NARCO MARCO レコード& CD

Review: Narco Marco returns to Pace In Stereo for more adventures through yesterday's tomorrow. As ever, the production is incredible, offering two tracks that pack a timeless sound informed by Italo, early electro-pop, cold and synth wave, a twin delight that somehow serves as the ideal home or headphone listen, yet is also dance floor ready and primed for proper parties. Starting on the slowest, tempo wise, 'Bald Tag' doesn't exactly owe a debt to Kraftwerk but certainly offers a place for sounds could have evolved in the back catalogue of the German pioneers. It's a weird and warbling, stepping, highly musical ride. 'Ice Tea', meanwhile, opts to get more of a stomp on, glittering harmonies painting stars in the sky above, vocals swapped out for more melodic depth.

Review: Jede Nacht is an officially licensed cover version project that comes on a limited edition 7" pressed to just 100 copies with a guaranteed 'no repress in the future' promise. For the tunes, Marco again uses his trusty hardware synthesizers, first on the rich Italo arps of 'Jede Nacht'. The German-language vocals are steamy with plenty of far-sighted chords adding the feeling that you're crying through space as they saw it in the 80s. 'Life' on the flipside is the choice cut for its tumbling drum machines and glistening keys next to melancholic leads. Glorious.

Review: He has only one album and an EP to his name in the last six years but Narco Marco - who also works as Bancomat Cinelli, Caz Bolero and Citystrolch amongst many others - drags out his hardware synthesizer gear for a superb new project here that fuses synth and Italo disco into fresh new cuts. 'Wenn Du Willst' is brilliantly retro with its clipped electronic drums and silvery synth arps topped with a great vocal. 'Warusawa-Dake' then gets even more cosmic on lush loops and crystalline chords that take you back to the future.