The soundtrack oriented genres of 80s inspired synth music always seem to be the most engaging and rewarding I find. These soundtracks to visuals that only exist in our imaginations captivate me as a listener, they tell me stories, they detail scenes, they convey emotion and explore concepts that are often left undiscovered in other genres. The soundtrack synth denominations take me back to a time when listening to instrumental albums and staring at their descriptive artwork for hours on end was one of my favourite past times. Being able to be transported to another time and place through music alone is truly one of its most magical powers.
Python Blue is a devotee of these soundtrack oriented synthscapes and over the last year we've been taken to all new worlds courtesy of his synthphonic structures and epic creations. His sound personality lends its self to the dramatic and foreboding more often that not but all his pieces have a real grace about them that echoes through each passage and ties the experience together with a grand elegance. On his latest EP, Alien World, Python Blue takes things back to their essence and draws vivid visions with an uncluttered synthscape that extracts the magic from each and every note.
Within the opening echoes of 'Arrival' a vast, desolate landscape greets us. Barren plains of unearthly tones, coarse winds and inhospitable atmospheres. Building like a behemoth, the introductory passage thrives on it's subtleties. The restrained sounds and dirge like percussion allude to all manner of foreign concepts and force us to realise the gravitas of the situation; the alien structures rise from their hidden world beneath the surface, opening up yawning chasms, ready to swallow us whole into a new adventure.
'Saucers' takes over and gives impetus and vibrancy to the synthscape. Carefully layered structures describe new visions, upbeat drums beat with a proud urgency and melodies intimate finer details. The depth of narrative in Python Blue's music is really what sets it apart, the way each musical paragraph chronicles each event, exploring it's surrounds while keeping the heart of the piece pulsing and feeling 'whole'; that is the magic of great soundtrack oriented music.
As I mentioned previously the distillation of Python Blue's sounds into the base ingredients has allowed for a greater amount of importance to be given to each part. This becomes rather evident in the third track, 'Radars' with the floor falling away entirely and slow, rising melodies raising us up higher and higher. The percussion is always militaristic throughout this record, unforgiving in it's forthrightness and this allows for much of nuances of the melodies to work within and above these belligerent beats. The patterns of 'Radars' are sumptuous with emotional synths verging on becoming string sections inside of arrangements created with deeply engraved beautifications.
The story moves more startling territory in track four, 'Xenophobia'. The initial uncertainty and anxiety breaks into abject terror with the comfort of melody becoming a weapon used against us, until subtly humanistic melodies give the perceived alien threat a decidedly more familiar aura. This meeting of species explores differences and similarities with musical inquisitiveness and in the end creates a deep solemnity with a realisation of an undeniable link between our hugely different worlds.
Alien World finishes with on high point of some of the most elegantly conceived synthual delights you'll have the pleasure of experiencing in 'Departure'. Our new found knowledge and new found friends spark an internal enlightenment. A growing light from within which binds us to our new alien brethren. The delicately plucked melodies are utterly entrancing, spilling over with triumphant hope and warmth that defies the void of space, an essence that is shared across aeons and galaxies, an unbreakable link between all lifeforms.
Future 80s Records presents Python Blue's Alien World EP on their Bandcamp page here and is an eloquently crafted suite of beautiful soundtrack synth music. The five chapters are comprehensively engineered with a great deal of attention and care. Each nuance is felt, every beat is resonant and every passage is profound. The experience is massively rewarding and is very, very highly recommended by Synthetix.FM.
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