Power Glove’s new song, “PUNKER,” is getting a lot of heat from retrosynth fans who think “it’s not 80s enough.” It’s true: It’s not a song with much of its soul in the 1980s.
That’s fine, though. The song is awesome. It’s like a marriage of the sultry dark R&B of The Wedidit Collective’s Purple and the debased hymns of Michigan-based witch house group SALEM. I enjoy both artists immensely and applaud Power Glove for taking a step in a different direction.
On “PUNKER,” there are big, dark choirs, netherworld synthesizers, guttural grunts and sexy moans, and a bass line that’s so in-heat you have to spray cold water on it so it doesn’t get you dirty. The drum-machine rhythm has a swagger to it. After the song’s over, you’ll want to play it again simply because the 5-minute flirtation feels like it has only just begun.
Overall, I’m glad the Power Glove duo are branching out. They’ve already done what they could in the synthwave world: After all, they scored Far Cry 3, a massively popular video game, and — short of film scores — certainly that’s one of the ultimate ends for a lot of synthwavers.
Skeptics need to try the song a couple times before they throw out their Power Glove records. You too can be seduced by the Australian duo’s dungeon experiment.
The full EP, EPII, is also on SoundCloud.
