10. Night of the Dark Prince by Jessie Frye

9. Youth by ALEX

8. Resurgence by Lyde

7. My Soul Burns As My Consciousness Is Uploaded Into The Virtual Afterlife by Trevor Something

6. Night Life by Sunglasses Kid

5. Nights by Droid Bishop

4. Ident by Baldocaster

3. Gradient Ultra by Makeup and Vanity Set

2. Pressure Point by Eagle Eyed Tiger

1.  Multiverse by Timecop1983

Dan Terminus – Feral

Danger – 04:42 Still Free

Jean Frais – Touch

Korine – Cruel

Top 10 Retrowave Music Videos of 2020

10. Trevor Something – Can You Feel it?

9. Meteor & Magic Dance – Ready to Fight

8. LeBrock – Interstellar

7. Jessie Frye ft.Timecop1983 – Faded Memory

6. Mecha Maiko – Phones

5. Betamaxx – Never Sleep Again (feat. Vandal Moon)

4. Gunship – Black Blood Red Kiss (feat. Kat Von D)

3. Gunship – The Drone Racers

2. Carpenter Brut – Fab Tool feat. David Eugene Edwards

1. Makeup and Vanity Set – Algorithm

]]> https://newretrowave.com/2020/12/19/top-10-retrowave-music-videos-of-2020/feed/ 0 https://newretrowave.com/2020/06/17/the-wonderous-weird-world-of-trevor-something-side-projects/ https://newretrowave.com/2020/06/17/the-wonderous-weird-world-of-trevor-something-side-projects/#respond Wed, 17 Jun 2020 18:45:12 +0000 https://newretrowave.com/?p=30461 The music of Trevor Something is always in a constant state of flux. From one album to the next his style and sound can radically change – and almost always for the better.

Trevor Something released the outstanding shoegaze garage/indie rock surf-noise album “Die With You” in 2017 – and followed it with experimental ambient synth pop “ULTRAPARANOIA” in 2018. Even “Soulless Computer Boy and the Eternal Render” swings from upbeat synthpop electronica to an ambient art record halfway through, inside the same album.

So, it came as no surprise when a message from Bandcamp came through the feed from Trevor Something referencing Staring at Screens’ 2017 “Fantasy Hotline” album as a side project. In fact, this article your reading now was originally going to be solely about that delicious, fantastic glitched-out vapor/future funk house album.

But, with a bit of further digging, we noticed some pretty astounding releases we had glossed over in the past. We could be wrong – but these releases seem to be an entire group Trevor Something side projects.

According to the Facebook page, In Your Brain LLC is the “publishing and Record Company ran by the artist Trevor Something.” Many of Trevor Something’s music videos are published to the In Your Brain LLC youtube channel (although his main Trevor Something Youtube channel has his full albums.)

However – alongside those music videos are albums from other artists too –  Hibachi Kid and Sweat Shop LSD. In addition, on the In Your Brain LLC Bandcamp, there are two albums listed – “Cry Baby” and “トレバー何か – T E C H N O P H O B I A テクノフォビア”

Now, any of these releases could be from other artists – but here’s the thing. Aside from the odd Soundcloud pages with no other info or tracks – these artists are social media ghosts. Sure, We run into an artist occasionally that just doesn’t do social media – but it’s bad marketing to be honest, and rare – especially rare considering the caliber of musicianship contained within these albums.

In addition – the album art of these releases each features either the same font or iconic balaclava masked Trevor Something uses for his own official albums.

So, this leads one to believe these may all very well beside projects of Trevor Something – or perhaps at the very least collaborations with other unnamed artists. For an artist who releases so frequently and with so many different sounds, this comes as no surprise. Although of course – these all could be very real artists simply under the In Your Brain LLC label.

What IS a surprise is that most of these amazing releases have gone mostly under the radar. So, we ask you, dear reader – side project or not – check out these releases. They’re good.

And Trevor – if you actually do exist and somehow manage to read this – drop us an email and let me know if this sleuthing is correct. After all, we should give credit where credit is due.

ev.exi – Forget – Artist: ?

Filmmaker – Somber Realm – Artist: Faunes

Protector 101 – Killbots – Artist: Serhiy Krykun

10. Fixions – Sleepwatcher – Artist: Atomcyber

9. Peter Zimmermann – Vapor Disco – Artists: Riccardo Sabatini & PUNKSY

8. Trevor Something – Escape – Artist: Trevor Something

7. Quixotic – Flamingo Drive In – Artist : Sonny Five

6.Hotel Pools – Constant – Artist: ?

5. Megadrive – 199XAD – Artist: Sean O’Neill

4. Billy Mays Band – Introspection – Artist: Atomcyber

3. Stilz – Hyperspace Drifter 3 – Artist: Atomcyber

2. Simple Circuits – Simple Circuits – Artist: STRNGR

1. Waveshaper – Artifact – Artist: Xurxo G Penalta

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!

Lucy in Disguise – Sunset Radio

Trevor Something – All Messed Up

Unfound – Arrival

The Midnight- Shadows (Uppermost Remix)

Makeup and Vanity Set – Power Path

Sonically, “Escape EP” sounds pretty spot on how the album cover looks. A grand virtuosity hidden behind layers of lo-fi disorder. This becomes especially apparent as Something’s vocals take the forefront later in the EP, providing a beautiful counterpoint to the bleary dreamlike haze of mellow synths. As his vocals cut through, the real genius of the release become palatable, similar to “You’re Always Right” from his earlier release “Die With You.”

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:

Ollie Wride – Thanks in Advance

Arcade High – Select Start

Trevor Something – Play Your Game

Krosia – Dive

Trevor has always had a talent for creating an authentic homage to the past while exploring his own forward thinking unique sounds. Taking elements from the genre which in the midst of an influential revival whilst also breaking new ground.

Girlfriend’s sound is stacked with polys, glassy leads, analogue-styled chords, melancholy post-disco, neon-tinged melodies and hedonistic raw-pop stylings.

The haunting catchy vocal hook, thick pads and fat basses meld with a plethora of rich synth sounds. Harsh sonic analogue chords, sound as tight and harmonious as you need them to be with savoury Moogs, a collection of futuristic basslines and Neo-Retro forward-thinking beats thickening the texture.

A sound of soulful chords and a soulful voice, meandering through the synthscape to a hypnotic dreamwave backdrop.

10. Junks – Everybody’s Movin’

9. GUNSHIP – Dark All Day (feat. Tim Cappello and Indiana)

8. Stilz – Midnight Dancer

7. NINA – Sleepwalking

6. Deadlife – Hard Bitch

5. Robert Parker – End of the Night (feat. DoubleBoy)

4. Futurecop! – Edge of the Universe (feat. Parallels)

3. Ollie Wride – The Driver (feat. The Night Hour)

2. Indradevi – Idols

1. DJ Ten – Viral Lust (feat. Trevor Something)

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For an artist with near-complete anonymity, Trevor Something is able to generate a substantial amount of hype. Between his recent internet activity leading up to the release of Soulless Computer Boy and the Eternal Render and the single “Girlfriend” dropping earlier this year, it was one of the most anticipated releases of the summer.  All of his releases have been stellar, with 2014’s Trevor Something Does Not Exist being obviously the best he had to offer. That was until 2016. This is without a doubt the best Trevor Something album

Trevor Something songs inherently possess dark and transgressive themes, but with a seductive air to it. His songs often highlight some of the darker aspects to love and relationships, but invite the listener to revel in the abyss of it. This was largely due to the subtle R&B influences, mostly found in his vocal delivery. This has been refined and pushed to the forefront of SCBatER, which is tremendously effective for two reasons. It helps make the already unique Trevor Something even more carved out as something unlike anything else in the scene, but it make just about every song on the album even catchier than it might have been otherwise.  Apart from vocal delivery, Trevor Something manages to push his music into generally weirder territory sonically, as the opening of “Procreation” and “Lost and Found” each attests. The melodies are strong, but they’re delivered using some truly strange synths, some of which even have vaporwave undertones.

Just as the album cover becomes gradually more abstract and ambient as you look from left to right, the album becomes a vast an open ended ambient experiment by the end of its run, with “Cloud of Thoughts” and “Beyond the Infinite” being the most Eno-esque and borderline transcendental listening experiences.  Ordinarily this sort of plunge into radically experimentation would lead one to wonder why this bipolar album wasn’t simply two EP’s. The thing with this release is that it earns that dive into the ambient. Synthwave as a genre is heavily dependent upon atmosphere and mood, which is a trait it shares in common with ambient music, where those traits are the most important component. Trevor Something integrates ambient influence into every track on the album, even the R&B-flavored vocal songs. As the album approaches the midpoint, the ambience begins to overtake the more standard synthwave songs. “Lost and Found” is a real turning point in that regard. The vocals become more buried than before, the synths dreamier. The bass stays at home with synthwave, as do elements of the track’s beat. “Pure”, though a vocal track with less buried singing, still begins to hold firmer ground as an ambient track. By the time you get to “Digital Clense”, the seventh track, the album has become completely ambient, with Trevor painting in moods rather than melodies.

The strength of these ambient tracks is found in their crescendos. Each song has a multitude of moments where it seems to climax in a swell of sound. Sometimes there is a less pad-like synth in the mix to hold onto, but oftentimes the entire song acts as a whirlwind around you, immersing you and pulling you. It’s very difficult to disengage, and it is particularly difficult if you’ve already been hooked by the first half of the album. It’s a strange album. There’s just no way around that. Odds are everybody is going to love the first six songs, but most are going to find the entire thing enjoyable. This is an incredible release in one has truly been an incredible year of synthwave. The album is free, so there really isn’t much of an excuse to not grab it, but it is well worth $10+ dollars for the strength and craft found within. 

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]]> https://newretrowave.com/2016/08/18/trevor-something-soulless-computer-boy-and-the-eternal-render/feed/ 0 https://newretrowave.com/2015/10/26/trevor-something-death-dream/ https://newretrowave.com/2015/10/26/trevor-something-death-dream/#respond Mon, 26 Oct 2015 13:54:22 +0000 http://new-retro-wave.com/2015/10/26/20151026trevor-something-death-dream/ Nearly two years after his debut single, we still don’t know a lot more about Trevor Something’s true identity. However, on his third LP, Death Dream, that was just released, we are allowed a small glimpse into who he REALLY is.

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Nearly two years after his debut single, we still don’t know a lot more about Trevor Something’s true identity. However, on his third LP, Death Dream, that was just released, we are allowed a small glimpse into who he REALLY is.

While the first two albums served to flesh out the foundation for his mythos of a faceless, promiscuous, party-weary producer that came from the dead, this third one sees Trevor step further into the dark parts of his soul and offers his findings to the world.

It gives a human touch to his synthetic persona and – it should be said right away– makes for one of the top synthwave albums of the year.

This year was one of the strongest yet for the retro synth scene, yet expectedly there’s a lot of forgettable material too. Trevor Something blows all that out of the water with a sound that is as much a quintessential example of the genre, as is personal and his very own.

At a time when the scene has probably never seen so many producers and releases, Death Dream comes as a soothing breath of fresh air and really reinforces Trevor as lone-wolf in a league of his own among the dime-a-dozen me-too productions.

The album opens up with the haunting rhyme of If I Die and you immediately know you’re not in the sex, drugs and discotheque zone anymore. “If I die tonight in my sleep, I prey (sic) the lord my soul to take”, croons Trevor and you can feel chills going up your spine.

Could Trevor be turning religious? Ah, but no: “But if I already lost my faith, Would it be to late?“, he adds. Still, this is probably the first time we’re seeing Trevor this vulnerable and it immediately changes the paradigm.

The Possession segues from the opener nicely, and while Trevor contemplates the nature of one of his relationships, playing on the double meaning of the word „possession“. All the while, musically we’re in the dark synth territory, with a rumbling, sawblade-ish bass and the feeling of being at an abandoned industrial plant.

Brain Waves immediately breaks the mold, keeping just the overall dark tones but doing away with percussion altogether. The scene we might envision is of the shuddering realization of being the last person on Earth. Maybe Trevor is saying that’s price of being a living myth: being completely alone in the world?

With The Touch of Your Skin we’re back in the more club-ready waters. With the bassline that might have been borrowed from Perturbator, Trevor assumes the role of a predatory observer serenading his object of his desire.

Someone newer to Trevor’s modus operandi might be slightly annoyed with his monotone, droning vocals but at a certain point you accept it as one of the basic principles when you enter his world. His vocals are not so much vocals in the traditional pop song sense, but an instrument track in its own right that can be just appreciated for it’s color and consistency.

It sounds insincere giving someone this much praise, but Trevor really doesn’t hesitate with switching things up and playing with expectations. The following track, Artificial Feelings, shows the more melodic side to his new shadowy sound but with plenty of unexpected chops and breaks and a playful attitude towards atonality.

It’s nice to see someone not just emulating the core of what makes up the synthwave sound, but also not being afraid to deconstruct it and use it as something new.

Run Away gets closest to the club sound and definitely steers away from the tenets of the genre. It sounds more like a bonus track from Power Glove’s second album. This is a track you would hear in a dark cyberpunk disco.

Your Sex is a Dream, previously released as a single and as part of the The 80’s Dream Compilation Tape – Vol. 3 by NewRetroWave, is the most conventional basic-Trevor track of the album.

But it serves only to trick you as it’s immediately followed by the uber trippy Analogue Soul. The equally trippy album teaser video featuring this track is still haunting me weeks after it appeared. Who did we see in that vid by the way? Was it really Trevor? The track itself really shows the playful side of Trevor what with the disturbing pitch change that goes well with the stalker lyrics.

Can You Feel It is another typical Trevor number, a track celebrating debauchery and the sensory pleasure of drugs.

And right after that we’re back in the indescribable territory, with what seems to be a deconstruction of the phone ring sound and plays – unintentionally? – as a throwback to Hotline Miami.

Staring at the Sun and No One Knows Your Name are two chillwave-ish tracks that come next and drive us to the end of the album. It seems appropriate to start closing the album with a track called Trip where Trevor beckons you/me/them to come on a lil old road trip with him – only to realize we’ve been on a very, very unique trip for the last 40 or so minutes.

The very last track, is an abrupt return into the darker vestiges of Trevor’s soul. It seems despite the euphoria displayed only a couple of tracks ago, there’s something darker behind Trevor’s self-destructive escapades. Could we be seeing something like… regret? The wish to be saved? At the very least Trevor seems to have come to terms he does need a little bit more: someone or something.

Not as a producer though, as with this release Trevor deeply entrenches himself as a “gold standard of synthwave” to quote a YouTube commenter.

Trevor’s a producer who knows very well what he is doing and is not afraid to go his own way. In my review of his Does not Exist album, I said it would be interesting to see where we’ll go next in the Trevor Something saga, and I’m glad to report he seems to have accepted the challenge – and delivered too.

9/10 Stars

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