summer – NewRetroWave – Stay Retro! | Live The 80's Dream!

Duett drops new record “Leisure”

Robin Ono — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 21:27:13 +0000

Need an extension on your summer break? London’s Duett has got you covered with their new record ‘Leisure’, an effervescent output of good vibes delivered with a vapory veneer. On what may be his most accomplished record to date, Ben Macklin delivers a funky, chilled set of ambiences you’ll want to bask in for hours on end. The Chillwave and Mallsoft touches add a beautiful immersive feel to the songs whilst also providing a nice sense of flow and context to the whole listening experience.

Simply put, Leisure bears the unmistakable mark of an artist for whom the eighties aesthetic is a preferred sonic palette rather than a crutch.

Duett’s ‘Leisure’ is out now on bandcamp and other streaming platforms.

London, get ready for Retro Future Festival

Robin Ono — Sat, 20 Jul 2019 10:00:22 +0000

Seven days from now, London’s Southbank will be hosting what is already setting out to be the undisputed Retro gathering of the summer. European retroheads, mark your calendars on July 27^th if you haven’t already, because Retro Future Fest is a date you’re not going to want to flake out on. “The latest edition of Retro Future Festival is our biggest and best line-up yet.” Explains festival co-organizer James Secker. Sure enough, a quick glimpse at the lineup should be enough to stir up Retro Synth music fans of any persuasion. “We have acts flying over for UK live debuts, such as Betamaxx (USA), Makeup and Vanity Set (USA) and Maxthor (SPAIN) for a real treat for fans. We also have the incredible Danger (FRANCE), Starcadian (USA), LEBROCK (UK), Duett (UK), Sunglasses Kid (UK) and the one and only Vincenzo Salvia (ITALY).”

More than a hefty lineup of talent, this latest edition of Retro Future Fest returns with a full convention-like experience. “There will also be gaming arcades, a food vendor, plenty of craft beer on tap, cosplay competitions and much more! For VIPs too there is a private bar and more live music. From 5 pm to 5 am, it’s pure synth heaven. We can’t wait for you to experience it.” Explains Secker.

Born from what was originally meant to be a small, one-off event, Retro Future Fest has come to expand into a household yearly event for Synthwave fans, rounding up some of the finest acts that the scene has to offer. Secker elaborates: “The scene has expanded massively with various styles. With hints of funk, metal, EDM, it’s an ever-changing scene. My goal is to create a line-up which everyone can enjoy with different variations in the scene. You are going to have a blast seeing what these acts bring to the table.”

More than a strictly Synthwave event, the festival is offering is reaching to represent a full spectrum of Retro culture in all of its shapes and forms, pushing the festival experience further beyond established bounds with each subsequent edition. “I want to give the people something that really blows minds. Every act will be completely different and unique. These artists all truly shine in their respected fields and on July 27th they will be unleashed upon London…”.

We can hardly wait. And we hope to see you there!

Retro Future Festival will be happening on July 27^th at 26 Leake Street, underneath Waterloo station.

Doors will open at 5pm.

Come say hi and party with us! We want to meet you!

Tickets are available here

Further Info :
Official Website
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter

NewRetroWave Weekly Selection 7

Andrew Zistler — Fri, 12 Jul 2019 15:58:56 +0000

Welcome wavers to NewRetroWave Weekly Selection!

Friday afternoons mean one thing – the NRW Weekly Selection.
We’re striving to bring you the best of the best. From outrun to darksynth, we have your weekend covered!

Check out who hit our top spots this week:

Memoryy – No Time Like Now

Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein – Starcourt

Hotel Pools – Stardust

Hotel Pools | Constant by Hotel Pools

Ace Marino – Summer

Summer (Single) by Ace Marino

Future Holotape – Killer Drive

Arcade High – High School Fantasy

Steven Wilcoxson — Mon, 19 Jun 2017 19:56:04 +0000

Managing to sound at once like the past and the future with vintage modulations, lo-fi washes, delay-drenched elements and reverb resplendent hits. A Plucky synth pattern stabs intro and Melodic bass fill the air as a washy lead line chimes and tingles, then evaporates, washing over you like a dream.

At an American high school, glossy hair, cars and sports jackets. The tune repetitive, beautiful, thoughtful restrained.

As a tasty roster of classic instruments come and go retro rhythms feels, analogue nostalgia abounds.

Recalling sun-drenched memories from the eighties, whilst also creating new distant memories. Teenage days, lost loves, eternal summer.

Duett – Borderline (2015)

Andrew Zistler — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 19:24:24 +0000

You’re never supposed to judge an album by it’s cover, but from the first moment my eyes graced upon the pastel, sunset soaked artwork of Duett’s “Borderline”, I knew this album was going to be exceptional. Something about the washed out, pale, not-so-neon colors seemed to spark my memory, transporting me back to a different time long gone, almost forgotten – and I hadn’t even heard the first track!

“Borderline” is Duett’s second full length release, captained by UK based producer Ben Macklin and featuring some outright stellar vocals from Stewart Lockwood. Each song is a shining example of production perfection, crafted with light and often glamorous crystalline synthesizers.

Largely down tempo, this album seems to bleed a relaxed late 80’s west coast vibe from beginning to end, regardless of which track you choose. The period tonality which is so solidly cemented in this release is unsurprising, given Macklin chose to only use a small number of synths and drum machines which were released over the middle and late 80’s.

In spite of sharing a certain tonal quality, each piece of this album delivers in it’s own special way. My favorite standouts are the rainy VHS intro and quickly echoing synths of the opening track ‘Atlas’, the odd drums and atmospheric melodies in “Touch” and the bright brass stabs and Jam & Lewis inspired groove in ‘Provision’.

The two songs featuring Steward Lockwood’s vocals, ‘Julienne’ and ‘Running Scared’ are also easily standouts on the album. Each one of these vocal pieces seem to have traveled back through time to create a truly well defined release that fills all the nostalgic gaps.

In spite of being an ocean fueled relaxation romp, no proper synthwave album would be complete without at least a couple driving up-tempo ground pounders. You can find that here in ‘The City’ and ‘Channel’ – thought both still retain the relative shiny and somewhat joyous tonal quality of the album.

Go grab a listen of this synthetic synthwave wonder-piece as soon as you can. There are plenty of producers delving into sci-fi or horror synthwave with intense, blasting basslines. This album is a much welcomed bright beach vacation from the everyday synth grind.

Borderline by Duett

COMMUNITY RATINGS

THIS WEEKS FREE DOWNLOAD IS…

NewRetroWave — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 20:00:00 +0000

NONE OTHER THAN…

THE ITALO DISCO IS BACK! COMPILATION ONLY ON SUNLOVER RECORDS

Sunlover Records Compilation VOL. 1 – Italo Disco is Back! by Sunlover Records

ENJOY!

NRW

COMMENTS

….

MODERNS ARE QUICKLY BECOMING THE ONES TO WATCH – NRW EXCLUSIVE!

NewRetroWave — Wed, 24 Sep 2014 16:37:00 +0000

You may have heard Tripped or Over Again—two really rad tracks by
MODERNS featured here on NRW’s enormous YouTube channel. I’m looking to hear
more voices from artists in this scene, providing more definition and clarity
as synthwave discovers itself and what it’s capable of as it goes along.

I got a chance to talk a bit with Alan Oakes and Christopher Fudurich, the duo
that is, MODERNS…

–——————————————————————————————————————

Thanks for doing this Q+A! As a lover of the synthwave community, I believe
hearing from artists is a huge part of shaping the genre and scene as it
matures.

ALAN: Thank you for the opportunity

CHRISTOPHER: You’re welcome. Hello!

Why MODERNS? Any background to the name?

ALAN: The MODERNS name goes with
the “Future Modernism” idea which was a recurring theme during the
80’s in synth music and the cyberpunk world. The music is heavily influenced by
those genres, so it seemed fitting.

CHRISTOPHER: Yes, which works out nice since I equate the
music with that of a clean, linear mid-century architecture style. I like architecture.

How do you guys view or position yourselves in the synth scene? Or
do you consider yourself electro-pop?

ALAN: The music is primarily
synth-based while the songs do have some pop structures. We could generalize
MODERNS as a Synthwave, Synthpop, or an Electro act, but I like the idea of
keeping the lines blurred. It keeps things interesting.

CHRISTOPHER: Blurred Lines? I’m happy with making music and sounds and
hopefully whoever likes it, likes it regardless of scene or whatever labels it
gets stuck with. Honestly, I like so
many different types of music from all over the place, I think our music is just
going to kinda go with whatever we are feeling or inspired by at the time.

Knowing you both have background with bands and music, why such a
strong draw to synthwave?

Are you both pulled to that nostalgic 80’s/90’s zone that many of
us millennial RetroWave fans are?

ALAN: It’s partly nostalgic, I must
admit. The music and bands from that era are the reason I wanted to become a
musician in the first place. But I must say I’m also inspired by today’s
Synthwave artists. Some of the more progressive artists are doing really
exciting things with their music.

CHRISTOPHER: Totally nostalgic. And synthesizers are cool. I really, really like synthesizers as
well. Yeah… I want to grab all that
80s stuff up and wrap it around me like a warm blanket. I’m on the last season of Miami Vice on
Netflix.

How did you get started with this five-track EP?

ALAN: I don’t really consider
it an EP at the moment. We’ve been
adding songs to our catalogue track by track over the last few months. We’re
working on a proper release.

CHRISTOPHER: It’s more of a collection of songs that
started with a track I had laying around and Alan had a vocal melody from a
tune he wrote. His track was used for
something else and so we put the orphaned melody on to this track idea and really
liked the result. So we decided to see
what else was floating around and finished writing a few more tracks. We have too many ideas we like and just keep
writing and finishing them off. I def
think putting a proper “album” together is close.

I just heard your new track, Atlantic Sudden. MODERNS are
producing sounds more pop than electronic. An opportunity area of synth that’s
perhaps ripe and untried. Do you guys see yourselves as aligned with the
aesthetic of someone like Trevor Something? Or anyone?

ALAN: I’m a big fan of the retro
scene. Each artist adds their own touch to the genre which is one of the
reasons why I’m such a big fan. We all have that main sound in common which is
where our similarities end. Whichever direction we take that sound is up to us.
I think it’s exciting.

CHRISTOPHER: I’m waiting to get into dark gothic
minimalist. Not really. (Kinda).
We’ve added this singer Rosie into the mix and she is on Atlantic Sudden
a bit. The next track we’re putting
together, she sings herself. I can’t
align us to anything else, really, but I’m sure there will be similarities to
others here and there. We’re creating
whatever we find pleasing and enjoyable to us, so some might be pop oriented
and some will be instrumental. All will be
electronic. No horn sections in our
future.

You guys have a great sort of 80s synthpop wave sound. I’m always
pondering the notion of synth artists playing more live shows. Any plans?

ALAN: Yes, definitely! I would love
to see more Synthwave artists take their music to the stage. I had the honor of
performing with Arcade High and ‪Bourgeoisie earlier this year. It was an
amazing show! We need more of that!

CHRISTOPHER:
OH man… I’m really into the live thing.
I’ve been out touring doing FOH and really want to put together a great
sounding and looking show. That idea
makes me happy. Any electronic visual
artists out there want to do something?

Thanks for talking with me! Looking forward to new releases from
you guys. Any final words?

Alan: Thank you. We’re excited to
share more music with you.

Christopher: Thanks!
I am happy and humbled people are interested in what we are creating.

_________________________________

Stay connected with MODERNS

https://moderns.bandcamp.com/album/moderns

http://moderns.la/

– Andy Chandler

TREVOR SOMETHING IS BACK AT IT!!

NewRetroWave — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 20:14:00 +0000

Pay close attention retrolovers. Trevor Something is planning something big …

Click below to see the greatness

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/summer-love-music-video-by-trevor-something

Please support and lets make this music video possible!!

RETRO ARTWORK FROM UPLOADS – PART 4 (SUPREME BUNDLE!!!)

NewRetroWave — Tue, 20 May 2014 17:26:00 +0000

JUST FOR YOU GUYS!!

😉

STARFORCE DROPS A COMPLETE BANGER!

NewRetroWave — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 00:47:00 +0000

LISTEN CLOSELY

BLISS!!!!

NEW JUST IN: NRW IS PLANNING ON SOMETHING BIG FOR THE FANS!!

NewRetroWave — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 22:44:00 +0000

YES…YOU GUYS HEARD IT HERE FIRST.

NRW IS CURRENTLY IN THE WORKS OF GETTING A NRW SPONSORED CLUB/ BAR IN BROOKLYN NYC!

WE ARE HOPING THAT ALL PLANS GO SMOOTHLY TO ALLOW FOR A SUMMER INTRODUCTION.

FOR THOSE IN OTHER CONTINENTS…IF THIS GETS APPROVED……WE WILL NEED YOUR SUPPORT TO MAKE THIS A SUCCESSFUL EVENT!!

THE DEMAND FOR THE RETROWAVE SCENE GROWS DAILY AND WILL SOON THE NUMBERS OF CLUBS THAT PLAY THIS MUSIC.

WE HOPE TO ADD TO THIS FOREFRONT.

MORE UPDATES TO COME!

NRW

😉

KAVINSKY’S NEW ALBUM IS TO BE CALLED OUTRUN???!!

NewRetroWave — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 00:16:00 +0000

???????

WE HOPE MIAMI NIGHTS 1984 HAS BEEN GIVEN FULL CREDIT FOR THIS NAME “OUTRUN”AND GENRE, AS HE INVENTED IT. (OR COINED IT).

IN FACT, THE WHOLE OF YOUTUBE IS BUZZING ABOUT THIS 80’S REVIVAL THANKS TO MIAMI NIGHTS UNIQUE SOUND OF OUTRUN AND MASSIVE VIEW PLAYBANKS. HIS FOLLOWING IS WHAT KEEPS US ALIVE! (AS WELL AS MANY OTHERS).

LET’S HOPE KAVINSKY ISN’T TRYING TO CLAIM THIS NEW FOUND RETRO SOUND AND USE THE SCENE FOR HIMSELF!! OR MAYBE HE IS GIVING MIAMI NIGHTS 1984 THE WAY HE NEEDS TO BREAK FURTHER INTO THE EARS OF THE INDUSTRY TODAY!!

SOURCE OF INFO
(IN ACTUAL VIDEO DESCRIPTION)

WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK?