When My Bloody Valentine’s epoch-defining blissout masterpiece Loveless came out, everyone was dying to know what was going to top it. When Kevin Shields pulled a Brian Wilson and dropped out of contention, that answer seemed left unanswered. Or perhaps partially answered, by the post-rock of Disco Inferno and Bark Psychosis. French synth duo M83 aren’t necessarily breaking new ground with technology that dates back to 70s Kraftwerk and Brian Eno, but they’ve done a wonderful job in replicating the hypnotic multi-toned harmonics of My Bloody Valentine, substituting synths for the distorted guitars.
The result is somewhat less gauzy, but equally transportive and hallucinatory. Less songs than looped textures with slow-moving melodies blanketed on top, with a swirl of psychedelic color, Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts really does offer a new twist in sound and approach, while avoiding cliche in a way that Air and Fennesz achieved a few years back. Named after an intensely beautiful spiral galaxy, M83 don’t quite evoke the ambient awe and dread of vast space like Amon Tobin can, but tracks like “Gone” come pretty close, and are more than capable of wiping all electroclash residue from your memory, leaving only the pleasant afterglow from the fragile “Beauties Can Die.”
April 2, 2026
Fester’s Lucky 13: 1986
February 27, 2026
Fester’s Lucky 13: 1976
