Synthwave Sunday: Majeure, “A Few More Pieces of Eight”

Zombi drummer AE Paterra has been making retro music on synthesizers since 2002, long before Stranger Things — and the wave of ’80s nostalgia that birthed it — brought the synthwave genre into the limelight. His solo outfit Majeure has been running for about half that time, releasing its first album in 2010.

Paterra will bring back Majeure for his fourth full-length later this month, and the first song to be released from the album, “A Few More Pieces of Eight,” is an interesting case study in what qualifies an act as synthwave. It’s decidedly more retro than much of today’s synthwave, which is a strange thing to say about a genre that’s inherently grounded in the past. What I mean by that is Paterra’s approach is more purist: less highly compressed, pulsating house beats and razor-sharp synths, and more subdued drum production (real ones, too!) and original, analog sounds with songs built on repetition. Put another way: less modern club, more Kraftwerk and Devo.

Apex comes out on February 17th via Temporary Residence; order here. Check out “A Few More Pieces of Eight” below.