Hip retro-future producerFlamingosisand introspective synthesizer wonk John Mausare our picks for the best shows around Denver this week. See you there, and if you don’t make it out, follow our music musings onand our selfies on. If you do, mind where.
John Maus
Reimagining — or misremembering — the 1980s has become a full-time job for some modern musicians. Philosopher-turned-producer John Maus has taken that preoccupation to new depths with his albums, especially “Screen Memories,” his latest. Written on modular synthesizers Maus built himself, the album is an 8-bit synth-laden dance with dark nostalgia, smothering its listener with grab-bag meditations on death (“Pets”) and absurdist kōans (“Go for the touchdown,” Maus intones repeatedly on one song). He’s as earnest in creating his tortured video game soundscapes as he is gleeful in self-parody, the perfect potion for our perpetually irony deficient generation. Catch him at Marquis Theatre on Jan. 19. Tickets:$15-$17 via .
Flamingosis
Hipster producers are a dime a dozen, but New Jersey-based sound collagistFlamingosis, AKAAaron Velasquez, is a bird of a different feather. Velasquez has a penchant for dusting off obscure soul samples from the attic of your local record dive and pulling them into the 21st century. In“Finesse (Hey Baby),” a typically glossy rump-shaker, The Lovelites’ relic “Love So Strong” whirrs up between sticky hip-hop breakbeats. It’s a bridge from dance music’s wide-as-the-night-is-long present to its simpler, more stylish past. That bridge clamps down in the Larimer Lounge on Jan. 20. Denver’s own RUMTUM will open the show. Tickets are$15.75-$18.75 via .
