Synth Single Review: “Outrunning the Stars” by eLxAr & OutRunner

by Karl Magi

eLxAr & OutRunner’s “Outrunning the Stars” takes us on a layered, soaring journey across the galaxy. The track opens as a cutting synth moves rapidly and chords flash with soft light. A gliding rhythm trips through the music as angular sounds intertwine and lambent chords flicker. As celestial tones rise, they spill out starry light. The background flows with cosmic brilliance, like stars in a velvet sky, capturing timeless emotions.

The underpinnings continue to throb with guiding force while interlocking synth sounds add softness. The drums drop away as string-like textures flow past like galaxies. Soothing notes tremble out into openness, like quick glimpses of glowing planets, as chords pour out nebular light.

A thumping beat returns with hollow pulsation as vibrating tones shimmer and percussive force launches. Piano-like notes slip past with a tender gleam while the underlayer drives. OutRunner unleashes a guitar solo full of passion and flying dynamism, crying out intricately as it sweeps by. I imagine myself caught in a solar wind, gliding past sublime interstellar structures and mysterious planets. As the rebounding beat presses on, glowing notes spill brightness and the track comes to an end.

Synth Single Review: “Gray” by Lovespirals

by Karl Magi

Lovespirals’ “Gray” captures emptiness and hurt as it evolves. The song opens with Ryan Lum’s guitar strumming and a slowly ticking percussive beat. The guitar’s warmth washes through the music as Anji Lum’s voice arrives hushed and bittersweet, carrying lyrics imbued with ache and loss.

Strumming notes flicker while the vocals float with restrained pain, and exhaling tones in the distance drift like shreds of mist. The drums create a fragile rhythm that threads its way through the song while Anji Lum’s voice pushes deep into me, capturing hurt and shadowed depression.

An acoustic guitar adds texture as Ryan Lum’s electric guitar howls with broken emotion, the vocals filigreed with sadness. Drifting notes vibrate with vulnerability as the bass swirls and the guitar adds a final delicate flicker before the song comes to an end.

As “everything grows colorless and gray,” even on the brightest days, the storyteller says that “nothing anyone could do or say will make it go away.” She feels as if everyone else has moved on while she stays in place, “unwilling to jump into the fray.”

She can’t find anything to keep “this creep at bay” or dispel it. “Once there was a time, I swear I knew golden light and skies of endless blue,” when laughter illuminated her path like a spark, but now it’s only gray.

Synth Single Review: “Breathing Room” by Wellside & Afterift

by Karl Magi

Wellside & Afterift’s “Breathing Room” opens to broad vistas as it unfolds. The track begins as lacy sounds glitter in the distance and the music exhales peacefully. A melody slips past on butterfly wings as the pulsing underpinnings grow in strength.

After a speeding rush, the track spins into whirling motion before hollow drums rebound. A vibrating synth moves tentatively and delicately as the low end locks into a heartbeat. Sun-dappled notes tremble together, dynamic yet gentle, while pipe-like sounds breathe out and thick bass guides the music.

As jumping notes dance together, spectral sounds vibrate with misty lightness, creating an ear-pleasing contrast. Breezy textures generate expansive impressions, spreading through space with a fresh feeling. Beneath it all, an undeniable pulse shapes the levitating notes as they trail through with limpid ease, floating me along. Computerized, fluting tones drift with dense bass before silence falls.

Synth Single Review: “Sparks of Sunlight (The Blue Book Project Remix)” by The Blue Book Project & Alternate Identity

by Karl Magi

The Blue Book Project & Alternate Identity’s “Sparks of Sunlight (The Blue Book Project Remix)” balances defiance with resignation. The remix commences as galactic bass intermingles with diaphanous chimes, and a repeating melodic pattern establishes an emotional base. Alternate Identity’s honeyed voice carries a wistful melody above a massively towering rhythm. 

The vocal line is rich with need and feeling as the tremendous underpinnings drive on. The vocals tug at me with piercing loss. A brassy synth carries an uplifting melody that contrasts with Alternate Identity’s broken, yearning expression. Colossal percussion surges forward while Alternate Identity delivers emotion straight to the heart. Trumpeting notes luminesce in the distance before the song ends.

As the narrator wonders, “How many parts of us remain?” a faraway light turns to rain. He adds, “You used to stay, then disappeared and all the space between us grew unclear.” He searches the past for clues the song’s subject left behind, feeling as if the other person will “push me out of line.” The other person’s mind is on replay and “you fade through all the sparks of sunlight, you’re the sky I can’t define.”

Despite the song’s subject changing their shape, the narrator can still feel the other person’s soft breath. He continues, “I play the sounds that used to stop me fearing death,” but admits he can’t pretend it’s another time or remember when he used to feel all right. Still, somehow, he tries. Defiantly, he adds, “I won’t be hidden by the days we passed,” because he showed the other person the truth and they still walked quickly by.

The storyteller gave everything he had, but “still you chase what never could be true.” He “held it all, your voice, your coded signs,” and now feels like the one who’s been thrown “beyond the line.” The song’s subject’s mind has gone out of frame. He adds, “You control the pulse I used to ride on, you’re the sky I learned to fight.” He’ll just “pretend that love was never born of lies.”

“I play the chords that made you see into my eyes,” as the narrator tells the song’s subject they’ll make it back in time and remember what it used to feel like before “hatred stole that light.”