Synth Single Review: “Doomsday” by Revert Disk

by Karl Magi

Revert Disk’s “Doomsday” is full of grit, shadow and danger. The track comes to life as a rushing sound echoes and soft scratching moves with computerized noises. In the distance, empty bass drifts and a tripping sound moves with ominous narration, capturing desolation and threat. The rumbling foundations thunder as the dark voice is joined by battering beats.

After a momentary pause, the beat begins to throb heavily, full of deadly intent, thumping while the drums add sharp energy. The rebounding bass is joined by hollow sounds that flicker and fade, creating a hypnotic pattern. Metallic tones move with a threatening feeling and the hard-hitting vocal sounds add a sense of impending terror.

Tapping sounds move with fulminating tones that grind through the music. The charging underlayer rattles forward, and twisting sounds writhe in tortured motion. A sense of growing menace permeates the music as the floating sounds slice hard and the voiceover adds tension. The bottom end surges forward with fierce dynamism and the drums speed again as bending sounds contort and silence falls.

Synth Single Review: “Quiet Life” by Stacy Gabriel

by Karl Magi

Stacy Gabriel’s “Quiet Life” is a reflection on the joys of solitude and silence. The track starts with easily flowing notes trickling in a fine filigree as the drums come in with a pattering softness. The lead synth has a diaphanous flow as it carries a melody which radiates soothing peace. The drums are clean as echoing tones twist in gliding motion and female vocals reverberate tenderly. A slightly gruff synth floats with a melody that is mellow and laid back, full of the relaxation that permeates a quiet day. I am able to let go of the stress of the world and melt into this music.

The crisp drums create a shaping rhythm as the open-voiced synth slips past like windborne flower petals. Undulating underpinnings add weight before the airy-sounding tones carry the serene melody as it moves like a zephyr. A metallic synth exhales with tranquility as the quickly dancing beat adds forward motion. Panpipes breathe out with pure, blue feelings as vocal-like sounds float. The track moves on rippling arpeggios, oscillating bass and thoughtful emotions as it comes to an end.

Synth EP Review: NEW GODS by Electric Seagulls

by Karl Magi

Electric Seagulls’ NEW GODS is a fearsome cyberpunk journey that rips through the darkness of digital pathways. It tells the story of a world dominated by God-like artificial intelligence as human beings struggle to survive and adapt to living with it. 

“MAYHEM” begins as an irradiated glow spreads outward while sharp sounds cut with clear precision. An evenly pulsing rhythmic beat establishes itself as colossal bass grows with threatening power. Above the growling weight, glistening tones flash with electronic luminosity before the beat erupts with ferocious strength. Deadly guitar towers with ominous intent, looming over the music with snarling presence, while the drum beat explodes in tripping motion. 

Elevated notes cry out with horror as the background seethes ferociously and the rhythm speeds with destructive inevitability. The lead synth melody is full of triumphant darkness, rampantly rising above the rushing heaviness that rockets through below. The high notes shine with majestic strength while swirling in minor-key shadow as the towering weight rises again. The foundational heartbeat is crushing while the guitar growls with ripping precision and the bass is like a living thing. 

The underpinnings burst with barely contained force as elevated tones add nervousness and tension. Trickling, tumbling synth spills like oily blood while the drums smash. I feel the terror growing before the illuminated synth carries a victorious melody tinged by evil. There is both opportunity and threat within the music as the song slowly drifts to an end with a caressing touch.

Enigmatically hovering notes revolve as crushing bass trembles and a sense of fear permeates the music to open “NEW GODS.” Arpeggios add growing apprehension while the glistening notes broadcast gentle shadows. The heaving rhythm propels the track as lively, luminous notes drift and strings keen with a painful emotional touch. 

Broadly floating tones convey the expansive weight of the landscape while a whispering sound floats with portentous emotion. Richly intertwining notes fill the background as the battering drums move with the huge beat. A waiting threat lurks in the music as the arpeggios twirl with metallic brightness, capturing haunting strength. 

The shimmering background adds to the sense of magical technology while a brass section cries out with victorious intent. I enjoy the immense energy that mingles with the ghosts in the music, painting a picture of terrifying beings born out of digital space. Cascading, shining notes descend through the music while the strings ripple and sing with melancholy effulgence as the track closes in a veil of shadows.

“RAINWAVED” commences as the pouring rain is joined by broadly reverberant notes that slowly wander. An uneven, colossal bass rhythm establishes itself as the clattering drums move with electric piano that echoes with touching gentleness. The wide-sounding synth matches the drums with a broadly shifting pattern, hypnotic and thoughtful.

Glassy tones skip quickly as the heaving bottom end adds lush weight, the xylophone-like notes matching the sound of rain. The strings wash in with a darkly shaded, tenderly broken melody as the militaristic beat pulsates strongly. The synth shifts with ghostly melancholy while the background notes shine like rain-soaked pavement.

The drums fade as the bass unevenly shifts and then the gigantic drums clip sharply as the rain continues to pour. As the broad-sounding synth moves in trance-inducing patterns, the xylophone twinkles again like raindrops against a window.

Rattling sounds move as wildly leaping notes squiggle through the music with minor-key shadow, bending and madly flying. Chaotic, digital energy fills the solo as the marching beat hits hard again. In the background, spectrally hurting notes rise and the rhythmic heartbeat goes on.

Glimmering strings wash like the storm cleaning the filthy streets, filling the air briefly with freshness. As the repeating pattern intertwines with vocal sounds, the xylophone trickles into silence.

Threatening bass echoes in long lines as an ominous vibration pierces the air to start “WIRES.” Shadows seethe before a ferocious synth saws with jagged edges, full of danger as the low end swells with unhallowed force. Worshipful notes contrast with slashing darkness as a steadily oscillating rhythm wobbles underneath. 

Dramatic strings capture portentous forces surging below. Ticking drums join raging, tearing tones that expand like fangs. The entire track trembles with hungry, dangerous sensations that permeate the creaking synth and driving beat. Laser-like tones reflect technological forces beyond control while the heavy bottom end is torn by angry resonance. 

Fear grips me as the track unfolds, glittering notes sliding above the rising horror. The bass crawls with dread while twisting higher tones warn like tendrils of shadowed energy. The underpinnings pulse with inevitability as the track reaches its end.

“NEW ORDER” comes to life as colliding drums explode and tender shadow sweeps while the oscillating bass marches in uneven lines. The drifting notes in the background have a haunted lightness as the erupting bass snarls with unbelievable pressure, and the rhythm is broken by splashing cymbals. Reverent synth hovers above the smoothly guiding underlayer as the heavier sounds rumble.

A sense of possibility leavens the heavy weight, filling me with a feeling of potential despite the danger. Quickly sparkling notes intertwine as the bass drops away for a moment while a glowing synth echoes. The thunderous underpinnings shift as the quickly twirling, elevated sounds add anticipation.

After the cymbals clash again, an extended synth sound moves with piano chords that are feverishly bright before the towering low end rises. Orchestral strings call out with twisted, gnarled sensations above the nervous piano, adding the more threatening side of the equation to the music.

Drifting sounds reverberate before the rapidly shining notes tumble over each other, and the rhythm continues to pulse slowly. The contrast between weight and tenderness, shadow and light is intense before the track glides to an end.

Mayah Camara - Wanting You Now

Review by Karl Magi

Overall Album Impressions

Mayah Camara’s “Wanting You Now” is a soul-infused journey through ardent desire, emotional depth and feelings of compassion and love. Mayah Camara uses her beautiful voice to superb effect, delivering performances that are deeply felt and engaging. The production adds richness and emotional strength to each song, outlining them with skillful synth choices and first-rate sound design. The lyrics are full of truth and undisguised sensation, lending the music a sense of connection to the complexities of love and life.

Mayah Camara’s grippingly expressive, smoky voice is the heart and soul of “Wanting You Now.” Her performances deliver jolts of pure emotion, translating her lyrics into sensation without any filter. The result is music that strikes with lightning-bright intensity, driving home the emotive, atmospheric words in each song. The vocals galvanize me as they unfold.

Lyrically, Mayah Camara writes across the varied landscapes of love, passion and human pain. Her words are full of vivid imagery that captures emotional nuance and ferocity. Each track explores a different facet of the journey lovers and people take through life, allowing me to experience or recall my own emotions with unmistakable clarity.

SelloRekt/LA Dreams also leaves an indelible mark on “Wanting You Now.” His musical backdrops are luscious, melodically engaging and full of sonic imagery that supports the vocals and lyrics. The way he matches the sensations of Mayah Camara’s performances allows each song to stand out and shine.

My Favourite Songs Analyzed

“Love Take Over” opens with a groovy rhythm and brightly pulsating synth. A sweeping sound adds a shadowy touch while strings shine and the guitar growls. The rhythm is dynamic as the luminous strings wriggle with passionate light and Mayah Camara’s chocolate-smooth voice captures the burning fire within the words, full of yearning excitement.

The underlying heartbeat is strong while Mayah Camara’s voice flies with inspiring dynamism, filling my heart with the ferocious love inside the lyrics. As the jamming underlayer presses forward, the drum beat snaps and the vocals rise with heated intensity. The fiery strength within the performance is echoed by the funky pulse underneath. As Mayah Camara’s voice echoes with undeniable desire, she captures the dangerous attraction waiting for her. The explosive rhythm drives forward while the heated vocals come to an end.

“You’ve really gotten under my skin, I got this feeling within,” our storyteller says, knowing there’s so much left to discover with the other person. She adds, “For me there is nobody else, I’m coming off of the shelf,” because the song’s subject is the only one for her. “You make me wanna give you my all,” she admits, because the other person knocked her off her feet and made her fall. She points out, “You make me wanna give you my heart when Cupid hit me with that fire loving dart.”

The narrator realizes that “when love takes over, there ain’t no point in trying to fight.” She knows that “when love takes over, it could be so wrong but just feels so right.” She says the song’s subject makes her temperature rise when she looks into their eyes. “Something’s kinda taking me over, I want you so bad I could cry,” she adds, feeling compromised because the other person has come a little bit closer.

“This crazy reaction, this fatal attraction is gonna make me throw all caution to the wind,” she confesses, because she’s losing herself—but she isn’t looking for any help. Instead, she says, “I’m gonna go and give my heart to him.”

The sensual voiceover comes in as “Wanting You Now” begins with heavily erupting drums. Lambent synth rises with sparkling luminosity as Mayah Camara's smoky, soulful voice carries the desire-filled melody. SelloRekt/LA Dreams’ synth bubbles like champagne as Mayah Camara's sexy voice expresses the deep craving within the lyrics.

The way in which she injects intense attraction and fierce desire engages me in the music. The low end has an insistent throb which speaks to the song’s urgent undercurrent. The crystalline synth climbs to the sky and Mayah Camara pours heat into the words.

The low end continues to muscle forward as the gritty expression of the vocalist permeates the music. The guitar slices with free-wheeling ardency as Mayah Camara belts out the melody as nobody else can. The huge drumbeat is insistent as the impassioned chorus explodes and flies.

Heat and craving mingle in Mayah Camara's distinctive voice while the low end continues to pump. The track drives toward an end with galactic light suffusing the track from the synth while the drum heartbeat takes the song to an end.

Our narrator says that nothing can compare to the time when they’re alone together with low lights and soft music. She says, “I can’t focus right now, I need you to hurry home, okay?” because she needs the song’s subject now. She left him a message, asking him not to take too long when he's coming home, because she needs him.

She’s been waiting far too long and the storyteller says, “I don’t feel so strong ‘cause I need you now.” She wants to feel the song subject’s tender touch and experience his love, because she’s all alone. She adds, “Baby, I’m ready for you to do what you do.” She points out that their chemistry is undeniable and when he touches her, “I ignite with desire.”

Our narrator says, “Every woman needs the love of her man,” and she wants to be tied up, tied down and thrown around because it’s been “nothing but passion since the day we began.” Now she says there are “hot beads of sweat dripping down my neck,” and as their eyes meet, the heat rises and she knows what’s about to happen.

“Dream Away” starts as a swelling sound grows with laser-like notes. The strings create dramatic grace as the guitar intertwines and Mayah Camara's voice takes on a feathery quality, still full of soul and heart, while the piano trickles with breathy tenderness. Mayah Camara's emotively powerful vocals reach out, filling me with the pain of the words as the drums add a steady rhythm.

The piano glistens with lustrous emotionality and the vocals fill with mournful want as the underlayer adds shape. Mayah Camara uses her broad-ranging voice to deliver all of the broken loss within the lyrics and the strings cry with as much pain as the singer. The piano entangles with fragility while the vocals soar with impressive strength and the underpinnings drive on. The piano and strings give the music orchestral heart while Mayah Camara shows off her abilities, capturing the song’s bereft feeling. One more crescendo bursts like a sunrise before the song ends on delicately dancing piano.

As the storyteller awakens, sometimes she thinks she can see the song subject’s face. She says, “When the wind whispers, I hear your name,” and the other person seems to take up every space. She misses them like “a baby needs a lullaby, like the stars never see the sun in the sky,” and the way a question needs a reply. She says, “I’m just so lost without you, nothing more I can do but dream away.”

When our narrator hears the other person's song on the radio, “every word she’s singing is like a knife into my soul.” People say pain lessens with time and she’ll make it, but she doesn’t know how. She can’t keep dreaming just to be with the song’s subject because “I need to live a life with meaning like I used to.” She realizes the other person wouldn’t want her drowning in this ache, but “I’m just so lonely, I miss you baby, I just wanna break down and cry.”

In conclusion, she needs the song’s subject in her life because “without you the loneliness is magnified, I can’t find a single thing to pacify the way that I feel.”

“On the Streets” opens as massively throbbing bass moves with rough-edged notes. The galloping low-end pulse joins Mayah Camara’s bittersweet performance, capturing all of the darkness and complexity of the streets. The gigantic rhythm surges with synthwave force as her vocals ring out with sincerity and honesty. Chimes sparkle with haunted light as Mayah Camara engages me with trembling clarity.

The colossal underlayer sharpens as the bells shimmer and Mayah Camara cries out with burning emotion. As the two singers intertwine, the vocals soar with undeniable feeling. The undulating, lacerating bass supports the lyrics as they push their message home. Mayah Camara carries the arcing, shadowy melody with conviction as pounding drums meet coruscating chimes before the song closes.

The narrator warns, “You gotta keep yourself alert ‘cause if you don’t you may get hurt out here.” There are many lessons to learn because “you gotta know the way it works out here.” She adds, “They say the freaks come out at night, so many things, so many sights,” and there is so much to absorb.

She reminds us that “if the streets come knocking, keep on walking, it’s survival out here.” There are too many people talking and “things are shocking, everyone’s a rival out here on the streets.” The roads are stained by oceans of tears “from days gone by,” and it’s tragic that “this is where so many grow.”

On the streets, it’s “a world within a world” full of “so many boys, so many girls, so many shots in the dark.” She says you must look and listen because it’s another world out there, you have to listen to your heartbeat and open your eyes, because “it’s not a place you wanna be.”

Flourishing drums rebound as trickling sounds mix with bright horns to start “Let’s Escape.” Mayah Camara’s voice is full of pent-up need as a throbbing underlayer propels the music. Her clear voice carries the melody with barely contained desire as the rhythm pulses. Loving sensations fill me as Mayah Camara transports me.

Glistening notes flash as the darkly pulsating foundation moves forward and the vocals arc above with unambiguous emotion. Sharp drums propel the flying chorus through the music with affection and longing.

Metallic tones sparkle like stray sunbeams while the underpinnings continue to undulate. As Mayah Camara embodies desiring emotion, explosive energy permeates the track. Rebounding synths dance lightly before the song ends.

“We’re never alone, there’s always somebody home,” but the narrator needs the other person to know she craves time with them. A “burning desire, down to the wire” pushes them to escape tonight. She searches for a place where no one knows them, insisting, “I just wanna take action.” She asks, “Is there somewhere we can be?” longing for a private, serene escape where desire can unfold without interruption.

“Stand My Ground” comes to life as the kick drum pounds and quickly intertwining synth illuminates the music. Mayah Camara’s voice is light but expressive, skipping through the music as the melody spills over with encouragement and a sense of freedom. The synth frolics and the drums give increased dynamic life to the music while the vocals are belted out with fierce strength.

Interesting percussive elements move with the aquamarine tones of the synth as Mayah Camara captures the mixture of reminiscence and forward-looking emotion in the words. I enjoy the flying vocals as they reach out with liberated joy, seeking a new path. The undulating underpinnings throb as the defiant pride within the vocals shines through. The background notes are effervescent and add a sense of release while Mayah Camara uses her superb vocal ability to propel the song with soaring happiness. The music creates a supportive backdrop for the mixture of independence and hopeful future vision.

As a new day dawns, our storyteller says, “I got some things on my mind, I got some things to say,” because she’s kept them to herself for too long and “I let you get your way, I wasn’t true to myself, I was hiding away.” She’s putting aside what they did before because it isn’t working “and we keep on hurting and we need more.”

“I don’t know the girl in the mirror, she’s not the one I used to be,” but she looks the narrator in the eye as she tries to get back to who she was. “I loved who I was before and that’s who I’m fighting for, I won’t let you drag me down, I’m gonna stand my ground.” She was bound too tightly and “trapped within the ropes” so she couldn’t see the light because she’d lost all hope.

Our storyteller was trapped in the dark because “I lost my spark,” but adds that it was her mistake and a choice she made to give so much to the song’s subject. She goes on to say, “But there’s a change to make, there’s a chain to break,” and she truly has work to do. Now she isn’t “papering over the cracks” or under attack, so “I’m gonna live my life, you’re not pushing me to the back.” It’s her time now.

“I don’t always wanna have to be strong as a woman, sometimes I wanna scream and shout and let it all out,” she explains in a way that comes naturally to her. Now she’s taking hold of the reins and she’s going to “break all of the chains that held me down.” She won’t stand in the rain or “live in the pain,” because “it’s over now, I’m gonna stand my ground.”

Gargantuan bass moves beneath trickling notes that rapidly cascade to kick off “Deja Vu.” Chimes scintillate as Mayah Camara’s ghostly vocals slide past with knowing darkness. The chimes continue to shine with galactic light, but Mayah Camara captures all of the anger and revelation within the lyrics. The low end oscillates with towering strength as the vocals cry out with bitter feeling, confused and full of pain. The surrounding music has a shadowy slide that fits the sensations within the words,and tremulous notes flicker with half-concealed brightness.

The way in which Mayah Camara communicates the mood of the song takes hold of me and carries me along. The melody’s minor-key shadings capture anger at the behavior of the song’s subject. The continually surging, supporting pulse moves with Mayah Camara’s vocal performance, which rises in defiance before the music closes.

“I recognize a feeling but I don’t think that I like it” reveals the narrator’s discomfort, even as she resists describing it. “I’ve seen this place, this scene somewhere in my dreams” hints at fear, and she adds that she wasn’t prepared to face “what’s in front of me.” She doesn’t want to talk about it or get caught up.

Our storyteller says, “It’s déjà vu, have we been here before?” and she doesn’t know what to do. She’s unsure. “I know your secret but I don’t wanna keep it to myself” shows she knows the other person was sneaking around. She adds, “See, you may play your wife, you may cheat and lie” and take risks but she reminds the song’s subject, “You need to recognize there ain’t no compromise, you know I saw that kiss.”

Conclusion

“Wanting You Now” carries impactful emotional depth. Its combination of exquisite vocals, thoughtful lyrics and skillful production makes for an album that grips me and will not let go.