X-Sonic is the music project of Michael Kauzlarich, who is based in the states and also works closely with Synthetik FM on cover versions of 80s songs.
Michael has released a new album called "Zero Gravity", which features 10 tracks all with a hint of a Jean Michel Jarre/Erasure influence fused with dance beats and piano and delicious synth sounds.
The album opens with "Touch & Go", a fabulous dance based track, with superb synth sounds and I like the use of piano and treated vocals, very melodic start to the album.
Next is another fast paced track called "Rocket Johnny", which has some nice dark menacing sounds, after listening to the first two tracks I was thinking what this music reminded me of, I remembered, it is the 1983 album "Legionnaire" by Michael Cretu (he went on to be the man behind Enigma!). A well structured track this one that packs a punch.
Sea of Stars again makes excellent use of melodies especially the piano melody, and I like the vocals on this mid paced offering, wonderful atmospheric pad sounds.
The title track "Zero Gravity" is another upbeat offering with a sprinkling of piano and a strong rhythmic section, I like the sequencer parts in the song.
"A Distant Horizon" starts off beautifully, great melody lines that work really well with the warm vocal. I really do like this track, everything fits so well. My favourite track so far, excellent!
There is an Erasure vibe with "Interstellar Dream", a darker tone sound pallete on this song, very strong vocal delivery, nice chorus which does grab you.
Another Erasure influenced song, especially with the synth parts at the start, a solid song with some interesting sequenced synth parts, again I like what he has done with the vocals.
"Talking On The Telstar" has wonderful sequencer sections, which caught my attention, not as strong of the other tracks on the album, Lacks a killer hook for me.
"Fading Light" is another dancefloor offering with a house piano riff and strong beats, the synth melody around 1 minute 40 secs is beautiful, a track that flows really well.
The Album closes with "Johnny's Coming Home", which has a layered atmospheric sound backdrop, nice chorus again on this one, a great closing track, which has another strong rhythmic section.
A very enjoyable listen, very easy to listen too, due to how the album has been produced, I also listened to the album through headphones and recommend listening to it that way,it sounds superb.
8.5/10
The album is available on Bandcamp on Vinyl, CD and as a Digital Download:
https://x-sonic.bandcamp.com/album/zero-gravity-2
We will be playing tracks from the album on this month's i-Select show.
