Final DJs début single

finaldjs

Well it’s finally here. Germany’s purveyors of the finest in dreamy SynthWave Final DJs release their début single for On The Fruit Records today. It’s been a long road tog et here which has seen this duo dropping originals and reMixes taking in everything from cinematic Dreamwave to bass funkin’ Nu-Disco. It seemed to take them a while to settle on a sound of their own, but with this premiere release they lay down their musical manifesto. You better listen up.

‘Gossip Country’ contains three originals and two reMixes, the title track is an epic excursion through synthetic melodies. Kicking off with a machine bassline with a Industrial feel, which isn’t as harsh as it sounds and makes for a nice hypnotic, undulating, backing for the lush, rich pads and some of Final DJs greatest solos and lead lines to date. There even a little ‘90’s House vibe in the mix too just to offset the overwhelming 80’s-ness of the leads. Final DJs have crafted some real goosebumps moments in ‘Gossip Country’ and, whilst keeping the SynthWave sound have taken it one step further and taken Outrun Electro one step further toward being accepted by the mainstream. Flipside number one, ‘Salt On Our Skin’ is more of a funkier affair, but in an funky Italo way rather than a Nu-Disco vein with it’s bouncy digital bass being impossible not to move to. Again these producer double act hit just the right note with their soaring synth work. The remaining B-Side, ‘A Long Way Home’ is a more traditional dance affair with a lot more of the 90’s vibes. reMixes come from Sebastian Scotch who drops a deep Housey Disco track and Justin Faust who reworks ‘Gossip Country’, adding a bit more of a syncopated groove and a classy Disco sheen. Faust keeps a lot  of what makes the track so good in place, just tweaking things here and there, making the song ready for prime time.

♫ Final DJs – Gossip Country

♫ Final DJs – Salt on Our Skin

♫ Final DJs – Gossip Country (Justin Faust reMix)

Final DJs’ ‘Gossip Country’ is released today.

Buy Final DJs’ music from:

     

Pteez’ ‘Southwind Part 2’

pteez

One of our favourite up-and-coming Russian producers Mr. Pteez is back. this time he’s dropping the follow up to last years ‘Southwind’.

Pteez sticks with the chilled summer vibes for ‘Southwind Part 2’ and lays down some retro Electro Boogie fit for the beach. The very cinematic SynthWave Pteez lays down, with it’s densely packed arrangement of sweeping pads and nostalgic melodies, conjures images of moves from the ‘80’s, maybe some light action, not comedy but not to serious either, the good guys are definitely prevailing. That’s a win for everyone!

♫ Mr. Pteez – Southwind Part 2 (Re-Breeze)

Check out more from Pteez on SoundCloud.

Malibu B’s ‘Downtown’

malibu b

Hungary’s Malibu B has been going from strength to strength this year. With a string of awesome tracks and a storming single on Binalog Productions, this is one producer who a definitely getting better and better.

On his latest tune, ‘Downtown’ he brings a little ‘90’s flavour to his ‘80’s SynthWave sound. there is something so indicatively ‘90’s about the combination of synths and the breakbeat from The Soul Searchers’ ‘Ashley’s Roachclip’. Sure, it’s an ‘80’s Hip Hop beat, but use it with dreamy synths and the whole thing becomes hazy ‘90’s Pop. ‘Downtown uses the break at it’s core but gives us the kind of Yacht vibed nostalgic synths over to top that we are used to from Malibu B. The combination adds new, interesting, dimensions to the retro sound.

Malibu B – Downtown

Buy Malibu B’s music from:

Follow Me’s ‘Aaliyah’

Follow Me

Follow Me is back with another slice of his smooth SynthWave sounds, this time he’s grabbed a handful of vocals samples and written a track for sunsets.

Grabbing bits of the top-line from Aaliyah’s ‘If Your Girl Only knew’, Follow Me craft a smooth, laid back track that builds up a chilled atmosphere with rounded synths and hollow percussion. This is being-on-a-rooftop-looking-over-the-city-at-night kinda’  track, if that makes sense, which it probably doesn’t. Suffice to say it conjures up an relaxed, night time, urban feel. Follow Me’s cinematic SynthWave works surprisingly well with in an R&B context, or at least takes the R&B context far enough out into it’s own retro synth arena that it seems to fit.

♫ Follow Me – Aaliyah

You can download the track from Follow Me’s Facebook page.

Check out more from Follow Me on SoundCloud.

The return of Saar & Sky

Saar & Sky

A few years ago Saar & Sky were, briefly, one of the best Electro acts in London. A melting pot of Italo, SynthPop and the emerging Dreamwave and SynthWave styles with an energetic live show and some seriously catchy songs. Then distance divided this duo and Saar & Sky were no more. We all mourned. It was dark times.

So it was a pleasant surprise to find a new Saar & Sky EP incoming. Born of late night phonecalls this isn’t really a return for these guys, more of a decision that they had too many good songs on ice not to release them in some form or other. The result is the ‘Maria’ EP, a collection of five of their best unreleased tracks. Much of this you might already know, either from live or from their MySpace page (yes, it was that long ago), which make it doubly nice to now have the good quality studio recordings of these songs available. The great, and unique, thing about Saar & Sky was always their combination of styles. On the one had you have Logan Sky’s very Italo influenced Electro sounds, robotic grooves and big power stabs, and on the other there’s Saar soulful, almost R&B vocals. That combination of machine beats and smooth songs was way ahead of it’s time in terms of the surge of vocal Nu-Disco. The tracks on the EP, surprisingly, haven’t really dated much. ‘Maria’, the lead track is a rich, haunting slice of retro Pop, all dreamlike riffs and electro tom rolls alongside Saar’s impassioned vocals and sets the tone for the EP. Saar & Sky slide from the harder dance tracks like the insanely catchy ‘Confessions’ to  to the more eclectic end of Italo found on tracks like ‘Falshback’ throughout the EP, never afraid to try something new within their vocal SynthWave framework.  If this is the epilogue to Saar & Sky it’s a fitting tribute, kinda’ hoping it’s not though.

♫ Saar & Sky – Maria

Saar & Sky’s ‘Maria’ EP is released 15th May.

Buy Saar & Sky’s music from:

Pelifics, Miss Plug In & JD Samson

Pelifics

With the release of the second part of Sweedish synthmeister Pelifics two part ‘Lifetime’ EP series imminent Brilliantine are giving us out first listen to the second track off the EP. The first part featured the awesome Electric Youth and Human Life, and we’ve already been treated to the second part’s lead track, featuring AXXE, now it’s time for German Italo darling Miss Plug Inn and Le Tigre’s JD Samson to jump on board for some Smooth Euro DiscoPop and party Disco.

‘The Beach Tonight’ is a laid back combination of Italo and Beach Disco. With that slight streak of melancholy found in the best Italo and some spacy synths Pelifics conjures up a nice Mediterranean sunset track. Deep and warm digital bass and floaty arpeggios create a familiar, comfortable sound that draws you in and envelopes you. Miss Plug Inn’s Germanic vocal adds that touch of Euro class. ‘Spray-Painted Knuckles’ on the other hand is a rowdy, jump-up, Disco, the combination of Pelifics frictionless Disco and Samson’s rough and ready vocals make for a track that has groove, but balls too (girl-balls that is).

♫ Pelifics (Feat. Miss Plug Inn) – The Beach Tonight

♫ Pelifics (Feat. JD Samson) – Spray-Painted Knuckles

The ‘Lifetime Pt 1’ EP is out now with part 2 coming in later in April on Brilliantine.

Buy Pelifics’ music from:

Futurecop! & Keenhouse; the video

Hot on the heels of the clip for ‘Starworshipper’ here’s the latest clip from Futurecop!, for the forthcoming, Keenhouse featuring ‘The Only Way’, which was ‘Dreams’ before that (being Futurecop! must get confusing).

Brandon Dermer directs this amazingly ‘80’s video, which is an awesome fun mini-movie.

‘The Only Way’ features on ‘The Adventures Of Starpony’ EP, out now.

Buy Futurecop!’s music from:

Goldroom’s new tune

goldroom

The founding father of Dreamwave and all round purveyor of good time vibes Josh is back with a brand new Goldroom tune. This time he’s brought a vocalist, Australian singer/songwriter Chella, for his most accomplished track yet.

‘Fifteen’ finally brings to Goldroom what NightWaves did so well, evoking a sense of nostalgia, even if it’s nostalgia for something you’ve never experienced. Not nostalgia for a decade, or a cultural period, but just simple, honest, nostalgia for the good times you’ve had, or wished you’d had. There’s an innocence, although not naïveté, to Josh’s work and although ‘Fifteen’, with it’s laid back bass and chilled beach party groove, continues the Goldroom journey through the smoothest of Disco, from an philosophical point-of-view it’s a return to the Dreamwave he helped create. Or the perfect meeting of the two, the groove of Disco and the soul of LA Dreamwave. Whatever it is, it’s perfect, and it captures everything I’ve ever loved about the Binary scene.

♫ Goldroom (Feat. Chela) – Fifteen

Head over to Goldroom’s Facebook page to download the track for free.

Goldroom’s EP is out now.

Buy Goldroom’s music from:

Futurecop! new compilation album and launch party

Basic RGB

On 5th June Kiez Beats and Futurecop! will be releasing ‘We Are The Future’, an 18 track compilation album featuring the best in contemporary SynthWave and Dreamwave around. Featuring the likes of datA, Lifelike, Phonat, Anoraak, Fear Of Tigers, Mille, StardonE, Worship and Follow Me alongside Futurecop! themselves. Check the MiniMix for a taste of what to expect and feast your eyes on that stellar tracklisting.

Futurecop! – We Are The Future MiniMix

The tracklist:

01. Lazerhawk – Shoulder Of Orion
02. Car Clova – Farletched
03. StardonE – Lovedays
04. Mille – Afterski
05. Worship – Horizon
06. Lifelike (Feat. Namebrand And Yota) – Love Emulator
07. Follow Me – A Mission Noctural
08. datA – Electric Fever
09. Anoraak – Above Your Head
10. Fear Of Tigers – Hidup
11. Robots With Rayguns – Fever
12. Phonat – The Microwave FX
13. Power Glove – Night Force
14. Maethelvin – Delight
15. Futurecop! – Forever: Dreams (beaumont reMix)
16. Young Digerati – The Dauphin (Ride The Universe reMix)
17. Futurecop! – Far Away (Leisure Council reMix)
18. NeonFlashDrive – Previously On X-Men

Just before the album drops, on 26th May, the guys are putting together a launch party at The Nest in Dalston, London. It look like it;s going to be a one-of-a-kind night featuring Futurecop!, The C90s, Edwin Van Cleef, Fear Of Tigers and I’ll be there too spinning some tunes. Details here.

we are the future flyer - A4 with 3mm bleed @ 200dpi (1)

It’s going to be a pretty unmissable night! Stay tuned for more information, and tracklist, about the album.

Buy Futurecop!’s music from:

Kelek; new tune and reMix for Pretty Boy Makes Rave

kelek

German SynthWave producer Kelek is back with a couple of new tracks. We’ve been keeping an eye on Kelek for a while now, ever since his standout entry in Fear Of Tigers’ ‘The Adventures Of Pippi Longstrump’ reMix competition last year he’s been impressing us. This week he drops a brand new original and a new reMix.

Kelek’s new tune, ‘Alaska’, as a laid back slick of smooth Dreamwave. A retro synthed bouncer that is made for cruisin’. Rolling along on a synth Funk bassline the track a slightly a lot of things. Slightly Italo, slightly Electro Boogie, slightly Tropical, and massively more of a chilled groove than Kelek’s previous works. It’s nice to see this smoother side to his productions, and to discover that he can work more than one sound. ‘Alaska’ is there for hot lazy days and good times. Kelek has also tackled Pretty Boy Makes Rave’s ‘Change’, bringing out his Italo side for the challenge. And it works too, his reMix of ‘Change’ is classic Italo with a bit of ‘90’s House piano thrown in for good measure and a twisting, infectious lead line. Kelek is really starting to step up his game, exciting things ahead!

Kelek – Alaska

Pretty Boy Makes Rave – Change (Kelek reMix)

Check out more from Kelek on SoundCloud.