Synthwave Sunday: Master Boot Record, C:\>EDIT CONFIG.SYS
Master Boot Record’s three-line email to MetalSucks contains the following disclaimer: “It’s not synthwave. It’s substantial metal made with synths.”
There’s certainly substance to that statement. New album C:\>EDIT CONFIG.SYS — which came out last week — is orchestrated like a metal band, with different shapes and flavors of synths taking the roles of guitar, bass and vocals while the drums pound furiously with double bass blasts and other manner of metal drumming tropes. Unlike much of the other music covered in this space, there aren’t lush soundscapes of cascading keyboards or danceable electronic beats; with different instrumentation this would be metal.
Still, in the context of the modern analog keyboard revival, I have no qualms about lumping it in with synthwave; your average listener probably wouldn’t be too concerned with differentiation so much as just rocking the fuck out. It’s good stuff any way you slice it, really, so press play and dig in.
C:\>EDIT CONFIG.SYS is the middle of three albums released within the past two weeks, following FIXMBR and preceding C:\>EDIT AUTOEXEC.BAT, out today. Perhaps those more familiar with the language of late ’80s / early ’90s DOS than I (I was always a Mac dude, even back then) can decode the storyline linking the three.
