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The sixth release on Venom is upon us! This time it's an EP with 3 brand new tracks by German trance specialist Andreas Schmidt on it... Is it as good as his previous releases? Read on to find out!
Running Venom since 2002, Ace has released numerous bombs like Ace's Delight - 'Mental Theme', Ace Da Brain - 'Tales of Dusk and Dawn' and the immense BACED! vs. Ace's Delight - 'Witness'. As you may have noticed, his style is very diverse: sometimes he creates pure uplifting trancers, while he does banging hardtrance at other times. This EP is an exact reflection of that: the A-side contains a hardtrancy mix, while the B-side consists of two uplifters. Let's see what they're like...
A - Hard Mix
Directly at the start of the track, you will notice that the overall atmosphere is a bit mysterious. An ongoing beepy melody accompanied by several spooky strings and melodies gets things at the moment, with hints to the percussion coming in by using subtle FX on the main kickdrum. Time for some blasting! With the superharsh kickdrum and basslines igniting themselves right into the track, you will feel that this is going to be an amazing ride. A sharp buildup is being created by using eerie FX, just until a techy melody starts playing in a mini-break. Creating several small but immensely effective climaxes, the track bangs on and on with more and more well-fitting melodies. As we're used to from Ace from his previous tracks, the break is something really special... At first, a nice set of violins plays this calm and emotive melody. The contrast with the build of the track is truly amazing again, especially when this magnificent flute instrument is being added. This could serve as a perfect chill-out track as well, awesome! Subtle guitars & more and more acoustic instruments are being added, just until a bit of silence comes in... With the listener not knowing what to expect, the techy melody from the build starts powering itself up for just a few seconds, then to induce a seriously groundbreaking climax using the hard percs, basslines and some very energetic backing melodies. This is one of them tracks that will literally be able to create complete devastation on a dancefloor. Fantastic!
Rating: 9,5/10
B1 - Liquid Mix
After the killer A-side, it's time for some less hard trance! The intro of this one already shows that this will be quality again: more mystic sounding melodies and some great string sounds are being thrown into the sound spectrum, creating the perfect vibe for the main build to kick in. One thing that is noticable is that the BPM of this one is somewhat higher than your usual trance. A rather thumping kick and a set of well-crafted and blending melodies guide as the main elements during the build. Super-uplifting chords are being used, inducing this to be perfect for the summer to come. With the melodies giving out small hints to what is to come every once in a while, we ultimately enter the breakdown... No hassle here, just plain melody-building! That's exactly what's the great thing about this one... It flows in an amazing way! The main melody itself is excellent again. Going up and down, this is one of them riffs that catches your attention right away, mainly caused by the very inventive structure of it. Hands-in-the-air all the way during the drop, this is peaktime stuff. Another magnificent track on this vinyl.
Rating: 9/10
B2 - Aerial Mix
Can the quality of the two previous tracks be equalled? Let's find out... While the the A1 and B1 both had full intro's, this one immediately starts off with a muted kick sound and some backing percs. I don't know exactly hów he does it, but even the first little melody in this track already starts working on your senses. Rumbing basslines, nice layers of multiple percussional elements and the use of amazing chord-changing synths just work out very nicely again, creating an energetic drive during the build. With the melody from the beginning playing on and on, variety is being guaranteed by using lots of original background FX. With elements slowly losing volume, the break is imminent... Guitars! A marvellous melody with quite a bit of feeling in there starts playing, being guided onwards by multiple other instruments. No standard accompanying melodies are being added, but just the full guitar melody and the thick percs & bassline serve as the perfect mix to create a tight experience that makes you think of them warm summer days and a nice cocktail. Top notch.
Rating: 8,5/10
Conclusion:
Ace just can't disappoint! We've got ourselves three high quality tracks here, showing that Andreas still remains in the top league concerning trance productions. The Hard Mix has an amazing contrast in it again, generated by the ultra-hard percussion and the emotional breakdown. The Liquid mix has a very nice drive in there, and just works out in a great way using the cool main melody. While I gave the Aerial Mix the 'lowest' rating, it's still very good. It álmost equals the other two ;-).
If you like hardtrance and / or uplifting trance, you should definitely check this out!
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