One of the leading lights of the ever-burgeoning synthwave movement, Los Angeles’ DANCE WITH THE DEAD made their full-length debut in 2013 with the now-classic Out of Body. The album featured all the hallmarks of synthwave – percolating melodies, pulsating bass, and deft & dramatic shifts in texture, always with electric energy and piston-precise propulsion – but the unique factor is the duo’s metal background, which manifests itself in the haunting horror-movie feel of many / most of the album’s tracks. That sensation unfolds as the album pulses onward, indeed making Out of Body feel like the soundtrack to a movie that never was (or yet is).
Further capitalizing on that metal background, DANCE WITH THE DEAD occasionally pepper their compositions here with guitar-god solos, not so much making the album “metal” per se as driving the point home that their synthwave is authentically ‘80s-rooted. A decade later, the duo decided to give Out of Body the remixed & remastered treatment, polishing the soundfield to gleaming chrome whilst punching up the low-end to deeper, dancier levels. Get Out of Body once again, or for the first time!
