3 out of 5

Label: Fonolith

Produced by: Sean Dorris

As a Fonolith fanboy, and by extension anything from Neil Scrivin, I was hyped for a set of imagined 80s movie synth themes under a new pseudonym. And The GulfFire’s surging melodies definitely fit this pitch, blending classic Carpenter plodding low-ends with some of the more experimental bops of B-movie fare, but it didn’t quite feel as fleshed out as most of Scrivin’s work.

…If you haven’t already been shouting at the screen, and/or are more capable of reading press / liner notes than I apparently am, you probably can already explain why I felt that way: because this was the first Fonolith release that wasn’t Scrivin.

The GulfFire is another moniker for Sean Dorris, who, as S>>D, delivered something of a mash up of synthwave with IDM over on Central Processing Unit; Mission Tapes remuxes that approach for the Fonolith world by leaning in to Neil’s bouncy kitsch and narrative storytelling. However, that feeling I mentioned above is something that carries over to both of these works: while Sean absolutely nails a general vibe – and delivers on consistently groovy bases for his tunes – more often than not these end up feeling like starting points for songs; sketches of movie scenes, and not the full score.

A review quoted in the media copy uses an apt term, calling the songs ‘vignettes.’ I’ll sometimes criticize movie scores due to the composer scoring cues and not scenes; that’s not “wrong,” and is quite economical for sure, but it doesn’t making for an engaging listen – the music never goes on long enough to build, and is instead just about the moment. That’s the vibe here. While well beyond cues, with most songs at least hitting the 3:00 mark, Sean’s style captures the top-down sensation; like opening credits that get you excited but are often also somewhat purposefully ephemeral.

While the longer songs do tend to make a more enduring impact, that’s not always the way to split this stuff up; on the whole, though, once the “film” has progressed enough – or if these are separate movies, then it’s just a matter of sequencing – Mission Tapes does get some more momentum, though it finishes up with The Thing-like Cold Mission Outpost, which I think makes the mistake of going too much towards Carpenter (Sean normally does play around with dueling synth lines much more than John) and not leaving us with a more definitive S>>D / The GulfFire sound.