This week’s capsule of Synthesizer Zen, to carry you into the weekend, comes from a look at the PPG Wave 2.
Video courtesy of YouTube user RetroSound.
[Audio] Moderns’ ‘Sub Urban’
Moderns is the new project from out very own Let Em Riot. Alan isn’t alone in this venture, some Dude called Chris is along for the ride too; and between the two of them they are making some sweet, evocative SynthPop. The journey begins with Sub Urban, and a staggeringly impressive début it is too.
Sub Urban is a big cinematic slice of ElectroPop, but not one that eschews emotion for pomposity, this track has soul in truckloads. There’s an obvious comparison to Let Em Riot, with an added cleanness and sparkle.With a punchy bassline to power the track along, Sub Urban is loaded with starlight snyths and playful purcussion, tempered only by the occasional electronic growl. Alan’s vocals and as passionate and emotive as ever and nicely tie the tune together. We’re very excited to see where this is going.
♫ Moderns – Sub Urban
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[Audio] Hercules And Love Affair’s &’Working Miracles’
Working Miracles is one of two B-sides to Hercules And Love Affair’s new single Do You Feel The Same?, released ahead of Andy Butler and crew’s forthcoming The Feast Of The Broken Heart album. The A-side is a spacious funky Acid Disco monster, so H&LA deliver something deeper for the flipside.
After a shaky piano and sample intro, Working Miracles drop and thumping, almost Psy Trance, beat. Undulating and hypnotic, the groove builds and builds into an ecclectic and bassy House juggernaut. Taking cues from their Industrial roots and their Warehouse DNA, Working Miracles moves in both dancefloor and avant-garde circles.
♫ Hercules And Love Affair – Working Miracles
Hercules And Love Affair’s Do You Feel The Same? single is released 14th April.
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[Video] Frankmusik’s ‘These Streets’
These Streets is the jazzy new single from ElectroPop captain Frankmusik. A track with so much swing it’s hard not to sink into it.
Danny Land directs the video, which sees Vincent literally on his streets.
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[Mixtape] Ben Macklin’s ‘Spring Breaks Mixtape 3’
Ben Macklin – Spring Breaks Mixtape 3 = Kick-start your weekend with this storming collection of tunes from Mr. Ben Macklin. A selection of current monster tunes and some surprised thrown in, you can;t go wrong with this lot.
♫ Ben Macklin – Spring Breaks Mixtape 3
The tracklist:
01. Darius – Omeo
02. Monte – You Should Know
03. Rotkraft – To Love You (Fishing Vest reMix)
04. Rise & Fool – Toy Boy (Le Crayon reMix)
05. Bon Iver – Towers (Oliver Nelson reMix)
06. Ben Macklin – Can We Talk (Fishing Vest reMix)
07. Jay West – Got Me Insane (Monte Instrumental Dub)
08. Chris Malinchak – Forever
09. Navigateur – Breathe (Luxar House Excursion)
10. Chela – Zero (Clancy reMix)
11. Max Lyazgin & Hot Sand – Nassau
12. Nude Disco – Neon Hearts (Just Another Discomendment)
13. The Paradise – In Love With you (Oh Yeah reMix)
14. Tonys Wayback Machine – In The Beginning (MiDiMAN reMix)
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[Video] Psychemagik’s ‘Black Noir Schwarz’
Bass heavy, imposing, House with a swing now from Psychemagik. His new single, Black Noir Schwarz, and both eerie and funky in equal quantities.
Charley Bayliss directs the track’s video, which really takes the title and runs with it.
Psychemagik’s Black Noir Schwarz is out now.
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[Video] Clean Bandit’s ‘Extraordinary’
DancePop powerhouse Clean Bandit team up with Sharna Bass for their new single, Extraordinary. A House lite ElectroPop tune so catchy there’s no way it won’t chart.
Anna Patarakina and Daria Novickay put the clip together, which is just all kinds of chaos in Cuba.
Clean Bandit’s Extraordinary is released 19th May.
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[Audio] André Obin’s ‘Loaded Soul’
Boston based producer André Obin made some ripples last year worth the release of his The Arsonist album. He returns in the first half of this year with another collection of eclectic electronic tunes called Ways Of Escape; the first track form which is Loaded Soul, and EBM lite Germanic opus that should have him nervous that Goths might like him, ‘cos then his career will be over.
A lot of people are throwing around the word ‘Darkwave’, and whilst those word throwers have probably never heard of Black Tape For A Blue Girl, Project Pitchfork or Das Ich they do have a point. The simplistic, growling synth bassline and whispered vocals are loaded with Teutonic, mascara fuelled, connotations. There’s a little House flavour in there too, and a surprising funk, amidst the synthesizer swirls and Loaded Soul turns-in a confident and engrossing SynthPop soundtrack.
♫ André Obin – Loaded Soul
André Obin’s Ways Of Escape is released 29th April.
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[Video] Florrie’s ‘Free Falling’
Bristol’s finest ElectroPop export, Florrie has unleashed another track and video from her forthcoming Sirens EP. Free Falling is full fat SynthPop power.
Directed by Jack A. Bowden, which seems to be about how rich people live.
Florrie’s Sirens EP is due out in Spring.
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[Audio] Grum’s ‘Human Touch’ album
It’s been three years since the release of Leeds based Scot Grum’s début album, Heartbeats, about five years since he first came to our attention with a slew of amazing Dreamwave and Nu-Disco tracks and reMixes. In those years Grum has been quietly doing something that very few of his contemporaries from around that time have seemed to be able to do. Evolve. It wasn’t long after the release of Heartbeats that Grum started releasing Euphoric Trance tracks, then Bleep House, then Progressive tunes all the while the lazy online press was still calling him ‘Disco’. Grum forthcoming sophomore album, Human Touch, should come as a revelation to them, a slap in the face realisation that they have missed these past three years, that Grum is so much more than a Disco producer, and that is why he’s risen to the top of the pack.
The album opener, and title track, Human Touch, sets this up perfectly. A moody and emotional House tune, loaded with enigmatic, low tones and haunting vocals. Not the first track floorfiller you might expect, but a track that grasps your interest and let you know there is something more intelligent going on here than simply crowd pleasing hooks. As if to compound the genre-spanning attitude of the collection, the following track, Sunrise, is an Acid-Balearic epic. A mesmerising hands-in-the-air tune that lives up to its name. There are tracks we’ve herd before on Human Touch. Previous singles the Simple Minds referencing The Theme and the nostalgic Warehouse vibe of Everytime are present and correct. Grum delves even more into the world of late 80s/early 90s House experimentalism on tracks like Autumn, with a pure early House riff you will swear you’ve heard somewhere before it’s so authentic, and the Haçienda-meets-SynthPop classic Dance sound of Tears. As the album progresses it become more and more melodic, with Three Thousand East being a play of retro leads against touch beats and Lotta’ Love feeling the influence of Melodic Trance energy before that album brings things down to ease the listener out on the deep, synthetic, Serotonin and the Chillwave R&B of the album’s closer Eyes Shut. For fans wanting a little classic Grum Dreamwave, Raindrop totally delivers vintage keys and a big vocal hook and Feel It Everywhere’s vocoded nostalgia could easily be an early Grum single. The Nu-Disco side of things, too, is covered by the likes of In Love, with it’s Acid flavour funk. Human Touch has got enough of that rousing classic Grum feel, enough interesting experiments with genre, and enough of a timeless Dance Music DNA to keep most fans of electronic music coming back for more. Definitely recommended.
♫ Grum – The Theme
♫ Grum – Everytime
Grum’s Human Touch is released 14th April.
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