Today he releases a new LP and an intriguing new video for the opening single, and title track Ride Again.

Stone sets the scene for the Rosa Luna-directed lo-fi extravaganza: “A lonely synthesizer enters like sand swirling in the desert. Through the haze of the heat, we hear the deep thumping of a four-on-the-floor kick drum, and Ronnie’s solemn tenor comes into focus. He describes running out of gas on the freeway, leaving behind his motorcycle, and wandering through the desert, a broken man searching for meaning in his life. He finds his way to a strange city, where he seeks guidance from a psychic who tells him he has made a terrible mistake.”

Watch the video for “Ride Again” below:

The Diamond finds Ronnie Stone stripping down to a raw, mechanical core, weaving together jarring bass lines with haunting synths and vocals. The track is a masterclass in minimalist cool, laced with killer hooks. Stone elevates his dark electro-synth game to new heights with this number, channeling the gritty essence of pioneers like Tobacco and Front 242, while nodding to the early, gritty days of Nine Inch Nails’ Pretty Hate Machine. It’s a bold step forward for Stone, one that solidifies his place as a dark wizard of the dance floor.

“I wanted the lyrics to be more conceptual and more graphic novel-esque to fit more in with the sound I was channeling,” says Stone. “The song takes place in a retro-dystopian future inspired by Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84. In a surreal and seedy narrative drawing influence from crime films like Natural Born Killers and Pulp Fiction, it details the thoughts of a woman on a mission to do whatever it takes to survive. She crosses a bridge, seduces a guard, steals some money, and slits the throat of anyone who gets in her way.”

Although nostalgic and light sounding, Riding In The Rain punches you square in the gut. Navigating his hometown’s transformed streets, a man grapples with a deep sense of alienation and despair in the wake of a departure. Familiar places now seem distant, tinged with sorrow. He rides under relentless rain, confronting the pain and change, haunted by memories and a future irrevocably altered.  “As I was writing this song, I was thinking about movies such as Taxi Driver, Say Anything,” says Stone. “There is a vivid section of Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance where the narrator (Phaedrus) describes riding his motorcycle straight into a torrential downpour. This imagery was on my mind when writing this song.”

Backstreet Leather Toy (ft. Sedona) has that blue-eyed soul vibe, channeling Wang Chung and Hall & Oates alike, with delicious synth flourishes tinkling throughout. That ‘bad boy’ had better watch his back with a R&B groove this smooth, modernized with an Electropop sheen and a touch of George Michael. The final, eponymous, single was inspired by the worlds and sounds of techno and house.

Trippin’ the light fantastic? Chemicals is a groovy laundry list of hallucinogenic pleasures crafted for club euphoria, channeling the retro funk of Louis Cole and Knower. Calle Loiza follows with the sweet spot of wistful synth cheesiness – we can almost picture Michael McDonald frantically rushing to the studio to sing backup on this path to paradise. Daddy’s Last Night In Town channels that samba beat off your childhood Casio, replete with orchestral hooks and a funky wah-wah bassline. Disappear Here moves solidly into Prince territory, speeding up that funk and fuzzing it out with call-and-response delivery. The album closes out with a much chiller vibe: Return 2 Love, another Hall & Oates-flavoured ballad.

Verdict: all killer, no filler. Blast this one loud for your Valentine and watch the magic happen.*

*Disclaimer: we cannot guarantee WHAT kind of magic, so use this powerful mojo with caution!

Listen to the album below and order here:

Ronnie’s hitting the streets of America with a cross-country tour, kicking off at Trans-Pecos in NYC and snaking though the northeast, midwest, and Pacific coast.

Tour Dates

• 2/17 – NYC, NY @ Trans Pecos w/ Nuxx Vomica, Public Circuit
• 3/20 – Philadephia, PA @ The Dolphin
• 3/21 – Cambridge, MA @ ZuZu w/ Tyler – Sactuary (DJ night)
• 3/26 – Cleveland, OH @ Dunlaps
• 3/27 – Columbus ,OH @ Dirty Dungarees
• 3/29 – Chicago, IL @ FeelTrip w/ Wingtips
• 4/3 – St. Louis, MO @ Platypus
• 4/5 – Witchita, KS @ Kirby’s Beer Garden
• 4/6 – Tulsa, OK @ Showpony
• 4/8 – Denver, CO @ GLOB
• 4/9 – Salt Lake City, UT @ International Artist Lounge
• 4/13 – Seattle, WA @ Bad Bar
• 4/14 – Olympia, WA @ The Crypt w/ rosetan
• 4/16 – Portland, OR @ Kelly’s Olympian
• 4/17 – Longview, WA @ Stash Records
• 4/24 – Los Angeles, CA @Permanent Records w/ Primer
• 4/26 – Longbeach, CA @ Vine w/ They / Live, Primer
• 4/30 – El Paso, TX @ Rosewood w/ Primer
• 5/1 – San Antonio, TX @ Cream w/ Zen Handler, Delenda, Primer
• 5/2 – Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas w/ Primer
• 5/3 – New Orleans, LA @ Poor Boys
• 5/8 – Gainesville, FL @ Portal 4
• 5/9 – Orlando, FL @ Will’s Pub w/ KT Kink, Mother Juno
• 5/10 – Jacksonville, FL @ The Walrus
• 5/11 – St. Pete, FL @ The Bends
• 5/13 – Savannah, GA (Houseshow)
• 5/14 – Athens, GA @ Flicker
• 5/16 – Atlanta, GA @ Innerspace
• 5/18 – Nashville, TN @ The Cobra w/ Nuxx Vomica, Puerta Negra, Korine, Xibling, Blood Handsome, Inva//id, Moon 17 – She’s Lost Control: D3MON N1GHT festival
• 5/19 – Memphis, TN @ Lamplighter Lounge
• 5/20 – Murphressboro, TN (Houseshow)
• 5/22 – Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar w/ Buddy Crime, Angel 004
• 5/23 – Bowling Green, KY – SECRET LOCATION w/ Baby Chips, Satan’s Halo
• 5/24 – Asheville, NC @ Static Age Records w/ Cold Choir, Jessie Slaughter
• 5/25 – Richmond, VA (Houseshow)

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The post NYC Dark Synth Pop Artist Ronnie Stone Debuts Video for Title Track From New Album “Ride Again” — Plus Tour Dates appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Ronnie Stone inhabits a unique niche in time, marrying the retrospective with a prescient edge, delivering synth-pop that is at once nostalgically engaging and briskly modern. This New York City mainstay, a mammoth talent in production and musicianship, operates from a clandestine studio, encircled by a veritable arsenal of 1980s synthesizers, producing dance-pop jewels that resonate with both the flamboyant and the introspective.

His most recent offering, the wistful Riding In The Rain (via Chicago’s Feeltrip Records), mines the auditory stylings of Italo-disco and pays homage to seminal ’80s groups such as The Cars, Pet Shop Boys, and Depeche Mode, employing beloved instruments like the Korg M1 and the Juno-106 to forge arresting melodies and vibrant bass lines. The end product is a dance-inducing symphony, rich in harmony, that conjures a world tinged with the sweet pangs of romance and a wistful undercurrent.

Although nostalgic and light sounding, the narrative of the lyrics punches you square in the gut. Navigating his hometown’s transformed streets, a man grapples with a deep sense of alienation and despair in the wake of a departure. Familiar places now seem distant, tinged with sorrow. He rides under relentless rain, confronting the pain and change, haunted by memories and a future irrevocably altered.

“Riding In The Rain is about loss and heartbreak, about feeling like an outsider in your own hometown, and the sense of feeling trapped as the world changes around you,” says Stone. “As I was writing this song, I was thinking about movies such as Taxi Driver, Say Anything. There is a vivid section of Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance where the narrator (Phaedrus) describes riding his motorcycle straight into a torrential downpour. This imagery was on my mind when writing this song.”

(For the uninitiated, Robert M. Pirsig’s 1974 novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a profound tale that weaves together a cross-country motorcycle trip with philosophical discussions. It explores the metaphysical concepts of quality and examines life’s complexities through the lens of a father-son relationship, all while presenting a modern take on the ancient Greek philosophy.)

The music video for Riding In The Rain, a visual narrative lensed and orchestrated by Rosa Luna, plumbs the depths of heartbreak and the accompanying sensation of stasis amidst the relentless march of change. Rendered in a palette of saturated technicolor, the video invites viewers into Ronnie Stone’s reimagined nocturnal Manhattan, its streets awash in the seedy glow of neon reminiscent of the 1970s. You’re in the driver’s seat now.

Ride Again stands as the Stone’s zenith of ten years, steeped in the penumbral corners of nightclubs and the raw energy of warehouse soirées. It’s a crucible of those solitary, revelatory moments on the dance floor; a confluence where New Wave meets the rhythmic, irrepressible pulse of techno and house.

In the nascent stages of 2022, Ronnie, along with his stage counterpart, Rosa Luna, marked a rousing initiation of their first coast-to-coast tour across the United States. This duo is steadfast in their devotion to creating an immersive context for their performances and artistry. Enveloped in fog and bathed in carefully choreographed lighting, they transport their audiences directly into the heart of Ronnie’s imagined retro-futuristic club scene.

Ride Again will be out on February 2nd, 2024 on Feeltrip Records.

 

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The post NYC Synth Pop Artist Ronnie Stone Revs it Up in his 80s Retro Style Video for “Riding in the Rain” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

With his latest offering, Ronnie Stone heralds his partnership with Chicago’s Feeltrip Records (home to Paul Cherry, Pearl & The Oysters, Pixel Grip), unveiling “The Diamond“—his first offering since 2015. This track, bathed in retro-neon hues and echoing the likes of New Beat and Industrial, is a fitting reentry—marked by its evocative, rhythmic tenor.

“The Diamond” leans into a minimalistic and mechanistic style, highlighting off-kilter bass rhythms, intertwined with brooding synths and vocals. What emerges is a track that’s simultaneously disconcerting and irresistibly danceable, replete with catchy refrains. With this creation, Stone escalates his dark-electro-synth artistry, with echoes of influences such as Tobacco, Front 242, and Nine Inch Nails’ Pretty Hate Machine days.

“I wanted the lyrics to be more conceptual and more graphic novel-esque to fit more in with the sound I was channeling,” says Stone. “The song takes place in a retro-dystopian future inspired by Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84. In a surreal and seedy narrative drawing influence from crime films like Natural Born Killers and Pulp Fiction, it details the thoughts of a woman on a mission to do whatever it takes to survive. She crosses a bridge, seduces a guard, steals some money, and slits the throat of anyone who gets in her way.”

The music video for “The Diamond” encapsulates Ronnie Stone’s distinctive style, harkening back to ’80s futuristic cyberpunk motifs reminiscent of films such as Demolition Man, Jonny Mnemonic, Escape From New York, and Blade Runner. Rosa Luna, Stone’s collaborative ally, took the helm as director and cinematographer, with Caroline Mills providing special effects and makeup.  It’s a fun watch – and an intriguing short film.

Watch below:

Since the inception of the project in 2014, Ronnie has built up a loyal following in the NYC scene. His debut album, 2015’s Motorcycle Yearbook, was greeted as a revelation, and his live shows quickly gained a reputation as quasi-religious events.

In the opening months of 2022, Ronnie, accompanied by his onstage collaborator, Rosa Luna, triumphantly executed their inaugural transcontinental U.S. tour. This pair is deeply committed to forging a captivating milieu for their artistic and musical exhibitions. Their atmospheric settings, suffused with mist and complemented by meticulous light displays, invite audiences into Ronnie’s vintage, dystopian nightclub reverie. Stepping forth from the mist, clad entirely in leather, Ronnie commands the stage with the aura of an artist accustomed to sell-out arenas. And the moment he belts out a note, one is compelled to believe in the world he presents.

His latest album, Ride Again (Feeltrip Records), is the culmination of a decade spent dwelling in the shadows at nightclubs and warehouse parties. Inspired by the solace and epiphanies he found on the dance floor, Stone blends New Wave with the groovy and persistent infectiousness of techno and house.

Anticipation is building for Stone’s forthcoming LP, set to launch on FeelTrip in early 2024.

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The post NYC Dark Synth Pop Artist Ronnie Stone Goes Hard in his Video for “The Diamond” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.