Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Forgotten Illusions Composer Series - CS004

By Matthew Neophytou

If you were like this boy and your love for synthwave and electronic music was hitting the tween stage right around 2007 then Valerie Collective was a major older brother for you. Acts like Minitel Rose, Anoraak, College etc were like marshmallow melodies dipped in synaptic dreams, also out of the collective came The Outrunners which had just as an impact as the rest of the folks, not content with one moniker, one half of the ‘runners; Pierre De La Touche, unleashed the electrifying EP Crystal Contour and boy was it anything and everything.



Time leap to the present and we are given Composer Series - CS004 a 10 track album full of data streaming melodies of the varying kind. Beginning with 'Invisible Barriers' we are flung into a foray of beats and synths that are executed with fine electro precision that I almost did not recognise the cow bell in there, yeah cow bell! What follows is a diverse audio altercation of the senses in tracks such as 'Machine Girl' to 'Network Panic'.

Halfway through we are faced with the atmospheric 'Cold As Silence' that spreads the strings all over our nervous system but is kept grounded by the skip beat. As the album gets back to the basics, a feeling of something long past sweeps over with 'She’s Gone' a brief haunting piece that leaves you lost in the waves of synthetic nothingness (in a good way). Not to worry though the rest of the album continues on its course of computerised mastery.

Forgotten Illusions presents Composer Series - CS004 available in digital formats on his Bandcamp site here  and limited CD form over at the Valerie store here. A great album that’s full of the nostalgia for the old days yet not stagnant in the default sound so many others find themselves in. Very, very highly recommended from Synthetix.FM, Enjoy the epic.  







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