Cast your mind back, if you will, ten to 15 years ago, when a group of artists and producers, many of whom had spent far too many hours playing Grand Theft Auto Vice City, began borrowing heavily from the aesthetics and sonic palettes of movie soundtracks and video games from the 1980s. Artists such as the French EDM wunderkind Kavinsky started a trend of incorporating the fizzing synths and thunderclap snares that defined the era into their sound, refreshing it with the belching basslines of dubstep and packaging it in the garish neon of Bladerunner and Tron. Thus, synthwave was born.
Thanks to titanic success of the film Drive and the Stranger Things Netflix series, both of which owed their popularity as much to 80s nostalgia as they do their throbbing synthwave soundtracks, what began as an underground scene burst into the mainstream. By 2020, one of the most streamed songs of that year, The Weeknd’s ‘Blinded By The Lights’ was a legit synthwave banger.
While as is the case with most fads, the novelty of synthwave has begun to wear off, a handful of artists who were at the vanguard of its creation do appear to be proving themselves to be able to stand the test of time. One such artist is James Kent, the French multi-instrumentalist and producer also known as Perturbator, who, having risen to the top of the synthwave scene by blending the 80s schlock of his peers with more visceral industrial and black metal influences, returns with his sixth full length LP, Age Of Aquarius.
Along with his counterpart Carpenter Brut, Perturbator was responsible for taking the synthwave genre out of the niche nightclubs and movie soundtracks and putting it onto the stages of some of the world’s biggest rock and metal festivals. His live shows are a force to be reckoned with but it’s the quality of his recorded output that has led to his steady rise through the ranks, and Age of Aquarius is further proof of his consistency as a recording artist.
As Peturbator’s career has progressed, the sonic palette with which they paint has broadened and their songcraft has become honed like a samurai’s blade, which is often the key to success with any artist who starts life in such a niche genre. It’s clear from the opener, ‘Apocalypse Now’, which features a guest spot from fellow electro-experimentalists Ulver, that those blades are now diamond edged. The crooning vocals and pillowy synths give tinges of new-wave romanticism, before the trademark belching basslines drop in the song’s hefty mid-section.
There’s a whole host of guest spots on Age Of Aquarius too. Elsewhere Author & Punisher joins the roster on ‘Venus’, a dark and brooding slow burner with vocals that veer from mournful crooning to tortured screams over A&P’s trademark industrial clang. On ‘Lady Moon’, long time collaborator Greta Link provides breathy, ethereal vocals over the top of a throbbing mid-tempo beat that sounds like it was crafted specifically for the sex dungeons of Berlin.
“As Peturbator’s career has progressed, the sonic palette with which they paint has broadened and their songcraft has become honed like a samurai’s blade”
And while there are certainly more songs in the traditional sense of the word on this album, there are still plenty of Perturbator’s trademark cinematic soundscapes. ‘The Glass Staircase’ shifts gears multiple times throughout its five minute run-time like a video game progressing through increasingly intense levels. ‘The Art of War’ is an all-out industrial techno banger, while ’12th House’ conjures everything you could want from a dystopian sci-fi fantasy with whirring synths and booming percussion.
‘The Swimming Pool’ is one of the most hauntingly beautiful tracks Perturbator has put his name to, it’s striking in its lack of any percussion, just airy synths and a stripped back piano, proving that besides the gut punching drum machines and juddering basslines, he knows his way around a melody.
The last of the guest spots comes in the form of the ten-minute long closing title track, which features black metal darlings Alcest. It’s everything you want in a Perturbator track; atmospherics, soundscapes, throbbing beats, haunting vocals and for its finale, some tasty blast beats and harsh screams.
Already a thousand years ahead of the game, Age Of Aquarius is a huge leap forward for Perturbator and one that will keep the android dream of synthwave alive for years to come.