9-26-14 Retro New Wave and 80s Revival Music

I just found out that M83, Com Truise, College and the soundtrack to 2011’s movie Drive, isn’t the only dreamy retro 80s sythpop around! There’s a whole new genre out that’s sprung up! This relatively new genre of music is called, as far as I can tell, “80s New Wave Revival” or “80s SynthPop” or “80s Revival”. I just made the realization about this musical movement whilst exploring youtube (or course!) and ended up discovering NewRetroWave. It’s a youtube channel that hosts all these “Retro New Wave” bands.

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GOOD SINGLES: Big Data

I heard this electro band BIG DATA this past week and dig them. I’m guessing the band’s name is a nod to gigantic data sets (Big Data). Cool. There are four tracks on their debut EP and the vocals are fun, sung with relish by Daniel Armbruster (JOYWAVE) on the track “Dangerous”. “Dangerous” sounds like a bass slapping convergence of Peter Gabriel, MGMT, and Discovery. By the way, I dig the fact that BIG DATA is from Brooklyn (where I live). And from what I understand, the band is the brainchild of producer Alan Wilkis.

The track “Big Dater” adds MUSE’s sound and a touch of 90s boyband aesthetic. Dig that old school modem near the middle. Nice touch.

Next, in “The Stroke of Return” the MUSE influence is present as well as GIORGIO MORODER’s sound – an interesting combination. It’s like the Neverending Story soundtrack meets MUSE!?! And the lyrics explore how we’re all giving our personal data up willy nilly to the cloud. And that is not good. Pretty relevant paranoia!

Shoot, they just played last night at the Brooklyn Bowl! Looks like this band is starting to get big, check out their debut EP ‘1.0’ released by Wilcassettes LLC on 19 August 2013.

Big Data – “Dangerous (feat. Joywave):

Big Data – “Big Dater”

Big Data – “The Stroke of Return”

The BIG DATA Facebook page