Synth Single Review: “Voicemails” by jacket. & Beachdolls

by Karl Magi

jacket. & Beachdolls’ “Voicemails” opens with telephone sounds and intense, sharp edged arpeggios that mix with a voicemail message, adding to the atmosphere. The piano-like synth glides with glassy smoothness and the guitar flows with caressing feelings while strings sing warmly before Beachdolls’ gripping, yet honey sweet voice soars with the echoing piano. 

All of the remembrance and bereft emotion pours out from the vocals with ferocious feeling, driving deeply into my heart. Beachdolls’ affectionate and broken hearted voice permeates the song above the crisp percussion. jacket. creates a melody carrying tentative, yet passionate emotion while the vocals climb with hurt and overpowering need as the saxophone adds another layer of blazing emotion, a gut punch of undeniable passion. 

After flying out unaccompanied for a moment, Beachdolls’ voice mingles with the thundering underlayer and sobbing sax before the piano slips, creating aching gentleness before the song ends. 

Admitting she was distant, our storyteller explains that she was scared of being hurt and comments, "I'm not amazing at commitment." She wrote and erased a message for the song’s subject because "you left your coat here and it's hanging in the closet." Never thinking the other person would leave her there alone, she's "listening to your voicemails on my phone," as she asks if the other person wants to hear her say that she’s “the one that got away."

"Maybe I just needed reflection, looking in the mirror, see you there behind me.” The narrator wonders if the song’s subject misses her and if they'd ever change their mind and move back to the city. Feeling sorry that she didn't see what was happening, she wishes the other person would call her. To conclude, she says "now I'm pleading and when I reach out, I hope you hear me, I'm desperately yours."

Synth Single Review: “Midnight Exodus” by KMX VII

by Karl Magi

KMX VII’s “Midnight Exodus” sweeps to life with dominating power, churning with barely contained force and seething darkness, capturing an environment full of urgent and growing danger as undulating foundational pulses surge. Above it all, tiny notes tremble with threatened delicacy, doubled with a choir-like synth before the rhythm accelerates with unstoppable strength. 

Bells ring ominously before a blinding synth flares to raise the level of drama, painting a cinematic scene full of action and fear. Images of desperate escape and the constant, lurking danger behind it mingle with the musical elements that layer one over the other, creating lush depth. 

A melodic pattern rises with majesty and growing confidence, filling me with a feeling of ever-increasing defiance. Melodically graceful, the choral sounds rise, evoking ancient tales of adventure and battle, while the charging underpinnings move like an unrelenting force before silence falls.

Synth Single Review: “Dystopian Future” by Montse Torres

by Karl Magi

Montse Torres' “Dystopian Future” sweeps into existence on broad tones that echo with radiance as they move out into openness before clear percussion joins slowly undulating, foundational bass and bright notes that linger with a sapphire luminosity, adding an iridescent sheen. A melody mixing meditation and melancholy balances with softer, more soothing tones that glide with misty grace. 

Underneath, the beat is even while elevated synth creates a delicate phosphorescence, like a street light falling across a room. Melodically speaking, images of a city glistening in neon brightness fill me, drawn out by the mixture of considered synth sounds and strong melodic writing. 

I feel as if I’m looking out over a vast future metropolis, as an evocation of towering buildings and shadowed streets fills the expansive notes that dance together. As the strings come in, orchestral richness adds a quality of cinematic storytelling before the track closes.

Synth Single Review: “The Havens” by Shadow Recall

by Karl Magi

Shadow Recall’s “The Havens” floats into life with waves softly washing on a shore, evoking the beauty of a summer place, slowly guided into life by a steady percussive heartbeat and a synth that expands with gentle lambency. Bursting with propulsive energy, rhythmic motion supports a melodic pattern that shines like all of the joyful serenity of a beach paradise. 

As the melody wraps around me, Shadow Recall creates a sense of comfort and relaxation that reminds me of a familiar place where childhood was spent in playful days on the beach. Drifting patterns intermingle as radiance spills from brassy tones that create uplift and paint pictures of tranquility and profound ease. 

A well thought out balance of different synth tones and textures helps elucidate the imagery created in this piece. Dynamism defines the underlayers as cascading synth brilliance, like a glowing sky, is touched by the ocean and full of idyllic qualities and a sense of homecoming.