Synth Single Review:“Gettin' Heavy” by Power Rob & Fulvio Colasanto

By Karl Magi

Power Rob & Fulvio Colasanto’s “Gettin' Heavy” spills desire in shadowy tones, full of expectation and beguiling sensation, above heavy beats that fall with slicing bass. Razor blades of sound slash while prismatic tones contrast with throbbing power, and Power Rob gets hold of the lyrics, creating blazing attraction and evoking danger, while iridescent strings flicker to create radiance and contrast with the seething underpinnings.

Nick Loper’s feral guitar solo tears with cat-like claws, exuding passionate energy in contrast to the broadcasting of burning need pouring from Power Rob's compelling voice. All of the unadulterated craving within the vocals takes hold and stabs into my heart. A rhythmic pulsation trembles with jagged edges before Nick Loper’s guitar rips in again, spilling out ferocious wanting and uncontrollable lust before the contrasting strings create solar light and the song closes.

As nervousness courses through him, our storyteller notes that his “Coca-Cola ain't getting colder,” and he starts to wonder if the song's subject is “a millimeter from my heart.” He can't talk, and he won't talk, as she says, “Lately it's never ever been so painless, but I think I'm married with the madness” of those jet-black eyes.

“We’re getting crazy at 11:30 with a wicked feeling that we've come too far,” and the narrator can't control the song's subject as she gets bolder. But “it's been a minute since I'm coming undone.” The other person says, “Baby, you never ever met a lady, but I'm what you need, you never knew it from those jet-black eyes.”

Synth Single Review: “Close Your Eyes” by eLxAr

by Karl Magi

eLxAr’s “Close Your Eyes” invokes all of the fantasy of dreams as it flows to life in pink clouds billowing outward, balanced with lights that sparkle like fireflies in twilight. A melodic line that carries hope and gentleness joins with vocals that brush like a tender touch, delivered on Alexandra Chirilà's breath-warmed voice.

Guiding patterns pulse in the foundation before the vocals shine again, fragile and full of dreamy tranquility, evoking the soft-edged quiet that descends before sleep. As crystalline notes add suffusing illumination, the words touch like a warm breeze while Alexandra Chirilà enchants me with her earnest performance.

Images of the escape opened to us in dreaming fill the music with surreal, soothing emotion, like the castles we build from the stuff of dreams. With a childlike wonder, Alexandra Chirilà's spoken-word part moves through the music, so calming and full of magic. A melodic pattern wraps around the vocals, gliding with ethereal light before the song comes to a close.

Inviting the song's subject to "take my hand, come and dream with me," our narrator evokes "neon lights in the midnight sky, colors dance as the stars go by" and silvery waves on a never-ending sea. As they float, free of gravity, they are lost inside her fantasy where "golden echoes call my name" and nothing there will be the same for her.

"Crystal towers and fields of light, they shine" like gentle illusions in silky darkness, with "melodies like electric streams, they sing" and the air filled with "forgotten dreams." She shuts her eyes, but she can still see "a wonderland full of colors surrounding me" that paint the skies with pink and blue as each dream feels utterly new. She adds, "Hold on tight, we can't let it fade."

To end, she says, "This world of lights is ours to make, just turn the music up and let it play, so we'll keep on dreaming every day."

Synth Single Review: “One Last Drive” by New Arcades

by Karl Magi

New Arcades’ “One Last Drive” takes listeners on a midnight journey with peace flowing from tones that move like a subtropical breeze ruffling one's hair. Like the steady vibration of tires on pavement, the rhythm supports lambent notes exuding a phosphorescence like street lights, while the melodic line draws an image of a long drive through palm tree-lined streets.

I can imagine cruising in a convertible, top down, as a tranquil sense of contemplation fills my mind. Passing headlights float like stars in the twilight sky. Robotic voices move like haunting reminders of the past, while the drumbeat evokes asphalt passing under the car as it moves down lonely streets.

An atmosphere of gentle, almost painful nostalgia drenches the background as refulgent notes flicker like headlights on the horizon. All of the sonic elements interlock to paint a late-night wandering down endless roads before quiet descends.

Synth Single Review: “Left Behind” by Cassetter, Cyberwalker & Out Runner

by Karl Magi

Cassetter, Cyberwalker & Out Runner’s “Left Behind” starts with the turn of a key as it travels down lonely roads, capturing a roaming journey with lapping notes that wash past with an air of soothing, peaceful thought. Drifting past like the miles down an empty highway, a rhythm moves like passing fence posts below the melodic pattern.

A growing intensity spills from scintillating tones, glinting and supported by a desolate wind flowing through the music. Slowly touching notes are driven by a riffling drum flourish before a pipe-like synth melody paints images of an endless horizon reaching out, a car moving with silent disconnection toward it.

A haunting refrain from Out Runner’s guitar captures emptiness and isolation, evoking a long wander past seemingly endless fields and hills. Sensations of hushed contemplation glide past before an impassioned guitar solo is coaxed from the instrument by Out Runner’s talented hands, full of fierce emotion in the face of the loneliness of the asphalt moving into forever.