The Flight Away – Sega Swing
SEGA SWING is a refreshing homage to the 80/90’s chip-tune era that respectfully borrows the sounds and aesthetics without lazily stealing the samples and melodies. The lead singer, Jon Siejka, beautifully glides over the tracklisting, adding further personality. Best of all is the incorporation of drum samples which sound completely fitting and not outdated. Since its original release date on May 9th, 2013, no artist has been able to recreate the magic of the late video game era with as much charm and polish.
Despite being non-stop pop from start to finish, the album never loses momentum, nor does it repeat itself. It’s difficult to tell what has been directly sampled and what’s been originally cultivated; regardless, The Flight Away present everything so evenly and contemporarily mastered, that one could easily believe all the sounds were originally produced in 2013. Secondly, despite being a nostalgic album for millennials, one does not need to be familiar with the source material to enjoy the album. I certainly wasn’t. One does have to be an admirer of pop, though; there’s hardly anything outside the pop convention here. Thankfully, the album takes a lot of creative instrumental detours, such as during LOUNGE, Mama Said… and the closer.
There’s very little to complain about Sega Swing. If one is in the mood for an album that hits the nostalgic sweet spot, and encourages one to dance about, the album has been heavily devised with you in mind. It’s invigorating lick of paint can only satisfy one so far, though; compositionally, the album leaves a lot to be desired. One can only hope The Flight Away return with another grand chip-tune foray into post avant-garde post-rock territories with influences of neo-psychedelic sludge metal and acid jazz.
Good
Listen to it here:
