#GUITAR SYNTHESIZER REVIEWS PLUS#
And for the most part, that’s what Fast Idol is: a collage of old synth tones that are cool to the touch. There’s little flickers of dub here and there on songs like “The Garden” and “Streetlight,” breaking up the record like a short walk in the middle of a run.Īt his best, Stewart is an archivist of past sounds. If there’s anything new about what Stewart’s doing here, it’s that he’s playing with slightly different textures from the past. Though the song could’ve been on any of Stewart’s records, it is nonetheless undeniably pretty. It’s six minutes long, but it’s so breezy that it’s over before you know it. It feels almost euphoric, with synths that reverberate like whispers in a cave. Opener “Somewhere” is the record’s longest and best track. It sounds exactly like something that would be played in a club or on the radio in 1980s London, and the results are often really lovely, if not slightly repetitive. Stewart is not one to change his sound though, and throughout his career he’s released record after record of extremely competent synth music this one is no different. Both songs feature crisp production, and Stewart plays his synthesizers with the dedication of a professor reading late into the night.
It melts seamlessly into the grayscale “Try,” which is made up of the same slouchy drum machines and aqueous synths. “Royal Walls” gives off the vibe of walking out of a club and into rainy city streets. There’s nothing wrong with making mood music, but these songs often feel indistinguishable from each other it’s a flat record without highs or lows, lacking momentum or lift. It’s an enjoyable, sexy record that is little more than a composite of its influences.įast Idol is a record of makeout jams the kind of druggy, pupil expanding synth-pop that you leave on so you can tune out.
It’s a pastiche that sounds more New Order than New Order, so close to OMD that it makes you wonder if you were perhaps living inside of Pretty in Pink. On his latest record, Fast Idol, he continues his decade-long project of essentially rewriting ’80s synthwave classics. For Chris Stewart, the synthesizer wizard behind Black Marble, influence is more than a guidepost, it’s his whole act.
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