Side Liner - Crying Cities (Cosmicleaf cd 14 /2009) Review



Track List:

1>Crying Cities

2>Highway Dreams

3>Old Neighborhood

4>Dead End

5>Camera Obscura (vs. Red Eye Express)

6>Violet Room (remix for Zero Cult)

7>Tall Stories (remix for D.Batistatos)

8>2222 (Prostranstvo 2008 mix)

9>Urban Haze (vs Secret Sound Labs)

10>Crying Cities Remix (Cydelix's ambient version)

About Cosmicleaf => It's an Australian label (Initially from Greece in 2003) component of the CUT music label group which means:
- C for Cosmicleaf, the Chill-ambient division.
- U for Unicorn, the Progressive side.
- T for Tempest, the Electronica-techno dimension.
The artists involved in this group comes from different countries such as Greece (mainly), France, Israel, Australia or New Zealand.

Who is Side Liner ? => it's Nick Miamis, and Crying Cities is its fourth album on Cosmicleaf, elsewhere he also released 3 albums, all on Unicorn, under the name "Mendark". By the way, this other project, is its first one starting in 2003.

What's Inside Crying Cities ? =>

The global style coming out from Side Liner in this album is melodic, hypnotic (i'd say probably the main sin would be too repetitive/hypnotic) .
I'd precise exactly it's the kinda chill stuff which i call "Slow motion productions".
I mean it always give me the impress the track was initially made faster & then the tempo was reduced to confer it the chill aspect.
Indeed when i say : "it gives me the impress to be reduced",actually i'm convinced it's not the case and just a peculiar trademark from some chill, downtempo artists.
It's a style existing since a long time in the psytrance scene (i remember of Tandu - New Aura in the same construction 's approach) but i admit i always encountered difficulties to enjoy it.

By the way & despite this preamble, i found positive points in this album .
I'll focus on them from now.

Let's start with Crying Cities the eponymous title of this album appearing twice.
There's the original version and the Cydelix ambient version. My choice goes to the second coz it's succeed to reach what, for me Side Liner manages with difficulties : conferring an atemporal side to his chill productions. Globally he tends to offer a bit too much elements like a dancefloor stuffs, in this version from Cydelix we get layers, it's more floating & fluffier, based on the harmony.

To be honest, listening this album at first, i noticed i was preferring the tracks in collaboration or with a remix add, so i was starting to think the solo tunes from Side Liner in this album were weaker upto Highway Dreams. This one constitutes my highlight from the album. Previously, i told Side Liner not always succeed in giving this magical atemporal touch in his production, here it's the perfect example that he can & he does . The tune has a morning colouration, i'd say a bit melancholic for the mood. It has another particularity, its rhythmic with sort of soft bongos or African drums alike. There's also a good work for the backgroundish soundscape with different crispy tones all along.

I was speaking of collab', it's the case with Camera Obscura (vs. Red Eye Express). Here we find out some common positive elements with previous track quoted at the 2 main following differences : the colouration is dark here & it's a collab . For the rest, there's all the good & nice trademarks explained previously. The rhythmic is nevertheless on the downtempo-breakbeat side and focus more on sprecial resonating tones on the second half.

Another collab deserves some attention, Violet Room (remix for Zero Cult), in this once again Side Liner makes me lie coz this time he's the remixer & not the remixed, & the result is fucking smooth & can't be more that easy to listen & go through it or with it . You know it's the stuff you listen without realizing really what occurs & when it's finished, you're thinking "shit 6 minutes 45 has passed really ? That's not possible, time must have accelerate highly suddenly!".

I have also some sympathy for Dead End, despite the vocals which according to me don't match very nicely with the harmony (probably a bit too much present for me). Here, the construction is funny, like an hesitating progression, fill in with lots of sensibility.

I'll conclude with another collab', Urban Haze (vs Secret Sound Labs). Listening to this tune which is quite entertaining by itself, several nice musical reminiscences come to my brain :
- Infected Mushroom, coz the part with the hacked melody with fx, it reminds some tunes from the Freestyle Cd of Converting Vegetarians.
-Mauxuam due to the dark & mental(not to say a bit experimental) production's style with unpolished bank tones used.


So , very quick sum up:
Highlight: 2
Alternative Challengers (by order of preference): 10, 6, 5, 9, 4

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