After a two year absence, the king returns!
ATB is far and away my favourite DJ/mixer. There are few artists in the electronic arena who can hold a candle to him. That's why I waited anxiously for his latest release, the two-disc Trilogy. Would it be on par with his last two masterpieces, Addicted to Music amd No Silence? Or would it be more along the lines of his earlier work, which was spectacular for its unspectacularness.
The answer is: both.
Trilogy is the completion of his triumvirate of trance albums (with Addicted to Music amd No Silence being the first two parts). This go around, ATB decided to revisit a format he previously dabbled in with 2000's Two Worlds, a double-disc set with an uptempo trance disc, and a chill-out companion disc. Like that set, ATB partners with singer Heather Nova for Trilogy's first single, Renegade. Had I been his A&R guy, I'd have chosen one of the two banging openers, Justify or Desperate Religion to announce this record. Nova has just never seemed a good fit with electronic music; her high, thin voice generally tends to overwhelm the music's natural flow, a point underscored by Renegade and Stars Come Out, a treacly piano ballad so out of place on disc one I thought my iPod had skipped to another album. They more than make up for it, though, on their third collaboration, the track Made of Glass, in which they connect for the first time since Two Worlds' best track, Love Will Find You. ATB loads this album with some of his best uptempo songs in years. Alcarda alone will be burning up my playlists for the rest of the summer.
Disc 2 slows down. WAY down. So far down in fact, that it's nearly impossible to listen to it in its entirety. It should come with a warning against driving while listening to it. Besides Searching For Satellite and Trilogy (The Final Chapter), this disc comes across as a score to a film that I'd most assuredly sleep through. It's not that ATB can't craft gorgeous, shimmery chill-out arias; it's just that there shouldn't be an entire disc dedicated to it.
I'd never say that someone should stick to one style: that'd be the death knell for art. It's just that, at least in the trance genre, if you're the BMOC, be sure and voraciously defend your title.
Disc One: **** (out of five)
Disc Two: ** 1/2 (out of five)
