We’re happy to present our Weekly Recap segment thanks to the brilliant work of Pranav Arora and The QR Network. He’ll be picking his favorite tunes of the week and giving a brief review of each of the tracks.
Dash Berlin ft Jonathan Mendelsohn – Locked Out Of Heaven (Dash Berlin 4AM mix)
This track is the first release from the duo after their split with their front man – Jeffrey Sutorius, who was the face was the group, while the other two members – Eelke Kalberg and Sebastiaan Molijn have been producing the tracks for the group. Jeffery, recently released his progressive house track – “Bad days”, on his new label. The track has been his first track under his own solo project after the split, and it was a decent track in my opinion. Now talking about Dash Berlin, the duo has been teasing their new tracks and posting throwback videos, on their socials, which had me really hyped up but this track doesn’t live up to that hype. Dash Berlin, is known for some of the most memorable trance tracks in the past, but their tracks over the past few years have been very generic and don’t meet the quality of their past productions. After the split and rebranding, I was expecting the duo to bring back the magic they had created with tracks like – “Man on the run”, “Till the Sky falls down”, “Waiting” and “Shelter”, but the duo didn’t meet my expectations. Props to Jonathan Mendelsohn, for his powerful vocals which bring life to the track. The lyrics of the track are from the famous radio hit by Bruno Mars – “Locked Out Of Heaven”, thereby bringing back the nostalgic vibes to the listeners. With such amazing vocals and lyrics, the duo could have worked on a melodic progressive track, which could have suited the modern trance sound and would have done justice to the vocals, but the duo delivered a mainstage friendly track with psy and bigroom influences to it. I was expecting a track that could live up to the standards set by their track – “Better Half of me”, which was their collaboration with Jonathan in 2011. The track has been released on Armin Van Buuren’s label – “Armind”, and doesn’t fit the sound promoted by the label. Overall, this track is disappointing as I had high hopes with the direction the duo will be taking after their rebranding, but it seems that the duo will be following the Bigroom – psy trend for their future releases.
2/5
Slippy – Metaphysical
It is good to see Slippy bring back his old Dubstep sound, as we have seen the artist deliver Trap tracks since the past few years. “Metaphysical” is a fusion between the artist’s old Dubstep sound and his new Trap sound, and this blend of his styles brings us to this banger. I really enjoyed the synth sounds used in the intro, which leads to the first drop, which brings back memories from the times when brostep was at it’s peak. The first drop reminds of me the times when Skrillex had been releasing a lot of Brostep tracks, which had brought Dubstep to the mainstream audience. The second drop, is a heavy trap influenced drop, bringing to us the artists current sound. This track is a perfect banger, and I can imagine hearing this on the bass stage of major music festivals.
3/5
Armin Van Buuren – Turn It Up
“Turn it up” is a follow up track to Armin’s progressive psy trance hit – “Blah Blah Blah”, which was one of the most famous tracks from last year. Being a fan of the artist from his early days, I’m not really happy with the direction he has taken over the past years. The artist has experimented a lot with different genres, which has resulted in some amazing tracks over the years. The commercial psy trance sound from Armin, is something I have not been a great fan of. His psy trance tracks sound very similar to each other, and they do lack creativity. Armin, is the producer behind some of the most memorable classics in the electronic music scene, but his Psy sound is similar to any other commercial psy- bigroom track released nowadays. “Turn it up”, being a follow-up has a very similar structure to “Blah Blah Blah”, and the same set of vocals are used for this track as well. Armin needs to come up with innovative ideas for his future psy releases(if any) as all his psy productions seem to work on a formula or similar structure. I was really happy when “Blah Blah Blah” was released since this track was one of the fun tracks Armin released, just like his 2014 release “Ping pong”. But this follow up was very unexpected, and I am personally not a fan of this direction the artist is taking. I wouldn’t mind if the artist would release more radio oriented tracks or experiment with other genres, but I hope he utilises his time and energy it producing something that is creative and doesn’t follow his cookie cutter formula. I hope to hear more from his other projects such as Gaia, Rising Star or even his collaborations with Shapov, as they sound fresh and meet the standards of productions set by the artist.
2/5
Third Party – Northern Lights
Third Party, is one of the most underrated acts in the electronic music scene. The duo is back with another progressive house album – “Together”, of which this track is a part of. Most of the tracks from this album are amazing and really memorable, but this track is my favorite from the album. I really enjoyed the soft vocals along with the delicate production which include the dreamy synths and melody. This track is very emotive and is perfect for a late night car ride or something one can relax to. The style of production reminds me a little bit of the older progressive house sound, giving a nostalgic vibe to the track. “Higher”, is another track from this album which is worth listening to it, and this track too brings back the old progressive sound back, the one similar to Eric Prydz’s style. Overall, this track is a masterpiece and a future progressive house classic.
4.5/5
DJ Snake & Plastic Toy – Try Me
https://soundcloud.com/djsnake/plastic-toy-dj-snake-try-me-premiere-classe-009
This is another unexpected release from DJ Snake, and I’m really happy to see the artist experiment with different sounds. Previously, DJ Snake had released a track – “Maradona Riddim”, and I was shocked to see that DJ Snake was the producer behind the track, but after this track we can expect to hear more such deep house/chill tracks from the artist in the future. This track is perfect to relax on a sunny day at the beach, and I really enjoyed the warm melody and the soothing drop. The artist is known for harder, festival oriented sound, but I’m glad the artist has taken a step in this direction as he is equally good at producing such tracks. Hope to hear more such tracks from him in the future.
4/5
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