MARK EG REVIEW As anyone who knows me and my 'style' of DJ sets will know, I'm not into anything that sounds like it's been dragged through an episode of X Factor, polished up with lipstick and paraded around the block six thousand times by some ass hole with a Porsche 911. In other words, there's only so many times you can milk a cat in music before it becomes utterly pointless. Unfortunately it gets like that, especially in genres such as hardstyle and hard dance. It's not all doom and gloom though - you just have to spend time searching harder!
Gearbox is one of those labels that refuse to conform, so that's why I've played a lot of music from them over the last few years. This new album is essentially a showcase for their sound - a double album that features some of the best music in the new Hard EDM/hard trance/dance genres as well as some savage industrial raw hardstyle.
Part 1 of the album is probably my favorite. Why? Well, as far as I'm concerned this kind of sound is absolutely the future for hard dance – slowed down, intelligent and groovy but with loads of melody for the ladies. Tracks by Splinta (I'm a big fan) as well as my good friends Diablik and the UK's Side-Efect, show precisely where this music needs to (and is) going. KloneZ, Vontek, Danny Williamson and VTheKid also feature. Superb.
Part 2 is rawstyle at its best. The difference is, we've had this sound for a while now, so even though the tracks are brilliant, it's not as 'fresh' as the first. It still beats anything from the so called 'kings' of hardstyle though and you can rest assured it's all been grafted together in someone's basement rather than a 6 million pound studio by a 'shadow' producer. Amazing, creative and mind-blowing music from Adventum, Ironite, Malice, Artifact and others. If only all hardstyle was like this instead of the pointless crap we get from the big cheesy boys. Nice work lads.
My only gripe is I wish they hadn't have used the annoying woman's voice throughout, but that's my own personal preference. You kinda learn to ignore it after a while anyway. Apart from that, this is a damn good album, can't wait to get my hands on the originals to play in my DJ sets!
