Nitemoves

Rory O'Connor (a.k.a. Nitemoves) is the latest in the line of throwback producers striving to holistically rekindle electronic music's relationship with its warm analog sounds of yore. After spending the past few years touring alongside fellow retro partisans like Com Truise and Tycho, Nitemoves' second full-length, Themes, sounds like the work of an artist leaving the bedroom for larger sounds and themes. With just eight tracks in 35 minutes, Nitemoves keeps his compositions compact, tight and colourful, dressing cuts like "Glen '79," "Mikuni" and "Ashe" with swirling synth tones, piano accents and plucked guitars. But for all of the billowing textures and ebbing instrumentation, Nitemoves demonstrates a maturing knack for melody on Themes, structuring songs like "Veaquis" and album closer "Bit Pairity" with strong recurring phrasings. On just his second album, Nitemoves manages to show a stronger sense of self; he still hasn't broken the chillwave mold, but he shows a tendency to play well within it.