Synth Single Review: Anne Clark’s “Poem Without Words” covered by Montse Torres

by Karl Magi

Montse Torres’ cover of Anne Clark’s “Poem Without Words” moves through deep emotional waters, an upwelling of profound peace accompanied by a worshipful aura, floating in on a wide-spectrum bass flow. A piano tide rises with impressionistic grace as percussive underpinnings join powerful currents sweeping below, while the melodic line fills me with a growing welter of love, loss, and contemplative engagement.

Piano notes dance, tripping in a lithe pattern, creating a mixture of tragedy and hope that permeates my heart with its complex, interlocking feelings. Descending tones hover like petals carried on an oceanic flow, a broad pool of bass adding to the impressions of aquatic tranquility. Circling piano tones shift smoothly, encouraging contemplation and a release of tension. Synth strings slide with ethereal elegance, creating sensations of oceanic water full of serene strength. A gliding synth breeze slips past as the rhythmic underlayer drives into silence.

Synth Single Review: “Virus” by Andrew Corbin and Indigo

by Karl Magi

Andrew Corbin and Indigo’s “Virus” captures the essence of a viral person taking over as charging rhythmic pulses join repeated, distorted announcements that “I am a virus.” A shadowed weight drops down like a muffling curtain before the foundational pulse presses fiercely onward. Indigo chants hypnotically, balanced with a ghostly choir before melodic tones create something disconnected and full of gauzy sensation.

Urgency spills from Andrew Corbin’s vocals as they rise with tension, tripping drums sliding while Indigo adds fragility to the endlessly repeated phrases. Throbbing, reverberating beats hit below endlessly wandering sounds before Indigo’s voice creates spectral sensations, capturing me with haunting emotion. Steadily repeating underpinnings wrap me into a trance as the vocals float, capturing the insistence of the virus.

Declaring that they’re a virus, our storyteller needs all of the song subject’s attention and wants them to give them everything they need. They add, “You can swallow your intentions, I just take what I please.” As well as being a virus, they are also “a pirate, a tyrant,” and tireless.

“You can follow my aggression,” as the narrator points out that they need more so that they can feed. They continue, “Let me wallow in your tension, dim the light so I can breathe.” They’ll never leave the other person alone. Instead, they’ll “go wherever you go, get right into your zone.”

To conclude, our storyteller says that they’ll get under the song subject’s skin and “I’m the end of where you begin, I’m-a takeover your system.”

Synth Single Review: “Southern Coast” by Beachdolls

by Karl Magi

Beachdolls’ “Southern Coast” reflects on a special feeling and a special place, breathed into life by notes hovering like gulls on the wind, touched by a glassy sheen. Jessica Ess’ vocals wrap me in a comfortable flow, encapsulating emotions of home and caring. A guitar strums with clean chords while Jessica Ess permeates me with affecting feelings, chords like glimmering southern sun.

Questioning and love come together in the vocals as a wave sweeps like translucent seawater. Notes like pearlescent moonlight cast a gentle glow while Jessica Ess unleashes her voice to the sky. In the distance, tonal patterns undulate like the tranquil waters of a warm sea, as the melody transmits memory and serenity along with a tinge of sadness. Rising with affection, the chorus cries out and Jessica Ess’ fervency is undeniable. A guitar adds weight to the effervescent light before the song closes.

Rain falls in the early morning as the narrator experiences a “southern drawl and a cup of coffee.” It’s another day and “another escape to a place I needed.” On the beach, birds call and her feet are in the sand as palm trees climb, “laying their shadows from a million miles high.”

“Seasons come and seasons go, how I ended up here I’ll never know,” but our storyteller does know that it’s special to have the song’s subject there too. As the stars come out, she isn’t sure there’s anywhere else she’d rather go. She’ll “lay it all out on the Southern Coast.”

As she and the song’s subject hold hands, strolling along the water, she asks, “If we stayed here would we be making a mistake? Would anyone miss us in the city by the lake?”

Synth Single Review: “Echoes of Memories” by Simulakrum Lab and Turbo Knight

by Karl Magi

Simulakrum Lab and Turbo Knight’s “Echoes of Memories” captures dreaming remembrance with patterned tones intertwining in hypnotic lines above vast wells of shadow. In a knot of swirling, solar light, the lead synth roams with disconnection before a filigree of notes spins cursively, inscribing clean lines. Like a suddenly remembered moment from the past, intricate sounds rise, guiding the listener to days gone by and feelings nearly forgotten.

Rhythmically gliding underpinnings lend shape to a melodic line both disconnected and gentle, slipping with radiance to reflect sensations of affectionate recall of times past. Percussion gives tender forward motion while sparkling arpeggios glisten like past thoughts, nostalgic and warming, while unbelievable mass shifts underneath. 

In trembling lines, notes shiver cleanly like sharper memory balanced with softness. The synth explodes like bright sensations returning to one’s mind, continually dancing with balance and power before everything drifts away.