The anticipation surrounding Northern Lights, since its announcement a couple of months back, has be nothing short of huge. A combination of his exciting and stunning production skills, as evident in earlier collaborations with fellow Brit Lange such as This is New York and his own In Between Dreams, the running of arguably the UK’s most successful Trance night and his record label Garuda (also the name of the night at Sankeys) has led to the insatiable rise of Emery. 2006 was a huge year for Gareth with the beginning of his own podcast and the release of tracks such as Another you, Another Me, also a collaboration with Lange. 2008 then further cemented his reputation as world class with tracks such as the remix of Myon & Shane 54s Vampire and then 2009s Metropolis and Exposure. Fast forward to 2010 and Emery has a #9 position on the DJ Chart, surely to rise when the new results are released later in the year, and the release of his artist album Northern Lights is finally upon us.
In his own words:
“A key consideration was flow – I didn’t just want a disparate collection of tracks; I wanted to produce an album in the traditional sense that flowed from start to finish as a continuous piece of music, something you could listen to again and again. This meant I had to exclude a few tracks, not because they weren’t up to scratch, but because they didn’t fit. I’m sure we’ll find an outlet for them at a later date. And so the final cut can be broadly split into two halves. The first five tracks are slightly more reflective of the housier side of my sound; that indefinable middle ground where house, progressive, tech and trance meet. Following that, ‘Full Tilt’, serves as something of a palate cleanser, before the last four songs, which are pure, peak-time trance.” Gareth Emery, Manchester, August 2010
In recent years music genre’s have started to amalgamate and merge and diversify in extraordinary ways. An early example would be the collaboration between Linkin Park and Jay-Z, and more recent examples would be acts such as Celldweller and even Pendulum. Now we have Cassette Jam, a 2 piece/3 piece live group who are looking to challenge the common perception on dance music with their more “band feel”, the beat sounding like that of a drum kit, the edgy pop vocals and the 80′s vibe synths, squeals and pops. Their self-titled debut album is certainly different from the usual, and the influences are clear and wide ranging. There’s definitely hints of Kraftwerk here, but also the almost Calvin Harris style vocals layered on top of the tracks, and the occasional distortion guitar hinting at a heavier Celldweller sound, especially in the brilliant Never Going Home where the vocals almost sound identical to Klayton. “We’re coming for your soul” – well it certainly feels like it!
