The sparkling keyboards! The percolating rhythms! The neon! And the voice. Yeah, that smoky-toned voice. The 1980s are alive and well thanks to the nostalgic work of The Motion Epic. Their moody debut album, dropping from Business Casual, is aptly named, striking all the right nocturnal "feels" for anyone raised during the 1980s or wishes they were.
Midnight bursts with colorful melodies that radiate the neon nights from past and future lives. One listen to the lead-off track “Ulterior Motives” is all you need in order to get swept away by the mythos and the pathos of their work.
Quickly rising in popularity alongside the INSTANT CLASSIC debut from The Bad Dreamers, the first release from this retrowave project, featuring Pat DiMeo and Producer Dre K kicks, promises miracles with a moody retro appeal that can’t stop, won’t stop itself from spreading modular magic. The second track, “Bad Behavior”, makes that promise crystal clear.
The six songs that make up this RAD release are, each of them, every bit as memorable as the pop songs that once saturated our boomboxes in 1984. I feel like pulling out some black parachute pants with each listen. Slap everything on, including the gloves, and “BAM!” out the door I go. {googleads}
The FRICTION force IS strong with this one. Even the opening moments to “Midnight”, with its repeating keyboard patterns, kicks with a simmering energy that can’t be ignored. And then, pulling one of the bravest things that a retrowave act can do, The Motion Epic DARES to cover The Cars . . .
. . . and they pull it off. With a sped-up beat, their take on “Drive” actually opens the song up; BIG songs deserve BIG sounds and that is what happens here. It is a beautiful cover, think Sting or Jim Kerr of Simple Minds singing vocals instead of Benjamin Orr, that I didn’t think would work. I stand corrected.
And then “Temporary Lovers” begins. SICK. Those tones strike the purest of emotions.
Simply put, Midnight is an amazingly tight release that is big on “feels” and on creating authentic sounds thanks to that rich analog synthesizer which is the centerpiece here. Promised You a Miracle indeed. Any doubts will be released by the moody closer of Wildfire (Feat. Andria Piperni). Damn.
This release is a synth pop album that you really should be prepared for. It is not unlike hearing The Midnight for the very first time. There will be chills on the back of your neck. Shivers, too.
The Motion Epic might just be one of the very best releases from Business Casual.
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