In the early hours of the morning, when the only folk out and about were the nighthawks and the freaks, SynthWave legend Miami Nights 1984 released his sophomore album, his follow up to 2010’s ‘Early Summer’ on Rosso Corsa Records.
Titled ‘Turbulence’ this is one release that has been eagerly, eagerly, awaited around electronic rumors towers and from the intro peice of ‘MN84 theme’ onward it doesn’t disappoint. The albums first track proper, ‘Clutch’ is the prefect opener, and the perfect signpost for what to expect within the rest of the record. Robotic Italo grooves layered with lush emotional, synths, tracks that tell a story and take you along on that narrative and soaring synth solos that take tracks stratospheric. This is the ‘80’s repacked to rock both modern dancefloors and modern minds. It would be hard to pick standout tracks amongst the 12 that make up ‘Turbulence’ as they are all stormers, and there’s a variety of moods contained within. You’ve got your big power driving tracks like ‘Ocean Drive’ and ‘ Phone Tag‘ that truly exemplify Outrun Electro, there are ‘get in the car and drive into the night’ tunes. Then there’s the quitter, more atmospheric peices, such as ‘Astral Projection’. Where this album differs from the SynthWave classic ‘Early Summer’ is the injection of late 80’s, early’90’s dance music influences in the form of FM post-House basslines and orchestral hits on tracks like ‘Streets Of Fire’, we’ve made no apologies in the past about being orchestral hit lovers ,so this new facet of Miami Nights 1984 is definitely welcome. For me, the album centrepiece, ‘New Tomorrow’ sums up what ‘Turbulence’ is doing, it’s an evocative, rich peice in the place where Italo and ‘80’s electronic TV music meet. Emotional, yet danceable. Nostalgic, yet contemporary. The Germans call it SynthWave, The Rosso Corsa crew have always called it Outrun, In LA they invented Dreamwave just to be able to call it something. The retro synth scene has never really found a tag that has stuck, but I don’t think they care, but if there isn;t a name that expresses the scene as a whole, then at least there is an album, ‘Turbulence’ is the archetypal SynthWave album, it just sums up everything about retro, soundtrack influenced, synth music now, and where it;s headed in the future.
♫ Miami Nights 1984 – High Beams
♫ Miami Nights 1984 – Ocean Drive
♫ Miami Nights 1984 – Saved By The Bell
‘Turbulence’ is out now.
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