Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: New Wave Syria
Label: Self-released
Release: 2013
Length: 34:05
Rating: 4/5
New Wave Syria is the duo of Urša Golob and Rok Pezdirc. They blend electronic music with alternative rock, and the label indie-tronica might just be a good first shorthand for the musical substance they serve up.
»Hello, Yes«, the EP that came out four years ago, was clearly no fluke. With their first proper full-length studio effort, the duo has deepened and widened the creative reach of their musical vision. New Wave Syria build on ambient hypnosis. It’s rooted in minimalism, and the sound is often downright banal in its bareness, but that’s exactly the band’s ace: they manage to weave a tight sphere of moods in the sonic landscape, moods that call for switching off your consciousness and surrendering completely to the flow of the musical information. Repeating motifs are business as usual for them, drawing parallels with post-rock moves, while the main architect of the soundscape is the sound of eighties synths and programmed loops, DIY in feel, with the bleeps of the first computer games for ZX Spectrum, Commodore and/or Atari machines often poking through. That evokes plenty of parallels with the »new wave« movement, even a soulful kinship with New Order (Shut My Eyes). The alternative streak is driven home by Urša’s vocal diktats, run through a »telephone booth« effect, at times bordering on shrill, girlish yelling, deliberately annoying. Exactly what an alternative approach needs. That’s another way New Wave Syria confirm that their music is meant for a narrow circle of chosen listeners, the ones drawn to the musical »underground«.
The opener Second Nature, riding the wave of a repeating lead synth motif, is instantly infectious in its ear-friendly frequency ranges. An effect like that quickly seduces the listener with its charisma. A peculiar world of a musical universe opens up, which is the band’s whole point. To pull you into their world. Out Of Ammo, next up, is basically the lead motif of the opener Second Nadure with minimal tweaks, joined by hip-hop-flavored electronic rhythms. The music was created over the summer and is a genuine imprint of cerebrally dreamy feelings, strung together in sharp contrasts of the warm colors of summertime.
New Wave Syria are a textbook »self-grown« act. In a sound that offers the band’s own distinctive character, it’s not hard to pick out the great resourcefulness of the DIY principle, while a deliberately restrained »low fidelity« noise adds a warm palette of character to the otherwise synthetic electronic design of the expressive backdrops, a noise that clearly announces that New Wave Syria’s music is best consumed live. Speaking of the »do it yourself« character of the music, the album’s IDM charisma ties in quite logically (alongside the electronic beat). It’s linked first and foremost to the generation of homegrown authorial experiment (and »Summer« is teeming with it), as well as to characterful borrowing from well-established genres (danceable rhythmic content). Given all this, it’s easy to conclude that New Wave Syria have actually tapped into the current worldwide pulse of the »underground« of dance electronics. The instrumental-rhythmic design is so intelligent that even the forever-bonkers, alluring excess of the »eternal auntie in opposition« Björk could plug right into it.
The duo New Wave Syria is a lovely new addition to the Slovenian musical underground. They’ve effectively carried over the current pulse of the scene worldwide in the genre they represent. At the same time they form a kind of gravitational axis in our corner of the world, one we can hope will gather around it a bunch of stylistically similar projects and bands with an appealingly provocative experiment in an electronic-ambient vein. Let’s hope these acts become permanently linked into a movement of their own. »Summer« is a story that keeps its ending open. That’s why it carries plenty of optional development threads for New Wave Syria’s future creative adventures. In other words, this is a band that will surely deliver even more homegrown musical substance down the road.
Lineup
Urša Golob – vocals, programming
Rok Pezdirc – programming
Production
New Wave Syria
Tracklist
1. Second Nature
2. Out Of Ammo
3. X(I)O
4. Hipster Than Hip
5. Not Impressed
6. Beat Me Up
7. Bang
8. Shut My Eyes
9. Glow
