Back catalogue: Coldwave/Synth

Review: Savage Garden's Darren Hayes returned from the wilderness in 2022 after a hiatus of almost ten years. During that time, he tried his hand at stand up comedy, kept a social media presence in the form of shared videos featuring him bursting into song, and evidently spent a fair amount of time recharging. After all, you don't make albums with the energy of Homosexual, the comeback piece, if you're running on empty.
Let's Try Being In Love was the first single taken from that, and in many ways the whole package is more about message than music - a guy publicly celebrating his sexuality and marriage after spending a very long time not feeling ready to do so, during a period in which he was a bonafide global pop star. Here said track appears in both 12" extended form and a Louis La Roche mix, both of which are made for chugging dancefloors, filtered tracking synths firing on all cylinders and an overall sense of self.

Review: Ruben Benabou marks out and identifies another sonic constellation; this is a rapid indie trance-dance four-tracker of galactic ambition and scale. Drawing inspiration from sci-fi soundtracks, and the warmer currents of electro, leaders 'Message To Nowhere' and 'Words In A Void' also recall the gladdened awe of space disco, with twinging leads skirting about the stereo like passing shooting stars. The Hacker's version of the title track plays back like an 8-bit minigame version of the main mission, with its pocket-generated drums, while 'A Thousand Nights' is a prime exercise in retro synthwave, and the perfect closer.