Here’s the video for Stockholm ElectroPoppers Kate Boy’s new single The Way We Are. A modern EBM ScandiPop monster.
Kate Boy directed the video themselves, which continues their love of stark, monochrome visuals that work so well with their icy music.
Kate Boy’s Northern Lights EP is out now.
Buy Kate Boy’s music from:
Vocal is the second full track to see daylight from SynthPop legends Pet Shop Boys’ highly anticipated forthcoming new album, Electric. The Stuart Price produced LP will be the duo’s thirteenth studio album and from all accounts eschews your usual PSB ballad tracks for a short, sweet, collection of dance tracks.
What we’ve heard so far from the album has been pretty modern Italo sounding. No so with Vocal, this drags Pet Shop Boys SynthPop into Euphoric Trance territory and as such is unsurprisingly being championed by Armin Van Buuren. Neil Tennant’s ode to vocal dance tracks glides over a backing of big stabbing synths and warbling lead lines. Proving once and for all the Pet Shop Boys can still crank out a blistering, relevant, Pop song, Vocal is a fine precursor to the album. reMixes are on their way.
♫ Pet Shop Boys – Vocal
Pet Shop Bot’s Electric album is due out in 15th July. Vocal is available from today.
Buy Pet Shop Boys’ music from:
Here’s Our Time, Canadian Chilly ElectroPopper Wolf Saga’s self-proclaimed summer anthem, and man is it summery! It;s probably Wolf Sags most upbeat tune to day, and not only is it full of sunshine goodness, but also sees the man picking up the mic alongside the keyboard. Sit back, relax, and enjoy.
Prepare for some blissful, laid back vibes with Our Time, as wolf Saga takes the first half of the track to ease you into some nothing-but-good-times SynthPop. Bouncy and quirky, the synths dance around the tune, playfully trailing their melodies when they do as the man himself gently croons summertime advice. About mid-way in the track the solo kicks in, and it’s such a soaring, epic, slice of synthesizer love that the tune takes on a whole new, cosmic, groove. This one’s for fun in the sun.
Buy Wolf Saga’s music from:
We’ve gotta’ admit, we do have a soft spot for Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game, but then, doesn’t everybody? It;s just one of those songs. So the idea of Isaak’s Californian croon being replaced by Queen Of Hearts’ husky voice is a pretty exciting one, made doubly so by the presence of electronic music legend Mark Reeder on production duties.
It strikes us as probably being quite a hard song to get right electronically, being all hazy acoustic guitar and stuff, but these guys pull it off with style. Reeder takes the best route and goes deep and subtle with the soundtrack, burbling synth bass and atmospheric tones phase in and out over a beat with a machine soul. But it’s Queen Of Hearts vocal here that is the real star, I don’t think there’s many vocalists who could have does this song as much justice as she does. Her smokey, passionate, lament is almost too perfect for this song. Chris who?
♫ Queen Of Hearts – Wicked Game (Chris Isaak Cover)
Queen Of Heart’s Warrior single is out now, her début album is set to drop in August.
Buy Queen Of Hearts’ music from:
Kick off your week with the latest from On The Fruit Records head honcho Freak You. This month Franck turns his attention to Seattle based Modern SynthPop outfit Dead Astronauts’ track Weathered Wolves, to be released soon on Nueva Forma. The track comes from Dead Astronauts’ forthcoming album, Constellations, which is due for a summer release.
Having not heard the original of Weathered Wolves we can’t really comment on the differences, but we’re getting a classic SynthPop with Goth overtones from the track. The vocals and lyrical content have a very mid-90s German SynthiePop vibe to them, a vibe wich Freak You plays to, bringing in big, undulating, euphoric, EBM-lite synths and growling bass tones. Of course, a Freak You reMix is going to a a lot funkier than dated 90s FuturePop, and Franck deliver with a stunning, dramatic rhythm section, loaded with flourishes and evolutions. Also, there’s a little drum fill in the first bar of every bridge that make us really happy.
♫ Dead Astronauts – Weathered Wolves (Freak You reMix)
Dead Astronauts’ Constellations is released this summer.
Buy Dead Astronauts’ music from:
Here’s two absolutely legendary heavyweights of electronic music in one track. How is that not amazing? We introduced you to 80s icons Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s new single, Dresden, earlier in the month, well here it is as envisioned by SynthPop pioneer John Foxx, here in his John Foxx And The Maths guise.
Pulsating robot-synths and machine beats are the order of the day here as Foxx brings his cold, futuristic, SynthPop to OMD’s more human take on the genre. Shuffling, noisy rhythms and relentless synth bass craft out a core for the track to unleash a combination of icy vintage synth drones and Andy McCluskey’s passionate vocal. To pillars of 80s music, who have both been delivering quality, intelligent, synth sounds consistently over the past two decades, here show why they are innovators, why they are so respected, and why they are still forces to be reckoned with in 2013.
♫ OMD – Dresden (John Foxx And The Maths reMix)
OMD’s Dresden is released 17th May, pre-order here.
Buy Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s music from:
Goin’ Old School isn’t a trip down music memory lane, it’s a mugging in the dark alleyway of nostalgia:
First up it’s Italo pioneers Telex with their most recognisable tune, 1979’s Moskow Diskow.
And from the year before, 1978, Daniel Miller’s The Normal and TVOD’s flip-side, Warm Leatherette.
You can buy most of this music from:
Here’s the video for Brooklyn SynthPoppers Beacon’s excellent single Drive. A swirling slice of moody, emotional electronica with a haunting swing to it.
Will Joines directs the clip, which is amazingly beautifully shot in brooding tones. It’s as enigmatic as the track itself.
Beacon’s début album The Ways We Separate is out now on Ghostly International.
Buy Beacon’s music from:
Russian ElectroPoppers Tesla Boy’s début album, Modern Thrills, is one of our favourite albums of all time. Back in 2009 the totally nail everything that was so good about the burgeoning Dreamwave and post-Dreamwave Nu-Disco scenes and wrapped all that smooth LA funk and 80s soundtrack epicness with Pop sensibilities and incredibly catchy songs. Their sophomore full length release, The Universe Made Of Darkness, out this week, has been on rotation here for the past couple of weeks after a first few nervous listens. This album has so much to live up to, so many expectations, we just didn’t know if it would deliver.
It does. In abundance. Tesla Boy’s sound had only matured on this release, there’s a greater width of influences and more attention to detail. The Russian’s have managed to release an album that sounds quite a bit different to their premier record, but still unmistakably Tesla Boy. The album still retains the cool Disco vibe, the epic songs, but has a larger scope, and a bigger sound. Kicking of with Dream Machine, a smooth piece of arena SynthPop that weaves a proggy vibe into it’s 80s LA funk, the album soon launces into Tesla Boy’s most recent single, the energetic, anthemic, M.C.H.T.E. before bringing the groove right back on Invisible. Invisible is a laid back, but powerful, track that mixes a poolside feel with huge grinding synths and is indicative of Tesla Boy retaining their cool boogie, but making it so much more expansive. Up next is Broken Doll, which features the awesome Tyson. The perfect cool, dirty Disco tune that makes a brilliant platform for Tesla Boy’s Anton, and Tyson, two ElectroPop heavyweights to duet. Wicked Disco licks and slab bass rub shoulders with gritty synths and a relentless mid-tempo pounding. Broken Doll will be the bands next single. Previous single Split is up next, with a little old school Tesla Boy nostalgia, as with another (quite) old single Fantasy that follows. Saturn is the first of a couple of musical interludes, a beautiful and haunting 80s soundtrack-esque piece with a slight oriental feel and a surprising highlight of The Universe Made Of Darkness. Undetected is a bass heavy Nu-Disco bouncer that blends a little 80s UK Pop into the thick, warbling slo-mo funk that is complimented by the shimmering keys and hazy 80s Soul of Start. After the abstract bass House interlude of Something Deep, we are hit with Paraffin, which features Fritz from Azari & III. Paraffin is full on RoboPop Disco, an energetic, kinetic, but ultimately slick meeting of Chicago House and Dreamwave where everyone’s a winner. Which leaves the album to play out on the full-on early 90s DancePop of the single 1991. So there it is. The Universe Made Of Darkness was one of, if not the, most anticipated album of the years for us, and we are so relieved to say, it’s awesome.
♫ Tesla Boy – M.C.H.T.E.
♫ Tesla Boy (Feat.Tyson) – Broken Doll
♫ Tesla Boy – Stars
♫ Tesla Boy – 1991
♫ Tesla Boy (Feat. Fritz Helder from Azari & III) – Parrafin
Tesla Boy’s new album The Universe Made Of Darkness, is out now. The Broken Doll single is out soon.
Buy Tesla Boy’s music from:
Australian SynthPoppers Parralox have just released a brand new single, Silent Morning, which seems to see their journey though 80s SynthPop head toward the end of the decade. The Ryan Adamés featruing track catches the wave of current late 80s/early 90s revival tracks and brings the trend right to Parralox’s sound.
Loaded with all the elements we love about that period in music, post-B-boy Electro beats, orchestral stabs, digital synth bass and extra cowbell. None of this is too surprising though, as the track is actually a cover of 1987 obscurity Silent Morning by Noel. With a pair of amazing vocal performances by both Adamés and Parralox’s Amii Jackson and a truly period electronic backing, this cover of Silent Morning is pitch perfect retro pop. Check it out.
♫ Parralox (Feat. Ryan Adamés) – Silent Morning
Parralox’s Silent Morning is out now.
Buy Parralox’s music from:
electronic rumors 