Dreamhour and The Rise of Synthwave music in India — The Showrunners exclusive reviews
Photo Courtesy — Abhishek Gupta
We’ve seen the comeback of music styles like Lofi and Postmodern music from the 70s-80s. Today we are aware of the music evolution and how it affects our mindset and becomes a trend. There’s a shift in the current music era as well as fashion and art forms. The late 70s and 80s — a e s t h e t i c s are taking place again in our modern music culture and we couldn't be happier enough as it takes us back in that time where this concept was the only cool thing ever invented. That’s where Dreamhour holds the position and becomes one of those few Synthwave - Retrowave artists to bring back this retro-future music wave.
Dreamhour is the synthpop project of Siliguri based music producer and songwriter, Debojyoti Sanyal. It has been in the making since 2012 when a then-17-year-old Sanyal started releasing a string of synth-centric recordings from his storeroom-turned-makeshift studio in Siliguri under the alias. Previously, He has released an EP — The Unfinished Story of the UnknownBand in 2016, A full-length Album — VLLNS in 2018, and here we are with his 2020's latest release — PROPSTVR which is also a follow up to his previous release.
This album has been Sanyal’s way of trying to get comfortable with the fact that he’s already in his mid-20s and still not the ‘international star’ he imagined himself as a kid. “Just millenial things,” he adds. The album has mostly been recorded at the Gorakshnath Hostel in Pune on a ‘dying old computer’ and he describes it as an experience in itself.
PROPSTVR is an 11 tracks album made with some ’80s inspired vocal melodies, synths, bass, pads, plucks, leads, and sound designs, as well as some classic Bollywood sounds blended together in a fine measurement with just perfect consistency. Musically, PROPSTVR further explores the sound of 80s inspired synthpop meets Bollywood with relatively more modern elements compared to his last release.
Sanyal also described his routine while producing this album, “Battling noise complaints from neighbors, bloodthirsty bed bugs, an old computer consistently giving up on you, bad recording (and living) conditions and days of running out of lunch money later, the album somehow finally got made. The place and its tiny rooms had a charm of its own. The claustrophobia added to the experience than take away from it. If I had the choice I wouldn’t be living there, but it still wasn’t as bad as it may seem.”
Dreamhour has recently released two videos from the album PROPSTVR — How it goes and Internot available on youtube. Overall this album raises the bar of Synthwave-Retrowave music in India and it’s surprising to see the appreciation of this music style. Music writing is all about inspiration and evolution and Dreamhour is one promising act that’s contributing a lot to restart this style of music in India. It definitely could be a step towards the rise of Synthwave music as soon as the trend gets its ground and we have more artists making such retro-nostalgic-dreamy music.
PROPSTVR is available on all major online music stores. A limited set of posters + a 20-page booklet bundle will be available shortly. It will also be released on CDs and cassettes by Synth City Records. All artwork has been created by Pune based artist and animator Anusha Menon.
LISTEN TO PROPSTVR. CLICK THE LINK BELOW
PROPSTVR — https://ffm.to/propstvr
FOLLOW DREAMHOUR ON SOCIAL MEDIA
FB — https://www.facebook.com/Dreamhour
IG — https://www.facebook.com/dreamhourmusic
WESBITE — https://drmhr.com/
[Written by Mohan Kumar]