Miami’s synthwave icon Trevor Something continues his consecutive streak of yearly album releases with his brand new release ULTRAPARANOIA.

Trevor Something is a stand out musician when it comes to synthwave by merging other music genres such as shoegazing and post punk. Whilst some synthwave artists stick to what they know and keep that signature genre sound, Trevor Something always successfully mixes up that sound with his own ideas. And they pay off brilliantly to those who have a very open mind when it comes to music. The 17 track ULTRAPARANOIA follows on from Lost Love EP which was released earlier this year. ULTRAPARANOIA starts off with a calm yet distorted introduction with the songs New High and Separation Anxiety giving some strong Nine Inch Nails vibes. The album is filled with brief interludes with my favourite called Trying To Think which contains micro grooves that seem like they’re flickering through a radio. The synthwave vibe doesn’t strike until Isolated is first played and becomes more apparent as the album continues with A I N I Y and Your Eyes. There are heavy tracks with a tremendous amount of distortion such as Metadata/Esc-Ctrl. The last song A Man With No Face concludes the album keeping the mix of genres superbly into one song.

There is a very strong influence of Post Punk and Industrial Rock coming from Ultraparanoia that would attract some new fans, but may alienate old ones. Trevor Something’s creativity is incredibly enjoyable on this album; aside from a couple of interludes. Personally I enjoy the distorted synths and echoed vocals that are on most of the songs. Lyrically it hits the theme of the album spot on, so if you’re looking for anything delightful this wont be for you. We enjoyed this album however it can be quite tedious when it comes to the slow tempo and vocal effects. If anything Ultraparanoia shows that Trevor Something is more than just a synthwave musician and can use his talents to create unique pieces. This would not exactly be a score for those who live off pumped up synthesiser soundtracks from the likes of Mitch Murder or Giorgio Moroder. This has more appeal to fans of industrial acts like Gary Numan; whether that’s good or bad relies on the listener’s taste. Ultraparanoia is a good record purely on the eerie atmosphere and chilled out grooves.

– Matthew Clewley