WAX FRUIT "DROWNED BY THE WORLD WE LIVE IN" (synth pop/experimental)

[NO PART OF IT]

https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/album/drowned-by-the-world-we-live-in

WAX FRUIT began under a different name, with at least one CDr under its belt, probably around 2010. St. Louis couple Michaella and Dom pool together their lengthy experience in this project, which finds Michaella using her influences as a DJ/Synth Fest curator/bonafide record geek to fuse ideas with Dom, who did synth-based experimental music and noise under the name Sigulda for many years, as well as running Side Of The Sun Recordings for much of that time.

Wax Fruit is clearly inspired by early 80s minimal wave and synth pop, perhaps also some choice synth soundtracks and other things, but I think there are some vocal melodies that contribute something compelling to the genre(s) history, if not carefully crafted lyrics that can easily resonate with most humans in our nauseatingly well-informed period of time.

While there are a few tracks here that are instrumental in nature due to collaborations with hylidae, and although the total running time is less than 26 minutes, DROWNED BY THE WORLD WE LIVE IN still plays like an LP, with the distinct feeling that a story is being told, and that the listener is in good hands. In hopes of reaching a wider audience, DROWNED BY THE WORLD WE LIVE IN has been reissued by NO PART OF IT label from a pro-cassette edition from around 2018, which were also accompanied by CD demos in slimline cases.

[NO PART OF IT]

WAX FRUIT - DROWNED BY THE WORLD WE LIVE IN (CDR by No Part Of It)

While large parts of the catalogue of the US label No Part Of It are used to unleash the noise beast, there is also room for something else, such as the music by Wax Fruit. They are a duo from St. Louis, Michaella and Dom, the first singing and the second on synthesizers and drum machines. As with many projects such as these, the inspiration is drawn from the 1980's minimal synth scene. Not that it was called that in those years (in fact, I have no idea since when we are using the word 'minimal synth'). I always think 'minimal synth' means 'one synth, one drum machine, one voice', but no doubt that is something romantical notion of this kind of music. Especially on the synth front, there might be more than just one synth. Wax Fruit does a great job by sounding very retro. It is stripped down from most productional values, just the rhythm machine ticking away time, the synths in mild overdrive version, bare melodies and the voices buried in the mix (which is a good place to hide if one is that proficient at singing). I heard quite a bit of this minimal synth back in the day, but, actually, more of that in the last ten years. I quite enjoy that kind of music, as I love the sort of naivety when it comes to production and yet still it manages to sound 'pop'; well, in a sort of odd way of course. It is not the kind of pop music that will reach the masses, but one that could well on a night that is promoted as 'darkwave'. As always, I have no idea what these lyrics are about, as I never pay much attention to them, but maybe titles as 'Synthetic Reality' or 'Nightmares (Become Real)' says it all? The '80s, the height of the Cold War, were no fun, but is the world better off, right now? I doubt it, and even if this 'Done Before' (as one of the titles go), we get an updated soundtrack for grim times. (FdW)
––– Address: https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/

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