Synthwave. Our guilty pleasure here at Beatradar. It’s not underground, not bleeding edge, not deep, usually not even that groovy. Still, I dig it. It’s my safe haven whenever I want some of that eighties charm.

Because, each decade do of course have their charm – so also the eighties. The problem being that the eightes is so insanely oversaturated. Beyond repair. I can’t stand listening to “The Final Countdown” or “Is This Love”, “Africa” or “Forever Young” one single time more.

And that’s where synthwave comes to my rescue.

Turbo Cobra – On Levels

And here’s a track that really reminds me of the classic eighties detective series; Miami Vice. Classic electronic pop instrumental. With the mandatory el-guitar solo on top. Yeah, this one check all the right boxes.

Turbo Cobra is a German duo who told me they love everything eighties, from music to films and fashion. So starting a Synthwave group was just the right thing to do.

And they have obviously done their homework cause this is as authentic as can be. The sound on the track is unfortunately a bit muddy. Unless intentionally sounding like played off a worn cassette – and I doubt that’s intentional – it would benefit from a bit fresher mastering. So there’s a tip to you guys.

But really, if you like synthwave this duo is really worthy of your attention!

This track will be added to our Spotify playlist “More EIGHTIES than the 80s itself” as soon as it is available there. This is the list where only the finest, most authentic synthwwave tracks are collected as we find them. If synthwave is your cup of tea there really are no reasons not to add this list to your library. So grand us a “follow” today!

My teen years were spent in the eighties. This was obviously before the internet, and the music discoveries were pretty much limited to what we heard on our national TV and radio broadcasters.

As a result of that, having a song featured in the soundtrack of movies and TV series was one very sought after way of achieving a hit record.

Here’s three retrowave tracks that I could totally picture being featured in a TV soundtrack back then. What kind of scenes do you imagine seeing them in?

Mapt, “Summer in L.A.”

This track gives me vague Mr Mister vibes. That big reverb on the snare, the synth arps, the big arrangement of the chorus…

But anyway. Back to topic. Had this been part of a soundtrack it would have to be a romantic, melancholic movie. Long fly-by scenes, silhouettes of ladies with big hair, neon signs, quiet early morning streets, and faces with an expression like they think real hard on something. With slow motion sunset scene, summer dress blowing in the wind during the chorus.

But all fun and games aside, this is a really good retro track. It has a very, very authentic chorus that could so totally be charting those days.

Manuel Marino, “Dream a Trance Music”

Alright, let’s get the title out of the way first: Say… What?

One could call this track a hybrid of 90s trance and eighties synth, but it definitely holds retrowave qualities: A pompous el-piano leading the way to an hurricane of a synth track. As for the “imaginative scenes the track could be featured in“, I picture this as the theme song for an American action crime series, featuring a cop who goes his own ways but with a heart of gold, who has as goofy friend and a dog companion.

Or a dolphin. They were like that in the eighties.

Solarrio, “In My Head”

We round up this vaporwave tripple run with Solarrio and his “In My Head”. The track sounds like it sums up something, so the credit text scroll at the end of the movie would be a suitable place for it!

But I can also imagine it during a scene where our hero, or perhaps a party of people, lays strung out in some hallucinogenic drugs, you know those cheesy “hippies scenes” from the eighties where the director really had zero idea on how the drug he described actually worked, and just blasted on with all the cliches imaginable, including rolling eyes and silly grins. And reaching hands. Always reaching hands.
Then the side kick enters the room and wakes up our hero with a couple of slaps on her cheek, and voila she’s totally sober again.

Good music triggers mental images. And these all triggers the right images for the sound they set out to achieve. Three great synthwave tracks that would have deserved to be featured in a suitable soundtrack back then. Or in the playlist of any eighties fan today!

These tracks are obviously added to our really quite spiffy playlist “More eighties than the eighties itself“. If you like what you heard so far, follow the list and keep track of new discovers as we make them!