I picked this track for this week because it ties in with a previous post on chiptunes and 8bit sound hardware. (See Chiptunes and Demoscene and 8bit Nostalgia …) I also picked it because it’s a really great track. I’m attaching the Extended Mix which clocks in at a hefty 7:48, but that’s no surprise for Tiësto. There has also been a release comprised of various remixes of this track (including a Bart B More remix, which I haven’t heard yet. Considering his track record, it should prove to be an interesting Baltimore house fix of 8bit goodness.)

This track is being heralded as the “return” of Tiësto. Many of his fans feel that, as of late, Tiësto had departed from the edgy, darker, almost downright scary production value that he was known for (think Flight 643). They decried his “commercial” appeal and felt they may have lost their beloved king of trance to the lure of mass appeal. Frankly, I don’t think Tiësto has never had to worry about finding appeal to the masses. We’re talking about the first DJ ever to be asked to play at the Olympics. We’re talking about the man who has a statue of his likeness in wax at Madame Tussauds museum in Amsterdam. We’re talking the man who has topped almost every DJ list ever made at one point or another.

Mass appeal is hardly a problem.

I think Tiësto suffers from the same struggle every DJ (or artist in general for that matter) will: growing. It’s easy to be typecast or pigeon-holed by your own fans and to bring upon yourself certain expectations of what your DJ sets or your own productions should cater to. As popularity rises, there becomes a dedicated “core” of insiders that segregates themselves and tends to look at all these new “intruding” outsiders as a threat to their sense of what’s “theirs”. The DJ or artist is forced to deal with the changing demographics and tastes of their constituency. Any shift in methods or deliverables comes with the risk of backlash from the “ones who have been there all along” that have come to expect the McDonald’s experience from the artist. They came once and they bought a McRib. And man, they liked it. Now, next time they come in and buy a McRib, it had better taste just the same way, be wrapped up in it’s familiar wrapper, and delivered with a smile that says “It’s because of you I have my job. Thank you.”

My feeling is that “Louder Than Boom” is an attempt to bridge two previously explored paths: The early, dark, epic trance path and the later, more matured, “I just needed to try something different for a while” path. “Louder Than Boom” reminds me a lot of Flight 643. It also reminds me of some of Tiësto’s more recent material that sent some of his original fans packing. It reminds me of…Tiësto.

Loud. Epic. Dark.

But also Minimal. And Fun. And Bright.

Boot up your Commodore 64, kick back in your Reebok Pumps, and say “welcome back” to the man who defined Trance as a genre.

Tiësto – Louder Than Boom

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If you’ve listened to the radio, been to a mall, have a teenager or a twenty-something in your household, or fancy yourself a new music buff, chances are you’ve heard MGMT at some point in the last 6 months or so. They’ve garnered a fair amount of radio play and critical acclaim thanks to the power of 2 singles from thier “Oracular Spectacular” album; “Electric Feel” and “Kids”.

If you’ve been to a nightclub, listened to a Ministry of Sound compilation, visited a house music blog, or fancy yourself a dance music buff, chances are you’ve heard Sebastian Ingrosso at some point in the last year or so. A member of the Swedish House Mafia, Ingrosso is undeniably one of the most influential, innovative, and entertaining EDM artists around. One of Ingrosso’s recent offerings is centered around the catchy and infectious melody of MGMT’s “Kids”. Dubbed “Kidsos”, this club banger just has that “something special” that I look for in a track. Ingrosso manages to successfully reinterpret a hip, playful, unembellished theme, adopting it as a key constituant of a powerful, churning, club-friendly composition. A powerful energy is quickly built at the outset of the track. This energy isn’t lost during the breakdown, where Ingrosso enlists the help of a high-pass filter to slowly introduce the instantly recognizable theme that will have your dancefloor screaming and clapping as the song builds into a crescendo. That’s when fun really starts.

As the break approachs the climax, Ingrosso shows off his savvy and credability as an experienced producer and DJ by slamming the pedal the floor. In an all-out mind-blowing drop, reminiscent of an Indy car screaming past you at 185 miles per hour, we say goodbye to “Kids” and again say hello to the furious shuffle and groove that we last experienced immediately before the break.

What I love most about this track is that instead of throttling back and slowly rebuilding the energy after the break, Ingrosso meets the listener’s expectations of a satisfying release from the tension built in the break. In what seems to be a rather popular but annoying trend in most electro-house tunes lately, producers insist on bringing listeners to plane of energy, after a break, that falls far short of what had been developed before the break. From there, the producer attempts to rebuild the momentum and energy, eventually matching or exceeding the heights to which the listener was brought earlier in the track.

I find this to be a frustrating, unsatisfying, and counter-intuitive method to engage the listener. Nothing, to me, is more disappointing than an epic build-up to a climax that fails to deliver on a promise of satisfaction.

Sebastian Ingrosso gets that. He understands it. And man, does he deliver with Kidsos.

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