Jonathan Sharp : Neon Night Ride

It’s 1984. You’re up late on a Friday night with a beer buzz and searching for something to fall asleep to. You pause on USA Up All Night and see the neon glow of L.A.; buildings shimmering in a dusk-lit landscape, twinkling lights like doomed stars pulsate in the inescapable push of night, and an Italian sports car floats along on horsepower and menace. The driver of said street machine -even in the encroaching darkness of a Los Angeles summer night- wears Ray Bans and racing gloves. He’s prowling Mulholland, Wilshire, and the Sunset Strip in search of nothing good.

The music behind this whole cinematic fever dream is pulsating synths; blips and bleeps creating an aural wall of sleek and shade. Techno laced with terror; club rhythms and dance floor excursions score the Wraith-like prowl of Italian automotive craftsmanship and seedy intentions. Equal parts John Carpenter, Giorgio Moroder, and Patrick Cowley, the visuals bring you in but the score is why you stay.

That movie you were entranced by in your beer stupor? Neon Night Ride.

Musician Jonathan Sharp(of The Heartwood Institute fame) is our guide into the world of Neon Night Ride. While not an actual cinematic/musical nugget from the 80s, the music puts you into that world of early 80s L.A. noir. Michael Mann, William Friedkin, Nicolas Winding Refn are the cinematic flavors, while the scores of Cliff Martinez, Steve Moore, and John Carpenter play a huge role in the inspirational fuel behind Sharp’s vision of the world of Neon Night Ride.

Jonathan Sharp wastes no time here, putting us right in the midst of L.A. on some nondescript evening. You get the feeling of stalking the city streets in opener and title track “Neon Night Ride”. Dizzying, ambient hum comes through, building into otherworldly melodicism. If you’re familiar with the world of Cliff Martinez you’ll feel right at home. His work with Nicolas Winding Refn plays a huge role in the vibe here. Swarming noise turns into an almost 80s disco groove. Somewhere between Neon Demon and Too Old To Die Young. “On The Prowl” sounds like Pentagram Home Video scoring To Live And Die In L.A., with a sleazy slasher undertone for good measure.

Jonathan Sharp knows his subject well here, recreating the mood and vibe of B-movie 80s exploitation perfectly. Open that inspiration bag, reach in, and you’ll likely pull out tattered Betamax copies of movies like Exterminator, Revenge of the Ninja, Band of the Hand; as well as anything donning Media Home Entertainment, Cannon Films, and Vestron Video on the plastic cases.

Tracks like “Dream In Chrome”, “Don’t Make Any Trouble”, and “Payback” bring the sound of contemporary artists like Correlations, Pye Corner Audio, and Repeated Viewing into the fold. These songs are equal parts synth sleaze, hauntology, and sweaty club bangers that never lose sight of moving the narrative feel forward.

USA Up All Night may be gone(nearly 30 years now), but you can still revisit that feeling of coming across some long lost 80s sleaze fest in the imagined scores of artists that came up in those times. Neon Night Ride is a sleek and sinister musical time machine to those days. A humming and pulsating chromed-out music machine ready to take you on a journey through L.A., one dark street at a time.