V/A :: Analog 2025 (Remastered) (Unexplained Sounds Group)

Analog 2025 is a thunderous, all-consuming surge of analog fury—an album that squashes, foams, and swirls with such raw sonic force it stops you dead in your tracks.

A monument to analog power

One of my great joys in life is receiving an album that squashes, foams and swirls. One that hits you with a thick all encompassing sound and stops you in your tracks. Analog 2025, from Unexplained Sounds Group, is exactly one of those albums. 

Analog 2025, (Originally released in 2016 as Analog 2020, and now remastered), is an amazingly hearty sonic stew. Every noise bubbling, groaning and slapping you square in the face with so much power, it leaves no other explanation that everything I’m hearing right now is an analog mutation. 

The USG Bandcamp site states “Nearly a decade after its original release, Analog 2025 stands as both a document and a manifesto — a celebration of a global movement of musicians who view analog synthesis not as a nostalgic indulgence, but as a vital creative choice: an act of resistance and authenticity in a hyper-digitized world”. 

Synthesis pushed beyond its limits ::

I’m no synthesizer traditionalist, and have no positive or negative leaning between analog or digital. Both have their places, both have their strengths and weaknesses, but there really is nothing like the sound of a four pole low pass filter squelching your speakers on fire to shake you out of any mood that you were in. I was immediately shaken with “Convergence of Clouds” by Anasisana. A chunky sequence scattered in beautiful form while winged airy notes playfully chime to support the serious bass, that keeps the machine grounded. I wish it was a little longer. My only criticism. 

Standouts on this are many. Sonologyst’s “Telescope” wavers uneasily from the start, demands your attention to make way for the seasick depths of audio custard to thickly wash over you. It’s dense enough to change your thoughts. Analog experimentation at its finest. 

Then there is Robert Rich’s “Particles.” An analog masterpiece reminiscent of Subotnick/Garson. Buchla lovers will smile at this one. I’d be interested in knowing WHAT he used to make this. Everything I want to hear in an oscillator bath shows its mutant form. Swimming up to me to roar, then disappearing in thick dense resonance. It’s a dance of warm darkness, one that I’m fortunate to have experienced. 

If you’re looking for something that brings you to a time where giant wired monsters ruled the college airwaves, this is it. Joy achieved.

I need to talk to Robert Rich. I’ll keep you posted.

Analog 2025 is available on Unexplained Sounds Group. [Bandcamp]