Hear The Track Here
I first became aware of Leif Liljeqvist (aka Alderman) early in 2004 and we've been friends ever since. His arrival in my life was with a song called Catch a Glimpse of Wonderland (February 2004) of which I wrote 'definitely an artist keep an eye on'. Since then he's claimed his very own folder on my hard drive, so I doubly stunned to notice my last review was for Sunset Over Andama Sea (June 2007)! That's a long time 'tween tracks. I have another shared interest in this track because Leif has made me very, very aware of the sample set the vocals come from - our tastes are surprisingly similar. Moreover, right from that very first track, Alderman showed enormous compositional skills and over the years technical ones too.I have used the particular vocals myself in a track and believe me getting them to feel right in the track is not as easy as it looks; especially if you are exploiting the rhythm. Alderman doesn't take this tack however, more like writing a whole new melody (actually melodies) that work surprisingly well with the vocal - in a way that took me by surprise. See, I would have gone down the whole ethnic route but Alderman stamps his own personality all over the track and - to my ears - gives it a whole new electronic slant.
Where this Swedish musician has always scored is in his ability to keep your ear interested, and the unlikely combination evident on this track makes you pay it a lot more attention that if it had been more ethnic sounding. So it goes without saying that I've had a fair amount of exposure to this track prior to this review process and I still marvel at how those little melodies prop the whole damn edifice up. True to it's dancehall roots, there is a lot of sparseness about the track, but there is more than enough to keep you amused and entertained. Kind of abrupt ending though...
Electronic Dancehall anyone? Highly Recommended.
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