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[auralpatterns]

Nah, it's about right if you have the correct reference points. Synthwave gets a lot of visual aesthetics from Blade Runner but musically it's always been closer to Tangerine Dream than Vangelis; compare e.g. their 1981 score for Thief (more of a regular thriller as a film, unless you maybe think "being set in the 80s" is inherently cyberpunk):

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also, if you think this also sounds rather like Stranger Things, you'd be completely right: the ST soundtrack has been purposefully made as an 80s TD pastiche and also directly includes some bits of theirs.

it’s 1981 and you’re in the city getting chased by corrupt cops👮🏻‍♂️

[auralpatterns]

well it's been a while on here! let's do a 2021 wrap-up of discoveries (from any year; people who think they can do an effective end-of-year wrapup of all releases that year as casual listeners are fooling themselves)

per RYM I've logged 212 new ratings:

| 2 at 5 stars |||| 21 at 4.5 stars |||||||||||| 59 at 4 stars |||||||||||||| 66 at 3.5 stars |||||||||| 47 at 3 stars ||| 14 at 2.5 stars | 1 at 2 stars | 2 at 1.5 stars (first ratings I've given this low since 2007)

One of the two 5-stars is a 90s single I've known for long and hadn't gotten around to rating before … so my best-rated find of the year is uncontestedly Arjen Schats, Manifolds (2021); classic Berlin School

The 4.5-ers:

Sergey Eybog: Everlasting Summer (Bright Side) (2013) – cool VGM, very sunny atmospheres. I have not played the game (apparently a visual novel actually)

Nigel Mullaney: The Navigator (2021) – versatile synthwork from a long-time Ian Boddy collaborator

U/V Light: Cenotaph (2015) – hella catchy retro synthpop; 5 stars for the opener "Arriviste"

V/A / Lucky Lotus label: Journey to the Stars (2016) – four-hour orbital strike of J-core / J-trance / allies. I got this in 2018 already but eh it was back in its day a major stimulant for me get my thesis finished and all, might as well leave it a shoutout here

Material Object: Indiana Drones (2013) – very ambient techno, dedicated to the late Pete Namlook

CFCF: Liquid Colors (2019) – the new savior of ambient d'n'b? not even in a meme way?

Curium: Aember (2007) – chill IDM from what I think of as the "netlabel side" of the genre: none of the drillcore 3avant5u aggression, just a honest interest in doing clever electronic music

Маяк: Река (2013), Вышеe звёзд (EP, 2014) – best synthwave find of the year. you may need to know something about East European 80s to get full nostalgy bonus from this

Holon: Connect | Isolate (2017), Echoes of the Void (2017) – a new breed of synth music entirely really; psybient techniques without the drugs, electro-industrial soundworld without the angst, space exploration without the analog fetish … to honor the trend of Really Dumb Genre Names I've decided this should be called "Uplifting Industrial"

Kashiwa Daisuke: april.#07 (2007) – modern electro-classical snippets; some fantastic, some eh

Doss: Doss (EP, 2014) – dream trance! it's not just for the 90s, even if kids these days for some reason get the core idea usually wrong completely *coughxd*

Penguin Cafe: Handfuls of Night (2019) – not the original Penguin Cafe Orchestra but an excellent "sequel band"; if you ever needed more Brian Eno in their work maybe

Aural Expansion: Surreal Sheep (1995) – kinda same deal as Aember above, more actively techno; might be better than the much-hyped 76:14. it is very cool when labels put their 90s or 00s back-catalogue, rarities and all, on Bandcamp

Floating Points: Bias (single, 2020) – some promising initial exploration into "future garage". I still have no idea what is the core sense of "garage" or if one even exists

Nanoray: Zapper (2021) – wherein it turns out that hardcore breaks is not just a new spelling for breakbeat hardcore and is actually a cooler new evolution. a lot of it is a bit over-memed but this one is just right for me

Martin Stürtzer: The Omarion Nebula (2020) – best ambient find of the year; artist mostly does somewhat less outstanding Berlin School

Zabutom: Zeta Force (Digitone Version) (single, 2021) – FM synth re-edit from Swedish chiptune legend's 2011 EP. more please

Tangerine Dream: Recurring Dreams (?? compilation, 2019) – new-generation lineup goes back to the basics forreal and puts out excellent advanced covers of their classic-era work. much better than similar attempts in earlier decades

Earth Trax: LP2 (2020) – I'm finally starting to find good clues / entrypoints into house; this one and several others found via @lamuyazimina (thx!)

[auralpatterns]

Eighties new age cover art #1

Yanni - Keys To Imagination, Don Harris - Abacus Moon, Emerald Web - Lights of the Ivory Plains

Moonstone - Stairway, Toshifumi Hinata - Story, Les Gabriel LaHeart - Moment of Heaven

Mannheim Steamroller - Fresh Aire VI, Stephen Rhodes - Perfume, Patrick O’Hearn - Indigo

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Oh, that’s too bad.

I left 8Tracks already years ago, after only posting two mixes, when they made the site abstrusely difficult to use for people not in the US (and Canada?), but the premise of it was always cool and I’d love to have some similar service out there again one day. Maybe without the shared music library option that seemed to be giving them legal trouble… Or maybe I’ll indeed just have to go for Mixcloud. I still have my handful of other mostly finished mixes & stalled further mix concepts around anyway after all.

The death of 8tracks is just awful… I’ve used it as my primary platform for my mixes for years, which were always and still are a crucial part of this blog. I guess I still have Youtube and Mixcloud, but this is where it began. Some great things came from this site.

Please know 8tracks wasn’t just fandom mixes you threw around on Tumblr in 2013. Some people got really ambitious and creative in a way that I’ve emulated on all of my own mixes. There aren’t many other reliable mix-making sites out there beyond Mixcloud and, to a lesser extent, Youtube. Music curation has amazing potential and sites like these were places to let it out. I would argue curation skills are more important to music than reviewing.

If you have Spotify Premium you can convert playlists to Spotify, but otherwise you can only save the track listings. Be sure to do this for your favorites before the month is up!

As for my own mixes, I’m saving the data and looking for another outlet. You can find select ones (but not all of them) over at YouTube and Mixcloud. If that’s a bust, the closest thing for now is the track listings in my mix tag.

[auralpatterns]

Saturn sounds like one of those ghost noises removed in .mp3 encoding demos.

Also, Jupiter sounds eeriely much like the space ambient classic Zeit.

[auralpatterns]

DDRKirby — A Link To The Future

Wishing you a good end to 2018.

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We interrupt this regularly scheduled radio silence to report that I have been catching up on what the new generation of Tangerine Dream is up to; and the Sessions series very well might be some of the band’s best work in several decades.

[auralpatterns]

Jerome Ramsey plays: Mellotron M400, Expanded Doepfer/Analogue Solutions Modular System, Analogue Systems Modular System, Doepfer MAQ 16/3 Analogue Sequencer, Oberheim OB1, Farfisa Compact Duo, ARP Odyssey, ARP Pro Soloist, ARP Omni 2, Elka Rhapsody 610, Sequential Circuits Pro One, Yamaha SY1, Roland SH101, Roland JD800, Roland 501 Space Echo, Novation Space Station, Fender Bullet Guitar, Behringer V-Amp 2, Chase Bit 99, EMU ESI 4000, JR Electronics Drum Synth, SRS Dual Phaser Unit, Boss Flanger Unit, Kenton Pro 2.

Brendan Pollard plays: Mellotron M400, Bohm Soundlab Modular System, The Beast Duophonic Modular System, SRS RP3 Noise Generator Modular System, Doepfer MAQ 16/3 Analogue Sequencer, Elka Rhapsody 610, ARP Pro DGX, ARP Solina, Logan String Machine, Moog Micromoog, Octave Kitten, Korg Delta, Korg Lambda, Korg MS2000, Roland JP8000, EMU ESI 2000, SRS ZV3 Bass Synth, SRS Philtertron, SRS Dual Phaser Unit, Electro Harmonix Flanger, Melos Echo Chamber, Kenton Pro 2, Philip Rees MCV ×2, JMS CGX Interface, The Space Machine.

This here, kids, is how you can tell you’re about to listen to a Good Synth Album. Not necessary any of the particulars (though some of them are good signs in general) — but, the recognition that synthesizers are not interchangeable, and are often as distinct from each other as a violin is from a cello or an oboe or a steel drum

also: tag yourselves, I’m Arp Solina

[auralpatterns]

FPU — Seven of Nine

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Reii — Ganesh Resonator

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RIP Holger Cuzkay aged 79.

A sad moment for me indeed.  Can co-founder Holger Czukay has passed away and was one of the esoteric and influential artist whose collaborative works I loved most.

I chose this piece as I hold it very dear to my heart for extremely personal reasons. It surprises me how hard it hits home when someone whose been literally woven into the very fabric of your music lexicon passes away.

Thank you for rarefied gifts of sonic beauty. You will be missed.

[auralpatterns]

Rudolf C — Pisces

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Reboot Me — All You Want

I’m browsing the BleepLove backcatalogue; more select cuts maybe coming shortly.

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Global Communication — 14:31 (also known as: Ob-Selon Mi-Nos)

In anticipation.

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Television Sky — Footnotes

It’s an ambient night in a half-vacant flat we are having at auralpatterns HQ.

[auralpatterns]

Ambient drone music: Nonconnah’s I Hope Every Week Changes My Life (demo)