The two-time #1 DJ in world titleholder is on beat to win it again; Tiesto has truly brought dance music to people in all regions and has shared the stage with anyone and everyone in dance music. This Dutch native lives outside of Amsterdam in a town called Breda (currently searching for a canalside house in Amsterdam). This is home to Tiesto, his family, and his label Black Hole Recordings. His achievements as DJ and producer include gold status of his previous artist album “Nyana” and the “Tiesto in Concert” DVD, as well as his single “Traffic” becoming the first instrumental song to reach #1 on the Holland charts in the past 23 years. This new addition the the Tiesto collection is nothing short of spectacular, taking trance from melodic to banging, stirring in some downtempo and taking it home with a remix of a classic song. What more could you ask for?
From the beginning of the disc “Forever Today” sets the tone of an incredible experience. Its soft and inviting sounds of strings is matched perfectly to the raw bassline introduced later in the song. Next up, Tiesto joined up with American producer BT to produce another club hit. Their track “Love Come Again” has some light Latin percussion influence and builds into an intense ride with some dirty, funky vocals from BT. In the number three spot is the massive track “Traffic.” This song is quintessential Tiesto, all the way. After blowing the speakers he steps up with a never-before-heard style on a Tiesto album. “Sweet Misery” is a chilled-out track with dark vocal and flowing synth lines. It is an unexpected break from the expected non-stop action of a Tiesto CD. Don’t be mistaken, this is a full on trance artist showcase. He swings it back into gear on the title track of his previous album “Nyana.”
During a recent interview, an interesting fact came up. Apparently, Tiesto had worked with some songwriters from, of all places, Nashville,TN.
“How did that come to be?” was my first question. In his heavy but chipper Dutch accent he retorted, “Maria (from Nettwerk) knows a lot of good songwriters”. He even described a bit of the process to me. “I tell her (the writer) what I want, in bad English, along with the music and she records the vocals over it, I have never even met her." An interesting indicattion of how this business can work.
Rounding out this trance monster is another downtempo track in “Walking on Clouds," the title track “Just Be,” and the best track on the disc, “Adagio for Strings." It begins with a hard pounding bassline that is sure to get even the most fickle of crowds dancing. It builds until the heavenly melodic breakdown hits. The soft and charming sounds of Samuel Barber's “Adagio for Strings” has been featured in movies such as Platoon and on William Orbit's Pieces In A Modern Style album several years back and is the perfect track to be remixed by Tiesto. This CD is well-structured and will intrigue the listener with the multitude of sounds Tiesto has. Nettwerk and Tiesto should be looked to as the wave of what going to be huge in the US. Kudos to Nettwerk and to you Mr. Tiesto……..
