Aes Dana - Pollen

[Trance2MoveU]

 

Artist: Aes Dana

Title: Pollen

Label: Ultimae

Date: December, 2012

 

1. Jetlag Corporation
2. Borderline
3. Conditioned (Album Edit)

4. Tree.Some
5. A carmine day
6. 101 Clouds
7. Riven
8. The meeting point
9. Horizontal Rain

10. Low tide explorations

 

"I am, for the first time...optimistic."

 

Some people just know how to get it right. Consistently. Vincent Villuis is the mind behind this project and he has left a string of superb albums in his wake. Dude's like King Midas. Founding member of Asura, part of H.U.V.A. Network...the guy just pumps out quality. I wonder when he pees in the toilet if you hear the sound of gold ingots sprinkling the bowl. I think he runs his software through a solid gold laptop. I've seen it.

 

 

His latest effort deals with pollen, a decidedly springtime endeavor, but right now it's freezing outside with snow on the ground.

 

And that works perfectly.

 

He starts with Jetlag Corporation which drops the dub bass as it slogs through quicksand. Perfect for a walk in the snow. Borderline is a cold, dark track with dubby bass and industrial sounds that weeps with regret. The fact that he can maintain that when the kick comes in is remarkable. Conditioned is a thumping progressive house track that is like watching traffic go by in a perpetual drizzle. Gloomy with pulsing electronica the ending pads gleam like foreign ice fields. I told you it was cold.

 

You would think you couldn't be disappointed with a Tree Some, but here we are. It's another moody progressive trance track that felt kind of empty to me. So yes I wasn't thrilled with this Tree Some.

 

 

But at least I ain't that guy. It's like Shallow Hal but with grandmothers. Where the hell was the wingman on this one?

 

A Carmine Day has frequent knocking percussion and a hard kick and if there was any filler it would be this track. But because the whole is greater than the individual parts it kinda works. He gets back on track with the wide open 101 Clouds. They float slowly by taking their time, forming and reforming countless shapes, speaking just to me.

 

 

"God what does this mean? So...am I gay now? Or are you telling me to stop playing with myself?"

 

 

Riven has a bass that reverberates through your chest as the world slowly loses itself. Long pads stretch across an unforgiving sky as I watch the snow continue to fall, wrapped tightly in my heavy jacket. The Meeting Point bubbles and slowly makes it's sad melody known. It's not the deepest track, but it serves as a guide to some Horizontal Rain. And n*gga if you see horizontal rain you're standing in a hurricane. But this doesn't have the force of a hurricane...more of a soft drizzle. It's the type of rain that will force you to look back on a maybe questionable decision. The glitchy melody fits like a glove with the freezing pads. Oh look...it's snowing again. The final track Low Tide Explorations is a long story that moves through ambient textures and dubby breakbeats.

 

 

Like a lot of fans I was prepared to give this the rubber stamp of approval. I mean, it's Aes Dana. But after several listens I didn't think it was as good as Leylines or Perimeters. So I went for a walk in the snow at dusk.

 

And I began to smile.

 

This is a wonderful album with perpetually overcast skies. There is a foot of snow on the ground with no end in sight. The music is cold and dark with sounds that wouldn't be out of place on a Depeche Mode or NIN album. He traverses boundaries frequently, often within the same track, but never loses his melancholic flow. Glacial pads hover above glitchy electronica as a kick thunders below.

 

So do you have to go out into the elements to enjoy this? Nah, but it certainly helped me. It's a glorious journey of mournful tones that is best appreciated listening all the way through.

 

Congratulations you magnificent bastard, you've done it again. Mood altered.

 

 

 

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