Category: synth
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grotto terrazza – kalte köstlichkeiten
A stylised, sharp, mid-century album cover will often precede a dry, synth-pop experience—it’s the go-to aesthetic for the scene. However, Grotto Terrazza has the eccentricity to angle away from formula and towards his own voice. Kalte Köstlichkeiten is tight, engaging, and sincerely bizarre. There are so many words to call it: drum machine punk, chipmunk […]
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various artists – after dark 4
Did you also watch ‘Drive’ aged 12, then brooded and pouted, seeking out toothpicks and scorpion jackets for a month after? Released by the label responsible for Chromatics’ ‘Tick of the Clock’, After Dark 4 revisits that same adolescent posturing with decisive colour. Like The Weeknd’s first mixtape, it conjures an elite, narcotic atmosphere; like […]
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working men’s club – fear fear
Arriving like LCD Soundsystem’s unruly out-of-town cousin, Working Men’s Club take on a sinister tone that is oddly energising. ‘Fear Fear’ was born out of the New York disco scene, gathering a Prodigy-like angle for the electronical direct on its way to the present. If the tracks are unnerving, it is only to uptight antennae […]
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monica rypma – classifieds (1985, reissue)
The finances for ‘Classifieds’ are explained by its front cover, which is plastered with real advertisements. Like similar disco-electronic musicians of the time (think Arthur Russell) there’s an off-kilter structure to Rypma’s beats that could only have been produced by an artist whose vision has yet to be corrupted and obscured. The interludes are suffused […]
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natalia lacunza – tiene que ser para mí
Spanish talent show finalist and Guitarricadelafuente collaborator Natalia Lacunza is an unmistakable talent. Despite regularly putting out work since 2019, this is her first full-length LP. It’s a smooth display of bedroom synth-pop that is at once dreamlike and concise. The mistier elements of the record—soporific vocals and washy production—do however nudge it in an […]
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