Faded Ranger

Despite the singular name, Faded Ranger are a duo: vocalist Nick Maurer, previously one-fourth of Greenskeepers, and producer Neville Attree, whose shorter-lived collaborations included Deep Sound and Further. The musicians, respectively from Chicago and London, have been active in dance music since the '90s. They formed in 2011 and based themselves in Heidelberg, Germany, where they developed their melodic and emotive hybrids of synth pop and house. Once they made a connection with Tobias Lampe's Hamburg-based HFN label, they released a handful of 2014 singles -- "Be on the Lookout," "Blindfolds," and "Get Together (Right Now)" -- prior to an album, Mechanical Tonight, which came out the same year. ~ Andy Kellman