--- REVIEW ---
Mitch Murder - After Hours
Because the vast majority of my exposure to synthwave music comes from what is available for me to listen to on Spotify, I was initially under the impression that the latest offering from Mitch Murder was a brand new release. Who could blame me? I mean, Spotify did list it with a release year of 2017, for one.
For two, it’s a sublime, confident, masterwork of the genre; the work of a craftsman with a painstaking attention to detail and the soul firmly and legitimately entrenched in a decade I'm only barely old enough to remember with any degree of detail. For an album that was produced in the long forgotten year 2009 (well before I had even heard the term “Synthwave”, before even the trailer for Drive graced a single screen), it carries everything that gives the synthwave sound such a familiar yet refreshingly unique appeal.
Being new to me, I could treat it as new for all, and for the uninitiated I could pass it off as the latest and greatest. Such is the beauty of the entire genre of synthwave itself: its rooting in the past doesn’t make it feel timeworn, but instead injects coziness into its innovations. It isn’t reliant upon nostalgia; it’s only bolstered and encouraged by it. It knows its inspirations by name, and instead of stealing from them, it gives them a genuine shake of the hand, a nod, and says “Thanks for everything - I’ve got this from here”.
After Hours is - as far as my Googlejitsu can find - a re-release of the good Mr. Murder’s very first EP. Its first, almost eponymous track, After Hours Run, starts with a steady sense of anticipation throughout its first minute, after which point is erupts into a galloping and steadfast evocation of exactly what its title would suggest: the non-diegetic accompaniment to a daring, late-night caper performed with time itself as a primary antagonist. Its ending only corroborates this: an abrupt termination, with only the ticking of a clock left fading into the night when the job is done.
The tracks that follow are some of the finest work that the artist has gifted to us, and now with the knowledge that After Hours is the freshman offering from Mitch Murder (real name Johan Bengtsson), it only make sense that some of my favorite tracks were descended from mind that crafted the gems featured here. After Hours Run has a similar feeling to Running Out Of Time from the following year’s Burning Chrome, but it’s far from simply the mould from which that later track was formed and more a fellow traveller. Coup de Theatre and Night Shift are immediate standout tracks for me, and they call back memory of chronologically later tracks like Frantic Aerobatics and Slipstream from his 2011 release Current Events - two of my favorites from that album.
Bertone’s Theme could easily have been: the backing track to a promotional video of the inventive Italian coachbuilder during its 1980s heyday, playing over footage of custom Alfa Romeos and Lamborghinis carving through the hills of Turin, enhancing their allure by invoking a heart-pumping excitement by way of its bouncy, synthy rhythm. It and the closing track Outta Space are the most resplendent evocateurs of that Reagan-era electric joyfulness pumping through the genre’s veins.
Of the seven tracks featured, only Steel Mill Rendevouz and Square City fail to rise to the heights of the remaining five. As middle-of-the-album fillers, they’re by no means unworthy among their company, but they bring anything new to the table. Square City carries itself like a less enthusiastic companion to Coup de Theatre and Night Shift, and Steel Mill Rendevouz is the kind Michael Mann-esque slow boiler of a song that Lost Years is more masterful in creating.
Despite being the earliest entrant to Mitch Murder’s discography, After Hours carries itself like a seasoned pro. It’s as cleanly produced and snappily paced as any of Mitch Murder’s subsequent works, and it must have been a sign to any of those early devotees of synthwave that this Johan guy might have some longevity.
