Thundercade

Before joining Nick Houde to form BDRMPPL, Ryan Mcryhew performed under the name Thundercade. This latest release from that project weaves together eight-bit composition with house beats, analog synth pop and a touch of trance. "Autosuggestion" feels like a lost OMD track until a hip-hop vocal sample bursts the bubbling...

By Tom Murphy

August 27, 2009

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Before joining Nick Houde to form BDRMPPL, Ryan Mcryhew performed under the name Thundercade. This latest release from that project weaves together eight-bit composition with house beats, analog synth pop and a touch of trance. "Autosuggestion" feels like a lost OMD track until a hip-hop vocal sample bursts the bubbling atmospheres, while the blips and minimal percussion of "Old Earth" suggest an analog to the industrial sounds of microchip communication. Superficially, this is an experimental electronic-pop album. But with song titles that hint at an implied examination and critique of the dystopian aspects of modern life while embracing the technology that makes it all possible, Mcryhew has written songs that are subversive in their recontextualization of sounds but also enjoyable apart from any such agenda.

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Tom Murphy is a writer, visual artist and musician from Aurora, Colorado. He was a prolific music writer for Westword and a documenter of the Denver music scene.

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Twitter: @simianthinker