Lowfish

The ghosts of Rational Youth, OMD, the Normal and other ’80s synth-pop veterans haunt Lowfish’s latest. This may not be news to anyone who’s followed the Toronto producer, but in an era where such retro affinities are automatically electro, Lowfish deserves distinction. He’s never trashy or indulgent about his analog fixations. There’s a real sense of reverence for the tunefulness and precision of old school electronic music, and Lowfish absorbs the techniques well with his busy bass lines, sweeping song structures and a fine sense of melody. Some of his aesthetic priorities come off as geeky, forcing the tunes to sound like potential soundtracks for videogames or science documentaries. Similarly, tracks like "Glass House” and "Fric Frac” have a hyper, but never hypnotic, feel. The same goes for most of the Snow Robots comp, on which Lowfish appears alongside other self-identified droids from the Suction roster. The nerd factor is maximised with the predominance of nasal voices/vocoders and faux European accents, but at least there’s a sense of personality here. The robotic monologue of Tinfoil Teakettle’s "Think Like Us” and the grind-tronic funk of David Kristian’s "Lectrocured” otherwise deliver a sinisterly alternative for less synth-pop tolerant ears.