D:Fuse has been a busy man of late, he has been working in the studio, in addition to his deejaying commitments. He is going to release Begin, his artist album shortly but he has released "A Prelude to Begin EP" to give you unreleased remixes of the album's tracks and a taster for the album. What's so special about it?

D:Fuse – A Prelude to Begin EP

D:Fuse aka Dustin Fustilier is a Texas Born artist and deejay; he first came to the attention of the electronic dance music community in 1999, when he released Psychotrance, which was followed the next year by Psychotrance 2 and then Progressive Mix Volume One. D:Fuse did not think much of the compilations except that he was putting out music but then came his big break. He was noticed by Paul Oakenfold, who had D:Fuse become the opening deejay for two perfecto tours and after that, D:Fuse’s career just took off. He has worked under a variety of aliases with a bunch of people. If you did not know, a prelude is an introduction to a more important piece of work. This is a six track EP, containing remixes of the tracks of the “Begin” album, which is D:fuse’s full length album, to be released later this summer and I’ve been told that “Begin” is over two hours long. Now D:Fuse has brought in a few people to help and some of these names are familiar to you. He brought in Jes from Motorcycle to do some of the vocal tracks. He drafted Pete Lorimer (aka 29 Palms) to help with parts of Begin and some remixes as well and do vocals. The engineer on some of these tracks is J. Scott Giaquinta, who you know as half of Deepsky (Don’t confuse him with Justin Scott Dixon of Voyager fame). So D:Fuse has pretty much drafted in a lot of musical minds to help him on this project. The way that this EP should be looked at, is that D:Fuse is giving you a taster to the album that he will release later this year.

D:Fuse – Prelude To Begin EP

1.D:Fuse – Everything With You feat. Jes (Dub Mix)
2.D:Fuse – A Light Less Broken feat. Pete Lorimer (D:Fuse & Lorimer’s Chill Mix)
3.D:Fuse – Other Side w/Lorimer (Extended Mix)
4.D:Fuse – Living The Dream feat. Jes (D:Fuse& Lorimer’s Chill Mix)
5.D:Fuse – Outside the Club, Zurich (Prelude)
6.D:Fuse – Zurich 6am

D:Fuse – Everything With You feat. Jes (Dub Mix)

We have more a chilled progressive tune here. The vocal is used a bit here but you hear it more near the end. I love it for the complexity and the layers. It makes great use of percussion here, you hear the elements, right from the get go. The vocal is near the back and altered for most of the song but it is combined with the percussion to make a really catchy song. The vocal does come in about the 2/3rds of the way through the song and I have to say, I’m not a big fan of Jes of Motorcycle fame but some how D:Fuse worked it, so that you hardly notice it. This is more for home listening on your own stereo than in the club but it works so well on your home stereo. What a nice way to start off an EP!

D:Fuse – A Light Less Broken feat. Pete Lorimer (D:Fuse & Lorimer’s Chill Mix)

Now I will be the first to say that I did not know that Mr.29 Palms aka Pete Lorimer could sing. He starts off singing with backing organ tones with a few effects thrown in. I’m not a big fan of his singing, it is not bad but I just don’t like it. He sings for the entire song, which is not long but it does introduce you to Pete Lorimer’s many talents. This is certainly chill in many senses, it does not pick up like most songs after the intro but the only thing that you will really notice is that the song is extremely short, just under three minutes.

D:Fuse – Other Side w/Lorimer (Extended Mix)

The first two were more songs that you would not play in a club but “Other Side” is a track that would work well in a club. It starts with a driving beat, which is surrounded by swirling sound effects and some percussion taps. A voice comes in, almost whisper like saying “Take It, Return” with some of the more driving tracks that I’ve heard in recent memory. The vocal comes back in at points, just repeating that one line for what seems like eternity, then the heavy bassline comes in. The vocal then changes to “Take It, Return to the other side” and while that comes in, we have a brilliant electronic riff, which makes you feel like you are in a club. This is the strongest track on this EP and I can see deejays playing this, it is a driving progressive track. Near the end, a piano line comes in, which is even better than the electronic riff, with the driving beat surrounding it. It shows that D:Fuse is making tracks for the home stereo and the club system.

D:Fuse – Living The Dream feat. Jes (D:Fuse& Lorimer’s Chill Mix)

We start right off with Jes singing about living the dream, she sings a few verses with some percussion and chilled beats surrounding it. I’m not a big fan of her singing in this song either, it just does not seem to work that well. I’m sure that others will say it is great, but this is a chill mix. This song seems to stay in the same mold for the entire track, just with Jes’s singing surrounded by chilled beats. I think this will be a song that some people just hate or will totally love.

D:Fuse – Outside the Club, Zurich (Prelude)

As I stated in the very beginning here, a prelude is an introduction. This is not really a song but more just an intro for the last song. You feel exactly like you are outside a club, you hear the bass like you would outside a club at 6am in any city and you hear the rain falling down and the sounds of footsteps around you. This is just brilliant because the track makes you feel like you are outside a club in Zurich. A spoken voice comes in and it is D:Fuse himself, he says “Sunlight streams from an open window at the other end of the club, guided by the music, this is Zurich 6AM”, then some xylophone type noises come in and the song picks up. This is only a minute and a half intro but it works so effectively. It ends with the voice coming back and saying “This is Zurich 6AM” and you hear an answering machine tone and the intro ends. The EP is sequenced to jump right into the last track of this EP, which is titled “Zurich, 6AM”.

D:Fuse – Zurich 6am

The bass beats with the percussion backing it start, the noise reminds me of a 1990’s house song, who’s name escapes me. It slowly builds, also this is more driving as well, it contains very strong elements, it shows D:Fuse knows exactly what he wanted to achieve here. A whispery voice keeps repeating “The Future” near the background and then D:Fuse’s verse from the prelude comes in and it overlaps “The Future” sample and then the driving electronic riff comes back in. It certainly gets you dancing but the track adds this weird effect part for about thirty seconds, I don’t know what D:Fuse is trying to achieve here by adding that. It goes back to the driving mold that the song was in and then D:Fuse repeats his verse again. The future chant comes back in and I’m loving the driving nature of this song. It continues like this till it just slows down a bit and gently fades out.

Conclusion:
D:Fuse shows what his album will be like and I for one cannot wait for it. I’m not a big fan of Jes from Motorcycle but the two driving songs more than make up for song number four here. If you like driving music or Jes or chill mixes of songs than pick this up, it is available on iTunes now and will be available on D:Fuse’s website on July 1st and his full length album will be out later this year. Check his website for all the updates on the album.