Awash in the slinky pastel-hued pop of the 1980s, retro synthwave duo the Midnight emerged out of Los Angeles in the mid-2000s alongside the similarly minded revivalists FM-84 and Dutch act Timecop1983. With their third album, 2017's Nocturnal, American singer Tyler Lyle and Danish producer Tim McEwan became best-sellers on the Bandcamp platform, eventually notching a number 17 ranking on Billboard's dance/electronic chart later that year.nn The two met in Hollywood in 2012 at a co-writing workshop and connected over a mutual love for retro '80s soft rock and synth pop, and the soundtrack to the 2011 film Drive. Lyle, a Georgia-bred singer/songwriter with ties to country music, largely handled the vocals, while the Dutch-born, L.A.-based McEwan acted as producer in the collaboration. Beginning with 2014's six-song Days of Thunder LP, the Midnight's music was characterized by bright, pulsing synth pop with sizzling electric guitar flourishes and smooth sax solos underscoring Lyle's earnest tenor vocals. Their 2016 follow-up, Endless Summer, followed in a similarly neon-nostalgic fashion and, like their debut, received a second release containing instrumental versions of the songs. It was their third album, however, that proved to be their breakout. Released in October 2017, Nocturnal rose to the best-seller rank on Bandcamp and jumped on the Billboard dance/electronic chart, just as the Midnight began playing their first live shows. ~ Timothy Monger