Joy Electric
Ronnie Martin is Joy Electric. For over ten years, he’s carefully crafted dense, electronic pop songs using
only analogue synthesizer. With the exception of his voice, every last sound originates in his vintage
Roland modular synthesizer. Joy Electric’s music is truly electronic pop. Unlike “synth-pop” or “electroclash”,
the focus is first and foremost on the songwriting. Before ever touching the synthesizer, Martin
composes his songs with the aid of traditional instruments like guitar and piano. Once the songs are written,
he turns to his synthesizer to translate the songs into their final, purely electronic forms. With this
carefully attention to songcraft, Martin creates songs that feel instantly timeless in the way that Henry
Mancini, Cole Porter, and Morrissey did; songs that seem to exist outside of the constraints of time, as
though they could have been written a hundred years ago or a hundred years from now.
The real magic begins when Ronnie Martin turns to his Roland System 100 modular synthesizer. Without
the aid of computers, samplers, or drum machines, Martin builds his songs note by note, sound by sound.
A synthesized blip is subtly transformed into a kick drum. A hiss of white noise is filtered until it becomes
a distant cymbal crash. A simple electronic wave becomes a soaring, triumphant melody under Martin’s
masterful manipulation. Like a clockmaker sliding tiny gears into place, Martin builds his songs one
sound, one note at a time. All of Martin’s programming is done using analogue sequencers, much like
those used in the seventies, before the advent of digital synthesizers and sequencers. This tedious, perfectionist
method of working allows him to achieve a sonic purity and originality unmatched by anyone or
anything else. As Joy Electric, Ronnie Martin is truly the only person on Earth making music the way he
does- 100% synthesized, 100% analogue, every last note and sound built from scratch, every rhythm
triggered by volts.
Joy Electric’s new album, “The Tick Tock Treasury”, is the second in “The Legacy Series” of fantasythemed
concept albums. Much like a series of novels, each record is a self-contained story with its own
themes and implied events. As always, the record was made entirely on the Roland System 100 modular
synthesizer. The only effect used on the record is the Roland RE 201 “Space Echo”, a tape-based echo
effect from the early seventies. |
