Wisdom from Steve Aoki: Rebecca Black Lessons

Just ran across this post on Steve Aoki's website here.

A most interesting analysis of the Rebecca Black phenomenon (oh, and she really can sing, btw), and an interesting and spot-on analysis of art, fame, celebrity, the media, and the current state of the music industry.

Review: ATB's Distant Earth

I'm listening to this album as I'm doing some work on our elementary school's yearbook and year-end slideshow. I've not followed ATB much until now, but I'm extremely impressed with his versatility.

ATB (Andre Tanneberger) is most widely recognized as one of the top DJs in the world, with the likes of Tiesto and Armin Van Buuren. But the first track I heard of his was the ATB mix of William Orbit's Adagio for Strings. I credit this track (and by extension Orbit's work as producer on Madonna's Ray of Light album in 1998) as the stuff that pushed me toward my love of EDM (Electronic Dance Music). (Mannheim Steamroller played a huge role also, but more on that later).

Distant Earth is a 2-disc album. Disc 1 contains fist-pumping Trance while disc 2 has relaxing Chillout. ATB deftly handles both the upbeat Trance and the Downtempo/Chill genres with passion and grace. Rockers Apollo Road, One More (feat. Christina Soto), and Where You Are (feat. Kate Louise Smith), to name just three of 14 outstanding Trance tracks, are from beginning to end bass/kick-thumping pieces of sonic awesomeness (IMHO). Chill tracks Vice Versa (with Armin Van Buuren), Moving Backwards (feat. Kate Louise Smith), and Trinity (again to name 3 of 11 Chillout tracks), are just what I'm looking for to relax and unwind.

ATB collaborates with several different vocalists on this album, none of which I had ever heard before. It appears that the tracks were written for each vocalist, as their singing styles seem to dovetail perfectly with the songs.

But I must say far and away my hands-down favorite track from both discs is Trinity. I can tangibly feel the emotion with which this piece was written flowing from the speakers. An absolutely fantastic experience.

5 stars from me. A fantastic album well worth the purchase. I only hope that I can attend one of ATB's performances of this album.