Like most others these days, Toronto-based Graham Van Pelt has been making music inspired by the past. His previous incarnation Miracle Fortress was influenced by \u201880s flavored dreampop. His latest endeavor \u2013 not hidden behind the veil of any moniker this time \u2013 is also retro-oriented. Time Travel<\/i> also sounds very \u201880s but has a rather peculiar electronic sound.<\/p>\n
This album, his debut as Van Pelt, is based on simple tracks, with sparse synth-based arrangements, consisting of layers that build up very gradually. It has a feel of experimental cuts from synthpop albums, especially with Van Pelt\u2019s brisk, soulful vocals, which are reminiscent of the vocalists of that era like Depeche Mode\u2019s Martin Gore and Erasure\u2019s Andy Bell.<\/p>\n
The music has a surrealistic quality with the repetitiveness of the synthesizers. However, at no point does the album come across as boring, as Van Pelt\u2019s melodious vocals are always front and center, filling any song with life. For instance, the most musically barren number \u201cMountainside,\u201d which consists of music that\u2019s quite unremarkable in the form of repeating synth notes and no rhythm, is made remarkable solely because of Van Pelt\u2019s hauntingly beautiful vocals.<\/p>\n
The songwriting and production here are solid, and despite the cold fa\u00e7ade of minimalism, are warm, and most importantly, heartfelt. As Van Pelt reminisces about love on \u201cOne Thing,\u201d there is some serious emotion that is conveyed very effectively amid the lean musical composition. \u201cNew Friends\u201d is even more stirring, despite the measured vocals and music. Van Pelt does not use the bare-bones synth compositions as an excuse to create a monolithic robotic record. The all-over soulfulness of Time Travel<\/i> is its major strength and cannot be understated.<\/p>\n
Time Travel <\/i>might be mistaken as an album that\u2019s actually made in the \u201880s, from the vintage synth music, the \u201cNew Wave\u201d vocals, to just its overall feel. But there is no denying that it sounds very avant-garde, which is a key distinction, because such records never get old, no matter the era. If this disc were to have come out in the \u201880s, it would have definitely been influential, or at least have had a cult appeal. As a present-day work, it is still pretty pathbreaking, for electronic albums of this kind and quality are rare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":33648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10277],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-45470","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-graham-van-pelt","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45470"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}