Corset Lore – 81 Terpsichore Review

What does Corset Lore sound like?

A mixture of 8-bit tinged analogue synths, your favourite alternative artists and a splash of Depeche Mode and Marc Almond in their less commercial phases.

The review of ’81 Terpsichore’ by Corset Lore

After premiering the lead single ‘Coryphée‘ back in June, Corset Lore’s first full-length and concept album is out. The premise of this dystopian synth and chiptune adjacent album is that it takes place during a non-stop mall party. That party is held in a futuristic community that prides itself on a race to the top of the conformist food chain. It is a high concept that spirals between sci-fi, social commentary and personal reflections, but it is a concept that intrigues the more you dive into it.

‘Coryphée’ opens the album with twinkling half-lives of synths that sound exactly how I’d imagine radioactive glow-in-the-dark stars to sound like. The machine gun beats evoke a militant dance and its unusual twist off from a simple chord structure as the song progresses gives a sense of mistrust and unease. Corset Lore’s voice has a slight electronic filter over it but it’s always Corset Lore singing. The production tweak allows their voice to cut through the seesaw synths. This is an album that buzzes and this is the right move to make the vocal legible.

After a short radio frequency burst of ‘Romero Walk’, we embrace the Halloween-sounding ‘Arcadia’. This is the longest track on the album and is a tour de force of ideas. There are dramatic sweeping synth solos that channel theremins and sinewy, nasally synths. Then bubbly arpeggios will crash in with the odd bit of piano before a chipset from the 90s dances off into a nightmare realm. It is wild but Corset Lore manages to bring it together before exiting the track with an extended piano outro with mall background field recordings. It’s how I’d imagine Soft Cell or Marc Almond approaching scoring a Castlevania soundtrack. From there we listen to the mall announcements of ‘Conformify’ and end phase one of the album.

‘Accessorize’ kicks off the section of the album with a song Freezepop would be proud of. Big stompy beats, Gameboy chiptune trickles, bouncy rubbery basslines and lyrics poking at the way we dress to conform. The track builds to an excellent payoff that personifies dystopian sass before we get more mall sounds and crazy creepy adverts with ‘Eye Dye’. This leads to the fuzzy and grizzly blips of ‘Pink Eyes’. This track sounds like a Gameboy and an 8k ZX Spectrum is being bit-crushed through a noise damage effect. It blurs where a synth ends and something more guitar-like begins – even though it’s clearly a synth. Corset Lore embraces the glamorous parasitic food chain culture with a dark and sparkly track. The chords feel desperate and the running synths evoke a chasing feeling that the big vocals push.

The best of the advert tracks is ‘Cool8’. It has full-on elevator music as it sells the idea of drinking Cool8 as a social way to be accepted. Some might not appreciate the advert interludes but they work well to sell the album’s concept when playing it end to end. Often we have footsteps leading between tracks as we move around the mall party and this plays well as an entire body of work.

The final three tracks are all full songs. ‘Karaoke Culture’ is a playful, almost gleeful, uplifting track. It is a straight-up electronic dance stolen from 1988 and the large production sells the retro-future sound. In an album full of dark synth work, this is the bright light. Think Pet Shop Boys and you are in the right mall. The vocals veer off-key and occasionally growl and squeal more than other tracks. I wonder if it’s a comment on finding the culture anodyne and wanting to break free from it. ‘The Lichen’ sings of being gaslit over synths that Depeche Mode would have bashed out earlier in their career. The dance beats match the bold synth pads well. Whilst lyrically packing punches, the melodies themselves are more poppy. I must admit, I am more drawn to Corset Lore’s darker beauty-in-the-gothic-dystopian-breakdown sound. They have a knack for doing something beautiful and unusual with their arrangements. This is the case with the closing piece ‘Listener’. This instrumental track slowly glides from dark, brooding and hypnotic to a synthwave rock anthem. The guitars and sublime layering of what sounds like 20 different synths and beats work you into a dramatic frenzy. It is a great conclusion to an album that leaves you with an ambiguous end to a crazy night out.

There are moments of total genius across ’81 Terpsichore’ that sell Corset Lore’s musical prowess. The album is ambitious, unusual, and yet it works from start to end as a single story thread, unravelling in your ears and mind’s eye. Whilst some vocal moments get lost in the mix and the story beats of the mall segments might not work for every listener, there is nothing else like this out there. Anyone who enjoys chiptune-sounding music – I challenge you to not fall in love with ‘Arcadia’. That track is worth the price of admission alone. An enjoyable artistic jaunt into social commentary via your Gameboy, this will be one of 2024’s more memorable releases.

Recommended track: Arcadia

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