Synth Single Review: “Can’t Hold Me Back” by enøize

by Karl Magi

enøize’s “Can’t Hold Me Back” is full of shimmying beats and encouraging energy. The heavily reverberating foundation boogies down with snapping drums as the track commences. A dense groove adds thick weight as the notes above it permeate the music in a cloud of iridescent radiance. Mixed emotions entangle and flow in the melody like a flickering filament .

A computerized voice repeats “you can’t hold me back” while a thundering sonic bed is joined by brassy tones that carry an uplifting, ethereal melody. Digital impressions form as bending tones slip with hollow vibrations as the groovy underpinnings move with encouraging, trumpeting synth, raising me up as they do so.

Luminous notes that broadcast the unfolding and tenderly touching melody moves with fiercely slicing bass. The string-like synth flares to create dynamism as the robotic voice says that it can’t be held back. The strings are warm and soothing as the track comes to an end.

Indigo - Dreams

Review by Karl Magi

Overall Album Impressions

Indigo’s “Dreams” is an emotional voyage through heartbreak, passion, loss and love. The lyrics are full of meaning and depth, capturing the shattered and conflicted emotions that can fill us. The painful moments are leavened with more hopeful words and Indigo delivers all of this in her delicate but forceful performances. The lyrics are crafted to drive home their message, while the musical background weaves together intriguing synth textures and tones. The end result is music that engages while leading me to contemplate life.

To anchor “Dreams”, we have Indigo’s vocal performance. Despite the breeziness of her sound, there are deeper waters within her voice. She can capture everything from intense aspiration to heartbreaking loss with that voice, carrying all of the feeling within it. I enjoy the way in which Indigo layers her voice on the album, the production creating richness and texture. Her performance takes hold of her songwriting and brings it to life with emotion and affecting feeling.

Another strong aspect of “Dreams” is Indigo’s songwriting. Her songs are deceptively simple, but after listening, one begins to understand that there’s more going on. The explorations of relationships and how they evolve are engaging and full of a rush of different moods and sensations. The way in which the lyrics move from something full of anticipation and dreaming to pain pulls me inward and carries me along. Each song is a small story of living life.

As for the production, Steve Wilcoxson weaves together sounds which gleam and dance, melodies that capture the essence of each song and a percussive underpinning that propels the music forward. There are nuances and sonic textures which permeate the music with further intensity and layering to create an album which is full of auditory magic that charms and pleases.

My Favourite Songs Analyzed

“Long Distance Runner” starts as celestial bells ring with pure light and a field of bass adds a supporting flow. Faraway vocals echo in choppy motion as the main melody exudes clarity. Indigo’s voice is full of breathy feeling, capturing the hurt and longing within the melody and lyrics.

The solid rhythm and subterranean foundation support the chorus, which slips through cloudy warmth with bereft emotion, touching me deeply with its expression. Continually twirling notes burst with a glassy sheen while the heavily punching underlayer keeps throbbing. Indigo's delivery blooms into wafting breezes and aching hearts as the bass and drums interlock in shaping motion and the song exhales into a quiet ending.

As the narrator keeps “the distance at bay so I can hold my own,” she stokes the fires in her heart so they won’t go cold, keeping herself apart because it’s all she knows, “with all the others at the start so I can go it alone.” She admits there’s “a darkness in my eyes,” asking if the song’s subject can see it too, confessing, “it’s the distance I despise.”

“With the light in our hearts, I can run,” she says, fighting the darkness after she has “lit the fuse,” ready to “spark, ignite” and bare it all. Yet the connection is fleeting as she concludes, “got to run ’cause that’s all I want… as you fall to the start, we’re apart, we have different hearts.”

An open-voiced guitar echoes with a mournful touch as sharp percussive edges drive beneath to begin “Empty in Velvet.” The underpinnings are forceful while wet-sheened tones cascade like rain on glass and Indigo’s honeyed voice threads the melody with fervent tenderness. The guitar repeats a hypnotic, meditative pattern as the lyrics spill with clarity and feeling.

Indigo captures intensely mingled emotions while a gigantic foundation surges and slashing sounds cut cleanly. She carries the chorus with conviction, riding its emotional ebb and flow as notes tumble in frictionless motion and the heaving sublayer closes the song.

Our narrator reflects, “I’ve been gone too long, I beat my heart to make it strong.” When the lights disappear, she says, “under the mirror then you can shiver,” unsure whether she surrendered or resisted, adding that “it can last forever, saturated all the night long.”

As she questions why the song’s subject can’t see they’re no good for her, she vows to “burn, set the fire just to set you free.” She wonders if they can feel “the venom quicken, pulse to heat, driving through your veins,” insisting that “a suit of armor suits you fine, empty in velvet and dying in the starlight.”

“Dreams” commences with bursting notes that flash in blinding intensity as an orchestral string section rings out with brilliance. The drums beat with steady insistence while the strings glow with tenderness and Indigo’s vocal line is shot through with yearning and deep passion, fading into loss.

A driving rhythm supports the vocal melody as it moves with pastel illumination while the strings shine. Indigo’s performance mingles nostalgia and irresistible emotion that draws me in, while trickling notes cast effulgent light over the music and a resonant floor presses forward. Her caressing vocals encapsulate the complexity of love and loss within the lyrics, before the percussion drops away and her warming, delicate presence fades into silence.

“You said you never had these dreams before, this is the first time that you just wanted to be mine,” the song’s subject confesses, to which the storyteller replies that she has never felt fear like this before, because “this is the last time that you can ever just be mine.” As the walls close in and “my skin is paper thin, as it ends then we begin,” she concludes, “I keep falling too deep, falling too deep, right down on your love.”

Reverberant guitar echoes into openness to begin “Tropical.” There’s a funky quality to the guitar as it strums, while levitating sounds drift with calm concentration and peace. A satiny beat glides as Indigo takes hold of the words, delivering them with effortless ease.

A sugared melody is transported on coruscating notes that slip forward with surrounding gentleness, soothing and warm. The song’s mood captures me with its mixture of longing and the anticipation of endings. A pulsing underlayer vibrates while tectonic weight shifts and string-like tones move with a melody that blends affection and ache as the rhythm presses on. Dreamy sensations flow through the music before it gently comes to rest.

Saying “I can meet you in the middle of a daydream,” the narrator admits she may have been fading lately. She tells the song’s subject, “you can just dive in to get me,” yet wonders if they will simply “lie down and clean forget me.”

She questions how long the relationship can last, offering “take my heart, take my hand, take my photograph,” while sensing its fragility, adding, “take it all, take away, it’s not meant to last.”

“I can find you in the middle of a dead street, deadbeat, heartbeat racing, maybe,” she continues, saying the other person could “just drive here to get me,” or perhaps simply “drop by and clean forget me.”

“Sun” opens with notes split by prismatic light as luscious bass creates a firm foundation. The synth forms an iridescent pattern as it dances with the solid drum punch and powerful bass. Indigo’s voice is full of whisper-soft memory as the melody shines with summer radiance.

Tiny notes ring like raindrops, capturing my heart, transporting the melody that skips through the music. Indigo’s vocal presence carries me along with all of the yearning and potential loss within the lyrics. The dancing low end interlocks with fragile sonic droplets which trickle through the music before the song ends.

Midnight has arrived so “you can take the long way home” as the storyteller points out that “summer nights are better on your own.” She urges the song’s subject to consider the first time, adding “we can wait till sunrise” as they “tear it up and tear it down, rip it up and throw it out.”

It might be the final time that the song’s subject can “run and be mine” as our narrator says “tear me up and tear me down, rip me up and throw me out.” In conclusion, she says “you must stop, you’re taking me the wrong way home, summer nights are empty when you’re gone.”

A diamond-like synth is joined by gargantuan bass which pulses steadily to kick off “Breathe.” The melody itself is full of freedom as a quickly flickering note pattern descends and the drums rush with abandon. Intertwining notes gleam like gemstones caught by sunlight as Indigo’s voice wraps me up in a soothing mixture of love and intense caring.

The low end charges with rapid liveliness as the vocals shimmer with freshness and light. The drums collide with propulsive dynamism while, like sudden brightness piercing clouds, the lead synth shifts above a thrumming bassline. Indigo’s performance has an enchanting delicacy as the solidly bursting drums add shape. The song closes with affection and leaping energy.

As summer becomes fall, the narrator “can feel you calling, the writing’s on the wall.” She can hear the echoes of the song’s subject walking down the hall as she asks them to tell her “what you need now.” She can’t breathe as she feels the other person’s “heartbeat swaying so gently.”

Our storyteller asks them to “tell me what you feel now” as she can’t see. She’s fallen into “your eyes now, they arrest me, just breathe.” She concludes, “I can see you falling, high upon the breeze, brought me to my knees.”

“Disguise” commences as inspiring chords rise with a synthesizer that spangles with sunlight before the drums guide the music. A feeling of uplift washes through the music as Indigo captures the essence of the lyrics, filling me with their emotion.

Indigo's voice is like velvet as it wraps around the listener and the main melody gleams with radiance despite the sense of ache. The entire song has a gem-like sheen as it flows with deep sensation permeating it before it ends on luscious chords falling silent.

“In disguise as we try to hold on to the night before it passes us by,” the storyteller says she “held on to the lie that I keep deep inside, it’s mine to keep alive.” She doesn’t need a friend so she doesn’t want what she and the song’s subject have to end. “I’m denied, you decide that you can’t run and hide as long as we survive when it’s time,” and then they’re falling asleep by the fire and “it’s rising like a tide.”

Conclusion

“Dreams” is an album that draws on all of the mixed emotions which define our lives. As it combines Indigo’s whisper-soft but powerfully expressive vocals with her songwriting that cuts to the heart of emotions and a musical backing that weaves its supporting tapestry, the album creates moving portraits of all of our mixed feelings.

Synth EP Review: “Victims Of Light” by Violentene

by Karl Magi

Violentene’s “Victims Of Light" is a journey through refracted light and voids of shadow, anchored by Mvrijo's vocal performance and given texture and shape by Roland M’s approach to the sound. The EP moves across shattered emotional terrain and variegated feelings as it evolves. 

“Beginnings” comes into being as threatening weight swells with shadowy import and gigantic, drifting sounds mingle nobility with danger and a hint of melancholy. Towering drums burst and fade while the dramatic orchestral synth vibrates with swelling serenity and pain. The slow rhythmic pulse of the drums adds to the drama, setting the stage for the emotional experience coming next. A sense of anticipatory emotion touches the music before it fades.

Portentous notes hover with a feeling of impending danger as a thumping drum launches an angular melody to start “Savage City.” The melody has a technological sharpness as it moves above the exploding drums and giant bass, while Mvrijo’s voice is caressing and shadowed, mixing seduction with fear. Illuminating notes reverberate with Mvrijo’s full and expressive vocals, haunting and full of feeling.

The drum beat rushes with slicing energy before the threatening underpinnings rumble. Mvrijo captures me as she conveys the feelings of disconnection and discomfort in the lyrics. The vocals whisper and slide while rounded chords add depth. The rhythm is relentless and Mvrijo has a ghostly tinge to her voice as computerized notes descend with digital precision. The vocals skim through the music with a misty sensation above the irresistibly throbbing drums before the song comes to an end.

As floating silence sinks deeper “in the echoes of your mind,” our narrator says that at night “you pray that you will keep up the fight,” because beneath your skin you can no longer breathe or feel.

In the savage city, the narrator is “at a standstill, holding on to nothing.” From lovers to strangers, through all the peaks and troughs, “you had it all but you can’t trust no more.”

Our storyteller concludes that you “might still get there as air is running low,” with no more hiding, longing for something real.

“Other Side of Eternity” opens with haunting bells vibrating into open space beneath a galactically levitating melody. The drums and bass interlock into a charging foundation as the synth drifts with cosmic elegance, wheeling like the stars.

As Mvrijo’s whisper-soft vocals slip with dreaming smoothness, the bass architecture supports warming notes that swell with embracing tenderness. The strongly throbbing low end moves with Roland M’s guitar as it hovers like a nocturnal cloud drifting across the moon. The dreamy sensation Roland M creates within the music compels me as the solidly propulsive undergirding presses forward.

String-like notes intertwine with caressing touches as the music flows. Mvrijo’s sweetly gossamer voice floats free, like a night breeze, as bells convey starry delicacy. The chorus glides past, permeated by loving expression, while the steadily shaping bass weight intermingles with the low end. The song ends with the vocals sailing like silk before dropping away, the ethereal melody falling quiet.

The narrator will “scream so loud, just to feel the void,” as her soul is fed by chaos. Lost in a haze, she can’t deny anything, so she’ll “embrace the cold that’s seeping through my mind.” She’s set free by the cold as she continues to pretend, “down on my knees, begging for mercy.” She goes on to say that she’ll see the song’s subject on the “other side of eternity.”

“Where do you hide when you close your eyes?” our storyteller asks the song’s subject as they raise up walls. She speaks of everything they left behind now seeming out of sight “as we said our goodbyes.” She’s finished with pretending and says that she’ll “roll asunder.” There are no hiding places left and it’s hard to fight when “blindness leaves the light.”

Rapidly charging drums and a distantly levitating sound trembling with waiting pain commence “Victims of Light”. Electric bass surges forward as the drums erupt, while delicate textures float and Mvrijo’s bittersweet voice carries a haunting melody steeped in shadow.

Her breathy delivery trails through the music with misty feelings, mingling pain and defiance. I enjoy Mvrijo’s range and emotional power as she captures the shattered feelings within the lyrics. Pattering drums add shape while Roland M’s synth contributes soft effulgence.

The low end drives on as the contrasting vocals drift like cobwebs on a midnight breeze. The chorus climbs with melancholy while the foundation charges forward. Moonlit notes pour through the music as Mvrijo pierces me with her emotive delivery and the song ends with gruff bass and softened, fading vocals.

As “something crawls inside me,” Our storyteller feels as though that thing is breathing down her throat. She adds, “The hole in my heart isn’t as deep as an arrow piercing through my flesh.” She says they have been there before, “longing for the night to fall,” growing in the dark and wonders if the shadows will catch her fall as “we’re victims of the light.”

the narrator asks, “Did you have to betray me, acting like you didn’t care?” because it stripped her of sanity and “turned your bed into my grave.” She questions how the other person sleeps at night “with the fire in your eyes,” still victims of the light. She says that “heavy burdens disappear where shadowed dreams, consumed by fear, collide,” when she is about to lose everything again “from everything you ever took from me.”

To conclude, Our storyteller declares that she is “losing sight and born again, thicker skin breaking these chains.”

“Overcome” starts with wandering, bending notes and a razor-edged bass sweep. The computerized lead synth carries a melody which skips with easygoing lightness above a gliding drum beat. Mvrijo’s voice is like silk and breezy air, capturing feelings of aspiration and yearning. The chorus leaps with encouragement and a hint of remembrance while the athletic beat moves with a technological-sounding synth.

Drums and bass slide away as serene waves float and twisting sounds roam. The slicing bass continues to pulse with the solid drums while Mvrijo catches me with her hushed feeling and deep expression. Computerized notes frolic with uplifting sensations as the energizing beat rockets on. The chorus cascades, and the tonal pattern that emerges is tinged with darkness as it flows while the drum beat continues forcefully rushing.

Bass rumbles as the drums fall away and the song drifts for a moment before the lively chorus flies out again before the song ends.

While her thoughts keep running, “feeling lost, can’t overcome, stepping closer to the edge,” but now they don’t have to be afraid. 

Perhaps the narrator doesn’t want to be how she is as she pleads, “don’t shoot me down for my mistakes,” and asks if she’s falling into place, leaving “yet another scar I should embrace.”

 “Looking at what we’ve become, fears through ups and downs,” she wonders if she’ll ever find peace. She concludes, “no one should take their hopes away, don’t take our hopes away.”

Synth Single Review: “My Last Mistake” by AC83

by Karl Magi

AC83’s “My Last Mistake” encapsulates loneliness, a plea for help and hope. The song begins with a desolate note pattern drifting as dense electric bass creates a far-off pulse. The floating notes are disconnected and aching before a drum beat snaps forward and thick bass entangles. The main melody is hurting and ghostly as the broadly exploding drums move with a fierce guitar tide.

AC83’s voice is trembling and full of pain, capturing the bereavement and brokenness of the words. The drums press on while the vocals radiate intense emotion. A guitar storm rages as the vocals reach out for anyone who might pull him from the void. The guitar is angry while AC83 stabs me in the heart with vocal expression. Bass growls as the vocals burn and touching strings levitate.

The guitar solo is ripping and angry while the strings contrast with brokenhearted sensation. The drum beat continues to slam as the track closes with the plea for help.

As “thoughts of cold metal swell my taste buds, looking for my final place to rest,” the storyteller craves to give in to his dark side as “the pain runs through my blood.” He adds that he can’t stop the hurt and asks, “why can’t I put the gun down and just forget?” adding that getting there was easy but “living with it is messed up.”

Our narrator asks, “can anybody hear me? can anybody tell me? can anybody help me?” as he pleads to be told to put the gun down. He points out that he’s been there before with suicidal thoughts and “people blaming me, pointing fingers.” He wonders if there’s anyone out there who cares. He questions if anyone can hear him and asks, “is this my last mistake?”

A clear moment gets him to take his finger off the trigger as “life grips hold of me.” He realizes that it’s not worth it because of those who will be left behind. “I have this feeling but it passes until the next time I need someone to say: baby, put the gun down.”