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New Electronic Music by Oliver Lieb

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Oliver Lieb used to hot property among the European rave scene, under the identities, among others: Spicelab, the Ambush, Paragliders. It's been a while since his last release, putting a lot of hope in this new one...

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OLIVER LIEB: Inside Voices (DDL on Psychonavigation Music)

This release from 2014 features 73 minutes of somber electronic music.

A steady diet of haunting texturals are periodically injected with lively electronic action, resulting in a satisfying dose of somber rave music.

The first two tracks explore a snickety, almost slushy tempos accompanied by low-end tones. Eventually, peripheral effects muster the verve to join the dance, lending spacey depth to the central rhythm. The introduction of keyboards, working their way from a clockwork presence into more complex riffs, creates a pleasant counterpoint for the mounting intensity that gradually overwhelms the background.

Track three continues to utilize a clockwork pattern as a backdrop for cosmic effects while auxiliary electronics putter about. While generally atonal in basis, this tune toys with the notion of turning melodic at any second...

But it takes until the fourth track for things to slide into a melodic flow. Delicate electronics embellish the dreamy nucleus, while those snickety electronic beats persist in establishing a temperate propulsion for the song. Sashaying keyboards slide into play, lending an endearing character to the piece's astral demeanor. Ultimately, this tune develops an enthralling pinnacle.

In track five, the temperament takes a more sedate turn, as a dronish background plays host to a swelling pulsation of ominous definition, evoking (as its title implies) "spooky action at a distance." A surf of sustained keys washes over things, enhancing the eerie mood. Peripheral cybernetics chitter throughout the mix, and these alien sounds actually ground the tune with a degree of humanity.

The following piece gets even spookier, but in an outer space manner, as the bleeps of passing satellites punctuate an expansive drone approximating an interstellar void.

Tracks seven and eight comprise two parts of the same song. The mood here is a contemplative one, but one gets the feeling that the mind into which the audience sinks is not their own. Strangely grinding rotary sounds swirl through a pensively dire tonal auralscape. Additional tonal sweeps regularly flood the scene. A succession of foreign notions pass by, each unique in their resonance, but flowing from one to the other with fluid ease. The music grows more pacific as the exposed thoughts become milder, almost gentle in their sonic undulations. These are followed by more proactive contemplations, whose sonic definition in turn becomes more stately with sighing guttural grindings. This cerebral tour wraps up with a look at chest-swelling self-confidence before undergoing a series of circular oscillations leading the listener back the real world.

A terrific rave outing with heavy emphasis on the trance aspect of contemporary electronic music. A winner.

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