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i:Vibes gets a copy of the Japanese release of Rank 1's Symsonic, with 14 tracks of Rank 1's latest as well as a couple of classics to go with it!
Rank 1's latest album "Symsonic" has just been released in Japan last week and has been causing quite a stir already in Japan and the rest of Asia. Release under the Avex umbrella, the album features 14 tracks of Rank 1's productions.
1. Symsonic
2. Cosmomatic
3. Airwave (Album Cut)
4. Conspiracy
5. T.T.C.
6. Awakening (Radio Edit)
7. Down From The Deep
8. Equilibrium
9. Such is Life (Sunday Afternoon Rework)
10. Passage to the Unknown
11. Still in My Mind
12. Airwave (Sunset Mix)
13. Such is Life (Album Cut)
14. Such is Life (Marco V Mix)
What strikes most people is that they've included 6 tracks which have come out previously out of the 14, which disappointed me slightly, especially with the Album Cut of Airwaive and the Album Cut of Such is Life. Although I'm sure many people are looking forward to those, I felt that perhaps removing the 2-3 minute Radio Edits and the 2-3 minute short tracks such as "Cosmomatic" and "Still in My Mind" and putting longer tracks in would fare better.
Aside from my complaints about certain shortnesses of tracks, I feel that some of the productions are definitely of the top quality. With some of us already having heard the taster tracks from Rank 1's Trance Energy set, there has been some idea of what was to come, and the first track which is featured on the album is "Symsonic" the sample which is featured at 1:51 minutes into the track is how the TE set was started, and in my opinion is the most beautiful sample this year has heard so far. Definitely a target for the remixers.
Moving to Cosmomatic this little number at 2:44 is ridiculously short, and would definitely be great if it was at more ike 6 minutes. Although saying that, the piano melody which is featured in it is great, adding with the Rank 1 standard synths, this track gets a nice thumbs up and I guess would fit as a nice builder.
Skipping the classic Airwave which needs no introduction, we head to a 4:55 track titled "Conspiracy", which correlates very highly to their past productions, with the same kind of structure which made Rank 1 famous, but who's complaining here? =p. Something I'd probably expect to see on a future "best of summer trance" type of album, nice chilly and relaxing... Ibiza at 5am?
Experimental was what Piet and Benno once described this album, and the next track is what I would describe as trip hop / ambient. The oddly titled T.T.C. (god knows what that stands for) is a nice balaeric type track which is my kinda Sunday morning tune. This is one of the 3 chilled downtempo tracks on the album, with the Sunset mix or Airwave and Sunday Afternoon Mix of Such is Life being the others. Beautiful stuff for those ambient lovers, and I can see all 3 of these coming up on summer balaeric chillout compilations, and talking about compilations, have a look at Disc 3 of Gatecrasher Experience, theres one of em there already!
Skipping the much emphasised Awakening (Radio Edit), we move on to a more interesting "Down From the Deep". What my first thought was when listening to this was "Sven Vath when he's feeling slightly more melodic"? Definitely has those techno vibes and those 303s in it which will drive those techno festivals mad to the likes of Sven, Miss Yetti and co, and ends of having some kind of eclectic US style techno to it. Dodgy description? well if you get a chance, this is an interesting one to check out, especially those space like phaser samplers.
Equilibrium, is the next track on the CD and contains a nice melody in it whilst keeping a "Deep Dub" kind of bassline to it putting this as the longest new track on the album at 5:25. Not much to it, just an interesting little synth and a nice bassline for those building parts of the set.
My favourite track on the album is probably "Passage to the Unknown". The percussions in the track are nice, and the synth in it definitely reminds me of a track previously but I just can't put my finger on it. Sounds like a bit of the mid-90s uplifting trance, but I like this one a lot; but yet again, at 3:33, seems a little short for me.
The next one is "Still in My Mind".. the first 3 seconds or so.. you'll be thinking "what happened here? did Bon Jovi's latest single get accidentally put on the Rank 1 Album?". Well, that is quickly pushed to the site, as some ATB like guitars come about. When you listen to this, i can guarantee that a lot of you will be thinking "ATB rip off!" but oh well, an interesting track in my opinion, but doesn't really grab my attention too well.
The remaining tracks on the album, I don't think I need to tell you about as you all have heard those already, with Such is Life smashing the floors a bit in 2001, especially with the pulsating Marco V Mix which finishes off the album and the Original Album Cut of it coming penultimate in the list.
Although I will give Rank 1 credit for putting such a diverse album together, I was not particularly impressed with a couple of the productions and the idea that perhaps it was "put as many tracks onto 1 album as possible". I am sure that others will agree that some of the tracks deserve a bit of a lengthier outcome, but who knows, perhaps they'll all be put onto singles? I am pretty sure that a few of them have yet to be released on single! so i guess we'll have to wait for that one.
Awakening Vinyl 2 is soon to be released, with a massive Ferry Corsten Mix on it, so keep your eyes peeled!
www.rank-1.com
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