No Filler Music Podcast - Riding the Synthwave with Com Truise

Episode Date: February 3, 2020

Nearly a decade ago, the synthwave genre saw a new wave popularity after the release of the action-drama Drive, with Kavinsky's "Nightcall" being prominently featured in the film. But Seth Haley (who goes by the Com Truise) had been making analog electronic music for years prior to that, and released his debut EP Cyanide Sisters just one year before. Com Truise's brand of synthwave expertly blends IDM and chillwave elements with the nostalgia of 80's synth film-scores. Tracklist Com Truise - Slow Peels John Carpenter - The President Is Gone Harold Faltermeyer - Fletch Lives Com Truise - Cyanide Sisters Com Truise - BASF Ace Com Truise - Pyragony Orions Belte - Tudo Que Você Podia Ser Legowelt - Danger In The Air Com Truise - Sundriped Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Feel the fun!

The meeting will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1-8665-3-3-0 or visit comex Ontario.ca. With MX Platinum. You have access to over 1,400 airport lounges worldwide. So your experience before takeoff is a taste of what's to come. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by Peloton.

A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Live with confidence. while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross-training Treadplus at OnePeloton.ca.

And welcome to No Filler. The music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gyms that fill the space between the singles on our favorite jingles. You got to redo that. That's not favorite. I did that on purpose, dude. I thought you would like it. I did, but

I'd be consistent. Dude, I'm leaving that in, man. I wanted to surprise you. I thought that was great. But I was waiting for you to laugh and redo it. My name's Quentin. I've got my brother, Travis, with me, as per youge. And today, we are diving into some electric music.

Yeah, man. We've been talking about it. for months now. Maybe not months, but at least the last few episodes, we've been teasing a stint of electronic episodes, and we have arrived at that moment. This is the first episode of February, so February is going to be devoted to electronic music,

and we'll see if it spills into March. It might, because there's just too many amazing electronic albums between the two of us that we are, you know, can't get enough of that, you know, four episodes is just not going to be enough. So we'll see what happens. Well, here's the thing about this genre, dude. I mean, we could, no feel it could be nothing but electronic. You're right.

You're absolutely right, man. I think this is our, this is my favorite music to listen to, just in general, you know, like I gravitate towards electronic music in some form. Yeah, I think you're... Do I agree with you? I agree. Yeah, and hopefully we can cover, you know, a good range of this style and, you know, represent that kind of stuff that we tend to go back to.

Yeah, I mean, it's such an expansive genre. A lot like rock and roll, where there's so many different flavors and sub-flavors, you know. I think a lot of people, if you're not a fan of electronic music, you might associate it with the stuff you hear, you know, at the dance club or something like that. You know what I mean? Or like the generic like down, dub step, techno stuff that you might hear on some movie where there's a scene

and they're walking through a nightclub, you know what I mean? And hey, some of that stuff's great. But there's so much more to it than just kind of the cliche. You know what I mean? Yeah. And the cliche,

and I've said this before, the four on the floor beats. Yeah. You know, do, that's kind of what I'm saying, the cliche. You know what I mean?

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I think we mentioned this early on. What was our, maybe it was our Tyco episode. It was pretty early on. Yeah. Maybe like three or four episodes in.

Right. Or maybe it was our Tosca episode that I mentioned this. But when we were, I guess, coming of age is fans of music. I did not like electronic. music. I didn't understand it. You know, I don't think we had stumbled upon all the sub-genres. You know what I mean? Like, what was, like,

okay, let's try to think about this, Q. What do you think, like, when you look back to that and say, you know, I didn't really like electronic music, what do you have a song in mind that you're thinking of that you remember hearing and just not connecting with? Because I'm curious to know if you went back and listened to that music now

if you would like it. No, but well, here's what it was for me. if it wasn't an actual band with a drummer, a guitarist, a bass player, you know, if it wasn't a group of people making music with actual instruments, I didn't give two shits about it. That was the whole thing. I just didn't give it. Well, yeah, I think, you know, we grew up on rock.

And yeah, that's what we knew. Yeah. And then we, you know, we branched out probably starting around college, I would say, that we started listening more heavily to electronic music. Maybe that's because we were just like many people in college, kind of expanding your worldviews and your horizons, you know what I mean? So yeah. Yeah.

But anyway, I think you and I discovered electronic music together, that fateful few months where you crashed on my floor and that in that studio apartment. Yeah. And we just would listen to mostly down tempo electronic music and smoke our pipe tobacco like a couple of, you know, horty-to-to-ties. Yep. Right. Right. With our freaking pinkies up and shit.

But it was good times, man. So we haven't even mentioned who we were talking about tonight, dude. Okay. Let me tee it up. Let's tee it up here. Okay. So we've hinted, not hinted, talked about. Vaber wave.

We talked about pretty extensively, actually, in some of our year-end week, some of our recap episodes toward the end of the year in the beginning of this year. And obviously, we've talked extensively about hypnagogic pop, right, throughout the years on this podcast. So this first musician that we're talking about today, in our electronic month. Definitely falls under that category, at least of not a vapor wave, but hypogogic pop.

And he goes, I love his name, dude, that's great. He goes by the name of Com Trues, which I didn't, I never heard this word before Q, but that is a, the official name for that is a spoonerism

of the name Tom Cruise. So apparently spoonerism. Spoonerism. You know, sometimes you'll be you'll say something and you will you know unintentionally kind of switch some of the letters in the words yeah that's called dyslexia well apparently when you when it's vocalized like that it's called spoonerism spoonerism is an error in speech in which corresponding consonants vowels or morphemes are switched between two words and a phrase so there you

go so like uh buck cherry you know what i'm saying Chuck Barry. Okay, yeah, there you go. Buck Cherry. Yep, exactly. Dude, that's a good. Dude, that's a bad. I call that.

That's a good name for an electronic musician Buck Cherry. Buck Cherry? Yeah. All right. So this guy, his real name is Seth Haley. If we were to put him in one camp in particular, it is synthwave. And synthwave definitely falls into the hypnagogic under the umbrella of hypnotogic pop. because it borrows heavily from 80s movies, TV shows,

just that sound of 80s, right? Yeah. So some of the artists that kind of fall under this umbrella, some of the more well-known artist at least, we've kind of mentioned and talked about these guys before, but we're, you know, Kivinsky, right? Oh, yeah. Electronic youth.

Electronic youth? I've never heard of him. I'm sorry, electric youth, not electronic youth. Electric youth. I've never heard of him. They're the two most popular artists in Synthwaive in 2014, according to married glows, Christopher Higgins. But yeah, basically the movie Drive came out in 2011, and that sort of... It's got a guy in Rossling in it.

Sorry, dude. I like that you're sticking with the joke, at least. And that was good. That was, that was legit. I like that. Yeah. But there is some songs

from Kavinsky on there. So that sort of propelled the, the genre and gave it more attention. You know what I mean? And then it's kind of continued to go on from there. Basically, beyond just the sound of the 80s, a lot of times the,

like the aesthetic of the 80s is also kind of embraced. A lot like vapor wave, which we talked about extensively. It's more, It's more than just the sound and the music. It's aesthetically a certain thing. It's the neon, right? Lots of neon.

It's the 90s. We're talking to 80s, bro. Aesthetic. Well, I'm talking vapor wave. That's true. Okay. Vapor wave starts to spill into the 90s. But yeah, anyway, that's the idea, right?

Other names that it goes by, and we talked about this thing too, Outrun, which is the name of a video game from the 80s, retrowave or future synth. So we're going to listen to a couple of songs off of some 80s movie scores, Q, specifically. And these two artists, or at least this, mainly this first one. And then the second one is just for me because I fucking love the soundtrack is great. Anyway, John Carpenter, as in, you know, the director of Halloween, The Thing, etc., he does a lot of his own scores, right? That's kind of part of his thing. And did I know that, dude?

I don't think I knew that. Really? You didn't know that? You didn't know that he did the score for Halloween? I don't think I knew that. You're fucking, you're behind the times, man. He's been consistently putting out, well, just recently, he's put out some compilation records of like just stuff that he's,

he had, there's two albums actually that he's put out called Lost Thames in the last couple of years, just work that he's, that he had just on the back burner, you know. Actually, back to 2015. So. But anyway, he, he is credited as, as being a, a huge source of inspiration for this sound. All right. Another couple of composers here, Vangelis. And I think he did the soundtracks for Blade Runner.

And then another group by the name of Tangerine Dream. Anyway, so those guys are credited as kind of the inspiration for Synthwave. We're going to listen to a song off of John Carboneers' film Escape from New York, came out in 1981, and this song is called The President Is Gone. Yeah, you get the idea, right? It sounds almost indistinguishable from any number of artists right now that are making synthaway music. And that's because a lot of them actually use vintage equipment from the 80s, the same stuff that they would use to make that exact score. So, yeah, you know, a lot of that sound is, you know, electronic drums, gated reverb, analog synthesizer, bass lines, etc.

So, yeah, I say that's a lot. And I think it's a good way to describe it. You go to a Thrift store, you pick up an old ass like Cassio keyboard from the 80s or 90s. You plug it in, you know, and you press one of the stock sounds that it has as a keyboard, and you're going to find stuff like this. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, a lot of those stock sounds on keyboards nowadays are sampled from older equipment, you know? Right.

So a lot of times they're going even to the to the, to the, the source, you know, of the sound that you might hear on a stock keyboard, you know, yeah, synth sound or whatever. Anyway, all right. So one more song here before we get to Comptu's. This is more of a guilty pleasure of mine, dude, because I love this soundtrack. The funny thing is, I'm talking about a couple of films that starred Mr. Chevy Chase, or is it Chevy Chase?

Chevy Chase. Fletch and Fletch lives. The guy that did the soundtrack is the same composer that did the Beverly Hills cop soundtrack. Dude, I was about to bring up Beverly Hills Cop because, yeah, that's one of those other, like, really classic, you know, outrun sounds. Right, exactly. So this is, so that, you know, Beverly Hills Cop came out in 1984, you know, a couple years after I escaped from New York. Fletch came out in 85 and Fletch lives came out in 89. So he was carrying that sound kind of through. I mean, let me also put this out there, dude. He did the Top Gun score. So this guy.

Yeah. Harold Faltermeyer. Herald Faltermeyer. Now, maybe that this might be saying something. Who's in Top Gun Q? Tom Cruise. What? If, I mean, you know what? I think that's, I don't think that's me stretching at all. I think the reason he named himself Com Trues is because Tom Cruise was such a staple in some of those 80s action films which had scores like this.

So anyway, this is the opening this is kind of the theme song to Fletch Lives and let's take a listen here, Q. I fucking love this song. I'm just going to put that out there. Yeah, what is it about this music that we're so drawn to, man? You know?

I don't know, man. There's not talking about the 80s. There's just something about the 80s, man. Yeah. The sound, the look and feel of the 80s. And our generation is drawn to it because we, I mean, we were born in the late 80s, so we didn't really live through it. But we watched a ton of 80s movies. You grew up on 80s movies.

I think this like synthesizer keyboard type, you know, instrumental music spilled into the 90s in the 90s in the, the, you know, home game console kind of soundtracks that we heard in Sega Genesis games, you know. Yeah. Well, we've definitely talked about that. Yeah. Yeah. It's very similar to the kind of stuff that we heard on the video games that we grew up on.

Right. And because we're, you know, being millennials, we're like the first generation or maybe the second generation to grow. up in a world where, you know, we get to relive this stuff all the fucking time on the internet. You know, at the, at a few, you know, types on the keyboard and a few clicks on the mouse, and you can re-listen to the entire soundtrack of fucking Sonic and Tales or, you know. Dude, I listen to the Shinobi or whatever. I listen to the Shinobi three soundtrack all the time.

Yeah. Because it's fucking dope. Dude. And that's just a random ass Sega Junis's game that might not mean. A lot. But when you listen to the music, you know, it's no wonder that we are fans of electronic music because these were electronic songs, essentially. I mean, they were, they were 32.

And I think the, you know, the fact that we were able to and are able to go back and listen to that music whenever we want. Right. That's what that's, I think that's why this kind of music has such staying power with our generation, dude, because it's just there. And it's just, it's nostalgia, you know, there's just so much nostalgia. I don't have to go to a thrift store and find a Sega Genesis with all the right hookups and then go find those games and plug it in and play it to listen to this music.

Right, right, right. Anyway, yeah, it holds a special place. Yeah, it really does. So yeah, that's why Synth Wave, you know, it has such staying power right now because our generation just, you know, loves this, this sound. You know what I mean? This aesthetic especially. So let's talk about Comtrus. So I think I talked about it last week.

I had mentioned that we were going to cover his album in decay. But I decided against that because that's actually a compilation album that he was, you know, from what I've read, he put out a ton of what he called mixtapes. He released him on the internet. called computer casts, spelled with a K, computer casts on his SoundCloud account, way back in the day. And a lot of fans, once he was signed on to Ghostly International, the record label, they wanted that stuff to be released, you know. And even though Comptuze didn't really want to do that with his next album, basically Ghostly kind of pressured him into compiling some of those songs from the computer cast mix and putting them onto an album. and that became in decay. Anyway, I wanted to go back and talk about his very first EP called Cyanide Sisters, came out in 2010.

Like I said, that was his first EP. He had been producing music well before that, but this was his first record label release. And again, it's called Cyanide Sisters, released in 2010. So this is right before Drive hit that movie, right? So this was just, he was kind of at the forefront of it. Cynthwave, kind of the origins, go back to like the 2000s, the early 2000s. Anyway, let's just jump right into the fucking songs, bro. The very first selection here is the title track.

It's called Cyanide Sisters. Let's give it a listen to you. Just drenched in nostalgia, dude. I really do feel like. like the reason we like this music so much is that I can just picture this as a soundtrack to a video game from my childhood, man. Or a movie from the 80s, yeah. Yeah. And I'm not, definitely, definitely.

I'm not saying that in like a negative. No, no. It's not a bad thing. No, that's part of it. I mean, that's, that's what it's all about, you know. It sounds like like some of those sounds that you hear could be, you know, like the sound that happens when you jump. Or when you level up or something like that. Yeah, I love that shit.

I mean, that's what it's all about, dude. So I'm going to read off of the labels page here for this record. It says here, Cyanite Sisters Beauty lies somewhere between IDM, 80s synth pop, factory records, classic Italo disco synthesizers, and glitch electronica, soaking its opening title track with thick, damp ambience. and a slow, chunky drum machine groove.

So that was the opening track that we just listened to. And Parsons must have been getting paid per word. Good Lord. Yeah, it's pretty lengthy. But yeah, that's totally accurate. But yeah, it's spot on. So yeah, I think that's a good intro to his sound, really. And, you know, this was his first EP released on a record label.

Now, technically it had been released as a free download through something called AM Discs in June of 2010, and then Ghostly took it and remastered it and extended it with a few bonus tracks, which I'm going to play one of those bonus tracks a little bit later. But, Q, if you want, let's just go to the next track here. Yes, please. Now, one thing I wanted to point out,

with John Carpenter's scores, you know, and some of these other movies that I talked about, it's more like dark ambient type stuff. Yes, I was. I was going to bring that up. Yeah. Like if that's even something that is part of this genre of music, you know, like, like you're trying to outrun someone, you know, like you're like there's a chase going on or something.

There's a song that the very well-known Kivinsky track. What is it called? It's called like night call or something like that. But anyway, yeah, night call. That's, I think. Night crawl? Night call. Okay.

Like, you know, call somebody on the telephone. Yeah. Yeah, I think Kavinsky and a lot of other synth wave artists, they stick in that, like, darker pocket. You know what I mean? Like pending doom or- Right, sure. Yeah. But ComTrues, I think, aligns himself more with kind of the sound of Tycho, where it's more like softer. Like a warm glow.

Yeah, a lot of warm glow. Yeah, exactly. Okay. So anyway. But hey, before we jump into our next pick, let's take a quick break. I think you're going to hear in this next pick the timbo is going to be a little bit different. That was a really good intro track to an album because it's so, it just kind of brings you in to the world, you know? Kind of guide you in, takes your hand and here's my vibrant world that I'm going to create for you.

My name is Com Trues. Anyway, so let's go on to the next track. This is track three. And this is called B-A-S-E-S-E-S. F. Ace. I don't know if that's trying to be funny. Like, Bass face. I don't know. Anyway. B-A-S-F-A-S.

Base-face. Oh, fuck me. No, I don't know. You're right. You're probably right. Base-face. Really? Okay. Now that you said it. But Ace is separate from... Yeah, but... Base face.

It's either... Base-F-A-E-A-S-F-F-F-E-E-S-F-E-E-E or it's base-face. Let's just go out of base-face. Okay. we'll go with bass face. All right. Base face. I think part of the draw to this music for me as well is that I just like that this is

approachable in that it does feel like a song that you could make without manipulating your keyboard sounds. Like this is just you can press, you know, here's a preset keyboard sound, you know, on your electronic keyboard. And this is the shit that's going to come out of it. Here's a preset drum set, you know, drum kit sound on your keyboard. This is the drum beats that you're going to get from that.

And you can make music like this. Now, of course, it's not, that's not the case. Obviously, there's more to it for Com Trues, you know? Sure. He's obviously manipulating this and that. And he's using programs to make this music. But that's what I like about this synth wave. style is that like that's what it's all about. You know, this sounds like music that is just coming

straight off, you know, factory settings on your keyboard. This is what you get. Well, Keogh, I'm about to read some things off to you that mean nothing to me, but somebody in the audience might know what we're talking about here. I just pulled up an article here, a interview that he did with splice.com. Or he lists off his equipment. Okay. He says here, And this was done back in, come on, man. Okay, 2019. I get, I get annoyed, and I don't see the information that I'm seeking. I know, I know, dude.

Anyway, he says here, the synths I currently have in rotation are the Krumar bit one, the Juno 106, the sequential profit six, the DSI OB6, which sounds like a fucking Star Wars droid, over. Ibrahim Expander, Oberheim Matrix 6, the Corg-A-R-P-Odice, the Access Virus T-12. It sounds like a fucking Terminator, and loads of Euro rack modules. So the only brand I recognized in that was Corg and Oberheim. Anyway, that probably means nothing to be anybody. I mean, the Juneau 1 or 6. I mean, of course. Of course.

Let me, let me, I'm going to Google that right now. I'll see what this looks like, Juneau 106. That looks like a fucking keyboard. It looks like an analog keyboard What I want to know is which of these are vintage And which of these are newer You know what I'm saying? What he's saying is

These are the instruments that I'm using That I have on rotation And the sounds that you hear are coming from these instruments Right That's what he's saying, right? Yeah, so okay, that's awesome Okay, but here we go I just want to point this out

The Juno 106 Was originally released in 1984 So there you go Okay So he is using he's using time time accurate synthesizers to make these sounds.

Like you were trying to say, Q, these are the sounds. It's not like this is new equipment. And, you know, he's got a Roland, like,

patch that he's using or something like that. That's what I was going to say. Like, because you could, you know, I use Ableton to piece together our episodes.

And that's what I'm using to record. Yeah, like you said, the patch, you could find a patch, you could find a Juno 1 in a 6 patch. A plugin or something like that. Yeah. A plug in. Right. Exactly. Yeah. And, you know, that doesn't diminish, you know, like, if you don't have access to these vintage keyboards, then there's nothing wrong with using the, using these patches, but I think it's cool that he's actually

using these, like, he's holding these keyboards. Yeah. I would imagine it, it's way more, like, I would get a lot more inspired if I had the actual like real deal equipment. Yes. You know what I mean? Like I would just, it would just feel more authentic, you know, which it is.

Obviously it is authentic. Well, for me, and this, this is, this might not mean anything. But like, I get the same sense when I,

I mean, dude, I could go out and buy a reissue of, you know, I don't know, the banana record, the Velvet Underground. Andy Warhol record.

Right. I could go buy that today. Right now on Amazon with a few clicks. Or I could stumble upon the actual first pressing of it in the wild. And I would have to spend a lot of money to get it. But, you know, like holding that actual record and thinking about the decades that it's been on this earth as a pressed LP. You know, like there's something to having the...

You're definitely preaching to the choir to me and to me. the people listening to this podcast for sure. Yeah. There's just something about, like you said, stumbling upon a record in the wild. It just feels so much, it just feels special. You know what I mean? Especially with musicians. It's like the gods that are smiling down on you.

Yeah, like someone, a guitar player would love to have a 1960 whatever, Fender, this and that. Sure. You know, to play their style of rock and roll. Right, right. It's cool to breathe new life into old instruments, you know? Right. It's cool that Comtrus actually plays these retro keyboards to make this music. Let me continue here from the same interview because I think this is interesting.

He says here, I've been limiting myself and selling off some equipment to really just focus on developing my sound rather than collecting for collecting's sake. I think having too many options can negatively affect my creative process, definitely trying to lighten my studio and really only keep what I truly use regularly. That reminds me of Tyco. Yeah, Tyco, what we talked about with Tyco, where he purposely found his sound and just stepped away as far as like he stopped tweaking it. He treated it like an instrument as far as like these settings and stuff on his sound. you know, his analog keyboards and stuff or his, is, you know, whatever, um, software he was using, you know. Yeah. And I, yeah, dude. So I, I love it, man. I love the, this is something that we've learned, you know, through this podcast, like with the some of our favorite electronic

musicians. Like, yeah, I could, I could download the, the latest software and I could pick up the latest keyboard. And, you know, I could get all the same sounds. you know, that I'm going for with this new equipment, or I could stick with what I know and purposely cut back on my collection of retro keyboards because the com true sound are these handful of keyboards and I don't want to fuck with that. Right. And it's just, it's like, you know,

analysis, paralysis, whatever, you know the term. Or it's just like, why overcomplicate things? Especially when he's like, man, I have too many, you know, This is probably an easy example to think about, but how many times have you sat in front of your Netflix and you're just scrolling and scrolling? And you're like, there's so many options that I can't even choose one. Yeah, I've got too many choices. How am I going to pick a movie to watch or how am I going to pick a sound to go with for this new song that I'm working on? Right.

It's too much. So anyway, I can see where he's coming from. All right, Q. Let's do the last track here. So, as I mentioned earlier, Ghostly International re-released, remastered and re-released cyanide sisters as an extended reissue with four bonus tracks. We're going to play one of those bonus tracks. And what's interesting about this one is that he incorporates vocals in this track.

I think it's probably a sample or something like that. but really cool. It sounds a little bit different than the last two tracks I played. So anyway, this song is called Pyragone. So that almost sounded more like a washed out track almost, you know? Yeah, yeah, I was thinking that too. And I like how, I don't know the proper term for this,

but I liked how long it, he drew out that middle part. Yeah, before he brought back in the drum. Yeah, he definitely teased it a couple of times. times, you know, I'm really like, it's a coming back. And that's, I think we've talked about that before, with electronic music. It's always about layering, taking away, and bringing back.

I mean, shit. That's not like that's unique to electronic music, that, you know, formula or whatever. But with electronic music, for some reason, it's just more satisfying. I mean, I don't know what to say. When it comes back, like, there's, you know. It's the money shot.

Yeah, sure. Yeah, if you want to get fucking grotesque. about it. Anyway, so what's interesting, just around the same time that he put out this record, he had done some remixes for Neon Indian and Twin Shadow. I don't know if we've talked about neon Indian yet on this podcast. Yeah, we've talked about him, dude. Yeah. I feel like we brought him up during the undoing of David Wright episode. Probably. Yeah, probably. Yeah. Anyway, so yeah, Tom Trues has been making music ever since. He put out a new record. fairly recently. I think it was either last year or the year before. He came out with a record,

yeah, last year called the Persuasion System. But anyway, I think more so than a lot of him, like I said, he's kind of a mixture between Tycho or like boards of Canada or something like that, and some of these more like on the nose synth wave artists like Kivinsky. I feel like sometimes it can really easily be like too over the top and to the irony being is that like part of synth wave is about like nodding to some of these 80s cliches you know right but I feel like a lot of the the synth wave artists are just over the top about it you know to the point of being cliche which is ironic right you know you mentioned that and it reminds me of I was trying very hard to explain vapor wave and that's what vapor wave

wave is, but it's on the 90s. Yeah. Yeah, 80s, 90s, but they do it purposely over the top. And yeah, like you're saying, that's a turnoff for you. Well, just sometimes it can be like, okay, yeah, I see what you're doing there. It's not the same. And that's what true vapor wave is and it's on purpose to the point where it's like, what am I even listening to right now?

Right, exactly. Yeah, let me just, because I'm barring a lot from this right up here from ghost because this is this is this is related to what we're talking about right now says here while many of calm truzes contemporaries mine nostalgia as an end unto itself the princeton new jersey bedroom producer recombines older musical forms as a means of expressing something deeper and more ambitious building a carefully conceived picture of the artist's vibrant inner world so there you go like And again, what I like about this is they mentioned that he was a bedroom producer, much like Tycho was, Scott Hansen.

But yeah, that's what I like. What they said to me sums it up nicely. Either you use it as an end unto itself, as in you're doing it just because you're, it's almost a gimmick or whatever, you're doing it without actually seeing anything unique, you know, versus artists like Comtrus who tap into that nostalgia, but go further with it. You know what I mean? Expressing something deeper. That's what we've always talked about as far as all these artists out there, especially

in the last decade, which we covered on our decade recap episode. A lot of indie artists are, you know, borrowing from the past, but it's about what can you do with it? You know what I mean? How can you make it better or improve upon it? or say something unique with it, you know what I mean? To make it new, but still nostalgic, you know? Right, to breathe new life into those old-ass keyboards.

There you go, making those keyboards come to life. All right. All right, Q, so that's the first episode in our electronic month and beyond. I love it, man. Yeah, I think that's a good intro. and I don't know what we're going to do next, but it's either going to stay in the exact same vein because I have a Comtreu's sidetrack that I could dust off here for us,

or we'll talk about another artist. You know what? I just answered my own question in my head. Let's talk about a different artist next week. I think more so than anything, I want to cover as much ground as possible on the four plus episodes. that we devote to electronic music.

So next week, we're going to talk about a artist that goes by architect, spelled with a Q at the end, EQ, architect. And I'm fucking stoked about that record, man. I don't know shit about architect, man. Okay. Well, it's sort of in the same vein, but really not. He's not synth wave at all. But he definitely nods to like 70s disco and like 80s synth stuff.

but with sort of a down tempo undercurrent, you know. So anyway, we'll do that next week. But for now, Q, it's time for what she hurts. So you want to go first? You want me to go first? I'll go first. I got something ready to get it. Did you hear it on K-E-X-P?

No. I was on Spotify and I pressed play on Kronben Radio. Okay. who, you know, we brought up Crongwin a few times. Yep. One of my favorite bands from the last decade for sure. This band is definitely in that vein. They go by Orion's Belt,

Belt with an E at the end. Have you heard of these guys? No, I have not. They're in that same, like, blues, I don't, you know, old 70s rock blues, heavy on the instrumental tracks. Most of what they put out as instrumental. I just gotta play the tune, dude.

There's no way to really describe it. This is a three-track EP that they released last year. The EP is called Slim. I'm gonna play track two. And pardon me because I hate my Spanish dialect is shit. But I'm gonna try my best here. This song is called Tudel que voce

podi yeah so cute here's what I thought of you remember that band Yawning Man that we talked about dude I was about to bring them up man it's that desert rock I don't know like

it's got like that Santa Fe I don't know why how a city yeah but no like desert provokes the sound but yeah like summer desert desert yeah

the sun but yeah you know Yawning Man was one of the kind of like the founding fathers of desert rock. And yeah, they had a very similar vibe, very guitar-driven instrumental music, right? Yeah.

Yeah, I like it. It's good stuff, dude. They've got a full-length album that they came out with in 2018 called Mint. And if you like that track, dude, just press play out on track one from that album, Mint. And you'll be in heaven, dude. Yeah, so that's Orion's Belt. That song was called Spanish Words.

there you all right dude what you got for us brother what you've been heard in lately did you say the track is called Spanish words yes yes

I didn't want to it's called tuto kevoche podia ser pretty good that's the best I got for you man

pretty good all right so what you've been heard into lately brother all right Q we're going to just go right back to electronic music

for this one so this guy he goes by many names. He has literally 19 aliases on Wikipedia. But I know him as Lego Weld, one word. Lego Weld. Lego Weld?

Hang on a second, dude. Now, does that, is that in reference to the welt that you get on your foot when you step on a Lego? My mind didn't go to that at all. Maybe. Well, that's where mine went. Okay, maybe. Probably not, but maybe. So anyway, this guy is a Dutch electronic musician. His real name is Danny Wolfers. I don't know if that's a birth name, but anyway. Now, we were talking about all the different subgenres of electronic music. Listen to this. This is how he describes himself. a hybrid form of slam jack combined with deep Chicago house

romantic ghetto techno funk and Euro horror soundtrack okay what was the first thing you said slam jack I don't know what slam jack I don't know but whatever it is you're about to hear some slam jack it could be like one particular song it looks like maybe I just want to hear some slam jack

Nicholas slam jack James maybe. Anyway, I just Google slam jack and nothing really is coming up here. Oh, it's the name of a song by a dance electronic musician. So maybe that's what it is. Maybe this song is so well known that it's kind of become its own sound. I mean, I'm familiar with flap jacks, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I do know. But slam jack's not familiar with that.

I do know what you're saying. So I've been a fan of his. I've listened to a couple of his tracks just here and there. I've never really dove in to anything beyond just hearing some stuff on like, you know, radio plays on Spotify and stuff like that, you know. You might listen. You might like this artist if you like this artist kind of stuff, you know. But I pushed play on his 2012 record, The Paranormal Soul. And it was digging it from right from the rip.

So we're going to listen to track one. It's called Danger in the Air. The fact is that I amnesia and hatching and a fight against violence. I pride myself, he'll take me a punch, and I'll gladly take nothing because I choose to live my life like company of guiding and king. My decisions are global. I reject absolutely revenge, aggression, aggression, and retaliation. Yeah, dude, I felt like I was in like the sub-level leading up to, like, the main boss of that level. Yeah, it almost sounds like some of the Shinobi stuff, the Shinobi soundtrack that I was talking about earlier.

Are you going to have to do a sidetrack on the Shinobi soundtrack at this point? Maybe, maybe. We've brought up Shinobi enough times. Maybe. Let's, yeah. I mean, maybe we'll do that next week. I don't know. I mean, we've started doing what you heards on side tracks.

Maybe that should just be my what you heard. Because I'm probably going to listen to Shinobi. Dude, I pull it up all the time. It's great. Well, there you go, man. That was great, dude. Yeah. I'm into it.

Is that what he's all about? Well, I mean, like I said, he produces music under so many different names. I have no idea what his other projects sound like. But like I said, under Lego Weld, he sounds, you know, it's very similar to that. And yeah, it's just you put it on and just let it let it. it's just great, man. Really good music for working, for concentrating. Kind of like heavy metal. Like, to me, I feel like I can concentrate and focus more when music with a faster tempo like this and like metal, you know. How the fuck do you concentrate listening to heavy metal, dude?

I don't know what to tell you, man, but I can. It just gets me in this groove and this mindset, you know. Crazy. So anyway, yeah, great track. And, you know, it sounds like some of the stuff we were talking about earlier, like the 80s since and stuff. But it's very modern. He's not trying to sound like, it sounds more modern than Comptu's for sure. He's not trying to add on to the Fletch Lives soundtrack.

Right. He's not trying to put his own spin on the Fletch Lives soundtrack. You wouldn't expect, even though we talk about how it kind of sounds like, of like a video game soundtrack. You wouldn't expect to hear a song like that, you know, on, on the unreleased tracks from the Terminator score or something like that, you know what I mean? Right, right, right, right. Or a John Comber film.

It's his own, it's unique enough to, to stand aside from synth wave. Because like I said, it's just, just a classic, classic slam jack song, you know. Classic slam jack. Yep. All right, man. All right, man. Yeah, it was great. Good episode.

Lots of good tunage. I even got to blow your mind, cue, and reveal to you that John Carpenter does his own scores. I mean, I can't believe you didn't know that. I probably did know that. Probably knew that. It's just something like, you know, like I see like John Carpenter's Halloween. Right. But, you know, I didn't realize that he was dropping the tunage as well.

Dude, you know, he's my favorite sci-fi horror. film of all time. The thing. His rematch, he's his, his, his version of it. He's, he's, he's known for much more than just Halloween. Have you ever seen that film, Q? Nope. It's got Kurt Russell in it. It's fucking. I don't think it's got some of the best, uh, special effects in, in cinema history, for sure. All right, Q, so, uh, you know, you can find this, uh, on the Pian Pantheon Music Network, where you could find many other great music-centric podcasts. That's pantheonpodcast.com. Or you can check out our website, no filler podcast.com, where you can find show notes,

where we list out all the tracks that we covered on each episode, as well as links to articles that we mentioned or videos, if we mentioned videos. And that's that, man. We will see you guys, and by C, I mean, we will talk to you and you will listen to us. We'll be fucking slam jacking you next week. We'll slam. We're going to be slam jacking your earbuds next week.

We're going to slam jack at you next week with another electronic tune or two. Maybe three. Probably three. All right. That's, yeah. Okay. That's us. All right.

That's us. You and me. All right. We'll talk at you guys next week. My name is Travis. And I'm Gwen. Later.