https://groovecrusader.bandcamp.com/album/justice-wears-high-tops
Here’s an album that sees a vengeful, pessimistic future, and yet juxtaposes it with energetic, almost happy beats and melody. Telling the story of a Terminator-like journey from the future into the past, in order to deliver the full weight of ecological collapse on those responsible, the Groove Crusader/Doctor Sung album straddles a serious issue with the tongue-in-cheek aura that synthwave often emits. It may be a particularity of the genre, but vengeance is a theme that fits snug into both synthwave and video game styled music.
Joining the theme with more somber pieces (Landfill: Earth, and Postatmosphere) creates a world reminiscent of 80’s Captain Planet reruns. In that world, the bad guy was clearly defined. Here too, Doctor Sung explains that the fury of the future is aimed at those who profit off the ecological collapse.
It is not truly a fantasy sci-fi story; many investors are thinking of their own pockets with respect to the changes sure to happen within the current generation (https://www.vox.com/2014/8/18/6031219/how-to-profit-off-of-global-warming). As the ice melts, new extraction opportunities will drive oil companies to exacerbate the problem already caused by extraction. It isn’t strange to think that future generations will be upset at the conscious destruction of their environments.
The whole production oozes this Captain Planet-as-RPG style, from the cover art, to the drums used. Subtle clicks help to establish a unique style from Sung’s Groove Crusader project. The EP was tasty, and hopefully we get more eco-conscious material like this from them again.
ＫＲＺＹＺＩＳ 