Fascination by Lakeside X: The Eighties Synth Sound and Where It Went

A Prague Synth-Pop Single Travels Through a Remix, a Harmonium Mix and Three Live Takes

Fascination by Lakeside X is the sound of a comeback. The Prague band had spent eight years away from the stage, and it released the EP on 17 March 2023. It takes one synth-pop single and shows where it can go: a studio edit, a remix, a harmonium-led mix and three live recordings. Each version keeps the same eighties pulse and points it somewhere new.

Lakeside X have the Fascination single edit in the playlist below, filed with this desk’s synthwave and retrowave picks. The band’s artist profile holds their full coverage. The EP reached ElectroPop.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Listen to the edit first, then read on.

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The Hook in Fascination by Lakeside X Runs on an Eighties Pulse Shaped by Daniel Myer

Start with the title track. Fascination opened Love Disappears, the 2022 album that ended a long silence for the band, and it became the record’s fifth single. According to Extravafrench, singer and songwriter Janne Marvannen wrote it out of admiration for eighties rhythm and melody. That is the same pull that runs through Kavinsky‘s retro synth records. German producer Daniel Myer then gave the song its final shape.

That combination explains the hook. Pulsing synthesizers drive the track, and the beat is built for a dancefloor. Over the top sits what the band’s own site calls the fragile, distinctive voice of its frontman. As a result, the song sounds like a tribute to the eighties rather than a copy of them.

The band does not hide its sources, either. Lakeside X name Depeche Mode as their great role model, and classic early-eighties synth-pop runs all through the arrangement. What makes it theirs is the mix of melancholy and energy that the band describes as the core of its sound.

The Fascination Lyric by Lakeside X Keeps Asking Whether the Pull Is Still There

The words are a string of questions to someone who has come undone. What does the world look like now, how does it feel, and do they still dare to dream? The verses notice that the smiles around them are fake while the eyes are real. Then they ask whether this is the life that person wanted.

Next, the chorus turns the questions inward. It asks whether the things they wanted and needed still hold any pull, which is where the title comes in. A later section piles up feelings in one breath, from love and hope to anxiety, greed, bliss and destiny. Finally, the closing lines tell the listener to answer to their own broken self.

It is a heavier lyric than the bright synths suggest, and that contrast is the craft. The music invites you to dance, while the words ask what you might be dancing away from.

Six Tracks in 28 Minutes Show Where the Fascination Sound Went After the Studio

The EP then follows the song out of the studio. It runs to six tracks and just under 28 minutes. First comes the single edit, at four minutes and 14 seconds. Next, the Pe3Vax remix turns it into something Less Than 1,000 Followers said could have come out of Yazoo‘s workshop in late 1981 or 1982.

After that, the band’s own Bare Harmonium Mix of Out Of This World slows everything down. The same blog called it a dreamy walk through a Nordic landscape. At just over five minutes, it is also the longest studio track on the EP.

The last three tracks are live. Fire In The Sky, Fascination and Wonder were recorded at the album launch party at Lucerna Music Bar in Prague. That venue also hosted the band’s first concert after eight years away. Here, the guitars come forward, with guitarist Jakub Zachoval now in the line-up, and the songs gain the push of a full room.

From Lucerna Music Bar to Opening for Depeche Mode in Prague

That live sound took the band a long way in 2023. On 30 July that year, Depeche Mode chose Lakeside X as their support act in Prague. For a band that calls them a role model, it was a milestone. The official video for Fascination already pointed that way. It was cut from live footage shot in Prague, Brno, Žilina and České Budějovice. Drummer Igor Dvorsky edited it, and he also runs the band’s projections and lighting.

The story has kept moving since. Across more than two decades, the band has played festivals such as Wave-Gotik-Treffen, EXIT and Rock for People. In 2026, it shared new songs including Factory Flowers and Absinthe Dream. Meanwhile, Os Garotos de Liverpool in Brazil heard the EP as music made for dancefloors, which is exactly how the live tracks play.

ElectroPop.News’s curator team: “Fascination works because it never hides its sources. You can hear the early synth duos in the remix and a rock band in the live takes, and the song survives every version.”

Where to Stream Fascination by Lakeside X and Catch the Band Live in 2026

For a first listen, play the single edit, then jump straight to the live take recorded in Prague and compare the two. The difference between them is the whole point of the EP. You can play the EP on Spotify or get it from the Bandcamp page.

The band is also back on the road this autumn. Dates on its Facebook page list Brno on 16 October, Stockholm on 24 October, Liberec on 7 November, the Plage Noir festival in Germany on 20 and 21 November and Prague on 5 December.

Follow Lakeside X on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and Bandcamp. Watch more on the YouTube channel, find every link on Linktree or the official website, and follow the band on Instagram and Facebook.

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