Release Date: 06 November 2020
Label: Black Hole Recordings
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 8715197020565
Description
It's not the first time that preconceptions have required resetting on this channel. In the instance of Aleksander Stawierej though, before we pierce some, we're going to proliferate a few!
Aleksander is the Warsaw-based keyholder to monikers like Raw Tech Audio & ACIDØ; the A&R warden of the Mental Asylum label and through his Indecent Noise guise, also the institution's foremost resident. The latter's an alias that - over the last 10 years - has become inextricably linked with the sound of the 303, leaving a size-12 musical bootprint on planet trance.
One of the genre's more provocative agents certainly, but also notably an album-shy one - 'Everything Is Connected' representing his first LP foray.
Long-playing it is indeed, with the collection (available to stream, download and on vinyl & CD from today) is made up of no less than 15 studio-hot cuts from the Pole. The album splits its track deck between solo offerings, co-productions & vocal collabs, topped off by some I.N. remixes and a less-than-expected cover. Included amongst are partnerships with vocalists like Noire Lee, as well as in-studio pairings with Lostly, EverLight, onTune, Diver & Ace and Renegade System.
Back to those aforementioned artistic predeterminations then, because (albeit in the less anticipatable of fashions) 'Everything Is Connected' explodes many of them. Aleksander's certainly delivered an album that expands tonally on his known-for remit, but not merely in the deeper/cooler direction. It also climbs 'north', (no mean feat when you're 'Mr. Acid') to euphoric summits and further still into hardstyle/core forms.
Not unduly though, Indecent Noise does ringfence a full quarter of his album for his most favoured studio weapon.
From the Wink-esque 'Worlds Collide' with Lostly, to the squally, stormy 'Kernel Panic' in collaboration with EverLight, 'Everything Is Connected' slides its acidic centre-column into place. Further in, 'Extractor' alongside Renegade System turns the bosh-factor up to 11, while 'Nightmare Fuel' expounds on the long-dark-corridor-themes of the 303.
Uplifting trance may not be Indecent's first go-to, but the assured nature of the album's altitude-grabbing moments speak volubly of his abilities. Early on your foundations get a good shake as singer Noire Lee picks up the mic to send Corey Hart's 'Sunglasses At Night' blazing through the trance prism. There's also the more chord-and-pad-empowered uplift of recent single 'Visions Of The Dream', while Aleksander also delivers a dazzlingly reformation of Jam & Spoon's classic 'Be.Angeled'.
The album provides conversely cooler moments too. Its one-two overture is comprised of the scene-setting 'Brightest Day', which in turn cedes to the more atmospherically swirling 'White Lotus'. 'Lekko' (the Polish word for light-of-weight) is housed at 'Everything Is Connected's midsection, is another pause-for-breath moment, and one that develops pondering poignancy and cinematic ether in equal measure.
Tracklisting
Bt
Solarstone
Kyau & Albert
Dennis Sheperd
John Askew
Cosmic Gate
Various
Ed Lynam
Various Artists
