The artist in spotlight today is a familiar one, already was featured here but this time they brought a full featured, 15 tracks long album!
The LP is true dreamwave as the Spanish The Last Concorde puts it. Let’s see what treat we’re in for.
Electric Dreams starts with distant and smooth arpeggios with a sweep slowly crawling in and some subtle bassline and distant leads. A nice flute brings in the second arpeggio and a sparkling lead, all this finely reverbed and echoed. A sax also appears almost out of nowhere. A long fadeout takes them away with an eventual slowdown. It’s a really fitting intro track.
The next one Magic Summer starts with smoothly sweeping pads, arpeggios in the background with minimalistic drum kit. The lead is a nice bell with some arpeggios following it. The filters are tweaked during the whole time. The bridge is calm and still slowly brings back the drums and the arpeggios in a very atmospheric way. Filter tweaking makes another appearance then a saxophone tops it off. We also get some improv fill-ins and also a long fadeout.
Night Walk starts with plucky arps and nice pads with more and more pads and a sweep with a parge arp fading in. The drums are not subtle this time which guides in the lead. The whole thing is very easy listening. We get our fair share of reverbs and filter twiddling as well. Not on only that but a plucky bass sound makes an appearance too. The bridge is done with arps and a drone bass, sounds strange at first but it works really well. It is really easy to get lost in this track let alone following it. The new lead comes in a bit later to fill in the higher areas but more and more tricky instruments are used to make it even fuller. THe conclusion here is also a fadeout.
The track Stars is a bit faster and less dreamy than the earlier ones. The nice pads get a bass guitar as backing. A plucky bass and a few reverbed bells makes the show. The bridge has even more plucky bass and a real guitar solo! After the sweep we’re switching to a bass solo just to find a sax lead to follow. This one is full with a healthy dose of pluckiness.
In Pacific Heat we start with some tubular bells but with a twist. A plucky bass and drums takes us to the first verse. We get nice synth combos with a lot of reverbs and echos. The surprise element is a scratching effect which makes a few appearances. The second verse brings variation and extra bass power for a graceful fadeout but only with the bells.
Elle starts with distant pads and some simmering arps with additional filter knob twisting. Another arp is fades in with the drums and the distant pads are actually much closer here. Anpother pad takes over the background pad role with some occassional lead bells just to quiet down in the bridge. The second verse is swept in but for a while we just get arps and bass plucks then the filter knob is twisted again with the volume of all the other instruments, they really fill the space. The fadeout is gentle again.
In the track Interlude everything starts with filter turned down. The plucky bass, pads and a secondary bass slowly brought in just to meet a dreamy lead synth. The trick here is the Interlude theme that aims to be a fill/in but it is actually a whole track. The fadeout also has a trick: it happens with filter on.
With the track Speedboat we’re also starting with filter on. It’s a small sequence with drums and a plucky bass that continues the song. It emulates a speedboat approaching. The lead comes in, makes it calmer and quieter a bit. When the bridge comes up, the sequence gets closer and closer again (filter twiddling) but not as close as it did the first time. The second verse has a beautiful reverbed and echoed lead. The rest of the verse has a shiny and sharp bell on the top. We also get a graceful fadeout to smooth things off.
Cold Heart starts with a plucky filtered sequence and some power pads. This foreshadows a different structure we heard so far. The filter is playing with us again until the first verse. The main theme is mostly dominated by the pads and the plucky sequence with a sharp echoed bell. The bridge is quiet with a muffled sax which is being un-muffled slowly and as a surprise element we get vocals! The package is very coherent and on a bit more emotional side than before. The rest is finished off with some nice sweeping lead. A smooth fadeout is almost implied and takes everything away nicely.
The track Spring Break'84 stars with filter twisting a nice sequence then some noce toms and drums the pads slide in. The main theme has a relaxed, summerly vibe. This time the drums are getting more agressive and the high bell lead delivers a bit more power but keeping it dreamy enough. It does almost go full Tell It To My Heart on us except this one has way more synth and stronger vibes.
Golden Age takes is up a notch with powerful bass and drums with hithats. The background synth emphasizes the song even more which is followed by power chords. The customary high bells come in then a surprising lead with nice modulation and vibrato takes over the stage. After the filter-tweaked bridge we get back our power pads and lead. Strangely up to this point the drums weren’t this strong but in this song they are!
The song Dark Night starts with a calm, plucky background synth and a fast-paced bass comes in with the already more powerful drum kit. Between the sweeps and hithats we’re getting a background synth becoming stronger and stronger. The bridge cools things again almost down to the level of total silence. On the other side a beautiful guitar riff fills the rest of the song. As it came, it disappears slowly just to finish it off as it came: plucky background and bass.
Hill Street starts unexpectedly a police radio chatter and siren. “Armed and dangerous” Where did you take us? Oh, Trans Am! That’s fine. We get started then with a relaxed plucky bass and drum set with some high bells and guitar-like synth. Despide of the all relaxed and calm song we get occassional police radio inserts. The structure is similar to the earlier songs, except we’re after a suspect who is armed and dangerous, driving a Trans Am. No big deal. At the end we head the distancing siren.
The track Breeze stats with drums and power chords which brings in the plucky pads with the customary sweeps. The lead is again the tweaked high bells with a chunk of reverb and echo. Some extra arps fills the air even more and lower synth takes over the lead. The bridge only keeps the bells, fading all others away but the second verse brings all back adding a sax gliding across.
The closing track Sunset Drive hits close to home. Not only because of its title but yours truly also tried to interpret the subject. It starts very dreamy, pads everywhere and a slowly creeping filter-tweaked lead and plucky bass. This continues with subtle drums and hithats. The filter is still being twiddled, even when the high bells drop in from above, even if they’re meant for the background. The bridge sweeps into a filter-quieted part with really a distant sax which comes closer and closer. The driving away into the sunset is really well pictured here - with the deserved long and smooth fadeout.
The LP is a definitive dreamwave album it radiates a chilling and relaxing atmosphere.
Available on Bandcamp, Spotify , SoundCloud , iTunes , Apple Music , Deezer and Amazon Music .
Highly recommended!