STRANGER THINGS SEASON 3 SOUNDTRACK REVIEW
Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein
Summer has come to Hawkins…
… and whilst the nights are still dark, filled with gloomy forests and subdued/moody synths, Dixon and Stein have added plenty of bright and airy neon synthesizers. All throughout the the soundtrack there is a war between the dark and the light, good and evil, terror and euphoria. The two disparate soundscapes give the feeling of basking in the warm sun of a summer break, whilst underneath a ghostly inertia tremors beneath the sheen, percolating, menacing arps looming like a shadow of tentacles, lying in waiting in the Upside Down…
The soft pastels of heat, sun, swimming pools, bathing suits, summer vacations combine with the violet pinks and harsh blues of the Mall’s synthwave nights. New sounds are added to the cocktail of 80’s nostalgia along with themes of fashion, heat, comedy, violence, horror, romance.
Youth, innocence and friendships drift away from those safe childhood basements, into the world, the Stranger Things kids growing up and growing apart. The two composers have managed to capture the melancholy of losing the past whilst hurtling into the future perfectly, each emotion held and harnessed in the soundtrack. They balance soft meandering pads of thoughtful reflection, bright sparks of excitement, and oppressive feelings of dread. At a moments notice they are able to flip a switch to match the tone, from synths terrorising the night with moody riffs, tinged with a ghoulish nature, to subtle dangerous cringe inducing throbbing, to joyous, riotous synthwave bangers.
The soundscape is full of ghosts of the past, and reflections of the future. Rough and tough raw analogue sequences, modular synth explorations in dark drones and granular atmospheres, silky melodies rushing to euphoria.
Their synth work machinations offer true inspiration, at once unique and powerful. They recapture the magic of the previous seasons, that elusive trick of feeling both original and comfortingly familiar… making this a summer to remember…
https://kyledixon-michaelstein.bandcamp.com/album/stranger-things-3
