Ninsei

For A Better Tomorrow

For a full immersion in the 80s, listen on the speaker system.

TCR 34 04 28

This was once a guilty pleasure on my hard drive but I don't feel guilty anymore~ 

Art by Nate Utesch // utesch.xyz
Photos by Zackery Hobler // zackeryhobler.ca

Lyrics:

Big machines that gather our food
Bots that try to tell when we’re rude
Is this really the plan that we made
Razing the ground that we simulate

You make me want to shut it down, oh

Selling the worthless to much greater fools
Normalization of surveillance tools
Give it a price and now it has worth
Oh what a sociopath we have birthed

(You make me want to shut it down
oh, oh, o-o-o-oh—ooh)

You make me want to shut it down, oh
Oh, you make me want to shut it down
Oh-ooh
You make me want to shut it down (I don’t think this should exist, no)
and start anew (I don’t think this should exist, no)
and make something better
You make me want to shut it down (I don’t think this should exist, no)
and yes I will (I don’t think this should exist, no)
help it grow
oh-oh

Shut It Down

Shut It Down (NewRetroWave Records, 2022)

#SCFirst - only on soundcloud!

Following The Navigator and Explorers, Signs brings back this 80s feeling of your favorite movie while not sounding dusty but modern. Lush synths, classic baselines, surprising harmonies and melodies, modern production techniques, the "neon" take to light up your day or night!

If you like what you hear, be sure to "like, follow, and repost"! We thank you all for continued support!

Signs

Mecha Maiko (AKA Hayley Stewart) is back with third album NOT OK, which could end up changing the entire landscape of synthwave. The Toronto-based artist has always stood out among synthwave acts for her inventive, dogma-smashing approach to the genre. Her 2018 debut, Mad But Soft, and EP Okiya, from 2019, showed an artist who could produce experimental yet catchy, complicated yet minimalist songs that evoke the delicate and often turbulent relationship between humans and machines. She continued that streak with Let’s in 2019, and loaded it with early ‘90s house and contemporary electro-pop elements that took the songs to dark dance floors splashed in neon pink. It was deeply human but inherently mechanistic.

A lot has happened in the world since then, and NOT OK reflects that — even if the foundation of some of its songs stem from that pre-pandemic, post-Let’s era. Although she started work on the album at rural escape she referred to as “Synthpop Farm,” surrounded by a cornucopia of flora and fauna, she finalized the record in 2021 in Toronto with engineer and producer Jack Marko.

NOT OK tackles the scandalous level of trials the world faces today, including “bogus conspiracy theories, racism, sexism, violence, and environmental destruction,” she says. However, she does this via a kinetic blend of dance-heavy rhythms, captivatingly melodic synths, and an array of experimental sonics that together keep listeners engaged throughout the record’s 50-minute run.

“Hopefully it can validate some of the feelings and frustrations that others have been grappling with, and to serve as a reminder that we don't have to accept things as they are,” Mecha Maiko says. “I also hope it inspires people to deepen their connections to nature, and see just how beautiful life off-screen is.”

- Aaron Vehling, Vehlinggo.com
Full Album Liner Notes Here: (www.mechamaiko.com/not-ok-liner-notes)

NOT OK

400 Humans

My first Synthwave track this year. In the end the composition is different as intended, but it is what it is now.  After checking the upload the hihat appears a little loud imo. Hope you like it nevertheless. :)

Flight

Світло

This is my track that appears on the compilation
Pluto : A Synth Odyssey by New Horizons Records. 

http://newhorizonsrecords.bandcamp.com/

Inspired by the NASA New Horizons mission to Pluto, 27 artists offered their music to create a beautiful and mysterious soundtrack to the unknown and the soon to be discovered.

I call my track Meiōsei (Star of the King of the Underworld), 
a word coined by Japanese astronomer Hōei Nojiri for the newly discovered planet Pluto back in 1930.

With this song I wanted to capture the beauty of the vastness of space. 
A journey through solitude and beyond.

Composed, performed, mixed and mastered by Takahashi Jones.


Get it on Bandcamp!

Meiōsei

Mecha Maiko is a Juno-nominated genre-fluid electronic project by Hayley Stewart. She is a current member of @hyperlinkdreamsync and was the lead producer and a vocalist for Dead Astronauts from 2011-2016.

NOT OK

Mecha Maiko

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