Happy birthday dude, have a good one.

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Feliz Aniversário, Sykonee

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Indiana Clones Upcoming Sets
[ I May Upload Something Someday ]

Happy birthday mate!

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Quarantine Classics Brunello di Montalcino (In Transit) Edition [Progressive Classics] (August 2020)
Quarantine Classics - Puligny-Montrachet Edition [Progressive Classics] (April 2020)
What Is Progressive Anyways? [Progressive House Classics] (November 2019)

Sweet! Birthday cheers in the c0r!! I is important.

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Everyone has an opinion. Mine just happens to be a little more informed than most.
Electronic Music Critic: Near-Daily Ruminations Of Music I Own, In Alphabetical Order!

Happy birthday.

This reminds me I haven't read TC in a long time.

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"All revolutions are the sheerest fantasies until they happen; then they become historical inevitabilities."

quote:

Originally posted by paulandrews Happy birthday. This reminds me I haven't read TC in a long time.

Ah, heh. To be fair, it's not like there's been a whole heck of a lot of updating going on there. J's mostly moved onto CMG while I've been carrying on with my own blog.

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Everyone has an opinion. Mine just happens to be a little more informed than most.
Electronic Music Critic: Near-Daily Ruminations Of Music I Own, In Alphabetical Order!

Oh, right. I guess I will have to try to keep track of both of you separately. I've always liked your reviews.

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"All revolutions are the sheerest fantasies until they happen; then they become historical inevitabilities."

Yeah same. Hope you guys won't let TC die =/

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Quarantine Classics Brunello di Montalcino (In Transit) Edition [Progressive Classics] (August 2020)
Quarantine Classics - Puligny-Montrachet Edition [Progressive Classics] (April 2020)
What Is Progressive Anyways? [Progressive House Classics] (November 2019)

It's not so much we've let TC die, but rather the dude who actually owns the site has. It's been in major need of an overhaul for nearly 4 years, and notta' thing has happened. *shrug* The place had pretty much become a glorified music blog for J' and I anyway, so I figured I may as well set up my own blog and reap whatever meager AdSense income I can for myself in the process.

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Everyone has an opinion. Mine just happens to be a little more informed than most.
Electronic Music Critic: Near-Daily Ruminations Of Music I Own, In Alphabetical Order!

In an era of sub-standard music coverage, where your Resident Advisors and your Pitchforks churn out the middling hipster coverage, a lot of people have been singing the praises of Canadian word-jockey Sykonee. Christian Ciccone spent a good few years writing solid reviews in the underground TranceCritic scene, but since his recent move to the EMC label folks in the ol' blogosphere have really begun hyping Ciccone's output as something genuinely fresh.

Truth be told, there's not a lot here that long-time readers of Mark Prindle and 90s Brit outfit Muzik won't have seen before: your standard shuffling rhyth - sorry, sentences, your quirky personal angles and your witty quips are lifted straight from that 90s era of irreverant music criticism. True, Ciccone adds his own touch, but the odd inscrutable hockey reference or Deep Space 9 analogy aside there's not a whole lot genuinely new going on here. Still, Ciccone is a decent sentence-smith and he can put together some head-bobbing highlights. His Balance 014 review is a spacey downtempo piece which breezes through some funky descriptive passages and builds towards a sensibly non-commital peak, with a tasteful Soulwax comparison to bring you down nicely onto familiar territory. As for that Black Album review... yikes! I'm not sure whether Ciccone was channelling the spirit of Oliver Lieb's album, but this review is downright evil, heh.

The rest of his reviews are a mixed bag. There are some sledgehammer trainspotter bassline spots at work, but Ciccone's indulgence of obscure Euro-dance influences is incredibly hit and miss, and while he clearly attempts to pull off the snarkster angle on a couple of CJ Stone collaborations, compared to the face-pummelling productions of fellow Canuck Ishkur, Ciccone's efforts just look tame.

Make no mistake, as a writer of dance music reviews for newbies, Sykonee will probably be a massive success. However, despite showing promise he needs to work much harder to break out of the formula if he's going to impress veteran readers.

Ace Track [Review]s:
That ASOT Classics one where he didn't even listen to the bloody thing.
That one where he somehow brings Neil Young into the discussion.
That Banco De Gaia one. No, the other one.

6/10.

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Mixes:
> Maximum Elevation [Progressive House]
> DI.FM 26th Anniversary Guest Mix [Progressive House]
> Live @ Dance:Love:Hub London, 11.10.2025
> Higher Peaks [Progressive House]
> Dance:Love:Hub Afterparty (The Return) 23.11.24

Like these sets? Come see me play live at Kibosh in Manchester: https://www.instagram.com/kibosh.mcr/

Last edited by SYSTEM-J on Mar-23-2010 at 01:03

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Everyone has an opinion. Mine just happens to be a little more informed than most.
Electronic Music Critic: Near-Daily Ruminations Of Music I Own, In Alphabetical Order!