One of Russia’s finest exports, purveyor of all things SynthWavey, Dreamwavey and Nu-Discoy, Olivaw has just released his début album, the amazingly titled Tonight We’ll Rewind The Tape With Pencil. It compiles his work over the last year or so, and just goes to show why Russia is taking manky retro synth producers to school these days. We’ve features this resident of Arkhangelsk in northern Russia before, so we’re pretty excited about this eleven track collection.

And it lives up to our expectations too. It’s a sprawling, rich palette of synthesizer textures, each track carrying it’s own nostalgic emotional resonance. The first three tracks on the album, Teenage Feelings, The City And The Sea and The Guardians Of Time set up the record, letting you know what to expect. Teenage Feelings introducing the reminiscent, optimistic SynthWave vibe, The City And The Sea bringing a more Nu-Disco dancefloor sound and The Guardians Of Time displaying Olivaw’s  smooth retro soundtrack side. Most of the record’s song fall into one of these niches and the album does a pretty slick job of easing the listener from one mood to the next. Olivaw’s skill really lies in complex layering of melody, many of his tracks feature intertwining lead lines played out on shimmering synth sounds. whilst Olivaw had both feet firmly planted in the SynthWave world, he come across as having a better grasp of the vintage dance sounds of Nu-Disco than many of his contemporaries, The August Sky for example, is a soaring outrun tune but has a serious Disco groove to it, as does Sleepless Nights. Whilst elsewhere Olivaw goes dark Italo for Like In The Movies and full-on dance in City Slickers. Tonight We’ll Rewind The Tape With Pencil is a confident début, and one we heartily recommend.

♫ Olivaw – Teenage Feelings

♫ Olivaw – The August Sky

♫ Olivaw – The Guardians Of Time

♫ Olivaw – Sleepless Nights

Tonight We’ll Rewind The Tape With Pencil is out now.

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