Dark Arts - Depths Of Space

Hear The Track Here

Although this is only my fourth encounter with UK based Electronica artist Dark Arts, the man behind the name - one Shane Simpson - was also known as Solidsounds and I reviewed a fair number of those tracks too. So what have we learned from the tracks so far? I ended my review of Neva Nawtee (June 2010) with the words 'Interesting but flawed' and I think that can apply to pretty much all the tracks I have heard from this Sheffield based musician. Like many of us, he struggles with what he has to make music, and that's never easy but I always try and take those kinds of problems in my stride and concentrate on what the music does. The only problem is that it doesn't seem to do much, at least not so far.

Shane is, I suspect, trying to find things that suit him and therefore should be given room to get there.Within reason. I have often vented my spleen through these words on the subject of the 'trance' genre so lets not get into that here but just point out that Depths Of Space is indeed of that genre. OK, so the ONE requisite I require from this genre is that it is listenable, not merely an exercise in how long you can run with one riff and a skeletal beat. True to the genre Depths Of Space throws in lots of sequences, filters and breakdowns to pepper the rhythmic bass and drum accompaniment, and I guess if you like the genre, then this will be of use to you.

If, of course, all dance music makes you want to go out and howl at the moon, avoid this like the plague because it has all the elements you most dislike. One of my biggest turnoffs in this area has been the 'Ibiza' effect where everyone makes these essentially pointless, float-y, summery things that have the shelf life of a mayfly. Anyone who knows anything about ephemeroptera will know this is an incredibly short time indeed. Mind you, Dark Arts does do a very, very decent trance which, while touching all the bases, didn't bore me anything like as much as the above mentioned variety. Having said that, as much as it didn't really trouble me overmuch reviewing it, I'm not sure I'll be making any follow up visits but that is a personal thing.

Recommended trance that doesn't send you into one.