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Trance Forum » » Forum  Music Reviews - Planum - Elaborate (Sundance, 2005)
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Planum - Elaborate (Sundance, 2005)

Psychedelic_Mustache
IsraTrance Junior Member

Started Topics :  28
Posts :  30
Posted : Nov 23, 2005 09:39
Artist: Planum
Title: Elaborate
Released: September, 2005

Tracklist:

1.Deep
2.More Action
3.Album
4.Innovative
5.Disco Planum
6.The lost Music
7.Aspect
8.The future sound of planum
9.The Morning Murderer
10.Loneliness

Sundance is definently one of my absolute favourite trance-labels and I pretty much blindly purchase everything they release. Both their artist-albums and compilations are usually superb, Nystagmus still spins in my cd-player on a daily basis. That being said, my expectations are through the roof as they release the debut album of the former russian blackmetallist Ilya Barbarykin aka Planum.

01: Deep
"Deep" opens this album, and it starts off darker than what we are used to from sundance. The introduction to both the album and the track sounds very promising, but sadly it drops in intenisty and seems somewhat out of focus. There are some nice melodies in here and the familiar sundance way of tweaking the knobs is also very present. The problem is it moves in to many different directions, and it does not really sound like there is much consistency in it. It also lacks that little extra "edge" that I'm so used to hearing in sundance-releases. Not my favourite track here.

02: More Action
The second track of the album is ceirtanly an uplifting experience, filled with morning melodies from start to finish. I have problems with some of the sounds in here, and unfortunately it does not deliver all the action it promises.

03: Album
After two tracks of dissapointment I'm happy to report that the third track of the album lives up to sundance standards. This has more feeling - there are hints of melancholy and the variation between different themes work better. This is a track with a goal and direction - and the result is a nice experience.

04: Innovate
This is actually one of my favourite tracks on this album. It promises to inovate, and at that I think it fails miserably. There is some unusual work in the rythm section, but other than that - it's not very innovative. This is pretty plain melodic trance - simple repeatative melodies and 4/4 beats most of the time. That being said - music doen't allways have to be all that complex in order to fulfill its function, and this works pretty good!

05: Disco Planum
Hmm...How to be as diplomatic as possible with this one? Well..I dont like it! That should be diplomatic enough. Let me elaborate. The track is driven by a pretty simple bassline. The melodies used are even more simple, and I miss the multiple layers so often present in Sundance-stuff. With "innovate" I said that simple could be good, but in this case the same does not seem to be true. Strange, isn't it?

06:The lost music
During the intro to "The lost music" I'm once again filled with hope. There is emotion here - and the music builds really well. The melodies aren't to complex, but that doesn't matter here - this is trancey and hypnotic. Definently proof that this guy has some knob-tweaking talent!

07: Aspect
"Aspect" is a track filled with hypnotizing elements and this is actually one of the few tracks on the abum I'm really able to loose my self in. It has a nice buildup and the last two or three minutes should please annyone who's able to slightly enjoy morning-trance. Pretty nice!

08: The future sound of planum
I can ceirtanly understand the title of this track. It's pretty experimental, and in my opinion it moves in way tooo many directions. A great ambient intro is suddenly disrupted by a rather dark, hard rythmically driven section. Then there is a hectic breakbeat-part before we get more rhytmically(and sort of dark)driven 4/4 music. Towards the end there are some pianos and pretty nice melodies as well. My point is that this lacks in terms of consitency and direction. There are enough ideas here to make 7 or 8 nice tracks - but none of them seem to get the oppurtunity to fully play them selves out.

09: The morning murderer
"The morning murderer" works pretty well, actually. It's a plain, almost straightforward morning-tune, but you have thos typical Sundance-sounds to spice it up and make it stand out in the sea of morning-music. Also an example of a track where ideas are allowed to be kicked around a little before they ar dropped in favour of something else.

10: Loneliness
The first half of this track makes me hope that someone hires this guy to do some chillout. Different elements morph together here, and this works very well! The second part of this track is more upbeat, and you can ceirtanly hear the black-metal influences here. Pretty refreshing, actually!

Final remarks:
Well, well...Looking back on this review I realize I may have seemed a bit harsh at times. It's not intended as bashing, though - by no means. I had huge expectations, and they were unfortunately not lived up to here. That being said it should be pointed out that this ceirtanly isn't a bad album. It just isn't great in an album-of-the-year sort of way. Planum ceirtanly prooves that he's got some serious talent and that he's got alot of great ideas spinning around in his head. On a few tracks he also manages to pull things together, and when he does, it's a pleasure listening to him. I'm really looking forward to the day this guy delivers 10 solid tracks on the same album!

Tomas(Psychedelic Mustache)

Buy it here:
Saikosounds: http://tinyurl.com/auwwt
Psyshop: http://tinyurl.com/8gp2z
Beatspace: http://tinyurl.com/7rsu9
Discobole: http://tinyurl.com/agdzc

have a coffeebreak @ http://www.sonic-energy.net
Dark_Dork
IsraTrance Junior Member

Started Topics :  26
Posts :  1266
Posted : Nov 23, 2005 12:48
Really nice ideas in this album as you said... I love listening to it.
Some moments of this CD are really special and creative, and the metal influences are very refreshing (not cheese powerchords trance!)
Groovy stuff           Dressed to kill you look so right... I am drunk with lust tonite.
NA§HA


Started Topics :  4
Posts :  200
Posted : Nov 23, 2005 18:06
just brilliant! an album i really enjoyed after a very long time. was waiting for a release like this.

fav track has to be #4 Innovate

xx           .... and dont forget to remember. Madness keeps us sane.

Have a nice day!
amphiton


Started Topics :  6
Posts :  136
Posted : Dec 1, 2005 15:24
Great album discovering new sides of russian trance (I'm very happy to see something different from terror-death-trance).

One of my favs this year for sure.           [ cuBe ] :: cubeg.org •
Fugga
IsraTrance Junior Member

Started Topics :  23
Posts :  203
Posted : Dec 6, 2005 04:45
great job planum, full depth emotional leads, groovy, and fun.
looking forward hearing your music grow threw time.... definitly think there is a future for you in sound.

My Fav's
#2
#3
#6!!!
.
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