Graham Gold June Reviews: Pt 3
Author: Graham Gold
Thursday, June 30, 2005
"SUBLIME" 140BPM
TSUNAMI
Really like the Thrillseekers interpretation of this track from Ferrys album. Their fast moving percussion has a real nice vibe to it. It's altogether quite a mellower outing than you would expect, hammered home by the long pad-only part of the drop, which comes early at less than 2'30" in. And it lasts for quite a while too -my only drawback with the mix-over a minute and a half. But it isn't meant to be a peak time track, it's full of beautiful sounds and a kind of warm ambience. 4/5
ANOTHER VIBE
"FULL OF EMOTION" 139BPM
INSPIRED
Out of Israel, so yes there is a slight psy vibe to this courtesy of the bass line. The production is clean as a whistle, the crashing hats giving it a pace over the soaring synths. The psy flava quickly turns into your more normal trance once the arpegiated synth lead gets going and when the drop kicks in, everything is as big as you like. The melody is strong, it has all the right ingredients (really nice Robert Miles esque tinkling piano line too) and sounds for big moments and it really does deliver. 5/5
AMAZON
"SAO PAULO EP" 138BPM
OFF SHORE
3 tracks to play with here, and all corkers, depending on what you like of course!!! The "Angel Voice" original track is indeed very angelic! Big pretty pads and a funky bass line lead into a very early drop (1'55") and the guitar flavoured synth gets introduced. Angel pads give it extra depth and emotion, and it's all back for just a minute before drop no 2. The 2005 remix has less drop time and more banging time basically and is a bit differently constructed with break beat influenced drops. Sao Paulo has tougher percussion and neat dirty riffs, nice filtering and quite a strong dominant lead. Again, a guitar is the main feature in the breakdown; complemented by arpegiated pads till it disappears to almost nothing, before the kickback. Just what they like in this brilliant Brazilian city where I have played twice now-worth going just for the most amazing girls in the world!! 4/5
MICHAEL HILL
"VOICE OF AN ANGEL" 140BPM
TSUNAMI
More Angel business-must be the time of year! The Tribangelic mix opens with tribal latin-esque toms and rims, with squelchy fx ahead of the kick, and from there, this builds into something unusual. The percussion and bass really drive it, but it is a has a laid back feel due to the pads I think and this belies it's 140bpm tag. Those toms are always very much a major part of the track, but the music is strong in a bit of a classical way. The Angelic Tribal mix is exactly that really-a bit more minimalist, with a long 2 minute drop divided into 2 halves. Part one is about a really sweet plucked guitar or synth (it's quite hard to tell!!) with pads, and in part 2 the percussion steps in to lift it, and big sweeps take it out of the breakdown.
SHAHA & LARUSSO
"TENNESSEE
BLACK HOLE
There were 3 new tunes form Black Hole this month, this was the only one that took my fancy. A mellow affair at just 132bpm, it's a "progressive" (as opposed to "depressive"!!) outing, and a lush soundscape of soft percussion, mellow kick, pads and guitars - think Envio "Time To Say Goodbye" and they have used pretty much exactly that same haunting guitar). It's an Ibizan sunset, it's a perfect start to a set or to mellowl it in mid flow, it's a tune you could chill out too. It's pretty much everything in fact! The nuts actually. 5/5
RANDY KATANA
-PLEASURE ISLAND-
SPINNIN-
More of the tough techy stuff that Spinnin- seem so good at putting out, and of course Randy should be a familiar name to you anyway. This invite to Pleasure Island is far too good to resist-on the same lines as that vocal from a house tune last year about -Fantasy island with Cocaine, LSD and Ecstasy, Whatever -. (can-t remember who did it-I just sampled the acapella in and drop over tracks.) Strong uncluttered percussion and good kick dominate the first minute and a half leading into t Tags