Boy Harsher

Review: This new one from Boy Harsher is an extended version of their 2017 EP that's had four new tracks added to it. As a result is shows off the Massachusetts based duo's wide sonic range, starting with the shadowy but groovy "Motion" before taking in cold and jerking rhythms on "Electric" and mournful synth pop lullabies with "Country Girl." Slowing things down is the sparse and stark "Underwater" before "Send Me A Vision" turns all 80s pop. There's an infectious lead on "Westerners" that takes you back to the future and closes out a fantastic EP.

Review: Three years on from the release of their acclaimed debut album, "Yr Body is Nothing", Augustus Miller and Jae Matthews are finally ready to release the second Boy Harsher full-length. It's a hugely atmospheric affair, with the lauded pair sashaying between moody creepiness (the slowly shifting musical dystopia of opener "Keep Driving"), guitar-flecked new wave ("Face The Fire"), arpeggio-driven alternative synth-pop ("Fate"), Pet Shop Boys-esque Italo-disco influenced throb-jobs ("LA"), EBM-driven dancefloor funk ("Come Closer", "Tears"), icy electronic soundscapes ("Crush") and immersive, wide-eyed ambient ("Careful"). It does sound like it could have been made around 1985, but that's precisely the point: Boy Harsher can certainly deliver well observed retro-futurism better than most.

Review: Best known for his work as half of "minimal synth duo" Boy Harsher, Augustus Muller has a neat sideline in composing scores for experimental short films produced by his friends from the Four Chambers collective. "Machine Learning Experiments" offers up two of those scores on one must-check LP. A-side suite "Orange Theory" sees Muller confidently strut between creepy sci-fi ambience, thrusting Italo-disco influenced dancefloor workouts, more melodic and spaced-out synth-wave and clandestine, Vangelis-esque soundscapes. Over on side B, the "Hydra" soundtrack is an altogether more immersive affair, with Muller sticking to clandestine ambient and the kind of slowly throbbing fare that was once the preserve of John Carpenter.

Review: Best known for his work as half of "minimal synth duo" Boy Harsher, Augustus Muller has a neat sideline in composing scores for experimental short films produced by his friends from the Four Chambers collective. "Machine Learning Experiments" offers up two of those scores on one must-check LP. A-side suite "Orange Theory" sees Muller confidently strut between creepy sci-fi ambience, thrusting Italo-disco influenced dancefloor workouts, more melodic and spaced-out synth-wave and clandestine, Vangelis-esque soundscapes. Over on side B, the "Hydra" soundtrack is an altogether more immersive affair, with Muller sticking to clandestine ambient and the kind of slowly throbbing fare that was once the preserve of John Carpenter.

Review: Best known for his work as half of "minimal synth duo" Boy Harsher, Augustus Muller has a neat sideline in composing scores for experimental short films produced by his friends from the Four Chambers collective. "Machine Learning Experiments" offers up two of those scores on one must-check LP. A-side suite "Orange Theory" sees Muller confidently strut between creepy sci-fi ambience, thrusting Italo-disco influenced dancefloor workouts, more melodic and spaced-out synth-wave and clandestine, Vangelis-esque soundscapes. Over on side B, the "Hydra" soundtrack is an altogether more immersive affair, with Muller sticking to clandestine ambient and the kind of slowly throbbing fare that was once the preserve of John Carpenter.