Static aka Joseph Ling is an artist from Melbourne, Australia who recently released Turn the Light On. He plays into a popular sound of bands like M83, The Chromatics and movies like Drive decided to embrace. Ling flirts with airy synth pop and post-punk of the ’80s. Ling utilizes a lot of the essential elements such as 808 sounding drum kits and airy synths which seem like they came from a Roland D-50.
He immediately establishes what this album is going to sound like on “Turn the Light On.” The aesthetics are dead on and familiar as long as you have heard the genre before. The opener was good but I really enjoyed “Next Time” which contains some great synth sounds and most importantly a memorable hook. His vocals actually reminded me of Ian Curtis on this song at least during the verse. “Haunted” actually doesn't sound like the title. It’s a very bright song. That being said I could barely hear the vocals at points. He displays some melancholy and introspection on “Marlowe Drive” which was a nice change in pace. He does a great job on “Adulthood” by adding some hefty low end and continuing with the introspection and melancholy. He brings up the energy more on “Walk Away.” I really liked this song which is sort of ambiguous. It’s dark but not always and does a balancing out of combining different emotional energies. “Forever” and “Is Anyone There?” are solid songs while “Evaporate” is the most ambient sounding song in the batch. He closes with a highlight entitled “Falling Apart” which has a great mix and one of the best vocal performances on the album. The album certainly veered towards lo-fi and the engineer side of me wanted some more fidelity and clarity on a number of songs. Overall, I thought there were some well written songs and it will appeal to fans of the genre. Take a listen.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Critique/insightWe are dedicated to informing the public about the different types of independent music that is available for your listening pleasure as well as giving the artist a professional critique from a seasoned music geek. We critique a wide variety of niche genres like experimental, IDM, electronic, ambient, shoegaze and much more.
Are you one of our faithful visitors who enjoys our website? Like us on Facebook
Archives
May 2024
|