“An album where the Chill Out and the ambient Dub spread its melancholic movie visions in the fragrances of a synth-pop or a dance-music of the 80's”
1 Reflections (Midnight Mix) 6:00 2 In a Silent Way (City Lights Mix) 4:10 3 Time Slides (New Version) 4:36 4 Time to Remember (Club Mix) 5:56 5 Twinkling Away (Classic Ambient Mix) 4:55 6 Event Horizon (New Ambient Version) 6:28 7 What Lies Beneath (Ambient Version) 6:40 8 In Between The Lines (Chillout Mix) 5:22
9 The Eye (Full Length Version) 6:48 10 Reflections (The Other Mix) 5:45 11 The Eye (Single Mix) 3:18 12 The Eye (Shadow of the Wheel Mix) 5:54 13 The Eye (Chillout Mix) 6:26 SynGate Wave | CD-R SD02
(CD-r/DDL 74:06) (V.F.) (Melodic Electronica, movie music)
Before Midnight, the duet Mark Dorricott and Stan Dart had made a first album entitled EVENTS. Realized in 2013 on an independent label, the album received a good welcome of the criticism and of the public with its skillful mixture of the jazzy approach of Mark Dorricott to Electronica of the Australian musician. Following to the success of Midnight, the division Wave of SynGate gives a bigger visibility to this work where Stan Dart made the first mixes and remixes of the English musician compositions. We are far from Berlin School? Totally! But you should not close your ears too fast for all that. According to the rules of Midnight, EVENTS is an album where the Chill Out and the ambient Dub spread its melancholic movie approaches in the fragrances of a synth-pop or a dance music of the 80's. The music is beautiful, the arrangements seduce and the piano of Mark Dorricott never stop charming. In brief, a beautiful album which hatches beneath all the atmospheres.
A little as an agitator of consciousness, Reflections (Midnight Mix) starts the discovery of the album with a good up-tempo which takes the airs of the dance music of the 80's. The rhythm is nervous and is coupled to a delicate melody strummed by the agile fingers of Mark Dorricott. A sweet mixture of synth-pop and dance, a little as in the years of Bronski Beat or still Frankie Goes to Hollywood, but with more musicality and a more jazzy orientation. Although.... Stan Dart is doing a colossal work at the level of the arrangements and neglects no detail to give a sort of nightclub dimension to the music. The ambiences which surround In a Silent Way (City Lights Mix) prove it even more with an approach a bit techno which does not succeed in taming the structure of jazz which gets free of the title. It's lively. We bang of the forehead and our feet want to reawaken. Except that at the time of writing these lines, I was not convinced yet. It's completely different with Time Slides (New Version) which is a title rather poignant with its semi-slow structure where the piano melody of Mark Dorricott turns our emotions upside down. The structure is intense and intrusive, like the proceedings of a hyper dramatic scene at cinema. And it's without a doubt the center of interest of the music of this eclectic duet; the very cinematographic approach! And EVENTS, as Midnight rolls like the soundtrack of a movie that we shoot in our head. The very beautiful Twinkling Away (Classic Ambient Mix) is a great moment of tenderness which has its place in a hyper melancholic movie. The piano is very pensive, and the violin tears are very enveloping. We drag this title for an evening of romance, the same goes for the nostalgic and the rather lascivious Chill Out of Event Horizon (New Ambient Version). If we like, In Between the Lines (Chillout Mix) is a little bit in the same style, but with a little more lively structure. Time to Remember (Club Mix) and The Eye (Single Mix), a composition of Mark Dorricott and Stan Dart, is in the same style as Reflections (Midnight Mix) (voice samplings in plus) while What Lies Beneath (Ambient Version) and its very Blade Runner vision is the most ambiospherical track on this album. Reflections (The Other Mix) is heavier, slow and more lascivious on the other hand. The album includes 3 versions of The Eye. The 3rd offers a more mysterious cachet in its envelope of gloomy movies from the era where the dark heroes were so popular.
Even if it is not really my cup of tea, I surprised myself appreciating many passages of this album. I heard ambiences of dark movies and especially the signs of Midnight and its very particular vision of Blade Runner. Flooded in good arrangements and buried by rhythms of dances as ambient as attractive, the piano of Mark Dorricott shines with a clearly more efficiency here than in solo. And without the adornment enhanced by the airs of this piano and Stan Dart's very filmic vision, EVENTS would be an album of Chill Out, of Dub or Lounge as it is made by tens.
Sylvain Lupari (July 27th, 2016) ***½**
Available at SynGate Bandcamp