Reviews 132: Synth Sisters
MAYUKo and Rie Lambdoll have been exploring the noisier realms of sound for over a decade with Crossbred, mostly releasing their fierce and at times beautiful experiments via limited CDrs. But around 2014, the duo took their synths and headed out in search of the cosmic, resulting in their full length Aube under the name Synth Sisters (which was originally released privately by Rie and MAYUKo before ending up in Chee Shimizu’s hands, resulting in a vinyl press on 17853 Records). Now, four years after those initial explorations of outerspace, the Synth Sisters are back with the aptly titled Euphoria, this time teaming with EM Records. This album is a dreamworld of hypnotic synthesis, meditative noise, and solar flare drones…one that washes over the body and mind in totality, leaving a purified soul aglow with radiant rainbow starlight.
Synth Sisters - Euphoria (EM Records, 2018) One of my favorite tracks all year, “w/o/n/d/e/r/f/u/l,” comes right up front, with this jaw dropping lead sequence…like interstellar sound bubbles moving from the depths of the sonic spectrum to its very heights. Each physical bass note bounces through an infinite expanse where strange liquids drip upwards into neon pools of gas and angel drone pads build walls of euphoria that crash like waves of ether against the universal vacuum. Rie’s breathtaking dreamland vocals are interspersed between the galactic blankets of sound, sometimes in a calming whisper, other times overdubbed into a profound beauty that pushes the mind and body towards an overwhelming heavenly light. And behind the addictive sequencing, the harmonious drone layers grow ever louder, often approaching full on noise, though any harshness is smeared away by the voluminous clouds of reverb and delay. “Labyrinth” features ghostly howls as beamed in from some future dimension, all granular, washed out, and accompanied by intergalactic bell tones smeared into continuous feedback trails. Everything shifts slowly in pitch as if drunk, and more and more layers of high end skree are added, pushing the spirit towards the astral plane. Robotic lullaby arps and slow motion satellite transmissions keep an off-kilter rhythm and within the electronic miasma, vague hints of orchestral strings are discernible, though obscured by brain piercing streaks of colorful sound spinning around some unseen axis.
The title track is based around a massive squelching bass arp, slightly detuned and incredibly textured, bringing a vibe of propulsive delirium and outerspace travel. Organs are layered into a body of shimmering light that grows every more luminous as mutating synth noise waterfalls and burning electro-stars rain down. Spaceships zoom into and out of the atmosphere, followed by dazzling tracers of unexplainable colors and eventually the bass arp is filtered into ghost of itself, just barely there percussive zaps underlying the supernova of white light droning. But as the song progresses, the bass arp slowly builds back to its turbulent flow under chaotic modulation and occasionally jumps up an octave, with the resonance and cutoff endlessly manipulated. Then comes “She Sang”, with washed out cosmic mid bass tones percolating and moving side to side, while vintage string pads flow in glorious rivers of sound alongside alien tamburas. It’s like a sunrise invocation on some faraway moon, with string synths moving in and out of choppy vibrato fx and barely there bass blasts drifting deep within the starry ether. And for “Different Story”, acid trip inducing sonic squiggles and industrial machine tones are set aflaot in some gurgling alien liquid, while overhead fly noisy lasers and spectral drones. And then comes the first appearance of Rie’s beatific new age piano…her single notes wandering at peace through a meadow set ablaze with feedback destruction, while wind chime cascades ring out through a blasting static storm.
In “Time is Flowing There”, fat Berlin school arps are alternately smothered in grainy textures or allowed to bounce along in clean and classic Tangerine Dream patterns. Cosmic yet heavily fried pads waver through the mix while deep space seagulls call out across a celestial sea of stars. Then unexpectedly, a methodical four-four and cymbal pattern emerges while the mirage-like synths go wild alongside rapid cycling sci-fi dream arps. It’s a deeper than deep march through time and space…a zoned out and psychedelic dancefloor flow for towering beings of universal light. “Until the World Breaks Up” has repetitive synth notes surrounded by oscillating atmospheres, while colorful objects move through the air at unfathomable speeds and drop glowing sonic stardust as they pass by. Deep currents of dark blue diffuse into the mix…a haunted yet triumphant cloud of gaseous incandescence sitting above a mermaid choir whose enveloping song of oceanic ecstasy pulls you deeper and deeper into a spell of enchantment. And as consciousness begins to drift away, gleaming schools of multihued fish enclose your drifting body. For closer “I Am Here,” more outerspace bubbles are present, this time whipped into a dense fog that moves asymptotically towards a washed out wall of oscillating beauty. Rie’s piano appears again, evoking the romance of spring with its narcotic new age textures, spellbinding runs, and soft jazz chords. And all the while, a polychromatic vortex of sparkling feedback encircles everything…like the motion of starlings translated into mesmerizing sound.
(images from my personal copy)