Synthwave

[Peenuts]

Not a genre i'm too well acquainted with, but i recently got to heard Robert Nickson's take on it and i'm really digging it.

Post your recommendations here!

Analog 82 - Youthtopia

 

[BS_BlackScout]

Not a genre i'm too well acquainted with, but i recently got to heard Robert Nickson's take on it and i'm really digging it.

Post your recommendations here!

Analog 82 - Youthtopia

This is Nickson?? Awesome!

The Midnight feat. Timecop1983 - River of Darkness

 

[Gijs]

My favourite youtuber, Summoning Salt, uses a lot of this type of songs in his videos, notably this one:
(Not sure whether this falls under synthwave or vaporwave though, I've never been the best at discerning genres)

 

[dmgtz96]

IMO this genre started going viral around the time of Stranger Things season 1, with initial support likely dating as far back as the hype surrounding vaporwave and the announcement of Cyberpunk 2077 (and the release of other cyberpunk-y games).

This is one of my favorite tracks from synthwave. It definitely has a futuristic city, Blade Runner-esque feel to it, but it also feels like what would play in a movie cyberpunk nightclub.

Perturbator ft. Greta Link - Venger [2016]

 

[Archon]

Got to listen to a few of stunning albums in my synthwave phase. Will post those later, but first things first, Junkie XL's Distance Between Dreams OST is just pure synth heaven. It doesn't have that synthwavey 80s happy feel to it, but it's amazing nonetheless and something I can listen to all the time.

 

[Peenuts]

This is Nickson?? Awesome!

The Midnight feat. Timecop1983 - River of Darkness

I checked out their Nocturnal E.P. which this track was on. Enjoyed it, my personal picks would be Shadows and the more chilled-out Tokyo Night Train.

 

[chreddy]

So recommendations, huh? Anything by The Midnight really. Especially the stuff on their Endless Summer and Nocturnal releases. Not a single bad track on those releases if you ask me. Their newer stuff are also great, this includes their album Monsters, which was just released earlier this month.

Other than that, I really like Scandroid a lot (some people might know his more known artist name Celldweller). I recommend listening to his 2 first albums, Scandroid and Monochrome.
A few of my favorite Scandroid tracks - all youtube links. Decided to add them as links instead of embedding them, as it would easily make this post way longer that it could've been:
Datastream
Monochrome
The Force Theme
New York City Nights
Neo Tokyo (Dance With The Dead Remix)
Awakening With You (PYLOT Remix)
Thriller (PYLOT Remix)

 

[Archon]

This is what I could dig up from my Deezer favourites list.

Stranger Things OST is a good one to start with, definitely recommend it. I think I liked most of the tracks from Vol. 2.

This guy is/was responsible for the most of Vsauce YouTube channel soundtrack.

Jake Chudnow

Electronic Wave-Wave music videos, mostly chopped from public domain footage via archive.org, so my songs can exist in video form on YouTube. If you're a vid...

www.youtube.com

(Joyrides & Girls and The Dream are my favs)

We Came As We Left, by Buspin Jieber

5 track album

raftonar.bandcamp.com

(loved Dirt and Low Fog)

RR7349, by S U R V I V E

9 track album

survive.bandcamp.com

 

[Peenuts]

Been busy the past week so it's taken some time to listen through some of these:

Really impressed with The Midnight and i've checked out all their albums thus far!

Distance Between Dreams, although not synthwave, i enjoyed too, esp the more melodic synth-driven tracks: The Workx and Always Ready.

Scandroid sounds a bit too adrenaline-fuelled for my liking, although i can certainly appreciate it.

 

[Archon]

Distance Between Dreams, although not synthwave

Yeah I'm not sure how I'd classify it myself. But, it features a lot of legendary synths (some from the 80s), a modular wall and maybe some software. It's just pure synth heaven for me. If you're into this, Junkie XL had a lot of videos featuring his most used hardware synths on his YouTube channel.

 

[Peenuts]

A synthwavey track from ilan's last album. Really good! Better than his regular trance stuff in recent years

 

[brandonl]

Any good chilled synthwave?

 

[marcopm]

 

[Hensmon]

notably this one:

Man, I really enjoyed that one.

I dont know if this one below is synthwave, vapourwave or other wave style, but I like it. What is the difference between those generes?

Mitch Murder - Breeze

 

[dmgtz96]

Man, I really enjoyed that one.

I dont know if this one below is synthwave, vapourwave or other wave style, but I like it. What is the difference between those generes?

There's not much. I would say vaporwave is more ambient-oriented and has a bit of a political connotation and meme culture around it, whereas synthwave can be danceable. Both are inspired from '80s/'90s popular culture, but vaporwave draws more from

slowed-down, chopped samples of smooth jazz, elevator, R&B, and lounge music from the 1980s and 1990s

(source)

whereas synthwave also draws from house, synth, and nu-disco. Vaporwave became huge in the early 2010s with the release of Floral Shoppe, several years before Stranger Things boosted synthwave's popularity.

 

[Archon]

I'd love it if you posted some obvious examples to differentiate between the two. I thought they were the same.

 

[dmgtz96]

I'd love it if you posted some obvious examples to differentiate between the two. I thought they were the same.

Sure.
Vaporwave:

Honestly just give a listen to the entire Floral Shoppe album from 2011. It's what defined the genre:

Synthwave:

 

[Saracookiedough]

Hey nice to see some vaporwave and Synthwave on this forum! Here's one of my favorite synth tracks along with akira movie

 

[Daysleeper]

I was ALL-IN on synth/retrowave in 2017/2018. Feels like it has already had its "peak", no?


Something related to this is tracker/mod/8-bit/16bit/vgm music, which has some of the most positive creations ive heard. Really nice if you need to get picked up and put in a little bit better mood.

 

[dmgtz96]

I was ALL-IN on synth/retrowave in 2017/2018. Feels like it has already had its "peak", no?

Inspired by that other thread? haha.
Honestly, that's most likely true.