This collection of synthwave bangers by ABSOLUTE BODY CONTROL, from Antwerp, Belgium, turns thirty this year. Funny thing is that with people from all over the planet mining 80s and 90s sounds and vibes it doesn’t really sound dated. It could have been released yesterday, but… Time has become elusive in that sense, and I wonder if the increasingly blurred lines between online reality and it’s wealth of data and “right now” has contributed to a loss of any meaningful sense of time, at least vis a vis art. It’s hard to tell the difference between evolution and devolution of any specific aesthetic. I can still discern it most of the time in visual art. There are often visual timestamps that haven’t yet been erased. Music is a different story though. A 20-something now has access to pop culture from 40 years prior that my generation didn’t have immediate access to when we were 20-somethings. Now there’s a comprehensive recorded history where anyone can just dip into and never come out.

This album though is from 1992, and still sounds like any point in time between then and now. And someone may still hear this for the first time, as I am now (at only the 26th view of this Youtube document) and at some point down the line recreate the vibe and mood. Then it’s new all over again. Or maybe nothing has ever been new.