Rocketing onto the scene with a twelve track album is Waveshaper with Tracks To The Future. Musically blending decades and genres this record is hugely alluring and captivates the soul and imagination with sublimely executed arrangements and diamond cut melodies.
The monicker of Waveshaper is really the perfect description of this producers sounds. Melodies are sculpted and coerced into new forms and engineered for maximum extraction of their musical essence. In this respect much of the tracks on this record are arranged in a very modern electronic style. Implementations of house based structures are tempered by 80s melodies that add spectrums of magical brilliance to the synthscape. The balance between new and old are explored throughout this album and it makes for a genuinely engaging experience that comes together with great coherence.
I'm usually not that fond of the inclusion of too much modernity in my 80s synth music as there gets to a point where it loses it's 80s-soul and becomes indiscriminate and the focus is lost. Keeping the sounds of now and the spirit of the 80s is something that if done right can really make for incredibly beautiful sounds. The likes of Tommy, Miami Nights 1984, Lazerhawk, Make Up & Vanity Set and numerous other producers manage to do this consistently with synthscapes full of lush neon tones but arranged with a penchant for more danceable energies.
Waveshaper is obviously a producer who understands both the modern formulas as well as the 80s mysticisms and his music makes for one hell of a rockin crossover experience. In respect to the classic vintage sounds Waveshaper creates tapestries of sound that contain threads reminiscent of the likes of John Carpenter's soundtrack synth pieces and lean towards the epic and dramatic. Melodies are forged and cast in molten form and then worked through layers of finely tuned percussive details while keeping the overall palette clean and focused.
The opening chapters set the scene and invite you into Waveshaper's world with soulful mechanics and and futuristic space synth melodies. The atmospheres of sounds make for a tangible vastness as epic cosmic vistas are created and explored while pumping beats provide ample propulsion through the universe. Visions of a future that are being explored through the lenses of the past make the journeys feel fresh and exciting and rarely directionless. Tracks like 'Infracity' and 'Running Girl' provide the most clear vision of Waveshapers intentions as they distill the ideas into crystalline forms that are polished with precision and passion.
Musical divergences are in abundance towards the middle section of Tracks To The Future as some more symphonic and powerful piece give impetus and presence to the more frenetic pieces. 'Cybertronic Battle' with it's spectacular narrative that basks in spatial auras and explore it's triumphant refrain to absolute perfection is a shining example of Waveshaper's more dramatic tendencies.
The last acts of the album are possibly the most avant garde as much more experimental elements are combined into the synthscapes. The results of this seem a little out of place in tracks like 'Retrospecious' but can work to their advantage such as the heavily compressed elements of 'Population 102'. The tracks all feel like they belong together, however, and nothing jars one out of Waveshaper's fabricated universe of sounds. By the final act's conclusion, with the carefully introspective 'Visitors' we become fully aware that births of new universes and ideas yet explored are going be brought to life by way of Waveshaper's creative manifestations at a further junction in time and space.
Lunar Boogie productions presents Waveshaper's Tracks To The Future on their Junodownload page through the link in the player or through iTunes here. This album is captivating and engaging with a personality that smoulders beneath the surface and creates energies and visions that are full of passion and delightful nuances. Synthetix.FM highly recommends this album and looks forward to more journeys into future dimensions with Waveshaper at the helm.
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