I wasn’t alive in the 80s. There’s a significant chance (>80%) that you weren’t either. But here we are, in some kind of toxic digitized hellscape, drowing in total simulacra. We’re obsessed with what the 80s was—or could have been—as we constantly seek a suitable outlet for our insatiable desire for nostalgia. Debo Sanyal, a Siliguri, India-based synth wunderkid, is committed to the cause, but more interested in complete immersion into 80s synthpop and its omnipotent visual and auditory byproducts.
For someone like Sanyal, who crafts towering, electronic landscapes as Dreamhour, synthpop is a method of creating an immersive narrative, complete with “a megacity ruled by a vampire cult,” heroes, VLLNS and more. Rather than using this sort of instantly transportive music to evoke mood or “vibes,” VLLNS is contained in its own insular, dystopian universe, where filtered voices, brightly-colored keyboards and rapid-fire drum machine patterns are the only remaining components available for creation.
From start to finish, this immaculate new release for New Retro Wave carries the listener through a dense fog of heady instrumentals (“Eat. Snot. Riot.”), captivating hooks (“Blood Patrol”) and druggy interludes (“Heart This”) alike. A must-bump for sensory overload-lovers, carjackers and malevolent creatures of the night.
Watch video montages set to tracks from VLLNS here:
More about: Dreamhour
