MUSIC REVIEWS & ARTICLES

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Buncha Good Stuff and New Sonaris Music

The holidays have come and gone and I’ve stayed pretty busy. New releases out on BEATPORT including a release on label Nero Bianco Best of Chill Out 2013 alongside some big names like Passenger 10, Nora En Pure, Croatia Squad, Angelika Vee and Chris Reece // humblebrag.

I’ve also got two remixes out on Digital Empire Records, including a mix of Inspir’s Liberty Place and Tomas Balaz’ Stop & Stay // electro house. Just some feel good jams.

Looks like my music is available on Google Play now, which is pretty cool. Just search “Sonaris” on the Play Store.

Working on updating a few tracks for an upcoming Addictive Vibe Records compilation; namely remastering some strong tracks from the past and maybe writing an original or two. I should probably get on the horse and put out another EP before long — been focusing a lot on just experimenting with music and putting some free stuff out on SoundCloud.

Messing around with some French sounds, some nu disco, some electro and some deep. As usual, I’m all over the place. 2013 was a whirlwind year with 12 releases on Beatport and like 30 total tracks – I think this might be a record. Hoping to keep the pace up in 2014, setting my New Year’s resolution to license another track in a feature film and one in a video game (a dream I’ve yet to achieve). Working on a pack of new, high quality samples for licensing. Will probably put these up on the site again for non-commercial use. All good things. Stay tuned!

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Sonaris Music Review: Alb(L)um by TimHeld

Update: Lookout for TimHeld’s Kickstarter to raise funds for this release. With a pitch like “I will come rock a house party at YOUR house if you are in the Seattle area. I will come to Eburg if you throw in gas money.” for $100 supporters, how can you resist?

Taking another dive into atmospheric, experimental music with TimHeld’s forthcoming album, the aptly titled – Alb(L)um.

Rather than a “performance piece” I would equate this album more to the highly technical playing of a Van Cliburn award winner, if they were to perform experimental music. It’s not easy to listen to, sometimes downright jarring with the amount of jagged, raw sounds. One can only imagine the stamina it takes to produce something like this, the effort the ears must put forth to endure a beating such as that of the jack-hammering white noise.

No doubt about it, this album goes hard in the paint, without any mercy or melodic pretense. Each piece is crafted, as if by an engineer, with pinpoint precision. Little room for error is left with the positioning and structure of the various sound elements which comprise this release.

The tracks flow well as a sequence, each with its own persona, but each as dangerous sounding as the last. The imagery presented is diverse, but all centered around a tension, an everpresent theme through the album. There are ripping synths, techno beats, industrial – heavy-machinery-like sounds, sidechained backing pads, delayed and filtered vocals, and more, all coming together to form a complex atmospheric system.

The album is mixed well, with some interesting panning and compression. It’s a complete package.

The highlight, for me, is the massive industrial beat which hit halfway through Blip, sending chills through my body with it’s raw, unrelenting march-like presence. Easily a Matrix-esque soundtrack piece, perhaps something to be played obscenely loud in a German basement techno club.

The album is a mixed bag of different vibes and emotions, like something from the mind of Amon Tobin or perhaps Trent Reznor… if you’re into industrial/experimental, rather than melodic – easy listening – music, you’ll definitely want to check this out when it’s released worldwide on December 31, 2013. Stay tuned, but in the meantime check out TimHeld’s Bandcamp page for more of that creative goodness.

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Sonaris Music Review: Crutches by Hunter

Scott HuntScott Hunt aka Hunter is an American composer, songwriter, singer and producer – releasing albums for almost two decades. Recently, a friend of Scott’s reached out to me, asking me to check out what he felt was an overlooked album, which should be heard. After listening to Crutches, I have to concur.

While Crutches is not an album which I would personally categorize as electronic dance music, per se, it does feature some elements of dance music (namely disco), and does contain some electronica components (lots of analog synths). Whether it is or isn’t EDM isn’t really what’s at stake here. What it is is a brilliantly produced retro-sounding indie, music-nerd-style treat.

The album starts off slow with Never Believe, a filtered intro with some psychedelic backing choral vocals, definitely feeling some strong 60’s/70’s influence here with the bouncy bassline and flanged vocals, the Beatles style panning.

The album is arranged in a nicely flowing way, with one track seemingly more interesting than the last.

The highlights of the album, to me, are:

the vocals – the vocals shine on this album, and add at least half of the album’s appeal, it just wouldn’t be the same without them

the panning – Scott’s attention to details is very evident by the meticulous and deliberate placement of each little element in its own place on the track

the beats – loved the drum sequences on this album, the timely fills, builds and breaks, the crisp sound of the percussion

the basslines – each track has a unique feel, while keeping to the same theme, driven in large part by the bouncy basslines

All of the tracks on the album are honestly outstanding in their own way, so it’s hard to pick favorites, but if pressed, I’d have to say that No More Rider and Three Finger Hands were my top picks.

I can appreciate the effort and love that went into producing this album. I would say it’s easily on par with many indie albums on regular radio rotation. The sound is professional, and it begs to be heard.

I could see some interesting remixes coming out of this, if Scott were to release a remix pack for some of the tracks.

At $7, this album is a bargain for anyone who is interested in hearing some original, creative, “good” music. You can grab a copy here on Scott’s Bandcamp.

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Sonaris Music Review: Captain Quaalude by Captain Quaalude

Speaking of original music, I got a chance to preview a new ambient/chillout album by Captain Quaalude, available on bandcamp. While this type of music may be “too experimental” in nature for enjoyment by the “common ear” – ambient and chillout music is a great source of inspiration for me personally. Quite often, the “goal” – if you will – is to combine some unusual elements in such a way that they work well together and provide for a pleasant listening experience.

The six and a half minute first track, Flight Patterns, accomplished a pleasant listening experience, but more than that, it’s essentially its own imaginary world, created using sound. The heavily distorted intro is a bit unusual, but things get interesting as the atmosphere evolves, and the track becomes progressively cleaner, as if a fog of noise is slowly clearing the way for different sounds to penetrate the veil, and shine on their own. The track ended abruptly for my taste, I felt like it could keep going for another minute or two, with more evolutions, more progression and development. It left me waiting for more.

Blizzard Shrapnel takes things into a quasi-trap dimension with a big pounding bass drum, some very interesting chords and vocal samples. Dissonant, but in a good way, there are a lot of things happening here. Abrupt transitions from percussion to acoustic guitar, the piece feels like it was made with love, love for attention deficit. I’d equate this particular piece to modern art, in a sense, because while there are some interesting, almost psychotic episodes and changes in structure, it is done in a very clever way. Soft vibes wrapped in darkness.

I’m starting to get used to how this album flows by the time Bang Bang Club starts out with a rich ambiance, vocal samples, dark hip-hop style beat on which I could see Jay Z dropping a verse. Suddenly, the whole thing transitions into a totally new piano melody, backed by clean beats and more vocal samples. Nearly halfway into the album, the vibe is clearly saddled with melancholy.

A lot of planning and fx work went into each composition, as ShortbusTripz again illustrates with intense ambiance – hard driving beat, with raw power. The thing I like the most so far, about this album, is the work that went into the transitions. While seemingly haphazard, the transitions tie all of the tracks together through a common theme.

While each track on the album is fundamentally different, they all follow the same formula. The mix could be improved on some of the productions, unless it’s done in such a way on purpose, which wouldn’t surprise me in the least. All The Way is a fitting outro. The extended vocal sample, lowfi, backed by a saxophone melody, is a fitting conclusion to this eccentric release, which ends as abruptly as it begins.

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New From Sonaris Music // Sonaris – Sputnik 2013

After three, some would say, long years I finally got around to remastering one of my more popular first progressive house tracks – perhaps the one that started it all, in terms of my overall direction in progressive house. The original track is part of my Arreliari album. By today’s standards the mix is a bit sophomoric, but I felt this track deserves to breathe again, so I have remastered it and am releasing it for free – so if you already purchased a copy, you may now have the remastered one in your collection at no extra charge. I hope you enjoy this deep, spacy progressive house track!

Sonaris – Sputnik 2013 [LIMITED FREE DOWNLOAD]
https://soundcloud.com/sonaris/sonaris-sputnik-2013-extended