Remember the stories of rock stars giving up on material possessions and following a guru to India or going to find solace in the desert? Remember musicians taking years to compose their magnum opus and annoying everyone at their record label? Who cares whether those stories were true or not? They enhanced the listening experience by making the musicians seem a lot more interesting.
And, this should be, at least, part of the mission of modern musicians as well. But it’s hard for them to see interesting when we can now access so much about them. Just flip to one of their social media accounts, and you’ll find out what hour they got up and what they had for breakfast. When you know what kind of eggs a person’s had in the morning, it’s hard to listen to them with the same conviction.
SYNNX’s mission on the EP “Atlas of the Heart” is to put some good, old-fashioned mystery back into pop-rock music. The six-song set is not a demand to sit and patiently listen. It’s a spell meant to seduce you into putting everything aside and getting lost and immersed in the music being played.
The musical experience begins with the self-titled song, a kind of tune that feels as if it was recorded from below the stage of a theatre production. The lead vocals are strong, and emotional. The instrumental brings in elements of classical music. But it’s the impressionistic, slightly over-the-top and childlike backing vocals that really give the song its character.
Yes, this is meant to be a new way of making and presenting psychedelic music. “Hypnagogia” makes it clear that, ideally, the place where SYNNX would like you to be while hearing this music is at the intersection between wakefulness and sleep.
This is because the songs require that you interact with them but also require a kind of surrender. “Spinning Ring” is blissfully soulful, in places recalling 60s pop ballads. Meanwhile, “Trade” has the most forward momentum of any of the songs on this collection as the duo delivers music that wouldn’t be out of place in a stage production inspired by the works of Lewis Carroll.
The musical duo keeps the greatest illusion for last. “Spaceship (Prelude)” includes beautifully evocative violin playing sliding over shimmering piano arpeggios. They set the ground for the proper composition in which the lyrics compare space exploration to wise men and women’s work of finding meaning in this existence. The song rises to a towering crescendo and falls back again. From dream to reality and back out there again, SYNNX are on a psychedelic mission and so far, nothing can blow the ship off course.
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