Digital Shades is a collaborative electronic music project between John Kunkel (The New Division) and James Meays (Missing Words.) The venture came about from a mutual appreciation for synthpop and 80s melodics and saw the pairing spend a year songwriting for the side project. Much, as the venture’s, technologically-minded band name suggests. The duo’s debut body of work, the “Moonraker” EP, is armed with a generous helping of synthesised pop and is in a style especially, evocative of the retro-futuristic demographic featured on the iconic soundtrack of the movie “Drive” and not as first might be thought, a James Bond movie.
There is nothing which makes me salivate more than the thought of a new band/venture who are bringing synths to the front and centre of their set-up. Digital Shades remain fascinated with vintage synths, and that’s more than OK by me too. I’m unsure as to whether there are any videos planned around the release, but if there are I’ll be kind of disappointed if they are not inspired by science fiction movies from back in the day. The EP’s lead track is called “Blue,” it’s a lyrically introspective kind of song about coping with sadness. For Kunkel and Meays it is actually the writing, performing the music and singing which help to make things better when they feel this way. Speaking to Magnetic Mag, Meays of the band comments “Blue” is about how the two of us would get complaints from our wives that all our songs were ‘sad.’ The chorus sings, “I just sing these songs to feel okay” and there’s a lot of truth in that – we write not only for fun but also to help us feel better.”
This immaculately, executed synth-pop release is a certain cure for the end of summer blues. Fans of early electronic pop styles will appreciate it’s authentic vintage vibe, which is sure to have you tingling nostalgically in all the right places.
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