Today’s edition of The List finds us in the world of some familiar faces and others newly gracing these pages. Dive in.
Makeup and Vanity Set & Sferro — “Daikatana”
The synthwave pioneers are teaming up again for a new forthcoming album, Ravefinder, the followup to 2023’s similarly named and eminently memorable Wavefinder. “Daikatana,” a single off the new record, continues the duo’s journey into datawave. The beats slam around like a drum machine that can’t tell time and the sharp-edged synths move around the mix with beautiful aggression, unfurling catchy melodies that manifest with galactic ease. It’s a fascinating window into what will come. (As an aside, this would make for a pretty killer TV series theme song.) The single is available now on Bandcamp and streamers.
Danz CM — LÄRM! EP
I’ve been a fan of the LA-based, NY-born Danz since her Computer Magic days and collabs with my pals Le Matos. When she launched the immensely popular Synth History during the COVID-19 pandemic, I was instantly in awe of her multidisciplinary artistic talent (and professionally envious that she so quickly turned SH into a massively popular print and online media entity featuring interviews with the likes of Suzanne Ciani, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Ryuichi Sakamoto and others). All of her forms of artistic expression show immense talent. She is a bona fide renaissance person. On LÄRM! she outdoes herself, though. The seven-cut EP finders her delving into warm, analogue kosmische territory that would make Klaus Schulze and Manuel Göttsching proud. The arrangements are on the experimental side — “larm” means “noise” in German and some other Germanic languages, after all — but still in the DNA of the pieces’ synthscapes, arps, noise, and tiny beats is Danz’s unassailable ability to write hooks. When paired with the various and sundry physical musical and literary formats on offer, LÄRM! is a holistic and inherently human artistic expression that furthers Danz’s legacy as an artist to cherish and remember.
Glitbiter — “Bury the Sky”
LA-based Glitbiter (AKA Florence Bullock) has made a name for herself crafting dark and compelling synthwave and adjacent music for years (and had a pretty sick turn with Parallels a while back). She’s been a bit quiet recently, but this fall she returned with the excellent “Bury the Sky.” It has all the hallmarks of a Glitbiter cut: Bullock’s captivating, nuanced vocals; a kinetic rhythm; and gorgeous synths and soundscaping. However, there’s something about this track that places it much more in the 1990s than her previous fare. Perhaps the chord progression and arrangement and choice of synth patches reminds me of ’90s Depeche Mode — some hybrid of the synthier sides of Songs of Faith and Devotion and Ultra. Whatever is at the core here, this mid-tempo cut is good and you should head over to Bandcamp and buy it. You can stream it, of course, too.
Dave Porter — Pluribus (Apple Original Series Score Vol. 1)
Vince Gilligan’s return to sci-fi — he wrote some scripts for The X-Files before creating Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul — finds the inimitable Rhea Seehorn starring in a spin on the classic bodysnatchers story. (I’m understating things. The show is incredible. There’s not much like it.) Dave Porter is to Gilligan as Cliff Martinez is to Refn or Soderbergh or as John Williams is to Spielberg: in both Gilligan series plus the El Camino film, Porter has been a key part of the storytelling’s success. The screenplays, performances, and production are extraordinary in and of themselves, but Porter adds the final (and crucial) ingredient. The Pluribus score is available on streamers via Milan Records. The second volume will release on Dec. 26, the same day the show’s season finale drops on AppleTV+.
