I must admit, I was very excited and had high hopes for this record, worrying that it would be difficult to have a worthy follow-up to Inituition. I'm happy to say it was a breath of fresh air to review, and the disk is strong, crisp, and exquisitely mixed sporting eight noteworthy tracks.
DJ Encore has been quite busy since 2001's Intuition. The explosive reception to its singles "I See Right Through to You" and "You've Got a Way" opened doors to remix work and producing other artists while increasing demand for his DJ appearances.
With Unique, Engelina's lead vocals have been replaced with Johanna Stedt's (who sounds a bit like Faith Hill); however Engelina co-wrote three of the tracks here and lent bgv's on two. Impressively, DJ Encore (aka Andreas Hemmeth) wrote, produced, and engineered all the tracks while executive producing (footing the backing funds for the record)!
The poignant yet musically upbeat "Nobody Wants to Try" immediately hit home with me, addressing the difficulty in finding a love interest serious about dating in a sea of those who aren't committed long once they're in a relationship.
"Wanna Fly" is a catchy mid-tempo grove accented with outstanding complementary acoustic guitar. "Falling"'s hooky melody and hot synth work make it a stand-out cut beside the dark pop-trance of "Point of No Return" and "You Make Me Feel Alive" where effortless vocals drift atop a pumpin' groove. Finally, after several minutes of silence, there's a hidden ballad at the end of #12, a bonus track itself.
A definite must-have CD for dance, trance, and DJ Encore fans.
