Album Review: Positronic – Interstellar

While Interstellar – the new album from Michael McDannold’s Positronic project – is out on the legendary synthwave label RetroSynth Records, it doesn’t always keep within that genre’s sound.

The track titles often refer to matters cosmic, from opener Cosmic Dreams to Starlight and Andromeda, contemplating space travel, the nature of the universe, and the opportunities for love and adventure offered to us by those. This approach gives the album a strong conceptual framework that ties the songs together without feeling overly dominant, using these themes to guide us to the heart of each track.

On Rise, you can hear the role 80s synthpop plays in the music of Positronic, with a pulsating bass line in the style of Depeche Mode’s late 80s work paired with the pop aesthetic of their output earlier in the decade. The song doesn’t dwell on the past, as Positronic also often draw from Californian dark pop in their sonic palette.

In The Stars Tonight hits hard with cosmic lyrics full of positivity and is also where the influence of Erasure and Giorgio Moroder can be felt most palpably, making you want to dance around the room, losing yourself in its happiness.

The two cover versions allow McDannold to showcase his skill and talent by adapting well-known songs to work within his soundscape. He gives The NeverEnding Story and Coldplay’s A Sky Full of Stars the Positronic treatment, so that while you can still hear what makes both songs so special to so many people, they sound so new from this perspective.

The NeverEnding Story is a hard song to cover, as the melody is so simple and the lyrics so iconic – I mean, most of us will have seen that Stranger Things scene, as well as the fairytale movie – that giving new life to it can’t be easy. McDannold’s vocal similarity to Jon Anderson means the track retains its playful innocence as the track is given something of an Italo pop makeover and gives us another insight into the influence Giorgio Moroder has on Positronic.

A Sky Full of Stars moves the dial forward a bit, that Italo sound having more than a hint of 80s Italian house to it, thanks to the piano, but also the pensive nature of the vocals. With the right skills, you could easily drop this into a euphoric trance set, for all that it still keeps that Positronic sound at its centre.

Strangelove isn’t a cover version but deftly explores sounds made popular by Depeche Mode, Erasure, and OMD; it’s a love song with a twist that borders on the gothic.

If you’re a fan of Color Theory, Rogue VHS, and Xenturion Prime and retain a passion for the music of the 80s, investing time in Interstellar and Positronic’s back catalogue will be well rewarded.

Interstellar was released on the 20th of February and can be heard on Spotify and downloaded on Bandcamp. For more listening options and music updates from Positronic, follow the project on Facebook or Instagram.