The new album from Naytronix, Air, out on Friday via BotCave Records, is the sort of release that blurs the line between electronica and ambient-pop. The main mind here is Nate Brenner of Tune-Yards, and the soundtrack to the excellent Sorry To Bother You from director Boots Riley last year, and he successfully uses this Naytronix release to chart out a new style of synth- and sample-based music.
Some of this is lush, like opener "I'm Becoming You", while other cuts here on Air are peppier, like the bright "Come Back", a number that bears a faint trace of early Depeche Mode about it. Elsewhere, "Changing You" and "Swallow the Moon" work a similar effect, while the superb "Human" is more unique. Here, Nate Brenner uses layers of sounds and layers of vocals to create something that's dense and, oddly, reminiscent of a Beach Boys number in terms of melody. At his very best here, Nate Brenner uses Naytronix to pursue music that's New Wave pop, and something bolder still. The pulsing and percolating "I Feel Strange", for example, owes as much to Frank Tovey as it does to Laurie Anderson. And as such, it pitches the music of Naytronix somewhere beyond simply synth-pop.
Air is out on Friday via BotCave Records.
More details on Naytronix via the official website, or the official Facebook page.
[Photo: Ginger Fierstein]