Review by:
Jannick Andersen // DJ pr0fane (Dance N Dust Records)
www.sunrisesupplies.com



Artist: Fitalic
Title: Atomic Atmosphere
Label: Tribal Vision
Format: CD (Jewelcase with 8-page inlay and DJ case insert)
Released: September 2006
Cover: http://217.160.138.169/pic_b/tvr1cd011_b.jpg


Review:

If you\'ve been listening to progressive house for the last couple of years, odds are that you have heard of Fitalic. The act contains of Robin Fitter from Holland, who has had a lot of success with his mixture of tech house, tribal house, progressive house and progressive trance, releasing on well-respected labels like Bedrock, Vapour, Pangea, Nascent and 19Box. In later years his name has also started to become quite well-known in the more psychedelic-oriented progressive house/trance scene, gaining support from labels like D-Nox\'s Sprout and Plastik Park, Iboga, Very Progressive, Plusquam, Nervine and lately also the Czech label Tribal Vision Records.

Tribal Vision Records is also behind Fitalics new debut album \"Atomic Atmosphere\", containing 9 tracks of which 8 where previously unreleased.


01. Lost In Space [122 BPM]
The album starts with \"Lost In Space\", a 7-minute long beautiful chilled intro, somewhere between lounge, laidback electronica and breaks. It has a very charming, almost naïve vibe to it, and I consider it one of the best album-openers I\'ve heard this year. Great work.

02. Liquid Motion [130 BPM]
\"Liquid Motion\" is co-written with a guy called Andres Bink (I have never heard of him before), and with that tune the album goes into steady 4/4 beat territory. It has the Fitalic-trademark bouncy grooves, and has some simple and quite positive melodies, lovely little key-changes and is generally a nice and very charming little tune for warming up. Lovely.

03. Atomic Atmosphere [130 BPM]
Following up is the title-track for the album, \"Atomic Atmosphere\", also recently featured on an EP-release. It goes a bit deeper than \"Liquid Motion\", more tribal and not quite as uplifting, and generally I think it\'s among the weaker tracks on the entire album. Not necessarily bad, but doesn\'t really have any distinct features to catch my attention.

04. The Way [130 BPM]
\"The Way\" raises the quality once again, getting less trancy than the previous tracks, more tech-housey and deep, with some very delicious chord stabs and a cool breakdown with a nicely filtered male voice-sample. Maybe not the most distinct tune on the album, but not among the weaker tracks either.

05. Airflow [132 BPM]
With \"Airflow\" we get a short break for the 4/4 beat stuff with a breakbeat tune much more energetic than the album-opener. I have mixed emotions about breaks - when it\'s well-done I can\'t get enough, while I find mediocre breakbeat almost unlistenable. \"Airflow\" is somewhere in between - it certainly isn\'t unlistenable, but I couldn\'t really connect to it either. Does supply some variation though.

06. Manufactured Miracles [130 BPM]
We\'re taken back into 4/4 territory with \"Manufactured Miracles\", which was previously released on the \"Lime Light 2\" compilation from Tribal Vision Records, where I considered it among one of the highlights. I still consider it a good tune - it has a massive big-room sound, trancy and uplifting, but with very solid house-grooves. Will work wonders both at peaktime at a club, as well as in the afternoon outdoors.

07. Into The Night [130 BPM]
With the aptly named \"Into The Night\" the album is taken in a deeper direction. It\'s the longest track on the album, running for over 10 minutes, and is more tribal than the rest of the tracks, a bit deeper than the tracks in the first half of the album, and with some slightly melancholic melodies thrown in in the finale. Ok tune on its own, but among the weaker tunes on the album.

08. Twisted Difusion [130 BPM]
\"Twisted Difusion\" continue in the deeper, tribal direction from \"Into The Night\", but with much greater effect. It\'s even deeper than the predecessor, one might even say it\'s relatively gloomy, and it contains some really well-placed spoken voice-samples by Cagri Eralp, who also have provided vocals for artists like DJ Tarkan and 4Mal. Great stuff.

09. Distructible [130 BPM]
The album concludes with yet another tune for the dancefloors, and \"Distructible\" is certainly not your average \"ok-we-have-8-minutes-to-spare-lets-make-something-chilled\" closing-tune. It starts out pretty standard, but more and more layers of melodies are slowly added along the way, and it develops into a very charming and delightful melodic tune - quite subtle, and very suited for the afterhours. A really nice ending for the album.


Bottom line:

Ok, after listening to this extensively for well over 3 weeks I still have quite mixed emotions. On one hand this is, track by track, definitely among the better progressive house/trance albums I\'ve heard this year, and I must say that it\'s also refreshing with a progressive album that doesn\'t fall for the current electro trend, but on the other hand - as a full-length album I feel that it doesn\'t quite reach its full potential, despite the two breakbeat-tracks thrown in at the beginning and in the middle.

If you would have asked me one week after I got the album, I would probably have rated it at 7 out of 10, but after repeated listens I have moved up to 8 - most of the tracks have really grown on me, and if you can ignore the laughable cover (by far the worst on a Tribal Vision release so far), I can highly recommend buying this.


Favourites:

1, 2 (!), 6, 8, 9 (!)


Verdict:

8/10


Link:

Tribal Vision Records: www.tribalvision.cz