THE RETROSPECTS - s/t [IMPORT color vinyl] – New LP

Ian Manhire (White Wires, The Sedatives, Uranium Comeback, The New Calling...) picks the perfect name for this new band, for several reasons, and delivers pure pop gold on this debut album by RETROSPECTS (with great artwork from Alien Snatch regulars Sam Torzina and A-Hule-Hule), the long player featuring a bag of nuggets polished into a palm full of cat's eyes, swirls, and steelies, all the tunes just chock full of charm, the click of marbles rattling in your pocket, humming with analog synthesizers and unapologetic honesty...the narratives like scenes in a movie...the rhythms moving like the flickering of celluloid through a projector...when the spring comes, you kick the salted ice from the fenders...rub the rust from the chrome...Friday night slide off your sneakers and lace up the roller skates and hit the wooden floor at the local roller rink...in the kitchen Jiffy Pop shaking on the cast iron of the gas stove...the music casting a spell and keeping the promise from go to whoa...a continuation of that unique Ottawa/Canadian sound (that I'd argue goes back 60 years, long before people even used words like power pop and punk rock to describe music), expanding on that Canada sound while paring it down to its center...to its heart...rising out of melancholy to something that sounds like hope...launching like a water rocket out of davenport power pop and sounding like understated anthems for the underdogs, working class and regular folks...pop anthems for the end of summer, standing barefoot on the cool grass with a jar of dandelion wine in your hand, fireflies in the night sky, weathered eyes still shining like stars...long may you run...shine on my Ontario brothers and sisters.  -- winch

PS: We used to drive from Michigan to Ontario whenever we wanted, for breakfast, for the day, for dinner, for a show...and the Ontario bands could cross over without hassles and could open for acts when playing at the ice rink...it was all the rust belt after all...things change but walls and borders and ignorance and tariffs and duties can't stop the music...from Canada to Berlin to Oregon to wherever you roam or call home...

"It took us one listen to be addicted! RETROSPECTS are an Ottawa-based bunch of synth-driven maniacs around vocalist Ian Manhire. Known as the front guy – a legend – of THE WHITE WIRES and THE SEDATIVES and one of our fave punk rock power pop songwriters of the early 2000s. After the WHITE WIRES there has been NEW CALLING, and this was already a warning sign to hold our breath, but the RETROSPECTS are overwhelmingly stunning. This is the new wave synth-punk on catchy hooks and infectious melodies – did he hold them back in the front pocket for a decade or what? The RETROSPECTS are the band which would play nightly in the-soon-to-be-established ALIEN SNATCH! abandoned beach disco branch! The band members gotta be 80's synth-pop wizards. According to our unpaid Canadian gig agents it's THREE (!!) synth players on stage, this is a pure midi-magic universe with fascinating ultra sharp pop songwriting. The album has twelve originals and you name anyone, it's a hit! One song is instrumental only, "Bank Street Punks", and an absolute banger. RETROSPECTS didn't use computer programs, it's just analog synthesizers and hardware gear. Recorded in a historic 1850s stone church in rural Canada at the legendary Studio Cimitière, and you can hear the ancient aesthetic for sure. Reissue of their self-titled debut record from 2025, lim. 100 copies on the band's own VINTAGE VOLTAGE label. The vinyl pressing has a pounding bass, don't dare listening on an app! Shout out for the French FISH & CHEAP Records, releasing "Shattered" and "In My Dreams Before" in a 50 edition lathe cut. New artwork by Sam Torzina and A-Hule-Hule. Recolored vinyl pressing of 461 copies.