"The Moon Is Shining in the Sky"
[This is one post in a series about my music mixes. The series list has links to all posts in the series and also definitions of many of the terms I use. You may wish to read the introduction for more background.
Like all my series, it is not necessarily contiguou
One discovers music from all sorts of places. Once upon a time we used to use the radio; nowadays it’s super-rare for me to listen to the radio at all, much less find anything new (and good) on it.1 Then for a while I tried Internet radio (such as the inimitable Radio Paradise2) and Pandora (back when it was an actual music discovery service, before it was bought by the detestable Sirius XM). But probably the most reliable source of new music throughout the years has been coworkers. My employees at Barefoot Software exposed me to things as varied as Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd to Sublime. A guy at Thinkgeek that I barely knew introduced me to Modest Mouse, and my fellow code monkey Jon Sime, who I worked hand-in-hand with for years, introduced me to Naomi and Skyedance. And so it’s gone, for every job since. At my current job, we have a whole Slack channel devoted to sharing music, and I’ve picked up a lot of great ideas.
And that’s how I can tell exactly when I discovered Urban Heat: March 24th, 2022. A coworker (again, someone I didn’t really know) posted this:
Here’s a pretty fun band I discovered at SXSW last week, for those who are into an 80s synthwave vibe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTvSIt8EUuU
Now, you say “80s” and “synth” in the same sentence and my ears perk right up. There was a lot of fantastic music in the 80s, but, as you know from my extensive talking about my 80s My Way mix, “my way” generally means heavy on the synthpop. It’s what really attracted me to the music of the time.
We tend to think of synthpop as upbeat and ... well, poppy. It’s right there in the name, after all. But, speaking as someone who listened to a lot of it in the 80s, I can tell you: synthpop has a lot of layers, a lot of different modes, if you will. And there’s a certain flavor of synthpop songs that is best suited for listening to late at night, in the dark ... at times when you’re not necessarily sad, and not necessarily contemplative, and not necessarily wistful, but perhaps all three at once, and even experiencing other shades of emotion that you can’t quite put a finger on. When all those feelings come together, in the deep of night ... well, when that happens, you need this mix.
So, while there can be no doubt that Urban Heat was the mix-starter here, there’s also some classic 80s synthpop that I wanted to showcase as well. And let’s kick that off with what I really feel like is the epitome of this sound: “Today” by Talk Talk. Talk Talk is one of those bands who never achieved mega-succes
Still, let’s not discount Depeche Mode, most especially on their album which is almost entirely devoted to this flavor of synthpop, Black Celebration. This goth-infused synthpop album is so perfect that I actually picked two tracks off of it: “But Not Tonight” provides our volume title, while “Stripped” is, as its name implies, a bit of a stripped-down track, with its synth chords providing near-minimalism, while the reverb on David Gahan’s vocals give it an almost eerie quality. And of course this is the perfect place for one-hit-wonder Re-Flex’s iconic “The Politics of Dancing,” which is perhaps the closest thing to “upbeat” we’ll hear in this mix. This is a shimmering, glittery darkness, sure, but dark all the same.
Closing out the 80s, I didn’t actually discover German synthpop band Camouflage till well after that decade, but they fit right in with the Depeche Mode vibe. Their sophmore album, 1989’s Methods of Silence, contains a number of decent tracks,3 and I felt like “One Fine Day” was just perfect here.
And just because the 80s is over doesn’t mean the bands of the 80s are. There are two major finds showcased here. The first I tripped over when they performed on Stephen Colbert’s late night show: he’d been hosting for less than a year when he announced that New Order was going to be performing new music after 10 years of nothing (and around 20 of nothing notable, in my opinion). I was intrigued, but not hopeful; when most bands get back together after a gap of that long, they produce “new” music that is merely a lackluster echo of their glory days. But Music Complete is something entirely different: it’s an album that rivals Technique, and maybe even Brotherhood, in its depth and quality. And it is, in some indefinable way, darker than their other outing
There was a time when my world belonged with you,
But I was so misguided in my youth.
I couldn’t help but drink this poison brew;
You had a strange perception of the truth.
The buzzing guitars of “Academic” are replaced by a synth intro reminiscent of a child’s toy piano on “Restless,” where Bernard Sumner’s breathy, almost whispered vocals give the track a softness that make it perfect for late-night listening. Overall, two tunes that fit perfectly here.
The other 80s update that you’ll find here is Alison Moyet (Alf to her friends), who was the lead singer of what I usually consider to be the most important synth band of all time (or, at worst, a close second behind Soft Cell): Yazoo. Typically truncated to “Yaz” here in the States, I knew their hit “Situation,” but it was the random choice to buy Upstairs at Eric’s as one of my very first albums (I think it was on sale or something), almost certainly at Peaches during my freshman year of college, that really blew me away. Nearly every song on that album is a gem, and I chose one4 to be our “push song” at work one day early in 2022. And I got to thinking, I pretty much know what happened to Vince Clarke post-Yazoo,5 but whatever happened to Alf? I had always had the impression that she left synthpop behind and gone on to do more of a soul-type thing (sort of Adele before there was Adele). And, you know, she did do that for a while ... and then she stopped recording altogether for a while, due to litigation with record labels ... and then a few more albums ... and then, over 30 years after Upstairs at Eric’s, she released The Minutes. And this record, despite being nearly 10 years old by the time I stumbled on it, is just brilliant. It’s synthpoppy, but in a much more modern way, and some of the tracks are just perfect for this mix. Again, I didn’t try to restrain myself: there are two selections here from The Minutes. First, “Horizon Flame,” a track that starts out with synths doubling as strings, adds a subtle underlying drone, and gradually ramps up to an ode to “ordinary pain.” It was perfect as the second track of our opening triptych. Meanwhile, easing into the back third of the volume, “Right as Rain” has a much stronger electronica rhythm, but keeps the drone and even amps up the dystopian lyrics:
If you can’t be happy with me,
Be unhappy with me;
Stay unhappy with me.
Both are just amazing tracks.
But of course it was the modern revival of this darker style of synthpop that was the impetus for the mix in the first place, so let’s not fail to showcase Urban Heat. The third track in our opening triad is “Running Out of Time,” from their debut Wellness.6 It sort of encapsulates all of Urban Heat’s expansive sound: there are echoey vocals, that classic synthpop drum machine rhythm, and sparkly synth chords in between the verses. It’s just gorgeous. Then, winding down to our closer, “Stay” starts out slow but insistent, but then blossoms into an electro-guitar-fueled chorus:
Well, I guess if you want to stay,
Who am I to tell you not to feel that way?
Tell them all, they’re all better off:
Better off anyway.
If you like synthpop, you should really pick up this album.
And it’s a truism in the music industry that, if you can find one band making a certain style of music, you can find half a dozen if you look hard enough. We should probably start with the prolific Davey Havok, ostensibly the lead singer of punk / nu-metal / emo band AFI. I don’t actually love AFI, personally, and even if they did, their music certainly wouldn’t fit here.7 But he and another AFI member went on to found Blaqk Audio, who are a perfect fit for this mix. I actually did restrain myself this time and chose only a single track, “Waiting to Be Told.” With an almost martial beat and soaring vocals, it’s a strong entry. But it’s Havok’s other side project, Dreamcar, to whom I gave the honor of the opening track. I first heard “Kill for Candy” also on Colbert’s show, just a year after I heard the new New Order song, and I was immediately struck by the similarity. Dreamcar is not synthpop, but then neither is New Order: they’re both quite strongly new wave. But “Kill for Candy,” as hooky as it is, has a really strong dark throughline that I thought made it work very nicely here. Plus it’s just a gorgeous song, so it certainly had to go somewhere.8
Finally, the Black Queen is a group founded by members of Trent Reznor’s touring band for Nine Inch Nails and members of the Dillinger Escape Plan, a band I had never heard of before, which is typically described as “metalcore.” And, apparently, what you get when you combine metalcore with industrial is this flavor of dark synthwave, because their debut album (Fever Daydream) feels like someone took Urban Heat and Blaqk Audio and ran them through a mellowizing sausage grinder. Their single “The End Where We Start” is probably more dark than poppy, but Greg Puciato’s vocals here are high and sweet and melodic, in stark contrast to his normal growly screams in the Dillinger Escape Plan. It’s a nice lead-in to “Stay.”
[ The Moon Is Shining in the Sky ]
“Horizon Flame” by Alison Moyet, off The Minutes
“Running Out of Time” by Urban Heat, off Wellness
“But Not Tonight” by Depeche Mode, off Black Celebration
“Academic” by New Order, off Music Complete
“Remains” by Zola Jesus, off Okovi
“Oblivion” by Grimes, off Visions
“The Politics of Dancing” by Re-Flex, off The Politics of Dancing
“One Fine Day” by Camouflage, off Methods of Silence
“Today” by Talk Talk, off The Party's Over
“Judas” by Clan of Xymox, off In Love We Trust
“Waiting to Be Told” by Blaqk Audio, off Material
“Right as Rain” by Alison Moyet, off The Minutes
“Disconnected” by Emma's Mini, off Beat Generation Mad Trick
“Restless” by New Order, off Music Complete
“Stripped” by Depeche Mode, off Black Celebration
“The End Where We Start” by the Black Queen, off Fever Daydream
“Stay” by Urban Heat, off Wellness
“Trust Me” by Zola Jesus, off Stridulum
I’m not sure what here is too unexpected, but I did feel like I could find some synthy goth tunes which might fit the vibe. My first thought was Zola Jesus, who ... well, she’s hard to describe, but she has a very distinct, synthy style of goth/darkwave. “Remains” is a track with nearly ambient vocals and a techno beat, and I thought it provided a beautiful bridge from New Order to Grimes. Meanwhile, “Trust Me” is a slow, sober track that just made for the perfect closer.
And why not throw in some witchhouse? Whatever you may think of Grime
The middle stretch of the volume is a strong dose of that 80s goodness: Re-Flex, then Camouflage, then Talk Talk. And then I needed something to bridge the 34-year gap between “Today” and “Waiting to Be Told,” so I thought of Clan of Xymox. Xymox was of course a great, synthy (if not quite synthpop) band from the 90s. Clan of Xymox, though, has a much stronger goth character, despite both incarnations being mostly just extensions of Dutch genius Ronny Moorings, plus it’s still going strong to the present day. I thought “Judas” was pretty solid here: it’s certainly got the dark in spades, and it’s got some great synth work as well.
And perhaps the only truly unexpected tune here is from emma’s mini, who I introduced you to back in Smokelit Flashback VI. In general, emma’s mini is less synthpop and more electropop, which is certainly similar, but definitely not the same. Most of their album Beat Generation Mad Trick is pretty upbeat, but “Disconnected” has a different cast. It has the same soft echoey vocals that many of the tracks here, and, while the chorus is nearly as upbeat as “The Politics of Dancing” (though the tune as a whole doesn’t come close), the lyrics (e.g. “I fell down”) have a darker tinge. I thought it worked very well here.
Next time, we’ll ride the rails.
1 For an exception, please refer to the not-so-long-ago story of my discovery of the only Taylor Swift song I’ve really liked (so far).
2 Which is, somewhat surprisingly to me, still going strong after a mind-boggling 24 years on the Internet. That’s longer than Facebook, and almost as long as Google and Amazon. Few things on the Internet achieve that kind of longevity.
3 One of which is a short bridge I used on Phantasma Chorale II.
4 Specifically, “Don’t Go.”
5 Specifically, he went on to form Erasure with Andy Bell.
6 Wellness started out as an EP, but has since been expanded to a full album. See the Bandcamp link in the tracklist.
7 Perhaps it might find a home on the Thrashomatic Danger Mix.
8 Before this mix existed, it was slated for Totally Different Head.
9 Though, honestly, that’s perhaps not saying much: I’m not a huge Grimes fan.