SYNAESTHESIA
563376
2CD
DESIDERATURN (2CD-TANGERINE DREAM INFLUENCED)
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BERLIN SCHOOL (SYNTH)This was one of the biggest selling double albums for CD Services during the 90’s, and it’s a massive 139 minutes of sheer brilliance! If ever there was one 90’s electronic music album that quite genuinely appeals to synth music fans from 1970 through to 1995 and beyond, this IS it! Simply one of the best double synth music CD’s ever released, and yes, in came twenty-five years down the line after the likes of Tangerine Dream began their rise to fame. With ‘Desideraturn’ the Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber team have produced an album that is staggering in its scope and style, with an amazingly powerful production and crystal clear clarity of sound to match. It is an incredible work of electronic genius featuring two discs that feature 7 tracks a piece, each with a playing time of anything between seven and fifteen minutes each, so the tracks aren’t exactly short little ditties either! This has everything an ‘EM’ fan could possibly want, from the early 70’s ‘Teutonic’ styles to the modern feel of 90’s ‘Ambient Trance’ and deserves its place in any self respecting ‘Electronic Music’ fan’s collection.
CD1opens firmly in the 90's with ‘Andromedia’, as a most definite rhythmic ambient-dance groove begins as a tidal wave of synth and bass rhythms swirl around and become even fuller sounding as a mix of electro and acoustic percussive rhythms appear. Then a beautiful, soaring synth line comes in over the surging rhythm section and the whole thing moves along, varying in pace, texture and intensity along its eight minute path. 'Orion Nebula' opens with spacey synths in the vein of early 70's Tangerine Dream with a vast multi-layer of wondrous synth textures from classic space to choral effects and more. Then from the depths rises a slow, growling sequencer rhythm that gradually becomes faster as the synthscape all around continues to soar. Things now increase in intensity with a flow of gorgeous choral synth work smack in the middle of the mix, and the rhythms spiral ever onwards. By the eight minute mark, as the sequencers coalesce, you'd swear blind you were in a lost classic Tangerine Dream album from the 70’s, and your jaw drops as you realise just how magnificent this track is - Over eleven minutes of sheer brilliance. The near seven minutes of 'Consciousness' opens with percussive rhythms around which a sonorous set of electronics clangs tunefully away, while Hawkwind-style spacey synth swoops fly all around the central rhythm, and then a booming bass enters underneath and a gorgeous lead synth line flies in on top to take the piece into other realms altogether. The nine minute 'Umbra' starts with more of the classic choral / symphonic / space synth textures that the group produce so incredibly, as a huge and gorgeous sound wells up and flies into space for over four incredible minutes. Then it fades briefly as a CLASSIC sequencer rhythm enters, and the track just goes nova with the mix of rhythm and synth soundscapes leaving you wide-eyed with amazement. 'Barred Spirals' starts with a thick, strong sequencer-style rhythm and this time it is the multi-synth chorus and warm sonic layers that emerge from the depths. The mid-tempo effect is superb, as the track is joined by a new sequencer rhythm on top, creating a near ten-minute magical roller coaster ride to the stars. A near eleven-minute track follows in 'DNA Bar-Code', which opens with a growling mix of synths, shifting percussive rhythms and drones. As the drone becomes louder a booming bass line comes from underneath and the track rolls into rhythmic-ambient (not dance) territory, as more layers of synths are added to magnificent effect. As the intensity increases, and still with an edge, the track crashes through your head, but there is a sense of dynamics here that never lets it go beyond the wondrous. An almost Middle Eastern style sound emerges in the lead synth line that follows, enhancing the nature of the track, and at the seven-minute mark the rhythms cease, and a gorgeously melodic, multi-synth space section begins transporting the track so magnificently to a flowing conclusion. The eleven-minute 'Surface System' starts with a massive bank of string-synth swells, as choral, high register textures and typically massive sheets of gorgeous synthscapes combine until a powerful, but distant sequencer rhythm tries to emerge from the middle. However, the soaring foreground synths manage to keep the sequencer at bay until another vast universe of sound textures unfold all around, with the mighty line-up of threatening sequencers and choral/symphonic space synths evolve and develop on the musical canvass that continues its incredible journey to the end of the track. AND THAT'S ALL JUST THE FIRST CD!!! Disc 2 continues the same path, never straying far from the styles, moods and sounds that you have loved on the first CD, and we can tell you that you are in for even more thrills ‘n’ spills and eye-popping pleasure as a further 7 tracks unfold. The eight-minute opening track ‘Dark Core’ has an incredibly attention-grabbing lead rhythm and a fantastic mix of different sound textures, including a gorgeous choral synth section that slowly hovers over a shifting percussive, rhythmic base. ‘Subversion’ is another eight-minute piece full of soaring and flowing spacey synth multi-layers built on an electronic rhythmic-ambient foundation. ‘Lumia’ is more rhythmic based with a greater range from drums and percussion coming through banks of keyboards with a delicate piano line on top, but it is the train-like percussion rhythms and a huge soaring Mellotron sound, which dominates the ten-minute playing time. ‘Hallucinations’ is a minute, swirling, spacey mix of synths and Mellotron-like sounds that are solid, thunderous and sound like real space music, right down to the emergence of a slowly rising sequencer rhythm towards the end. You simply won't believe the magnificence and monumental splendour / beauty of the sonorous and massive 5th track ‘Mosaic’ - It is one of the best examples of an electronic symphony you'll ever hear! The fifteen-minute ‘Lifeless’ puts it all into one vast setting, with synths, synths, sequencers and more synths rising, flowing, thundering and soaring into infinity, on one of the best tracks of the album. The final cut comes in the form of 'Tubastrea Aurea' which closes the album on a note of soaring, melodic and shimmering beauty as a vast rainbow of synthesizers unfurls before you on a set of textures that will bring a tear to the eye and a lump to the throat, particularly the finale with huge sheets of sound and cascading sequencers that it brings.
Weight: 250.00 g
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