As any American youth above a certain age, I fondly remember the electronic themes of Saturday Morning cartoons and PBS kids’ entertainment. They still resonant, still echo in the chest cavity where my heart once stood. But this absence is being re-filled by Saif Mode. Reassuringly, musician Ben Hunter has even christened his latest offering Troubled Heart as if understanding the sort of heartless existence I’ve endured since the death of my childhood. His tape even goes so far as to capture the pre-techno goodness of those electric light orchestrations before “Picture Pages” was forever ruined. Troubled Heart swirls in a sea of magical synthesizers, often eschewing 80’s music tropes in favor of more robust and childlike explorations of inorganic music as life essence. A warming, energetic pulse keeps the tape moving. It brings back the pinkish hue of the skin, and eventually rediscovers the beating organ deep in my chest. Always there, but often hiding to shield itself from the rigors of adulthood. No more, says Hunter…no more. We’ve rebooted in Saif Mode.
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