After the release of the EP Symphony of the Nights, the solo project of Yuto, NightRetriever, it was time to take it a step further. The EP got followed up by the first digital single in April 2018: Violet Magic. A fragment from the conclusion that you can find in the review of the EP in December 2017: “It wouldn’t surprise me if NightRetriever will collaborate with guest vocalists in the future”.
On the EP you could only listen to instrumental electronic dance music tracks which don’t necessarily needs vocals, but are inviting enough to add vocals. Probably NightRetriever thought the same. On Violet Magic, you can hear the voice of Yuka Shioya. Violet Magic contains a long, almost violently because of the fast pace of the song, intro of almost 3 minutes before the vocalist starts to sing with the clean voice of Yuka Shioya. The calmness comes forward in the song and the singer becomes the instigator of the fast-paced song that disappeared shortly before she started singing. Her voice of Yuka is bright and pure, without any distortion. This makes the song stronger, but it is interesting to hear her sing only after half of the song has passed. It seems that NightRetriever doesn’t want the focus on the singer but on the music itself.
NightRetriever says about this track: “Everybody has an evil part in itself, and I dislike that myself, but no matter how much something is missing, everyone has a beautiful thing that will make you forget about it. I want to believe in that glow. Beauty that that exists only for that person. I wanted to express it with Violet Magic“.
The song got published on YouTube as well, with the cover of the single instead of a lyric video or a music video. The cover design is once again made by fellow musician RIS, which is a bit different than the design for the EP Symphony of the Nights, which contained sharp, straight lines. The design for Violet Magic consists of round shapes and gives the idea that you look at the light through two peepholes, while you’re surrounded by the darkness of a purplish colour. It does a good representation of the concept that NightRetriever wants to convey with this song.
NightRetriever still has a small body of music that fans can enjoy, it is interesting to see what the next step will be for this project that just celebrated its first anniversary. Violent Magic is an interesting step after an EP filled with only instrumental songs, it only makes anyone interested wonder if there will be more songs with vocalists or not.
The digital single can be bought on several digital platforms, such as Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music and Amazon.
Rating: 70/100
