Home | Releases | Reviews | Vaporwave | Bandcamp

Note: The album name was updated since publication and has been corrected here to match.

Laura Dre is a synthwave/electropop artist currently based in Germany. I was a big fan of her twin 2021 releases (Moving Spaces and Kyoto Dreams) last year and have been eagerly awaiting the follow-up. I’m happy to report that her new album AKARI LD-01 lives up to the hype.

The album starts with a few tracks at a more moderate BPM, with opener “Eternal” sounding almost at home with Kyoto Dreams’ introspective aesthetic, before really picking up the BPM with “Resistance” for the middle act. This frenetic section is probably my favorite part of the album. “Shinjuku 2.0” is a refreshing change of pace with its strong Japanese aesthetic and more natural sounds. The album then wraps up with a gradual cooldown on the last few tracks, including another favorite with “Division 3184”. This bell-curve structure lends the album a strong narrative flow that feels cohesive.

Expanding upon the instrumental palate of Kyoto Dreams, AKARI increases the tempo substantially and moves into a more cyberpunk and synthwave aesthetic. Filled with pounding drums and an astounding variety of synth sounds, it feels like a narrative album in spite of the lack of lyrics. The track titles give tantalizing clues into the world Laura has built, which she summarizes as “Somewhere far in the future, on a planet named HELLCORE IV… is XETASHELL CORPORATION who mass manufactures androids. It is run by an evil lady named Ms. Dre and her accomplice and engineer freaky-Deek.”

Freaky-Deek is providing additional conceptual work in the form of sculptures and videos for the album, alongside art from Tida Kietsungden which I have not seen yet but I’m excited to see how it will compliment the narrative and world of Laura’s music. Cyberpunk is an entertaining aesthetic that has had newfound public interest since the release of the CD Projekt RED game Cyberpunk 2077 a few years back, and this album fits that vibe fantastically.

One trope that instrumental albums can fall into is an overabundance of repetition due to the lack of lyrics. AKARI avoids that by shifting and molding throughout, with new synths and pads coming in constantly. This keeps the album feeling fresh over the course of the tight 39-minute runtime. The tracks blend together smoothly resulting in what feels more like a single mix than individual tracks.

AKARI LD-01 will release on March 8th 202 2023 for International Women’s Day. You can sign up to be notified on launch on Kickstarter, alongside Freaky-Deek's Kickstarter.