The Musical Highlight Of 2019 Comes From A Duck Commercial! How Will You Know It's Real If You Don't Give It A Try?

Synthetix isn't back, but the 80s will never leave you with this astounding piece musical inspiration by Kashifsson!

I first heard an edit of this in a Luv-A-Duck commercial a few months back that I instantly fell in love with. The homage to 'Say Anything' is a little heavy handed but the the 80s love is as pure as can be throughout.




This became an obsession for me and I managed to record it and put it up on Facebook hoping my networks would be able to find some more about the music used as I'd had zero luck. Mike 'RF Extreme' Wallace and Steve 'Silent Gloves' Gillson took up the gauntlet and then Steve made the big pay off with the full cut of the song now available online!




The full length cut is a superbly crafted anthem to synth and duck love, full of golden moments and brilliant lyrics. Kashifsson has really weaved some magic on this track and I hope he goes further down the 80s path in his future work.

Be sure to comment on the YouTube video and share it around wherever you can! This is a song for the ages and needs to find its true appreciative audience!

Many thanks to Steve and Mike and everyone else who helped out making this 80s dream a reality, keep on rockin! i

The End Of Synthetix.FM

After a year away from Synthetix.FM I've decided to end this project.

I think passionately written music reviews in 2018 are becoming irrelevant as the divergence of the music market means everyone's an expert on what they like and are happy to trust the now ingrained music discovery systems like Spotify to keep them entertained. A site like this seems to be out of step with current trends and although a nice reminder and piece of history for the 80s inspired synth scene I don't see any continued relevance for the site in the current state of how people experience new music.

I started things off with some ideas and a passion to grow the audience for the music I loved and I'm happy to have witnessed much of what I always wanted to come true. If Synthetix played even a small role in getting producers out of their bedrooms and playing live to real audiences then that's all the success I require from this project.

Over the last year I've definitely lost the drive to share music to any kind of audience. I've not listened to much new music at all in the last year, mainly the odd new AOR release and then going back to 80s and 70s music that's new to me or music I've not experienced for a long time. I don't feel any need whatsoever to hunt for new music and don't crave for it in the slightest. Music's curently something I enjoy just for me and that's more than enough. Which is still quite a novelty to me after spending five years listening to music as a filter for what was going to be promoted on here.

I hope your experience with Synthetix.FM, in whatever capacity, has been a positive one. I'd like to thank all the contributing writers and Marko Maric and his team for everything you've brought to the 80s inspired synth scene by giving your valuable time, love and passion. I think that's really the loss here. People working together to do something greater than an individual can accomplish. Finding like minded souls who want to share that love for nothing more than making that love bigger.

I wish you all the best on your own individual musical journeys, whatever you may be listening to.

I hope it inspires passion and love and continues to glow that beauitful pink neon that we all know is the true colour of music.

Keep on rockin.

The Final Synthetix Sundays This Sunday!

We never got to do a proper finale for the show so this is it!

Don't get too excited this isn't a come back I just wanted to give Synthetix Sundays a fitting ending which I couldn't before. And boy do we have a show lined up for you!!

The old firm is back together this one last time!! Segments with Paul 'Dress-2-Kill' Daly and Jazzi Marzcat AND Quality Time with Shithouse and Synthetix Spotlight.

I have 4 massive interviews for the last outing featuring the next big things in the scene MORGAN WILLIS and WICE and synth pioneers MIAMI NIGHTS 1984 and FM ATTACK!

Plus special guests Phaserland, Final DJs, Sellorekt/LA Dreams, Andy Last and Protector 101.

Oh yeah we've saved the best for last.

Plus heaps of giveaways you know what to expect!

Hope to see you there!

Marko

Check out the event page here for times and details and and tune in here at 10am EDT to get the final edition of Marko and all of us rockin hard!

The full replay is now up on Soundcloud!

Synthetix.FM is On Hiatus for 2017

After five years of doing Synthetix.FM I'm taking this year off. I don't feel the drive to do the site anymore and want to go back to listening to music just for the sake of listening to it for a while instead of feeling the need to critique/promote/share/etc everything I listen to.

I'll be evaluating things throughout the year and always leave the possibility open for returning  sooner rather than later but for now Synthetix.FM is on hiatus til next year.

Bear in mind Synthetix Music on Facebook is still rockin, so please share your own music and musical discoveries in there.

The site will stay up but won't have any further updates until I deem it necessary to post something. Many thanks to all the contributors the site has had over the years and to all the site's readers and supporters.

Here's to staying 80s forever.

Keep on rockin.

Lazerhawk Rides Dreams

By Rick Shithouse

Lazerhawk is a name synonymous with 80s inspired synth and is a genuine legend of what it means to be 'synthwave'. Every Lazerhawk record has brought something new to the table over the years and has often marked the beginning of trends many other producers follow, as well marking time permanently in his fans' memories.

Dreamrider is Lazerhawk's new record and its timing of being released at the beginning of 2017 couldn't be more relevant. This album feels like a reset point and a fresh breeze coming in through an opened door that's remained steadfastly closed for a long time. The re-emergence of the importance of melody and emotion, revitalising my personal love of 80s inspired synth music while exploring the magical subtleties of music in a soulful and mature album.



In many ways one feels equal familiarity as well as newness in the sounds presented on Dreamrider. Not familiar in a worn out, already done way but familiar in feeling Lazerhawk's intimate melodies and structures washing over you. The opening piece, 'Neon Dawn' makes for a scene setting build that gives the perfect amount of epic power and emotional chords to caress you into a nostalgic REM phase of subconscious delights.

The concept of the Dreamrider was one I was taken with the first time I had the pleasure of enjoying this album in the December of 2016, before all the tracks were named and sans artwork. My initial impression of the music for the first time described to me a sequence of events echoed by an individual sleeping and dreaming at the bottom of the ocean. Although this concept is purely my own imagination there is a deliberate tidal and flow and power felt throughout Dreamrider that finds me being instantly transported to slumber in the darkest ocean depths.

The gravitational pull of the structures in 'Cruise' ease into oceanic undulations of slowly forming brighter structures that revel in the sedate pace and bloom into a slow motion emotional explosion of rich aural rewards.

Taking another tact, that quite too me aback upon first listen is the heavily New Order influenced 'Feel The Rush Tonight' featuring Gunship. I've always thought Lazerhawk's limited excursions into vocally oriented tracks was something he should explore more and in this song he's made a brilliant masterpiece of dreamy 80s inspired pop that cuts ever so slightly with modern flavours.

The languid pace that Lazerhawk eases you into through the opening tracks is an all consuming and surrounding atmosphere that comforts and inspires incredibly satisfyingly. 'Somnus' edges its way slowly into your consciousness in this manner and continues the deliberate pacing. Melodies barely raise their voices but shine with a warm embracing glow before exploding in graceful shower of musical light trails against the murky bassline. The narrative of this track is deep and intense, it opens you up and stares inside with wonder as you give yourself completely to it's inescapable, transfixing magic.

Lazerhawk often feels like his deliberate control and manipulation of melodies is taking all his creative strength to maintain. The epic magnitude of something as simple as the introductory passage to title track feels anything but effortless and gives the synthscape a presence that is tactile and omnipotent. The power of dreams is something mankind can barely comprehend and Lazerhawk's exploration of this as a musical dimension in 'Dreamrider' is unfathomably inspiring.

By the time 'Hypnic' kicks in it feels like a power surge of immense energy even though the beats per minute increase is marginal. The power becomes crystallised in descending melodies that bring to mind the times when French House music had a modicum of emotional investment in the melodies as a staple. The futuristic combination of sounds is powered by more epic and uplifting progressions of blindingly bright colours that move in beautiful new ways.

Dreamrider plays out as one of the finest arranged albums, track wise, I've heard in years. Each track's position is validated to perfection and 'Cool Breeze' echoes slight refrains from 'Feel The Rush Tonight''s New Order inspiration and takes it in a different direction. The water thematic continues to entrance the listener with a new palette of musically nautical flavours rising and falling with the ebb and flow of the tides.

Lazerhawk winds back the inspirational clock to the beginning in the following piece, 'REM', as a little early influences of Jarre/Vangelis/ YMO filter their way into the synthscape. This track has a more playful and atmosphere about it; even with a bassline that hints at nightmarish possibilities. The huge build and payoff never gets too dark, though and instead hypnotizes in a way that's more of a comfort than a threat.

'Mirror Between Worlds' has an entirely off kilter and skewed demeanour that does enter into darker possibilities and a great inky blackness of the unknown. The bassline follows a logical subconscious path while the layered melodies weave in and out of layers of reality and unreality, defying explanation and purpose that then forms into a joyous and lucid final act.

Much like our own dreams, the feelings in all the tracks on Dreamrider have an individual presence but rarely draws the entire scene for you. Instead we get broad brushstrokes of musical emotions that suggest more than direct and allow for many interpretations of what their meanings may be. 'Dream Within A Dream' has a serene sense of duality that rises with clean and clear passages that are backed by a muted disturbing tone, haunting the background pieces and creating the air of something not being right, just like when you realise you are dreaming but lack the control in the dream to do anything about it and allow the forces at play to take you further into your inward journey.

'Oneiric' continues to explore the dreamstate and goes even deeper into itself. The refrains are unmistakably Lazerhawk but the gauzy haze of trance inducing melodies are softened and curved, devoid of harsh edges and consciously aware that the slightest bump could wake you. You fall into the music without fear of crashing and it rises to meet you upon every single chord and heart beat.

The album begins to take you back to your consciousness with 'Awakening'. The passages are clearer and slightly more defined as you regain control of your mind. The haziness breezes out slowly and colours grow more vibrant. You can feel the clarity of the sounds invigorate you, bringing you back, relinquishing control for one more day.

I find it ironic that for a hugely conceptual experience such as this that the album finishes on such an absolutely scintillating high. I'm far more accustomed to the last tracks of concept records being more interlude/credit roll like and less of a climax but Dreamrider's final act, 'Dreams In The Dusk' makes for an incredibly deep and rewarding final chapter.

As if your subconscious decided that the dream wasn't over and was going to pull you back into your dream as one final plot twist this track exudes power and control by way of some monstrously dramatic percussion. The melodies reach out like vaporous fingertips, grasping at your mind to take you back into your subconscious and you feel yourself giving into the temptation in a deeply spiritual descent into your own mind. You fall back into your dreams with a smile as the melodies trail off into another dimensional consciousness you can't explain or understand; but you feel it resonate deep within your soul.

Lazerhawk's Dreamrider is one amazing creative work. The themes and concept are perfectly explored and executed in a way I've never heard before. The absolutely tangible emotional investment in every second of every track makes your feel as much as you hear and it holds you for the album's duration. Dreamrider is available on Lazerhawk's Bandcamp page here and is available in the usual array of digitally downloadable formats and is absolutely a Synthetix Reference Experience you must partake in.

Synthetix Sundays

Celebrate the festive season in style with the final episode of Synthetix Sundays for 2016!

This year end special finds Marko chatting with Crockett and a joint interview with Michael Weber and Mythical Vigilante.

Mako's got two massive exclusives to premier from Betamaxx and Crockett too!

Also, there won't be a year end Synthstravaganza on Synthetix.FM this year, instead this episode's Quality Time With Shithouse is a look back over 2016 and a looking forward to 2017.

Make sure you listen live for tonnes of giveaway download codes too to make sure you really get what you want these holidays!

Tune in to Synthetix Sundays LIVE on Radio Pure Gently here, at 10pm Perth, Australia time. Please click here to find out when this is in your part of the world. As always the fully downloadable show will be posted here on Monday.

Echocopy's Zephyrus

By Jerry Herrera

Somewhere between vaporwave, space synth and retrowave lies the odd land of Zephyrus. It’s a tropical planet, lush and populated with chill people of every color on the spectrum, and whether we are in low orbit or swinging on a hammock, we exist in a place of beauty.



The music never gets above cruising speed and there are few, if any, really intense moments on the album. There’s really no story to be told, no narrative existing in the music, but that’s not why we are listening. We’re floating gently between tropical and deep house sensibilities but can never be bothered to get up and dance, because there’s a guitar always playing and it’s smooth and jazzy and it reverberates at just the perfect frequency to cause a warm buzz in one’s mind.

When we are not wrapped up in the silken sheets of tracks like Orbiting and Midnight Motel, we’re on a luxury spaceflight,looking out the window at the exact point where the atmosphere meets the darkness of space. The space synth elements on the album still remain warm and harmless. There are no derelict ships or alien horrors to worry about, only what time happy hour is when you’re going around the world in eighty minutes. Elon Musk needs to put this album on his playlist.

My favorite track has to be Through the Tunnel, arguably the most uptempo/outrunny track on the album. It’s got all we love about retrofuturism with a dash of cool, crisp aesthetic that all the kids are chasing these days. It’s the perfect nod to the past and the far future.

I will say that one tends to lose when one track ends and the next begins, because of the ubiquitousness of the reverbed instruments on each, but then again this is an effort that I felt as a whole more than multiple tracks addressing several themes. Every minute of Zephyrus is pleasing, but only scratches a small handful of aural itches one might have.

However, if you want to lie on an alien beach and sip strange booze while watching multiple suns set, you can’t do better than Echocopy right now.

Echocopy presents Zephyrus, available on Bandcamp through Music Box Records here and comes very, very highly recommended from Synthetix.FM.