Welcome to “The Best of badidol” or “TBOB”, as I like to call it.
It’s a Spotify playlist I made to feature all the tracks of myself, I myself actually like most. In this post I’ll list them up and maybe talk a bit about each of them and why I like them or what I like most about them myself.
Midnight Cruise
Midnight Cruise is an uptempo Synthpop track, one of my earliest tracks after me saying “Ok, I will no be a Synthwave artist.”, rather than me randomly pushing out anything in the general vicinity of electronic music.
Midnight Cruise is written in the key of B minor and is relatively fast paced at 124 BPM. I like its drive and energy. The bassline is one of the best I’ve ever written, I think. It really drives the track forward. Melodically I’ve done better tracks, but Midnight Cruise has a special place in my heart and it being my most streamed track to date, it would appear, my listeners like it, to 🙂
It is what I personally like to call “Landstraßenmusik”, which doesn’t really translate well into English, I’m afraid. Imagine a warm, mild summer night. You’re cruising along in your car, windows open, the lush, warm summer night air brushes against your face and this track is playing. Perfect track for that kind of thing in my opinion 🙂
We Come In Peace
We Come In Peace is the title track of an EP I released in late 2023. This one, too, is more Synthpop than Synthwave. It’s driven and energetic and with 160 BPM quite fast. It’s also written in the key of B Minor. I like its drive and the main theme. It’s somewhat epic and massive.
The EP has been reviewed by my friends over at eLxaR Productions and I recommend you check the review – and them – out 🙂
Cloudburst
Cloudburst is from my first album Infinity and was released in 2022. I’ve always loved the simple, pure and yet engaging melodic ideas I’ve gone with in this track. Together with the atmosphere it simply works. This track isn’t really Synthwave or Synthpop per se, I’d probably best describe it as Chilled EDM.
It’s written in G Major and moderately paced at 108 BPM.
Guilty Conscience
One of my all time favourites. It takes ages to really get where it wants to go but man, once it does…
It’s written in G Minor at uses double time at 192 BPM, so it sounds a lot slower. Its buildup is somewhat massive and droning while not too much on the nose. But it takes long 🙂
I really like the melodic decisions I made with this one and the drive and energy. It’s my favourite track from my third album Sins of Tomorrow, which was released this year.
12 Minutes To Midnight
Oh boy, this one is…special. And difficult to explain. I rarely have a clear idea, let alone concept, of where I want to go, when I sit down and begin a song. With this one, I did. I had the main theme, melody, general track development in my head for days. Couldn’t get rid of the damn thing, really.
It turned out quite nicely and exactly as I had imagined it.
It comes in at a steady but somewhat moderately paced 110 BPM and is written in the key of A# Major. I like the different melodic approaches I’ve taken in the separate parts of the track, which to me act in a somewhat classical, traditional call and response framework.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is from my second album Awakening. Written in C Minor, at a somewhat moderately paced 108 BPM, Cinnamon is dark, broody, massive. A driven, energetic bassline rumbles on its way escorted by an oomphy, stompy drum track. And when the melody sets in, it gets all dreamy. I like that contrast in it and Cinnamon is my most favourite track of this album.
It is also an interesting mix between mostly EDM elements but clear synthy influences, such as the typical Synthwave Tom roll.
Awakening was also reviewed by my friends over at eLxAr Productions, you should check it out here.
Upload
Also from my second album Awakening, Upload is written in the key of C# Major and moderately to slow paced at 96 BPM. To be honest with you, I never quite managed to find out, why exactly I like it so much. But I do. I find myself low key vibing with it every time I hear it. Actually, there’s nothing low key about it. I go hard, when this thing comes on, ok? 😉
It’s driven, it’s energetic, it’s oomphy…it has synth tom rolls, it has even epic orchestral percussion parts…I just like it.
A New Beginning
Now here’s one I should have released as Rogue. Only, that Rogue didn’t exist yet at that point in time.
Coming in at 130 BPM and in the key of C# Major, it’s a real classic EDM track. I like it’s simplicity. It doesn’t muck around much, it just simply comes in, does its thing and then wails off and leaves me satisfied. As odd as that may sound…it’s as simple as that. It puts a happy smile on my face.
Pacemaker
At 114 BPM, Pacemaker is a driven, energetic and droning, massive track from my first album Infinity.
I like the bassline I went with in the end, which is absolutely and completely different than what I originally had in mind. It’s good, I went with this one though, as the first idea wouldn’t have worked. This track, to me, works because of the droning layers and ambient sounds I went with in combination with the simplicity of the melodic elements and the sequenced bass line.
Riftwalker
I love this one’s bassline. It couldn’t be any simpler, it’s a typical Synthwave bassline. But man, it just rocks. Hard. At 102 BPM the track is moderately paced, albeit already somewhat fast for Synthwave. I like the bassline so much, that it alone would be reason enough for me, to have this track on this list. Luckily I am also somewhat happy with the melodic choices I made. The initial version of the track wasn’t so simple and mellow, but featured exaggarated melodic elements that simply were too much for the track. The choices I ultimately went with make this a droning, driven track with a lot of atmosphere and ambience to which one can let their mind float away.
Flux
Absolute opposite to the previous track, Flux comes in with arppegiated elements, more elaborate melodic elements and a lot of synthy drummy madness. What made me put this one on this playlist is its contrasts. The hectic, elaborated parts change place with simple and smooth ones. I liked this call and response play between its single parts.
Flux is written in the key of D Minor and comes in at a moderately paced 102 BPM.
Burnt
Last, but not least, one of my newest tracks. While I haven’t played Cyberpunk2077 recently, many of my most recent tracks (most of them still unreleased) are clearly Cyberpunk-inspired. So is Burnt. Burnt is massive, droning, epic, energetic, driven. Everything about Burnt screams and oozes energy and pure power.
The bass line comes with a little fancy trick. If you listen closely, you’ll notice that it doesn’t actually start at the very beginning of the bar but skips the first 4 steps. I found this adds quite an interesting twist to the song.
Burnt is moderately paced at 102 BPM and written in the key of B Major.
Please, feel free to leave your opinion about the tracks in the comments. Or maybe you have different favourites of mine? Tell me 🙂