Solid Sounds - What Dreams Are Made Of

Hear The Track Here

I first encountered this Sheffield based duo when I reviewed Exorcism Of Sound (November 2008) and considering that their main musical stomping ground is trance music I think that they got off pretty lightly. Regular readers will have ploughed through endless splenetic displays of pique whenever I encounter the genre and have probably become innured to it by now. Not my favourite stomping ground by a long shot, unless you are talking about stomping trance wannabees through the floor. Having had more than my fill of it when it was first popular, I've listened to way too many bad imitations for my own good. So if a trance artist is going to stand a chance with me at all, they will need to have their act together.

Fortunately Solid Sounds do indeed have their act together and What Dreams Are Made Of presses all the right (ie positive) buttons. Given my in-built antipathy towards the genre, if I have to listen to it I want to hear melody and intelligence rather than an endless litany of four to the floor and the odd squeaker, squeak, squeak. One of the things that impressed me about this artist on the first track I reviewed is a major feature of What Dreams Are Made Of; a textural density that - I think - is essential to putting the track across.

There is an odd pause at the beginning which I understand the need for, but its probably a tad too long to work effectively and just had me wondering wtf, as did the extremely abrupt ending. In between though is an electronica feast for the ears; massive flitered sweeps, wall to wall beats and some quite fine little melodies. I played this in several different setups and there is no doubt that it is best played at ear bleeding volume through a pair of high end speakers (its natural environment after all) but it sounds just as good through a set of decent headphones. If it carries on like this, Solid Sounds ma just change my mind about trance. Oh btw, i did also listen to What a Feeling and - to be honest - I prefer this track.

Highly Recommended Trance (Ed: Nurse! Quick, he'll faint now!)