Rolling Synthwave/Retrowave/Outrun 2017 Thread

surely you mean sergio valente?

yeah i hadn't considered kids making memes and stuff. it does straddle the "are you kidding me" line a lot of the time. i just revel in the neon vibes,

man all subgenres come with non-musical signifiers, some of which are really shitty. yeah you can judge synthwave by the crappy cover art memes just like you can judge disco by the bell-bottoms, and you're not wrong to do so, but sometimes enjoying music involves deliberately turning a blind eye to some of its worse non-musical signifiers.

This stuff deserves no discourse whatsoever. Just listen and enjoy, that's really all there is to it. Popcorn VHS fantasy music.

Trans Am's synthier stuff and aesthetics feel like a precursor to this stuff

This stuff deserves no discourse whatsoever. Just listen and enjoy, that's really all there is to it. Popcorn VHS fantasy music.

this is it for me.

i know i will tire of it, but at the moment, it's pure ear candy.
that said, the releases on blood music are a step away from the outrun material, and often use different visual templates (mainly heavy metal espeically GoST/Perturbator)

Trans Am's synthier stuff and aesthetics feel like a precursor to this stuff

― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

I completely agree... Futureworld could easily be called a synthwave album.
And even Kavinsky was doing his thing before the genre really had a name.

yeah the french were on this early i feel.. see also: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41KhJgxEFFL.jpg

I also would agree, there is no discourse needed. It's nostalgia fluff, mainly. It's about your futuristic muscle car and your homemade spaceship that really works and the first love your life that dumped you and that feeling you got when you read Neuromancer for the first time.

You could tie it into late stage capitalism and the crumbling legitimacy of neoliberalism and a desire to return to simpler, more clear-cut geopolitical narratives such as those of the 80s, but I think that's overthinking it!

huh went to spotify and trans am is back with a very synthy single!

http://www.stereogum.com/1927581/trans-am-alles-verboten/music/

"And even Kavinsky was doing his thing before the genre really had a name."

didn't click until this week that the genre name, outrun, was taken from kavinskys album.

that cant be something that happens too often i.e. a genre name lifted from an album name ?

one that does not use arcade video stylings.

i've not seen this before :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCSWzt56CC0

looks like old 80s movie clips, but i dont think they are ??

warning : not for the faint hearted.

Pretty sure "outrun" comes from the old car racing video game

what I assume anyway, I don't really know

ahh, i have never heard of that game.
i guess that's where kavisnsky got the album title from.

yeah i think it's the game

this stuff feels like an outgrowth of chiptune stuff, maybe they grew tired of the limited sonic palette of chiptune stuff

Step back a few more years to '02 and you've got Thomas Bangalter's singles on Roulé and the Irreversible soundtrack, one of the tunes from which is "Outrun," though it fits less on this thread than other tunes like "Night Beats" and "Paris by Night."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhXrjQyT6ho

yeah that works ..
not heard any of TBs material before.
suspect some of the munich machine album by (dj) hell fits this groove now,
but have to be careful that we dont drift into electroclash ..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4CHNIfLPd4

I need to make an workout playlist with some of these songs

This stuff gets me pumped

Some precursors to the Synthwave boom

Ural 13 Diktators (2001):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiAIor2knU0

FPU - Crockett's Theme (2003)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSdBTPoS_iU

and the granddaddy, Laserdance - Power Run (1984):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak5P_FVbs9k
"by 2017, the world economy has collapsed..."

why do synthwave people have such horrible taste in vocalists?

This is from 5yrs ago but fits the bill:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMPBXr5td0w

I like that, you don't often hear this sort of stuff in lo-fi, but it works great.

Same sort of time, same ballpark, perhaps not as much Outrun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6FD6t4lKKo

I mean the most immediate precursor is the entirety of italians do it better

I mean the most immediate precursor is the entirety of italians do it better

yup.
well kind of.
the symmetry release is definitely part of this groove.

for those that like the more laid back neon sunset vs vangelis side of this,
then the pre-blood music releases by tommy'86 and dan terminus are very worthy.

https://tommy86.bandcamp.com/ << includes some ILM fave Sally Shapiro collaborations

https://dan-terminus.bandcamp.com/

as someone who bought the neon pink Drive vinyl soundtrack, I think yes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxs6YI4yfvE

Search also: Tangerine Dream Thief soundtrack.

^precursor city

amazed that the Stranger Things soundtrack hasn't been mentioned in this thread yet

*mentions things*

Italians do it better aren't as garish and unapologetically maximalist though.. most synthwave has more in common with big room trancey house, just with 80s synth/drum soundz

(IMO/e)

Or you know the loads of hooky spacesynth instrumental cheez that's been churning out of Europe/Russia uninterrupted through the late 80s/90s/00s...

it's not clear to me that groups like Laserdance, Proxion etc ever went away

now it's the kids' turn!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcXh7SIB76A

not officially in the synthwave realm, but this track fits nicely alongside it I think.

Laserdance did disappear for fifteen years or so, but resurfaced a few months ago. They sound exactly like they did in 1987:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A1agXLbn9c

That Ural 13 Diktators track posted above has sent me down a rabbit hole of dark, dramatic techno from the early 2000s. I would've gladly swapped out EBM for that stuff if I had known it existed.

game precursors:

top gear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAMvfv6X8xs

skyroads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjNEtDl0Z4g

wow that Skyroads one is heady

Search also: Tangerine Dream Thief soundtrack.
― andrew m., Friday, March 3, 2017 4:18 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I worked with a guy super into this stuff, chiptunes, game soundtracks, also metal but anyway he had never heard of kratwerk or tangerine dream & was blown away when I played out & told him what years it came out

I honestly didn't know about the dance music stuff like this happening in the 90s. It's great!

xp -- the composer on skyroads was a chiptune/demoscene guy iirc (a lot of the old '90s kozmic music archive stuff is in this vein as well)

most synthwave has more in common with big room trancey house, just with 80s synth/drum soundz

― a but (brimstead)

I actually don't see that at all, the structure and feel is completely different. Yes it has a few modern production tricks like compressed kicks etc, but compositionally it's a whole different thing. No mix-friendly intro/outro segments, none of the tension-release buildups for dancefloors and I don't think a lot of the topline melodies would work in club tunes - if anything this stuff specifically harks back to the mood-setting/'soundtracking' function of pre-dj culture electronic music.

i think any attempt to contextualize this stuff w/o putting video games at the center is misguided

I think there's the stuff that orbits around video game music and the stuff that orbits around John Carpenter and The Terminator

this is one of my all-time favorite games and soundtracks--the whole playlist is worth a listen imo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrdorSwShLo&index=1&list=PL8M6xAzX1w_yTSe849rxBQ58sUoGPSe4Z

maybe a little more low key than a lot of the stuff on this thread tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTE5TmUBAnM

Siegbran, you're much more right than I.. I think I have more to say about electrohouse and plasticity and lasers and stuff but the words aren't there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1wKa7TjVV4

Diggin' this one pretty good

Midnight features on a really good track with Timecop1983.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYh4yxDqpqI

Mellow one from FM-84
https://open.spotify.com/track/1znnwRl4cNhCNCfz7NjtAO?si=N0FngnF4RuqcVrwPyaXV6A

https://mindspringmemories.bandcamp.com/track/a-6

The drop at 12:15 kills

facexhugger has made all his stuff for 'name your price' :

https://facexhugger.bandcamp.com/

also, Carpenter Brut and GOST are coming to a town near me later this year.
I may have to get off my sofa to see this show.
however, I suspect I will look like the taxi service for those in the moshpit.

New Midnight album is a little cheesy and upbeat but I like it
https://open.spotify.com/album/49ItLbfOzgYIVOeIdxxrnn?si=hSMwT6pART2Ip5GsPYU2tQ

looking forward to the forthcoming perturbator 2 volume retrospective release before he moves on from synthwave.
that said, his 'new model' ep from last year was still in the same sonic world albeit with extra bass noise in the mix.

America 2 and Kids(Reprise) on The Midnight album are great!

New Futurecop! album is full of collaborations and sounds really good. Very positive vibes, fresh!
https://open.spotify.com/album/4cEg5mb75YugZ9fZn2P5yn?si=9Z_GuadkQayBXIx05ADI5Q

Yes, very nice, if not very ambitious. Thanks for posting

https://youtu.be/xGLbx52KMKs
^
Super cool synthwave mix

https://synthwave.hu/

https://daily.bandcamp.com/big-ups/perturbator-james-kent-big-ups

the new album is very goth vs synths.

being going through and thought i'd add some favourite synthwave stuff I was listening to from 2015-2018ish

Tek.Lun - From above

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzPCGvlyiK8

Evil Needle feat Sivey - Next Gen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njEjBYhGTZw

Hudson Mowhawke - Bluetooth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xD7YfXufBU

Joss Ryan - A dark tale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w-JkP2asVU

Geotheory - Desiree (Aye)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUruLIHL-4g

J-E-T-S : pyrite blue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_kstFtns8U

Prymdplaza - Dream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2ous6WXjmg

The Midnight's latest tour sold out a few 2000+ capacity venues, they seem to have surpassed their synthwave peers in commercial success. An interview where they talk about breaking out of the synthwave sandbox