Bleep

Stereolab alum Morgane Lhote presents the peak of her reverence for the 1980s with her third album as Hologram Teen. Originally released digitally in 2022 on Ransom Note Records, Day-Glo Chaos moves even further from her debut album Between The Funk And The Fear tracking “the trippiest horror movie ever”. It seeks to amplify the neon lit aesthetics of the 80s in a warm, extroverted round of synthwave, electro, and retro electronics. Think Miami Vice and the sunny synthpop efforts of DMX Krew, combined with her Stereolab experience in the days of Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Dots And Loops.

Originally released on Ransom Note Records in 2022, the acid tinged melodies, vocoders, and synth strings now find their way to Dell’orso Records as Lhote continues to revel in the sounds and styles of decades past. Gauzy sunset colours paint these tracks in golden hues, filled with breezy drum machine patterns sequencing classic sounds, built around the airy synth string sound of her own creation. Tracks like ‘Theme From Don Henley’ are reminiscent of city pop instrumentals, swaggering with notes of funk, while ‘Yum Yum Yellow’ evokes vintage video game soundtracks with the dramatics of early Final Fantasy titles, and the arcade synth textures of Sega classic Out Run.

Diving further into the tracklist, Lhote peppers her upbeat synthpop formula with subtle experimentation. ‘Radio Staccato’ makes room for breakbeat ruckus stitched together by militant snares, escalated in the wildly cascading clusters of TR707 beats in ‘Abstract Daddy Vol. 1’, cowbells abound. ‘Midnite Rogue’ meanwhile looks outside of the 80s’ burgeoning dance styles to seminal psychedelic sounds with sitar guitar-esque synth melodies, while music box plucks drift throughout.

On her third album as Hologram Teen, Morgane Lhote distils her musical history into an optimistic ride through the sounds of the 80s.