Thursday, December 6, 2007

Favorite(s)



This is the only music video on youtube that is not ruined by a poorly done video consisting of cartoon or anime clips.

Its been several years now since I first heard this song. I heard it under the name "RAVE TECHNO HOUSE - Matrix II Trance Mix" as it is titled in this clip. Like most favorite songs, I decided to look for the remixes, but no luck because that is not the real title of this song. After some searching I found out that it is actually a song by The Cynic Project called "Grid (Trance Remix)". Naturally, after discovering the artist, I went ahead and obtained a copies of their albums. Many people claimed that they have heard it in shows such as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and in the movie "The Matrix" that's why it was improperly named. I can tell you that those claims are false as this track is has not been on television nor in a movie.

A little background... The Cynic Project was started in 1999 whose music predominantly progressive trance with extremely relaxing and spirit lifting melodies that you just won't get tired of. In the fall of 2007, The Cynic Project released a free album available for download called "Soundscapes 2000". "Grid (Trance Remix)" sits comfortably at track number 3 where most of the following tracks are extremely good dance tunes and progressive relaxants. It will be a hard task to find a copy of the album right now, but good luck with that anyways! You can try your luck on various P2P softwares, but beware... there may be booby traps and viruses in the files.

From the beginning to the end, this song is mixed flawlessly. When you first hear the song, the catchy and 'different' beat makes the listener want to keep going to see what else is in stock. Unlike many trance songs nowadays where it starts off with a heavy 4-4 drum beat and bass line, this song fires off with a simple melody as the intro. When the body is done being introduced by the piano, everything from there is a blissful sedative. The melody in the body that sounds like a high pitched hovering sound is comforting because of its fluidness and the range from one note to the next is not too far apart. At the breaks where a xylophone sounding instrument kicks in allows the listener to relax in various stages. The relaxant starts off in a strong volume for a more heavy duty calming session. As the song progresses, there is a subtle decrescendo where the volume is gradually lowered until the end. A few reasons for this:

1. To prepare the song for a easy transition from the end to the beginning again if it is on repeat, or simply to help introduce the next track by fading in the following track. Fade out and fade in is the most common way of outro-ing and intro-ing another song.

2. Once relaxed, you no longer need a powerful volume. The reduced volume actually helps maintain and sustain your state of peace and comfort. If you have the song on repeat, you can go for another round of peace, but the second time around will usually make you a bit jumpy since you eased yourself out of stresses and the repeat is for pure enjoyment of the bliss. If it is not on repeat, then the soft volume simply helps introduce the next track of any genre on your play list.

In this song, the best part is that every body and break in between the bodies are always different and evolving. The song gets better and better. You would expect the same melodies in the breaks, but every break is unique in its own melody and/or instrument. The piano in the ambient is not as strong in the beginning, but it slowly gains volume throughout the song until it is quite noticeable in the background. Combined with the happy and contented high pitched hovering melody, this song is better at relaxing you than classical music, which does not give you an energy boost. Happy listening!



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