Album Review by EDF
DJZ hails from Northern Ireland, not the first place that comes to mind when you think about Progressive Trance. In fact, while Northern Ireland has produced some great artists over the years, it has not been famous for dance music or club DJ’s. That’s where DJZ comes in with his 5-track, 50-minute album. That’s right folks; these tracks are long, with the shortest track clocking in at a whooping 8 minutes. So do these tracks manage to keep the listener’s attention or does it wander off into the snore-zone?
Opening up with CYCLOTRON, the driving beat and baseline drives onto string like chords and melody hooks before drifting off a few minutes near the end of the track to bring us straight into one of two mixes for NEUTRINO. The RAW MIX is more of the same but by now you can sense the tracks being stretched out. The ambitious 13-minute BREATHE, would be a great driving tune if there were a strong enough melody to move the track along. Strangely, BREATHE stops dead in its tracks to a slowed down three-minute wind down, enough to put the driver to sleep.
By the time the second mix for NEUTRINO comes round, you almost give up any hope for anything exciting to happen. For some reason, the FLUID MIX has something going for it then in the previous tracks. The closing OCEANA manages to combine chill-out with dance beats to great results, making this an album of two halves.
