T.O.Y. - The Prophet

Plenty of records got made in lockdown. Not many got made this way. Stuck in isolation and reaching for something solid to hold onto, the German synthpop act T.O.Y. went looking for comfort in the sound he grew up with, then did the expensive, inconvenient thing and went and got the actual machines. No plugins, no emulations. A LinnDrum, a Prophet 5, a Roland VP330, all coaxed back to life and recorded the slow way. "It was a time-consuming, costly, yet beautiful process," he says, and you can hear exactly where the money and the patience went.

The Prophet sounds like 1984 without sounding like a costume. The drums land clipped and dry, the synths bloom into fog, and the vocals carry that specific European synthpop ache where longing and dancing are the same activity. Lead single "Night & Day" is the thesis statement: a lean groove, a melody that keeps climbing, and an instrumental outro that could soundtrack a neon drive through Miami at dusk. Two guests turn up to seal it, with Alphaville's Marian Gold lending his forever-young presence and Faithless bassist Jonathan White rolling in underneath.

Call it nostalgia if you want, but it plays as devotion. "The Prophet is passion, history, a vintage museum," he says, and the record earns that description by treating old circuits as living instruments rather than nostalgia props.

Pressed on white vinyl. Recommended for anyone who keeps Alphaville, Camouflage, and early Depeche Mode within arm's reach.