Synthwave Reviews is One Month Old!

 Actually it's a month and a week old, but I forgot. To celebrate, here are the top 10 albums/EPs that I have reviewed so far:

1. Carpenter Brut - Leather Brut (self-release 2018): 10.0
2. The Midnight - Nocturnal (self-release 2017): 9.5
3. Mecha Maiko - Mad But Soft (NRW 2018): 9.5
4. Sierra - Strange Valley (Lazerdiscs 2018): 9.5
5. Perturbator - New Model (self-release 2017): 9.5
6. The G - Cosmopolis (Timeslave Recordings 2017): 9.5  
7. Phono Ghosts & Sferro - Alive in the Timeless Void (Fonolith 2018): 9.5 
8. Night Raptor - Night Raptor EP (self-release 2017): 9.0
9. Mitch Murder - Instances (self-release 2018): 9.0
10. 24:7 - Zero Hour (Timeslave Recordings 2017): 9.0

HONORABLE MENTION: Ferus Melek - Dawn of the Dead (self-release 2018): 9.0

Looking at this list, a few things are interesting to me. There are exactly 5 releases on labels and 5 self releases. Only one label is represented twice, Timeslave Recordings. This is quite good for a new label, in my opinion, as most of the others have quality control issues. On the other hand, neither release from Timeslave Recordings cracked my top 5, so there is still room for improvement.

The top two releases on labels are also from 2 of the 3 biggest synthwave labels, NRW and Lazerdiscs. The third of the big labels, Rossa Corsa, is not represented on the list. This is interesting because I generally think of Rossa Corsa as my favorite label in the genre. As it happens I have reviewed two Rossa Corsa albums (Betamaxx - Archaic Science and Jordan F - Oblivion). In both cases I liked them, but felt they were somewhat inconsistent and not quite as good as previous releases by the artists. I am sure that there will be some great releases on Rossa Corsa coming in the near future, though, so perhaps my next top 10 list will look a bit different.

Another interesting breakdown is by style. On my top 10, there are:

• 2 releases that are darksynth 
• (Carpenter Brut, Sierra)
• 4 that are dreamwave/vocal pop 
• (The Midnight, The G, Night Raptor, 24:7)
• 4 that are mix of synthwave and other styles of electronic music 
• (Mecha Maiko, Perturbator, Phono Ghosts & Sferro, Mitch Murder). 

I'm not sure if this says more about me and what I prefer or if it suggests synthwave is becoming more experimental. Or maybe it's both? Time will tell...