Canada's synthwave runs on three tracks: film scores from Montreal, a Pacific-coast label that shaped the outrun end of the genre, and a bigger body of vaporwave. The Frekvenci archive lists 598 releases by 167 artists with Canada on file. Of those, 243 are vaporwave-family and 173 synthwave-family, so the country's quietest strand is also its most visible abroad.
Montreal and the Turbo Kid score
Le Matos is a Montreal duo, Jean-Philippe Bernier and Jean-Nicolas Leupi. SOCAN Magazine, writing in January 2016, described them as one of the city's best-kept secrets, said their early work included remixes, and reported that their contribution to the film Turbo Kid earned a Jutra nomination for best original music.[1] They name Vangelis and John Carpenter among their influences, and the album Chronicles of the Wasteland, which comes with the Turbo Kid soundtrack, followed in December 2015.[1]
In the archive, Le Matos has 16 listed releases, 8 of them self-released: a 2011 album, the Turbo Kid and Summer of '84 scores, a web-series soundtrack and a Turbo Kid game. Their pattern is unusual in this data, steady at one to four listings a year, with gaps. For where film scores sit in the wider genre, see Synthwave and 1980s film scores: Carpenter, Vangelis and the sound of the screen.
Victoria: a label and a hostel
Two very different stories start in the same British Columbia city. Rosso Corsa Records is based in Victoria and was founded by Michael Glover, who records as Miami Nights 1984, and Garrett Hays, the producer behind Lazerhawk.[4] Bandcamp Daily says the label's sound draws on Giorgio Moroder, Tangerine Dream, John Carpenter and the French house movement, and lists Lost Years and Mitch Murder on its roster, which is how a Canadian label became the home of Swedish names (see Swedish synthwave: a small country with a big sound).[4]
The other Victoria story is Blank Banshee. He began the project in Saint John, New Brunswick, then moved west with his girlfriend, and in 2012 uploaded Blank Banshee 0 to Bandcamp from a hostel on its free Wi-Fi.[2] He says he discovered vaporwave at the hostel soon afterwards, realised his music was in a similar vein but "kind of different", and tagged it that way just in case.[2] Bandcamp Daily's 2016 map of the vaporwave family counts vaportrap among its ten branches.[3] Seven Canadian releases in our archive carry that tag.
A third link goes through Toronto. Austin Garrick and Bronwyn Griffin of Electric Youth, a Toronto duo, were frequent collaborators of College and the Valerie collective; their "A Real Hero" with College reached the Drive soundtrack.[5] The French end of that story is on French synthwave: from French touch to darksynth.
What the count says, and two artists that bend it
Canada accounts for about 4.2% of releases that carry a country, so it is a mid-sized slice, and every number here counts only releases with Canada on file. They come from 147 labels, and 222 of the 598 are self-released, close to 4 in 10.
SHOW THE NUMBERS
| Year | Releases |
|---|---|
| 2010 | 2 |
| 2011 | 2 |
| 2012 | 8 |
| 2013 | 8 |
| 2014 | 32 |
| 2015 | 25 |
| 2016 | 54 |
| 2017 | 34 |
| 2018 | 81 |
| 2019 | 63 |
| 2020 | 59 |
| 2021 | 37 |
| 2022 | 32 |
| 2023 | 31 |
| 2024 | 58 |
| 2025 | 45 |
- The first jump is 2014, to 32 releases from 8 a year earlier.
- 2018 is the peak, with 81. A single artist shapes it: Beasuce has 45 listed releases, all self-released, and 33 of them are dated 2018 (8 in 2019 and 4 in 2020). Without those 33, the year would have 48.
- 2024 repeats the effect, at 58. known artiste has 12 of them. The artist has 38 listings in all: 14 in 2025 and 12 in 2026 so far, which is 12 of the 25 listed for the part-year 2026.
- Underneath is a steadier part. Outside 2018, the yearly count runs from 25 to 63 in 2015 to 2023, with 2026 a part year.
Toronto has 24 artists on file, Vancouver and Montréal 15 each, and Calgary 7. Another 34 give only "Canada". Two big names drive part of what you see, so Do it yourself: how much synthwave is self-released? is useful background on why one producer can fill a year.
The family split
SHOW THE NUMBERS
| Family | Releases |
|---|---|
| Vaporwave | 10,473 |
| Synthwave | 8,105 |
| Popwave | 2,678 |
| Darksynth | 1,803 |
| Dreamwave | 833 |
| Cyberpunk | 6 |
Of 598 releases, 243 are vaporwave, 173 synthwave, 73 darksynth, 72 popwave and 37 dreamwave. The tags add detail: 147 synthwave, 89 vaporwave, 71 barber beats, 66 darkwave and 37 signalwave.
The busiest artists by listed releases are Beasuce (45), Known Artiste (38), Project Lazarus (23), Kid Mania (19), Glass Apple Bonzai (18) and Le Matos (16). The better-known names are lower: FM Attack has 12 and Miami Nights 1984 has 10, 4 of them in the last two years of the archive's range.
Labels
The Canadian scene is not concentrated in labels. The biggest is Artoffact Records, with 10 of its 20 listings by Canadian artists, followed by Starfield Music (9 of 16), NewRetroWave (7 of 203), Rosso Corsa Records (6 of 38) and Subatomic Audio, whose 6 listings are all Canadian. Counts are by artist country.
Records to start with
Nine records, from 2011 to 2026, picked to cover the three tracks above, one per act.
- Le Matos · 2011 · self-released · LPA 2011 album, the duo's early synthwave sound before the film scores.
- Le Matos · 2015 · Fantôme Records · LPThe score SOCAN Magazine wrote about, from 2015.
- Le Matos · 2018 · Death Waltz Recording Company · OTHERTheir later film score.
- Blank Banshee · 2012 · Hologram Bay · LPThe 2012 vaportrap album that Blank Banshee released from Victoria.
- Glass Apple Bonzai · 2015 · A Giant Robot Ate My Drum Machine · LPA 2015 album tagged italo disco.
For the neighbouring country, see Synthwave in the USA: the biggest scene in the archive. To go further into the vaporwave side, What is vaporwave? A guide to the internet's slowed-down mall music and What is vaportrap? When vaporwave met trap drums are the next stops. The genre's wider story is in A short history of synthwave, from French blogs to the charts.
Sources
- SOCAN Magazine feature on Le Matos and the Turbo Kid score · SOCAN Magazine, 26 Jan 2016
- Setting the Record Straight: An Interview with Blank Banshee · Melisma Magazine
- Genre As Method: The Vaporwave Family Tree, From Eccojams to Hardvapour · Bandcamp Daily, 21 Nov 2016
- The Rise of Synthwave: How Rosso Corsa Records Brought Back the Future-Past · Bandcamp Daily, 1 Dec 2016
- Valerie Stories: 10 Years of College's Essential LP 'Secret Diary' · Vehlinggo, 26 Nov 2018