(Minimal Synth, Synthpop) Martial Canterel - Navigations (2013), MP3, 320 kbps

Martial Canterel’s Sean McBride is the progenitor of American cold synth sounds of the 21st Century. He began under the moniker Moravagine before he started releasing limited edition cassettes and playing Brooklyn dives as Martial Canterel in 2002. Since then, McBride’s bleak intellectual exercises in the dark and danceable have flooded North America and Europe through the frosty fairwaves paved by Pieter Schoolwerth’s Wierd Records. With an inimitable minimal style merging bright, urgent melodies ornamented and punctuated by the noises of industry and McBride’s sonorous, stern vocals, Martial Canterel’s recent releases (You Today, Refuge Underneath) have garnered both critical acclaim and a rapidly growing rabid fanbase. McBride’s influence can be heard in scores of bands in the Wierd cadre and beyond (he is also one half of the Weird Records duo Xeno and Oaklander). Through the collision of a uniquely humanistic means of production via live analogue synthcraft expertly paired with vocals and lyrics that reflect the pitfalls and pleasures of our age, Martial Canterel provides a visceral kick best felt on the dancefloor, amidst a flurry of flesh in motion.

Sean McBride