Sunset Cassette '87 - Already, but not yet

Review by Karl Magi

Sunset Cassette '87’s “Already, but not yet” is an intensely nostalgic and emotionally charged experience as it moves through the tracks. Deeply touching, tinged with shadow and emotionally engaging, this is music in which to get lost.

“Av Club” begins with an intensely threatening bass rumble and slowly descending notes that hover with uncertainty and ghostly sensation. A dark vibration moves through the track as vast chords glide past and piercing light pours from an elevated synth line. Sensations of lurking evil and growing danger fill the air.

A harsh, slipping sound drifts in the distance, evoking something lurking, poised to break into this world. A thread of tenderness moves through the synth, expanding as the sound washes outward before the drums burst in and the bass surges in propulsive waves. A sense of fearful anticipation grips me, transporting me to the world that Stranger Things created.

Arpeggios spin with energizing motion while the background radiates fragility and shadowed tension. The underpinnings remain relentlessly propulsive as interlocking arpeggios swirl. Distant sounds are hushed and tinged with discomfort and the hypnotic music closes in around me.

Nervous tension lingers while the gargantuan bass continues its rapid pulse, matched by twirling arpeggios. The drums erupt into a loping beat, high notes tangling delicately while trance-inducing arpeggios continue to spin. Tiny sounds ripple through the sweeping backdrop as a synth carries a melody full of softness before the track closes out.

“The upside down” starts with menacing bass pulsing heavily, creating sensations of creeping horror. The drumbeat starts to guide the music as shimmering tones ring with ghostly smoothness and a reverberant guitar carries a melody that is wistful and tinged with sadness.

As the guitar slips above the shaping underlayer, swirling tones glow with brightness that spills outward. The rhythm becomes a guiding heartbeat while the guitar drifts with misty emotion and sparkling light pours across the soundscape. Soon a sharp-edged synth intertwines with bell-like notes that add a glassy sheen.

The guitar continues to hover with gravity-defying grace while delicate notes touch the music like the first light of dawn. A sense of remembrance and mourning fills the melody and moves me deeply.

The rhythm moves deliberately while the guitar flickers gently before the track accelerates: the guitar rips forward with sharper edges, growling above harder-hitting underpinnings, tangled and gruff while the melody continues to hold onto its aching sense of hurt before the track stops.

Flatly bursting drums and trembling shaker percussion open “The Arm of the Lord.” The beat carries a steady throb as an undulating, hollow bass ripples with oily texture and a technological pulse threads through the percussion. A slowly oscillating synth gathers strength above a spectrally shifting undercurrent, levitating into the distance.

Power saturates the low end while higher tones inject drama. Luminosity swells in the background, pressing against the heavyweight kick below. Arpeggios spin, tension mounting as shadows coalesce and light flickers through them. The main melody holds tranquility within its strength, hovering with compassionate authority.

Darkness and light intermingle to form a cosmic equilibrium I deeply enjoy. The elevated melody traces past with utter gentleness while an unavoidable force swells beneath. The drums turn silky before falling away, leaving a rapidly undulating synth to wrap around the listener’s ears. Gentle contemplation fills the space as the bass continues to rumble.

In the distance, gleaming tones drift as the beat punches back in, the elevated synth line shining with polished brilliance while a caressing melodic figure floats freely through space. As the song exhales toward its end, serenity carries me forward until quiet finally descends.

“Already, but not yet” opens with tautly flickering arpeggios that undulate rapidly. They add tension as they ramp up with a minor-key shadow. The drums are giant and reverberant as trembling notes quickly tumble. In the background, breezy tones flow with a relaxing sensation.

The main melody calls out on a full-sounding synth, gliding with  sorrow-tinged impressions and transporting me along with it. The interlocking layers all exude lucidity while the underpinnings pulsate. As hypnotic arpeggios spin, they add more nervous feeling while the distance glows with fragility and serenity.

The entire track falls into a bass void, growling with threatening weight, before a piercing synth evokes adventure and danger. Percussion taps as scintillating notes explode and the main melody cries out with tranquil nostalgia. Smooth notes hover in the distance with a peaceful air suffusing them while the rhythm continues to beat insistently.

All of the arpeggios continue to weave a textured pattern as the drums pulse calmly and steadily. The track sails with soothing, aching emotion before it finally closes.

Delicately flashing notes and a rebounding rhythm move before funky bass entangles as “Snowball ‘84” commences . Angular notes slowly tremble as raised sounds shine with neon light and the silky background oscillates with graceful motion. Caressing sounds slip past, warming and full of hopeful energy.

The continual underlying pulse is hypnotic while chocolatey smooth sounds intermingle. Drums drop away as a softly exhaling synth pattern drifts, enfolding me in dreamy contemplation. As the bass rumbles, high notes trail slowly with a feeling of disconnection before the solidly guiding drums come in again.

Twinkling sounds hover in a star-lit pattern while the reverberating underpinnings add support. Golden sparks fly from the track as the low end continues to flow, a wash of ethereal notes trembling continually while the drum beat adds shape.

The way in which the twirling notes intricately interweave through the music permeates me with tranquility as the track begins to fade.

“Redeemer (The Parable of the Prodigal Son)” begins as a floating background is filled with embracing warmth. The beat hits with a crisp, guiding pattern as the synth carries a bittersweet melody and radiant notes rise, adding a victorious quality. The underpinnings are steady before they fade away and oceanic sounds wrap around the gossamer melody before the colossal rhythm locks in and heaves forward.

I find myself floating on a tide of sound that wraps around me and transports me to another realm. The whispering melody suffuses the music with meditative peace, which is given a hypnotic quality by the drum beat. Tension fades out of my mind while the main melody adds a cloudy delicacy that is charming, while the throbbing underlayer adds contrast.

Pastel soundscapes permeate the track before there is a crescendo glowing with lambent depth. The even beat continues to shape the music as elevated notes crescendo once more, erupting with fiery light while the bass rumbles. The beat grows more insistent as the glimmering tones trail through.

Peace radiates from the main melody as the colossal weight around it becomes even more massive. The main melody is ethereal and serene as the track is carried to an end by the heavy drum beat and bass.

Solidly throbbing, shadowy bass moves with a guiding drum pulse to start “Who Will Go For Us?” The expanding low end blends with iridescent, bell-like notes while rounded, gliding chords add breadth. 

The main melody carries timeless gentleness and a hint of mystery as it hovers in a vast bass void. Tinkling bells join the rhythm, ringing with diamantine delicacy while the melody drifts in a diffuse cloud of warming light. As percussion drops away, the notes grow fragile and tenuous, a thin thread connecting our souls to the world. 

Once again, the massive low end spreads outward while the melody echoes with heartfelt softness and diamantine tones glimmer and soothe. Relaxation permeates the track, mingled with melancholy and meditative musing, before iridescent light suffuses the music and silence falls.

Synth Single Review: “Disappear” by Rogue VHS & Beachdolls

by Karl Magi

Rogue VHS & Beachdolls’s “Disappear” reflects on how people choose to remember relationships. The song starts with twinkling notes descending in a soft wash. In the distance, gently lustrous tones float as Jessica Ess’s bittersweet voice carries a lightly touching melody. Synth cascades around it with an opalescent sheen as Jessica Ess reaches out with burning expression while the gargantuan rhythm heaves.

The main melody is full of heartbroken pain while the notes around it gleam with silky light, and Jessica Ess grasps me with her evocative performance, her voice echoing with conviction. The notes that move past give off moonlight as the vocals flow through the music with plaintive strength.

The underlayer is heavy and full of great propulsion while the delicate vocals drift through the music with loss and emptiness. The song ends on Jessica Ess’s sincere expression of and a glimmering synth.

The narrator says that soon she’ll be a memory, someone you write about in a song. She adds, “Soon I’ll be a melody,” a flashback about how the other person was wrong. She could be the monster or the villain, “in the game for you to try and break in and rescue me from the flames.”

As our storyteller asks the other person to “call her a disaster,” she wonders if she’s everything they feared. She continues, “Tell them that it’s my fault, put it all on me.” She points out that the song’s subject will never tell their friends because “you were never here.” She adds, “You can blame it on my heart as you disappear.”

“I can leave it all behind, like your average movie screen,” she says, while the other person struggles with wondering why she wouldn’t stay. She explains, “Ready for rebirth, I know we were never in the scene,” and though the other person promised they would change for her, “that’s a losing game.”

In conclusion, our storyteller says, “We both know how it goes when strangers become lovers and back to strangers again. I’m okay with burning bridges, I don’t want to be friends.”

Synth Single Review: “Surrender to the Night” by Minute Taker

by Karl Magi

Minute Taker’s “Surrender to the Night” explores breaking boundaries. The song comes alive as a rapidly accelerating rhythm moves beneath a disembodied voiceover. Angular bass shifts below Minute Taker’s ethereal vocals as they flow through the music like velvet.

Distant sounds hover while a synth luminesces like morning’s edge and rebounding underpinnings press forward. His voice remains gentle but insistent, gathering strength before the chorus climbs with passionate ferocity. In the background, burnished synth glistens as the rhythm continues to shape the music.

Another voiceover drifts from afar while fragile notes trace graceful tendrils and wordless female vocals add haunting emotion. The way Minute Taker expresses himself is full of heart and soul, drawing me completely into the song.

Once again the music bursts with fervour as the chorus rings out. Toward the end, bells shimmer with iridescence while the hard-hitting low end keeps charging forward. A saxophone leaps into the music with burning effulgence as a final voiceover carries the song into its close.

Declaring, “I surrender every ounce of control, the world is mine tonight, I’m drunk on letting go,” the narrator describes himself as a punk and a fighter giving himself to the night. “Shame I hardly recognize the one I am by day, I’m like some circus lion locked up in a cage.”

Tonight he plans to drown his self-consciousness in wine. “I surrender to the night, blood is running through my hands.” He feels drawn toward adventure, craving danger. “I’ve been dragged in, beside myself I’m floating.”

As the song ends, he proclaims, “Sparks, the city lights are beacons in the dark, and my car has run on empty far too long. I am invincible out here, out of my mind. I surrender to the night.”

Synth Single Review: “Filofax (Greed Is Good Remix)” by Rogue FX

by Karl Magi

Rogue FX’s “Filofax (Greed Is Good Remix)” injects a burst of revitalizing energy into the original. Radiant notes ring and intertwine like bright bells while a buoyant low end pulses with dynamic propulsion. Rogue FX’s voice feels distinctive and fresh, attuned to the lyrics as shimmering synth textures bubble with blinding light.

Nasal-sounding tones bend with a faintly haunting quality while the underpinnings propel forward with conviction. Gleaming synth spills outward with a subtle darkness hidden in it as the bass thunders and soft percussion adds a metallic sheen. As the vocals unfold, Rogue FX captures the spirit of the lyrics, drawing me fully into the words.

The underlayer continues its relentless drive while blaring, trumpeting tones leap with exhilarating vitality. A spoken-word segment introduces another emotional layer as higher notes burst with brilliance. Chopped vocal fragments form an intriguing sonic pattern while the explosive foundations surge and the main melody burns vividly.