Electro Spectre – A Man-Made Sun

A dark and romantic Synthpop experience
Electro Spectre - A Man-Made Sun

Album facts

Release Date: October 9th 2018
Label: Crab Key Records
Genre: , ,
Discogs: Link
Partially sounds like: Empathy Test, VNV Nation, Wolfsheim

The new­est album by Electro Spectre, 'A Man-Made Sun' is a dark and romantic Synthpop exper­i­ence. Isak Rypdal and Alexander Bjørneboe have cre­ated a cohes­ive that sounds like it could score a movie. Through every listen, I kept think­ing it would make a great soundtrack to a movie sim­il­ar in style to 'The Queen of the Damned'. It would make Anne Rice proud.

A Man-Made Sun starts out strong with 'The Garden Of Lonely.' The vocals are power­ful and the music is dynam­ic. This song, in par­tic­u­lar, reminds me to VNV Nation; there are a lot of future pop notes. It’s a fun upbeat song layered with mys­tery and keeps you intrigued to hear what comes next. After the majest­ic Synthpop open­ing, 'Truth Of You And Me' is much more pared down. The music starts off ambi­ent and then opens up to a groovy beat, uptempo and energizing.

The Future is Here

'The Way You Love' is futur­ist­ic. It gives me the men­tal image of being at a dance and find­ing someone across the floor. It seems like the sounds of a whirl­wind romance, where you fall quickly and deeply in love. 'Little Wonder' is the nat­ur­al fol­low to 'The Way You Love.' The music is sim­il­ar and so are the lyrics.

It's cut­ting deep, it makes me bleed, the way you love
Lyrics from 'The Way You Love' by Electro Spectre

'Lovers Don't Forgive' is a dark­er and sex­i­er song. It's slower than the pre­vi­ous two songs, the vocals are breath­i­er but it is still tinged with 80's flair. It gets suck in your head imme­di­ately. The syn­thes­ized viol­in rounds out the song and gives it the dark romantic feeling.

Interesting Interludes

'The Passions Never Change' is a short mid-album inter­lude. I find a lot of Pink Floyd influ­ence in this song. Sounds like it's straight off of Wish You Were Here, espe­cially with the gui­tar that comes in halfway through. My only prob­lem with this song is that I wish there was more of it. I was hop­ing for a full-length track in this style, it would have been a nice change from the over­all style of the album.

Electro Spectre (2018)
Electro Spectre (2018)

Dancing Through the Garden

'Been Too Long' is prob­ably my favor­ite on the album. It's up-tempo and has dynam­ic, power­ful vocals. The emo­tions build and build to the chor­us where it breaks through, feel­ing like a release.

'The Secret Path' is anoth­er standout on the album. It con­tin­ues the dark romantic ambi­ence of the rest of the album. It trans­ports you into a secret garden where you're run­ning around des­per­ately look­ing for some­thing. It reminded me of the hedge maze at the Overlook Hotel from Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining,' just without the murder.

'Tic Toc', while hav­ing a sim­il­ar name to the block­buster single from Kesha is quite dif­fer­ent. Electro Spectre's song should be played in a dark sweaty club. It's up-tempo and makes you want to dance. The vocals are layered on top of each oth­er with the syn­thes­izer weaved around them. At the end of the song female vocals come in as a shin­ing light.

Slow Growth to a Powerful End

'Almost All of Me' is sim­il­ar to 'The Passions Never Change' because it's a slight depar­ture from the rest of the album. The tones are almost dis­son­ant and the base is slow and grumbling. The pace is slow and restrained. This is a deep, dark, and layered song. The female vocals return har­mon­iz­ing in beau­ti­fully with Alexander's voice. A Man-Made Sun cul­min­ates in anoth­er slow and dark song. 'The Colour of Your Love' reminds me a lot of songs from Depeche Mode's 'Violator'. It is a power­ful and inspir­a­tion­al song, build­ing and build­ing on itself.

Verdict

Overall, A Man-Made Sun is a cohes­ive album, with tracks that are both upbeat and uptempo as well as dark and romantic. The indi­vidu­al songs are great, but I was hop­ing for more vari­ety in tone and tempo. That said, I will listen to this album over and over again. Electro Spectre just signed a 15-year con­tract with Meisel Musikverlage and I can't wait to see what the future holds.

Track By Track Rating

Electro Spectre - A Man-Made Sun
Electro Spectre – A Man-Made Sun
The Garden of Lonely
Truth of You and Me
The Way You Love
Little Wonder
Lovers Don't Forgive
The Passions Never Change
Been Too Long
The Secret Path
Tic Toc
Almost All of Me
The Colour of Your Love
Recommend
Been Too Long
The Colour of Your Love
Weak
The Passions Never Change
3.6
Dark Romance

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  1. 3.9

    This is a first-class, emo­tion­al, dark Synthpop album. I almost enjoyed every track. Only a little more vari­ety I have missed on this work. It sounds very homo­gen­eous over­all. Those who love this kind of sound will find with 'A Man-Made Sun' of 'Electro Spectre' a music­al pearl. 

    Breakdown
    Leave A Review
    The Garden of Lonely
    Truth of You and Me
    The Way You Love
    Little Wonder
    Lovers Don't Forgive
    The Passions Never Change
    Been Too Long
    The Secret Path
    Tic Toc
    Almost All of Me
    The Colour of Your Love
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The Garden of Lonely
Truth of You and Me
The Way You Love
Little Wonder
Lovers Don't Forgive
The Passions Never Change
Been Too Long
The Secret Path
Tic Toc
Almost All of Me
The Colour of Your Love
Final Score