Synthwave – Page 5 – 7th Level Music

Review: Sound Cipher – All That Syncs Must Diverge

What do you get when Tim Alexander (on percussion) of Primus and Skerik (on saxophones and synths) of Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade have a jam session one night and later invite bassist and synth-player Timm Mason from Wolves in the Throne Room to the party? You get something that sounds like Neu! mixed with Aphex Twin. You get Sound Cipher.

Their debut album, All That Syncs Must Diverge, is a wild mix of electronica, pulsing beats, saxophone skronks, and glitchy android synths. “Grind Incursion” is the sound of panic in a robot disco. “Ransomwar” reminds you of faraway desert oasis fires and beautiful dancing maidens…and all of it is a slightly unnerving hologram. The way Alexander’s percussion drifts into “Church Turing” and slowly takes over the song like dusk turning to night is a cool effect.

“Permissive Action Link” starts the second half of the album with bad-ass synth bass and growling percussion that will inspire you to throw on a black faux-leather coat and ride a futuristic motorcycle fitted with flame throwers and rockets into a post-nuclear war wasteland in order to rescue someone lovely from a band of mutants. “God Mode” is the song that plays when that quest takes a strange turn after you accidentally fall into a missile silo that’s now used as an underground temple for a strange cult that worships the AI computer that started the war. The song rolls straight into “Entropy Pool,” threatening to pull you down into an even deeper abyss, but showing you a way out of it: a pulsing light in the distance and the sounds of tribal drumming and smoky saxophone reminding you of the lovely companion you came here to rescue. It won’t be an easy climb out of the old missile silo, but it can be done. It must be done.

So, yeah, All That Syncs Must Diverge is pretty much the soundtrack to a cool 1980s European post-apocalyptic / future dystopia film you found one night while scrolling through a weird Roku channel. I hope this project isn’t just a one-off thing. I’d love to hear more from them.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Kevin at Royal Potato Family.]

Review: Bodywash – I Held the Shape While I Could

The title of Bodywash‘s new record, I Held the Shape While I Could, is a perfect summary of how it feels to be barely holding your life together and then finally, sometimes blissfully, being able to drop that façade when you’re alone and just cry your eyes out.

The record was made as both Rosie Long Decter and Chris Steward were coming out points in their lives that had resulted in dissatisfaction, alienation, boredom, and heartbreak. Opening track “In As Far” sets up a major theme of the album (breaking through ennui by being willing to face it head-on) with Steward’s synths that burst open like the sun through clouds. “Picture Of” has Decter reminiscing about a past lover and how sometimes the memory is better than the relationship truly was (“You were hard to believe, asking everything close. You were hard to prove. Something to see and not know.” / “I decide to lie and wait, picture of desire in a frame.”)

“Massif Central” is Steward’s buzzing shoegaze tale of losing his Canadian work status in 2020 due to a typographical error, thus leaving him alienated and unemployed just as we were all hearing the early warnings of the pandemic. “Bas Relief” is an instrumental, sounding like ocean waves and wind and some kind of early 1990s mall music tape that’s been left near a space heater.

Steward sings about trying to fit in as half-Japanese, half-British (“To feel half is not to feel whole.”) and Canadian. “Kind of Light” is about Decter trying to fit in after after the end of a relationship while others are enjoying love around her (“Pull back all the ways you count her gone. Spend a year living trying to hold yourself to a certain kind of light.”)

“One Day Clear” is almost a spoken word piece as Decter tells a lonely tale and Steward plays simple, hypnotic, looping synths behind her. “Sterilizer” is a tale full of bright shoegaze guitars while discussing the idea trying to make a relationship work, but knowing, in your heart, that, while it feels good now, it’s probably going to make both of you bitter in the long run (“We talk inside of swallowed pride, still I warm your sleep tonight.”).

“Dessents” floats right into the snappy, electro-thumping “Ascents” – which is a lovely song about Decter and Steward’s friendship forged even harder during their long drives to gigs while working out their relationship woes. The shimmering sound and wispy vocals on “Patina” (another song about moving past an ended relationship) remind one of some Besnard Lakes tracks, which isn’t surprising when you consider that Jace Lasek from The Besnard Lakes recorded and mixed the album.

Decter is at least in the process of healing by the time we get to “No Repair.” Her vocals are a bit melancholy, but her voice doesn’t seem to be carrying as much weight, and the instrumentation behind her helps rejuvenate her and us. Lyrics like “And sometimes when I’m quiet and alone, I need no repair. If this is as far as it goes, write it in handfuls of air. You were there.”

That’s a lovely lyric to end a lovely album.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Sound Cipher release “Grid Incursion” ahead of their debut album due April 21, 2023.

Sound Cipher is the surreal, pulsating audio vision shared by three of modern music’s most uncompromising sound sculptors. It’s the sort of thing that emerges when Tim Alexander (Primus, Puscifer, A Perfect Circle) finds himself inside a thunderous duo improvisation with Skerik (Critters Buggin, Garage A Trois, Les Claypool’s Frog Brigade) during a soundcheck for Primus’ Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory tour in Oakland CA. One person surrounded by a circular percussion station of preposterous proportions, another person hurling psychedelic saxophonic screams into the hellfire of analog and digital circuitry.

Skerik and Tim Alexander knew they were onto something. The first official Sound Cipher excursion was scheduled for January 2, 2017 at Studio Litho in Seattle WA with Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Six Organs of Admittance, Akron/Family) at the production helm. He would bring aboard Timm Mason (Master Musicians Of Bukkake, Wolves In The Throne Room, Eyvind Kang & Jessica Kenney, Jóhann Jóhannsson) to assist with modular synth processing during this first session, generally a technical advisory role involving lab coats and clipboards and chin-scratching. The participants arrived and were surprised to find Mason setting up in the live room instead of the control room. As the recording unfolded, Mason’s direct in-the-moment sonic manipulation of the proceedings made it clear that he belonged at the creative core of the project where he remains today.

Listeners and innocent bystanders have reported spiritual resemblances to the experimental German scene of the ’70s with traces of Can, Faust, Neu and early Kraftwerk, the dark manic rumble of Peter Gabriel‘s early work and the complex digital hardcore first birthed by Aphex Twin and Squarepusher, all of it wrapped in an unsettling atmosphere that verily reeks of familiar ingredients: a tumbling machine-tight groove, a wash of analog synths direct from your midnight movie memories, a snippet from your grandpa’s old Louis Armstrong records stretched across miles of fizzling voltage and contorted into barely recognizable and altogether quite mind-altering new shapes.

Initial plans to release the 2017 session as Sound Cipher’s unveiling were revised when the trio found a new level of clarity in shaping their ideas following a series of live performances in 2018. Further recording and mixing took place in 2018 at Avast Studios, also in Seattle. Now, six years after that initial studio date, the finest flowers from those multiple sessions are available to adventurous listeners everywhere in the form of Sound Cipher’s debut LP, All That Syncs Must Diverge, to be released April 21, 2023 on vinyl and digital formats via Royal Potato Family. The opening track “Grid Incursion” (listen/share) is out today on all streaming platforms. In addition, Sound Cipher will reconvene for three live sonic adventures in accordance with the album’s release.

SOUND CIPHER
All That Syncs Must Diverge

Track Listing:
1. Grid Incursion
2. Ransomwar
3. Church Turing
4. Permissive Action Link
5. God Mode
6. Entropy Pool

Out April 21 On Vinyl & Digital Music Platforms
Pre-Order / Pre-Save Here

Album Release Shows

April 21 – Seattle WA – Clock-Out Lounge
April 22 – Portland OR – Star Theater
April 24 – Livestream – Nugs.net

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Kevin at Royal Potato Family.]

Nuovo Testamento release new album, “Love Lines,” and tour dates.

Press Photo By Yvette Aispuro & Silvia Polmonari

Los Angeles / Bologna based trio, Nuovo Testamento, has taken over dance floors with their uniquely dark Italo disco-flavored pop hits in just a few years. Following the release of the coldwave cult hit Exposure EP back in 2019 (Avant! Records), their acclaimed full-length New Earth exploded onto the scene with its graceful 1980s-influenced club elements, contagious rhythms and a powerful punch of synth-pop. The release was widely considered across genres to be one of 2021’s best underground albums of the year.

Today they return with the release of their highly anticipated second LP, Love Lines, on which Nuovo Testamento continue to explore the light, the dark and exultant personal power in what will undoubtedly become an instant dance classic.

Love Lines is an album about proof of life and the joy of survival. Vibrant with Italo disco and Hi-NRG celebration, the record invokes a sense of motion in an often stagnant time and place. Inside the eight new tracks, rich synthesizers and driving percussion testify to the need for movement, connection and autonomy.

Produced by sound engineer Maurizio Baggio (Boy Harsher, The Soft Moon)with vocal recording by Riki, Love Lines is reminiscent of the work of Shep Pettibone, Chris Barbosa and serves as a reminder of the power of pop music.

Nuovo Testamento includes members of hardcore and dark punk royalty Tørsö, Horror Vacui, Crimson Scarlet and touring members of Sheer Mag. In May the trio hit the road on an extensive North American tour supporting Molchat Doma; see below for a full list of dates.

Love Lines is out today via Discoteca Italia – purchase here.

Nuovo Testamento Live Dates:

Mar 24: San Diego, CA – The Whistle Stop
Mar 26: Ft Collins, CO – The Coast
Mar 29: Milwaukee WI – X-Ray Arcade
Mar 30: Chicago, IL – Riviera Theater ~
Mar 31: Detroit, MI – St Andrews Hall ~
Apr 01: Toronto, ON – Phoenix Concert Hall ~
Apr 02: Montreal, QC – M Telus ~
Apr 04: Boston, MA – Roadrunner ~
Apr 06: Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer ~
Apr 07: New York, NY – Terminal 5 ~
Apr 08: Washington, DC – 9:30 Club ~
Apr 12: Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel ~
Apr 13: Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse ~
Apr 14: Orlando, FL – Plaza Live ~
Apr 15: Saint Petersburg, FL – Jannus Live ~
Apr 16: Ft Lauderdale, FL – Culture Room ~
Apr 19: Louisville, KY – Old Forester’s Paristown Hall ~
Apr 20: Nashville, TN – Eastside Bowl ~
Apr 21: St Louis, MO – The Factory ~
Apr 22: Kansas City, MO – The Truman ~
Apr 23: Oklahoma City, OK – Tower Theatre ~
Apr 25: New Orleans, LA – House of Blues ~
Apr 26: Houston, TX @ Bayou Music Center ~
Apr 27: San Antonio, TX – The Aztec Theater ~
Apr 28: Austin, TX – Stubb’s Amphitheater ~
Apr 29: Dallas, TX – South Side Ballroom ~
May 01: El Paso, TX – Lowbrow Palace ~
May 02: Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre ~
May 04: Denver, CO – Ogden Theater ~
May 06: Salt Lake City, UT – The Depot ~
May 09: Boise, ID – Knitting Factory Concert House ~
May 11: Vancouver, BC – Harbour Event Centre ~
May 12: Seattle, WA – Showbox Sodo ~
May 13: Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom ~
May 16: Santa Cruz, CA – Catalyst ~
May 17: San Francisco, CA – The Warfield ~
May 18: Los Angeles, CA – TBA ~
May 19: Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren ~

~ w/ Molchat Doma

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Bailey at Another Side.]

Miss Grit assures us “Nothing’s Wrong” on their new single.

Miss Grit — the New York-based, Korean-American musician Margaret Sohn (they/she) — will release their debut album, Follow The Cyborg, February 24th via Mute. Leading into the release, Miss Grit has released a string of stunning singles, and today they reveal a new track, “Nothing’s Wrong.” There is a profound tenderness resonating throughout “Nothing’s Wrong.” A tone of lament seeps from Sohn’s vocals, as they sing “Nothing’s Wrong // And so I can’t feel, can’t hear, can’t figure out how to make things right // I’ll never know // Why I was built without a throat // So I can never stomach growth // Or see outside this world I know.” The song’s instrumentation is rich and immersive, with melancholy guitar and piano, ticking drums, and illustrious strings.

Listen to Miss Grit’s “Nothing’s Wrong”

Across Follow the Cyborg, Miss Grit pursues the path of a non-human machine, as it moves from its helpless origin to awareness and liberation. Miss Grit’s impetus to conceive an album about the life of a cyborg stems from their own connection to this way of existing. As a mixed-race, non-binary artist, Sohn has always rejected the limits of identity thrust upon them by the outside world, in favor of embracing a more fluid and complex understanding of the self. In their exploration of the life of a cyborg, they subtly and overtly refer to films, including Her, Ex Machina, and Ghost in the Shell, as well as essays by Jia Tolentino (from Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion) and Donna Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto.

At times gentle and sparse, at others volatile and explosive, Follow the Cyborg occupies a sonic world of electronic experimentation and stirring electric guitars. It was recorded mostly in solitude in Sohn’s home studio, with the exception of a few guest collaborators joining: Stella Mozgawa of Warpaint, Aron Kobayashi Ritch of Momma, and Pearla.

“Nothing’s Wrong” is the follow-up to the “clearly anthemic” (FADER) “Lain (Phone Clone),” the “beguiling and elastic” (Stereogum) “Like You,” and the title track. Following the release of Follow The Cyborg, Miss Grit will play a pair of album release shows in New York and Los Angeles. Following, she’ll head down to SXSW (more details to come). Tickets for the release shows are on sale now.

Watch the “Follow the Cyborg” Video

Watch the “Like You” Lyric Video

Watch the “Lain (Phone Clone)” Video

Pre-order Follow the Cyborg

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[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Das Beat have the “Last Laugh” with their new single.

Berlin-based duo Das Beat, made up of Agor of Blue Hawaii & German actress Eddie Rabenberg, are today sharing their new single “Last Laugh“, which is out now via Arbutus Records. T

Speaking about the track, the band said “Who laughs last does not necessarily laugh the best. There’s always more to any situation than meets the eye and it’s hard to see it from any one perspective. The song plays with German sayings and inspires one to just let go and have fun.”

Listen to “Last Laugh” on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/9uu7eg9xTx4
Listen via other streaming services here:https://found.ee/583sb

Blending sounds of New Wave, Dark Disco, Indie, & Dance, their sound is unified by the vocals of Eddie Rabenberger, sung and belted in both German and English. Amidst the spirited lyrics lies a strong dancey pulse, pinning down the duo’s dreamy atmospherics, guitars and percussion.

The duo is half-Canadian and half-German. Dj Kirby (Blue Hawaii), moved to Berlin from Montreal in 2018. Eddie is a theatre actor originally from a small town in southern Germany. Together they find an alluring symbiosis – like Giorgio Moroder meets Nico, or Gina X Performance finds The Prodigy.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Frankie at Stereo Sanctity.]

Mandy, Indiana return with a new single – “Injury Detail.”

Today, Manchester, UK-based band Mandy, Indiana return with new single, “Injury Detail,” via Fire Talk Records, their first new music since the release of 2021’s acclaimed ‘…’ EP. Mandy, Indiana – Valentine Caulfield (vocals/lyrics), Scott Fair (guitar/production), Simon Catling (synth) and Alex Macdougall (drums) – meld experimental noise and dance music, from drum machine snaps and pulsing bass to white noise and lo-fi scuff. Produced by Fair and Robin Stewart of Giant Swan, “Injury Detail” is a dramatic reintroduction, opening with a grand organ before morphing into a thumping dance track fit for a warehouse rave. “‘Injury Detail’ was inspired by the idea of being trapped in a liminal space, with the guitars creating a seemingly limitless and undefined landscape. The vocals act as a guide to possible salvation, or perhaps something of a more sinister intent,” explains Caulfield. The accompanying video was directed by Thomas Harrington Rawle.

Watch the Video for Mandy, Indiana’s “Injury Detail”

Formed out of the fertile Manchester independent scene, Mandy, Indiana generate a sound that is at once chaotic and precision engineered – abrasive beats and gnarled guitars sit in thickets of distortion around Caulfield’s commanding vocals sung in her native language, French. Their songs, which incorporate found samples and field recordings, are recorded in a variety of spaces, from rehearsal rooms and home studios to cavernous industrial mills and shopping malls. Mandy, Indiana’s first recordings emerged around 2019, culminating in their debut, 2021’s ‘…’ EP, which featured a heavy-hitting remix from Daniel Avery. Its single, “Bottle Episode,” was named a Best Song of 2021 by Pitchfork, who recognized the “perverse playfulness” of Caufield’s grim lyrics, and Paste, who hailed it “an exhilarating darkness for the bold to brave.” The EP also led to Stereogum naming Mandy, Indiana a Best New Band of 2021. Since then, they’ve become a live favorite in the UK, supporting the likes of Squid, IDLES, Gilla Band, Wet Leg, and SCALPING, along with festival appearances at Pitchfork Paris, End of the Road, and more. The band will be making their US debut at SXSW 2023 as part of the official lineup. “Injury Detail” is a taste of more music to come from Mandy, Indiana this year.

Listen to “Injury Detail”

Mandy, Indiana Tour Dates
Fri. Feb. 3 – Manchester, UK @ Yes
Sat. Feb. 4 – Birkenhead, UK @ Future Yard
Sun. Feb. 5 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Fri. March 10 – Sun. March 19 – Austin, TX @ SXSW

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Ahmad at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Top 20 albums of 2022: #’s 5 – 1

Here we are at the top five albums I reviewed in 2022. It was a great year for music, and these are what stood out for me among all the good stuff out there.

#5: Jacques Greene – Fantasy

As I’ve mentioned before, 2022 was a great year for electronic music, and this EP from Jacques Greene topped my list of that kind of music. It mixes house, drum and bass, ambient, and a bit of synth wave into a luscious brew.

#4: The Staples Jr. Singers – When Do We Get Paid

This reissue of classic gospel funk tracks by The Staples Jr. Singers is stunning. The amount of groove and friskiness in these songs is almost overwhelming. The instrumentation and harmonizing are outstanding, and there’s enough soul for two churches.

#3: Yard Act – The Overload

This is the best post-punk album I heard all year. Everything on it is razor sharp: the wit, the guitar angles, the grooves, the drum sounds, and the slightly snarled tongue-in-cheek vocals.

#2: The Black Angels – Wilderness of Mirrors

The Black Angels‘ new album was a great return for them. It explores the stress of modern times through walls of distorted guitars, reverb-laden vocals, powerful drums, and mind-warping sound. The Black Angels have yet to put out a bad record, but this one somehow set the bar even higher for psych-bands to follow.

#1: A Place to Bury Strangers – See Through You

A Place to Bury Strangers came back with a new lineup and some of Oliver Ackermann‘s most revealing lyrics about the end of friendships, loneliness, grief, over-reliance on technology, and the overall anxiety everyone’s been feeling since 2019. Ackermann put it all out there and walloped us with more honesty and distortion that you can almost stand.

Let’s look forward to a great 2023!

Keep your mind open.

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Top 20 albums of 2022: #’s 10 – 6

We’ve reached the top ten albums that came my way last year. Who made the cut? Read on…

#10: The Bobby Lees – Bellevue

This album is full of raw punk vocals, squealing guitars, and enough raw power to supercharge the engine of a Trans Am. It’s a great debut from them.

#9: Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol – Doom-Wop

As soon as I heard “Shoo-In,” I knew this was going to be one of my favorite records of the year. These Austin, Texans play fuzzy garage rock that covers such subjects as drinking, sex, partying, break-ups, jerks, and weirdos. In other words, everything.

#8: King Buffalo – Regenerator

Cosmic rock keeps expanding, which is great news for people like me who love psychedelic sounds that are fit for exploring the desert or other planets. King Buffalo’s newest album fits the bill and sends you into orbit into the surprisingly warm void of space.

#7: Regressive Left – On the Wrong Side of History

This is the best dance-rock record I heard all year. It’s a groove-filled EP with scathing lyrics about politicians, consumerism, the internet, celebrity, toxic masculinity, and sex.

#6: The Chats – Get Fucked

And here’s the best punk record I heard all year. The Chats came back with a new guitarist and a renewed anger (and sense of humor) after the pandemic and gave us this wickedly sharp and funny album of barn-burners about the price of cigarettes, hot rods, and, of course, getting drunk.

Come back tomorrow for the top five!

Keep your mind open.

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Don’t be a “Stranger” to Ruth Radelet’s new single.

Today, Los Angeles-based artist Ruth Radelet announces her debut EP, The Other Side, out October 7th. Today, she presents its lead single/video, the cinematic ballad “Stranger.” Best known for fronting the influential and beloved group Chromatics, Ruth solidifies her next chapter as a solo artist with The Other Side. Written over the course of two years and recorded with friend and producer Filip Nikolic (formerly of Poolside), The Other Side showcases Radelet’s timeless voice and classic take on songwriting.

Following the single “Crimes,” “her ethereal and poignant debut” (Gorilla vs. Bear), “Stranger” is a love letter to LA. The stark black-and-white video, directed by James Manson and shot on 16mm Kodak film by Freddie Whitman, features Ruth exploring the city alone. “Stranger” is about a specific kind of loneliness that I have only felt in Los Angeles. Although the song is very much about longing, it’s more about a place than a person,” she elaborates. “The lyric ‘I could never hold you in my hands’ is about the feeling of always being on the outside looking in, of the city never fully opening its doors to me.”

Watch Ruth Radelet’s Video for “Stranger”

Exploring themes of love, death, and rebirth, “The Other Side represents a side of my personality as an artist that most people haven’t seen until now,” explains Radelet. “It also represents my coming out the other side of a traumatic experience, gathering what I could from ‘Before’ and figuring out how to exist ‘After.’ This record was forged in the fire of a transformative two-year period during which I lost almost everything, including my father who was a huge influence on me. Most of the songs were written just before I was caught up in a storm of big changes, and they were all finished just as life started to feel sweet again. It feels right to share some of the last chapter before moving into the next, and though it’s a melancholy record, for me The Other Side is a step into a bigger and brighter future.”

Radelet is a singer, songwriter, and musician with diverse influences ranging from Joni Mitchell to Frank Ocean. She has been performing and releasing music for over a decade since joining Chromatics in 2006 for their acclaimed album Night Drive released the following year. Chromatics’ music and aesthetic has notably been used in numerous films, television series, and fashion shows. The band appeared on screen in multiple episodes of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return while Radelet was recently featured on a Chromatics’ 2020 remix of the Weeknd’s #1 hit single, “Blinding Lights.”

Listen to “Crimes”

The Other Side Tracklist
1. Stranger
2. Sometimes
3. Crimes
4. Be Careful
5. Youth

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