Arcade High - The Art Of Youth

Good afternoon internet, I just stumbled across an album that I think you're gonna dig. It's by a one Arcade High and is summed up by the man himself as: "It's been described as a cross between the kinda of SynthWave we are used to, influenced by ‘80’s TV and Movie themes, and the adrenaline chaos of video game arcades a couple of decades ago." that got me thinking of Kavinsky. And Miss Kittin & The Hacker to a lesser extent, so I went and scooped myself a copy.

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Ok, so the cover art may have had a bit of an influence on me too, you know I love a good cover. After the chiptune-y and new wave melding of the intro, I was treated to this. It's more 80's than Kavinsky, a whoooole lot more. Whereas the K man is sort of a mash between New Wave and Electro this is a straight up love letter to the 1980's, as the first airy synth hits told me.



Speaking of lighthearted synths, I love me some good lines, and this track has them in spades. And this just happened to scratch my itch that I didn't know I had, as those keys twinkled away I just couldn't help but smile. And the break at 3:35 is pretty special those are some excellent pads right there in that little break. And the arpeggio that leads it back into the main mix is pretty stellar too.



Adding to my list of tracks called 1980 something (coincidentally featuring both Kavinsky and Kittin & The Hacker) is this little number. The beat kinda reminds me of Calvin Harris' Flashback but with the plastic drums and synthesizer working that we've come to expect from Miami Nights. I honestly don't own anything else like this in my collection.



It's just not an album without a downtempo interlude to break things up. And this is The Art Of Youth's answer to that. it's like if Washed Out started working with synths instead of sampling old disco records, at least that's the vibe I got from it. Anyway, it's very, very nice. You know I love me a good chilled number and this also has the bonus of featuring everything about the album I've come to love so far.



I'll leave you with this, a more upbeat number that was the track that initially sold me. I was drawn in by that title, which is damn sweet. The synths hit, and that made the deal sweeter. But the deal maker? that has to be hands-down (no pun intended) the claps. When that first one hits at 0:44 you know this ain't nothing but a good time.



So that's a quick rundown of Arcade High, I gotta say it pretty much fits the description he gave out with the info for it, and it is pretty damn special. I highly suggest you check it out, or even buy the album! I'll hit you up with the links now.

As We Were In '82,
-Claude Van Foxbat

Find Arcade High at:
Arcade High's Bandcamp
Arcade High's Soundcloud
Aphasia Records' Soundcloud
SomethingAwful