Side Liner - Once Upon A Time

[Melancholyman]

Side Liner - Once Upon A Time

Label - Cosmicleaf Records

 

 

Tracks:

1. Once Upon A Time

2. Esoteric Peace

3. When The Time Has Come

4. Cry Of An Angel

5. Morning Dewdrops (MLT rmx)

6. Monday Morning

7. Drawing My Life (Sunhize rmx)

8. Nightmare's Music Box (vs Cydelix)

9. Something Beautiful (Zero Cult rmx)

10. Moonlight (Hesius Dome vs Arcane Trickster rmx

 

A sound tale for the blissfully daily moments!

 

Nick Miamis aka Side Liner is back with his second album. The 'emotional diving' series continues with diversity of sounds, top notch production to seduce your senses, expand the mind, release your deepest emotions and create endless introspective daydreaming.

 

Be productive for over 9 years, having released more than 72 tracks in various releases under many alias and labels as YSE, Cosmicleaf, Unicorn, Tempest, Substream, Discobole and Digital Underground found his inspiration and magic on chill out music.

 

He blended space ambient surfaces with chill out, electro, down tempo, breaks and dub rhythms spiced by 3 down tempo progressive tracks (120-124bpm) for diversity with Sunhize, Cydelix and Zero Cult. In this album participate also MLT (Cosmicleaf) and Hesius dome (Psy-harmonics) with Arcane Trickster (Tempest).

 

Cosmicleaf continues to serve music with attitude and this release is highly recommended for timeless travellers.

The Review:

Track 1: Starts off slow, then a female vocal comes in. This track has an ethnic touch to it and is prolly my fav on this album. Keepin the tempo up on this one and that will go for almost the whole album. 3.30 a flute start playing, then the vocals adds up and the track stays the same for almost the entire length.

 

Track 2: The most downtempo track of the album but still keeping a high pace. Nice gentle and wave like sounds washing me forward as I listen.

 

Track 3: A Dub influenced track with nice high tones soothing my ears. A melody runs in the background through the entire track. The track stays roughly the same all the way through. A solid track.

 

Track 4: Starts off with some kinda metallic noises running in and out, then a slow beat starts up and gradually other sounds and instruments are added, during the whole time there is also a background melody running from start, kinda melancholic one I would say. After about 1.45 it adds up even more and some higher tones can be heard taking the track to a more positive state, the background melody comes forth and is taking the main lead here also some additional sounds are added. This is definitely a track taking you so a more sinister place but still with elements of joy. I really like the metallic ball sound. At 5.40 a piano comes in the background, adding to the more sad impression of the track.

Track 5: Here we start with some raindrops falling into water, after a few secs a beat comes along, rather slow then some also here kinda metallic sounds are introduced. Then a melody comes along, in this case aswell taking me to the more sad places in my mind, but the track still keeps the tempo up makin it like a melancholic Dub influenced song. At 2.30 a male voice comes in bringin the earlier part to an abrupt end and then kicks off again, only to slow down again and more raindrops are falling, after this the song takes a turn upwards to more happy places with higher tones.

Track 6: The transition from the 5th to 6th track is very smooth, and my first impression is that we are continuing on the more melancholic journey. This track is built up mostly the same as the others but there are subtle differences in the sounds used and the melody in the background. Here it is going more dark, and it makes me think of Electrypnoses downtempo stuff when hearing the melody in the background. After bout 2 min the melody stops and now I am left with the bass and sounds but it doesn't last long and after a while some soothing tones come in to save the day. At 3min we come to a halt and I am eagerly awaiting what comes next, hmm more of the same but it is not necessarily bad, background melodie is changed slightly sounding more like the kind of ambient you would hear in an abandoned haunted castle or villa.

Track 7: This one starts off rather quick beginning with the sound of drums, then the bass comes in fast aswell. It gradually builds up, this sounds almost like tech house or something, but still with the touch that has run trough the earlier parts of the album. I wouldn't say this is a dance track but surely it is running at the edge between chillout/dance stepping from one side to another multiple times during the track. Rather standard beats and sounds, but still not a bad track.

 

Track 8: Begins slow with organic sounds, then a melody comes in, reminding me of a kids dark fairy tale, bass kicks in some crumbling sound in the background. Also this one a dance friendly track. This is supposedly one of the progressive downtempo tracks as is track 6. Goes to a halt at 3.50 and a man sounding exhausted is breathing then it kicks off again. As a progressive track I wouldn't say it's great but ok, it suits the rest of the tracks so for me it becomes more like the uptempo side of this album.

Track 9: This track is a Zero Cult mix so I have high hopes for this one. This is the 3rd and last dance influenced tracks. A bubbly feel over this track, like walkin on soap bubbles. If that makes any sense wich it prolly don't, after 2min some mechanic, electric, robotic sounds comes in and to me the sound of whales singin in the background. At 3 we go for a more spacey style, gone are the whales but the androids remain talkin. This is by far the best of the dance oriented tracks. 4.40 the robots are gone but some even more spacey sounds are in play now, 5.10 female voice, singin and then a female voice talkin, it ends with "something beautiful is out there" then the androids are back with the beat accompanying them. This is a nice track.

 

Track 10: I didn't even notice the transition between 9th and 10th track, keepin the tempo up but now without the dance influence. 1.40 not this one sounds more ethnic with indian/middle eastern influences. But it is not well done, and I do not like it, the sounds feel misplaced and random.

 

 

Summary: Well I certainly do not regret buying this album and it is not a bad album at all. But it's not great either. It's not as chillout as Carbon Based Lifeforms or Solar Fields. This is an uptempo chillout album, it has influences from many genres so I cannot give a specific one it would fit into and sometimes sounding even as something ment to dance to. If you are a chillout/lounge/ambient fan you will not regret buying this album. I would give it a score of 6/10, a little better than average. I will also check out Side Liner's first album, might be better might be worse..

 

SCORE 6/10

 

And also plz give me feedback on this review I might write more in the future if it was any help or good read to anyone. This is my second review so I don't expect it to be good, but maybe less than crap. Also I want to say that I have not listened to this album many times, I was writing this review during my 2nd listen and I know that is too early to write a review, so the album might grow on me or become worse. But I was asked of feedback on this one so I just wanted to put out a review..

[Snapinho]

ThanQ for the review!

 

Reviews are both helpful and too subjective at the same time, if you ask me. Most of the times I have to read a lot of users' comments before I can get a good picture and even then I sometimes missjudge an album. Shit happens. I think it also helps a lot if I know the user's taste.

 

Sounds like this one wouldn't really be my cup of tea... thanks for posting, and please keep on doing so. We don't have enough chillout reviewers on here as it is...

[Trance2MoveU]

I thought it was weird that this one started out Dub and Downtempo and then became a Progessive effort. Maybe not weird, but unexpected. The layering was good in and I would give it a solid 4/5. A couple of great tracks, some good ones, and whatever the hell that last one was. I can easily see the talent here.

 

Mdk