"Shadowboxing" by Fragile Gods

Lyrics:

Under siege 
By unseen forces
Shadows moving on the wall
Maybe they're not there at all
Maybe they're not there at all
Under pressure
Overwhelmed
When your heart is black as coal
There is no way to mend your soul
There is no way to mend your soul

Now it's getting clearer
I'm only hitting myself in the mirror 
Shadowboxing with the wall
There’s nothing to be gained
There’s no way to win at all
I think I'm ready for a fall
I think I'm ready for a fall

Glued together
But falling apart
Walking the streets feeling adrift
Will this fog ever lift?
Will this fog ever lift?
Disconnected
Out of phase
On the outside looking in
In the game but I can’t win
In the game but I can’t win

Now I’m on the ropes
Fading fast and losing hope
There’s no one in my corner
I have no strategy
Looking in the mirror I see 
My opponent is always me
My opponent is always me

Feel the impact
Feel the strain
Hit, hit back
Feel the pain

Now I’m going down
I’m losing yet another round
All this fighting with myself
Is only wrecking my damn health
There’s no way to win at all
I think I'm ready for a fall
I think I'm ready for a fall

Shadowboxing

A piece of atmospheric electronica that blends solo piano melody lines with synth textures and motifs.

Public broadcast license available - contact me directly for a bespoke service with various edits available on request.

Subway to Saturn

Echoes of Neon

Buy CD

Echoes Of Neon

Entry in Oct/Nov 20243 4 track challenge on Loopy Pro Forum.

staring down a blank slate
looking at my shoes
can't come up late
what am I gonna do

what's my number 
what's my plan
gotta finish thing
to get to thpromised land

 he said
i've got a contest
it's got some rules
just follow these
and all will be truej

the rule is four
four and no more
don't use five
or i'll disqualify

This is my submission to the #kvraudio #OneSynthChallenge #190 featuring the VST Synth Vital from Matt Tytel.
All sounds are coming from the Synth acompanied by a number of moderate tone shaping, mixing and mastering fx. All fx free or built into the DAW. DAW is Bitwig 5.3.x. No Samples. No Postprocessing after the audio export.

What it says on the KVR-Site about still ongoing buzz around Vital: Vital - the awesome spectral morphing wavetable synth is currently at version 1.5. We last visited this beast about four years ago in OSC142 and it is still the 'goto' synth of choice for many.

Evil Clowns Took Over The World 2024【peter:H】【OSC190】

I made this track in April 2023. It features only 2 synths, although there are 8 instances of Rapture, and 2 of Ultra Analog VA-2. Its quite a minimal ambient piece, but with some glitchy synth parts, and quite a dark, dissonant vibe. I hope to include this on an ambient album release later this year.

Thanks to Petr Kratochvil for the excellent photo which I found on www.publicdomainpictures.net

Displacements

Polarised

Buy at Bandcamp

static cling

This song (Eyes in the Sky) is the second one where I’ve taken on everything, lyrics, music, mixing, the whole lot, with the lyrics inspired by the book 1984. The first was Plastic Smile, which was a bit more up-tempo. But with Plastic Smile, I feel like I didn’t quite get a proper grip on the song and ended up rushing to release it.

Eyes in the Sky

I went down a daft punk/disco/italo/house rabbit hole and it led me here.

My Remedy

M 132.7

Sequoia River

I put this together in April 2024, but circumstances have once again caused the delay of its release. This was the first track I made using the Crow Hill Vaults Beta Celest-a-tone and Attic Grand. There is a lot of reverb in use here, but less than I used on an earlier iteration of this piece.

It's a piece of music in two contrasting parts - descending darkness and emerging light.

Conflicted

Celeste

Fragile Gods, the New York-based dark synthpop project of Frederick Frantz, creates flowing retrosynth tunes with minimal, atmospheric arrangements and unique vocals often backed with rich female harmonies. Their music, sounding as if it came from a cassette from another era, evokes the sounds of classic synthpop and industrial bands. 

In 2023, Fragile Gods released their long-awaited full length album, "Dark Water." Meticulously crafted over four years, the album features a diverse range of tracks, from the danceable to the surreal. Throughout the album, Frantz's vocals are both emotive and haunting, delivering lyrics that explore dreams, longing, and alienation. 

In 2019, Fragile Gods returned with their second EP, "Cold Comfort," and a new approach. The poppier elements which were hinted at on the prior release were now more to the front. Frantz's vocals are more melodic and less distorted. However, not all the rough edges have been sanded off as witnessed by "Step Outside the Frame." 

The band's 2015 debut "The Future Never Came" was influenced by the likes of 80s EBM bands Nitzer Ebb and Cabaret Voltaire with occasional synthpop elements surfacing. 

Fragile Gods is a band that is constantly evolving, creating a retro-futuristic sound that is both unique and timeless.