Orlando electro-vet Nestrogen releases comeback album 'Is Faded'

Veteran musician Michael Raisner has been a longtime chameleon in the Orlando underground. Besides credits in the punk and metal scenes as a member of 2000s bands like The Slurps and Bloodlaser, he also makes electronic music, even penning a soundtrack for the video game “Super Hyperactive Ninja.”

Over the past 15 years or so, he’s been making electronic music under the name Nestrogen. For the vast majority of that time, Nestrogen has been primarily a chiptune act using the LSDj cartridge for Nintendo Game Boy. More recently, however, Raisner has been gradually pushing it past the usual boundaries of the videogame music microgenre.

With the addition of more synthesizers in recent years, Raisner’s been moving into broader sonic terrain. As Nestrogen’s first collection in nearly four years, new mini-album Is Faded is the most pronounced manifestation of this evolution yet.


Rather than constructionist chiptune vistas, these seven synth-forward tracks are widescreen flights that blend chip music, synthwave and classic synth-pop. While they’re accented with the 8-bit hardware that’ll be immediately recognizable to vintage gamers, these songs aren’t confined by chiptune orthodoxy.

Is Faded is a fresh horizon of synth music for Nestrogen, with new realms of dimension and mood. Moreover, these songs are fuller pop compositions of extended length, which makes Is Faded the longest Nestrogen release to date.

Is Faded streams everywhere and is perched atop TLU's playlist.


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