New Arcades - A Night To Reflect
Review by Karl Magi
Overall Album Impressions
New Arcades’ “A Night To Reflect” travels through tropical beauty, down twisting ribbons of tarmac and across a city sparkling with neon light on a synthesized journey through melodic elegance and luxurious sound. The way in which New Arcades combine their sonic palette with well-crafted melodies and an image-rich atmosphere results in an album that carries me away from the complicated mess in which the world currently finds itself.
A vibrant, lushly layered mixture of synth sounds is laid down by New Arcades to permeate “A Night To Reflect” with sensations that are all glistening and full of jeweled light. The synth textures and timbres complement one another to frame cinematic imagery that evokes a retrofuture city by a tropical sea, a place that is dreamed into being, rather than any real location. Sound becomes a route into experiencing this realm as it reveals itself.
Melody sits at the heart of “A Night To Reflect,” transmitting tranquility, relaxation and an escape from the mundane and routine. The world painted by this music is full of uplifting sensations, energy that has distinctly laid back and sets one at ease and visions of a place that lingers just out of reach. Despite the music’s soothing nature, it hints at a yearning for a place to which we can truly escape.
Each track of “A Night To Reflect” is a small vignette from a magical place, a place of dreams and peace that exists only in imagination. This realm is one which we can never really reach but the hope for it is what gives it life. As I listen, the music draws me into that place and holds me there, cradled in its embrace.
My Favourite Tracks Analyzed
“Sunset Odyssey” captures a moment of settled peace at twilight as a slowly striding drum beat moves with notes that evoke soft light rising over a city skyline. The lead synth has a hushed quality, painting sunset colours of gold and orange while the rhythm provides silky guidance. Drums rebound as a melody captures twilight lounging and notes glow like a thousand city lights winking on.
The underpinnings add shape while distant tones illuminate the sun’s orb sinking into darkness. I breathe out as I imagine lying on a beach and watching the sun drop into the ocean, pink light suffusing the water. The soft sigh of waves mingles with lush sounds, layers of lapping richness slipping by. The beat rocks like a boat at anchor while elevated notes add a phosphorescent sheen, like bioluminescence as daylight fades and night descends.
As tumbling notes rush rapidly and the foundational pulse speeds like pavement under tires “After Hours” accelerates forward with dramatic tension and the swirling synth slips with a melody capturing all of the excitement of a midnight drive. Bass undulates and drums slap as synth chords erupt with phosphorescence and hollow drums drive onward.
Street lights become a blur and yellow lines disappear while a potent engine propels a sleek sports car forward. A note pattern evokes images of unfurling blacktop and a driver pressing on into the growing darkness, disappearing from the city. Arpeggios shift with thrilling energy and the muscled chords produce flashing radiance, painting pictures of the city skyline fading in the distance and freedom opening out in front of the song’s main character before the music ends.
“Keeping Memories” has a levitating delicacy underpinned by luminescent chords that expand as the softly tapping percussion forms a heartbeat, accompanied by bass that ripples outward in muffled strength. Melodic notes twine together, creating tranquility as the slightly distorted vocals repeat, “keeping memories, only you can feel.”
A note pattern weaves a mixture of meditation and reminiscence, sliding with a velvety grace that is shaped by the underpinnings. Chimes hover along with the tenderly expressed vocals, permeating me with serene sadness. Rain pattering in the background generates another layer of calm before closing the track.
Refined drops of crystal fall through the atmosphere before a smooth rhythm becomes a steady heartbeat and “When The City Sleeps” exhales with a melody reflecting a midnight mood, full of sensations of watching a sparkling skyline spread out, looking out across a vast city.
A synth with a ghostly quality levitates as a robotic voice generates more urban meditation, sounding like the future as tones like raindrops trickle and glimmer. A deeper note pattern pulls me into thoughtful tranquility while the solid underlayer presses on and higher notes exude the peace of a quiet city street.
The faint glow of the night sky, rich with dusk tones, spreads with a settled kind of dreaming while the rain falls in the distance. As fragile as the water droplets, filigreed notes intermingle and the robotic voice chants with longing, despite the synthetic quality and the track closes out.
“Endless Horizon” adds some tension as a vocal synth echoes once before tumbling notes become an arpeggio and sweeping cymbals wash while airy panpipes levitate, calling to mind expansive landscapes, before active percussion propels.
Notes ring like gossamer bells, while the underlayer produces unbroken vistas, carrying me with a dynamic heartbeat. Warmer notes mingle with the panpipes to create an impression of sparkling stars above an unending landscape.
The percussion keeps everything moving as the synth chords invoke massive space and twirling tones add more motion. Images of journeying across the landscape full of ancient magic permeate the track while the choir briefly calls and rain shimmers before deep tones add roundness and the track falls into silence.
With notes that slip in a line of graceful sound, a feeling of easiness spills out as “Valley” becomes more active as percussion moves beneath the melody that unfurls in a with increasing melancholy as the vocals continue to dream and the low end rebounds, adding to the smoothness that suffuses the music.
Images of a beautiful valley spreading out with green hills rolling to a flowing river fill the music as the vocals add impressions of complete fondness while the rhythm guides. Quick twinkles of synth light spread out and the melody takes on an energizing quality as percussion throbs and the vocals fill me with intense warmth and a hint of sadness.
“Daybreak” is driven by huge underlying power and some shadow as the melody generates feelings of growing tension, adding a dramatic quality. As enigmatic synth intertwines, bursting percussion propels and glimmering notes transform the music with caressing sensations and the vocals fill the music with wistful dreaming.
Chimes give off an ethereal glow and ringing tones sparkle around the vocal inflections that deepen the yearning for positivity and a new day's dawn. A synth tumbles out into the music and silence falls.
Images of a relaxed summer night bring “Feel the Heat” to life as a resonant jazz organ transmits the unfolding melody while full bass swells up and drums patter. Lustrous notes flash as the kick drum thuds while the jazz organ dances with introspective warmth, drawing me into a mood of summer nostalgia.
In the distance, circular tones expand and the drums punch forcefully. Coruscating sounds gleam like sunbeams as the jazz organ adds depth and a luxurious feeling. As the melody roams out, it transmits contemplative emotion, while a fluting synth cries out with gentle breathiness. Huge bass rumbles before the track fades out on the jazz organ.
Conclusion
“A Night To Reflect” is like a distant dream that hovers on the edge of wakefulness, carrying me across these soundscapes of peace and complex feeling. As I am transported, I find myself captivated by the emotional depth of this album.
