Synth Single Review: “What You Are to Me” by Color Theory

by Karl Magi

Color Theory’s “What You Are to Me” is tender but full of shadowy undertones. The song begins as a piano floats upward, the quickly jumping beat joined by a glassy synth. Resonating bass rumbles as the piano washes in a pastel glide, full of lightness and freshness. Color Theory’s unmistakably melancholy and gentle voice drifts with a serene melody.

The piano sails with laid-back ease as Color Theory catches the lyrics with his aching performance. I enjoy his distinctive sound as it carries me along while a prismatic synth floats past and the xylophone trips, rich tones adding depth as they ring out. The vocal performance is full of softness and the piano dances with a light touch, skipping past like a summer breeze.

Color Theory’s velvety vocals encapsulate the song’s wistful quality. Drums tap smoothly as crystalline tones intertwine while the piano frolics past. The steady beat breaks as the vocals echo, reflecting the lyrics’ emotional depth. A mood somewhere between relaxation and contemplation fills the song as the piano carries the music to an end.

Our narrator says the song’s subject will never know what they are to him. He continues, “I’ve never been one for honesty, you’re such an impossibility, an anomaly.” As the other person bites their lip, stomps on the ground, paints the sky and spins around, he reflects on how “we conjure this playground that we share.” He asks the other person to close their eyes, because he’ll be hiding somewhere and concludes, “Someday I may tell you everything, embarrassed to stroke your angel wings.”

Synth Single Review: “Max Fox” by Mr Creep

by Karl Magi

Mr Creep’s “Max Fox” evokes a fascinating character on a mission as it unfolds. The track commences as roughly slashing sounds move with a storming low-end pulsation, and the guitar attacks with fierce power. An effervescent sound in the distance adds a delicate touch to the guitar’s industrial strength while it lacerates the music and the drums thump in a steady, muscled underlayer.

Mr Creep’s guitar drifts with intricacy and wild strength as the underpinnings rumble and the drums shatter. The guitar twirls with feral energy and climbs with blinding radiance. Mr Creep demonstrates his guitar mastery on this track, conveying anger and perseverance intricately woven into a layered whole.

Computerized sounds drift as arpeggios spin smoothly. Images of a midnight city and a lone man with a mission to complete permeates the music as Mr Creep’s fingers shred and fly across the strings. The low end fades out as the guitar flashes one more time and silence falls.

Synth Single Review: “In Search of Synthia” by Anantphenix 83 & Lisa Marie Perkins

by Karl Magi

Anantphenix & Lisa Marie Perkins’ “In Search of Synthia” tells the story of a quest across time and space. The song opens as rain falls and solidly resonating bass pulses, with gossamer bells chiming in a delicately musical pattern. Lisa Marie Perkins’ voice drifts with vivid emotion, rising above the glistening background. The bells ring out with cosmic radiance, and her voice is tender and trembling.

The drums begin to pound as floating tones levitate like stars on the edge of my vision. The steady rhythm moves with luscious bass, while Lisa Marie Perkins’ fragility and vulnerability capture my heart. Illuminating bells flash with meditative light as the bass throbs softly but powerfully. As the vocals hover with ethereal elegance, a synth cries out with hurting, galactic sensations and the piano traces a filigree of delicate notes while Lisa Marie Perkins carries the touching emotional depths through to a close.

As our narrator looks over “black glass horizons,” she floats above the Earth with an engine that hums but barely functions. “Dim stars flicker through the smoke,” while she speaks of Synthia as “a spark in a dream of hope.” She exists across a frequency that’s never been cut off, drifting like a shadow through a digital daze.

Synthia is a flicker in the static, and the storyteller asks her, “Are you a memory or part of the machine?” Synthia is like a secret code, and she wonders, “If I reach you, will you stay or dissolve at the edge of yesterday?” With neither key nor map, only a shimmer, she concludes, “Your name is still written in the code.”

Synth EP Review: “Replicants” by Toxxic Project

Toxxic Project’s “Replicants” elicits images of a shadow-filled world of malevolent technology as it unfolds. It interweaves synths that create atmosphere and energy as they shape the EP.

“Upcoming Signal” comes into being as slowly shifting, portentous sounds move with hollow, ghostly noises swept by an empty wind. The tones growl with barely contained menace as the heavily slamming rhythm advances. Open-voiced, spinning arpeggios float like galaxies wheeling above while the drums throb irresistibly.

Glittering sounds shine like distant stars as the arpeggios twirl. A choral synth adds reverence, contrasting with the forceful drums. The beat accelerates into a pounding pulse while elevated synth adds a worshipful, haunting quality. Xylophone-like notes gleam with cold starlight as tremulous, computerized sounds vibrate around them.

The unrelenting underpinnings convey vastness, carrying me through open space. Growling low frequencies roll beneath hypnotic arpeggios while the choir calls out with delicacy and loss. Tension grows as crushing bass hammers and whispering tones hover, fragile highs mixing with immense low-end power to carry the track to its conclusion.

As a wind sweeps through, a terrified pulse rushes in to open “Replicants.” Intense nervousness pours from the track as a whispering voice moves beneath thundering drums. Radiant notes trumpet with menacing majesty while the bass surges with barely contained rage. The main melody shimmers with spectral grace, crying out above the horror rumbling below.

Uneven beats and metallic sounds chirr alongside reverent choral tones. Lacerating notes cut as the bass snarls and shatters before locking into a pounding heartbeat. Raised chords flash with sinister brightness while the churning underpinnings heave forward. Brassy tones gleam with distant, haunted hunger as the bass continues to growl, ever-present evil moving through the music until whispers dissolve into silence.