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Solar Fields - Random Friday


Aspartic

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Sometimes I dream I'm a trance producer. Sometimes I dream that I know the function of all the knobs on the most expensive and creative hardware synths.

In those dreams I have visions of making the perfect trance album. I would create warm sounds, extremely hypnotizing with a profound bass.

But I'm not a trance producer. Hardly. I just like listening to deep trance and I admire all those artists who have the talent and vision to create wonderful trance masterpieces. Masterpieces that can be be put on repeat on any time of day and night into infinity.

 

September 2012. I'm reading a review of Solar Fields - Random Friday on this blog.

I started reading this blog as the writer says he loves deep trance sounds. Hey, so do I!

As I read, it seems Solar Fields has made a fantastic uptempo trance album. His second.

 

I have now listened about 10 times to this album in 1 week. And I still can't get enough of it. This should do it as a review, but I'm so in love with all these tracks Magnus has created, that I've decided to tell you some more about them.

I'm gonna go deeper in some tracks because this music really actively plays with my mind, mood and ears.

 

Enjoy. :)

 

Posted Image

 

Solar Fields - Random Friday

 

1. Light Control

2. Random Friday

3. Cobalt 2.5

4. In Motion

5. Daydreaming

6. Swoosh

7. Landing Party

8. Lift Off

9. Perception

10. Polarity

 

Lightcontrol doesn't really need an introduction. It's an easy, warm, ambient beginning to a great journey. Slowly the bass comes in and we're off to Random Friday, the title track.

Very gently more bass is introduced to fire up Solar Fields' uptempo album around the 2 min mark. Trance pads, as you will hear them all across the album, clearly were made to grab you and not letting you go anymore. Very few artists have this talent. At least, on this high level.

The track is over before you know it, but it was fantastic and refreshing. The power surge in the end is the cherry.

 

Cobalt 2.5 is probably a remix or remake of Cobalt 2.0. I admit I'm too lazy to go listen to Cobalt 2.0 again, but Cobalt 2.5 doesn't need a comparison.

It's just a high quality progressive trance track which evolves slowly but effectively. It oozes trance, but the kick is prominent throughout the track.

It lets you know it's there. And it bangs!

 

In motion is the perfect example of a perfect trance buildup made to hypnotize you and those in 1 km from where you are listening.

The track is divided in climactic sections, where each section builds up to a climax and the next begins with a fine power boost that keeps me

nodding my head up and down.

 

Daydreaming has a jumpy bassline indicating that this track is intended to spice things up a notch. Trance pads and synths all around.

Pads grow thicker while the bassline comes back in. A second bassline grows steadily from the background to give the track more body,

man this is interesting. Suddenly subtle psy elements fly around and it makes me smile. Again, the hypnotic element feels so natural, it's incredible.

Some deeper pads add mysticism and a tad of darkness leading to the break. And back to jump! 6 minutes and all sounds seem to melt together to form a fantastic atmosphere. And now it's melody time!

What can I say? The finale includes some goa influenced indian flutes and they blend in perfectly with the other trance sounds.

This man has a clear vision for each track.

 

Swoosh introduces an extremely deep bassline defining the start. But already after 30 seconds, it's all trance you hear. Little blips and wonderful effects fly around.

Trance pads come in and this is pure bliss. Being a normal trance fan, I'm in total heaven right now. Hypnotic, warm, deep, it's all here. And boom! The bass thickens and we're off. Where to? I don't know, but I'm eager to find out. This is the suspense Magnus creates. Some low acid lines add to the experience.

Again, all goes to a little climax and the melody is back. I don't want this to end, ever. This is so entrancing, it's ridiculous. Sounds moving up and down, yet you feel this is the perfect arrangement. I'll stop writing now, I wanna listen and enjoy. 4:45, it doesn't get much better than this. Ready for the finale where everything comes together to make the perfect trance track.

I would lve this track to take 20 minutes, it's so damn sexy. Yep, this is my favorite of the album. Back to earth now.

 

Landing party. What a perfect track to follow Swoosh. Ambient sounds but with a certain heavyness factor. Etnic sounds join the party and then .... some synths hinting... there is the fast paced kick. A jumpy track that speeds up the whole album right here. The 5 minute mark finally starts the track. It's an uplifting piece of art that is so rare to find these days. Magnificent. Beautiful trance pads carrying the melody to finish the track in style.

 

Lift off is the same style of track as landing party, but faster and heavier. I can't help that it reminds me of a Wizzy Noise track from Sabotage Part 1.

From 3:30 on it's all systems go! I can best compare it with me (or us) sitting in a space ship flying at ludicrous speed through the galaxy

(allthough I have no idea how it must feel like, I think something like this) passing by the stars and flying in colorful nebulas. Hell yeah! Faster dammit! Psy elements are thrown in to make the track more aggressive. The key of this track remains its punchy kick and it is addictive untill the very end.

 

Perception. The beginning of the track is already one to remember. The soft sounds and synth horns are the interlude of something big.

This just has to evolve into a trance masterpiece. I don't know, but you can feel the energy already. The intro takes about 3 minutes before you

can feel the basskick coming in accompanied by an Underworld - Rez kind of background trance element. The melody, if you can call it so,

is a synth flute going up and down, but you will be humming it as the track progresses.

Spirals of trance sounds come in like fireflies while the bassline drives everything forward. Already at the 5:30 mark and I want this to go on for hours.

A short break preps you for what's coming. Hypnosis, hypnosis and more hypnosis. Very deep and trancy, man, how I have been craving for such beautiful music. From 7m on it's just letting go and enjoy the best of Solar Fields.

 

The ambient Polarity, as usual, blends in perfectly with Perception. This is a genius producer marking the end of his best uptempo album. Of the best uptempo album in years. No, ever.

 

Conclusion

I'm gonna keep it short, as you probably know by now I love this album. I wanna have sex with it. It's just so damn good.

What's always there is the pure hypnotic effect. Magnus manages to pull out the best of his hard- and software and use it to make wonderful music. These are not stand-alone tracks put together blindly. It's an album, with a capital A. A journey with a capital J.

The music is deep, but at the same time uplifting and it will make you smile. I have been waiting for a genuine, honest, pure trance album and Solar Fields has brought it to me.

Thank you Magnus. Thank you.

 

Buy links

 

Ultimae Records

 

Psyshop

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  • 1 month later...

Found this to be a good, pleasant, well-made but ultimately harmless piece, superior to most other attempts in the genre (progressive trance) but inferior to the artist's own masterpiece "EarthShine". The style lends itself to easy comparison to "EarthShine" (though this work leans much more towards progressive than trance), the intensity has been toned down, as well as the power of the melodies, which adds to the forging of a smooth journey that the listener ventures on with the firm belief that she will be back safely, which she in fact will be. The quality of the artist's work is undeniable, and a more appropriate comparison is to the supposed ambitions of the work, which I assume are those mirrored by all works in the progressive genre, to which extent "Random Friday" performs exceptionally well. Overall, I recommend this piece highly.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is one of the deep hypnotic trance albums - the best progressive trance has this effect for me - it's easy to miss the magic the first time around - I'm blown away though by this album - has vaulted to Top-5 status in terms of progressive albums on my list..

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This is a great album. I like it more than the first trance release in 2007. Really hypnotic and it has it's own style, not the todays formula of prog trance, that get's me bored sometimes, because most producers using the same build up, bassline, sounds. This is different and I like it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yea I think I like this more than "Earthshine" from 2007 overall. Earthshine is amazing due to the amount of layers and details and so forth - but it's sort of a hybrid between progressive and full-on - it doesn't generally have that hypotic trancey effect that I enjoy from progressive, but it's not quite melodic or catchy enough to flip all my full-on switches either. That said it's an amazing album - when I hear it on headphones I'm always blown away.

 

"Random Friday" though is fully a progressive trance album - gives the trance effect bigtime, and also adds some beautiful melodies - it sounds much more spacious than "Earthshine" - Earthshine feels a little claustrophobic to me at times, no room to breath - Random Friday though I can enjoy on more occasions due to the space and pace of it.. Both albums are fantastic - Solar Fields is a true master - his attention to detail and the way he arranges sounds is just brilliant..

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Yes I like his downtempo a lot also - "Movements" and many of his earlier compilation tracks. I've had more trouble getting into "Until we Meet the Sky" and "Leaving Home" though - I listen to a lot of downtempo and psychill but I have to be feeling really really mellow to want ambient type work - and those occasions are not frequent.. I think I'll start trying to listen to it during study times and so forth though, see if it takes..

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@healium and zenobyte:

 

you guys phrase it perfectly. Random Friday is not the generic prog-psy album with all the same elements you find on every album.

It's not prog-psy at all actually. Just good trance, and that's why I love it and why it stands out. :wub:

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  • 9 months later...

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