It's been a busy past few weeks for great Winnipeg releases! Between singles, EPs, videos and albums, the scene has been greatly active in providing us great jams from several genres, including pop punk, metal, and today's subject: indie/synth-pop. Carlo Capobianco is an Italian-Canadian musician out of Winnipeg, who is releasing his debut full-length, "Pray to You" on April 20th, 2023. Carlo is a beauty and offered me a review copy ahead of the release of the album, so let's talk about some synth-pop!
To be honest, synth-pop is a genre of music that I'm not super knowledgable about and haven't dug deep into, but I still jam to some of the basics such as M83, CHVRCHES, Future Islands, and the classic 1980s sound. The reason I bring this up is because the latter style of 1980s-era synth-pop is clearly a large influence on Carlo, between acts such as Madonna and Tears for Fears, and their glamorous stage appearance and performances. Carlo is a breath of fresh air in our scene as in my opinion, the synth scene (and additionally, the retrowave scene, etc) should have more traction.
Pray to You is just under half an hour, spanning 8 tracks. It was preceded by 3 singles; Pray to You, Call You Sometime and Sleeping with The Enemy. There was also an off-album single released around the Christmas holidays, entitled "Holiday Kid". I was made aware of Carlo around the release of the last single, and his music really resonated, not only because it was different, but the production of the drum and percussion patterns, the keyboard arpeggios and passages and extremely soothing vocals and harmonies from Carlo (and Poodle Paddles' Danielle McDonald's signature gritty yet breathy vocals on the track "Mermaid"). I would like to take Sleeping with the Enemy as the perfect example of a song that represents how well this album is produced. In the hands of the wrong producer, it could've been overproduced, far too busy. However, what Adam Fuhr (of House of Wonders) and Carlo did on this album production-wise, is simplify it. The space on this album makes it very easy to breathe, and to listen to. This album is very personal to Carlo and he wanted his lyricism to be the forefront of the record.
"This is my personal bible. A conversation between me and God. A conversation about envy, obsession, love, heartbreak, religion, and dancing through the tears." - Carlo Capobianco in a recent Instagram post announcing the album.
You can tell that so much love went into all of these tracks. Another thing that I'd like to give credit for is the great mix, done by Adam Fuhr with additional mixing by William Grierson of Collector Studio, and mastering done by Ryan Morey and Donavan Ostapowich. Between tracks that trigger nostalgia (Mermaid and Call You Sometime with it's cool opening synth riff) and good party vibes (Big City), and even some chill, gothic darkwave if you're into that (on the track Dance With the Devil). This album is going to have something for you if you're into the darker, grungier side of pop music. Catch the album, 'Pray to You' when it releases April 20th, and if you're in the Winnipeg area, Carlo will be performing at the Goodwill Social Club on that night for an album release show with opening acts Jupiter Meltdown and Dayloft. See you on the dancefloor!
