New episode of Synthentral is now online!
Today’s episode features music by KMFDM, Provision, T.O.Y., Run Vaylor, Melotron, Psyborg Corp., Insight, Cyborgdrive, ohGr, Systemshock, After The Rain, Mental Discipline, Heaven’s Elegance, Totem Obscura, Carved Souls, Division, Blinky Blinky Computerband, Syncfactory, PTI, Cabaret Voltaire, SPECTRA*paris, JG And The Robots, Cubanate, Michigan, Lords Of Acid, West Nile, Science And The Beat, and Antilav!
Just click on the synthesizer below to listen!
New episode of Synthentral, a stream of synth-based music, is now online!
Today’s episode features music by Rename, MNYNMS, 3FORCE, Invoke The Insult, Rare Fracture, Massive Ego, Dead Man Recovering, Dead Astronauts, Daniel Capo, Brutalist Architecture In The Sun, Battery Cage, AEC, T3rr0r 3rr0r, Schwarzblut, Maralian, Mental Discipline, Logic & Olivia, Vision Talk, Restricted Area, Cesium 137, Sero.Overdose, Razorfade, Technoir, Killing Joke, Marnie, Title, and Seelennacht
Just click on the synthesizer below to listen to the stream!
I’m in love with No Man’s Sky. If you’re an avid action game player, this game may not be for you. Don’t get me wrong, I love my action games, but I also like games that allow unlimited exploring. NMS is massive in scale when it comes to exploring. Hello Games said that even after everyone’s done playing it years down the road, 99% of all star systems will still be undiscovered. That’s some serious scope. It also means I’m dedicated to finding as many star systems as I can, even going “off mission” to do it!
There is action (just not mission-to-mission driven action like in most games). On some planets the Sentinals will attack you on sight. On others you can choose to attach them if you’re really desperate for some action. There are predators on some planets that will attack you if you’re not careful. And space pirates! You gotta defend yourself against them. You can also choose to defend freighters being attacked by space pirates when they put out a distress call (this increases your standing with that alien species).
The game isn’t perfect. I’d change a few things if I could. Primarily, I’d change the space scanner so that it identifies major resources and planet conditions from orbit. The space scanner only detects “anomalies” and sometimes a single building in a star system (your suit scanner (if installed) is more powerful than the one in your spaceship). It’s kinda useless in that sense.
I’d also change the dog fighting. Most of the ships you can salvage from crash sites or buy at space stations/land ports have super slow maneuverability and by the time you turn around to fire at the oncoming ship, they’re right on top of you, firing beams and cannons and you’re taking pretty heavy damage. You constantly have to repair your shields (if you don’t get killed while trying to repair it, as the repair screen is not a pause screen). So make sure you keep plenty of ingredients on board in a storage slot just for shield repairs.
And did you notice the synth soundtrack? Oh yeah!
So in honor of No Man’s Sky, here’s a bunch of music about, well, the sky!
ARTIST: Glis
SONG: Blue Sky Night
ALBUM: Alfa Matrix – Matrix Downloaded 004
YEAR: 2015
ARTIST: The Presets
SONG: A New Sky
ALBUM: Apocalypso
YEAR: 2008
ARTIST: The Dust of Basement
SONG: In This Sky
ALBUM: Awakening The Oceans (Deluxe Edition)
YEAR: 2004
ARTIST: Rhea’s Obsession
SONG: Between Earth And Sky
ALBUM: Between Earth And Sky
YEAR: 2000
ARTIST: Necro Facility
SONG: Painted Sky
ALBUM: The Black Paintings
YEAR: 2005
ARTIST: CHVRCHES
SONG: Night Sky
ALBUM: Bones Of What You Believe, The (Deluxe Edition)
YEAR: 2013
ARTIST: Book of Love
SONG: Yellow Sky
ALBUM: Book of Love
YEAR: 1986
ARTIST: Killing Joke
SONG: A Southern Sky
ALBUM: Brighter Than A Thousand Suns
YEAR: 1986
ARTIST: The Human League
SONG: Sky
ALBUM: Credo
YEAR: 2011
ARTIST: Psyche
SONG: Skywalking
ALBUM: Daydream Avenue
YEAR: 1991
ARTIST: Information Society
SONG: The Sky Away
ALBUM: Don’t Be Afraid
YEAR: 1997
ARTIST: Covenant
SONG: Liquid Sky
ALBUM: Europa
YEAR: 1998
ARTIST: Mental Discipline
SONG: Multilight Sky
ALBUM: Fallen Stars (CD Single)
YEAR: 2011
ARTIST: Distant Project
SONG: Flower in the Sky
ALBUM: Flower in the Sky EP
YEAR: 2009
ARTIST: Twice a Man
SONG: Chiba Sky
ALBUM: Fungus & Sponge (A Dreamlike Exspansion In The Audiofield)
YEAR: 1993
ARTIST: Martyn Bailey
SONG: Red Sky Supernova
ALBUM: Gravity Zero
YEAR: 2013
ARTIST: Days of Fate
SONG: Open Sky
ALBUM: Home-Made Cake Of The Day (Deluxe Edition)
YEAR: 2003
ARTIST: Syrian
SONG: The Night Sky
ALBUM: Kosmonauta (Limited Edition)
YEAR: 2005
Time to put MediaMonkey on shuffle again and see what comes out. Remember, I do this in the hopes of introducing people to new bands. So if you hear something you like, go buy their CD and go to their local shows!
Originally done by Bauhaus, this is a really good cover that adds more electronic to the song.
ARTIST: You Shriek
SONG: Bela Lugosi’s Dead
ALBUM: Bela Lugosi’s Dead
YEAR: 1993
ARTIST: Lush
SONG: Superblast!
ALBUM: Spooky
YEAR: 1992
ARTIST: Rupesh Cartel
SONG: Another Damage
ALBUM: The Disco And The What Not
YEAR: 2007
ARTIST: Mental Discipline
SONG: Shine On Me
ALBUM: Constellation
YEAR: 2012
ARTIST: Dirty Vegas
SONG: Changes (Julien Nolan And Red-Eye Remix)
ALBUM: Electric Love (Special Edition)
YEAR: 2011
ARTIST: Stabbing Westward
SONG: Save Yourself
ALBUM: Darkest Days
YEAR: 1998
ARTIST: The Smiths
SONG: Hand In Glove
ALBUM: The Smiths
YEAR: 1984
ARTIST: Thermostatic
SONG: Close Your Eyes
ALBUM: Joy-Toy
YEAR: 2006
ARTIST: Deine Lakaien
SONG: Forest
ALBUM: Forest Enter Exit
YEAR: 1993
ARTIST: Midnight Oil
SONG: Antarctica
ALBUM: Blue Sky Mining
YEAR: 1990
ARTIST: Decoded Feedback
SONG: Technophoby
ALBUM: Overdosing
YEAR: 1996
Not all of my friends liked this album by E&B because Ian wasn’t the lead singer for this album. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ian’s vocals, but this album was equally good musically and I liked the vocals on this one as well.
ARTIST: Echo and the Bunnymen
SONG: Flaming Red
ALBUM: Reverberation
YEAR: 1990
ARTIST: Aural Vampire
SONG: Mad Sports
ALBUM: Zoltank
YEAR: 2010
ARTIST: In My Rosary
SONG: Eternal Clock
ALBUM: Under the Mask of Stone
YEAR: 1994
ARTIST: Le Cassette
SONG: Here I AM
ALBUM: Left to Our Own Devices
YEAR: 2014
ARTIST: Pet Shop Boys
SONG: Tonight Is Forever
ALBUM: Please – Further Listening 1984-1986 (Special Edition)
YEAR: 1986
ARTIST: 10,000 Maniacs
SONG: A Campfire Song
ALBUM: In My Tribe
YEAR: 1987
ARTIST: John Foxx
SONG: Running Across Thin Ice With Tigers
ALBUM: The Golden Section
YEAR: 1983
I usually put this out at the end of the year, but I still had some music to import into my library and wanted to make sure I had everyone on the list!
2014 was a great year for music. It wasn’t as an amazing year as 2013 was for quantity, but what it lacked in quantity it certainly made up for with quality. A lot of great bands that I love put out new music in 2014.
I’m a huge fan of EBM, Futurepop, Industrial Dance, Synthpop, New Wave, etc. I’m always happy to see the scene continue to produce new bands and great music. And this year marked new albums by some bands a few of us older folks will recognize, like Billy Idol, Information Society, and Simple Minds!
Thanks to the following bands for putting out new stuff in 2014!
Billy Idol — Kings & Queens of the Underground
Birthday Massacre, The — Superstition
BlutEngel — Black Symphonies (An Orchestral Journey)
Bryan Ferry — Avonmore
Bush — Man on the Run
Clan of Xymox — Matters of Mind, Body and Soul
Client — Authority
Combichrist — We Love You
Cosmicity — Humans May Safely Graze
Cryo — Retropia
Diary of Dreams — Elegies in Darkness
Echo & The Bunnymen — Meteorites
Erasure — Reason EP
Erasure — Violet Flame, The
Faderhead — Atoms & Emptiness
Front Line Assembly — Echoes
Haerts — Haerts
Information Society — Hello World
Iris — Radiant
Laibach — Spectre
Live — Turn, The
Melotron — Werkschau
Mental Discipline — Butterfly EP
Mitch Murder — Interceptor
Morrissey — World Peace Is None of Your Business
New Division, The — Together We Shine
Nine Inch Nails — Recoiled
Perturbator — Dangerous Days
Peter Murphy — Lion
Phantogram — Voices
Seabound — Speak In Storms
Simple Minds — Big Music
Smashing Pumpkins — Monuments to an Elegy
St. Vincent — St. Vincent
Surveillance — Oceania
Thomas Bergersen — Sun
THYX — Super Vision
Trust, The — Joyland
Weezer — Everything Will Be Alright In the End
Whiteqube — Panic, Rage, Riot, Revolt! EP
Xenturion Prime — Mecha Rising
Blair Scott: Synthentral 