As much as modern dance music relies on elements of the past, mining ‘70s and ‘80s nostalgia to create a revisionist take on the history of pop music, it still tends to feel very much of the moment, the sum of its creative parts expertly curated for contemporary listeners. With Symmetry, Tropic of Pisces (Matthew Scheiner) does just that, taking cues from disco, ‘80s synth-pop and Afrobeat, to create a rose-colored view of pop’s past resulting in an album of intimate immediacy and impeccably precise production.
So much is going on in each of these four tracks that it takes repeated listens to parse out and fully appreciate its intricacy. From Scheiner’s measuredly precise vocal phrasing to the intricate guitar passages and subtle rhythmic shifts wending their way throughout the album, everything seems fully orchestrated and executed to within an inch of its life. Despite this clinical precision, there is no air of the sterility often hindering similar approaches. Rather each track presents the listener with a lush aural buffet best enjoyed in headphones. Bottom line, Symmetry is an absolutely stellar debut and hopefully the start of great things to come.