave artists love Miami and the night.
Miami is in Florida. Florida gets a lot of waves. Retrowave artists really love waves. This website is
called NewRetro….Wave. Illuminati
confirmed! Open your eyes, people!

Nobody does dreamy like Timecop1983. His
absolute skill with setting mood and then refining it with beautiful melodies is what makes me return to his music time and time again. He is
hands down one of the best artists in the scene. This EP has a lot of long
songs, but not one deserves to be skipped.

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2. Arcade High – Heat
Wave

Waves again (shut up, it counts)! The record label
Telefuture has been all over this list with their unique batch of artists. The
titular track features vocals by Morissa Trunzo and its combination of joy and
sine waves is so good that it would find its way into the list on the strength
of that track alone. It is that good.  The reason it is so high up on the list is
because the other tracks on Heat Wave
are all impressive. The EP manages to make you really wish it had twice the
amount of songs it had.

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1. Starcadian – Saturdaze

Another countdown win for Starcadian! Two minutes of Saturdaze opening track, “Ultralove“,
should show you why. Starcadian manage to mix lush pads and retro sounding
synths with high-energy beats and a very Random
Access Memories-esque feel. No release this year left me wanting to dance this
much. The entire EP is gripping and interesting and really unlike anything else
in the scene. It is impossible to listen to it and stay motionless. You find
yourself possessed by Saturdaze.

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Hello! First I wanted to thank you so much for taking the time to answer some questions. The NRW community loved your album and would love to learn more about you. 

 Hayley: The pleasure is ours! We’re thrilled to be here.

 Jared: Likewise, we are both followers of NRW, so honored to be a part.

 Let’s start basic: Who are the members of Dead Astronauts and how did you form?

H: Dead Astronauts is made up of Jared and I. He approached me a few years ago through Soundcloud to do some vocals on DA’s very first single, Favorite Lover, and immediately after asked if I wanted to be a permanent member of the band. We were still experimenting with different roles and debating if we needed another person on board, but we ended up sticking to just the two of us since we seemed to work so well together. Soon after, my role as vocalist turned into vocalist and producer, and it hasn’t changed since.

J: Yeah we had struggled for a bit with another producer early on, but it didn’t seem to be the right fit. Hayley took a stab at producing “In Disguise” and it worked out nicely. Although I do a bit of the production, I just normally serve to help direct some of it, Hayley has all the technical aspects of it nailed down.

How would you describe your music? What genre or genres would you classify yourselves as?

H: Hmm, that’s a tough one. We’re definitely 80s inspired, but it shines through in some songs more than others. I think it’s somewhere between neo-80s synth pop and coldwave. But then there’s songs like our remix of Unhappy Woman that totally goes against that, ha ha. Our sound definitely shifts shape a little bit each time we work on a new track. Our music is usually dark, vocal, and fairly danceable.

J: I use to want to fit us into a specific genre, but I like how we’ve been able to sort of mutate these different sounds to become a mash-up of a few genres. I like the diversity in that because we can explore the darker side of things on one song, and then the next get into this synth-pop sort of vibe.

Who would you say are your biggest influences musically?

H: I think that some elements of Joy Division, New Order and Depeche Mode have definitely influenced our sound. Junior Boys, too. Both Jared and I have similar taste so it’s bound to come through at some points, although it definitely changes here and there. 

J: Hayley said it.

What is your recording set-up?

H: Jared and I both record everything in our respective “home studios” (I use quotations because mine is literally a Blue Mic in front of my computer). I work on the production in Logic, usually while chatting with Jared in Skype and broadcasting the audio for what I’m working on. When he needs to record, I upload a little bounced instrumental file to our Dropbox, he records, sends me his files, and we continue on like this. It sounds like a lot of steps, but it all happens pretty simultaneously. Sometimes he’ll have vocal ideas along with a basic skeleton of a track, and I will rework the track around his vocals.

J: Computer, Blue mic, Sennheisser HD 380 Pros, M-Audio speakers, Ableton, and FL Studio. I’m far from pro at this music thing, but man I do enjoy it. 

What is your songwriting process?

H: Jared is pretty much the go-to guy for that. He usually has lyrics ready that he wants to use, so I build a track around it – although the opposite happens quite often too. Every now and then I will come up with a few lines to add to the tracks, but for the most part they are based around Jared’s writing. The man has a stockpile, I tell you!

J: Like Hayley said we normally toss ideas back and forth a few times. They are either built off an instrumental idea that Hayley had, or a vocal idea that I had, but again, at times it works differently. I remember for “In Disguise” I had a beat, bassline, and this eerie bell sound laid out with some vocals, sent them to Hayley, and what I got back was this georgeous, polished song. If it could work that seamless every time… we’d have 4 albums by now.

What is the origin of the band mascot, Persephone?

H: Persephone was a brainchild of Jared and Glenn Arthur. Maybe I’ll let him answer this one. 

J: I had used the Persephone character in a number of personal (illustration) pieces years back, so the character just stuck with me. I’d approached Glenn Arthur about re-envisioning her, and he came up with this darker side of her I hadn’t seen yet. The crystal antlers, partial skull mask etc. were all these additions unique to the Dead Astronauts version of Persephone. We fell in love with her, and I’m hoping she’ll stick with us through the years as DA.

The way your band embraces art and animation makes it seem as much a media project as a musical project. Was this an intentional direction that you have taken?

H: Definitely! Both Jared and I work in visual fields (Jared with Illustration, myself with photography) so it’s always on our mind when thinking about what we can do with our band. Since we’re so far away from one another geographically, it’s a little tricky to do live shows – so we have to add a little something extra. It’s been great to collaborate with artists who are so talented, even when we were just starting out and no one really knew who we were, ha ha.

J:Yeah we really wanted to make listening to our music an overall “experience”. Naturally that would be achieved through a live show or music video, but since we are fairly new to this, we had to start out a bit more simple. We were both surprised when so many artists agreed to take part in the project, I think there are over 30 now. We owe them a lot.

In less than a month the physical copies of your Constellations have sold out. I still stand by it as one of my favorite releases of the year regardless of genre. Did you anticipate Constellations to be as well received as it has been?

H: Aw, thank you so much! I was definitely pleasantly surprised – I honestly didn’t know what to expect. Most of our fans knew us from collaborations with artists like Perturbator and DJ Ten, who are so unbelievably talented and ooze the 80s, so it was intimidating since the album is pretty different from some of those sounds. It felt like this secret project Jared and I had been working on for years without very much insight into how people might receive it. I am so thrilled that people seem to like it though, especially since looking back there’s always things you want to change, ha ha. I think we’re excited to move forward and see where our next projects take us.

J: “Not knowing what to expect” was a big thing for us. Being artists, you always have that nagging feeling in the back of your head that what you are doing isn’t good enough. I think it hit us half way through the album, maybe even sooner, that we wanted to make music we were proud of, music we would listen to, something that was unique, no matter the public’s reaction. I think we achieved that. Both Hayley and I are proud of the album. Like anything, looking back there are things we’d do differently, but overall we are very happy with both the response we’ve received from the public and of course the overwhelming support for the album. Also, it was a big surprise to see you enjoyed the album so much. I stumbled across the review one day and remembered reading it twice over with a smile on my face.

What are your favorite non-musical things to do?

H:  An obvious one for me is photography – I haven’t been updating my site very much, but I’ve been doing a lot of work recently that looks at identity and different subcultures. On a less pretentious note, I have rekindled my love of sewing, ha ha. Recently that’s translated into working on cosplays. If we’re getting real casual, an ideal night for me involves some friends, a cat, some gin, Super Smash Bros, Settlers of Catan and really stupid videos on the internet.

J: Besides time spent with my wife and 2 dogs (Apollonia and Persephone), I’m a Footwear Designer and Graphic Illustrator/Designer by day, freelancer illustrator by night, and “musician” anywhere in between. Besides those though, I’m an avid video gamer, Lego builder, classic anime robot collector, and all round space travelling mega playboy… yeah that last one is a lie, I’m more like an intergalactic lumberjack.

What’s your favorite Dead Astronauts song?

H: Probably Parallel Universes. My favorite track right now is actually one we’re working on that we haven’t finished yet. 😉

J: Honestly, I love the simplicity of “The Ocean Owns Your Body”, but that’s kind of cheating because it’s a bonus track, so official album, I’d have to say either “Parallel Universes” or “Taking Control”. Taking Control mainly because it holds a special place in my heart as I wrote it for my brother.

Check Dead Astronauts out on Facebook, Twitter, and their website.

– Joey Edsall

(@JoeyEdsall)

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