Electronic. Hip-hop. Ambient. Metal. Tucson artists always manage to explore beyond the dusty musical confines listeners may expect from “the Old Pueblo.” And this year.
The debut release from Tucson electronic duo Glacier.WAV is equally paradoxical and practical. Written in the desert, but featuring icy imagery and cool synths, the self-titled album fuses environmental concepts and personal anxiety: climate change, government failure, pandemic isolation and romantic deficiency. It’s a singular album, looking both forward and back, but capturing that dizziness of the modern era. Even the natural imagery is formed from synthetic tones. Composed by Frank Anzaldua and sung by Jaime J. Soto, the album combines pop hooks and electronic atmospheres, but stretches far beyond the central style of synthwave a genre of electronic music taking influence from the keyboards and aesthetics of the 80s, which also combines elements of synthpop, disco and ambient. The whole style is well-represented in the album s cover art, an isolated figure standing on a cool blue backdrop beneath the moon, all warped by an analog tape haze.