Reviews written by Spectra
 | Drifter Qulin Reviewed: March 30, 2008 Artist: Alizhen Props to Alizhen for taking an experimental rhythm measure...sounds to me like a 5/8th rhythm...and injecting into it the degree of confidence in break-beat hip-hop. Has a flat foreground that injects confidence into the song yet distracts from the brilliant beat rotations and funk-like quick stabs | Read full review |
 | Do Dat Thang FT. PhillyBlunt2000 Reviewed: March 25, 2008 Artist: King Tru Very smoothly executed hip-hop. This is premium far as a club track or in a car with good subs, but less so for listening due to the extensive repetition of the chord progression (the same 3 or so chords are repeated through the entire song). | Read full review |
 | Asteroids Reviewed: November 09, 2007 Artist: Louigi Verona 3.5ish feeling song which sounds like a quite unfinished 4.5... A deceptively simple yet incredibly moody and soothing song with some quite cool admirably quick yet relaxing "shifting" tribal drum-lines and a melodic feel from ambient "Beverly Hills Cop Theme". It is held back mainly by single-t | Read full review |
| Robbie's Rocketship (WIP) Reviewed: November 07, 2007 Artist: Warrior Bob Uplifting, upbeat pop song loaded with melodic hooks...using very creative leads to overcome the monotony of 4-chord backgrounds. There are few quite overly loud instruments and ones that need touches like vibrato to loses them up...but the mood of this track still manages to be as potent and confi | Read full review |
 | Metro Reviewed: November 04, 2007 Artist: thecanary Very emotive, laid-back d&b that actually gives more of a Paul Van Dyk-style trance mood than a d&b mood. I also here hints of Starecase d&b style in this...it's very flowing and the bongo break-beat starting at 2:55 is brilliant, providing that d&b snare fill feeling while maintaining a trance/tr | Read full review |
| Hip Pop :D Reviewed: November 02, 2007 Artist: Alk One-theme pan-flute led hip-hop track saved by spiraling layers and very progressive break-beats much in the lieu of the classic rapper LL Cool J's early tracks, but with more more modern touches. | Read full review |
 | Poolside - Electrik (Work In Progress) Reviewed: November 01, 2007 Artist: TwiTerror Very addictive (as expected from TwiTerror's Poolside tracks), but with a refreshingly experimental edge that puts it a step above other Poolside tracks. Has a smooth hip-hop feel, nothing hardcore actually a bit ambient with awfully catchy vocals shifting into odd keys at times...a good thin | Read full review |
| Joiku Reviewed: November 01, 2007 Artist: Randor Misunderstood yet brilliant...the mood is classical but the technique is both modern and forward thinking with energy more like dance music (think Enigma's style, but quicker). From the haunting chants at 0:50 to the down-tempo breaks to the mood change at 2:26 to the upbeat piano melodies st | Read full review |
 | Insomnia (Short Chaos Mix) Reviewed: October 31, 2007 Artist: Spectral the Projection Takes a more upbeat swing on a classic trance song by Faithless and makes it sound surprisingly like Sash's underground style dance classic "Encore Un Fois" and is equally as well produced. The flip side is that there's nothing new here, from the arpeggios in the foreground to the boom--boo | Read full review |
 | WhoZ Gonna Take It Reviewed: October 29, 2007 Artist: Alizhen Wow..."from scratch" old-school style break-beat with modern production techniques and samples. Some parts, like at 1:00, sound like a broken record do to the repeating phrases and looped-sounding piano-like synths...but the track keeps a perfect silk-smooth break-beat dancing vibe better than | Read full review |
 | Vis-ual Reviewed: October 25, 2007 Artist: De Vis Wow...this is starting to push 5...works on the levels of energy, soul, and variation/last-ability and doesn't sound incomplete at all. That and it has everything great about De-Vis's past tunes, but instead of one catchy lead/melody/motive, there are several. Again this is a huge improvement | Read full review |
 | Source Of Calm Reviewed: October 24, 2007 Artist: Airforce Excellent track, why on earth does it seem no one on the site (besides other Swedish artists) has heard of this song? It's right up there with artists like Edzes in terms of professional-ity and strong, spunky, playful mood from the orchestral style drum breakdown and soaring piano-synths in the | Read full review |
 | Don't Bring Light into This Place Reviewed: October 24, 2007 Artist: Mooma A very, very sublime and "subconscious" track that, rather than having actual obvious melodies, has instruments arranged to meld and pop-up various parts of the string texture IE "ghost melodies"...a completely new and brilliant technique. Falls very close to an agent toward meditation with it's c | Read full review |
| Milking a cow in Space Reviewed: October 24, 2007 Artist: Charris Bizarre, yes, but unbelievable deep melodically: comparing this melodic quality to that of BT's "Godspeed" wouldn't be unreasonable. :-) The intro takes a while to pick up but be patient as you will be generously rewarded. | Read full review |
 | The Law Reviewed: October 24, 2007 Artist: De Vis Simple well produced house song with the kind of very catchy lead melody you'd expect from De Vis. While the melody and bass-line take separate paths, these two instruments compose the only two melodic layers in the song leaving a bit of a bare/unfinished sound. The drum grooves howeve | Read full review |
 | New Zepsi Industries Reviewed: October 23, 2007 Artist: roncli Reggae-ish influenced demo-style tune which uses a smart arrangement of a few snares to create a unique rolling groove (as opposed to the sparse drum lines of traditional reggae). Has a very bare-bones feel but does so in the same smart way the original Zelda NES music does, so it's not necessaril | Read full review |
 | rock electricity Reviewed: October 23, 2007 Artist: trinitrotoluene Seems to be a mis-matched humorous attempt to combine all the cliches in dance and rock music, all badly done, and shove them into one song (perhaps out of humor, perhaps merely out of incompetence). In this track lpf-muted breakbeat claps then mis-tuned sounding lo-fi synth are met with a badly | Read full review |
 | Vis-ofrenic Reviewed: October 23, 2007 Artist: De Vis Very interesting kind of house/samba hybrid piece with a very amusing "ring tom" used in the beat and some crazy warped panning synth effects (starting at about 1:30) that feel a bit, well, schitzophrenic (but meant in a good, trance-y way not a confused/anarchistic way). The cymbals have a similar | Read full review |
| Sickass Systematic Reviewed: October 23, 2007 Artist: eftexem Nice...very resilient/chilled out yet curious/overwhelmed mood in this track, in fact the mood is about the coolest thing about the track. The feeling is much the same as sitting on an undisturbed white sand beach after an apocalyptic meteor slammed into the earth and after 2:40 is trying to figu | Read full review |
 | Devil's Work Reviewed: October 22, 2007 Artist: thecanary Madly aggressive d&b, and it seems every new track by Canary is becoming darker and more "snakey" sounding, but also sounding more and more like they are rushed vs. The Canary's earlier masterpieces such as "Infinite Sadness" (IE this song isn't a reflection of the limitation of the artist's achi | Read full review |
| Overload Reviewed: October 22, 2007 Artist: Project-X 4.5-ish song...and this has got to have one of the most memorable moods, leads, I've ever heard. This is a great example of how, even within the strict confines of the trance genre, a generous (six+ chord) evolving progression, layered fade-ins (the sweeping acid synth starting at 2:22, for exam | Read full review |
 | untethered Reviewed: October 22, 2007 Artist: dj io Yet another successful creation of a new genre by DJ IO (the other song he made that reaches that pinnacle is Antegrade)... Falls between the orchestral open-ness and splendor of Space-Walk's ambient work, the beat-savvy-ness of modern hip-hop, the catchy-ness of pop, and crazy drum rotations t | Read full review |
 | Genodrive Reviewed: October 18, 2007 Artist: Groovemaster303 Very upbeat video game style music with a lot of funk and jazz elements thrown in...a great example of how energy and tonal variety can make even the simplest of instrumental arrangements sound spicy and fresh. Much of the song would rate 4, but the part between 2:00-2:55 has this odd tense fe | Read full review |
| Sweet things Reviewed: October 17, 2007 Artist: andreasviklund Very fun Vengaboys-style song yet with the kind of 7-chord plus progressions and deep chords and playful melodies you'd expect from TSEC/Lagoona. Yes, it's a rather demostyle vs. pro-trance...but it's also one of those rare songs with enough moody variation in it that (unlike 95% of pro-t | Read full review |
| Tea Break Reviewed: October 16, 2007 Artist: Caviar_Ceacers Very strong "scatter logic" drums and an almost funk-like variant bassline (think Plump Djs) and drum rolls (used as fills) lift this goa track, at least in part, to another level...I'd actually say it's about 3.7 but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt as it pushes a lot of boundaries in rhyt | Read full review |
| We've Got A Party Started Reviewed: October 16, 2007 Artist: Output Jack Very cleanly produced trance with a very spunky and catchy lead. Sounds a lot like older dutch trance and a tad ATB-ish in mood (though not nearly as modern). Picks that kinda 90's "you and me together", almost Kylie Minogue-ish (sp.?) kind of vibe and runs with it... | Read full review |
 | On Fire: Part I: Fire In My Heart Reviewed: October 16, 2007 Artist: roncli Pure emotion is the way to go about listening to this piece...essentially a 4-chord progression (7-chords if you count subtle variances) but giving a very well poised sense of inner peace (indeed like "Chariots of Fire", though with a more "at the summit" mood than a "climbing the mountain" one). Y | Read full review |
 | Core Reviewed: October 16, 2007 Artist: zaphoid Full of variations on a melodic hook and some very smooth breakbeats, this one fits the mood mold somewhere between Hybrid and Chicane. Around 1:30 some very interesting bass drum echoes come in along with some sweet bassdrum, rim rolls (think Hybrid) and then at 2:25 the song completely switches t | Read full review |
 | Chase In The Forgotten City Reviewed: October 15, 2007 Artist: dopevox Subtle is the name of the game in this massively evolving ambient track which seemlessly flows through an endless array of chords and moods...if a little "sleepily". | Read full review |
| Organic Orange Outro Reviewed: October 15, 2007 Artist: Caviar_Ceacers I had high hopes for this one...has a very catchy melodic hook, a strong mood (think Astral Projection's Dancing Galaxy ambient piece), and some very amusing drum rotations, although very late on in a very long song. Unfortunately, this progression is limited to a 3 second loop and 2 chords | Read full review |
| TELEPOPE (Din Remix) Reviewed: October 12, 2007 Artist: Din An excellent slow dark new-wave meets metal style/mooded song with a very strong groove (a bit of a cross-over between Linkin Park and Nine Inch Nails styles) for those who have patience... The way the groove comes together at 1:12 with Vangelis-like synths playing strong arab-influenced melod | Read full review |
 | Entranced (or what happens when I try to do trance) Reviewed: October 11, 2007 Artist: Din New-wave/trance hybrid style track with some very aggressive leads and very well done dreamy guitar solos...sounds a bit Depeche Mode meets Joe Satriani in mood. The mood for most of of the song, the main theme, is quite predictable, but the guitar outro part at 2:26 and again at 3:37 has a ce | Read full review |
 | Poolside - Let it Live Reviewed: October 11, 2007 Artist: TwiTerror Very very catchy song crosses somewhere between Daft Punk, Sugar Ray (more so than anything else), and, dare I admit, the kind of catchy pop-reggae-type stuff Paris Hilton writes (yes she does in fact write music). This song essentially has two melodic parts and only one of those (0:13-0:25) r | Read full review |
| We were in the dark! Reviewed: October 11, 2007 Artist: dahool In other words, a song that's a 4 but isn't complete yet. Once you get past the slightly Children's Songs-ish spoken (as opposed to sung) 30 second intro and the obvious same-timed saw melody/kick combo one of the coolest hybrid breakbeats I've heard kicks in and, at 2:12, a cool spunky | Read full review |
 | Principles of flight Reviewed: October 09, 2007 Artist: T.Kuusniemi Wow...this is one is as fresh as morning dew. The Wright Brothers is a very innovative theme and this track has a certain sense of airyness in the pads, inventive suspense in the drop drums (IE at 0:44) and majesticness in the horns that ring in the vibe perfectly. Note: the end verse at about 3: | Read full review |
 | we're gonna take over the world together (sunfruit) Reviewed: October 08, 2007 Artist: 8bitstrawberry Very Bjork-esque tune...a collage of sound with an interesting instrumental arrangement and a slow evolution/progressive feel (typical of Orbital). At 13:19 it does some impressive experimentation with moods but winds up feeling too sleepy to keep attention as a song. ...it's actually more a pie | Read full review |
 | Sea Reviewed: October 08, 2007 Artist: preal Up and coming talent with a Seal (the artist) vibe to it and a tad of Santana style thrown in for good measure...and, yes, one of the smoothest guitar solos on TIS (around 2:40)...all in a very polished & variant package of quite original melodic ideas. | Read full review |
 | A Bridged Divide Reviewed: October 05, 2007 Artist: slammy Very subtle, romantic, minimalistic, evolving piece of music that becomes increasingly energetic and has soul throughout. Loads of catchy but subdued melodies...the first part seems a bit ambient hip-hop with some slow rolling congas, the second (starting around 2:50) seems reggae meets demo-s | Read full review |
| If, only I could! (club edit) Reviewed: October 04, 2007 Artist: dahool A significant step up in emotion from Dahool's other solid but also rather run-of-the-mill style tracks, this one moves the deep house tone standard up a notch...it's 5 chords roll like the typical 2-3 and add that extra degree of cool jazziness to the tone. | Read full review |
| Fever Pitch (Extended Remix) Reviewed: October 04, 2007 Artist: zaphoid Very soothing trance track with a very ambient yet driven bassline and very catchy melodic lead starting at :53 (only four notes but very well chosen leaving a good sense of mystique in the tune). Then the melody drifts into variations that loose the composure of the mood of those 4 notes (it may | Read full review |
| Minor Religion Reviewed: October 04, 2007 Artist: Mad Alien Very driven goa track that has a lot of potential. It seems driven toward Astral-Projection like energy rather than emotion and I'm rating it as such. On that ground, a beautifully driven arpeggio bassline, echo-ing hi-hats, a massive saw lead, and a nice cymbal roll at 2:16 provide the song a qu | Read full review |
 | 8-bit Kids with Dreams Reviewed: October 04, 2007 Artist: skyline After hearing his amazingly heartfelt track "Looking Forward" I was expecting more of the same. While it's still musically/technically very solid, emotionally this one fell short, having 2 main themes that seem very close (more like 1.5 main themes), with the first one sounding profoundly like the | Read full review |
 | Cinderella Reviewed: October 04, 2007 Artist: De Vis The is odd...it sound like the foundation of a killer dance hit and yet someone forgot to drop in the main melody. The beatwork sounds very PPK (as in the russian dance group). Wait until the main melody fills up at around 1:20 before you "judge" this track. | Read full review |
 | Flesh Reviewed: October 03, 2007 Artist: De Vis Very beat-intensive Hard House track. It's a mix b/c it's VERY dance-able due to clever mixing of drums that spin off the bass-line...but the melodies themselves are a bit overly predictable and monotonous. So this is a great dance song, but it needs some development/progression to be used purel | Read full review |
 | High Energetic Particles Reviewed: October 02, 2007 Artist: gluon "Standard" master-level trance track. Uses superb production and filter, rather than melody, to add tonal depth and feel in the intro and then adopts a properly variant melody at 4:30. Sounds rather like something Oceanlab, the pro-trance group, would make and with even better engineering... | Read full review |
| Worms 2007 (CDE MusiX's Extended ClubmiX) Reviewed: October 02, 2007 Artist: Daniel Somma Here comes a very spunky, TSEC-ish sounding dance track... After reviewing Transatlantic I thought Daniel Somma was mainly into demostyle, boy was I wrong. With the exception of a few demo-style melodies and instruments, the foundation of this track is well done pro-trance somewhere between Lag | Read full review |
 | Penguin Dance Reviewed: October 02, 2007 Artist: Randor Very, very pop-ethical dance track...yet saved from the "another-obvious-pro-song/pop" bin by it's very original mood and rotating kick-drum arrangement (somewhere between Enigma style beats (a bit trip-hop-ish) and house). The thing that keeps this one out of 5 territory is the mood, which i | Read full review |
 | Trans Atlantic 2007 (Daniel Somma's Club Radio edit) Reviewed: September 28, 2007 Artist: Daniel Somma A very typically arranged dance song that is saved by it's spunky vibe...it sounds like something that should work perfectly in the sound-track for an modernized 80's imitation game like Outrun 2006 or the background for CNN. Gets its originality by using spunky but jazz-like progressions and mood | Read full review |
| Telescopic Reviewed: September 28, 2007 Artist: DenseGoo This great symphony-turning-into-dance type song takes a while to get started...doesn't really settle in mood until 2:10...but one it does it's not only incredibly beautiful, but just about the most original song I've heard on here. The first 2:00 is a top-notch ambient symphony, the last is an | Read full review |
 | Living in Cuba Reviewed: September 26, 2007 Artist: De Vis Very, very deep house feel and just about the strongest Ibiza-like vibe you'll hear...think Ian Pooley meets Miguel Migs...very progressive and a true journey track. It's really a 3.7 in my book but no such rating exists in 1,2,3,4,5...yet with a few fixes it could be a 4.5. It sounds a bit | Read full review |
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