Swedish producer Daniel Swahn steps up to provide his very first artist album which is released as the third installment on JOOF's album division. Featuring a total of nine genre-blending tracks with a clearly defined unique sound, this is an interesting album indeed...

Judging from Daniel's website (see the links below), he is quite the versatile producer. While he is only 20, his repertoire already includes a wide variety of styles, ranging from goa and psy to more trancy, techy numbers. The latter is what we're going to hear on this Whirloop album. We're being treated with nine full tracks (that means, no edits!), so let's find out what we're dealing with here...

Tracklisting:

01) Horisont
02) Blue Objects
03) A Fascination For Clouds
04) Regn
05) Skog
06) Fjäll
07) If You've Made Your Peace
08) Modifying My Earth (Whirloop Remix)
09) The End Is A New Beginning

Horisont (which is Swedish for Horizon) serves as the intro track for this 78 minute journey through the entire body of Daniel's sound. A smooth and calm, yet somewhat mysterious introductory section shifts through the soundspectrum, with deep, wobbly basslines and an interesting sounding, rapid percussion gliding on top of everything to ensure a more than worthy start. Immediately, an eerie, spooky kind of feel is being brought forward, using a multitude of wicked FX, tingling bits of rhythmic synth and some slightly techy goodness to finish things off.
A relatively more straight-forward atmosphere is being ignited in Blue Objects. Again, that typical percussion & thick bassline return, but this time sounding just a bit more trancy with its cool backing synthwork and a more melodic overall feel. This is definitely not your usual trance though: a huge accent has been put on the build-up, which at the end becomes a strong, thundering affair, readying us for the breakdown. Icy, sharp sounding batteries of string take over, combining themselves with a wagonload of FX and wee bits of basses, just for the percs and bassline to return to their roots again afterwards. A melodic, strong production.

Up next is the title track, A Fascination For Clouds. It's very noticeable that the pace of the album is being increased here, mainly because of a very rapid, full use of percussional elements, that trademark rumbling Whirloop b-line and a good use of multiple melodic interludes. Blasting on and on, this becomes another tune that is very hard to typify with just one word. A bell-like little melody is what gives the track a rather special feel, fading in and out to let the powerful percussion do its work flawlessly. It continuously gears back in and out, creating a very cool structure with lots of small climaxes.
Regn (rain in Swedish) goes on in the rapid, energetic style we got treated with in the last tune. Beepy, sharp melodies and lots and lots of atmospheric effects have been packed together to become a tune full of surprises, including a rather catchy lead-melody and some neatly crafted accompanying melodies. A beautiful breakdown filled with subtle piano's takes away the tensed, energetic vibe for just a moment, then for the thick bassdrum to start banging again in a fierce way, together with that everlasting badass bassline. The sturdy yet interesting melodies return every now and then, making this another soulful, inventive tune.

Going on with tracks that are named after things that have to do with nature, Skog (forest) is a very dark, deep tune, incorporating basslines that have the ability to throw your plate of your desk when you have your subwoofer at max volume. The structure in this one is once again to applaud for; a total of three or four different basslines are present, and not much melody is here. Instead, it relies on constant builds of deep basses and funky, smashing percussion to get things going. This made me think of one of them gigantic trees you see in forests every now and then: their powerful look and feel might scare you a bit at first sight, but when looking at it from a deeper perspective you'll see what it's all about.
Seems like a lot of Sweden's geological structure is present on this album, 'cause the next track is Fjäll, which is the Swedish word for mountains up north. A meaty, slightly stabbing bassline builds around a highly melodic overall tune, consisting of a very neatly worked out, somewhat techno-ish percussion, slick trancy melodies and a breakdown to die for. Arrays of thoughtfully created violins and flutes make this the single best break of the album, enhancing the tune to great extent with its beautiful, enchanting feel. The very full sound from the build returns without remorse after this rusty intermezzo, inducing a rather interesting contrast to be created. A thoughtful, emotional and energetic tune.

If You've Made Your Peace starts off with an intro consisting of a long quote from the movie Jacob's Ladder (hail Google!). A definite dark state of mind will grasp you right from the beginning, with that trademark Whirloop sound and structure returning again. Overall, this one sounds a lot, and perhaps too much, like tunes heard earlier on the album. Especially the build doesn't include anything we haven't heard before, and the same kind of goes for the breakdown. Atmospheric, constantly repeating sounds are imminent here, resulting in a somewhat weaker tune.
A new remix of an older Whirloop track called 'Modifying My Earth' has been included as the pre-last tune. The full original mix is downloadable on whirloop.se, actually. Taking a lengthy eleven minutes and fourteen seconds (!!), this one takes you on a journey using a massive, destructive bassline which kind of made me think like the world was coming to an end. For the first time on the album, some very typical, highly elevating purely trancy riffs have been included in the build, going together with this whooshy leading riff to induce a slightly uplifting feel to be brought forward. The apocalyptical feel is being accentuated in the break, which includes an emotive, deep sort of sound which plays for just a few seconds but does have a massive effect. Going on in the style of the album, the mega-bassline and percs return in their heftiest form, led onwards by bites of trancy melodies to top things off. A more melodic number with a deeper meaning.

The approperiately titled The End Is A New Beginning serves as the closer. And what a closer it is! If you thought the previous tune sounded like the world was going to be hit by a huge meteorite, check this one out, it's most likely to wipe away a complete solar system. Dark, vengeful melodies take full control here, which might even sound approperiate in some dark cult-movie. Massive basslines and percs galore, a bit of a tribalish feel comes in by the use of tiny bits of bongo every here and there, but the main best elements remain of course the astonishingly dark melodies. It's unbelievable how much feeling this tune has! I don't know if this would suit a club environment, but at home with max volume this is one beast of a tune. A massive, massive end of this album!

Conclusion:
As we're used to from John '00' Fleming's label, we're being treated with a different take on trance on this album. Multiple styles are being combined to become a meaningful whole, merging trance together with techno with a little psy-flavour thrown in every now and then. Daniel Swahn aka Whirloop has succeeded in creating an album filled with very soulful tunes which will certainly be loved by fans of a different take on trance music, with The End Is A New Beginning being the perfect example of the quality this album shines out. Brilliant!