Another new ep/mini-album from Robel Synthesia, this one's concept simply being a silky glide through a night-time - maybe one of his, maybe several fleeting episodes stitched together, and the result is his strongest material yet. As a general law of the world which I submit to, everything good happens after dark, and here on Midnight Polaroids nightfall has brought out Robel's punchiest beats coupled with his strongest hooks and sense of chiming melody to date. Across his three releases there has been a steady build of assurance and ability, experimenting with concepts and working out what he's doing with his craft and it's becoming a very interesting path to watch him follow.
This new release has more of a hypnogogic pop bent to it, along the lines of James Ferraro's recent Far Side Virtual, the playful melodies fizz with the effervescence of bright-lit daytime TV themes, blurred into life through a semi-conscious state of recollection - in Ferraro's case it's pretty much conjured from his own warped mind, but here's the a definite sense of inebriation and narcotic intervention serving as the dividing line between what is real and what is illusionary here. Robel doesn't go so far as to create an alternate world-view with his work, he is more concerned with documenting and reflecting his realities, as with his previous album Neon Island which which his musical analysis of his obsession with the sun.
Streetlamp Waves starts the ep off on a hyper note, late sinking into the slow cool of Polaroids, Light Echoes and Taxi Colours both take the dreaminess of his previous eps and let the moon cast them in silvery relief, collecting the giddy expectations as an evening begins, the social carousing of the night club and introverted back-seat taxi ride home in the form of glittery amphetamine beats, Ativan coded synths and dopamine rousing drones.
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