What MUSIC are you listening to?

Michael Barnes wrote: ... they all kind of sound more like unusued themes from Airwolf or Knight Rider ...

Kind of a bust

No

I like this synthwave stuff as background music for programming, but it's not something you can actively listen to for long. So far I like Lazerhawk and Dynatron the most.

I stumbled upon this gem recently:
Mississippi Bones
Jade Fire

Jack Burton would appreciate it.

Kailes wrote: I like this synthwave stuff as background music for programming....

This is exactly right. I listen to a lot of this stuff at work, but it also makes for fantastic background music for sci-fi/post apoc gaming (the current trashdome champion, Nexus Ops is a great candidate!).

As far as the genre being a bust...er, Wade is right...no. (but to be fair I think Black/Death metal sounds the same and is a bust, so different strokes...)

The stuff College puts out is just as creative as any other sort of new music. His albums are fantastic, particularly those early ones. And near as I can tell, Outrun is a subgenre of Synthwave, but I'm into it all so don't really care to differentiate. Like I've mentioned up thread, some of my favorites outside of College are Nightrunner (Starfighter is incredible), VHS Glitch, Futurecop!, Betamaxx, and Botnit. Arcade High and Waveshaper have some tracks I'm real keen on as well. Mitch Murder is too much like an a-list 80s movie soundtrack for me, too polished or something. I prefer the stuff that sounds like it comes from a b-grade flick

Perturbator does this weird hard rock/metal/synthwave thing. If y'all want something a bit more 'out there'.

Is anyone here into the new Radiohead album? I've not been around as much lately, so if it's already being hashed out elsewhere I beg your pardon.

It's interesting that they have basically become a legacy act in the last five years or so. They aren't nearly as culturally relevant as they used to be I'd say, which is true of just about any mainstream rock act these days. But they seem to sense that on A Moon Shaped Pool, and it feels like they found a way to really embrace their Radiohead-ness without really going glitchy and weird for its own sake. It's more of a consolidation than a step forward, which is fine for a band in their third decade. They wear the dreaminess well too.

So yeah, I'm listening to A Moon Shaped Pool almost constantly these days.

Speaking of Waveshaper...I see there's a new album that was released last week, "Station Nova". So far so good...going to take a lot to overtake "Exploration 84" though.

On initial listen, "The Engineer Part II" is my favorite (dig the Speak & Spell) with maybe "Airlock Love" next.

Is anyone here into the new Radiohead album?

No.

Seriously though, Radiohead is a band I have NEVER been able to get into, I think I've tried like 20 times- as recently as last week- to really hunker down and get into their records. But it just always fails, and every single time I wind up going off and listening to Can instead. They have a couple of good songs- I really like the new one- but wandering away from singles, I strongly dislike just about everything.

Here's the thing about Synthwave. It totally fits into what James Murphy called "nostalgia for the unremembered 80s". You've got these kids that have no real frame of reference with what they are referencing that have unprecedented access to pretty much every synth patch ever made, the ability to go back and listen without limit to Giorgio Moroder, Goblin, Jan Hammer, Jean-Michel Jarre, John Carpenter, etc. You can even listen to and appreciate "Crockett's Theme" these days without irony. And the best that they can do is to imitate all of the above with a twist of 1980s/1990s video game stylization. All of it is interchangeable to me. None of it is disagreeable, I totally get listening to it in the background. But as a genre I think it is about as bereft of anything innovative or forward thinking as anything on top 40 radio right now. In fact, Beyoncé's new record (for fuck's sake) has more innovative and interesting things going on than this stuff. And this is coming from someone going to see Kraftwerk in September and someone that can probably name every obscure synthpop/electropop act that's ever plugged in a MIDI cable.

A lot of death metal does sound a like. And I don't really like death metal. With Black Metal, there are VAST differences. Mayhem, Emperor, Darkthrone and Satyricon (just to name some original Norwegian stuff) all have completely different styles within the genre.

Now, what you SHOULD be listening to is the new M83 record, "Junk". As usual, about half the songs are a bust. But the other half are AWESOME 1980s-referencing stuff. And not the usual indie 80s stuff. This is big, arena-rock stuff. Please do yourself a favor and listen to "Go". Amazing synth-rock with a god-fucking-damn-it Steve Vai guitar solo in the ride-out. My kids LOVE this record.

I get what you're saying, and like I've mentioned before I really think only one of the artists was on the edge. Most are just aping sounds and themes from a bygone era. Thing is...I'm ok with that.

I mean, it's sort of like when that Miami Connection movie was brought out from wherever it was hiding. It was fun because here we had the type of 80s karate action flick we remember fondly. There was nothing new in the film, but viewing it was a pleasant surprise.

Same thing here. Listening to these albums is like unearthing some long forgotten score. May not be anything 'new' but I like these sounds. And sure, I could just go listen to the EfNY or They Live soundtrack for the umpteenth million time or I could try one of these and get the 'newness' feel in a genre that hasn't been around for awhile.

Sort of also why I've really been digging the Night Birds. Absolutely, nothing new there, but it's the sort of punk I hadn't listened to for decades. Fun to go back, but at the same time, experience the new...if that makes any sense...

All in perspective though. No, I don't think this is a real movement that's gonna make me wanna go push up some sleeves on a Member's Only jacket. I will nod to it while working though and sometimes ponder the 'lost films' they score.

EDIT: Another pro here is being unrecognizable. Play the Big Trouble in Little China soundtrack during a game session and you're bound to get a bunch of Jack Burton/Egg Shen quotes...whether the game calls for it or not. Play one of these synth-bands and there's no recognition at the table. They are purely the score for your game session.

Here's the thing. All of that 80s stuff never went away for me. It never got supplanted by anything else, I see those phony nostalgia things like Miami Connection and...the first thing that hits me is that the people making it have a cartoonish, idealized concept of what 1980s action movies were like. They were not wild free-for-alls decked in neon and wrap-around sunglasses. Usually, they were pretty lame, boring and badly made. At least outside of the big, still-loved ones. The music is the same way. A lot of this stuff was nowhere near as stylized and "cool" as this stuff is.

But yeah, I get liking the sound- I like it too, to be honest. I like synths. I like rock. I like synth rock. I like "Crockett's Theme". I like the Airwolf theme song too. But this stuff just isn't moving me to put it on, and when I do...I wind up listening to "The Chase" again, or stuff from a few years before this all hit like Glass Candy, Chromatics, Kavinsky, etc.

Perturbator, I just don't get what is going on there.

I think you're confusing Miami Connection with Kung Fury.

Miami Connection was a film from 1987 that wasn't widely seen until recently.

Kung Fury is that recent garbage 'homage' of 80s films.

Oops, yes, you are correct. Miami Comnection is bond fide 80s junk.

Listening to the new Radiohead album--sorry if that's a Let Down to some of you, jeez. It's not their best work, but it's new Radiohead and that'll get a listen. I think they are exploring the orchestral arrangements more thoroughly than ever before, that's for sure. I also happen to think that first "single" is amazing. And the video might be lost soon due to copyright entanglements. Enjoy The Wicker Man as seen through Davy & Goliath why don't you:



Or don't! Perhaps it smacks of false nostalgia! Check with your local tastemaker.

I've heard Burn the Witch a few times on the radio, and found it nearly as forgettable as J.Law's face. Like Barnes, I have enjoyed some of Radiohead's hits, but never really fell for their albums.

"Hollow Nostalgia" were words I saw used to describe Junk by M83. I listened to a couple of tracks on Amazon a while back, and heard nothing of interest. I gave it another shot this weekend, and still going to pass.

Mostly been listening to Chvrches this last couple of weeks.

Tonight, I will be listening to dance music from 1996-2006. That's the music they will be playing at a "prom" event that I am attending on Friday. I like to dance, and so does the woman I'm taking, but I have generally ignored mainstream top 40 music since the mid-'90s. So I want to preview how bad it's going to be on Friday. Britney, Christina, boy bands, Eminem, etc.