“Dreams of MySpace Vol. 1 is a splendid collection of modern melodic EM that I highly recommend”
1 The Last Chance (Kristalium) 4:09 2 Journey to Fairyland II (Guido Negraszus) 6:06 3 Deneb (Alpha Lyra) 5:12 4 Time is Life (Kristalium) 3:56 5 May Rain (Mac Mavis) 5:40 6 Fox Hunters Part 3 (VFX Designer) 4:22 7 Unterseeboot (McCartnotron) 2:53 8 Live Improvisation (Nightbirds) 3:31 9 Moonlight Dance (Guido Negraszus) 6:52
10 Kopenhaachen (Nattefrost) 6:37 11 Time is Lost in Space (Mc-Honert) 6:42 12 Heaven Six (Dust Free) 4:30 13 Toward the Infinite (A.D.S.R.) 6:23 Spheric Music | SMCD9101
(CD 66:54) (V.F.)
(New Berlin School, EDM)
For some years there is a musician-composers' outbreak for a hybrid EM style between Berlin School, ambient and electro synth-pop music styles. These musicians have no other choices than to put their music online in order to catch the attention of some snooping ears. Very interested in this abundance of new musicians who fill the musical universe of a soft and beautiful EM, Robert Schroeder put on foot a project entitled Dreams Of MySPACE in 2007. By the means of his label, Spheric Music, Lambert Ringlage has decided to encourage this project by selecting a dozen of tracks which show the surprising quality and the quantity of music always snub by Medias but which continue its breakthrough and to attract its still growing legion of fans. So, here is the 1st chapter of DREAMS OF MYSPACE Vol.1 : Thanx for the Add.
Kristalium, a French synthesist, opens the waves of outer-space with a beautiful synth line which floats of its nice captivating and slinky pads. A soft jerky rhythm moulded by hesitating keyboard keys and supported by good percussions give to The Last Chance a groovy rhythm à la Enigma. A resonant and a bit funky bass line grumbles inside this rhythmic structure, which is nicely wrapped of synth pads, at once astral and spectral, as well as a soft and celestial feminine voice. This is a nice synth pop that continues on Time is Life which is on the other hand sturdier with heavy percussions hammering a brief but always hatched heavy tempo. A bouncy beat encircled with pretty good pads of a circular synth of which the mist frees texts paraphrased on vocoder. Kristalium's gone and its Guido Negraszus' Journey to Fairyland II which comes then. This is a real little jewel of romanticism, and a splendid melody with beautiful piano notes which are melting to pinched chords of a solitary guitar on a discreet organ background. The tempo is light, dreamy and catchy. It makes us kiss the stars. I was charmed by Guido Negraszus, whose style looks amazingly like Mike Oldfield. He plays on emotions by adding beautiful mermaids vocalizes that sound like a spatial and oneiric Sarah Brightman. His second title, Moonlight Dance, is a good electronic ballad that flows under nice layers of a synth with starry tones. It's just as beautiful and that has more rhythm with a fairly similar melodic structure and a synth that sings as much as it cries. Alpha Lyra's Deneb is a soft night-melody with minimalist chords from a threatening keyboard which rolls in spiral beneath soft ethereal mist and pads of a lonely synth. It's a very beautiful track where the emotion reaches the deep of our soul. Curious, but very interesting and rather particular, May Rain from Mac Mavis offers a strange rhythmic forged in a mixture of hopping sequences and percussions with hybrid resonances. Synth chords hesitate and stagger in a progression supported by pads as spectral as melodious which hem and coil up in a sombre eclectic universe, whereas the tempo finally bursts of a solid structure always haunted by hootings of a synth as funeral as festive. It’s a strong track that we got here that draws its originality from its sequences and percussions plays which pulse and bang in a gloomy but attractive universe.
There is some drama and emotion behind VFX Designer's Fox Hunters Part 3 which is slightly floating with its arpeggios of glasses dancing around a vocoder as discreet as an uncertain rhythm. It's an ambient track which drifts in an aquatic atmosphere with a thick cloud of synth strata which are waving and entwining in a twinkling universe. In another register, McCartnotron's Unterseeboot is an electro music-pop à la Kraftwerk with a robotic and curt tempo where cold voices are hearing from a vocoder. It's not Dreams of MySpace's best moment because it's inserts between two very nice ambient tracks. The other is Nightbirds' Live Improvisation and its nice cosmic synth layers floating near the borders of a galaxy stuffed with good analog sound effects. Nattefrost's Kopenhaachen nests also on this compilation. This is a boiling track with a solid rhythm that we initially found on the album Transformation. It quickly became one of Nattefrost classic! It has all ingredients to catch the beat and makes us stamp one's feet; nervous evolutionary rhythm, criss-crossing and blistering sequences, melodious synth lines, bass-line with hatched chords and a nice play of guitar effects of which solos are moulding quite well with synths filled by symphonic laments. A bomb of infectious beat which explodes of a wonderful power at high volume. Just turn it louder but be sure of being very good friend with your neighbourhood. Mc-Honert offers a sweet cosmic melody in Time is Lost in Space which sounds a bit like Vangelis. It's a very nice cosmic Bolero with arpeggios sparkling in a motionless rhythm where a beautiful synth layers amalgamation overhangs to a fine spiral sequence. Dust Free's Heaven Six has a jazzier tendency with a sensual rhythm bitten by pinched notes of an acoustic guitar. Synths are vaporous and spread delicate pads on top of a good line of a penetrating bass and a feminine voice which really overflows into jazz lounge. That's a track that reminds me a lot of Robert Schroeder's huge palett of styles. This compilation closes with a very heavy track in Toward the Infinite from the Spanish band A.D.S.R. A circular rhythm swirls with powerful percussions and is assaulted by a heavy spiral tornado, forging a furious pace split up by brief less noisy passages where the fusion of vocalizes and isolated piano notes isn't without reminding Jean Michel Jarre's unbridled rhythmic patterns.
I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and the musical diversity of DREAMS OF MYSPACE Vol.1 : Thanx for the Add. There are really no weaknesses because the editing and the mastering from Robert Schroeder allow us to navigate from a style to another and amazement to surprises. Because so much variety cannot please the same public, it's here that the genius and the sense of beat and melodies from Schroeder shows all its impact. I strongly encourage you to get this compilation which is going to allow you to discover a bunch of very interesting artists. If some are already known (Alpha Lyra and Nattefrost) others are pure strangers with skill in the field (Kristalium, Guido Negraszus, Mac Mavis, Nightbirds, Mc-Honert and the boiling A.D.S.R.). In short, there is everything for all tastes and styles of contemporary EM.
Sylvain Lupari (April 25th, 2011) ****½*
Available at Spheric Music and CD Baby