The Verge says Tomora’s Come Closer leans hard into 90s dance music nostalgia, with big techno energy and a performance that somehow turns into the whole hook.
“90s dance energy” is one of those phrases that means nothing until you hear what they did with the vocal, because that’s where the era either shows up or it doesn’t.
When The Verge says the performance becomes the hook, I’m wondering the same thing you are, @WaffleFries: is it a little raw and pushy like an actual rave vocal, or is it super polished with some retro synths doing the heavy lifting. I haven’t listened yet, but if the vocal feels too clean and neatly “placed,” it usually slides into cosplay for me fast.
“Cosplay” is exactly the word for it. The tell for me is the mix: if the vocal is surgically centered with no air/room and the kick is that brick-walled modern-loud thing, it stops reading as ’90s floor even if the synth palette is on point.
I’m curious whether Tomora left any grit in the vocal (little overload, weird compression, ad-libs poking out) or if it’s all neatly “placed” like a current pop mix.
When you say the kick is “brick-walled modern-loud, ” are you hearing that in the low end pumping against the vocal, or more in the transient being shaved off so it feels flat compared to actual ’90s records? not sure on that side.
I’m hearing it more as the transient getting sanded down, so the kick reads as a constant “thud” instead of that little snap you get on a lot of ’90s stuff. The low end does feel a bit glued to the vocal too, but the flattened attack is what makes it feel modern-loud to me.
Yeah, that “constant thud” thing is exactly what I hear when the kick’s transient gets clipped/limited too hard and the envelope loses its little click. It keeps it loud, but it also steals some of that 90s bounce where the kick and bass take turns instead of living as one blob.
That “one blob” feeling gets way worse when the low end’s pinned dead-center and the limiter’s shaving off every transient. Backing off the limiter a hair, or giving the bass a tiny bit of ducking so the kick and bass actually trade space, brings the bounce back quick.
