Motorcycle's "As the Rush Comes" unites devotees of house and trance music
The genres of contemporary dance music are like paramecia: They love nothing more than fragmentation and evolution. Consequently, devotees of particular styles are very protective and insular about their chosen subgenres, which makes a record like Motorcycle's "As the Rush Comes" (Ultra/Positiva) something of an anomaly. Indeed, it's hard to recall a time in the past five years when the house and trance music communities both embraced the same record to the degree they have this one.Producers Josh Gabriel and Dave "The Wave" Dresden build their "Rush" around a groovy 4/4 kick drum and, as in their remix productions, meticulous synthesizer programming that's completely unlike the calculator sine waves that comprise most of what passes for melody in current dance records. At no point during their epic Sweeping Strings Mix, or in the alternate remix by Dutch trancemaster Armin van Buuren, do Gabriel and Dresden play the usual dance game of shifting into a major key to win over drugged-up listeners. Not only that, singer and co-writer Jes is an essential part of the recording, not a featured vocalist brought in to warble generic platitudes over a pre-existing track.
Technology can synthesize almost any sound these days, but one thing beyond the reach of even the most advanced plug-ins is the ability to replicate chemistry, and "As the Rush Comes" pulsates with it. It might be hard to accept that such simple things as a complex and satisfying keyboard program and treating the singer as a creative part of an act can make such a difference, but as Motorcycle amply prove, they do.
