Synth Single Review: “Irracional” by The Broken Flowers Project and LAU

by Karl Magi

The Broken Flowers Project and LAU’s “Irracional” leaps to life as a crystalline lustre accompanies flourishing drums, projecting an atmosphere of fervent engagement and growing love. Snapping percussion pulses as sharp edges and radiance define the synth while LAU’s distinctively warming voice floats in on a tide of percussion.

Vibrating with echoing dynamism, notes reverberate between LAU’s beautifully touching performance, drawing me into the spirit she broadcasts. Gargantuan strength mingles with uplifting softness while tones with massive, illuminating power gleam. A ticking beat supports all of the soul-deep, honey-sweet expression in the vocals.

The chorus shines like a rising sun while percussion gives forward motion to the synth’s increasing sheen. Wind sweeps and birds sing, nature all around while a bass heartbeat slowly brushes beneath it all. Affecting tenderness moves from the chorus while a synth exploding with encouraging brightness carries the song to an end.

“I can’t seem to find you, stop hiding,” because the fear is ripping her to pieces and she feels it’s better not to think. Adding, “I love you just the way you are, mortal,” she ponders where the song’s subject might have gone. Emptiness remains and the other person’s “absence is so visceral.” She craves holding the other person, saying, “I’ll cross cities until I reach you,” even if it’s irrational.

As she’s unable to get away from the song’s subject, “all I can do is dream of you until the end.” Our storyteller tries to transform herself, finding change difficult because “this life won’t slow down anymore” and she can’t look back. “I love you just like this, completely,” knowing that the other person will “fade away” the next day. She adds, “Not seeing you hurts me.”

To conclude, the narrator says, “A million moons would open up the sky, a million nights I would sleep on your chest.”

O.a.G - In Motion

Review by Karl Magi

Overall Album Impressions

O.a.G’s “In Motion” spills out an engaging combination of dancefloor-filling motion and heart-filling passion, carried by Wesley Reid’s unmistakable vocals and full of producer Iwan Bedford’s distinctive sonic signature. The album moves from soulful, house music–influenced anthems to ice-cold New Wave shadows to convey the complexity of loving, losing and  living in the world. As a result, this is music that invigorates and creates emotion with each song.

Wesley Reid is the beating heart of “In Motion”. His vocal range is wide, his expressive abilities are undeniable and his skill with interpreting lyrics is first-rate, which only adds to the draw of the music. Whether he’s capturing defiance or pain, Wesley Reid reaches deep and pulls out the feeling within each song, using his flexible voice to drive home the message and keep me listening as each track moves through the album.

Production-wise, Iwan Bedford relies on a skillful ability to combine eras and synth sounds to create music that is contemporary but retro-referential. The way in which elements of disco, house music, soul, and funk combine with the coldly technological tones of New Wave music creates a sound that is hard to pin down, but absolutely ear-pleasing. His ability to write melody also deepens the feeling in the album.

I also want to shout out all of the remixers who contributed to “In Motion”. Each of their interpretations of the songs has a freshness to it while keeping the essence of what makes O.a.G’s music what it is. I enjoy hearing the approaches that different people take to the same music and the creativity that results.

My Favourite Songs Analyzed

“Tomorrow” captures the pain of waiting too long as an undulating bassline moves while echoing vocals carry with a hushed delicacy. A melody full of palpable affection drifts past as levitating notes hover above the springy underpinnings while Wesley Reid’s performance captures mingled need and loss as the background glides.

Wesley Reid’s voice climbs with heartbreaking emotion while the tentative melody touches me with its intensity of feeling. A steady underlayer adds form while reverberant vocals caress my ears and a fragile melody hovers. The vocals embody the emptiness and regret that permeate the music while the foundation throbs and smooth tones glow like a sunset. The synth melody is full of aching tenderness while radiant tones flicker and Wesley Reid’s voice trails through the music with softness and caring before the song slips to an end.

Our storyteller says that he and the song’s subject find themselves “worlds apart,” with no apologies and destroyed dreams. They are lonely in the icy silence, “in the wreckage of what was lost.” He wonders if they could try again because “I won’t wait, tangled words, what’s left unsaid,” and tomorrow words will be meaningless.

“No hope remains, no love, no sound, lost between the lines, faded and left behind,” as the cold quiet leaves them alone “in the weight of an empty room.” It feels like a waste of time as cracks begin to show and the narrator asks, “Is there something we need to say? Don’t wait another day,” because they are living on borrowed time and “we never know, but regrets can’t save today.”

As the song ends, our storyteller points out that time will not wait for unspoken words or “truthful words said much too late.” He adds, “No one is listening, we keep resisting, no words, no sound.”

Icily echoing tones oscillate above pumping weight to guide “Addict (For Your Love)” into being before irradiating notes sparkle with melodically haunting motion. Action delineates the underpinnings from the drifting synth before the vocals express pure need, addictive desire, and irresistible passion. Technologically swirling high notes collide with crystal brightness.

Leaping tonal patterns, full of delicate digital illumination, dance around Wesley Reid’s soulful performance. All of the impassioned desire moves through me as glassy chimes caress, while the spoken-word segment infuses everything with a deep sense of connection. Gossamer fragility spills from all of the unfolding notes before the song ends on a glimmering cloud.

A late-night phone call has our narrator rushing to the song’s subject who “just can’t be alone.” Their attraction goes far beyond looks as he explains that it’s the way she treats him that truly captivates him. Feeling her lips after wanting her for so long only intensifies the emotions that “keep me going strong.”

His deep passion is revealed as our storyteller says that he’s an “addict for your love.” Her affection feels irresistible and no matter how much she shares, he “could never get enough.” When he finally holds the song’s subject in his arms, she tells him,” don’t wait too long, you say you’re only needing me.” She admits that she doesn’t want to delay the pleasure and closeness they desire.

The narrator gives himself over to the relationship, insisting there’s “nothing you can’t do to me” as he willingly follows wherever their chemistry leads. The spoken outro leaves them in their shared desire, as he admits he “feels the hunger” and wants the night to last even longer.

“Reach Out (Future Analog Remix)” undulates into flashes of life, chords giving bright impressions before a melody mingled with brokenness and hope rises, carried on a vocal line which is yearning and full of earnest feeling. Pure aspiration and desire come together in Wesley Reid’s performance, an engaging sense of emotional honesty growing in his voice. Strongly pulsing low tones shift while glistening high notes shimmy in an impression of intense need.

Warmth cascades from rounded notes like an oboe behind the cleaner, radiant synth while the vocals impress love and caring deeply into me. Hypnotically throbbing underlayers shift while the pumping beat mixes with Wesley Reid’s fully engaging voice before the track ends.

“The day we departed, I left you in the cold, I thought we were through,” as the storyteller hopes he’ll be taken back because he was a fool to let the song’s subject go. He says, “Your heart was broken, it's true, but I never stopped loving you,” so that’s why he’s going to reach out as he asks if the song’s subject will take his hand and wonders, “Can I be your man?”

They’re better off together and  he promises that “all the things I said, it wasn’t true.” He wishes to turn back time and “let you know I was a fool.” To conclude, he says, “I never stopped loving you, what can I say? What can I do?”

A solid dose of funk accompanies smoothly undulating bass on which “God Made” surfs into existence with the repeated phrase, “God made a man and God made a woman.” Grooves in the electric bass and guitar create shape in the house beat while Wesley Reid’s vocals embody passionate attraction, delivered with caramel smoothness. A message of freedom to love whomever we choose fills the song.

A piano trickles and sparkles, evoking spilling starlight, while the glockenspiel chimes create more tenderness. Melodically luscious strings capture caressing emotions and tender touches, suffused with a compelling feeling that pulls me into Wesley Reid’s eloquent performance. Throbbing depth defines the foundational pulse while sliding peace and gentle radiance combine in piano notes and resonating strings before silence falls.

“You’re the only one for me, in any weather, I’ll be your shelter,” so the narrator promises that he’ll always share his love and affection. He says, “It’s time to get things started, it’s a brand new day,” as he wishes that the song’s subject would “greet me in your special way.” He wants to love the other person all night long, never taking a break and  he gives them his word.

Our storyteller says, “In the beginning, he made me, in the beginning he made you.” To end, he leaves the message: “love who you want, no matter how hard it is, you can love who you want.”

“Beauty So Deep” is a full expression of intense love, coming to life in a wash of slightly distorted piano hovering above static. Sensations of gentleness and passionate dreaming glide from the piano while a mixture of intense affection and passionate love leaps from Wesley Reid’s ultra-silky voice, transporting me into the feelings within the lyrics.

Piercing honesty moves through the vocals, melodically powerful and compelling. Echoing strength moves with trembling, growing need within the melody. Piano notes slip in again, feathery and delicate, while Wesley Reid captures all of the burning, ardent feeling pouring through the music. Tremulous drums shiver like fierce desire.

“There’s so much more to you, they say, than just a pretty face,” so our storyteller wants to go slowly and not rush. “Let’s drink up our cherry wine, talk until it’s late at night,” as he asks the song’s subject not to change anything because “your beauty is deep.”

He realizes that it’s unequivocally more than just physical beauty. “We both know when we embrace, we can’t deny what’s at play,” and they can’t erase what’s deeply inside, so “it’s better if we delay.”

Stuttering to life with a massive bass field, a clear pattern of notes flashes an exciting melody before “All I Am” flows along. Reaching for the stars, the vocals are broken with blazing passion and anthemic force, arpeggios spinning like galactic arms. Rushing onward, the percussion steadily drives, lit by cosmic brilliance and touched by Wesley Reid’s gently resistant, aching emotional expression.

As the scintillating arpeggiations leap with propulsive foundations, dropping as bass thunders and returns, the vocals sound hurt while rising toward the realization of defiance. My heart rises with the chiming coruscation and thrilling majesty bursting from the melodic pattern before a hush falls.

“Today’s the day I came to my senses,” as he realizes that “the pain you bring, it’s not my thing,” so he’s putting up his defenses. He says, “It isn’t that I’m weak, it isn’t that you’re strong,” but what the song’s subject has become is what makes it wrong. He feels he has become insignificant to the other person and “all you see is my reflection of you.” He says, “Who am I to question your word?” adding that the other person only wants “what I’ll never be.”

Exhorting the song’s subject to forget his name and face, he adds, “You’ll never see, touch me again,” as he shuts off all of his senses. He’s unable to forget what the other person said to him because of “how my heart bled” and how he felt dead inside afterward. Now he understands that “all I am is better than you” as he can see his own reflection, not the other person’s. He concludes, “Who are you to question my word? All you want is what I’ll never be.”

“Enemy” radiates questioning and uncertainty with unadorned vocals, a little distorted, floating into wide-open spaces. Slowly shifting shadowy chords support unsettled, twisting tones which reflect nervous emotion mirrored in Wesley Reid’s vocals. Gigantic weight heaves below the shadowed performance, Wesley Reid conveying to me all of his discomfort with the situation.

Melancholy hints move within the melody, roaming with emptiness and floating past before snapping beats interlock with skipping string sounds. A contrast between colossal muscle and sensations of unease forms in the galloping beat and tones which create shifting expectations, constantly moving in opposing motion before the song closes.

While he’s aware that the song’s subject wants to be “something more to me, a happy ever after,” the storyteller is worried that it won’t end up in a good place. Although the other person has had “these feelings from the start,” all he can see is their broken heart. “I don’t wanna be your enemy,” but he feels it isn’t destined to work because “there’s no chemistry.”

“Why do you believe and think that we will have another chapter?” he asks as he wonders why all of his words are misunderstood. “You had us reaching for the sky, let’s end this now and say goodbye.” He concludes that he isn’t the song subject’s enemy, but “it could never be, there’s no energy.”

Misty notes swirl with insubstantial fragility to slip “This Isn’t Sorry (No Regrets Mix)” into being as they cast a glow across the sonic landscape. Diaphanous metallic tones drift with a reverent flow supporting them while thudding underpinnings full add form. Notes glide, broadcasting a mournful purity, while a contrastingly rebounding synth creates energetic force.

Distantly hovering vocals move with moonlight and notes like the first stars dotting the sky, a mixture of tenderness touching the painful remembrances that also touch me. Looming weight moves below the cosmically sweeping sensations, like watching the universe unfold through the lens of a telescope. Wesley Reid immerses himself in a mixture of loss and broken love.

Continual forward motion driven by heavy percussion is interrupted by moonrise from glittering synth and the vocals as they drift. Rhythmic energy rises once more to add foundational power to the hurt pouring from Wesley Reid’s vocals before the song presses on to a conclusion.

“This isn’t sorry, this is goodbye,” as the narrator realizes that he gave everything to the song’s subject but they’re lying to him. He comes to the realization that the other person was using him, so he has to say goodbye. “I already know what you did, you broke my heart,” and with nothing left to say he tells them that they have to go. It isn’t easy for him to walk away, but “I can’t stay, I’m moving on my way, I have to go, you should do the same.”

“Running (Full Version)” breathes out with profound affection wreathed in an atmosphere of pastel whorls spreading outward in an enfolding flow. Crackling roughness joins a rushing kick drum and cascading tones which create minor-key elegance while Wesley Reid dives into his performance, filling me with the unstoppable caring and love within the words.

With a technological luminosity, rising tones cast iridescent light above the vocals that create a feeling of connection and unbroken tenderness. A melodic cascade glimmers like a thousand city lights while Wesley Reid makes the expression his own. The underpinnings undulate like pavement under rushing tires, conveying speed back to the song’s subject. Echoing female vocals give an added sonic layer to the chiming tones, like all of the tiny points of light growing closer as the song returns home.

“I thought the end was near for us,” because the more our storyteller and the song’s subject tried, the more they realized it wasn’t enough. “No one’s right or wrong, no one’s to blame,” because the odds were stacked against them. They’ve lost their way and quit, but “something keeps me running back to you.” He adds that he’s still running and keeps on coming home to the other person.

“Although we seemed to drift apart, we took a vow till death do part,” as he understands that returning home to the other person is all that it takes. “A love like this is hard to find, we both know that we can’t deny, you’re a part of me, I’m a part of you.”

Conclusion

“In Motion” takes a journey through the roller coaster ride of life. As the music explores tragedy, joy and  ferocious affection, it carries me along with it. Each song adds a facet to the message of living life that permeates the whole album.

Synth Single Review: “Drive Tonight” by Louvers

by Karl Magi

Louvers’ “Drive Tonight” calls out with memory and uncertainty as a twilight glow suffuses everything and tentative tapping creates distant motion. Expanding synth pulses support tangled skeins of guitar as it drifts. Melancholy sounds glimmer like stars just coming out while the rhythm guides. Painful memory emanates from David Rodberg’s voice, his distinctive delivery as emotional as ever.

Notes glow like phosphorescent street lights and sharper edges slice gruffly from the guitar. Echoing vocals mingle with the diaphanous guitar and its metallic sheen before David Rodberg and John Disalvo support one another in the chorus. Urgent energy pours from guitar tones as a melodic pattern cries out on Rob Casey’s ascendant synth, like city lights fading on the horizon. David Rodberg’s rough-edged guitar creates impressions of a rumbling motor while the striding underlayer moves forward with confidence.

Having “never learned what your heart is for,” a disco ball spins above a “blue dance floor” as everything is about to break away for the narrator. “Ripples spread on a glassy pond,” and it’s familiar, but it’s been a long time. As the song’s subject asks him to “take the wheel again,” he doesn’t think he can drive tonight because it has been “so many years since I had control.” The leather of his driving gloves cracks as he puts them on, “asking me to make it real again.” He concludes, “I don’t think I can drive tonight, baby take the wheel.”

Synth Single Review: “Alone In The Night” by Mission 87

by Karl Magi

Mission 87’s “Alone In The Night” paints a vignette of loss and questioning as a broad plain of bass moves below soft, breathy sounds extending outward in a velvet flow. Rhythmic strength rebounds as tones full of bell-like, ringing richness transmit melodic impressions of tragic contemplation. A hushed emotional depth spreads through me, images of a lone figure silhouetted against the city skyline filling me as the rhythmic pounding becomes guiding.

A melodic line draws compelling images of a man who feels purposeless and hurting before the guitar slices through to create mingled emotion. A gritty sense of determination fills the guitar part before glistening notes transfer hope in the face of pain, echoing out openly. In my mind’s camera, I see the song’s main character driving aimlessly, stopping at an overlook to gaze at the cruel, beautiful city.

The guitar unfurls in a complicated mixture of thought and a core of toughness, always seeking to move forward. Tones like flashing city lights gleam as a keyboard carries the aspiring, sadness-tinged melody to a close.