Synth Single Review: “Paradise Point” by Mission 87

by Karl Magi

Mission 87’s “Paradise Point” immediately calls to mind a bejeweled summer day, notes sliding like soft aquamarine waves on a beach as the main melody drenches the music in sunlight and relaxing sensations. A wash of synthesizer glistens with all the soul-infusing warmth of subtropical sunlight while percussion adds shape and the underlayer gives everything a deep tone.

As the reverberant bells ring, vocals without words deepen the feelings of complete peace, before the lead synthesizer paints a vision of palm trees rustling in the breeze and the soft hiss of waves on the shore. The entire atmosphere transports me to a place where I can forget the world, a place where there is only calm and thoughtful ease.

Tones vibrate with sunset warmth before the synthesizer carries a melody that ripples outward with complete relaxation, suffusing the track with impressions of a crescent of white sand stretching out into the oceanic blue.

Synth Single Review: “SHINE (Collective Soul cover)” by Stacy Gabriel

by Karl Magi

Stacy Gabriel’s “SHINE (Collective Soul cover)” blossoms to life with tiny motes of light rising in a hopeful cloud as delicate percussion adds another layer of smooth softness before the melody drifts in, broadcasting constant warmth. Stacy Gabriel’s vocals, with their robotized quality, add an interesting contrast to Collective Soul’s lyrics which ask very human questions.

As the vocals drift with disconnected elegance, synth notes create a mixture of uplifting emotion and a segment with sharp edges adds a questioning tone before the chorus cascades, capturing me with Stacy Gabriel’s depth of emotion. A cruising rhythm supports the melody as it sings with contemplative spirituality in a quest for meaning.

Swirling synthesizer adds balancing darkness to a flood of radiance before the serene chorus glides on a cloud of computerized vocals. Tones with an open feeling slip past as a synthesizer shines and the song exhales on a breeze of lush sound.

The narrator yearns for guidance, revelation and love and asks to be shown the path ahead, while asking heaven to let its light shine down. His questions move from pondering an unknown future to wondering if he’ll find love there. He aches to be taught how to communicate, share and find the right path.

Synth Single Review: “Going Nowhere” by Fonz Tramontano & Calida J

by Karl Magi

Fonz Tramontano & Calida J’s “Going Nowhere” is illuminated by cascades of muted brilliance which spill in waves above the echoing beat, guiding the melody with its feelings of remembrance and affection. Calida J’s vulnerable performance transmits a complex emotional tapestry, driven by the drums.

Emptiness and yearning for what has gone pour through me, captured by the tremble in Calida J’s silky vocals. The underlayer moves steadily while a moonlit melodic pattern weaves a tale of loving and losing, the distinct sensations within the vocals adding to the painful memory before the melody slides like a fragile dream, Fonz Tramontano creating support for the outstanding vocals as gentleness and need mingle and silence falls.

Musing that "it's funny how life works out, sometimes things just come undone," our storyteller reminisces about the love she shared with the song's subject. She has no doubt because his words were carved across her heart, as he said, "take my hand, we'll take it slow, we've got a lot to share." He wanted her to hold him tightly, never letting go and he reassured her that he wasn't going anywhere.

However the situation changed and the narrator lost the song's subject. She says, "I miss you so much I can barely breathe, sometimes the ground falls away from me." She hopes that she'll see him "someday in eternity" because life feels interminable without him there. She concludes, "if only love could keep you alive, you would live forever, I miss you by my side."

Synth Single Review: “Purple Dream” by Binary Affair

by Karl Magi

Binary Affair’s “Purple Dream” establishes a plaintive drift above bass currents, calling to mind a city sinking into a neon-lit night, sliced by blinding notes before the rhythmic undercurrent thunders to increase the shadowy drama. Descending notes float as if suspended in space before the lead singer captures loss and the messy emotion of deep attraction with her clear, clean vocals.

Concentrated luminosity echoes above the even underlayer while the lead singer seizes emotion with unadulterated feeling. The song paints imagery of rain drenched pavement and towering skyscrapers, a city impersonal and full of hollow people.

Portentous heaviness below the echoing vocals emphasizes emptiness and churning need as the melody swells with dreamy gentleness and ominous weight. As the song closes, sensations of late night drifting spill outward.

Recognizing the ghost that's in her room, the storyteller can smell "rain and your perfume." After swearing she wouldn't call the song's subject again, she finds herself "shivering beneath my skin." People describe their shared love as a haunted street and she says it's "a bitter cold in the summer heat."

Calling the song's subject the moon and herself the sun, our narrator points out that she’s "too far gone to ever run." Her fingers trace the other person's name on frozen glass and she watches the "lonely hours slowly pass." Seeing a flicker in the blank grayness, she adds, "I wish the dark would just fade away. "

As the song concludes, the storyteller says, "the city lights are a lonely blue, I'm driving fast just to get to you. I feel the heat in the frozen air, I'll find the love that I know is there."