The nine-track project entitled Replicant Dreams by Magdi Aboul-Kheir enters the kind of imaginative realm typical of 1980s science fiction and develops its concept around this. Spaceships, Light Cycles, cyborgs and androids offer the visual imagery, while attractive melodies and energetic rhythms give the work a sense of movement. Moreover, there is a real emotional depth in the project, which means that the futuristic setting is accompanied by warmth and feeling.
The sound of the album is influenced by synthwave and also includes orchestral elements, the music passing through a number of different moods. Some parts are pulsing and this gives a sense of movement, whereas in other sections the tempo slows down and opens up. In some instances the music becomes epic or romantic, which gives the project a more extensive emotional range than its science-fiction theme alone would indicate.
The nine tracks are each presented as separate worlds, and this aspect is crucial to the way the album develops. Instead of maintaining the retro-futuristic concept as one continuous atmosphere, Replicant Dreams enables different settings and emotions to appear from one track to the next. The blend of a modern point of view with 1980s-style science fiction imagery results in a feeling of nostalgia without merely reproducing the past.
What is clear is that the album has the capacity to give its futuristic setting a sense of space while still keeping the melody at the heart of things. The different mix of synthwave, orchestral parts, pulsating rhythms and atmospheric sections is what gives the nine tracks their separate characters. Replicant Dreams as a whole comes across as an invitation to enter a carefully imagined fictional world, the futuristic imagery serving as the backdrop and emotion providing the human aspect to the journey.
