Anoraak’s highly influential 2008 EP Nightdrive With You turns 10 next month and the French artist and Valerie Collective member is marking this milestone with proper celebration.
Today, Frédéric “Anoraak” Rivière releases “Sleepless,” a track from the Nightdrive sessions that has sat in his “attic” for a decade. It’ll be featured on the 10th anniversary edition of Nightdrive, which he’s releasing with so many goodies via a Pledge Music campaign.
It’s a quintessential instrumental Anoraak cut from the era, loaded with a retro-minded array of blissful synths and a tight bounce for a rhythm. The melody is memorable and the mood evokes a neon-tinged nighttime sense of hopefulness. One listen and you can easily tell its from the early days when the Valerie Collective members were essentially inventing synthwave before anyone really called it “synthwave,” let alone had an opinion on subgenre labels.
Nightdrive With You was probably the first release from the Nantes, France-based Valerie Collective to garner widespread attention, making it to the front page of the then-crucial MySpace, the platform where much of synthwave and nostalgia-minded music got its start in the mid- to late-2000s. (Valerie founder David “College” Grellier and extended Valerie family members Electric Youth would of course later find their work on the Drive soundtrack, which would serve to amplify music lovers’ knowledge of the work of Anoraak and others in the collective such as Maethelvin and Forgotten Illusions.)
The refreshed and remastered reissue vinyl, which features the original eight tracks and previously unreleased fare from the era and popular remixes of the title cut by Grum, Fear of Tigers, and Tesla Boy, will be released on Sept. 28. The songs sound riveting in their new form — Rivière has learned a lot about production in 10 years and succeeds in using his knowledge to give the mix breathing room while retaining the original instruments and vocals. Don’t worry, these are still the songs you fell in love with.
You can pre-order Nightdrive With You today on vinyl, cassette, and/or digital download. Also next month, Rivière will return to the road with a whole new Anoraak set.
Recently, Rivière and I did a big interview to mark the 10th anniversary of Nightdrive With You. I’ll post that closer to the traditionally recognized anniversary date, Sept. 8.
Check out the Nightdrive With You 10th anniversary reissue tracklist from the records below:
To stay updated on all things Anoraak, check out his Facebook page or just keep reading Vehlinggo, which was launched in part because of Anoraak.
