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Antix "Cavalier" (Iboga rec. may 2010)
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aden
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : May 27, 2010 20:23:09
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Artist : Antix
Title : Cavalier
Label : Iboga records
Release date : may 2010
Format : CD & digital
Tracklist CD1:
01. The Hoard (Album rendition)
02. Manta
03. Cavalier
04. Under the Shade
05. Lost & Found, feat. Mark Ridout
06. Out of Sorts
07. Let the right one in
08. Box of Birds
09. Miro
Remixes CD2:
10. Manta (Beckers rmx)
11. The Hoard (Dousk rmx)
12. Under the shade (Continuum rmx)
13. Lost and Found (Jamie Stevens Golden Return rmx)
14. Box of birds (Djuma Soundsystem rmx)
15. Let the right one in (Hernan Cattaneo, Sound Exile rmx)
16. Box of birds (Erphun rmx)
17. The Hoard (Tim Richards rmx)
18. Let the right one in (Joel Amstrong rmx)
19. Out of sorts (Opiuo rmx)
20. Lost and found (Jamie Stevens Quest for Floating rmx)
Since their debut album back in 2003, Antix has not ceased to take the Progressive Trance scene by surprise, as the sonic emissions from Auckland’s Slowburning studio has often anticipated tastes to come, or deviated from the mainstream. They were pioneers of prog-house back in the day, and were quick to venture into the electro-house episode. This new album, the fruit of many months’ work, is no exception to this tradition of innovation, though the established Antix fan base will feel at ease with this new offering. And the level of musical and technical/studio achievement that Barton and Hayden Strom have reached in this new opus is simply amazing, surpassing their last 2007 album.
There is a symphonic dimension in Cavalier. For the duo has integrated sounds of all the world, their palette has broadened incredibly and become increasingly complex, here including finch chirrups, seagull cries, galloping horses’ hooves, waves crashing on south Pacific shores, guitar-like arrangements, piano, string chords and pizzicati, and a whole range of vocal registers, from kiddies’ chatter to an adult man singing. The album broaches a wider range of electronic genres than ever, covering Antix’s trademark, deep, Prog-House hypnotic grooves, enhanced by crisp tribal beats (Out of sorts), more minimal pieces, and even Indie dances. But, stylistically, the most significant move this new album makes is toward the Pop register, which is also its most surprising feature.
In that respect, the track “Lost & Found", a fine collab piece written and sung with their London-based friend, guitarist, and singer Mark Ridout, gives the album its special identity. New Wave inflections, already discreetly present in some of the previously released tracks’ voice samples, are here cast into relief. Ridout’s singing, which has already featured in a prior Triangle release, usually anchored in the pop-folk register, is here uncharacteristically elegant and distant, slightly blue tinged, reminiscent of Soft Cell/ Depêche Mode thanks to the reverb treatment, dubbed vocal line and nostalgic arpeggios lifting the track into an emo mood. “Let the right one in” mines this vein in its own way, though it’s more stripped back and tense, mitigated by breezy harmonics, but underpinned by tight hissing and clicky beats. The melodic is explored further in “Under the shade”, but more naïvely, without sophistication, and – to my ears – less convincingly, even when remixed.
This new album’s coherence therefore emerges as shaped by the high demands of pop music. This is apparent in the emotional strings the tracks play on, the melodic tendencies that make each one coalesce, in the foregrounded vocals of course, and also in the specific attention accorded to the tracks’ final developments which concentrate momentum, create compelling chord build-up, and unleash harmonic tension, and which mark this album nonetheless as a typical Antix vintage crop.
Indeed, the eponymous Cavalier, which opens rather like a movie soundtrack, features a grand finale that rubs shoulders with those of the three absolute masterpieces featured here, previously released and thoroughly reviewed in these columns, The Hoard, Mantra, and Box of Birds. These tracks have been hailed for their exceptional beauty, and acclaimed and spun by the likes of John Digweed in his “transition” show. So this new album will satisfy the fans, with a musical journey that is more a listening experience than a dancefloor affair, and with an overall orientation that somewhat likens this release to the Boratto album. When tossed in with the upfront dancefloor-minded pieces of Fiord, Cavalier will resound in a unique way in this summer’s festival Antix/Fiord live sets.
Remixes
As in the previous Antix remix album, the second CD offers a showcase of electronic genres.
Those that have already had their digital début have also already been reviewed in these columns. They include the reworkings of some of the album’s best originals signed by Dousk and Beckers which are excellent, and, to a lesser extent, so is Tim Richard’s remix.
Particularly noteworthy, amongst the additional, fresh output, are the two renditions of the same track signed by Jamie Stevens (of Infusion fame). He has kept the vocal essence of the original score but taken it in two very different directions. “Floating remix” enhances the more eerie moments, with arrangements concentrating on ecstatic arpeggiated bell chimes and light cymbal rolls, and generally staying true to the melodic and poppy (seed) register. The other one, named “Golden return,” is a hypnotic, dancefloor-minded tune, built on an effective vocal loop cut from the original. The break restores a large slab of singing treated with a wide array of catchy effects. The track is propelled by a purring bassline and backed by drums and offset tabla treatment. An instant favourite.
In a completely different mode, Erphun delivers his trademark somber big room dubby Techno focussing on sheer bassline power. With Djuma soundsystem, the unique blend of minimal feel and tech-house rhythms bears the mark of the CPH duo signed at Get Physical and Toolroom, who can boast support from the cream of Djs and collabs with no less than Trentemoller or Moby. “Let the right one in” has inspired two Progressive-House remixes. The first is signed by Canadian Joel Armstrong who has already collaborated with the Kiwi brothers on an upcoming Triangle release at Flow, while the other is an Argentinan affair with a team comprising premier league DJ Hernan Cattaneo joining forces with Soundexile. Both versions favor a rather breezy register, even if the former accentuates the percussive, tribal arrangements, while the latter takes on a late afternoon, sun-filled, sexy groover feel.
Aussie Opiuo delivers a punchy remix of our Kiwi heroes’ production, offering a trendy, chunky, dubstep version.
Another generous package from Iboga, and another fascinating chapter in the Antix saga. Miss it at your peril!
Aden
Relared links:
Antix on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/antixfiord
Iboga Records website: http://www.iboga.dk
Iboga Records on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/ibogarecords
Iboga Records fanpage on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ibogarecords
  http://myspace.com/adenbeatersweet
http://www.flow-records.com |
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aje
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Jun 17, 2010 18:49
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I like it, but I don’t love it.
Cavalier is very hard to get into, IMHO, because listening to it in one sitting from beginning until the end, as it is clearly intended to be judging from the promo text, seems to me like eating a box of candies blindfold where there is a 1 in 3 chance of getting a turd instead of a tasty chocolate. Thus one can never completely relax and go with the flow, a quality that I really appreciated in Antix`s first two albums “Lull” and “Twin Coast Discovery”.
However, there are two tracks on here that are absolutely outstanding. One is the first single “Box of Birds”, a track that I still cannot get enough of one year after its release, and the other is my personal favorite “Let the Right One In”. To me it`s kind of the archetypical Antix track, with its deep, lush chords, trippy voices and twisted sounds, and that trademark hypnotic pulsating groove that is so subtle, yet so driving. Or, in other words, it`s “Lull” with a 2010 sound aesthetic.
The other tracks range from good (Under the Shade – very catchy, The Hoard) to average (Miro – great hook, but goes nowhere, Manta – the first minutes are awesome, then it all goes south) to turds (Cavalier, Out of Sorts – sounds like bad Fiord, Lost and Found). Lost and Found is actually an interesting experiment with vocals that I kinda liked at first, but now after a few listens it just annoys the hell out of me, while Manta and Cavalier use that one annoying slightly distorted sound every cookie cutter progressive house track uses to create tension in a track. Antix can do better than that, and should do better than that.
Anyways, it is still a good package and worth the buy, and better than “Wanderers”, but it does not surpass “TCD” and does not come close to “Lull”. And for those who cherry pick on Beatport, there definitely are some sweet and tasty cherries to be picked 
Check out my album: http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/gay-satanic-hippie-tiefenrausch |
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Carew
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Posted : Jun 17, 2010 21:08
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Awesome !!! |
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Nathan
IsraTrance Senior Member
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Posted : Jul 1, 2010 22:03
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Anyer
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Aug 2, 2010 02:24
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let the one right in RMX from Hernan Cattaneo and Sound Exile IT'S A FUCKIN BOMB!!!!! |
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flavius
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Posted : Aug 28, 2010 02:16
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i just can't get it off repeat. with ease the second best music to come out of new zealand, after flight of the conchords. |
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kameleonpangea36
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Posted : Sep 2, 2010 00:16
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amphiton
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Posted : Mar 7, 2011 23:59
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Seems they tried too hard to squeeze too many ideas into so few tracks with ubercomplex layer structures.
The sound itself is uninspiring and outdated, in my opinion. I assume these tracks were written in 2008-09 and were never meant to last long, they're rather en route to playlists by DJMag top 100 DJs.
...Which isn't a bad thing, of course, but it's not what Lull and TCD were loved for.
And Iboga, they've been popularizing progressive (psy) music for so long, but unfortunately their path has changed from carefully crafted deep trance into high quality fillers, and that is a shame.
• [ cuBe ] :: cubeg.org • |
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-Abatwa-
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Mar 8, 2011 20:13
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One of the most underrated albums of 2010 for me. Top quality release, fine progressive music. Have been following Antix for a long time now and seems to get better and better. Not so keen about the mix cd but the original tracks are awesome, full of deep layerz of melodica and grooveness 
Special picks: the hoard, manta, cavalier, let the right one in
set at Boom was also killer!
`Bottomless wonders spring from simple rules, which are repeated without end` Mandelbrot |
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Mad Purple State
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Mar 9, 2011 15:30
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bought this one and zzzzzzzz...
No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness... |
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V3NOM
Inactive User
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Posted : Mar 10, 2011 06:00
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it makes my wife horny so no complaints here.
I hate you, you hate me, we are all so hap hap happy! |
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Djones
IsraTrance Senior Member
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Posted : Oct 1, 2011 18:59
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2, 3 really nice tracks on this album, but I'm really not that fond of those depeche mode songs. |
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lord_bhairava
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Posted : Jan 20, 2012 07:30
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well when u read in the tracklist names like beckers or cattane you noticed there is something going wrong, like son kite antix was tented to moves at "fancy prog minimal stuff" and get more ego, more girls and more money  |
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