Music Sound

Spacesynth, also known as synthdance, spacedance and spacedisco, is a genre of electronic dance derived from italo disco. Most tracks are completely instrumental and are focused on upbeat futuristic, science fiction and epic battle scene style themes with driving basslines and catchy synthesizer riffs. The genre began in the mid-1980s and lasted until the early 1990s. Most of the artists were centered around Italian label Memory Records. Since the genre's decline it has gone underground, with new albums being published by a number of European independent record labels.

Contents 1 History 2 Artists 3 External links 3.1 Record labels 3.2 Sites with music and more info

History

At that time synthesizers and electronic sounds had become an essential part of popular music and were widely used by such artists as Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk and Art of Noise. Synthpop hits like Magnetic Fields 2, Pulstar and Magic Fly are well known tracks even today.

In the meantime in Italy a music style called italo disco was dominating discos. At first spacesynth was just an instrumental version of italo disco focusing on the synth side of the style, but eventually it evolved into a genre in its own right. Cyber People released successful singles "Polaris" and "Void Vision" for the Memory Records. Koto developed his own Italo-inspired synth music style and the single "Visitors" was a big hit in 1985.

Soon after there were other similar groups - also outside of Italy. Erik van Vliet from The Netherlands established Laserdance, and together with Michiel van der Kuy, Laserdance became the most successful spacesynth group ever. Their debut album "Future Generation" (1987) sold approximately 150 000 copies and the singles "Powerrun" and "Humanoid Invasion" were big hits in Europe. Koto and Laserdance could be considered the most popular spacesynth groups. They set the standards of the genre and since the golden era of spacesynth many producers have tried to replicate that sound.

In the early 1990s spacesynth started to lose its popularity and almost completely vanished during the 1990s when eurodance, house, techno and their subgenres were dominating electronic music charts. Spacesynth was nearly forgotten until it showed some signs of recovering towards the end of the decade. There has recently been a growing interest in spacesynth again as the 1980s melodic sound is becoming popular again. During the last few years Hypersound and Alpha Centauri have released a numerous of spacesynth albums from many new artists.

Artists

Daylight Hipnosis (Italy) Cyber People (Italy) Koto (Italy) Laserdance (Netherlands) Proxyon (Netherlands) Syntech (Netherlands) SpaceRaider (Poland)

mindXpander (Sweden) Macrocosm Protonic Storm (Poland) Rygar (Netherlands) Mark Vera Dreamtime Electron

External links

Record labels

• Alpha Centauri
• Hypersound

Sites with music and more info

• spacesynth.net
• spacesynth.de