synth
Meet: Pål Waaktar-Savoy on Savoy, songwriting and See the Beauty in your drab Hometown
Every song is a puzzle. It isn’t often you get to meet your musical hero, much less one who taught you one of the essential tools of being a writer. Pål Waaktar-Savoy is the quiet, talented one in A-ha, who wrote or co-wrote the most of their hits. I was thrilled to meet him and …
See: In Tall Buildings release new video for Curtains
Following on from his recent ‘Beginning to Fade’ single, In Tall Buildings, aka Chicago songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Erik Hall, has just released a new video for its follow up, ‘Curtain’. Both are taken from his forthcoming album Akinetic, out on 2nd March via Western Vinyl. It’s a mix up of bubbling synth lines and snatches of guitars, …
Track: Belle and the Beats – Soldier of the night
Soldier of the night is the new single from Amsterdam based Belle and the Beats. Its the first single from the bands upcoming debut EP Lose Your Feathers, and the first fruits of the bands collaborations with producer Gil Lopez (including Kuenta i Tambu, Naked Ears), assisted by Mark van Bruggen (Dotan). Soldier of the …
Album Review: The Soft Moon – Criminal
The Soft Moon ‘Criminal’ (Sacred Bones) out Feb 2, 2018 Dark industrial soundscapes permeate the music of The Soft Moon a.k.a. Luis Vasquez, whose angst-filled vocals and lyrics focus on a recurring theme of guilt and shame. The initial single “Burn” opens the album with industrial drums, guitar noise, and vocal delivery reminiscent of The …
Track: Creep Show – Modern Parenting
Creep Show are the project of acclaimed singer-songwriter John Grant and the dark analogue trio of Wrangler (itself a project of Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire, Phil Winter and Benge), and ahead of their debut album – Mr. Dynamite, out on 16th March via Bella Union, they’ve released a new track ‘Modern Parenting’. The adventurous …
Track: Gundelach – Duck Hunting
If his debut EP and follow up ‘Games’ which featured his friend – artist ARY, then Duck Hunting, the new single from Norwegian singer-songwriter Gundelach is really going to set the cat amongst the pigeons. Not in a literal sense though, this is smooth, post-Fleetwood Mac soul, full of sweeping analogue synths, and his own …
Track: Sextile – Current affair
It’s been a while but Sextile have released the first new music since July last years Albeit Living, in the shape of a new single, Current Affair. It comes from ahead of ther bands first ever UK tour which starts this week. It features guest vocals from actress and friend of the and Sienna Scarritt, …
See: Son Lux reveal new video for track ‘Slowly’
Taken from their forthcoming fifth album ‘Brighter Wounds’, out on February 9th on City Slang, Son Lux have shared a second track called ‘Slowly’. It’s a delicate, slightly off-kilter track where synths and drums seems to move in different orbits, and Ryan Lott’s feathery, beautiful but fragile vocal seems to half draw things together but …
Album Review : Tangerine Dream’s ‘Quantum Gate’
It’s not very often that a band can continue on after the heart of that band passes on. There’s just something that goes when the center of a musical universe supernovas into the next existential plane. It seemed that when Edgar Froese passed on in early 2015 his constant musical project for the last 45 …
Track: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – The Punishment of Luxury, plus album news
One of the best synth bands of the eighties, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), are back with a new single and video “The Punishment of Luxury” in anticipation of their album of the same name due out on 1 September 2017. As I have often written before, creativity does not have a use-by date, …