Simon Carter has made some incredible industrial techno alongside Fabsi which I still think is some of the best music of this year. So to to now be reviewing his synthpop/synthwave project was quite a surprise for me; Not because it wasn't the regular crunchy techno but because it does something I have never experienced before in terms of shaping synthpop into something that spans different musical eras. Come see what I mean...
SIMON CARTER is proud to present NO TOMORROW, the full-length follow-up to LOST SOUL by HUMANS CAN'T REBOOT.
NO TOMORROW contains 11 original vocal tracks, once again featuring the soulful AMY HANNAM on vocal duty. Amy's powerful voice provides the perfect delivery to Simon's expressive, and at times, melencholic lyrics and creations. This is a full-on, non-stop Synthpop-fest, blended with tasty elements of sci-fi and synthwave.
As a nice bonus Simon has given all 11 tracks a DJ-friendly dancefloor "club" treatment, meaning you can expect a little extra BPM and some more EDM oriented sounds.
Review
'Ghosts' kicks off with a great little dose of synth-funk. It has a great tempo that weaves itself around the vocals, as if Amy and the music itself are dance partners in a retro simulation playing off of one another. The keyboard is that particularly wonderful tone of 80's synthpop that we all know and love making this by far my favourite track on the album as I enjoy every aspect of it.
Next up is 'Girl Not Machine' which takes a slower approach to enable the more poignant lyrics of a Woman trying to make herself heard. All the key aspect of great sythpop are here, the chilled out synths, the steady beats, and the high pitch notes to give it that ethereal feel. The video is a nice touch for the overall ambience of the song.
'Digital Love' brings touch of Madonna or Kylie Minogue style pop which is a rather different and pleasant addition. This is followed by 'No Tomorrow' which, I think is purely down to personal tastes, but I don't enjoy the vocal style and it is a bit of a difficult listen but musically, it's still a very entertaining track.
'Demons' is a also very entertaining and seems to be the point in the album where the music tends to stray away from 80's inspired synthwave like we are used to and becomes more of a 90's vibe..
So to have synthwave sounds drift out of retro and in to 90's style and the same with the vocals, makes the divergence of style in this album rather stand out and unique amongst synthpop artists.
From 'She's Magic' right through to Maybe it's time to go' there is a real mixing of vocal and musical styles that blend in and out of one another. One moment putting you in the mind of Eurythmics to suddenly in the mind of a synthpop Aqua and so on. There is a real mix here that will have at least a couple of songs to everyone's tastes with their multi generation inspired sounds.
Then we have remixes of each song to follow. A lot of these have been made more up-tempo and given a coating of EDM which further adds to that unique 90's feel. For some of the tracks, it makes them feel completely different to the originals. For example 'Don't cry out' feels like a whole new song and certainly makes for a pleasant little dance.
Tracklist
Ghosts
Girl Not Machine
Digital Love
No Tomorrow
Demons
She's Magic
Mars Behind The Crescent Moon
Lost In Space
Don't Cry Out
Broken Promise
Maybe It's Time To Go
She's Magic (Instrumental Version)
Ghosts (Club Version)
Girl Not Machine (Club Version)
Digital Love (Club Version)
No Tomorrow (Club Version)
Demons (Club Version)
She's Magic (Club Version)
Mars Behind The Crescent Moon (Club Version)
Lost In Space (Club Version)
Don't Cry Out (Club Version)
Broken Promise (Club Version)
Maybe It's Time To Go (Club Version)
Conclusion
Synthwave and Synthpop is going through somewhat of a rebirth and exploratory revival recently across a lot of bands. No Tomorrow is a marvellous album that brings synthpop from it's 80's roots from the first few songs and slowly through the course of the album, drifts in to the 90's and then to the early 00's with the remixes.
Whether this was of any intention of Simon's or not, this is something I've never experienced in a synthpop album; Although there are a few things that aren't to my taste, there are far more things that really peak my curiosity and interest.. Most importantly, there is a lot here that I thoroughly enjoy and you will too.
7/10
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