A recent EP release from Levinsky gives a lush and cinematic soundscape that blends elements of both dark-edged vintage synthwave with electro-pop and an almost post punk attitude that combines to create an atmosphere that you can step into and forget about your own reality for a little while.
The Midnight Garden EP is built with an almost fantastical set of elements that can whisk you away and let you get washed away with the soundscape.
One of the key things with this release is the use of synthesizers and the sounds that are chosen to build these songs, so they come through as close to the way they sounded in his head.
This is beautifully done and gives the songs both a graceful approach but also a great edginess at the same time.
This is also a great bringing together of textures and feels because the EP is only two songs which some might say is just a double single, but I like to call it an EP when the songs actually take you someplace different and drop you off to see what you think.
It's not all the time that a release can serve as a sort of escape to a different place but with Midnight Garden, it works so well that when it's over you start it again so that you can jump back into that world once more.
You get that driving outrun and synthwave style, but you also get those tones of almost gothic and dark vibes which in combination, give this that cinematic feel and this is part of why it's such a good escape.
You can clearly tell that there was a lot of attention to detail in terms of the creation of these songs but there's also a certain soul embedded within the tracks that they never really lose which may be the most important part of them as a whole.
These were done beautifully and obviously from someone that has a real love for his craft and a passion for arranging and producing songs that have that particular drive to them.
I also love that little hint of nostalgia that you get especially if you grew up listening to synthwave music when it was extremely popular in the 80s and possibly early 90s.
Some of those tones were really nailed giving the songs an aesthetic that worked like a charm.
For the most part, this is all due to the fact that Levinsky is certainly not new to his craft having releases on his band camp that date back to 2018, and if you take the time to listen to everything you can hear this sort of evolution in his sound from then to now.
This is just something that I enjoy doing and especially with artists that I really dig so with Levinsky, it's really a lot of fun because you can also get sucked up into the music so well and each one kind of has a little bit of a different story behind it in a way.
That's another thing with these kinds of songs, he is able to tell certain stories in a unique way and I think that images that pop up in your head become lush and vivid simply due to the musical soundscape that you're hearing.
It's very cool and this release speaks volumes for the artist.
We certainly hope to hear a lot more from him in the near future.
Any fans of synthwave on any level, even cold wave or dark wave, hell even people that love post punk will probably really like this record.