Tune #79: C.M. - Dream Universe

A forgotten gem from the past:

C.M. - DREAM UNIVERSE


C.M. stands for Crystal Manoeuvres, the birth child of Belgians Crisci Mauro & Marino Stephano. Little information can be found for Mr. Crisci, so the spotlight belongs to Mr. Marino.

Marino's first exposure to electronic music dated back to 1995, when he partnered with Meo Lorenzo to form Zodiac and M.Zone. Their first works were released in Belgium by Rhythm And Groove Records, an offshoot of Mackenzie Records. The latter has long served as a musical home for many young Belgian artists (even for the relatives of Marino & Mauro!).

In 1996 Marino teamed up with Mauro as C.M., in order to produce their first EP After Dream/Dream Universe. The presence of DU in the B-side of the EP indicated that the duo possibly believed more in the potential of the first track. However, Dream Universe was the track that captured the interest of trance community, so in the next year it was released as a maxi single in German label Fog Area. In 1998, it was presented to UK crowd by Hooj Choons, one of the most famous progressive labels. Remixes of the track were performed by DJ George's (resident DJ of Belgian club La Bush), Tilt, Taucher and Man With No Name (an essential curator for Goa trance). According to Discogs, 34 releases of the maxi can be found throughout the years (mainly by Fog Area & Hooj Choons), while the different versions of the track were featured in dozens of DJ mixes and compilations!

Marino had a great talent in crafting melodic trance tracks, being melancholic and blissful at the same time. Other known tracks produced by him are Eternal Rhapsody, Dream's Harmony (a collab with Stephane Kalpakidis aka DJ Kalpa) and Good Shot as Hand's Burn (another alias of Marino & Crisci).

Unfortunately, on 8 September 1999 he found a tragic death at the age of 25 years. On his way to meet fellow producer Dirk Dierickx (most known for his M.I.K.E. and Push aliases), he was involved in a fatal car accident. Dierickx's track Till We Meet Again is dedicated to memory of Marino, whose sudden passing was a tremendous loss for the electronic music community.

It is really a shame that none of his works appears in the retrospective collection TSOB - The Sound Of Belgium, which focused more on Belgium's EBM/New Beat era (1988 - 1991) and featured only the most famous tracks of other genres (like Joey Beltram - Energy Flash, T 99 - Anasthasia and others). In my opinion, his tracks were a proper interpretation for the melodic side of trance, compared with the anthemic Dutch sound, which ruled the EDM industry in late 90's - early 00's.

P.S. I definitely found another reason why I like the track so much (except that it is great!). The background bassline is similar to that of the legendary Odyssey To Anyoona!

Tune #78: Leftfield - Space Shanty

Leftism is a landmark album by Leftfield that defined the electronic scene of the 90's. Released (for the first time) in 1995, it was the apotheosis of old school progressive house, which was already blooming in UK. Leftfield was originally a project created by Neil Barnes in 1990 with the production of Not Forgotten, which is claimed to be the first progressive house track ever*. One year later, Neil teamed up with percussionist Paul Daley, who remixed Not Forgotten in its most popular form: the Hard Hands version! Both versions of the track were released by short-lived Outer Rhythm records, which ceased to exist in 1992.

The closing of Outer Rhythm led the duo to form their own label, which shared the same name with the Hard Hands remix. The label acted as a beacon to promote the dubby-house sound with deep basslines and tribal rhythms. Leftfield was still the central point of Hard Hands, followed by new artists.

In 1999, the second album Rhythm And Stealth was released by Hard Hands: dub elements & fat basslines were still dominant here, but in a dirtier and darker manner. Although it is also a great album, it never reached the status of Leftism for most listeners.

It was certain that the presence of Leftfield would be everywhere in the 90's. The seminal Renaissance: The Mix Collection featured 3 different versions of track Song Of Life, one after the other. Their music was also included in the original music scores of Gen-X films (Hackers, Trainspotting, The Beach). Neil Barnes and Paul Daley are also responsible for one of the most influential Essential Mixes (1994), as featured in Pete Tong's weekly radio show.

Leftfield stopped as a duo in 2002, when the two guys decided to pursue different paths. The project was revived in 2010 by Barnes for a live tour, in order to relive the great times of the past. In 2015, the third album Alternative Light Source saw the light of day, having an extremely different style in comparison with the classic "Leftfield sound" (Mr. Barnes should have chosen a different alias for ALS).

Twenty-two years after its initial release, Leftism is back again in a new remastered version and with new remixes! It is time to remember some of the finest moments of the original album:
- the acid prog monsters Song Of Life & Space Shanty
- the African tribal feeling of Afro-Left
- the collaboration with John Lydon of Sex Pistols in Open Up
- the dub breakbeat of Inspection (Check One)

LEFTFIELD - SPACE SHANTY


For some funny reason, this track reminds me of Dhalsim's theme in the innovative Street Fighter II (also a landmark in video gaming history!!!).


* The same claim exists for Andrew Weatherall's remix on Sly And Lovechild - The World According To Sly & Lovechild. According to Neil Barnes, Andrew Weatherall's early sets had a large influence on him and helped shaping the basic elements of progressive house.

Tune #77: Efdemin - Parallaxis

Deep.Hypnotic.Mesmerizing.

EFDEMIN - PARALLAXIS


Three years ago, the studio album Decay was released by Phillip Sollmann, the man behind the alias Efdemin. Efdemin's LP has been recently added in my music collection, after wandering randomly in Youtube and listening to one of the album's tracks. It is a kind of an oxymoron for a guy like me who discovered new music at first through P2P programs to become obsessed with buying hard copies at an older age!

Back to Efdemin: Phillip Sollmann produces music for the last 20 years. Originally hailed from the city of Kassel, he moved to Hamburg in the early 90's and he was hugely influenced by the local music scene. His first EP appeared in 1999, a collaboration with his friend Alexander Polzin under the Tobin moniker. The next step was the inclusion of a new track in the first installment of Total compilation, a sampler series that continues to this date by Kompakt. Their reluctance to create their own record label led to their co-operation with Dial, a newly created label by Paul Kominek, David Lieske and Peter M. Kersten, who shared the same music tastes.

In 2002, Phillip Sollmann move to Vienna, in order to study music. The Austrian techno scene was hardly existent, so Sollmann experimented with musique concrète compositions, a valuable experience that can be detected in studio album Something Is Missing of this period (2006). However, his passion for techno music re-emerged, as he had already moved to Berlin in 2005.

The last 10 years have been very productive for Efdemin: 3 studio albums and many 12''s, most of which were released under the umbrella of Dial. While in the 2 first two albums techno is blended with strong deep house elements, the Decay seems to be the most techno-ish, sometimes in a minimal manner and other times more banging.

You can read here a track-by-track review of the album by Phillip Sollmann himself.

Although my favorite track from the album is possibly Solaris, Parallaxis is presented in today's blog spot, just for the blissful breakbeat remake by Traumprinz (his real name is a mystery!).

EFDEMIN - PARALLAXIS (TRAUMPRINZ'S OVER 2 THE END VERSION)