The Wirehead - Elevation

Hear The Track Here

Last one out of the bag this month is a new name to me, and a genre I have had difficulty with many, many times before. Electronica is the general doom I face, and trance being my own special cup of hemlock. Having said that, as many of you already know, I have been surprised before so best not prejudge eh? Thewirehead (to give his proper name) is 23 year old called Mark from the US and judging by the look of his website he hasn't been on Soundclick long, so a newbie all round. However, he says he has been making music for about seven years so that kinda scotches the whole idea of being kind to him.

Muuahahahaha. Who said reviewing couldn't be much fun?

Despite my dislike of the style, thewirehead didn't make it in any way difficult not to like what had been put before me. The first time around you will certainly be impressed with the dash of the track, and it's production and mix in particular. In fact, I guess if you were at a trance club this would go down well, and that's I guess where this musician is aiming for. In which case, he has succeeded well because Elevation is a meaty track full of chunky sounds and widescreen for ears to boot!

However, after continued listening confirms that not all is well, and I didn't start to notice it until I had been round the block with a track a few times. As good as the overall sound is (and it is) there's something amiss between the bottom end and some of the fiercest (in terms of EQ) hihats I have ever heard. This tends to blot out certain parts of the mix and leads to immense volume differences in the quieter parts of the track as shown clearly around 1:25 and again once the hihats kick in at the end of that section. It does mar what is otherwise a very decent trance track and one I didn't feel like ripping to shreds from the get go - but that mix does have to be fixed.