“Transformation is made for dancing under the stars, jumping and throw ourselves on the walls and the ceilings of cosmos!”
1 Decadence 5:20
2 A Path less Followed 6:02
3 Perfectly Connected 5:37
4 Fields of Infinity 5:33
5 Transformation 4:25
6 Destination Nowhere 6:51
7 The Contact 5:24
8 Kopenhaachen 6:28
9 There is a Light 4:28
10 A New Direction 5:52
(CD 55:55) (V.F.)
(EDM E-Rock)
Dancing under the stars, jumping and throw ourselves on the walls and the ceilings of cosmos! This is what we get with this 3rd album of Nattefrost on Groove. TRANSFORMATION follows this curve of catchy rhythms which has taken a little more place in Underneath the Nightsky. The Scandinavian musician-synthesist offers a bevy of 10 tracks pushed by living rhythms including the envelope of the new name Electronic Dance Music (EDM), strongly influenced by Robert Schroeder, who co-wrote two tracks here, supports nice melodies always so captivating in a cosmic setting and its analog effects in a universe in full renaissance.
Decadence opens with a nervous rhythm. The sequences collide like muted glockenspiels on a bed of linear pulsations. The bass line is heavy and guides the spasmodic rhythm of a cosmic breakdance with a structure that flows with its earworm nailed to its rhythmic vision. A voice speaks to us through a vocoder. This Germanic voice suits this setting well, as well as a brief line of melody makes it more attractive with its cooing among synth effects. It's a track as catchy than the title-track, which is clearly in dance-music mode with its lively and jerky flow. We hang onto the more fluid and harmonious flow of A Path less Followed. Here's a good progressive synth-pop with its stroboscopic percussions line and this bass line that stuffs our ears, both rhythmically and melodically, in a pool of electronic chirpings and other cosmic elements. Perfectly Connected follows with its curt flow which is in EDM mode. Co-written with Robert Schroeder, it's a solid title with an exhilarating heaviness where we imagine some zombies derived in a cosmic universe. The melodious structure remains its main asset, especially because of Phil Molto's guitar, except that the sample bank seems limited with this interplanetary vision which comes back, I think of the cui-cui and the sparklings of percussive elements, constantly in the 10 TRANSFORMATION titles. Fields of Infinity does relatively peaceful dance music.
We jump like we spin our arms limply in this techno for sleeping zombies and its Jean-Michel Jarre cosmic ambiences whose influences begin to establish their grip in the second part of this album. The Contact is what is closer. And when we say close, it's like if it was Jarre himself. The stripe of cosmic effects that circulate around this lunar techno, we come back to Fields of Infinity, is very nice in its vintage attribute. The ghost of J-MJ in his techno vision, is always present, even omnipresent, in the title-track which also has this cavernous and organic voice in an endless spiral. We stay in the same EDM structure with a track like Destination Nowhere, and its bass line which returns to haunt our listening and its more ambient cosmic phases which give an atmospheric counterweight to this dance anthem where the imprints of Jarre are strongly present. Excellent, Kopenhaachen exudes the influences of a very contemporary Robert Schroeder. He plays guitar-synth here with solos that sing with emotion, like a Mexican trumpeter who communicates with the waves of the Moon. We stay in the very lively EDM with the frenzied rhythm of There is a Light whose only light I can imagine is that of a big strobe ball above a dance floor. The harmonies, in the form of artistic whistles, are distributed by a melodious synth for such an energizing structure. A New Direction puts an end to this orgy of lively rhythms flowing in spasmodic jerks with a beautiful slow-tempo which stands out in this universe where the EDM style draws in its resources to exploit new tangents of electronic rhythms.
Although Nattefrost settles in a style that moves away, from album to album, from the tastes of a Berlin School lover, TRANSFORMATION is installed on a bouquet of dynamites. The attraction remains attractive when well anchored in a good production. Which is the case in this album which mainly offers rhythms. Lot of rhythms on bumpy and spiraling sequences which merge their spasmodic flow rates with a very good bass line which transforms these rhythms into an earworm, so much this bass is so effective. There are strong moments, I think among others of A Path less Followed, the very beautiful Fields of Infinity and Kopenhaachen, which manage to soften these infectious rhythms, even giving them a very acceptable vision of electronic rock.
Sylvain Lupari (September 30th, 2008) ***½**
Available at Groove