On its self-titled 2008 debut album, Adventure blipped and bopped through a dance-fueled set of Nintendo chip-tune Pop that simultaneously referenced the earliest incarnations of video-game soundtracks, Synth Pop and gizmo worship. Between the clockwork beats, warbly synth runs and Blade Runner samples, the first Adventure set was an anachronism, an album that sounded like it had been made two decades ago by a time-traveler who had ventured into the new millennium and availed himself of the technology but kept his artistic sensibilities in the Reagan era, right next to his Yellow Magic Orchestra, Human League and Units tapes.
On Lesser Known, Adventure’s soon-to-drop sophomore release on Carpark Records, creative spark plug Benny Boeldt retains a little of the naiveté of the first album while infusing his synthscape with a bit more contemporary atmosphere in the vein of M83. Boeldt took a year’s hiatus after touring the first album to experiment with sound and equipment and that experience, perhaps coupled with his evolving artistic relationship with Dan Deacon and the Baltimore Electronic mafia that comprises the Carpark roster, has clearly led to the more expansive sound in evidence on Lesser Known.
Baltimore’s Adventure brings its Synth-driven sound to MOTR Pub Wednesday in support of the release, Lesser Known. Go here to read Brian Baker’s full Sound Advice.
This article appears in Mar 2-8, 2011.