The much awaited double mix cd from Markus is now available, and for those wanting to know about it, read the most comprehensive & best review available online!

The CD presentation is based around satellite imagery taken of a Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London. The image has been toned towards a green and a blue theme. The rear is a plain blue background with clearly displayed blue text for the track listings. Sometimes album backs are so crammed with either vivid background colours or crazy text, its hard to read what is actually on the CD, however, this is not one of them albums. Inside is another blue theme based insert, containing as usual all the rights towards all the tracks featured. In the middle of the fold out insert, is a large piece written on behalf of Markus talking about himself, the style of the CD (or not so, you’ll get what I mean if u get chance to read the inside) and a little piece of information on all of the tracks featured on both CD’s. Although Markus says this CD has no set style, all fans of Markus will know that his style is interesting relaxing progressive, with nice melody’s, this CD is no exception.

The opening of the CD is simply titled “Intro”, which consists of the noises generated by a public place, in this case, I asked Markus where he recorded the voices from, and he said it was an airport on the way to London. Behind the random voices is a nice string, followed in suit by a soft bass drum. The soft bass drum is the start of the first track Christian Rush (aka Christian Rusch) – Numb not long after the bass drum starts you hear the melodic synth coming in from silence, to take over as the main element of the track. The sound has a kind of flute sound, very relaxing. Although the synth has a structure as the start, topped off in the background by sweet piano sounding chords, its not long before the once structured synth, goes a bit out of sync and starts to sound very random with chords popping out of nowhere. Bit disappointed about this being honest, the track has amazing qualities, but for some reason left it’s pleasant structure, in favour of a random clash of sounds. The mixing into Taxi – Glistening keeps some of the main sounds from Numb on at full volume, while having the bass line from Glistening slowly appearing. After the fading off of Numb, begins Glistening. The track is quite a slow starter, having a nice sweet bass line and backing sounds, continuing them for sometime before a very dreamy synth, again in no particular order, but works very well this time with a combination of high and low sounds. The bass line returns to create a lovely track with melodic sounds over the top of a watery style sounding bass line. Fading away into literally nothing leaves the warping sounds of the very beginning of Oceanlab – Satellite (Markus Schulz Coldharbour Remix) to stand alone in the only piece of music being heard at that time. Then comes the very echoey sounds of the start, has a bit of a similar sound to “Three Drives – Greece”. After some of these chords sounding on their own, incomes the bass line at full volume, joining with the chords makes a relaxing, yet driving begin to the track. The chords change tones to prepare for the entry of Justine’s sweet voice. Justine continues to sing over the driving backing sounds, made up mainly of the chords.
This is quite possibly Markus’s most well known remix doing the rounds at the moment. The bass line continues to fade out and then comes pumping back in, before fading away again leaving Justine’s voice and the chords. Justine sings the chorus to the track with a string behind her, before the bass line comes in, a bit train sounding in the way it comes from the background into the foreground, taking over the rest of the track with the bass line and a dreamy string and melody combination. The track fades away to open the start of Pinkbox Special – Simple; the track is what it says on the tin, simple, consisting of basic backing sounds and a lovely flute sounding high pitched melody. I’m not criticising the track for being simple, because it works very well in delivering a relaxing, chilled melo track. The tracks backing sounds finish off the track merging tightly with the beginning of Mark Otten – Tranquility (Markus Schulz Coldharbour Remix) already a well-known track with remixes from Armin as well doing the rounds. After the tight merger of the two sounds, a defining stop occurs, with the watery warpy sound that Otten produced taking over, underlined by a trademark train style bass line that Markus produces. A dark breakdown happens with deep sounds, based mainly around the whirling watery synth, changing smoothly in pitch, tone and volume. This track is class with a beautiful blend of everything that’s in it. The bass line and the main synth take it in turn to make its mark on the track, not too much of one thing and not too little of another. Making an appearance as track number 7 is San Mehat – Morning Star (San’s Sho-Road Mix), nothing spectacular to report in the transition, nothing bad mind. Nice smooth fading out and in of sounds, and beatmatching of bass lines. Morning Star is a tune that doesn’t vary much from what you hear from the start, based around a chilled bass line and a floating melody. Although relaxing and chilled out, that’s about it, not much more I can say about this track, its by far not a bad track, just a bit plain. A clashing sound makes the start of Mind – Afterlife well noticed, followed by a tapping sound in the background and water droplets dripping over the top of them. This set up the start of a very nice melody, a clear cello style sound, beeping in and out with a series of higher and low tone sounds. This disappears leaving a return of the bass line and the water droplets. The beeping melody makes a return backed by a backing string, this is the tracks climax, in my opinion another sound would have been nice, but mainly based with a beeping melody and a backing string, the track is still a fine production. Roll on Airwave – Ladyblue (Markus Schulz Coldharbour Remix). L-Vee, aka Airwave is a much renowned producer of fine trance, and Markus takes this L-Vee production and gives it his trademark sound. Its not long at all before a driving yet calm bass line takes charge giving it an upbeat sound. Dark sounds hum in the background with twinkling sounds on the surface. The tracks main sounds all fade away leaving a muffled bass drum and a high pitched stringy synth, changing tones and then holding it for a few seconds. The bassline returns from seeping in from the background to accompany the string, along with a few beepy sounds to complete the sound. After a calm break, all the sounds re-appear joined by a very dominant new sound, a kind of trumpet sound played in between a piano. The track slows down and loses its major elements, thus prompting the beginning of the penultimate track, Miro – By Your Side (Sonorous Remix). This in my opinion is most diverse track on this CD, right from the outset giving a very bouncy beat with a vocal sung over it. After a period of the bouncy beat and vocal, thus comes forth the main synth. Unfortunately I can’t describe this sound, the best I can do is a sound that strikes fairly fast, similar to Adam Sheridan – Letrik, only a lot slowly and more chilled. I really like this track, not short of sounds or relying too much on one sound, there is a lot going on in the background while the main synth does its stuff, with the vocal popping in and out. This brings us to the last track on this CD, Markus Schulz presents. Elevation – Somewhere (Clear Blue). Clear Blue has become a firm favourite in many of Markus’s GDJB sets, and many sets played on online radio stations such as Tranceairwaves. The original Clear Blue did not contain any vocals by Justine Suissa, and sometimes when you find out that another great non-vocal track has been remixed with vocals, you think “here we go again” – another great tune ruined by cheesy and more than likely pointless vocals, however, thankfully, not in this case. Clear Blue main selling point is that amazing cello style echoey sound, again, hard to describe, but possibly one of the nicest sounds I’ve ever heard in a track. The track has a nice dark backing sound and a Markus pumping bass line, Justine’s voice comes in and out, signing over the cello melody and the bass line. Before the main breakdown of the cello sound, Clear Blue has a series of fast paced beeps, having their own little structure and ‘sub-melody’ in their own right. 6:33 into the track, sees the first dropping of that now famous melody. The melody and Justine’s voice work in harmony making a beautiful track, before leaving the cello sound to sound alone as the highlight of the track. The track disappears leaving a hum in the background and Justine singing the chorus. A watery finish of sounds fades into a revisit to the airport we heard at the beginning, with people’s voices finishing off this fantastic CD.

The revisit to the airport marks the end of CD1, a fantastically mixed, chilled piece of music, containing really no flaws. I have mentioned a few, but if you can’t remember them, it just shows they’re not worth remembering.

Whirlpool – Under the Sun (Markus Schulz Intro Remix) is the opening track on CD2. Starting with a very dark and deep string, making an entry for a twangy style synth echoing as he fades away. It’s not long before a Markus driving bass line kicks in. The lead synth vanishes leaving the bass line and a different, kind of warped sound joined then by some deep strings, similar to those found at the beginning. Calm beeps are they introduced into the track, which along with all the other sounds that have been picked up along the way get joined in by the lead synth. A long outro of the track looms mixed with some tapping sounds. A clash is heard which marks the start of Austin Leeds & Kobe – Fusing Love (Markus Schulz & Austin Leeds Remix). The transition is smooth, and Fusing Love begins with a dark deep sound followed by some short and echoey beeps. The track all sounds muffled before a very proud main sound is heard, striking several low chords of the same tone, before hitting several different higher tone chords. A trademark Markus bass line comes from the background to join the sound, along with the previous beeps. The track disappears to nothing leaving a keyboard sound playing in the background. The main synth returns from the deep under-watery sound the tracks gives off. This track is well built and structured from start to end, with very nice sounds throughout. A kind of shaking sound is the first sound to be heard of Thomas Penton – Dominica, followed by a clash which most the sounds from Fusing Love all fade away on. The fading out of Fusing Love is kept very dark. Dominica has a whirling set of beeps accompanied by a very driving bass line, this track doesn’t hang around that’s for sure. The tracks driving beat stops and leave the main synth to show off from silence, getting to full volume. The sound is very uplifting and quite fast, possibly the fastest track on the album, a fast synth with a fast pumping bass line, with occasional whirling sounds to top it off. The main synth stops and the bass line all builds up for a little bit, before a defining clash and it slowly loses its drive and builds down. I love that track, very paced and driving, structured like a full on uplifting trance track. The whirling sounds fade out along with the bass line into Andrew K. – Presents Junk Science – Jataka. Jataka leaves the traditional style of the other tracks on the album, in favour of a bass line with a psychedelic sound. You may think a psy track on a progressive album would sound really out of place, but it doesn’t. A dark backing sound emerges with some short psy elements hidden in the background. The track has no defining event, all slowly builds from within itself and continues to give off a pumping psychedelic sound. When the track has done its time, it all fades away, as unnoticeable as it built. Going into a very dark sound, before a clash and everything disappears, leaving just a simple beat. This is the start of Özgür Can – Sometime. This track is rather dark and has lots of eerie, but doesn’t do a lot, keeping dark sounds and a twangy synth throughout. Makes full use of though stereo by having sounds it appearing and disappearing in different ears. To be honest this tune is a little plain. A clear break of sounds connected to Sometime signals the powerful dark start of Andain – Beautiful Things (Markus Schulz Shadows of Coldharbour Remix). The powerful start all stops and leaves Andain to sing, with a crisp instrument hitting away in the background, before rejoined by the dark bass line. This track became a classic with the Gabriel and Dresden remix, however Markus’s remix is a lot darker than the G&D remix. Little tapping noises can be heard over the dark deep bass line he has produced. There is a breakdown where there are no sounds, other than Andain’s singing, similar to the G&D remix, but the sound after the breakdown is not the euphoric and uplifting as G&D’s. Markus keeps his dark deep sound throughout this mix. Personally I preferred the G&D Remix, as I don’t think a dark mix of this track suits its sweet vocal, but that’s just my opinion. Now enters Luke Chable. Luke has pumped out some amazing tracks recently, none going unnoticed by Markus, so it was natural at least something of his would end up on this CD, and it did, A.Matsumoto & DJ Yoshi – Dreamer (Luke Chable Remix). The tracks style is very different from Markus’s remix of Beautiful Things, right from the outset having a uplifting pattern of sweet sounds. The transition between the two tracks is excellent, considering they’re from a different style; Markus’s uses many foreign elements to make this work out. The uplifting pattern of sweet beats of an instrument carries the song on for 3 minutes before a break, with lots of whooshing sounds coming from all angles and a vocal, but not full on, just vocal snippets. This track is very sweet with the sounds Luke has chosen for it, like most of Luke’s work, contains lots of interesting elements wrapped in a chilled environment. A remix of possibly the biggest tune of last year now hits us, with a Perry O’Neil Instrumental Mix of Motorcycle – As the Rush Comes. The original mix of Motorcycle’s main flaw was being too good. Everyone played this track in every mix, in every club night, and it was easily the biggest track of last year (although only officially released this year). The vocals started to grate on people, not because they were poor, but because you couldn’t go anywhere in tranceland without hearing them. So a dub of this track was quite refreshing to hear. The dub keeps a dark element going, as well as an uplifting one, contradiction in terms I know, but it happens, somehow. After a dark breakdown of the bass line, a blend of uplifting sounds all mix together to form the main synth, hard to describe to be honest. During the breakdown the synth emerges from the dark backing to go on as the main sound. The track breaks down, and goes through the cycle again. However in my opinion the track is a little repetitive and could do with one other twist. The transition into Peter Martin Presents Anthanasia- Perfect Wave is slow at first, before the main synth from Perfect Wave builds from the background into the main sound. The main sound is a kind of whirling sound that whirls in and out of the track. The track has a flat period before getting interesting again with its combination of many sounds and male vocal sample. Just when the tracks sounds like its dragging on, incomes another backing string which really adds another interesting element to the track. Cue the final track of the double album, George Hales – Autumn (Alucard vs. Markus Schulz Remix). George Hales is a personal friend of mine, who I helped a little bit during the actual production of the original Autumn. George had it remixed by Alucard, who took a full on uplifting trancer and toned it right down into an extremely relaxing and very dreamy remix. This is possibly the softest, chilled, and track easiest to fall sleep to (not meant in a bad way) on the album. Alucard took the melody George had made for Autumn and kept the structure the intact, but took away all the driving elements and made this dreamy remix. In the inside sleeve, and I quote “Autumn by George Hales was probably the track that went through the most scrutiny. Markus heard it about 3 months before the end of production of the CD and Alucard must have updated and tweaked for Markus 20 times. Finally Alucard just uploaded all individual tracks to Markus, who then took it and tailored them to fit as the last song on the CD. A song that was literally finished during a break between productions of both CD1 and CD2”. Autumn consists of a sweet melody backed by a very dreamy string. After a breakdown leaving just the melody, all the backing returns as the track slowly builds up with the melody and the style of the backing sounds. After building up, the track fades away over a long period of time leaving a blissful sweet end with nothing but the dreamy backing and the melody. You really have to hear this track to appreciate it.


Huge thanks to Coup for the review, don't forget to leave comments for him :)

Conclusion:
That concludes my review of Coldharbour Sessions 2004. On the whole this album is excellent. Both CD’s are seamlessly mixed. I would say CD1 is the slower of the two, and CD2, especially up to track 5 has lots of energy. Both CD’s have its tracks with lots of sounds and melody and really entertaining music, and other tracks, which are simple and calm, both work really well in harmony. My favourite tracks are Glistening, Satellite, Dominica and Autumn.