Violet Sky - The Sky’s The Limit

Review by Karl Magi

Overall Album Impressions

Violet Sky’s “The Sky’s The Limit” is the kind of collaboration I absolutely love. The way in which she’s worked together with David Bravo to resurrect his music from the ’80s has created an album that’s engaging in a way that I find irresistible. Violet Sky’s fresh vocals have given the original music new life and the quality of production from the digitized tapes is first rate. This is music that is alive and full of joy in a way that current mainstream music simply can’t replicate for me.

First of all, I’ve got to mention Violet Sky’s vocals because I find them utterly captivating. Not only does she have a beautiful-sounding voice, but it spills over with character and life. Her performances are alive and exciting, grabbing hold of me and pulling me along. The way in which she transmits emotion and creates dynamic strength deepens the engagement of every song.

Another strong part of “The Sky’s The Limit” are the lyrics written by various songwriters. These songs are direct and emotionally clear without being over-adorned or fussy. Each track has a wonderful pop energy and carries messages that are fun to hear while exploring all the feelings that come with life and love. The end result is music that’s hard to stop listening to and keeps bringing me back.

The backing music from the original tapes is a joy. The unstoppable liveliness of the performances and the engagement of the musicians adds to the ear-pleasing nature of “The Sky’s The Limit”. The music is exuberant and charismatic, creating a completely enjoyable listening experience. I’d also like to mention the fact that all of the guitar and synth solos are first rate, adding to the quality of the music in each song.

I also want to mention Ted Perlman’s mixing and mastering which keeps the ‘80s feelings alive in the music. His ability to retain clarity and sharpness in the music while allowing the classic 1980s sensibilities to shine through adds to the richness and strength of this album.

My Favourite Songs Analyzed

“A Heartbeat Away” comes to life as a vivacious, bouncy melody and actively intertwining percussion jump together. David Bravo’s synth creates a jazzy, Latin vibe as Violet Sky’s gutsy, soul-filled voice erupts with the joyful, positively encouraging melody. The percussion snaps to attention as the chimes ring and the chorus is infectious and full of intense catchiness, drawing me in, while the synth trumpets have a cool shine. Violet Sky’s playful voice catches the song’s dynamic.

Chimes flicker with uplifting luminosity and the chorus jumps in with an easy-going bop. The trumpets and varied percussion add electrifying engagement while the vocals slip with caressing energy. The main melody wriggles as the synth trumpets ring out with galvanizing strength. As the song comes to an end, Violet Sky’s voice explodes with an irrepressible, youthful feeling and brassy notes ring out.

As she spends her nights out on the town, the narrator is “never finding love, the one I’m dreaming of.” She adds that it’s time to settle down and says, “I watch the clock strike midnight and I know before I see the daylight, I’m going to find you.” She can feel that the time is right and that the other person is close.

Our storyteller says that the other person is “a heartbeat away, close enough to touch, just a heartbeat away from now on.” She watches the other person’s “every move from across the room,” while feeling the romantic rhythm. The other person is “sending all the signs that say you could be mine.”

“Now it’s time to take a chance, before a word is spoken, the wheels of love are set in motion” for the narrator. They’ve gone beyond the point of no return and she asks the song’s subject to “let our love take over.” She doesn’t want the moment to vanish into a sea of darkness and she concludes, “Our love can rise above our fear, if we just let go.”

The main melody jumps in with a free-swinging, uplifting sensation and the wordless vocals are honeyed to start “What’s a Girl to Do?” Violet Sky’s voice is smooth and full of gentle emotion, hurting with the feeling of rejection but still hopeful. Violet Sky carries the chorus with dreamy affection, bell-like notes flashing before the brassy synth riff bursts with sunlight.

The feeling that is broadcast by the vocals grabs hold of me with its ’80s vibe and genuine emotion. A shining synth leaps and tiny notes sparkle with fragile brilliance. David Bravo’s synth solo glimmers with jazz-fusion brightness and Violet Sky captures all of the yearning within the words, her voice strong and clear. Guitar strumming shapes the music as impassioned caring fills the words and the song comes to an end.

While “this may come as a big surprise,” Our storyteller has had her eye on the song’s subject for a long while, but they’re “too busy to notice me at all.” She can’t stop herself from the way she feels and she’s “determined to get to you.” The other person won’t even give her the time of day and she can’t understand why she can’t get through to them.

She wonders, “What’s a girl to do when she wants to be with someone like you? What’s a girl to do when you can’t even see that I’m longing to be with you?”

“All my friends say I’m wasting my time, I’ll never have your heart,” and the narrator begins to think that it might be true. She adds, “There’s one girl that I think you forgot, there’s always someone ahead of me.” She asks what the other girls have that she hasn’t got and wonders, “Baby, what can I do to show you that I really want to share your heart?”

She concludes, “If I jump up and down, scream your name out loud, would it get you to see that you’re the only one for me?”

“Superstar” commences with trumpeting notes bursting out in the encouraging melody, radiating expressive energy. Violet Sky’s vibrant vocals carry a gentle, supportive melodic line. The drums explode as the infectious synth erupts with unstoppable energy and Violet Sky’s velvety voice embraces all of the caring and honesty within the words.

The guitar shimmers with a solar sheen while the dancing synth melody intermingles with the touching vocal performance. I enjoy the song’s message of simple affection while the underpinning drum beat propels it forward. As trickling tones move, Violet Sky’s voice soars upwards with heartfelt feeling. David Bravo’s synth solo is intricately intertwined and full of dynamic motion, while the chorus comes in again with bright uplift before the song ends.

“All my life I’ve tried to find what it is we’re searching for,” and the narrator has found it hard to understand why they always want more. She asks the song’s subject why they can’t believe that love is all they need. She points out that “you don’t have to be a superstar to satisfy my heart, you don’t have to be a superstar, there’s no need to play the part.”

Our storyteller has heard the song’s subject talk about the things they’d like to buy “someday when you find fame.” She reminds them that they don’t have to “waste your time on superficial thrills,” because she loves them just the same. She adds that no matter what the other person does, she will be right there for them.

To conclude, the narrator says, “You don’t have to be a superstar, I’ll take you just the way you are,” and reminds the other person, “Don’t be deceived by the smell of success, it isn’t always what it seems.”

Sunrise colours permeate the lead synth as it shimmers into the music to begin “Never Gonna Let You Get Away.” Trickling notes shift in the distance as Violet Sky’s warm, touching voice carries the main melody as it exudes loss and brokenhearted need. The drums provide underpinning guidance as the levitating notes glisten and Violet Sky captures deep affection with real clarity and immediacy.

The way in which she delivers the lyrics makes me believe in their emotional reality. The melody has an affecting expressiveness that grips me as the rhythm pulses smoothly and David Bravo’s chiming keyboard adds twilight luminosity. The ardent vocal performance drives home the sensations within the words as the synth ripples in the distance. The guitar strums with starry light, like the first brightness after the sunset. Reverberant tones glide as the guitar hovers and fades.

The narrator “would wish upon a star, but out here in the rain, the stars are hiding out.” She wonders if it’ll ever change. It turns out that all the freedom she needed was a heartbreaking wrench and she’s “never going to let you get away, now I know I love you.” She’s never going to let the other person get away from her again because she needs them with her.

“Between the two of us so close, I wanted the space,” but she didn’t think that the other person would feel replaced. She adds that “the velvet skies, stars I hide behind brought the rain I couldn’t stop.” She points out that “I always felt that it was time to leave, I should be wise enough to know.” She guesses that she was looking for “a sign to read (but) I read the wrong words in it, instead of trying to win it.”

“Time Out” starts off as the electric bass cascades and adds a funky vibe, while the guitar carries a melody that is full of fervent energy and a bluesy sensation. The drum beat explodes with intense motion and Violet Sky’s engaging voice joins the scintillating synth chords. The rhythm is full of dancing energy and the vocals fly with irrepressible strength, capturing me with celebration and a feeling of immediacy.

Drums flourish with vibrant motion and the vocals sparkle with freshness. The guitar rings out with fierce light and complex entanglement as Violet Sky captures every emotional nuance of the lyrics and the underlayer pushes forward dynamically. The vocals are lively and unstoppable before the song closes out.

“We’re always running, always moving, going somewhere,” but the storyteller says there’s a place that’s been forgotten as everyone is “caught in the rhythm of the madness of the motion.” The place they need to get back to is the heart and she says, “Just slow down for a moment ‘cause I believe all we really need is time out.”

The narrator wants to spend time with the song’s subject and take some time out together. She adds, “I think we lost ourselves somewhere in the commotion and we need some rescuing.” She wants to return to a time when they were content with simple things and “touch the sweetness of the moment.”

“Promise Your Love” kicks off as the actively jumping rhythm pulses with a shining guitar and a bell. Jazzy guitar licks slice with cool vibes as the wordless vocals add a groovy feeling. The beat locks into a pulsing line as Violet Sky catches the mixture of warning and passion in the words and the chorus explodes in wriggling energy.

I’m enamoured of the intense expression and honesty in the lyrics as Violet Sky captures them in her excellent, honey-toned voice. The funk of the low end gets me moving as the trumpeting notes vault with blinding light. The song’s undeniable catchiness is cut by a superbly played guitar, broadcasting fervent sensations with detail. Violet Sky takes hold of the feeling within the music again and drives it home while the brilliant tones and guitar intertwine with scintillating strength.

Our narrator doesn’t care that the other person “stayed out all night long, wasting your time just running ’round” before they met. The song’s subject was free then and only lived to fill their needs. Now that they’re together, she tells the song’s subject, “We can’t play no foolish games,” and points out that if they want her love, they need to change their “wicked ways.”

“Promise your love to me and never let me down, you have to promise your love to me right now.” The storyteller makes it clear that if that promise of love isn’t made, she won’t stick around. She points out, “I don’t need any fancy diamond rings, don’t want no furs,” but she does want security and the ability to love the other person through and through.

In conclusion, our narrator warns the other person, “Be careful not to spoil me with what you think I need, because I’ll slip right through your fingers. Take me seriously.”

With a quickly intertwining guitar line and blasting synth, “Show Me” leaps into action. The drums are sharp as tiny motes of synth glimmer and the dynamic vocals are let loose. The guitar adds a gruff edge while the chiming notes leap from Dave Bravo’s synth as Violet Sky expresses ardent feelings. I enjoy the speeding energy and the way in which the guitar intertwines with shimmering light.

The rhythm is propulsive as fragile tones contrast with the slicing guitar and Violet Sky’s strong performance. Quickly trickling notes are joined by the clean guitar as it unwinds with complex sound and howling strength. The chorus is deeply catchy and Violet Sky delivers it with panache as the rocketing beat keeps moving forward and the bluesy guitar cries out with intense feeling.

“We’ve been on and off for years now, shared both the laughter and the tears now,” and the storyteller doesn’t remember how it started, but “I’m tired of feeling broken-hearted.” She feels that it’s time to start a brand-new love affair. It’s “too late for promises,” and she needs some action.

The narrator says, “Show me that you want me, I’m going to lay my love right on the line for you,” as she points out she’ll do almost anything for the other person. She adds, “It’s time to focus our attention on all the things you never mention.” The other person tells her commitment isn’t easy, but “you’ll have to change if you want to keep me.”

In conclusion, the storyteller says, “I can’t wait around too long until you make up your mind. Too late for promises—I need some action!”

“I Found Love” opens with a vibrant synth line and uplifting guitar. As Violet Sky frees her voice, all of the affection and desire pour from it and draw me into the song. The foundational pulse drives on as her voice climbs with unstoppable joy while the guitar shines in the distance.

The rhythm creates powerful motion as the vocals brim over with elation and the guitar flicks through the music in a brilliant leap. In a slower segment, Violet Sky imbues her voice with caring and need, before a guitar solo jumps through the music with free-flowing abandon. The vocals broadcast pure happiness and the song comes to an end.

“In the middle of the night, we make love and it feels so right,” for the narrator. She adds that when the song’s subject is holding her, she can’t let go because it feels right. She admits, “I know I’m running with my feelings, maybe too fast,” but she can’t help herself or stop dreaming because “I think I finally found you at last.”

“Oh you’ve got me and I’m spinning,” since the storyteller found the song subject’s love and it’s just the beginning. She had no one in her life and “was lost and the future didn’t look bright,” but the other person rescued her from the depths before she almost drowned. She says, “I love this feeling that you give me, never knew just how much.”

To conclude, the narrator points out that the other person touches emotions deep within her in a way that only they can. She adds, “If this is the way love feels, I want to feel this way forever, baby.”

Conclusion

“The Sky's The Limit” is one of the most fun albums I've heard this year. The music’s verve and immediacy and Violet Sky's sincere and joyful performance combine to draw me in and keep me wanting more.

The Lightning Kids - Love on the Edge of Desire

Review by Karl Magi

Overall Album Impressions

The Lightning Kids’ “Love on the Edge of Desire” creates a fine balance between all of the contradictory and complicated emotions that fill our lives. Emma Ballantine’s unmistakable vocals, lyrics that paint beautiful word images and a musical background that wraps around everything with feeling and depth come together to weave a touching and compelling musical portrait. I find myself drawn back to the ways in which our complex nature is laid bare here.

Anchoring “Love on the Edge of Desire” is Emma Ballantine’s voice, a fine instrument that ranges across variegated emotional territory, from brokenheartedness to defiance with detours into love and passion. The way in which the lead singer is able to transform words into feelings is a crucial part of the music’s effectiveness. Her direct emotional appeal carries me into the world woven through the music and fills me with all of the sensations it creates.

Lyrically, each song delves into one of the facets of what it means to be a human being. There’s something both personal and broadly applicable in the words as they unfold. One feels not only what the songwriter experienced, but also the echo of personal memories and emotions reflected back.

The instrumental and production elements of “Love on the Edge of Desire” deepen and intensify the listener’s experience. The way in which the different instrumental elements are interwoven with the production choices creates music that is textured, rich and full of nuanced sound palettes. I enjoy the attention to detail that Jonny Spalding, Bryan Skeel, Kidburn and Darryn McHardie have put into each song because it adds to the impact of the whole package.

My Favourite Songs Analyzed

“Youth” comes to life as a soft voice whispers “wake up” and smoothly gliding, gentle synth washes in waves through the music. Emma Ballantine’s deeply felt vocals move, carrying a tender and dreamy melody as resonant drums rebound below the hazily flowing background woven by Jonny Spalding.

Drums and bass create an accelerative pulse as Darryn McHardie’s guitar notes entangle and rounded, medium-high synth carries an encouraging melody. The chorus is rapidly chanted, jumping in sharp bursts before the strumming guitar flashes. The low end drives on below Emma Ballantine’s expressive vocals carrying a soothing melody.

The chanting, rushing chorus is accented with flashing light. A sax unwinds in a touching, energizing melody. The vocals are hopeful and full of possibility while Darryn McHardie’s guitar solo cries out with emotive strength and the track ends on Emma Ballantine’s voice.

Sometimes in life, we need to let go of what’s been holding us back and seize an opportunity. Our narrator speculates that she and the song’s subject may be young and crazy heading down the freeway as they run away together. She goes on to say that they may be lost and foolish and “I’m gonna prove it, running away from you.”

The storyteller says she’s been “playing the good girl” and denying herself. She has felt out of her heart and lost within her own head. Like someone “half dead” she just said what the world expected of her. Now she just wants to kick off her shoes and run away with nothing to lose.

She concludes that “Maybe it’s youth, maybe it’s danger, dancing with strangers. Running away with you.”

Emma Ballantine starts by saying “I’ll wait for you,” and the glittering galaxy of synth flickers to open “Wait.” The vocals touch with grace as the heavily undulating foundation drives forward. The melody is a dream of aching hope as the synth flares with cosmic brilliance and the drums rebound. The underpinnings have a rich depth as trickling notes run past like drops of moonlight.

Jonny Spalding illuminates the entire track with the glow of night light as Emma Ballantine captures me with her heartbreaking expression while the synth gleams like street lights in the night. The low end glides while Darryn McHardie’s guitar rises in a haunting refrain, complementing the tremulous vocals. The drums continue to guide while the chorus wraps around me like a veil of shadow and the tiny motes of twinkling starlight fade out.

As the song begins, the storyteller is standing outside the song's subject's house, but the lights are off and she’s “dancing in the dark, alone.” She can’t deny that in her mind it’s a lie, but “I’ll pretend that you’re here, by my side,” as she waits all night for the other person because “there’s nothing else to do.”

She doesn’t know where the song’s subject is, but she imagines them driving in their car as “in the darkest hour, I call to you.” She’s started spending time with the other person’s friends and “sleepwalking.” She realizes she won’t be seeing them and “as the night passes,” she’s been so alone, searching for signs of the other person.

“Boys” opens as Darryn McHardie’s freely glistening guitar joins dreamy synth and a hard-hitting rhythm. Chord changes contribute a sun-dappled feeling as the beat erupts and Emma Ballantine’s silvered voice carries a nostalgically affecting melody. The guitar flickers with laid-back sensation while her soft vocals express memory with clarity.

The low end pattern adds shape as the track’s luscious production deepens the emotion, Kidburn and Jonny Spalding weaving their auditory magic. Darryn McHardie’s guitar spills into a solo that transmits joy recollected, lambent with memory, while the drums pound and the vocals float with exuberant ease. Darryn McHardie’s guitar drifts out with freedom and positivity before the song ends on firefly-like flickers.

The narrator confidently announces, “I love the boys, even the mistakes,” embracing every high and heartache. If she closes her eyes and counts to three, she says, “I’m 17, I’m in Los Angeles, talking to boys, the troublemakers.”

She’ll never forget the way the song’s subject looked when he gazed at her. “I don’t regret it,” she insists. She recalls being 17, dancing with all of the boys: “We were so young, our heads were headstrong.” The music was on and it was their song.

A tangled guitar and growling bass move to begin “Lost.” The guitar cuts with clean brightness, shining with aspiration as the pounding rhythm supports Emma Ballantine’s levitating vocals as they carry the caressing melodic line. The spoken-word part echoes and the glimmering tones flare like distant light on the horizon’s edge. Hopeful energy fills the vocals as they soar with the chorus.

Emma Ballantine’s touching vocals are joined by Bryan Skeel’s charging foundation, as Darryn McHardie’s guitar glows with tranquil luminosity. Emma Ballantine’s voice fills me with intensely engaging emotion as the shining notes mingle and leap with irrepressible dynamism. As the song ends, the radiant sounds fade into quiet.

To get the other person off her mind, our storyteller says, “I took the highway out to the edge of town.” As she drives in the dark, she admits that it’s been a long way without the other person. “There was darkness in this house. Was it love on the edge of desire?” and she had to look for answers because she lost herself with the song’s subject in America.

“I cried for help, I needed a miracle,” because the narrator thought they had everything as they were “dancing in the dark on the stereo.” She realized that she was somebody else and she had to find herself. She concludes, “I learned to run back when I was young, I covered up my tracks and never looked back.”

“I’m On Fire” comes to life as the guitar strums with gentle chords and the vocals match the folksy style. Emma Ballantine’s voice perfectly captures the feeling of Bruce Springsteen’s lyrics and provides a charming contrast to the more synthesized aspects of the album. Darryn McHardie weaves the story with his fingers, carrying it out with a sense of classic energy that enfolds me with its spirit and Jonny Spalding deepens that energy.

Emma Ballantine’s voice might be tender, but the trembling need in her voice is undeniable, while the simple guitar background intertwines with a pleasantly organic feeling. The hushed vocals carry out and a synth ripples in the distance, while the guitar and the sound of a train running down the tracks create an Americana dream before the song ends.

As the song starts, the narrator asks, “Hey, little girl, is your daddy home? Did he go away and leave you all alone?” She has a bad desire and she’s on fire. She goes on to ask, “Tell me now, baby, is he good to you and can he do to you the things that I do?” while she says, “Oh no, I can take you higher!”

“Sometimes it’s like someone took a knife, baby, edgy and dull and cut a six-inch valley through the middle of my skull,” as she wakes up at night with soaking sheets, along with “a freight train running through the middle of my head,” because only the song’s subject can “cool my desire.”

“Lights Out” begins as rain pours down, Darryn McHardie’s guitar chimes with luminescent chords and a heavy drum thudding into life. Emma Ballantine’s voice reverberates with brokenhearted melancholy as the guitar spills out brightness and the drums strike hard. Jonny Spalding’s melody is full of sadness and approaching loss, while Darryn McHardie’s guitar becomes a weeping, gentle presence.

I enjoy the spoken-word performance that adds to the reminiscence and dreamlike sensation before the saxophone fills the music, rich and full of vibrant life. Emma Ballantine mixes all of the complicated emotion within the words, veering between love and bereft emptiness. The guitar glides with echoing expression as the rhythmic pulse goes on. A synth hums like an organ before silence falls.

Things didn’t work out the way that the storyteller and the song’s subject had hoped. “Lost in the hurt, we were all alone,” and she thinks that “the game is up until the lights go down.” She wants the other person to “take me driving through the night then, when the lights go out.”

With broken hearts, she asks the other person to hold her closer as the lights go out. “I like the night in your car,” and she sleeps all day until darkness falls. “I like the rain under the lights” as the song’s subject speeds off into the night.

The sound of a radio tuning commences “Radio” as solid drums pulsate and airy notes float. The bass undulates as Emma Ballantine’s breathily emotive voice drifts out with a wistful, reminiscing melody and the snare drums sharpen the beat. Emma Ballantine’s voice is smooth and captures longing and loss as the guitar shines.

Bryan Skeel’s production ties it all together. As the chorus climbs upward, the drums erupt and Darryn McHardie’s guitar sings with depth and gripping feeling while the bass undulates. The huge drums burst as Emma Ballantine takes hold of my feelings and carries me along with lyrics that express such painful emotion.

The synth glows with luminous warmth as the sax flies into the music with soulful energy above the steady drumbeat. The vocals levitate freely despite the ache within the words. Drums flourish as the bass continues to pulse, while the chorus unfurls with touching emotion before the track comes to an end.

It's a Friday night in New Mexico and the storyteller is “all dressed up, no place to go.” The song’s subject is with their friend and she’s all alone, waiting by the telephone. She says, “I play the beat, move my feet, dancing slow,” as she sings along to the radio with the songs they used to know, adding, “I hope she's really pretty though.”

Our narrator asks the song subject, “Is she at your house? Is she there again?” It’s midnight now and she wonders if the other person's phone is still dead. She adds, “I won't cry for you, I won't let it show,” as she sings sad songs on the radio.

Now the storyteller remembers “all of those nights, all of these tears,” recalling driving in the song subject's car and listening to the radio. She speaks of “all of those mornings on the bathroom floor. I wanted you, but I wanted more.”

As the song concludes, our narrator talks about feeling the beat, taking the heat and dancing slowly. She says, “Close my eyes, turn the dial, take control.”

“Run” opens as a soft wind rustles and a voiceover drifts past while Emma Ballantine’s haunting voice whispers above a trickling background. The low end pulse adds form as her bittersweet performance carries the reminiscence and disconnection within the words. Jonny Spalding’s background production glows like a city in the desert night while Emma Ballantine captures bereft emotion, remembering what she shared with the other person in the song.

The drums are heavy as Darryn McHardie’s guitar adds an acoustic touch and the vocals drive the message deep into my heart. The guitar contrasts with the synth elements to create balance while the beat presses on. The vocals soar with the chorus, brushing like a quiet breeze across desert sand. Tiny stars of synth glitter while the guitar tangles with clean light. Emma Ballantine holds the balance between hope and hurt perfectly as the song comes to a worshipful end.

As the storyteller says, “This is my number, this is my new address,” she asks the song’s subject to call her when they land. She’ll wait for them until they disappear, adding, “It hurts when you look back like that, a physical pain.” She’s kept all of those days in her memory, packing each moment away. She goes on to say that “the summer is over and I am holding on tight to that high.”

Now it’s time for “the comedown… the aftersun,” and the pain in her side as she’s out of breath when all the dancing is finished. It’s time for her to say goodbye and to promise that “I won’t be the same when you’re gone, after midnight we both have to run.” The song’s subject is two hours ahead of her, so they’ll be asleep at this point. Despite the distance, the narrator says, “I feel you somehow.”

The song’s subject’s voice is “a flickering flame, keeping our love alight.” They laugh together talking on the phone, but the narrator cries when she’s alone again. In conclusion, she says, “All this time I’ve been fooling myself.”

Conclusion

“Love on the Edge of Desire” transports me into the emotional world the band creates. I enjoy the way each of these talented individuals comes together to form a cohesive sound that carries me away with all of the feeling and expressiveness they weave.

Synth EP Review: “The Quiet Expanse” by Toxxic Project

By Karl Magi

Toxxic Project’s “The Quiet Expanse” is a musical passport to serene worlds and drifting moments of peace as the music unfolds. I find myself carried on the musical tides and through the textural beauty of each track.

“Fading Love (Slow Chillwave Version)” opens as smoothly waving synth drifts like skins of seaweed in the ocean. The heavy-hitting underpinnings throb as a distorted voice speaks and intertwining notes glisten with wet light. The heaving beat has a tidal pull as the entire track echoes and a tightly wound pulsation floats in.

Sharp sounds add the clean contrast of white caps on waves while the bubbling notes below have an aquatic, hovering quality. Full-sounding tones move past with serenity, sliding like tendrils of foam onto the beach. Distant synth hovers as the rhythm pounds, and a broadly shifting synth is like a column of blue water flowing past. I’m compelled as the music moves over me in a beautifully luscious motion.

Elevated notes gleam like moonlight seen through deep water and the beat adds shape. A haunting melody unfolds with a graceful drift, as if one is carried on a smooth current. Underneath everything, the massive foundation presses on. Disconnected sounds wander like driftwood and I exhale as silence falls.

Expanding, rough-edged bass moves beneath delicately hovering notes to start “Gravity Flow (Slow Chillwave Version).” The vast underlayer sweeps outward as softly spinning notes intertwine and the rhythm has a serene heartbeat. High synth slides like anti-gravity motion, floating and drifting as if unmoored in open space.

The main melody comes in with all of the tentative fragility of a web of nebular stars lost in the vastness of outer space. As the music unfolds around me, I travel across the galactic vista spreading out with a thousand planets glimmering in the firmament, feeling myself untethered from my mundane reality.

Background notes trickle like tiny, fragile meteorites falling across the surface of a silent planet. A solar wind caresses my ears as flickering tones shine like the endless universe.

Tranquil notes shiver and the synth slips as colossal bass rumbles and a more active melody flies in like a starship, flashing in the light of a strange sun. The beat is solid as radiant notes add the sheen of exotic metals glowing in the soft illumination of a faraway world.

Majesty permeates the music as the main melody returns with gentle caresses while the drumbeat carries solid weight. As the winds sweep past again, bass rumbles and silence falls.

Synth Single Review: “Midnight Sun” by lxst child & CRÈME

by Karl Magi

lxst child & CRÈME’s “Midnight Sun” has a sultry sensuality as it unfolds. The song commences as distantly hovering notes move across an echoing background, creating a sense of mounting tension. The huge rhythm collides with lxst child’s guitar as it rings out with floating smoothness and deep contemplation. CRÈME’s sensual voice entwines with the softly touching melody as the entire track glistens with city light, neon glowing all around.

As the slowly marching bass weight moves, CRÈME’s breathily warming voice carries the seductive melody. The guitar flows along with midnight tranquility. A synth bubbles as the vocals catch me with their powerful sense of need and passion. The gigantic underlayer rumbles as CRÈME takes the lyrics and delivers them with conviction while the guitar intertwines with the soft luminosity of a city skyline. The heaving beat shapes the music and the huge bass growls before the song comes to an end.

“Every day when it’s late at night in the city,” and it’s hot outside, our storyteller can hear the sirens and the music “on the street outside in the midnight sun.” Whether they like it or not, they’ll be “on when it’s hot in the streets,” whether the song’s subject meets her or not.

“Meet me in the park in the moonlight sky,” as the narrator plans to leave everything behind that night. She says, “We collide, I feel you near,” and despite clashing signs, they know no fear. She adds, “Feel the rhythm, you pull me close in the streets.” She wants to know if the other person is down for it, up to the task, as well as “the way that I ride in the heat of the night.”