The Darker Side of Synths with Pegase, James Rutledge, Future Islands and Ben Sollee

Tim

16 years ago

With the cold spell and the rain coming back to our shores, now seems a perfect time to showcase a few of the artists that showcase the other, slower, deeper and darker side of electronic music.

Pegase starts of the mix with a track that has soundtracked some of my more personal and introspective moments over the last few months after Bec over at Electrorash picked him up. Slow epic and atmospheric electronic movements demonstrating his skill makes Pegase one of the most exciting electronic artists of the moment.

Shark Speed offer a more positive note, but slower and more precise synth piece, with what sound like reversed drum crescendoing throughout to help the song build. Beautiful.

The Deer Tracks have a more chaotic sound to them that in parts remind me of Meursault, but this is all bedtime story electronic rather than moving in the folk direction.

James Rutledge seems to be getting a good amount of well deserved attention at the moment, as he lends his expansive electric atmospheric soundscapes that meander around its theme

Fever Ray offer a very simple song structure with constant reverberating bass and slow rhythm with that builds itself into your consciousness.

Future Islands here display their softer side in this ballad that could almost be Sigur Ross if it wasn’t for a vocal line that could be from a song from the 50s.

The Thrills have been remixed by the wonderful Sebastien Tellier to turn their pure pop ballad from a year or two ago with smooth sweeping synth gestures which brings a new emotional depth to the song.

Alaska in Winter keep a repetitive drum thump throughout this track in which the vocoded vocals blend into the synth melody which is one of my favourite songs for the 6am comedown shift.

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone were previously featured on my summer playlist but here they play a ballad love lost with distorted drums to maintain their disjointed sound and keeping the song relatively upbeat.

James Delay picks up the rhythm a bit, with plenty of brass samples but staying with the slower and more relaxed feel that would be called “chill out” if that hadn’t become such a dirty term over the past couple of years.

Ben Sollee‘s abilities of penning lyrics and vocal melodies with depth and yet catchy are demonstrated to fantastic effect in this Computer v Banjo Remix.

You can also download the whole mix as a zip file:
The Darker Side of Synths