The Last Arcade - If Not Us

Review by Thorisson

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Steve McNally, Steve Erickson and Paul Garret are the names that make up Liverpool outfit The Last Arcade. The band burst onto the synthwave scene this summer with their debut single When We Were Young, and have already accrued a catalog of mouthwatering releases.

Their latest, If Not Us, is a testament to their ability to dig deep into the realms of nostalgia and create music that simultaneously fills you with euphoria, joy and a touch of sadness. This song brings back fond memories of my childhood in the 80s, and I wasn’t even born then. The authentic soundscape is beautifully complemented by vocals that do a great job of reminding us that we are, in fact, still in 2021. Indeed, If Not Us manages to achieve that perfect balance between nostalgia and contemporariness—topped off with a subtle commentary on today’s climate crisis with the hook “if not us then who”—making it an unmissable piece on the Thorizone.

With their debut album on the horizon, we are eager to hear more from The Last Arcade!

World Premiere: CZARINA - Medusa

Today is the Algol eclipse - the gorgon star in the Perseus constellation. This star is also known as Medusa’s star. Today, Galicia, Spain-based New Yorker, synth and electronic artist CZARINA (styled as C Z A R I N A on all platforms) unveils her latest Darkwave and Baroque Pop Single, Medusa.  Based on the ancient Greek mythology about the legendary serpent-haired gorgon, Medusa is a song about time eventually unraveling all hidden truths from beginning and the end - “the Alpha and Omega.”  According to the myth, Medusa was once a beautiful maiden wrongfully punished by the warrior goddess Athena after the ocean-god Poseidon defiled Medusa in Athena's temple.  Athena transformed Medusa’s beautiful hair into horrible snakes and her gaze that turns men into stone.  Throughout history, Medusa has been associated with monstrosity which CZARINA sings with cynicism, “Cuz I’m the predator, I’m predator,” even though she’s the true victim in the ancient myth. In today’s culture, Medusa has been retransformed into a powerful symbol of feminine rage which the track celebrates. CZARINA reinvents Medusa in the accompanying new music film into a stunning force of revenge soaked in art deco majesty and gives her personal thoughts on the subject and project.

“Since I was 9 years old, I’ve always been fascinated with ancient mythology, legends and ancient history. Something about the ancient world resonates with me throughout all various chapters of my life. Even when I was designing, my collections have always centered around the ancient world in terms of aesthetic narratives. The one story that always bothered me was the Medusa story. It is the ultimate gaslighting, victim-blaming, heavily manipulated story that turned toxicity into something heroic. Some accounts of the story depict Medusa being pregnant with Poseidon’s child at the moment of her demise under Perseus’ hands - her precious life expendable to save a very beautiful and privileged (yet damn weak-ass) woman, Princess Andromeda. It would behoove to note that Medusa, treated as a monstrously feared outcast, was the only single entity powerful enough to destroy the monster that threatened King Cephus’ realm and his people. Yet she was expendable because she was different. Even tho so much of history, myths and legends have been rewritten to fit some narrative or perspective, I’ve always disagreed with how often strong women get portrayed and how that stigma still lives in the modern patriarchal society to this day; women being preferred to be soft, weak, seen and not heard as embodied by Andromeda. The Medusa story itself embodies the metaphor for a lot of the prevailing systems of injustice ranging from misogyny, racism, bigotry, hate. I wanted to honor Medusa by giving my own twist to the dynamics of her story with a powerful revenge ending: As a mighty feminine symbol beheading four pillars of injustice on the day of her star’s eclipse.”

(Thank you to my dear pal Polaris Van Samus for noting the badass astrological synchronization with the release date.)

Written, arranged, performed, produced and recorded by CZARINA, Medusa is an eclectic mix of ‘80s goth and darkwave, heavy-hitting club banger soundscapes mixed with ethereal qualities of a simulated chamber orchestra and a full-scale choir performance by the artist.  Von Hertzog of The Social Club (Reading, PA), provided additional atmospheric sound designs, along with mixing and mastering. All of CZARINA’s cover art and visuals are conceptualized and created by her and her husband, the artist DeadlyKawaii. Medusa and its accompanying music video are now available across all platforms. It is the third single from CZARINA’s highly-anticipated sophomore full-length record, ARCANA, due early 2022.   

CZARINA is Vero Faye Kitsuné, an award-winning electronic musician, producer, songwriter, filmmaker, creative director, designer and visual and performance artist. She is known for her multi-disciplinary approach that combines transcendentalism and new age mysticism with her love for futurist culture, cybernetics, biomechanics, ancient artifacts, mythology, folklore and the discipline that comes with her Budo martial arts training.

CZARINA’s unique soundscape seamlessly melds electronic with organic sounds, transcending a vast spectrum of genres including progressive synths, art rock, Baroque pop, cyberpunk, industrial, trip hop, post-punk and darkwave. Her eclectic list of musical and visionary influences include Nine Inch Nails, TOOL, Massive Attack, Bjork, The Knife, Fever Ray, Puscifer, Vangelis, A Perfect Circle, The Cranberries, Enya, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, QUEEN, Blondie, Kate Bush, Siouxie Sioux, Tori Amos, and visual masters and storytellers Masamune Shirow, Yoshitaka Amano, HR Giger, Hayao Miyazaki, Katsuhiro Otomo and Hajime Sorayama. CZARINA takes her audience into a new dimension, filled with atmospheric and cinematic synths, a full orchestra and heraldic choir chants, shimmering arpeggios, sonic guitar riffs, catchy melodies, powerful vocal hooks, and poignant, thoughtful lyricism that compels one to look inward, around and beyond the material world. 

CZARINA is part of darkTunes Music Group EU.  

For more info and updates, visit http://www.czarinaofficial.com

Bandcamp: http://czarinaofficial.bandcamp.com

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/czarinaofficial

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CZARINAnyc

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/CZARINAnyc

NINA - I’ll Wait

Written by CZARINA

Berlin-based synthwave scene icon, Nina Boldt, more popularly and simply known as NINA, unveils high-drama single entitled "I'll Wait" which appears in an upcoming movie called "There's No Such Thing As Vampires," directed by Logan Thomas. The song was also written by the director and produced by Swedish synthwave artist, Oscillian.

The track starts off with Nina's signature effervescent, breathy vocals tinged with sighs of longing filtered thru a retro, tubed amp and glazing over a nuanced backdrop of haunting, cascading washes of arpeggiated synths. Thunderous tribal drums kick in to bolster the drama and provide contrasting weight to this airy and magnetic conceptual piece. Understated, low-key yet a very emotional production, it is always such a pleasure to watch Nina's artistic evolution in her new direction yet while still maintaining her beautifully nuanced approach to her sound that won the hearts of so many retrowave lovers across the globe.

The accompanying music video for “I’ll Wait” will be unveiled on December 3.

"I'll Wait" includes additional production by Greg Beaton, additional vocal performances by LAU and musical performances by Logan Thomas and Beaton. "There's No Such Thing As Vampires" releases December 12th in North America, Great Britain on VOD and BluRay.

For more info on NINA, visit www.iloveninamusic.com

EXCLUSIVE WORLD PREMIERE: “Dark Tides” by Honey Beard

Canada-based, award-winning synth and electronic duo Gaz Conlon and Tom Bell, also known as HONEY BEARD, recently released their sophomore record, Oneiros, thru RetroReverbRecords. Contemporary and evolutionary synthpop for adults featuring lush cinematic arps, hard-thumping beats, emotive vocals and progressive songwriting structures, Oneiros is the latest installment of a long conceptual narrative that began in 2016. In the midst of the pandemic in 2020, Honey Beard first released the enigmatic track and visuals for Black Skies which also appears in Oneiros. Black Skies is the first half of a twin sister songs in Oneiros, with Dark Tides as the follow-up sequel which we have the honor to premiere the complimenting visuals for. In his own words, Gaz describes the band’s sentiments in the creation of their new music video (created and directed by DME Photography) and how it circles back to the on-going themes throughout all Honey Beard records, including Oneiros.

“ Dark Tides bares a theme repeated many times over in each Honey Beard release. But for Oneiros, both Dark Tides and Black Skies are the condensed representation of the themes of anguish, dread, sorrow and despair which can be found in other Honey Beard tracks such as Hummingbird, Momento Mori, Dancing Alone, and Electromorphosis. Dark Tides paints an image of the two natural forces we wake up to every day which also define the universe from our fleshy eye, the bottomless sky and the unending land beneath. In the music video, Dark Tides evokes being in between these defining wonders, the pressures of what each represent to someone and how they squeeze the protagonist’s existence into a fine line that cannot be seen and only defined by the very pressures destroying it. Dark Tides, in the literal sense makes dark stormy waters a metaphor for the dread and foreboding a person may feel, pushing him out to this horizon (as recalled in the track, Like A Fire). It’s a prelude to how Black Skies, a metaphor for depression and self-harm, manifests to bare down upon the mind, subjugating it and obliterating it; Ultimately it’s a sense of despair, culminating into a calm surrender.

In the video, another person is a proxy for this despair (as I act as the protagonist in the other videos) as he has lost the love of his life and goes through the same struggle. Some of the imagery is a mirrored effect and creates an artificial horizon — a sense of otherworldliness, almost like a Space Odyssey 2001 ending as reality is folded, over and over again. The shore line and waves are always a certain death and they call to me and to the protagonist like the mythological Sirens called to Ulysses — just like Oceanus, the edge of Hades.

Water and fire are a consistent theme in all Honey Beard songs. Water represents destruction and fire represents rebirth. ‘Oneiros’ is basically a decision between two eventualities. After drowning himself, the protagonist does not die but enters a dream state in his coma. He discovers he has a choice to live (Lighthouse) or to continue to die (Slipstream of a Daydream), and the album tries to reconcile over that. And Dark Tides / Black Skies is what brings us to this situation. (I’ve always wondered about folks who take their life, in that split second before dying, if their life flashed before them and given the choice again would would they continue or not). I’ve also been haunted by an image in my head since my late teens that I see in daydreams but have also dreamt many times. In the video, the POV is looking directly out at a massive lake with mountains flanked either side. The water is usually always clear and still (loads of dark greens, dark blues). There is a very small island directly in the centre line of sight, only big enough for some bushes and one tree, just a little out from the land bank, of which is more like soil, the same texture of a mountain or a bog and not a beach or lake. This feels to me like my home, Ireland. The strange thing is that the lake looks like it goes out to a larger sea in the background, but it doesn’t make sense due to the elevation of the mountains. That image has informed my writing. In some dreams it’s pure horror; others it’s lovely. I feel like I’ve died in it or will die.”

Gaz and Tom of Honey Beard will appear along with synthwave juggernaut Michael Oakley (who did the mixing and mastering of Oneiros) in the upcoming ABSYNTH Episode 10 video podcast on Friday Nov 26th, hosted by CZARINA and Thorisson.

Make sure to tune in on twitch.tv/staticrealmsmusic

For more Honey Beard, visit honeybeardband.bandcamp.com