I know. I know. I post so rarely these days. I’m not on the release cycle or probably everyone else’s timeline. That said, I still listen to music and still want to show folks said art. This time around I’m recommending five albums that are rather different from each other. What binds them together is their impeccably high quality. (Natch.) Dive in, friends.
Nat Walker — Soft Sculpture
You’ve heard Walker’s music in films, TV shows, bar jukeboxes, car stereos, advertisements, and all points between. From the mid-2000s to 2021, the humble but profoundly talented Walker was a drummer and synth player in Chromatics, a band his brother Adam Miller co-founded around 25 years ago in Seattle but which you know well from their forays into Twin Peaks and Drive. He was also in Chromatics’ Italians Do It Better sibling acts Symmetry and Desire, with his contributions all over even Johnny Jewel’s solo work. In this decade, when he’s not teaming up with his wife, former Glass Candy frontwoman Ida No, in the extraordinary Fawn, he’s making chilled-out, late-night beats laced with jazzy cool-cat struts and ambient synthscapes.
On new album Soft Sculpture, Walker changes things up. Rather than a beat-driven, lofi laidback night affair, it’s more of a metaphysical dive into the liminal. The soundscapes are grander and more orchestral; essentially, it’s cinematic at its core and would work well as the backdrop to mind expansion or the score for a cerebral picture. You can buy it via Bandcamp or stream it via the usuals.
(BTW: If you want to catch up on what former Chromatics members Ruth Radelet, Adam Miller, and Nat Walker have been up to — together or on their own — I put together an article last spring that showcased some of their recent releases as of the time of that article’s publication.)
Slow Pulp — Melodie
When I first heard “Better Man,” my entire being shattered and reorganized. When I ventured into the full album, it was clear to me that the Wisconsin-spun four piece is one of the strongest bands we have out there right now. They blend the better parts of indie and bedroom rock with grand earnestness and some 1990s grit. Nostalgia for that unique decade is robust these days, but Slow Pulp is sure to not get lost in the sauce. You can snag digital and physical forms from various retailers, and of course engage in some streaming if that’s your thing. (I have the CD, fwiw, but there are a couple vinyl variants and a cassette, too.) They’re currently on tour.
Charanjit Singh — Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat
It’s what the title suggests. The late Mumbai-based maestro pairs classic ragas performed on Roland synths with some propulsive Moroder-esque disco beats, and the result is demonstrably sick. (And notably, cross-genre: there are many moments when this thing comes off as acid house.) In true Light in the Attic fashion, the physical package for the reissue of this 1982 masterpiece is an exquisite offering of a 20-page, full-color book and a stellar pressing courtesy of Optimal Media. Pre-order on vinyl and buy now on CD via LITA.
Miami Nights 1984 — Lords of Netscape
The British Columbia-based Miami Nights 1984 helped pioneer synthwave more than 15 years ago, and in many ways this soundtrack-to-a-film-not-yet-made feels like the classic synthwave era of around 2009-2015. Both the album art and the 25 tracks themselves belong in the burgeoning subgenre of synthwave I’ll call “nostalgicwave.” Essentially, this is music and visual art that make one “nostalgic for nostalgia,” or well, nostalgic for classic synthwave. I’m talking about a time when even the popularity of Drive and the genre’s heavy features in Danny McBride projects couldn’t bring the genre into the mainstream in a way that the breakthrough years of 2016 and 2017 did — thinking of Stranger Things, among others. I’m not saying that MN84 (aka Michael Glover) is rehashing the sounds he helped reinvent, but rather he’s course-correcting the genre from its increasingly bland (and AI-polluted) modernity.
The album, which includes some songs from this year’s Disk 1, features collaborations with WOLFCLUB, Droid Bishop, New Arcades, System Glow, and Phaserland, along with some skits that include synthwave star Michael Oakley, and Andy Last and Marko Maric (of the Beyond Synth show). You can buy it straight from MN84’s Bandcamp page or stream it through the usual platforms.
Matthew Pusti — Onslaught (Original Motion Picture Score)
Adam Wingard’s latest film, Onslaught, was an energetic and delightfully gory sci-fi affair. One element I really loved about it is that Matthew Pusti (better known as Makeup and Vanity Set) finally got to do a full score for a Wingard flick. The result is a strong blend of Pusti’s talented musical compositions and sound design. You can find it streaming, but more importantly, A24 is offering the vinyl on pre-order right now and the particular variant is particularly killer.
BONUS: Paul Parker’s killer Strong LP reissue.
Blacklight Revenant’s catchy post-punk/disco “I Can’t See Why.”
For all editions of The List, walk this way.
