TOP PICKS

Street Cleaner – EDGE

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Microchip Terror – Illegal Experiments II

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WOLFCLUB – Just Drive (Part 1)

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Chiasm – Missed the Noise

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Ultrakiller – Death Trap

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Baldocaster – Cult of Saturn

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Castroe – Fall into You

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Galaxy 80 – Visions

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Siamese Youth – Echoes of Tomorrow

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Frank Redux – Memory Lane

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Honorable Mentions & Singles

Literature – Stoa

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Rupert Lally – Maniac’s Almanac

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Cyberoptics – Resurgence

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Austin Archer – Now That’s What I Call a Bunch of Austin Archer’s TikTok Songs Compiled Into an Album Vol​.​1

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Ev.exi & Rhodes Rodosu – Stellae / Infinitus

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Mecha Maiko – Kitchen Floor

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LukHash – Dying Breath

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Maxthor – Into the Light

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3FORCE – Alpha Prophecy

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Korine – Sunshine

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The Playlist

MN84 is a short intro track, the opening scene of a movie with menace and promise and hope – a journey through pink neon lights glossing over the cracked concrete, the dirt and fumes of the streets rising up to the luminescent sky.

A synthesized Xylophone effect stirs up tubular bells, lush Juno sequences and dreamy keys meander into a late night groove. The cinematic melodics, uplifting pads, outrun Arps, poly-driven pads all blend to create eerie and tense sequences.

The late-night leads make you feel what it is to cruise downtown LA three decades too late.

More than anything it sounds like the opening to an 80’s buddy cop movie that was never made but you’d give anything to see.

via Rosso Corsa Records

Spooling up “The Space Tapes” feels like slapping the lever down and watching the stars blur into hyperdrive – instantly you are transported into another place, another time – another dimension.

Out now on Rossa Corsa Records, “The Space Tapes” is the third full-length album from the cosmic James Mann, AKA the San Diego-based producer Syntax. Mann is no stranger to music, having played various instruments from an early age. He made a name for himself through his previous releases “Transmissions” and “Island Universe” – both fantastic albums in their own right. Not one to remain stagnant, however, Mann has truly topped himself with “The Space Tapes.”

Listening to this album is akin to touching the Monolith at the end of 2001. It feels like a journey – taking you places far beyond normal reach. Each track on this monster of an album (19 tracks!) feels like it builds upon the last – almost as if the album in its entirety is a single piece of progressive synthwave. In addition to the progressive ambient tonalities, we also hear bits and pieces of chillwave and a hint of deep house which acts to wonderfully accent Mann’s usual sound.

It is always difficult to progress while remaining true to your sound, and here Mann has done just that. “The Space Tapes” manages to mature the signature Syntax blend of ambient, delayed and reverbed arpeggios, all while adding a range of additional influences. The result is an ethereal, masterful blend that pulls you away from what you’re doing – making it almost hard to think – as if it were the soundtrack to some supernal deity’s dream.

In spite of this range of influences, “The Space Tapes” is a cohesive feat – managing to simultaneously dig deep into sci-fi tropes without ever bordering on the cheesy feel to which so many synthwave acts fall prey.  “The Space Tapes” stands out among many other releases in this respect. In a genre saturated with artists nothing about this album feels even remotely familiar – like drifting through uncharted space.

This is Mann’s best work and almost breaks the definition of the Syntax sound, in the best way possible. A must-listen. Stand out Tracks: “Cerillion,” “Dresden,” “Bellatrix (feat. Droid Bishop),” “HA9,” and “Illuminants (feat. STARFORCE)”

COMMUNITY RATINGS

It’s rare to be able to name an artist that so definitively defines a genre. All great synthwave artists strive to embody what makes it great; rolling synths, hard hitting beats, massive leads, and that unmistakable feeling that you could go on listening to it all night long. An artist that gives us all of this and more is none other than Garrett Hays, the man behind Lazerhawk. To date, he’s released four full albums, all chock full of their own style and brimming with that unmistakable synthwave and outrun sound. Just in case you somehow aren’t familiar with his work, we’ll take a look at what made these releases so important to this genre.

Hailing from Austin, Texas, and a founding member of Rosso Corsa Records, Lazerhawk has
quickly risen to the forefront of the scene due largely in part to his unique style that blends all of the best aspects of what makes music from the ‘80s so great along with everything we love
about modern synthwave. Jumping right in, Lazerhawk started us off in 2010 with his first
release, Redline. True to its name, this album can best be described as a high-octane thrill ride laced with fast paced synths that you simply can’t sit still for. Right off the line with the titular track “Redline” and its followup “Overdrive”, you can’t help but feel you’re putting the pedal down in a blood pumping car chase through a big city at night. Later tracks on Redline such as “Interstellar” and “So Close” show off Lazerhawks’ ability to slow things down and deliver soothing synths on top of smooth and catchy drumlines.

Around two years later and perhaps from another galaxy, the journey continues with Visitors, a slight departure in style compared to Redline but one that can’t be confused with the already timeless sound we’ve come to attribute to Lazerhawk. We’re given a taste of what to expect from this album with the opening track, “Lazerhawk’s Theme” which consists mostly of slower paced and dreamlike synths. This continues in “Visitors” and is done to perfection in “Distant
Signal 001”. It would not be an exaggeration to call Visitors one of the best sophomore follow up releases to an album in recent history. We can clearly see the influence that Redline had on the Lazerhawk sound with new innovations brought into it, all invoking that feeling of nostalgia that we crave.

Once again showing us that he can keep a signature sound while innovating with each new
release, Lazerhawk treated us to Skull and Shark in 2013. Displaying some of the best
production value yet, this release is pure horror-inspired electronic bliss. Out of any Lazerhawk
release so far, Skull and Shark is easily the album that is capable of making you feel like you’re
in another world. Each track feels hand crafted to tell a story. Just looking at each track title
almost gives us an idea of the events of this story. Required listening here is without a doubt
“King of the Streets” and “The Looks That Kill” that show us what hard rock style guitar mixed
with classic rolling synths sounds like.

Really, this album demonstrates what is essential for any artist; to show that they can use their signature style to create a diverse range of sounds. Finally, there is no better way to finish out this look at Lazerhawk than by highlighting his most recent release, Dreamrider. Out just this year, Dreamrider sounds like you may expect from its title. We can hear the influences of chill wave in tracks like “Cruise” and “Cool Breeze” that instantly transport us to another world. This
album gives us visions of beautiful vistas both earthly and otherworldly. As you can see, Lazerhawk has proven time and again that he is truly a titan of outrun synthwave. He constantly innovates and reminds us what this genre is really about. Even though Dreamrider was released very recently, we already can’t wait to see what he has in store for us next.

Written by Filip Galetic

Art by Defte

A lot has changed in synthwave since 2013, when Lazerhawk’s (until now now, last) album Skull and Shark came out. The genre has in many ways matured and a whole new generation of listeners and producers has joined the fray. Since then we’ve had the emergence of the dark synthwave, as well as an immense proliferation of synthwave artwork and synthwave music creations. What this resulted in, is that the tropes of the scene have solidified more than ever in the last 3-4 years. No one expects anymore an album cover NOT to feature some sort of a sunset scene or a laser grid. The naming convention based on combo of Neon, Night Drive and any given year between 1983 and 1987 has become a sort of an inside joke on the scene. Lazerhawk’s last album could even be seen as one of the culprits for the upheaval of the new (at the time) “horror” strain of synthwave.

This wasn’t surprising as by then he was already firmly rooted as one of the founding fathers of outrun synthwave and one part of the Holy Trinity of artists gathered around the mythical Rosso Corsa Records (others being Miami Nights 1984 and Mitch Murder). In any case, those were still more innocent times and so one of the questions attached to this hugely anticipated album by one of the original greats of the early 2010s synth…wave was:

How is he going to sound today? What can he do that hasn’t already been overdone, covered, remixed, borrowed and brought to the point of parody by many of his “lesser” scene compadres? The answer comes at the same time as a surprise and as a natural progression of his output that makes perfect sense:

The synthwave demigod has returned in full force. Dreamrider suffuses LH years of producer expertise and creates a thoroughly complete body of work that is in every way more than the sum of its parts.
It’s an album in truest sense, built around a single central thread: LH’s undeniable mastery of the form. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a typical themed LH album. All LH albums had a strong theme, yet this album takes everything he has done so far and creates something new that cannot be really named. It dispenses with the, in reality, silly idea of making either a “space” album, or “driving” album or a “romance” album.

The sounds he paints could easily be found in a movie about a tryst gone bad, or one with an urban car chase or even a sci-fi thriller with unimaginable vistas. Above all, it’s an album about making the best possible tribute to the classic synthwave form. It favors repetition over random stitching of song parts that don’t go together, gradual-build ups of texture over brash showing off of technical skills. If there wasn’t the LH logo on the cover, you might mistake it for a random release by a scene hopeful releasing their album from their bedroom. But what you actually are getting is something like champagne of synthwave.
Slow burning, but oh so rewarding. This isn’t an album for synthwave producers, the structure might seem simplistic, but that’s the point. LH didn’t make this album so he can flex his muscle on a FB synthwave producer forum with other C category music makers, oh no. He does this because he is on a mission to create the most beautiful and transcending soundscape possible. Grand but at the same time very introspective. The compositions are full of subtle emotion and LH skillfully plays with our expectation through clever use of repetition followed by unforeseen shift in tonality and mood.

A case in point is the beautiful sprawling Cruise which in hands of a more rookie producer would have been just the same plodding motif built around the same hook, maybe enhanced with some additional licks here and there. But LH is in it to tell an emotional story and so the shifts in mood within a track can totally catch you off guard. Take for example the title track, a percussion-less study of harmony and subtle feelings that cannot be named. This track will at the same time make you feel like you suddenly understand the meaning of life and have you realize the ephemeral nature of existence. Back are his signature guitar riffs that made Star Hustler such an epic track – my personal favorite from the Visitors LP. It appears here and there but in the best way on Cool Breeze, which could have been another vocal track easily.

The only vocal track is the third one with GUNSHIP which succeeds at being more than just an interesting experiment. Lazerhawk has a better grip on the song structure compared to GUNSHIP on their first record, which was great but a little all over the place in comparison. Coupled with just the right lyrical balance between simple and embellished, it’s a welcome proof Lazerhawk can do more than just Lazerhawk. After the Moroder-esque REM, comes one of the strongest tracks on the album, the warped Mirror Between Worlds that evokes images of some off-world drama with some truly unique chord progressions. The closing track – Dreams in the Dusk – at first feels like an odd choice with its morose and defeatist mood. However, eventually it becomes clear it’s not as it seems. You will just have to listen to find out why.

10/10