Synth Single Review: “Last Christmas (Wham cover)” by Electrobite

by Karl Magi

Electrobite’s “Last Christmas (Wham cover)” captures the classic sounds of the original with a new verve. The cover begins with solidly driving bass and merrily jingling bells as rich synth flows with uplifting energy, contrasting with the bittersweet lyrics. The lead singer’s voice explodes with loving emotion, tinged with melancholy.

Scintillating notes gleam like tinsel in the distance as the lead singer captures all of the energy and sensation that filled the original song. The main melody chimes with celebratory freedom, ringing out as the distant bells add a holiday sensation. The vocal performance is full of interpretive fun while the rhythm throbs strongly.

The infectious chorus grabs me and whirls me into the music as the bells sparkle with effervescent radiance. The beat presses on as the bass adds weight and the synth shines like colorful lights on the snow before the song ends.

The song explores a holiday romance when the narrator gave his heart to someone who broke it. A year later, he recognizes the other person’s coldness and his own vulnerability. Determined not to be fooled again, the narrator doesn’t want to be fooled again so he swears he’ll only give his love to someone who truly values it in the future.

Synth Single Review: “It Finds Us All” by jacket.

by Karl Magi

jacket.’s “It Finds Us All” captures the heart of pain and how we come to deal with it in caressing tones. The track starts as diaphanous sounds tremble out into open space with a tentative lightness. A broad sound field flows out with painful tenderness, capturing loss and wistful memory. This is music that fills me with thought in a quiet flow of feathery sound.

The music is permeated by meditative contemplation as the threadlike notes drift past my ears with melancholy gentleness. I am carried along by the emotional power within these soft notes, transported through my thoughts and memories, touching moments of loss and hurt.

The main melody slowly flows on a synth that reflects aching emotion, sending a pang through me as the music unfolds. Diamond-like notes sparkle in the firmament of tender synth, as the echoing background is cut by scintillating tones and silence falls.

Synth Single Review: “Erase Me” by Megan McDuffee

by Karl Magi

Megan McDuffee’s “Erase Me” examines a dark lust as it unfolds. The song begins as ominous sounds are joined by a rushing beat and shadowy bass. Megan McDuffee’s sensually swirling voice carries a melody that bursts with desire and yearning, adding ardent emotion. As the rhythm throbs, her vocals are full of need, while dark notes intertwine with spectral bells and the heaving low end.

I enjoy Megan McDuffee’s darkly sweet vocal performance, which captures the aching desire within the lyrics. The rhythm moves forward as distant sounds levitate with spectral grace and chiming notes add a hint of starry brightness. The vocals are hushed and full of lust as broadly vibrating, string-like notes create a threatening sensation.

Megan McDuffee’s whispered delivery creates creeping danger behind the desire, and the undulating bass rumbles with muscled power. Her voice carries an enjoyably Gothic tinge as gliding tones echo with trailing, ghostly sensations, and silence falls.

For our storyteller, “tonight is not a usual affair.” Her walls are down and she’s lost her logic, but she doesn’t care. She pleads for the song’s subject to “bite me, taste me, lust erase me.” Everything falls away into the other person's darkness as she says, “I succumb to craving.” She wants to be kissed hard, repeatedly and declares, “I want you, let’s scream into an ending.”

“Beneath the moon, a trade in desire,” as the narrator adds that she’s one of them, if only for an hour. She continues, “Tonight we feast upon each other’s breath,” saying that it isn’t enough and that she needs to be obsessed. She goes on, “Bleed me, feed me, lust erase me,” as everything drops away and she admits she needs the other person, even though “you’ll be the death of me.”

To conclude, she says, “Drink me slow and give me your sweet curse. I’ve let you in now, so hush and do your worst.”

Synth Single Review: “Hour Zero” by Skylane Drive

by Karl Magi

Skylane Drive’s “Hour Zero” creates a gently haunting atmosphere. The track comes to life as haunted notes drift aimlessly above a darkly pulsating rhythm and thunderous drum beat. The elevated notes wander with disconnected darkness, trickling past like something hovering on the edge of vision. The melody, in contrast, is full of sweetly shining synth as it drifts with tenderness and peace. A hint of the earlier darkness returns, and the trembling foundation adds uncertainty.

A string-like synth reverberates with melancholy lightness as the entire track trembles with unreality. The rhythm is solid as the big drums hit hard, and raised notes gleam with contrasting brightness against the misty sensations emerging from the background. As the drums drop, metallic ticking comes from the cymbal and broken sounds drift past.

I enjoy the way balance is achieved as the track slides in thoughtful motion and radiant notes glisten. The underpinnings pulse with guiding shape as the string-like synth calls out in a mournful meditation. Nocturnal floating permeates the music while the beat shifts and the strings shine with luminescent delicacy. The track fades on a trembling underlayer moving with softly shifting tones.