Christopher Lawrence finally releases his debut artist album, is it all new songs? What's on the album?
Christopher Lawrence – All or Nothing (Kinkybeat)
America’s biggest trance DJ (California resident) Christopher Lawrence has just released his artist album called “All or Nothing”. It has been a long time in the making, since his start on a pirate radio stations and San Francisco free parties in 1991. In 1994, he moved to Los Angeles and he quickly became one of the biggest deejays there, with a following that is still massive, to this very day. His first release was in 1996 called “Navigator” on Hook Recordings. Since then, he has become one of the biggest trance deejays to hail from America and his sound has never become cheesy. A deejay known for wowing crowds from England to Sydney to Los Angeles, he is constantly on the move. 2004 has already been a good year for Christopher Lawrence, after recently becoming a father for the first time in the last year; he got a chance to do an Essential Mix on Radio 1 to rave reviews. He had his website www.christopherlawrence.com completely revamped by a California company and the website’s new look has been the subject of rave reviews. He is about to release the first record on his new record label Pharmacy Music (the first release is called Genesis, which is not on this album and out later this summer) and this artist album comes out around the same time, the timing could not be better for Christopher Lawrence. This artist album does not contain all new tracks but it does not contain all old tracks, it is a mixture of old and new and for the CL, it is great to have all of them released on CD. Some of the tracks on this album were produced with the help of the underrated Chris Cowie and all but one of the newer tracks were produced with the help of Dave Aude.
Tracklist
1.Saboteur 2.Freefall 3.Untitled Dub with Noises 4.October’s Child 5.Mind Eraser 6.Halo 7.Hot Rod 8.Renegade 9.Nitro 10.New Day 11.Warp (with BK) 12.Rush Hour
Saboteur
This is the track that CL started his March 2004 Essential Mix with; it is a track that hits you right away, packed with cool sound effects. Saboteur slowly builds and the sound effects start to complete the track. I love the track because it is a great early track to play in sets, especially for CL. The song eventually breaks down and you start to hear what sound like cricket noises. Some well-aimed riffs come in from the back, and then some other riffs join in, to complement it. This song really shows how far CL has come from his early releases on Hook Recordings in 1996 and how much his sound has matured in the last eight years.
Freefall
This is one of the newest of CL’s songs and you will hear a lot of this song in the future. This will be released as a single on CL’s new label Pharmacy Music in the upcoming months. Freefall starts with some well-placed drums with a powerful riff that comes in from the back. The forcefulness of the riff catches you by surprise. Now the song then catches you off guard again because CL is not known for vocal trancers. An haunting vocal comes in singing “Lost in a moment, in the dark I hear you calling, falling from grace, like the sun I will rise” and that is just pushed to incredible heights with the powerful riff. The song eventually hits the breakdown, where becomes simplistic, it is almost silence, with most of the parts of the song, being dropped out. After a little while, everything comes back in and the vocal starts to repeat again, it carries on like this till the end. If this is the new direction of CL, I simply can’t wait for more releases.
Untitled Dub With Noises
This was a song that never saw the light of day with respect to a vinyl release, the engineer here was Chris Cowie. The song starts slow with some noises and then the riff joins in. Some drums then join in and this makes up, the bassline. Some unique sound effects back it and they come in for a second or two then leave for three or four seconds. The song then starts to get going and a little while later, some subtle riffs from the background rush in, which adds to the unique song, a little while later, some bells sounding sounds join in. This song is completely different from anything that I’ve ever heard from CL. The title pretty much says it all for track number three.
October’s Child
Song number four begins with a bass that kicks you in the teeth and it contains some driving sound effects. It is incredibly subtle yet extremely addictive. The main riff has a bell or xylophone influenced sound, which is very melodic at times. A second riff enters with the ass kicking bass to encompass the sound. The song continues at this pace for some time and then it enters the breakdown, in which the bass drops out, and one of the main riffs seems to drop out. Some swirly sound effects then come in and you get a more calming feeling. The song only continues in this mold for a short time and then the song goes back to the original mold. We continue like this till the end, where you hear a train leaving, then water splashing to end it.
Mind Eraser
As you get into song number five, you start to understand CL’s new sound and it seems to include a lot of banging basslines with powerful riffs. The song starts with a banging bassline with some powerful riffs and the song will sound familiar to some of you because this was a CL mainstay in his sets. The song starts with an excellent riff that is near the middle that seems to give it life, with the banging bassline and the cool sound effects, it makes for a great song. The song is incredibly catchy, the bassline is more drum based but it is solid. An excellent melodic riff slowly moves in from the back and starts to make it’s way to the front and it finally hits, you have already been taken away on a journey. The breakdown is also lush; it drops out the bass and allows the melody to take over the tune. Shortly thereafter, some bass stabs come in and out (about every eight seconds). This is a great song and it just enforces that CL knows what he is doing.
Halo
Halo is another of those tunes that you have heard CL play but you never knew the name of the song, well now it hits you with a trip down memory lane. It starts with a solid bassline and the riff is put near the back. It slowly moves in from the back and while it is slowly making it’s way to the front, a weird vocal comes in, sings a line and then quickly exits. The song makes use of the vocal at the very end, where the vocal line is repeated and then in the last minute of the song, the vocal line “See” is repeated over and over again. The song uses the vocal sparingly and does not fall into the current trance trap of using weak vocals.
Hotrod
This starts rather quickly and this is another one of those songs that you remember, if you have listened to CL’s mix CDs or seen him live in the last few years. This makes use of layered sound effects and the song builds majestically. Hotrod then moves the focus of the song from the sound effects, to the quick up-tempo bassline. Some nice riffs move in from the background then move quickly to the middle then leave but these riffs tend to move in and out. Hotrod is a quirky chugger of a trance track that moves along at it’s own pace but it hooks you in.
Renegade
Renegade is one of CL’s older tunes and probably the one that gained him, a massive following as an artist. The song was made at the height of the trance movement in Europe in 1999. The song is a slow builder that gives you this groovy feel at times but the riff does not hit you over the head, it is more subtle. When I first heard this song about five years ago, I was into more epic trance and this riff never did anything for me but now that I hear it five years later, I see the powerfulness of the riff. The riff is haunting at times and it fits well for those who love driving trance. The track moves along at it’s own pace but it hooked me, in the first thirty seconds. It shows that as you get older, you see things differently then you did when you were younger.
Nitro
CL seems to have decided to add songs to this album that he released on 12”, a few years ago but I guess that with this album, he wanted to give an accurate representation of his past work as well as his more recent work. Nitro is another of the songs that were done during the great trance movement of 1999-2000. The engineer was Chris Cowie and thought some may have forgotten his contribution to the music scene, this song shows why he was so influential as an engineer and producer, a few years ago. Nitro starts with a 1980’s era influenced bassline and the powerful riffs are placed near the very back of the track. The track immediately hits its stride with some powerful driving melodic trance riffs. The work makes you remember the glory days of trance music and all the fun that the music was and how original and creative, the artists were back then. The track hits a breakdown, which calms the track somewhat but after a little while, it goes back into 5th gear and carries on with the driving trance direction. If this does not get you dancing, then you are listening to the wrong music.
New Day
This song was new to me but it was made in 2000, I guess I must have missed this song, even thought I’ve been following CL for a number of years. We start with an electro trance influence with a bassline made up of drums. This is CL in orchestral mode; it brings in a number of instruments, violins and some other ones that are unfamiliar to me. It is more along the lines of Hybrid’s Finished Symphony but with less orchestra. I’m not a big fan of this track but I see the vision that CL has with this song. He was almost certainly expanding his sound and trying out new things and top marks to him.
Warp (with Ben Keen)
The second last track is a complete surprise because who knew that CL would work with Hard Dance/Hard House producer Ben Keen aka BK. The track starts with a hard but quick bassline; this is more of the BK sound. A riff quickly moves in, with a catchy hook, meant to grab you immediately. Some swirly sound effects then join in but the riff has hooked you. The bassline starts to expand somewhat as the song progresses and then a monster breakdown hits with the bassline dropping out and the riffs just pushing the song, it is incredibly lush at times. Everything else then comes back in to the song, a short while later and this is the best track on the album. This will be a great club track but I’m not sure how many other deejays will play it, but I think it has all the making for extended DJ play.
Rush Hour
We now come to the last song and the last hour has been a great ride through old and new CL tracks, which gives a retrospective of his work from the past and present. Rush Hour was probably CL’s most famous tune, it starts with a subtle bassline with some great sound effects and it starts to build. A riff comes in for about 4 seconds then leaves and then returns about 3 seconds later, it is aimed near the background and then the song gains an addictive element. A more powerful riff now comes in, with secondary riffs backing in and give it life, this is another 1999 reminder, back when trance was not cheesy and not misguided. The track continues in this mold then it gains some bell sound that adds to the track. I’m a huge fan of this track and it continues to amaze me, years later. The track shows what trance was like at its peak and how innovative artists and producers were back in those days. CL was smart to end his first artist album with his most recognized track.
Conclusion:
Christopher Lawrence is a rare commodity these days, it is hard to find a deejay, producer or artist that has not sold out, just for the money and totally turned his or her back on the trance scene. It is also hard to find someone that does not makes all his or her tracks in the same mold but Christopher Lawrence is not like that. He is someone that refuses to go with the same cheesy sellout trance music that has polluted the scene of late. His debut artist album is such a refreshing change from all the garbage that has come out of late; he has added the best of his older tracks and Christopher Lawrence added his newer tracks as well. The CD is hard to put down and it will probably play on my stereo, all summer and into fall. This is what the music industry needs more of, a man who refuses to sellout, a man who loves the scene and wants to give back to it and a man who is not obsessed with his ego. Christopher Lawrence is never predictable and he knows exactly what works and what does not, that is why this album is so good because he does not include anything that does not work. If you are looking for a trance artist album that does not give you the same old stuff then get this.
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