The Rain Within - Dark Drive

The Rain Within makes his influences easily accessible just at the first glimpse of the cover art for his most recent album Dark Drive. It's neon soaked, has some cities in the background, and lightning strikes in between all the skyscrapers. If by this image you are not thinking of the eighties or at least the classic pop music that digested the era then you are slightly stupid. But, alas, let me give a proper introduction to this fabulous musician. 

The Rain Within is Andy Deane, a producer out of Charlottesville, Virginia in the United States. I've looked up the name in the past and the earliest album I discovered by this artist was Pain Management. While that one played out with darker electronics, his two EPs The Rain Within and Thunderheart released in 2014 and 2016 respectively brought the crucial eighties sound to his project that was being sought previously. I think he took the time to really nurture his project in the right direction with those two EPs; fans even garbled up most of the physical CD copies. With those two EPs out of the way, however, The Rain Within found their home with Negative Gain Productions and have made their label debut with Dark Drive. 

Dark Drive is a fascinating, ten-track album that cuddles with synthpop and synthwave equally. While pop structures take over most of the songs and Deane's handsome vocals grace several of the songs throughout the album, synthesizers also gleefully flit about with digital vocals taking over several sections of the album. Think about a robot in a future world that just discovered what feelings were and the only way for it to express itself is by singing its mechanic heart out and you'll understand where The Rain Within can be placed.

Stand out tracks on the album include 'Murder' which shows off a perfect balance of The Rain Within's synthpop and synthwave crossover, 'Innocent' where Deane performs dual vocals with both his digital and natural voice, as well as 'Far, Far Away' which shuffles between charming synthpop and some nice, rolling rhythms.

So if you've ever lived in the eighties and get all grumpy thinking about how much modern times suck and how much you wish you could go back to arguably the most colorful decade of all time, then perhaps Dark Drive is the album you've been seeking for your entire life. Then again you could just be a casual listener looking for the perfect synthpop/synthwave blend. Either way, check it out; this guy's good. 
Sep 23 2016