AndyF/Ditheramb - Darkest Hour Gone Classical

Hear The Track Here

Currently number one in MP3 Unsigned's Official chart, DHGC is a collaboration from two artists I have come to know very well, one for a very long time and one I've met within the last year. I first met AndyF a million years ago on another site when I reviewed his first track Di Da Mix (October 2003) and liked it. That hasn't always been the case, not because Andy isn't a good musician, more like the genres he chooses to work in which are not really my speed. Andy tends more to to middle of the road as far as music goes preferring semi-classical, easy listening or film soundtracks as his main base of operations. Like everybody else, my eyes must have bugged right out when I first saw this effort being touted around.

Ditheramb and AndyF? Doesn't seem possible, does it?

I reviewed the original Darkest Hour (July 2006), and despite it's length (8:10) liked it immensely and Andy has basically taken the first section as his starting point. Don't be expecting the usual Ditheramb sturm and drang with the AndyF version because it wouldn't suit. Where Ditheramb's version is dark, edgy and dense, AndyF's classical version is full of air, light and a well developed sense of impending doom. Pretty much what you would expect given the genre workover and classical instrumentation, but some of the sharpness and fullness of sounds seemed to be missing, and I felt that lessened the tracks impact.

For my money, this isn't so much a reworking of the original so much as an expansion of the original idea into an entirely different field . It is, in fact, more an AndyF track than Ditheramb. It doesn't cut much off the originals time either, on this version you get a full seven minutes that covers all the bases of the original but in a very fresh, lighter than air way that I found invigorating. I have to say that - as Andy well knows - I am not very well versed in this area and I found the Ditheramb connection difficult to maintain. Nonetheless, it's an original and fresh take and one that is gonna surprise more than a few people.