Week 6 - April 5, 2024
The Sixth Show Showcases Bufinjer!
Z-GR! Radio overview right from your Host:
- My name is Scot Apathy – I’m the lead singer for Zero-G Racetrack, and I curate the ‘Floating Around the Racetrack’ Spotify/YouTube playlist. It’s not a pay for play list; I personally choose what’s on it based on what I hear. True story.
- For Z-GR! Radio, I pull from tracks/artists on the playlist (current and archived) and include newer finds that might not be on the list yet.
- The artists included come from myriad genres, geographical locations and stage of growth. I stay away from mainstream established artists, but I will play artists that I’ve followed as they grow. I love it when emerging artists gain traction, and I like to celebrate it.
- I include a cover song each week, and highly recommend checking out MetroVeteran’s (Ruel Smith) ‘Synthwave Covers’ Spotify playlist. There are 900 great tracks on that list.
- I post a page like this each week to help you find out more about the artists you heard on this week’s show and to make it easy to do so.
Have fun with the list below, enjoy the artists and and PLEASE share the page out on your Socials! Thanks, and see you next week!
Bufinjer
This week, I asked Dave Bulera, AKA Bufinjer, if he was willing to supply the bed music under my vocal musings between songs, and he graciously agreed.
Bufinjer was one of the original 12 artists on the ‘Floating Around the Playlist’ in 2021, so it’s really cool to showcase him on Z-GR! Radio!
THANK YOU, DAVE!
Episode Six- On Demand
Z-GR! Radio Episode Six Lineup
Hanna Rua - Don't Cut Your Angels
Hanna Rua who also goes by Hanna Nygren, is from Sweden, lives in the UK and emphasizes her Nordic background, and you can hear it in her voice. ‘Don’t Cut Your Angels’ has an modern 70’s pop sound (to my ears you can hear the ABBA-esque tonality in the vocal) and makes for a great week 6 opener. She is also a talented illustrator and it’s worth taking a look at her work on instagram.
LAU - Two Strangers
The first time I heard ’Two Strangers’ by LAU it struck me as a nearly perfectly crafted pop song. Great story, great melody and a STRONG Chorus vocal hook. LAU’ a singer, songwriter, drummer, producer, creative director out of Barcelona, and she’s a founder of Aztec Records. Aztek is home to perhaps the best collection of Synthwave/ Retrowave artists out there, including Bunny X, Young Empress and Fulvio COLASANTO so head on over to aztekrecords.com for the who’s who.
Yota - The Hunger
I’ve said it before – Sweden produces some of the most amazing SynthPop artists in the World, – case in point, Yota was born in Stockholm and later settled in Paris, France. Her solo library dates back to 2010, so she’s got a lot of great music to check out. Admittedly, I’m pretty late to the Yota party, and as I was listening to her 2023 album ‘Room 412’, ‘The Hunger’ really stood out.
Catherine Moan - Soda Pop
One of two returning tracks this week (LAU’s Two Strangers is the other) ‘Soda Pop’ is one of those tracks that went up on the playlist 10 minutes after I heard it for the first time. I love the pacing of this track, and Philadelphia’s Catherine Moan (Angel Jefferson) brings a fantastic wink and a nod to the innuendo-laden vocal. I can’t get enough of this track, no lie. Catherine Moan is a gamer, can be found on Twitch under the username CATHMOAN, and has several videos for her tracks on YouTube, so check them out.
Benny Braun - Break Out
Hamburg’s Benny Braun pinged me on Social media a few years back and told me that his track ‘Break Out’ was worth checking out, so I did, and he was right. The track opens his excellent 2021 effort ‘Aerosols’ and he released a song appropriately titled ‘Are You Still Around?’ in 2022, but I’m hoping we’ll hear some new stuff from him in the near future. Fun Fact: ‘Break Out’ was not the first of his tracks to appear on the playlist; I initially passed on it in favor of an Instrumental off of’ Aerosols’ titled ‘Found Footage of the Second Lost Mission to Titan and ‘The Upcoming’ off of his excellent Instrumental album ‘The Unpredictable Sky’. They’re great, so check them out.
Sloww - Never Surrender
Sloww – Never Surrender
That last track was ‘Never Surrender’ by Sloww – Sloww is the solo project by Paris-based producer and multi-instrumentalist Mathieu Llopart. I really dig the energy of the track – he’s got a new single out and it’s called ‘A Blinking Neon’ which is also very cool, and the video for ‘Never Surrender’ is excellent, so make sure to check out his stuff.
Zero-G Racetrack - Hard to Believe
We’re really proud of this track – I really do feel that with ‘Hard To Believe’ we captured the essence of Zero-G Racetrack’s first wave of songs. It sits perfectly in the Modern SynthRock pocket; the guitars rock out without overwhelming (squeals and all), the synths add the perfect flavor and the vocal hook in Chorus really sells the track. Bill Williams’ vocal harmony production is outstanding – Damia Foti’s background singing adds the perfect support to my lead vocal.
The Fiends - Talk Soon
Sometimes you hear a rock band that just…rocks, and that’s what happened when I came across the Fiends. They’re an alt-rock outfit out of South Wales, their 2023 EP Mozel Tov is outstanding; they’re gaining steam and truthfully, they have other songs that are doing bigger numbers, but ‘Talk Soon’ remains my favorite of theirs.
12 Below - Farlight
12 Below – Farlight
When a band creates a vibe so uniquely their own that you just have to sink into their sound, you want to share it with as many people as you can, and I am to do just that – 12 Below’s ‘Farlight’ is ridiculously cool. ‘Farlight’ hit my radar in early ‘22, and remains a favorite, but there’s a lot to like in their library, so take the time to check it out.
I Am A Rocketship - Walk with Me
I Am A Rocketship’s ‘Walk With Me’ is really different from most of their material – L E Kippner handles most of the lead vocal duties in their catalog, but Eric Weissinger’s vocal on ‘Walk With Me’ has a…sort of modern Old West vibe (if that makes sense) that really caught my ear. Their last effort, ‘La Cruella’ has a bunch of really great songs that are also well worth a listen. Not sure when or if they’re playing out anytime soon, but I know they were on the bill with Olive Dares the Darkness a few years back and I’d love to see both of them out here on the West Coast.
Hitfakers - Wicked Game
I feel like I’m on a pretty good run when it comes to bringing awesome cover songs to the show, and this week’s entry is no exception – I’ve heard a lot of covers of Chris Issac’s ‘Wicked Game’, but to my ears, Czech artists The Hitfaker’s version is among if not the the best of them.
Bufinjer - Qirex Anti-Gravity
Huge THANK YOU to Bufinjer’s Dave Bulera for this week’s music beds – he has a huge library of really great tracks, so make sure to go check them out. Buinger was one of the original 12 artists on the Z-GR! Playlist when it launched in late 2021, and has been a regular ever since, so I’m stoked that he was willing to supply music bed instrumentals for the show, and it’s appropriate that he’s the first to do so.
The following tracks appeared on the show as beds – Bad Hatter, Raise Your Glass, Phat Phreak, It’s Your Plucky Day, Electrify and Voltage.
I closed the show with ‘Qirex – Anti-Gravity, which was released on Project 2097, a tribute to one of my favorite video game series, WipeOut (it’s a Zero-G Racing game played on Zero-G Racetracks…go figure that one out). This track kills the course, no lie – thanks again, Dave.
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