Mas Ysa - Seraph (2015)

Thomas Arsenault​ is a modernist composer whose chosen mode just happens to be anthemic synth-pop. As Mas Ysa, the Montreal-born artist employs fist-pumping riffs, huge beats, and cavernous reverb, marshalling M83-esque grandeur. But he's just as fond of the disorienting: bursts of serrated electronics, squalls of noise, songs that abruptly stop. And his singing voice embodies those contrasting elements of his compositional​ voice: his full-bodied, foghorn-loud holler big enough to fill stadiums, yet delivering lyrics lacerated with pain. On Seraph, his debut LP, Arsenault artfully toes that line between good times and bad; the dancefloor​ his forum for confession and catharsis.